paradoxe of transubstantiation was neuer induced or receiued publikely in the church, before the tyme of the Laterane Councel, vnder pope Innocentius the 3. an. 1216. or at most, before the tyme ofMarginaliaLancfrācus was an Italian and bishop of Canterbury, about the yeare of our Lord. 1063. Lancfrancus, the Italian, Archbishop of Cant. an. 1070.
[Back to Top]In whiche tyme of Lancfrancus, I denye not, but that this question of transubstantiation began to come in cōtrouersie, and was reasoned vpon, amongst certeine learned of the clergye. But that this Article of transubstantiation was publickely determined, or prescribed in the Church for a generall lawe or Catholicke doctrine, of al men necessarely to be beleued, before the tyme of the foresayd Innocētius that 3.MarginaliaInnocent 3. was Byshop of Rome. an. 1215.
Read before pag. [illegible text]. it may be doubted, and also by histories of tyme proued to be false.
And thoughe our aduersaries seeme to alledge out of the olde Doctours certeine speaches and phrases, whiche they wrast and wryng to their purposes:MarginaliaPhrases of the Doctors speaking of the Sacrament. wherin they saye, that the breade is called, is beleued, & is the body of Christ that of bread is made the bodye of Christ: that the bread is chaunged, altered, or conuerted to the body of Christe, or is made to be his body: that the creatures bee conuerted in to the substance of the body and bloud of Christe: that the bread and wyne doe passe into the diuine substance, with such other lyke sentences: and beare them selues bragge vpon the sameMarginaliaThe Papistes falsely pretend antiquitie for their transubstātiation. as thoughe this doctrine of transubstātiatiō stode vpon the consent of the whole vniuersall Churche, of all ages and tymes of nations and people, & that the iudgement of the Churche was neuer other then this: and yet if the olde Doctors sayings be well weyed, and the discourse of tymes by thys hystory wel examined, it wil bee founde that this prodigious opinion of transubstantiation hath no such ground of consent & antiquitie as they imagine: nor yet that any heresie or treason was made of denying of transubstantiation before the tyme of Innocentius, the 5. or at the furthest of Lanfrancus, as is aforesayde: about the whiche tyme Sathan the olde Dragon was prophesied by the Apocalypps to be let lose, to seduce the worlde.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaDoctours against transubstantiation. For probation wherofe, fyrst I wyll begynne with the tyme ofMarginaliaTertullian.
August. Tertullian, and of Augustine
Foxe is quoting Heinrich Bullinger, De origine erroris libri duo (Zurich, 1568), fo. 101v on Tertullian and Augustine.
MarginaliaAmbrose.
¶ an. 408. Neyther was S. Ambrose any hereticke or traytor, where he wryteth these woordes: Vt sint, quæ erant, & in aliud conuertantur. &c. Which wordes Lancfrancus could not aunswere vnto any other wise, but by denying them to be the wordes of Ambrose.
Foxe is taking the quote from Ambrose and its being used against Lanfranc from De veritate corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ed. Johann Vlimmer (Louvain, 1561), fo. 9v.
MarginaliaGelasius lib. contra Eutichen.
An. 500. Gelasius was byshop of Rome, and lyued about 500. yeres after Christ, and speaketh of a transmutation of the bread and wyne into the diuine nature, but there expoundyng hymselfe, he declareth what hee meaneth by that mutation, so that he expressely sheweth the elementes of bread and wyne, notwithstandyng to remayne still in their proper nature, with other woordes moe very playne, to the same effect: vnto the whiche wordes Contarenus in the assemble of Ratisbone, coulde not well aunswere, but stoode astonied.
Cardinal Gasparo Contarini was was the papal legate at the Colloquy of Regensburg (i.e. Ratisbon) in 1541. This colloquy, between the Lutherans and the Catholics collapsed largely over the inability of both sides to find common ground on the theology of the Sacrament.
MarginaliaTheodoretus secūd. dial. contra Eutichē. Theodoretus likewise speakyng of the visible symboles, hath these words: xxx. i. after the sanctificatiō they remayne in their former substance, figure, and forme. &c.
MarginaliaIreneus. Ireneus, where he sayeth, that the bread broken and the cuppe mixte after the vocation of God, cease to be common bread any more, but are the Euchariste of the body & bloud of Christ: and explicatyng hys woordes more playnely, addeth moreouer, that the euchariste consisteth in. ij. thinges, one beyng earthly, which is bread and wyne: the other heauenly: whiche is the body and bloude of Christ. &c. declareth in these wordes, both his owne opinion playnely, and also teacheth vs what was then the doctrine of hys tyme.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaHesichius lib. 20. in Leuit cap. 8.
¶ An. 500. Hesichius
Foxe is taking this reference from John Bale, Scriptorum Illustrium maioris Brytanniae Catalogus (Basel, 1557), p. 51.
MarginaliaEmissenus de consecr. Distinct. 2. Quia corpus. Emissenus, comparing a man conuerted to Christ
Eusebius, bishop of Emesa, a fourth-century theologian (not to be confused with Eusebius of Caesarea, the great historian of the Church). Foxe is taking the quotation (and the attribution) from De veritate corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ed. Johann Vlimmer (Louvain, 1561), fo. 36v
MarginaliaFulgentius. ex Haymone. Heare might be added
The following citations from Fulgentius and Bede are taken from Heinrich Bullinger, De origine erroris libri duo (Zurich, 1568), fo. 102v.
Bede also who liued about the yeare 730. writing vpon the psalme 21. hath these wordes: Edent pauperes. &c. Pauperes id est mundi contemptores, edent quidē realiter, si ad sacramenta referantur, et saturabunitur æternaliter, qui intelligent in pane et vino visibiliter sibi Proposito, inuisibile scilicet corpus verū et sanguinē verū domini, que verus cib9 et verus potus sunt, quo nō vēter distenditur, sed mens saginatur. &c. That is: Poore men, to witte, despisers of the world, shal eate indede really, if it be referred vnto the Sacraments, and shalbe filled eternally, because they shal vnderstand in bread & in wyne, beyng visibly set before them, a thyng inuisible, to wit, the true body and true bloud of the Lorde, which are true meat, and true drinke, wherwith not the belly is filled, but the mynd is nourished.
[Back to Top]And thus in these words of Bede likewise is to be vnderstand, that no transubstantiation as yet in hys tyme was receiued in the Church of England.
Long it were to stand vpon all particulares Briefly to conclude, the farther the Churche hath bene from these our latter dayes, the purer it was in all respectes, and especially touching this barbarous article of trāsubstantiation. We wil now draw more neare our owne time
The material following on Haymo, a Benedictine monk and bishop, of the ninth century and Ratramnus of Corbie ('Bertram') from Heinrich Bullinger, De origine erroris libri duo (Zurich, 1568), fo. 120r-v. Ratrumnus was particularly important to Bullinger (and Foxe) because he did, in fact, explicitly attack what he regarded as carnal understandings of the Eucharist.
[Back to Top]By whose writinges it is euidēt, that the church was infected as yet with no such phantasie of transubstantiatiō neyther did any almost, dreame of taking away the substāce of bread from the Sacrament. For although Haymo, Remigius, Rabanus, and other whiche lyued in that age, do attribute to the Sacrament, the honorable name, and reuerence (as we also do) of the Lordes body and bloud: yet they exclude not from thence al substaunce of mele and bred, and leaue the bare accidences, as our newe come Catholicks do, as by the words of Haymo doth appeare. Where he following the wordes of Bede, sheweth also the cause, why it is so called by the name of the Lordes bodye. Quia (sayth hee) panis corpus confirmat, ideo ille corpus Christi congruenter nuncupatur: Vinum autem quia sanguinem operatur in carne, ideo ad sanguinem Christi refertur.MarginaliaHaymo de Sermonū proprietate. lib 5. cap. 11. That is: Because bread confirmeth the hart of man, therfore it is called conueniently the bodye of Christ, and because wine worketh bloud in the flesh of man, thereof is it referred to the bloud of Christ. What can be more effectually spoken to proue the substance of bread there to remayne? For take away the substance of bread and of wine, what is in the accidences left, that can confirme mans hart, or ingender bloud in the flesh And therfore seeing there must needes something remaine, that must be referred to Christes bodye and bloud in that Sacrament, eyther it must be the substaunce of bread and wine, or els it can bee no Sacrament. And furthermore, speaking of the visible thinges which are sanctified, how & wherūto they be cōuerted, he sayth: that by the holy ghost they passe to a Sacrament of the Lordes body.
[Back to Top]And likewise the same Haymo in an other place, speaking of the fruits of the earth, that is, of corne and wine, declareth, how our Sauiour making of them an apt misterye, conuerteth them to a Sacrament of his body and bloud. &c.MarginaliaHaymo lib. 7. in ecclesiast. cap. 8. Lib. 7. in Ecclesiast. cap. 8
Bertramus likewise, as he lyued in the same age, so in like sort he shewed his opinion therein, to the lyke effect as Haymo did. For as Haymo writing in these words declareth, quia aliud est Sacramentum, aliud virtus Sacramenti: sacramētum enim ore percipitur, virtute Sacramenti interior homo satiatur,MarginaliaHaim. ibid. that is: the sacrament is one thing, and the vertue of the Sacrament is an other thyng: for the sacrament is receiued with the mouth, but with the vertue of the Sacrament, the inward man is satisfied.
[Back to Top]Marginalia¶ An. 810. So after lyke maner, Bertramus according to þe same, thus writeth
This is from John Bale, Scriptorum Illustrium maioris Brytanniae …Catalogus (Basel, 1557), p. 124.
These passages on Rabanus Maurus are from Heinrich Bullinger, De origine erroris libri duo (Zurich, 1568), fos. 107r-v and 115v-116r.