1576 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1145 
worthely that holy housel. Holy* bookes commaunn that water be mingled to that wyne which shall be for housell, because the water signifieth the people, and theMarginalia* The wyne signifieth Christes bloud. * wyne Christes bloud, and therfore shall neyther the one without the other bee offered at the holy masse, that Christ may bee with vs, and we with Christ, the head with the lymmes, and the lymmes with the head. We woulde before haue intreated of the lambe whiche the olde Israelites offered at theyr Easter tyme, but that we desired first to declare vnto you of this mistery, and after how we shoulde receyue it. That signifying lambe was offred at the Easter. And the Apostle Paul sayth in the Epistle of this present day, that Christ is our Easter, who was offered for vs, and on this day rose from death. The Israelites dyd eate the lambes fleshe as God commaunded, with vnleauened bread and wilde lettisse:Marginalia* How we should come to the holy communion. * so we should receyue that holye housell of Christes body and bloud without the leauen of sinne, and iniquitie. As leauen turneth the creatures from theyr nature: so doth synne also chaūge the nature of man from innocencye to vncleannesse. The Apostle hath taught how wee shoulde feast, not in the leauen of the euilnesse, but in the sweete doughe of puritie and truth. The herbe whiche they should eate with the vnleuened bread is called lettisse, and is bitter in taste. So wee should with bitternesse of vnfayned repentance purifye our mynde, if we will eate Christes bodye. Those Israelites were not wont to eate rawe fleshe, and therfore God bad them to eate it neither raw, nor sodden in water, but rosted with fyer.MarginaliaExod. 12. He shall receiue the body of God rawe, that shall thinke without reason, that Christ was onely man lyke vnto vs, and was not God. And he that will after mās wisedome search of þe mistery of Christes incarnation, doth lyke vnto hym that doth seeth lambes fleshe in water, because that water in this same place signifieth mans vnderstandyng: but we shoulde vnderstand, that all the mistery of Christes humanitie was ordered by the power of the holy ghost: and then eate wee his body rosted with fier because the holy ghost came in fiery lykenes to the Apostles in diuers tongs. The Israelites shoulde eate the lambes head, and the feete: and the purtenaunce, and nothyng therof must be lefte ouer night. If any thyng therof were lefte, they dyd burne that in the fier: and they braeke not the bones. After ghostly vnderstandyng we do then eate the lambes head, when we take holde of Christes diuinitie in our beliefe. Agayne when we take holde of hys humanitye with loue, then eate we the lambes feete, because that Christe is the begynnynge and end, God before all worlde, and man in the end of this world. What bee the lambes purtenaunce but Christes secret preceptes, and these we eate whē we receaue with greedines the word of lyfe. There must nothyng of the lambe be left vnto the mornyng, because that all Gods sayinges are to bee searched with great carefulnesse: so that all his preceptes may be knowen in vnderstandyng and deede in the nyght of this present lyfe, before that the last daye of the vniuersall resurrection doe appeare. If wee can not searche out throughly all the mistery of Christes incarnation, thē ought we to betake the rest vnto the might of the holy ghost with true humilitye, and not to searche rashely of that deepe secretnes aboue the measure of our vnderstandyng. They dyd eate the lambes fleshe with theyr loynes gyrt. In thee loynes is the lust of the body, and hee whiche will receyue that housell, shall couer or wrap in that concupiscence, and take with chastitie that holy receite, They were also shod. What be shoes but of the hydes of dead beastes? We be truely shod if we match in our steppes and dedes, the lyfe of men departed thys lyfe, which please God with kepyng of hys commaundementes. They had staues in theyr handes whē they dyd eate. This stafe signifieth a carefulnes and a diligēt ouerseyng. And all they, that best knowe and can, shoulde take care of other men, and stay them vpp with their helpe. It was inioyned to the eaters that they should eate the lābe in haste, for God abhorreth slouthfulnes in his seruauntes, and those hee loueth, that seke the ioye of euerlastyng life with quickenes, and hast of mynd. It is written: Prolong not to turne vnto God, lest the tyme passe awaye through thy slowe tarrying. The eaters mought not breake þe lābes bones. No more mought þe souldyers that did hange Christ break his holy legges, as they dyd of the two theeues that hanged on eyther side of hym. And the Lord rose frō death sound without all corruption: and at the last iudgement they shall see hym, whom they dyd most cruelly wound on the crosse. This time is called in the Ebrue tongue Pasca, & in Latine Transitus, and in Englishe a Passeouer, because that on this day the people of Israell passed from the Land of Egypt ouer the read sea: from bondage to the land of promise. So also dyd our Lord at this tyme departe as sayeth Iohn the Euangeliste, from this world to his heauenly father. Euen so we ought to folowe our head, and to go from the deuill to Christ: from this vnstable world, to his stable kyngdome. Howbeit we shoulde first in this present lyfe departe from vice to holy vertue: from euill manners to good manners, if we will after this our lente lyfe go to that eternall lyfe, and after our resurrection, to Christ. He bryng vs to his euerlastyng father, who gaue hym to death for our sinnes. To him bee honour and prayse of well doyng world without ende. Amen.
[Back to Top]And thus I suppose, it standeth cleare & euidently proued by course of all these ages afore recited, from the tyme of Tertullian and Austen vnto the dayes of this Elfricus aboue mencioned, and after hym, that this newcome miracle of transubstantiation was not yet crept into the heades of men, nor almost came in any question amongest learned mē, nor was admitted for any doctrine in the Churche, at least for any generall doctrine of all men to be receyued, til a thousand yeare complete after Christ,MarginaliaSathan at large.
Apoc. [illegible text] that is, till that Sathan began to be let at large. Apoca. 20.MarginaliaThe matter of transubstantiatiō neuer called in question before the [illegible text] after Christ. For who euer heard in al the primitiue Churche, or euer read in the workes of the old auncient Doctors this question once to bee asked, or disputed, whether any substance of bread and wyne remayned in the Lordes Supper? Or what man was euer so doltishe to beleue any such thyng, or euer called hereticke for not beleuyng the same, before the tyme of seduction that is, before the. 1000. yeares aforesayd were expired.
MarginaliaThey that thinke transubstantiatiō to be otherwise then a new doctrine are ignorant of histories and antiquitie. Wherefore they that stand so much vppon the antiquitie of this Article as a doctrine which hath euer since Christs tyme ben receaued in the Church, taught by the Apostles, beleaued of all Catholickes, and confirmed by consent of all ages, of Councels, of nations, and people vnto this present day: these I say, either shew them selues very ignoraunt in hystoryes and in all state of antiquitie, or els moste impudently they do abuse the simple credulitie of the people.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaTransubstantiation when it first came in question To procede now farther in this discussion of antiquitie, it folowed, that after the tyme of Elfricus aforesayd, this matter of transubstantiation began fyrst to be talked of and to come in question among a fewe superstitious monkes: so that as blyndnes and superstition began more and more to encrease, so the sayd grosse opinion stil more and more, both in number and authoritye preuayled, in somuche that about the yeare of our Lord. 1060. the denying of transubstantiatiō began to be counted heresie.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaBerengarius the first that euer was counted hereticke for denying transubstantiation. And in this number fyrst was one Berengarius a Frenchman, and Archdeacon of Angeowe, whiche of all Christen men, whiche we read of, was fyrst called and counted an hereticke for denying of transubstantiation and troubled for the same, as ye shall heare.
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CloseThis account of Berengar of Tours, including the observation on the contradiction in the sources is taken from Heinrich Bullinger, De origine erroris libri duo (Zurich, 1568), fos. 122v-123r. The sequence of events, especially as narrated by Foxe. is somewhat confusing. Berengar's doctrines were condemned at the Council of Vercelli in 1050. In 1051, a national synod at Paris also condemned his teachings. At the Council of Tours (1055), presided over by Hildebrand, then papal legate, Begengar signed a confession of faith in which he stated that after the consecration the bread and wine were truly the body and blood of Christ. At another council in Rome, in 1059, Berengar again affirmed the real presence of of the body of Christ in the consecrated Host. Subsequently, however, Berengar renounced this position. In 1078, Hildebrand, now Pope Gregory VII, summoned Berengar to Rome, where the archdeacon signed a profession of faith affirming the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The following year in a council held at Rome, Berengar signed a formula affirming the doctrine of transubstantiation. On his return to Angers, Berengar again attacked the formula that he had signed. He made a final recantation of his teachings at the council of Bordeaux in 1080.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaLancfrancke a persecutour of Berengarius. Of these malicious enemies agaynst Berengarius, the chiefest troubler was Lancfrancke, Abbot of Codune, afterward Archbishop of Caunterbury, Guimund Monke likewyse first of the abbey of Leufrede & afterward Archb. of Auersane: Algerius also monke of Corbein: Fulbertus also monke and bishop: and Hildebrand sometyme Monke of Cluniake, and then Archdeacon of Turon, & afterward Byshop of Rome.
CloseExcept for Hildebrand, all of these 'malicious enemies' of Berengar are listed and extracted in De veritate corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ed. Johann Vlimmer (Louvain, 1561). Hildebrand's involvement is taken from William of Malmesbury, De gestis regum Anglorum, ed. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols. [Oxford, 1998-99], I, p. 515.
[Back to Top]By these and such other monkes of the lyke fraternity the errour and heresy of transubstantiation began first to be defended, and partes publikely in writyng to be takē about that matter.MarginaliaPaschasius the first beginner of the faction of transubstantiatiō. Of the which sides and partes, the first that began to set vp that faction by writyng, semeth to be Paschasius, who was a little before Berengarius
ClosePaschius Radbertus actually lived about two centuries before Berengar. Paschius's teachings on the Eucharist were strongly criticized by Ratramnus of Corbie, but they formed the basis for the doctrine of transubstantiation.
CloseI.e., Ratrumnus of Corbie, who actually lived about two centuries before Lanfranc.