MarginaliaAnno 1552.their part.

Veri. I am not parciall, but indifferent  

to all parties: For I neuer go further then the truth.

Cust. I can scarsly beleue you. But what is more true then Christ, which is truth it self? or who euer was so hardy before this tyme charge Christ with a lye for sayeng these wordes, MarginaliaMath. 26.This is my body.  

The words are euident & playne: there is in them not so much as one obscure or darke letter, there is no cause for any man to cauill   . And yet that notwithstanding, MarginaliaChrists wordes.where as Christ himselfe affirmed it to be his body, mē now a days are not abashed to say, Christ lyed, it is not his body. MarginaliaThe Euangelistes.The Euangelists   agree all in one, MarginaliaThe old writers.the old writers   stand of our side, the vniuersall and catholike church hath bene in this mynd these xv. hundred yeare and more. And shall we thinke that Christ hymselfe, hys Euangelists, MarginaliaThe Catholicke Church.all the whole Catholike church hath bene so long deceyued, and the truth nowe at length begotten and borne in these dayes?  

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Veri. You haue mooued a matter of great force and waight, and whereto without many words I can make no ful answer. Notwithstanding because you prouoke me thereto, if you will geue me licence I will take part with them of whome you haue made false report, for none of them euer reproued Christ of any lye. MarginaliaThe doctrine of the Papistes cōmonly standeth vpon false reporters.But contrarywise, they say that many men of late days, not vnderstanding Christs words haue builded and set vp many fonde  

lyes vpon hys name. Wherfore, first I will declare the meaning of these words, MarginaliaThe sense of Hoc est corpus meum  

Commentary     Close

'Hoc est corpus meum': Latin for 'this is my body.'

. expounded.This is my body, and next in what sense the Church and the old fathers haue euermore taken them. First therefore you shall vnderstand, that Scripture is not so to be taken always as the letter soundeth, but as the intent and purpose of the holy ghost was, by whom the scripture was vttred.   For if you follow the bare wordes, you will soone shake downe & ouerthrow the greatest part of the christiā fayth. What is plainer then these words: Pater maior me est. MarginaliaIohn 14.My father is greater then I am. Of those plaine words sprāg vp the heresy of the Arrians, which denied Christ to be equal with his father.   What is more euident then this saying: I and my father are both one. MarginaliaIohn. 10. Thereof arose the heresy of thē that denied three distinct persons.   They all had one soule and one hart,MarginaliaActes. 4. was spoken by the apostles. Yet had ech of thē a soule and hart peculiar to himselfe. They are now not two, but one flesh,MarginaliaGen. 37. is spoken by the man and his wife. Yet hath both the man and the wife his seuerall body. He is our very flesh, sayd Ruben by Ioseph his brother, which notwithstanding was not their reall flesh. I am bread sayd Christ, yet was he flesh and no bread. Christ was the stone,Marginalia1. Cor. 10. sayeth Paul, and was in deed no materiall stone. Melchisedech had neither father nor mother, and yet in deed he had both. Behold the Lambe of God, sayth Iohn Baptist by Christ, notwithstanding Christ was a man & not a lambe.   Circumcision was called the couenant, where as it was but a token of the couenant. The Lambe named the Passeouer, and yet was it eaten in remembrance only of the passeouer. Iacob raised vp an aulter, & called it beyng made but of lyme and stone, the mighty God of Israel. Moses when he had conquered the Amalakites, set vp an aulter, & called it by þ^e names of God, Iehoua,   and Tetragrammatum,   Marginalia1. Cor. 10.We all are one loafe of bread, sayth Paule, yet were they not thereby turned in to a loafe of bread. Christ hanging vpon the crosse, appoynted S. Iohn to his mother, saying: Lo there is thy sonne, & yet was he not her sōne. MarginaliaGal. 3. Rom. 6.So many as be baptised into Christ (saith Paule) haue put on Christ, and so manye as be baptised into Christ,(saith) Paule hayue put on Christ, and so manye as are baptised into Christ, are washed with the bloud of Christ. Notwithstanding no man tooke the fonte water to be the naturall bloude of Christ. The cup is the new Testament, sayth Paul, & yet is not the cup in deed the very new Testament. You see therfore that it is not strange, nor a thing vnwoont in þ^e scriptures, to call one thing by an others name.MarginaliaFiguratiue speaches most cōmon in Scripture. So that you can no more of necessitie enforce the chaunging of the bread into Christes body in the sacrament, because þ^e words be plaine, This is my body, then the wiues flesh to be the naturall & reall body & flesh of the husbād, because it is written: They are not two but one flesh: or the aulter of stone to be very God, because Moses with euident and playne words pronounced it to be the mighty God of Israel. Notwithstandyng, if you wil needs cleaue to the letter you make for me, and hinder your own cause. MarginaliaThe name of bread vsed in Scripture.For this I will reason, & vse your owne weapon against you. The scripture calleth it bread. The Euangelists agree in the same. Paule nameth it so v. times in one place, the holy ghost may not be set to schoole to learne to speake. Wherfore I conclude by your own argument, that we ought not only to say, but also to beleeue that in the sacrament there remayneth bread.

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Cust. Me thinketh your answer is reasonable, yet cā I not be satisfied. Declare you therfore more at large, what mooueth you thinke this of the sacrament. For I thinke you would not withstand a doctrine so long holdē and taught,  

vnles you were inforced by some strong and likely reasōs.

Veri. First, in examining the wordes of Christ, I get me to the meanyng & purpose for which they were spoken.MarginaliaThe meaning of Christes wordes expounded. And in this behalfe I see, that Christ ment to haue his death & passion kept in remembrance. For men of themselues bee & euermore were forgetfull of the benefites of God. And therfore it was behouefull that they should be admonished & stirred vp with some visible and outward tokēs, as with the Passeouer Lambe, the brasen serpent, and other lyke. For the brasen serpent was a token that when the Iewes were stinged & wounded with serpents. God restored thē and made them whole. The passeouer Lambe was a memory of the great benefit of God, which when he destroied the Egyptians, saued the Iewes whose dores were sprinkled with the bloud of a lambe. So likewise Christ left vs a memoriall & remembraunce of his death and passion in outward tokens  

, that when the childe should demaund of his father what the breaking of the bread, & drinking of the cup meaneth, he myght answer him, that like as the bread is broken, so Christ was broken and rent vpon the crosse, for to redeme the soule of man. And like as wine fostereth and comforteth the body, so doth the bloud of Christ cherish & relieue the soule. And this do I gather by the words of Christ, and by the institution and order of the sacramēt. For Christ charged the Apostles to do this in the remembrance of him. Wherupon thus I do conclude:

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Fes-	Nothyng is done in remembraunce of it selfe.
ti-	But the Sacrament is vsed in the remembraunce of
	Christ.
no.	Therfore the Sacrament is not Christ.

Fe-	Christ neuer deuoured hymselfe.
ri-	Christ did eate the Sacrament with his Apostles.
son.	Ergo, the Sacrament is not Christ hymselfe.   Commentary     Close Verity employs syllogisms, forms of logical argumentation using three points that often beg more questions than they answer. Catholics would respond to these arguments in a variety of ways; the most simple being 'with God, all things are possible,' along with evidence found in Scripture and Tradition and how the Church has interpreted these modes of divine revelation in regards to the Eucharist since Apostolic times. [Back to Top]

Beside this I see, that Christ ordeined not his body, but a sacrament of his body. A sacrament (as S. Augustine declareth) is an outwarde signe of an inuissible grace. Hys words are: Sacramentum est inuisibilis gratiæ visibile signum.  

Out of which words I gather two arguments. The first is this, the token of the body of Christ is the thyng tokened, wherfore they are not one. The second is this.

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Fe-	One thyng cannot be both visible and inuisible.
ri-	But the Sacrament is visible, and the body of Christ
	inuisible:
son.	Therfore they are not one.

Which thing S. Augustine openeth very well by these wordes: Aliud est Sacramentum, aliud res Sacramenti. Sacramentum est quod in corpus vadit: res autem Sacramenti est corpus Domini nostri Iesu Christi. Moreouer, I remember that Christ ministred this sacrament not to great & deepe philosophers, but to a sort of ignorant and vnlearned fishers, which notwithstanding vnderstoode Christes meanying right well, & deliuered it euen as they tooke it at Christes hand, to the vulgar lay people, and fully declared vnto them the meanyng therof. But the lay people, nor scarsly the Apostles themselues could vnderstand what is mēt by transubstantiation, impanation, dimensions, qualitates, quantitates, accidens sine subiecto, terminus a quo, & terminus ad quem, per modum quanti. This is no learnyng for the vnlearned and rude people, wherefore it is likely that Christ ment some other thyng then hath bene taught of late dais. Furthermore, MarginaliaChrist is no foode for the body but for the soule.Christes body is food, not for the body, but for the soule, & therfore it must be receyued with the instrument of the soule which is fayth. For as ye receiue sustenance for your body by your bodily mouth, so the foode of your soule must be receiued by fayth, which is the mouth of the soule.  

MarginaliaAugust. in. Ioan. tract. 25.And for that S. Augustine sharpely rebuketh them that thinke to eat Christ with their mouthe, saying: Quid paras dentem & ventrem, crede & manducasti. i. Why makest thou redy thy tooth & thy belly? beleue & thou hast eatē Christ. Likewise speaking of eatyng the selfe same body, he sayth to the Capernaites which tooke hym grosly as men do now a dayes: MarginaliaIohn. 6.The words that I speake are spirit and lyfe. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothyng. And S. Augustine vpon these words of Christ sayth: *Marginalia* That is to say: You shall not eate the body which you see and drincke that bloud which they shall shed that shall crucyfie me. I haue commended to you a Sacramēt. vnderstand it spiritually and it shall geue you lyfe: the flesh profiteth nothing. Nō hoc corpus quod videtis manducaturi estis, neque bibituri sanguinem, quem effusuri sunt qui me crucifigent. Sacramentum aliquod vobis trado. Id spiritualiter acceptum viuificat: caro autē non prodest quicquam. August. Quinquagena. 2. Psal 98.

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Custome. What meane you by this spirite, and by spirituall eatyng? I pray you vtter your mynde more playnely. For I know well that Christ hath a bodye, and therefore must be eaten (as I thinke) with the mouth of the bodye. For the spirit and the soule as it hath no body and flesh, so