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1417 [1393]

King Edw. 6.. A fruitefull Dialogue betweene Custome and Truthe.

sideranda sunt, hoc est spiritualiter. Interiores autem oculi postquam panem vident, creaturas transuolant, neque de illo pane à pistore cocto cogitant, sed de eo qui se dixit panem esse æternæ vitæ.MarginaliaChrisost. in Ioan. Hom. 46. All mysteries must be considered with inwarde eyes, that is to say, spiritually: As the inwarde eyes when they see the bread, they passe ouer the creatures, neither do they thinke of that bread which is baked of the baker, but of him which called himself the bread of eternal life. For these two causes the bread and wine are called the body and bloud of Christe. Nowe I thinke you are satisfied concerning the meaning of these woordes: This is my body.

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Cust. Yet one thing mooueth me very much.

Veri. What is that?

MarginaliaCustome standeth vpon authority & cōmon voyce.Cust. The Doctours and old wryters, men inspired with the holy Ghost haue euermore bene against your doctrine: Yea, and in these daies the wisest men and best learned call you heretickes, and your learning heresie.  

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Custom objects to the theology of Verity, claiming that the antiquity, authority and agreement of the Fathers of the Church (in other words, the Vincentian Canon that served to determine true doctrine from false) had condemned Protestant theology's chief elements long ago.

MarginaliaThe right meaning of the Doctours misconstrued of custome keepers.Veri. As touching the olde wryters, I remember well they speake reuerently of the Sacramentes, like as euery man ought to doe. MarginaliaThe Doctours how they call the Sacrament the body of Christ & why?But where as they deliuer their minde wyth the right hand , you Custome receiue it wyth the lefte. For where as they say, that it is the bodye of Christe, and that it must be verely eaten, meaning that it doeth effectually lay before the eyes Christes body, and that it is to the faithfull man no lesse then if it were Christe him selfe, and that Christe must be eaten in faith, not torne nor rent wyth the teeth:  

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'Rent with the teeth': a common Protestant trope against Catholic theology of the Eucharist and Christ's corporeal presence therein. It sets aside the Catholic understanding of Christ's risen, glorified body which is also corporeal, as shown by people touching him in the resurrection narratives in the Matthew, Luke and John.

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you say that howsoeuer it be taken, it is Christes bodye, and that there is none other eatyng but wyth the mouth. MarginaliaThe wordes of the Doctours against the Popes doctrine.And that the fathers meant no other thing then I haue sayde, it shall appeare by their wordes. But as touching the learned and wise men of these dayes, I can not blame them if they call my doctrine heresie: for they would condemne al auncient wryters of heresie, if they were now aliue. But I will aunsweare you to them anone. In the meane while marke you how well their learning agreeth. They say, you must follow the letter, you must sticke to the letter. But Origenes sayeth: MarginaliaOrigines in Leuit. Hom. 17.Si secundum literam sequaris id quod scriptum est [nisi manducaueritis carnem filij hominis non erit vita vobis] ea litera occidit. If ye folow after the letter, that which is wrytten [vnlesse yee shall eate the flesh of the sonne of man, there shalbe no life in you] this letter killeth. Augustine in the third booke MarginaliaAugust. de doctrina Christiana Lib. 3. cap. 16.De doctrina Christiana: Principio cauendum est ne figuratam dictionem secundum literam accipias. Ad hoc enim pertinet id quod ait Apostolus, litera occidit. Cum enim figuratè dictum sic accipitur tanquam propriè dictum sit, carnaliter sapitur, neque vlla animæ mors congruentius appellatur. i. First, thou muste beware that thou take not a figuratiue speache after the letter. For thereto pertaineth that the Apostle sayeth: Marginalia2. Cor. 3.The letter killeth. For when a thing is spiritually meant, and the same is takē litterally and properly spoken that is a carnall taking. Neither can any other be called the killing of the soule rather then that. And in the same booke he teacheth a man to know the plain sense from a figure, saying thus: MarginaliaAugust. de doctrina Christiana Lib. 3. cap. 16.Si præceptiua loquutio est flagitium iubens, aut beneficentiam vetans, figurata est: Nisi manducaueritis carnem filij hominis, & biberitis eius sanguinem, non erit vita in vobis. Flagitium videtur iubere: Ergo, Figura est præcipiens passioni Domini esse communicandum, & suauiter in memoria recōdendum, quòd pro nobis caro eius crucifixa sit. i. MarginaliaA rule to know a figuratiue speach from the litterall.If the commaunding speach be such, as commandeth a thing wicked and horrible to be done, or a charitable thing to be vndone, then this is a figuratiue speach: Vnlesse ye shal eat the flesh of the sonne of man, and shall drinke his bloud, there shall be no life in you. Because in this speach he seemeth to commaund a wicked thing, it is therefore a figuratiue speache  
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Catholics would respond that if Jesus were indeed using figurative language in John 6, he does not explain the metaphor he is using, as he does in the other occasions he uses figurative language in John's Gospel, or it is explained as such in the narrative; i.e., John 10:1-29, (Jesus the good Shepherd and the Door) especially 10:6 "this proverb Jesus spoke…'. See also John 15:1-8: Jesus as the vine; and John 15:8-27, the explanation of the metaphor.

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, commaunding that we should communicate with the passion of our Lorde, and sweetely to retaine it in our remembraunce. In like manner Chrysostome plucketh you from the plaine letter, and the bare woordes by this saying: MarginaliaChrisost. in Ioan. hom. 46.Caro non prodest: hoc est secundum spiritum verba mea intelligenda sunt. Quia qui secundum carnem audit, nihil lucratur. Quid est autem carnaliter intelligere? Simpliciter vt res dicuntur, neque aliud quippiam cogitare. Non enim ita iudicanda sunt quæ videntur, sed mysteria omnia interioribus oculis videnda sunt, hoc est spiritualiter. i. The flesh profiteth not: that is to say, my wordes must be taken and expounded after the spirite. For hee that heareth after the flesh, gaineth nothing. Nowe what is it to vnderstād carnally? To take things simply as they be spoken, and not to consider any meaning further therein. For things must not be iudged as they are seene, but all mysteries must be seene with inwarde eyes, that is to say, spiritually. What is so hainous in these dayes, as to cal the Sacrament the token or the remembrance of Christes body? Yet did the olde wryters in manner neuer call it other. MarginaliaTertullianus contra Martion. Lib. 4.Tertullian in the 4. booke against the Martionistes: Christus accepit panem, & corpus suum fecit: Hoc est corpus meū dicendo, id est figura corporis mei. Christ took bread & made it hys body, saying: This is my body, that is to say, a figure of mybody. MarginaliaAmbrose in 1. Cor. 11.Ambrose vpon the 11. to the Corinthians: Quia morte Domini liberati sumus, huius rei memores in edendo & potando, carnem & singuinem quæ pro nobis oblata sunt significamus. Because we are deliuered by the Lords death, in þe remembraunce of the same by eating and drinking we signify the body and bloud which were offered vp for vs. MarginaliaChrisost. in Matth. Hom. 83.Chrysostome in the lxxxiij. Homily vpon the Gospel of Mathew: Quando dicunt, vndè patet Christum immolatum fuisse, hæc adferentes eorum ora consuimus. Si enim mortuus Christus non est, cuius Symbolum ac signum hoc sacrificium est? When they obiect vnto vs, and aske: howe knowe you that Christe was offered vppe? then alledging these things, we stoppe theyr mouthes. For if Christ died not, then whose signe or token is this sacrifice? MarginaliaAugust. ad Adimantū.Augustine to Adimantus: Non dubitauit Christus dicere: Hoc est corpus meum, cum daret signum corporis sui. Christ doubted not to say: This is my body, when he gaue but a signe of his body. MarginaliaAugust. in Psal. 3.Augustine vpon the thirde Psalme: Christus adhibuit Iudam ad conuiuium, in quo corporis & sanguinis sui figuram discipulis suis commēdauit & tradidit. Christ receiued Iudas to the Supper, in the which he commended and deliuered a figure of his body and bloud vnto hys Disciples. MarginaliaRabanus de institut. Clericorū.Rabanus, de institutione clericorum: Quia panis corpus confirmat, ideo ille corpus Christi congruenter nuncupatur. Vinum autem quia sanguinem operatur in carne, ideo ad sanguinem Christi refertur. Because the breade strengtheneth the bodye, therefore it is aptly called Christes body. And likewise the wine, because it encreaseth bloud in the flesh, it doth resemble the bloud of Christ. MarginaliaDruthmarus in Matth.Druthmarus Monachus in Mathæum. Vinum lætificat & sanguinem auget, & ideo non inconuenienter per hoc sanguis Christi figuratur. Wine maketh glad the heart, and encreaseth bloud, and therefore the bloude of Christ is not vnaptly signified thereby. Irenæus witnesseth plainly that in the Sacrament remaineth bread and wine by these woordes: MarginaliaIrenæus contra Valentinum Lib. 3.Quemadmodum terrenus panis percipiens vocationem Dei, iam non communis panis est, sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebus constans, terrena, & cœlesti: As the earthly breade receiuing the vocation of God, is now no common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two things, the one earthly & the other heauenly. Heere he recordeth that there remaineth in the Sacrament an earthly nature, which is either breade or nothing. MarginaliaGelasius.Gelasius wryting against Nestorius, auoweth the same, sayinge: In Eucharistia non desinit substantia panis, & natura vini. Etenim imago & similitudo corporis & sāguinis Domini in actione mysteriorum celebratur. i. In the Eucharist the substance of the bread and nature of the wine ceasseth not to be: For the Image and similitude of the body and bloud of the Lorde is celebrated in the action of the mysteries. MarginaliaChrisost. hom. 20. in epist. 2. ad Corinth.Chrysostome in his 20. Homely vpon the 2. Epistle to the Corinthians preferreth a poore man before the Sacramente, and calleth hym the body of Christe rather then the other. Whereof I maye gather this reason:

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Bo-The poore man is not the naturall and reall bodye of
Christ.
car-Euery poore member of Christe is the body of Christe,
rather then the Sacrament: Chrysost.
do.Ergo, the Sacrament is not the naturall and reall bo-
dy of Christ.

His wordes are: Hoc altare veneraris quoniam in eo proponitur corpus Christi. Eum autem qui reipsa corpus est Christi, afficis contumelia, & negligis pereuntem. This aultare thou doest reuerence because the body of Christ therein is set before thee: but him whiche is the body of Christe in deede thou doest spitefully intreate, and doest neglect him readye to perish. MarginaliaChrisost. in Hom. 11. sup. Matth.Chrysostome in the 11. Homely vppon Mathewe: Quod si hæc vasa sanctificata ad priuatos vsus eft transferre periculosum, in quibus non verum corpus Christi, sed mysterium corporis Christi continetur, quanto magis vasa corporis nostri? If it be so perillous a matter to translate these sanctified vessels vnto priuate vses, in the which not the true body of Christ, but a mysterie of the bodye of Christe is contained, howe muche more then these vesselles of our bodye? MarginaliaAthanasius in verba Euang. Qui dixerit verbum in filiū hominis.Athanasius vppon these woordes: Qui dixerit verbum contra filium hominis, sayeth: Ea quæ Christus dicit non sunt carnalia, sed spiritualia. Quod enim comedentibus suffecisset corpus, vt totius mūdi fieret alimonia? Sed idcirco meminit Ascensionis filij hominis in cœlum vt eos à corporali cogitatione auelleret. The words that Christe heere speaketh, be not carnall but spirituall. For what bodye mighte haue suffised for all that shoulde eate, to be a nourishment of the whole worlde? But therefore hee maketh mention of the Ascension of the sonne of manne into Heauen, to the entente to plucke them awaye from that corporall cogitation. MarginaliaAugust. ad Marcellinū.Augustinus ad Marcellinum: In illis carnalibus victimis figuratio fuit carnis Christi, quam pro peccatis nostris erat oblaturus, & sanguinis quem erat effusurus: In isto autem Sacrificio gratiarum actio atque commemoratio est carnis Christi quam pro nobis obtulit, & sanguinis, quem pro nobis effudit. In illo ergo Sacrificio, quid-

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nobis