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there is but one Christ, who is one, because he is entire and whole.”[1] Libel. contra Nest. et Eutych. ap. Baron. an. 496. T. vi. p. 665. Edit. Moguntiæ, 1601.
COUNCIL OF TRENT.
“ As Christ our Redeemer truly declared that to be his body, which he offered under the appearance of bread: therefore was it always firmly believed in the Church of God, and the same this holy Synod again announces—that, by the consecration of the bread and wine, a change is made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the
- ↑ The anthenticity of this piece has been strongly contested; but let the decision be what it may, it is plain, that the words nature and substance applied to the bread and wine after consecration by Gelasius,'and the equivalent Greek words puous and ovora, used by Theodoret in the preceding quotation, mean not what, in their present acceptation, is understood by them. They both assert, that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ; therefore, when they add, that the nature and substance of both still remain, they must mean the external or sensible qualities. They may be seen and felt, says Theodoret, as before. The authors of the learned work Perpétuité de la Foi, Vol. III. prove this by many examples drawn from ecclesiastical and profane writers, as from the obvious context of the passages themselves. Should it, however, be conceded, that there is ambiguity in the expressions, or even that the authors of them meant to convey a sense, in our estimation, heterodox, how light must their authority be, when balanced against the massive evidence of so many writers of their own age, and of the preceding centuries ! “Since the ancients," says Erasmus, “ to whom the Church, not without reason, gives so much authority, are all agreed in the opinion, that the true substance of the body and blood of Jesus is in the Eucharist; since, in addition to all this, has been added the constant authority of the Synods, and so perfect an agreement of the Christian world, let us also agree with them in this heavenly mystery, and let us receive here below the bread and the chalice of the Lord, under the veil of the species, until we eat and drink him without veil in the kingdom of God. And would that those who have followed Berengarius in his error, would follow him in his repentance.”—Preface to the Treatise on the Eucharist, by B. Alger, published by Erasmus.
