unless we shew unto them in what pope's days the contrary falsehood was first devised. If nothing else will give them content, we must put them in mind that, about the time wherein Soter was bishop of Rome, there lived a cozening companion, called Marcus, whose qualities are thus set out by an ancient Christian, who was famous in those days, though now his name be unknown unto us. Εἰδωλοποιὲ Μάρκε, καὶ τερατοσκόπε, ̓Αστρολογικῆς ἔμπειρε καὶ μαγικῆς τέχνης, Δι' ἀγγελικῆς δυνάμεως Αζαζὴλ ποιεῖν, ̓́Εχων σὲ πρόδρομον ἀντιθέου πανουργίας. Where first he chargeth him to have been an idolmaker; then he objecteth unto him his skill in astrology and magic, by means whereof, and by the assistance of Satan, he laboured, with a shew of miracles, to win credit unto his false doctrines, amongst his seduced disciples: and lastly he concludeth, that his father the devil had employed him as a forerunner of his antithean craft, or his antichristian deceivableness of unrighteousness, if you will have it in the apostle's language. For he was indeed the devil's forerunner, both for the idolatries and sorceries, which afterward were brought into the east; and for those Romish" fornications and inchantments, wherewith the whole west was corrupted by that man of sin, "whose coming" was foretold to be " after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders." And that we may keep ourselves within the compass of that particular, which now we have in hand: we find in Irenæus, that this arch-heretic made special use of his juggling feats, to breed a persuasion in the minds of those whom he had perverted, that in the cup of his pretended eucharist, he really delivered them blood to drink. For, feigning himself to consecrate the cups filled with wine, f Vet. author, citatus ab Irenæo, lib. 1. cap. 12. Apoc. chap. 9. ver. 20, 21. 12 Thess. chap. 2. ver. 9. Ibid. chap. 18. ver. 3, 23. * Ποτήρια οἴνῳ κεκραμένα προσποιούμενος εὐχαριστεῖν, καὶ ἐπὶ πλέον and extending the words of invocation to a great length, he made them to appear of a purple and red colour: to the end it might be thought that the grace, which is above all things, did distil the blood thereof into that cup by his invocation." And even according to this precedent we find it fell out afterwards; that the principal and most powerful means, whereby the like gross conceit of the guttural eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ was at the first fastened upon the multitude, and in process of time more deeply rooted in them, were such delusions and feigned apparitions as these: which yet that great schoolman himself, Alexander of Hales, confesseth to happen sometimes either by "the procurement of man, or by the operation of the devil." Paschasius Radbertus, who was one of the first setters forward of this doctrine in the west, spendeth a large chapter upon this point: wherein he telleth us, that Christ in the sacrament did shew himself" oftentimes in a visible shape, either in the form of a lamb, or in the colour of flesh and blood, so that, while the host was a breaking or an offering, a lamb in the priest's hands, and blood in the chalice should be seen as it were flowing from the sacrifice, that what lay hid in a mystery might, to them that yet doubted, be made manifest in a miracle." And specially in that place he insisteth upon a narration, which he found in gestis Anglorum, but deserved well to have been put into gesta Romanorum for the goodness of it, of one Plecgils or ἐκτείνων τὸν λόγον τῆς ἐπικλήσεως, πορφύρια καὶ ἐρυθρὰ ἀναφαίνεσθαι ποιεῖ· ὡς δοκεῖν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑπὲρ τὰ ὅλα χάριν τὸ αἷμα τὸ ἑαυτῆς στάζειν ἐν τῷ ἐκείνῳ ποτηρίῳ διὰ τῆς ἐπικλήσεως αὐτοῦ. Irenæus, lib. 1. cap. 13. pag. 60. 'Humana procuratione, vel forte diabolica operatione. Alex. Halens. summ. theolog. part. 4. quæst. 11. memb. 2. artic. 4. sec. 3. m Nemo qui sanctorum vitas et exempla legerit, potest ignorare, quod sæpe hæc mystica corporis et sanguinis sacramenta, aut propter dubios, aut certe propter ardentius amantes Christum, visibili specie in agni forma, aut in carnis et sanguinis colore, monstrata sint; quatenus de se Christus clementer adhuc non credentibus fidem faceret: ita ut dum oblata frangitur, vel offertur hostia, videretur agnus in manibus et cruor in calice, quasi ex immolatione profluere ; ut quod latebat in mysterio, patesceret adhuc dubitantibus in miraculo. Paschas. de corp. et sangu. Dom. cap. 14. Plegilus a priest: how an angel shewed Christ unto him in the form of a child upon the altar, whom first he took into his arms and kissed, but ate him up afterwards, when he was returned to his former shape again. Whereof arose that jest, which Berengarius was wont to use: "This" was a proper peace of the knave indeed, that whom he had kissed with his mouth, he would devour with his teeth." But there are three other tales of singular note, which, though they may justly strive for winning of the whetstone with any other, yet for their antiquity have gained credit above the rest: being devised, as it seemeth, much about the same time with that other of Plegilus, but having relation unto higher times. The first was had out. of the English legends too, as Johannes Diaconus reporteth it in the life of Gregory the first; of a Roman matron, who found a piece of the sacramental bread turned into the fashion of a finger, all bloody; which afterwards, upon the prayers of St. Gregory, was converted to his former shape again. The other two were first coined by the Grecian liars, and from them conveyed unto the Latins, and registered in the book which they called Vitas Patrum: which being commonly believed to have been collected by St. Hierome, and accustomed to be read ordinarily in every monastery, gave occasion of further spread, and made much way for the progress of this mystery of iniquity. The former of these is not only related there, but also in the legend of Simeon Metaphrastes (which is such another author among the Grecians, as Jacobus de Voragine was among the Latins), in the life' of Arsenius : n Speciosa certe pax nebulonis; ut, cui oris præbuerat basium, dentium inferret exitium. Guilielm. Malmesbur. de gestis reg. Anglor. lib. 3. Jo. Diac. vit. Greg. lib. 2. cap. 41. P Sanctus Hieronymus presbyter ipsas sanctorum patrum vitas Latino edidit sermone. Paschas. Radbert. in epist. ad Frudegard. Consule libros Carolinos, de imaginib. lib. 4. cap. 11. 9 Inter sententias patrum, a Pelagio Romanæ ecclesiæ diacono Latine versas, libell. 8. cui titulus De providentia vel prævidentia: sive, ut in Pholii bibliotheca habetur. cod. 98. περὶ διορατικῶν. r Tom. 4. Surii, pag. 257. edit. Colon. ann. 1573. how that a little child was seen upon the altar, and an angel cutting him into small pieces with a knife, and receiving his blood into the chalice, as long as the priest was breaking the bread into little parts. The latter is of a certain Jew receiving the sacrament at St. Basil's hands, converted visibly into true flesh and blood: which is expressed by Cyrus Theodorus Prodromus, in this Tetrastich. Χριστιανῶν ποτὲ παῖζε θυηπολίην Εβερ υἱὸς But the chief author of the fable was a cheating fellow, who, that he might lie with authority, took upon him the name of Amphilochius, St. Basil's companion, and set out a book of his life fraught with leasings: as cardinal Baronius himself acknowledgeth. St. Augustine's conclusion therefore may here well take place: "Let" those things be taken away, which are either fictions of lying men, or wonders wrought by evil spirits. For either there is no truth in these reports; or, if there be any strange things done by heretics, we ought the more to beware of them; because, when the Lord had said, that certain deceivers should come, who by doing of some wonders should seduce, if it were possible, the very elect, he very earnestly commended this unto our consideration, and said; Behold, I have told you before;" yea, and added a further charge also, that if these impostors should say unto us of him," behold", he is in secret closets," we should • Nomen Amphilochii ad mentiendum accepit. Baron. tom. 4. ann. 369. sec. 43. t Scatens mendaciis. Id. ibid. ann. 363. sec. 55. "Removeantur ista vel figmenta mendacium hominum, vel portenta fallacium spirituum. Aut enim non sunt vera quæ dicuntur: aut si hæreticorum aliqua mira facta sunt, magis cavere debemus: quod, cum dixisset Dominus quosdam futuros esse fallaces, qui nonnulla signa faciendo etiam electos si fieri posset fallerent, adjecit vehementer commendans, et ait, Ecce prædixi vobis. Augustin. de unitat. eccles. cap. 16. w Matt. chap. 24. ver. 26. not believe it which whether it be applicable to them who tell us, that Christ is to be found in a pix, and think that they have him in safe custody under lock and key, I leave to the consideration of others. The thing which now I would have further observed ist only this, that, as that wretched heretic, who first went about to persuade men by his lying wonders, that he really delivered blood unto them in the cup of the eucharist, was censured for being sidwλorоiòs, an idol-maker; so in after ages, from the idol-makers and image-worshippers of the east it was, that this gross opinion of the oral eating and drinking of Christ in the sacrament drew its first breath; God having for their idolatry justly given them up unto" a reprobate mind," that they might "receive that recompence of their error which was meet.” The pope's name, in whose days this fell out, was Gregory the third: the man's name, who was the principal setter of it abroach, was John Damascene; one that laid the foundation of school-divinity among the Greeks, as Peter Lombard afterwards did among the Latins. On the contrary side, they who opposed the idolatry of those times, and more especially the three hundred and thirty-eight bishops assembled together at the council of Constantinople, in the year 754. maintained, that Christ" chose no other shape or type under heaven to represent his incarnation by, but the sacrament;" which "he" delivered to his ministers for a type and a most effectual commemoration thereof;" "commanding the substance of bread to be offered, which did not any way resemble the form of a man, that so no occasion might be given of bringing in idolatry:" which bread they affirmed to be the body of Christ, not pure, but ou; that is, as they themselves * Rom. chap. 1. ver. 27, 28. y Damascen. orthodox. fid. lib. 4. cap. 14. 2 ὡς οὐκ ἄλλου εἴδους ἐπιλεχθέντος παρ' αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ὑπ ̓ οὐρανὸν, ἢ τύπου εἰκονίσαι τὴν αὐτοῦ σάρκωσιν δυναμένου. 3 εἰς τύπον καὶ ἀνάμνησιν ἐναργεστάτην τοῖς αὐτοῦ μύσταις παραδέ δωκε. Ὁ ἄρτου οὐσίαν προσέταξε προσφέρεσθαι, μὴ σχηματίζουσαν ἀνθρώπου μορφὴν, ἵνα μὴ εἰδωλολατρεία παρεισαχθῆ. |