from heaven not so as your forefathers eat that heavenly bread in the wilderness and afterward died He that eateth this bread he liveth for ever He blessed bread before his suffering and divided it to his Disciples thus saying Eat this bread it is my body and do this in my remembrance Also he blessed wine in one cup and said Drink ye all of this This is my blood that is shed for many in forgiveness of sins The Apostles did as Christ commanded that is they blessed bread and wine to housell again afterward in his remembrance Even so also their successors and all Priests by Christs commandment do bless bread and wine to housell in his name with the Apostolick blessing Now some men have often searched and do yet often search how bread that is gathered of corn and through fires heat baked may be turned to Christs body and how wine that is pressed out of many grapes is turned through one blessing to the Lords blood Now say we to such men That some things be spoken of Christ by signification some thing by thing certain True thing is and certain that Christ was born of a Maid and suffered death of his own accord and was buried and on this day rose from death He is said bread by signifition and a Lamb and a Lyon and some where otherwise He is called Bread because he is our life and Angells life He is said to be a Lamb for his innocency A Lyon for strength wherewith he overcame the strong Devil But Christ is not so notwithstanding after true nature neither Bread nor a Lamb nor a Lyon Why is then the holy housell called Christs body or his blood if it be not truely that it is called Truely the bread and wine which by the Mass of the Priest is hallowed shew one thing without to humane understanding and an other thing they call within to believing minds Without they be seen bread and wine both in figure and in tast and they be truely after their hallowing Christs body and his blood through ghostly mystery An heathen child is christened yet he altereth not his shape without though he be changed within He is brought to the font-stone sinful through Adams disobedience Howbeit he is washed from all sin within though he hath not changed his shape without Even so the holy Font water that is called the well-spring of life is like in shape to other waters and is subject to corruption but the holy ghosts might cometh to the corruptible water through the Priests blessing and it may after wash the body and soul from all sin through ghostly might Behold now we see two things in this one creature After true nature that water is corruptible water and after ghostlie mystery hath hollowing might So also if we behold that holy housell after bodily understanding then see we that it is a creature corruptible and mutable if we acknowledge therein ghostly might then understand we that life is therein and that it giveth immortality to them that eat it with belief Much is betwixt the invisible might of the holy housell and the visible shape of his proper nature It is naturally corruptible bread and corruptible wine and is by might of Gods word truly Christs body and his blood not so notwithstanding bodily but ghostly Much is betwixt the ð„ body Christ suffered in and the body that is hallowed to housell The body truly that Christ suffered in was born of the flesh of Mary with blood and with bone with skin and with sinewes in humane limbs with a reasonable soul living and his ghostly body which we call the housell is gathered of many cornes without blood and bone without limb without soul and therefore nothing is to be understood therein bodily but all is ghostly to be understood Whatsoever is in that housell which giveth substance of life that is of the ghostly might and invisible doing Therefore is that holy housell called a mysterie because there is one thing in it seen an other thing understanded That which is there seen hath bodilie shape and that we do there understand hath ghostlie might Certainly Christs bodie which suffered death and rose from death never dieth henceforth but is Eternal and unpassible That housell is Temporal not Eternal Corruptible and dealed into sundry parts Chewed between the teeth and sent into the belly howbeit nevertheless after ghostly might it is all in every part Many receive that holy bodie and yet notwithstanding it is so all in every part after ghostly mysterie Though some chew less deal yet is there no more might notwithstanding in the more part then in the less because it is whole in all men after the invisible might This mysterie is a pledg and a figure Christs bodie is truth it self This pledge we do keep mysticallie untill we be come to the truth it self and then is this pledg ended Truly it is so as we before have said Christs body and his blood not bodilie but ghostlie And ye should not search how it is done but hold it in your belief that it is so done We read in an other book called Vita patrum that two Monkes desired of God some demonstration touching the holy housell and after their request as they stood to hear Mass they saw a child lying on the altar where the Priest said Mass and Gods Angel stood with a sword and abode looking untill the Priest brake the housel Then the Angel divided that child upon the dish and sbed his blood into the Chalice But when they did go to the housel then was it turned to bread and wine and they did eat it giving God thanks for that shewing Also S. Gregory desired of Christ that he would shew to a certain woman doubting about his mysterie some great affirmation She went to housell with doubting mind and Gregory forthwith obtained of God that to them both was shewed that part of the housel which the woman should receive as if there lay in a dish a joynt of a finger all beblooded and so the womans doubting was then forthwith healed But now hear the Apostles words about this mystery Paul the Apostle speaketh of the old Israelites thus writing in his Epistle to faithful men All our fore-fathers were baptised in the cloud in the sea and all they eat the same ghostlie meat and drank the fame ghostly drink They drank truly of the Stone that followed them and that Stone was Christ Neither was that Stone then from which the water ran bodily Christ but it signified Christ that calleth thus to all believing and Faithful men Whosoever thirsteth let him come to me and drink And from his bowels floweth lively water This he said of the Holy Ghost whom he receiveth which believeth on him The Apostle Paul saith That the Israelites did eat the same ghostly meat
and drink the same ghostly drink because that heavenly meat that fed them forty years and that water which from the Stone did flow had signification of christs body and his blood that now be offered daily in Gods church It was the same which we now offer not bodily but ghostly We said unto you ere while that christ hallowed bread and wine to housel before his suffering and said This is my body and my blood Yet he had not then suffered but so notwithstanding he turned through invisible might that bread to his own body and that wine to his blood as he before did in the wilderness before that he was born to men when he turned that heavenly meat to his flesh and the flowing water from that Stone to his own blood Very many eat of that heavenly meat in the wilderness and drank that ghostly drink and were never the less dead as christ said And christ ment not that death which none can escape but that everlasting death which some of that folk deserved for their unbelief Moses and Aaron and many other of that people which pleased God eat that heavenly bread and they dyed not that everlasting death though they dyed the common death They saw that the heavenly meat was visible and corruptible and they ghostly understood by that visible thing and ghostly received it The Saviour saith He that eated my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life And he bad them not eat that body wherewith he was enclosed nor that blood to drink which he shed for use but he ment with those words that holy housel which ghostly is his body and his blood and he that tasteth it with believing heart hath that eternal life In the old law faithful men offered unto God diverss Sacrifices that had signification of Christs body which for our sins he himself to his heavenly Father hath since offered to sacrifice Certainly this housel which we do now hallow at Gods Altar is remembrance of Christs body which he offered for us and of his blood which he shed for us So he himself commanded Do this in my remembrance Once suffered Christ by himself but yet nevertheless his suffering is daily renewed at the Mass through mysterie of the holy housel Therefore that holy Mass is profitable both to the living and to the dead as it hath been often declared We ought also to consider diligently how that this holy housel is bath Christs body and the body of all faithful men after ghostly mysterie as the wise Augustine saith of it If ye will understand of Christs bodie hear the Apostle Paul thus speaking Ye truly be Christs body and his members Now is your mysterie set on Gods Table and ye receive your mysterie which mysterie ye your selves be Be that which ye see on the Altar and receive that which ye your selves be Again the Apostle Paul saith by it We many be one bread and one body Vnderstand now and rejoyce Many be one bread and one body in Christ He is our head and we be his limbs And the bread is not of one corn but of many Nor the wine of one grape but of many So also we all should have one unity in our Lord as it is written of the faithful Army how that they were in so great an unitie as though all of them were one soul and one heart Christ hallowed on his Table the mysterie of our peace and of our unitie he which receiveth that mysterie of unitie and keepeth not the bond of true peace he receiveth no mysterie for himself but a witness against himself It is very good for Christian men that they go often to housel if thy bring with them to the Altar unguiltiness and innocencie of heart To an evil man it turneth to no good but to destruction if he receive unworthily that holy housel Holy books command that water be mingled to that wine which shall be for housel because the water signifieth the people and the wine Christs blood And therefore shall neither the one without the other be offered at the holy Mass that Christ may be with us and we with Christ the head with the limbs and the limbs with the head We would before have intreated of the Lamb which the old Israelites offered at their Easter time but that we desired first to declare unto you of this mysterie and after how we should receive it That signifying Lamb was offered at the Easter And the Apostle Paul saith in the Epistle of this present day that Christ is our Easter who was offered for us and on this day rose from death The Israelites did eat the Lambs flesh as God commanded with unleavened bread and wild Lettice so we should receive that holy housel of Christs body and bloud without the leaven of sin and iniquitie As leaven turneth the creatures from their nature so doth sin also change the nature of man from innocencie to uncleanness The Apostle hath taught how we should feast not in the leaven of evilness but in the sweet dough of puritie and truth The hearb which they should eat with the unleavened bread is called Lettice and is bitter in tast So we should with bitterness of unfained repentance purifie our mind if we will eat Christs bodie Those israelites were not wont to eat raw flesh although God forbad them to eat it raw and sodden in water but rosted with fire He shall receive the bodie of God raw that shall think without reason that Christ was only man like unto us and was not God And he that will after mans wisdom search of the mysterie of Christs Incarnation doth like unto him that doth seethe Lambs-flesh in water because that water in this same place signifieth mans understanding but we should understand that all the mysterie of Christs Humanitie was ordered by the power of the Holy Ghost And then eat we his body rosted with fire because the Holy Ghost came in fiery likeness to the Apostles in diverse Tongues The Israelites should eat the Lambs head and the feet and the purtenance and nothing thereof must be left over night If any thing thereof were left they did burn that in the fire and they break not the bones After ghostly understanding we do then eat the Lambs head when we take hold of Christs Divinitie in our Belief Again when we take hold of his Humanitie with Love then eat we the Lambs feet because that Christ is the beginning and end God before all world and Man in the end of this world whit be the Lambs Purtenance but Christs secret precepts and these we eat when we receive with greediness the word of Life There must nothing of the Lamb be left unto the morning because that all Gods sayings are to be searched with great carefulness so that all his precepts may be known in understanding and deed in the night of this present
life before that the last day of the universal resurrection do appear If we cannot search out throughly all the mysterie of Christs Incarnation then ought we to betake the rest unto the might of the Holy Ghost with true humilitie and not to search rashly of that deep secretness above the measure of our understanding They did eat the Lambs flesh with their loynes girt In the loines is the lust of the bodie And he which will receive that housel shall cover that concupiscence and take with chastitie that holy receipt They were also shod What be shoes but of the hides of dead beasts We be truly shod if we follow in our steps and deeds the life of men departed which please God with keeping of hiscommandements They had Staves in their hands when they eat This stafe signifieth a carefulness and a diligent overseing And all they that best know and can should take care of other men and stay them up with their help It was injoyned to the eaters that they should eat the Lamb in haste For God abhoreth slouthfulness in his servants And those he loveth that seek the joy of everlasting life with quickness and hast of mind It is written Prolong not to turn unto God least the time pass away through thy slow tarrying The eaters might not break the Lambs bones No more might the Souldiers that did hang Christ break his holy legs as they did of the two Theeves that hanged on either side of him And the Lord râ—se from death sound without all corruption and at the last judgment they shall see him whom they did most cruelly wound on the Cross This time is called in the Hebrew tongue Pasca and in Latine Transitus and in Enghish a Passover because that on this day the people of Israel passed from the land of Aegypt over the Red sea from bondage to the Land of promise So also did our Lord at this time depart as saith John the Evangelist from this world to his heavenly Father-Even so we ought to follow our head and to go from the devil to Christ from this unstable world to his stable kingdom Howbeit we should first in this present life depart from vice to holy virtue from evil manners to good manners if we will after this corruptible life go to that eternal life and after our resurrection to Christ. He brings us to his everliving Father who gave him to death for our sins To him be honour and praise of well-doing world without end Amen This Sermon is found in diverss Books of Sermons written in the old English or Saxon tongue whereof two books be now in the hands of the most Reverend Father the the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Here followeth the words of Aelfricke Abbot of St. Albons and also of Malmsbery taken out of his Epistle written to Wulfsine Bishop of Scyrburn It is found in a book of the old Saxon tongue wherein be XLIII Chapters of Canons and Ecclesiastical Constitutions and also Liber Poenitentialis that is a Penitential book or Shrift book divided into Four other books the Epistle is set for the 30. Chapter of the Fourth book Intituled in the Saxon tongue be preost sinothe that is a Synod concerning Priests and this Epistle is also in a Canon book of the Church of Exeter SOme Priests keep the housel that is hallowed on Easter day all the year for sick men But they do greatly amiss because it waxeth hoary And these will not understand how grievous pennance the Penitential book teacheth by this if the housel become hoary and rotten or if it be lost or be eaten of Mise or of beasts by negligence Men shall reserve more carefully that holy housel and not reserve it too long but hallow other of new for sick men alwaies within a week or a fortnight that it be not so much as hoary For so holy is the housel which to day is hallowed as that which on Easter day was hallowed That housel is Christs body not bodily but ghostly Not the body which he suffered in but the body of which he spake when he blessed bread and wine to housel a night before his suffering and said by the blessed bread This is my body and again by the holy wine This is my blood which is shed for many in forgivness of sins Vnderstand now that the Lord who could turn that bread before his suffering to his body and that wine to his blood ghostly that the self same Lord blesseth daily through the Priests hands bread and wine to his ghostly body and to his ghostly blood Here thou seest good Reader how Aelfrick upon finding fault with an abuse of his time which was that Priests on Easter day filled their housel box and so kept the bread a a whole year for sick men took an occasion to speak against the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament So also in another Epistle sent to Wulfstane Arch-bishop of York he reprehending again this overlong reserving of the housel addeth also words more at large against the same bodily presence His words be these SOme Priests fill their box for housel on Easter day and so reserve it a whole year for sick men as though that housel were more holy then any other But they do unadvisedly because it waxeth black or altogether rotten by keeping it so long space And thus is he become guilty as the book witnesseth to us If any do keep the housel too long or loose it or Mise or other beasts do eat it see what the Penetential book sayeth by this So holy is altogether that housel which is hallowed to day as that which is hallowed on Easter day Wherefore I beseech you to keep that holy body of Christ with more advisement for sick men from Sonday to Sonday in a very clean box or at most not to keep it above a fortnight and then eat it laying other in the place We have an example hereof in Moses books as God himself hath commanded in Moses law How the Priests should set on every Saterday twelve loaves all new baked upon the Tabernacle the which were called Panes praepositionis and those should stand there on Gods Tabernacle till the next Saterday and then did the Priests themselves eat them and set other in the place Some Priests will not eat the housel which they do hallow But we will now declare unto you how the book speaketh by them Presbyter missam celebrans non audens sumere sacrificium accusante conscientia sua Anathema est The Priest that doth say Mass and dare not eat the housel his conscience accusing him is accursed It is less danger to receive the housel then to hallow it He that doth twice hallow one Host to housel is like unto those Hereticks who do Christen twice one child Christ himself blessed housel hefore his suffering He blessed the bread and brake thus speaking to his Apostles Eat this bread it is my body And again he blessed one Chalice
with wine and thus also speaketh unto them Drink ye all of this it is mine own blood of the New Testamant which is shed for many in forgivness of sins The Lord which halowed housel before his suffering and saith that the bread was his own body and that the wine was truly his blood he haloweth daily by the hands of the Priests bread to his body and wine to his blood in ghostly mysterie as we read in books And yet that lively bread is not bodily so notwithstanding not the self same bodie that Christ suffered in Nor that holy wine is the Saviours blood which was shed for us in bodily thing but in ghostlie understanding Both be truly that bread his bodie and that wine also his blood as was the heavenly bread which we call Manna that fed forty years Gods people And the clear water which did then run from the Stone in the wilderness was truly his blood as Paul wrot on some of his Epistles Omnes patres nostri eandem escam spiritualem manducaverunt omnes eundem potum spiritualem biberunt c. All our Fathers eat in the wilderuess the same ghostly meat and drank the same ghostlie drink They drank of that ghostlie stone and that stone was Christ The Apostle hath said as you have heard that they all did eat the same ghostlie meat and they all did drink the same ghostly drink And he saith not bodilie but ghostlie And Christ was not yet born nor his blood shed when that the people of Israel eat that meat and drank of that stone And the stone was not bodilie Christ though he so said It was the same mysterie in the old law and they did ghostlie signifie that ghostlie housel of our Saviours bodie which we consecrate now This Epistle to Wulfstane Elfrick wrote first in the Latine tongue as in a short Latine Epistle set before this and another of his Saxon Epistles he confesseth thus Aelfricus Abbas Wulfstano venerabili Arshiepiscopo salutem in Christo Ecce paruimus vestrae almitatis jussionibus transferentes Anglice duas Epistolas quas Latino eloquio descriptas ante annum vobis destinavimus non tamen semper ordinem sequentes nec verbum ex verbo sed sensum ex sensu proferentes Behold we have obeyed the commandement of thy Excellencie in Translating into English the two Epistles which we sent unto thee written in Latine more then a year agoe Howbeit we keep not here alwaies the same order nor yet Translate word for word but sense for sense Now because very few there be that do understand the old English or Saxon so muc h i our speech changed from the use of that time wherein Elfrick lived and for that also it may be that some will doubt how skilfully and also faithfully these words of Elfrick be Translated from the Saxon tongue we have thought good to set down here last of all the very words also of his Latine Epistle which is recorded in books fair written of old in the Cathedral Churches of Worcester and Exeter QVidam vero Presbyteri implent alabastrum suum de Sacrificio quod in Pasca Domini sanctificant conservant per totum annum ad infirmos quasi sanctior sit caeteris sacrificiis Sed nimirum insipienter faciunt Quia nigrescit putrescit tamdiu conservatum Et Liber Poenitentialis pro tali negligentia poenitentiam magnam docet aut si a Muribus comestum sit aut ab Auibus raptum Tam sanctum est sacrificium quod hodie sanctificatur quam illud quod in die Pasâ—ae consecratum est Et ideo debetis a Dominicae in Dominicam aut per duas vel maxime tres hebdomadas tenere sacrificium in alabastro mundo ad infirmos â—e nigrescat aut putrescat si diutius servetnr Nam in lege Moisi ponebant sacerdotes semper omni sabbato panes propositionis calidos in Tabernaculo coram Domino in sequenti sabbato sumebant illos soli sacerdotes edebant alios novos pro eis ponebant Facite vos sacerdotes similiter Custodite cautè sacrificium Christi ad infirmos edite illud ne diutius teneatur quam oportet Et reponite aliud noviter sanctificatum propter necessitatem infirmorum ne sine viatico exeant de hoc seculo Christus Jesus in die suae saenctae caenae accepit panem benedixit ac fregit dedit discipulis suis dicens Accipite comedite Hoc est enim corpus suum meum Similiter calicem accipiens gratias â—git dedit illis dicens Bibite ex hoc omnes Hic est sanguis meus Novi Testamenti qui pro multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum Intelligite modo Sacerdotes quod ille Dominus qui ante passionem suam potuit convertere illum panem illud vinum ad suum corpus sanguinem quod ipse quotidie sanctificat per manus Sacerdotum suorum panem ad suum corpus spiritualiter vinum ad suum sanguinem Non sit tamen hoc sacrificium corpus ejus in quo passus est pro nobis neque sanguis ejus quem pro nobis effudit sed spiritualiter corpus ejus efficitur sanguis sicut Manna quod de coelo pluit aqua quae de petra fluxit Sicut Paulus Apostolus ait Nolo enim vos ignorare fratres quoniam patres nostri omnes sub nube fuerunt omnes mare transierunt omnes in Moisi baptizati sunt in nube in mari Et omnes eandem escam spiritualem manducaverumt omnes eundem potum spiritualem biberunt Bibebant autem de spirituali consequenti eos petra Petra autem erat Christus Vnae dicit Psalmista Panem coeli dedit eis Panem Angelorum manducavit homo Nos quoque proculdubio manducamus panem Angelorum bibimus de illa petra quae Christum significabat quotiens fideliter accedimus ad sacrificium corporis sanguinis Christi AS the writings of the Fathers even of the First age of the Church be not thought on all parts so perfect that whatsoever thing hath been of them spoken ought to be received without all exception which honor truly themselves both knew and also have confessed to be only due to the most holy and tryed word of God So in this Sermon here published some things be spoken not consonant to sound doctrine but rather to such corruption of great ignorance and superstition as hath taken root in the Church of long time being overmuch cumbred with Monkery As where it speaketh of The Mass to be profitable to the quick and dead Of the mixture with water with wine and whereas there is also made mention of Two vaine Miracles which notwithstanding seem to have been infarced for that they stand in their place unaptly and without purpose and the matter without them both before and after doth hang in it selt together most orderly with some other
Superstitious words sounding to Superstition But all these things that be thus of some reprehension be as it were but by the way touched the full and whole discourse of all the former part of the Sermon and almost of the whole Sermon is about the understanding of the Sacramentall bread and wine how it is the body and blood of Christ our Saviour by which is revealed and made known what hath been the common taught doctrine of the Church of England on this behalf many hundred years agoe contrary unto the unadvised writing of some now a daies Now that this foresaid Saxon Homely with other Testimonies before alledged do fully agree to the old ancient books whereof some be written in the old Saxon and some in the Latine from whence they are taken these here under written upon diligent perusing and comparing the same have found by conference that they are truly put forth in Print without any adding or withdrawing any thing for the more faithful reporting of the same and therefore for the better credit hereof have subscribed their Names Matthew Arch-bishop of Canterbury Thomas Arch-bishop of York Edmund Bishop of London James Bishop of Durham Robert Bishop of Winchester William Bishop of Chichester John Bishop of Hereford Richard Bishop of Ely Edwine Bishop of Worcester Nicholas Bishop of Lincolne Richard Bishop of S. Davids Thomas Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield John Bishop of Norwich John Bishop of Carlile Nicholas Bishop of Bangor With divers other Personages of Honor and credit subscribing their Names the Record whereof remains in the Hands of the Most Reverend Father Matthew Arch-bishop of Canterbury FINIS Who did put out secular Priests out of the Church of Canterbury as the story of that house sheweth * No such demand of this profession in any English pontifical before this time Exod. 14. Exod. 17. Mat. 27. Mar. 15. Luke 24. * No such sign commanded by God in that place of Scriture but it was the bloud that God did look upon Exod. 12. * Understand this as that of S. Paul Ephes 2. Christ reconciled both to God in one body through his Cross John 6. Matth. 26. Luke 22. Mark 14. 1 Cor. 11. * This was now inquestion and so before Beringarius time A necessary distinction * The water in Baptisme and bread and wine in the Lords supper compared * No Transubstantiation Differences betwixt Christs natural body and the Sacrament thereof * 1. Difference * Not the body that suffered is in the housell * 2. Difference * 3. Difference * 4. Difference Math. 15. * 5. Difference These tales seem to be infarsed placed here upon no occasion 1. Cor. 10. * Note this exposition which is now adaies thought new John 4. 1. Cor. 10. Exod. 17. Mat. 26. Luke 22. Mark 14. * Nov we eat that body which was eaten beeore he was born by the faithful * See a transubstantiation * Manna John 6. John 6. * What body do the faithful now eat * A signification before Christ * A Sacrifice in Christs time * A Remembrance after Christ Math. 26. Hebr. 10. * This doctrine with praying to Images to the dead bodies of men at their tombs took his beginning of the avarice of Monks unto whom it was gainful The housel is also the body of all faithful men * No Scripture enforceth the mixture of water with the wine * The wine signisieth Christs blood * How we should come to the holy Communion The words inclosed between the two half circles some had rased out of Worcester book but they are restored again out of a book of Exeter Church
A TESTIMONY OF ANTIQUITY Shewing The Ancient Faith of the Church of England Touching the SACRAMENT Of the Body and Blood of the LORD Here Publickly Preached And also received in the Saxons time above Seven Hundred years agoe Jeremiah 6. Go into the streets and inquire for the old way and if it be the good and right way then go therein that ye may find rest for your souls But they say we will not walk therein OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the University Anno Dom. 1675. The Preface to the Christian Reader GREAT Contentions hath now been of long time about the most comfortable Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ our Saviour In the Inquisition and determination whereof many be charged and condemned of Heresie and reproved as bringers up of new Doctrine not known of old in the Church before Berengarius time who taught in France in the daies when William the Norman was by Conquest King of England and Hildebrand otherwise called Gregorius the Seventh was Pope of Rome But that thou mayest know good Christian Reader how this is advouched more boldly then truly in especial of some certain men which be more ready to maintain their old judgment then of humilitie to submit themselves unto a truth here is set forth unto thee a Testimony of very Ancient time wherein is plainly shewed what was the judgment of the Learned men in this matter in the daies of the Saxons before the Conquest First thou hast here a Sermon or Homelie for the holy day of Easter written in the old English or Saxon speech which doth of set purpose and at large intreat of this Doctrine and iâ—â—ound among many other Sermons in the same old speech made for other Festival daies and Sondaies of the year and used to be spoken orderly according to those daies unto the people as by the books themselves it doth well appear And of such Sermons be yet many books to be seen partly remaining in private mens hands and taken out from Monasteries at their dissolution partly yet reserved in the I ibraries of Cathedral Churches as of Worcester Hereford and Exeter From which places diverse of these books have been delivered into the hands of the most Reverend Father Matthew Arch-bishop of Canterbury by whose diligent search for such writings of History and other Monuments of Antiquitie as might reveal unto us what hath been the state of our Church in England from time to time these things that be here made known unto thee do come to light Howbeit the Sermons were not first written in the old Saxon tongue but were Translated into it as it should appear from the Latine For about the end of a Saxon book of LX Sermons which hath about the middest of it this Sermon against the bodily presence be added these words of the Translator writ in Saxon and thus Englished He let pass many good Gospels which he that list may Translate For we dare not enlarge this book much further least it be over great and so cause to men lothsomness through his bigness And in another book containing some of the Saxon Sermons it is also thus written in Latine In hoâ— codicillo continentur duodecim Sermones Anglicae quos accepimus de libris quos Aelfricus Abbas Anglicè transtulit In this book be comprised 12 Sermons which we have taken out of the books that Aelfrick Abbot Translated into English In which words truly there is also declared who was the Translator to wit one Aelfrick And so he doth confess of himself in the Preface of his Saxon Grammer where he doth moreover give us to understand the number of the Sermons that he Translated thus His words be in Saxon and thus in English I Aelfrick was desirous to turn into our English tongue from the art of Letters called Grammer this little book after that I had Translated the Two books in Fourscore Sermons But howsoever it be now manifest enough by this above declared how that these Sermons were Translated I think notwithstanding that there will hardly be found of them any Latine books being I fear me utterly perished and made out of the way since the Conquest by some which could not well brooke this Doctrine And that such hath been the dealing of some partial Readers may partly hereof appear There is yet a very Ancient book of Canons of Worcester Library and is for the most part all in Latine but yet intermingled in certain places even three or four leaves together with the old Saxon tongue and one place of this book handleth this matter of the Sacrament but a few lines wherein did consist the chief point of the Controversie be rased out by some Reader yet consider how the corruption of him whosoever he was is bewrayed This part of the Latine book was taken out of two Epistles of Alfricks before named and were written of him as well in the Saxon tongue as the Latine The Saxon Epistles be yet wholely to be had in the Librarie of the same Church in a book written all in Saxon and is Intituled A Book of Canons and Shrift book But in the Church of Exeter these Epistles be seen both in the Saxon tongue and also in the Latine By the which it shall be easie for any to restore again not only the sense of the place rased in Worcester book but also the very same Latine Words And the words of these two Epistles so much as concern the Sacramental bread and wine we here set immediately after the Sermon First in English then the words of the second in English and Latine delivering them most faithfully as they are to be seen in the books from whence they are taken And as touching the Saxon writings they be set out in such form of Letters and dark speech as was then used when they were written Translated also for our better understanding into our common and usual English speech 〈◊〉 now it remaineth we do make known who this Aelfrick was whom we here speak of in what age he lived and in what estimation He was truly brought up in the Schools of Aethelwolde Bishop of Winchester Aethelwolde I mean the Elder and great Saint of Winchester Church So Canonized because in the daies of Edgar King of England he conspired with Dunstane Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Oswalde Bishop of Worcester to expel out of the Cathedral Churches throughout all England the Married Priests which then were in those Churches the old dwellers as writeth Renulphus Cestrenâ—is in his Polliâ—ronicon and to set up of new the Religion or rather Superstition Hipocrisie of Monks after that the same had been a long time by the just judgment of God utterly abolished the Danes spoyling them and cruelly burning them in their houses as is at large and plentifully confessed in the Historie of their own Churches For this new rearing up of Monkery is Aethelwolde called in most Histories Pater Monachorum the Father of Monks Under this
and after Arch-bishop of York who made Aelfrick Abbot of St. Albons Wulfsine Bishop of Scyrburn unto whom Aelfrick writeth the first of the Epistles we here speak of Elfleda a Nun of Romesey and Wulhilda Abbess of Barking lived in the daies of King Edgar And last of all Wulfritha King Edgar's Concubine All these I say with some other more be Canonized for Saints of this Age in which Aelfrick himself lived in great fame and credit Also Leofrick and Wulfsine whom we have shewed to have been the givers of those anon-books wherein be seen Aelfricks Epistles be reverenced for most holy Men and Saints of their Churches And these two lived Bishops in the coming in of the Conqueror Thus do some men now-a-daies not only dissent in doctrine from their own Church but also from that Age of their Church which they have thought most holy and judged a most excellent pattern to be followed Wherefore what may we now think of that great consent whereof the Romanists have long made vaunt to wit Their Doctrine to have continued many hundred years as it were linked together with a continual chain whereof hath been no breach at any time Truly this their so great affirmation hath uttered unto us no truth as good Christian Reader thou mayest well judge by duly weighing of this which hath been spoken and by the reading also of that which here followeth whereunto I now leave thee Trusting that after thou hast well weighed this matter of such manner of the being of Christs Body in the Sacrament as sheweth this Testimony no untruth or dishonour shall need to be attributed to Christ's loving words pronounced at his last Supper among his Apostles no derogation to his most Sacred Institution no diminishing of any comfort to Christian mens souls in the use of his reverend Sacrament but all things to stand right up most agreeably both to the verity of Christs infallible words and to the right nature congruence and efficacies of so holy a Sacrament and finally most comfortable to the conscience of man for his spiritual uniting and incorporation with Christ's blessed Body and Bloud to immortality and for the sure Gage of his Resurrection Amen A SERMON Of the PASCHAL LAMB And of the Sacramental body and bloud of CHRIST our Saviour Written in the old Saxon tongue before the Conquest and appointed in the Reign of the Saxons to be spoken to the people at Easter before they should receive the Communion MEN beloved it hath been often said unto you about our Saviours Resurrection how he on this present day after his suffering mightily rose from death Now will we open unto you through Gods grace of the holy housell which ye should now go unto and instruct your understanding about this mystery both after the old Covenant and also after the new that no doubting may trouble you about this lively food The Almighty God bad Moses his Captain in the land of Aegypt to command the people of Israel for to take for every family a Lamb of one year old the night they departed out of the country to the land of promise and to offer that Lamb to God and after to cut it and to make the sign of the Cross with the Lambs blood upon the side posts and the upper posts of their door and afterward to eat the Lambs flesh rosted and unleavened bread with wild lettice God saith unto Moses Eat of the Lamb nothing raw or sodden in water but rosted with fire Eate the head the feet and the inwards and let nothing of it be left until the morning if any thing thereof remain that shall you burn with fire Eat it in this wise Gird your loins and doe your shoes on your seet have you staves in your hands and eat it in hast This time is the Lords Passover And then was slain on that night in every house throughout Pharoahs raign the first born child and Gods people of Israel were delivered from that suddain death through the Lambs offering and his bloods marking Then said God unto Moses Keep this day in your remembrance and hold it a great feast in your kinreds with a perpetual observation and eat unleavened bread alwaies seven daies at this feast After this deed God led the people of Israel over the red sea with dry foot and drowned therein Pharaoh and all his army together with their possessions and fed afterward the Israelites forty years with heavenly food and gave them water out of the hard rock until they came to the promised land Part of this story we have treated of in another place part we shall now declare to wit that which belongeth to the holy housell Christian men may not now keep that old law bodily but it behoveth them to know what it ghostly signifieth That innocent Lamb which the old Israelites did then kill had signification after ghostly understanding of Christs suffering who unguilty shed his holy blood for our Redemption Hereof sing Gods servants at every Mass Agnus dei qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nobis That is in our speech Thou Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon us Those Israelites were delivered from that suddain death and from Pharaohs bondage by the Lambs offering which signified Christs suffering through which we be delivered from everlasting death and from the Devils cruel raign if we rightly believe in the true Redeemer of the whole world Christ the Saviour That Lamb was offered in the evening and our Saviour suffered in the sixt age of this world This age of this corruptible world is reckoned unto the evening They marked with the Lambs blood upon the doors and the upper posts Tau that is the sign of the Cross and were so defended from the Angel that killed the Aegyptians first born child And we ought to mark our foreheads and our bodies with the token of Christs rood that we may be also delivered from destruction when we shall be marked both on forehead and also in heart with the blood of our Lords suffering Those Israelites eat the Lambs flesh at their Easter time when they were delivered and we receive ghostly Christs body and drink his blood when we receive with true belief that holy housell That time they kept with them at Easter seven daies with great worship when they were delivered from Pharaoh and went from that land So also Christian men keep Christs resurrection at the time of Easter these seven daies because through his suffering and rising we be delivered and be made clean by going to this holy housell as Christ faith in his Gospel Verily verily I say unto you ye have no life in you except ye eat my flesh and drink my bloud He that cateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him and hath that everlasting life and I shall raise him up at the last day I am the lively bread that came down