answer of Ratrannus was directed had then in his Court a famous countrey-man of ours called Iohannes Scotus who wrote a booke of the same argument and to the same effect that the other had done This man for his extraordinarie learning was in England where hee lived in great account with King Alfred surnamed Iohn the wise and had verie lately a roome in the Martyrologe of the Church of Rome though now he be ejected thence Wee finde him indeed censured by the Church of Lyons and others in that time for certaine opinions which he delivered touching Gods foreknowledge and predestination before the beginning of the world Mans freewill and the concurrence thereof with Grace in this present world and the maner of the punishment of reprobate Men Angels in the world to come but we finde not anie where that his book of the Sacrament was condemned before the dayes of x Lanfranc who was the first that leavened that Church of England afterward with this corrupt doctrine of the carnall presence Till then this question of the reall presence continued still in debate and it was as free for anie man to follow the doctrine of Ratrannus or Iohannes Scotus therein as that of Paschasius Radbertus which since the time of Satans loosing obtayned the upper hand Men have often searched and doe yet often search how bread that is gathered of corne and through fires heate baked may be turned to Christs bodie or how wine that is pressed out of manie grapes is turned through one blessing to the Lords blood saith Aelfrick Abbat of Malmesburie in his Saxon Homily written about 650. yeares agoe His resolution is not onely the same with that of Ratrannus but also in manie places directly translated out of him as may appeare by these passages following compared with his Latin layd downe in the margent The bread and the wine which by the Priests ministery is hallowed shew one thing without to mens senses and another thing they call within to beleeving mindes Without they be seene bread wine both in figure and in taste and they be truely after their hallowing Christs body and his blood by spirituall mysterie 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 commeth to the corruptible water through the Priests blessing and it may after wash the body and soule from all sinne by spirituall vertue Behold now we see two things in this one creature in true nature that water is corruptible moisture and in spirituall mysterie hath healing vertue So also if we behold that holy housel after bodily sense then see wee that it is a creature corruptible and mutable If we acknowledge therein spirituall vertue then understand we that life is therein and that it giveth immortalitie to them that eate it with beleefe Much is betwixt the bodie Christ suffered in and the body that is hallowed to housel The body truely that Christ suffered in was borne of the flesh of Mary with blood and with bone with skin and with sinewes in humane limbs with a reasonable soule living and his spirituall body which we call the housel is gathered of many cornes without blood and bone without lim without soule and therefore nothing is to be understood therein bodily but spiriâ—ually Whatsoever is in that housel which giveth substance of life that is spirituall vertue and invisible doing Certainly Christs body which suffered death and rose from death shall never dye henceforth but is eternall and unpassible That housel is temporall not eternall corruptible dealed into sundry parts chewed betweene teeth and sent into the belly This mysterie is a pledge and a figure Christs bodie is truth it selfe This pledge wee doe keepe mystically untill that we be come to the truth it selfe and then is this pledge ended Christ hallowed bread and wine to housel before his suffering and said This is my body my blood Yet he had not then suffered but so notwithstanding hee turned through invisible vertue the bread to his owne body and that wine to his blood as he before did in the wildernesse before that he was borne to men when he turned that heavenly meate to his flesh and the flowing water from that stone to his owne blood Moses and Aaron and manie other of that people which pleased God did eate that heavenly bread and they died not the everlasting death though they dyed the common They saw that the heavenly meate was visible and corruptible and they spiritually understood by that visible thing and spiritually received it This Homily was appointed publikely to be read to the people in England on Easter day before they did receive the communion The like matter also was delivered to the Clergie by the Bishops at their Synods out of two other writings of the same Aelfrick in the one wherof directed to Wulfsine Bishop of Shyrburne we reade thus That housel is Christs bodie not bodily but spiritually Not the body which he suffered in but the bodie of which he spake when he blessed bread and wine to housel the night before his suffering and said by the blessed bread This is my body and againe by the holy wine This is my blood which is shed for many in forgivenesse of sinnes In the other written to Wulfstane Archbishop of Yorke thus The Lord which hallowed housel before his suffering and saith that the bread was his owne bodie and that the wine vvas truely his blood halloweth daily by the hands of the Priest bread to his body and wine to his blood in spirituall mysterie as wee reade in bookes And yet notwithstanding that lively bread is not bodily so nor the selfe same body that Christ suffered in nor that holy vvine is the Saviours blood which was shed for us in bodily thing but in spirituall understanding Both be truely that bread his body and that wine also his blood as was the heavenly bread which vve call Manna that fedde fortie yeares Gods people and the cleare water which did then runne from the stone in the vvildernesse vvas truely his blood as Paul wrote in one of his Epistles Thus was Priest and people taught to beleeve in the Church of England toward the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh age after the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ. And therefore it is not to be wondered that when Berengarius shortly after stood to maintaine this doctrine manie both by word and writing disputed for him and not onely the English but also all the French almost the Italians as Matthew of Westminster reporteth were so readie to entertaine that which hee delivered Who though they were so borne downe by the power of the Pope who now was growne to his height that they durst not make open profession of that which they beleeved yet manie continued even
your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed for the fervent prayer of a righteous man avayleth much The later of which sentences hath reference to the prayers of everie good Christian whereunto we finde a gracious promise annexed according to that of S. Iohn If anie man see his brother sinne a sinne which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sinne not unto death But the former as the verse immediatly going before doth manifestly prove pertayneth to the prayers made by the ministers of the Church who have a speciall charge to be the Lords remembrancers for the good of his people And therefore as S. Augustin out the later proveth that one brother by this meanes may cleanse another from the contagion of sinne so doth S. Chrysostom out of the former that Priests doe performe this not by teaching onely and admonishing but by assisting us also with their prayers and the faithfull prayers both of the one and of the other are by S. Augustin made the especiall meanes whereby the power of the keyes is exercised in the remitting of sinnes who thereupon exhorteth offendors to shew their repentance publickly in the Church that the Church might pray for them and impart the benefite of absolution unto them In the life of S Basil fathered upon Amphilochius of the credite whereof we have before spoken a certaine gentlewoman is brought in comming unto S. Basil for obtayning remission of her sinnes who is said there to have demanded this question of her Hast thou heard ô vvoman that none can forgive sinnes but God alone and shee to have returned him this answer I have heard it Father and therefore have I moved thee to make intercession unto our most mercifull God for mee Which agreeth well with that which Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure doe maintaine that the power of the keyes extend to the remission of faults by way of intercession onely and deprecation not by imparting anie immediate absolution And as in our private forgiving and praying one for another S. Augustin well noteth that it is our part God giving us the grace to use the ministerie of charitie and humilitie but it is his to heare us and to cleanse us from all pollution of sinnes for Christ and in Christ that what we forgive unto others that is to say what wee loose upon earth may be loosed also in heaven so doth S. Ambrose shew that the case also standeth with the ministers of the Gospell in the execution of that commission given unto them for the remitting of sinnes Ioh. 20.23 They make request saith he the Godhead bestoweth the gift for the service is done by man but the bountie is from the power above The reason which hee rendreth thereof is because in their ministerie it is the holy Ghost that forgiveth the sinne and it is God onely that can give the holy Ghost For this is not an humane worke saith he in another place neyther is the holy Ghost given by man but being called upon by the Priest is bestowed by God wherein the gift is Gods the ministery is the Priests For if the Apostle Paul did judge that hee could not conferre the hâ—ly Ghost by his authoritie but beleeved himselfe to be so farre unable for this office that hee wished wee might be filled with the spirit from God who is so great as dare arrogate unto himselfe the bestowing of this gift Therefore the Apostle did intimate his desire by prayer hee challenged no right by anie authoritie hee wished to obtaine it he presumed not to command it Thus farre S. Ambrose of whom Paulinus writeth that whensoever anie penitents came unto him the crimes which they confessed unto him hee spake of to none but to God alone unto whom he made intercession leaving a good example to the Priests of succeeding ages that they be rather intercessors for them unto God than accusers unto men The same also and in the selfe same words doth Ionas write of Eustachius the scholler of Columbanus our famous countrey-man Hitherto appertaineth that sentence cyted by Thomas Waldensis out of S. Hieroms exposition upon the Psalmes that voyce of God cutteth off daily in everie one of us the flame of lust by confession and the grace of the holy Ghost that is to say by the prayer of the Priest maketh it to cease in us and that which before hath been alledged out of Leo of the confession offered first to God and then to the Priest vvho commeth as an intreater for the sinnes of the penitent which hee more fully expresseth in another epistle affirming it to be very profitable and necessarie that the guilt of sinnes or sinners be loosed by the supplication of the Priest before the last day See S. Gregory in his morall exposition upon 1. Sam. 2.25 Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus in his answer to the 141. question of Gretsers edition and Nicolaus Cabasilas in the 29. chapter of his exposition of the Liturgie where he directly affirmeth that remission of sinnes is given to the penitents by the prayer of the Priests And therefore by the Order used of old in the Church of Rome the Priest before hee began his worke was required to use this prayer O Lord God almightie be mercifull unto me a sinner that I may worthily give thankes unto thee who hast made mee an unworthy one for thy mercies sake a minister of the Priestly office and hast appointed me a poore and humble mediator to pray and make intercession unto our Lord Iesus Christ for sinners that returne unto repentance And therefore O Lord the ruler who wouldest have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth who doest not desire the death of a sinner but that he may be reconciled and live receive my prayer which I poure forth before the face of thy mercie for thy servants and handmaydes who have fledd to repentance and to thy mercy Yea in the dayes of Thomas Aquinas there arose a learned man among the Papists themselves who found fault with that indicative forme of absolution then used by the Priest I absolve thee from all thy sinnes and would have it delivered by way of deprecation alledging that this was not onely the opinion of Gulielmus Altisiodorensis Gulielmus Parisiensis and Hugo Cardinalis but also that thirtie yeares were scarce passed since all did use this forme onely Absolutionem remissionem tribuat tibi omnipotens Deus Almightie God give unto thee absolution and forgivenesse What Thomas doth answer hereunto may be seene in his little treatise of the forme of absolution which upon this occasion he wrote unto the Generall of his order This onely will I adde that aswell in the ancient Ritualls and in the new Pontificall of the Church of Rome as in the present practise
carkasses are heaped together promiscuously in one certaine pit so when the Heathen write that all the soules of the dead goe to Hades their meaning is not that they are all shut up together in one and the selfe same roome but in generall onely they understand thereby the translation of them into the other world the extreame parts whereof the Poëts place as farre asunder as wee doe Heaven and Hell And this opinion of theirs S. Ambrose doth well like off wishing that they had not mingled other superfluous and unprofitable conceits therewith that soules departed from their bodies did goe to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to a place which is not seene which place saith he wee in Latin call Infernus So likewise saith S. Chrysostom The Grecians and Barbarians and Poëts and Philosophers and all mankinde doe herein consent with us although not all alike and say that there be certaine seats of judgement in Hádes so manifest and so confessed a thing is this and againe The Grecians were foolish in many things yet did they not resist the truth of this doctrine If therefore thou vvilt follow them they have granted that there is a certaine life after this accounts and seats of judgement in Hádes and punishments and honors and sentences judgements And if thou shalt aske the Iewes or heretickes or any man he will reverence the truth of this doctrine although they differ in other things yet in this doe they all agree and say that there are accounts to be made there of the things that be done here Only amoÌ„g the Iwes the Sadducees w ch say that there is no resurrection neyther Angel nor Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away the punishments and honours that are in Hádes as is noted by Iosephus For which wicked doctrine they were condemned by the other sectes of the Iewes who generally acknowledged that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Olam hanneshamoth for so doe they in their language untill this day call that which Iosephus in Greeke tearmeth Hades that is to say the world of spirits into which they held that the soules were translated presently after death and there received their seuerall judgements The same thing doth Theodoret suppose to be signified by that phrase of being gathered to ones people which is so usuall in the word of God For it being said of Iacob before he was buried that he gave up the ghost and was gathered unto his people Genes 49.33 Theodoret observeth that Moses by these words did closely intimate the hope of the resurrection For if men saith he had beene wholy extinguished and did not passe unto another life he would not have sayd Hee was gathered to his people So likewise where it is distinctly noted of Abraham Genes 25.8 9. first that hee gave up the ghost and died then that hee was gathered to his people and lastly that his sonnes buried him Cardinall Cajetan and the Iesuite Lorinus interpret the first de compositi totius dissolutione of the dissolution of the parts of the whole-man consisting of body and soule the second of the state of the soule separated from the body and the third of the disposing of the body parted from the soule Thus the Scriptures speech of being gathered to our people should be answerable in meaning to the phrase used by the heathen of descending into Hell or going to Hades which as Synesius noteth out of Homer was by them opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a most absolute extinguishment as well of the soule as of the body And forasmuch as by that tearme the immortalitie of the soule was commonly signified therefore doth Plato in his Phaedo disputing of that argument make this the state of his question Whether the soules of men deceased be in Hades or no and our Eccâ—esiasticall writers also doe from thence sometimes fetch a difference betwixt Death and Hades You shall finde saith Theophylact that there is some difference betwixt Hades and Death namely that Hades contayneth the soules but Death the bodies For the soules are immoâ—tall The same we reade in Nicetas Serronius his exposition of Gregory Nazianzens second Paschall oration Andreas Caesareensis doth thus expresse the difference Death is the separation of the soule and the body But Hades is a place to us invisible or vnseene and unknowne which receiveth our soules when they departe from hence The ordinary Glosse following S. Hierome upon the thirteenth of Hosea thus Death is that whereby the soule is separated from the body Hell is that place wherein the soules are included eyther for comfort or for paine The soule goeth to Hádes saith Nicetas Choniates in the Prooeme of his Historie but the bodie returneth againe into those things of which it was composed Caius or whoe ever else was the author of that auncient fragment which wee formerly signified to have been falsely fathered upon Iosephus holdeth that in Hades the soules both of the righteous and unrighteous are contayned but that the righteous are led to the right hand by the Angels that awayte them there and brought unto a lightsome region wherein the righteous men that have beene from the beginning doe dwell and this wee call Abrahams bâ—some saith he whereas the wicked are drawen toward the left hand by the punishing Angels not going willingly but drawen as prisoners by violence Where you may observe how he frameth his description of Hades according to that modell wherewith the Poets had before possessed mens mindes Dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit Hâc iter Elysium nobis at laeva malorum Exercet poenas ad impia tartara mittit The right hand path goth underneath the walls of Pluto deepe That way we must if paths to Paradise we thinke to keepe The left hand leads to paine and men to Tartarus doth send For as Wee doe allot unto good men a resting place in Paradise so the Greekes doe assigne unto their Heroës the Fortunate Ilandes and the Elysian fields saith Tzetzes And as the Scripture borroweth the terme of Tartarus from the Heathen so is it thought by Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen that the Heathen tooke the ground of their Elysian fields from the Scriptures Paradise To heape up many testimonies out of the Heathen authors to prove that in their understanding all soules went to Hades and received there eyther punishment or reward according to the life that they led in this world would be but a needlesse worke seeing none that hath reade any thing in their writings can be ignorant therof If any man desire to informe himselfe herein he may repayre to Plutarches consolatory discourse written to Apollonius where he shall finde the testimonies of Pindarus and many others alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching the state of the godly in Hades Their common opinion is sufficiently expressed in that