the Ingenuous * Thuan Hist lib. 6. ad An. 1550. Thuanus ‖ Citat in Câ—tal Test pag. 1526. Jacobus de Rebira the French Kings Secretary adds that they were in great Esteem above the ordinary Priests for Wit and Learning that they were Honoured by their very Enemies that they were freed from common Burdens and Impositions and that every ones safety seem'd to have been wrapped up in Theirs The growing interest and great strength which the Adversaries of Transubstantiation now had inraged the Court of Rome so that in the Papacy of Innocent the Third they were forced to the most extream but most dishonourable shists And even when they had so much business in their Hands about the recovering of Palestine from the Turks The Heresie at Tolouse being so increased †Non enim disceptationibus verborum tantùm verùm etiam armis opus fuit adeò inoleverat tanta haeresis apud Tolosani Platina in vitâ Innocentii 3. saith Platina there was need not of Disputations but of Arms too And the Zealots for Transubstantiatiation had now got a Tool for their turn at Rome this Innocent the Third made Pope Anno 1198. a young Man about Thirty years of Age Hot Fierce Imperious and as far as I find by his Speeches in the Lateran Ignorant enough This youngster soon laid about him and raised a long and bloody War against the Albigenses Thuanus in his Sixth Book shews particularly what outrages his General Simon Montfort committed in several places of France Hanging Beheading Burning and making the most horrible Slaughters wherever he went throwing into the Flames at Paris several Priests too that were of the Albigenses perswasion The way of dealing with them in England was to burn them in the Shoulders or Foreheads with a Red Hot Iron And the same Author shews you how the Pope used the Earl of Tolouse and the King of Aragon also And Binius Binii notae in Concil Lateran tells us out of Mathew Paris how that the Earldome of Tolouse was given to Montfort for almost twelve years service against the Albigenses after the War against them had been first begun by Pope Innocent As great a War saith Thuanus as that was which was raised against the Thuan. Praefat. Saracens But as he ingenuously acknowledgeth the Result of the War was this that great Numbers of the Albigenses were Kill'd Routed Stript of their Estates and Dignities and scatter'd up and down into several quarters but not convinced by these outrageous Courses After all which Anno 1215 the year before God took this Bloody Pope out of the World that Great Council met at the Lateran wherein the Doctrine of Transubstantiation was decreed in express Terms It had been a wonder indeed if at last one poor Decree could not have been got for the establishing of it after so many years had been spent in Arts and Violence first to form it and then to bring it to some perfection Yet I must desire you to note that this Decree was the Pope's only not Venère multa tum quidem in consultationem nec decerni tamen quicquam apertè potuit Platina de vita Innocent 3. Facto prius ab ipso Papa exhortationis sermone recitata sunt in pleno Concilio capitula 70. quae aliis placabilia aliis videbantur Onerosa Math. Par. in Joanne ad Ann. 1215. the Councils Platina tells us that nothing was openly Decreed by this Council though many things were proposed to their consideration And Mathew Paris assures us that the Pope having made a Speech to them Seventy Chapters or Heads which now are called the Decrees of that Council were read before them which were acceptable to some but seemed burdensome to others 'T is plain that there are no Acts of this Council extant which shew in the least that any of the things proposed were so much as debated but the Council rose before they had consider'd matters or came to any Solemn Conclusion after a Synodical manner The Reasons of it seem to have been partly because there were then Wars in Italy as Platina and others relate which extreamly frightned that Pope and partly too because some of the Council were dissatisfied as to the Reasonableness of the Popes Proposals as Mathew Paris well observed and it seems not improbable but that they might be dissatisfied as to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in particular I will not be positive in this but leave it to be consider'd by Learned Men But the ground of my Conjecture is this because Sabellicus speaking of this Lateran Council expressy affirms that at that very time the pestilent Heresie of the Sunt Crucigeri Lateranensi conventu probati supremo Innocentii Anno qui salutis fuit humanae duodecies centesimus ac quintus decimus quum pestilen esset Romae Haeresis orta magnusque ex ea motus extitisset multi qui tum fortè in urbe erant cruce signati in Syram credo ituri aut certè inde reversi Innocentii hortatu pestem illam in horas gliscentem naviter extinaeerunt quidam Albiensem ab autore ut reor eam nuncuparunt Haeresim Sabellic Aenead 9. lib. 6. p. 736. edit Basil Albigenses as he terms it appear'd at Rome and that a great Commotion hapned there upon it which the Pope was forced to put an End by the help of the Crucigeri that is a sort of Souldiers that had listed themselves under the Sign of the Cross for an Expedition into the Holy Land. And if it were thus as very likely it was 't is no wonder that the Pope and his great Council should break up in some haste If you ask how it might come to pass that the Popes Decrees were not publickly opposed while the Council was yet sitting The Reason is evident enough This Innocent was a most Proud Insolent Cruel Man One that had deposed I know not how many Bishops that had deprived Otho the Emperour of the Romans that had huff'd Henry the Emperour of Constantinople that had Excommunicated King John of England that had arrogantly treated the Kings of Bohemia Portugal Sicily France and Aragon that had robb'd the Earl of Tolouse of all his Possessions that had Barbarously used the Albigenses by the flashing and burning Zeal of the Crucigeri and that now in the time of the Lateran Council was strengthned at Rome with Great Numbers of them ready to do any mischief that he should command them And then how could it be expected but that the whole Council would be over-awed into silence supposing any of them were against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Especially if you consider that in the Third Head of his Proposals he had Condemned all Hereticks all that were but suspected of Heresie all that shew'd any Humanity to Hereticks not excepting Princes themselves over whom he claimed a Power and declared his purposes not only to Excommunicate them but moreover to absolve their Subjects from their
Sacrament yet Monsieur Duval consesseth this was Genebrards private conjecture not founded on any Authority or Testimony I believe Genebrard in Liturg Dionys Duval annot in lib. Ecclesiae Lugd. adv Scot. the conceit of a Corporal Presence was hardly so much as known at that time in England and after it came to be vended here it was a long time e're it came to that value as to be made the price of Blood. There were many other men of note in this Ninth Century whom divers Writers on our side have proved to have declared their minds against the Innovation of Paschasius such as Hincmarus Walesridus Strabo Heribald Drusilmanus and several more whose names you meet with in many Latin Tracts and in that English Treatise I mention'd just now But I will not spend my time upon every little quotation least I should make this Letter swell beyond a due proportion and besides I think it not amiss to divert you a little with some account of the posture of this affair about that time here at home because I have just spoken of Scotus who was either our Country Man or a near Neighbour Somewhat after the 900th year from Christ Odo was ArchBishop of Canterbury and he would have brought into England the belief of a Corporal presence But it seems the Clergy were too Honest to be wrought upon In those days most doubted of the Truth meaning the Substantial Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament saith William Malmesb. de gest pontif Angl p. 201. Osbern in vita Odon of Malmesbury Some Clergy Men asserted saith Osbern that the Bread and Wine after Consecration remain in their own former Substance He saith some but he should have said the Generality of Men believed so for it was then the common Opinion in the Church of England But this has been the custome of that sort of men when they are to tell Noses or go to the Poll to represent the adverse party as a little Handful though sometimes to their cost they find themselves sadly mistaken in their account For after the death of Odo this was the common Faith of the Church of England even in the days of Elfrick or Alfrick who was made Abbot of Malmesbury by King Edgar Anno 974. if Ingulphus be right in his computation Indeed about that time Men did search how bread that is gather'd of Corn and A Saxon Homily on Easter-Day through fires heat baked may be turned to Christ's Body c. But the Doctrine of our Church which was then profest and which upon that search was the more vigorously maintain'd was that 't is Christ's Body Mystically Spiritually and by signification The Reason why I say it is this Elfrick was of such great esteem in the Church that his Writings were sorted among the publick Acts of the Church and judged to contain the avowed and Authentick Doctrine of the Church of England then For some of them were put among the Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions for the instruction and good Government of the Clergy and some of his Writings were publickly read in Churches as Authoriz'd Homilies for the Information of all People This account I find in in the Preface to a very scarce Book under this Title 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 Saxon time This Book was Printed in Archbishop Parkers days but there is no printed date of the year only in MSS. 1567. and Mr. Fox seems to have taken out of it all that account which he gives us of this matter in his Acts and Monuments It is a little Manual of some of Elfrick's Works First a Sermon Translated by Elfrick out of some Latin Author into the Saxon Language which was publickly read here on Easter-Day and then two of his Epistles to two Bishops Out of which saith the Prefacer it is not hard to know not only so much what Alfrickes judgment was in this Controversie but also that more is what was the common received Doctrine herein of the whole Church of England as well when Elfricke himself lived as before his time and also after his time even from him to the Conquest The piece I now speak of being a Rarity I will give you this account of it premising this only that by Housel is meant the Elements in the Sacrament the Sacramental Bread and Wine In the Sermon for Easter the Saxon Language on the one Page and the common English over against it on the other after a pretty long comparison made in the beginning between the Paschal Lamb in Egypt and our Blessed Saviour these words follow Now Men have often searched and do yet often search how Bread that is gathered of Corne and through fyers heate baked may be turned to Christes Body or how Wyne that is pressed out of many Grapes is turned through one blessing to the Lords Bloude Now say we to suche men that some thinges be spoken of Christ by signification some thyngs by thyng certain True thyng is and certain that Christ was born of a Maid and suffered Death of his own accorde and was buryed and on thys day rose from Death He is sayd Bread by a signification and a Lamb and a Lyon and a Mountayne He is called bread because he is our Life and Angels Life He is sayd to be a Lamb for his innocence 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 that holy Housel called Christ's Body or his Blood if it be not truly that it is called Truly the Bread and the Wyne which by the Masse of the Priest is Halowed shew one thing without to humayne understanding and another thing they call within to beleving mindes Without they be sene Bread and Wine both in Figure and in tast and they be truely after their halowing Christes Body and hys bloude through Ghostly mistery An heathen Childe is Christened yet he altereth not hys shape without though he be chaunged within He is brought to the Font-Stone sinful through Adams disobedience Howbeit he is washed from all Sinne within though he hath not altered hys shape without Even so the Holy Font Water that is called the well spryng of Life is lyke in shape to other Waters and is subject to corruption but the Holy Ghostes myght commeth to the corruptible Water through the Priestes Blessing and it may after wash the Body and Soule from all Sinne through Ghostly myghte Beholde now we see two thyngs in this one Creature After true Nature that Water is corruptible Water and after Ghostly mistery hath halowing mighte So also if we beholde that Holy Housell after bodely understanding then see we that it is a Creature corruptible and mutable If we acknowledge therein ghostly myghte then understand we
cadere sub fide si aliter dixisset minus benè dixisset qui alitur dieunt minus bene dicunt qui determinate assereret alterutrum proecisè cadere sub fide incur reret sententiam Canonis vel Anathematis Censura Facultatis Theologioe Paris before And when the Doctors of Divinity at Paris had Examined his determination they gave this Censure of him at the End of it that he had done well in delivering both as probable Opinions not so determin'd by the Church as to be thought either of them an Article of Faith and say they if he had said otherwise he would not have said so well and they who do speak otherwise speak amiss and whosoever shall peremptorily assert either Opinion to be precisely of Faith ought to incur the Sentence of the Canon or Excommunication I shall not need to trouble you with more Observations how the opposite Doctrine to Transubstantiation passed on still through a crowd of Adversaries down to the times of the Reformation which began presently after Anno 1500. You find ready at hand in the Treatise of Transubstantiation I mentioned before in Bishop Cosins Albertine and l'Arroque not to speak of any more not only the Names of some particular persons but an account too of Great Numbers of people in Bohemia France England c. Who notwithstanding all Threats and Oppressions persisted still in the True Faith and transmitted it down to Posterity I shall only add what the Learned Monsieur Alixius now in England hath particularly proved in his Preface to the Determination of Joannes Parisiensis that though the Doctrine of Transubstantiation prevailed among the fantastical School-men from time to time yet they found so many perplexities in it as did put all the Wits they had upon the Tenters the most sedate and intelligent Men among them own'd it only as an Opinion they had receiv'd by Tradition not as an Article of Faith declared by any Authentick and Obligatory Decrees of the Church And being a common Opinion they would not contradict it though some of them affirm'd that the Permanency of the Substance of the Bread and Wine is not impossible nor contrary to Reason or to the Authority of the Bible nay that it was the most Rational Opinion so that had they been Popes they would have defined it As for the definitions of Nicolas the Second and Gregory the Seventh they could not see how those did inforce the belief of the Annihilation of the Substances of the Elements but of a Substantial Presence only which they thought might easily be admitted though Permanency of the Substance in the Symbols should be believed too As for the Decree of Innocent the Third they laid no great weight upon it because it was not the deliberate and Synodical determination of the whole Council and I would sain know whether our present Romanists will insist upon the Authority of it seeing it asserts with a Witness the Deposing Power which the Gallican Clergy did Anno 1682. Condemn as Erroneous and Injurious to Princes As for the Council of Constance which Condemned Wicleffe for denying the Corporal presence and Transubstantiation An. 1415. it was ever thought by many Romanists themselves to be of questionable Authority because it Condemned and Deposed the Pope too And as touching the Council of Florence Anno 1439. However the Doctrine of the Sacrament was offer'd to their consideration yet nothing of Transubstantiation was in the least Defined then This is the Truth of the Case as far as I can find upon the strictest Enquiry By which it appears not only what an Innovation the Mysterious Notion of Transubstantiation is but also how this Innovation increas'd and swe ' d about 120 years a go at the Thirteenth Session of the Council of Trent when that which before had been the private Opinion of some fancyful Men was adopted into the Church as a necessary Article of Faith that by the Consecration of the Bread and Wine ther is a Conversion of their whole Substance into the Substance of Christs Body and Blood and thereupon they Define that whosoever should deny either of these Two Things 1. That the whole Christ his Body and Blood together with his Soul and Divinity is truly really and Substantially contain'd in the Eucharist Or Secondly that shall deny this wonderful Conversion of the whole Substance of Bread into Christ's Body and of the whole Substance of Wine into his Blood the Species only of Bread and Wine remaining should be Anathematiz'd Here were two New Opinions made Articles of Faith by a strange Synodical Definition The Corporal Presence and Transubstantiation The First as I have shew'd you was started by Paschasius Ratbertus in the 9th Century the other was introduced in the Eleventh Both very Late and Modern Imaginations in Comparison of the True Faith of the Church which was by all that I can discover held without interruption for about the space of the first 800 years and is still prosest by us of the Church of England and by other Protestant Churches The Two Opinions I speak of were no sooner vended but they were vigorously Oppos'd as New Errours And though by Arts and Violence with the help of Time they did spread in some Parts yet still they were but private Mens Opinions And though afterwards they came to be Countenanced by some that were in Authority yet they were not Definitions agreed upon after a Synodical manner by any Council of unquestionable Authority Nay though they were espoused by some fierce Popes and for that sole Reason were maintain'd by divers Doctors of the Church of Rome contrary to what others believed yet at the same time those Doctors reckoned them not especially that of Transubstantiation among the necessary Articles of the Christian Faith. They were made so by the late pack't Council of Trent who by so doing necessarily caused irreparable breaches in the Churches of Christ and brought a visible Scandal upon Christianity it self by establishing such nauseous Opinions as are enough to turn any Mens Stomachs that will but hearken to their Senses and Reason I know the Council of Trent did deliver this Doctrine as the Catholick Faith which had always been believed by the Church as they were pleased to say and because they said it the Romanists generally think themselves obliged to believe it But the Novelty is Evident and 't were no impossible matter to shew that even since the Council of Trent several Great Men in the Church of Rome have not been pleased with it Mr. Alixius mentions Two besides the now living Author of the late Learned Treatise of Transubstantiation viz. Petrus de Marca and Barnes a Benedictine who held that Transubstantiation is not now an Article of Faith. Alix ubisupr pag. 80. Nay to be free with you the present Romanists are so troubled with such intricate and inseparable difficulties throughout the whole point that I am tempted to believe many of them secretly wish it