Communicated when he was Dying as St. Cyprian and other Saints Communicated Infants as the Martyrs Communicated in their Houses and the Hermits in their Retreats as many Saints have understood that JESUS CHRIST Communicated the two Disciples at Emaus as our Adversaries themselves Communicate those who have an Aversion to Wine and believe not they deprive them of the Sacrament of JESUS CHRIST tho' they make the whole Vertue of it to consist in the Species How much more ought they to be content with one Kind alone in the Catholick Church where the Efficacy of the Sacrament is plac'd in JESUS CHRIST himself Do you believe the Church that good Mother would deprive Her Children of the Grace of a Sacrament whose Sweets and Vertue she so well knows Or that JESUS CHRIST who hath promis'd to be alwayes with Her would permit it Upon account of this Promise Monsieur Claude acknowledges That there is always a Church which publishes the Faith a Church to which JESUS CHRIST hath given an exteriour Ministry and by consequence a Church which is Plain and Visible He allows That we must acknowledge in Vertue of this Promise a perpetual Subsistence of the Ministry in a State sufficient for the Salvation of God's Elect for the Edifying the Body of Christ and for the bringing of all his Elect and true Faithful Ones to perfection If they want any thing Essential to so great a Sacrament as this of the Communion is the Ministry sufficient to the Salvation and Perfection of the Faithful Is it to be in this State not to receive such a Sacrament but by violating the Commandment of JESUS CHRIST It is a manifest Truth both among us and the Ministers That the Church cannot be where the Sacraments are not If then both Kinds are absolutely necessary to every particular Faithful if the Sacrament do's not subsist but in the Distribution of them both the Ministers must say That so long as but one Kind was given the Church was without the Sacrament of the LORD'S SUPPER Nevertheless they dare not say this They are forc'd to allow that People were sav'd amongst us at least before their Reformation and that the True Church was there They are necessarily bound then to acknowledge the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was there also and that by consequence it subsists in its full perfection being distributed but in one only Kind This is also what Monsieur Claude acknowledges after such a manner that it leaves no doubt to those who will but â—ead him with Attention Behold how he defines the Church The Church is the true Faithful who make Profession of the Truth and of Christian Piety and of true Sanctity under a Ministry which furnisheth them with necessary Food for a Spiritual Life WITHOUT DEPRIVING THEM OF ANY THING OF IT There is nothing more Essential to the Church than what enters into the Definition of it There enters into the Definition of a Church That it be under a Ministry that is to say under Pastors who are to furnish it with all necessary Food for a Spiritual Life without depriving them of any of it This Minister agrees with us in this Foundation and all the Ministers grant it That at least untill the Pretended Reformation People were sav'd under the Ministry of the Latin Pastors and of the Roman Church and that the true Church was there also It was under a Ministry then that furnish'd it with all necessary Food without depriving them of any even tho' they had ceased to give the Cup and the Cup cannot then be reckon'd among those Aliments necessary to a Spiritual Life Come then my dear Brethren come to the Sacred Bancquet of the Church and make not its Perfection to consist in both the Kinds since the Ministers themselves are forc'd to grant they give you under one Kind all the Aliment that is necessary to a Spiritual Life without Depriving you of any of it In effect what ground can you have to doubt It is upon the Faith of the Church you content your self with your Baptism though you receiv'd it in your Infancy without the Authority of Scripture and after a manner if the Letter only be regarded so different from that which JESUS CHRIST ordained that he himself observ'd the first wherein also the Apostles have plac'd the Mysterious representation of our Burial as well as of our Resurrection with JESUS CHRIST You understand well that I speak of the Immersion practis'd in Baptism during so many Ages and comprised in the Words of our Lord Baptize c. that is to say Plunge and dip intirely under Water If upon the Faith of the Church you are at quiet as to your Baptism rely upon the same Faith as to your Communion and deprive not your selves of the whole Sacrament under pretence of desiring a part of it It is the utmost of my wishes to see you at the Holy Table perfecting the Mystery of your Peace and Reconciliation with the Church But least you should there receive your Condemnation and for want of discerning the Body of our LORD render your selves culpable we desire as far as it is possible to prepare you our selves for this Celestial Bancquet and we will go from we must understand I will be always with you Teaching and Baptizing From whence it follows by his Confession That JESUS CHRIST promised to his Church to be with her and to teach with her without interruption even to the end of the World And again There shall always be a Church and JESUS CHRIST will be always in the mid'st of her Baptizing with her and Teaching with her Without doubt it is by the Pastors he will exercise this Ministry 't is with the Pastors then he promised to Baptize and Teach Let them explain to us how those can Baptize ill or Teach ill with whom JESVS CHRIST Baptizes and with whom JESVS CHRIST Teaches Monsieur Claude opposes to us Experience and to shew us that this invincible force which we attribute to the Ecclesiastical Ministry in vertue of the Promises of JESVS CHRIST do's not at all belong to it he brings us many Passages of Heriveus of St. Bernard of Alvares Pelagius and of others who in the foregoing Ages deplored the disorders of the Clergy and desired a Reformation I undertake not here to Examine these Passages You may read them and if you find but only one where these Authors have complained of Transubstantiation or of the Sacrifice or of the Adoration of the Eucharist or finally of any of the points of Doctrine upon which Luther and Calvin have grounded their Reformation I will readily abandon the cause But if on the contrary among so many Passages cull'd out as it were for Ostentation there be not to be found one that regards the least of these things acknowledge that these Pretended Reformers have only taken from these Venerable Men the name of Reformation and have done nothing but abused
in the Year 1546. It is he who hath erected a Prophane and Sacrilegious Chair against the Successor of St. Faron and St. Sainctin Those who founded the other Churches have nothing more to brag of all are Lay-Men created Pastors by the Laity contrary to all the Examples of Antiquity against the Universal practice of the Christian Church where they have never seen a Pastor who was not ordain'd by other Pastors and contrary to the Authority of the Scriptures where the Holy Ghost neither prescribes nor shews us any but this means to perpetuate the Ecclesiastical Ministry Behold my Brethren the Original of the Ministry under which you were But if a Luther a Bucer a Zuinglius a Peter Martyr if other Priests and Religious Lawfully Ordain'd in the Catholick Church made themselves Ministers of the Erring Multitude without mentioning other Reasons which condemn their Rashness to exercise this New Ministry they were oblidg'd to Apostatize from the Faith of those who Consecrated them They made them Priests in saying to them that they gave them Power to transform by their Holy Benediction the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST and to offer them in Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead They were Consecrated in this Faith but were forc'd to renounce it before they could be qualify'd to exercise their New Ministry so they carry in their Fore-Head the Mark of Innovation and the separating Herds so little acknowledged their Ordination and Mission which they receiv'd in the Church that this weak Bishop of Troy I do not Name him so of my self 't is the Ecclesiastical History of Beza which gives us this Idea after having embraced the Pretended Reformation obtained not without trouble and much entreaty that they would permit him to be a Minister so unprofitable did they believe all that which he had before receiv'd So all these Founders of the Pretended Churches are People without Authority and without Mission It is from thence that they who composed these Pastoral Letters are descended and for all that forsooth they set up for Cyprians and Athanasius's But their Error is manifest and altho' they endeavour to counterfeit the Language of the Holy Bishops yet since they have neither Succession nor Authority nor Doctrine you cannot look upon them but as false Apostles and deceitful Workers transform'd as St. Paul says into Apostles of JESUS CHRIST Thus you see nothing in the Writings which they address to you but a Bitter Zeal passionate Sentiments and a manifest abuse of the Word of God The Author of the Letter to the Protestants fallen through fear of Torments treats those who have rendered themselves as he calls it before the Combate that is to say without being Tormented as a People for whom there is no Mercy and applying to them a Passage of St. Paul from whence there is nothing left them but Despair he vouchsafes not so much as to exhort them to Repentance Another gives his Letter this Title To our Brethren who groan under the Captivity of Babylon And renews by this only Title all the as vain as injurious Applications of the Apocalypse which they are ever making to render the Church odious to you All the rest is of a piece and the whole answers the furious Title He speaks to you of nothing but the horrour you ought to have of Popery To the end you may be preserv'd as he speaks in this just horrour of Popery such as it deserves Forget not pursues he continually to fix your Eyes upon all its Deformities have a care of looking upon it through those Qualifications which the Doctors of Lies cast before our Eyes of late You understand well this Language you know it to be the same Spirit which told your Ministers That the Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine which I publish'd altho' it was taken Word for Word out of the Council of Trent and that for this Reason so many Bishops so many Cardinals so many Doctors all the Clergy of France the Pope himself and finally the whole Church had approved it was not our true Doctrine but a deceitful Softning and Dissembling it where the whole Church and the Pope himself were entred into a Conspiracy with me to circumvent you What Prodigy cannot Men believe when they believe such things as these But those who would seduce you have no other means but this to preserve the Horrour which they breath'd into you against us since the begining of the Pretended Reformation If they had not disguis'd our Sentiments to you they had wanted means to improve into Schism the Aversion to the Church which they would creat in you A Hatred so violent cannot be entertain'd but by continuing the same Calumnies and when they exhort you to reject the Qualifications of Popery by considering without ceasing all its Deformities if you understand their Language 't is as much as to say That you must judge of our Sentiments not by the Public Profession which we make but that which our declar'd Enemies impute to us and that you ought not to know our Religion but in their Calumnies Without this perceive you not that they would not dare to say as do's this furious Author That our Religion was the Religion of the Devil a Religion of Brutes fill'd up with Idolatary and Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies Open your Eyes My dear brethren acknowledge the Malice and bitter Zeal of those who from the begining would make you Martyrs of the Schism I do not pretend here to enter into Controversies But with what Conscience can they Write to you That you are made to say the Litanies in a Barbarous Language to the Honour of the Creatures and to the Dishonour of the Creator Read these Litanies since you have them in your Hands not only in the Latine Tongue which these furious Men mean by Barbarous but also in the French Is it to say the Litanies to the Dishonour of the Creator to say at first Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us God the Father Eternal God the Son Redeemer of the World God the Holy Ghost have mercy upon us Holy Trinity One God have mercy upon us Having laid this Foundation of our Hope is it to speak to the Honour of the Creature and to the Dishonour of the Creator to say Holy Mary pray for us Holy Mother of God pray for us Ye Holy Angels pray for us St. Peter pray for us And the rest Do's not this manner of naming the Saints in the Litanies visibly place them rather in the number of those that Pray than of those that are Pray'd to as all our Doctors have taught But how profitable soever their Prayers appear to us our Devotions stop not there We return presently after to JESUS CHRIST whom we conjure by all his Mysteries and by all the Names which he has taken to assure us of his Goodness to deliver us
profitable or indifferent in other Countries should strike you with horrour only when you see them practised by your fellow Subjects and in the Catholick Church In effect they aim at nothing else but to cast Venom upon all that we do I shall have other occasions to instruct you concerning the Service in the Vulgar Tongue and I have often done it already by word of Mouth But what would this furious Minister mean by these words Accustome not your selves to this Barbarous Language which robs the Peoples Ears of Religion and only leaves something for the Eyes Is not this a visible Calumny to asperse the Catholick Church that she would conceal from the People her Mysteries after the Council of Trent hath made this Decree That least the Sheep should be without nourishment and that there may be alwayes some Person ready to give to the little ones the Bread which they ask the Pastors shall explain to them during the celebration of Mass especially on Sunday's and Holy days some Point of what is there read and some one of the Mysteries of this most Holy Sacrifice It is not then the Intention of the Church to hide from you the Mysteries but on the contrary to Expound to you every Day some part with so much care as to render them known and familiar to you The Books which they have put into your Hands explain all to you and those who persuade you that we would take from you the knowledge of the adorable secrets of Religon aim at nothing else but to fill you with gall and bitterness against your Brethren But behold the great grievance We make you adore Bread I have already professed to you that I will not enter into Controversies but I will only tell you that this Reproach is like that which the Socinians cast upon us and which heretofore the Disciples of Paulus Samosatenus objected to us they denying the Divinity of JESUS CHRIST accuse us of being Idolaters and imagine they have a purer Worship than ours because they render not Supreame Honour to a Man But whilst they glory in being more Spiritual than we and of paying to the Divinity a purer Adoration they are in effect Carnal and Gross because they follow nothing but their Sence and Humane Reason which persuades them that a Man cannot be a God They would make you Spiritual after the same manner they boast of purifying your Worship in obliging you to beleive it is only Bread which you see upon the Holy Table and that the Body of JESUS CHRIST which you see not there is not also there neither can it be there What do you also in this but follow Flesh and Blood But if after the Example of Catholics you would raise up your minds if you would render your selves capable of believing that JESUS CHRIST hath power to vail himself under the Figure of Bread to excercise our Faith what could hinder you from understanding these words This is my Body as literally as these The Word was God and the Word was made Flesh Formerly you were taught that it was an Inhumane Action and contrary to Piety to eat Mans Flesh with the Mouth of the Body and especial the Flesh of ones Father This Title of Anthropophagi and Cannibals which the Ministers gave us made us pass for Brutes in the Opinion of their blind followers and there is no sort of violence they did not think themselves oblig'd to us the Words of JESUS CHRIST rather than own a Sense so Barbarous Now that Men's Minds are more calm'd and they have acknowledged in favour of the Lutherans that this Manducation of the Flesh of our Lord which was look'd upon with such detestation has no poison in it that it contains nothing either repugnant to Piety or to the Honour of God or to the good of Men insomuch as the Lutherans who believe and practice it as well as we are thought worthy to partake of the Holy Table and to be true Members of JESUS CHRIST What reason have you to strain the Words of JESUS CHRIST and by force introduce a Figure of which not one Example is found in Scripture But if we are Idolaters because we adore JESUS CHRIST in the Eucharist What are the Lutherans It is not true tho they tell you so that they do not adore JESUS CHRIST in the Blessed Sacrament If you consult them they will tell you that believing JESUS CHRIST to be there only when he is receiv'd they adore him there only when they do receive him and that 't is to adore him in receiving him that they receive this Holy Sacrament on their Knees But tho they did not render him any exteriour Adoration who knows not that it is not in this Exteriour the Service do's consist The Acts of Faith Hope and Charity addressed to JESUS CHRIST as present is not this a perfect Adoration they render to him And if it be an Idolatry to Adore JESUS CHRIST in the Sacrament of the Supper can he that Adors him there Interiourly exempt himself from being an Idolater How then can he have part at the Table of JESUS CHRIST and in the Celestial Heritage Weight my Brethren weigh this so solid and also so intelligible a Reason you will see how they connive at all the Lutherans do but are outragious against all that we practice aiming at nothing but to inspire you with anun just horrour against our Worship Finally If it be an Idolatry to Adore JESUS CHRIST in the Blessed Sacrament where have the true Adorers been for so many Ages Deceive not your selves my Brethren The Adoration of JESUS CHRIST in the Eucharist is as ancient as the Church Her self But not to tell you only those things which we our selves are agreed upon This Adoration as all acknowledge was at least established in the Church and constantly there decided ever since Berengarius's time that is to say above Six hundred Years ago Hath Hell prevailed during so many Ages And that which was alwayes to subsist even to the end of the World according to the Word of JESUS CHRIST hath it suffered so considerable an Interruption And that you may not think I would amuse you with a nice discussion of the History of passed Ages Where were the true Adorers when Zuinglius and Calvin came into the World For as for Luther it is manifest that if he changed any thing in the Adoration it was very late Nevertheless where were these true Adorers at the first starting up of Luther and in the begining of the New Gospel You presently betake your self to the Seven Thousand unknown to the Prophet Elias who had not bowed their Knees to Baal But these Seven Thousand sure would have declared themselves at least when they saw the Reformers appear I have pressed Monsieur Claude to Name but one who joyning himself to these Pretended Reformers did say to them I have alwayes believ'd as you do I never adhear'd to the Roman Faith nor