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fentiments; Our Lord would have the fa crament of his body and blood be taken and Seaten by the faithful, that by a visible work f an invisible effect might appear. For as the material food outwardly nourishes and refreshes the body, fo alfo the word of God inwardly nourishes and ftrengthens the foul." Again: the facrament is reduced into the ⚫ nourishment of the body, but by the virtue of the facrament eternal life is obtained.' Bertra mus, or Ratramnus as he is otherwife called, a monk of Corbie, wrote a book of the body and blood of our Lord, which he inscribed to the emperor Charles the bald. The emperor (6) had inquired of him, whether the fame body, which was born of Mary, and suffered, and was dead and buried, and which fitteth at the right hand of the Father, is what is daily taken in the mouth of the faithful by the mystery of the facrament in the church :'

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facramenti æterna vita adipifcitur. Inftitut. Cleric. Lib. 1. Cap. 31. et de Univerfo Lib. 5. Cap. 11. Uffer. de Chriftian. Ecclef. fucceffione et ftatu. Cap. 2. Sect. 16.

(6) Ubi quærenti imperatori utrum ipfum corpus quod de Maria natum eft et passum, mortuum et Jepultum, quodque ad dexteram

and

Patris confideat, fit quod ore fidelium per Jacramentorum myfterium in ecclefia quotidie fumitur: refpondet Bertramus difcrimen inter utrumque effe tantum, quan tum eft inter pignus, et eam rem pro qua pignus traditur; › quantum inter imaginem. et rem cajus eft imago; et quantum inter fpeciem et veritatem. Uffer. ibid. Sect. 17.

(7) Ibi

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and Bertram anfwers, that the difference be-
tween them is as great as between the pledge,
and the thing for which the pledge is delive-
red; as great as between the image, and the
thing whofe image it is; as great as between
the representation, and the reality. He fays
(7) in feveral places, that the bread and wine
⚫ are figuratively the body of Chrift, fpiritually
not corporally, in figure, in image, in my
tery, not in truth, or real exiftence, or pre-
fence of the fubftance.' Johannes Scotus,
the famous Irishman, for the Irish were the
Scots of thofe times, (8) wrote alfo a book of
the eucharift by the command of Charles the
bald and therein he afferted, that the facra-
ment of the altar is not the true body, nor
true blood of our Lord, but only the memorial
of the true body and of the true blood.
He was after this invited into England by king
Alfred, was preferred by him, and honored
with the title of martyr after his death; which
is at least a strong prefumption, that the church

(7) Ibi fufé Bertramus, Panem vinumque figuraté corpus Chrifli exiftere; fpiritualiter, non corporaliter; in figura, in imagine, in myfterio, non in veritate, feu reali exiftentia, vel præfentia Jubftantiæ &c. Spanhem. ibid.

of

(8) Sacramentum altaris non effe verum corpus, nec verum fanguinem Domini, fed folummodo memoriale veri corporis et veri fanguinis.Spanhem.ibid. Uffer. ibid. Sect. 19. Dupin. IX. Siecle. Chap. 7. Cave Hift.

of England had not at that time received the doctrin of tranfubftantiation. In Italy itself (9) Angilbertus, archbishop of Milan, would not acknowlege the fupremacy of the pope, nor did the church of Milan fubmit to the fee of Rome till two hundred years afterwards. But no one was more willing, as indeed no one of that age was more able to ftem the torrent of fuperftition than Claude bishop of Turin, in his numerous writings and comments upon fcripture. He (1) afferted the equality of all the apoftles with St. Peter, and maintained that Jesus Christ was the only head of the church. He overthrew the doctrin of merit and all pretences to works of fupererogation. He rejected traditions in matters of religion, held the church to be fubject to error, and denied the use of prayers for the dead. He propofed the doctrin of the eucharist in a manner totally different from Paf chafius Radbertus, and entirely conformable to the fenfe of the ancient church. He oppofed with all his might the worship of faints, of relics,

Litt. Ann. 858. p. 45. Vol. 2. Collier's Ecclefiaft. Hift. B. 3. p. 165.

(9) Sigon. de Regn. Ital. Lib. 5. Ann. 844. Spanhem. ibid. Cap. 9. Sect. 1.

(1) See these points proved by quotations and extracts from his works in Dr. Allix his Remarks upon the ancient churches of Piedmont. Chap. 9. See also Spanheim, Dupin, Cave, &c.

(2) Infelix

1

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relics, of images, together with pilgrimages, penances, and other fuperftitions of the like kind. He may in a manner be faid to have fown the feeds of the Reformation in his diocefe of Turin; and his doctrins took fuch deep root efpecially in the valleys of Piedmont, that they continued to florifh there for fome centuries, as the papists themselves acknowlege.

The tenth century even the writers of the Romish communion lament and describe as the most debauched and wicked, the most illiterate and ignorant age fince the coming of Chrift. Genebrard (2) fays This is called the unhappy age, being destitute of men famous for wit 'and learning, as alfo of famous princes and popes; in which scarce any thing was done worthy of the memory of pofterity.' › He fubjoins, But chiefly unhappy in this one thing, that for almoft 150 years about 50 popes totally degenerated from the virtue of • their

(2) Infelix dicitur hoc fæculum, exhauftum hominibus ingenio et doctrina claris, fic etiam claris principibus; et pontificibus; in quo nihil fere dignum memoria pofteritatis geftum fit-Hoc vero uno infelix, quod per annos fere 150 pontifices circiter 50 a virtute majorum

prorfus defecerint, Apotactici Apoftaticive potius quam Apoftolici. Genebrard. Chron. Lib. 4. In initio X Sæc. Uffer. de Chriftian. Ecclef. fucceffione et ftatu. Cap. 2. Sect. 34. Spanhemii Hift. Chriftian. Sæc. X. Cap. 3. Sect. 1.

(3) En novum inchoatur fæculum,

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their ancestors, being more like apoftates than apoftles.' Baronius himself (3) denominates it an iron, a leaden, and obfcure age: and declares that Chrift was then, as it appears, in a very deep fleep, when the fhip was covered with waves; and what feemed worse, when the Lord was thus afleep, there were wanting difciples who by their cries might awaken him, being themselves all fast asleep.' It is not to be wondered, that in fo long and dark a night as this, while all were asleep, the subtle enemy should fow his tares in great abundance. However there were fome few like lights Shining in a dark place, who remonstrated against the degeneracy and fuperftition of the times. The refolutions and decrees of the councils of Francfort and Paris against the worship of images (4) had ftill fome force and influence in Germany, in France, in England, and other countries. In the former part of this century, in the

culum, quod fui afperitate ac bonifterilitate ferreum, malique, exundantisdeformitate plumbeum, atque inopia fcriptorum appellari confuevit obfcurum. Baron. ad ann. 900. Dormiebat tunc planè alto (ut apparet) fopore Chriftus, cum navis fluctibus

year

909,

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