'On the Body and Blood of the Lord', with the 'Letter to Fredugard' (Corpus Christianorum in Translation) 9782503583914, 2503583911

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PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS ON THE BODY AND THE BLOOD OF THE LORD WITH THE LETTER TO FREDUGARD

CORPVS CHRISTIANORVM IN TRANSLATION

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CORPVS CHRISTIANORVM Continuatio Mediaeualis XVI

PASCASIVS RADBERTUS DE CORPORE ET SANGVINE DOMINI CVM APPENDICE EPISTOLA AD FREDVGARDVM

CVRA et STVDIO BEDAE PAULUS O.S.B.

TURNHOUT

FHG

PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS ON THE BODY AND THE BLOOD OF THE LORD WITH THE LETTER TO FREDUGARD

Translation, introduction, and notes by Fr Mark G. VAILLANCOURT

H

F

© 2020, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

D/2020/0095/36 ISBN 978-2-503-58391-4 E-ISBN 978-2-503-58392-1 DOI 10.1484/M.CCT-EB.5.116745 ISSN 2034-6557 E-ISSN 2565-9421 Printed in the EU on acid-free paper.

To the Memory of Fr James T. O’Connor Priest, Mentor, and Friend Let us contemplate with careful attention, let good deeds be sought, so that always following Christ in haste through charity and a desire for eternal life, we might pass over to that which is forever — everlasting life. Paschasius, Letter to Fredugard

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

11

Preface

13

Abbreviations

15

Introduction 1. Life and Works 2. Theological Points 2.1. Mysterium v. Sacramentum 2.2. Umbra, Figura, and Veritas 2.3. Caracter v. Figura and the Letter to Fredugardum 2.4. Natalis calicis 2.5. Convivia et convivium 2.6. Theological Summary 3. Methodology 4. Manuscripts, Editions, Translations 5. De corpore et sanguine Domini 5.1. Content and Composition 5.2. Editions and Translations 6. Epistola ad Fredugardum 6.1. Content and Composition 6.2. Editions and Translations

17 19 22 23 24 26 27 28 30 30 32 34 34 36 36 37 38

Bibliography 1. Primary Sources 2. Studies: Eucharistic Doctrine 3. Studies: Theological Development

39 39 42 44

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Table of Contents

Poem to Abbot Warin

47

Poem to King Charles

48

Prologue to Abbot Warin

49

Prologue to King Charles

54

On the Body and Blood of the Lord 57 1. It must not be doubted that Communion is the true body and blood of Christ. 57 2. None of the faithful should be ignorant of the fact that this is a mystery of Christ. 63 3. What are sacraments, or, why are they called sacraments. 65 4. Whether this mystery of the chalice becomes a sacrament in figure or in truth. 68 5. What the difference is between the offerings and figures of the Old Law and the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 73 6. What it means to receive the body and blood of the Lord worthily unto eternal life. 76 7. The ways in which it is said to be the body of Christ. 78 8. In this communion, either judgment or reward is received. 80 9. Why it would be necessary that Christ, who was immolated once, be immolated daily, or what good do these mysteries offer to those who receive them worthily.89 10. Why this mystery is celebrated with bread and wine. 95 11. Why water is mixed in the chalice. 100 12. Whether this mystery would have something more to it whenever it is confected by a good minister, or less than what Truth promised if it is confected by an evil minister. 104 13. Why these things do not change in colour and taste in this sacrament. 111 14. Why these things often appear in visible form. 112 15. The words by which this mystery is confected. 117 16. Whether this body can rightly be called bread after the consecration. 120 17. Whether one who receives a larger or smaller amount has more or less of this mystery. 121 18. Why this mystery was given to the disciples before the Passion. 123

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Table of Contents

19. Why it is that a fragment of the body is mixed in with the blood of Christ. 20. Why it is that now the mystery of Holy Communion is generally celebrated fasting, when the Lord entrusted it to the apostles after a meal. 21. What it means when the Lord says: ‘I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew in the Kingdom of my Father’ (Mt 26. 29). 22. Whether there be any difference in this mystery between the reconciled penitent and the just person.

124 128 132 140

Letter to Fredugard Exposition of Matthew 26. 26 A brief Compendium of the Catholic Fathers Postscript

147 157 166 174

Appendix 6. Lines 51–108 (CC CM, 16, pp. 36–37) 9. Lines 20–61 (CC CM, 16, pp. 53–54) 9. Lines 196–403 (CC CM, 16, pp. 60–65) 14. Lines 71–119 (CC CM, 16, pp. 88–89) 21. Lines 260–308 (CC CM, 16, pp. 121–22) 22. Lines 180–202 (CC CM, 16, pp. 130–31)

179 179 181 183 190 191 193

Index of Scriptural References

195

Index of Non-biblical Sources

199

General Index

203

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FOREWORD

On the eve of his conversion to Catholicism, Blessed (and soon-tobe-canonized) John Henry Newman famously stated, ‘The Christianity of the second, fourth, seventh, twelfth, sixteenth, and intermediate centuries is in its substance the very religion which Christ and his Apostles taught in the first’.1 Newman’s penetrating observation is a testament to the unity of faith that permeates throughout the Church’s history. The book you hold in your hands is a witness to this same reality. Saint Paschasius Radbertus’s treatise On the Body and Blood of the Lord is an early ninth-century reflection on the gift and mystery of the Eucharist. Thanks to the meticulous and insightful scholarship of our translator (and New York priest), Father Mark Vaillancourt, English readers will now have an opportunity to engage with Paschasius’s commentary firsthand, discovering there his firm belief that the Eucharist is ‘the same body born of the Virgin Mary, that hung upon the cross, was buried in the tomb, rose from the dead, pierced the heavens, and has now been made eternal high priest who intercedes for us daily’. In Paschasius’s writing, the student of theology and history will hear the faithful echoes of the Eucharistic teaching of the New Testament, as well as the insights of patristic fathers, such as Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose. At the same time, the reader will encounter the first hints of later Scholastic expressions John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989), p. 5. 1 

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Foreword

in Paschasius’s distinction between the umbra (‘shade’) of Old Testament types and the figura in veritate (‘image in truth’) of the Eucharistic mystery. As such, this early medieval commentary stands as a hinge in the history of sacramental theology, faithfully preserving and handing on what was given and taught by Christ, while proposing an ever-deepening understanding of the gift of the Eucharist. I am grateful to Father Vaillancourt for making this engaging work available to a modern audience. Here, he presents an early revision of the text as an authentic expression of Paschasius’s writing and editing, wisely placing later changes and additions, which are of dubious authorship, in an Appendix. This volume also includes a translation of Paschasius’s Epistle to Fredugard, a companion piece that gives a helpful compendium of the patristic writings that were so central to the author’s thought and that served as an important listing of proof texts for later theologians. In a time when Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist is sadly often misunderstood, underappreciated, or not accepted by Catholics, Paschasius’s spirited defense of this teaching reminds us of the duty to proclaim this same truth in our own age with fidelity and clarity. In doing so, may the Church experience an increase in devotion to our Eucharistic Lord, who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, PhD, DD Archbishop of New York Feast of Corpus Christi, 2019

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PREFACE

The significance of Paschasius became evident to me in my research of the eleventh-century Eucharistic Controversy, the subject about which I wrote my dissertation at Fordham University between 1999 and 2004. I realised at that time that at the heart of the controversy of the eleventh century was the theology of Paschasius written in the ninth — yet there was no English translation of his work. He seemed to me then, as I am certain he is now, to be an important link between the Patristic and pre-Scholastic periods of Eucharistic theology. Moreover, after thoroughly researching and translating the text, I have come to the further conclusion that he has insights relevant to the theological community of today. I am convinced that his realism, when properly understood, is not only orthodox, but provides welcome insights into the true nature of the Real Presence. This was certainly the view of my friend, the late James T. O’Connor, whose assistance with the intricacies of the translation and subtleties of Paschasius’s theology proved to be invaluable and essential to the final success of the project. I also cannot thank enough my doctor father, Joseph T. Lienhard, S. J., for his review of the work and sage advice on how to handle the critical issues surrounding the manuscript history. I am very pleased that the work has since developed into a translation of the Brepols critical edition edited by Bede Paulus. His critique of the manuscript history was the key that identified the true nature of the unwelcome accretions found in the text — from which this translation has been liberated. I am honoured to

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Preface

have the work included in their series Corpus Christianorum in Translation. I am grateful to His Eminence Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, whose gracious forward to the work reflects his grasp of the importance of this project, and for his support of me as a priest of the Archdiocese of New York; to Fr Brian Graebe, pastor of Old St Patrick’s Cathedral, for his review of the translation of the De corpore; to Fr Andrew Florez for his proof reading of the text; to Steven Payne, PhD, for his editorial assistance; and to Frs Jerome Carosella and Rees Doughty, whose in-depth discussions on the Sacrament gave such great insights into Paschasius’s theology. And many thanks are due to my colleague and friend Deacon Alfred Impallomeni and the faculty and staff of Kennedy Catholic High School for their constant support of me and tireless efforts in the evangelization of the young. Mark G. Vaillancourt John F. Kennedy Catholic High School Somers, New York Feast of the Assumption, 2019

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ABBREVIATIONS

ACO CC CM CPL CSEL CC SL CT DS DTC FC HTR MA MG OHST PG PL SC ST WSA

Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis Clavis Patrum Latinorum Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina The Christian Tradition Denziger Schönmetzer Dictionnaire de théologie catholique Fathers of the Church Harvard Theological Review Miscellanea Augustiniana Monumenta Germaniae Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology Patrologia Graeca Patrologia Latina Sources chrétiennes Summa Theologiae Works of St Augustine

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INTRODUCTION

The De corpore et sanguine Domini of Paschasius Radbertus is the first scientific treatise ever written on the Eucharist,2 and as such is important for our understanding of the development of Eucharistic theology in the Carolingian era and after. It is important for its innovations as well. In form, it anticipates the quaestio method of the later Scholastics and the many issues surrounding the nature of the Real Presence that they will treat. In method, it offers a bifurcated approach that puts forward the received tradition as it develops new ideas leading to a deeper investigation of the subject. In language, it advances a terminology that forms the basis for what will later become the doctrine of transubstantiation. And in its day, the work advanced arguments that would dominate the discussion on the Sacrament for over two centuries.3 2  According to Bede Paulus, the editor of the CC  CM edition, Paschasius’s work ‘ist der erste ausführliche Traktat über das Sakrament des Abenmahls’. See Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini: Cum appendice epistola ad Fredugardum, CC CM, 16, p. viii. 3  A close examination of the Eucharistic works of the tenth and eleventh centuries reveals a wide-spread acceptance of Paschasius’s theology as one that formed the basis of orthodoxy up to the beginning of the Berengarian crisis. Odo of Cluny (d.  942) drew extensively from Paschasius in the second book of his Collationes (PL, 133, cols 575–77). Rutherius of Verona (d. 974) appended the De corpore in its entirety to his Excerptum ex dialogo confessionali (PL, 136, col. 444, n. 607). Gezo of Tortona in his De corpore et sanguine Christi cites Paschasius as the source of his doctrine (PL, 137, col. 373). Gerbert, later Pope Sylvester II (d. 1003), dedicated most of his work, De corpore et sanguine Christi, to a defence of Paschasius’s realism

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Introduction

It is also significant for its reception by Paschasius’s contemporaries. For even though it would eventually become the regnant theology of its time, the De corpore was almost immediately the cause for debate.4 The primary reason for this controversy was the identification in the work of the body of Christ in the Eucharist with the same ‘body born of the Virgin Mary, that hung upon the cross, was buried in the tomb, rose from the dead, pierced the heavens and has now been made eternal high priest who intercedes for us daily’.5 Montclos will classify this position as ‘ultra-realist’,6 but for Paschasius it was completely orthodox, reflecting the received tradition and the witness of the Scriptures.7 (PL, 139, cols 181–88). Durandus of Troarn, writing at the dawn of the Berengarian crisis of the eleventh century (c. 1060), in his De corpore et sanguine Christi identified Paschasius as one of the ‘most thorough examiners and Catholic expositors of the divine sacrament’ (PL, 149, col. 1389). See also Jaroslav Pelikan, The Growth of Medieval Theology (600–1300), The Christian Tradition, 3 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp.  185–86, and Mark  G. Vaillancourt, ‘Sacramental Theology from Gottschalk to Lanfranc’, in The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology, ed. by Hans Boersma and Matthew Levering (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 187–200. 4  See the writings of Ratramnus, Rabanus Maurus, and Gottschalk in Vaillancourt, ‘Sacramental Theology’. 5  Paschasius, De corpore, 7. 25–28. Chazelle agrees that this is a position that Paschasius will adamantly uphold despite its denial by Ratramnus in his own Eucharistic treatise. See Celia Chazelle, ‘Figure, Character, and the Glorified Body in the Carolingian Eucharistic Controversy’, Traditio, 4 (1992), 1–36 (p. 6). 6  A term Montclos uses to describe Paschasius’s doctrine. According to him, ultra-realism overly emphasizes the physical aspect of the presence of the body of Christ in the Eucharist. Montclos, who obviously developed his opinion from the fourth-edition text, was careful to note that the prefix ‘ultra’ is a relative term that distinguishes one doctrine from among a number of beliefs about the Real Presence that are entirely orthodox. See Jean de Montclos, Lanfranc et Bérenger: La controverse eucharistique du XIe siècle, Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense. Études et documents, 37 (Louvain: Université Catholique de Louvain, 1971), p. xliv. Geiselmann refers to Paschasius’s Eucharistic doctrine as ‘realistisch-metabolish orientiert’. See Josef Geiselmann, Die Eucharistielehre der Vorscholastik, Forschungen zur christlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte, 15/1.-3 (Paderborn: F.  Schoningh, 1926), p. 168. 7  In the De corpore as well as the Epistola ad Fredugardum Paschasius cites by name and provides material from such patristic sources as Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary of Poitiers and Gregory the Great. Many more ideas from the Fathers can also be detected throughout the work.

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Introduction

Born out of a theological method unique to the monasticism of its day,8 the De corpore was written by a monk for the spiritual needs of his fellow monks. The first edition was composed for the edification and instruction of the novices at Corvey. It is a credit to Paschasius’s erudition that the work would eventually become the accepted benchmark of authority on the subject for years to come. Due in large part to his combination of secular learning with the study of sacred Scripture and the Fathers, Paschasius was able to advance new ideas on the topic while he handed down the tradition of the Fathers. Among these patristic sources, Ambrose held the pride of place for his strong Eucharistic realism.9 Yet Paschasius’s unique contribution is his balancing of Ambrose’s strong realism with Augustine’s well-developed idea of sacrament. This was the theological stability that he sought to attain and, I contend, contemporaries and later writers failed to perceive.

1. Life and Works Paschasius Radbertus was born around the year 785 to unknown parents in the city of Soissons, France.10 Abandoned as an infant According to Leclercq: ‘In general, the monks did not acquire their religious formation in a school, under a scholastic, by means of the question, but individually, under the guidance of an abbot, a spiritual father, through the reading of the Bible and the Fathers, within the liturgical framework of the monastic life’. See Jean Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, trans. by C. Misrahi (New York: Fordham University Press, 1982), p. 2. As evidenced from the prologue, Paschasius was familiar with such classical authors as Horace, Terence, Virgil, and Ovid. According to Leclercq, there is little doubt about the influence that classical (i.e. pagan) literature played on monastic erudition, both for the means of learning Latin as well as for the development of new ideas. According to him, this fact can be easily proven from the existent classical manuscripts that have monastic origins as well as from the catalogues of medieval monastic libraries. See Leclercq, Love of Learning, pp. 113–14. 9  According to Chazelle, Figure, p. 3: ‘The influence of Ambrose on Paschasius for the belief that Christ’s historical body and blood are present in the Eucharist has been widely recognized by scholarly investigations of Carolingian Eucharistic doctrine’. 10  See the biography by Jean Mabillion in PL, 120, cols 9–24. 8 

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and left on the steps of St  Mary’s convent in Soissons, he was raised by the nuns of the cloister. In the monastery in which he was raised and educated, he took the tonsure as a sign of his dedication to the clerical state. He later left for secular pursuits, for an unspecified period and an unknown occupation. He eventually abandoned this secular life in search of a religious vocation and entered the Benedictine monastery at Corbie in modern day Picardy, France. The monastery at the time was under the stewardship of the Abbot Adalard who became Paschasius’s mentor and teacher in his pursuit of the monastic life.11 Paschasius quickly distinguished himself for his ascetic piety and accomplishments in study, especially his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.12 He eventually became a teacher in the monastery school and was put in charge of instructing the novices. In 822, Paschasius accompanied his abbot Adalard and the abbot’s brother Wala to Saxony where they established the monastery of New Corbie (Corvey). In 826, Adalard died; in 844, after the elections of three succeeding abbots, Paschasius himself was elected.13 He remained as abbot of Corbie until his resignation in 851. Afterwards, he entered the nearby Abbey of St Riquier but later returned to Corbie and assumed the duties of a monk after the subsequent election of a new abbot. He died around the year 865 and was buried in the abbey church of St John. He was canonized in 1073. His feast day is 26 April. The life of Paschasius was one marked by pious devotion and scholarly erudition.14 His devotion, which characterized his life 11  Founded c. 659, the first monks came from Luxueil Abbey and based their constitution on the Rule of St Benedict. 12  See David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance, Beihefte der Francia, 11 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1990), p. 83. For a commentary on his exceptional erudition, see Paschasius Radbertus, De partu virginis I, CC CM, 56C, p. 49. 13  It is interesting to note that although it was the tradition of abbots to accept priestly ordination, out of a sense of unworthiness Paschasius remained a deacon. 14  In a review of the works of the library at Corbie during the Carolingian period, David Ganz offers high praise for the works produced by Paschasius. See Ganz, Corbie, pp. 81–87. E. Ann Matter cites Paschasius as ‘one of the key figures in the revival of theological writing during the reign of Charles the Bald (840–877)’. See Paschasius, De partu virginis, in CC CM, 56C, p. 9.

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Introduction

as a monk, was exceptional. His erudition, however, which came from both his devotion and his love of learning, seems to have suffered during his years as abbot. His tenure was marked by conflict, either because of his austere interpretation of the Rule of St Benedict or controversies over his teachings on the Eucharist and the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or perhaps even both.15 At the root of the ninth-century Eucharistic controversy was the internal dissent of one of his own monks, Ratramnus, and his opposition to his abbot’s strong Eucharistic realism.16 Despite the dispute and the criticism from contemporaries, the theology of the De corpore succeeded nonetheless in becoming the accepted doctrine of the monastic schools until the eleventh century.17 After he resigned his abbacy, Paschasius devoted himself once again to scholarship and study.18 In addition to the De corpore and Epistola ad Fredugardum, Paschasius wrote a theological treatise on the Virgin Birth entitled De partu virginis. He also authored commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew, Psalm 44, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Included in his literary corpus are treatises on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and biographies of two abbots of Corbie, his friends Adalard and Wala, Adalard’s His abdication was possibly due to a rebellion led by younger monks. See Paschasius, De partu virginis, in CC CM, 56C, p. 10, n. 4. 16  That there was an open theological break between Radbertus and Ratramnus is evident from the rival treatise of the same name sent by Ratramnus to King Charles at a later date. A  similar dispute developed between the two over the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. See Paschasius, De partu virginis, in CC CM, 56C, p. 11. According to Pelikan, in contrast to Paschasius, whose work on the Eucharist had garnered such wide acceptance, ‘the name Ratramnus, on the other hand, had largely passed into oblivion. He was said to have “written a book for King Charles” against Radbertus; but when the controversy broke out again, it seems that his book, which was accused [sic] as the source of false doctrine about the Eucharist, was being attributed to John Scotus Eriugena by its champions as well as its detractors, who eventually had it condemned and destroyed at a synod held in Vercelli in 1050’. See Pelikan, Growth, p. 186. 17  See Vaillancourt, ‘Sacramental Theology’. 18  For example, Paschasius completed his great commentary on Mathew at St Riquier, a work, which according to Ganz, had ‘a remarkable originality both in Radbert’s treatment of his sources and his willingness to go beyond them’. See Ganz, Corbie, p. 83. 15 

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brother. His last work was the Passion of Rufinus and Valerius, the story of two martyrs of the Christian faith who died at or near Soissons in the year 287.

2. Theological Points As Europe emerged from the Dark Ages, the period of medieval theology known as the ‘Carolingian Renaissance’ became, especially in France, a time of both preservation of patristic thought as well as reflection upon it. This was also the first time that disputes about the Eucharist arose. O’Connor contends that: ‘Some have attempted to schematize the Eucharistic theology of the period by viewing it as a parallel development of Ambrosian and Augustinian perspectives on the Sacrament, the former “realist” in its understanding of the Presence of Christ, the latter developing a more “spiritual” or mystical understanding’.19 What I contend is that Paschasius, as the ‘father of this period’,20 successfully reconciles the theologies of both as he develops his own unified system of thought. To identify the Eucharist as the ‘flesh of Christ’, he applies the clear language of Ambrose, but in describing how this occurs in ‘mystery’ he tempers his thought with a certain Augustinian sacramental sensitivity.21 19  James T. O’Connor, The Hidden Manna: A Theology of the Eucharist (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), p.  83. McCue is an illustration of O’Connor’s point when he says: ‘As is well known, the two principal patristic sources of the eucharistic controversies which took place from the ninth through the eleventh centuries were Ambrose and Augustine. From the thoroughly orthodox Ambrose came a strong emphasis on the change of bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ. From the equally orthodox Augustine came a strong emphasis on the nonidentity of the bread and wine and the body and blood of Christ, and on Christ’s presence in spirit and in power. . . . It is not necessary for us here to articulate precisely what Augustine and Ambrose did think about the Eucharist. We need but note that they served as the principal patristic sources for two conflicting tendancies in later centuries’. McCue, ‘The Doctrine of Transubstantiation from Berengar through Trent: The Point at Issue’, HTR, 61 (1968), 385–430 (p. 386). 20  O’Connor, Hidden Manna, p. 85. 21  Stone rightly observes that Paschasius ‘is careful to emphasize the spiritual character of the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist, thus still preserving the

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Introduction

From Ambrose, as well as Augustine, Paschasius inherits a lexicon on the Sacrament that not only establishes the framework for how identity can be joined with mystery in the Eucharist, but gives new insights into Eucharistic theology by the use of words such as sacramentum, mysterium, umbra, figura, veritas, and caracter. These are the patristic terms, united to ideas, that Paschasius uses to articulate his distinction between reality and symbol in the Sacrament.22 Along with them he develops his own terms as well, terms he uses to advance his ideas about the sacrifice of the Mass as the ‘birth of the chalice’ (natalis calicis), and union with Christ in Holy Communion as convivia et convivium. Taken together, and studied individually, this thesaurus on the Sacrament presents a truly comprehensive theological treatment on the subject for the reader.

2.1. Mysterium v. Sacramentum Paschasius employs the word ‘mystery’ to explain how the Body and the Blood of the Lord is present under the forms of bread and wine. Mystery, as expressed by Ambrose and used by Paschasius, becomes the key to understanding how such diametrically opposed concepts as symbol and reality come together successfully in his theology. It is a word that he uses almost forty times in the De corpore and is a concept he refers to more than any other in his work. For example, at the beginning of the book he identifies the Eucharist as the true flesh and true blood of Christ, then promptly writes that this comes about in ‘mystery’.23 As a theological term, mystery not only holds a certain pride of place but is also the principal means of designating how the physical and the spiritual come together in the doctrine of the Real Presence.24 mark made on Western theology by this element in the teaching of St Augustine’. See Darwell Stone, A History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co.), I, p. 217. 22  For example, Ambrose, De sacramentis, and De mysteriis, in CSEL, 73, pp. 15–116. 23  Paschasius, De corpore, 1. 45: in mysterio vera sit caro et verus sit sanguis. 24  Paschasius, De corpores, 3. 14–19.

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As a synonym for sacramentum, the word derives from the classical Greek, meaning a ‘secret or hidden arrangement’.25 Paschasius prefers mysterium over sacramentum because it best articulates for him how, in the Eucharist, ‘the flesh is consecrated secretly by the divine power’.26 Mysterium, more than sacramentum, is a word that, for him, unites the elements of figure and truth in such a way that, when applied to the Eucharist, becomes a theological concept that is able to encompass something far greater than mere symbolism can offer. For Paschasius, ‘mystery’ embraces the entire field of divine activity in the Sacrament, allowing him to join symbol to the reality within it. This broader understanding permitted him to join the physical aspect of the historical body of Christ with the spiritual nature of Communion, avoiding contradiction and eliminating carnal interpretation. His understanding of ‘mystery’ enabled him to bridge the physical and spiritual world of the Sacrament, so that there would be no contradiction between Christ’s presence corporaliter in the Eucharist and its reception spiritualiter in Communion. This is because it is done mystically (mystice) or in mysterio — something alluded to in the typology of the Old Testament and fulfilled in the sacramental dispensation of the New.

2.2. Umbra, Figura, and Veritas Umbra and figura are two terms that highlight a significant difference between the Old Law of Moses and the New Covenant in Christ.27 Umbra (or ‘shade’) for Paschasius refers strictly to Text reads: mysterium. Paschasius, De corpore, 3. 31. According to Lienhard, the word ‘designates something secret, unapproachable, hidden, but not incomprehensible’. See Joseph T. Lienhard, ‘Sacramentum and the Eucharist in St Augustine’, The Thomist, 77 (2013), 173–92 (p. 175). 26  Paschasius, De corpore, 3. 27. According to Lienhard, ‘Both mysterium and sacramentum were used in Christian Latin from the second century on. The preVulgate African Latin Bible translated µυστήριον almost exclusively with sacramentum, a translation whose accuracy is not immediately obvious’. Lienhard, ‘Sacramentum’, p. 177. 27  Paschasius follows Augustine linguistically here: ‘Ego sum panis vivus, qui de caelo descendi. Ideo vivus, quia de caelo descendi. De caelo descendit et manna; 25 

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the typica of the Old Testament, which are devoid of the reality currently present in the sacraments of the Church. The promise of the Old Testament points to the reality of Christ who is present in the mysteries of the New, of which a figura is the external sign. The Old Testament types were ‘shades’ (umbra) because they lacked this reality (veritas) of Christ who is now present under these sacramental signs. The inner reality, or truth (veritas),28 of the Sacrament is Christ’s true flesh and blood, immolated daily at Mass for the forgiveness of sins. Paschasius identifies the Eucharist as the ‘flesh of Christ’,29 that is, the ‘true flesh that was crucified and buried’. He will add that this is the flesh of the ‘body born of the Virgin Mary, that hung upon the cross, was buried in the tomb, rose from the dead, pierced the heavens, and has now been made eternal high priest who intercedes for us daily’.30 Paschasius reiterates throughout his works that the body of Christ in the Eucharist is none other than Christ’s ‘own body’ (proprium corpus),31 that was ‘handed over’, and ‘his own blood that was poured out on behalf of our offences’.32 In a bold articulation beyond that of Ambrose’s, Paschasius asserts that in this sacrament of his flesh, Christ remains ‘corporally’33 yet ‘whole’.34 The presence of Christ that comes about is explained by a change theory that echoes that of Ambrose,35 for Paschasius speaks of sed manna umbra erat, iste veritas est’. See Augustine, In Iohannis 26. 13, in CC SL, 36, p. 266, lines 1–3. 28  Paschasius, De corpore, 1. 127; 2. 31; 3. 18; 4. 1, 3, 27, 30, 32, 45, 81; 5. 46; 7. 37; 10. 21, 119, 124; 13. 14; 14. 20; 15. 79; 16. 19; 20. 11. 29  Ambrose, De mysteriis, 9. 48, in CSEL, 73, p. 109. 30  Paschasius, De corpore, 7. 25–28. 31  Paschasius, Ad Fredugardum, 25. 32  Paschasius, Ad Fredugardum, 36. 33  Paschasius, De corpore, 9. 88. 34  Paschasius, De corpore, 7. 30. This represents a constant theme in Paschasius that militates against any association of his work with those who held to a more carnal understanding the Real Presence. 35  Ambrose speaks of a divine creative power that acts ‘through the Mystery of the sacred prayer’ upon the elements of bread and wine that are ‘transfigured (transfigurantur) into the Flesh and Blood’. Ambrose, De fide, IV,  10.  124, in CSEL, 78, p.  201. From the perspective of doctrinal development, McCue says: ‘For the next several centuries, eucharistic realism and change after the manner of Ambrose would be the common meeting ground of almost all Latin theologians,

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how the Eucharistic flesh is powerfully created (potentialiter creari) ‘in mystery by the consecration of the Holy Spirit’36 from the substance of the bread and the substance of the wine.

2.3. Caracter v. Figura and the Letter to Fredugardum In his Letter to Fredugard we find significant insights into Paschasius’s understanding of the Eucharist as sacrament.37 Responding to his friend Fredugard’s concerns about Augustine’s apparent Eucharistic symbolism in De doctrina, Paschasius counters in this fashion: ‘He destroys the whole sense of the passage who says that this flesh and this blood are to be consumed without mystery, or, on the other hand, that the Sacrament should be received only figuratively’.38 As Paschasius sees it, the Eucharistic mystery is best understood by balancing the meanings of figura and veritas in a way that does no violence to the understanding of Augustine’s sacramental teaching expressed in his De doctrina.39 ‘These mysteries are sacraments’, he writes, ‘which contain the truth of the flesh and blood of Christ, although in mystery and figure’.40 For Paschasius, the inner reality, or veritas, is the body born of the Virgin present under the outward signs of bread and wine, or the figura present on the altar. To hold the two concepts together under one reality, Paschasius uses the notion of caracter, an idea found in

and it was in this setting that the doctrine of transubstantiation would emerge’. McCue, Doctrine of Transubstantiation, p. 387. 36  Paschasius, De corpore, 4. 16. 37  Paschasius, Ad Fredugardum, 49–51. The Ad Fredugardum was a response to a friend who had a scruple about the Eucharistic flesh of Christ being the same as that which was born of the Virgin. This dubium was raised by Fredugard’s reading of Augustine’s De doctrina and the prohibition contained therein about ‘chewing the body of Christ with one’s teeth’. If it was, as it seemed, that the reception of communion involved the crime of ‘chewing Christ with one’s teeth’, then (as Fredugard understood it), according to Augustine, ‘the words that refer to the body and blood of the Lord must be taken only figuratively (tropice)’. 38  Paschasius, Ad Fredugardum, 66–70. 39  Paschasius, Ad Fredugardum, 103–104. 40  Paschasius, De corpore, 4. 23–24.

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the works of both Ambrose and Augustine, and through which he effectively unites the theologies of both.41 In Christ, he writes, both sign and reality come together in a marvelous union of God and man. Though Christ is called both seal (caracter) and figure ( figura), yet in him there is ‘nothing false, nothing lacking in truth (veritas)’,42 so that ‘from the humanity of Christ we arrive at the divinity of the Father’.43 God made man is a ‘mystery or a sacrament’.44 Just as the humanity of Christ possesses the fullness of his divinity, so the figure of bread contains the fullness of his humanity. As much as the human nature of Christ serves as a caracter, or perfect image, manifesting the divinity lying hidden within it and containing it, so by way of analogy in the Eucharist, as Chazelle points out, the ‘consecrated bread and wine may be assumed to hold the reality that they figure’.45 They ‘cloak it’, as it were, and make it ‘inwardly, fully available to the believer’.46 Thus, the notion of caracter, that is, the ‘perfect image’ or ‘seal’ as Augustine defined it and as Paschasius used it, allows for the physical presence of Christ to be the reality (veritas) hidden within that is contained under the appearances ( figura) of bread and wine.47

2.4. Natalis calicis For Paschasius, the quintessential symbol for the Eucharistic sacrifice was the chalice, because it pointed to ‘the Passion of the 41  See Chazelle, Figure, pp.  15–19. The word caracter derives from the Greek meaning ‘impression, mark, image or stamp’. The common meaning refers to the die used as a typeset for letters used in the printed word, or seal, such as the king’s seal or signum. 42  Paschasius, Ad Fredugardum, 99–100. 43  Paschasius, De corpore, 4. 60. 44  Paschasius, De corpore, 4. 29. 45  Chazelle, Figure, p. 18. 46  Chazelle, Figure, p. 19. 47  Paschasius refers to the realism found in Augustine’s sermons to further solidify his argument: ‘Recognize in the bread what hung on the cross and in the cup what flowed from his side’. See Augustine, serm., 228B, in WSA, 3/6, p. 262.

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Lord’.48 Describing how the Last Supper was the occasion of the ‘birth of the chalice’ (natalis calicis),49 he symbolically connects the mixing of the wine and the water in the chalice at Mass with the blood and water that flowed from the side of Christ on the cross. ‘The apostles’, he writes, ‘understanding this mystery fully, thought rightly that this should be done in respect to this chalice, so that nothing would be lacking to us in the Sacrament for the commemoration of the Passion that took place once upon the cross to complete our redemption’.50 Every chalice used for the sacrifice, therefore, is the true chalice, where Christ himself ‘pours forth his blood into it, the price of our salvation’.51 It is the same blood, which at that time flowed from his flesh, that ‘believers now drink from in the chalice’.52 This reality becomes present and open to us through the ‘mystery’, since ‘we are in him by this sacrament of divine salvation’, and united to him by it, ‘we are offered in mystery’.53 ‘In mystery’ Christ is ‘immolated for us’,54 and the Passion of Christ is handed down to us daily, where the chalice is a reminder and symbol of Christ’s Passion, and from which his blood pours forth daily for the salvation of the world.

2.5. Convivia et convivium In the theology of Paschasius, the Eucharistic body of Christ effects a unity among the members of his Mystical Body, the Church.55 The body born of Mary received in Holy Communion by 48  Paschasius, De corpore, 21.  12. ‘When we drink of it, what else do we announce than the death of the Lord?” De corpore, 21. 25–26. 49  Paschasius, De corpore, 11. 3. 50  Paschasius, De corpore, 11. 7–8. 51  Paschasius, De corpore, 11. 14. 52  Paschasius, De corpore, 11. 15. 53  Paschasius, De corpore, 11. 35–36. 54  Paschasius, De corpore, 9. 15. 55  ‘The body of Christ is spoken of in three ways in sacred Scripture. Generally speaking, the Church of Christ is his body, where “Christ the head” and all the elect are called “members” from whom the one body is gathered daily into the perfect man and full measure of Christ (Eph 1. 22–23)’. Pachasius, De corpore,

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the faithful brings about a mystical union of the members of the Church to one another and to Christ their Head.56 Paschasius employs a Christological theme of Hilary of Poitiers to describe this unity: Christ, substantially united to the Father, joins the faithful together when they receive his body in Holy Communion. This same unifying power of the body that joins the faithful together also unites them to God the Father, who is substantially united to Christ his Son.57 As a result of this union with the Godhead, there is a joyous convivium among the faithful. Christ as a principle of divine life is both their food58 and table partner59 (convivia et convivium).60 Proceeding from a very organic and visceral understanding of communio, Paschasius relates how the reception of the body and the blood in Holy Communion makes the faithful one body (concorporaliter) with Christ61 and one flesh with him, conviscerated62 in the Spirit. It is this encounter with the Risen Christ that is transformative, by which we the faithful ‘are in him’ and he indeed is in us, since ‘he spiritually pours himself into our flesh so that we may be transformed unto incorruption’.63 Thus union with Christ in 7. 2–5. Also: ‘Christ is our head and we are his members’. Paschasius, De corpore, 21. 104–05. 56  ‘He who gave the power to the nature of the universe has bestowed his divinity upon this sacrament so that it would be his very flesh and blood. As that flesh and blood of Christ unites the Church, the whole of this mystery fills the sacrament and his holy ones unto immortality’. Paschasius, De corpore, 14. 177–80. 57  Quoting Hilary of Poitiers: ‘Truly, then, just as the Father through the nature of divinity is in the Son, so in the same way God the Son as man is rightly said to be in us through the humanity of his flesh’. Paschasius, De corpore, 9. 119–20. 58  ‘Already “members of Christ”, we feed on his flesh, so that we are found to live on nothing other than his body and blood’. Paschasius, De corpore, 9. 126. 59  ‘And so, he is said to be our meal (convivium nostrum), because Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed (I  Cor 5.  7). We are table companions because we eat (epulamur) with him, transformed into a new reality because we are his body’. Paschasius, De corpore, 21. 86–90. 60  ‘Ubi profecto Christus convivium et convivia noster’. Paschasius, De corpore, 21. 68–69. 61  Paschasius, De corpore, 19. 70. 62  Paschasius, De corpore, 19. 14. 63  ‘Dum carne spiritaliter se refudit, ut nos per hoc in incorruptione transformemur’. Paschasius, De corpore, 19. 24–25.

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all truth is made possible by this Eucharistic encounter, drawing every one of the faithful together into God the Father through the humanity of Christ his Son.

2.6. Theological Summary In sum, the theology of Paschasius holds the one, historical body of Christ now in heaven to be the same body of Christ present on the altar. This body is whole and entire (integer), incorruptible and physically present (corporaliter) in the Eucharist even though it presents itself to the communicant in a spiritual way (spiritualiter). This presence is powerfully created (potentialiter creari) from the substance of the bread and the substance of the wine by the power of the Holy Spirit at the consecration. Christ’s presence (veritas) lies hidden under the forms ( figura) of bread and wine, which themselves make for a caracter that contains this reality that is the body of Christ in both symbol and truth. The entire reality is brought about in mystery (mysterium), something that makes for the locus of divine activity where the physical and spiritual dimensions of the Eucharist come together.

3. Methodology Paschasius wrote the first edition of his treatise on the Eucharist around 831 for the monks at the newly founded monastery of Corvey, then located in Westphalia.64 He composed a second edition of the work around 844 as a gift to Emperor Charles the Bald. The Epistola ad Fredugardum, largely an apology for the Eucharistic theology of De corpore, was written before 860 and consisted of both commentary on doctrine and citations of scriptural and patristic sources.65 Paschasius’s theological treatise on the Virgin Ganz, Corbie, p. 29. Published before 860. See John Fahey, The Eucharistic Teaching of Ratramn of Corbie, Pontificia Facultas Theologica Seminarii Sanctae Mariae ad Lacum, Dissertationes ad lauream (Mundelein: Mary of the Lake Seminary, 1951), p. 4. 64  65 

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Birth entitled De partu virginis, as well as his Expositio in Matthaeum, further elucidated his Eucharistic teachings. Composed at the height of the Carolingian Renaissance, De corpore summarized most of the Fathers’ thoughts on the Eucharist while at the same time anticipating many of the categories of inquiry that would later arise in the Scholastic period. The criticism of ultra-realism levied against Paschasius arises from, as some would say, his inordinate dependence on Ambrose’s stark realism or his neglect of Augustine’s pronounced symbolism. This translation, along with its study of the critical edition of the work, militates against that view. Instead, this translation and its commentary demonstrate how Paschasius’s doctrine is quite traditional, balanced, and orthodox. One reason for this revised position is the direction taken in developing the translation itself. Working with the earlier editions of the text, this first-ever translation of the complete work into English gives the reader a more accurate portrayal of Paschasius’s Eucharistic vision — one decidedly different from that published by J.-P. Migne in the nineteenth century. The Migne version, which simply reproduced the Maurist text, never distinguished later versions from earlier ones published by Paschasius himself.66 With the release of the recent critical edition by Brepols, however, it is now possible to distinguish later editions — not made by Paschasius — from those produced by him. This is significant when one sees the many accretions in those later editions67 that exaggerated (in a materialistic way) the physicality of Christ’s presence in the Sacrament. Working closely within the lines of demarcation drawn by the critical edition, this translation has ‘excised’ those accretions and in so doing has given the reader an English text very different from the nineteenth-century Migne edition — itself a major source for the modern mischaracterization of Paschasius’s theology. What one now has in this translation is a rendering of 66  The 1852 Migne publication of the 1733 Maurist Latin edition identifies manuscript variations (sporadic at best) but not the different versions of the text. Thanks to the critical edition by Paulus, these variations are now clearly delineated and identifiable. 67  That is, the fourth version of the text.

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Paschasius’s doctrine as he himself published it — one that is both balanced in its understanding of the Real Presence and comprehensive in its theological treatment of the Sacrament. Another reason for reconsidering the charges of ultra-realism involves the nature of the patristic sources themselves, that is, the false dichotomy traditionally drawn between the realism of Ambrose and the symbolism of Augustine. Certainly, Paschasius relied on Ambrose for the development of his theological ideas. Augustine, however, is no impediment to them. Indeed, a great deal of scholarship throughout the twentieth century has shown that Augustine shared some of the same realistic views of Ambrose, his father in the faith.68 With this new translation, one can see how in the development of his theology Paschasius drew upon Ambrose and Augustine equally, harmonizing the different texts while advancing his Eucharistic ideas in a way that kept the richness of the patristic tradition.

4. Manuscripts, Editions, Translations Bede Paulus, in his preface to the most recent critical edition of On the Body and Blood of the Lord, with the Letter to Fredugard as an appendix, gives an excellent account of the manuscript tradition of these two works.69 In the introduction, he identifies four distinct versions of De corpore. Because of his work, it is now possible to distinguish two authentic versions, written by Paschasius himself, from two later interpolated versions composed by other editors. 68  See Mark G. Vaillancourt, ‘The Eucharistic Realism of St Augustine: Did Paschasius Radbertus get him right? An Examination of Recent Scholarship on the Sermons of St Augustine’, in Studia Patristica 70: Papers Presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 2011, ed. by Markus Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), pp. 569–76; See also O’Connor, Hidden Manna, pp. 48–68. 69  See Paulus’s remarks in CC CM, 16, pp. vii–xliv for an overview of the manuscript tradition for De corpore and pp. 135–43 for Ad Fredugardum.

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1. Paschasius wrote the first version between 831 and 833 while he was at Corbie. According to Paulus, the largest number of extant manuscripts contain this first version. Important examples are manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Bibliothèque Municipale of Lyon, and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana; these are among the oldest, dating back to the ninth century. 2. Paschasius also composed a second edition of his work in 843 or 844, while he was abbot, as a gift to King Charles.70 In this second edition, Paschasius added a new prologue and made several corrections and additions to the first edition. Far fewer manuscripts of this second edition are extant. 3. The third edition, like the fourth, was made by an unknown editor, probably after Paschasius’s death. It is essentially a combination of the first and second. It had a limited circulation, although some manuscripts of the third edition date from the late ninth century. 4. The fourth version contains many additions to the text, which make it decidedly different from any of the first three. It is particularly notable for containing interpolations of accounts of Eucharistic miracles that stress, excessively, the physical aspect of Christ’s presence in the Sacrament.71 These miracle accounts are essentially distortions of Eucharistic faith. In the translation presented here, these narratives have been removed from the body of the text and placed in the Appendix for reference and completeness; they do not represent the work of Paschasius. Manuscripts of this fourth version are relatively late. The oldest, in Paris, dates from the eleventh century. A  second, also from Paris, and a third from the Vatican date from the twelfth century.

The first printed edition of De corpore was by the Lutheran Hiob Gast von Hagen, published in 1528. The next edition was by John Vlimmerius at Louvain in 1561. Other printed editions were produced by J. A. Fuchte at Helmstedt in 1616 and J. Sirmond at Paris in 1618. In 1733, Dom Edmund Martène of the Abbey of St Maur produced the edition later reprinted by J.-P. Migne in 1852. It is 70  Charles the Bald, King of Western France, 843–77, and ultimately Charles II, Holy Roman Emperor, 875–77. 71  Additions unique to the fourth version of De corpore can be found in five of the twenty-two Chapters: 6, 9, 14, 21, and 22. See the Appendix for more details.

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Martène who made the first printed edition of the fourth version and the one who is responsible for its exposure to modern scholarship. All previous printed editions were made from either the first or third version; Martène was the first to combine all four into one text. The first modern critical edition, by Bede Paulus, published in 1964 by Brepols in the series Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis (CC  CM), is the one translated here. I  have followed the critical edition for the first and second editions of the work, while placing material from the fourth edition in an appendix. The first translation of the work into a modern language, German, was by Hans Urs von Balthasar in 1988. The translation herein is the first complete translation into English of both De corpore and the Epistola ad Fredugardum, and the first translation of the latter into any modern language.

5. De corpore et sanguine Domini The first version of the De corpore et sanguine Domini was composed by Paschasius sometime between the years 831 and 833. Novice-master and instructor of the younger monks at the time, he composed his work for their instruction. The first version, which begins with a dedication to his abbot, Warin, enjoys the widest circulation. This first version also has the oldest manuscript history. This English translation is of the second version, which was far more limited in circulation. Composed by Paschasius himself, it was a presentation to King Charles the Bald in 844. This second version contains some corrections and additions to the first, most notably in Chapters 14 and 19.

5.1. Content and Composition The question and answer format of the work antedates that of the pre-Scholastics, yet its content anticipates many of the Eucharistic inquiries that will involve later theologians until the height of

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the Scholastic period. The work itself is composed of twenty-two chapters; each is a separate area of inquiry:

1. It must not be doubted that communion is the true body and blood of Christ. 2. None of the faithful should be ignorant of the fact that this is the mystery of Christ. 3. What are sacraments, or, why are they called sacraments. 4. Whether this mystery of the chalice becomes a sacrament in figure or in truth. 5. What the difference is between the offerings and figures of the Old Law and the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord. 6. What it means to receive the body and blood of the Lord worthily unto eternal life. 7. The ways in which it is said to be the body of Christ. 8. In this Communion, either judgment or reward is received. 9. Why it would be necessary that Christ, who was immolated once, be immolated daily, or what good do these mysteries offer to those who receive them worthily. 10. Why this mystery is celebrated with bread and wine. 11. Why water is mixed in the chalice. 12. Whether this mystery would have something more to it whenever a good minister confects it, or less than what Truth promised if it is confected by an evil minister. 13. Why these things do not change in colour and taste in this sacrament. 14. Why these things often appear in visible form. 15. The words by which this mystery is confected. 16. Whether this body can rightly be called bread after the consecration. 17. Whether one who receives a larger or smaller amount has more or less of this mystery. 18. Why this mystery was given to the disciples before the Passion. 19. Why it is that a fragment of the body is mixed in with the blood of Christ. 20. Why it is that now the mystery of Holy Communion is celebrated fasting, when the Lord entrusted it to the apostles after a meal. 21. What it means when the Lord says: ‘I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew in the Kingdom of my Father’. 22. Whether there be any difference in this mystery between the reconciled penitent and the just person.

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Paschasius will use each inquiry as an opportunity to bring forth the tradition while at the same time advancing his own theological understanding of the Sacrament.

5.2. Editions and Translations Bede Paulus in his preface to the most recent critical edition of De corpore has identified four versions of the work. Only the first two can be attributed to Paschasius himself. Hans Urs von Balthasar has translated the first version, produced in 833, into German in his work, Paschasius Radbertus: Vom Leib und Blut des Herrn. This English translation is of the second version that was produced around 844. The translation follows the markings of the critical text. The page numbers and chapters correspond to the Paulus edition.

6. Epistola ad Fredugardum The Epistle to Fredugard by Paschasius Radbertus, both in the history of its composition as well as in the exposition of its doctrine, stands as a companion piece to De corpore by the same author.72 Published sometime between these two works was De corpore et sanguine Domini by Ratramnus of Corbie. Written around 844, Ratramnus’s work was essentially a challenge to Paschasius’s identification of the Eucharistic body of Christ with the historical body of Christ. The Epistle to Fredugard is clearly a response to Ratramnus’s work and a defence of Paschasius’s unwaveringly realist position. Although not mentioned by name, Paschasius identifies Ratramnus’s work throughout the text.73 The Epistola stands

72  Regarding the time of composition, Ad Fredugardum was written toward the end of Paschasius’s life, around the same time that he composed his Commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew, c. 856, and well after the publication of the second version of De corpore, written in 843. 73  See Paschasius, Ad Fredugardum, 60, 300, 330, and 521.

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as a substantive theological response to his critics as well as an appeal to authority in defence of his doctrinal position. Like De corpore, the Epistola contains several famous firsts in Eucharistic theology. The most notable is its compendium of patristic sources dealing with the teachings of the Fathers on the Real Presence.74 As a corpus, they will become proof texts for defenders of Eucharistic realism for the next 200 years. The work also introduces into the debate for the first time works from Eusebius of Emesa and Hilary of Poitiers as authorities on Eucharistic doctrine. It is also the first time that the works of Augustine are subject to critical analysis to determine the nature of his Eucharistic faith.

6.1. Content and Composition The work is both a theological exposition on the Fathers as well as an appeal to their authority. After addressing Fredugard warmly and apologising for his delay in responding, Paschasius reiterates his core teaching, i.e. that the Eucharistic body and the historical body of Christ are one and the same. Paschasius insists that one should not be amazed at this, for it occurs in ‘mystery’ and thus should be understood not in a carnal fashion but rather in a spiritual one. That this was the same body in the Eucharist that was offered up in the Passion, Paschasius makes an appeal to the gospel accounts. For at the Last Supper, when Christ held the bread in his hands, he insisted that it was indeed his body, and all the apostles gave tacit approval to the same. The remaining part of the letter is made up of further appeals to patristic authority, the Canon of the Mass, and the faith of the Church. Among other famous firsts in the work is Paschasius’s use of ‘lex orandi, lex credendi’, i.e. the Church worships as she believes. Paschasius’s constant position is that Christ ‘whole and entire’ is worshipped and adored in the Eucharist as a matter of faith, and this fact is demonstrated by the liturgy of the Church.

Paulus believed that Paschasius began this work shortly after the publication of his second edition of the De corpore. See his remarks in CC CM, 16, p. 139. 74 

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The general outline of the work is as follows: Lines 1–274 Lines 275–459 Lines 460–549 Lines 550–764 Lines 765–905

Paschasius’s response to Fredugard’s concerns. Sources for Paschasius’s doctrine. Further theological commentary. Compendium of patristic teaching. Postscript.

Throughout the work Paschasius insists that his doctrine is that of the Church despite the charges of exaggerated materialism leveled against him by his detractors.

6.2. Editions and Translations Like De corpore, there are four versions of the Epistola. The first version, which is clearly the oldest, is the shortest in length and is missing the compendium of the Fathers found in the second version. The second version, which is translated here, was edited by a ninth-century redactor who was almost certainly Paschasius himself improving his original work.75 The third edition as well as the fourth were made by unknown editors, probably after Paschasius’s death. The third edition is essentially a combination of the first and second. Unlike the first and second version, it seemed to enjoy the highest circulation, with some of its manuscripts dating back to the ninth century. Manuscripts of the fourth version are relatively late. The oldest, in Paris, dates from the eleventh century. A  second manuscript in Paris, and one in the Vatican, both date from the twelfth century. The first printed edition was by John Vlimmerius at Louvain in 1561. Other printed editions of the Epistola ad Fredugardum were produced by J.  A. Fuchte at Helmstedt in 1616 and J.  Sirmond at Paris in 1618. J.-P.  Migne reprinted Sirmond’s work in 1852. The first modern critical edition, edited by Bede Paulus and published in 1964 by Brepols in CC CM, was used to produce this translation. 75 

See the treatment by Paulus in Paschasius, De corpore, p. 139.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Primary Sources Ambrose of Milan, Sancti Ambrosii Opera Pars Septima, ed. by O. Faller, CSEL, 73 (Vienna: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1955) ———, Theological and Dogmatic Works, trans. by R. Deferrari, FC, 44 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1963) Augustine of Hippo, De doctrina Christiana, ed. by J. Martin, CC SL, 32 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1962) ———, Enarrationes in Psalmos, ed. by E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont, CC SL, 38–40 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1956) ———, Epistolae, ed.  by A.  Goldbacher, CSEL, 34/2 (Vienna: Tempsky, 1895) ———, Expositions of the Psalms: 33–50, trans. by M. Boulding, WSA, 3/16 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002) ———, Expositions of the Psalms: 73–98, trans. by M. Boulding, WSA, 3/18 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002) ———, In Iohannis Evangelium tractatus CXXIV, ed.  by R.  Willems, CC SL, 36 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954) ———, Sancti Augustini Sermones post Maurinos reperti: Probatae dumtaxat auctoritatis nunc primum disquisiti in unum collecti et codicum fide instaurati, ed. by G. Morin, MA, 1 (Rome: Vatican, 1930) ———, Sermons, trans. by E.  Hill, WSA, 3/6 (New Rochelle, NY: New City Press, 1995)

39

Bibliography

———, Teaching Christianity, trans. by E. Hill, WSA 1/11 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1996) ———, Tractates on the Gospel of John: 11–27, trans. by J. Rettig, FC, 79 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1988) Berengar of Tours, De sacra coena: Rescriptum contra Lanfrannum, ed. By R. B. C. Huygens, CC CM, 84 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1988) ———, Epistola contra Almannum, ed. by J. de Montclos, in Id., Lanfranc et Bérenger: La controverse eucharistique du XIe siècle, Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense. Études et documents, 37 (Louvain: Université Catholique de Louvain, 1971) Biblia sacra: Iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed. by R. Weber, 2 vols (Stuttgart: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1969) Canon Missae Romanae, ed. by L. Eizenhofer, Traditio textus, 1 (Rome: Vatican, 1954) Cyprian of Carthage, St Cyprian: Letters (1–81), trans. by R. Donna, FC, 51 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1964) Cyril of Alexandria, ‘Cyril’s Third Letter Against Nestorius’, in Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Documents Illustrating the History of the Church ad 337–461, ed. by J. Stevenson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 280–88 ———, Epistola Synodica, ed. by E. Schwartz, ACO, 1/5 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1924) Durandus of Troarn, De corpore et sanguine Christi contra Berengarium et ejus sectatores, PL, 149, cols 1375–424 Eusebius ‘Gallicanus’, Collectio Homiliarum, ed.  by F. Glorie, CC  SL, 101–101A–101B (Turnhout: Brepols, 1970–1971) Gerbert (Pope Sylvester  II), De corpore et sanguine Domini, PL, 139, cols 179–88 Gottschalk of Orbais, De corpore et sanguine Domini, ed. by D. C. Lambot, Œuvres Théologiques et Grammaticales de Godescalc D’Orbais, Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 20 (Louvain: Université Catholique de Louvain, 1945), pp. 324–37 Gregory the Great, St Gregory the Great: Dialogues, trans. by O. J. Zimmerman, FC, 39 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1959) ———, Dialogorum libri ii, PL, 77, cols 317–430 Gregory of Tours, Lives and Miracles, ed. and trans. By G. DeNie (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015) Guitmund (Archbishop of Aversa), Confessio de sancta Trinitate, Christi humanitate, corporisque et sanguinis Domini nostri veritate, PL, 149, cols 1495–502

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———, De corpore et sanguinis Christi veritate in eucharistia libri iii, PL, 149, cols 1427–94 ———, ‘On the Truth of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist’, in On the Body and Blood of the Lord; On the Truth of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, trans. by M. G. Vaillancourt, FC: Mediaeval Continuation, 10 (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 2009) ———, Epistola ad Erfastum, PL, 149, cols 1502–08 ———, Oratio ad Guillelmum I Anglorum regem cum recusaret episcopatum, PL, 149, cols 1510–12 ———, La Verità dell’ Eucaristia, trans. by L. Orabano (Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1995) ———, ‘Passage authentique inédit de Guitmond d’Aversa’, ed. by J. Leclercq, Revue Bénédictine 57 (1947), pp. 212–14 Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate, ed. by P. Smulders, CC SL, 62–62A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1979–1980) ———, Saint Hilary of Poitiers: The Trinity, trans. by S. McKenna, FC, 25 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1954) Isidore (Pseudo), Decretals et Capitula Angilrami, ed.  by P.  Hinschius (Leipzig: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1963) Lanfranc of Canterbury, De corpore et sanguine Domini adversus Berengarium Turonensem, PL, 150, cols 407–42 ———, ‘On the Body and Blood of the Lord’, in On the Body and Blood of the Lord; On the Truth of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, trans. by M.  G. Vaillancourt, FC: Mediaeval Continuation, 10 (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 2009) Leo the Great, Sermones, 91. De jejunio septimi mensis, PL, 54, col. 452 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini: Cum appendice epistola ad Fredugardum, ed. by B. Paulus, CC CM, 16 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1969) ———, De corpore et sanguine Domini, PL, 120, cols 1255–350 ———, De partu virginis, ed. by E. A. Matter, CC CM, 56C (Turnhout: Brepols, 1985) ———, Vom Leib und Blut des Herrn, trans. by H. U. von Balthasar (Einsiedeln: Johannes, 1988) Rabanus Maurus, De clericorum institutione, PL, 107, cols 293–420 ———, De sacris ordinibus, PL, 112, cols 1165–1192 Ratramnus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, PL, 121, cols 103–222 Sedulius, The Paschal Song and Hymns, trans. by C. Springer (Atlanta : Society of Biblical Literature, 2013)

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Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, “Ego Berengarius 1059,” XIX, ed. by J. D. Mansi (Paris and Leipzig: H. Welter, 1902) Sanctorum Patrum opuscula selecta, ed. by H. Hurter (Innsbruck: Libraria Academica Wagneriana, 1879)

2. Studies: Eucharistic Doctrine Bareille, G., ‘Eucharistie d’après les pères’, DTC, 5, pp. 1134–81 Chazelle, Celia, ‘Figure, Character, and the Glorified Body in the Carolingian Eucharistic Controversy’, Traditio 4 (1992), pp. 1–34 Ernst, Josef, Die Lehre des hl. Paschasius Radbertus von der Eucharistie (Freiburg: Herder, 1896) Fahey, John, The Eucharistic Teaching of Ratramn of Corbie, Pontificia Facultas Theologica Seminarii Sanctae Mariae Ad Lacum, Dissertationes ad lauream (Mundelein, St Mary of the Lake Seminary, 1951) Gaudel, Auguste, ‘Stercoranisme’, in DTC, 14, pp. 2590–612 Geiselmann, Josef, Die Eucharistielehre der Vorscholastik, Forschungen zur christlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte, 15/1-3 (Paderborn: F. Schoningh, 1926) Jungmann, Joseph, The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, trans. by F. Brunner, 2 vols (New York: Benziger, 1949) Kempf, Friedrich, The Church in the Age of Feudalism, trans. by A. Biggs, History of the Church, 3 (New York: Crossroad, 1982) Lienhard, Joseph T., ‘Sacramentum and the Eucharist in St Augustine’, The Thomist 77 (2013), pp. 175–83 Loofs, Friedrich A., ‘The Lord’s Supper’, in Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. by S. Jackson and L. Loetschen, 13 vols (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1955), VII, pp. 24–37 Lubac, Henri de, Corpus Mysticum (Paris: Aubier, 1949) Macdonald, Allan J., Berengar and the Reform of Sacramental Doctrine (New York: Longman, Green, and Co., 1930) Macy, Gary, The Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early Scholastic Period (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984) ———, Treasures from the Storeroom: Medieval Religion and the Eucharist (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999) McCue, James, ‘The Doctrine of Transubstantiation from Berengar through Trent: The Point at Issue’, HTR 61 (1968), pp. 385–430

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Moloney, Raymond, Problems in Theology: The Eucharist (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995) Montclos, Jean de, Lanfranc et Bérenger: La controverse eucharistique du XIe siècle, Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense. Études et documents, 37 (Louvain: Université Catholique de Louvain, 1971) O’Connor, James T., The Hidden Manna: A Theology of the Eucharist (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005) Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Growth of Medieval Theology (600–1300), CT, 3 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) Radding, Charles, and Francis Newton, Theology, Rhetoric, and Politics in the Eucharistic Controversy, 1078–1079: Alberic of Monte Cassino against Berengar of Tours (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003) Sardemann, Franz, ‘Der theologische Lehrgehalt der Schriften des Paschasius Radbertus’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Marburg University, 1877) Sasse, Hermann, This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1959) Shaughnessy, Patrick, ‘The Eucharistic Doctrine of Guitmund of Aversa’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Pontifical Academical Instituion of St Anselm, 1939) Somerville, Robert, ‘The Case Against Berengar of Tours: A  New Text’, Studi Gregoriani 9 (1972), pp. 55–75 ———, Pope Urban II: The Collectio Britannica and the Council of Melfi (1089) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996) Stone, Darwell, A History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, 2 vols (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1909) Vaillancourt, Mark G., ‘The Role of Guitmund of Aversa in the Developing Theology of the Eucharist’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Fordham University, 2004) ———, ‘Guitmund of Aversa and the Eucharistic Theology of St Thomas’, The Thomist 68 (2004), pp. 577–600 ———, ‘The Eucharistic Vision of Guitmund of Aversa’, Homiletic and Pastoral Review 106 (2006), pp. 46–52 ———, ‘The Eucharistic Realism of St Augustine: Did Paschasius Radbertus get him right? An Examination of Recent Scholarship on the Sermons of St Augustine’, in Studia Patristica 70: Papers Presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 2011, ed. by M. Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), pp. 569–76

43

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———, ‘Sacramental Theology from Gottschalk to Lanfranc’, in The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology, ed. by H. Boersma and M. Levering (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 187–200 ———, ‘The Predestinarian Gottschalk of Orbais: Faithful Augustinian or Heretic? The Ninth-Century Carolingian Debate Revisited’, in Studia Patristica 98: Papers Presented at the Seventeenth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 2015, ed. by M. Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2017), pp. 621–28 Vernet, F., ‘Eucharistie du IXe à la fin du XIe siècle’, in DTC, 5, pp. 1209–33

3. Studies: Theological Development Appleby, David, ‘Beautiful on the Cross, Beautiful in his Torments: The Place of the Body in the Thought of Paschasius Radbertus’, Traditio 60 (2005), pp. 1–46 Asztalos, Monika, ‘The Faculty of Theology’, in Universities in the Middle Ages, ed. by H. de Ridder-Symoens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 409–41 Baily, Lisa K., Christianity’s Quiet Success: The Eusebius Gallicanus Sermon Collection and the Power of the Church in Late Antique Gaul (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010) Contreni, John, ‘The Carolingian Renaissance: Education and Literary Culture’, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, ed. by R. McKitterick, 7  vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), II, pp. 750–51 David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance, Beihefte der Francia, 11 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1990) Gilson, Étienne, Philosophie au Moyen Âge: Des origines patristiques à la fin du XIVe siècle (Paris: Payot, 1947) Grabmann, Martin, Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methode nach den gedruckten und ungedruckten Quellen dargestellt (Freiburg: Herdersche, 1909) Leclercq, Jean, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, trans. by C. Misrahi (New York: Fordham University Press, 1982) Leff, Gordon, ‘The Trivium and the Three Philosophies’, in A History of the University in Europe, ed.  by H.  de Ridder-Symoens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 307–36

44

Bibliography

Lienhard, Joseph T., Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and FourthCentury Theology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1999) Pederson, Olaf, The First Universities: Studium Generale and the Origins of University Education in Europe, trans. by R. North (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) Sheedy, Charles, ‘The Eucharistic Controversy of the Eleventh Century against the Background of Pre-Scholastic Theology’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Catholic University of America, 1947) Verbraken, Pierre-Patrick, Études critiques sur les sermons authentiques de Saint Augustin, Instrumenta Patristica, 12 (La Haye, Nijhoff; Steenbrugge, Sint-Pietersabdij 1976) Waddell, Helen, The Desert Fathers, trans. by H. Waddell (New York: Vintage Books, 1968) Zirkel, Patricia McCormick, ‘The divine child in Paschasius Radbertus’ “De corpore et sanguine domini”, chapter XIV’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Fordham University, 1989)

45

POEM TO ABBOT WARIN

Should anyone wish to participate in the solemnities of the holy table of the Kinga and imbue the nourishing body of Christ with votive offerings, to feed upon its delights, to drink of its rose-coloured blood, I would choose our Bacchic rites that we have sent to you, my child, so that your chaste heart might flourish [with faith]. These great things that flow from the fount of Christ that our pen servesb do not dishonour the soul but rather fill it with sweet honey from the country. From there, my child, it is possible to quench one’s thirst and drink worthily thereof, that is, should one choose to follow the Lord’s thundering commands.c For the liberty of faith would never deny one earth’s most excellent fruit — the flesh of life. Life, salvation, peace, light, and the wisdom of all flows from there through the eons under the four corners of heaven. And you, if you have lived worthily, shall receive these rewards, and being blessed in virtue, will receive the palm of the King.

a  Cf. Sedulius, Paschalis Carminis, pref., in Sedulius, Paschalis Carminis liber 1, ed. by J. Huemer, CSEL, 10, p. 1. b  Cf. Ovid, Tristia, V, 1. 37. c  Cf. Virgil, Eclogues, 5. 47.

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1

POEM TO KING CHARLES

2

Boldly we seek now not the muses coming forth from the cold rock:a but you, O Virgin Wisdom,b you who hold the snow-covered height of bright Olympus, whose golden light rises from its peak, irradiating the world, where the facec of Phoebus most gratefully sends forth its rays and lands on purpled shoulders covered with fiery gems. I beseech you, deign to grant our prayers on behalf of his majesty which we now present at his kingly throne — hasten with stately bearing and a mild countenance, stand with us and speak thus with shining mouth: O king, powerful in virtue, whom the splendour of Wisdom adorns, O  Charles, whose name descends with noble ancestry. Behold, Abbot Radbertus your servant offers you a gift from a devout heart. Receive it serenely and discern not just with the eyes but with the heart what divine power it has, and what it makes known to you sealed in pen and parchment. For what it offers is not of this earth, but rather of the mysteries of heaven. For whether it is the body of Christ or the rose-coloured wave of his blood, it reveals them to be, and shows in the light that they are, mysteries. Thus, whoever of the faithful with a devout mind should perchance read this work, let them revere the hidden things of heaven now made visible in its appearance. Virgil, Aeneid, 8. 343 In a parody on the ancient tradition of invoking a Muse before reciting a work, Paschasius instead invokes Wisdom, personified as a virgin, who herself addresses King Charles on behalf of the work. c  The Maurist text is followed here, which reads: facies. See PL, 120, col. 1259. a 

b 

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PROLOGUE TO ABBOT WARIN

Paschasius Radbertus to his most beloved son Placidus, the one presiding for Christ, a teacher of the monastic discipline, in every way a fellow disciple of the truth. For I certainly do not doubt, and indeed I know of, your experience in studies and expertise in education. It was for that reason our dear Arsenius, another Jeremiah borne of our age,a brought us together for the sake of the faith. I took great care, therefore, to save you from the waters, but I confess to you that it was more the father’s cloak over your head that benifitted you.b Having been a  This likely refers to Wala, the brother of Adalard, who assumed the abbacy in 814 upon the exile of the latter, and who was subsequently elected abbot of Corvey as well. Warin was appointed to succeed Wala as abbot of Corvey in 833. At the time of the writing of the prologue, Wala, like his brother before him, was exiled by decree of Louis I. See PL, 120, col. 1255, and David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance, Beihefte der Francia, 11 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1990), p. 29. b  See Gregory the Great, Dialogi, 2. 7. Gregory tells the miraculous tale of Benedict who, while still in the monastery, had the premonition that the boy Placidus had fallen into the river while fetching water and was then on the point of drowning. Benedict sent the younger monk Maurus to save him, who, while running on top of the water, reached into the river and pulled him to safety. When the boy regained consciousness and was asked what happened, he said: ‘When I was being drawn out of the water I saw the abbot’s cloak over my head; he is the one I thought was bringing me to shore’. It is apparent here that ‘Placidus’ is Warin, ‘Maurus’ is Paschasius and ‘Benedict’ is Wala. The ‘waters’, as Paschasius calls them — the unda liberalium litterarum — were the liberal arts that Paschasius taught to Warin while he was a young monk in the abbey school of Corbie. The point seems to be that Paschasius, as the teacher, rescued the young Warin from doctrinal error as his teacher in the monastery, but this was really because of the watchful eye of their abbot Wala.

49

3

Prologue to Abbot Warin

4

drawn up, I congratulate you on your escape. I for my part rejoice that I did not run my race in vain. That father, however, as those familiar with comedy [surely know], ‘full of holes’ and knowing the truth, chose the usual custom of justice, that is, to suffer exile for the faith rather than knowingly silence the truth.a So we can only surmise what the plan of God would want to come of this, for it is to him that we now look, both for divine intervention and the promise of future rewards. You, however, are not one who has followed youthful desiresb as others are in the habit of doing, those, that is, who resist discipline as if they were shackled and bound with chains. On the contrary, you are rooted in the faith of Christ, with character and a rule of life, and with the Lord’s help, you strive to ever higher things. And so, as I have often protested before, I write not to soften hardness, as it were, but rather to sow the inward seed of life with a firm spirit, solidity of faith, and the charity of Christ. Note well, O son of dedication, that the judgment of the faith and the grace of election have been poured forth amidst the turmoil of this world, especially ours with the litigiousness into which it often falls, and as I judge it, over the great ones of the world by a divine command, as it were. For those who agitated and chafing for a quarrel over matters long hidden and known by both parties from the beginning, now let loose the reigns of concupiscence’s crimes and let their lightning ‘smite the mountains tall’,c so much so that nothing but confusion beats our ears every waking hour. Yet I have not neglected divine matters in your regard, aware as I am of your particular and unique situation, that is, locked up and under guard as you are. I shall take care then to wash you with votive offerings unto the immortal things of eternity, albeit a  See Terence, The Eunuch, I, 2. 25. Parmeno says to the prostitute: ‘But look here, these are the terms on which I give you my word: if I’ve heard something true, I keep it quiet and keep it in perfectly well; but if it’s false, if there’s nothing to it, if it’s made up, then it’s out at once — I’m full of holes; I leak on this side and that. So if you want it kept quiet, tell the truth!’ b  II Tm 2. 22. c  See Horace, Carmina, II, 10. 11–12. Probably a reference to the open revolt of King Louis’s three sons first in 830 and again in 833.

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if only with a polished word. I am, however, unwilling to repulse you by gagging you, as it were, on milk that you have thus far enjoyed. Rather, I intend for you to grow stronger by it. Therefore, if it pleases your community that matters referring to the body and blood of the Lord be consigned to pen and parchment, you then should draw forth [from this little work] those things you believe necessary to cover, and bind them tightly together by the cord of your love. In this way, all those whom the waters of liberal arts have not yet touched will embrace more fully the pabulum of life and the draught of healing salvation. So shall the fruit of the work then bud forth more abundantly than the wages of the labour; for the profit of a word is such, as I know full well, that once you have filled as many hearers with as much food as there is for hearing, the work is greatly amplified among them all unto the benefit of all. I would hope, therefore, that you would not read these things in a childish way, that is, led more by a love of novel words [rather than by the truth this work contains]. Instead, sit at this little table of poverty as if at the ‘carriage of Solomon’. They, therefore, the chosen of heaven who walk alongside it, are ‘the bravest of the brave’. Wherefore if perchance one who is disdainful or hateful or unworthy comes near it — I speak to protect their safety — it is not without danger that such a contemptuous one approaches, for: ‘The sword of each rattles against his thigh’a to beat back the boldness of such an act as if to protect the king’s litter from the enemy host. For although the work might be lacking in its eloquence, yet there is nothing more excellent than it in its matter. Within it is incorruptible and eternal life, suitably offered to the believer. You should not think of this work, O son, as a fable seasoned with Virgil; by all means, after one has been nursed on the milk of infancy there is nothing that one should be more mindful of, and at the same time there is nothing more pleasant, that is, if one approaches these things with the taste of understanding. For if you taste rightly, as often as you recline at the feast you shall mingle among the crowds of all the angels and saints — for it is the banquet of the eternal king. There the bridegroom and bride a 

See Sg 3. 7–9.

51

5

6

Prologue to Abbot Warin

7

enjoy sweet gifts of delights and the King of all creation strides daily among them, looking to ascertain whether those reclining are vested in that which they have been reborn so as to attend the wedding feast worthily.a And so it is, dearly beloved, that such things are most dangerous to receive — to defile the rich feasts of Christ’s life with sin and to touch holy things impudently are most dangerous matters. I should wish, therefore, that you take care lest you approach these things as one with ‘iniquitous bearing’. Wash among those of ‘innocent hands’,b because already bound to the sacred office, you are able to approach the secrets and with faith touch the Passover of Life in which you are indeed fed and nourished until the end of your life. So nourished, you shall be made strong so as to enter worthily into ‘the place of the wondrous tabernacle, up to the House of God in a voice of praise and thanksgiving where there is the sound of feasting’.c Do not spurn, therefore, so great a grace but instead learn from this little book how much strength for the present there is to receive eternal life and to be fed daily on the food of angels. Even though all things are filled by God, and we always dwell before the eyes of the divine majesty, and although there is absolutely no place free from treachery, nevertheless there is need before the sacred altars, where a great crowd of angels contemplate the face of God, to have holy reverence and submission to the divine. These things, therefore, should be read, if it pleases you, O dear one, secure in your infancy. Note as well that just as the few is brought forth from the many, so I have refined the milk of youth, starting with citations from the Catholic doctors of the Church: Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary, Isidore, John,d Gregory, Jerome, Ysitius,e and Bede. Imbued with their teaching and faith, you can undoubtedly ascend to a higher understanding. Indeed, our pen now commends their learning to you. Using their own See Mt 22. 11–12. See Ps 25. 4–6. c  See Ps 41. 5. d  John Chrysostom (see B. Paulus’s remarks in CC CM, 16, p. ix). e  Hesychius of Jerusalem (see B. Paulus’s remarks in CC CM, 16, p. ix). a 

b 

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Prologue to Abbot Warin

words, I have in turn tempered their meaning from my research in such a way as to make them suitable for your use. I have affirmed those teachings that are clearly not in doubt, and whatever the doctors with sound reasoning have held as true, or opposed, in their writings, I have taken care from the beginning of the work to affix their name on the border of the same book that I sent you. At the same time, I have affirmed those things that are obvious and should not be doubted. In this way, read secure and devoted, and accomplish those things which I have encouraged you to do.

53

PROLOGUE TO KING CHARLES

8

To my most excellent lord the king, your humble and lowly Paschasius Radbertus, an unworthy abbot and deacon of Christ: O illustrious king, although the lowest scum of all monks, I nonetheless send your majesty my many salutations. Indeed, it is fitting to send various gifts in anticipation of the upcoming feast of the Lord’s day, gifts, that is, of gold, of silver, of vessels, of ornaments for various furnishings, of vestments, and of breastplates of horses and paraphernalia for other such animals. Yet among all those who send to you such gifts, to be sure, although I am the least [in wealth and prestige], I am nonetheless your most devoted as a servant in the faith. And because you have made it known that such gifts are pleasing to you, as I do hope this one is, I have decided not to offer your majesty a gift of sluggish heavy metal but instead a little book, which although small in body, is nevertheless great in what it contains about the sacrament of Holy Communion. For [the same work] I sent a while ago to my devoted Placidus, Abbot Warin, your faithful one, to whom I dedicated the work in this way: ‘I should wish to be consigned to pen and parchment for your community the things that are necessary to know about the body and blood of Christ, especially for those whom the waters of liberal arts have not yet touched, so that they might embrace more fully the healing power of the food of life and the drink of eternal salvation’. Now I have taken great care to set before you an orderly presentation of the subject, so that through you ‘the fruit of the work might blossom exceedingly as

54

Prologue to King Charles

a reward for the labour’, and when commended by you, the book and its teachings shall arrive at the many — more than sufficient thanks for the offered gift. For ‘just as you know full well’, O lord my king, ‘the profit of a word is such, that when it has filled as many hearers with as much food as there is for hearing, the work is greatly amplified among them all unto the benefit of all’. ‘I should hope’ then, ‘that you do not read these things’ in a superficial way, that is, ‘led’, as it were, by the greatness of your skill and ‘a love of precious words’; instead, let your prudence ‘attend to this little table of poverty as if at the carriage of Solomon’ because ‘the chosen of heaven who walk alongside it, are from the bravest’ of its citizens. ‘Where’ indeed ‘if one who is disdainful or hateful or unworthy comes near it’ — I offer a word so as ‘to protect their safety — for it is not without danger that such a contemptuous one approaches, for the sword of each rattles against his thigh to beat back the boldness of such an act as if to protect the king’s carriage from the enemy host.a For although the work might be lacking in its eloquence’, yet there is nothing more ‘excellent in its matter, in which incorruptible and eternal life is suitably offered to believers’. Wherefore ‘you should not think my work’, most cherished of emperors, ‘a fable’ for you ‘seasoned with Virgil; rather, one should take care not to give offence in these matters, for there is nothing more blessed than when one approaches them with the taste of understanding’. For indeed ‘if you taste rightly, as often as it pleases you’ to participate in these matters and ‘to recline at the table of this feast, you shall mingle among the crowds of all the angels and saints’, for there one enters ‘the banquet of the eternal king. There the bridegroom and bride enjoy sweet gifts of delights and the King of all creation strides daily among them, looking to ascertain whether those reclining are vested in that which they have been reborn to worthily attend the wedding feast’.b Therefore ‘we ought not to spurn so great a grace’, but instead we should ‘learn with blessed assurance how we might arrive at the food of eternal life’. a  b 

Cf. Sg 3. 7–9. Cf. Mt 22. 11–12.

55

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Prologue to King Charles

Therefore, O  most excellent king, may it please you to carefully attend ‘to the meager eloquence of this book [and learn] how much strength there would be’ in these same mystical sacraments ‘to receive in the present time eternal life and to be fed daily on the food of angels’ found in the body of Christ, ‘even though all things are filled by God, and we always dwell before the eyes of the divine majesty, and although there is absolutely no place free from treachery, nevertheless there is need before the sacred alters, where a great crowd of angels contemplate the face of God, to have holy reverence and submission to the divine’. There, these matters are eagerly sought with mind and spirit. And as you attentively ‘read these things’ with your keen intellect, although they might seem lowly in your opinion, I implore you in prostrate prayer, to the extent that this book passes your examination, that although it touches upon many things, it will in the end enable you to have a greater command of the subject, because we did not advance our own teachings in it but rather those that are the ‘true teachings of the Catholic fathers’, which they themselves committed to writing and about which ‘our pen now commends to you’. And should you in your dignity deign to accept these things that I offer to you with devotion, then I shall give you thanks for so great a consideration, and I shall end with a chant from Virgil: ‘Today I have sent you ten golden apples, tomorrow I will send you ten more’.a

a 

Virgil, Eclogues, 3. 71.

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1. It must not be doubted that Communion is the true body and blood of Christ. Every Catholic who rightly believes in their heart unto justice and confesses with their mouth unto salvation (cf.  Rom 10.  10) that God has created all things from nothing can never doubt (as if it were something contrary to nature) the ability of one thing to come forth from another.a Rather, it is a law of nature that a thing can become other than that which it once was. For the nature of all created things is not from itself, nor can it create from itself all those things that are born through the natural begetting of things. Rather, it is the will of God that establishes the nature of all things. Therefore, if one understands correctly, he or she does not say that nature is the cause of things but rather confesses that the cause and type of all natures, as well as their very origin and mode of decomposition, is the will of God.b For the will of God is so efThe core teaching of Paschasius on the Eucharistic change involves two essential elements: 1) the omnipotence of God, and 2) God being himself the author of nature. Christ, who is God and imbued with divine power, is therefore able to command nature to change in a way that avoids a logical contradiction and affirms divine omnipotence. b  See alternate reading: denascentium. a 

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ficacious and all-powerful that all God needs to do is will it, and it comes about; and having willed it, it is done. Therefore, it is most rightly believed that the will of God alone is the cause of all existing things and natures. Furthermore, as often as it seems that something in this world has occurred contrary to nature, it is in a certain sense not against nature, because the nature of created things has this most powerful excellence: it is always ready to obey God’s laws. For just as the will of God is his being (esse), so we also rightly confess that whatever the power of God has decreed to exist is truly increased by either birth or growth. It may be diminished, however, because of our sins, or, the laws of nature having been set aside, it may even be converted by changing into something completely other than what it once was. For, as one of our poets beautifully said: ‘All nature is subject to your laws, and having been duly set free, it passes over into opposing figures by the Lord’s command’.a Since nothing exists apart from the power of God, he can therefore do anything. Indeed, God the artisan has not established the natures of all created things so that he should withdraw his will from them, but rather the substance of all created things subsists in the same will and power of God from which it has its cause. That substance not only subsists as something but even exists in the way that it does as the same will of God, which is the cause of all created things, has decreed it. Any existence of creatures, therefore, would not persist except for his will from which all their being flows. Indeed, the nature of a creature, as often as it is changed, increased, or diminished, is not diverted from that existence in which it stands — for it is this and becomes that in the way that God has determined it to exist. It is obvious, therefore, that nothing is beyond, or contrary to the will of God, but rather all things yield completely to it. So let no one be disturbed about the body and blood of Christ, which in mystery is his true flesh and his true blood, since he who created it has willed it so: For all things, whatever the Lord willed, he did, in heaven and on earth (Ps 134. 6). Because he rightfully a 

Sedulius, Paschalis Carminis, 22 , in CSEL, 10, pp. 85–87.

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willed that this figure of bread and wine exist as such, they must be believed to be, after the consecration, nothing other than the flesh and blood of Christ. Truth himself said to his disciples: This is my flesh for the life of the world (Jn 6. 51). And, if I may speak more wondrously — it is clearly none other than that flesh which was born of Mary and suffered on the cross and rose from the grave. This, I say, is the same flesh, and therefore it is the flesh of Christ that for the life of the world is still offered today, and, when received worthily, restores eternal life to us. But if what we say seems less than credible to anyone, they should attend to all the miracles of the Old Testament that were done by God against the order of nature to strengthen faith. That person will see more clearly by the light of faith that nothing is impossible for God, since the will of God is the being of all things, and whatever he wills comes about in each and everything. If, however, someone does not believe these things, what if such a one had seen Christ on the cross in the appearance of a slave, how would they accept that he is God unless they had first believed it by faith? So also, with respect to this body where a different appearance is shown, how would one see that it is the flesh of Christ unless they first truly believe it through faith? Should one think that the Red Sea once had it in its own nature to divide itself, so that the people might pass through its midst dry shod? (cf. Ex 14; 16. 21–22). Or should one think that all the waters of the Egyptians were converted into blood on their own, although it was through Moses, etc.? (cf. Ex 7. 7, 17–20; Ps 77. 44) Or rather, was it by the will of God to persuade the unbelieving to faith, and to show by the appearance of its colour that all their doctrine and customary sprinklings would be turned into blood? Furthermore, in the gospel, did the water drawn from the well have the power of changing itself into the taste of wine? (cf.  Jn 2. 6–10) I shall call to mind a few more examples from the many. Did that Babylonian fire into which the three young men were sent have it in its own nature not to burn? (cf. Dn 3. 19–24, 49– 50) Or instead, was it not by the will of God that he provided for his holy ones’ refreshment instead of burning, that there was something like a breath of gentle air?

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Who thinks, then, that those five or seven loaves of bread in the desert substantially had it within their own substance to satisfy so many men and women and then fill so many baskets? (cf. Mt 14. 15–21; 15. 32–38) Was it not instead by the grace of the Creator that it came about? Indeed, they were multiplied by being divided. And did the Virgin Mary have it in herself to give birth to God as a virgin without relations with a man, or rather was it not by the power of God? (cf. Lk 1. 27–55) And, if I may speak more plainly, is our flesh and that of animals not of the earth? Of the earth, for God said: You are earth and unto earth you shall return (Gn 3. 19). However, although the flesh is true earth, and therefore corruptible, yet if it keeps the ordinances of the law and precepts of the commands of God, it will be clothed with immortality. For that which we are talking about, although now flesh, will be incorruptible nonetheless. I ask that you pay diligent attention, O man, first to what is seen to exist naturally, and then to what is read to have occurred from the beginning of creation [until now] against the order of nature. Simply ask yourself then whether it is from themselves, that is, through their own individual nature, that they are changed into something other than they were, or moreover, whether it is by the order of their own law, which would indeed make them miraculous. Rather, is it not the fact, and which you must admit is even more wondrous, that those things that do come about naturally and those things that do come about against nature, as it were; that each and every one of them undoubtedly exists by the will of God and are created by him for the usefulness of rational beings? Let us confess, therefore, that the will of God is the cause of all existing things and that for him to have willed it is to have done it. As often as one thing comes forth from another, therefore, it is prepared in the manner that it is by the power of his will and in accord with his wisdom. For he makes nothing without his power, nor does his power act without wisdom, because the will of God is both wisdom and power. Therefore, whatever he wills comes about as he wills; his will fails in nothing, because he wills all things in his wisdom; even more, his wisdom is his will, and therefore, he wills nothing evil, nor is there anything that he cannot do.

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Thus, because he has willed it in this way, namely, that this mystery should be his flesh and blood, you should not doubt it — that is, if you believe in God. Instead, you should have true faith in your soul that this is that flesh that has been offered for the life of the world (Jn 6. 51–58), so that whoever eats of it worthily will never see death. For Christ has left nothing greater in mystery to his Church than this sacrament and the sacrament of baptism and the sacred Scriptures — in all of which the Holy Spirit, who, as a pledge for the whole Church, works interiorly the mysteries of our salvation unto immortality. Although there is nothing miraculous in these things for the unbeliever, for believers, however, there is nothing better, nothing more miraculous, nothing more precious that can be offered in this age — not to appear as a marvelous vision for the eyes, but instead that those eyes might be filled with the divine mysteries by faith and understanding, and in them be granted eternity for mortals and a sharing in the unity of the body of Christ. That is why this mystery stands far apart from all the miracles that have been accomplished throughout the ages, because all those were done so that this one thing might be believed, namely, that Christ is the Truth (I  Jn 5.  6), and the Truth is God. And if God is the Truth, whatever Christ promised in this mystery is indeed true. Therefore, it is the true flesh and blood of Christ by which anyone who eats and drinks has eternal life remaining in them (cf. Jn 6. 54). But because these things have not changed in respect to bodily appearance and taste, as often as faith is exercised unto righteousness, and because of the merit of faith, the reward of righteousness is attained in it. The other miracles of Christ confirm this one sacrament of his Passion. These things are not changed exteriorly in appearance by a miracle but rather interiorly, so that faith might be approved in the spirit.a Most truly we confess that since the just one lives by faith (cf. Rom 4. 13; Heb 11. 7), such a one, therefore, has the righteousness of faith in mystery and by faith receives life abiding within them. This is an early articulation of a Eucharistic change theory, where change is interior and imperceptible to anything but faith. a 

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Although still mortal, they are fed more securely on immortality and hurry all the more eagerly towards immortal things, where they arrive, not by feet, but by faith together with good works. It is clear in every way, therefore, that just as in Paradise the tree of life was that from which the original state of man would have endured forever if he had observed the commandments (cf.  Gn 2. 9; 3. 22–24; Rv 2. 7), so also his immortality has been provided for in the Church by this mystery of salvation — not that it would be from that same tree in nature but by that invisible power at work within the visible reality. So it is indeed the case that, as if from the fruit of the tree of Paradise (cf. Gn 3. 2), the divine power by its own invisible grace sustains us by the taste of wisdom and strength in this sacrament of visible communion. This is done for the sake of our own immortality. We are then made immortal in the soul because of it, if we receive it worthily, until, transported to better things, we are carried to immortal realities. For this reason, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1. 14), so that through God the Word made flesh, our flesh might advance into God the Word. This flesh of the Word is undoubtedly food in this mystery and the nourishment of the faithful, since it is truly believed to be the flesh for the life of the world (Jn 6. 51). It is nothing other than the flesh of the body of Christ, by which flesh Christ remains in us, so that we, through it, might be transformed into him who is none other than God in the flesh condescending to dwell in us (cf. Jn 1. 14). If, therefore, he dwells in us, and we, as members of his body, remain in him, it is right that we be in him so that we might live from him (cf. Eph 4. 25; 5. 30; I Cor 6. 15; Rom 12. 5). Therefore, we are fed by the flesh of the Word and drink of his blood. This is the strength of our faith, I say, this is the unity and communication of life. If the order of nature is sought somewhere, reason will submit to it; the truth of the reality, on the other hand, remains beyond human reason. Thus, in the reasonableness of faith, the strength of the divinity and the efficacy of his power is believed in every way. For a doubting mind prevents us from reaching an understanding of this sacrament, even if the one who has the doubt lives a good life.

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2. None of the faithful should be ignorant of the fact that this is a mystery of Christ. None of the faithful should be ignorant about the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord celebrated daily in the Church, nor should anyone be unaware of what pertains to faith and what pertains to knowledge. This is because faith in the mystery is not properly defended without knowledge, nor is knowledge adequate without faith, a faith that is nourished whenever one receives, even though he or she does not yet understand as they should. The power of so great a sacrament should be investigated and faith be instructed by the teaching of Christ; otherwise we might be judged unworthy of it. This is especially the case if we do not sufficiently discern or perceive the body and blood of Christ in this mystery, that is, what power it exercises with such great dignity, how it shines forth with so much virtue and is discerned by bodily taste to such a degree that it is judged more excellent than all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. If anyone does not know this, such a one is not discerning, and therefore, it must be feared that through ignorance what has been provided for us as a remedy might become ruination for some who receive it. The Lord in Leviticus says: Whoever shall eat of the sacred offering through ignorance shall add a fifth part to the one which he ate and give it to the priest in the sanctuary; lest you profane the sacred offerings of the sons of Israel that they offer to the Lord, lest they incur the iniquity of their guilt when they eat what has been made holy (Lv 22. 14–16). And it adds: I am the Lord who makes them holy (Lv 24. 9). Furthermore, we read: Holy things for the holy ones (Lv 24. 9). When the mystery of the body and blood of Christ is pointed to, not only every stranger, tenant, and hired hand does not have the right to eat (Lv 22. 10) but also the one who is blinded through ignorance of so great a mystery. A person receives it through ignorance who completely ignores its power, its dignity, and the circumstances of the sacrament itself, that is, one who actually does not know that it is the body and blood of Christ in truth, although it is received in the sacrament by faith. That person receives the mystery but is unaware of the power of the mystery.

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Solomon, or rather the divine Spirit through him, commanded: When you are seated at the table of an important man, as you eat with the prince, diligently pay attention to what is put before you, since it is necessary for you to prepare the same things (Prv 23. 1–2), that is, to preach daily by carrying around the death of Christ in your body. Diligently understand and worthily perceive the spiritual sacraments by the palate of the mind and the taste of faith, as if one were to add legally the fifth part to those things that formerly one ate through ignorance (cf. Lv 22. 4). The interior man receives divine things by the grace of Christ and is incorporated into Christ through it by the power of faith. If this were not so, how could the Law order that the fifth part be added to those things that someone had eaten through ignorance, if there were not already something left over that could be added to the other parts? For something is not added to what does not exist but rather to that which exists. Rightly does the Septuagint mandate the adding of the fifth part. The fifth part is properly added by us to that which had been received previously in ignorance, when the five senses of the body are spiritually converted to the intelligible realities within. If we think rightly or perceive correctly, then by the divine Spirit who is in us grace is increased. The Spirit instructs our senses to perceive these things and indeed arranges them in such a way that not only taste arrives interiorly at mystical realities but also the Spirit even enlightens sight, hearing, smell, and touch to such an extent that nothing is sensed by them except divine and heavenly realities. Thoroughly awesome is what is communicated. How well is it said: Let him add the fifth part to it (Lv 22. 14), or, as other codices have it, with it, you will also give to the priest. All the sanctification and efficacy of the mystical sacrifice is recognized, therefore, when the sensible reality is divinely changed by the power of God through the word of Christ into his flesh and blood. The communicants are then spiritually nourished by Christ who is the true high priest, since it is necessary to attribute in a Catholic understanding the entire strength and power to Christ, because it is he himself who frees us from all ignorance and removes us from the carnal things of this life.

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He therefore does not permit anything earthly or base to be received in it but instead allows mystical and spiritual realities to be tasted in them, so that the senses of our body might be interiorly transformed. With eagerness [and longing] they are sanctified by them, so that the preeminent part of a person may be able to say: My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God (Ps 83. 3). Rightly, therefore, the whole person exults in the living God, because, although all might eat daily of the flesh and blood of Christ, nevertheless, the Lamb himself remains living and whole. For he does not die, death no longer has power over him (Rom 6. 9). Yet, truly immolated every day in the mystery, he is thereby eaten unto the remission of sins. This is inferred in that very same decree of the Law that reads: I am the Lord who makes them holy (Lv 22. 16). Moreover, he sanctifies those who through these mysteries rightly strive towards the sanctifying God and with devotion perceive them in the way that they should. For those reborn in Christ he has set forth these mysteries as a cause of sanctification and not of condemnation. Otherwise, whoever, as the Law says, contaminates sanctified things, eat­ing in ignorance (cf. Lv 22. 14–16) or unworthily seeking them out of contempt, will carry the iniquity of his own sin. It is necessary then to instruct those who receive the sacraments of life lest, because of laziness, they be ignorant of the salvific fundamentals of the faith and themselves be completely ignored by the Lord.

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3. What are sacraments, or, why are they called sacraments. A sacrament is whatever in any divine celebration is handed down to us as a pledge of salvation, because what is done visibly is far removed from what is done invisibly within and must be received in a holy way. They are called sacraments from the ‘secret’, either because the divinity works something secretly within the visible reality by means of a bodily sign; or it does so by the consecration that makes it holy, because the Holy Spirit, remaining in the body

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of Christ, produces in a hidden way all the mysteries of the sacraments under the covering of visible things for the salvation of the faithful. By this means the power of God directs the minds of believers more to the invisible realities than if he should show visibly those things that he provides interiorly to produce salvation: For we walk by faith and not by sight (II Cor 5. 7). The sacraments of Christ in the Church are: baptism, chrismation, and the Body and Blood of the Lord. They are called sacraments because under their visible appearances the divine power secretly consecrates the flesh, so that these are interiorly in truth what they are outwardly believed to be by the power of faith.a There exists the sacrament of the oath, in which, after the choice of the parties, each one swears to that which he has determined by his own agreement. For that reason it is also called a sacrament, because invisible faith in a most hidden way, through the consecration of God’s invocation or of some other holy thing, is understood to be present through the voice of the one swearing, which is sensed externally by either sight or sound. The Nativity of Christ and the entire dispensation of his humanity becomes, therefore, in a certain sense a great sacrament, because in the visible man, the divine majesty works invisibly for the sake of our sanctification, performing invisibly those things that come to be secretly by his power. For this reason, it is rightly called a mystery or a sacrament because it is God made man. The word in Greek is ‘mystery’ because it has a secret and hidden arrangement.b There is a sacrament also in the divine Scriptures whenever the Holy Spirit operates interiorly in those same Scriptures by speaking efficaciously in some way. Having studied the sacrament of the Scriptures, we are divinely fed within, and by feeding we are trained for the work and teaching of Christ. Indeed, by the sacraments of both his Nativity and humanity we are redeemed unto pardon, and the Scriptures are opened for our understanding, and a  The interior truth of the Eucharist for Paschasius is the reality of the body born of Mary, present under the forms of bread and wine, which he describes as ‘powerfully created’ from their mutual substances. b  Text reads: eo quod secretam et reconditam in se habeat dispositionem.

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the way is shown to us through him. Power is then dispensed to us, so that we might pass from servitude unto the adoption of sons (cf. Jn 1. 14; Rom 8. 15; Gal 4. 5; Eph 1. 5). In the sacrament of baptism a door of passage is opened to believers for the same adoption, so that thereafter, as members of Christ and freed from evil through that same rebirth, we are made one body. In this baptism and ever after the Holy Spirit is poured into the soul of the one reborn, so that the universal Church of Christ is vivified and made one body by the one Spirit who has been received. Just as all the members of our body are vivified and ruled by one soul, so that one body is made from the fastening together of the members, so it is that the members of the whole Church are ruled and vivified by the one Holy Spirit to become the one Body of Christ. If someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ (Rom 8. 9). Let no one doubt, therefore, that each and every one of us, still enclosed in the womb of our mother, receives a soul, although in a hidden manner, so that each of us may be a living soul in such a way that while this is happening, the mother does not know when life enters through her and into the child before he or she is born. So it is that no one should doubt that in the womb of baptism, before the infant rises from the font, the Holy Spirit, who gives rebirth, although unseen, has come to the one reborn. The divine power is no less provident and preeminent in the regeneration of sacred adoption than it was previously in the birth of the flesh, so that the members of one already begotten as human might be vivified, even though they were conceived in sin. For this reason, let there be no doubt or contention between us. For the Most High God, the judge of all, always dispenses his grace for our advantage, so that what he has established might not be altered in any way. For if the members of a man, having come from paternal lust and the maternal sin that comes from libidinous desires, are knitted together and vivified, how much more so does the Holy Spirit, who, present everywhere because he fills the whole world (cf. Ws 1. 7) and offers himself to all those reborn by faith, pour himself out to such an extent that the members of Christ perceive themselves as one as they all become one body.

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As for this sacrament, that is, the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we eat and drink while we journey, and nourished by them, we become one. In the earthly taste we are prepared for immortal and eternal realities, since already fed spiritually by angelic grace, we are vivified in him. The divine Spirit works in us within all these sacraments as he illumines our hearts in the sacred Scriptures, because neither he who plants nor he who sows is anything, but rather it is God who gives the increase (I Cor 3. 7). Hence Ezekiel says: The spirit of life was in the wheels (Ez 1. 21). And John says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rv 2. 7). In Christ, the same Spirit cooperates, because [Christ] is believed to have been conceived by the same Spirit and the Virgin Mary. In a similar way, first we are all regenerated by him through water and the Holy Spirit in baptism, and then by his power, we daily eat the body of Christ and drink his blood. We should not wonder that the Holy Spirit who creates the man Christ in the womb of the Virgin without seed, even now daily brings about from the substance of bread and wine the flesh and blood of Christ by his invisible power through the sanctification of this sacrament, although external vision or taste fails to perceive it. And because they are spiritual realities, as the Truth himself has said, they are to be fully received with the certitude of faith and understanding.

4. Whether this mystery of the chalice becomes a sacrament in figure or in truth. No one who believes in the divine words doubts that the body and the blood truly come about in the consecration of the mystery. As the Truth says: My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink (Jn 6. 55). And so, to make it clear to those disciples who did not properly understand about what flesh or which blood he was speaking, he declares openly: The one who eats my flesh, he says, and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (Jn 6. 54). Therefore, if it is true food, it is true flesh, and if it is true drink, it is true blood. Other-

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wise, how would what he says be true: The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world (Jn 6. 56), unless it were true flesh? Indeed, the bread that descends from heaven (Jn 6. 33) is true bread. But because it is not right that Christ be devoured by teeth, he wished that this bread and wine be powerfully created in mystery into his flesh and blood by the consecration of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, he creates it to be immolated daily in a mystical fashion for the life of the world (Jn 6. 51). Therefore, just as from the Virgin his true flesh is created through the Spirit without conjugal relations, so through the same Spirit from the substance of the bread and wine the same body and blood of Christ is mystically consecrated.a Concerning this flesh and blood, he says: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have eternal life within you (Jn 6. 53). When he says this, it is therefore none other than true flesh and true blood, although mystically so. Because it is a mystical sacrament,b we are not able to deny that it is a figure. But if it is a figure, it should be asked how it can also be true.c For every figure is a figure of some other reality to which it always refers, so that it would be a true figure of that reality. For no one who reads Sacred Writ doubts that the figures of the Old Testament were shadows.d This mystery is either truth or a figure, The word mystice is used by Paschasius to describe how the same flesh born of the Virgin is: 1) immolated in the sacrifice of the Mass, and 2) made present in the consecration. The force of the word goes beyond a mere synonym for sacramentum, in that it captures how the reality of the body of Christ is present under the figure of bread, on the one hand, and how the reality of blood is present under the form of wine, on the other. For Paschasius, the reality of the body and the sign value of the figure are both retained by the force and power of the mystery that is accessible only by faith. b  Text reads: unde quia mysticum est sacramentum, nec figuram illud negare possumus. Clearly there is an equivalence between the two concepts with a distinction. The presence of the true body of Christ is accomplished in mystery, but because this is also a sacrament, the accompanying ‘figure’, as in the other sacraments, points to the ‘reality’. c  Veritas used in this context means ‘real’, or what later Scholastics will refer to as the res of the sacrament. d  When there is only the figure without the reality, as was the case in the Old Testament, then these figures are simply ‘shadows’ that point to a future fulfillment in Christ: nam figuras veteris testamenti umbras fuisse. Cf. Augustine: ‘Ego a 

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and therefore, if it is only a figure, then it is a shadow. Certainly, it should be asked whether the whole thing can be called truth without any shadow of falsehood, although a reality of this kind really ought to be called a ‘mystery’.a It is seen to be a true sign of its reality when it is broken,b while its visible appearance is understood to be something other than that which is sensed by carnal vision and taste, and when the blood in the chalice is mixed with water.c Indeed, this sacrament of faith is properly called ‘truth’ as well. It is truth when the body and blood of Christ, by the power of the Spirit in his very own word, is brought about from the substance of the bread and the wine.d It is a figure, however, when the priest, who for the sake of remembering the sacred Passion that happened once and for all, does something outwardly at the altar by the immolation of the Lamb.e But if we take an honest look at it, it is properly called truth and figure at the same time, so that what is sensed externally is a figure, or a perfect image (caracter), of the truthf — truth, that is, in whatever of this mystery is rightly understood or interiorly believed to be so. For not every figure is a shadow or false.g For sum panis vivus, qui de caelo descendi. Ideo vivus, quia de caelo descendi. De caelo descendit et manna; sed manna umbra erat, iste veritas est’. Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 13, in CC SL, 36, p. 266, lines 1–3. a  That is, mysterium. b  That is at the fractio, when the host is broken after the consecration, symbolizing Christ’s passion and death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. c  This symbolizes the blood and water pouring forth from the side of Christ, the fountain of the sacramental life of the Church. d  Text reads: ex panis vinique substantia efficitur. e  To sum up Paschasius’s thoughts up to this point: the Eucharist is primarily the true body and blood of the Lord made present in a mystical fashion, which itself is the reality of the mystery. The signs ( figura) of bread and wine accompanying the mystery (mysterium) point to this reality (veritas) that is accessible only by faith. These signs, however, also accomplish other symbolic actions, such as representing the Passion, and so on. f  For Paschasius it is of the nature of ‘mystery’ itself to hold together figure and truth simultaneously in a way that captures the reality. Here his use of caracter captures that idea. g  This is an important distinction between figura and umbra, where the latter is a hollow figure of the Old Testament under which there is no reality. The situation is just the opposite for a figura joined to the veritas of the ‘mystery’.

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example, Paul, speaking about the Only Begotten Son to the Hebrews says: He is the splendour of his glory and figure of his substance, and sustaining all things by his powerful word, makes purification for sins (Heb 1. 3). Indeed, by these words, he declares two substances in Christ, and each of them true.a For when he says: He is the splendour of his glory, he preaches the consubstantial nature of his divinity. When he says the figure or perfect image of his substance, however, he designates the nature of the humanity, where the plenitude of the divinity dwells corporally (Col 2. 9). Yet it is the one and true Christ, God, who is commended by Catholic faith in each. He therefore uses the one reality to demonstrate the two substances that he calls the figure and the perfect image of the substance. For, just as through perfect images and literary figures our infancy gradually advances first towards reading, then to the spiritual sense and understanding of the Scriptures, so it is that from the humanity of Christ we arrive at the divinity of the Father. Thus, he can properly be called a ‘figure’ or ‘perfect image’ (caracter) of the Father’s substance. For what else are literary figures than images of the same things, so that through them, the force, power, and spirit are demonstrated by being presented to the eyes? Thus, in this way the Word is made flesh, so that through the flesh our infancy might be nourished to understand the divinity. Indeed, literary images are not false nor anything other than letters, nor is it possible to call Christ the man false, nor anything other than God, although he is rightly said to be the figure or perfect image (caracter) of the divine substance. This is because he draws our infancy by way of his humanity to understand interiorly spiritual things; and so that we may understand those things that are in him, he makes himself visible to our senses. Paschasius lays out an important Christological analogy between the Eucharist and Christ. The humanity of Christ is real but is a figure or perfect image that points to the truth of the hidden divinity. Caracter here is a word deriving from the Greek meaning ‘stamp, mark, image or impression’. Augustine’s use of the word as indicating an indelible mark or seal in the sacraments goes back to Roman times and the ‘mark’ used by Roman legionnaires. Christ’s humanity (caracter) is a perfect image of the divinity that is in a certain sense contained by it. a 

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Because it was necessary, therefore, that he penetrate the heavens by way of the flesh, so that those who have been reborn in him might confidently seek him there through faith; he has left for us, therefore, this visible sacrament in the figure and perfect image (caracter) of his flesh and blood, so that through them our mind and our flesh would be fully nourished, and they might take hold of invisible and spiritual realities by faith. For what is sensed externally is a figure or caracter, but that which is perceived interiorly is wholly true and not a shadow (adumbratio). By this, therefore, it is known to be none other than the truth and sacrament of his flesh. ‘Indeed, the true flesh of Christ who has been crucified and buried is truly the sacrament of his flesh’,a which through the priest is divinely consecrated on the altar by the word of Christ through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is the Lord himself who proclaims: This is my body (Mt 26. 26; Mk 14. 22; Lk 22. 19; I Cor 11. 24). You should not marvel at this, O man, nor should you seek the order of nature in it. For if you truly believe that flesh was created without seed from the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the Word became flesh, then also truly believe that what has been confected by the word of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit is his body from the Virgin.b If you seek a reason, who can comprehend it or explain it with words? By all means I want you to know that the reason for this rests in the power of Christ; knowledge rests on faith; the cause is in his power; the effect, however, is in his will, because the power of the divinity that operates efficaciously over and above nature surpasses the capacity of our reasoning. Let knowledge therefore be had in the doctrine of salvation, let faith be held in the mystery of truth,c because in all these things we walk by faith and not by sight (II Cor 5. 7). Ambrose, De mysteriis, 9. 53, in CSEL, 73, p. 112, lines 53–54. Cf. Ambrose, De mysteriis, 9. 53, in CSEL, 73, p. 112, lines 47–52: ‘Numquid naturae usus praecessit, cum Iesus dominus ex Maria nasceretur? Si ordinem quaerimus, viro mixta femina generare consuevit. Liquet igitur, quod praeter naturae ordinem virgo generavit. Et hoc quod conficimus corpus ex virgine est’. c  In mysterio veritatis. In this sense, both are true, figure and reality, bound together in the mystery of Christ’s body and blood. a 

b 

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5. What the difference is between the offerings and figures of the Old Law and the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord. All the faithful rightly understand that the immolation of the lamb was a figure of the Passion of Christ and our communion with him (cf. Ex 12. 3–11; Is 53. 7; I Cor 5. 7). I think that we must examine, however, what difference there is between that offering and this sacrament, or between that bread that came down from heaven, as well as the water that flowed from the rock, [and this sacrament]. This is especially the case between the latter, with its spiritual and divine interchange, since the blessed Apostle exclaims: All our fathers ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink (I Cor 10. 3–4). But if they received the same spiritual food and the same spiritual drink, why did it need to be changed if nothing further were needed or it was like that which was already given?a It must be confessed that it was the same food and drink that we now receive, as it was the same water that flowed from the rock, when Christ is preached according to the witness of the Apostle. It was the same food, because the manna was for those receiving spiritually a typeb of the food that is the body of Christ, and a figure of his blood was that water, which as drink flowed from the rock. It was the same in prefiguration, but not the same in fulfillment of the truth,c because that which was foreshadowed (adumbrabatur) as a designation of what was to come was an image of the truth and a shadow (umbra) of the body. They were exemplars (exemplaria) that are now fulfilled in the mystery of truth (mys-

Here is a crucial point of discussion between Old Testament figures and the signs or figures of the sacraments of Christ, where the former lacks the reality or prophetic fulfillment of the latter. b  Text reads: typus. c  The figure contained a similar symbolic meaning but not the reality. The symbolism of the Old Testament speaks to the future New Testament fulfillment in the mysteries or sacraments of Christ. a 

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terium veritatis).a The flesh of Christ has been made Eucharist by the Resurrection, and was prefigured in former times for believers through the lamb or through the food from heaven.b It is of this bread that David prophesied in the Psalms: Man ate the bread of angels (Ps 78(77). 25). Indeed, that food and drink, although it came from heaven, and because it was corporeal, was not suitable for angels. This bread and drink, on the other hand, was foretold through those realities. Christ is the food of angels, and as such, this is truly the sacrament of his flesh and blood, which one eats and drinks spiritually.c The angels live and humans live by this food, because they receive the whole divine reality spiritually. It is obvious, therefore, that the lamb of the Law and the manna and everything like it that bore the figure of the flesh and blood of Christ, who suffered once in the Passover and is immolated daily morning and evening upon the altar, would not be a figure unless it were the shadow of this grace.d Should any power of sanctification have been hidden in them, it would have wholly arisen from the grace of faith that we [now] enjoy. Indeed, those who participated in them, longing for the promised reality, did so through those things, yet only by way of faith and figures, by which they saw and recognized [from afar] this sacrament of truth. We, on the other hand, far removed in time from the fathers, have now received this promised grace; and having received it, we venerate it.e Venerating it, we eat and drink of it, not as fore­ As forerunners of the Christian mysteries, the Old Testament types looked to the fulfillment now enjoyed by the Christian sacraments. Thus, an Old Testament type like that of the manna would be no more than a figure of a figure if the bread of the Eucharist were only a symbol and not something that pointed to a greater reality within. b  The Eucharistic flesh is the very flesh of Christ now resurrected and in glory, and as such stands as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises. c  Criticisms of ultra-realism in the Eucharistic doctrine of Paschasius do not stand up to the spiritual descriptions of communion such as this one. It is true that he insisted that the Eucharist was the true flesh and blood of Christ, now risen and in glory. It is not true, however, that his text lends itself easily to a Capharnite interpretation. d  The alternate reading was chosen here: umbra gratiae. e  The fulfillment of the Old Testament promise is the grace of Christ poured out in the mystery of the Eucharist. a 

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shadowed in the ambiguous figures of the Law, but with those figures uncovered and set free, we delight in truth alone and receive the true flesh and blood of Christ in mystery.a Therefore, the Saviour says: My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat this flesh and drink this blood have eternal life (Jn 6. 55). Again, the Lord says to the Jews: Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they died (Jn 6. 54). Do we not also who eat these things die in time just as they did? We die, yet not as they did in the spirit, for those who eat in a carnal way die for­ ever. Since we sense nothing carnally in this mystery, we remain spiritually in Christ, for we are to understand the whole reality in a spiritual way.b The Lord himself exclaims concerning those who receive properly: Whoever eats this bread lives forever (Jn 6. 58). For the flesh and blood of Christ are received spiritually by us, not for this life, so that we might not die in time, but for the sake of eternal life. Indeed, for those who formerly received these things in figure did not enter into eternal life until grace came to us and, as promised, also to them.c It is obvious, therefore, and in fact of great importance to note, that even though it is the same food and drink preached by the Apostle (I Cor 10. 4), it is no less a figure in hope where the promise of truth resides. About this spiritual understanding and the sacraments of faith: although they were perceived as being for them a future reality, they were still not lacking to our fathers in spirit, for they already drank in hope. Nor are they lacking to us, because in contemplating them, we advance unto a strengthened faith as we receive a life in abundance. Still, reception in spirit vivifies them and us, because they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them (I Cor 10. 3–4; Jn 6. 54–65), signifying that Christ would come after them. We also Text reads: et veram carnem Christi et sanguinem in mysterio sumimus. Here is another example where Paschasius᾽s emphasis on the spiritual nature of communion militates against an overly carnal and ultra-realist interpretation of his doctrine. c  Grace and the promise of eternal life can be found only in the mysteries of Christ — not in the types of the Old Testament. a 

b 

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drink spiritually and eat the spiritual flesh of Christ in which it is believed there is eternal life.a Indeed, although it is death to taste according to the flesh, it is no less than eternal life to receive in the spirit the true flesh of Christ.

6. What it means to receive the body and blood of the Lord worthily unto eternal life.

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Clearly Christ says: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (Jn 6. 56). To eat his flesh and drink his blood, then, means that one who receives worthily can remain in Christ, and Christ in him. That person remains in Christ who is born again of water and the spirit (Jn 3. 5) and is not held guilty of any serious sin. Christ, who opened to them the door of faith, who consecrated them in the Holy Spirit as a member of his body and a temple of the Holy Spirit, truly remains in them. Because if someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Christ (Rom 8. 9). Anyone who does not belong to Christ is truly not able to be in him or in his body. And whoever does not remain in him does not live the life of the Spirit in his body, nor does Christ live in them, nor are they able to be in Christ, because Christ is Life itself. Whoever is guilty of mortal sin is far separated from life.b This is why he said: ‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Unless one first remain in me and I in them, that person would not be able to eat my flesh or drink my blood’. And what is it that we eat? Behold, how often all receive the sacraments of the altar with indifference. Certainly they receive, but one person eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Christ in a spiritual manner and another does not, although Here is a key text that indicates the nature of the Eucharistic reality — true in fact, identical to the body born of the Virgin in reality, and received spiritually in the mystery. b  Paschasius uses strong language about worthy reception of the sacrament. To receive in mortal sin is the same as the betrayal of Judas who ‘after receiving the morsel went out, and it was night’ (cf. Jn 13. 30). a 

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each is seen to receive a particle from the hand of the priest. And what does that person receive, if he does not receive the body and the blood of Christ, since there is only one consecration? Truly, because the guilty one receives unworthily, as the Apostle Paul says: He eats and drinks judgment unto himself who does not examine himself beforehand, not discerning the body of the Lord (I Cor 11. 28–29). Behold, what does the sinner eat and drink? Not flesh and blood to his advantage but rather unto his own judgment, even though he seems to receive the sacrament of the altar with all the others. Why? Because sinners do not examine themselves, nor discern the Body. For the faithless person thinks that he or she can receive unworthily the noble and holy things, considering them nothing more than what they see. That person reckons that they are nothing other than what they experience by the senses. In no way, therefore, do they believe or understand how or what the judgment is that they receive. Indeed, because visibly they discern that all are eating simultaneously the same thing, still, they do not sufficiently understand from faith that there is any power in the sacrament beyond what they see. As a result, the power of this sacrament is withdrawn, and at the same time, the sentence of guilt is doubled because of the person’s presumption. That is why the Apostle says: A man ought to examine himself, and then eat of this bread or drink of this cup (I Cor 1. 28). Having preserved both things, let them see whether they can receive worthily, namely, whether they discern the Body of the Lord, and how great a sacrament it is, that is, how great is the power of this sacrament that is both divine and spiritual. Then let them examine themselves as to whether they remain in the body of Christ, or Christ remains in them. Otherwise, unless one judges it spiritually, and examines oneself to see if he or she is worthy to receive, they eat judgment unto themselves because they have used a good thing in an evil way. That one receives, therefore, not unto life but rather unto judgment and punishment.a

a 

See Appendix for lines 51–108.

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7. The ways in which it is said to be the body of Christ. 37 38

The body of Christ is spoken of in three ways in sacred Scripture. The Church of Christ is his body, where ‘Christ the head’ and all the elect are called ‘members’ (Eph 1. 22–23; 5. 23–30), from whom the one body is gathered daily into the perfect man and full measure of Christ (Eph 4. 4–13). The body of Christ, that is, the Church of God, is rightly called the spouse of Christ, for as the Apostle says: And the two shall be one flesh (Eph 5. 25–29). For he says: This is a great sacrament in Christ and in the Church (Eph 5. 32). But if Christ and the Church are one in the flesh, she is indeed ‘one body’, where the spouse is the head and ‘each and every’ one of the elect are members of one another (Rom 12. 5). It follows from these words, therefore, that whoever takes a member of Christ and makes himself a member of a prostitute, or whoever through grave sin makes himself a member of the Devil, such a one is indeed not in the body of Christ, since he has been made the member of another. Therefore, it is not lawful for such a one to eat of this mystic body of Christ.a Indeed, since this is the true flesh of Christ consecrated daily for the life of the world (Jn 6. 51), those who are opposed to him do not have the right to eat of it. The ones who feed worthily, however, are those who are in his body, so that the body of Christ alone that is on pilgrimage is the way, so that by his very flesh they are refreshed and know — to hunger for nothing other than Christ, to thirst for nothing other save Christ, to taste nothing other than Christ, to live from nothing other than Christ, and to be nothing other than the body of Christ.b Furthermore, this is the body that was born of the Virgin Mary, and into which this reality has been transferred,c that body that hung upon the cross, that was buried in the tomb, rose from the dead, has penetrated the heavens (cf. Gal 3. 13; I Cor 15. 4), and Text reads: De hoc mystico corpore Christi. The flesh of Christ fulfills every spiritual desire and is food for the pilgrim Christian as they travel to meet the Lord in heaven. c  Here is the articulation of an early change theory of the Eucharist. a 

b 

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has now been made high priest forever, who daily makes intercession for us (Heb 4. 14; 6. 20; Rom 8. 34).a If we direct our mind to him while communicating properly, we receive from him and by him his flesh, while he remains whole and entire in it.b This indeed is his very flesh, and the fruit of that flesh remains always the same, feeding all those who are in his body.c If a jar of wheat or a flask of oil or the loaves all grow favourably and are not diminished while they satisfy, what shall you think of the flesh of Christ? Indeed, the tree of the wood of life is now Christ in the Church, whose image was that tree in Paradise.d It is fitting to know, therefore, that there is fulfilled in truth here what was formerly promised in figure there. For if man had kept the commandments, he would have been permitted to eat from this tree and would never have died. Whoever eats spiritually of this tree of the body, however, if they have kept the commandments, then their spirit will never die. Indeed, they are pruned so that they are more easily grafted in again. Thus, it is properly called the ‘Tree of Life’, because just as it offers immortality of the body to the one who receives it, so it also offers eternal life more surely to those who observe the commandments of God. In praise of this, it is said in the book of Wisdom: It is a tree of life to those who keep the commandments (Prov 3. 18). And in the Apocalypse of John it says: To him who conquers, I will give to eat of the tree of life that is in the paradise of my God (Rv  2. 7). This mystery, therefore, is bestowed only upon the one who has conquered. Since we have used three terms for the body of Christ,e it remains to understand the sacred Scriptures and the doctrine about This is a clear identification of the reality of the sacrament of the body and blood with the historical body born of Mary. b  Text reads: ut ex ipso et ab ipso nos corpus eius carnem ipsius illo manente integro. c  That is, the Church. d  This passage draws a traditional parallel with the tree of Eden, or the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that became the tree that caused the curse of death in Genesis. According to Paschasius (and others), Christ and his Church are now the tree of life, and the Eucharist is the fruit of that tree that saves from death and gives eternal life. e  The body of Christ is: 1) the Church, 2) the body born of Mary, and 3) the Eucharist. In Paschasius’s theology of the sacrament there is an identity between a 

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Christ, which should often be understood figuratively about the term ‘body of Christ’, so that one body might be thoroughly understood from all its uses. Because they are the dowry, they are mysteries, so that Christ and the Church are confirmed more solidly as one body. Were it not so, how would the Apostle dare to assert that the Church of Christ is established from his flesh and bones? (Eph 5. 30) Indeed, for the adversaries, whether they wish it or not, this is a great sacrament in respect to Christ and the Church (Eph 5. 32), because the two are one flesh (Eph 5. 31). And if Christ and the Church are one flesh, now the unity in nature of both is fully entrusted to us. For that reason, we accept that it is the whole and entire flesh of the Lamba that takes away the sins of the world, for as Christ remains in us by it, we who are reborn are made one in him because of it.

8. In this communion, either judgment or reward is received. In this present age, there is nothing more dangerous than to sin lethally in the presence of the one who judges us inwardly and to fall away from the body of Christ. Moreover, there is nothing more damnable — because of human faithlessness like that of Judas — than not to withdraw from the mystery of Holy Communion until one’s fault is corrected. For this reason, from the celebration’s very beginning, judgment is threatened against those who receive unworthily, since immediately after he received the morsel from the hand of the Lord, the Devil entered Judas (Jn 13. 27). Here the future judgment in the Church is revealed, because the holy things are meant for the holy ones (Lv 24. 9). For if any of these holy ones, having fallen away from the body of Christ and having been made a member of a prostitute or the Devil, should presume to do these things, there is no doubt that they will receive judgment because (2) and (3), with a distinction made in the mode of presence of the former in relation to the latter. a  The alternate reading has been chosen here: illam integram agni carnem.

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of it. They will be guilty of sin and are therefore associated with Judas. He fell because, damned in conscience, he dared to desecrate the holy mysteries without doing penance and receiving that pardon that comes from correction. Indeed, such a person has not properly revered the presence of the divine majesty when he thinks there is nothing more to these things than what is seen. The wretched one does not understand that the flesh of Christ is never rightly received unless it is from Christ’s own hand and from the high altar where Christ is seated before everyone as the high priest of all the good things to come (Heb 9. 11). Therefore, the priest, when he begins to immolate these things, among other words says, ‘Command that these things be borne by the hand of your angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty’.a And do you think, O man, to receive some­thing other than that from the altar, where what has been consecrated is borne to another place on high? Perhaps blind thought says about these things: How is it so quickly offered in the sight of the divine majesty in heaven, since here it is properly called either bread or flesh, always held in the hand of the priest in its visible form? This indeed, O happy one, is why it is called a sacrament or a mystery.b For if everything were visible, nothing in it would be a mystery or a secret; there would be nothing of faith, no spiritual power, no other reality than that which is subjected to sight and taste. In fact, a divine interior power operates far differently, because we walk by faith and not by sight (II Cor 5. 7). Faith has the reward for its merits, so that whatever is tasted by you through faith offers itself in a completely interior manner.c We read what is written in Scripture: You have given them O Lord, bread from heaven, containing every delight and every good taste (Ws 16. 20; cf. Jn 6. 31). Unless it were through faith and understanding, what would be experienced by those eating except bread and wine? a  Canon Missae Romanae, ed. by L. Eizenhofer, Traditio textus, 1 (Rome: Vatican, 1954), p. 36, lines 100–02. The text of the Canon reads here: per manus sancti angeli. b  Text reads: sacramentum vel mysterium vocatur. c  That is, faith is the key that unlocks the mystery that lays the true reality open to the mind.

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Those carnal people grew tired of the manna, because they sought nothing other than carnal realities therein. To the others, it offered all taste and all delight. It was the same food from heaven that we now receive, a spiritual type-filled reception tasted in the mouth. Therefore, the Apostle testified: Our fathers ate the same spiritual food, but God was not pleased with many of them (I Cor 10. 1, 3–5). This was because, not being fastidious, they tasted spiritual things carnally. They were not our fathers foretasting spiritual realities, but the unbelieving fathers of the Pharisees, about whom the Lord said: They died in the desert (Jn 6. 49). Indeed, those died who were not pleasing to God; those who were eating spiritually, however, could not die, because they were eating spiritually and because heavenly food offered pleasing taste and the delight of immortality.a In a similar way now in the Church, this food is life for some, and for others punishment and payment for sin. It is life for those for whom Christ is life; it is death for those who through carnal desire and ignorance are members of the Devil. Therefore, O  man, learn to taste something other than that which is sensed by the mouth of flesh, to see something other than that which is shown to eyes of flesh. Learn that God, a spirit independent of place, is everywhere. Understand that these spiritual realities that are indeed neither locally nor carnally before the sight are borne up to the heights of the divine majesty. Think then whether any corporeal thing could be more sublime since the substance of bread and wine is effectively and interiorly changed into the flesh and blood of Christ, so that after the consecration it is rightly believed to be truly the very flesh and blood of Christ and nothing other than Christ, who is considered by believers to be the Bread from heaven. You do not think, do you, that the altar where Christ stands as Pontiff is anything other than his own body, through which and in which the prayers of the faithful and the faith of believers are offered to God the Father? But if that body of Christ is truly Here Paschasius portrays the Eucharist as the source of spiritual delectation for the Christian. a 

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believed to be on the heavenly altar, then it is none other than the flesh and the blood which you think that you receive from the very body of Christ.a Furthermore, you should have no doubt about the presence of the angels, because for this purpose, according to the Apostle Paul, administering spirits have been placed to minister to those who have accepted the inheritance of salvation (Heb 1. 14). So everyone should consider how terrible it is for the unworthy to approach communion among the throng of angels. Even more, how awesome is the sacrament of the Body and Blood, where the power of Christ is fully received, and no one other than Christ the Priest himself is offered, although only the visible priest who is present is seen offering it to each. The visible priest through ignorance offers it to everyone without distinction; by his majesty, the divine Christ interiorly discerns to whom it is given for a remedy and to whom it is given for judgment. For who discerns his flesh and blood better than the one whose flesh it rightly is? Therefore, one receives the mystery unto the judgment of damnation, and another receives the power of the mysteryb unto salvation. For the one with the same contempt that Judas had is held responsible for a criminal fault and is indeed condemned with Judas. Those with Peter and the others who faithfully and devotedly receive are consecrated with Peter and the rest of the apostles in the body. This judgment is then soon received after the birth of the chalice, so that one may be taught what threatens those who despise the sacrament if, condemned by their consciences, they will not have withdrawn their foot from the table of the Lord. Therefore, in Leviticus the Lord said to Moses: Speak to Aaron and to his sons so that they may be warned about these things that have been consecrated for the sons of Israel and so not profane the name of the sanctified. Say to them, he says, and to their posterity: I am the Lord, every one of your stock in whom there is any impurity, a  Text reads: de ipso Christi corpore sumere. For Paschasius, the term ‘body of Christ’ is used in three ways: 1) the historical body born of the Virgin, 2) the Eucharist as that same body in mystery, and 3) the Church. This reception of the body from the heavenly altar refers to communion in the Church. b  Text reads: virtutem mysterii ad salutem.

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who approaches those things that have been consecrated and that the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, will perish in the presence of the Lord. I am the Lord, he says (Lv 22. 1–3). This concerns not only the priests and the ministers of the altar but also everyone who belongs to the true faith, even the least person in the Church, so that all may guard this command of the Law. Indeed, one group is called by the name of ‘carnal Israel’: another, truly seeing God and truly belonging to his descendants, do not approach unworthily these things that have been consecrated for the children of Israel. No one, then, unless he is free of any lethal crime, can approach them worthily. If someone does receive them unworthily, however, that is, one in whose soul there is the impurity of sin, he will perish in the presence of the Lord. That one, as the interpreters of the Septuagint wrote, God turns away from, and the Spirit completely bars him from communion. If afterwards, however, having been resuscitated by the mercy of the Lord, he is reinserted into the body of Christ,a as it were, and through penance comes back to life, such a one ought to groan from the very marrow of his heart no less for the contempt than for the guilt of his previous sin, because he has received the saving mysteries of life unto judgment. He ought to burn with an abundant grace of love because he has evaded condemnation. These things that have been consecrated to the Lord are nothing other than food meant only for those who are in the Lord, for they alone are going to see the Lord.b Therefore, these things are said to be consecrated properly for them, that is, for the sons of Israel. Do not think that God the lawgiver has sanctioned only these things that have been consecrated in the Law, especially since these things are nothing other than shadows of future realities (Col 2. 17). It is more terrible for the unclean to approach them when the Priest is the One who has power to throw both body and soul into Gehenna (Mt 10. 28). From this it can be concluded that: ‘I am the Lord’ means as if he said openly: ‘I am the one who scrutinizes hearts and affections’, I who sanctify those receiving worth­ a  b 

That is, the Church. The Eucharist is a pledge of future glory.

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ily am the one who alone has the ‘power to condemn the soul’ (Ps 7. 10; Rv 2. 23) of the ones receiving unworthily. Attend to this, you who approach, and fear the Priest — not the one whom you think you can deceive, but rather him to whom all things are manifest. You should fear to receive not the power of the Holy Spirit but instead the judgment of the sacrament. The judgment of the sacrament is this: that one guilty of an earlier sin adds the crime of contempt for the sacrament, either because of the sin of pride or because of sacrilege against God, since such a one has dared to touch the holy things, something that is not permitted except to those who are clean.a From this it is clear that more sinful is one who completes the evil deed than one who has only planned it beforehand. For Judas, it was not until he had received the morsel that he sinned; although previously he was sick in the mind, he was repeatedly and gently warned by the goodness of the Lord — sometimes with the others, sometimes alone. But after he had presumed to receive the mysteries unworthily, the Devil entered into him, and he who previously vacillated, as soon as he received, went out (Jn 15. 30). In the book of Samuel, when Eli warns his sons about the sinfulness of their sacrifice, we read: For it is not a good report, O sons, that I hear about you. If a man has sinned against another man, God can pardon him. If, however, he has sinned against God, who will pray for him? (I Sam 2. 24–25) That is, who will find some­one to intercede for such a one before God, when hating the God of all creation, they approach unworthily, to their own harm, not only things consecrated but God’s very own body and blood? Indeed, such a one does not fear the presence of God, nor dread the accompanying angels, but rather bears himself in such a way as if there were no one who might see his conscience. For this reason, when the Lord showed through a vision the sins of Jerusalem and the abominations that occurred in the Temple, he said, among other things: Six men arrived from the direction of the upper gates (Ez 9. 1–2). And, behold, each one of them By ‘sacrilege’, Paschasus means the sin of sacrilege that comes from unworthy reception of the Eucharist. a 

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was holding in his hand an instrument of slaughter, about which the Lord says: Behold the ax is laid at the root of the tree (Mt 3. 10), that is, has been placed at the thoughts of each. In their midst was a man clothed with linen, having a writing case at his side. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar (Ez 9. 2), which was at the entrance to the Temple. By this is clearly indicated that the great thing present on the altar is that by which we receive the food of life and the reward for our struggle, because we read that gold was there within the Holy of Holies. From this altar, it is clearly understood that the prayers of all and the sacrifices of each are offered by the high priest, the Lord Christ. That passage pertains to the pure of heart, for we ought to be without any impurity in both mind and body, because the prayers of the sacraments are offered for us on that altar. For without a doubt, Christ sees the harmony of all and approves the faith of each. And therefore, they pray that these things might be carried gloriously to God the Father by the hand of the angel. From what is visible before us, we are not yet able to enter into bodily, where the most true flesh and blood of Christ is ministered to. This is signified by the bronze altar that stood at the entrance, because he who has once entered will never suffer death. As to what stands at the entrance, that is, this present age, if someone unworthily approaches, he receives the judgment of damnation. For this reason, it is written that each and every one of them takes the vessel of damnation in their own hand. Therefore, the glory of the Lord that had been taken up by the cherub stood at the entrance to the house so that one might know clearly those who were entering. And he cried out to the man who was clothed in linen, with a writing tablet around his waist (Ez 9. 3). Indeed, we understand that man to be Christ vested in the robe of a priest. About him it is written: You are a priest forever according the order of Melchizedek (cf. Ps 110(109). 4; Heb 4. 14). And he had a writing tablet around his waist, so that he might describe the sins of all and segregate the number of the saints from the sinners when a great multitude had come to the altar. He is rightly permitted to stand next to the altar, so that he might divinely discern the soldiers approaching to receive the wages of life.

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It is said to him, when he stands in the middle of the golden candelabra (Rv 1. 13): Go through the midst of Jerusalem and mark a Tau on the foreheads of all those who groan and sorrow over all the abominations that are happening in its midst (Ez 9.  4). And elsewhere he says about himself: And I will walk among them and be their God (Lv 26. 12). God of whom? Indeed, of those who have been marked with the sign of the cross. It says: Carrying about the death of Jesus in their body (II Cor 4. 10), they mourn not only their own but daily mourn for the sins of others, and can say with the prophets: You have signed us, O  Lord, with the light of your countenance (Ps 4. 7). To those in whose hands were the vessels of destruction, let the prophetic voice come to the hearer, saying: Pass through the city and strike. Do not let your eye spare a [soul] nor have pity. Kill everyone — the old, the young, the virgins, women and children, slaughtering them (Ez 9. 5–6). However, it says: Everyone over whom you see the Tau, do not kill, beginning with my sanctuary, or as the Septuagint puts it, beginning with my holy ones, that is, with the priests and the ministers of the altar — not because they are holy, but because they are called to a holy ministry among the people — so that the ones who are the causes of sin among the people are the first to receive punishment, because it is time that judgment begin from the house of the Lord (I  Pt 4.  17). Lest you think that it is without reason that he stood next to the altar, it happens that the divine voice is heard speaking what hopefully will not come true for us: Defile the house and fill the altars with the slain (Ez 9. 7), for there is no religion where the offence of sin contaminates the ones who make the offering. It is fitting, therefore, that judgment begins where sin arises, because the one dead in sin contaminates firstly the door of the temple and profanes the holy things when an un­ clean person touches them. There can be no error in judgment, when the judge is also the one who discerns his soldiers, namely the Word of God the Father, Christ Jesus, the one who discerns thoughts more penetratingly than any two-edged sword, and also of thoughts and of hearts, even unto the division of soul and spirit (Heb 4. 12).

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The Apostle said about those who receive unworthily: They do not discern the body of Christ — and because of this, he says, they are sick and many die (I Cor 11. 29–30). Many sleep, therefore, not the sleep of peace but rather the sleep of death, cut off, as it were, by the ministry of the angels who have been placed there. There are those who become sick, tormented by various afflictions for their correction. For they are permitted to suffer so that others might be healed who fear the same fate. Otherwise, plagues and infirmities of so great a measure should never grow among the people of Christ, especially when one reads that those who went forth from Egypt as a type of the holy Church of God were never sick. This mystery is also called the ‘Tree of Life’ because of the divine power that it receives. If anyone eats from this tree he is strengthened in health of body unto immortality. How much more does this make it clear that such a one does not simply disdain the flesh but, moreover, is not wounded by the Devil since the power of Christ’s blood defends them. Perchance when we come to the passage where it says, many are sick and have fallen asleep (I Cor 11. 30), you might ask why they are not punished openly, especially since those should be punished more who are judged unworthy of the correction of God? Certainly, since the faith of the reborn should be exercised and tested, they must especially be taught the doctrine of the commandments. There is no doubt that the faithful one receives life, while the one who shows contempt receives death. On the other hand, if an open punishment were passed on sinners, it would be terror that would restrain them from sin, and not faith or religion that leads to a correctness of morals. According to the Apostle, then, when someone is sick, first the confession of sin should be applied, then the prayer of the many, and afterwards the blessing of anointing, because it is impossible to be cured by the medicine of any art when someone is oppressed by divine retribution (cf. Jas 5. 14). And although one should take medicine, for the Christian, however, these things should be done first. For if wickedness is found in the angels, and the stars are not clean before him, how much more is an unclean person unable to be purified except by confession and the daily performance of good works?

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Because those who sin more gravely presume on the divine patience, even though they are spared for a time while they delay penance, they are nevertheless not secure, for in their contempt they store up anger for the day of wrath (cf. Rom 2. 4–5) and add more sins against God. For it is certain that the avenging angels would not spare even once the one who communicates unworthily, save for the goodness of Christ, upon whose judgment all things depend and who has ordered to place a sign on their foreheads, so that the sword suspended over them is removed at the moment of death. There should be weeping for those who, coming to their senses, look to a second penance, either because they have acted wickedly, or presumed evilly on the judgment. This offence, therefore, will be pardoned by none other than the intervening Christ. According to the Law, when there is a defect in those things that are consecrated, a ram, understood as Christ, is ordered to be offered, so that God the man, the eternal high priest, is believed through faith to make intercession with God the Father. Clothed once again with life, he customarily offers himself daily for them. Otherwise, if someone has sinned against God, who will make intercession for him (I Kgs 2. 25) save the God who has truly borne our infirmities, so that he might suffer for us and through himself give pardon even for the offences committed against God? Yet we do not say that someone ought not to intervene for us in these matters but rather that we ought to ascribe the whole of this to Christ, who freely forgives the injuries against him as well as the sins, just as he once bore them on the Cross, so as a suitable orator, he pleads for them in an offering to the Father.

9. Why it would be necessary that Christ, who was immolated once, be immolated daily, or what good do these mysteries offer to those who receive them worthily. This oblation is repeated daily, although Christ suffered once and for all in the flesh through the one and the same Passion unto death, so that he might once and for all save the world by rising

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from that death unto life; for death no longer has power over him (Rom 6. 9).a Nevertheless, the wisdom of God the Father provided this necessary thing for many reasons. First, because we sin daily at least by those sins that our mortal nature is not able to live free of, for although every sin is remitted in baptism, the infirmity of sin remains in the flesh. Thus, the Psalmist says: Bless the Lord, O my soul, who has made atonement for your iniquities, who heals all your infirmities (Ps 102. 2–3). Therefore, because we fall daily, daily Christ is mystically immolated for us,b and the Passion of Christ is handed down in mystery,c so that he who once by dying conquered death, daily remits our recurring sinsd through these sacraments of his body and blood.e For this reason we pray: Forgive us our trespasses (Mt 6. 12). Because if we say that we do not have sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (I Jn 1. 18). In the second place, just as there was a tree of life in Paradise, so it is that the holy Church of God, which is called a ‘paradise of delights’ in the Song of Songs (cf. Gn 2. 9; 3. 22–24; Sg 4. 13; Ez 28.  13), has the mystery of life in itself. This is prefigured in the same tree, from which those who eat and keep the commandments of life can never die. But just as it was for Adam, so it is for those disobedient ones who have been destroyed by the Devil by falling again into mortal sin. Just as God had them removed from Paradise, so he also has these removed from the sacred altars and from the tree of life, that is to say, from the body and blood of Christ, who is the true Tree of Paradise, whose leaves do not fade, and all things that he does prospers (Ps 1. 3). They are removed lest they eat from the tree of life. They live badly, so they die. Should they repent from their evil ways and be reconciled by penance, they are reinserted by way of this food among the living members of Christ’s body and live happily thereafter unto eternity. Christ offered one perfect sacrifice for all for the forgiveness of sins. The daily offering of the sacrifice is to perpetuate that same sacrifice throughout time. b  Text reads: cotidie pro nobis Christus mystice immolator. c  Text reads: passio Christi in mysterio traditur. d  Text reads: per haec corporis et sanguinis sacramenta. e  See Appendix for lines 20–61. a 

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Indeed, the priests of Christ do this in the Church, and they show what the future will be in the Last Judgment when the just will be separated from the unjust. Just as for Adam, having been driven out, there remained the hope of returning to life by way of penance, so also, having been cut off from the tree of life, there remains a possibility for sinners, if they so choose, to return to pardon. When penance intercedes, a certain hope is received, because here there cannot be a mixture of life and death, that is, if the reconciled one remains in Christ. Thirdly, whoever receives this life worthily, just as the reborn are made one and are now clothed in Christ by baptism, so it is that Christ remains in them corporally by this sacrament, so that believers may be one in Christ and Christ may remain in them.a Thus, what he himself prayed to the Father is fulfilled: Not for these only do I pray, however, but for those who will believe in me through their words, so that all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, so that they may be one in us (Jn 17. 20–21). This is not merely a moral union, as the heretics would have it. For they preach only a moral union between the Father and the Son, which they labour to draw from the words: I and the Father are one (Jn 10. 30). They try to establish there a unanimity, so that in these matters there would be an agreement of will and not of nature, in the same way that the many believers in Jerusalem, it is said, were of one mind and heart (Acts 4. 32). But we who follow in the footsteps of the Fathers ought to believe that he is God begotten substantiallyb from God and is by nature what the Father is, and through this unity of nature, the Father and the Son are proven to be one.c ‘Christ today is in us not only through a concordance of wills, but even by way of nature. He is in us just as it is rightly said that Text reads: ita Christus in eis per hoc sacramentum coroporaliter maneat. The abiding physical presence of Christ comes about through the participation in this mystery, where Christ is present corporaliter. b  That is, substantialiter. c  Here, following Hilary of Poitiers, Paschasius articulates a Trinitarian basis for our union with God the Father through Christ his Son by way of the worthy reception of his body and blood in the Eucharist. a 

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we remain in him. For if the Word was made flesh, and if we truly consume the Word made flesh in the Lord’s food, how can it not rightly be thought that Christ remains in us by nature?a Being God made man, he took to himself the inseparable nature of our flesh and mixed the nature of his flesh into the nature of eternity to communicate himself to us in this sacrament of the flesh’.b Therefore, by this we are all one in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, because the Father is in Christ and it is proven that Christ is in us. Hence it is that we are made one body in Christ by nature. If anyone confesses that the Father is in Christ by nature, he therefore confesses that he himself is one in him by nature — because the Word became flesh (Jn 1.  14) — so that a natural unity appears by way of the sacrament of truth. About this he says: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (Jn 6. 56). Truly, then, just as the Father through the nature of the divinity is in the Son, so in the same way God the Son as man is rightly said to be in us through the humanity of his flesh.c For this reason, he is preached as the mediator between God and man (I Tm 2. 5). Through him we have a communion of unity with God, since he himself, remaining in the Father, is also said to remain in us. For this reason, we are one with the Father through the humanity of the Son, as said above.d a  That is, naturaliter. For the significance in assigning this word to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and its synonymous use with substantialiter, see Mark G. Vaillancourt, ‘Sacramental Theology from Gottschalk to Lanfranc’, in The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology, ed. by Hans Boersma and Matthew Levering (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 187–200 (pp. 192–98). b  Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate, 8. 13, in PL, 10, col. 246. Hilary’s text reads: ‘eos nunc, qui inter Patrem et Filium voluntatis ingerunt unitatem, interrogo utrumne per naturae veritatem hodie Christus in nobis sit, an per concordiam voluntatis? Si enim vere Verbum caro factum est, et vere nos Verbum carnem cibo dominico sumimus; quomodo non naturaliter manere in nobis existimandus est, qui et naturam carnis nostrae jam inseparabilem sibi homo natus assumpsit, et naturam carnis suae ad naturam aeternitatis sub sacramento nobis communicandae carnis admiscuit?’ c  That is, the humanity of Christ mediates his divinity to us in the reception of Holy Communion. d  Christ, who is the same substance as the Father, is substantially in us through the Eucharist so that we are substantially united to God the Father through him.

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Behold what these two sacraments effect! Through baptism we are born again in Christ, and through the sacrament of his body and blood Christ not only remains in us by faith but also is shown to remain in us through a union with his body and blood.a Already ‘members of Christ’, we feed on his flesh, so that we are found to live on nothing other than his body and blood. And so it is the case that no one has ascended into heaven except the one who came down from heaven (Jn 3. 13), because we are made one with him through these mysteries.b Furthermore, this mystery is repeated as a commemoration of the Passion of Christ, just as he himself says: As often as you do this, do it in memory of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you announce the death of the Lord until he comes (I Cor 11. 26). This is not to be understood as saying: ‘Until the death of Christ shall come’ because ‘he dies no more’ (Rom 6. 9), but rather until the Lord himself comes to judge. In the meantime, however, the death of Christ must be announced throughout the ages for the life of the world, so that they might learn with what love he has loved his own, he who deemed it worthwhile to die for them. All of us should in turn pay back a similar love, for he has ‘loved us first’ when we were still sons of Gehenna, so that free from death, we might love him. Indeed there are those who say that it is celebrated daily so that those among the Jews who had believed would become accustomed through this grace to offer each and every day a sacrifice The sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord is essentially a sacrament of unity that brings about a union with God in the flesh of Christ, mystically present under the forms of bread and wine. b  One matter of necessity for Paschasius that moves him to insist that the Eucharist must be the same body born of the Virgin is unity with God the Father in Christ. This union is perfected by communion with the body and blood of Christ because of the immediacy of its effect. The Eucharist offers a full and immediate participation in the life of Christ, who himself enjoys a perfect union with God the Father. This perfect union, which is beyond simply that of a moral union, is caused by the immediacy of Christ’s presence. Our humanity, by way of Holy Communion, is fused and joined with Christ, who in turn joins us to God his heavenly Father. Christ, therefore, offers a union with God the Father that is unmediated, real, and perfect. Faith and understanding, however, are necessary to bear fruit from that union. a 

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to the Lord, by which they could frequently make the votive offerings of their religion and prefer the truth of this mystery to the old sacrifices and holocausts. Although this might be so, nevertheless, a more complete and perfect opinion than this one is the one that we have set forth, because this mystery is celebrated in the Church no less for us than it was for them. For the figure of this mystery went beforehand in Melchizedek, just as faith went first in Abraham, but because the Law interjects itself as a wall, as it were (cf. Eph 2. 14), the truth of this mystery is foreshadowed in all the sacrifices of the Law. With those sacrifices removed, as it was foretold, Christ the high priest has truly succeeded according to the order of Melchizedek, having an eternal priesthood (Heb 6. 20; 7. 24). Abraham saw this in Melchizedek by means of faith, and therefore we read that he offered him a tithe and received a blessing from him. It is said that King Melchizedek was a king of justice, or Salem, and a priest, so that through him, Christ, whose type he bore, would be seen and shown forth as king and priest. Otherwise, who among mortal men could rightly be called a king of justice, since no one can be found to be just in any way except by the justice that comes from faith? Therefore, let us hold to Christ, Pontiff and Priest, and let us remain in him, because through this mystery he is in us and we are in him, and we are all called, and are, priests. For he has made us a kingdom of priests unto God (Rv 1.  6), and therefore a holy people, a royal priesthood, a people he has made his own (I Pt 2. 9), as we preach according to the Apostle. Therefore, let it be known, we are in him and he is incorporated into us by this grace, transfiguring us into his glorious body, so that with him and in him the kingdom of peace would be in us — this is indeed what ‘Salem’ and ‘eternal priesthood’ means. Hence the prophet also says: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem, praise your God, O Zion. He who has placed peace on your borders and fills you with the best of wheat (Ps 147(146). 12–14). By such excellent nourishment the heavenly Jerusalem is marvelously fed. And it should be noted that this nourishment, that is, the body of Christ, would have not only the rich fatty parts, but all delights, and in the same way the cup of his blood. Therefore,

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that which flowed from the rock as a typea is at one time called now honey, now oil, now water, now also drink, because whatever you can taste spiritually, all of it you will find here. Hence, it is a tradition of the Jews that the manna, when they ate of it in a carnal fashion, each one ate in a way that fulfilled the desire of each (cf. Ws 16. 21). Thus, all tasted of it in their mouth, so that it tasted as if it were a pear, an apple, a grape, bread, meat, or anything else they might desire, for the manna presented all tastes to the mouth of the one desiring it. They, however, always sought those things carnally; we, on the other hand, confess in faith that these realities are spiritual and eternal and meant for the hearts of the faithful. It is necessary to confidently believe, therefore, that through these things, if someone receives worthily, he receives the immortal life and enjoys its delights, since he has placed all his desire in the hope of eternal things.b

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10. Why this mystery is celebrated with bread and wine. It is celebrated with bread and wine because Christ is the Bread that has come down from heaven. Just as other bread is understood to be very different from this bread, so is this other flesh far removed from our mortal flesh. Indeed, flesh through the Passionc and the true flesh of his humanity completes the redemption. Bread offers food for those reborn unto the everlasting life of immortality. No one should wonder if the flesh of Christ is called ‘Bread’, since the flesh under the visible species of bread is nothing other than the flesh that is offered. It is flesh because in the same flesh it is believed he truly suffered. It is bread because it is a grain of wheat falling to the earth (Jn 12. 24) that begets us from it through faith. By this he offers life itself to his members born from him. In offering it to us, it was nothing other than eternal bread. That is, typice (cf. Dt 32. 13; Nm 20. 11). See Appendix for lines 196–403. c  Text reads: caro itaque per passionem et vera caro redemptionem suae conditionis explet. a 

b 

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This is clearly shown in respect to the figure and more evident in respect to the mystery. Indeed, the ‘grain of wheat’ is Christ, who ‘fell to the earth’, but he gave birth to many grains, grains that without a doubt are nothing other than the grains that have been stored in the barn. And so is preached a wondrous unity of our nature in him. For we all know that bread is naturallya made one from many grains. From this, our unity in Christ is commended and the figure of truth in mystery is approved.b For he is that one ‘who is dead’ in the earth, and from his rich and fatty parts we are made fruitful, because as he himself says: Unless it dies it remains alone. Now because the dead one has risen he has borne much fruit among believers (cf. Jn 12. 24). Beyond doubt, the one bread has been made from this fruit because Christ and the Church are proved to be one body. Therefore, it is said: They are two in one flesh (Gn 2. 24; I Cor 6. 16; Eph 5. 31). Rightly, therefore, this mystery is celebrated in bread, that it may be shown more clearly that it has been brought about in him. In a similar way, the wine that is made liquid from the many grapes and comes together into one and that grows in strength comes from that Vine who said: I am the true vine; you, however, are the branches. It is not possible for the branch to put forth fruit unless it remains in the vine (Jn 15.  1,  4–5). Therefore, the wine that we drink is the blood of the same vine that flowed from his side. For the vine and the branches are one body and therefore seen to bear one fruit, because the grapes that the branches bear are rooted in that vine. Because of this, Christ is referred to as the Grapes that were carried by the men who reconnoitered the land (cf. Nm 13. 24–26), that is to say, what the choirs of apostles and prophets bravely brought back on their own shoulders. Paul, the most excellent preacher, says: You have been bought at a great price; glorify God, therefore, in your body (I Cor 6. 20). From this Grape, which is crushed in the struggle of the Passion, the blood of salvation flows forth. Hence, Moses sings in the That is, naturaliter. Text reads: ex quo nostra in Christo commendatur unitas et figura veritas in mysterio approbatur. a 

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canticle that the Lord established his people on the high ground so that one might eat the fruit of the fields and take in honey from the rock and oil from the very hard stone, that they might drink of the most pure blood of the grape (Dt 32. 13–14). Without a doubt, from this blood the whole Church of Christ is inebriated. It rightly has the appearance of wine to the senses, therefore, while blood is drunk spiritually in mystery.a From it we are made joyful with spiritual joy. From it we are truly redeemed from death unto life and are interiorly filled with the price of our salvation. About these two things David sang in mystery, saying that bread strengthens the heart of man and wine gives joy to his heart (Ps 103.  15), that is, he says, the joy of the spirit. Therefore, the mystery of salvation is rightly celebrated in the same substances because Christ is the Bread who has come down from heaven and the Wine that rejoices the hearts of believers. ‘Joseph at midday’ — at which hour Christ suffered — is spoken of as being drunk in mystery with his brothers (Gn 43. 25, 34). Therefore, if we do not taste only water, we are inebriated within and rejoice over the good things of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and we are filled with eternal happiness and exalt with joy in the Lord. We are not only the Lord’s vine, but we are also his vineyard. About this vine, Christ undoubtedly speaks in the Canticle: I have gathered myrrh together with oil in my vineyard, I have eaten bread with honey, and I have drunk wine with my milk (Sg 5. 1). The bread is not eaten before the myrrh of mortification swells up in us and the ointment of good odour is wafted to our noses. Then indeed we eat the bread with honey, which flowed from the rock that is Christ; in this way, we drink the wine of sweetness with milk (cf. Dt 32. 13; Ps 80. 17; I Cor 10. 4). Because in these two realities the mysteriesb are hidden, it was right that there would be a divine sacrament in them so that the mind might struggle to understand the whole of it spiritually, since nothing carnal is permitted to be sensed. The same Christ, a  b 

Text reads: dum spiritualiter sanguis potatur in mysterio. That is, mystica.

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therefore, who is the Bread come down from heaven, is received in this mystery, just as his flesh that hung upon the Cross is eaten by all daily, although he is preserved whole.a Indeed, he becomes bread for the life and strength of soul; flesh to unite with our nature and to be the price of redemption. He himself says: My flesh is for the life of the world (Jn 6. 51), and indeed my blood is poured out for you unto the remission of sins (Mt 26. 28). For the wisdom of God the Father truly chose this mystery to remain in the appearance of bread and wine rather than to be changed into the colour and taste of flesh and blood, because it is not that flesh and blood that is seen, nor would it become that flesh and blood that is received. For we eat that bread that in him came down from heaven (cf. Jn 6. 50–51). It is said, therefore, that: I have eaten bread with my honey (Sg 5. 1), because in the sweetness of divinity, humanity is preached. Just as we disregard the taste and colour of bread in this mystery because it has been changed into flesh, so no more is the flesh of Christ tasted because we eat in a way that is wholly spiritual.b It would be very hard and against human custom to accept — even if it is the flesh of salvation — the flesh of the man Christ changed into its own appearance and colour, and the wine changed into the taste and colour of his blood. For it was the still uneducated disciples thinking carnally who said: This is a hard saying, when he said: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not have life remaining in you (Jn 6. 53). Indeed, they could not take it in because they understood these things in a carnal way. The person who tastes carnally, therefore, is the one who does not believe it is the flesh and blood of Christ, because its outward appearance and colour has not changed. We should pray that Christ himself come and ‘eat bread with his honey’ in us, and drink ‘his wine with milk’, for unless Christ is truly understood as God and man, and the ‘wine’ of his blood is mixed ‘with the milk’ (Sg 5. 1) of his doctrine, it is not possible for Text reads: cum integer deinceps Christus perseveret, licet cotidie edatur. Text reads: nihil amplius caro Christi esset quam est quia totum spirituale est quod comedimus. a 

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the infirm mind to comprehend the mystery and the light of truth or to recognize what is divine. The wondrous unity of Christ and the Church that is spoken of in this place, just as in other places, is when we carry that which is in him and he is shown to act within us. For when we truly eat bread with honey and drink the wine of the chalice with milk, then he himself testifies that he is taken into us and we receive him in these things, because through them he draws us into his body, and we are made one in him. For reasons and considerations of this type, most dear child, it has indeed been provided that in the bread and the wine this inner mystery be brought about by divine power and might without any change in colour of the substance, so that the power of faith might shine forth in the mind, doctrine might flow forth in the work of the sacrament, and truth be resplendent in the prefiguration of the mystery.a Melchizedek first offered this bread and wine as a figure. Therefore, it was necessary that the true King of Peace and our High Priest should offer the same things, so that in this way, the truth of the figures would shine forth, and in the meantime, those who hunger and thirst for justice (Mt 5.  6) might be satiated by these two things in the pilgrimage of this life. If indeed by bread, which is often set forth in the Scriptures as food and seems to be congruent with all food, your hunger is tempered, so too in the drink of blood you thirst like one who thirsts for a celestial dew. A man, therefore, is fed unto justice in the strength of this celestial food the more ardently he exerts himself. Elijah, fed at the hand of the angel, is said to have arrived at the mountain of God after forty days — by which forty days is designated the present age — through the strength of this food. From this, it is patently clear that this food, carried up and back by angelic hands, divinely refreshes our weakness and is offered only to friends and brethren. Therefore, the bridegroom exhorts in the Canticle: Eat and drink and become inebriated, my dearest friends (Sg 5. 1). Such food and drink is never tasted worthily unless it is tasted with the ina 

Text reads: de praefiguratione mysterii.

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ebriation of the Holy Spirit. In that place, inebriated David in our person sings as he rejoices: You have prepared a table in the sight of my enemies who fight against me. You anoint my head with oil, my chalice that is glorious inebriates (Ps 23. 5). It is glorious indeed because it shines forth with the refulgence of all truth and glows with the light of the Holy Spirit, by which he inebriates the minds of the faithful. From this draught those upon whom the same Spirit poured forth himself abundantly were themselves inebriated in the third hour. Our hearts, therefore, should also be prepared to receive, so that refreshed by such a feast, we may pass over in strength to ­higher things. No one receives worthily, then, unless he passes over. That is why the Pasch is called a ‘passing over’. For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed (I Cor 5. 7). Whoever wishes to come and see this vision, let him with Moses pass over, just as Christ has passed over from this age, so that now, completely spiritual, we might receive worthily these spiritual things.

11. Why water is mixed in the chalice. 72

Clearly, the purpose of mixing water in with the wine — although we do not read about it in the account of the birth of the chalicea — is for a most important reason. When the Passion was completed, blood and water flowed out from the side of Christ (cf. Jn 19. 30–34; Rv 21. 6). The apostles, understanding this mystery fully, thought rightly that this should be done in respect to this chalice, so that nothing would be lacking to us in this sacrament for the commemoration of the Passion, which took place once upon the Cross to complete our redemption. After he sent forth his spirit, one of the soldiers came, took a lance, and opened his side, from which, as if from a living fountain, blood and water flowed (cf. Jn 19. 30, 33–34). This is the true chalice, because, no less than in the bath of baptism, he who truly suffered for our salvation pours forth his blood in it, the price of a 

Text reads: in natale calicis.

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our salvation. That which at that time flowed from his flesh, believers now drink from the chalice (cf.  Jn 6.  55). Flesh is indeed given as food, blood and water are truly given as drink, so that what once flowed from his side, the whole man drinks and is renewed by these two things. If anyone contracts the stain of sin after the font, such a one would have here a flood by which they are set free of fault. Thus, the price of our redemption, by which each and every one has been redeemed, is renewed day after day. For this reason many have said that the water ought to be mixed [with the wine], for at the moment of baptism in the blood of Christ, there also flows forth the price of our salvation, so that it is not as if there are two things, but rather only one, the blood. For blood in the body is nourished by these two things as it grows. From this it is obvious that with sufficient care for the sake of our salvation, divine wisdom produced this once from his side, so that from where the woman, who deceived the first Adam, was created, the Church is formed when Christ takes sin onto the Cross.a Everyone is raised up in him, while he bore the blame for all on the cross. Therefore, the Church that was once in him is rightly said to have flowed from his side. This is well signified by water, just as holy Cyprian said.b The Angel in the Apocalypse also interprets the water to be the people (Rv 17. 15). And rightly it has been provided that as then water flowed together with blood, so now it is mixed in this mystery of the true blood. Since we are in him by this sacrament of divine salvation, in the sight of God, we, united with Christ, are offered in mystery. ‘For if the wine is offered without water, the blood of Christ begins to be without us. If, however, only water is offered, the people are seen to be without Christ. When both are mixed and conjoined, then rightly the mystery of the Church is spiritually perfected’.c Text reads: Christus in cruce peccata tulit. Cyprian, ep., 63. 13, in CSEL, 3/2, pp. 711–12. c  Cyprian, ep., 63. 13, in CSEL, 3/2, pp. 711–12. Text reads: ‘For if anyone offer wine only, the blood of Christ is dissociated from us; but if the water be alone, the people are dissociated from Christ; but when both are mingled and are joined with one another by a close union, there is completed a spiritual and heavenly sacrament’. a 

b 

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No liquids mix as well as wine and water do; indeed, wine is born of water through the vine, just as Christ is born of the flesh through Mary. But more excellent by far is wine than water. We read that the Lord has transformed these waters so that once our ignorance has been taken away, the wine of delight exhilarates us. Hence the bride in the Canticle says: The king has led me into his wine cellar and adorned me with love (Sg 2. 4). And again: Mindful of your abundant gifts, we will exult and rejoice in you (Sg 1. 3). The faithful, therefore, exult when they understand that they are associated with so great a mystery — a unity in Christ through grace, moved by the fire of charity. How well in this mystery is our likeness acknowledged by means of water,a so that one and all may understand that they are taken up in the blood of Christ and changed into something better. Although first the wine and water are mystically mixed,b after the consecration, however, nothing other than blood is drunk, because in it, having received him previously in the water of baptism, hungering and thirsting we drink him again daily. No one should doubt that under this mystery we drink that water about which the Lord spoke when he said: Whoever drinks the water that I will give, it will become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life (Jn 4. 13–14). Therefore, it is not unbecoming that this same water that is consecrated should not remain water but be turned into blood, so that faith may perceive what is signified. There are three things that give testimony, things that Christ, who is the Truth, has said: The Spirit, the blood, and the water (cf. I Jn 5. 6–8). This is especially so because after he sent forth his Spirit, the joyful water of baptism and the blood of redemption flowed from his heart, a thing beyond nature. By them the one work of salvation is mystically consecrated,c so that our body, soul, and spirit are preserved as one for life in Christ. No one doubts that our flesh also is born unto life by this mystery in which the Text reads: in hoc mysterio nostra figura. Text reads: mystice vinum et aqua commisceatur. c  Text reads: unum salutis opus mystice consecrator. a 

b 

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whole man is redeemed. Flesh indeed is spiritually fed by flesh,a because the Word became flesh (Jn 1.  14); the soul, however, is renewed by the blood of Christ. All life, as Scripture has testified, is in the blood (Lev 17. 11), so that where the soul has its seat in the body, and, as they say, vivifies the body, there the soul itself has eternal life from Christ who remains in it. But because our spirit and our soul are one substance, although the spirit is called the mind, it is that preeminent part of man by which he is called spiritual; it busies the whole man with his laws, and is vivified by God. The soul, however, is the lower part by which the body is animated and why someone is called a ‘living man’: The living man, however, does not perceive those things that are of the Spirit of God (I Cor 2. 14). For this reason, water is mixed in this sacrament, so that these three things, bread, wine, and water, are mystically consecrated by these three things, body, soul, and spirit.b It stands to reason therefore, that although three things are cited at the beginning, afterwards only the flesh and the blood are believed to give evidence, because the whole living man ought to pass over into spirit and become spiritual. All life is in the blood (Lv 17. 11). This is said in figure, because the entire life of a person is renewed in the blood of Christ so that he or she may live happily. How good is that blood! Because through it, one has a relationship to that just flesh, so that through him one is restored to life. On the journey of life, we eat and drink of these two things, so that our whole man, which consists of two substances, may be made whole. Thus, David said: My soul thirsts for you, and even more my flesh has thirsted for you (Ps 63. 2). The whole man has thirsted so that from the flesh and the soul he might pass over to the spirit, in order that the whole spiritual man might be in God. For that reason, although I have said that the blood pertains to life, the flesh and soul rightly thirst and drink the blood in a certain way, just as at the same time both are fed by the flesh of Christ, because they are not received carnally but spiritual­ a  b 

Text reads: Caro quidem carne pascitur spiritualiter. Text reads: ut tria haec tribus isitis sacrentur mystice rebus.

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ly. The soul thirsts to be refreshed by these things, as does the body. The soul eats, so also the body eats. Because such food does not pertain any less to the soul than it does to the body; by them the soul passes from the vegetative life unto immortal life. The flesh, however, because of the judgment pronounced upon the first man, returns to the earth. But because of having been incorporated into Christ by the bath of baptism and having been fed by the nourishing seed of immortal life, even the flesh is not able to be held in death at the end of the age, for that which first took place in the Head will likewise be offered to the members.

12. Whether this mystery would have something more to it whenever it is confected by a good minister, or less than what Truth promised if it is confected by an evil minister.

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Truly we should believe and know without any doubt what the Catholic Church holds as true, that is, according to Catholic faith: when the mystery is celebrated,a when it is consecrated in a Catholic manner, there is nothing more by a good priest and nothing less by a bad priest that is offered than the flesh and blood of Christ. The mystery is brought about not by the merit of the one consecrating but by the word of the Creator and the power of the Holy Spirit. The flesh and blood of Christ is believed by the true faith and tasted with spiritual understandingb to be nothing other than that which has been created by the Holy Spirit. For if it depended on the merit of the priest, it would not belong to Christ. However, just as it is Christ himself who baptises, so it is he himself who through the Holy Spirit makes this his flesh and pours out his blood. For who else can create in the womb so that the Word would become flesh? And so it must be believed that in this mystery the same power of the Holy Spirit through the word

a  b 

Text reads: hoc mysterium celebrator. Text reads: spiritali intelligentia degustetur.

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of Christ brings about his very own flesh and blood by an invisible operation.a That is why the priest says: ‘Command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty’.b Why would the prayer demand that they be brought there if it were not understood that it is those things that come about through his (Christ’s) priesthood? For he himself has been made High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb 6. 20), as the Apostle has testified, to make intercession for us, offering himself to God the Father. Indeed, it was for this purpose that he has once entered the Sanctuary, not with the blood of another, but with his own blood (Heb 9. 12, 25). From this, one rightly concludes that the blood that is his own is not just from anyone but rather from the very High Priest himself. Nor is his flesh and blood created from anything other than that which was created in the womb of the Virgin, since the Word became flesh (Jn 1. 14). For by the Word of the Father it has been said: Increase and multiply (Gn 1. 22). And behold, from that Word there are still today those living things that have been created, not from a new, but from the same seed. The flesh of Christ became flesh from the same Word, because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1. 14). Therefore, if from that blessing so great a multitude of things flowed forth, what do you think flows forth from the flesh of Christ? Is he unable to make something from himself who made such great things from nothing? And just as he made a substantial quantity of bread increase beyond that which nature had provided, can it be that he is unable to make something from what he had created in the womb without seed? That fruitfulness comes forth from the flesh of Christ, yet Christ remains whole and entire,c but while his nature remains whole, all things flow over into creatures at his command. Al­ though he once said: Let the earth germinate the living herb (Gn 1. 11), yet even today from that Word, as the years go by, all things a  Text reads: quod eadem virtute Spiritus Sancti per verbum Christi caro ipsius et sanguis efficiatur invisibili operatione. b  Canon Missae Romanae, p. 36, lines 100–02. c  Text reads: manet integer Christus.

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are created. Thus, what he willed once he later ordered to be flesh and blood in this commemoration, so that what he commanded might come about. If there is anyone who does not believe this, he is worse than impious. For he is unlearned who does not acknowledge or yet believe in the flesh of Christ, even though he knows that many things do in fact occur contrary to nature. Because of this, O man, if you are mindful of the priest, be mindful also of Christ, the Word of the Father, because he has become flesh, which done once, you should not doubt comes about daily. By way of this flesh and blood he is made our food so that we might become his body.a So it is that the priest does not say that it is from himself that he can be the creator of the body and blood. If that were possible — which is absurd — he would then be the creator of the Creator. Rather, it happens by beseeching the Father through the Son, through whom we have access to him (cf. Heb 12. 23). We pray that this ‘oblation may be blessed’ through which we are blessed. Through it we have been ‘enrolled’ and are all inscribed in heaven. When it is ‘ratified’ we are enrolled ‘among the members of Christ’. Through it, having been made ‘spiritual’, we are stripped of our earthly nature. By it, ‘he deigns to make us acceptable’, so that by way of it, because we are displeased with ourselves, we may nevertheless be acceptable in his Only Begotten Son. ‘So that for us’, he says, ‘it may become the body and blood of your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ’. Behold what faith has established, behold what Christ has made very sweet, so that it may be for us his body and blood, so that by it we may daily be transferred into the body of Christ!b Before it becomes that body by means of the consecration, however, it is the oblation of the priest, just as he, or the whole family that That is, the Church: the Church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist makes the Church. b  Text reads: ut nobis sit corpus et sanguis, quatinus per hoc nos in corpus Christi cotidie transferamur! Cf. Augustine, Quaestionem Evangeliorum, 2. 39, in PL, 35, col. 1353: ‘Dominus noster Jesus Christus, qui vult pasci ministerio servorum suorum, hoc est, in suum corpus quasi mactatos et manducatos transferre credentes, etiam hic pascit eos verbo fidei et sacramento passionis suae’. a 

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offers, confesses. By the word and power of the Holy Spirit, it becomes a new creature in the body of the Creator for the salvation of our reparation. With the testimony of Scripture it is proved to be present on the altar of the Most High so that we may receive his body and blood by its immolation. The priest, then, because he is the vicar of Christ in visible appearance, is seen to act between God and the people, and bears through the hands of the angel the offerings of the people to God and brings them back to us. Indeed, he offers votive offerings and gifts, yet brings back the things that are prayed for through the body and the blood, and distributes them individually, not in the quantity manifested by exterior appearance but rather as much as faith perceives. When a priest of evil conscience communicates, what he offers is not his own, but rather he commends the prayers and offerings of all through the entire text of the Canon. The end of the prayer confirms this by the voice of all when everyone together says ‘Amen’.a By that word it is confirmed that what is offered is for the many, by the prayers of the many, and not of one alone. For the Lord also says: That is poured out for the many unto the remission of sins (Mt 26. 28). For if it were for the priest alone, perhaps God might pay attention to his merits. Now although the one who offers might be leprous, clean, however, are the things that are received, for the flesh and blood of the Saviour is never defiled by uncleanliness. These things are excellent, therefore, because of the office, not the merit, of the priest.b And so, although he be guilty, nevertheless, the sacred office of the minister and the rank of priest is made up for by Christ the High Priest, so that this mystery might be nothing less than Christ’s flesh and blood, however unworthy the priest may be. Furthermore, the consecration of apostolic origin is offered because it is not from his person, but from the office and grace of the High Priest, as Truth himself has promised. So it comes about that his priesthood and pontifical office is not a  b 

Canon Missae Romanae, p. 42, line 131. Text reads: Ex officio ergo sacerdotis ista et non ex merito praestantur.

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reduced by any one man’s merit. For the power of consecrating is in the one who has it from his ordination. And, therefore, just as those returning to the Church and ‘who were baptised previously are not rebaptised’, so indeed those who have been ordained previously are not re-ordained into Catholic unity, if they have in fact left and are ‘returning’. ‘But either they minister, if usefulness to the Church demands it, or if not, they nevertheless bear the sacrament of their ordination. Therefore, hands are not laid upon them as if they were one among the laity’.a The power of the sacrament remains, although ineffectual to them personally, while what they consecrate is real. Therefore, their power is efficacious and their ordination is sufficient for the consecration of those things that communicate the grace of the received blessing and the ministry in faith, hope, and charity. These sacraments of life, ‘flowing from the celestial font’, do not help towards salvation any perverse man, because there can be no fellowship of justice with iniquity, just as there can be no fellowship of light with darkness (cf. II Cor 6. 14). Still, although they should have a hatred for such things, although they be adulterers, murderers, and guilty of many diabolical things, nevertheless, until they are cut off by the evangelical knife,b they offer the sacrifice. One ‘must not think’, therefore, about who and what they are but instead about what they give or ‘what one receives’,c that is, the one who communicates with faith. Furthermore, one must not think about who it is that has the power of consecrating but rather about the power he possesses.

Augustine, De baptismo, 1. 2, in CSEL, 51, p. 146, lines 18–24. Text reads: Si hoc ecclesiae utilitas postulat, aut si non administrat, sacramentum tamen ordinationis suae gerunt, et ideo eis manus inter laicos non inponitur (For if it is useful for the Church that they confer what they used to confer, or even if not, nonetheless they retain the sacrament of their ordination; and so it is that when hands are laid upon them, to mark their reconciliation, they are not ranked among the laity). b  That is, excommunication or ecclesial censure by the bishop. c  Augustine, De baptismo, 4. 16, in CSEL, 51, p. 240, lines 18–19. Text reads: de baptismo non esse cogitandum quis det sed quid det, aut quis accipiat sed quid accipiat. a 

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For just as in the name of Christ, as he himself has testified, demons are driven out by those who belong to the Devil and many powerful deeds are performed by them,a so it is that by this same power the sacrament of his Body and Blood is consecrated by evil men (cf. Mt 7. 22), even though it has been said that God does not hear sinners (Jn 9.  31). Because ‘over the water of baptism and over the oil and over the Eucharist and over the heads of those upon whom a hand has been laid’, in the sacrament all these things that are celebrated do indeed come about. Therefore, ‘even should they become more evil in their murderous pursuits’, nevertheless, in the sacrament, although they may not have the Holy Spirit, still it is ‘God’ who ‘gives’ through their ministry the same ‘Holy Spirit’ and consecrates the gifts ex officio because of his largess.b If this were not so, the grace of Christ would be narrower than the fraud and sly tricks of the Devil. For if the ‘enclosed garden of delights’ could ‘have the thorns’ of the enemy, how much more so ‘outside’ of it.c Indeed, the ‘fountain’ of his grace flows even over those who are not members of Christ (cf. Gn 2. 8, 10). Therefore, what is everywhere powerful is not made void; what is proper to God cannot belong to another, because, although there That is, an evil minister. Augustine, De baptismo, 5. 20, in CSEL, 51, p. 285, line 28–p. 286, line 9. Text reads: Si ergo ad hoc valet quod dictum est in evangelio: deus peccatorum non audit, ut per peccatorem sacramenta non celebrentur, quomodo exaudit homicidam deprecantem vel super aquam baptismi vel super oleum vel super eucharistiam vel super capita eorum quibus manus inponitur? Quae tamen omnia et fiunt et valent etiam per homicidas, id est per eos qui oderunt fratres, etiam in ipsa intus ecclesia (If, therefore, what is said in the gospel, that ‘God does not hear sinners’, extends so far that the sacraments cannot be celebrated by a sinner, how then does he hear a murderer praying, either over the water of baptism, or over the oil, or over the Eucharist, or over the heads of those upon whom his hand is laid? All things are nevertheless done and are valid, even at the hands of murderers, that is, of the hands of those who hate their brethren, even within the Church itself). c  Augustine, De baptismo, 3. 7. 10, in CSEL, 51, p. 233, lines 25–26. Augustine’s text reads: Si enim hortus ille clausus potuit habere spinas diabolic, cur non et extra hortum potuit manare fons Christi? Paschasius reads: ‘Si enim hortus ille diliciarum clausus potuit habere spinas adversarii, multo magis extra et in eos qui membra non sunt Christi, profecto emanat fons ipsius gratiae’. a 

b 

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are those who say that these things are from their own merit, nevertheless, they fornicate against God, for by no means are ‘the sacraments of the divine law to be dishonoured’. Let the sacraments not be thought of as belonging to them, since the Lord said to the Synagogue under the appearance of a prostitute: You have taken my silver and gold and made male images of them and have committed fornication with them (Ez 16. 35). Then he says: You took my embroidered garments and covered your idols with them. You have placed my oil and incense before the face of idols. For you have placed before images my bread that I have given you and the honey and oil by which I fed you. Indeed, the carnal mind has turned all the sacraments and words of the sacred books into images of its own imaginings. Nevertheless, these things do not belong to them nor to their lovers, but rather to God, although the one who seduces might have seduced them by their fornication (cf. Ez 16. 17–19). So, the Lord has protested that these things are his. Therefore, we ought not to attribute the things which belong to God to them nor reject them as unknown, although they are with the adulterous woman; rather, we ought to acknowledge them as the gifts of the lawful husband and correct that fornication that belongs to the impure woman by a word of truth, if we can do so, and not find fault in the gifts that belong to the pitying Lord (Ez 16. 17– 19). a Although ‘God gives the sacrament of grace, even through evil men, nevertheless the grace itself is only from himself ’.b In that grace is the remission of sins that he gives at the same time through his holy ones. So it is that nothing more or less is present in any minister, even if he still be in darkness. When the Sacrament is offered, it comes from the office and the grace; it comes from the participa­ tion in, and the unity of, the dove in which the fountain of life flows and rushes forth unto remission of sin; it comes from Christ who is Priest and, as High Priest forever (Heb 6. 20), expiates and offers himself daily for us before the face of the Divine Majesty. Augustine, De baptismo, 3.  27, in CSEL, 51, p.  221, lines 1–16 and 24–27; p. 222, lines 5–6 and 12–16. b  Augustine, De baptismo, 5. 29. 21, in CSEL, 51, p. 287, lines 22–24. a 

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13. Why these things do not change in colour and taste in this sacrament. Although the sacrament in no way offers the appearance or taste of flesh, nevertheless, the power of faith and understanding, which has no doubts about Christ, tastes and savours that entire reality spiritually.a As I have said, he who has created all things by a Word, created them by a Word together with the Holy Spirit. Nothing should be called into doubt where God the Trinity is rightly believed to be its craftsman. For nothing is lacking in it when the most effective power of this same reality is acknowledged;b both when externally the full likeness of the lamb, and internally the true power of his immaculate flesh are consumed. For there is nothing more reasonable than when we who have already received the likeness of his death in baptism also consume the likeness of his flesh and drink the likeness of his most precious blood, in a way that the truth is not lacking in the sacrament, and pagan ridicule does in fact not occur — which claims, that is, that we drink the blood of a dead man.c More avidly sought is that which is hidden, and what is most precious is that which is looked for with faith. This mystery, furthermore, ought to be arranged in such a way so that the hidden secrets might be concealed from the infidel, merit might in­crease from the power of faith, and nothing of the promised interior truth be lacking for believers. Furthermore, and what is more important, is that through these realities offered secretly, we may tend to that fullness where Christ will no longer be immolated

a  An enigmatic characteristic of Paschasius’s understanding of the Eucharist is that the physical aspect of the reality is objective in nature whereas the spiritual dimension of the sacrament resides primarily with the one who receives it. b  Text reads: nihil enim in eo deest, ubi efficax virtus eiusdem rei senititur. c  Cf. Ambrose, De sacramentis, 4. 20, in CSEL, 73, p. 54, lines 60–63. Text reads: ‘Sed forte dicis: “Speciem sanguinis non video”. Sed habet similitudinem. Sicut enim mortis similitudinem sumpsisti, ita etiam similitudinem pretiosi sanguinis bibis, ut nullus horror cruoris sit et pretium tamen operetur redemptionis. Didicisti ergo quia quod accipis, corpus est Christi’.

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daily for our sins but where we might enjoy without end and without any corruption the fullness of his revelation. If this were not so, how would unbelievers bear these things now, if the disciples hearing the sound of his own voice could not bear them then? For when the Saviour said: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in me, et cetera, they said: This is a hard saying, who can endure it? (Jn 6. 60) How much more so would the ignorant and faithless now find these things difficult to bear and accuse Christians of being most impure, since they eat the flesh of a man and drink his blood? Because of this, what by faith ought to be believed as desirable, instead becomes detestable, that is, when it is tasted carnally and not spirituallya by the understanding: For we walk by faith, not by sight (II Cor 5. 7). But if the species of flesh should appear in these visible things, it would not now be either faith or mystery but rather a miracle, by which either faith would be given to us, or the curse might harden the faithless unworthily receiving. These things have been given, therefore, for believers and those who already have faith; signs and miracles, on the other hand, are not for believers but rather for those who are yet to receive faith. It is necessary, therefore, that these things not change in appearance, nor believers ever doubt them in any way.

14. Why these things often appear in visible form. 86

No one who will have read the lives and the examples of the saints can ignore that these mystical sacraments of the body and blood of Christ are often seen in visible appearance, either in the form of a lamb or in the colour of flesh and blood, either for the sake of those who doubt or for those who certainly would love more ardently because of it. For those who still do not believe, Christ mercifully generates faith in this way: while the victim is broken, or offered, a lamb is seen in the hands and blood in the chalice as if flowing forth from the immolation, so that what was hidden a 

Text reads: non carnaliter sed spiritaliter degustare.

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in mystery might be made evident in miracle for those who still doubt. Divine mercy made this happen for some of the faithful who, even though they now believe, still at one time entertained doubts, and so that others might themselves arrive at the faith by way of this truth; and so that still others, by way of a miracle, might be strengthened in faith, and by that same faith more fully participate through the grace of Christ in the mystery. The things that the Truth has promised should be believed with­out seeing. But because we are hard of heart, divine kindness wished to satisfy certain members of the faithful in every way, so that no one would persist in their doubt over these matters. For if those things that are seen are not believed, and those things that the Truth has testified to are not received in faith, let such a one seek for whatever he pleases and look to his own satisfaction for that which he expects to find, for there is nothing beyond that truth than that which the Truth, who, when it pleases him, through an appearance makes these things visible. Therefore, it is necessary to believe that these things have been revealed in the most advantageous way, and we should not doubt what Truth has promised, for anyone who seeks what is beyond the truth will find only lies, and if he does not accept those things that have been said by Christ, he shuts himself off from the Truth. Moreover, what I have often said is also true, that is, that there are those who love Christ more ardently after having seen him in visible form, which I shall now explain, giving a few examples from among the many. While St Basil publicly offered the divine mysteries, ‘A certain Hebrew, just as if he were a Christian, mingled with the people’. Wishing to examine the ministry of the offerings and gifts, ‘he saw an infant given birth in the hands of Basil. He himself came with the other communicants and the true flesh confected was given him. He then approached the chalice filled with blood, as it truly was, and consumed it. He preserved the remains of each, and went to his own home, and showed them to his wife to confirm what he had said and told her the things that he saw with his own eyes. In faith, he said: “Truly both awesome and admirable is the mystery of the Christians”’. On the next day, he came to Basil and asked to become a Christian right away. St Basil did not delay: ‘He

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baptised the man believing in the Lord together with his whole household’.a We should also add a story from the life of St Gregory. ‘A certain noble woman who was accustomed to making offerings and oblations according to church custom, came to Holy Communion on a particular Sunday with the other faithful to receive the body of Christ. When the saintly priest extended a portion of the body of the Lord to her, saying, “May the body of our Lord Jesus Christ profit you unto the remission of all your sins”, immediately she laughed. The man of God, seeing her laugh, withdrew Holy Communion from her and placed it upon the altar until she explained to him why she laughed. She said: “I looked at the portion you offered me, heard you call it the body of Christ — so I laughed”’. Then the ‘holy man Gregory exhorted the people to pray to God with fervent prayers to strengthen the faith of the woman, so that the Lord might show in visible form what she was not able to believe in with the eyes of her mind. When the prayer was finished, rising together with the people, he immediately returned openly to the altar with all of them looking on. She also looked on and found the morsel that he had placed there, the size of an earlobe, covered with blood. The priest said to the woman: “Learn that what the Truth says is indeed true, that the bread that we offer is the true body of Christ according to his own word and that the drink truly is his blood. Believe now finally that it can be nothing other than what the divine majesty wishes”. Then the priest of Christ immediately offered prayers so that the same flesh and blood might receive its prior form. And so it did’.b All glorified God, therefore, that the infidelity of the woman was driven out, and she was healed after having communicated in the sacred mystery.c For those who truly wish to see Christ, one reads in the Acts of the Angels about the case of a certain priest, Plecgils by name, who was very religious. He often celebrated the solemnities of Mass at See Amphilochius of Iconium, Vita sancti Basilii, in PL, 73, cols 301–02. Paul the Deacon, Vita beatissimi Gregorii papae urbis Romae, in PL, 75, cols 52–53. c  See Appendix for lines 73–119. a 

b 

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the tomb of the confessor and bishop St Ninian. Leading a holy life as an offering to Christ, he began to implore the All-Powerful God with pious prayers that he reveal to him the nature of the body and blood of Christ. For it was not from a lack of faith, as is often the case, that he sought this, but instead it was from the desire of a pious mind. For this man from his boyhooda had been imbued with sacred Scriptures and because of his love for the heavenly kingdom, at ‘one time left the borders of his country and its sweet fields’ b so that as an exile he might carefully study the mysteries of Christ. He burned more and more each day with love, so that offering the most precious gifts, ‘he asked that what lie hidden under the forms of bread and wine be shown to him’. For it was not that ‘he entertained a doubt about the body of the Lord’, but rather it was because ‘he wished to see Christ as no mortal could see him; as one raised above the stars could see him’, as he once was on the earth. ‘The day came when, as by custom celebrating piously the solemnities of the Mass, he fell to the ground on his knees, praying, “I beseech you All-Powerful One, reveal to me in some small way the nature of the body of Christ in this mystery, so that I may be permitted to see him before me with bodily sight and in the form of a boy who at one time was carried in the womb of his mother and now can be touched by hands”’. While ‘he was praying in this way’, an angel ‘from heaven arrived and said: “Get up and hurry, if you wish to see Christ, present here and clothed with flesh, the one whom the Mother of God bore”. Overcome, the venerable priest got up from the ground and saw a boy’s face upon the altar. It was the Son of the Father, the infant whom, as promised, Simeon carried in his arms. To him the angel said, “Because you wished to see Christ whom you were accustomed to consecrate before under the appearance of bread, now look on him intently and hold him in your hands”’. Then the priest, ‘trusting in the heavenly gift, marvelous to speak of, with trembling arms received the boy and joined the a  b 

Alternate reading: pueritia. Cf. Virgil, Eclogues, 1. 3: Nos patriae finis et dulcia linquimus arva.

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breast of Christ to his own breast. Then filled [with love], he embraced the child and gave a kiss to God, pressing his lips to the pious lips of Christ. When he had done this, he returned the wonderful members of the Son of God to the top of the altar’, who filled again the table of Christ with celestial food. He then ‘again prostrated himself’ on the ground and prayed to God that he would deign to return to his original appearance. Having completed his prayer in this way, he arose from the ground and found that, as he had asked, ‘the body of Christ returned to its prior form’.a Marvel at the wondrous dispensation of the Almighty who, because of the desire of this one priest, deigned to offer himself in such a visible way and not in the form of a lamb, as he had to others under this mystery. He did so here in the form of a boy, and to such a degree that the truth was made known in the manifestation, and the desire of the priest was fulfilled by the miracle, and our faith was also confirmed by the telling of the story. Indeed, no one has ever read before about receiving the same body and blood of a boy, which had returned to its prior form, nor did it seem absurd to anyone, for this undoubtedly happened that faith might look more fruitfully within at the very things seen in outward appearance. For the meantime, let what I have said suffice as a demonstration of the truth about the flesh of Christ. For anyone who still does not believe from this story what the gospels have preached, and despite the above examples still considers it inferior, I say it is those who receive with faith that are the ones who experience all sweetness and delight in it under the taste of this one species. For the manna was nothing other than that which it appeared to be, and whatever it had of taste and delight within, this excels it in every way under the one and the same appearance. For the power of the reality is more than that of the appearance or the colour.b The power, therefore, is to have a greater consideration than that of either the external colour or taste. He who gave Nynian, Miracula Nynie episcopi, in MG, Poetae Latina, 1, Aevi Carolini, 4/2, pp. 943–44 and 957–59. b  Text reads: potior quippe virtus rerum est quam species et fucatus color. a 

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the power to the nature of the universe has bestowed his divinity upon this sacrament so that it would be his very flesh and blood. As that flesh and blood of Christ unites the Church, the whole of this mystery fills the sacrament and leads his holy ones unto immortality.a It also perfects carnal and corruptible realities, making them spiritual and incorruptible ones. For that reason, it ought to be celebrated spiritually, because by it we are brought from what is visible to what is invisible; for what is still hidden we instantly find by faith. There should be no doubt about the appearance, since the power of Christ within offers from the mysteryb whatever the gospel has promised by divine prophecy.

15. The words by which this mystery is confected. No one doubts that just as when we are submerged in the font three times in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirt we are not baptised in the power of him who says these words, but in the power of Christ who orders them to be said: Go and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28. 19). And so this sacrament is confected and consecrated not according to human merits, nor by human words, but by divine power.c For from it there is created not just anything whatsoever but a new, salvific part of creation, the body and blood of Christ, just as when in baptism men are made new creatures and members of the body of Christ. Therefore, one must not think that it is by other words, or by any merits or another power, that these things come to be, but rather only from the word of the Creator by whom all things visible and invisible are created. By his power they are first created and by his word they are recreated for the better. No Creator is the re-creator of anything unless in a Catholic sense it is the One a  Text reads: ut quod caro et sanguis Christi ecclesiae contulit, hoc totum sacramentum huius mysterii compleat. b  Text reads: dum virtus Christi interius totum praestat ex mysterio. c  That is, divine power is the efficient cause by which the Body and Blood are effected.

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God. We must arrive then at the words of Christ and believe that by these same words the sacraments are confected. All the other things that the priest says or sings are nothing more than praise and gestures of thanksgiving or various invocations of the faithful. The words of Christ, however, are divine and so efficacious that, because they are eternal, nothing comes about except what they order. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Mt 24. 35); the words accomplish all things for which they have been sent forth because the Word of the Father is one in substance, consubstantial and eternal with him. Because of this, the priest, who first taking up among other things the words of the Evangelists, says: Who on the day before he suffered took bread into his holy and venerable hands, having raised his eyes to heaven to you, God, his almighty Father, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples (cf. Mt 26. 26; Mk 14. 22; Lk 22. 19).a Notice that up to this point the words are those of the Evangelists. And then the words are of God, all powerful and total­ly efficacious: Take, all of you, and eat of this, for this is my body.b But lest you think that it was for this one loaf alone or for this one hour alone that he ordered this, he adds the following, as he says: Do this in memory of me.c And so it must be confessed that whatever it was that the apostles understood from him was to be done then, is exactly the same now. And now hear what it is: ‘This is my body that is (given) for you’. Therefore, by this word that body is created,d because it is a divine word and full of power, present everywhere and filling all things. And what does it say? This is my body that is given for you (I Cor 11. 24). Believe it, child, because it is so, because he said it, it came about, and that you cannot doubt, for he commanded and a  Canon Missae Romanae, p. 32, lines 66–70: ‘Qui pridie quam pateretur accepit panem in sanctus ac venerabiles manus suas et elevates oculis in caelum ad te deum patrem suum omnipotentem tibi gratias agens benedixit fregit deditque discipulis suis dicens’. b  Canon Missae Romanae, p. 32, line 71: ‘Accipite et manducate ex hoc omnes, hoc est enim corpus meum’. c  Canon Missae Romanae, p. 32, line 80: ‘Haec quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam facietis’. d  Text reads: in hoc ergo verbo creatur illud corpus.

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it was made (cf. Ps 32. 9; 148. 5–6), and a command he has laid down: Do this in memory of me (Lk 22. 19). And so as often as this is done in a Catholic sense, what truly happens is what is said: This is my body. ‘In like manner after the Supper’, and the priest adds the words of the Evangelist, ‘taking this precious chalice’ — and one must note that it is this one that we offer and not another — ‘into his holy and venerable hands, again giving you thanks, he blessed it and gave it to his disciples, saying’. Do you hear? Everywhere it says that he himself blessed, that he himself gave thanks. And so, although we give thanks to God, it is Christ himself who gives thanks on our behalf through himself; yet we give thanks through him, and because we do it through him, it is rightly called his action of thanks. So, although the priest blesses, it is Christ himself who blesses and breaks. Indeed, unless the blessing were his, there would be no holiness in it. Therefore, in Exodus he says to Aaron and his sons: You will invoke my name over the sons of Israel, and I will bless them (Nm 6. 27). And so the priest invokes, but he himself blesses and breaks, because unless he broke this bread, all the little ones would remain hungry. It is for that reason that the prophet laments, because Christ had not yet come, saying in the Book of Lamentations: The little ones have asked for bread and there was no one to break it for them (Lam 4. 4). And so he alone is the one who breaks this bread and distributes it to believers through the hands of the ministers. He says: Take and drink from this, all of you, to both the ministers and the other believers. This is the chalice of my blood of the new and eternal Covenant. By this word, what was formerly wine and water becomes blood. It becomes blood, but what he hands to the disciples is the blood of the new and eternal Covenant. This Covenant will never be changed because it is eternal and never grows old, and will never become void. This is the Covenant that we inherit, by which divine and heavenly things are handed on to us. This therefore is the Mystery of Faith.a Under the figure of his blood the people of the Old Testament were sanctified. But a 

Mysterium fidei. See Canon Missae Romanae, p. 32, lines 78–79.

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in that blood was a shadow; here, however, there is truth.a It says: That is poured out for you and for many for the remission of sins (Lk 22. 20; Mt 26. 28). Where Luke says for you, Matthew puts for many. So it must be believed that Christ said both, because this blood was poured out for the apostles and for the many who would believe through their word (Jn 17. 20). It is indeed the blood of Jesus Christ and not of any other that is brought about by this word. This word is vibrant and endures: For this is the chalice of my blood that is poured out for you and for many. And so, O man, as often as you drink from this chalice or eat this bread, do not think that you drink any other blood than that which was poured out for you and for all for the remission of sins. Nor do you eat any other flesh than what was handed over for you and hung upon the Cross.b For as Truth testifies: This is my body that has been handed over for you. And about the chalice: This is my blood that is poured out for you for the remission of sins (Lk 22. 19). Thus, just as it was poured out and handed over for the remission of sins, so even until today is it eaten and drunk unto the remission of sins, so that we who are not able to live on earth without daily faults and light sins, as I said before, are refreshed by such food and drink, found to be without stain or wrinkle. Not only that: we are also filled with every heavenly blessing (cf. Rom 12. 5; Eph 1. 23; 4. 4; 5. 23–30) that is found in these gifts, and so we remain one body with him and in him, where Christ is the Head and we are the members.

16. Whether this body can rightly be called bread after the consecration. That this mystery is able to be called bread, although it is true flesh, the Apostle proves when he says: Let a man prove himself and so eat a  Text reads: sed in illo sanguine umbra erat, hic autem veritas. Figures in the Old Testament for Paschasius are referred to as ‘shadows’ because they lack the truth that has come forth in Christ. b  Here again Paschasius affirms the identity of the body of Christ in the Eucharist with the same body born of the Virgin, which suffered and died upon the cross.

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of this bread and drink of this chalice (I Cor 11. 28). That the flesh of Christ is true flesh, and yet is the bread that has come down from heaven (Jn 6. 51), is something rightly preached by the Catholic faith. It is flesh according to grace and bread according to its effect. For just as earthly bread ministers to temporal life, so does that heavenly bread offer eternal and heavenly life, because it is eternal life. Indeed, the blood also, according to its effect, is likewise able to be symbolically called wine.a For just as wine, soberly drunk, gives joy to the heart, so in a far richer way this wine of blood gives joy to the heart of the inner man and inebriates the mind with spiritual love. And so it is said: How wonderful is your inebriating chalice! Wine that gives joy to the heart of man (Ps 104(103).15). It is of such wine that the bride rejoices in the Song of Songs, because Christ has given her his love. As for the rest, according to the aforesaid truth of the doctrine, it is rightly believed to be nothing other than that flesh and blood of Christ, which does not have the taste of flesh but is savoured with spiritual sweetness and comprehended with the understanding of faith.b

17. Whether one who receives a larger or smaller amount has more or less of this mystery. If the figure of this sacramentc is to be seen in what was herald­ ed in that manna from heaven, then the meaning of this reality is clearly shown where it is said: Whoever gathers much will not have too much, nor whoever gathers little too little (Ex 16. 18).d It is That is, typice. Text reads: ceterum secundum praemissam doctrinae veritatem nihil aliud quam caro Christi et sanguis iure creditor, quod non sapore carnis, sed spiritali dulcedine degustantur et fidei ratione intelliguntur. c  Text reads: figura istius sacramenti. d  Manna prefigured the Eucharist, so that the Old Testament figure was a type of the New Testament reality. Paschasius’s position is that you cannot have a figure of a figure; rather, the Old Testament figure itself prefigured the sacrament of the New Testament, which is more than just a figure inasmuch as it contains the reality of Christ. a 

b 

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certainly not the visible quantity that must be considered in this mystery but rather the spiritual power of the sacrament;a just as it is not the quantity of Christ as man that must be measured bodily but rather the power of the divinity in him that must be consider­ ed. That woman in the gospel who touched the hem of his garment received more than the crowd that pressed against his entire body because she gave a greater grasp by her understanding and believed in him with faith. Therefore, we must not think of how much is pressed by the teeth but rather how much is received in faith and love. Indeed, the flesh of Christ is not properly received without his divinity, nor is the divinity offered without his flesh. And so it says in the gospel that the kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure that a man finds and goes and sells all and buys the field (Mt 13. 44). Because one cannot properly gather from the field, that is, the body of Christ, without the treasure, so it is that one cannot receive the treasure of the divinity without the field of the flesh. How well it is said to be a treasure hidden in a field, because the divinity dwelling corporally in the flesh of Christ is withdrawn from the vision of the eyes, lest it be seen. This is so that one might seek it more avidly by faith, and having been sought, it is more truly found, and having been found, it is more dearly held, and being held, it is enjoyed with greater desire. Because in Christ the fullness of the divinity dwells corporally (Col 2. 9), it is necessary that whoever eats his body receive that fullness of the divinity in faith. For as the holy Evangelist says: And all of us have received from his fullness (Jn 1. 16). Unless you have first received from his fullness, you are not capable of arriving at the littleness of his flesh, because the treasure is not purchased for the field but rather the field for the treasure: for the treasure is sold from the fullness of the divinity to believers united with him and in him.b So, my son, when you communicate in this mystery, expand the heart of your soul, cleanse your conscience, and receive not the little piece that is seen but as much as faith understands. Since the fulla  b 

Text reads: virtus sacramenti spiritalis. That is, the unity of believers with Christ in the Eucharist.

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ness of the divinity remains in Christ, so the divinity is offered to you, not as much as it is, but as much as would be suitable for you.a

18. Why this mystery was given to the disciples before the Passion. This sacrament was celebrated before the Passion because the Passover of the Law, a shadow, was to be removed, so that the light of truth might shine forth.b For the shadow is not able to depart save by the radiance of the light. Christ knew that the good would receive this mystery wor­thi­ ly; and, through presumption, the evil unworthily. He willed to give a lesson to all communicants that the good and the evil would comprehend. And so Judas was allowed to receive as a type for all the evil. If it happened after the Resurrection, Judas would no longer be able to communicate with the holy apostles because he would already have been damned to eternal judgment. Through this mystery, the Passion and death of the Lord were to be preached.c So it was more fitting that at the very point of the Passion this mystery be handed over rather than after the Resurrection. For it was for this that the Lamb was sacrificed — that we might eat his flesh.d And so Paul says, Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us eat (I Cor 5. 7–8). Furthermore, he himself now passes from this age to the Father, that is, from mortality to immortality, so that we, after him and in him, would be mortal in a similar way. Having been fed with such food and having imbibed such drink, we, because of a  Here Paschasius stresses the subjective dimension to communion. The full reality of Christ is present yet the faith of the believer is required to experience him fully in his divinity. b  Text reads: ut de legali pascha continuo, quia umbra removenda erat, veritas [veritatis lux] claresceret. Note that any reference to the Old Testament figures as a ‘shadow’ or umbra is because it lacks the reality of a sacrament of the new covenant in Christ. c  Text reads: nam per hoc mysterium passio Domini et mors praedicanda erat. d  Text reads: ut nos eius carnem comedamus.

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him, become secure about that immortality that he first achieved for us mortals. For this reason, he offers us the food of immortality, so that we might not fear death. The last point is this: if he had given this mystery after the resurrection, the heretics would say that Christ, already incorrupt and seated in heaven, would not be able to give his flesh to be eaten (vorari) on earth by the faithful. Indeed, that he now remains whole, entire, and incorruptible we teach against them.a We say that we receive these things in his death so that until the end of the ages all of us feed on what has been sown and what at his rising remains incorruptible. For this reason, the grain of wheat has fallen into the ground so that it might bear much fruit. If he grants this growth to seeds, how much more will he give it to himself, namely, to remain incorruptible himself, and then from himself bearing fruit, offer the food of immortality to a multitude of believers. As he rose, so are those seeds of immortality that make immortal those who receive worthily.b And therefore, as often as we eat these things we announce the death of the Lord, for from his death we merit those immortal realities until he comes, living and immortal, so that fed for so long a time on the food of immortality,c we might reign immortal because of him.

19. Why it is that a fragment of the body is mixed in with the blood of Christ. It is obvious to the senses that the flesh is broken because the blood which flowed from his side is in the chalice. It is appropriate that the flesh be joined to the blood because it is improper to receive the flesh without the blood or the blood without the flesh. The whole human person who is formed of two substances is reText reads: integer et incorruptibilis manet. In other words, the humanity of Christ is the fertile field in which the seeds of immortality are sown. c  Text reads: refecti immortallitatis cybo. a 

b 

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deemed and therefore fed with the flesh together with the blood of Christ.a It is not the soul alone, as some would wish, that is fed by this mystery, for it is not the soul alone that is redeemed and saved by the death of Christ; our flesh also is repaired through this mystery unto immortality and incorruption. Our flesh is made spiritually one (conviscerated) with the flesh of Christ and is transformed, so that the substance of Christ is found in our flesh just as he himself establishes us in his divinity.b Therefore, praying to God, we say with the prophet: Remember my substance. For have you not established all the sons of men for futility? (Ps 89(88). 47). What greater security is there for man than to pray for his own substance and to venerate it in God through the unity of the person and say trustingly, O God, my substance, who have established and created me! Have you created me for futility? (Ps 89(88). 48) Indeed not! Although living man is subject to futility, God the Creator, the Word of the Father, has been made man. And so it stands that we are in him and he indeed is in us, since he spiritually pours himself into our fleshc so that we may be transformed into incorruption. His blood, as I have said, is drunk, since the soul that is in the blood of the sinner is renewed by it. For the soul of Christ is not in the blood of the sinner but in the blood of his flesh, human flesh that he has assumed, and by which human nature is vivified. The flesh, therefore, is not rightly communicated without the blood, but as flesh has a relation to the soul that is in the blood of Christ, so the vivifying soul of the flesh has a relation through that blood with God, and in this way the whole man is healed.

a  Here Paschasius asserts the principle of concomitance, which holds that where the body of Christ is there also is his blood, and where his blood is so also there is his body. b  In the Eucharistic theology of Paschasius, the blood of Christ is a vivifying principle that transmits life to the communicant who receives it from the chalice. To conviscerate means to impart eternal life from the body born of Mary to the communicant through the reception of Holy Communion. c  Text reads: dum carne spiritaliter se refudit, ut nos per hoc in incorruptione transformemur.

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Because of this, when the Lord said: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, he immediately added: And I will raise him on the last day (Jn 6. 54). He says, has, because the soul, loosed from the flesh, soon enters into the storehouse of life where the souls of the saints rest. He adds, then, what pertains to the body, saying, I will raise him on the last day, so that man who was created whole and is preached as being redeemed whole, is believed to be restored whole on the last day. In the chalice, however, as much as is given to be learned from the holy fathers, the body and blood are joined at the same time through this sharing, since the chalice prefigures the mystery of Christ’s Passion, as the Psalm sings: I will take the chalice of salvation and call on the name of the Lord (Ps 115. 13). The Passion is designated through the ‘chalice of salvation’. In this same Passion his flesh together with his blood was present. Therefore, when Christ has already been offered, through the sacrament of divine tradition the body is broken as food for the people and is divided for the faithful, and the blood, spiritually consecrated in the chalice, is poured out as if it were the Passion. It is offered to us to drink by the High Priest to God the Father as the price by which we have been redeemed from death to life, and, thus being joined to the body of Christ, we put off our daily faults and light sins. By this very food and drink we are fed and given drink unto life, so that from it and through him we are conviscerated into Christ, so that we ourselves are found to be one with him.a Otherwise, we would not be able to have life in us. As the Saviour himself says: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not have life in you (Jn 6. 53). Because of this, some ask whether those who are baptised and meet a sudden death and were not able to eat the flesh of the Lord nor drink his blood were harmed and, if so, to what extent. Or is it that nothing harmed them, especially since recently reborn in Christ and made one body with him, they are truly believed to have come into the adoption of the children of God? Recently Paschasius here continues his theme of organic, life-giving unity in Christ through the Eucharist. a 

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reborn to life, they are translated through the death of the flesh to the very same life that is Christ, without the stain of any sin and are found concorporeal in him.a So we believe that there is no obstacle for those who have not received the viaticum of this sacrament for the journey, because, after receiving life, they have not fallen from the way but have persevered in that life that is Christ. So they did not fail along the way but instead arrived at the truth that is the eternal and true life. Furthermore, for those remaining here for however long a time, it is very necessary for life to have this heavenly food and drink, since just as they are nourished by heavenly food for a time in order to live, so too are they nourished spiritually, having been reborn into eternal life, lest they fail along the way (Mt 15. 32), until they pass through the death of the flesh to the perpetual and eternal life where there is no possibility of falling away. Meanwhile, it is just and most necessary that the redeemed be fed and drink unto incorruption and life. On that account the Saviour quickly added, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink (Jn 6. 55). As if he were to say that ‘men and women especially seek food and drink so that they may not hunger and thirst lest they die’, so in this case ‘not common food and drink’ is offered, but his flesh and blood that ‘makes one immortal and incorruptible’ and so is called true food and drink. It is clear to all that in this mortal life one does not live without food and drink. Likewise, one does not arrive at that eternal life unless nourished spiritually unto immortality by these two realities.b Thus, they are well joined together in the chalice because from the one chalice of the Passion of Christ both flow to us unto life. Unhappy is the soul who does not sufficiently believe this and yet does not doubt that food and drink sustain human life. For if there is so much power in mortal food that refreshes our wearied life and daily restores our strength, what must be thought of this immortal food and drink in which eternal life is offered and immorIn other words, Christ present corporaliter in the Eucharist makes us in ipso concorporati. b  That is, the body and the blood of Christ. a 

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tality reigns? God is Truth, and ‘Christ is Truth’ (I Jn 5. 6) because he is indeed God. Therefore, O man, if he is the Truth, believe that the flesh and blood of Christ are life. For that reason, Truth testifies: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life remaining in him (Jn 6. 54) — indeed, remaining, and not falling because in this life no one lives if by living one falls into death. One lives in eternal life by always remaining in that same state without defect. Therefore, if anyone follows the way, they hold to the truth. And whoever has held to the truth already has life remaining in them because Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14. 6). So, this mystery is sometimes called ‘Viaticum’ because if anyone enjoys it on the way they come to that life that they already have within them. For enlightened by the truth of the Lord’s body and blood, they are not deceived in any way by falsehood and are fed unto life.

20. Why it is that now the mystery of Holy Communion is generally celebrated fasting, when the Lord entrusted it to the apostles after a meal.

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It was the sacrament, then, that the Lord handed over to his disciples after a meal. For it was necessary that it be at the end of the day, in the evening, so that the hour of sacrifice would show that the end of the age had come. Thus, John says: Children it is the last hour (I Jn 2. 18). Indeed, the apostles were not fasting ‘because it was necessary that the type (typicum) of the Pasch be completed first, and then they would pass to the true sacrament (sacramentum) of the Pasch’.a ‘This was done then in mystery (mysterium)’, so that the shadow (umbra) might end when the truth was revealed and the apostles might quickly pass unto the new reality. And so it happened that they did not ‘receive the body and blood for the first time fasting’. Furthermore, in the Church all are accustomed to communicate after fasting with great devotion, lest while they dwell in the a 

Cyprian, ep., 63. 16, in CSEL, 3/2, p. 714, lines 14–16.

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body it be taken as ordinary food. ‘Thus it was pleasing to the Holy Spirit through the apostles that in honour of so great a mystery’a the body and blood of Christ, rather than other food, be received soberly for the first time. And so, throughout the entire Church of Christ this custom has grown providently and fittingly.b Nor should one pay attention to what they read in apocryphal literature;c rather, these sacraments should not be thought of as common food when they are digested in the body. Instead, one should carefully take care to prepare oneself ahead of time and not render himself unworthy after the grace is received. These things must be received spiritually and not carnally.d Therefore, although breade is converted into flesh and wine into blood, as is proved from nature, still these things should be considered in a more profound way, since not only is the flesh and blood of Christ changed into our flesh and blood, but moreover they lift us above carnal things and make us spiritual.f Indeed, this nourishes in us what is born of God and not what is born of flesh and blood. Christ, therefore, has given us the power to become sons of God (cf. Jn 1. 11–13). Truly, we are born not from the will of the flesh nor from the will of man, but of God. Therefore, this birth of ours which is from God is indeed spiritual, because God is spirit (cf. Jn 3. 6; 4. 24). And these mysteries are therefore not fleshy,g for although they may be flesh and blood, rightly are they believed to be spiritual. Isidore, De ecclesiasticis officiis, 1. 18; in PL, 83, col. 755. Augustine, ep., 54. 8, in CSEL, 34/2, p. 166, line 20–p. 167, line 3. c  Cf. Pseudo-Clementine Epistles, 2 (Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae): ‘A composite of spurious and genuine documents’ containing more than 10,000 citations, this collection was a ninth-century forgery attributed to a certain Isidore Mercator. Paschasius obviously thought, correctly, that the work was spurious. See John Contreni, ‘The Carolingian Renaissance: Education and Literary Culture’, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, ed. by Rosamond McKitterick, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), II, pp. 750–51. d  Text reads: spiritualiter enim haec accipienda et non carnaliter. e  Alternate text chosen here: panis convertetur. f  Text reads: non modo caro aut sanguis Christi in nostrum convertuntur carnem aut sanguinem, verum nos a carnalibus elevant et spirituals efficient. g  Text reads: et ideo haec mysteria non carnalia, licet caro et sanguis sint, sed spiritalia iure creduntur. The consistent position of Paschasius is that even though a 

b 

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Far inferior, therefore, is this temporal life of our body that is nourished by ordinary food and drink. Far higher and more eminent is that life hidden with God, by which we are conformed and configured to him, nourished by that food and drink that we receive in the Scriptures and from the altar, which carry us up to spiritual things so that we might live where our eternal life is kept for us. And so, whoever receives in this way receives worthily, and whoever receives worthily already has eternal life remaining in him. And so, lest it be confused with the digestion of other food, it is frivolous, as we read in that apocryphal book,a for one to think about the dung heap in respect to this mystery. Finally, when the spiritual food and drink are eaten and the Holy Spirit works in man through them, if there is anything carnal still in us, it is carried over in the spirit as a man becomes spiritual, for how could there be any commingling [of the carnal and the spiritual]? That eternal life differs from this mortal life as much as this food exceeds that common food by which even animals live along with us. And therefore, it is called common, for it pertains to both the good and the evil and even to animals. But this is the food of the children of God so that from it they are fed and by it they live. Divine dispensation has provided that we be fed on it here and now, so that through it we may be found to be one body with him and in him. Furthermore, the fact that we communicate after fasting is sufficient provision for both sobriety to shine in our body while every fervor of the flesh is still and for all the senses of the soul to grow stronger in understanding and discernment of the matter. First, in that food our interior man is inebriated, and then fed with heavenly sweetness. That same food shines forth, rules, and the reality is true flesh and blood, the mystery is spiritual, not carnal. a  ‘Qui autem residua corporis domini quae in sacrario relicta sunt consumunt, non statim ad communes accipiendos cibos convenient, ne putent sanctae portioni commisceri cibum qui per qualiculos degestus in secessum funditur’. PseudoClementine Epistles, 2 (Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae, 46). Paschasius clearly rejects the idea in this passage that the sacrament would be subject to the disgrace of the dung heap after being received in communion, referring here to a belief known as ‘stercorism’.

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governs that which is inferior so that it not relax into that which is harmful and useless. It was fitting, therefore, that what is more sublime should receive greater honour and what is inferior receive the necessary indulgence of this life, that is, before one is happily invited to those things that are celestial and eternal. This is the true and new dough of sincerity and truth (cf. I Cor 5. 7–8), so that you may be unleavened bread without the leaven of malice and evil. For in the chalice we drink nothing other than the blood of Christ, where through the water we are mixed together and joined. In the bread, there is nothing other than the body, where we, through the commingling of Christ, are his members.a This commingling comes about by the water of the Holy Spirit, about which in the gospel Christ says of him: He who believes in me will have living waters flow from within him (Jn 7. 38–39). And immediately the Evangelist adds: This he said of the Holy Spirit whom those who believe in him would receive (Jn 7. 38–39). Thus, the commingling of many grains makes one body, a body, I say, of sincerity and truth, if only we are unleavened, that is, without the leaven of malice and evil, so that we may be able to receive worthily this bread from the sprinkling of this water. O marvelous dispensation of the omnipotent God who instructs us with such teachings and strengthens us with such examples, that is, if we do not have a soul ungrateful for such benefits and doubtful of such great promises! Therefore, O man, preserve this comingling of grace.b For although you might be wheat, you will not be strengthened into a firm faith unless you are first reduced into a comingled grain by the doctrine and power of the Holy Spirit unto this unity; then once mixed into dough by grace, you must be baked by the fire of charity. Therefore, may you always have as the upper millstone faith in the promises and as the Here Paschasius articulates an ecclesiology of the Mystical Body as it applies to the Eucharist. b  Paschasius alludes to Augustine, serm., 272 (Ad infantes), in PL 38, p. 1247: ‘Quando baptizati estis, quasi conspersi estis. Quando Spiritus sancti ignem accepistis, quasi cocti estis’. Hill translates this passage as follows: ‘When you were baptised it is as though you were mixed into dough. When you received the Holy Spirit, it is as though you were baked’ (WSA, 3/7, p. 301). a 

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lower millstone the fear of perfect charity. Well ground together by these two things, you are able by the grace of the Holy Spirit to be united in the body of Christ. Evident, therefore, is the fact that these are mysteries. And so, my child, you should think of these things as heavenly, touch them as divine, receive them as saving things in which eternal life is promised, believe in them as they are spoken of, then live in such a way that, always comingled with the truth and sincerity in Christ, you may be found a member of his body.a

21. What it means when the Lord says: ‘I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew in the Kingdom of my Father’ (Mt 26. 29).

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‘From this citation some construct the tale of a thousand years’ b in which Christ will reign bodily. They also say that these new things should not be eaten and drunk corporally until the end of the ages. We Catholics, however, searching out the meaning of the Lord himself and not following the trifling of the heretics, rather [follow] the words of him who says: Take and eat of this, all of you, for this is my Body, and says that the chalice is the same of which it is said: This is my chalice of the New Testament that will be poured out for many for the remission of sins (Mt 26. 26–28). Of this marvelous chalice the prophet said: I will take the chalice of salvation and call on the name of the Lord (Ps 115. 13). This chalice, therefore, points to the Passion of the Lord. It is in this sense that he says to the Father: Father, take this chalice from me, which is the Passion of his death, lest it happen by the hands of the Jews; and then: If it is not possible that this chalice pass unless I drink it, let your will be done (Mt 26. 42). Therefore, the custom has remained fixed that the blood of Christ is never consecrated in a bowl, nor in a carafe, nor in any a  b 

That is, the Church. See Jerome, ep., 120. 2, in CSEL, 54; p. 479, line 10–p. 481, line 2.

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other kind of vessel except in a chalice. Neither is it called by any other name, according to the proper use of words, except a chalice, as is the case with other vessels, so that the chalice of the Passion of Christ be called to mind for everyone. From this wonderful chalice, that is, from the same death, blood, and from the blood, eternal life is drawn. When we drink it, what else do we announce than the death of the Lord? It is first necessary, therefore, that each one die to this age. Just as no one announces a death unless he has been buried, so no one takes up his life unless rising, he walks in newness of life and now remains in Christ. If we wish to receive these things with Christ, then, let us arise and go up to the upper chamber of life, that is, to the upper and prepared large chamber (Lk 22. 12), because unless it is large it will not hold everyone. Let us arise and go up because whoever remains below does not drink these things with Christ but unhappily drinks the gall of serpents (Dt 32. 33) with Judas, so that they may live in the gall of bitterness (Acts 8. 23). And thus Paul says: Taste the things that are above, not the things on earth (Col 3. 2). For this chalice of the New Testament is received nowhere else than above. And because it belongs to the New Testament it is received only by those made new who are without the oldness of sin. It speaks of the New Testament by way of distinction from the Old. Moses, when he sprinkled the people with the blood of the holocaust, poured half of the bowls on the people and half on the altar and said: This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has decreed (cf. Ex 24. 6–8). The blood of such a great Testament, because it was a figure, was a shadow of this mystery.a Through it, the Lord has testified that he will give it to us. Indeed the Christian people are sprinkled with this blood. And half of it is poured everywhere from the bowls because what we receive has a moral and mystical meaning according to the Scriptures. Then half is poured on the altar to take away the sins The consistent position of Paschasius is that the figures of the Old Testament were shadows because they lacked the reality that would arrive with the coming of Christ. a 

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of the many (cf. Rom 6. 4; 7. 6; II Cor 5. 17; Eph 4. 23–24). Thus, from it we now receive the drink of salvation, because from it we have the wisdom of doctrine and receive for ourselves the price of our redemption. Therefore, what we read, that he did for us once, we ourselves do now daily at his command. Do we not read in Solomon that Wisdom mixed her wine in a bowl? Indeed, human intelligence understands it as that wine that inebriates the souls of the faithful and that which is poured out on the altar when it is said: ‘Command that these things be taken by the hands of your angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty’.a Thus it happens that the blood of Christ, which ought to be poured out again daily for our sins, is received again as the price of our salvation, where our inner man is renewed more fully through it. This inner man is then joined with Christ not only in morals and life but also in unity of nature through this body, so that the inner man may be found in his likeness. This blood is not fully received unless it inebriates the soul, flowing over us morally and spiritually from the altar of the body of Christ for our renovation, where Christ indeed wants to be our food and table companion.b Because we are his body, of his flesh and bones (cf. Eph 1. 23; 5. 30; I Cor 12. 27), he drinks it new with us in the kingdom of his Father, because it is the blood of the New Covenant (Mt 26. 28). Indeed, we, because we are his body and he reigns in us as our Head, are rightly called the ‘Kingdom of the Father’, in which Christ already drinks it new as often as the faithful receive it worthily in the Church. For just as he suffers and thirsts and hungers and is clothed and visited in his own, so as often as we eat and drink him worthily he drinks this new in the ‘Kingdom of the Father’, that is, in the Church. For from that bower that makes the wild vines cover the wall with wild grapes, where the gall of bitterness is drunk, that is the chalice of his Passion. On the other hand, in the kingdom of adoption he drinks of the fruit of the new vine and the wine of Sorek a  b 

Canon Missae Romanae, p. 36, lines 100–02. Text reads: convivium et convivia.

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(cf. Jgs 16. 4), which is interpreted ‘Chosen’. The red grapes speak of that struggle of the Cross when we daily receive the blood of Christ from the altar. Therefore, as often as we drink of this new wine we confess that we drink it there in the kingdom of Christ whose members we, who drink, are. And so he is said to be our Meal, because Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed (I Cor 5. 7). We are table companions because we eat with him, transformed into a new reality because we are his body, and so he testifies that he will drink it new in the kingdom of the Father. In another sense, we also believe that in that future kingdom this drink and this food are not to be properly drunk and received by corporeal taste but rather as the High Priest and Author of salvation himself established. Therefore, the holy apostles were renewed by the coming of the Holy Spirit from heaven and inebriated by the wine of charity. So indeed we do believe that this chalice is consecrated in the Church, because that Spirit of truth in whom they were renewed from old age led them into all truth and confirmed them in the fullness of doctrine. Indeed, already consecrated by Christ, so also they were consecrated by him in newness of the spirit. Elsewhere he says: My food is to do the will of him who sent me and complete his work (Jn 4. 34). Therefore, when we do the will of the Father and the work of charity is fulfilled, Christ indeed drinks his blood with us in the kingdom of his Church because he is the Head and we are his members.a The patriarch Jacob hungered for this food, saying: May the Lord will to be with me and give me bread to eat and clothing to wear (Gn 28. 20). Therefore, whenever we are baptised in Christ, we put on Christ and eat the bread of angels. Indeed, in this mystery Isaac blessed the same Jacob, his son, as if there were no other blessing than that of grain and wine, i.e. a blessing in the bread of Christ’s flesh and in the drink of his blood that comes from the field of his body, and we eat through the ministry of the priest.b Thus, the same man said: May God give you from heaven’s dew and That is, the Mystical Body of Christ. In other words, the Eucharistic body of Christ comes forth from his humanity and is distributed to the people through the ministry of the priest. a 

b 

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from the riches of the earth an abundance of grain and wine (Gn 27. 28). In the dew of heaven, therefore, these mysteries are confected by the work of the divinity; in the riches of the earth, as well, because the flesh of Christ is believed to originate from the Virgin.a Here, without a doubt, the fullest abundance of bread and wine is offered to Christians, in which the life of the angels is certainly enjoyed. You should not, therefore, my dear son, pay little or no attention to these things of life, when they emit the fragrance of such a great sacrament. You have for example so great a patriarch who sensed the fragrance of this mystery in his son.b For he said: Behold, the sweet smell of my son is like the smell of a full field that God has blessed (Gn 27. 27). Indeed, in this field of the body of Christ a hidden treasure blooms with undying flowers and is scented with a sweet smell: When a man finds it, he goes and sells all he has and buys that field (Mt 13. 44). In it are contemplated all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (cf. Col 2. 3). In this field of his flesh,c therefore, the bread of life and the drink of blood abound luxuriously and are reaped every day for believers. In this field, the true Jacob is blessed and is constituted Lord of his brothers, because without this blessing no other is of benefit. The same holy man (Isaac), when Esau the hunter came later to be blessed when the blessing had already been given to his brother, said: Your brother came deceitfully, and added, I have blessed him with the grain and the wine (cf.  Gn 27.  35–37). Speaking clearly, this means: ‘I have strengthened him with the bread of the Body of Christ and with the wine of his Blood in which an eternal abundance will flow upon him’. ‘For you my son, what more can I do?’ What more indeed? How great, or what type of a worshipper of God would one be, who finds nothing more to offer a son than the very things he begs for with pleadings and promises? Do not think, heaven forbid, that should you be thought unworthy of so great a grace, that you could grow strong in any good — beyond Text reads: quia caro Christi de virgine orta creditor. Here Paschasius affirms that the mystery of the Eucharist was prophesied in the Old Testament. c  That is, of his humanity. a 

b 

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that, what is more preferable in this life? Or perhaps you think little of it because of how it tastes in your mouth, which he (Jacob) in the spirit sensed in it from afar and longed to enjoy? By this, Abraham was once refreshed, although in hope. He said, therefore: Blessed be God the Most High (cf. Gn 26. 24). Then, after Abraham, God poured forth his blessing on Isaac. Therefore, Isaac enriched his son Jacob with these same good things and with a prophetic word implored that it be promised to all. A great good, then, and a hidden thing of very great blessing is mystically prepared in the Church of Christ, where Christ himself is both Guest and Dinner of delights. About this the good Zechariah, admiring the promise, once said: Wheat is good and what is beautiful except the grain of the elect and the wine that begets virgins? (Zec 9. 17) Here it must be noted that it is only the bread of the elect from which the good of salvation and the beauty of grace is offered to the Church. For, because she is stained daily, she must be restored [daily] by this bread, so that she might be found as the spouse of Christ without spot or wrinkle, showered with such gifts. Otherwise, while we sin daily, albeit in little things, how could we be without stain? For the Church is not pure when some obscenity of something stains her. But because she is always purified through this mystery, her beauty is this body that is already beautiful by way of the baptismal bath and is now made more beautiful still, as she is adorned in this mystery with the radiance of the lily and the redness of the blood — good, so that we might attain eternal life; beautiful, when we are vested with the glory of immortality. And as we enjoy the sweetness of life within, we shine outwardly with the beauty of such a beneficent grace. And the wine, he says, begets virgins (Zec 9.  17). Happy is the abundant fruit from which virginity is germinated! For in this fruitful wine chastity is procreated, and from it virgins are pro­ created. And the whole Church of Christ, therefore, is rightly called a virgin because, filled with this wine, she knows to love nothing except Christ, to hunger for none other than Christ, to thirst for none other than Christ. For Christ is her highest good and her greatest beauty, that garment woven from top to bottom of the wool

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(cf. Jn 19. 23) of the Lamb and that elsewhere is called a wedding garment. But also, every soul that drinks of the blood of Christ and is inebriated by the wine of charity is rightly called a ‘virgin’. Beloved, you have the good of the life of the saints because there is no other. You have the beauty of grace by which you wash away the foulness of infancy. Exercise yourself in chastity, because this blood loves nothing more than virgins in Christ — virgins, I say, but prudent ones and chaste, because there are those who, foolish in soul, do not have with them the oil of the Holy Spirit. Truly if one does not have the Holy Spirit, he does not belong to Christ. For the grain of the flesh does not suffice without the wine of the blood, nor does the flesh and blood profit us without the oil of the Holy Spirit — rather, it impedes us. It is necessary, therefore, that whoever wants to communicate rightly, he must live in such a way that he always strive to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, for if anyone violates the Temple of God, God will destroy him (I Cor 3. 17). Then Paul says: Do not sadden the Holy Spirit in whom you have been sealed (Eph 4. 30), because without him, no grace of Christ is had. Joel, therefore, when he promises pardon to the penitent, said: The Lord replied and said to his people, ‘Behold, I send you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be filled in him’ (Jl 2. 19). In him you will be filled up, although he mentioned three [things], because the flesh and blood are consecrated by the same Holy Spirit. Otherwise, what I receive is not flesh or blood for me but rather judgment, because without him giving grace, no gift is offered from God to those receiving evilly. Now the same Spirit is called ‘Gift’, although seven things are called gifts of his by which Christ and the Church are filled. The Spirit possesses all these gifts to the fullest and the Church individually in portions as it pleases this same Spirit who divides himself and grants himself to all. In the Spirit we are divinely filled up because without him, the soul of each one is found to be empty. Let us pray to him then and desire him always so that our desire may be filled with the good things of the Spirit and always be renewed by him as if our youth were like that of the eagle’s (cf. Ps 102. 5). It is clear, therefore, that without the Spirit there is nothing that is possessed, nothing received, because all gifts of virtue are

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enclosed in this one. For if we wish to be enriched with heavenly gifts let us seek with fervent soul the Gift of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who himself proceeds consubstantial and co-eternal from them both, so that through him charity may be poured into our hearts and, reborn in the Spirit daily, we may be sanctified unto life because we believe that the Father and Son truly dwell in those whom he sanctifies with the sprinkling of his dew. Therefore, the Son says: I and the Father will come to him and make our dwelling in him (cf. Jn 14. 23), not as if the Father was one sent by the Holy Spirit, but rather as the great Father who marvelously makes his way as he comes to them, that is, those whom the Spirit sanctifies, although in all things he himself cooperates with the entire Trinity. Therefore, just as nothing in this life is happier for the good Christian, so there is for him nothing more dangerous than falling away from such a grace and becoming a member of a prostitute. Therefore, my dear one, guard your chastity (I  Tm 5.  22), because this gift by which virgins are generated condemns not only impurity of the flesh but also the laziness of the mind and everything else that can stain our external man. Because of this and the ordinance of God, I wish that you were already standing at the sacred altars and washing yourself among the innocent — and not only your hands with Pilate — for no excuse avails where our conscience is witness and judge. If you test yourself first, then eat of this bread and drink of this chalice secure­ ly. Otherwise, give honour to God and, the sooner the better, correct with repentance of heart the stain of error. If only you had the strength to stand at the altar of God with holy gestures and enter more devoutly the Holy of Holies with pure mind. Certainly, it is graver still to become eviler in vileness; despising God, and shamefully approaching the mysteries of God that are forbidden to you. Therefore, beloved son, I say these things to you as a warning, for I have known that under the pretext of penance some, like unclean pigs, have returned to the trough, (and) inclined by so much vice, they easily in their guilt approach these things without a previous examination, thus trampling the mysteries with their feet. Because the patience of God once put up with them when un­

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worth­ily they presumed on the mysteries of life, now they prefer not to believe these things we say. For, indeed, they fear more to go shamefaced before men looking on than to accept the punishment for their temerity in the presence of all the saints. Indeed, for them there is a hardening of the heart, since they neither correct themselves nor are they punished by the scourges of a loving God. For now, there is punishment of their sin and contempt for their pride. Or do we think that God does not care because he does not immediately punish, as if by not punishing, he forgets their evils? I reply: By no means, especially since he sees and is driven hence to further wrath because his sons and daughters provoke him to anger, that is, those sons and daughters whom he had freely joined to the table of the angels. And thus, it is said: I have hidden my face from them, and will consider their fate (last things) (Dt 32. 20).a Often such people, with great deliberation, propose for a while to change for the better but under the attack of temptation rush into what is worse. So, if you wish to be saved and to enjoy life from these mysteries, I would have you act in such a way that you understand that God is always and everywhere present, and that you carry yourself before him in such a way that you do nothing offensive before the eyes of his majesty. If anyone thinks that they can be anywhere distant from him, then that person should know that God is everywhere by his power and that he or she will not escape with their offences, but that God will find out all the hidden things that are done and sealed in the storehouse [of his wrath].

22. Whether there be any difference in this mystery between the reconciled penitent and the just person. It is clear from the divine Law that, although Christ the Lamb is immolated in the Church, what is alloted is due to a difference in the reward of merits. The Lord says in Exodus, when he speaks of the Passover: On the tenth day of this month let each one take a a 

See Appendix for lines 260–308.

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lamb for his family and house. It will be, he said, a lamb without blemish, a year-old male, from the sheep or the goats (Ex 12. 5). The Septuagint reads: It will be an immaculate lamb; you will take it from the lambs or the goats. This is commanded because of a difference in merit. If one is not able to acquire a lamb because of poverty of life, that is, the offering of an immaculate life, at least let one bring a goat that is always slaughtered as a sacrifice for penitents. St Jerome, interpreter of the divine Law, says that ‘Christ, in the house of the Church, is immolated in two ways: if we are just, we eat of the flesh of the Lamb; if we are sinners and are doing penance, a Goat is killed for us. Not that Christ is a goat, since we learn they stand at the left hand, but because of the diversity of merits; each one is either a lamb or a goat’.a Otherwise, according to the Law, why would he order a goat to be taken together with the lamb except because of the difference of merits? Where it follows: And you will save it until the fourteenth day of this month and the whole multitude of the sons of Israel will immolate it in the evening (Ex 12. 6), does not openly teach that what must be accepted regarding the lamb is also commanded concerning the goat. But as is the custom in the divine Scriptures, it is revealed secretly, for it is one thing to command what is perfect, another to provide for the fallen and the lazy. It is ordained openly what must be done for the lamb alone; about the goat, Scripture is silent, so as to not order anything more precise. For it is one thing what God himself always wills for the more perfect; another, that which he tolerates for a time in the sinner. In another place, God commands the following concerning the lamb: that those who cannot eat the Passover on the first day should do it on the second, that is, if with the perfect they are not able to eat the lamb without being liable to death; at least let them do so on the second, that is, in penitence, and then let the accused receive his own goat of forgiveness. For it says: Let anyone who is unclean because of a death, whether he is far away on the road or at home, keep the Passover of the Lord in the second month (Nm 9. 10– a 

Jerome, hom., 7, in CC SL, 78, p. 537, lines 30–34.

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11). Otherwise, if he be not unclean in soul, or not traveling in torpor from the Holy Spirit, and still does not keep the Passover of the Lord, let that soul be totally cut off (Nm 9. 13), because unless they eat the flesh of the Son of Man they are not able to have eternal life (Jn 6. 53–54), because they did not offer the sacrifice of the Lord at its proper time (Nm 9. 13). Lest you think that what is said is for those who do not belong to Christ, it adds among your people (Nm 9. 10), because all Christians are thought of as one family. It is humbler indeed to eat the goat with penitents than to eat Christ the Lamb with the more perfect and the holy ones. Understanding this well, the elder son, returning from the fields and moved with an evil envy, objected to his most kind father, saying: I  have served you for so many years, never disobeying one of your commands, and yet you never gave me even a goat that I might feast on with my friends (Lk 15. 29). And how justly! Because, blinded by sin, he was unwilling in mind to enter in and do penance in his heart. Therefore, far away from his father’s goods, he did not deserve to get even the pardon of the goat, while the most tender father sacrificed a calf for the repentant younger son. And what is worse, with a rebellious soul he heaped affronts upon his father, affronts that from a carnal spirit he brought forth from his own impenitent heart. Considering this, let us do penance with a fervent heart — the second plank after the shipwreck.a For it is a better thing to at least be mystically among the goats at the banquet of Christ as long as we are dining at the feast with our brothers, where Christ the Lamb is sacrificed. For we are both guilty and liable when, because of envy, we grow arrogant and argue with the holy Father, and although we might implore him, we nonetheless fail to arrive at the ineffable joy of the Father. Beyond all doubt, as soon as we are divinely reconciled by this way of humility, returning to the embrace of the loving Father, Christ will be sacrificed for us at this heavenly feast, not only as a Goat of forgiveness, but also, by Cf. Jerome, ep., 130. 9 (Ad Demetrium), in PL, 22, col. 1115. Penitence is referred to by Jerome as a ‘plank for those who have had the misfortune to be shipwrecked’ (i.e., for those who fall into mortal sin after baptism). a 

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his mercy, he will be mystically surrendered as the Lamb or the Calf, fattened by the divinity of the Word, for the sake of the joy of our salvation. Otherwise, how is it that among the lambs who will be located at the right side of Christ, a sinner having received pardon is restored among the hundred sheep, save for the fact that he has been united to God by the grace of Christ and found to be one body with him? Indeed, it is no marvel if in this mystery Christ is taken as a Goat on behalf of sinners, since very often in the Law he was immolated under the figure of a goat. Because he exists in two substances, two goats are ordered to be offered at the same time according to the Law. One of these is offered by lot to the Lord for sins; the other, called by the Law the sent-forth one (scapegoat), is taken alive, and, all the iniquities and crimes of the children of Israel having been confessed over its head, is sent out to the desert to a place of solitude carrying all the sins of the children of Israel. From this it is very clear that Christ, in the likeness of sinful flesh (cf. Rom 8. 3; Phil 2. 7), lay in death for us and took on himself all the curses of the Law and all our sins, and returned hastening to the desert where he had left the ninety-nine. It is not because he is believed to be a goat or a lamb properly speaking but because he has assumed for us the figure of sinful flesh, that he is seen to be here as a goat or there as a kid; because of sin he condemned sin in the flesh (cf. Rom 8. 3), so that those who were, as goats, justly to be placed on the left, might when mercifully restored, become sheep on the right. So it is that after the bath the same one who is a Lamb for the just becomes a Goat for sinners; by this they are made just so that no one may be counted as outside the flesh and blood of Christ save the one who cuts himself off because of great sins. Behold, such is the right order! For without a doubt, the one who does not eat the flesh of Christ nor drink his blood does not have life remaining in him. And whoever will have eaten unworthily does not receive the power of that flesh but rather the judgment of God. Moreover, if anyone is a sinner and stops sinning, although he is a goat, even for him the flesh of Christ becomes a sacrament, so that through it he is returned to true innocence and is numbered among the lambs on the right hand (cf. Mt 25. 33).

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Those who, after the bath, remain from then on, by the protection of God, in the body, not involved in any serious sins, worthily receive the flesh of the Lamb and drink his blood. If we speak this way, therefore, it should not be thought that this one or that one receives other than the flesh and blood of Christ. For as the word ‘goat’ is used by way of substitution because of a mystical meaning,a so the word ‘lamb’ is understood as the true Lamb who is to come and who is prefigured very often in the Law, so that true innocence of soul is open to all through him. On the other hand, although ‘goat’ is used by me about the quality of merit or the hiddenness of sin, the flesh of Christ is of such a great price for the life of the world that for me there is nothing else than the flesh of Christ. He then again becomes a Goat to expiate the curse of crimes for the sake of mystery, just as he is a Lamb to expiate the lesser sins. Thus is the Agnus Dei sung before (the Eucharist) is eaten, so that by such means the faith may emphasize that this is his flesh, immolated for us again to take away the sins of the world. He established this sacrament to expiate the sins we once contracted; if we abstain from them, then we eat as we are commanded. That one house is the holy Church of the living God, outside of which it is not lawful for anyone to eat the flesh of the Lamb. Nor is it to be eaten raw or cooked in water, but roasted as by the fire (cf. Ex 12. 8–9) of Christ’s Passion, together with bitter herbs and bread without yeast. This means we eat them with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and not with the yeast of corruption. Let everyone test himself so that he may act as it is commanded. Gird your loins (Ex 12. 11), it says in Scripture, for these are the paths of life on which virgins are born. Now it is clear that nothing more dangerous could touch them than impurity and incest. For this reason, God, who is the judge of these sensitive matters,b has made the law of chastity primary. For if he who has rendered the debt to his wife, cannot, according to the Law, approach God, nor the loaves of offering, nor other consecrated things of the a  b 

Text reads: ob mysticam significationem. Text reads: in renibus.

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Law unless he is sanctified for three or more days, then how much more so, if he wishes to eat worthily that Bread come down from heaven and the flesh of the Lamb of God, must he abstain from all the works of sin and direct the purification of his mind to God. And you will, it says, have sandals on your feet (cf. Ex 12. 11), lest while we are on the road of this life we be bitten by the serpent, and a staff in your hands, concerning which it is read in the Psalm, your rod and staff comfort me (Ps 22. 4). Having said those things, it says, you will eat it in haste (cf. Ex 12. 11). For it is the Pasch, that is, the passing-over of the Lord. Otherwise, torpid in inactivity and remaining as dwellers in the works of this age, you will not worthily eat the Passover, i.e. the flesh of the Lamb. It is enough that such things be feared lest you yourself perish in the night with the Egyptians, trodden down by the sleep of sin. For those who are not sprinkled by the blood of the Lamb, both externally in the flesh and internally in conscience, are destroyed by the angel. They are saved whose limbs are girt and feet are shod, sustained by the staff of Christ, as they hurry from here with ardour and desire of mind towards the homeland. This is the Pasch, that is, the Passover of the Lord. Do you think, dear one, that the conscience of anyone hides from God? I speak not of one who is involved in crimes but rather of one who languishes because of laziness. Unless in a desire for the heavenly homeland one passes over in haste with full faith, certain hope, and unfeigned charity (cf. I Cor 13. 13; II Cor 6. 6) to heavenly places, where Christ is at the right hand of the Father, such a one will not eat of the flesh of the Lamb, because in this torpor he violates the Law of the Lawgiver. Therefore, as often as we receive these things, let us raise our minds in desire and hasten with the ardour of faith to the fullness of so great a vision because here there is only a taste; there, however, is total satisfaction. We shall be satisfied, says the prophet, when your glory is made manifest (Ps 16. 15). Therefore, as Christ passes over in us from this world to the Father, let us pass over in him, because, if we are numbered among his members, we are one person and one body. However, whoever still lives in negligence and desire for fleshpots, such a one does

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not pass over from here, nor hasten to the fatherland. Such a one, therefore, never celebrates the Pasch properly because the Pasch is named from the Passover. So as children of the promises, let us in haste pass from here, with minds girt and feet shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace (cf. Eph 6. 14–15; I Pt 1. 13), so that we might be able to come as often as we can to the joys of the resurrection.a

a 

See Appendix for lines 180–202.

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LETTER TO FREDUGARD

To my beloved brother and comrade, Fredugard: your own Paschasius, an old man and the most worthless of all monks, wishes you great and lasting health. Having left aside your letters, my dear friend, because I was occupied with certain matters of hospitality, I was totally unable at first to complete what you asked. Now, however, filled with love for you, I have not been able to put off thinking of the sweetness of your letter. Since there is nowhere in the library here among us in which to find what you ask, I myself will reply to one whom I am unable to deny what is asked even if I am unable to do it well. You ask about something that many wonder about. If many do not understand it fully, they should not hesitate to study the words of the Saviour, the truthful God who says: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life remaining in you; and where he says: For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink (Jn 6. 53–55). He said to his disciples when he offered the bread: Take this, it is my body that is given over for you. And likewise, about the chalice: Drink of this, all of you, because this is my blood of the New Covenant that is poured out for you and for many for the remission of sins (Mt 16. 26–28; Mk 14. 22–24; Lk 22. 19–20; I Cor 11. 24–25). When he says, this is my body, or my flesh, or this is my blood, I think he means nothing other than his own flesh that was born of the Virgin Mary and hung on the Cross, and none

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other than the blood that was poured out on the Cross from his own body.a No reasonable person believes that Jesus has other flesh or blood than that which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered on the Cross. It is the very same flesh, and I believe the only way it should be understood, when he says: This is my body that is given for you, or this is my blood. Since he speaks about the sacrament, do not think that he speaks of anything other in this mystery, or that he speaks or points out anything other than his own flesh and blood when he says: This is my body. For when he says, this is, and my, he does not want us to understand just any body but rather that one that would be handed over; or as he would do soon, not any other blood than that which he would pour out from his own body for the remission of sins. For if they are to be understood in some other way, that is, that in this mystery the blood is other than his blood or the flesh is other than his flesh, then there is no remission of sins in either. And if there were no life in them, then there would be no life poured out. For it is not just any food save that of the eternal and living God who offers himself and eternal life unto salvation for those who receive it. Because, as he himself said, whoever does not eat this flesh or drink this blood does not have life remaining in him. So the sacrament that gives life has within itself that which gives life to those worthily receiving it. And if there is life in it, then it truly is the flesh and blood of the living One in whom there is truly eternal life. Cf.  Ambrose, De mysteriis, 9.  53, in CSEL, 73, p.  112, lines 53–54. See also Augustine, serm., 228B, in MA, 1, pp. 18–20 (cf. PL, 46, cols 826–28). The text is frequently cited to validate Augustine’s belief in the Real Presence when contrasted with other passages that seem to favor a more symbolist position. Although there have been those who have questioned Augustinian authorship in the past, there can be little doubt as to sermon’s authenticity. See Mark G. Vaillancourt, ‘The Eucharistic Realism of St Augustine: Did Paschasius Radbertus get him right? An Examination of Recent Scholarship on the Sermons of St  Augustine’, in Studia Patristica 70: Papers Presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 2011, ed.  by Markus Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), pp. 569–76. a 

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You say that this is what you once believed when you read it in the little book I published, De sacramentis.a You state, however, that in the third Book of Augustine’s De doctrina Christiana,b you read that the words which refer to the body and blood of the Lord are only to be spoken of in a way that is metaphorical (tropica).c But if the words are only to be spoken of in a figurative ( figurata)d or representative (scema) sense, and not one that is literal (veritas), then you say, ‘I do not know in what sense I should understand this passage’. Then you add: ‘On the contrary, for if I do in fact believe that this is what Christ took from the Virgin Mary his mother, then that outstanding teacher Augustine asserts that it would be a great crime [to chew him with our teeth]’. Indeed, this saying seems to strike horror into those who hear it, those who perchance do not believe that there is in the sacrament what Truth openly testifies to. And if they believe that this is indeed the case, as a certain number of them indeed do,e believing with a false understanding, they incur a crime nonetheless, because that is not what it says is the lawful way to chew him with our teeth.f Where then is the crime if anyone believes as they believed then, that is, to whom it was said, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man (Jn 6. 53)? They were not able to accept it because they understood it in the wrong way. For he destroys the whole sense of the passage who says that this flesh and this blood are to be consumed without mystery and the sacrament and should only be received figuratively. For this was the way that they took it at that time, that is, those who, carnally wise, understood it in a carnal way, that is, those who were wise in the way of the flesh. Blessed Augustine says that the great crime is to taste in such a carnal way. Otherwise how would this outstanding doctor speak That is, De corpore et sanguine Domini. Cf. Augustine, De doctrina, 3. 16, in CC SL, 32, p. 91, line 7–p. 92, line 28. c  The word tropica in later rhetorical works meant ‘figurative or metaphorical’, and this is the sense used in this translation. d  Cf. Augustine, De doctrina, 3. 16. Augustine uses the term figurata. See PL, 34, col. 74. e  Cf. Ratramnus, De corpore et sanguine Domini, 33–34, in PL, 121, col. 141. f  Cf. Rabanus Maurus, ep., 3. 2, in PL, 112, col. 1513. a 

b 

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against himself — as I recall — in his sermon to the neophytes, where he says, ‘Receive in the bread what hung on the wood’; and about the chalice he says, ‘Receive in the chalice what flowed from his side’.a I do not believe that anything else would have hung on the cross than his flesh, nor that anything else would have flowed from his side than blood and water (Jn 19. 34). And if this is so, then believers agree that it is his flesh and blood that is mixed with water, and by which sacraments they are reborn. So these two things are mixed in the chalice, water in which we are reborn, and blood in which the faithful are redeemed. As St Cyprian testifies,b there should be no water in the chalice without the blood, nor blood without the water, because the water is a symbol of the people washed by the water of baptism. The blood points to Christ who has redeemed us by it. And through them this one body that is Christ and the Church is both understood and formed. For neither is Christ High Priest forever without the Church, nor is there a Church offered to God the Father without Christ. Indeed, these mysteries are sacraments that contain the reality of the flesh and blood of none other than Christ, although in mystery and figure. It is not to be wondered at if this mystery is called a figure and the words of this mystery are called a metaphorical type (tropica) of speech,c since Christ himself is called by St Paul both ‘image’ (caracter) and ‘figure’ ( figura) (Heb 1. 2–3), although he himself is the Truth. For he says: Last of all he, namely God, has spoken in his Son, who, since he is the splendour of his glory and the figure or image, or, as other codices read, of his substance. Pay attention to the fact that the supreme Truth himself is called image (caracter)d and figure ( figura). Nevertheless, in him Cf. Augustine, serm., 228B, in MA, 1, p. 19, lines 7–9 (cf. WSA 3/6, p. 262). Cyprian, ep., 63. 13, in CSEL 3/2, p. 711, line 13–p. 712, line 10. c  Text reads: verba tropica locutio. d  Caracter derives from the Greek χαρακτήρ meaning ‘stamp’, or ‘die’, indicating an instrument used in engraving, exact impression, image reproduction, facsimile production, or sealing. a 

b 

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there is nothing false ( fictum), nothing lacking in truth (veritas), in the same way that we do not say an image or figures of letters are lacking power or force when we pronounce those same letters figuratively. You testify that it was with this same understanding that you read the little book I published when I said, ‘This mystery (mysterium) is understood to be truth (veritas), but not denied to be a symbol ( figura)’.a Because in respect to present things, whatever we know about God we know in part, as the Apostle testifies, and, in respect to future things and the heavenly kingdom we prophesy in part (I Cor 13.  9), so in part we have a foretaste not with the palate of the mouth but with the palate of the heart and believe them to be the body and blood of Christ through faith. For since we live from him and in him by whom we have been redeemed and reborn, so it is by necessity that we be reformed and renewed into a new creature, so that we might live from this new creature. Blessed Augustine, whose opinion you said troubles you, speaks about this matter in his letter to Bishop Boniface: ‘We are accustomed to speak about the day of Christ’s Passion in this way during every single Paschal service: “Today”, we say “is the resurrection of Christ that in fact happened only once so many years before, although it is said to return with the passage of years, and so it is believed even though it is understood to have happened only once”. And therefore, one does not lie who says: “Today is the resurrection of Christ”, for so it is in a certain sense because of the recurrence of times’. Then the said doctor adds — so that we may understand that it is a manner of speaking and not that he is believed to be contradicting himself or refuting his previous teaching to the neophytes, but rather, so that we might know that elsewhere he spoke figuratively (tropice) — he says, ‘Nor does he lie, if when asked, responds that Christ is immolated today, because they take their name from the very likeness they have to those realities of which they are sacraments’. Otherwise, ‘if they did not have a likeness to the realities of which they are sacraments, they would not be sacraments’. a 

Paschasius, De corpore, 4. 25–34.

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Therefore, when he is immolated, who dies no more and over whom death no longer has dominion (Rom 6. 9), it occurs in sacrament. So Augustine says, ‘In a certain way as the sacrament of the body of Christ is the body of Christ, so the sacrament of the blood of Christ is the blood of Christ’.a In this he does not contradict himself, as some think,b nor does he contradict St Ambrose, whose opinion is found most fully in the book he published on the sacraments. I say ‘most fully’ and most truly in that book where he says that in the sacrament there is the flesh of Christ that hung on the Cross and the blood that flowed from his side and that he took from the Virgin Mary; no other flesh, he says, but rather the very same.c St Cyprian likewise confirms this, as I have already shown, in his language about the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ in his work, Ad populum.d Following his words, the aforesaid father Augustine, the very keen disputer, spoke as I have said, ‘Receive in the bread what hung upon the Cross and receive in the chalice what flowed from The entirety of Augustine’s text reads: ‘Nempe saepe ita loquimur, ut Pascha propinquante dicamus crastinam vel perendinam Domini passionem, cum ille ante tam multos annos passus sit, nec omnino nisi semel illa passio facta sit. Nempe ipse die Dominico dicimus, Hodie Dominus resurrexit tot anni transierint. Cur nemo tam ineptus est, ut nos ita loquentes arguat esse mentitos, quia istos dies secundum illorum, quibus haec gesta sunt similitudinem nuncupamus, ut dicatur ipse dies qui non est ipse, sed revolution temporis similis ejus, et dicatur illo die fieri, propter sacramenti celebrationem, quod non illo die, sed iam olim factum est? Nonne simul immolatus est Christo in seipso, et tamen in sacramento non solum per omnes Paschae solemnitates, sed omni die populis immolator, nec utique mentitur qui interrogates eum responderit immolari? Si enim sacramenta quamdam similitudinem earum rerum quarum sacramenta sunt, non haberent, omnino sacramenta non essent. Ex hac autem similitudine plerumque etiam ipsarum rerum nomina accipiunt. Sicut ergo secundum quemdam modum sacramentum corporis Christi corpus Christi est, sacramentum sanguinis Christi sanguis Christi est, ita sacramentum fidei fides est’ (Augustine, ep. 98. 9, in CSEL, 34/2, p. 530, line 10–p. 531, line 8). b  Cf. Ratramnus, De corpore, 35, in PL, 121, col. 141. c  Cf. Ambrose, De mysteriis, 9. 53, in CSEL, 73, p. 112: ‘Vera utique caro Christi, quae crucifixa est, quae sepulta est: vera ergo carnis illius sacramentum est’. d  Cyprian, ep., 63. 13, in CSEL, 3.2, p. 711, line 13–p. 712, line 10: ‘Vidimus in aqua populum intelligi, in vino vero ostendi sanguinem Christi’. a 

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his side’.a And elsewhere he says concerning the Jews, ‘Afterwards they drank from the chalice as believers what in cruelty they had shed on the Cross’.b Eusebius of Emesac writes: ‘Let every ambiguity of faithlessness depart, for he who is the author of the gift is himself the witness to its truth. The invisible priest converts by his secret power the visible creatures into the substance of his body and blood by his word, saying, “Take and eat for this is my body”; and repeating the blessing, “Take and drink, this is my blood”. At the will of the Lord giving the command, suddenly and from nothing, there existed the heights of the heavens, the depths of the sea, the vastness of the earth. With equal power in the case of the spiritual sacraments he commanded by a word, and the effect happened’.d And a little later, he says, ‘Look on the sacred body of your God and on his blood in faith. Look with honour, touch with the mind, receive with the hand of the heart; take it with a great interior draught’.e

Cf. Augustine, serm., 228B, in MA, 1, p. 19, lines 7–9. Augustine, serm., 352. 2, in PL, 39, cols 1549–60 (cf. WSA, 3/10, p. 138). See also: Augustine, serm., 77. 4, in PL, 39, col. 485 (cf. WSA, 3.3, p. 319); serm., 87. 14, in PL, 39, col. 538 (cf. WSA, 3/3, p. 416). c  Attributed by Paschasius to Eusebius, the fourth-century bishop of Emesa, this is a homily frequently cited by medieval authors — e.g., Gratian, Ivo of Chartres, Peter Lombard, Guitmund of Aversa, Haymo of Halberstadt and Thomas Aquinas. The work is now part of the Eusebius ‘Gallicanus’ collection listed as De pascha, 6, a series of homilies on the Eucharist preached at Easter time. The collection itself, as it is found in CC SL, 101, and edited by Fr Glorie, consists of 76 sermons from mid fifth- and sixth-century Gaul. Today the attribution to the Syrian bishop is completely rejected and modern theories trend to Faustus, the fifthcentury bishop of Riez. Glorie rejects this theory, however, as does Lisa K. Baily in her work, Christianity’s Quiet Success: The Eusebius Gallicanus Sermon Collection and the Power of the Church in Late Antique Gaul (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). Baily holds that ‘at least some of them were the work of Faustus, bishop of Riez’ (p. 35), and conjectures that Caesarius of Arles ‘may have known the collection in the form we have it’ (p. 36). The actual compiler of the sermons remains uncertain, although we can be sure that there was more than one author included in the collection. d  Eusebius ‘Gallicanus’, De Pascha, 6. 2, in CC SL, 101, p. 196, line 24–p. 197, line 34). See also Pseudo-Isidore, serm., 4. 3, in PL, 83, col. 1225C. e  Eusebius ‘Gallicanus’, De Pascha, 6. 3, in CC SL, 101, p. 198, lines 55–56. a 

b 

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And then, ‘Let no one doubt that these excellent creations are able to pass into the nature of the body of Christ by a nod of power since he sees that a man himself is made the body of Christ by the working of divine mercy’.a Beloved, this is the faith of the saints, although there are many who doubt, since he remains whole and entire, that this can be the body and blood of Christ. For those who do not believe, let them behold the twelve baskets of fragments, or the seven are the same five or seven loaves (cf.  Mt 14.  19–20; 15.  36–37). There was nothing else in the fragments or in the eating than the same loaves. This great plentitude flowed from the blessing of Christ. That which was eaten and that which was left over was nothing other than the same five or seven loaves. Because the Word has been made flesh, how much more so will the flesh of the Word spring forth and the fullness of the flesh and blood of Christ remain in the sacrament. And yet it is none other than the flesh of Christ — even though Christ remains whole and entire in it. I think that St Augustine differs in no way at all from the other holy Fathers who think and believe, as the Saviour said, and what the holy Church of God believes. As that outstanding doctor said to Boniface, it is the body and blood of Christ, just as ‘the sacrament of faith is faith. To believe is nothing other than to have faith because it is the sacrament of faith and because it is the very response’ — we give to a questioner when asked, for we profess that Christ is daily immolated in mystery, in a way that ‘pertains to the celebration of the sacrament’, which happened once and for all when he was immolated in himself for the salvation of the world.b Because of this we believe that it happens spiritually, and what is done in sacrament is not done without him. For the death of Christ is not repeated in reality so that he would die again, but rather he is immolated daily for us in mystery so that we might receive ‘in the bread what hung on the Cross, and we might drink in the chalice what flowed from

a  b 

Eusebius ‘Gallicanus’, De Pascha, 6. 8, in CC SL, 101, p. 207, lines 188–91. Cf. Augustine, ep., 98. 9, in CSEL, 34/2, p. 530, line 21–p. 531, line 3.

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his side’.a For we walk by faith and not by sight (II Cor 5. 7). Therefore, so that we might not incur any wrong, in the spirit we ought to believe these things, and in a spiritual — not a carnal — fashion. For, as the same doctor declares, ‘as the sacrament of the faith is the faith, so the body and blood of Christ in this sacrament are his true flesh and blood’. He says, ‘To believe is nothing other than to have faith because of this sacrament of faith’, so it is that very same response pertains to this sacrament.b And from all this it is clear — not all who read the blessed Augustine understand him right away. St Gregory in Book Four of his Dialogues confirms these sacramental realities: ‘We should with our whole soul condemn this present world, because we see that it is already flowing past us, and offer to God the daily sacrifice of tears, the daily sacrifices of his body and blood’. For this sacrifice alone saves our souls from everlasting damnation, for in mystery it renews for us the death of the Only Begotten Son. Although he is risen from death, and now dies no more, nor does death have any further power over him, yet living in himself immortal and incorruptible, he nevertheless is again sacrificed for us in this mystery of the holy sacrifice. Indeed, there his body is received, there his flesh is distributed for the salvation of the people, there his blood is not now shed at the hands of the faithless but poured into the mouths of the faithful. ‘Therefore, let us meditate on what manner of sacrifice this is, established for us, and which for our absolution always represents the Passion of the Only Begotten Son of God. What believing Christian can doubt that in the very hour of the sacrifice, at the words of the priest, the heavens are opened, and the angelic choirs are present in this mystery of Jesus Christ? Who can doubt that heights are joined to depths, earthly things are joined to heavenly, and that one reality is made of the visible and invisible?’c About this sacrament, St Cyril and the 150 bishops gathered in Ephesus said, among other articles of the faith, ‘It is neces­sary Augustine, serm., 228B, in MA, 1, 19. 7–9 (cf. WSA, 3/6, p. 262). Cf. Augustine, ep., 98. 9, in CSEL, 34/2, p. 530, line 21–p. 531, line 3 (cf. WSA 2/1, p. 431). c  Gregory the Great, Dialogi, 4. 60, in PL, 77, col. 425. a 

b 

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to add this: We announce the death, according to the flesh, of the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, and his resurrection and ascension into heaven, and likewise celebrating in the churches the un-bloody service of his sacrifice. For we approach the mystical blessings and are sanctified, partaking of the holy body and precious blood of Christ, made efficacious for the redemption of us all. We do not look upon this as ordinary flesh — perish the thought! — nor as men who are sanctified and joined to the Word by a union that is one of dignity, nor as possessing the div­ine indwelling, but rather as flesh that is truly vivifying and made to belong to the Word himself. It is professed to be Life naturally existing as God himself because it is united as his own flesh. And therefore, although he says to us, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood”, we do not value it as that of any one man among us. How, according to nature, can the flesh of a man be vivifying? Only if the Word has made it his own’.a And so, dear brother, thoseb who think of this sacrament in a carnal way judge wrongly because they fail to understand it spiritually. For spiritual mysteries are present in this sacrament from which the natural man fasts, because he does not understand with a spiritual understanding and refuses to believe what he does not understand. So, my friend, you have for the present what I can say. Because you are a part of my soul, I would not hide from you what I have said, at least the little that I could say. I wish that you would review my little work about this matter that you said you once read. And if you find anything in it that is reprehensible or doubtful, do not hesitate to point it out [to me].

Cyril of Alexandria, Synod Epistles, in ACO, 1/5, p. 240, lines 6–18. See also DS 262. b  Cf. Ratramnus, De corpore, 59–72, in PL, 121, cols 151–59. Ratramnus believed that a ‘spiritual substance’ was the underlying reality of the sacrament. See the discussion in Mark G. Vaillancourt, ‘Sacramental Theology from Gottschalk to Lanfranc’, in The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology, ed. by Hans Boersma and Matthew Levering (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 187–200 (p. 190). a 

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Although I have written nothing in it worthy of its readers or the youth to whom I dedicated it, nevertheless, I hear that I have moved very many to an understanding of this mystery so that they may learn and understand to think worthily about Christ. For it has been said: The flesh profits nothing (Jn 6. 61), and his body is not corrupted because it is now spiritual. And completely spiritual is that which is celebrated in this sacrament, because the Spirit gives life (Jn 6. 61) and works unto life in the sacrament for those who believe and receive worthily — unto judgment of damnation, however, for non-believers and those who eat unworthily. For this body and blood brings about what we read Christ himself did as he hung upon the Cross. To the one on the Cross alongside him who confessed faith, he offered Paradise; to the other who blasphemed, however, he set forth the judgment of death. I have added to this response, however, what I set forth about this mystery when I commented on the Supper in the Gospel of Matthew. I  have done this so that you might consider what is more understandable for belief or what in your charity you might reproach me for. Nevertheless, [so that you might learn] what you should think of these things, I ask that you join this letter and its exposition of the Fathers to that same little book, so that as the reader of these things, you might grow and be strengthened by their authority.

Exposition of Matthew 26. 26 As they were eating Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take and eat, this is my body’. Let them listen to this, those who wish to minimize this word about the body, claiming that it is not the true flesh of Christ that is now celebrated in sacrament in the Church of Christ, nor his true blood. I do not know how some are willing to applaud or invent the idea that it is only the power of the flesh and blood in this sacrament so as to make the Lord a liar, claiming that it is not his true

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­ esh, nor his true blood, in which his true death is announced. fl For Truth himself says: This is my body, and likewise about the chalice: This is my blood of the New Covenant — not just any type — that will be poured out for the remission of sins (cf. Mt 26. 26–28; Mk 14. 22–24; Lk 22. 19–20; I Cor 11. 24–25). Or as Luke adds: That for you is handed over, or in some codices, is given (Lk 22. 19). And John, in the person of the Lord: The bread that I will give you is my flesh — not any other — for the life of the world. And: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them (Jn 6. 53, 56). And so I marvel at those who want to say that the truth of the flesh and blood are not there in reality but that in the sacrament is the power of the flesh and not the flesh itself,a the power of the blood and not the blood itself, a figure and not the truth, a shade and not the body, since he understands the appearance as the truth and figure as the body of the old offerings. Truth, when he gave the bread to the disciples, said: This is my body — and no other — that is handed over for you. And when he hands the chalice: This is the chalice of the New Covenant that is poured out for you for the remission of sins (cf. Mt 26. 26–28; Mk 14. 22–24; Lk 22. 19–20; I Cor 11. 24–25). It was still not poured out and yet he offered to them the blood that would be poured out. Indeed, there was already in the chalice that which was to be poured out as our price. The one and the same blood, therefore, was already in the chalice as it was also in the body, just as the one and the same body or flesh was in the bread. The entire Christ and the body of Christ, however, was set before the eyes of all as well as the blood in the body, just as even today he remains completely whole and entire who is truly given to them to eat and drink for the remission of sins. Let one say if he wishes to do so that there is the remission of sins in anyone other than Christ, even though it is certain that there is not.b And because in this body and blood there is the remission of sin, it is therefore the true flesh and blood of Christ. a  b 

Cf. Ratramnus, De corpore, 56, in PL, 121, col. 149. Cf. Augustine, serm., 99. 7, in PL, 38, col. 559.

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Those who eat and drink worthily, then, will truly eat and drink eternal life (cf. Jn 6. 54), a life that remains whole and entire. And so the body and blood of Christ will be life only if what is received in the sacrament is received in truth. For as I remember saying once, it is eaten spiritually and drunk spiritually, because, as the Apostle says: The flesh profits nothing. How much more so is this the case of the one who discerns bread without the spirit! But the Spirit gives life (Jn 6. 63). All this I will say at greater length and more clearly because I have heard that some criticise me, because in that book that I had written, De sacramentis Christi, they claim that I sought to attribute more to these words than Truth himself promised.a These fear as those once did that in speaking in such a fashion I wish to divide up his members into individual parts, cut up and parcel them out, as it were, just like those who heard him speak once thought, were scandalised, turned away, and left. It was to them the Saviour said: Does this scandalise you? And if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he was? (Jn 6. 62) It is as if he were to say: ‘If you were able to understand this you would indeed know that the one and the same Christ who is able to ascend whole and entire cannot be consumed in pieces nor divided by teeth’. Indeed, it is much to see because it is in the spirit. To know or believe this, viz. how the one Christ would ascend as Son of Man to where he was before, who can explain this according to the senses? And who understands that the Son of Man who is in heaven descended from heaven? What words explain that the Word was made flesh? (Jn I. 14) How is what is unchangeable said to become? Or how is the man, who is the Son of Man placed before their eyes on earth, said to be in heaven? How does he who is never absent anywhere come from heaven? Descending, he ascends, because in no way is Christ broken up. He is what he was, and what he is, he was not.b In all these things and others in which divine power surpasses human minds in many ways, heavenly and divine reasoning is not Cf. Ratramnus, De corpore, 89, in PL, 121, col. 165. Cf. Augustine, serm., 229K, in MA, 1, p. 483, line 20–p. 485, line 21 (cf. WSA, 3/6, pp. 309–11). a 

b 

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exposed to the human senses. This is because a lower nature does not grasp or understand the cause and reasoning of a nature that is greater and more immense than itself. Therefore, concerning those things that the divine power works: doubt must be removed and hesitation as well, because knowledge of these things lies in faith, and understanding in virtue. The effect in things is in the power and the cause is in the will such that man is not able to search out in individual things what God has said and willed, because God spoke and they were made, he commanded and they were created (Ps 33. 9) as he willed. Indeed, the sublime and divine sacraments are among the realities of this kind that are enacted for the salvation of the human race and are mystically celebrated in this mystery every day as they were handed on to the apostles. And this Pasch is celebrated in the upper room, therefore, because these sacraments are understood only by the one who has ascended. He ascends so that they might eat and drink what has been poured out for the remission of sins, while remaining whole and entire himself. Truth itself says: Drink, because this is my blood that is poured out for many for the remission of all sins (Mt 26. 28). But if it was poured out, how is it now poured out again? And if the flesh has been consumed, how does it remain whole and unharmed, and be devoured again? Behold that which is drunk and poured out daily and immolated once and is still immolated today. It is not immolated, however, unless it is alive. Indeed, it is drunk and poured out for the remission of sins. If you ask how it is poured out so that what has been poured out flows, understand how the love of God is poured forth in our hearts (Rom 5.  5), while love, namely, the Holy Spirit, remains whole and unharmed. Then perhaps you may understand how ineffable is whatever the Holy Spirit does. And if the love of God is poured out upon us while remaining whole in itself, then truly the blood of the New Covenant of God is still poured out in our hearts for the remission of sins. Having been poured out, all our sins are remitted by it, because it is Christ the High Priest (Heb 3. 1). For he never quits his office. And if he remains in us, then he himself drinks it new with us, and that

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which is in it, is in his whole body and in all of us; because we cannot receive him without it, nor without it are we able to eat of this bread and drink from this cup. And do not be bewildered, brother, if by chance you do not believe these things, because what we say is not ours. It is the omnipotent Word of God who is capable of doing all that he wants according to the immensity of his powers since he himself is the one power of all powers. They are his words, not those of another, but the words of the one Word that he himself is. As such they are full of power, because they are spirit and life (Jn 6. 63). And there is nothing more in them than what Truth itself professes, saying: Take, this is my body; and of the chalice: This is my blood (cf. Mt 26. 26–28; Mk 14. 22–24; Lk 22. 19–20; I Cor 11. 24–25). For the apostles would have been able, if in fact they did not believe the words of life and truth, to quarrel and inquire how that bread and that chalice of wine were the body and blood of Christ when Christ himself stood whole and entire in his own body before their very eyes. But instead, because they believed what he had said, they confessed by silence and received from him what they later handed on to us. They handed on, however, nothing other than that very same Supper that they themselves had eaten and drank. For this reason, I desire that a faithful mind consider carefully what is the connection between the type of the Pasch that was commemorated and eaten in that Supper, and the bread and wine now celebrated according to the order of Melchizedek. About that Pasch, he said in that very hour to all his disciples: With a great desire I have desired to celebrate this Pasch with you before I suffer (Lk 22. 15). But if this mystery is no more than a figure of the body and blood of Christ and not what he himself said, then how is it necessary to repeat it since it was already prefigured in the lamb? Luke mentions the two chalices given to the disciples in the same Supper, the first one after the eating of the lamb, before they received the bread, the second after he blessed the bread and broke and gave it to his disciples. Likewise, after eating, he said: This is the

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chalice of the New Covenant in my blood that is poured out for you (Lk 22. 20). By this we are given to understand that the lamb of the Law with its chalice precedes in figure the Passion of Christ. Then the body and blood in the chalice is effected as the obedience to truth, so that what went first in Melchizedek is fully complete in Christ. No one who reads this gospel doubts that the chalice denotes the Passion of Christ. And so this fact moves some to question whether Luke wished to indicate that Jesus accepted two chalices, or whether they were one and the same because Jesus anticipated speaking of it, recapitulating by speaking twice. So some think there were not two chalices but that only one is commemorated, first being divided and afterward being given to the disciples to drink. But what is more likely, as I have said before, is what others say, affirming that two chalices were offered to the disciples so that in one of them, namely, the first, he willed to express his own Passion, and in the second to prefigure the passion of the faithful. On the other hand, some claim that in each chalice there is manifested what is commanded in the Old Covenant, namely, that he who does not eat the lamb in the first montha should eat the goat in the second month and for that reason the Lord handed two chalices to his disciples. These same people add that in each chalice the Covenant is understood, one of the chalices pertaining to the lamb and the other to the mystery of the (Lord’s) body. Regardless of what one thinks, no one finds himself outside of the faith as long as he understands that the most kind Jesus moves from the figure and shade of truth, and, taking bread and wine, passes over to the sacrament of the Pasch. In this, not the least bit of the Law is harmed. Rather, because he is the cornerstone that holds both together, fulfilling all law, as the true Melchizedek he offers bread and wine, which were the prefigured sacrament of his body and blood. And we must note what it says: He blessed and broke it (Mt 26. 26). In this blessing and breaking, a new creature is made, so that bread is faithfully offered to God in commemoa 

Cf. Nm 9. 10–11.

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ration of the death of Christ and truly called his flesh. Likewise, the blood is created in the same action of thanksgiving by which he offers thanks to God the Father, to such an extent that what is poured out for many unto the remission of sins is truly believed to be blood. You should know, beloved son, I  have written these things not only because the Lord’s Passion is a mystery and sacrament of salvation but also because the Nativity and Incarnation of Christ are, as well, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1. 14). All the things, I say, that the God-man did are a sacrament of divine generosity and a mystery of faith, and even though they are called sacraments, they are the truth nonetheless. Therefore, the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord, although it is called a sacrament, is none other than the truth and that which the Truth himself taught. As St Augustine said, ‘The sacrament of the faith is faith’.a Just so, the body and blood of Christ in this sacrament is true flesh and blood. ‘To believe is nothing more than to have faith because of the sacrament of faith’.b Whoever doubts this denies that he has the faith, because in the faith of Christ there can be nothing other than the truth. And as Leo, that apostolic man, has borne witness: ‘What is taken in the mouth is believed in faith’. And so he says, ‘You ought to communicate, having no doubt whatever concerning the truth of Christ’s body and blood’.c All Catholics testify that it is Christ’s very own flesh and blood, as do Cyril and the 150 bishops gathered with him at Ephesus. They testify, among other things, ‘that the flesh is vivifying and is the very flesh of the Word himself, who is life by nature and to which this flesh is united’.d Where this unity is natural there is no division. And if it is the proper and one flesh of Christ then indeed it is the very flesh born Augustine, ep., 98.  9 (Ad Bonifacium), in CSEL, 34/2, p.  531, lines 7–12 (cf. PL, 33, col. 364). b  Augustine, ep., 98.  9 (Ad Bonifacium), in CSEL, 34/2, p.  531, lines 7–12 (cf. PL, 33, col. 364). c  Leo the Great, serm., 91. 3, in PL, 54, col. 452. d  Cyril of Alexandria, Synod Epistles, in ACO, 1/5, p. 240, lines 12–14. a 

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of Mary, because the Word was made flesh (Jn 1. 14) and is the ­flesh that hung on the wood [of the Cross]. What we believe in this sacrament is the faith. And the sacrament of faith is the true flesh and blood. As the Apostle says: No one says Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit (I Cor 12. 3). Likewise, no one believes this to be so except through the Holy Spirit, through whom this faith is bestowed and through whom this sacrament is effected so that it may be true flesh and none other than that very flesh. In another sense, just as the flesh of Christ profits nothing without the Holy Spirit, so the sacrament of the flesh and blood is of no benefit without the Spirit. In all these things there is one worker, the Holy Spirit, there is one Christ conceived by the Spirit from the Virgin Mary, there is one Creator and Sanctifier of the body and blood, the same Spirit. Without him no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ in the sacrament, no one can correctly believe in the very same sacraments, no one can confess that it is the very same flesh that suffered and the one he made his own. From that sacrament of faith is the faith. And as the faith is true, so also is the flesh and blood true, so that it may be the faith preached by the Apostle: Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the proof of things that are not seen (Heb 11. 1). It is true substance, therefore, even though it is said to be a proof. And for this reason, even though this flesh that is not seen and the eternal life that is hoped for is not yet perceived, still, because it is the Word’s own flesh, even though it is the object of our hope today, it is nonetheless the substance that is now believed in and communicated with in faith. So the proof of things that are not seen is a great thing because it is the substance of those things that are hoped for — things that by way of this substance are held completely in faith, indeed, are the very faith itself. So whoever eats this flesh and drinks this blood worthily already eats and drinks eternal life, and Christ remains in them (cf.  Jn 6. 54–56) through the true flesh and true blood of the Word, just as we remain in him through the man that he has assumed. If he is truly the God-man, as we believe, then it is the true flesh of Christ in this sacrament of faith, and true unity and true adoption is offered us in this sacrament of faith. For this reason, whoever eats

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and drinks this life, he who is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14. 6), that is, Christ, remains whole and entire in him. But those who are more babblers than learned, when they flee from believing these things and do not believe what the Word has promised, they object and say that there is no such thing as a body that is not visible and palpable. They say this because these are mysteries, and as such cannot be seen and touched, and therefore they conclude that they are not a body. And if they are not a body, they say, then they are a figure of the flesh and blood and are not properly of the nature of Christ’s own flesh that suffered on the Cross and was born of the Virgin Mary.a Look how well they argue against the faith without faith, since they do not believe that, as the Apostle says: This is not about things that are seen but about those that are not (Heb 11. 1). Because they are not seen, they are mysteries and sacraments. In this faith, they are what they are said to be and what Truth testifies to. Because they are to be hoped for, they are believed to be none other than the flesh and blood of Christ. Furthermore, the above mentioned holy Council of Ephesus, which no one has more right to contradict than the gospel, and whatever is sanctioned by this council no one dare to deny unless the council denied it, relying on the gospel that very same council affirms: ‘The vivifying flesh of Christ belongs to the Word himself, existing as God, united with that very flesh’.b I do not know if it is possible to speak more openly or clearly about these things, where all that Christ is spoken of is not in figure but in reality, and in its proper sense and in the nature that is united to God. And so it is rightly believed to be not in power only, but in its proper nature. And so those who deny that this mystery is both visible and palpable deny what Truth has said: ‘This is my body, and this is my blood’. Let them ascend, therefore, to where Christ is at the right hand of the Father, and let them find there both visible and palpable the very Christ they seek. a  b 

Cf. Ratramnus, De corpore, 62, in PL, 121, col. 152. Cyril of Alexandria, Synod Epistles, in ACO 1/5, p. 240, lines 12–14.

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We, on the other hand, because we walk by faith and not by sight (II Cor 5. 7), believe and communicate in what is hidden and true in mystery, because were it not hidden, there would be no faith or mystery. So, let what we receive in Christ be visible and palpable, and let the flesh of the Word be invisible in mystery and faith — the same flesh and no other, made his own by the Spirit, in which and in no other he suffered; and likewise, the blood of salvation that we enjoy on our pilgrimage, because Christ is mediator between God and man, and, as such, we are found with him and in him.

A brief Compendium of the Catholic Fathers 1/1. St Hilary in Book 8 of De Trinitate. ‘Now I ask those who defend only a moral unity between the Father and the Son whether Christ is in us today through the truth of nature or through a unity of will. ‘For if the Word has truly been made flesh and if we truly receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that he abides in us by nature? Born as a man, has he not assumed the nature of our flesh, now inseparable from himself, and conjoined the nature of his own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which his flesh is communicated to us? So we are all one, because the Father is in Christ and Christ is in us. ‘Whoever denies that the Father is in Christ by nature, therefore, must first deny that the Father is himself naturally in Christ, and that Christ is in him. For the Father being in Christ and Christ being in us makes us one in them. For if Christ has indeed taken to himself the flesh of our body, and that man who was born from Mary was indeed Christ; and furthermore, if we receive the flesh of his body in mystery, which makes us one (because the Father is in him and he is in us), then how can one hold for only a moral unity? Let him see, therefore, that the special property of the sacrament is perfect unity.a a 

Hillary of Poitiers, De Trinitate, 8. 13, in PL, 10, col. 246.

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‘The words we use to speak about the things of God must not be merely human or worldly. The corruption of a foreign and unholy interpretation must not be extorted by violent and impudent preaching from the soundness of heavenly words. ‘Let us read what is written then, understand what we read, and fulfil the demands of a perfect faith. What we say concerning the reality of Christ’s nature within us is foolish and impious unless he has taught us. For he says: My flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him (Jn 6. 55–56). ‘As to the truth of the flesh and blood, there is no room for doubt. Both from the declaration of the Lord himself and our own faith, it is truly flesh and truly blood. When these are eaten and drunk, they bring it about that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. ‘Is this not true? Yet those who affirm that Christ Jesus is not truly God are welcome to find it false. He himself is in us through the flesh and we in him, while together with him our very selves are in God’.a And a little later Hilary says: ‘This is the cause of our life: we have Christ dwelling in our carnal selves through the flesh, and we shall live through him in the same manner as he lives through the Father. If we live naturally through him according to the flesh, that is, have partaken of the nature of his flesh, must he not naturally have the Father within himself according to the Spirit since he himself lives through the Father?’ b 2/2. Augustine on the body and blood of Christ, from the book: On the Words of the Lord. ‘We heard the truthful Master, the divine Redeemer, the human Saviour, commending to us our price, his blood. For he spoke to us of his body and blood; whose body he called “food”, his blood “drink”. a  b 

Hillary of Poitiers, De Trinitate, 8. 14, in PL, 10, col. 247. Hillary of Poitiers, De Trinitate, 8. 16, in PL, 10, col. 249.

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‘The faithful recognize the sacrament of the faithful. But the hearers, however, what else do they hear save only what they hear? When commending such food and drink, therefore, he said: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you shall not have life in you (Jn 6. 55). Who said this about life except Life himself? But to that man who thought that Life was lying, there will be death, not life. ‘His disciples were scandalised — not all, but very many — saying among themselves: This is a hard saying, who can listen to it? (Jn 6. 60–62) But when the Lord perceived this in himself, and heard the murmurings of their thoughts, he answered those un­ spo­ken opinions to let them know that they were heard and to stop them thinking such things. ‘How did he respond? “Does this scandalise you? What then if you would see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?” What did he mean by, “Does this scandalise you?” Do you imagine that I am about to divide this body that you see into portions, and carve up its members, and give them to you? “So, what if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?” Certainly, one who could ascend whole and entire could not be consumed. So as well as giving us his body and blood as saving refreshment, he also solved in a few words the great question about his own [physical] integrity. ‘Let those who eat, eat, and those who drink, drink; let them hunger and thirst. Let them eat life, let them drink life. To eat that is to be nourished, but nourished in such a way that what you are nourished by is not diminished. What is it to drink that but to live? Eat Life, drink Life, you will have life, a life that is whole and entire. This then is how it will be, that is, the body and blood of Christ shall be each one’s Life if what is taken in the sacrament visibly is truly eaten spiritually and drunk spiritually. ‘We have heard the Lord himself say: It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ‘But there are some of you, he said, that do not believe. These were those who said: This is a hard saying, who can bear it? ‘It is hard, but only to those who are hard; it is incredible, but only to those who are unbelieving. But to teach us that to believe

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is something we are given and not something we merit, he said: As I said to you, no one comes save the one to whom it has been given by my Father.a 3/3. Also in the exposition on the Gospel of St John, Homily 26, by the same blessed Augustine. In this work he goes into great detail about these matters and shows from the Apostle that some were our fathers who ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink (I  Cor 10.  1,  3–4), but others were those fathers who ate badly, having abused these things, and are dead. But ‘our fathers, whom we are like, drank’ spiritually in figure ‘that same drink. They one thing, we another, but in the visible appearance the same reality that was signified in the power of the spirit’. And a little later, he says: ‘The rock was Christ in sign; the real Christ is in the Word and in the flesh. This, then, is the bread that comes down from heaven, that if any one eat of it, he shall not die’ in eternity. ‘But that is what belongs to the power of the sacrament’, he says, ‘not that which pertains to the visible sacrament’. And, ‘to anyone who eats inwardly, not without; to one who eats with his heart; not one who presses with teeth’.b ‘I am, he says, the living bread, that came down from heaven (Jn 6. 51). Living, because I came down from heaven. The manna also came down from heaven, but the manna was only a shadow; this is the truth. The bread that I will give is my flesh. When did flesh comprehend this flesh that he called bread? That is called flesh which flesh does not comprehend, and for that reason alone flesh does not comprehend it, simply because it is called flesh. For they were terrified at this’.c And then so that they might understand that these things are done in the Spirit of God: ‘The body of Christ cannot live except by Augustine, serm., 131. 1–2, in PL, 38, cols 729–30 (cf. WSA, 3/4, pp. 316–17). Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 12, in CC SL, 36, p. 265, lines 13–26. c  Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 13, in CC SL, 36, p. 266, lines 1–8. a 

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the Spirit of Christ. The faithful know’ this is ‘the body of Christ, if they do not neglect to be the body of Christ. Let them become the body of Christ, if they wish to live by the Spirit of Christ. This is what the apostle Paul means when he says to us: We the many are one bread, one body (I Cor 10. 17). O sacrament of piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! Whoever wants to live has where to live, has that from which to live. Let him draw near, let him believe, let him become part of the body, so that he might be given life’.a A little later he says: ‘Therefore, he wills the food and drink to be understood as the society of his body and his members’.b ‘For that reason’, he says, ‘as men of God before our time thoroughly understood, our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted to us his body and blood whereby the many are made one in them. For the bread is made into one from many grains; the other is made from the many grapes flowing into one’.c Therefore, the Lord himself explained ‘what it means to eat his body and drink his blood. He said: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. This is what it means to eat this food and drink this drink: to remain in Christ and have him remaining in them.d ‘Then he says: As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me (Jn 6. 57). So we live because of eating him, that is, receiving him, we have eternal life, which we would not have of ourselves’.e 4/8. Augustine on Psalm 33(34), entitled: When David fled from Saul his persecutor. ‘And he was carried in his own hands. Truly, how can one understand the way that this could happen to a man? Who can be carried in his own hands? A  man can be carried in the hands Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 13, in CC SL, 36, p. 266, lines 24–29. Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 15, in CC SL, 36, p. 267, lines 27–28. c  Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 17, in CC SL, 36, p. 268, lines 6–11. d  Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 18, in CC SL, 36, p. 268, lines 1–6. e  Augustine, In Iohannis, 26. 19, in CC SL, 36, p. 269, lines 1–5. a 

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of another, but no one is carried in his own hands. How this is to be understood in a literal sense of David himself, we cannot know. However, we can discover how this happened in the case of Christ. For Christ was carried in his own hands when, entrusting to us his own body, he said: This is my body. Indeed, he was carrying that body in his own hands’.a 5/9. Heaven is my throne, earth my footstool (Ps 98(99).5). St Augustine in an explanation of this verse says: ‘Look, brothers, what he orders us to adore. In another place in Scripture it says: Heaven is my throne, earth my footstool. And so, does he order us to adore earth, although Scripture says: You shall adore the Lord your God and him only shall you serve (Dt 6. 13), while here it says: Adore the footstool of his feet? I am of two minds. I fear to adore the earth lest I be damned by him who made heaven and earth. But Christ took earth from the earth, because flesh is from the earth. And he gave us that same flesh to eat unto salvation. No one eats that flesh unless he has first adored it. And so, we discover the way to adore the footstool of the Lord. Not only do we not sin in adoring, but on the contrary, we sin when we do not’.b 6/4. The same Augustine in the following sermon. Explaining what he said about his flesh and blood, he said: ‘And if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? What does this mean’, he says, ‘where he was before? Does this solve what troubled them? Does this make it clear? They thought he was going to distribute his body; he said he was going to ascend whole and entire so that in this way they might understand that his grace is not consumed in bites’. a  Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos (Ps 33), 1. 10, in CC SL, 38, pp. 280–81 (cf. PL, 36, cols 306–07). b  Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos (Ps 98), 9, in CC SL, 39, p. 1385 (cf. PL, 37, col. 1264).

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He continues: ‘The Lord added this as well: It is the Spirit that vivifies; the flesh profits nothing. How can he say the flesh profits nothing, as he [also] says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not have life in you? So, what does it mean to say the flesh profits nothing but the Spirit vivifies? Does eternal life profit nothing?’ Or, what is Christ to us ‘except that we may have life eternal? Does flesh really profit nothing? But how did they understand this?’a ‘Thus, the flesh is no use at all is being said in much the same way as knowledge puffs up (I Cor 8. 1). And the way that is said is: by itself, that is, without charity. And so he (Paul) added: Charity builds up. Add charity to knowledge and knowledge is profitable because of charity. So here flesh profits nothing by itself. Let Spirit be added to flesh and it profits a great deal. If flesh were of no profit, then the Word would not have become flesh. But Christ is of great profit to us through his flesh: then how can the flesh profit nothing? It is through the flesh that the Spirit works our salvation’.b So, I say therefore, that the Word was made flesh and that this mystery is the flesh and blood of Christ unto salvation. That is what Peter understood when he said: Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life (Jn 6. 68). As if he were to say, as the same Augustine explains, ‘You have eternal life in the administration of your body and blood. And we believe and know (Jn 6. 69). We do not know and believe, but believe and know’c what you give in the flesh. ‘What do we believe and know? That you are Christ, the Son of God, that is, because you are eternal life and give us in your flesh and blood what you are’.d And so, let no one be afraid to say that this mystery is naturally the flesh of Christ, and in saying it, and believing it, to receive it. ‘Not just in sacrament — many evil people do that — but let us eat and drink as participating in the Spirit and so remain in the Augustine, In Iohannis, 27. 5, in CC SL, 36, p. 272, lines 1–11. Augustine, In Iohannis, 27. 5, in CC SL, 36, p. 272, lines 14–24. c  Augustine, In Iohannis, 27. 9, in CC SL, 36, p. 274, lines 12–15. d  Augustine, In Iohannis, 27. 9, in CC SL, 36, p. 274, lines 17–20.

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body of the Lord as his members, as ones fed by his Spirit, and let us not stumble in any way on account of this sacrament, even though many now in time eat and drink the sacraments with us who will inherit at the end eternal torments’.a 8/5. On the Feast of the Holy Innocents. ‘Rightly are the martyrs placed under the altar (Rv 6. 9–11) because on the altar Christ is immolated. Rightly the souls of the just rest under the altar because on the altar the body of the Lord is offered. Worthily under the altar do the martyrs ask for the vindication of their blood, where even for sinners the blood of Christ is poured out. Suitably and by a certain association is the tomb for the martyrs found there, where the death of the Lord is celebrated daily. As he himself said: As often as you do these things you announce the death of the Lord until he comes (I Cor 11. 26). Those who because of his death have died, rest in the mystery of this sacrament. Rightly, I say, by a certain association is the slain one and the tomb set up there, where the members of the slain Lord are placed so that devotion may join with Christ those who have shared the one passion’. And further on he says: ‘This is what it means to rest, there where Christ is priest and victim, namely, to acquire propitiation from the offering of the victim and receive the blessing and pardon of the priest’.b 8/7. From the dialogue of Basil and John Chrysostom. To John: For ‘when you see our immolated Lord’, and the priest ‘standing with the incense’, and ‘everyone praying’, and all are ‘filled with that precious blood’, can you think that ‘you are still among men?’ Rather are you not immediately ‘translated to heava  b 

Augustine, In Iohannis, 27. 11, in CC SL, 36, p. 276, lines 12–18. Ps.-Augustine, serm., 221, in PL, 39, cols 2154–56.

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en’, excluding every carnal thought from the soul? Do you not with pure spirit and most pure heart contemplate the things that are in heaven? ‘Oh, miracle!’ O what benevolence ‘of God’ towards us! ‘He who sits’ at the right hand of the Father is at the hour of sacrifice ‘held in the hands of all’, and is given to be caressed by those who desire him and is embraced with veneration. And all this comes about under human eyes. ‘Are these things then to be held by you in contempt?’a 9/6. Leo in the Sermon of the Seventh Month.

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‘Our offering of the sacrifice is clean and our gifts of mercy holy, when those who perform them understand what they do. For when the Lord says: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you will not have life in you (Jn 6. 53), you ought to be sharers at the holy table in such a way as to have no doubt whatever concerning the truth of Christ’s body and blood. What is taken in the mouth is what is believed in faith. It is vain for those who argue over what they receive to answer: Amen’.b

Postscript And so, dearly beloved, you have at the end of this book the opinions of Catholic authors in a brief annotated compendium. From them, you, still young, can learn to explain these things — not from my rash speech; but, rather, present divine authority and that of the holy Fathers to those who seek the truth. Now let them learn from these things because, as is clear, not all have faith. I ask that they believe, even if they still do not understand, that nothing is impossible with God. In all things let them learn to rest in the divine word and not doubt these things, because up to now we know that no one has erred unless he has a  b 

John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, 3. 4, in PG, 48, col. 642. Leo the Great, serm., 91. 3, in PL, 54, col. 452.

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wandered from Christ, although very many, ignorant and un­ aware of such great mysteries, have doubted the sacraments. Instead, let us admire the most profound plan of God, which the Angel of Great Counsel (Is 9. 5 LXX) has instituted, who wills the salvation of all (I Tm 2. 4). Let us admire, praise, and understand what St Hilary understood about these things, how Christ, like a builder, if I may speak so, gathers us to himself, and how in mystery he wills to make us naturally one in himself, not as by a harmony of wills but rather through the nature of his flesh and blood. For Hilary says: ‘How can we not think that Christ does not remains naturally in us? Has he not by his birth assumed the nature of our flesh inseparably united to himself and mixed under the sacrament the nature of his flesh with that of eternity, to be communicated to us in the sacrament of his flesh? Therefore, he says that we are all one because the Father is in Christ, and Christ is in us’, etc.a Likewise, Augustine and others testify that Christ is in us and we are in Christ through the man assumed in him. And if anyone wants to denigrate this opinion, it is necessary that he destroy the whole of it unto his own eternal loss, because God has deigned to become man in this sacrament for our salvation. It is true what most holy Ambrose taught, saying that the very same flesh and blood that we receive and in which we communicate is that which hung upon the Cross and was born of the Virgin Mary. And the holy martyr Cyprian testified to this as well. If anyone denies this because it is called a sacrament, it will be for him as Augustine testifies: ‘Death, not life, for the one who thinks Life lies’.b For the same reason, apostolic Leo says: ‘What is taken in the mouth is what is believed in faith. It is vain for those who dispute what they receive to answer: Amen’.c Because if you ask, dearly beloved, what it is that everyone universally responds ‘Amen’ to throughout the Church, look at the sacramentaries, begun so we believe with St  Peter, and see Hillary of Poitiers, De Trinitate, 8. 13, in PL, 10, cols 245–46. Augustine, serm., 228B, in MA, 1, p. 19, lines 7–9. c  Leo the Great, serm., 91. 3, in PL, 54, col. 452. a 

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what the priest prays for in the Canon, apart from those things said after Communion. He prays: ‘That it become the body and blood of your most beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ’. When the prayer is finished, with one voice we all say: Amen. Thus, the whole Church in every people and tongue prays and confesses that this is what is prayed for. Let the one who wishes to go against this, rather than believe, see that he goes against the Lord himself and the whole Church. It is a terrible crime to pray with all and yet not believe what Truth testifies to and what everyone universally confesses to be true. That he himself says that it is his body and blood we should have no doubt, even though we do not see with our bodily eyes what we believe with our mind. We have heard what Gregory thinks about this. We have heard what Cyril, together with his fellow bishops gathered at Ephesus have said, what the Greeks have said, what Egypt and blessed Jerome the priest have said, who published a sermon on the very same lives of those holy fathers. And although some err concerning this truth out of ignorance, still there is no one who openly contradicts what the whole world believes and confesses. As I said before, out of God’s great plan of salvation this mystery was sanctioned by God at the Supper and is so great a thing that the Saviour said: With a desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer (Lk 23. 15). Evidently, he spoke of this sacrament; were it otherwise he would not have said: With a desire have I desired. It is greater to say ‘with a desire I have desired’ than to simply say, ‘I have desired’ — although that also is great. This way of speaking in the sacred Scriptures with this type of addition is put forth only for a deeper understanding, as for example: He will live life and not die (Ez 18. 23, 28; 35. 25). And about John, the friend of the bridegroom: He stands and hears the voice of the bridegroom, and rejoices with joy (Jn 3. 29). So, I do not think that this is said without some special meaning, although in fact no one says that he desires something unless it comes from a desire. Nonetheless, because not one iota of Scripture can be said to be superfluous, such exaggeration insinuates something more than if he had merely said, ‘I have desired’.

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For we should not believe that these words were said only about the lamb of the Law, because he had already eaten it with them earlier according to Jewish custom. Rather he spoke these words about the truth of this mystery. In the lamb there was the shadow of future things (cf. Col 2. 17; Heb 8. 5, 10. 1) and a prophecy; in the body and blood of Christ, and even more so in Christ himself, there is truth. For he himself was the Lamb that Abel offered first, and which Moses later commanded to be offered to God morning and evening. In that same Supper, there was the lamb that was the type, as well as the true Lamb. It was necessary to pass from the shadow to the truth. So, he rejoiced with rejoicing (Mk 14. 23), giving thanks to God the Father because there was now fulfilled what he had desired with desire for a long time. He had assumed man into God when the Word became flesh so that through the man we might be in him. He had not yet mixed himself through his flesh and blood with us so that as individual members we might be one body in him (cf. Eph 4. 25). Although the flesh profits nothing per se, it is the Spirit who gives life to the body so that Christ may be one in all of us. In one and the same Spirit we are vivified and remain in him through the man that he assumed, just as he, through the mystery of his body and blood, remains in us. And so, he filled up the sum total of our salvation, which exists in this sacrament, having desired with a desire to eat it with his own before he suffered. He ate the true Passover so that, through it, before he gave himself as our price, we in him and he in us would be one body. Likewise, on the Cross we are crucified with him, in baptism we are buried with him, and in the resurrection we rise with him (cf. Col 2. 14, Rom 6. 4–6). As the Apostle says: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above (Col 3. 1). Therefore, beloved, have no doubts about this mystery, because Christ the Truth by his largess is in us; for although he sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, he nonetheless has deigned to be offered daily under the sacrament by the hands of the priest as the true victim — not to the faithless but to the faithful. For although he dies no more and death has no power over him (Rom

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6. 9), he nonetheless is truly communicated with in the sacrament by us and remains naturally in us as we do in him. And so he said: Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me (Jn 6. 57). He lives on account of the Father because he is the Only Begotten born of the Father, and we on account of him, because we eat him. And so, beloved, one must be extremely cautious that no Christian departs this world without Viaticum, that is, without the body and blood of Christ. Thus, he will have Christ in faith and in the food of his flesh and blood, because blessed are those who die in the Lord (Rv 14. 13). We die in the Lord if we remain in him and he in us through this mystery. Meanwhile, be careful, lest through negligence and laziness these things that were given to us with such great desire for our reparation unto eternal salvation, become — heaven forbid — destruction and a full mass of damnation. Finally, I  ask that you not follow the foolishness about the threefold body of Christ, mixing neither salt nor honey, which some want to do. Furthermore, neither add nor subtract anything; rather, believe and understand everything as Christ established it, so that through this mystery he may remain one body (concorporeal) with us and we with him through the God-man he assumed. To him, God the Father swore: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5. 6; Ps 110(109). 4). For this reason, the apostolic tradition must be followed so that every one of us might eat of the Supper without presumption (cf. I Cor 11. 21). For this is the faith of the apostles and the things that they have established which are to be preserved. Therefore, because the one faith is rightly demanded of all those who receive, let us contemplate with careful attention, let good deeds be sought, so that always following Christ in haste through charity and a desire for eternal life, we might pass over to that which is forever — everlasting life. Farewell, my friend, and care for him who cares for you.

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(Additions to the original text found in the fourth version of the De corpore et sanguine Domini as identified in the critical edition, CC CM, 16).

6. Lines 51–108 (CC CM, 16, pp. 36–37) And so that we may prove what we have said by clear examples, we refer to what happened to a certain unbeliever who, not discerning the body of the Lord (I Cor 11. 28), nor examining himself first as the Apostle warns, presumed to receive these mysteries unworthily. While Blessed Cyrus, the first bishop of Pavia, was celebrating solemn high Mass in the church that he himself had dedicated to the blessed martyrs Gervase and Protase, together with many of the children whom he had begotten for God, as the Apostle says, by the seed of the word (i.e. devoutly celebrating the sacred mysteries), a certain Jew, instigated by an evil spirit, boldly entered, and received the body of the Lord and tried to throw it onto a dung heap. When the Jew came with evil brashness to the man of God, along with the other faithful, to receive the holy Eucharist from the hand of the bishop, he received the body of the Lord with an impure mouth. The Jew then opened his mouth to spit it out but was struck down by a just judgment. He began to cry out with unintelligible words in the sight and hearing of all. He then tried to close his lips and was unable. He desired to speak words, but

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his rigid tongue would not speak, and as if he were carrying a fiery dart in his mouth, he writhed about in immense pain. The whole church resonated with the cries of that empty voice, and the congregation of the faithful rejoiced in the power of so wondrous a miracle. Thus was fulfilled what is said, namely, God ridicules scoffers, and as the Apostle says: Do not be mistaken, God is not mocked. A man reaps just as he sows (Gal 6. 7). Truth himself says in the gospel: The measure with which you measure will be measured back to you (Mt 7. 2). This unbelieving Jew, who thought to play a trick on Christ and on his Holy Spirit, never heard or read these words in the gospel. The man of God directed that he be brought to him, and he said to him as he stood before him: ‘O unbelieving mind full of faithlessness, why have you filled yourself with the counsel of the iniquitous enemy so that you judge the body of Christ to be so contemptible? Behold, O miserable man, what the most hidden tempter has seduced you to do, was done so that the divine power might be revealed to all his faithful’. The Jew, however, overcome with great pain, did not cease to emit sounds without words, having in his throat the punishment of his own evil, because, according to the prophecy of most holy Simeon, just as the Word of God is loss and ruin to the unfaithful, so it is life and exaltation to his faithful. For to those looking on carefully, the body of the Lord with a miraculous freedom was seen to hang in the mouth of the Jew, so that it neither sat underneath the tongue nor adhered to the unclean palate above. At the request of all the faithful, because of his misery, the man of the Lord, Cyrus, extended his own hand and withdrew the sacrament of the holy Eucharist from the sacrilegious mouth, saying: ‘Behold unbelieving one, you have been freed; from now on, beware lest you do something like this again. Do not presume to do such a thing anymore, lest something worse of a like nature happen to you’. Then the Jew, having fallen prostrate at his feet, proclaimed that he himself would become a believer in Christ if the Lord Cyrus would wash him in the waters of sacred baptism and join him to his holy congregation. He also confessed what his intention was when he dared to receive the body of the Lord. He confessed the fault of his prior lack of faith and affirmed the true faith. The

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blessed bishop Cyrus said: ‘To you, Almighty God, I give thanks, for you did not disdain to correct an unbelieving Jew, but converted him to the faith of your Only Begotten Son with ample mercy’. Moreover, when this man was baptised, many from the Jewish faith, believing in Christ, were united with him in holy baptism, and were joined to the spiritual assembly of the faithful in Christ.a We have preserved this demonstration of divine retribution in this little work of ours, lest any unbelievers, before they discern what the body of the Lord is, or lest anyone in a state of mortal sin, before he has tested himself and is at peace with Christ and has been reconciled to him through penance, presume with temerity and neglectfulness to eat of this bread and drink of this cup (I Cor 11. 28). Let these things suffice for the defence of Holy Communion and let us now return to the matter at hand.

9. Lines 20–61 (CC CM, 16, pp. 53–54) ‘And seeing that the whole Christ would be made in us, that great light burning brightly and shining (Jn 5. 35), that is to say, John the Baptist than whom no one born of a woman (Lk 7.  28) has arisen greater, as soon as he saw Christ coming to him, touched by the divine finger of the Spirit, pointed him out when he arrived, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1. 29). And we, believing in him, with both mouth and heart confess him to be the one who takes away the sins of the world, and we readily proclaim his praises with the precursor of Christ, who is more than a prophet: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1. 29). Behold the innocent one, immune from all sin, the one indeed who is bone from the bones of Adam, and flesh from the flesh of Adam, although drawing no stain of fault from the sinful flesh. Behold him who is the just one among sinners, the meek among the impious, who is like a lamb appearing among wolves, and who still has the power to justify sinners and the impious. Cf. Cyrus, Miraculum Syri Pictaviensis episcopi, in Sanctuarium seu Vitae Sanctorum, ed. by Bonino Mombrizio, 2 vols (Paris: Albert Fontemoing, 1910), II, p. 545. a 

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‘How he takes away the sins of the world, and by what manner he justifies the impious, the apostle Peter shows us when he says: Not by corruptible silver and gold have you been redeemed from the vain customs of the traditions of your fathers, but by the precious blood of the pure lamb without blemish, Jesus Christ (I Pt 1. 18–19). And in the Apocalypse, the apostle John says: He has loved us, and has washed us from our sins in his own blood (Rv 1. 5). He has washed us not only from our sins in his own blood when he gave his blood on the Cross for us, or when he washed us in the mystery of his most holy Passion, but also when he washed us in the baptism of water; when he truly takes away the sins of the world and washes us from our sins by his blood daily; when the memory of that same blessed Passion is replicated on the altar; when the created realities of bread and wine at the consecration by his ineffable Spirit are transferred into the sacrament of his Body and Blood. ‘So it is that his body is also killed and the blood poured out, not into the hands of the unfaithful for their destruction, but in the mouth of his faithful unto salvation. For the lamb of the Passover in the Law is rightly seen as his image. Once liberating the people from Egyptian servitude, that lamb, as a memory of this same liberation, could sanctify for all those years that very same people by its immolation, until he himself would come to whom such a sacrifice gave witness. Then he was offered to the Father for us as a victim and an odour of sweetness. The mystery of his Passion, when the offered lamb would be transformed into the created realities of bread and wine, would be renewed when he had been made a Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, approaching God through his very self in order to make intercession for us (cf. Heb 7. 25)’.a Because our Redeemer at the time of his Passion offered it once and for all, nevertheless, up until this very day, he offers this very same daily commemoration of his Passion. The particular cause for this, I think, is so that we may call to mind the remembrance of his most holy death when we carefully and assiduously im­ molate daily his most sacred body and blood placed on the altar. a 

Bede, Homeliarum Evangelii, 1. 15; 1. 36, in CC SL, 122, pp. 4; 105–06.

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9. Lines 196–403 (CC CM, 16, pp. 60–65) Because with the help of Christ we have taken care to show what good things these mysteries offer to those who receive them worthily, we consider it very helpful for many in the future, if along with what we have said in words, we follow with some examples. I ask you to read if you will the following things, from the words of the blessed and most admirable of men, Gregory, bishop of the Roman See. We have excerpted most useful things from this most excellent doctor, retained his own words and inserted them in this our little work, so that having attached so great an authority in the middle of it, our words may be more firmly strengthened. There was once a son of a certain Jewish glassworker who studied grammar with Christian boys. On a certain feast day while Mass was celebrated in the Basilica of the Ever Virgin Mother of God, where the people always received the Eucharist by custom from the hand of the priest, the aforementioned Jewish boy approached to participate in the glorious Body and Blood of the Lord with his schoolmates. When he approached (for Divine Providence, as I see it, was revealing itself to him), he saw over the altar a certain woman having a noble aspect, seated on a throne, and holding a little boy on her knees. From his own hand the child offered the Holy Communion to the priest, so that he might offer it to those who faithfully approached. The same Jewish boy, when he had received it, returned rejoicing to his home and to his own father who was working intently, and who embraced him with a kiss as the boy joyfully retold the story. But he, who was an enemy of Christ the Lord and his laws, became bitterly troubled by the story, and said to him: ‘If you have communicated with other children of the Christian religion, to avenge the injury against the Mosaic law and your forgetfulness of parental piety, I  shall stand firmly against you and your crime of parricide’. And seizing the boy, he threw him into the mouth of the burning furnace and threw wood into the fire that was already red hot. But that mercy was not lacking that besprinkled with a cloud those three Hebrew boys thrown into the roaring Chaldean fire. For mercy itself did not suffer this boy who had been thrown into a pile of

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red hot coals to be consumed. When the mother heard that the cruel father had deliberately burned their son, she ran to free him. When she saw the fire from the mouth of the open furnace, with strong flames darting about, she went out through the city with her hair disheveled, crying out as she did so that she was a most unfortunate woman. When the Christians of the town learned what the father had done, they all ran together to the iniquitous spectacle, where they found the boy pulled from the flames and from the mouth of the furnace and lying on a soft pile of feathers. All marveled that the boy, having been extracted from the furnace, was unharmed. The place was filled with cries, and all the people praised the great works of the Lord. They also bewailed the fact that the author of the crime was thrown into the very same flames. The fire, however, burned up all sign of him save what was left of his bones. When the Christians questioned the little boy as to how he was protected, the boy said: ‘The woman who was in the basilica when I received the bread from the table, who was seated on a chair, and held a little child on her lap, she is the one who covered me in her cloak lest I be consumed by the flames. The food as well, which I had received from the hand of the priest, helped me to the point that I do not think that I even felt the slightest breath of the flame’. Therefore, there can be no doubt that it was Blessed Mary who appeared to him. The child then accepted the Catholic faith and believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and was washed, together with his mother, in the saving waters and born anew. Many of Jews in that city were themselves converted to the faith because of the incident.a If these mysteries, therefore, made one who is without any faith and not yet born again in sacred baptism, a member of Christ, and offered so great a defence for his salvation, how much more should it be unwaveringly believed in by the faithful, already members of the body of Christ, the Church, of which he is the Head, and made so by regeneration? For when they receive them worthily, these sacraments offer salvation to both body and soul. a 

See Gregory of Tours, Miraculum, in MG, 1/9, p. 494.

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As we promised, we have drawn the examples of the great bishop St Gregory into the midst of our discussion. Gregory himself also tells us: ‘There was once a certain man who was captured by his enemies and carried off a long distance. When he was held for a long time in chains, and since his wife did not receive him back from the same captivity, she thought him dead. She then had the sacrifice offered to God for him every week, as for one already dead, to loosen the chains of his soul. Whenever she did so, his chains in captivity were unshackled. Returning home after a long time, he marveled as he pointed out to his wife that on certain days of the week his chains were unshackled. Considering what days and hours they were, his wife realised that the hours he was set free were the very days and hours that she had Mass offered for him. Gather from this, my dear one, with sure reflection, that the sacred gifts offered by us are most certainly able to loosen the chains of our own hearts, if what is offered for another can loosen the chains from their body’.a But because I know that you have the duty of offering these sacrifices on the sacred altars, and so that you might assiduously learn how to offer this sacrifice with greater devotion and readiness, I beg of you to listen to an example from the same venerable man Gregory, which I will write next on this page, so that you might offer the sacrifice more ardently on the altar of your own heart. The aforementioned doctor narrates how a certain bishop named Cassius had the custom of daily offering the sacrifice to God, so that almost no day of his life passed in which he did not immolate the victim to Almighty God. His life was also one lived in great harmony with his sacrifice: after giving all he had away in alms, when he came to the hour of offering sacrifice, entirely dissolved in tears, he would offer with great compunction of heart. One night the Lord appeared in a vision to one of his priests and said to him: ‘Go and say to the bishop: “Do what you do, and perform that which you perform. Let neither your foot nor your hand hold back. You will come to me on the Feast of the Apostles, a 

Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia, 37. 8, in PL, 76, col. 1279.

185

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63

and I will give you your reward”’. The priest got up, but because the day for the Feast of the Apostles would soon arrive, he was afraid to announce to the bishop that the day of his death was so close. On another night, the Lord returned and strongly rebuked him for his disobedience and repeated the same words of his command. The priest then got up to do it. But again, the infirmity of his heart impeded him from making known the revelation. At the admonition of the repeated command, his heart weakened and he neglected to make known what he had seen. But because God is accustomed to follow great mildness with greater anger of vengeance for a spurned grace, the Lord at the third appearance added beatings to the words, and he was beaten so severely that the wounds of his body softened the hardness of his heart. He arose, therefore, instructed by the beating, and went to the bishop, who was, as his custom, already preparing to offer the sacrifice next to the tomb of blessed Juvenal the martyr. The priest, concealed among the crowd standing around, threw himself at the bishop’s feet. When the bishop with difficulty lifted him up, he cried profusely. The bishop then attempted to discover the cause of his tears. The priest, before he told him about the vision, took off the garment from his shoulders and uncovered the wounds in his body. He showed, as what I might call the witnesses to the truth as well as to his sin, how severely the blows he had received cut into his body, leaving bloody wounds. As soon as the bishop saw them, he was horrified and inquired with a shocked voice who would dare to do such a thing. The priest responded that he endured them for him. The bishop’s alarm then grew stronger. But without further delay the priest disclosed to him the secret revelation and told him the words of the Lord’s command that he heard: ‘Keep on doing what you are doing, keep on offering what you are offering. Let not your hand nor your foot hold back. On the Feast of the Apostles you will come to me and receive your reward’. The bishop, having heard these things, prostrated himself in prayer with great contrition of heart. Although he had come to offer the sacrifice at the third hour, because of this great gift, he extended his prayer and prostrated himself until the ninth hour. From that day forth the reward for his piety increased more and

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more, and he became as strong in his work as he was certain of his reward. Indeed, he who had been under obligation to the Lord, because of the Lord’s promise, the Lord now became under obligation to him. From custom he would travel to Rome each year on the Feast of the Apostle. The bishop, now apprehensive because of this revelation, decided not to go according to his habit. He was watchful around the same time in the second and third year, in expectation of his death, and felt the same uncertainty in the fourth, fifth, and sixth years. He could almost have lost hope in the truth of the revelation had not the flogging given credit to the words. Behold, he arrived unharmed at the sacred vigil of the feast in the seventh year, but a slight fever overcame him, and on the day of the feast itself, unable to celebrate the solemn mysteries, he excused himself from his flock that expected him. Equally apprehensive that this was his departure from this life, they came to him as a group, binding themselves in unanimous agreement that they would by no means celebrate the solemn Mass unless their bishop would agree to be their mediator in the presence of God. Thus, under compulsion, he offered Mass in the bishop’s oratory and distributed the Lord’s body with his own hand and gave the kiss of peace to all. The sacred sacrifice completed, he returned to his sick bed. While he was lying there, he saw his priests and ministers standing about, and as if offering his final farewell, he admonished them to preserve the bond of charity amongst themselves, and he preached to them how much a great harmony ought to unite them. Suddenly amid these words of exhortation, he cried out in a terrible voice: ‘It is the hour’. Immediately, he gave to them with his own hands the linen that from custom was placed over the face of the one dying. When it was in place, he sent forth his spirit. So, it was that his holy soul, having been released from bodily corruption, arrived at eternal joys. Did not then this man imitate in his death the one whom he contemplated in life? For saying ‘it is the hour’, he departed from his body, as did Jesus who, having accomplished all things, said: It is finished (Jn 19. 30), and having bowed his head, gave up his spirit. Therefore, what the Lord did out of power, this his servant did from his vocation.

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64

Behold, how that host offered daily with alms and tears has so much in harmony with our Redeemer! Therefore, you, O man of God, since you are able, strive to offer this host with fervor of charity and contrition of heart. For the All-Powerful God wishes to be pleased by our prayers, since he knows that when he is angry we are not able to bear him. Moreover, in a singular way he permits that the host of the sacred altar be offered with tears and gentleness of mind for the sake of our forgiveness, because he who rose by himself from the dead now dies no longer, but still through this mystery can suffer for us again. For as often as we offer this sacrifice of his Passion to him, so we also renew his Passion for us and our forgiveness. By this sacrifice the soul is cleansed, sin is forgiven, vice is dispelled, demons are put to flight, virtues are acquired, the salvation of bodies and souls is attained, and the whole world is saved.a As profitable as it is for the living, as we have shown at great length from the words of St Gregory, so we will show how equally it benefits the souls of the dead. For the doctor Gregory often told the story about a certain priest, who out of bodily necessity was advised by doctors to bathe in the baths of Tauriana where people were accustomed to immerse themselves in the hot springs. One day, as the priest entered the baths according to his custom, he found there a certain unknown man who, as a service, helped him to remove the sandals from his feet and take off his vestments. Then, as he came forth from the hot bath, he brought him a towel and waited upon him with great service. When he had done this for the priest several times, this same priest on a certain day thinking within himself about his return to the bath said: ‘To that man who is accustomed to wait upon me and wash me with such devotion, I do not want to appear ungrateful. I must carry with me some sort of a reward to give him’. He then took two crown-shaped loaves of breadb for an offering. As soon as he came to the place, he found the man, and as was his custom, the man waited upon him in every way. He bathed, and when he wanted to get dressed, he took out the bread that he had brought with him, a  b 

Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia, 37. 7, in PL, 76, col. 1279. That is, unconsecrated hosts.

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then offered it to the man with thanks, asking that he would accept them as a gift of charity. The man sighed mournfully to him: ‘Why do you give this to me, father? This bread is holy and I am not able to eat it. For I whom you see was once lord of this place, but for my faults I have been assigned here after my death. If, however, you wish to offer something for me, offer this bread for me to the All-Powerful God, to beg pardon for my sins. Know that God has heard you when you come here to wash and do not find me here’. With these words, he vanished, and the one he thought to be a man was revealed to be a spirit when he disappeared. This same priest, then, for a week offered tearful supplications for him, and daily offered the saving Victim for him. When he later returned to the bath, the man could no longer be found. This incident points out the great benefit that souls derive from the sacrifice of the Mass even after death, when the very spirits of the dead themselves seek this from the living and give a sign to them that they are absolved because of it. Therefore, if their faults were forgivable, the sacrifice of the sacred oblation can be of benefit for the forgiveness of sins, even for the least among the dead. Let us understand then, that the sacred sacrifice benefits those among the dead when those of us who are among the living offer it. Even after death, these good things, which are done by others for them here, are beneficial to them there. Moreover, among these things, it must be thought that it is the safer way that, the good that each one hopes for himself after death, he also does for others while he himself is alive. Happier, however, is the one who leaves this life free than the one who must seek freedom from chains afterwards.a We ought to offer ourselves to God with sorrow of heart while we live, therefore, because we who celebrate the passion of the Lord ought to imitate what we celebrate. There will be for us a true sacrifice to God when we make ourselves the offering. Therefore, while we have time for forgiveness, while the judge puts up with us, while he who examines faults awaits our conversion, let us shed tears over the hardness of our hearts, let us prepare for the a 

Gregory the Great, Dialogi, 4. 42–57, in PL, 77, cols 317–430.

189

65

Appendix, ‘ON THE BODY AND BLOOD OF THE LORD’ 14

grace of future forgiveness. I speak confidently saying that we will not need the saving victim after death, if while we live in this valley of tears we ourselves are a sacrifice offered to God. Let these things that have been said for the defence of the sacred offering be sufficient. Now let us return to our main purpose.

14. Lines 71–119 (CC CM, 16, pp. 88–89) 88

The Abbot Arsenius, it is said, was filled with the grace of such great holiness and sorrow for sin, that because of his excessive tears he always carried a cloth in his pocket to dry his face. He very often told the story of a certain dweller of Scythia who was ‘great in the active life but a simpleton in faith. Because he was a simpleton, he was in error and said that this bread that we receive was not naturally the body of Christ, but only a figure of it’. However, ‘Two elders, hearing that he said this and knowing that his life and manner of living was good, thought that he held this in innocence and simplicity. They came to him and said: “Father, we heard of a certain unbeliever who said that the bread that we receive is not naturally the body of Christ, but only its figure”. The old man said to them: “I am the one who said that”. They entreated him, saying: “You should not hold this opinion, father, but rather believe what the Church has handed down. For we believe that the bread is the body of Christ, and that the chalice is the blood of Christ, in truth and not only in figure. Just as in the beginning God took dirt from the earth and formed man to his own image, and no one is able to say that he is not the image of the incomprehensible God, so it is the bread that he said is my body that we believe, according to the truth, to be the body of Christ”. ‘The old man said this to them, however: “Unless I shall have seen the reality itself, your request shall not have satisfied me”. They said to him, “Let us pray to God this week about this mystery and we will believe what the Lord reveals to us”. The old man received this suggestion with joy, and prayed to God saying: “O Lord, you know that it is not through malevolence that I am in-

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credulous in this matter, but should I err through ignorance, then reveal it to me, O Lord Jesus Christ, that it is true”. And the elders going away to their cells, prayed to God saying: “O Lord Jesus Christ, reveal to the elder this mystery so that he might believe and not lose his reward”. ‘The Lord heard them, and when the week ended, they came on the Lord’s Day to the church. The three of them sat on the ground on a seat made of branches that were bound together in bundles; the old man sat in the middle. The eyes of their understanding were opened and when the bread was placed on the altar, it seemed to the three of them as if a little boy was lying on the altar. When the priest extended his hand as he broke the bread, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven having a knife in hand and sacrificed that boy. His blood, however, he caught in the chalice. When the priest broke the bread into small portions, the angel also carved up the members of the boy into tiny pieces. ‘When the old man approached to receive Holy Communion, flesh was given that bled. When he saw that, he feared greatly, and cried out, saying: “I believe, O Lord, that the bread that is placed on the altar is your body and the chalice is your blood”. Immediately, the flesh in his hand was transformed into bread according to the mystery. The old man received it in his mouth, giving thanks to God. ‘The elders said to him: “God knows that human nature is not able to feed on raw flesh, and so he transformed his flesh into bread and his blood into wine for those who receive it with faith”. And they gave thanks to God for the old man because God did not permit him to lose his reward. And all returned to their cells with joy’.a

89

21. Lines 260–308 (CC CM, 16, pp. 121–22) The Apostle speaks of the terrible sentence of their clear damnation when he writes: Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died a 

Pope Pelagius I, Verba seniorum, in PL, 73, cols 851–992.

191

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122

without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be treated who has trampled underfoot the Son of God or has treated as unholy the blood of the covenant that sanctified him or who has insulted the spirit of grace? (Heb 10. 28–29) That person is correctly said to trample on the Son of God and negligently allow charity, the root of all virtues, by which the Only Begotten of God deigned to become man, to be trodden underfoot. Filled with fraternal hatred and before they are reconciled in peace, they presume to offer these most holy sacrifices. That gift is not accepted by the almighty God who has first commanded us to drive out discord with brothers and sisters, as Truth himself says: If you offer your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go and be reconciled with your brother and then come back and offer your gift (Mt 5. 23–24). Since the gift of this sacrifice frees from every fault, one must realise how grave is the sin of discord, on which account not even this gift is accepted. Therefore, before we offer it, we ought to go to our neighbour, no matter how far away or separated in mind, and subject our soul to him, pleasing him by humility and benevolence. Thus, our Creator, when he looks upon our good intention, will free us from sin. We have learned, from the word of Truth giving testimony, that because the servant who owed ten thousand talents acted with penance, he received forgiveness from his Lord. But because he did not forgive his fellow servant who owed a hundred talents, he had to give back what he had received and was thrown into prison. From this, we learn that if we do not forgive from our heart what is committed against us, we must pay back what we enjoyed as forgiven to us when we did penance. For whoever properly asks pardon for the sins formerly committed is set free. But whoever refuses to pardon, should that person presume to touch the divine victim in a sinful way, is said to have trampled on the body of the Lord, not because he can be trampled on by any mortal but rather because, in treating the mystery sinfully, he is changed into one who tramples. Likewise, a person is properly said to pollute the blood of the new and eternal Covenant when, spurning the company of the

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angels, he corrupts the mystery with the foulness of impurity and presumes to approach unworthily this table before previously making a humble confession and washing himself with a flood of tears. How great a contempt for the grace of the Holy Spirit is committed by one who doubts that the earthly substance of bread and wine can be changed, even after the power and consecration of the Holy Spirt has sanctified it, to become what was conceived and brought to birth of the blessed Virgin, by the power and work of the same Holy Spirit. How will one who doubts that the Holy Spirit remits all sin receive pardon for future sins? Indeed, he raises up wrath against himself, since he doubts the Spirit’s work. What a great punishment they prepare for themselves who treat the body and blood of the Lord sinfully. It is something seen in even clearer light when the Apostle judges them to be worthy of the graver punishment of death.

22. Lines 180–202 (CC CM, 16, pp. 130–31) Tell me, I ask, what is more lovable than to read about this mystery of the body and blood of the Lord, what more pleasant when it is understood, what more sweet when worthily received, what more beautiful when it is seen in its grace? Well beloved son, let these few things said up to this point in this present work suffice to show the dignity of this very great mystery. Certainly, it is necessary for these things to be believed by you. For we are neither worthy nor capable to explain matters of such great importance thoroughly. One should not wonder at this, for even the angelic powers themselves in the subtlety of their nature, contemplating these things with admiration and trembling, are scarcely able to penetrate such realities. Since, therefore, the nature of the blessed spirits, lacking the weight of the body, hardly suffice to search out these things, how capable or worthy is anyone to speak about God? Or the mortal about the immortal? The visible about the invisible? The changeable about the unchangeable? The work about

193

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the Builder? The creature about the Creator? What is made about the Maker? The small about the Immense? The lowly about the Greatest? What is fashioned from clay about Him who created all things from nothing? Is not his omnipotence unspeakable — by which he saves us in his mercy, who works by way of creative omnipotence and omnipotently completes the work of saving grace? There, having the power of creating and ruling his creation; here having the power of laying down and taking up his life for us, the Only Begotten of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and is glorified and reigns in Trinity and perfect Unity, the God-man for all ages. Amen.

194

INDEX OF SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES

32. 13–1497 32. 20140 32. 33133 I Samuel 2. 24–2585 I Kings 2. 2589 Ezra 9. 1–285 9. 286 9. 386 9. 5–687 Psalms 1. 390 4. 787 7. 1085 16. 15145 22. 4145 23. 5100 25. 4–652 33. 9160 33 (34 LXX) 170, 171 41. 552 63. 2103 78. 25 (77. 25 LXX) 74 83. 365 89. 47 (88. 47 LXX) 125 89. 48 (88. 48 LXX) 125 98. 5 (99. 5 LXX) 171 102. 2–390 103. 1597

Genesis 1. 11105 1. 22105 2. 2496 3. 1960 27. 27136 27. 28136 28. 20135 43. 2597 43. 3497 Exodus 12. 5141 12. 6141 12. 11144 16. 18121 Leviticus 17. 11103 22. 1–384 22. 1063 22. 1464 22. 14–1663 22. 1665 24. 963, 80 26. 1287 Numbers 6. 27119 9. 10142 9. 10–11142, 162 9. 13142 Deuteronomy 6. 13171

195

Index of Scriptural References

26. 42132 28. 19117 Mark 14. 2272 14. 22–24147 14. 23177 Luke 7. 28181 15. 29142 22. 12133 22. 15161 22. 1972, 119, 120, 158 22. 19–20147 22. 20120, 162 23. 15176 John 1. 1462, 92, 103, 105, 159, 163, 164 1. 16122 1. 29181 3. 576 3. 1393 3. 29176 4. 13–14102 4. 34135 5. 35181 6. 3369 6. 4982 6. 5159, 62, 69, 78, 98, 121, 169 6. 51–5861 6. 5369, 98, 126, 149, 158, 174 6. 53–54142 6. 53–55147 6. 5468, 75, 126, 128 6. 54–6575 6. 5568, 75, 127, 168 6. 55–56167 6. 5669, 76, 92, 158 6. 57178 6. 5875 6. 60112 6. 60–62168 6. 61157 6. 62159 6. 63159, 161 6. 68172 6. 69172

104. 15 (103. 15 LXX) 121 110. 4 (109. 4 LXX) 86, 178 115. 13126, 132 134. 658 147. 12–14 (146. 12–14 LXX) 94 Proverbs 3. 1879 23. 1–264 Song of Songs 1. 3102 2. 4102 3. 7–951, 55 5. 197, 98, 99 Isaiah 9. 5 (LXX) 175 Lamentations 4. 4119 Ezekiel 1. 2168 9. 487 9. 787 16. 17–19110 16. 35110 18. 23176 18. 28176 35. 25176 Joel 2. 19138 Zechariah 9. 17137 Matthew 3. 1086 5. 699 5. 23–24192 6. 1290 7. 2180 10. 2884 13. 44122, 136 15. 32127 16. 26–28147 22. 11–1252, 55 24. 35118 26. 2672, 157, 162 26. 26–28132 26. 2898, 107, 120, 134, 160 26. 29132

196

Index of Scriptural References

II Corinthians 4. 1087 5. 766, 72, 81, 112, 155, 166 Galatians 6. 7180 Ephesians 1. 22–2528 4. 4–1378 4. 30138 5. 25–2978 5. 3080 5. 3180, 96 5. 3278, 80 Colossians 2. 971, 122 2. 1784 3. 1177 3. 2133 I Timothy 2. 4175 2. 592 5. 22139 II Timothy 2. 2250 Hebrews 1. 2–3150 1. 371 1. 1483 3. 1160 4. 1287 4. 1479, 86 5. 6178 6. 2079, 94, 105, 110 7. 2494 9. 1181 9. 12105 9. 25105 10. 28–29192 11. 1164, 165 11. 761 I Peter 1. 18–19182 2. 994 4. 1787 I John 1. 1890

7. 38–39131 9. 31109 10. 3091 12. 2495 13. 2780 14. 6128, 165 15. 196 15. 4–596 15. 3085 17. 20120 17. 20–2191 19. 30187 19. 34150 Acts 4. 3291 8. 23133 Romans 4. 1361 5. 5160 6. 965, 90, 93, 152, 178 8. 967, 76 8. 3479 10. 1057 12. 578 I Corinthians 2. 14103 3. 768 3. 17138 5. 7100, 135 5. 7–8123 6. 1696 6. 2096 8. 1172 10. 182, 169 10. 3–473, 75, 169 10. 3–582 10. 475 10. 17170 11. 2472, 118 11. 24–25147 11. 2693, 173 11. 2877, 121, 179, 181 11. 28–2977 11. 29–3088 11. 3088 12. 3164

197

Index of Scriptural References

2. 2385 6. 9–11173 14. 13178 17. 15101 Wisdom 16. 2081

2. 18128 5. 661, 128 Revelation 1. 5182 1. 694 1. 1387 2. 768, 79

198

INDEX OF NON-BIBLICAL SOURCES

Acts of the Angels114 Ambrose De fide IV, 10. 12425 De mysteriis23 9. 4825 9. 5372, 148, 152 De sacramentis23 4. 20111 Amphilochius of Iconium Vita sancti Basilii 114 Augustine De baptismo 1. 2108 3. 7. 10109 3. 27110 4. 16108 5. 20109 5. 29. 21110 De doctrina26, 149 3. 16149 Enarrationes in Psalmos171 Epistolae 54. 8129 98. 9152, 154, 155, 163 In Iohannis 26. 12169 26. 1325, 70, 169, 170 26. 15170 26. 17170 26. 18170 26. 19170

27. 5172 27. 9172 27. 11173 Quaestionem Evangeliorum 2. 39106 Sermones 77. 4153 87. 14153 99. 7158 131. 1–2169 221 (sp.) 173 228B148, 150, 153, 155, 175 229K159 272 (Ad infantes) 131 352. 2153 Bede (the Venerable) Homeliarum Evangelii 1. 15182 1. 36182 Clementine (Pseudo) Epistles129, 130 Cyprian Epistolae 63. 13101, 150, 152 63. 16128 Cyril of Alexandria Synod Epistles156, 163, 165 Cyrus Miraculum Syri Pictaviensis episcopi181 Durandus of Troarn De corpore et sanguine Christi18

199

Index of Non-biblical Sources

Ovid Tristia V, 1. 3747 Paschasius Ad Fredugardum 2525 3625 49–5126 66–7026 99–10027 103–426 Commentaries21 Commentary on Matthew 21, 31, 36 De corpore 1. 4523 1. 12725 2. 3125 3. 14–1923 3. 1825 3. 2724 3. 3124 4. 125 4. 325 4. 1626 4. 23–2426 4. 25–34151 4. 2725 4. 2927 4. 3025 4. 3225 4. 4525 4. 6027 4. 8125 5. 4625 633 7. 2–529 7. 25–2818, 25 7. 3025 7. 3725 933 9. 1528 9. 8825 9. 119–2029 9. 12629 10. 2125 10. 11925

Eusebius 'Gallicanus' De Pascha 6. 2153 6. 3153 6. 8154 Gezo of Tortona De corpore et sanguine Christi17 Gregory of Tours Miraculum184 Gregory the Great Dialogi 2. 749 4. 42–57189 4. 60155 Homiliae in Evangelia 37. 7188 37. 8185 Hilary of Poitiers De Trinitate 8. 1392, 166, 175 8. 14167 8. 16167 Horace Carmina II, 10. 11–12 50 Isidore of Seville De ecclesiasticus officiis 1. 18129 Isidore (Pseudo) Sermones 4. 3153 Jerome Epistolae 120. 2132 130. 9 (Ad Demetrium) 142 Homiliae 7141 John Chrysostom On the Priesthood 3. 4174 Leo the Great Sermones 91. 3163, 174, 175 Nynian Miracula Nynie episcopi116 Odo of Cluny Collationes17

200

Index of Non-biblical Sources

Rabanus Maurus Epistolae 3. 2149 Ratramnus De corpore et sanguine Domini 33–34149 35152 56158 59–72156 62165 89159 Roman Mass 81, 105, 107, 118, 119, 134, 176 Rule of St Benedict 21 Rutherius of Verona Excerptum ex dialogo confessionali17 Sedulius Paschalis Carminis 2258 preface47 Terence The Eunuch I, 2. 25 50 Virgil Aeneid 8. 34348 Eclogues 1. 3115 3. 7156 5. 4747

10. 12425 11. 328 11. 7–828 11. 1428 11. 1528 11. 35–3628 13. 1425 1433 14. 2025 14. 2233 14. 177–8029 15. 7925 16. 1925 19. 1429 19. 24–2529 19. 7029 20. 1125 2133 21. 1228 21. 25–2628 21. 68–6929 21. 86–9029 21. 104–529 De partu virginis21, 31 Passion of Rufinus and Valerius22 Paul the Deacon Vita beatissimi Gregorii114 Pope Pelagius I Verba seniorum191 Pope Sylvester II (Gebert) De corpore et sanguine Christi17

201

GENERAL INDEX

Aaron 83 Abbot Adalard  20, 21, 49 Abbot Warin  47, 49 dedication of De corpore to  34 Paschasius's exhortation to  51 Abel 177 Abraham 94, 137 Adam 90, 91, 181 as type of Christ  101 Ambrose 19, 52, 152, 175 Anthropology, theological  103 and Eucharist  103, 124 Arsenius, abbot  190 Augustine 19, 52, 151, 152, 154, 155, 163, 167, 169, 170, 171, 172, 175 Baptism 61, 66, 67, 91, 100, 102, 104, 108, 109, 126, 135, 137, 143 and Christ  117 and death of Christ  111 and Holy Spirit  67 and remission of sins  90, 182 and role of priest  117 as adoption  67 as death and resurrection  177 as incorporation into Christ  67 as new creation  117 as rebirth  67, 93 water in Eucharist a symbol of 150 Basil the Great  113, 173 Bede (Venerable)  52 Benedict 49

Body of Christ  104 as bride  78 as Christ's individual body  78 as Church  78, 106, 134, 170 as Eucharist  79, 82, 93, 94, 106, 114, 135, 170 as field  122, 136 bread metaphor  132 multiple meanings of  78, 79, 80, 83 Boniface 151, 154 Caesarius of Arles  153 Caracter and Eucharist  26, 70, 72, 150 as literary device  71 Carolingian Renaissance  22 Cassius, bishop  185 Charles II  33 Charles the Bald  20, 21, 33, 34, 48, 54 Paschasius's exhortation to  55 Chiliasm and Eucharist  132 Chrismation 66, 109 Christ and baptism  117 and creation  111 and Eucharist  83, 90, 104, 106, 119 and forgiveness of sins  90, 143, 182 and human priesthood  108

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General Index

and procession of Holy Spirit  139 as Angel of Great Counsel  175 as caracter  150 as child  115 as grain of wheat  96 as grape  96 as Head of Church  78 as heavenly bread  95, 98, 169 as high priest  64, 81, 82, 86, 89, 94, 105, 107, 110, 126, 135, 150, 160 as intercessor  89 as life  168 as married to Church  137 as Melchizedek  86, 105, 161, 182 as Passover lamb  65, 100, 123, 128, 135, 140, 141, 177, 182 as rock  169 as sacrificial victim  89, 90, 100, 105, 142, 173, 182 as scapegoat  143 as slave  59 as tree of life  79, 90 as truth  113, 128, 177 as wedded to Church  78 blood and water from side of  100 caracter 71 foreshadowed by Joseph  97 foreshadowed by Melchizedek 94 foreshadowed in Old Testament 94 giver of Holy Spirit  76 heart of  102 incarnation of  62, 71, 92, 122, 154, 163, 166, 175, 177 incarnation of, as sacrament  66 individual body of  78 in relation to outsiders  109 nativity of  105 Passion of  59, 100, 123 relationship of body and blood 125 resurrection of  96 side of  100, 101, 124 union with Church  96, 99

union with communicants  91, 122 union with Father  91, 93, 118, 166 Word of God  62, 87, 92, 103, 104, 105, 118, 125, 154, 159, 161 Church and Eucharist  106, 117, 150 and Garden of Eden  90 and gifts of Holy Spirit  138 as body of Christ  134 as married to Christ  137 as vine  97 as vineyard  97 catholic faith of  104 types in Old Testament  88 union with Christ  96, 99 Convivium 29, 47, 134, 137 Council of Ephesus  155, 165, 176 creation ex nihilo 57 Cyprian of Carthage  52, 101, 150, 152, 175 Cyril of Alexandria  155, 163, 176 Cyrus of Pavia  179 David 97, 100, 103, 171 Devil 78, 80, 82, 88, 109 Divine will and created existence (esse)  59 and created substances  58 and divine existence (esse)  58 and divine power  60 and miracles  60 and natural phenomena  57, 60 and wisdom  60 Durandus of Troarn  18 Eli 85 Elijah 99 as type of Eucharist  99 Esau 136 Eucharist and Agnus Dei 144 and angels  74, 83, 85, 88, 134, 191 and apocryphal literature  129, 130 and chiliasm  132 and Christ  64, 83, 104, 106, 119

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and Christ's incarnation  62, 71, 92, 122, 154, 163, 175, 177 and Christ's nativity  69, 72, 148 and Christ's Passion  90, 93, 100, 123, 126, 132, 144, 148, 155, 162, 182, 188 and Church  106, 117, 131, 150 and Council of Ephesus  176 and creation  105, 111, 117 and cult of martyrs  173 and divine power  160 and eternal life  59, 61, 62, 75, 76, 79, 88, 104, 117, 121, 124, 127, 130, 143, 148, 159, 164, 170 and fasting  130 and grudges  192 and Holy Spirit  68, 69, 72, 100, 104, 107, 130, 131, 160, 164, 172, 193 and Judas  81 and Last Supper  128, 161, 177 and Levitical sacrifices  63, 73, 86, 89, 94, 133 and liturgy  113, 115, 118, 119, 126, 144, 173, 176, 183 and Matthew 26. 26  157, 162 and mortal sin  76, 84 and new covenant  119, 133 and remission of sins  90, 101, 120, 158 and repentance  84, 88, 90, 139, 143 and resurrection  126 and schimatics  108 and sign of cross  89 and Trinity  91, 92, 166 and union with Christ  91, 93, 96, 122, 166 and union with Father  92 appearance and reality  59, 61, 98, 99, 111, 112, 114, 116, 165, 169 as field  136 as grafting  79 as incorporation into Christ  64, 76, 80, 91, 99, 106, 120, 125, 131, 134, 165, 167, 170, 175, 177

205

as new creation  117, 151 as nourishment  62, 64, 68, 72, 74, 79, 82, 93, 95, 103, 127, 129, 130, 168 as one of the sacraments  66 as spiritual inebriation  97, 100, 121, 130, 134 as tree of life  79, 88, 90 as unleavened bread  131 as viaticum  128, 178 as water of life  102, 131 at moment of consecration  155 benefit for deceased  189 blood of Christ  28, 47, 96, 101, 102, 103, 120, 121, 124, 125, 131, 132, 150, 152, 163, 167 body of Christ  79, 82, 93, 94, 114, 135, 152, 167, 170 convisceration 125, 126 daily celebration of  94, 112, 134, 137, 154, 160, 182 danger of receiving unworthily 63, 65, 76, 77, 80, 83, 85, 87, 89, 139, 144, 157, 178, 179, 180, 192 effect of receiving unworthily 77, 83, 84, 88 flesh of Christ  59, 62, 98, 101, 103, 120, 124, 163, 164, 169, 171, 172, 191 foreshadowed by Isaac's blessing 135 foreshadowed by manna  95, 121, 169 foreshadowed by Passover  123, 145, 161, 162 foreshadowed in Old Testament 73, 74, 75, 82, 86, 95, 136 in lives of saints  112, 114, 115, 185, 190 meaning of chalice  132, 162 meaning of red grapes  135 milk and honey  98 miracles during  112, 114, 115, 180, 183, 185, 187, 191

General Index

necessity of faith  61, 62, 68, 74, 77, 81, 98, 106, 111, 112, 113, 116, 121, 122, 127, 155, 161, 163, 164, 174, 176, 193 pagan criticism of  111 priest, merit of  104, 107, 108, 110, 117 priest, role of  106, 119, 135 proper way of receiving  76, 86, 100, 122, 129, 138, 140, 145 receiving in hand  174, 183 species of bread  96, 120 species of wine  96 sudden death before receiving 126 variations in preparing  178 viticultural imagery  96 water and wine  100, 102, 150 wise and foolish virgins  138 words of institution  118, 119, 147, 158, 161 Eucharistic theology and Council of Ephesus  155, 163, 165 and creation ex nihilo 57, 105, 153 caracter 26, 70, 72, 150 Catholic understanding of  163 change theory  78, 82, 117, 118 convivium 29, 47, 134, 137 figura 24, 69, 96, 121, 149, 190 mysterium 23, 37, 48, 61, 65, 69, 70, 75, 81, 96, 111, 128, 129, 149, 150, 154, 156, 165, 172 natalis calicis 28, 100, 126, 162 ninth-century controversy  21, 22, 159 of Ambrose  19, 22, 25, 32, 152 of Augustine  19, 22, 32, 149, 152 of Cyprian  152 of Eusebius of Emesa  153 of Gregory the Great  155 of Paschasius  22, 23, 24, 30, 31, 32, 79, 93, 125, 126 of Pashascius, summary  70 patristic florilegium  37, 56, 152, 155, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171, 173, 174

sacramentum 24 stercorism 130 ultra-realism 18, 21, 25, 31, 59, 74, 93, 105, 120, 147, 149, 157, 158, 175 Eusebius 'Gallicanus'  153 Eusebius of Emesa  37, 153 Eve as type of Church  101 Faith and knowledge  63, 72, 160 Father relation to Holy Spirit  139 union with Son  91, 166 Fautus of Riez  153 Figura and Eucharist  24, 96, 121, 149, 165, 190 and truth  69, 149, 158 and umbra (shadow)  70, 119, 120, 123, 133 as literary device  71 in Scripture  69, 74, 121 Figura 96, 99, 103, 121, 161 Fredugard 37, 147 Garden of Eden  62, 79, 90, 101 Gervase and Protase, martyrs  179 Gezo of Tortona  17 Gottschalk 18 Grace 109, 110 and Eucharist  121 Gratian 153 Gregory the Great  18, 49, 52, 114, 155, 176, 183, 185, 188 Guitmund of Aversa  153 Haymo of Halberstadt  153 Heretics and chiliasm  132 and Eucharist  124 on Trinity  91 Hesychius of Jerusalem  52 Hilary of Poitiers  18, 29, 37, 52, 166, 167, 175 Holy Spirit and baptism  67 and Christ's nativity  68 and Church  67

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and creation  111 and Eucharist  68, 69, 72, 100, 104, 107, 131, 160, 164, 172, 193 and faith  164 and sacraments (mysteries)  65, 109 and Scripture  66 as gift  138 as given by Christ  76 as oil of wise virgins  138 as voice of Solomon  64 effect on senses  64 gifts of  138 relation to Father and Son  139 work of  61, 68, 130, 164 Horace 19 Isaac 135, 137 Isidore of Seville  52 Israel 84 carnal and spiritual  84 prophetic rebuke of  110 Ivo of Chartres  153 Jacob 135, 137 Jerome 52, 141, 176 Jerusalem 85, 91 heavenly 94 Joel 138 John Chrysostom  52, 173 John the Baptist  176, 181 John, apostle  158, 182 Joseph, patriarch  97 Judas 76, 80, 83, 85, 123, 133 and Eucharist  81 Juvenal, martyr  186 Last Judgment  91, 93 Leo the Great  163, 174, 175 Liturgy 105, 107 Agnus Dei 144 and Eucharist  115, 118, 119, 126, 173, 176, 179, 183 Feast of the Apostles  185 Feast of the Holy Innocents  173 Louis I  49 Luke 161 Manna as type of Eucharist  73, 82, 95, 116, 121, 169

Melchizedek 94, 99, 105, 161, 182 Methodology of translation  31 Moses 59, 83, 96, 100, 133, 177 Mystery of faith  119 Nature and miracles  59 created 58 New Corbie (Corvey), monastery of 20, 30, 49 New Covenant  119 Ninian 115 Odo of Cluny  17 Ovid 19 Paschasius Ad Fredugardum composition of  30, 36 content of  37 editions of  38 manuscripts of  38 versions of  38 approach to patristic authorities 53 classical influence  19, 48 De corpore composition of  30 content of  34 editions of  31, 32, 33 interpolations 33 manuscripts of  32 versions of  32 De corpore  159 early life  19 monastic career  20 on the Eucharist summary 30 on the Eucharist  22, 23, 24 relationship with Abbot Warin 50 Passover as type of Christ  100, 140, 141, 177, 182 as type of Eucharist  145, 161, 162 Paul 71, 73, 77, 78, 80, 82, 83, 88, 94, 96, 105, 133, 138, 150, 151, 164, 165, 169, 170, 191 Peter Lombard  153 Peter, apostle  83, 172, 175

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General Index

Pharisees 82 Pilate 139 Plecgils 114 Pope Sylvester II (Gerbert)  17 Rabanus Maurus  18 Ratramnus of Corbie  18, 21, 36 Red Sea, parting of  59 Resurrection 124 and baptism  177 and Eucharist  126 of Christ  96 of human flesh  60 Rutherius of Verona  17 Sacrament (mystery) and Christ's incarnation  163 and Christ's nativity  163 and Christ's Passion  163 and Church  61 and Holy Spirit  65, 109 and truth  163 and unbelievers  61 Christ's incarnation as  66 definition of  65 enumeration of  66 in sense of oath  66 Scripture as  66 visible and invisible realities  66 Scapegoat as type of Christ  143 Schismatics and Eucharist  108 and re-ordination  108 Scripture and figura 121 and Holy Spirit  66 apocryphal literature  129

as sacrament (mystery)  66 meaning of body of Christ in  79 redundant phrases  176 typology in Old Testament  73, 74, 75, 94, 99, 119, 121, 133, 141, 161, 169, 177 Scythia 190 Septuagint 64, 84, 87, 141 Sign of the cross  87, 89 foreshadowed in Old Testament 87 Simeon 180 Solomon 64 Spiritual senses  64, 98, 121 Stercorism 130 Tauriana, baths of  188 Terence 19 Thomas Aquinas  153 transubstantiation 17 Tree of life  62, 90 as Christ  79, 90 as Eucharist  79, 88, 90 Trinity and creation  111 and Eucharist  92 Virgil 19, 51, 55, 56 Virgin Mary  59, 60, 68, 72, 78, 102, 105, 125, 136, 147, 164, 165, 166, 175, 184, 193 perpetual virginity  21 Wala 20, 22, 49 Wedding feast, eschatological  52, 55 Wisdom of God  90, 98, 134 Wrath of God  140 Zechariah 137

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