VI

On the other hand, towards the end of the tenth century there is an instance in England of the influence exercised by the treatise of Ratramn On the body and blood of the Lord. Aelfric was Abbot of Cerne in Dorset before 1000 and became Abbot of Eynsham in 1005. He is to be distinguished from three other Churchmen of the same name with whom he has sometimes been confused, namely, Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury; Aelfric, Archbishop of York; and Aelfric, Abbot of Malmesbury. Between the years 985 and 990 he wrote two books of homilies, each containing forty homilies, five being subsequently added to the second book, the number forty being reckoned by him as sufficient for the preaching for one year. One of his homilies, appointed for use on Eater Day, is on the Eucharist. The following quotations show how closely Aelfric adopted the teaching and phraseology of Ratramn:—

“Certain men have often asked, and do yet ask, how the bread which is prepared from corn and baked by fire’s heat can be turned into Christ’s body, or how wine that is pressed from many grapes can be turned into the Lord’s blood be blessing. Now we say to such that some things are said of Christ through a figure and others literally. It is a true and certain thing that Christ was born of a maiden, and of His own will suffered death, and was buried, and on this day rose from death. He is called bread through a figure, and a lamb, and a lion, and what else.… But yet according to true nature Christ is neither bread nor a lamb nor a lion. Why then is the holy housel called Christ’s body or His blood, if it be not truly what it is called? The bread and the wine which are hallowed through the priest’s Mass appear one thing without to men’s understanding, and another thing inwardly to believing minds. Without they seem to be bread and wine both in aspect and in taste; and after their hallowing they be truly Christ’ body and His blood through spiritual mystery.… Great is the difference between the invisible might of the holy housel and the visible appearance of its own nature. By nature it is corruptible bread and corruptible wine; and by the power of the divine word it is truly Christ’s body and His blood; not however bodily but spiritually. Great is the difference between the body in which Christ suffered and the body which is hallowed for housel. The body truly in which Christ suffered was born of Mary’s flesh, with blood and with bones, with skin and with sinews, in human limbs, with a reasonable soul living; and his spiritual body, which we call housel, is gathered of many corns, without blood and bones, without limb, without soul, and therefore nothing therein is to be understood bodily but all is to be understood spiritually.… This housel is temporal not eternal, corruptible and divided into sundry parts, chewed by the teeth and sent into the belly; nevertheless in spiritual power it is all in every part. Many receive this holy body, and yet it is all in every part after the spiritual mystery.… This mystery is a pledge and symbol; Christ’s body is truth. This pledge we hold mystically until we come to the truth, and then will this pledge be ended. Truly it is, as we said before, Christ’s body and His blood, not bodily but spiritually. Ye are not to search how it is done, but to hold to your belief that it is done.”

Like the teaching of Ratramn, on which it is based, this homily of Aelfric is open to two interpretations, either merely that through reception of the Sacrament there is a gift of spiritual union with Christ, or that by consecration the elements are made to be spiritually the body and blood of Christ. On either interpretation, what has so far been quoted is very different from the doctrine taught by Paschasius Radbert. It must be added that Aelfric goes on to recount two legends of the sight of human flesh and blood being vouchsafed to some who were present at the celebration of the Eucharist, which are more congruous to a belief that the consecrated elements are the body and blood of Christ than to any other view and recall passages in the work of Paschasius.

In an exhortation at the end of the canons of Aelfric, after directions as to the Mass of the Presanctified and the reserved Sacrament, it is said:—

“The housel is Christ’s body, not bodily but spiritually, not the body in which He suffered but that body of which He spake when He blessed bread and wine for housel one night before His passion.… Know now that the Lord, who was able to change the bread into His body before His passion, and the wine into His blood, in a spiritual manner, Himself daily blesses bread and wine by the hand of His priests into His spiritual body and blood.”