IV

The writings of St. Anslem supply an instance of the teaching ordinarily current at the end of the eleventh century and the opening years of the twelfth. Anslem was born at or near Aosta about 1033, was a pupil of Lanfranc at Bec, and succeeded him as Prior of Bec in 1063. From 1078 to 1093 he was Abbot of Bec, from 1093 to 1109 Archbishop of Canterbury. He often refers to the consecrated bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ and to the Eucharist as a sacrifice or the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ. His Prayers describe the consecration as being effected by the descent of the Holy Ghost on the offerings; contain words of loving address and devout adoration to “that most sweet body of the most sweet Lord which” the priest holds “in the hands,” “which is really that body which was born of the Virgin and crucified and laid in the tomb, which on the third day rose from the dead, which ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father”; and refer to the angels as present at “the hour of sacrifice” and worshipping the flesh and blood of Him who created tham. In one of his letters he touches briefly on some matters which had been the subject of much discussion and controversy:—

“It must not be supposed that in taking the blood we receive the soul of Christ without His body, or that in taking the body we receive His body without His soul, but when we take the blood we receive the whole Christ God and Man, and when we take the body we receive Him whole in like manner. And although we take first the body and then the blood, yet we do not receive Christ twice but we receive Him once being immortal and impassible.… It must be understood that the bread placed on the altar is changed by means of the words of the rite into the body of Christ, and that the substance of bread and wine does not remain. Yet the species does remain, that is, the form and colour and taste; and according to the species which remains certain things happen which cannot possibly happen according to that which they are, namely to be broken and to be shut in one place.… According to the species, again, the Sacrament can be received by faithful and unfaithful alike. Yet the faithful receive in a different and unique way, namely, that, since they are conformed to Christ by innocence, by the reception of His body and blood they are conformed to God, in the Present their virtues are increased and their free will is strengthened, and in the future they are fully endowed with immortality and impassibility, as also is He.… Which method of receiving all the unfaithful altogether lack. Nevertheless it is not to be denied that the wicked themselves receive the real substance of the body of Christ.… Within the Catholic Church in the mystery of the body of Christ nothing less is received from an evil priest, and nothing more is received from a good priest, because the consecration takes place not by the merit of the consecrator but by the word of the Creator and the power of the Holy Ghost; for if it were by the merit of the priest not at all would it pertain to Christ. But now as it is He who baptises, so it is He who by the Holy Ghost makes this bread and wine to be transformed into His flesh and blood.”