IX

The course of events at Cologne in the fourth and fifth decades of the sixteenth century afford important illustrations of current teaching. In 1536 a provincial council was held under the authority of Hermann von Wied, the Archbishop of Cologne, partly with a view to meeting the circumstances brought about by the early stages of the Reformation. The decrees of the council are thought to have been largely the work of John Groepper, who was a canon of Cologne. The more important of those relating to the Eucharist are as follows:—

“The people are to be taught to believe with most assured faith that in this Sacrament is the real body and real blood of Christ Jesus.… In the Eucharist is the whole Christ, although He is there in the form (sub ratione) of food and drink. For He who has given His real body and blood without doubt has given them alive. Wherefore, if we believe that in the tomb the divine nature was not separated from the dead body, how much more shall we believe that in the Sacrament it is not separated from the living body!”

“The parish priest is to teach … that the body and blood of the Lord are completely in one species by itself, so that the layman, who communicates in the species of bread, receives not only the body but also the blood of the Lord no less than one who partakes in both species of bread and wine.”

“Since Christ is contained in this Sacrament, the people are to be exhorted that, coming with awe to this mystery, they are to bow reverently when the health-giving host is elevated in the celebration of the Mass, to bend their bodies to the ground, and with their minds to adore the Crucified, and that they are to do the same when the priest carries the Eucharist to the sick.”

“The people are to be taught the nature of the sacrifice of the Mass, namely, that it is representative. Christ died once, the just for the unjust.… True God and true Man hung once only on the cross, offering Himself to the Father as a sacrifice living, passible, immortal, accomplishing the redemption of quick and dead.… And yet He is sacrificed daily in the Sacrament. Not that Christ is thus often slain; but that the one sacrifice is daily renewed by mystic rites, and that by the daily remembrance of the death of the Lord, by which we have been set free, in eating and drinking the flesh and blood which have been offered for us, this very deed which formerly was accomplished may be represented; and this sacramental offering admonishes us to gaze as it were on the Lord on the cross and draw thence for ourselves from that inexhaustible source the grace of salvation; and we offer sacrifice for the living and the dead when we implore the Father for them through the death of the Son.”

In the proceedings of this council fuller instruction was promised in an Enchiridion or Handbook to be published later. This appeared as the work of Archbishop Hermann; but, like the decrees of the council, it is thought to have been largely the work of Groepper. The doctrine of the Eucharist is treated at great length. Among the more important of the passages on this subject are the following:—

“By the power of the word of God the Sacrament of bread and wine is so changed that it is substantially different from what it was before, and what before the consecration were bread and wine are after the consecration in substance the flesh and blood of Christ.… The word of this Sacrament is the saying of Christ, by the power of which this Sacrament is made, by the efficacy of which the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine mingled with water is changed into His blood.”

“When the flesh and blood of Christ are eaten not only sacramentally but also spiritually, they marvellously refresh and gladden and feed the inner man, since indeed he perceives that he through Christ has received all things, regeneration, justification, and eternal life.”

“The flesh of Christ is offered for the salvation of the body, and His blood for our soul.… Yet under either species the whole Christ is taken, nor is He taken more under both species or less under one only.… Under the species of bread by force of the Sacrament, as they say, the body of Christ is contained, and the blood by concomitance. Under the species of wine the blood of Christ is contained by force of the Sacrament, and the body by concomitance.”

“When the health-giving host is broken, this fraction takes place only in the species of bread, which remains after the consecration without a subject; but Christ remains unbroken and whole in every fragment.”

“The adversaries pretend that the orthodox have defined that the offering in the Mass is a sacrifice which when applied on behalf of the living and the dead merits for them remission of guilt and penalty, and that too from the work wrought (ex opere operato) although the faith of those to whom it is to be applied be not added. They pretend, that is, that the orthodox impair the work of Christ, and that they crucify the Son of God again, in withdrawing the sanctification for our sins from the offering once made on the cross and assigning it to the Mass or rather to the outward work of the priest. But these calumnies of the adversaries ought not to offend any one in the Church, because the mind and judgment of the orthodox always have been and are altogether different from what they pretend. All the devout from the beginning of the world unto this day have known by the help and teaching of the Holy Ghost that there is only one propitiatory and satisfactory sacrifice for our sins and for those of the whole world, namely, Christ the Lord, the Lamb without spot, who was offered for us on the cross, who is described as having been slain from the beginning of the world.”

“It is clear from what has been said that sacrifice is of two kinds. There is a propitiatory sacrifice which is offered for the remission of sins to appease the wrath of God and to reconcile us to God. There is also a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and obedience which we pay to God as the honour and service which are rightly due to Him. Again, because this sacrifice of praise had failed after the fall of Adam and the corruption of nature, it is clear that the propitiatory sacrifice was promised at the first and at length fulfilled in Christ that He might inaugurate the Eucharistic sacrifice.… It follows that these sacrifices are so united that the later could not be without the former, but that the former is the cause and foundation of the later. Again, it is clear that the propitiatory sacrifice in the second sense is called propitiatory in the same signification as were those of the Old Testament, the burnt offering and sacrifice for sin and for guilt; but that in the first sense is actually real, and was signified by the sacrifices of the old law. Hence it is shown that in every sacrifice there are two things, the thing that is offered and the act of offering itself.… And so in the Mass there are both the thing that is offered and the act of offering. Again, the thing that is offered is twofold, namely, the real body of Christ and the mystical body of Christ. If we consider the real body of Christ which by the power of the almighty word of God is contained in the most holy Eucharist, who denies that this body can rightly be called a propitiatory sacrifice not by reason of the act of offering which the priest makes but by reason of that act of offering which has once taken place, having been made on the cross, the force of which, as being ever of the same power and efficacy, lasts for ever?… Though in this way the body of the Lord on the altar is not with absolute propriety (non omnino proprie) called a sacrifice, but is rather a Sacrament or the substance (res) of the Sacrament, since a Sacrament and a sacrifice seem to differ in this that a Sacrament is a holy sign by means of which God presents something to us, and a sacrifice is that which we offer to God. Yet, as we have said, the fathers did not hesitate to call this body of Christ on the altar a sacrifice and a health-giving victim, not by reason of the sacrifice which consists in the action of the priest or of those who take part in the Mass or of the Church, but by reason of the sacrifice which was once offered on the cross, in which Christ is Himself the Priest and the offering which is of power for ever.… Thus in this Sacrament there is nothing which is the priest’s own, but Christ does all, who even to this day creates and sanctifies and blesses and distributes to those who take it devoutly this His most real and most holy body.… When you see the priest give you the body, think not of the hand of the priest but of the hand of Christ as stretched out to you.… Insofar as the Church offers to God the Father the real body and real blood of Christ, the sacrifice is simply representative of that which was once accomplished on the cross. Insofar as the Church offers herself (and she is the mystical body of Christ), and dedicates herself and all that is hers to God through Christ, the sacrifice is real but spiritual, that is, the Eucharistic sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and the obedience that is properly due to God. But you will say, How does it happen that the real body of Christ is again offered on the altar when the Apostle says that Christ by one offering has perfected for ever them that are sanctified? Who has given this power to the Church? We answer, Christ in the manifestation of His body and the showing of His limbs has offered Himself once unto death in His mortal flesh, that He might destroy death, and restore to us life by rising again. But none the less the Church daily offers Him, not in death, because Christ once rising from the dead dieth no more, but in the remembrance of His death, that she may be filled with the fruit of His passion and death.”

“Christ is sacrificed on the altar, but sacramentally and mystically, because in the Sacrament there is made a remembrance of that which was once done.”

“For this, to repeat the same thing over and over again, the whole Church clearly professes, that remission of sins or justification is ascribed only to the offering which was made on the cross. For this alone is the ransom for our sins, and for those of the whole world, and in the case of adults this is applied only to those who accept it by their own faith.”

Some three years after the Council of Cologne of 1536 Archbishop Hermann came under the influence of Melanchthon and Bucer. A result of this and of other influence was that he adopted opinions of a different character from those which he had defended in the Council of Cologne and in the Enchiridion. In 1546 he was excommunicated; in 1547 he was deprived of his offices; from that time until his death in 1552 he lived in retirement. A famous book, thought to have been largely the work of Melanchthon and Bucer, appeared as his in 1543 under the title of Einfaltigs Bedencken warauff. A Latin version was published in 1545 entitled Simplex ac pia Deliberatio. In 1547 an English translation was issued with the title A Simple and Religious Consultation, of which a revised edition appeared in 1548. In the chapter “Of Holy Oblations” Hermann spoke of Christ as “that only acceptable and propitiatory sacrifice through which we obtain of God grace, salvation, and all benefits”; of “our bodies and our souls” as “an acceptable sacrifice through faith”; of “repentance” as “a sacrifice unto God”; of the “sacrifices of praying, magnifying God, and giving of thanks, the sacrifice of liberality towards our neighbours”. In the chapter “Of the Lord’s Supper,” the opinions adopted appear to be Lutheran; and Hermann made against the teaching inherited from the middle ages in the sixteenth century the charges from which he had defended it at the Council of Cologne and in the Enchiridion.

“We certainly believe that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is here present in the midst of us, and that He Himself, though it be by the ministry of the Church, doth truly give us His body and blood and together all things whatsoever He obtained and deserved by the offering of His body on the cross, I mean remission of sins, the everlasting covenant of God’s grace, the blessed adoption of God that we be the sons and heirs of God and His co-heirs.”

“The pastors shall warn the people that they doubt nothing but the Lord Himself is present in the midst of them, and giveth them His very body and blood, that they ever may more fully live in Him, and He in them, and that they may daily grow more and more into Him, which is the Head, and be moved of Him as His lively and uncorrupt members.”

“By this only thing, that Christ on the cross offered His holy body and blood to the Father for our sins, we be reconciled to God and delivered from the power of Satan, being made the sons and heirs of God.”

“Before all things, the pastors must labour to take out of men’s minds that false and wicked opinion whereby men think commonly that the priest in Masses offereth up Christ our Lord to God the Father after that sort that with his intention and prayer he causeth Christ to become a new and acceptable sacrifice to the Father for the salvation of men, applieth and communicateth the merit of the passion of Christ, and of the saving sacrifice whereby the Lord Himself offereth Himself to the Father a sacrifice on the cross, to them that receive not the same with their own faith.”

“Men are everywhere in this error, that they believe, if they be present when the priest sayeth Mass, and take part of the Mass only with their presence, that this very work and sacrifice of the priest whereby he offereth the Son to the Father for their sins, that is to say, setteth Him before the Father with his intention and prayer, is of such efficacy that it turneth all evil from them, and bringeth them all felicity of body and soul, though they continue in all manner of sins and mischiefs against God and their conscience, and neither perceive or receive the Sacraments out of the Mass but only behold the outward action as a spectacle, and honour it with bowing of knees and other gestures and signs of veneration.”

“Through this work of the Mass they are made more careless and stronger in their sins and contempt of Christ, thinking that by that ceremony the wrath of God is turned from them, and all other evils.”

“Before all things then the Lord offereth unto us His flesh and His blood, and biddeth us to take the same.”

“The Lord Jesus truly offereth unto us this His sanctifying flesh and blood in His Holy Supper with visible signs of bread and wine by the ministry of the congregation, and exhibiteth the same unto the remission of sins, to be meat of everlasting life, to confirm the covenant of God’s adoption and of everlasting life.”

“The most holy Supper of our Lord Jesu Christ, wherein He hath given us His flesh for meat and His blood for drink, to confirm our faith and very Christian life.”

“He then that eateth of this bread after this sort and drinketh of the cup, and firmly believeth these words, which he heareth of the Lord, and signs, which he receiveth, eateth truly and wholesomely the flesh of Christ and drinketh His blood, and more fully receiveth into himself whole God and Man with all His merits and favour wherewith the Father embraceth Him, with the right and participation of everlasting life, he abideth in Christ the Lord, and the Lord in him, and he shall live for ever.”

In 1544 a book was published at Cologne in the name of the chapter of Cologne Cathedral as an answer to the work of Hermann, entitled Antididagma or a Defence of the Christian and Catholic Religion. Like the decrees of the Council of Cologne of 1536, and the Enchiridion, it is thought to have been largely the work of John Groepper. It contains a lengthy statement and vindication of the traditional doctrines received from the middle ages. A few extracts will illustrate the general position which is elaborately maintained in the book.

“The Catholic Church has taught that this most sacred Sacrament is made and consecrated by the Almighty word of Christ, by which the invisible Priest in His holy ministry converts and changes the visible creatures into the substance of His body and blood.”

“Since the Sacrament of the Eucharist is always consecrated for this purpose, that it may eventually be consumed, the Catholic Church has taught to this day that in the Sacrament, when the consecration has taken place, the real body and real blood of Christ are contained under the species of bread and wine, and are really there, and remain until the Sacrament is consumed.”

“Since Christ makes Himself present in the Sacrament, it has always been observed in the Church that He Himself as really present is to be adored there with kneeling and most reverently and with the greatest devotion in spirit and in truth.”

“The Church ought not to be condemned for being content, in her faith and devotion with thanksgiving to God, to administer one species only, containing as it does the body and the blood. For it is most true that this Sacrament was instituted rather that we should spiritually receive it than for its outward species.… Wherefore we ought not in this Sacrament to be too much concerned about the species, whether they are many or few, small or great; but we should consider rather the virtue of the mystery, especially as the whole Christ, body and blood, is in each species of bread and wine.”

“Christ offered a sacrifice of a twofold kind when He went from this world to the Father. One was the bloody sacrifice on the cross, where by the offering of His body and the shedding of His precious blood He obtained for us remission of sins and eternal redemption.… This sacrifice of the new law, offered once only on the cross, is offered no more in like manner. That is the one sacrifice which has merited for us remission of sins and eternal life.… But, when the heavenly Father determined to establish with us by the death of His only-begotten Son a new covenant and league of grace, He took care also to provide that a sacrifice harmonious to such a covenant, whereby we might be continually kept in mind of the covenant and league, should be instituted and manifested to us. Wherefore Christ the Lord, when He had willed to offer Himself once for us a bloody sacrifice, on the very night in which He was betrayed, before His passion, after He bad already determined to undergo it, instituted and left to us a kind of image of His sacrifice as a sacrifice whereby we might thenceforth again and again offer sacrifice in the Church. And this is that other sacrifice, not the bloody but the bloodless offering of remembrance and thanksgiving and praise.… He commanded that we should offer spiritually and by way of commemoration this most holy sacrifice to the heavenly Father again and again, and ever until He should come, not to merit remission of sins as if remission had not been fully and sufficiently obtained through Christ once on the cross for all believers, but for a memorial of that redemption of His, that is, that in these most holy mysteries we may ever mystically and in figure represent and set forth His passion and death to God the Father, and give Him thanks, that of His free grace He has given to us and to all the world His beloved only Son, and through Him remission of sins, and all His gifts, so that thus by spiritual representation and commemoration and thanksgiving of this kind, and particularly by the reception of His most holy Sacrament, we may apply and appropriate to ourselves those divine gifts which have been procured.”

“On the method of this sacrifice the Catholic Church has to this time taught that in every Mass four sacrifices are spiritually offered to God. First, by the command and institution of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by an eternal work but with a mystical signification, bread and wine mingled with water are offered. Secondly, there is offered the common sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving on behalf of the whole Catholic Church, nay, on behalf of all the world, for all the good deeds of God, whether known or unknown to us, which to all the world from the beginning unto now He has unceasingly shown, and daily shows. Thirdly, when the consecration has taken place, Christ Himself is offered, His body and His blood, and His most sacred passion by means of the commemoration and representation of it. And, fourthly, the Church herself and whole community of Christ is offered, which in this most sacred action dedicates and sacrifices herself wholly to God the Father through Christ our Lord, whose body she is. And, moreover, the holy fathers have taught that besides these four chief sacrifices very many others are offered. Such are the profession of belief, manifold prayers, entreaty and intercession for all men, and many other and devout desires and wishes. All these assuredly are kinds of real and spiritual sacrifices, and are set out in the Mass.”

“Although this sacrifice in the form in which it was offered on the cross has been offered once only, and the blood has been shed once only, so that in this way it cannot be offered again, yet none the less such a sacrifice is and abides perpetually accepted before God in its power and efficacy in such a way that the sacrifice once offered on the cross is no less prevailing and living in the presence of the Father to-day than on that day on which the blood and the water flowed from the wounded side.… The holy fathers call the body and blood of the Lord present on the altar at one time the satisfaction for our sins and for those of the whole world, at another time the price of our redemption.… God has given to us His Son our Lord Jesus Christ for this purpose, that we, who trust not in our strength and power and confess our sins, may present to the Father Him who is our Lord and Redeemer as the one sacrifice making satisfaction for our sins.”

“The schoolmen make this distinction between the work wrought (opus operatum) and the work working (opus operans). They say that the former is the work of God alone and of Christ, not consisting in the act of offering but in the consecration and sanctification of the Sacrament, and that it is always pure and holy, although God sometimes allows it to be outwardly performed by the hands of an unclean priest.… Of the work working (opus operans), which consists not in the consecration of the Sacrament but in the act of offering the sacrifice in thanksgiving and prayers and so on, they say that it is sometimes unclean, and that it is not of the same value whether it is offered by a religious man or one who is impious, by one who is good or one who is bad, nay, that it tends rather to the condemnation of a bad priest, although, as sometimes happens, it may be productive of good to those who are present, not indeed by reason of the priest but because of their own devotion which is theirs through their hearing of the prayers, especially as the prayer offered by means of the priest as a public minister is said in the name of all.… The Church has never taught that the outward work of a bad priest procures remission of sins for any one without faith and devotion.”