Wherfore you muste neades, graunte, that the Sacramēt is not the naturall bodye of Christ but a fygure, tokē, or memoryall therof. Now good Christē people counte not thys new learnynge which is confyrmed by suche olde doctoures and faythfull fathers. Now were thys ynough for a Christē man that loued no contencyon. But because there are so manye sophysters in the worlde whiche care not what they saye, so they holde not their peace, I muste neades sette some bulwarke by this holy doctoure, to helpe to defende hym, for els they wyll shortelye ouer rone hym (as they do me) ād make hym an heretyck also. Therfore I wyll alleage hys master saynt Ambrose. Saynte Ambrose sayeth [Sidenote: Ambrosi de sacra.] _Non iste panis qui uadit in corpus a nobis tā anxie queritur, sed panis uitæ æterne que anime nostre substanciam fulscit, qui autem discordat a Christo non manducat carnem eius, nec bibit sanguinem eius, & si tante rei sacramentum iudicium sue perdicionis accipit._ That is, this breade that goeth in to the bodye ys not so gredelye sought of vs, but the breade of euerlastynge lyfe which vpholdeth the substaunce of our soule. For he that dyscordeth from Christ, doth not eate hys fleshe, nor drynke hys bloode, although he receyue the sacramente of so greate a thynge vnto hys dampnacyon and destruccyon. Furthermore, the greate clarke Prosper confyrmeth the same, sayenge. [Sidenote: Prosper in libro sentenciarum.] _Qui discordat a Christo nec carnem Christi manducat, nec sanguinem bibit, etiam si tantæ rei sacramentum ad iudicium sue presumptionis quotidie indifferenter accipiat._ That is, he that dyscordeth from Christ, doth neyther eate hys fleshe, nor drynke hys bloode, although he receyueth indyfferently euery daye the sacrament of so greate a thynge vnto the condempnacyon of hys presumpcyon. And these are also the very wordes of Bede [Sidenote: Idē Beda super 1. Cor. 11.] vpō the xi. Chapiter of the fyrste Epystle to the Corynthyans. Now you may see, that it ys not saynt Austens mynde onely, but also the sayēge of many mo. And therfore I truste you wyll be good vnto hym. And yf ye cōdempne not these holye Fathers, then am I wrongfullye punyshed. But, yf you condempne them, then muste poore Iohan Fryth be contente to beare the burthen wyth them. The mynde & exposiciō of the olde doctours upon the wordes of Christes maundye. [Sidenote: More.] And where master More sayeth, that yf Chryste had not ment after the playne litterall sense, that both the hearers at that tyme, and the expositours sens, and all Christen people besyde thys xv.c. yeare wolde not haue taken onelye the litterall sens beynge so straunge and mervelous that yt myght seame impossyble, ād declyne from the letter for allegoryes in all suche other thynges, beynge (as he sayeth) and as in dede they be, so manye farre in nombre mo.