That ys to saye: Christe takynge breade and dystrybutynge vnto hys discyples made yt hys bodye, sayēge. This ys my body. But thys breade coulde not haue bene a figure of yt, excepte Christ had had a true bodye. For a vayne thynge or a fantasye can take no fygure. For the vnderstondynge of this place, you muste marke that this heretycke Marcyō agaynst whome thys auctoure wryteth, ded holde opynyon that Christ had no naturall bodye, but onelye a fantastycall bodye, ād this opynyon doth thys doctoure improue by the sacrament of the aulter sayenge. The sacrament ys a fygure of hys bodye: ergo Christ had a true bodye, ād not a fantastycall bodye: For a vayne thynge or fantasye can take no fygure. Loo, here doth this olde father which was longe before .S. Austen or .S. Hierome, expounde these wordes of Christe. This is my bodye: that is to saye, a fygure of my bodye. Therfor ye are to blame to call it new lernynge. Nowe because they shall not of temeraryous presumpcyon reiecte this olde father, I shall establyshe hys wordes by S. Austen, which commendeth Christes meruelous pacyence for sufferynge so lōge that traytour Iudas, as though he had bene a good man, and yet was not ignorāt of hys wycked thoughtes. [Sidenote: Augusti.] _Adhibuit (inquit) ad cōuiuium in quo corporis & sanguinis sui figura discipulis commendauit ac tradidit._ That is to saye: [Sidenote: in prefa. Psalm. 3.] he admytted hym sayeth S. Austē vnto the mandye wherin he dede be take and delyuer vnto the dyscyples the fygure of hys bodye and bloode. Here doth thys holye father .S. Austē call yt the fygure of hys body. And I am sure there is no mā so chyldyshe, but that he knoweth that the fygure of Christe ys not Christe hym selfe, the fygure of .S. Peter ys not saynt Peter hym selfe. And yet we do neuerthelesse commōly call those fygures by the name of the thynge that they do represente. As I maye saye when I see the fygure of .S. Peter, thys ys S. Peter to whome Christe delyuered the keyes of the kyngdome of heauē. And yet he were a foole that wolde thynke that fygure to be S. Peter hym selfe. For yt is onelye a representacyon of hym. Besydes that S. Austen sayeth. [Sidenote: Augusti in prefa. Psalm. 98.] _Non hoc corpus quod uidetis estis manducaturi, nec bibituri illum sanguinem quem effusuri sunt qui me crucifigent. Sacramentum aliquod uobis commendaui, spiritualiter intellectum uiuificat nos, caro autem non prodest quicquam._ That ys to saye: you shall not eate thys bodye that you see, nor drynke that bloode which they that crucyfye me shall shedde out. I haue geuen a certayne sacramente vnto you, yf yt be spirytually vnderstonde, yt quyckeneth you: but the fleshe profyteth nothynge. What thynges can be more playnely spoken?