English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485 -- Sources
"Nevertheless, Sir, I ask of you, for charity! that will ye tell me
plainly, how ye shall understand this text of Saint PAUL, where he saith
thus, _This thing feel you in yourselves, that is, in CHRIST JESU, while
he was in the form of GOD._ Sir, calleth not PAUL here, _the form of
GOD_, the substance or kind of GOD? Also, Sir, saith not the Church, in
the _Hours_ of the most blessed Virgin, accordingly hereto, where it is
written thus, _Thou Author of Health! remember that some time thou took,
of the undefiled Virgin, the form of our body!_ Tell me, for charity!
therefore, Whether _the form of our body_ be called here, _the kind of
our body_, or no?"
+Archbishop.+ And the Archbishop said to me, "Wouldst thou make me
declare this text after thy purpose, since the Church hath now
determined that 'there abideth no substance of bread after the
consecration in the Sacrament of the Altar!' Believest thou not, on this
Ordinance of the Church?"
+William.+ And I said, "Sir, whatsoever Prelates have ordained in the
Church, our Belief standeth ever whole. I have not heard that the
ordinance of men under Belief, should be put into Belief."
+Archbishop.+ And the Archbishop said to me, "If thou hast not learned
this before, learn now, to know that thou art out of belief, if, in this
matter, and others, thou believest not as Holy Church believeth! What
say Doctors treating of this Sacrament?"
=THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH FOR 1,000 YEARS.=
+William.+ And I said, "Sir, Saint PAUL, that was a great Doctor of Holy
Church, speaking to the people and teaching the right belief of this
most holy Sacrament, calleth it _bread that we break_. And also in the
Canon of the _Masse_, after the consecration, this most worthy Sacrament
is called _holy bread_. And every priest in this land, after he hath
received this Sacrament, saith to this wise, _That thing which we have
taken with our mouth, we pray GOD, that we may take it with a pure and
clean mind_: that is, as I understand, 'We pray GOD, that we may
receive, through very belief, this holy Sacrament worthily.' And, Sir,
Saint AUGUSTINE saith, _That thing that is sense is bread, but that
men's faith asketh to be informed of, is very CHRIST's body._ And also
FULGENTIUS, an ententif Doctor, saith, _As it were an error to say that
CHRIST was but a substance, that is Very Man and not Very GOD, or to say
that CHRIST was Very GOD and not Very Man; so is it_, this Doctor saith,
_an error to say that the Sacrament of the Altar is but a substance_.
And also, Sir, accordingly hereto, in the _Secret_ of the mid-_Mass_ of
Christmas day, it is written thus, _Idem refulsit DEUS, sic terrena
substantia nobis conferat quod divinum est_; which sentence, with the
_Secret_ of the fourth ferye _quatuor temporum Septembris_, I pray you,
Sir, declare here openly in English!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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