Calvin had not with him the voluminous works of the fathers; but his memory was a library abridged. Tertullian, Chrysostom, and the writers of his time, especially Augustine, came immediately to his aid. ‘Tertullian,’ said he, ‘when refuting Marcion, speaks thus, “Christ in the supper has left us the _figure_ of his body.” The author of the commentary on St. Matthew, contained in the works of Chrysostom, says, “It is a far greater offence to defile ourselves, who are the true vessels in which God dwells, than to profane the vessels in which the supper is administered, since that _the real body of Jesus Christ is not contained in them_, but only the mystery of his body.” St. Augustine, in his twenty-third Epistle,[401] says, “The bread and the wine, which are sacraments of the body and blood of Christ, _we call them in a certain sense_ (_quodammodo_) his body and his blood.” And in his book against Adimantus, he adds, “The Lord did not hesitate to say, This is my body, when he gave the _sign of his body_.” Weigh all these words, every syllable of them if you will, and see whether these declarations in any way favor your error. When you taunt us with the charge that the ancients are against us, everybody sees your rashness. Assuredly, if you had read only a few pages you would not have been so bold; but you have not even seen the covering of the book. The foregoing testimonies, which may easily be pointed out, prove it.’ [Sidenote: DOCTRINE OF THE FATHERS.] At this point, Calvin, wishing to show fully how chimerical the Romish opinion is, offered one or two considerations which, while they display his fine intelligence, are not lacking in solidity. ‘It is not without reason,’ he said, ‘that we reject the foolish opinion which the craft of Satan introduced into the world. In the supper we certainly eat the same body of Christ as the apostles ate at its institution, and it must be either his mortal body or his glorified body. If it be his mortal body, Jesus is then at this hour mortal and passible, while the Scripture declares to us that he has laid aside all infirmity. If it be his immortal and glorified body, Jesus, at the first supper, was in a certain place (seated at the table) in his mortal and passible body, and he was in another place (in the hands and mouths of his disciples) in his immortal and glorified body. The dreams of Marcion were never so fantastic!...’