of the Greek church on all articles at that time under discussion between the Catholics and the Calvinists. This commission was executed on the most extensive scale; and information of the most interesting nature was obtained from every city, town, village, and hamlet, which had the advantage of a pastor. The result was a strong and uniform expression of displeasure and indignation on the part of the Greeks, at the impudence of the Calvinists in imputing to them errors, which they had incessantly viewed with horror and alarm. In no single instance, as appears from the documents, which they give in the most authentic form, do they favour the doctrines of the pretended reformers. On the subject of the sacrifice of the mass, I here copy that part of the declaration which relates to this subject, and which is contained in the first attestation signed by seven archbishops of the east. These venerable and right reverend personages express their belief, "that the eucharist is a sacrifice for the living and the dead, ordained by Jesus Christ, and which the apostles have left by tradition." With this attestation the other very numerous documents are in perfect unison2. I now request, once for all, that the catechist and his friends, who profess such ardent zeal in 1 See these most important and satisfactory documents in the learned work, entitled, Perpetuité de la Foi, tom. iii. liv. 8, p. 406, et seq. edit. Paris, 1704. * See Note A, at the end of the volume. promoting Christian knowledge, will be no longer guilty of the anti-christian practice of insulting the learned world with false statements relative to the belief of Catholic tenets, which are proved to be admitted by those who have been so long separated from the Catholic church. It is to be presumed, that they will not consider that doctrine as a novelty, which is supported by such a weight of evidence, and that they will give the fathers of the council of Trent full credit for not introducing idolatry, when they defined, that in the mass, there is offered to God a true and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead1. I. After this plain and succinct statement, it becomes almost unnecessary to reply to the trivial objections of the catechist. The first remark, that the Catholic doctrine would establish a fact, that Christ must be killed every day, is a stupid misconception of what the council of Trent has made so clear. That venerable assembly declares, agreeably to the suggestion of St. Paul3, that our Redeemer was offered but once on the altar of the cross for our redemption; but as his priesthood was not extinguished by his death, that he left a visible sacrifice as a perpetual memorial of the great sacrifice on the cross, and as a means of applying its transcendent virtue for the remission of sins. For this purpose he offered, under the 2 Ibid. c. 1. 1 Sess. 22. 'Heb. ix. 25. et seq.; et x. 12. appearances of bread and wine, his own most sacred body and blood, and commissioned his apostles, whom he ordained priests, and their successors in the ministry, to do the same. Do this in remembrance of me. The sacrifice therefore as to the mode and end is unbloody, representative, and commemorative as to the substance, the victim is the same, presented to the eternal Father in an unbloody manner; for Christ dieth no more1. II. The next observation, that the ancient church understood the sacrifice of the new law to consist in nothing but prayer and thanksgiving, has been obviated in the fullest manner in our preceding strictures. III. If the catechist should persist in saying, that the words, do this in remembrance of me, import a contrary doctrine to the Catholic, it must be urged in reply, without the possibility of rational contradiction, that they import a precept of doing what Christ did; that he has been proved to have offered a real sacrifice, and that the end and mode of commemorating his death and passion, by no means destroy the reality of such sacrifice. IV. But our adversary is displeased that the mass is made available to the faithful departed, and that not a word to this effect can be found in the New Testament. Let him hear a short 1 Rom. vi. 9. monuments of Christianity; and on the passage of St. Irenæus just referred to, they express their acknowledgment in terms of indignation'. They also betray a considerable share of asperity at the expence of St. Cyprian, for affirming that the priest officiates in the person of Christ, and that a real sacrifice is offered to God. If in addition to the testimonies both of friends and foes, the catechist will deign slightly to inspect the various ancient liturgies now extant, particularly those of St. James, of St. Clement, of St. John Chrysostom, of St. Basil, and that explained by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his celebrated Catechetical Discourses now extant, he will discover such a mass of evidence in favour of the Catholic doctrine relative to the eucharistic sacrifice, as even his bigotry and ignorance will not resist. But as he is fond of making an occasional display of learning, by referring to the belief of the Greek church, let me inform him, that the Calvinists of France, in the reign of Louis XIV. adopted the same plan, and laboured to persuade the Christian world, that the Greek schismatics favoured their innovations in every point. In consequence of this assertion so often and so solemnly repeated, his Christian Majesty directed his ambassador at Constantinople, to collect official documents, containing the precise belief 1 Cent. ii. c. 4. 2 Ibid. iii. c. 4. of the Greek church on all articles at that time under discussion between the Catholics and the Calvinists. This commission was executed on the most extensive scale; and information of the most interesting nature was obtained from every city, town, village, and hamlet, which had the advantage of a pastor. The result was a strong and uniform expression of displeasure and indignation on the part of the Greeks, at the impudence of the Calvinists in imputing to them errors, which they had incessantly viewed with horror and alarm. In no single instance, as appears from the documents, which they give in the most authentic form, do they favour the doctrines of the pretended reformers. On the subject of the sacrifice of the mass, I here copy that part of the declaration which relates to this subject, and which is contained in the first attestation signed by seven archbishops of the east. These venerable and right reverend personages express their belief, "that the eucharist is a sacrifice for the living and the dead, ordained by Jesus Christ, and which the apostles have left by tradition '." With this attestation the other very numerous documents are in perfect unison. I now request, once for all, that the catechist and his friends, who profess such ardent zeal in See these most important and satisfactory documents in the learned work, entitled, Perpetuité de la Foi, tom. iii. liv. 8, p. 406, et seq. edit. Paris, 1704. * See Note A, at the end of the volume. |