100
THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST
"Eran.-Opportunely have you introduced the subject of the
divine mysteries. For from this I will show you the change of the
Lord's body into another nature. Answer then my questions.
" Ortk.-1 will answer.
"Eran.-Before the priestly invocation what do you call the gift
that is offered?
"Orth.-It is not right to say clearly; for perhaps some who
are uninitiated are present.
"Eran.-Let your answer be phrased enigmatically.
"Orlh.-Food of such and such grain.
"Eran.-And by what name do we call the other symbol?
"Orth.-This name too is common, signifying a kind of drink.
"Eran.-But after the consecration what do you call these?
"Orth.-The body of Christ and the blood of Christ.
" Eran.-And do you believe that you partake of the body of
Christ and of His blood ?
"Orth.-1 do so believe.
"Eran.-As then the symbols of the Lord's body and blood are
one thing before the priestly invocation, and after the invocation
are changed and become different, so the body of the Lord after
the ascension was changed into the divine substance.
"Orth.-You are caught in the net of your own weaving. For
even after the consecration the mystic symbols do not depart from
their own nature. For they remafo in their previous substance and
figure and form ; and they are visible and tangible as they were before. But they are regarded as being what they have become, and
they are believed so to be, and they are worshipped as being those
things which they are believed to be." 1
In this discussion it is important to observe the points in
which the disputants agree, and those in which they differ. Both
the Eutychia.n heretic and the Catholic theologian agree that
after the consecration by the priestly invocation the Eucharistic
elements are the body and blood of Christ ; and that this presence of the body and blood is effected by means of the consecration. They differ in this respect The Eutychian maintains
that after the ascension the body of Christ is changed into the
divine nature so as to be no longer a human body, and after the
consecration the elements are changed into the body and blood
of Christ so as to be no longer bread and wine. The Catholic
maintains that after the ascension the body of Christ still
1
Dial. ii. (t. iv. pp. 125, 126, Schulze; P.G. t. lxxxiii. col. 165-68).
THE PERIOD OF THE GREAT COUNCILS
101
remains a human body, although it is now incorruptible and
glorious, and after the consecration the elements still continue
to be bread and wine in substance and figure and form, although
they are also the body and blood of Christ.
Similarly, in the first Dialogue the Catholic theologian says
that
"Our Saviour changed the names, and placed upon the body
the name of the symbol and upon the symbol the name of the
body. Thus He called Himself a vine and spoke of the symbol as
blood. . . . He wished those who partake of the divine mysteries
not to give heed to the nature of the visible objects, but by means
of the interchange of the names to believe the change that is
wrought by His grace. For He who spoke of his natural body as
corn and bread, and again named Himself a vine, dignified the
visible symbols by the name of the body and the blood, not chang•
ing their nature but adding the grace to the nature." 1
In a letter against the Monophysite heresy, which has been
ascribed to St. Chrysostom, but is probably of the latter half of
the fifth century, an argument in regard to the Incarnation is
derived from the continued existence of the bread in the Eucharist
after consecration : " As ·before the bread is consecrated we call it bread, but after
the grace of God has consecrated it through the agency of the priest
it is no longer called bread but counted worthy of the name of the
body of the Lord, although the nature of bread remains in it, and
we speak not of two bodies but of one body of the Son, so in this
case when the divine nature was united to the body the two natures
made one Son, one Person." 2
The same line of thought is found also in Gelasius, who was
Pope of Rome from 49~ to 496. In his treatise On the Two
Natttres in Christ a comparison is made between the Incarnation
and the Eucharist. Pope Gelasius is there defending against
the Eutychians the doctrine of the abiding reality of the human
nature of Christ affirmed by the Council of Chalcedon; and he
introduces an argument from the Eucharist in much the same
way as the Catholic theologian in the Dialogue of Theodoret
and the writer of the letter ascribed to St. Chrysostom. The
1
2
Dial. i. (t. iv. p. 26, Schulze; P.G. t. lxxxiii. col. 56).
Jnter opp. S. Chrys., Benedictine edition, iii. 744; P.G. Iii. 758.
102
THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST
one Person of Christ, he maintains, is abidingly in the two unimpaired natm-es of manhood and Godhead. In like manner
there are in the Eucharist both the body and blood of Christ
and the substance and nature of bread and wine.
"The Sacrament which we receive of the body and blood of Christ
is a divine thing. Wherefore also by means of it we are made partakers of the divine nature. Yet the substance or nature of the
bread and wine does not cease to be. And certainly the image and
likeness of the body and blood of Christ is set out in the celebration
of the mysteries. Therefore it is plainly enough shown to us that
we must think this in the case of the Lord Christ Himself which
we confess, celebrate, and receive in the case of the image of Him.
Thus, as the elements pass into this, that is the divine, substance by
the operation of the Holy Ghost, and none the less remain in their
own proper nature, so they show that the principal mystery itself,
the efficacy and virtue of which they truly make present (reprresentant) to us, consists in this, that the two natures reml4-in each
in its own proper being so that there is one Christ because He is
whole and real." 1
(b) On the other hand there are writers whose tendency is to
minimise any continuance of the elements of bread and wine
after the consecration, and to approximate towards some form
of the doctrine known in later times as the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
The1-e are sentences in the Catechetical Lectitres of St. Cyril
of Jerusalem which, if taken by themselves, might be held to
imply such a physical change in the elements as requires the
cessation of the existence of the bread and wine after consecration. When they are viewed in relation to the statements
which St. Cyril elsewhere makes that the consecrated elements
are not" simple" or" bare" bread and wine, 2 such an explanation of them may be thought to be precluded ; but it may still
1 See Thiel, Epistola Romanorum Pontificum Genuina:, i. 541, 542.
The passage is also in Bibl. Patrum, v. 475 (1575 A.D. ), iv. 565 (1589
A.n.), viii. 703 (1677 A.n.); Routh, Script. Beel. Opusc. ii. 493. That Pope
Gtilasius is the author has been disputed : see Bellarmine, De Sacr. Euch.
ii. 27; Migne, P.L. lix. 11, 12 (b). But there appear to be good grounds
for ascribing it to him : see Thiel, op. cit. pp. 73-77 ; Batiffol, Etudes
d'histoire et de theolcgie positive, deuxieme serie, pp. 327 -29.
2
Seep. 71, supra.
THE PERIOD OF THE GREAT COUNCILS
103
fairly be said that their tendency is to make the continued existence of the elements of but little importance. They therefore
to some extent supply a contrast to the line of thought which
underlies the arguments used in the treatises of Theodoret and
Gelasius.
"He once at Cana in Galilee changed the water into wine, akin
to blood (olKEi:011 ai.p.art: another reading is olKdq> 11,;vµrm, by His
own will) ; and is it incredible that He should change (11-Era/3aA.wv)
wine into blood? When He was called to a bodily marriage, He
wrought this wonderful miracle; and shall it not much rather be
acknowledged that He bestowed on the sons of the bridechamber
the fruition of His body and blood? Wherefore with full assurance
let us partake as of the body and blood of Christ ; for in the figure
(nnrq,) of bread is given to thee the body, and in the figure (rwq>)
of wine is given to thee the blood, in order that by partaking of the
body and blood of Christ thou mayest become of one body and of
one blood with Him (uv<T<TWJ1-0S Kal <TVVaLP,O<; a~rov). For so also do
we become Christbearers (XPt1TTo<popo1), since His body and blood
are distributed throughout our members. Thus according to the
saying of the blessed Peter,1 we become partakers of the divine
nature." 2
"The seeming (<paw611-£vos) bread is not bread, even though it is
sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and the seeming
(,paivop.woi;) wine is not wine, even though the taste will have it so,
but the blood of Christ." 3
"Trust not the judgment to thy bodily palate; no, but to unfaltering faith ; for they who taste are bidden to taste not bread
and wine but the antitype (&.vnrv1Tov) 4 of the body and blood of
Christ." 5
St. Gregory of Nyssa teaches with great definiteness that by
the consecration the elements are transmade (µera1rote'ia-Bat) and
transelemented (µ,erarnoixewva0at) into the body and blood
of Christ as in the ordinary processes of life bread and wine are
transmade into body and blood by consumption, digestion, and
assimilation, and as in our Lord's incarnate life the bread which
He ate was transmade into His body. 6 In his use of the words
"transmade" and " transelemented" and in his whole argument
he appears to contemplate such a physical change in the ele1
.
4
2 St. Pet. i. 4.
See pp. 64, 66, 67, supra.
2
5
xxii. 2, 3.
xxiii. 20.
3
6
xxii. 9.
See pp. 72, 73, supra.