CHAPTER I.
On the Institution of the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Inasmuch as, under the former Testament, according to the testimony of the apostle Paul, there was no perfection, because of the weakness of the Levitical priesthood;[1] it behoved God, the Father of mercies, so ordaining, that another priest should rise, after the order of Melchisedech,[2] our Lord Jesus Christ, who might perfect, and lead unto what is perfect, as many as were to be sanctified. He, therefore, our God and Lord, although He was about to offer Himself once on the altar of the cross unto God the Father, by means of His death, there to operate an eternal redemption;[3] nevertheless, because that His priesthood was not to be extinguished by His death, in the last supper, on the night in which He was betrayed, to the end that He might leave to His own beloved spouse the Church, a visible sacrifice, such as the nature of men requires, whereby that bloody [sacrifice], once to be accomplished on the cross, might be represented, and the memory thereof remain even unto the end of the world, and its salutary virtue be applied unto the remission of those sins which we daily commit, declaring Himself constituted a priest for ever, after the under of Melchisedech,[4] He offered up to God the Father His own body and blood under the species of bread and wine; and, under the symbols of those same things. He delivered [them] to be received by His apostles, whom He then constituted priests of the New Testament; and by those words, This do in remembrance of me,[5] He commanded both them and their successors in the priesthood, to offer [them], as the Catholic Church has always understood and taught. For, having celebrated the ancient passover, which the multitude of the children of Israel immolated in memory of their departure out of Egypt, He instituted the new passover, to wit, namely, that Himself should be immolated, under visible signs, by the Church through the priests, in memory of His own passage from this world unto the Father, when by the effusion of His own blood He redeemed
