seem contrary to our reason and our sight: his words cannot deceive, our senses are easily deceived." [1] With the doctrine thus taught by St. Chrysostome, that uniformly taught by St. Augustine fully accords, particularly when in his explanation of the thirty-third Psalm, he says: "To carry himself in his own hands, is impossible to man, and peculiar to Christ alone; he was carried in his own hands, when giving his body to be eaten, he said, This is my body." [2] To pass by Justin and Irenaeus, St. Cyril, in his fourth book on St. John, declares in such express terms, that the body of our Lord is contained in this Sacrament, that no sophistry can distort, no captious interpretations obscure his meaning. Should the pastor wish for additional testimonies of the Fathers, he will find it easy to add the Hilaries, the Jeromes, the Denises, the Damascenes, and a host of other illustrious names, whose sentiments on this most important subject he will find collected by the labour and industry of men eminent for piety and learning. [3]
Another means of ascertaining the belief of the Church on matters of faith, is the condemnation of the contrary doctrine. That the belief of the real presence was that of the universal Church of God, unanimously professed by all her children, is demonstrated by a well authenticated fact. When in the eleventh century, Berengarius presumed to deny this dogma, asserting that the Eucharist was only a sign, the innovation was immediately condemned by the unanimous voice of the Christian world. The Council of Vercelli, convened by authority of Leo IX., denounced the heresy, and Berengarius himself retracted and anathematized his error. Relapsing, however, into the same infatuation and impiety, he was condemned by three different Councils, convened, one at Tours, the other two at Rome: of the two latter, one was summoned by Nicholas II., the other by Gregory VII. The general Council of Lateran held under Innocent III., further ratified the sentence; and the faith of the Catholic Church, on this point of doctrine, was more fully declared and more firmly established in the Councils of Florence and Trent.
If, then, the pastor carefully explain these particulars, his labours will be blessed with the effect of strengthening the weak, and administering joy and consolation to the pious; (of those who, blinded by error, hate nothing more than the light of truth, we waive all mention) and this two-fold effect will be more securely attained, as the faithful cannot doubt that this dogma is numbered amongst the articles of faith. Believing and confessing as they do, that the power of God is supreme,
- ↑ tet. Chrys. ad popul. Antioch. homil. 60 et 61.
- ↑ Divus Augustinus in Psalm xxxiii. Cone. 1, a medio ad finem usque. Cyril, lib. 4, in Joan. c. 33, et 14, et lib. 1, c. 13. Inst. Apolog. 2, sub finem ad Antonium Pium.
- ↑ Iren. lib. 5, contra heraetic. et lib. 5, in Joan. c. 34. Dionys. Ecclee. Hier. . 3, Hilar. lib. 8. de Trinit. Hieron. epist ad I~Vj<nascen. Damas. lib. 4, de orthod. fid. c. 14.
