But then Gregory the Seventh, fucceeding in the Apoftolick See, calls a Council at Rome in the Year 1078, in which Berengarias abjures again, much after the fame form with the former abjuration. But Pope Gregory (not fatiffied with the fame general Confeffion, of the Substantial Presence, that he had already eluded) in a fecond Council, held the Year following, he imposes this Form of Recantation upon him. ८८ " I Berengarius believe in my Heart, and confess "with my Mouth, That the things upon the Altar, by virtue of Prayer and Confecration, are changed " into the true and proper Flesh and Bloud of Chrift, and are the true Body of Christ, that was born of a Virgin, and facrificed upon the "Cross, for the Salvation of the World, and that "fits at the right hand of the Father; and the true Bloud of Christ that was shed out of his Side, not only as a facramental Sign, but in propriety of Nature and reality of Substance. This is indeed a pretty bold Affertion of the Substantial Prefence; but as to the Modus of it, it is evident, that he durft not venture to de fine it, as himself declares in his Commentaries upon the Gospels, where after having recited feveral Opinions about it, he concludes, " But these several furmises I shall not pursue, it is enough that the fubstance of the Bread and "Wine are converted into the substance of the "Body C2 66 Body and Bloud of Christ ; but as to the Modus of the Conversion, I am not ashamed to confefs my Ignorance. And so ended this Controverfie at that time; Berengarius ever after living peaceably; and about Eight Years after dying in the Communion of the Church. But about this time Aristotle's Philofophy was brought into Europe, out of Arabia, as it was tranflated into the Arabick Tongue by Averroes, Avicenna and others, and out of them tranflated into Latin; for the Greek Language was at that tune utterly loft in those Western parts of the World. This being then a mighty novelty, the School-men, that were the onely pretenders to Learning at that time, embraced it with a greedy and implicit Faith, supposing it the very Gospel of all Philofophick Knowledge; and therefore set themselves to mix and blend it with the Doctrines of the Christian Schools; and by its Rules and Maxims to explain all the Articles of the Chriftian Faith. Among the rest he had one very odd Notion, fingular to himself from all the other Philofophers of Greece, viz. That every fubftance was compounded of matter and form; and that these two were really distinct from one another; and then that the quantity of every Body was really diftinct from the substance of it, and so distinct as to be feparable from it: And lastly, That all other Qualities, Qualities, Accidents, and Predicaments were founded not in the Substance, but in the Quantity; and therefore in all change of Affairs ever followed its Fortunes. Now the Catholick Church having in all Ages afferted the real and substantial Presence; Oh, say they (to shew their deep new Learning) That is to be understood in the Ariftotelian way, by feparating the Form of the Bread from the Matter; but chiefly by separating the inward Substance of Bread, from its outward Quantity, and its retinue of Qualities. This was the Rise of Philosophick or Scholaftick Transubstantiation, that the Quantity and Accidents of the Bread are pared off from all the Substance, and shaped and moulded a-new, fo as to cover an humane Body: And after this they run into an infinite Variety of Disputes and Hypotheses among themselves; so that till the Last Age, it hath been the chief entertainment of all pretenders to Philosophy in Christendom. Rapertus Abbot of Dentsch, a Village upon the Rhine, lying on the other fide of the River, against the City of Cologne, a Man of great reputation for Learning in that Age, makes out the Philosophy of the Thing, by the Union of the Word, or Divine Nature, that is Omnipresent with the Bread and Wine ; and it is that Unity (he fays) that makes it one Body with that : ! that in Heaven: And withal, that it is as easie But among many other fingularities to main- But then comes Peter Lombard, Anno 1140. Grand Master of the Sentences, and Father of the next race of School-men who indeed proves the heal and substantial Prefence out of the Ancients; articularly St. Austin and St. Ambrofe; but when ۱ ८८ when he comes to explain the manner of it, whether it be a formal or material change; whether the substance of the Bread and Wine be reduced into its first matter, or into nothing, and the like, his conclusion is, definire non susficio: "I prefume not to determine; and therefore quitting these uncertain things, this I certainly know from Authorities, viz. That the substance " of the Bread and Wine, are converted into the "fubftance of the Body and Bloud of Christ; but "as for the manner of the Conversion we are not "ashamed to confefs our Ignorance. But if you inquire in what fubject the Accidents fubfift, he anfwers problematically (mihi videtur) that they fubfift without any fubject at all. But it was agreed in all Schools, That whatever became of the Substance the Accidents remained and that all outward Operations terminated there, and that onely they were broken and eaten. 4 But as for the fubstance of the Bread and Wine, fome were for its permanency with the Subftance of the Body and Bloud, fome for its Annihilation, some for phyfical Converfion. But then these curiofites were kept in the Schools, where witty Men, for want of more ufefull Imployment entertained and amused themselves, with these fine fubtleties of thought: But then they were confined within the Schools and ne ver |