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works.

Hildebert, however, did not write all his theology in Some passages from his prose verse, and we may possibly obtain a better idea of his teaching from his book, De Expositione Missæ, in which he treats of every part of the Mass. Commenting on the words of Consecration, he says: "He Himself also broke the bread which He distributed to the disciples, that He might show that the breaking of His Body and His Passion did not happen without His consent, as He had said before, 'I have power to lay down My life.'" In this passage Hildebert connects the fraction at the time of Consecration with the Passion.

Treating of the words by which the chalice is consecrated, "For this is the chalice of My Blood of the New and Eternal Testament," he says: "In the same way the New Testament, that is, the Gospel, in which are contained the promises of eternal life and of the heavenly country, is confirmed in the Blood of the Passion of CHRIST, which is daily celebrated in the Church; for every testament is confirmed in the death of the testator."

In both these passages, it would appear, Hildebert explicitly connects the act of Consecration with our LORD'S Passion and Death, and not with the sprinkling of the blood in the Jewish tabernacle, nor with any sacrifice which our LORD is supposed to be offering now in heaven.

The next author quoted by Thalhofer is Hugo of S. Victor (ob. 1141), who in his work, In Speculo de Mysteriis Ecclesia, commenting on the prayer Supplices Te, not only treats it in the same manner, but in almost precisely the same words as Hildebert. For he says: * "The high priest, as the Law commanded, sprinkled both the altar and the outward sanctuary with the * Hugo, S. Vict., In Spec. de Myst. Eccl., c. vii.

6. Hugo of S. Victor merely bert's thought.

repeats Hilde

7. Algerus of Liège :

his great authority,

appeasing blood; and CHRIST sprinkles the FATHER with Blood as often as He appeases Him by the Flesh which He has assumed. He sprinkles the altar, as long as (until) He restores the number of the angels.* He sprinkles the outward sanctuary when He signs men [with the Cross in Baptism] and reconciles to the FATHER those things which are on earth. The priest [on earth] sprinkles the same, because he propitiates the FATHER by this Sacrifice [the Eucharist] and prays for pardon, and so sprinkles [the Blood] upon us."

In this passage Hugo explains that by the sprinkling of the FATHER with Blood he means propitiating Him through the Human Nature which CHRIST has assumed, that is, through the Human Nature which is now in heaven. This is in accordance with the patristic view of our LORD's Intercession and does not imply the idea of a sacrifice in heaven, and, further, we may observe that the only sacrifice of which Hugo speaks is the Eucharistic Sacrifice, for he says that the priest on earth sprinkles men when by the Eucharistic Sacrifice he propitiates GOD. It is strange that anyone should have seen in these words an indication of a sacrifice in heaven.

The last quoted, and by far the greatest mediæval writer on the Eucharist, is Algerus of Liège (ob. 1132 vel 1135). His work, De Sacramentis Corporis et Sanguinis Dominici, marks a great advance in the theoand his affinity logical conception of the Eucharist. In his treatment of the Eucharist, Algerus has in some respects closer affinities with the Greek Fathers than with those of the Western Church. He meets the heresy of Berengarius by a treatise on the Eucharist so thoughtful, so accurate, and so complete that it leaves little to be desired.

with the

Greek Fathers.

* I. e., until their places are filled by the redeemed.

In the fourteenth chapter* Algerus discusses the question how our LORD'S Body can be said to be truly present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist whilst It is at the same time ever present at the Right Hand of GOD. From this chapter Thalhofer quotes the following passage:

His discussion of the mode of Presence in the H.E. and at

CHRIST'S

the same time

in heaven.

Thalhofer quotes a pas

"Whence also the priest, in the place of CHRIST, From which making the LORD'S Body upon the earthly altar, not, however, attributing anything to his own merits, but sage. all to Divine power and grace, prays GOD the FATHER in the canon, saying, 'Command these offerings to be carried to Thee by the Hand and power of Thy SON, of Thy Angel, who is the Angel of Great Counsel; not on to this Thy humble and visible altar, where now He is, but on to Thine altar on high, that is Thy SON, Whom Thou hast exalted to Thy Right Hand, in the Presence of Thy Majesty; that they may become to us the Body and Blood of Thy beloved SON;' showing that the SON Himself, by the bidding of His FATHER, is in heaven offering the Sacrifice [of the Eucharist], and is That upon which it is offered. For we depend entirely on His faith and His grace that earthly bodies [the bread and wine] are changed into CHRIST; and we believe that He Who sits in heaven at the Right Hand of the FATHER intercedes for us, and in the Sacrament of the Altar is consecrated and is present."

The whole chapter, as we have already observed, is a discussion of the question how CHRIST can at the same time be at the Right Hand of the FATHER in heaven, and upon the altar on earth. Algerus is here showing that CHRIST is at the same time in heaven, sitting at the Right Hand of the FATHER and interced

* Alger. Leod., De Sac. Corp. et Sang. Dom., 1. i., c. xiv.; Migne, P. L., tom. 180, col. 781, 786, 787.

The only heav

to Algerus is the E. S.

ing for us (but not offering any sacrifice in heaven), and is also in His Sacrament. The argument which Algerus uses, while entirely true, is not quite accurate, in that he confuses two prayers, one of which, the Supplices Te, comes after the Consecration, while the other, Quam Oblationem, precedes it. The words: "Command these offerings to be carried to Thee by the hand and power of Thy SON, of Thy Angel, Who is the Angel of Great Counsel; not on to this Thy humble and visible altar, where now He is, but on to Thine altar on high, that is, Thy SON, Whom Thou hast exalted to Thy Right Hand, in the presence of Thy Majesty," are an explanatory paraphrase of the Supplices Te; the rest of the passage-"that they may become to us the Body and Blood of Thy beloved SON," etc. is an explanatory paraphrase of the latter part of the Quam Oblationem.

In this passage Algerus is interpreting the words of S. Chrysostom,*" He Who sits at the Right Hand of the FATHER is nevertheless at the time of the Sacrifice [the Eucharist] contained in the hands of men," and is showing that in this Sacrifice of the Eucharist CHRIST Himself, Who sits at the Right Hand of the FATHER, is at the same time the Priest who offers the Sacrifice, and in a sense the Altar upon which it is offered, and therefore that He is at the same moment sitting at the Right Hand of GOD in heaven, and is present in His Sacrament on earth.

It is difficult to see in what way Thalhofer proves the enly S. known existence of a heavenly sacrifice from this passage. The words on which he lays stress are, "that the SON Himself, by the bidding of His FATHER, is in heaven offering the Sacrifice [of the Eucharist], and is That * S. Chrys., De Sacerdotio, 1. iii., c. iv.

upon which it is offered." If these words are taken as referring to a sacrifice offered in heaven, then we must affirm that Algerus was of opinion that the Eucharistic Sacrifice itself is that heavenly sacrifice, and not that it is related to it; and his treatment of the same prayer in another work shows clearly that he indeed knows no other heavenly sacrifice than the Eucharist, in which our LORD is the true Priest.

Thalhofer ;

We might quote many passages from this most interesting work in favour of the Catholic view. We some passages will, however, confine ourselves to two, which Thal- overlooked by hofer seems to have overlooked. They are found in the sixteenth chapter. Commenting on a passage in S. Chrysostom, Algerus says:

"We must therefore notice that he says our daily Sacrifice is the very same as that in which CHRIST was offered once for all upon the Cross, inasmuch as the same true substance of the Body of CHRIST is here and there. But when he says that our daily [Sacrifice] is an example, that is, a figure or form, of that offered. once for all, he does not mean that in this or in that he understands an essentially different CHRIST, but shows that the same [Person] is immolated and offered once for all upon the Cross, and in a different manner daily upon the altar: there, in the reality of that Passion in which He was slain for us; here, in a figure and representation of that Passion, in which [figure] CHRIST suffers not again in reality, but a remembrance of that His Passion is daily made by us." The second passage is as follows :

"It may therefore be regarded as certain that, although the Oblation of CHRIST once for all upon the Cross is true, while the daily Oblation on the altar is figurative, yet here and there the grace of our salvation

in which Al gerus clearly

relates the E.

s. to that of the Cross.

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