BOOK CHAP. XV. A Saxon Homily, with two Epistles of Elfric, set forth by the Archbishop; and a learned Preface. The Great Bible reprinted again. Convocation adjourned to Lambeth. A Suffragan of Nottingham. Anno 1566. AMONG the ancient books and treatises which our PreThe Arch- late, greatly studious of antiquity, occasionally set forth, I forth a Sax-make little doubt to add that Saxon sermon (which, as near on homily as I can guess, about this year appeared abroad) of the bishop sets Paschal Lamb, and of the sacramental body and blood of Christ, written in the old Saxon tongue before the Conquest, and appointed in the reign of the Saxons to be pronounced to the people, before they should receive the Communion on Easter-day. Which sermon speaks of that Sacrament plainly and evidently contrary to the novel doctrine of the Papal transubstantiation. The book is entitled, A Testimony of Antiquity, shewing the ancient Faith of the Church of England, touching the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, here publicly preached, and also received, in the Saxons Time, above seven hundred years ago. It was 238 first printed by John Day in octavo; and reprinted at Oxford by Leon. Litchfield, 1675. In this sermon are these expressions: A passage therein against transub stantiation. 66 "Some have often searched, how bread that is gathered "of corn, and through fire's heat baked, may be turned to "Christ's body; and how wine, that is pressed out of many grapes, is turned through one blessing to the Lord's blood. "Now say we to such men, that some things be spoken of "Christ by signification; some things by things certain. "True thing is and certain, that Christ was born of a maid, "and suffered death of his own accord, and was buried, and "on this day rose from death. He is said to be bread by signi"fication, and a lamb and a lion, and somewhere otherwise. "He is called bread, because he is our life and angels' "life. He is said to be a lamb for his innocency; a lion for "strength, wherewith he overcame the strong devil. But XV. "Christ is not so notwithstanding after true nature, neither CHAP. "bread, nor a lamb, nor a lion. Why is then the holy "housel called Christ's body or his blood, if it be not truly Anno 1566. "that it is called? Truly, the bread and wine, which by the "Mass of the Priest is hallowed, shew one thing without to "human understanding, and another thing they call within "to believing minds. Without, they be seen bread and "wine both in figure and taste. And they be truly, after "their hallowing, Christ's body and his blood through "ghostly mystery, &c." to this The Preface to this homily, which without doubt was of The Preface the most reverend publisher's writing, is both large and homily. learned, and sheweth first how great contentions had then been of long time about the most comfortable Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ our Saviour. In the inquisition and determination whereof, many had been charged and condemned of heresy, and reproved as bringers up of new doctrine, not known of old in the Church before Berengarius's time; who taught in France in the days when William the Norman was by conquest King of England, and Hildebrand, otherwise called Gregory VII. was Pope of Rome. But that the reader might know how this was advouched more boldly than truly, in special of some certain men, which were more ready to maintain their old judgment than of humility to submit themselves into a truth; here was set forth a testimony of very ancient time; wherein was plainly shewed what was the judgment of the learned men in this matter in the days of the Saxons, before the Conquest. It was further shewed, that the sermon before mentioned was found among many other sermons in the said old Saxon speech, made for other festival days and Sundays of the year; and used to be spoken orderly, according to those days, unto the people, as by the books themselves it did appear. That many books of such sermons were then to be seen: some remaining in private men's hands, having been taken out of monasteries at their dissolution: and some yet reserved in the libraries of cathedral churches, as of Worcester, Hereford, and Exeter. That from these places many III. BOOK had been delivered into the hand of this our Archbishop of Canterbury by means of whose diligent search for such Anno 1566. writings of history, and other monuments of antiquity, as He pub lishes two epistles of Elfric. might reveal unto us what had been the state of the Church in England from time to time, the things here made known to the reader came to light. That one of these ancient books thus retrieved, and falling into the Archbishop's hands, was a Saxon book of sixty sermons; about the middle of which was this sermon against the bodily presence. That this sermon among others was translated out of Latin into Saxon by Elfric, a learned Abbot, first of Malmesbury, and afterwards of St. Alban's. The Archbishop also did, at the same time and in the same book, (together with the aforesaid sermon,) put forth two epistles of the same Elfric. The former indeed was but part of an epistle to Wolfstane, Bishop of Scyrburn; where he, finding fault with an abuse of his time, which was, that Priests on Easter-day filled their housel box, and so kept the bread a whole year for sick men, [as if that bread were holier than the bread of other sacraments,] took occasion to speak against the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament: "So holy is the housel, said he, which to-day "is hallowed, as that which on Easter-day was hallowed: "that housel was Christ's body, not bodily but ghostly.” The other epistle was addressed to Wolfstane, Archbishop of York: where speaking again of this overlong reserving 239 of the housel, addeth words more at large against the same bodily presence. This latter epistle the Archbishop thought good to set forth in the words of the Latin epistle, as well as the English translation of it. Which Latin happened to be recorded, and still extant in books fairly written, in the cathedral churches of Worcester and Exeter; where it is remarkable there be these words: Non sit tamen hoc sacrificium corpus ejus in quo passus est pro nobis, neque sanguis ejus, quem pro nobis effudit; sed spiritualiter corpus ejus efficitur et sanguis; sicut manna quod de cælo pluit, et aqua quæ de petra fluxit. Which sentence, it must be noted, was rased by some hand out of the copy at Worcester, but by XV. good hap remained in that of Exeter: whereby it was re- CHAP. stored again, as is signified in the margin of the printed book. Anno 1566. bishop's the ancient thisChurch. Finally, our Archbishop shewed learnedly in his said The ArchPreface, out of antiquity, first, that Elfric was but the conclusion translator of the foresaid sermon, as of other sermons con- bence of tained in two books: and that therefore they were sermons doctrine of before his time: and the doctrines contained in them were more anciently embraced in the English Church: and next, that it was not hard to know not only what Elfric's judgment was in this controversy of transubstantiation, but also (what was more) what was the common received doctrine of this Church herein, as well when Elfric himself lived, as before his time, and also after his time, even from him to the Conquest, when Berengarius lived. Indeed (as our Archbishop confessed) the Church then was in divers points of religion full of blindness and ignorance, full of childish servitude to ceremonies, as it was long before and after; and too much given to the love of monkery; which now at this time unreasonably took root, and grew excessively. But yet to speak what the adversaries of the truth (he meant those of the Church of Rome) have judged of this time, most certain it was, that there was no age of the Church of England that they more reverenced, and thought more holy than this. And that the Archbishop proved from the multitude of saints that they canonized; as Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and King Edgar, and King Edward the Martyr, and many more, both men and women, which our Archbishop reckoneth up. And all of them in this age wherein Ælfric lived in great fame and credit. And then our Most Reverend concludes, "How some "nowadays not only dissented in doctrine from their own "Church, which they have thought most holy, and judged "a most excellent pattern to be followed. Wherefore what "might we now think (as he added) of that great consent "whereof the Romanists had long made vaunt; to wit, their "doctrine to have continued many hundred years, as it were "linked together with a continued chain, whereof had been IIL 66 BOOK " no breach at any time? That this their so great affirmation "had uttered unto us no truth, as the reader might well Anno 1566." judge by truly weighing of this that had been spoken, and by reading of the abovementioned sermon and epistles. "And so trusting, that after the reader had well weighed "this matter of such manner of the being of Christ's body "in the Sacrament, as this testimony shewed, no untruth or "dishonour should need to be attributed to Christ's loving "words pronounced at his last supper among his Apostles: "no derogation to his most sacred institution: no diminish"ing of any comfort to Christian men's souls in the use of "this reverend Sacrament, [matters urged by the adversa"ries for the corporeal presence,] but all things to stand right up, most agreeably to the verity of Christ's infalli"ble words, and to the right nature, congruence, and effica"cies of so holy a Sacrament: and finally, most comfortable "to the conscience of man, for his spiritual uniting and incorporation with Christ's blessed body and blood to immor"tality, and for the sure gage of his resurrection." These are the weighty words of our Archbishop, both in managing of the argument taken from the doctrine of our Saxon ancestors, against the Popish doctrine of the Sacrament, and in his full and comprehensive expressing of the true virtue and efficacy of it unto all pious Christians. 66 66 Now that this homily and these two epistles before mentioned were faithfully and exactly published from the old manuscript books, (of which there were divers, some in Latin and some in Saxon,) the Archbishop procured the subscription of fourteen Bishops, (besides his own,) who had carefully perused and compared the same, testifying that they 240 were truly put forth in print, without adding or withdrawing any thing; together with divers other personages of honour and credit subscribing their names. The original whereof remained in the hands of the Archbishop. But the transcript of the said subscriptions the Archbishop caused to be printed in the said book at the end thereof. The Bishops that subscribed were, besides Matthew our Archbishop, Thomas Archbishop of York, Edmond London, |