The Real Presence in the Eucharist

HOLY CROSS TRACTS


The Real Presence in the Eucharist

WHAT does the Anglican Church teach on this funda­mentally important subject?

The learning and industry of Dr. Pusey have gathered for us the answer in his great work on "The Real Presence." Let the authorities speak for themselves:


Nicholas Ridley (Bishop of London, Reformer and Martyr 1555) : "I grant the bread to be converted and turned into the Flesh of Christ, but not by transubstantiation, but by sacramental converting or turning. For Christ is present in His mysteries; neither at any time, as Cyprian saith, doth the Divine Majesty abstract Himself from the divine Mysteries."

John Poynet (Bishop of Winchester 1551; exiled for his faith, 1555) : "The Eucharist, as far as appertains to the nature of the Sacrament, is truly the Body and Blood of Christ, is a truly Divine and holy thing."


Thomas Jackson (Dean of Peterborough, 1640) : "When we say that Christ is really present in the Sacra­ment, our meaning is that as God He is present in an extraordinary manner after such a manner as He was present (before His Incarnation) in His Sanctuary, the Ark of His Covenant." (See Exod. 40:34-35)

Lancelot Andrewes (Bishop of Winchester, 1626) : "We believe no less than you [his Roman opponent] that the Presence is real. Of the method of the Presence we define nothing rashly." Again: "Nor do we deny that the elements are changed by the benediction, so the consecrated Bread is not that which nature has formed, but that which the benediction has consecrated, and even changed by con­secration."


John Overall (Bishop of Norwich, 1619. One of the authors of the Church Catechism) : "It is confessed by all divines that upon the words of the consecration the Body and Blood of Christ is really and substantially present." Again: "In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, or the Lord's Supper, the Body and Blood of Christ, and therefore the whole of Christ is verily and indeed present, and is verily partaken by us."

Jeremy Taylor (Bishop of Connor and Down, 1667) : "We do believe that Christ is there really present in the Sacrament; there is the Body and Blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful, saith our Church."


John Cosin (Bishop of Durham, 1661) : "Where is the danger, and what doth he fear, as long as all they that believe the Gospel own the true nature and the real and substantial Presence of the Body of Christ in the Sacra­ment?"

Herbert Thorndike (One of the Prayer Book Revisers, 1672) : "They all [i. e., the Fathers of the Church] acknowledge the elements to be changed, trans­lated, and turned into the substance of Christ's Body and Blood, though as in a Sacrament, that is mystically, yet, therefore, by virtue of the consecration, not by virtue]of his faith that receives."


George Bull (Bishop of St. David's, 1710) : "The ancient Fathers generally teach that the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist, by or upon the consecration of them, do become and are made the Body and Blood of Christ."

John Bramhall (Archbishop of Armagh, 1663) says: "A true Real Presence no genuine son of the Church of England did ever deny."


Anthony Sparrow (Bishop of Norwich, 1685, one of the Prayer Book Revisers) says that when the Communicant says "Amen" on receiving the Sacrament, he "professes his faith in the Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in that Sacrament."

Thomas Ken (Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1711) : "I believe Thy Body and Blood to be as really present in the Holy Sacrament as Thy divine power can make it."


William Beveridge (Bishop of St. Asaph, 1708) : "When it comes to our turn to receive it, then we are to lay aside all thoughts of bread and wine, and the minister, and everything else that is, or can be seen, stead­fastly believing it to be, as our Saviour saith, His Body and Blood."


We shall do well to remind ourselves that people's devotions often (do they not always?) mean more than they know how to express in the technical knowledge of theology. There are multitudes of loving-hearted Protes­tants, in various denominations, who, as they approach their Communion, quite lose sight of mere "bread" and "wine," whose inward vision pierces what to them are mere veils, and who are aware only that, in some way which they do not dream of understanding or explaining, they are coming to their Master and their Friend, and that He is coming to them with all His blessed gifts of pardon and of peace. That which their souls long after is made explicit and divinely assured in the Catholic Eucharist. With what joy would they find it there!