Ratramnus of Corbie — On the Body and Blood of the Lord, in the anonymous English translation printed at Oxford in 1838, read from the Internet Archive scan.
Written at the request of Charles the Bald, and against his own abbot Paschasius Radbertus: the body in the sacrament is Christ’s body in figura, not the same flesh born of Mary in visible form. Condemned in 1050, printed by the reformers as The Boke of Barthram, and read by Ridley and Cranmer.
I. You have bidden me, O glorious Prince, to make known to your Majesty, what I think touching the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ. A command no less worthy of your magnificent and princely estate, than difficult for my poor ability. For what can be more worthy of a Prince, than to take care that he himself be Catholic in his judgment, concerning the sacred mysteries of Him, Who hath deigned to commit to him his kingly throne, and to endure not that his subjects should think diversely ctmceming the Body of Christ, in the which it is certain that the whole sum of Christian redemption doth consist?
n. For whilst some of the faithful say, that the Uiffcrm)-‘stery of the Body and Blood of Christ, which is to ,tv «
Christ’s daily celebrated in the Church, is performed under
® y no figure, or veil, but with the naked exhibition of
Blood in the Truth itself; others testify, that these things are
charist. contained under the figure o£ a mystery, and that it
is one thing, which appeareth to the bodily senses,
and another, upon which faith gazeth. There
is then clearly no small diversity of judgment
among them. And though the Apostle writeth to the
1 Cor. faithful, “that they should all think and speak the
’ • ” same thing, and that there should be no schism
” among them;” yet by no small schism are they
divided, who give utterance to such diverse opinions
touching the mystery of the Body and Blood of
Christ.
Ratramn III. Wherefore your Royal Highness, being progjj voked with zeal for the faith, and with no easy mind pondering on these things, and being desirous that, as the Apostle commandeth, ” all men should ” think and speak the same thing,” doth diligently search into this secret verity, that so you may recall to it them that are out of the way. Wherefore you do not disdain to ask the truth in this matter even from the most humble; for you. well know that so great and secret a mystery cannot be acknowledged unless God reveal it. Who without respect of persons sheweth forth the light of His truth by whomsoever He chooseth.
IV. Pleasant as it is to me to obey your command.
Body and Blood of the Lord. 3
yet no less difficult is it with my slender ability to dispute on a subject so far removed from human senses and into which no one can penetrate except by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, in submission to your Majesty’s command, yet with entire confidence in His aid, of Whom I am about to treat, I will strive to open what I think on this matter, in what words I can, not leaning to my own wit, but following the steps of the Holy Fathers.
V. Your excellent Majesty inquireth, whether State of the Body and Blood of Christ, which in the| ° "" Church is taken by the mouth of the faithful, in two be made so in a mystery or in truth; that is, 2”*! whether it containeth any hidden thing, which lieth open to the eye of faith alone ; or whether without
the veil of any mystery, the sight gazeth on that Body outwardly, which the eye of the soul inwardly beholdeth, so that the whole matter standeth forth open and manifest. And, whether it be the very same Body which was bom of Mary, suffered, died, and was buried, which rose again, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
VI. Let us look closely into the first of these two The first questions, and let us define what Figure is, and g®* *""
what Truth, that we be not hinderdd by doubtiEd ambiguity, but that, keeping somewhat certun before our eyes, we may know whither we oi ght to direct the course of our reasoning.
Figure VII. Figure is a certain outshadowing, which defined. Qxhibiteth what it meaneth under some sort of veil;
for instance, when we would speak of the Word, w« M&t. 6, say Bread ; as in the Lord’s Prayer, we pray that
God would give us our daily Bread. Or as Christ in John 6, the Gospel saith, ” I am the living Bread, Whidi
” came down from heaven.” Or when He calleth
Himself a Vine, and His disciples the Branches ; John 16, saying, *’ I am the True Vine, and ye are the
** Branches.” All these passages express one thingr
and hint at another.
Truth Vni. But Truih is the shewing forth of a plain ’ matter, veiled under no shadowy images, but conveyed to us in clear, open, and (to speak more plainly yet) natural significaticms; as when we say that Christ was bom of the Virgin, suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried. Nothing is hare shadowed forth under the veil of figure, but the truth of the matter is exhibited in the natural signification of the words; nor must aught else be understood than is expressed. But in the former instances it is not so. For substantially Christ is not Bread, nor is Christ a Vine, nor are the Apostles Branches. So that in this case a Figure is presented in the express