Although it is expressly set forth in the canonical Scriptures that the body of Christ is to be offered to the faithful under the species of bread, yet that the substance of the bread is really converted or transubstantiated into the body of Christ is not found expressed in the canon of the Bible; but this doctrine is believed to have been divinely revealed to the Holy Fathers, or to have been proved from passages of the Bible by a diligent and skillful examination; and, therefore, I shall cite passages of the Holy Fathers to prove this truth.
Whence, Eusebius Emissenus says as quoted in the De Consecratione, Distinction II., ‘Quia corpus’: “The invisible Priest converts visible creatures into the substance of His body and blood by His word by a secret power.” And he adds: “And so how many and how celebrated the benefits the power of the divine blessing may produce; and that it ought not to be strange or impossible to you that earthly and mortal objects are converted into the substance of Christ.”
Likewise, Ambrose as quoted in the De Consecratione, Distinction II., ‘Panis.’ “If,” he says, “there is such power in the Word of the Lord Jesus, that by a miracle He may cause that to be which was not; how much more efficacious is it that those may be which were and may be changed into another. And so that which was bread before consecration, is now the body of Christ after consecration.”
Likewise, in the margin of the De Summa Trinitate et Fide Catholica, ‘Firmiter,’ where Innocent III. says in a general council: “There is one universal church of believers, outside of which no one at all is saved; in which Jesus Christ Himself is both priest and sacrifice, whose body and blood is truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine, since the bread has been transformed into body and the wine into blood by divine power.”
Likewise, in the margin of the De Celebratione Missarum, ‘Cum Marthæ.’ “If, therefore, He lifted His eyes to the Father at the time when He called the soul of Lazarus back to the lifeless body, it seems to be more probable that He lifted His eyes to the Father in heaven at the time when He specially changed the bread and the wine into body and blood.”
From these and very many other passages of the Saints and the Doctors, it is established that the substance of the bread is really and truly transubstantiated, converted, or changed by divine virtue into the substance of the body of Christ, yet without any increase or substantial translation of the body of Christ.
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