Moreover, it can be shown by many reasons that those accidents may be quanta, and that a quantity may truly remain after consecration.
First thus: according to Innocent III. in the margin of the De Celebratione Missarum, ‘Cum Marthæ,’ a subtle distinction must be made among three things, which are distinct in the sacrament; namely, visible form, reality of the body, and spiritual virtue. The form is that of bread and wine, the reality is that of flesh and blood, the virtue is that of unity and charity. The first is the sacrament, and not the element. The second is the sacrament and the element. The third is the element and not the sacrament.
From this it is evidently inferred that the visible form is really distinct from the body of Christ and that it is not a quantum from the quantity of the body of Christ; as it is not visible through some quality visible in the body of Christ. But it is manifest that that visible form is a quantum, since it may be long, wide, and thick; therefore, some quantity besides the quantity of the body of Christ really remains.
In the second place thus: that the quantity of the visible form is really figurated, but nothing is figurated without quantity, and does not have the figure of the body of Christ; therefore, it does not have the quantity of the body of Christ; and consequently there is there some quantity other than the quantity of the body of Christ.
In the third place thus: some quantity is seen in the sacrament of the altar with the bodily eye, but neither Christ nor any accident of Him is seen by us in the sacrament of the altar with the bodily eye; therefore, there is there a quantity remaining other than the quantity of the body of Christ.
In the fourth place thus: all that which is broken and one part of which is separate from another is a quantum. But that visible form is broken and one part of it is separate from another; but the body of Christ is not thus; therefore, there is there some other quantity besides the quantity of the body of Christ.
For the Evangelist, Matthew, is a witness that the visible form may really be broken when he says: “Jesus took bread, blessed it and also brake it.” Mark offers the same testimony. “Blessing it,” he says, “he brake it.” Which also is obvious according to Luke and other Holy Fathers, whom it would take too long to adduce. Moreover, that the body of Christ may not be broken but may remain entire, the eminent doctor, the blessed Augustine, says, as quoted in the De Consecratione, Distinction II., ‘Qui manducant.’ “Christ,” he says, “is eaten; though eaten, He lives; because though slain, He arose; nor, when we eat, do we make portions of Him.” And he says likewise in the De Consecratione, Distinction II., ‘Invitat.’ “Through parts He is eaten in the sacrament,” he says, “and remains an entire whole in heaven; remains an entire whole in your heart.” From all these passages it is gathered that a quantity distinct from the quantity of the body of Christ remains in the sacrament of the altar.
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