The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

that right principles of interpretation lead either to Romanistic or
Calvinistic views of the Supper. As both these have the common ground
that the proposition of the Supper is: "This bread is Christ's body," and as
both argue that real bread cannot be real body, the one escapes the
difficulty by maintaining that there is no real bread in the Supper, the other
that there is no real body there; or, in other words, the Romanist,
Zwinglian, and Calvinist agree in an exegetical principle, and simply vary
in the application of it.
A single citation from two great authorities, the first Roman Catholic,
the second Calvinistic, will demonstrate this. BELLARMINE, in his
Discussion of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, ch. xix., says, "These words:
'This is My body,’ necessarily lead to the inference either that there is a
true mutation of the bread, as the CATHOLICS will have it, or a
metaphorical mutation, as the CALVINISTS will have it; but in no way
admit of the LUTHERAN view."
URSINUS, in his Explanation of the Catechism, II., Q. 78 "As it is
not true that the Papists retain the verbally literal, so it is much less true
(multo minus verum) that those (Lutherans) retain the letter and true sense
of the words." "The letter is: 'This, that is, this bread, is My body;' the
meaning is, 'That visible, broken, and distributed bread is My true and
essential body.' But as this cannot be by essential conversion, but
mystically or by sacramental metonony, because the words, according to
the verbally literal, have a sense repugnant to the verity of the Christian
faith, therefore we say, that in the words of Christ a fitting (conveniens)
meaning is to be taught." Do. p. 541. This, then, is the genesis of the two
views: Body cannot be bread, but as there is body there is no bread: bread
cannot be body, but as there is bread there is no body.
With such a principle, only a third possibility remains: it is to apply it
rigidly and consistently to every part of the Institution, to take away the
bread with the Romanist, and the body with the Rationalist, and then we
have the Lord's Supper of the Quaker and other mystics, with neither
supernatural reality nor outward element--all idea, all spirit. The
extravagance of the Romish materializing of the presence of Christ's