View Volume II - In Today's Catholic World

198 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
have said that in the Eucharist the true body of our Lord
exists*
22. Secondly They found an objection on that passage of
" As a rational soul and flesh is one man,
the two
the Athanasian Creed :
so God and man is one Christ." Hence, they argue
Natures are but one. To this we reply, that these words denote
an unity of Person, and not of Nature, in Christ, and that is
"
manifest from the words, one
understood the Person, and not the Nature.
Christ," for by Christ is properly
23. They object, thirdly, that St. Iraeneus, Tertullian, St.
Cyprian, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Augustin, and St. Leo (3),
call the union of the two Natures a mixture or fusion, and com
pare it to the mixture of two fluids one with the other. We
answer with St. Augustin (as quoted), that these Fathers did not
make use of these expressions, because they believed that the
two Natures were confounded, but to explain how close the
union was, and that the Divine was united to the human nature
as closely and intimately as the colouring poured into a liquid
unites with every portion of it. This is St. Augustin s explana
tion :
"
Sicut in unitate Persona3 Anima unitur corpori, ut homo
sit : ita in unitate Personae Deus unitur homini, ut Christus sit.
In ilia ergo persona mixtura est Animaa et corporis ;
in hac Per
sona mixtura est Dei et hominis : si tamen recedat auditor a con-
suetudine corporum, qua solent duo liquores ita commisceri, ut
neuter servet integritatem suam, quamquam et in ipsis corporibus
aeri lux incorrupta misceatur." Tertullian previously gave the
same explanation.
24. They object, fourthly, the authority of Pope Julius in
his Epistle to Dionisius, Bishop of Corinth, in which he blames
those who believed that there were two Natures in Christ, and
also one expression of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, quoted by
Photius, who says that there are not two Persons, nor two
Natures, for then we should be adoring four. But we answer,
with Leontius(4), that these Epistles are falsely attributed to
these Holy Fathers, for the Epistle attributed to Julius is sup-
(3) St. Iron. /. 2, ad. User. c. 21 ; Ter- ad Volusian. ; St. Leo, Ser. 3, in
tull. Apol. c 21 ; St. Cyprian, de die Natal.
Van. Idol. ; St Grog. Nyss. Catcch. (4) Leon, de Sect. art. 4.
c. 25; St. Angus. Ep. 137, al. 3,