Untitled - Shattering Denial

76
THE INQUISITION
agreed in denouncing Catholics for daring
to claim that
they really partook of the Body of Christ, as if Christ
could enter a man s stomach, to say nothing worse; 1 or
as if Christ would expose himself to be devoured by rats
and mice. 2
The Cathari, denying the real presence of Jesus Christ
in the Eucharist, rejected
God, according to them, repudiated
the sacrifice of the Mass.
all sacrifices. Did
he not teach us through his prophet Osee: "I desire
mercy
and not sacrifice." 3
The Lord s supper which the apostles ate so often was
something altogether
different from the Roman Mass.
They knew nothing of sacerdotal vestments, stone altars
with shining candelabra, incense, hymns, and chantings.
They did not worship in an immense building called a
church a word which should be applied exclusively to
the assembly of the saints. 4
The Cathari, in their hatred of Catholic piety, railed in
the most abusive language against the veneration of im
ages, and especially of the cross. The images and statues
Masson, p. 142; Dollinger, Beitrage, vol. ii (Dokumente), pp. 23, 156, 198,
322.
1 "Quod mittitur in latrinam ventris et per turpissimum locum, quas non
possent fieri, si esset ibi Deus." Dollinger, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 5.
2
Ibid., p. 27. Cf. Moneta, op. cit., p. 300; Gregory of Florence, Bishop
of Fano, about 1240, Disputatio inter Catholicum et Paterinum, in Martene
and Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, vol. v, p. 1729.
3 Osee, vi, 6; Moneta, op. cit., p. 300. Disputatio inter Catholicum et
Paterinum, p. 1730.
4 Cf. Dollinger, op. cit., vol. ii (Dokumente}, pp. 23, 40, 56, 156, 377.