THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

Lord's Supper and Ratramnus'. 1089 With respect to the Holy Spirit and the sacrament,
however, one thin point of conjunction is of interest. This conjunction lies in their
explicit reference to the third person of the Trinity, whose work, or power, is variously
expressed as secret, invisible, or incomprehensible. In a passage in which he draws off
"the blessed Isidore in the books of Etymologies," Ratramnus theologizes:
But the bread and wine are likened to the body and blood because, just as the
substance of this visible bread and wine nourishes and stimulates the outer man,
so the Word of God, ,who is living bread, refreshes faithful souls that share in it.
. . . This is why the bread which is offered, although from the fruits of the earth,
is transferred into the body of Christ while it is being consecrated. So also the
wine, though it flowed out of the vine, is made the blood of Christ through the
consecration of the divine mystery—not visibly, of course, but as this doctor
says, working invisibly through the Spirit of God (non quidem visibiliter sed
sicut ait praesens doctor operante invisibiliter spiritu dei). This is why they are
1089 For examples: 1) As may be noted in the passages quoted below and elsewhere in his
treatise, Ratramnus' use of "outward" and "inward" differs from, e.g., Zwingli and Bullinger's, in that
Ratramnus uses these qualifiers specifically with respect to the elements, the bread and wine. The
reformers mentioned employed these terms with respect to the communicant: what one does outwardly
(eating bread with the mouth of the body) depicts what one does, or what happens, inwardly, though not
necessarily on the occasion of the celebration of the sacrament (feeding on Christ's body with the mouth
of the soul, that is, faith). Calvin speaks similarly, though with a different nuance than Zwingli and
Bullinger. 2) Ratramnus seems to use the term "body" ambiguously, or at least variously. In answering
Charles the Bald's question "whether that very body which was born of Mary, suffered, died, and was
buried, and which sits on the right hand of the Father, is what is daily taken in the church by the mouth of
the faithful through the mystery of the sacraments" ("Ratramus of Corbie: Christ's Body and Blood,"
trans. McCracken, 132), Ratramnus speaks of corporal body of Christ and the spiritual body of Christ,
seemingly suggesting (unless one grants him a poetic license to be liberally applied) that Christ has two
bodies, as when he says "under cover of the coporeal bread and of the corporeal wine Christ's spiritual
body and spiritual blood do exist" ("Ratramus of Corbie: Christ's Body and Blood," trans. McCracken,
123). His conclusion is that there is great "difference between the body which exists trhough the mystery
and that which suffered, was buried, and rose again" ("Ratramus of Corbie: Christ's Body and Blood,"
trans. McCracken, 146; also 137, 138, 143, 144). The very charges of "ambiguity" and "two bodies" that
one might bring to Ratramnus' exposition are the very charges Calvin must address with respect to his
own doctrine. Calvin's response indicates that he would not be comfortable with Ratramnus' exposition:
"He [Westphal] rejoins that I am deceiving by using the term body in an ambiguous sense. But I thought I
had sufficiently obviated such cavils by so often repeating, that it was the true and natural body which
was offered on the cross. From what forge the fiction of a twofold body proceeded, I know not: this I
know, that I hold it detestable impiety to imagine Christ with two bodies. I know, indeed, that the mortal
body which Christ once assumed is now endued with new qualities of celestial glory, which, however, do
not prevent it from being in substance the same body. I say, then, that. by that body which hung on the
cross our souls are invigorated with spiritual life, just as our bodies are nourished by earthly bread"
(Tracts and Treatises 2:280; CO 9:72). Pursuing this further lies beyond the scope of this dissertation,
though this, along with other points of comparison and contrast, would comprise an interesting study.
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