Tractatus de apostasia

XXVIII
INTRODUCTION.
Ch. VIII. It is a Catholic doctrine that Christ's Body is present,
complete in all its parts, at every point of the Host; thus being
multiplied indefinitely, as many times as there are points in the Host,
and as there are different parts of the world, yet all the time remaining
only one Bodv. This can be understood, Wyclif says, in three ways:
either it is dimensionally in several places, or virtually though in its
own nature (p. 92, 1. i3; p.
1 10, 1. 3—6); or virtually as in figure.
I belive we may identify the first 'way' with the Thomist system;
the second seems to coincide with the celebrated Scotist distinction,
'formalis ex natura rei'; l the third, I need hardly say,
opinion. The whole of the eighth chapter
is Wyclif 's
is a refutation of the Thomist
doctrine; the ninth is partly an attack on the system of Scotus, partly
an argumentation in favour of his own, partly a return to the debate
relative to absolute accidents. Whilst, however, I recapitulate the many
absurdities which Wyclif ascribes to the doctrine that admits the
dimensional presence of Christ in the Host, I must in mere justice
observe that some of them do not exactly hit the mark; if they did,
St. Thomas would be conclusively proved to be no better than an
idiot. His system, however, supposes Christ, with His dimensions, to
be spiritually present, like the soul of man in his body, "totum in
toto, et totum in qualibet parte", and therefore without any extension
other than that which the Host itself occupies. It is a complete
misunderstanding to imagine that Aquinas' theory encloses the length
of six feet within the narrow limits of the smallest possible particle
of the consecrated elements. This quantity, these dimensions of Christ's
Body, have become spiritualised, idealised so to speak, to the point
of no longer occupying space at all. In a word, the force that extends
is present in Christ's Eucharistic Body; but its effect — i. e. actual
extension — is miraculously absent, counteracted by Divine omnipotence.
Any student of St. Thomas knows that this is the right explanation
of his theory. I may now point out the chief issues in this chapter.
I st
Every quantity, says Wyclif, is indefinitely great; if quantity
is multiplied, so is its measure, space.
1
2 nd Quality, by a like reasoning,
I am not sufficiently acquainted with the details of the Scotist system to
know whether it applies this distinction to Christ's presence in the Host; but it is
a convenient one, and I should think it very likely to be applied.