To leaue other your waste woordes, of Vigilantius, Iouinian, Manichee,
Aërius, and sutche others, in the ende ye pronounce your Definitiue Sentence, as
a Iudge, and condemne vs for Heretiques, for that wée haue taken downe your
Shoppes, and gaineful Boothes, whiche ye cal the Holy Aultars of God. Verily,
this muste néedes be thought, either extreme rigoure, or greate folie, of the remo∣ninge
of a stone to make an Heresie. Sutche Heresies, I trowe, S. Augustine,
S. Ambrose, Optatus, and other Learned Fathers knewe but fewe.
Neither is there any good sufficiente reason to be shewed, wherefore it should
more be Heresie in vs, to take downe your néedelesse, and Superstitious Walles,
whiche ye had erected of your selues, without Commission, then it was lately in
you, to teare in sunder, and to burne our Communion Tables: in the erection, and
vse whereof wée had the vndoubted example, bothe of Christe him selfe, and also of
the Aunciente Catholique Fathers. I saie nothinge of your Crueltie in bur∣ninge
so many Bibles, and Bookes of Goddes Holy Woorde: so many of your Bre∣therns
Bodies: so many Temples of the Holy Ghoste.
As for the Aultars, whiche, Optatus saithe, the Donatistes brake downe,
they were certainely Tables of VVood, sutche as wée haue: and not Heapes of
stones, sutche as ye haue as in my Former Replie, made vnto you, it maie better
appeare. S. Augustine reportinge the same storie saithe, the Donatistes in theire
furie brake downe the Aultare Bourdes: His woordes be these, Lignis eiusdem
Altaris effractis. Likewise saithe Athanasius of the like furie of the Arians:
Subsellia, Thronum, Mensam Ligneam, & Tabulas Ecclesiae, & coetera, quae poterant,
foras elata combusserunt: They carried foorthe, and burnte the Seates, the Pulpite, the
VVoodden Bourde, the Churche Tables, and sutche other thinges, as they coulde g••ate.
Touchinge your Stone Aultars, Beatus Rhenanus saithe, In nostris Basilicis
Ararum Superaddititia structura nouitatem prae se sert: In our Churches the buil∣dinge
vp of Aultars, added to the reste, declareth a noueltie.
Wée haue sutche Aultars, M. Hardinge, as Christe, his Apostles, S. Augu∣stine,
Optatus, and other Catholique, and Holy Fathers had, and vsed: whoes ex∣amples
to folowe, wée neuer thought it to be sutche Heresie.
But Optatus saithe, The Body, and Bloude of Christe was woonte to be laide vpon
the Aultare: and with these woordes ye would faine affonne your simple Reader,
as if Christes Body laie there Really, Fleashely, Verily, and in déede. But ye
should remember, that S. Augustine saithe, Sacramentum Corporis Christi secun∣dum
quendam modum Corpus Christi est: Et Sacramentum Sanguinis Christi secun∣dum
quendam modum Sanguis Christi est: The Sacramente of Christes Body (not verily,
and in deede, but) after a certaine manner of speache is Christes Body: and the Sa∣cramente
of Christes Bloude, after a certaine manner of speache is the Bloude of
Christe. This manner of Speache your owne Glose thus expoundethe, Vocatur
Corpus Christi, id est, Significat Corpus Christe: It is called the ••ody of Christe, that
is to saie, It Signifieth the Body of Christe. And, as Optatus saith, Christes
Body and Bloude were laide vpon the Aultare, or Communion Table, euen to
S. Aug••stine saithe, The whole people was in the Communion Cuppe, and laide
vpon the Holy Table. These be his woordes, Vos estis in Mensa: Vos estis in
Calice: You are vpon the Table: You are in the Cuppe. As the people is v∣pon
the Table, so is Christes Body vpon the Table. The People is not laide,
there verily, and in deede, but onely in a Mysterie: Euen so the Body of Christe,
as Op••••us saith, is laide there, not verily, and in déede, nor in Real, and Fleashly
Presence, but in a Mysterie.