A treatise of the holy sacrifice of the masse, and excellencies therof. Written in Spanish by the R. F. Ant. de Molina, a Carthusian monke, & translated into English by I.R. of the Society of Iesus. VVith order, hovv to be present at the said Holy Mystery, vvith deuotion & profit

That the Masse is a liuely repre∣sentation of the Mysteries of our Sauiour, which are re∣newed and mystically perfor∣med againe therin. CHAP. IIII.

LET this be another de∣finition of the Masse. The Masse is a liuely and perfect representatiō of the Mysteries of Christ Iesus our Lord his Incarnation, Natiuity, & most holy life, his Passion, Death, glori∣ous Resurrection and admi∣rable Ascension into Hea∣uen. Al which is done with so much truth, life, propriety

and perfection, that Christ Iesus himselfe really is there present, and by himself, a∣cteth his owne person and part, performing by himself the most Diuine and sacred mysteries, a thing worthy of all veneration and reue∣rence, and of most high & attent consideration.

That this may be better vnderstood, we must call to minde a point of most certaine Christian Theolo∣gy, to wit, that Christ our Lord, is the supreme and principall Priest, who by himself really, properly, and

efficiently worketh the ef∣fect of all Sacraments. Thus though the Priest say I bap∣tize thee, yet Christ is the person, that as principall & efficient cause, washeth the soule, cleansing it from the stayne of sinnes: and though the Priest in the Sa∣cramēt of Pennāce say I ab∣solue thee, yet Christ is he that absolueth & releaseth men, freeing them from the giues of sinne, by the medi∣ation and Ministery of the Priest, & of that sacramētall action. This is yet more properly & singularly true

in the most sacred mystery of the Eucharist. Christ is he that worketh that won∣derfull Transubstantiation, and conuersion of bread in∣to his Body, and of wine into his Bloud, and the Priest is no more but the instrument & Minister that pronounceth the wordes, in the place & name of Christ himself. And so when the Priest saying in the Canon, He tooke bread into his sacred & venerable handes, himself ta∣keth the bread into his own sinfull handes: and though he say, This is my body, & this is

my bloud, yet the conuersion is not made, into the body and bloud of the Priest, but into the body and bloud of our Lord.

Wherfore the holy Fa∣thers teach expresly, that he by himself worketh these mysteries and offers that sa∣crifice, yet by the handes & ministery of the Priest, as S. Chrysostome affirmes.* 1.1 These be not workes of hu∣man power: He that did them in that Supper, the sa∣me now also doth them: we haue the office of Mini∣sters, but he that works, san∣ctifies,

changeth, is Christ himself: which thing is al∣so defined by the Councell of Trent.* 1.2 And for this rea∣son is Christ in the Psalmes tearmed Priest for euer, ac∣cording to the order of Mel∣chisedech.* 1.3 For he should not be tearmed perpetuall Priest according to the or∣der of Melchisedech, if he offered the sacrifice but on∣ly once; but he is perpetual Priest, because he still offers the sacrifice by the ministe∣ry of Priests, and neuer cea∣seth to offer, and shall not cease to offer vnto the

worlds end. Yea to speake more properly, he only is the sole & principall Priest, for though we be tearmed, and are verily Priests, yet we are so only as his instru∣ments and deputies, not his successors in Priesthood but his substitutes, who offer in his name sacrifice, yet the principall offerent is only himself.

Hence we may vnder∣stand that difficile passage of S. Paul to the Hebrews where he sayth; That in the old Law, it was need there should be many Priests, be∣cause

they were mortall men, and there was a neces∣sity that one should succeed another, that so Priest-hood might be continued: But in the new Law, we haue an eternall Preist which li∣ues and continues for euer, and so there is no necessity there should be more then one, as in very truth there is no more, but only one that as principall cause, and in his owne name consecra∣teth the Mysteries, and offers the diuine Sacrifice. And according to this the difference is, that in the old

Law, the children succeeded in the Priest-hood, vnto their Fathers, not as their de∣puties or Ministers, but as their successors in the Sacer∣dotall office, exercising the same with the self-same au∣thority as their Predece∣ssours. But in the Euangeli∣call, Christ only is the prin∣licall Priest, who still actu∣ally offers sacrifice where & when he will haue the sa∣me offered. Other Priests though they haue the name & office of Preists, yet they be not successours of Christ, nor do offer in their owne

name, nor by that authority as he did vse, but as his in∣struments and Ministers. For this reason the Councell of Trent affirmes, in the pre∣alledged place, that though the Priest be naught and a sinner, this can not destroy nor diminish the value and efficacy of the Sacrifice, for this dependes of, and is answerable vnto the wor∣thynes of the principall of∣ferent, and not of the instru∣ment, as is made cleere by this example. If a Prince giue a great almes and send it by the handes of his ser∣uant;

though the seruant be naught and a sinner, and giue it with an ill will, yet the almes therby looseth nothing of his goodnes and merit, because this depēds of the will and vertue of him that is the principall giuer therof, though he vse ano∣thers hand. In this sort we, how wicked soeuer we be, cannot hinder or impayre the vertue of the Sacramēts, because we are no more thē Ministers and instruments, celebrating in the per∣son of Christ Iesus our Lord.

Hence it followes, that

it is a great honour and pri∣uiledge of the sacred my∣steries of the new Testamēt, that such a Priest & Bishop doth cōsecrate & performe them. This S. Paul pon∣dered when he sayd: It was decent, that we should haue such a Priest, holy, in∣nocent, vnspotted, seue∣red from sinners, and hi∣gher then the heauens: for the law appoints Priests subiect to infirmity, but the Word of the Father ap∣points the Sonne for euer perfect. Oh let all creatures blesse our God for euer, that

would honour and grace vs, by giuing vs for our Priest and Bishop, not any person lesse then his only begotten Sonne, and ma∣king vs his Ministers in working so soueraigne Sa∣craments. But it is to be noted, that Christ our Lord is sayd to be the sole High-Priest and principall Offe∣rent of the holy mysteries, not only for the reason de∣clared already, because all o∣other Priests offer and con∣secrate them in his name, by his authority, and as his Ministers: for though this

cause be good and sufficient in case there were no other, yet the more principall, ex∣cellent, and admirable cause is, because Christ himselfe truly and really is present, at as many times, and in as many mysteries, as the most sacred mysteries are conse∣crated, and he concurres thereunto as principall and efficient cause, to worke and bring them to effect, by meanes of the Priest who is his instrumēt & vicegerēt.

Hence also proceedeth that the representatiō of the mysteries of the life & death

of our Sauiour made in the Masse, is so liuely, pro∣per, and naturall, that many Fathers not cōtēt so say that the Masse is a representatiō of the mysteries of our Saui∣our, as hath been sayd; but exaggerate the thing fur∣ther, affirming that the sayd mysteries are celebrated and wrought a new. Blessed S. Gregory in one of his Homi∣lies sayth,* 1.4 that Christ our Lord dyed once in mortall flesh, but now being ray∣sed from the dead, and that he cannot retourne agayne to dy, nor to suffer in fashiō

as then he did, he will haue his passion and his death re∣newed and repeated in the mystery of the Masse, in which he suffers and vnder∣goes againe his Passion in mysticall manner, for our profit and perfection. In which sense S. Cyprian also sticketh not to say, the passion of our Lord is the sacrifice we offer. S. Martiall one of the seauenty-two Disciples, & S. Peters companion, sayth that what the Iewes in ha∣tred of Christ to rid him and his name out of the world did massacre vpō the Crosse,

the same, vnto our owne saluation, do we performe vpon the sanctified Aultar, this being the meanes of gi∣uing life and chasing away of death, commanded by our Lord himself saying, Doe this in remembrance of me.

In lyke sort, if we cast a right accompt, the whole life of our Lord Christ Iesus frō the instant of his Incar∣nation, vntill he last brea∣thed on the Crosse, was no other thing, but as it were the saying of a Masse. In the bowells of the most Blessed Virgin, as in a cele∣stiall

Sanctuary and Diuine Sacristy, he vested himself with humane flesh, the Pon∣tificall and sanctified orna∣ment, in which he was to offer his Sacrifice: & from thence girded which forti∣tude, he came forth full of ioy, as a giant the runne the race of redemption· The whole time he liued in this life, was a continuall pre∣paration of the sacrifice he was to offer, in so much as he made not a steppe which was not guided to this end, as himself signified saying, I am to be bathed, and how am I

straitened vntill be performed, to wit, the bath of his preti∣ous Bloud wherwith he was bathed, shedding the same when he offered sacrifice on the Crosse. The seauenteen howers that his passion en∣dured, to wit, from his prayer in the garden when falling into mortall agonyes he was couered with sweat of bloud, vntill he gaue vp the ghost on the Crosse, all this tyme he spent in offering vp the sacrifice. The three houres he liued fastened with nayles to the Crosse, consuming away

through most cruell payne, & much more through the fire of his burning loue to∣wardes man. These houres he spent in the Consumation of that Diuine Holocaust, and in the concluding of that sacred Masse, vntill ha∣uing taken the ablution of gall and vinager he came to say Ite missa est, whē he pro∣nunced the words, It is con∣summated, & bowing down his head gaue vp his spirit. These things so great and magnificent, so diuine and soueraigne, are represented liuely and properly, or to

speake with more force and expression, these thinges we celebrate, we repeate, we performe in mysticall man∣ner, in the most sacred my∣stery of the Aultar: and this is properly to say Masse.

Moreouer the former de∣finition of the Masse, by all the mysteries of the life and death of our Sauiour, may be made particuler, and deter∣minat by application therof to one only mystery in this sort. To say Masse is to ce∣lebrat really the Supper our Lord made with his Disci∣ples, in the night of his pas∣sion,

and to sit with him at table, and receaue from his hand his sacred Body & the cupp of his precious Bloud; & this not by repre∣sentation, not by figure, but truly, really, properly, as if he were sitting with his Apostles. For the Compa∣ny of the Apostles cannot be wanting where is personal∣ly the very Master and Lord of the Apostles consecrating his Body and Bloud, and giuing the same to his Apo∣stles with that very loue & affection as he then gauē it:* 1.5 and so S. Chrysostome had rea∣son

to say: This is the same table, the same banquet: the Lord that there gaue his Bo∣dy & Bloud to his Apostles, the very same now giues it to his faithfull: he that did consecrate then, consecrates now, the same meate is gi∣uen to be eaten, the same cuppe is giuen to be drun∣ken of.

And so we must consider, that speach of the Canon, which we vse when we ta∣ke the Chalice to consecrate it, In like manner, when supper was ended, taking also this ex∣cellent Chalice, which signifies

that the Chalice we now drunk, is the same that Christ consecrated and gaue to his Apostles, not the same cha∣lice of syluer, for that these are different, & this, be it the same or not the same, ma∣kes not much to the purpo∣se, but Chalice is takē for the drinke contayned therein, as we commonly say, that a pot of water is drunke vpp not the pot it selfe, but the water therof. And this speech is vsed because wine cannot be takē into our handes but in the cup, and so it could not be sayd, that he tooke

the wine into his handes in the manner as he is sayd to haue taken the bread; and for this reason we say he too∣ke the chalice. And because that which is contayned in our Chalice, when we take it into our handes, is a thing of the same kind, as that was contayned in the chalice our Sauiour tooke into his, to wit wine, made of grapes of the wine, and that which is giuen afterward to drin∣ke, is the selfe same not only in kind, but also the same in number, to wit, the true Bloud of Iesus Christ: hēce

it is that with reason & truth it is sayd that our Sauiour tooke into his hāds the self∣same Chalice, we now vse, and as he did consecrate it then, soe doth he conse∣crate it now, and giue it saying, This chalice is my Bloud which is offered in remissiō of all sinnes Wher∣fore seing our LORD that keepes the feast is the same, seing the meate that is taken is the same, seing the chali∣ce of drinke is the same, fi∣nally seing the intention & drift of supping is the same, it is cleere that the supper &

banquet is the same. And so our Lord supping with his disciples sayd vnto them, Do this in remembrance of me: He sayd not, represent this, nor doe another thing like vnto this, which may signi∣fy this, but doe this very sa∣me that I now doe, in re∣membrance of me. Let him be for euer praysed by the Angels in Heauen, that left vs such a memoriall vpon earth.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Hom. 83 in Mat.
• * 1.2

  Trid. Sess. 22. c. 1. & 2.
• * 1.3

  Psa. 109. v. 4.
• * 1.4

  Hom. 37 in Euāg.
• * 1.5

  Hom. 83 in Mat.