The anatomie of the masse wherein is shewed by the Holy Scriptures and by the testimony of the ancient church that the masse is contrary unto the word of God, and farre from the way of salvation / by Peter du Moulin ... ; and translated into English by Jam. Mountaine.

CHAP. VII. Impiety of Salmeron the Jesuite, and of Peter Charron. And of Bellarmins foure men inclosed in one sute of clothes. That by this doctrine, Christ hath not a true bo∣dy in the Sacrament.

Superstition and Atheisme are verie neere neighbours, and the one lea∣deth unto the other. For frantick super∣stition intangles the minde with extra∣vagant conceits, that expose Religion to laughter, and make men to thinke that Religion is a shop of fables, and a meere imagination. Whence it comes to passe that those that take upon them to defend Superstition, let goe very often certaine words of impietie, where∣by they profane the mysteries, and scoffe at their owne Religion under colour of defending it.

Salmeron the Jesuite, and Doctor Char∣ron gives us an example thereof. This

Jesuite in the IX Tome and 26 Trea∣tise, for to represent the manner and the end for which Christ gives us his flesh to eate,* 1.1 saith that Christ hath done as men doe, who for to kindle and in∣flame a woman with love, doe give her an amorous potion or morsell, and that just so Christ in the Eucharist gives to his Church Panis bucellam sanctè bene∣dictam & incantatam, a morsell of bread holily blessed and INCHANTED for to transport her with his love.

Charron hath followed him, but with an addition that declares what are the ingredients of those philters or amo∣rous potions, to wit that there enters in them something of the substance of the Lover, which substance is a thing not fit to be named. In his eighth Dis∣course of the Eucharist, after hee hath said that God comes downe in the forme of bread and wine: and that to dance for to serue God, is lesse strange then what is done in the Masse: a little after, he declares how Christ communitates himselfe unto men in the Eucharist, to wit, that he allures and intices them with a dainty and delicious bit. Love (saith he) is so ingenious and inventive, that for to win and allure the heart and will of o∣thers

it hath found out a device to imploy inchanted morsels, philters and amorous po∣tious, and to make them to be taken and drunke by those of whom one desires to bee loved, in which morsells or potions enters some thing of the Lover or Suitor. Thus it seemes that God for to draw and allure un∣to himselfe the heart and love of the Church, would present a bit or potion made of his substance in this Sacrament, the philter and amorous drinke of all Christians, the dainty and delicious bit for to draw and allure them unto himselfe. Doubtlesse this man jeasted and intended to make the world laugh, for he could not expect that men should beleeve him.

I know not whither Bellarmin did mock or jeast,* 1.2 when for to prove that a body may be in severall places at once, hee saith that it is possible that foure men hold no more place than one of the foure alone, and that all foure fill up but one place. Take me a man clothed with a sute of clothes that sits close and is made just to his body, Bellarmin saith it is possible for these foure men to be con∣tained in the same sute of clothes, with∣out being made larger, and the men never a whit the lesse. If that be pos∣sible for foure, it is also possible for ten,

yea for a hundred, yea for a thousand: so that all the men of the World shall be contained in a single doublet. But if of these foure men in this little doublet, one be sitting, the other lying, and the other standing: If one of-them em∣brace the other, and by consequent is out of the other, they shall not be in one and the same place. If they speake together and looke one upon another, the one shall be the object of the others eyes, and therefore shall not bee in one and the selfe same place. Truly I thinke this Jesuite, propounding such things, and shutting up a whole Common-wealth in a doublet, had a minde to deride his owne Religion. For by the same reason a man may have both his eyes in one place, and not different of sitnation.* 1.3 By this meanes a man shall have two eyes, and shall have but one. And the parts of an humane body shall not be distinct, and the one shall not be out of the other. This our Adversaries doe by their Transubstantiation: as Bellarmin acknow∣ledgeth, saying that in the Eucharist Christ doth not exist after the manner of bodies: but rather after the manner of Spirits, since hee is whole in everie part.

It is false likewise, that according to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, Christs body be in the Eucharist after the manner of Spirits. For when an Angell is present in any place, he is not pre∣sent in a thousand others severall places and is not far from himselfe and divi∣ded from himselfe, a•• they will have Christs body to bee in a million of severall places at one and the same time.

The same Jesuite in the third Booke and fifth chapter saith,* 1.4 that a Sub∣stance without qantity cannot bee tearmed flesh. Whereupon it followes that Christs body under the Host is not flesh, for there is no quantity, since it is whole under every point that hath no quanti∣ty. Besides that the quantity of a body is a continued quantity. But Christs body in the Host is not one in continui∣ty with that which is in Heaven sit∣ting at the right hand of God the Fa∣ther, since hee is farre and remote from it.

Againe, he saith in the same place,* 1.5 That a body is nothing else but an ex∣tension in length, breath, and depth. There∣fore

in the Sacrament there is no true body of Christ, since it hath no ex∣tension, no length, breadth and depth: As he saith himselfe in the second chap∣ter of his first Book, Christs body in the Eucharist hath no extension.

I have wondred many times, seeing that our Adversaries hold that Christ municants untill the species be destroyed and consumed by the disgestion, why they do not give them hard bread and not of easie disgestion, that they might have Christ in them a longer time, ra∣ther then to give them such light Hosts or wafers, which are presently tur∣ned into a Chylus and disgested in an in∣stant.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Sub finem Tractatus.
• * 1.2

  Bellar. lib. 3. de Eu∣char. cap 7 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ad tertiū Potest fie••i ut rediga∣tur ad lo∣cum unita∣tis, ••t a ut quatuor homines oc∣cupent lo∣cum unius hominis.
• * 1.3

  Bellar. lib. 1. de Eu∣char. c. 2. § Tertia. Christus in Eucharistia non habet modum ex∣istend•• cor∣porum, sed potius spi∣rit••ū, cum sit totus in qualibe•• parte.
• * 1.4

  §. Ad haec. Substantia fius quanti ••ate ca••o d••ci non potese.
• * 1.5

  Quid est corpus, nisi extent••o 〈◊〉〈◊〉 longitudinem, latitudinem, & prosundita∣t••m?