Discipline, Celibacy of Clergy.

327

"The earth of human flesh-in this Birth Alone, from the Blessed Virgin yielded a Blessed Fruit, and alien from the fault of His race."

❝8 When we see no one is excepted."

"That one [Eve] was produced without fault, but produced unto fault; but this one [Mary] was produced in fault, but produced without fault."

The

And now my task is done. I have not thought it necessary to speak either of the Communion in both kinds or of a married Clergy, because both are accounted among you to be matters of discipline, and so they need present no difficulties to you. Marriage Service in our Prayer Book implies that the celibate is the higher state; for it speaks of "the gift of continency:" much more in those who are called "to spend and to be spent" for Christwho have to teach others to despise all things for love of Him Who loved them and gave Himself for them; that we are here but for a little while, exiles from our home with God, strangers and pilgrims

more fully in "Eirenicon," P. II. p. 96. often urged by Card. de Turrecremata.

The passage is

very

7 S. Leo I. De Nat. Dom. 4, n. 3. See more fully "Eirenicon," P. II.

8

p. 125.

Pope S. Gelasius, Ep. vii. Conc. v. 302-304, given fully "Eirenicon," P. II. p. 128.

Innocent III. in Solemn. Assump. glor. semper Virg. Serm. ii. Opp. i. 351. The Abbé Migne thought the passage to be contrary to the definition of the Imm. Conc. "So could Pope Innocent think as to a matter, not as yet defined by the Church, which now is of faith." See more fully, "Eirenicon," P. II. pp. 195, 196.

328 Bishops at Council of Trent held that

on the earth, with no other real end of our being than, by the grace of God, to become that for which He in His eternal love willed each of us to become. But God Alone knows to whom or on how many He bestows that "gift of continency," or whether He bestows it so largely, that the celibacy of the Clergy can be enforced without risk to the souls of men, or of those terrible scandals which in mediæval times the Church groaned under, but could not remedy. God is, among us, drawing more and more to that better part, to which, my dearest friend, He drew you while with us; and so one may hope that, while it is left free to the Clergy also to be married or unmarried, "as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness," God will continue His work, and give us continually more, whose Portion He Alone shall be-He, the exceeding great Reward of His own.

The Cup we wish to retain, not as doubting that they receive Christ wholly who receive Him under one kind, but because it would seem to us to be questioning His wisdom, to deny that there must be some special gift in the Cup also. You know in what glowing words the Church of old spoke of "the living Blood," "the life-giving Blood," "the Precious Blood," "the atoning Blood," "the saving Blood," "the Blood of our Redeemer;" "the Cup of Salvation;" of our "drinking our Ransom;" of drinking, "not water from the rock, but Blood from His Side." The words with

the Cup has Its own special grace.

329

which It is administered among us, "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life," were translated from the existing Ritual. Among Among you still, Lugo notes that the priest, after receiving the Body, and before receiving the Cup, prays that the Blood which he wishes to receive "may preserve his soul unto everlasting life," which, too, cannot take place unless it produce something in the soul. I said, eighteen years ago, in a book now forgotten':

"Vazquez and Lugo both admit that it is the more probable opinion that there is some special gift in the Cup. Lugo says that Franc. Blanco, Archbishop of Compostella, who was present at the Council of Trent, said, that such was the unanimous opinion of the fathers [there], but that they were unwilling to define it inopportunely, lest an occasion of outcry should be given to the heretics; wherewith agree the words of the Council itself (Sess. xxi. c. 3), where it is cautiously said, "As pertains to the fruit, they are deprived of no grace necessary to salvation, who receive one kind only." It did not say absolutely "no grace," but "no grace necessary to salvation," where, not without reason, that expression appears to have been added, "no grace necessary;" and this, Vazquez adds, 'on the ground that the command to communicate was fulfilled by the reception of one kind only.' He notices, also, that this Council, although it says, 'Christ, whole and entire, is received under one kind only,' does not say that 'the entire (integrum) sacrament,' but a true (verum) sacrament is received; and he sums up this part by saying:-'We grant that, according to this our opinion, the laity, to whom one kind

1

"Letter to the Bishop of London," 1851, pp. 217 sqq. 2 In 3 P. Disp. 215.

De Sacr. Euch. Disp. xii. S. 3.

330 Lugo: special gift of grace in the Cup.

is denied, are deprived of some grace, yet not necessary to salvation, and that this the Council did not mean to deny.'

"They cite, moreover, Clement VI. (A.D. 1341), who granted the Cup to a king of France, 'ad majorem gratiæ augmentum,' 'to the greater increase of grace;' 'therefore,' adds Lugo, 'because both kinds give more grace than one.'

"Lugo dwells upon our Lord's own words, in which He speaks not of His Flesh only, but of His Blood. 'Christ said not, "My Flesh is truly satisfying, or nourishment generally," but "is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed," to indicate that to His Body, received under the form of bread, belonged those effects spiritually, which the natural bread worketh [naturally], as the Council of Florence said, in the Decree of Eugenius; and to the Blood, under the form of wine, belonged those effects spiritually, which natural wine worketh [naturally]; so then a certain effect correspondeth to the Cup, i. e. to drink spiritually, which no wise belongs to the Bread; and, contrariwise, spiritual feeding no wise comes from the Cup, but from the Bread.'

66

"Again he urges, 'It is not credible that the Apostles, when, after Supper, they were invited by Christ to drink the Cup, did not receive some fruit from that reception, but only a more explicit sign of the fruit which they had before already received; yea, from the very mode of giving the Cup, Christ seemeth to have invited them by some hope of spiritual fruit, and by the same hope to invite us, too, to the Cup, after receiving the Body.'

"He quotes also Arnoldus, Abbot of Bonneval (about A.D. 1162, a friend of S. Bernard), who, speaking of the Cup, says, 'Christ Himself gave this Cup, and taught that we should not only be outwardly bedewed with His Blood, but that inwardly, too, the soul should be guarded by Its Almighty sprinkling; and that the power of so mighty a medicine, penetrating all things, should disperse whatever there was hard within, and renew and heal whatsoever disease clave to the flesh, or wherewith the corruption of the former life had stained the spirit.'

"He adds, "In this sense it is commonly said, that this Cup spiritually inebriateth him who receiveth it, which cannot be understood without some efficiency. In this sense, too, Christ

Prayers in our own tongue; choice of Bishops. 331

is said to have given to the mournful the Cup of His Blood*, i.e. to cause joy to them by that Drink, which also cannot take place without efficiency.""

The use of prayers, even of the Eucharistic Liturgy, in our own language would not, I trust, form a difficulty, since, whatever changes languages may have undergone, the Liturgy must at first have been in the language of the people; and now, too, I suppose that an Italian or Spanish, or even a French peasant, must be able to follow Latin devotions much more than any Saxon people.

The nomination of our Bishops by internal authority, in any primitive mode of election, would leave us what we wish to remain-English, not Italian or Spanish Catholics. Oakeley says that

"If the Pope is to exercise in a re-united England the power which he claims all over the world, of controlling the appointments to the Episcopate, it is quite certain that Bishops so nominated, or at least accepted by him, will, with the priests who are their subjects, be the instruments of flooding England with the devotions to which Dr. Pusey conscientiously objects"."

Yet, why so? The devotions which I spoke of as our difficulties, are no matters of faith. Though transplanted into England, they are not of English growth; they do not (as you pointed out) represent the theology of the old English Roman Catholics. I took them as I found them in an English dress.

4

* In the hymn of Corpus Christi,

"Dedit fragilibus Corporis ferculum,

Dedit et tristibus Sanguinis poculum."

Letter to the Most Rev. W. E. Manning, p. 53.