after another--as Christ spake them. For He took bread and blest, and
yet what blest He? The Scripture saith not that Christ took the bread
and blest it, or that He blest the bread which He had taken. Therefore
it seemeth more that He blest His disciples and apostles, whom He had
ordained witnesses of His passion; and in them He left His blest word,
which is the bread of life, as it is written, "Not only in bread liveth
man, but in every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Also
Christ saith, "I am the bread of life that came down from heaven." And
Christ saith also in John, "The words that I have spoken to you are
spirit and life." Therefore it seemeth more that He blest His disciples,
and also His apostles, in whom the bread of life was left more than in
material bread, for the material bread hath an end. As it is written in
the Gospel of Matthew xv. that Christ said, "All things that a man
eateth go down into the belly, and are sent down into the draught;" but
the blessing of Christ kept His disciples and apostles, both bodily and
[ghostly] spiritual. As it is written, that none of them perished but
the son of perdition, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, and often
the Scripture saith that Jesus took bread and brake it, and gave it to
his disciples, and said, "Take ye, eat ye, this is my body that shall be
given for you." But He said not this bread is my body, or that bread
should be given for the life of the world. For Christ saith, What and if
ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before? "It is the
Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." Also Christ saith
in the Gospel, "Verily, verily I say unto you except the wheat corn fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth
forth much fruit"
Here men may see by the words of Christ that it behooved that He died in
the flesh, and that in His death was made the fruit of everlasting life
for all them that believe on Him, as it is written "For as by Adam they
all die, even so by Christ shall all live, and every man in his own
order; for as one clearness is in the sun, another in the moon, and a
star in clearness is nothing in comparison to the sun; even so is the
rising again of the dead for we are sown in corruption and shall rise
again incorruptible, we are sown in infirmity, and shall rise again in
strength; we are sown in natural bodies, and shall rise again spiritual
bodies." Then if Christ shall change thus our deadly bodies by death,
and God the Father spared not his own Son, as it is written, but that
death should reign in him as in us, and that he should be translated
into a spiritual body, as the first rising again of dead men; then how
say the hypocrites that take on them to make our Lord's body? Make they
the glorified body? Either make they again the spiritual body which is
risen from death to life or make they the fleshy body as it was before
he suffered death? And if they say also that they make the spiritual
body of Christ, it may not be so, for what Christ said and did, He did
as He was at supper before He suffered His passion; as it is written
that the spiritual body of Christ rose again from death to life. Also
that He ascended up to heaven, and that He will abide there till He come
to judge the quick and the dead. And if they say that they make Christ's
body as it was before He had suffered His passion, then must they needs
grant that Christ is to die yet. For by all Holy Scriptures He was
promised to die, and that He should give lordship of everlasting life.
Furthermore, if they say that Christ made His body of bread, I ask, With
what words made He it? Not with these words, _Hoc est corpus meum_;
that is to say in English, "This is my body," for they are the words of
giving, and not of making, which He said after that He brake the bread;
then parting it among His disciples and apostles. Therefore if Christ
had made of that bread His body, [He] had made it in His blessing, or
else in giving of thanks, and not in the words of giving; for if Christ
had spoken of the material bread that He had in His hands when He said,
_Hoc est corpus meum_, "This is my body," it was made before, or else
the word had been a lie. For if I say, This is my hand, and if it be not
a hand, then am I a liar; therefore seek carefully if ye can find two
words of blessing, or of giving of thanks, wherewith Christ made his
body and blood of the bread and wine. And that all the clerks of the
earth know not, for if ye might find or know those words, then should ye
wax great masters above Christ, and then ye might be givers of His
substance, and as fathers and makers of Him, and that He should worship
you, as it is written, Thou shalt worship thy father and mother. Of such
as desire such worship against God's law, speaketh St. Paul of the man
of sin, that enhanceth himself as if he were God. And he is worshiped
over all things as God, and showeth himself as he were God. Where our
clergy are guilty in this, judge ye or they that know most, for they say
that when ye have said, _Hoc est corpus meum_, that is to say, "This is
my body;" which ye call the words of consecration, or else of making;
and when they are said over the bread, ye say that there is left no
bread, but it is the body of the Lord. So that in the bread there
remaineth nothing but a heap of accidents, as witness ruggedness,
roundness, savor, touching, and tasting, and such other accidents. Then,
if thou sayest that the flesh and blood of Christ, that is to say, his
manhood, is made more, or increased by so much as the ministration of
bread and wine is, the which ye minister--if ye say it is so--then thou
must needs consent that the thing which is not God today shall be God
tomorrow; yea, and that the thing which is without spirit of life, but
groweth in the field by kind, shall be God at another time. And we all
ought to believe that He was without beginning, and without ending; and
not made, for if the manhood of Christ were increased every day by so
much as the bread and wine draweth to that ye minister, He should
increase more in one day by cart-loads than He did in thirty-two years
when He was here in earth.
And if thou makest the body of the Lord in those words, _Hoc est corpus
meum_; that is to say, "This is my body"; and if thou mayest make the
body of the Lord in those words, "This is my body," thou thyself must be
the person of Christ, or else there is a false God; for if it be thy
body as thou sayest, then it is the body of a false knave or of a
drunken man, or of a thief, or of a lecherer, or full of other sins, and
then there is an unclean body for any man to worship for God! For even
if Christ had made there His body of material bread in the said words,
as I know they are not the words of making, what earthly man had power
to do as He did? For in all Holy Scripture, from the beginning of
Genesis to the end of the Apocalypse, there are no words written of the
making of Christ's body; but there are written that Christ was the Son
of the Father, and that He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and that he
took flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, and that He was dead, and that
He rose again from death on the third day, and that He ascended to
heaven very God and man, and that we should believe in all Scriptures
that are written of Him, and that He is to come to judge the quick and
the dead, and that the same Christ Jesus, King and Savior, was at the
beginning with the Father and the Holy Ghost, making all things of
naught, both heaven and earth, and all things that are therein; working
by word of His virtue, for He said, Be it done, and it was done, whose
works never earthly man might comprehend, either make. And yet the words
of the making of these things are written in the beginning of Genesis,
even as God spake them; and if ye can not make the work that He made,
and have the word by which He made it, how shall ye make Him that made
the works? You have no words of authority or power left you on earth by
which ye should do this, but ye have feigned this craft of your false
errors, which some of you understand not; for it is prophesied, "They
shall have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not; and shall see
prophesies, and shall not understand, less they be converted; for I hide
them from the hearts of those people; their hearts are greatly fatted."
And this thing is done to you for the wickedness of your errors in
unbelief; therefore be ye converted from the worst sin, as it is
written, "When Moses was in the hill with God," the people made a calf
and worshiped it as God. And God spake to Moses, "Go, for the people
have done the worst sin to make and worship alien gods."
But now I shall ask you a word; answer ye me, Whether is the body of the
Lord made at once or at twice? Is it both the flesh and the blood in the
host of the bread; or else is the flesh made at one time, and the blood
made at another time; that is to say, the wine in the chalice? If thou
wilt say it is full and wholly the manhood of Christ in the host of
bread, both flesh and blood, skin, hair, and bones, then makest thou us
to worship a false god in the chalice, which is unconjured when ye
worship the bread; and if ye say the flesh is in the bread, and the
blood in the wine, then thou must grant, if thy craft be true, as it is
not indeed, that the manhood of Christ is parted, and that He is made at
two times. For first thou takest the host of bread, or a piece of bread,
and makest it as ye say, and the innocent people worship it. And then
thou takest to thee the chalice, and likewise marrest, makest, I would
have said, the blood in it, and then they worship it also, and if it be
so as I am sure that the flesh and blood of Christ ascended, then are ye
false harlots to God and to us; for when we shall be houselled ye bring
to us the dry flesh, and let the blood be away; for ye give us after the
bread, wine and water, and sometimes clean water unblest, or rather
conjured, by the virtue of your craft; and yet ye say, under the host of
bread is the full manhood of Christ. Then by your own confession must it
needs be that we worship a false god in the chalice, which is unconjured
when we worship the bread, and worship the one as the other; but where
find ye that ever Christ or any of His disciples taught any man to
worship this bread or wine?
Therefore, what shall we say of the apostles that were so much with
Christ, and were called by the Holy Ghost; had they forgotten to set it
in the creed when they made it, which is Christian men's belief? Or else
we might say that they knew no such God, for they believe in no more
gods but in Him that was at the beginning, and made of naught all
things visible and invisible, which Lord took flesh and blood, being in
the Virgin, the same God. But ye have many false ways, to beguile the
innocent people with sleights of the fiend.
For ye say that in every host each piece is the whole manhood of Christ,
or full substance of Him. For ye say as a man may take a glass, and
break the glass into many pieces, and in every piece properly thou
mayest see thy face, and yet thy face is not parted; so ye say the
Lord's body is in each host or piece, and His body is not parted. And
this is a full subtle question to beguile an innocent fool, but will ye
take heed of this subtle question, how a man may take a glass and behold
the very likeness of his own face, and yet it is not his face, but the
likeness of his face; for if it were his very face, then he must needs
have two faces, one on his body and another in the glass. And if the
glass were broken in many places, so there should be many faces more by
the glass than by the body, and each man shall make as many faces to
them as they would; but as ye may see the mind or likeness of your face,
which is not the very face; but the figure thereof, so the bread is the
figure or mind of Christ's body in earth, and therefore Christ said, As
oft as ye do this thing do it in mind of me.
Also ye say this, As a man may light many candles at one candle, and
yet the light of that candle is never the more nor ever the less; so ye
say that the manhood of Christ descendeth into each part of every host,
and the manhood of Christ is never the more nor less. Where then
becometh your ministrations? For if a man light many candles at one
candle, as long as they burn there will be many candles lighted, and as
well the last candle as the first; and so by this reason, if ye shall
fetch your word at God, and make God, there must needs be many gods, and
that is forbidden in the first commandment, Exod. xx. And as for making
more, either making less, of Christ's manhood, it lieth not in your
power to come there nigh, neither to touch it, for it is ascended into
heaven in a spiritual body, which He suffered not Mary Magdalen to
touch, when her sins were forgiven to her.
Therefore all the sacraments that are left here in earth are but minds
of the body of Christ, for a sacrament is no more to say but a sign or
mind of a thing passed, or a thing to come; for when Jesus spake of the
bread, and said to His disciples, As ye do this thing, do it in mind of
me, it was set for a mind of good things passed of Christ's body; but
when the angel showed to John the sacraments of the woman and of the
beast that bare her, it was set for a mind of evil things to come on the
face of the earth, and great destroying of the people of God. And in
the old law there were many figures or minds of things to come. For
before Christ, circumcision was commanded by a law; and he that kept not
the law was slain. And yet St. Paul saith, "And neither is it
circumcision that is openly in the flesh, but he that is circumcised of
heart in spirit, not the letter whose praising is not of men, but of
God." Peter saith in the third chapter of his epistle, "And so baptism
of like form maketh not us safe, but the putting away of the filthiness
of the flesh, and the having of good conscience in God by the rising
again of our Lord Jesus Christ from death, that we should be made heirs
of everlasting life, He went up into heaven, and angels, and powers, and
virtues, are made subjects to Him."
And also the Scripture saith of John Baptist, that he preached in the
wilderness and said, "A stronger than I shall come after me, and I am
not worthy to kneel down and unlace His shoe;" and yet Christ said that
he was more than a prophet. See also Isaiah xl., Matt. xi. How may ye
then say that ye are worthy to make His body, and yet your works bear
witness that ye are less than the prophets? for if ye were not, ye
should not teach the people to worship the sacraments or minds of Christ
for Christ himself; which sacraments or figures are lawful as God taught
them and left them unto us, as the sacrifices or minds of the old law
were full good. As it is written, "They that kept them should live in
them." And so the bread that Christ brake was left to us for mind of
things passed for the body of Christ, that we should believe He was a
very man in kind as we are, but as God in power, and that His manhood
was sustained by food as ours. For St. Paul saith He was very man, and
in form he was found as man. And so we must believe that He was very God
and very man together, and that He ascended up very God and very man to
heaven, and that He shall be there till He come to doom the world. And
we may not see him bodily, being in this life, as it is written, Peter i.,
for he saith, "Whom ye have not seen ye love, into whom ye now not
seeing believe." And John saith in the first chapter of his Gospel, "No
man saw God; none but the only begotten Son that is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath told it out." And John saith in his first epistle, the
third chapter, "Every man that sinneth seeth not him, neither knoweth
him." By what reason then say ye that are sinners that ye make God?
truly this must needs be the worst sin, to say that ye make God, and it
is the abomination of discomfort that is said in Daniel the prophet to
be standing in the holy place; he that readeth let him understand.
Also Luke saith that Christ took the cup after that He had supped, and
gave thanks and said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood that
shall be shed unto the remission of sins for man." Now, what say ye; the
cup which He said was the new testament in His blood, was it a material
cup in which the wine was that He gave his disciples wine of, or was it
His most blest body in which the blest blood was kept till it was shed
out for the sins of them that should be made safe by His passion? Needs
must we say that He spake of His holy body, as He did when He called His
passion or suffering in body a cup, when He prayed to His father, before
He went to His passion, and said, "If it be possible that this cup pass
from me, but if thou wilt that I drink it, thy will be done?" He spake
not here of the material cup in which He had given His disciples drink;
for it troubled not Him, but He prayed for His great sufferance and
bitter death, the which He suffered for our sins and not for His own.
And if He spake of His holy body and passion when He said, "This cup is
the new testament in my blood," so He spake of His holy body when He
said, "This is my body which shall be given for you," and not of the
material bread which He had in His hand. Also in another place He called
His passion a cup, where the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him, and
asked of Him that her two sons, when He came to His kingdom, might sit
one on His right, and one at His left side. And He answered and said,
"Woman, thou wottest not what thou asketh; then He said to them, May ye
drink of the cup that I shall drink? and they said, Yea, Lord. And He
said, Ye shall drink of my cup, but to sit on my right hand or left hand
it is not mine to give, but to the Father it is proper." But in that He
said, Ye shall drink of my cup, He promised them to suffer tribulation
of this world as He did, by the which they should enter into life
everlasting, and to be both on his right hand. And thus ye may see that
Christ spake not of the material cup, neither of himself, nor of his
apostles, neither of material bread, neither of material wine. Therefore
let every man wisely, with meek prayers, and great study, and also
charity, read the words of God and holy Scriptures; but many of you are
like the mother of Zebedee's sons to whom Christ said, "Thou knowest not
what thou askest." So, many of you know not what ye ask, nor what you
do; for if ye did, ye would not blaspheme God as ye do, to set an alien
God instead of the living God. Also Christ saith, "I am a very vine;
wherefore then worship ye not the vine God, as ye do the bread? Wherein
was Christ a very vine, or wherein was the bread Christ's body, in
figurative speech, which is hidden to the understanding? Then if Christ
became not a material or an earthly vine, neither did a material vine
become His body. So neither the bread, material bread, was changed from
its substance to the flesh and blood of Christ."
Have ye not read in John the second, when Christ came into the temple,
they asked of Him what token He would show, that they might believe Him.
And He answered them, "Cast down this temple, and in three days I shall
raise it again;" which words were fulfilled in His rising again from
death; but when He said, "Undo this temple," in that that He said this,
they were in error, for they understood it fleshly, and had supposed
that He had spoken of the temple of Jerusalem, because He stood in it.
And therefore they accused Him at His passion full falsely. For He spake
of the temple of His blest body, which rose again in the third day. And
right so Christ spake of His holy body when He said, "This is my body
which shall be given for you," which was given to death, and to rising
again to bliss, for all that shall be saved by him. But like as they
accused him falsely of the temple of Jerusalem, so now a days they
accuse falsely against Christ, and say that Christ spake of the bread
that He brake among His apostles; for in that Christ said this, they are
deceived, take it fleshly, and turn it to the material bread, as the
Jews did to the temple; and on this false understanding they make
abomination of discomfort, as is said by Daniel the prophet, and in
Matthew xxiv., to be standing in the holy place; he that readeth let him
understand.
Now, therefore, pray we heartily to God, that this evil may be made
short for the chosen men, as He hath promised in His blest Gospel; and
the large and broad way that leadeth to perdition may be stopt, and the
straight and narrow way that leadeth to bliss may be made open by Holy
Scriptures, that we may know which is the will of God, to serve Him in
truth and holiness in the dread of God, that we may find by Him a way of
bliss everlasting. So be it.
SAVONAROLA
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Girolamo Savonarola was born at Ferrara in 1452, and was admitted in
1475 into the novitiate of the Dominican Order, where he soon made
himself conspicuous for eloquence, and in Florence attracted many
hearers by his diatribes against corruption. Florence, having lost its
independence as a republic, was completely under the sway of the Medici,
who became arrayed against Savonarola, who aimed at establishing an
ideal Christian commonwealth. When he attacked the Pope Alexander VI.
his doom was practically sealed. In 1495 he was forbidden to appear in
the pulpit, and four years later was excommunicated. He rebelled against
papal authority, but the people of Florence grew tired of the strict
rule of conduct imposed by his teaching, and he was imprisoned and tried
for heresy and sedition. On May 23, 1498, he was hanged and his body
burned. His puritanism, his bold rebuking of vice, his defiance of every
authority excepting that of his own conscience, seem to anticipate the
efforts made by Calvin to regenerate Geneva. Both men failed in their
splendid attempts at social reformation, but both left an example of
heroic altho somewhat short-sighted unselfishness, which has borne fruit
in history.
SAVONAROLA
1452--1498
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST[1]
[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of Messrs. G.P. Putnam's Sons from
"The World's Orations," the translation having been copyrighted by
Messrs. Putnams.]
_While he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into
heaven_.--Luke xxiv., 51.
Beloved in Christ Jesus, the wise men of this world divide all created
things into two classes; one class they name substances, the other
accidents. The substances are those things that exist through themselves
without requiring anything else on which to rest, as the earth, water,
air, the heavens, animals, stones, plants, and similar things. The
accidents can not exist by themselves, but only by resting on something
else, as color, odor, taste, and other such things. But because our
knowledge is entirely through the senses, and we are able to know
anything only when its accidents fall upon our senses, we have,
therefore, knowledge of the accidents rather than of the substances. The
eyes are for colors, the ears for sounds, the nose for scents, the
tongue for flavors, the touch for heat and cold, for hard and soft. Each
sense has its own sphere of knowledge and brings what it has perceived
before the imagination, and this hands it over to the reason within,
which reads and illuminates the productions of the imagination, judges
them, and in this way comes to a knowledge of the substances. But the
reason has little light if it is separated from the body, for God has
joined soul and body together; and so by means of the senses knowledge
becomes definite and complete. For if the soul out of the body were
richer in knowledge, it would be in vain that it should be in the body.
God and nature have done nothing in vain, and therefore the soul's union
with the body ministers to its perfection.