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 0W * m ^fo^r 
 
 ^LOGICAL SE*^' 
 
 BV 825 .M66 1897 
 
 Morris , David 
 
 The growth of sacrificial 
 
 ideas 
 
THE 
 
 GROWTH OF SACRIFICIAL IDEAS 
 
 CONNECTED WITH 
 
 THE HOLY EUCHARIST 
 
 a 
 
THE 
 
 GROWTH OF SACRIFICIAL IDEAS 
 
 CONNECTED WITH 
 
 THE HOLY EUCHARIST 
 
 READ BEFORE THE LIVERPOOL CLERICAL SOCIETY 
 AND PUBLISHED AT ITS REQUEST 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 DAVID MORRIS, B.A. 
 
 CHAPLAIN H.M. PRISON, LIVERPOOL 
 
 AUTHOR OF " A CLASS-BOOK HISTORY OF ENGLAND," 
 
 JOINT-EDITOR OF "ANNOTATED POEMS OF ENGLISH AUTHORS,' 
 
 ETC. 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 
 1897 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
SYNOPSIS. 
 
 I. FIRST PERIOD: TO THE AGE OF CYPRIAN. 
 
 i. Scriptural definition of Sacrifice. 
 
 2. Apostolic conceptions of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 3. The Agape and the Eucharist. 
 
 4. New Testament silence regarding a Sacerdotium. 
 
 5. Primitive Church Sacrifices. 
 
 6. Testimony of — 
 
 (a) Epistle of Barnabas. 
 (£) Clement of Rome. . 
 
 (c) Justin Martyr : his use of UoteZv. 
 
 (d) Athenagoras. 
 (tf) Irenaeus. 
 
 (fi) Clement of Alexandria. 
 
 (£•) Tertullian : his use of Sacerdos. 
 
 (Ji) Origen. 
 
 II. SECOND PERIOD: TO GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 1. Cyprian and the Eucharistic Memorial. 
 
 2. Lactantius. 
 
 3. Eusebius : his explanation of Unbloody Sacrifices. 
 
 4. Predominance of the Eucharistic Memorial to the exclusion 
 
 of more primitive views. 
 
 5. Paganism and Christianity. 
 
 6. Rhetorical language of the post-Nicene Fathers. 
 
 7. Materialistic views of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. 
 
 III. THIRD PERIOD : TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 1. Paschasius Radbertus : his definite materialistic view of the 
 
 Eucharist. 
 
 2. Ratramnus : his primitive Church teaching. 
 
 3. Transubstantiation. 
 
 4. The Mass Sacrifice of the Council of Trent. 
 
 5. The new Sacerdotium. 
 
 IV. APPENDIX. 
 
 1. IlcxeTi. 
 
 2. 'Avd/Avrj<ns. 
 
The growth of the idea of sacrifice in con- 
 nection with the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper is not only an interesting subject 
 of investigation for the historical student, 
 but it is also one of the greatest import- 
 ance to the Christian believer. I propose 
 to trace the history of this growth during 
 the three following marked periods : (i) 
 to the age of Cyprian ; (2) to Gregory the 
 Great ; (3) to the Council of Trent. 
 
 It is necessary, in the first place, to have 
 a clear idea of the meaning of sacrifice, 
 and especially as it was understood by 
 the Jews in the days of our Lord. Various 
 definitions of the word have been given in 
 later times by theologians, to suit their 
 respective opinions ; but we must look for 
 the right meaning to scriptural instruction. 
 v B 
 
2 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 The Old Testament Scriptures, therefore, 
 describe a sacrifice under the four follow- 
 ing particulars : — 
 
 i. It is a thing offered or rendered up 
 to God, or the act of offering or rendering 
 it up to Him. 
 
 2. The thing offered is either visible and 
 material, or invisible and spiritual — visible 
 and material, as a lamb ; invisible and 
 spiritual, as praise. 1 And the act of offer- 
 ing is either visible and ceremonial, or 
 invisible and spiritual, as the offering 
 itself. 
 
 3. The material thing offered is not 
 anything whatsoever indifferently, but one 
 or more of certain things presented by 
 Divine appointment. 
 
 4. The thing offered as a material sacri- 
 fice is slain, if it be a living thing ; or, if 
 an inanimate thing, the " memorial " 2 of 
 
 1 Ps. xxvii. 6 ; 1. 23 ; Jer. xvii. 26 ; Ps. cvii 22 ; 
 cxvi. 17. 2 Lev. ii. 2, 12. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 3 
 
 it was burnt, and the whole was thus an 
 
 offering to the Lord made by fire. 1 In 
 both cases, life or being was destroyed. 2 
 
 Such were the conceptions of sacrifice 
 which the Apostles possessed on the night 
 of the institution of the sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper. Now let us consider what 
 took place on that occasion, and endeavour 
 to realize the impressions made upon the 
 minds of the disciples there assembled. 
 The occasion was a feast upon a sacrifice 
 — the joyous commemoration of national 
 deliverance. The festival itself was not a 
 sacrifice, though the blessings, and thanks- 
 givings, and hymns of praise which at- 
 tended the anniversary were truly in- 
 visible and bloodless sacrifices. The 
 partakers of the feast occupied a recum- 
 bent position, as became men rejoicing in 
 their freedom, and as expressive of their 
 
 1 Lev. i. 2, 10, 14. 
 
 2 Vid. Vogan, " Doctrine of Eucharist." 
 
4 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 equality and liberty. 1 At such a time as 
 this the Lord Jesus instituted His own 
 special feast, and distributed the same to 
 His recumbent disciples. The latter un- 
 doubtedly understood that their old Pass- 
 over commemoration was henceforth to be 
 superseded by this new service. They 
 also perceived the cessation of the material 
 offerings of the Old Dispensation, and the 
 inauguration of the New Covenant of love 
 and fellowship, as well in its human as in 
 its Divine relations. 
 
 But it is pertinent to ask how did this 
 institution strike them with reference to 
 their accustomed ideas of sacrifice? Did 
 they look upon our Lord's action as a 
 sacrifice which they, also, were to perform ; 
 or, as the sign of a sacrifice which they 
 were ever to keep in memory, and upon 
 which they were to feast with joyous 
 thanksgiving? The facts and circum- 
 
 1 Edersheim, "The Temple," p. 201. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 5 
 
 stances of the occasion afford a satis- 
 factory answer. That upper room was no 
 place of sacrifice. It had no altar of sacri- 
 fice. It was a time unlawful for sacrifice. 
 The reclining posture of those joining in 
 the meal was no posture of sacrifice. The 
 Lord Jesus offered no words of sacrifice 
 other than the blessings and thanksgivings 
 which the president of the Passover feast 
 was accustomed to offer, as invisible, reason- 
 able, spiritual sacrifices. 1 The disciples, 
 therefore, Jews as they were, could not 
 possibly regard the Lord's action as a 
 sacrifice of Himself then made. The in- 
 spired, as well as the uninspired, records, 
 which soon appeared leave no doubt about 
 it in any impartial mind. This is also 
 confirmed by the discussions which took 
 place in the Council of Trent, 1562, when 
 the Fathers and Divines were equally 
 divided in opinion, and the contrary 
 
 1 Vid. Dr. Stephens's argument in Bennett case. 
 
6 GrowtJi of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 opinion was carried, in spite of powerful 
 arguments on the other side, chiefly by 
 the intrigues of the Jesuit Salmeron, who 
 feared for the doctrine of the Mass Sacri- 
 fice, as then commonly understood. But 
 it is worth observing that they did not 
 describe the sacrifice as propitiatory} 
 
 The Acts of the Apostles show that the 
 disciples connected this new service with 
 their daily meal, and described it as, or 
 
 1 Sarpi, "Hist, of Council of Trent," pp. 518, 519 
 (Brent's trans. : London, 1676). The Anglican divines 
 of the seventeenth century deny that our Lord offered 
 any sacrifice of Himself in the Supper. It should be 
 observed that the decision of the Trentine Council 
 is contrary to the statement of the old Canon of 
 the Mass in the Latin Church, which gives our Lord's 
 words about His blood-shedding in the future tense, 
 effundetur. Attention is drawn to this by the learned 
 Romanist Picherellus, who also says that "it is no- 
 where read that Christ sacrificed to God in the Supper, 
 and commanded that we, by this example, should sacrifice 
 for the remission of sins" ("Quod autem Christus in 
 Ccena Deo sacrificaverit, jusseritque ut hoc exemplo in 
 remissionem peccatorum sacrificaremus, nullibi legitur." 
 — " De Missa.") 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 7 
 
 included in it, "the breaking of bread." 1 
 Surely such a description is wholly in- 
 adequate, if they understood the Divine 
 Institution to be in itself an expiatory 
 sacrifice. How soon these common meals 
 received the name of " a feast of Love " — 
 Agape — it is impossible to say, but they 
 are so named in the Epistle of St Jude, 2 
 and are referred to by St. Paul. 3 It is 
 asserted by Dr. Wordsworth, Bishop of 
 Salisbury, that the Eucharist must have 
 borne for a time the name of Agape. 4 It 
 is certain that for a long period of time 
 the celebration of our Lord's memorial 
 took place during these assemblies, and 
 usually at the close ; 5 and though the 
 words " Communion " and " Lord's Supper" 
 
 1 Acts ii. 46 ; xx. 7, 11 ; I Cor. x. 16 ; Cf. Bp. Words- 
 worth, "The Holy Communion," p. 30. 
 
 2 Ver. 12. 
 
 3 1 Cor. xi. 20-22. 
 
 4 "The Holy Communion," p. 41. 
 
 5 Ibid., 60, 77, 80 ; " Canons of Hippolytus," sect. 4. 
 
8 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 had been used by St. Paul 1 with reference 
 to it, the name Agape predominated till, 
 at least, the first quarter of the second 
 century. Ignatius so uses it in his Epistle 
 to the Smyrnaeans. 2 
 
 It is evident, therefore, from the cha- 
 racter of these assemblies, and the pre- 
 dominance of the name Agape, that the 
 primitive Christians regarded their Divine 
 Master's memorial service as a new Paschal 
 Supper, in which they received something 
 from God, and in which they offered no 
 gift to Him except their hymns of praise 
 and thanksgiving. If they believed that 
 it was instituted to be a propitiatory sacri- 
 fice, requiring a sacerdotiiun for its due 
 performance, then it is strange, passing 
 strange, that not a hint is given of this most 
 momentous doctrine by the writers of the 
 
 1 I Cor. x. 16 ; xi. 20. 
 
 2 Cap. 7> <rvve<p£p€v 5e <xvto7s ayairuv "va kclI ava£wcrii> : 
 cap. 8, oure aydmju iroie'tv. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 9 
 
 New Testament, or by those of the sub- 
 Apostolic Age, or by the Fathers of later 
 centuries. " Surely," said the late Cardinal 
 Newman, " it is too momentous, too awful 
 a gift, to be transmitted in silence. It 
 constitutes a new religion. It is the formal 
 cause, the constituting rite, of the Catholic 
 Church : where it is not, there is no 
 Church." 1 
 
 If there be such a gift, it has been trans- 
 mitted in silence ; for there is not a vestige 
 of it in the New Testament, or in any of 
 the primitive records. 2 
 
 1 Preface to Hutton's "The Anglican Ministry." 
 
 2 St. Paul describes the ministerial officers of the 
 Church as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and 
 teachers (Eph. iv. n). These, he says, were given by 
 the ascended Saviour for a definite purpose, viz. " the 
 perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the 
 edifying of the body of Christ" (ver. 12). There is no 
 mention here of a sacrificing priesthood, so "momentous," 
 "so awful," so essential to the existence of a Church, 
 according to Cardinal Newman's opinion. If St. Paul 
 believed in such a sacerdotitim, surely this is the place 
 where he would have mentioned the fact. His silence, in 
 
io Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 But it should not be forgotten that the 
 first Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, 
 were imbued with the idea and associa- 
 tions of sacrifice. And the same fact 
 holds good with regard to the pagan 
 philosophers and other prominent men 
 who, in later times, submitted to Christi- 
 anity, and held high positions in the 
 Church, as Athenagoras, Clement of Alex- 
 andria, Cyprian, and Ambrose. They had 
 been accustomed to approach the Divinity 
 by means of external sacrifice. When, 
 therefore, the ancient forms were dis- 
 carded, the ancient name of sacrifice was 
 applied to the new ways of approaching 
 God. The word "sacrifice" was accordingly 
 a common expression among Christians, 
 
 a passage dealing specially with the functions and pur- 
 poses of the Church's divinely appointed officers, is the 
 strongest protest conceivable against the mediaeval 
 sacerdotal view of the ministerial office consequent of 
 the accretions to the primitive doctrines of the Holy 
 Eucharist. 
 
connected with the Eucharist, n 
 
 and was applied to every action of the 
 religious life. 1 "Believers," says St. 
 Peter, " are a holy priesthood, to offer up 
 spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God ; " 2 
 and in various parts of the New Testament 
 these spiritual sacrifices are described as 
 consisting of praise? of faith? of alms- 
 giving? of devotion of the body? of the con- 
 version of unbelievers? and such like. It 
 is well to observe in passing that, accord- 
 ing to St. Peter, " spiritual sacrifices " are 
 the only ones the holy priesthood is to 
 
 1 Vid. "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," ch. xiv. : 
 Koto nvpia.KT]v Se Kvpiov * crvvaxdeuns /C/VdVare ciprov iced 
 ei'XopiO'TTjo'aTe irpo(T-e^o l uoAoyr]adjj.evoi to irapavTw/MaTa 
 v/jL<av haus tcaOapa rj Boaia v/xwu. 
 
 2 I Pet. ii. 5. 
 
 3 Heb. xiii. 15. 4 Phil. ii. 17. 
 
 5 Acts xxiv. 17 ; Phil. iv. 18 ; Heb. xiii. 16. 
 
 6 Rom. xii. 1. 7 Rom. xv. 16. 
 
 * " On the Lord's day of the Lord, having gathered 
 together, break bread and give thanks, confessing your 
 sins, that your sacrifice may be pure." The word " sac- 
 rifice " is evidently not applied to anything objective, for 
 it is manifestly stibjective in meaning. 
 
12 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 offer up. The expression leaves no room 
 for any other kind. It is, therefore, im- 
 possible to imagine a meeting of Christians 
 for common worship without such sacri- 
 fices mentioned above. These, also, they 
 named in their prayers, and presented to 
 the Almighty Father for His gracious 
 acceptance. 
 
 The glimpses of the early Christian 
 communities, during the first century, are, 
 outside the covers of the New Testament, 
 very limited. The epistle attributed to 
 Barnabas, of which only a Latin version 
 remains, and that of Clement of Rome to 
 the Corinthians, are the chief sources of in- 
 formation ; and there is nothing in either 
 of them to show any change of doctrine. 
 The former, writing about A.D. 71, speaks 
 of the ancient sacrifices as having been 
 made void by God in order to bring in 
 the human oblation of the new law of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and this he proceeds to 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 13 
 
 explain as the sacrifice of a broken and 
 contrite heart, referring to Psalm li. 17. 
 Clement's Epistle was penned nearly a 
 quarter of a century later. He uses the 
 word oblation, and speaks of the episcopal 
 function of offering the gifts — expressions 
 which ' competent critics refer to the 
 Eucharist as a very probable explanation 
 of their use. He also speaks very fre- 
 quently of sacrifices as the obligations of 
 Christians. Here, then, we have sacrifices, 
 gifts, oblations, or offerings, in close con- 
 nection. But what are these sacrifices ? 
 and in what sense are the presbyters said 
 to have presented or offered the gifts? 
 An answer to the former question is found 
 in parallel passages of the Epistle, where 
 Clement, like Barnabas, dwells upon "the 
 sacrifice of a troubled spirit ; " " the sac- 
 rifice of praise ; " the sacrifice of prayer ; " 
 " the giving of thanks ; " in short, the 
 devotion of body, soul, and spirit to God. 
 
14 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 And this devotion, on its practical side, 
 affords an answer to the second question. 
 Every member of the Church, even the 
 poorest, brought some offering to the 
 weekly assembly, 1 and presented it to 
 the bishop, or president, as a contribution 
 for the common feast, or for holy uses, or 
 for some other special object ; and God's 
 acceptance and blessing were sought for 
 every one's oblation. 2 Clement, referring 
 to the presbyters offering the gifts, plainly 
 means, as the late Bishop Lightfoot ex- 
 plains, that, "they led the prayers and 
 thanksgivings of the congregation ; they 
 presented the alms and contributions to 
 God, and asked His blessing on them in 
 the name of the whole body." 3 In addi- 
 tion to these functions, they selected from 
 the offertory bread and wine for the 
 
 1 Cf. i Cor. xvi. 2. 
 
 2 This custom is retained in our Coronation Service. 
 
 3 Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 15 
 
 commemoration of the Lord's Passion, 
 and, after presenting them also for God's 
 blessing, gave them back to the people 
 as Divine food. 
 
 Clement affords us no further informa- 
 tion upon this subject, so that, up to the 
 end of the first century, there is no testi- 
 mony of any change of doctrine with 
 respect to the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Here I desire to call attention to the 
 common use, by the Fathers early and late, 
 of the verb irpovfytpuv, " to offer," in con- 
 nection with Christian sacrifice. By itself 
 it is not a sacrificial term. In the Septua- 
 gint it is generally used of the people's act 
 of bringing offerings, rarely of the action 
 of ministers. In the New Testament it is 
 the commonest word for " to offer," or " to 
 present," * and so it is used by Justin 
 Martyr to express the act of the deacons 
 
 1 Brightman, " Eastern Liturgies," glossary of tech- 
 nical terms. 
 
1 6 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 presenting bread and wine to the presi- 
 dent. So general was the use of this verb, 
 that the act of communicating or ad- 
 ministering the Eucharist was in Church 
 language described as " to offer." * 
 
 By the middle of the second century we 
 find, in the writings of Justin Martyr, the 
 Eucharist spoken of under the name of 
 sacrifice or sacrifices? If the " Teaching 
 of the Twelve Apostles " appeared before 
 his time, as Bishop Wordsworth thinks, 3 
 the word sacrifice or sacrifices must have 
 been used commonly in this sense for a 
 considerable period ; but they by no 
 means imply material offerings of pro- 
 pitiation. Oblation and sacrifice were at 
 this time used synonymously. The offer- 
 ings of the people were, as I have already 
 stated, the visible proofs or signs of their 
 invisible devotional spirit, and might 
 
 1 Vid. Waterland, vol. vii. p. 27. 2 Id., vii. 36. 
 
 3 "The Holy Communion," p. 8. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. iy 
 
 properly be called, according to the laws 
 of language, by the name of that which 
 they signified. The invisible condition of 
 the soul was a spiritual sacrifice, which, 
 without question, might give its name to 
 the visible sign. That these offerings 
 were called sacrifices is shown in the 
 Bidding Prayers of the Apostolical Con- 
 stitutions : "Let us pray for those that 
 make oblations in the holy Church and 
 give arms to the poor. Let us pray for 
 those that offer their sacrifices and first- 
 fruits to the Lord our God ; that the most 
 gracious God would reward them with 
 heavenly gifts, and restore them a hundred- 
 fold in this world, and grant them ever- 
 lasting life in the world to come ; giving 
 them heavenly things for their earthly, and 
 for their temporal things those that are 
 eternal." * St. Cyprian asks a rich woman 
 how she could think she celebrated the 
 
 1 Bingham, lib. xv. cap. 1. 
 
1 8 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 Lord's Supper, who had no respect to the 
 Corban ; or how she could come into the 
 Lord's House without a sacrifice, and eat 
 part of the sacrifice which a poor person 
 had offered." 1 St. Augustine also said 
 " that a man of ability ought to blush if he 
 has communicated of another man's obla- 
 tion, and therefore he exhorts every one 
 to bring their own oblations to be conse- 
 crated at the altar." 2 Similar illustrations 
 are found in the ancient liturgies. Here 
 is one, as a specimen, from the Liturgy 
 of St. Mark: "Accept, O God, by Thy 
 ministering Archangels at Thy holy, 
 heavenly, and reasonable altar in the 
 spacious heavens, the thank-offerings of 
 those who offer sacrifices, offerings, and 
 of those who desire to offer much or little, 
 in secret or openly, but have it not to 
 give. Accept the offerings of those who 
 have presented them this day, as thou 
 
 1 Bingham, lib. xv, cap. 2. - Id., lib. xv. cap. 2. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 19 
 
 didst accept the gifts of Thy righteous 
 Abel," etc. 1 
 
 Of special interest is the illustration of 
 the opening prayer in the " The Canon of 
 the Mass : " " We therefore humbly pray 
 and beseech Thee, most merciful Father, 
 through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord, 
 that thou wouldst vouchsafe to accept and 
 bless these gifts, these presents, these holy 
 unspotted sacrifices." 2 
 
 Justin Martyr is quoted by those who 
 
 1 This Prayer in " the Thanksgiving " is said after the 
 " the Prayer of Oblation." 
 
 2 Vid. "Canons of Hippolytus," in Guardian, Feb. 
 12, 1896. In the Western Church the laity, men and 
 women, still continued in the ninth century to offer 
 bread and wine, and in much larger quantities than was 
 wanted for consecration. Amalarius, who spread a 
 knowledge of the Roman ritual in Gaul in the ninth 
 century, reproves persons for not making offerings, and 
 says that by such conduct they confess that they do not 
 keep Christ's passion in remembrance. He also says, 
 "All the people entering the Church ought to offer 
 sacrifice to God " {vid. Bishop Wordsworth, " Holy Com- 
 munion," pp. 121, 122). The practice continued to com- 
 paratively late times in many parts of the West (vid. 
 Bingham, lib. xv. cap. 2). 
 
20 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 advocate a material sacrifice in the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper in favour of 
 their view. His language, on the face of it, 
 seems to afford grounds for such an opinion ; 
 but, unless he is to be charged with gross 
 inconsistency, his meaning is different. 
 Referring to the prophecy of Mai. i. 
 10-12, he calls the bread and cup of the 
 Eucharist the sacrifices which are offered 
 to God in every place by the Gentiles ; 1 
 but, in a later part of the same book, he 
 alludes to the prophet's words as " the 
 sacrifices which Jesus the Christ enjoined 
 us to offer, that is, in the Eucharist (or 
 thanksgiving — ettl rrj ev^apicrria tov aprov 
 kol rod TTOTripiov) of the bread and the 
 cup." 2 How are these different statements 
 to be reconciled ? The key of the solution 
 is to be sought in what he says elsewhere, 
 coupled with what has been already estab- 
 lished with regard to the offerings of the 
 
 1 Dial. C Try., cap. 41. 2 Id., c. 117. 
 
connected with the Eucharist, 21 
 
 people : and the meaning of the Lord's com- 
 mand. In the "Apology," Justin writes : 
 " We have received by tradition that God 
 does not need the material offerings which 
 men can give, seeing, indeed, that He 
 Himself is the provider of all things." 1 
 
 In the "Dialogue" he says "that prayer 
 and giving of thanks, when offered by 
 worthy men, are the only perfect and well- 
 pleasing sacrifices to God, I also admit. 
 For such alone have Christians received to 
 offer, even in the remembrance effected by 
 their solid and liquid food, whereby the 
 suffering of the Son of God, which He 
 endured, is brought to mind." 2 Here he 
 definitely and distinctly excludes material 
 offerings, and states absolutely that prayers 
 and giving of thanks are the only perfect 
 and well-pleasing sacrifices, and that these 
 alone are offered in the memorial of the 
 Lord's passion. It is clear, therefore, that 
 
 1 Apol., i. c. 10. 2 Dial. c. Try., 117. 
 
22 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 when he calls the bread and cup of the 
 Eucharist "sacrifices," he is using a figure 
 of speech, metonymy, which I have shown 
 to be common among Christians. The 
 above quotations also explain the expres- 
 sion, " the sacrifices which Jesus the Christ 
 enjoined us to offer," that is, take bread, 
 bless, give thanks, break, distribute, and 
 eat it in remembrance of Him ; and the 
 cup in like manner — the whole of the 
 actions, bear in mind, making up a Chris- 
 tian sacrifice. The prayers and thanks- 
 givings, incidental to such an obedient 
 service, were also included in the sacrifices 
 understood by Justin, and which, in later 
 times, gave the title of " Eucharistic 
 Sacrifice " to this commemoration. It is 
 important to remember the latter fact, for 
 the name is frequently perverted from its 
 spiritual meaning to imply an external, 
 visible, material offering. 1 
 
 1 The Roman Catholic theologian, Melchior Canus, 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 23 
 
 In comparatively modern times attempts 
 have been made to give a sacrificial mean- 
 ing to Justin's use of ttoluv. Scholars see 
 in such an attempt the confession of a 
 very weak cause — the clutching of a drown- 
 ing man at straws. Ignatius, in his Epistle 
 to the Smyrnseans, uses the same verb 
 with an object, " love-feast " (aydrnqv ttoluv), 
 i.e. to hold, or make, a love-feast ; so if 
 Justin's aprov ttoluv is to be construed 
 " to offer bread " in sacrifice, the expres- 
 sion of Ignatius might also be rendered 
 "to offer a love -feast" sacrificially. The 
 absurdity of the thing is its own refuta- 
 tion. It suffices to say that the sacrificial 
 interpretation of ttoluv was first started 
 
 says, " For to give thanks after the Jewish manner, and 
 take the cup into his hands and lift it up, is truly to 
 offer a saa:ifice of Thanksgiving. When Christ, there- 
 fore said, 'Do this,' he plainly commanded His apostles, 
 that what they saw Him do, they should do also, by 
 offering up a sacrifice of Eucharist, that is, of giving of 
 thanks" {vid. Gibson, "Preservative against Popery," 
 P- 7o). 
 
24 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 by some obscure writers in the sixteenth 
 century ; and that there is a vast consensus 
 of divines, Roman and Protestant, against 
 such an interpretation. Certainly no ancient 
 Father has been found who takes iroiuTt 
 of the Gospel to mean "sacrifice" or 
 11 offer ; " and no such rendering has been 
 forthcoming from any ancient Version, or 
 any ancient Liturgy. 1 
 
 A generation later than Justin brings 
 us to the times of the converted philoso- 
 pher, Athenagoras. In his "Plea for the 
 Christians" he writes: "The Framer and 
 Father of this Universe does not need 
 blood, or the odour of burnt-offerings, or 
 the fragrance of flowers and incense . . . 
 but the noblest sacrifice to Him is that 
 we might know who stretched out and 
 vaulted the Heavens, etc., . . . and lift up 
 holy hands to Him. . . . What have I to 
 
 1 Cf. Dimock, " The Eucharist considered in its 
 Sacrificial Aspect," p. 20. See Appendix. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 25 
 
 do with burnt-offerings which God has no 
 need of? But it is meet to offer a blood- 
 less sacrifice, and to present the rational 
 service." * 
 
 Here we have evidence of the continued 
 use of the expression amongst Christians 
 of offering sacrifice ; but it is also clear 
 that its meaning was understood to be 
 the spiritual sacrifices of prayers and purity 
 of life — offerings which were free from 
 blood and consistent with reason. 
 
 There are two important and suggestive 
 expressions used by this Father which are 
 not found in previous patristic writings, 
 viz. "bloodless sacrifice" and "the rational 
 service." The latter phrase was most pro- 
 bably copied from St. Paul's Epistle to 
 the Romans (xii. 1). They became very 
 popular, as we may see from their use by 
 later writers, and especially by their fre- 
 quent appearance together in all the 
 
 1 Cap. 13. Cf. Waterland, p. 360. 
 
26 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 ancient liturgies. It is well, then, to 
 notice here, on their first appearance, that 
 Athenagoras used them as synonymous. 
 It is also of moment to observe that he 
 did not apply the expression "unbloody 
 sacrifice " particularly to the Eucharist, 
 but to spiritual and reasonable service in 
 general ; and this same use and meaning 
 are employed by the Fathers of the fourth 
 century, as we shall see presently. 
 
 Contemporary with Athenagoras was 
 Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons. His references 
 to the Eucharist are not only more lucid 
 than those of previous writers, but they 
 are also important as witnesses of the 
 common belief of both Eastern and 
 Western Christendom at the end of the 
 second century, because his early man- 
 hood was associated with Polycarp in 
 Asia Minor, and his latter days were spent 
 as a Western bishop. He contrasts the 
 sacrifices of the Old and New Dispensa- 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 27 
 
 tions, calling the former typical and the 
 latter trtie. According to him, "the true 
 sacrifice" was that of the contrite heart, 
 thus repeating the teaching of Barnabas 
 and Clement of Rome ; and this he 
 amplifies by the addition of faith, obedience, 
 righteousness, the sacrifice of praise, etc., 
 quoting passages from the Old and New 
 Testaments in illustration. 1 
 
 He, like Justin Martyr, refers to the 
 prophecy of Malachi, and explains the 
 " incense " to be " the prayers of the 
 saints," as stated in the Apocalypse. 2 The 
 " pure offering " of that prophecy he applies 
 to the bread and wine of the Eucharist — 
 "the firstfruits of God's created things," 
 as he calls them, 3 — and this oblation of 
 the Church, he says, "is accounted with 
 God a pure sacrifice, and is acceptable with 
 Him." 4 But he proceeds to explain why 
 
 1 Iren., lib. iv. c. 17. 2 Rev. v. 8. 
 
 3 Iren., lib. iv. c. 17. 4 Ibid., c. 18. 
 
28 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 it is so accounted a pure sacrifice. The 
 material oblation of itself is worthless 
 apart from the state of heart of those who 
 offer it. It is the pure conscience of the 
 offerer, he declares, that makes the sacrifice 
 pure and acceptable ; and because " the 
 Church offers with single-mindedness, her 
 gift is justly reckoned a pure sacrifice with 
 God. As Paul also says to the Philippians, 
 * I am full, having received from Epaphro- 
 ditus the things that were sent from you, 
 the odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice 
 acceptable, pleasing to God.' For it be- 
 hoves us to make an oblation to God, and 
 in all things to be found grateful to God 
 our Maker, in a pure mind, and in faith 
 without hypocrisy, in well-grounded hope, 
 in fervent love, offering the firstfruits of 
 His own created things. And the Church 
 alone offers this pure oblation to the 
 Creator, offering to Him, with giving of 
 thanks, from His creation. But the Jews 
 
connected with the Eucharist 29 
 
 do not offer thus ; for their hands are full 
 of blood. . . . Now we make offering to 
 Him, not as though He stood in need of 
 it, but rendering thanks for His gift, and 
 thus sanctifying what has been created. 
 For even as God does not need our pos- 
 sessions, so do we need to offer something 
 to God ; as Solomon says, * He that hath 
 pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord.' 
 For God, who stands in need of nothing, 
 takes our good works to Himself for this 
 purpose, that He may grant us a recom- 
 pense of His own good things, as our Lord 
 says, ' Come, ye blessed children,' etc. 1 
 As, therefore, He does not stand in need 
 of these (services), yet does desire that 
 we should render them for our own benefit, 
 lest we be unfruitful ; so did the Word 
 give to the people that very precept as 
 to the making of oblations, although He 
 stood in no need of them, that they might 
 
 1 Matt. xxv. 34, etc. 
 
30 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 learn to serve God : thus is it, therefore, 
 also His will that we, too, should offer a 
 gift at the altar, frequently and without 
 intermission. The altar, then, is in heaven, 
 for towards that place are our prayers and 
 oblations directed." * 
 
 It is plain from this passage, to any un- 
 prejudiced critic, that "the oblation of the 
 Church" — "the pure offering" — was not 
 the bread and wine in themselves, but the 
 gratitude, thanksgiving, devotion, inward 
 purity with which by these gifts God's 
 goodness was recognized. These spiritual 
 conditions, together with the exercise of 
 benevolence and personal services to the 
 needy, constituted the pure offering — the 
 new oblation of the new Covenant, — and 
 this was put in contrast with the impure 
 offerings of the Jews under the old 
 Covenant, "whose hands were full of 
 blood." The allusion (the first in patristic 
 
 1 Iren., lib. iv. cap. 18. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 31 
 
 writings) to the heavenly altar excludes 
 a material sacrifice below, inasmuch as 
 there is not, according to Irenaeus, any 
 terrestrial place of sacrifice. The material 
 oblation, besides, did not partake of the 
 nature of a proper sacrifice. Not a particle 
 of it was destroyed in God's immediate 
 service, or separated as a Divine portion. 
 The whole of it was for man's appropriation. 
 
 The idea of a heavenly altar was fre- 
 quently used by succeeding Christian 
 writers, and in process of time was included 
 in most of the ancient liturgies, often- 
 times with the epithet mystical. The ex- 
 pression "pure offering or sacrifice," in 
 reference to the unconsecrated elements, 
 was similarly treated. 
 
 Egypt furnishes the next witness on 
 this subject in the person of Clement of 
 Alexandria, and with him we have the 
 teaching of the Church in the early part 
 of the third century. He makes no direct 
 
32 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 application of the word " sacrifice " to any 
 part of the Eucharistic service, but he 
 freely uses it to express the spiritual 
 condition and religious services of holy 
 men. " The contrite heart " is, with him, 
 like all previous Fathers, the most accept- 
 able sacrifice to God ; and he adds to 
 this, as acceptable offerings, meekness, 
 philanthropy, exalted piety, humility, sound 
 knowledge. Prayer with righteousness he 
 declares to be the best and holiest sacri- 
 fice offered to the most righteous Word. 
 This, in fact, he defines to be the Chris- 
 tian sacrifice. " The sacrifice of the 
 Church," he says, " is speech exhaled as 
 incense from holy souls, while the whole 
 mind, together with the sacrifice, is laid 
 open before God." x No doubt he includes 
 under the word " speech," prayers, lauds, 
 reading of the Scriptures, psalms, hymns, 
 which he mentions shortly after this de- 
 finition. 
 
 1 Strom., lib. vii. cap. 6. 
 
connected with the Eticharist. 33 
 
 He is the first to speak of a terrestrial 
 altar, but he does so in a metaphorical 
 sense. He explains it as "the congre- 
 gation of those who devote themselves to 
 prayers, having, as it were, one common 
 voice and one mind." He adds, further, 
 " that the righteous soul is the truly holy 
 altar, and that incense rising from it is 
 holy prayer." 1 
 
 In the face of these declarations, it may 
 be reasonably assumed that these Chris- 
 tian sacrifices would find in combination 
 their best and highest expression in the 
 celebration of the Lord's Memorial, and 
 so transfer by metonymy their name to 
 that sacred service ; but it is clear that 
 Clement could not regard the Memorial 
 in itself as the sacrifice of the Church. 
 
 Far to the west of Egypt, in the Church 
 of North Africa, Tertuliian, the first of 
 the Latin Fathers, is at one with his 
 
 1 Strom., lib. vii. c. 6. 
 
 D 
 
34 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 contemporary, Clement, on the doctrine 
 of Christian sacrifice. Out of his many 
 references to this subject, two or three 
 quotations must suffice. " That we ought 
 not to offer unto God earthly but spiritual 
 sacrifices, we learn from what is written : 
 'the sacrifice (Jwstid) of God is a humble 
 and contrite heart ; ' and elsewhere, ' sacri- 
 fice to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay 
 thy vows unto the Most High.' So, then, 
 the spiritual sacrifices of praise are here 
 pointed to, a troubled spirit is declared 
 to be the sacrifice acceptable to God." 1 
 
 Here it is interesting and instructive to 
 observe how general and prevalent was 
 the Psalmist's sacrificial idea of "the 
 troubled spirit." Tertullian, like Justin 
 Martyr and Irenaeus, refers to the pro- 
 phecy of Malachi, and we have to thank 
 him for an explicit interpretation of the 
 "pure offering" there mentioned. He 
 
 1 Adv. Jud., cap. v. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 35 
 
 defines it to be " hearty prayer from a pure 
 conscience ; " * elsewhere, " giving glory, 
 and blessing, and praise, and hymns." 2 
 
 Practically his explanation is the same 
 as that of Irenaeus ; evidently he does not 
 understand it to be any material offering 
 in the Eucharist. Most valuable, however, 
 is his description of the Eucharistic Sacri- 
 fice. No writer before him touches so 
 largely and fully upon it. Speaking of 
 the Christian assemblies for Divine wor- 
 ship, he commends the use of psalmody 
 with prayers, and the responses of the 
 congregation. He then declares that such 
 kind of prayer, so saturated with psalmody, 
 is like a well-fed sacrifice {hostid) ; but 
 " this is the spiritual victim {hostid) which 
 has blotted out the ancient sacrifices." 
 Then referring to Isa. i. 11, to show 
 the comparative meanness of the Jewish 
 
 1 Contra Marc, lib. iv. cap. I. 
 
 2 Ibid., lib. iii. cap. 22. 
 
36 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 sacrifices, just as Irenaeus does in his book 
 against heresies, — and to St. John iv. 23, for 
 the right understanding of the new obla- 
 tion of the Gospel, — he goes on to say, in 
 imagery borrowed from the pagan rites of 
 sacrifice: "We are the true worshippers, and 
 the true priests (sacerdotes), who, praying in 
 the spirit, do in the spirit sacrifice prayer 
 proper and acceptable to God, such as He 
 has required, and such as He has provided 
 for Himself. This devoted from the whole 
 heart, fed with faith, decked with truth, 
 entire by innocence, clean by chastity, 
 crowned with the feast of love (agape), 
 attended with a train of good works, 
 amidst the acclamations of psalms and 
 hymns, we ought to bring to God's altar." * 
 Thus, from the picture of a heifer or 
 bullock, well-fed (pastus), decked (curatus), 
 entire (integer), clean (mundus), crowned 
 (coronatus), led up to the altar by the 
 
 1 De Orat., cap. xxvii., xxviii. 
 
connected with the Eucharist, 37 
 
 sacerdos to be sacrificed, he describes the 
 spiritual sacrifice of prayer. 
 
 With regard to the foregoing quotation 
 there cannot be any reasonable doubt of 
 its application to the Eucharistic service. 
 The reference to psalmody, responses, the 
 altar, and the Agape, which was known to 
 be associated with and most probably then 
 appended to it — crowned, as he fitly says, — 
 leaves the matter beyond question. We 
 see, therefore, the doctrine of the Eucha- 
 ristic sacrifice which continued to prevail 
 in the opening years of the third century : 
 it was " the sacrifice of pure prayer." x 
 
 1 Ad Scap., cap. 2. Vid. Waterland, vol. vii. It 
 is interesting to observe that Tertullian's rhetorical claim 
 to the name of a pagan sacrificing priest, sacerdos^ 
 was very soon adopted as an additional designation of 
 the Christian presbyter, on the grounds that he alone, as 
 the offerer of pure, unbloody, spiritual sacrifices, was the 
 tnie sacerdos. The way for its general acceptance was, 
 moreover, made easy by the triumph of Christianity over 
 Paganism. Policy, as well as fitness, suggested the pre- 
 servation.'and use of an official name so widely known and 
 popular throughout the Empire ; but it is of importance 
 
38 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 j 
 
 About the middle of this century Origen 
 is a witness of the same belief in Egypt 
 and Palestine. He denies the existence 
 of a material altar : and with the denial 
 a material sacrifice is also excluded. 
 Celsus had objected that Christians had 
 no altars, and that they were ungrateful to 
 the local deities in not paying due thank- 
 offerings (xajOtor/ypta). Origen replied to 
 the former reproach : " We regard the 
 spirit of every good man as an altar, from 
 which arises an incense which is truly and 
 
 to remember that the Church of that period applied the 
 title to her ministers because they, together with the 
 body of the faithful,, were members of the " royal priest- 
 hood," elected " to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable 
 to God" (1 Pet. ii. ; vid. Origen, Comm. in Joan; 
 Lactantius, Ep. 158 ; St. Augustine, In Psalm 50, and 
 De Civ. Dei ; Cyril of Alex., Contra Jul., lib. *.; " Cate- 
 chism of the Council of Trent," Donovan, p. 316; The 
 ancient Ordinals. 
 
 An Anglican presbyter may, therefore, rightly call 
 himself sacerdos, "sacrificing priest," in the ancient 
 Christian sense ; but, in consequence of the abuse of the 
 word by the Latin Church, it would be more prudent to 
 rest content with the older Christian title. 
 
connected with the Eticharist. 39 
 
 spiritually sweet-smelling, viz. prayers from 
 a pure conscience ; " and then he refers to 
 Rev. v. 8, and to Ps. cxli. 2. 1 And to the 
 charge of ingratitude he replies : " We are 
 much more concerned lest we should be 
 ungrateful to God, who has loaded us with 
 His benefits, whose workmanship we are, 
 who cares for us in whatever condition we 
 may be, and who has given us hopes of 
 things beyond this present life. And we 
 have a symbol of gratitude to God in the 
 bread which we call the Eucharist." 2 Just 
 before this, he had said : " To Him to whom 
 we offer firstfruits we also send up our 
 prayers, 'having a great High Priest that 
 is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son 
 
 1 Contra Cels., lib. viii. c. 17. Cf. St. Jerome : 
 " Every holy man hath in himself the altar of God, which 
 is faith." Also the declaration made in the Second 
 Council of Nice (a.d. 787) : " What ' sacrifice ' or • altar' 
 meaneth, we, being Christian people, in a manner, cannot 
 tell." Vid. "Jewel's Works," p. 735 (Parker Soc. edit.). 
 
 2 Ibid., cap. 57. 
 
40 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 of God.' " x These extracts are important 
 as showing that, up to the middle of the 
 third century at least, the prominent 
 thought in the celebration of the Eucharist 
 was thanksgiving for God's goodness and 
 mercies, especially for what He had done 
 for the world in Christ. 2 The oblation of 
 firstfruits and bread, the presentation to 
 God of His own created things, was the 
 sign of thankfulness, but the prayers and 
 praises and blessings expressive of the 
 grateful heart formed the true offering. 
 " We offer," says Origen, with this subject 
 in mind, " prayers, beseeching Him, who is 
 the propitiation for our sins, to present, as 
 the great High Priest, our petitions, and 
 sacrifices, and supplications to God." 3 
 
 Up to this point in the Church's history 
 it may be definitely asserted that the 
 
 1 Contra Cels., lib. viii. c. 34. 
 
 ■ Wordsworth, "The Holy Communion," p. 136. 
 
 3 Contra Cels., lib. viii. cap. 17. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 41 
 
 Eucharist was simply regarded as a com- 
 memoration of the Lord's death, in which 
 the faithful received all the benefits of that 
 atonement, and also as a thank-offering of 
 the whole Church for all the favours of 
 God in creation and redemption. "The 
 consecrated elements were regarded in a 
 twofold light, as representing at once the 
 natural and the spiritual gifts of God, 
 which culminated in the self-sacrifice of 
 Christ on the cross. . . . The earthly gifts 
 of bread and wine were taken as types and 
 pledges of the heavenly gifts of the same 
 God, who has both created and redeemed 
 the world. Upon this followed the idea 
 of the self-sacrifice of the worshipper 
 himself; the sacrifice of renewed self- 
 consecration to Christ in return for His 
 sacrifice on the cross, and also the sacrifice 
 of charity to the poor." 1 
 
 1 Vid. Schaff, "Ante-Nicene Christianity," p. 245; 
 Bishop Wordsworth, " The Holy Communion," pp. 96, 97. 
 
42 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 Second Period. — From the middle of the 
 third century the idea of sacrifice with 
 reference to the Eucharist as a commemo- 
 ration and representation of the Lord's 
 death began to assert itself. Cyprian of 
 Carthage was the first to set the example. 
 In one of his letters, reflecting upon the 
 practice of certain Churches that used water 
 instead of wine in the Communion Service, 
 he insists upon the example of Christ's 
 institution as necessary to the validity of 
 the sacrament, and says : " For if Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord and God, is Himself the 
 High Priest of God the Father, and first 
 offered Himself a sacrifice to the Father, 
 and commanded this to be done in com- 
 memoration of Himself, then that priest 
 {sacerdos) truly discharges his office in 
 Christ's stead {vice Christi vere ftmgitur) 
 who imitates what Christ did ; and he 
 then offers a true and complete sacrifice 
 in the Church to God the Father, if he 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 43 
 
 begins so to offer according to what he 
 sees Christ Himself to have offered." * In 
 the same letter he speaks of Jesus Christ as 
 " the founder and teacher of this sacrifice," 
 but, at the same time, he affords a key to 
 his meaning in such statements as : " the 
 cup which is offered in remembrance of 
 Him ;" "in the priest Melchizedek we see 
 prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice 
 of the Lord ; " " and because we make 
 mention of His passion in all sacrifices (for 
 the Lord's passion is the sacrifice which 
 we offer), we ought to do nothing else but 
 what He did ; ... as often, therefore, as 
 we offer the cup in commemoration of the 
 Lord and of His passion, let us do what is 
 known the Lord did." 2 Cyprian's meaning 
 is, therefore, by no means doubtful ; the 
 Eucharist is a commemoration of the Lord's 
 sacrifice, in which the Lord's Passion, the 
 great Sacrifice, is pleaded and set forth, 
 1 Epis., 62 : Oxf. edit., 63. 2 Ibid. 
 
44 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 and consequently, by metonymy, it takes 
 the name of what it commemorates and 
 represents. The priest, accordingly, who 
 truly and completely followed Christ's 
 example in His use of the bread and wine 
 (not water), did so far commemorate and 
 plead a true and complete sacrifice ; because 
 with water only it was not a true and 
 complete memorial. It should be noted 
 that the words w oblation " and " sacrifice " 
 had long before been used of the Eucha- 
 ristic service, for reasons which have been 
 already given, and so the use now before 
 us only adds to the number ; but it is one 
 which eventually overshadowed the others. 
 Cyprian, like the Fathers before him, still 
 regarded the offerings of the congregation 
 as sacrifices. They were sacrifices before 
 presentation to God, and they were sacri- 
 fices after the blessing. His reproachful 
 question to the rich, negligent woman 
 shows this : " How could you come into 
 
connected with the Eucharist, 45 
 
 the Lord's House without a sacrifice, and 
 eat part of the sacrifice which a poor 
 person had offered ? " * 
 
 From this incident also, as well as from 
 many of his Epistles, we learn that the 
 people equally with him celebrated the 
 sacrament. He asks this same woman 
 "how she could think she celebrated the 
 Lord's Supper, who had no respect to the 
 Corban?" 2 This truth established itself 
 in the ancient service-books, and remains 
 yet in the Canon of the Mass of the Latin 
 Church, a witness and a protest against 
 special sacerdotal functions and miraculous 
 power in the celebrant. 3 
 
 1 Bingham, lib. xv. cap. 2. 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Eastern Liturgies and early Roman Sacramentaries 
 alike testify that the whole Anaphora beginning with 
 the words "Lift up your hearts" constitutes the 
 Eucharistic offering, and not that part only in which 
 Christ's words of institution are repeated or commemo- 
 rated. And this Eucharistic offering is shown to be the 
 offering of the whole Church, and not that of the priest 
 alone. Thus the Roman Canon has, not " I offer," but 
 " we offer ; " " we, Thy servants and Thy holy people " 
 " those present for whom we offer, or who for themselves 
 offer to Thee this sacrifice of praise." 
 
46 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 As Cyprian is frequently appealed to by 
 holders of extreme sacrificial views, it is 
 important to know that his opinion of 
 spiritual sacrifices was as high as those 
 before him. Writing to some presbyters 
 confined in prison, and, consequently, de- 
 barred from the Holy Communion, he 
 says : " Neither your religion nor faith can 
 suffer by the hard circumstances you are 
 under, that the priests of God have not the 
 liberty to offer and celebrate the holy sac- 
 rifices. You do celebrate, and you do 
 offer unto God a sacrifice both precious 
 and glorious, and which will much avail 
 you towards your obtaining heavenly re- 
 wards. The Holy Scripture says, 'The 
 sacrifice of God is a broken spirit, a broken 
 and a contrite heart God doth not despise ' 
 (Ps. li. 17). This sacrifice you offer to 
 God, this you celebrate without inter- 
 mission, day and night, being made victims 
 to God, and presenting yourselves as such, 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 47 
 
 holy and unblemished, pursuant to the 
 apostle's exhortation, where he says, ' I 
 beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the 
 mercies of God, that ye present your 
 bodies,' etc. (Rom. xii. 1). For this is 
 what pleases God, and it is this by which 
 our other services are rendered more 
 worthy, for the engaging the Divine ac- 
 ceptance. This is the only thing that our 
 devout and dutiful affections can offer 
 under the name of a return for all His 
 great and salutary blessings ; for so, by the 
 Psalmist, says the Spirit of God : ' What 
 shall I render, etc' (Ps. cxvi. 12, 13, 15). 
 Who would not readily and cheerfully take 
 this cup ? " 1 Here he distinctly teaches 
 that spiritual sacrifices alone were equi- 
 valent, if not more so, to any offerings in 
 the Eucharist ; and from this the inference 
 is clear that he had no idea of any sacri- 
 fice of the Archetype Himself in the 
 celebration of the Lord's Supper. 2 
 
 1 Epis. 76, Oxf. edit. 2 Cf. Waterland, vol. vii. 
 
48 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 Cyprian's application of the word sacri- 
 fice to the act of commemoration as an act 
 of pleading the Lord's passion was followed 
 by several of the Fathers of the fourth and 
 following centuries, but not to the exclu- 
 sion of the other aspects of sacrifice. Its 
 use became so popular that, in course of 
 time, it came to be regarded as the only 
 reason why the whole sacramental rite 
 should be termed "the oblation" — "the 
 sacrifice." 1 The earlier uses of the term, 
 as expressive only of spiritual services, 
 were lost, at any rate in the popular mind, 
 and the idea of the Eucharistic Sacrifice 
 was narrowed down to one meaning as 
 denoting the representation of a sacrifice. 
 It is easy to see that this narrowness 
 would end in materializing the commemo- 
 
 1 It is well to note that as late as the time of St. 
 Augustine, the passion of Christ was said to be offered 
 by the baptized in Baptism, and on this account Baptism 
 was called a sacrifice. Vid. Gibson, "Preservative, etc," 
 vol. vi. pp. 281, 282, London, 1848. 
 
connected with the Eticharist. 49 
 
 rative offering, and so demand material 
 accessories. 
 
 Cyprian's lead seems to have been 
 slowly followed. More than a century 
 passed before we find any Father as an 
 exponent of the same line of thought. 
 Meanwhile Lactantius and Eusebius in the 
 first half of the fourth century emphasized 
 the older aspect of the Eucharistic Sacri- 
 fice. The testimony of Lactantius is most 
 explicit, 1 but I will not dwell upon it ; I 
 must be content to draw upon Eusebius, 
 who, for his wide reading and knowledge 
 of Christian history, and his connec- 
 tion with the Nicene Fathers, is a most 
 
 1 Epist. clviii. : " What, therefore, does God desire 
 from man, except the worship of a heart and mind, pure 
 and holy ? For those things which are done either by 
 the hand, or which are extraneous to the man, are useless, 
 weak, and displeasing. This is true sacrifice, not that 
 which comes from the chest, but that offered from the: 
 heart ; not what is poured out by the hand, but from the 
 mind. This is the acceptable victim which the soul has 
 immolated out of itself." 
 
 B 
 
50 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 incomparable witness. He speaks of " the 
 venerable sacrifices of Christ's table, by- 
 means of which officiating, we are taught 
 to offer to God Supreme, during our whole 
 lives, the unbloody, reasonable (or spiritual, 
 XoyiKcig), and to Him acceptable sacri- 
 fices, through His High Priest, who is 
 above all." 1 A few lines further he 
 explains these " unbloody, spiritual sacri- 
 fices " thus: "The prophetic oracles pro- 
 claim these incorporeal and spiritual 
 sacrifices, 'Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of 
 praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most 
 High;' and again, 'A sacrifice to God is 
 a troubled spirit.' " 2 It is important to 
 notice that Eusebius is writing relative to 
 the Eucharist, as the whole context shows. 
 The incorporeal sacrifices, therefore, can- 
 not apply to the sacred symbols, for they 
 are corporeal. And this fact is further 
 confirmed by his immediate quotation of 
 
 1 Dem. Evang., lib. i. cap. io. 2 Ibid. 
 
connected with the Eucharist, 51 
 
 the prophecy of Malachi, and his explana- 
 tion of the prophet's meaning, as prayers 
 and praises. His comment upon the 
 passage is as follows : a We sacrifice there- 
 fore to God Supreme a sacrifice of praise : 
 we sacrifice the full and venerable and 
 holy sacrifice : we sacrifice after a new way, 
 according to the New Testament, the pure 
 sacrifice ; for the sacrifice to God is said to 
 be a contrite spirit." Then he sums up in 
 the following striking, remarkable words : 
 " And this also another prophet teaches : 
 * Let my prayer come before Thee as 
 incense ; ' therefore we both sacrifice and 
 offer incense ; first, celebrating the remem- 
 brance (tt)v fj.vi]fxr}v) of the great Sacrifice, 
 according to the mysteries instituted by 
 Himself, and offering the thanksgiving for 
 our salvation to God by devout hymns 
 and prayers. Next, we consecrate our- 
 selves to Him and to the Logos, His High 
 Priest, resting upon Him both in body and 
 
52 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 soul." Y This is a most valuable account 
 of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
 The whole passage teems with sacrificial 
 expressions, but they have reference only 
 to the three following particulars : (i) the 
 celebration of the remembrance of the 
 Great Sacrifice, which is also the spiritual 
 service of Christians, and, as such, a sacri- 
 fice in the primitive Church sense ; (2) the 
 offering of thanksgiving and praise ; and 
 (3) the reasonable sacrifice of body and 
 soul of the faithful. 
 
 As it is important to establish beyond 
 cavil this Father's explanation of unbloody 
 sacrifices, he clearly states, in another work, 
 that " spiritual gifts and unbloody sacrifices 
 will be offered up to God, both in the 
 present life and in the life to come." 
 
 1 Dem. Evang., lib. i. cap. 10. 
 
 2 Waterland, vol. vii. p. 381. On this subject Bishop 
 Jewel wrote: "In respect of these gross and fleshly 
 and bloody sacrifices, our Christian sacrifices in the 
 Gospel, because they are more spiritual and proceed 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 5 3 
 
 It is, therefore, beyond all question that 
 by unbloody sacrifice Eusebius did not 
 
 wholly from the heart, are called unbloody. Eusebius 
 saith : ' We burn the incense of prayer, and we offer 
 up the sacrifice that is called pure, not by shedding of 
 blood, but by pure and godly doings.' So Chrysostom: 
 1 We make our sacrifices, not by smoke, smell, and 
 blood, but by the grace of the Holy Spirit.' He addeth 
 further, " For God is Spirit, and he that adoreth Him 
 must adore in spirit and truth.' 
 
 " And this is the unbloody sacrifice. So saith Eusebius : 
 ' They shall offer unto Him reasonable (or spiritual) and 
 unbloody oblations.' And the same he expoundeth, 
 ' the sacrifice of praise.' 
 
 " Cyrillus calleth the prayers and melody of the angels 
 and blessed spirits in heaven, continually praising and 
 glorifying the name of God, ' unbloody sacrifices.' 
 Again he saith, ■ We, having left the gross ministry of 
 the Jews, have a commandment to make a fine, thin, and 
 spiritual sacrifice. And therefore we offer unto God 
 "all manner of virtues — faith, hope, and charity — as most 
 sweet savours.' In like manner, the ministration of the 
 Holy Communion is sometimes, of the ancient Fathers, 
 called an ' unbloody sacrifice,' not in respect of any 
 corporal or fleshly presence that is imagined to be there 
 without blood-shedding, but for that it representeth and 
 reporteth unto our minds that one and everlasting sacri- 
 fice that Christ made in His body upon the cross. 
 Therefore Eusebius saith : ' We erect unto God an altar of 
 unbloody and reasonable or spiritual sacrifices, according 
 
54 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 mean the Eucharistic symbols, but the 
 spiritual services of devout worshippers. 
 
 And here it is interesting, besides, to 
 draw attention to the fact that, in the 
 process of narrowing down the idea of 
 sacrifice to the celebration of the Lord's 
 Memorial, many of the epithets appro- 
 priately descriptive of the older view of 
 spiritual sacrifices were applied to the 
 later idea. Thus, the adjectives " un- 
 bloody " " reasonable," u pure " came to be 
 used as if they were anciently applied to 
 an external object. It is well, however, to 
 
 to the new mysteries.' Again : ' We burn a sacrifice 
 unto God ; that is, in the remembrance of that great 
 Sacrifice.' Likewise, again : ' Christ offered up that 
 marvellous sacrifice for our salvation, commanding us to 
 offer a remembrance thereof instead of a sacrifice.' 
 
 " This remembrance and oblation of praises and render- 
 ing of thanks unto God for our redemption in the blood 
 of Christ is called of the old Fathers an ' unbloody 
 sacrifice,' and of St. Augustine, ' the sacrifice of the 
 New Testament'" ("Jewel's Works," pp. 734-735 = 
 Harding Thess, P.S. edit.). 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 55 
 
 note that tkey were originally limited to the 
 spiritual offerings of the faithful} 
 
 Consistently also with this process in the 
 Roman Church, liturgical references to the 
 offerings of the people, as sacrifices, were 
 either omitted, or diverted, to accentuate 
 the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharistic 
 celebration. An illustration of this fact 
 may be seen by comparing the Canons of 
 Hippolytus, which date from the beginning 
 of the third century, with the Canon of 
 the Mass. According to the former, " the 
 Blessing of the Oil and Firstfruits " occupied 
 an important place in the Eucharistic 
 service, and a prayer of thanksgiving was 
 offered for them, but the Canon of the 
 Mass omits all this. It has, however, at the 
 beginning, references to "gifts, presents," 
 etc. ; and, at the end of the Consecration 
 prayer, it makes mention of the "good 
 
 1 Vid. especially the Byzantine Liturgy of the ninth 
 century. 
 
56 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 things " which the Lord is said to " always 
 create," apparently applying the allusions 
 to the elements before and after consecra- 
 tion respectively. Very suggestive, also, 
 in the same direction is the fact that the 
 frequent use of the expression " sacrifices 
 of praise " {Jwstice laudis) in the Sacra- 
 mentary of Leo., dating from the fifth 
 century, does not appear in the Mass 
 Canon at all in the old plural form. It 
 is found in the singular form, " sacrifice of 
 praise," and then it is used but once. But 
 these changes have left the ancient Canon 
 so inconsistent and ambiguous as to call 
 for comment from such learned Romanists 
 as Cardinal Bona, 1 his editor Sala, Bel- 
 larmine, 2 Duchesne, 3 Pope Benedict XIV. 4 
 The nominal conversion of the Roman 
 Empire to Christianity did much to givQ 
 
 1 De Reb., lit. ii. cap. 13. 2 De Missa. 
 
 3 " Origines du Culte Chretien," p. 174. 
 
 4 Estcourt, "Anglican Ordinations," p. 332. Cf. 
 Gibson's "Preservative, etc.," vol. ix. p. 267, ed., 1848. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 57 
 
 prominence to the doctrine of a sacrificial 
 memorial of the Lord's death. When 
 Paganism was supreme, the position of 
 Christianity was one of protest and con- 
 tradiction. "The former system did not 
 appeal to the heart, or reform the life. 
 The heathen worshipper did not under- 
 stand religion as a moral and spiritual 
 influence. His only conception of it was 
 as an elaborate system of sacrifices, lustra- 
 tions, auspices ; a multiplication of shrines, 
 and a multiplication of deities." His 
 senses were gratified by external symbols, 
 a pompous ritual, and appliances of art, — 
 the temples, the paintings, the sculptures. 
 Christianity, on the other hand, was as 
 different from this as the poles. Its very 
 mission was the destruction of this pagan 
 spirit. Its simplicity in every respect 
 marked it out in striking contrast as some- 
 thing of another world. Externally it 
 contented itself with such places of 
 
58 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 assembly as the upper rooms of private 
 houses, open spaces, and the catacombs ; 
 its ministers were content with the vest- 
 ments of private life ; and it worshipped 
 devoutly without elaborate services of any 
 kind. The Christian, then, wanted neither 
 marbled temple, nor decorated altar, nor 
 pompous ritual. His ideal was to be in 
 touch with the Most High ; his reliance 
 was on the spiritual promises of his 
 Master ; and his aim was to lay the 
 foundations of a spiritual fabric. 1 But 
 when Christianity supplanted Paganism as 
 a State religion, its simple character under- 
 went great modifications. With its wide- 
 embracing arms it enfolded the whole 
 people, from Caesar to the meanest slave, 
 but it received, at the same time, into its 
 bosom vast deposits of foreign and corrupt- 
 ing material from the heathen world. Its 
 
 1 Vid. Bishop Lightfoot, "Lectures on Christian 
 Life in the Second and Third Centuries." 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 59 
 
 rise to sovereign authority, — its entrance 
 upon the prerogatives of the pagan priest- 
 hood, — its inheritance of stately heathen 
 temples, with all their suggestive appliances 
 of sculpture, painting, and music, threw 
 far into the background the simplicity, 
 humility, and charity of the previous 
 Christian Age. This wondrous change 
 affected the primitive ideal of religious 
 worship. It helped more than words can 
 tell to transform the sacramentiim of the 
 Eucharist, with its spiritual sacrifices of 
 praise, charity, self-devotion, and spiritual 
 banquet, into a sacrificiiim pure and simple. 
 Paganism truly had its revenge. 1 
 
 After the Nicene Age several of the 
 Fathers dwell upon this sacrificial aspect 
 
 1 Vid. "Hospitian's Works," vol. ii. ; Maitland's 
 "Catacombs;" Gieseler's Eccles. Hist., vol. iii. (edit. 
 Clark) ; Elliott's Horse Apoc., vol. i. ; Middleton's 
 " Remarks on the Conformity between Popery and 
 Paganism;" Calfhill's "Answer to Martial's 'Treaty 
 of the Cross.' " 
 
60 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 of the Eucharist in language apparently 
 of a most realistic kind. Chrysostom, 
 for instance, says : " Him who was nailed 
 to the cross we also are about to see this 
 very evening as a lamb slaughtered and 
 sacrificed." * Again, " When you see the 
 Lord sacrificed and lying there, and the 
 priest standing over the sacrifice and pray- 
 ing, and all the people reddened with His 
 precious blood." 2 But it is manifest that 
 the description is merely figurative. It is 
 the extravagant language of rhetoric. 
 Not even the most ardent supporter of 
 advanced sacrificial views would give to it 
 a literal interpretation. 3 Very probably 
 
 1 De Coen. et Cruc, ii. 401 (edit. Montf.). 
 
 2 De Sacerd., i. 3. 
 
 3 " As time went on," says Dr. Heurtley, "in ages 
 as yet ignorant of controversy on these subjects, language 
 came, by a very natural and common figure, to be freely 
 used of the memorial, which, in strictness, was proper 
 only to that of which it was a memorial ; of the symbol, 
 which was proper only to that of which it was a symbol. 
 Yet in the earliest Fathers, those who wrote antecedently 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 61 
 
 Chrysostom was stirred to indignation by 
 the rising fashion of the people standing 
 as gazers at a spectacle rather than sharers 
 of a feast, and thus used unguarded expres- 
 sions to move them to a realization of the 
 sacred celebration. We know his bitter 
 reproaches : l and also his lamentations : 
 " In vain is the daily sacrifice ; we stand at 
 the altar for nought ; there is no one who 
 communicates." 2 But fortunately he has 
 left us a decided key to his meaning, when, 
 speaking of the sacrifice of our great 
 High Priest, he declares emphatically : 
 " We perform a memorial of sacrifice." 3 
 Augustine also mentions Christ as being 
 
 to the middle of the third century, the distinction was 
 sufficiently marked ; and even those later Fathers, when 
 the occasion required them to measure their words and to 
 speak with exactness, were not slow to correct such 
 expressions, so as to guard themselves from being mis- 
 understood " (" Sermons on Recent Controversy," p. 54). 
 
 1 Vid. Bingham, xv. 4. 
 
 2 Horn. iii. cap. 3, in Ephes. 
 
 3 Horn. xvii. in Ep. ad Hebr. 
 
62 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 immolated every day for the people, but 
 he is careful to explain that he meant it 
 figuratively, and that a memory of His 
 passion was made. 1 
 
 " For if sacraments," he says, " had not 
 some likeness to the things of which they 
 are sacraments, they would not be sacra- 
 ments at all. From this likeness they 
 generally receive the names of the very 
 things." 2 Elsewhere he declares that the 
 sacrifice of the death of Christ is celebrated 
 by the Sacrament of Memory. 3 Yet 
 rhetorical language of this sort, in the ears 
 of people on the confines, as it were, of 
 the pagan world, and so familiar with 
 heathen notions of sacrifices, must, in spite 
 of explanation, produce wrong impressions 
 and encourage superstitious perversions. 
 
 1 " Christus immolatur ; id est, Christi immolatio repre- 
 sentatur, et fit memoria Passionis " (De Consec. Hist. 2). 
 Vid. Gibson, " Preservative against Popery," p. 70, etc. 
 
 2 Ad Bonif., Ep. 98. 
 
 3 Contra Faustum, lib. xx. cap. 21. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 63 
 
 Hence it came to pass that the pleading 
 of Christ's passion in the Eucharist, or 
 the offering to God's view the memorials 
 of the Atoning Sacrifice, came to be 
 regarded in a very material sense, as the 
 offering of the very Christ Himself, and 
 the chief purpose for which the sacred rite 
 was instituted. And, again, as the first 
 offering of Christ on the cross was pro- 
 pitiatory, so the materialized representation 
 of it was believed to be also propitious 
 and applicable to the living and the dead. 
 This doctrine Gregory the Great was the 
 first to teach. 
 
 Third Period. — In the third period of our 
 division the materialization of the Eucharist 
 took definite shape in Western Christendom. 
 Paschasius Radbertus, monk of Corby, in 
 the ninth century, boldly maintained that 
 the offering of Christ in the Eucharist, 
 originally meaning, as we know, the plead- 
 ing of His passion, was the offering of the 
 
64 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 same body of Christ which was born of 
 the Virgin Mary. He was opposed by 
 another Corby monk, Ratramnus, alias 
 Bertram, who upheld the ancient Church 
 teaching. In the discussions of the follow- 
 ing centuries in the Western Church, the 
 view of Radbertus ultimately prevailed, 
 and culminated in the decree of the dogma 
 of Transubstantiation in the thirteenth 
 century. From this time, the doctrine was 
 generally taught that the sacrifice of the 
 Mass was in itself an atonement satisfactory, 
 propitiatory, ex opere operato} Though this 
 statement has been repudiated as a calumny 
 by the late Cardinal Newman, 2 its truth 
 is well established. 3 
 
 The Council of Trent in the sixteenth 
 century completed the growth of Eucha- 
 ristic teaching by declaring the Mass 
 
 1 Vid. Church Quarterly Review ', April, 1896. 
 
 2 Vid. "Via Media," vol. ii. p. 325 (edit. 1885). 
 
 3 Vid. Church Quarterly Review, April, 1896. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 65 
 
 sacrifice to be the propitiatory offering of 
 the body and blood, together with the soul 
 and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 truly, really, and substantially. 
 
 Early in this period the sacramental 
 character of the Lord's Supper as a 
 spiritual feast for the refreshment of the 
 souls of the faithful was almost lost in its 
 sacrificial aspect. The peace and thank- 
 offering of the primitive Church was super- 
 seded by a sin-offering. The congregational 
 offering of the " mystical body " of Christ, 
 as St. Augustine puts it, 1 — that is, the 
 oblation of themselves as members of 
 Christ — was changed into a purely priest- 
 offering. The sacrifice was all-engrossing ; 
 its opus operatum everything ; the faithful 
 receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ 
 had little or nothing to do with it. 
 
 Changes of this kind necessitated new 
 
 1 De Civit. Dei, lib. x. cap. vi. ; Epis. 149, Ad 
 Paulinum. 
 
66 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 conceptions of the ministerial office and 
 dignity. The sacrifice of the Church, so 
 marvellous and stupendous, as it was then 
 taught, called for a priestly caste with 
 miraculous powers. The old sacerdotium, 
 which Justin Martyr expressed by 7jy>o£OTa>c 
 (president of the assembly), and Tertullian 
 understood as the congregational priest- 
 hood, presenting spiritual sacrifices, was 
 insufficient for the later Christian cult. It 
 was, therefore, necessary to emphasize the 
 new conception of the sacerdotium by 
 additions to the rite of ordination, so as to 
 make the ministerial function of sacrifice 
 the dominant idea of the sacred office. 1 
 
 1 The " Pontificate Romanum" to this day describes the 
 ministerial functions thus: " Sacerdotem oportet offerre. 
 benedicere, praeesse, prcedicare, et baptizare." It is to 
 be noted that the first function is consistent with early 
 Church teaching, and that " off err e" does not necessarily 
 imply sacrifice in the mediaeval and later sense. "The 
 word off'erre" said Bishop Reinkins and Prof. Friedrich, 
 " is used, but indefinitely, without stating what is offered. 
 The presumption is that it refers to the elements of bread 
 and wine prior to the consecration" (Vid. Guardian, 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 67 
 
 The matter and form of ordination to the 
 priesthood which had been in use for more 
 than a thousand years, consisting only of 
 prayer and the imposition of hands, and 
 only with the intention of admitting to the 
 presbyterate, without any reference what- 
 ever to sacrifice, was too meagre for the 
 sacerdotal function of a mediaeval priest. 
 
 Jan. 16, i895> PP« 9°> 9 1 )* There is good evidence 
 that the second function, " benedicere," was anciently 
 understood to mean the act of consecrating the elements 
 offered. St. Ambrose says : " Ante benedictionem ver- 
 borum ccelestium species nominatur, post consecrationem 
 Corpus Christi significatur " (" De Initiandis," cap. ult.). 
 The learned Casaubon, interpreting Justin Martyr's 
 iroie?v, writes : "Benedictione et gratiarum actione con- 
 secrare in sacramentum Corporis Christi " (Ad B. A. , 
 XV1 « 33)- Bishop Cosin, "Ad presbyterorum preces et 
 benedictiones, panis communis factus est panis sacra- 
 mentalis " (Hist. Trans., cap. vi.). Cf. " et per obse- 
 quium plebis tuse, panem et vinum in Corpus et 
 Sanguinem Filii tui immaculata benedictione trans- 
 forment ; " in the prayer, " Deus, sanctificationum 
 omnium auctor," prescribed in the Roman Pontifical for 
 the ordination of priests. According to this fact offerre 
 gives no support to the medigeval view of a real sacrifice 
 of Christ in the Eucharist. 
 
68 Growth of Sacrificial Ideas 
 
 So the Ordinal was enlarged with the 
 words "receive power to offer sacrifice to 
 God, and to celebrate masses for the living 
 and the dead," accompanied with the 
 delivery of the sacred vessels, technically 
 called the porrectio. These accretions, the 
 Decree of Pope Eugenius IV., published 
 in the Council of Florence, declares to be 
 the matter and form of conferring the 
 priesthood. 1 
 
 Therefore, for a thousand years, according 
 to Pope Eugenius, there was no sacerdotium 
 in the Church, and so, if the late Cardinal 
 Newman's dictum is to be accepted as 
 true, there was no Church in existence. 
 The older Schoolmen, as St. Thomas 
 Aquinas, under the impression that the 
 porrectio was an ancient and primitive rite, 
 recognized no other matter of ordination 
 than the delivery of the instruments, and 
 no other form than the words which 
 
 1 Hardouin, vol. ix. col. 440. 
 
connected with the Eucharist. 69 
 
 accompany it. In this opinion they were 
 followed by the later Schoolmen, who 
 relied upon the decree of Eugenius, but 
 its untenable character has been perceived 
 by Roman Catholic theologians since the 
 Reformation, and an attempt has been 
 made, by no means satisfactory however, 
 to explain away the decision of that 
 Pope. 1 
 
 1 Vid. Estcourt, "Anglican Ordinations," Appendix j 
 Hutton, "Anglican Ministry," Appendix, p. 489. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Iloietv. 
 
 The argument in favour of the sacrificial sense 
 of this verb was ignored by the Tridentine 
 Catechism; 1 ably refuted by the learned Ro- 
 manist Picherellus, who wrote about 1562 ; 2 then 
 declined by Bellarmine in reply to Calvin's 
 ridicule of the argument, 3 and rejected by Estius 
 and other Roman Catholic theologians. 
 
 At the Council of Trent, Ataida, the divine of 
 the King of Portugal, declared "that those words, 
 1 Do this,' must unquestionably be understood of 
 what they had seen Him do. We ought, therefore, 
 first to know whether Jesus Christ offered, which 
 not being certain amongst divines, who confess 
 that both opinions are Catholic, those that deny 
 that Jesus Christ offered, cannot conclude that by 
 these words He ordained the apostles to offer." 4 
 
 1 De Euch., xx. not a. 
 
 2 "Opuscula," p. 146, sqq., Lugd. Bat., 1629. 
 
 3 "De Missa," lib. i. cap. xii. 
 
 4 Du Pin, "Ecclesiastical History of Sixteenth Cen- 
 tury," vol. iii. p. 561 ; ed. 1722, Dublin. 
 
72 Appendix. 
 
 The theologian Melchior Canus has confessed 
 that, when Christ said, " ' Do this,' He plainly 
 commanded His apostles that what they saw 
 Him do they should do, also by offering up a 
 sacrifice of Eucharist, that is, of giving of 
 thanks." « 
 
 The sacrificial meaning of iroudv finds no 
 support in any of the Greek Fathers or Greek 
 Liturgies. The Syriac Liturgies, following the 
 Peshito version of i Cor. xi. 25, render " Do 
 this," as "Do thus." The Ethiopic version 
 renders Luke xxii., " Thus do ye My remem- 
 brance;" and 1 Cor. xi. 25, " Do thus, and when 
 you drink remember Me." So also four Syro- 
 Jacobite Liturgies: (1) Dionysius Bar-Salibi, 
 " He commanded them, saying, Thus do for 
 My commemoration ; " (2) St. John the Evange- 
 list, " Thus shall ye do j " (3) St. Maruthas, 
 "As ye have seen Me do, thus do ; " (4) 
 Thomas of Heraclea, "Take, use, and thus do.' 
 
 The Greek Church, moreover, which ought 
 to understand its own language, does not here 
 take ttouiv in the sense of * offer," but in that 
 of " do." The Greek priest says to the candidate 
 for holy orders, " Thus did our Master Himself 
 institute it, and as He did, at His mystical 
 
 1 Loc. Theol., lib. xii. 
 
Appendix. 73 
 
 Supper, so did He say that we also should do 
 in remembrance of Him." 
 
 The following great scholars thus expound 
 the phrase tovto 7rotetTe: Wolf says, "Non 
 posse verti per saerificate" for which he gives 
 his authorities; Bengel, u 7rotetTe, facite, edite. 
 Facere non habet hoc loco notionem sacrifica- 
 lem." Sadeel writes, "Si in Christi verbis Facite 
 significat sacrificare, et Hoc, ad actiones Christi 
 referendum est, turn circa panem, turn etiam 
 circa calicem (quemadmodum illi volunt), ergo 
 id quod Christus fecit sacrificandum est, et ipsag 
 actiones Christi sunt sacrificandae. 'ASwarov, 
 stultum, ridiculum." Dr. Heurtley says, "It 
 is true that in some instances in the Septuagint 
 the word is used in a sacrificial sense ; yet this 
 is never the case except where it is joined with 
 some other word which requires it to be so 
 understood." 
 
 Dr. A. Edersheim says : " The rendering 
 1 Sacrifice this,' which is advocated as ' in accord- 
 ance with Hebraistic use,' absolutely fails on 
 Jewish grounds of interpretation. It is perfectly 
 certain that no Jewish writer would in this 
 connection have so expressed himself if he had 
 intended to indicate a sacrificial act." 
 
 The word in the Septuagint is of general use, 
 
74 Appendix. 
 
 most frequently meaning " to prepare, hold, 
 keep,' e.g. 7rotelv ttotov, ttouZv ioprr/v, iroLew So^v 
 ttolClv yajxov, ttoizlv eSeV/xara, ttolziv Ittkjltktiwv : 
 see especially Gen. xviii. 7, 8. 1 
 
 In the face of all these well-known authorities 
 it is pitiable to see the long-laid ghost of 7rot€tv 
 revived and paraded in some modern Church 
 manuals. 
 
 2. 'Ava/xvTycris. 
 
 On the use of this word by our Lord some 
 writers have based an argument for the divine 
 institution of a sacrificial memorial in the 
 Eucharistic celebration. This word is used 
 twice in the Septuagint, viz. Num. x. 10; 
 Lev. xxiv. 7 ; and it must be admitted that in 
 these passages it has a God-ward reference, but 
 it requires the addition of the phrase havn tov 
 Oeov } or evavTL Kvptov, to give it this sense, and 
 therefore the inference is clear, that, without 
 such phrases, avdfxvqo-is of itself does not convey 
 the meaning of a sacrificial memorial. The 
 word also occurs once in the New Testament, 
 
 1 Vid. Dimock, " Some Recent Teachings concerning 
 the Eucharistic Sacrifice," p. 6; also "The Romish 
 Mass and the English Church," pp. 100, 101. 
 
Appendix. 75 
 
 outside the Gospels, viz. Heb. x. 3, but with no 
 reference to the Eucharist. Its sense " of calling 
 to remembrance " in the latter passage may be 
 readily seen by a comparison of the use of 
 the cognate participle and verb, in similar 
 expressions, in Num. v. 15, dvafiefjivyja-Kova-a 
 a/xapTLav, and I Kings xvii. 18, dvafxvrjaai aSi/ctas 
 fxov. Cf. Ezek. xxi. 23, and xxix. 16. 
 
 But there is a technical term in the Septuagint 
 for a sacrificial memorial, and this is /xv^/xo'owov, 
 It occurs in nine places of the Old Testament, 
 and in three places of the Apocrypha, without 
 any addition of evavn, etc., such as dvd/xvrjo-Ls 
 requires. These passages are Lev. ii. 2 ; ii. 9, 
 16; v. 12; vi. 15; Num. v. 15, 18, 26; Isa. 
 lxvi. 3; Tobit xii. 13; Ecclus. xxxviii. 11; 
 xlv. 21. 
 
 The word is also used with ham, or kvavriovi 
 in Exod. xxviii. 12, 29; xxx. 16; Mai. hi. 6; 
 Ecclus. 1. 19; Acts x. 4, 31 j Rev. xvi. 19, 
 where the application of another sense other 
 than its technical meaning is admissible. From 
 the occurrence of fjivrjfxoo-vvov in the New Testa- 
 ment it is manifest that its technical sense was 
 familiar to the Evangelists, and consequently 
 it is reasonable to infer that, if our Lord 
 intended to institute a sacrificial memorial, He 
 
J 6 Appendix, 
 
 would have selected the technical term pvqp.6- 
 ctvvov for His purpose. 
 
 The Greek Fathers do not appear to have 
 regarded dvdfxvqo-ts in a sacrificial sense, for 
 they use it indifferently with fxvrjixoo-wov and 
 /jLvrjfjLr] to express the Lord's command, and the 
 last word is certainly subjective in meaning. 
 There is evidence in abundance to prove that 
 the Fathers generally saw in avd/xv-rjo-Ls a re- 
 minder for those keeping the Christian Passover. 
 Justin Martyr, speaking of the Eucharistic 
 Service, says, u Merc*, tovtu. Xolttov del tovt(dv 
 aAA.77A.ovs avaixvtfo-KOfjLcv." l St. Chrysostom com- 
 pares this avdfjLvrjo-cs of the Lord's passion with 
 the keeping of a commemoration of a deceased 
 relative : " AAA' el pXv vlov r/ dSeXcfrov TeTeXevrrj- 
 kotos dvdjjLvrjo-Lv eVoi'as." 2 Similarly the author 
 of the treatise " De Baptismo," formerly attri- 
 buted to St. Basil the Great, regards the object 
 of the Lord's Institution, " tva eo-Oiovrh re /cat 
 7rtvovT€S act [Avr)/jLovevu)fJLev rov vnep rjpLU)v aVoc9a- 
 vovtos" adding " 6 yap eo~$iaiv kol 7rivu>v, Bt)Xov6ti 
 els dve^dXeiiTTOv jxvrjprqv tov vnep rjfxwv anoOa- 
 voVros." 3 So Theodoret understands the aim 
 
 1 Apol., sec. 67. 
 
 2 Op., torn. x. p. 246 (edit. Montfaucon). 
 
 3 Op., lib. i. cap. iii. sec. 2 (edit. Gamier). 
 
Appendix. 7 7 
 
 and object of the Lord's words, that " we may 
 be reminded and our minds affected by the 
 contemplation of the sufferings thus repre- 
 sented." 1 
 
 The Greek Liturgies express obedience to 
 the Lord's words by ^^viq^evoL. The Coptic 
 Liturgy of St. Basil has the words, " Quoties- 
 cumque manducabitis . . . meique memores 
 eritis donee veniam." 2 So in several of the 
 Liturgies, Western as well as Eastern, the 
 memory has relation, not only to Christ's sacri- 
 fice upon the cross, but also to His Ascension 
 and Second Advent, which admit of no God- 
 ward sacrificial memorial. Compare also the 
 " Unde et memores" of the Western Liturgies, 
 which follow the words of institution, and 
 conclude with "in mei memoriam facietis." 
 The Ambrosian form is especially noteworthy, 
 " Mandans quoque et dicens ad eos : Haec 
 quoties cunque feceritis in meam commemora- 
 tionem facietis," etc., followed by " Unde et 
 memores sumus, Domine, nos servi tui," etc. 
 
 Most conclusive of all is the interpretation 
 of dvdfjLV7](TL<s, given in the following words of 
 the Council of Constantinople, a.d. 754: "Kara 
 tov Kaipbv tov e/coucriou 7ra0ovs ets tvttov kox 
 
 1 In Epis. Heb. viii. 2 Renaudot, torn. i. p. 15. 
 
7 8 Appendix. 
 
 avafivqcnv €vapyeararrjv tois avrov /xvo~Tais Trapa- 
 $e$(DKe . . . Tt yap Ipuq^avrjcaro iv tovtu) 6 
 7rdv<ro<fjo<s #eos ; ov^ erepov tl, rj Sei£ai koX 
 Tpavuxrai <j>avepu)S rjpuv rots avOpwirois to Trpay/xa- 
 revOev fxvo"rqpiov iv rfj kclt avrov oiKOVO/zia." 1 
 
 In adducing the foregoing evidence of the 
 meaning of ava/xv^o-is, as commonly understood 
 by the ancients, it is right to admit that the 
 Fathers, after Cyprian, certainly taught that the 
 atoning sacrifice of Christ is pleaded before God 
 in the service of the Eucharist, as it is in every 
 prayer to Him ; but this is a very different thing 
 from regarding it as a sacrificial memorial." 2 
 
 1 Mansi, torn. xiii. caps. 261, 264. 
 
 2 Vid. Dimock, "Some Recent Teachings," etc., and 
 " The Eucharist considered in its Sacrificial Aspect." 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 
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