1 Corinthians — Chapter 11

2. My precepts.) Our Pastours and Prelates haue authoritie to command, and we are bound to obey. And the Gouerners of the Church may take order and prescribe that which is comely in euery state, as time and place require, though the things be not of the substance of our religion.

5. Euery woman.) What guifts of God soeuer women haue, though supernatural, as some had in the primitiue Church, yet they may not forget their womanly shamefastnes, but shew themselues subiect and modest, and couer their heads with a veile.

16. Custome.) The Custome of the Church, is a good answer against al wranglers. If women or other, to defend their disorder & malapertnes, dispute or alleage Scriptures and reasons, or require causes of their Preachers why and by what authoritie they should be thus restrained in things indifferent, make them no other answer but this: This is the custome of the Church, this is our custome. Which is a goodly rule to represse the saucinesse of contentious ianglers, which being out of al modestie and reason, neuer want wordes and replies against the Church. Which Church if it could then by prescription of twenty or thirty yeares, and by the authority of one or two of their first Preachers, stop the mouthes of the seditious: what should not the custome of fifteene hundred yeares, and the decrees of many hundred Pastours, gaine of reasonable, modest, and humble men;

19. There must be heresies.) That heresies shal come, wherfore. When the Apostle saith: Heresies must be, he sheweth the euent, and not that God hath directly so appointed it as necessarie. For, that they be, it commeth of man's malice & free-wil; but that they be conuerted to the manifestation of the good and constant in faith & the Churches vnitie, that is God's special worke of prouidence that worketh good of euil. And for that there should fal Heresies and Schismes, specially concerning the Article and vse of the B. Sacrament of the Altar, whereof he now beginneth to treat, it may make vs maruel the lesse, to see so great dissensions, Heresies, and Schismes of the wicked and weake in faith concerning the same. What commoditie we may make of heresies. Such things then wil be, but woe to him by whom scandals or Sects doe come. Let vs vse Heretikes, saith S. Augustin, not to that end to approue their errours, but that by defending the Catholike doctrine against their deceits, we may be more watchful and wary: because it is most truely written, There must be heresies that the tried & approued may be manifested or discouered from the holow harts among you. Let vs vse this benefit of God's prouidence. For Heretikes be made of such as would erre or be naught, though they were in the Church: but being out, they profit vs exceedingly, not by teaching the truth which they know not, but by stirring vp the carnal in the Church to seeke truth, and the spiritual Catholikes, to cleere the truth. For there be innumerable holy approued men in the Church, but they be not discerned from other among vs, nor manifest, so long as we had rather sleep in darknes of ignorance, then behold the light of truth. Therfore many are raised out of their sleep by Heretikes to see the day of God, and are glad therof. August. c. 8. de vera relig.

20. Our Lordes supper.) Agapæ or suppers of charitie. The Christians at or about the time of the Churches only Sacrifice & their communicating therof, kept great feasts, which continued long, for that the reliefe of the poore vpon the common charges of the richer sort, and the charitie and vnitie of al sorts were much preserued thereby, for which cause they were called ἀγάπαι, that is, Charities, of the *ancient Fathers, and were kept commonly in Church-houses or porches adioyning, or in the body of the Church (wherof see Tertullian Apolog. c. 19. Clemens Alexand. S. Iustine, S. Augustin cont. Faust. li. 20. c. 20.) after the Sacrifice and Communion was ended, as S. Chrysostom ho. 27. in 1. Cor. in initio iudgeth. Those feasts S. Paul here calleth Cœnas Dominicas, because they were made in the Churches which then were called **Dominicæ, that is, Our Lordes houses. Whether the Apostle mean by our Lord's supper, the B. Sacrament. The disorder therfore kept among the Corinthians in these Church feasts of Charitie, the Apostle seeketh here to redresse, from the foule abuses expressed here in the text. And as S. Ambrose in hunc locum, and most good Authours now thinke, this which he calleth Dominicam cœnam, is not meant of the B. Sacrament, as the circumstances also of the text doe giue, namely, the reiecting of the poore, the rich mens priuate deuouring of al, not expecting one another, glottony and drunkennesse in the same, which can not agree to the Holy Sacrament. And therfore the Heretikes haue smal reason, vpon this place, to name the said Holy Sacrament, rather, the Supper of the Lord, then after the manner of the primitiue Church, the Eucharist, MASSE, or Lyturgie. But by like they would bring it to the supper againe or Euening seruice, when men be not fasting, the rather to take away the old estimation of the holines therof. *Conc. Gang. can. 11. **Conc. Laodic. can. 27, 28.

23. I haue deliuered.) Tradition without writing. As al other parts of religion were first deliuered by preaching & word of mouth to euery Nation conuerted, so this holy order and vse of the B. Sacrament was by S. Paul first giuen vnto the Corinthians by tradition. Vnto which as receiued of our Lord he reuoketh them by this Epistle, not putting in writing particularly al things pertaining to the order, vse, and institution, as he afterward saith: but repeating the summe and substance therof, and leauing the residue to his returne. Wether the Catholikes or Protestants doe more imitate Christs institution of the B. Sacrament. But his words and narration here written we wil particularly prosecute, because the Heretikes make profession to follow the same in their pretended reformation of the Masse.

24. This is.) The wordes of consecration, to be said ouer the bread and wine, the which the Protestants doe not. These words being set downe, not in the person of the Euangelistes or Apostles, but expressed as in Christes owne person, to be said ouer the bread, and the like ouer the wine, are the formes of the Sacrament and words of consecration: neither is it a Sacrament but (as *S. Augustin saith) when the words come, that is to say, actiuely and presently be applied to the elements of the same. Therfore the Protestants neuer applying these words more then the whole narration of the institution, nor reciting the whole (as is said) otherwise then in historical manner, (as if owne would minister Baptisme and neuer apply the words of the Sacrament to the child, but only read Christes speaches of the same) make no Sacrament at al. And that these proper words be the only forme of this Sacrament, and so to be spoken ouer or vpon the bread and wine, S. Ambrose plainly and precisely writeth, recording how farre the Euangelists narratiue words doe goe, and where Christes owne peculiar mystical words of consecration begin: and so the rest of the Fathers. Ambros. li. 4. de Sacram. c. 4. & c. 9. de init. Myster. Iusti. Apolog. 2. in fine. Cyprian. de Cœn. Dom. num. 1. 2. August. Serm. 28. de verb. Dom. sec. Mat. Tertull. li. 4. cont. Marc. Chrysost. ho. 2. in 2. ad Tim. in fine & hom. de prodis. Iudæ. to. 3. Gregor. Nyss. in orat. Catech. Damasc. li. 4. c. 14. *Tract. 80. in Io.

26. You shal shew.) Vpon this word the Heretikes fondly ground their false supposition, that this Sacrament can not rightly be ministred or made without a sermon of the death of Christ: and that this and other Sacraments in the Church be not profitable, when they be ministred in a strange language. How Christs death is shewed by the B. Sacrament it self, without sermon or otherwise. As though the grace, force, operation, & actiuitie, together with the instruction & representation of the things which they signifie, were not in the very substance, matter, forme, vse, and worke itself of euery of the Sacraments: and as though preaching were not one way to shew Christes Passion, and the Sacraments another way: namely this Sacrament, conteining in the very kinds of the elements and the action, a most liuely representation of Christes death. As wisely might they say that neither Abel's Sacrifice, nor the Paschal lamb could signifie Christes death without a sermon.

27. Guilty of the body.) The wicked receiue the body & bloud, First herupon marke wel, that il men receiue the body and bloud of Christ, be they infidels or il liuers. For in this case they could not be guilty of that which they receiue not. Secondly, that it could not be so heinous an offense for any man to receiue a peece of bread or a cup of wine, though they were a true Sacrament. The real presence is proued by the heinous offense of vnworthy receiuing. For it is a deadly sinne to receiue any Sacrament with wil & intention to continue in sinne, or without repentance of former sinnes: but yet by the vnworthy receiuing of no other Sacrament is man guilty of Christes body and bloud, but here where the vnworthy (as S. Chrysostom saith) doth vilany to Christes owne person, as the Iewes of Gentils did, that crucified it. Chrys. ho. de non contemn. Ec. &c Ho. 60 & 61 ad po. Antioch. Which inuincibly proueth against the Heretikes that Christ is really present.

28. Let him proue.) Confession before receiuing the B. Sacrament. A man must examine his life diligently whether he be in any mortal sinne, and must confesse himself of euery offense which he knoweth or feareth to be deadly, before he presume to come the Holy Sacrament. For so the Apostles doctrine here with the continual custom of the Cath. Church and the Fathers example, bind him to doe Cyp. de laps. nu. 7. Aug. Eccl. dog. c. 53.

30. Many sleep.) Vnworthy receiuing. We see here by this, it is a fearful case and crime to defile by sinne (as much as in vs lieth) the body of Christ in the Sacrament, seeing God strook many to death for it in the Primitiue Church, & punished others by greiuous sicknes. No maruel that so many strange diseases and deaths fal vpon vs now in the world.

31. Iudge your-selues.) Penance and satisfaction. We may note here that it is not enough, only to sinne no more, or to repent lightly of that which is past: but that we should punish ourselues according to the weight of the faults past and forgiuen: and also that God wil punish vs by temporal scourges in this life or the next, *if we doe not make our-selues very cleane before we come to receiue his holy Sacrament. Whose heauy hands we may escape by punishing our-selues by fasting and other penance.

33. Expect one another.) Returning now to their former fault and disorder for the which he tooke this occasion to talke of the Holy Sacrament, and how great a fault it is to come vnworthily to it; he exhorteth them to keep their said suppers or feasts in vnitie, peace, and sobrietie, the rich expecting the poore, &c.

34. I wil dispose.) The Masse is agreable to the Apostles vse and tradition: the communion is not. Many particular orders & decrees, moe then be here or in any other book of the new Testament expresly written, did the Apostles, as we see here, and namely S. Paul to Corinthians, set downe by tradition, which our whole ministration of the MASSE is agreable vnto, as the substance of the Sacrifice and Sacrament is by the premisses proued to be most consonant: Caluin's supper and Communion in al points wholy repugnant to the same. And that is agreeth not to these other not written traditions, they easily confesse. The *Apostles deliuered vnto the Church to take it only fasting: they care not for it. The Apostles taught the Church to consecrate by the words and the signe of the Crosse, without which (saith S. Augustin tract. in Io. 118. Serm. 75. in append. Chrysost. hom. 55. in 16. Matth.) no Sacrament is rightly perfited: the Protestants haue taken it away. The Apostles taught the Church to keep **a Memorie or inuocation of Saints in this Sacrifice: the Caluinists haue none. The Apostles decreed that in this Sacrifice there should be special praiers for the dead Chrys. hom. 3. in epist. ad Philip. August. de cur. pro mort. c. 1: they haue none. Likewise that water should be mixed with the wine, and so forth. See Annot. in c. 11. v. 23. Bread. Therfore if Caluin had made his new administration according to al the Apostles written words, yet not knowing how many things beside, the Apostle had to prescribe in these words, Cætera cum venero disponam (the rest I wil dispose, when I come) he could not haue satisfied any wise man in his new change. But now seeing they are fallen to so palpable blindnes, that their doing is directly opposit to the very Scripture also, which they pretend to follow only, and haue quite destroied both the name, substance, and al good accidents of Christes principal Sacrament, we trust al the world wil see their folly and impudencie. *Aug. ep. 118. c. 6. **Aug. trct. 84. in Io. & Chrys. ho. 21. in Act.