THE REFORMERS BEFORE THE

REFORMATION.

No. XX.

IMMEDIATELY after the deposition of John XXIII., the council condemned, in the communion, the partaking of the sacramental cup,-a practice contrary to the established usage of the church of Rome. It is well known, that in the primitive church, the communion was usually administered under the two emblems of bread and wine. A different custom afterwards prevailed, the communion was received fasting; then, only the priests took the communion in both kinds, and they administered the sacrament to the laity in the form of bread alone.

The eastern church preserved the old custom, which was appealed to by most of the reformers, and re-established in many countries; but no nation desired it so ardently as the Bohemians, among whom the practice of communicating in both kinds had never been totally abolished; in fact, Bohemia was, in the ninth century, converted to Christianity by the Greek monks who were sent by the empress Theodora, and her son Michael, and long continued to preserve some particular rites and forms of wor ship; and when the serious attention of the Roman pontiffs was directed to that land, the work of conversion was already nearly accomplished.

Nevertheless they interposed, because, on account of their pretensions to universal dominion, they were used to interpose everywhere, and in everything; however, they seemed at first tolerant of the habits of the Bohemians, and they had an important reason for their lenity. The eastern church had been recently severed from the see of Rome; it was feared that Bohemia, already united to the first by powerful bonds, might altogether renounce her obedience to the second; therefore the rites used in that country were tolerated, the Bohemians preserved their Sclavonic Bible, and continued to perform their religious services in their national tongue; they also kept up some independent forms in their manner of worship-and it was easy for them to compare doctrines with the written word of God.

When time had rendered the Bohemians more submissive to the papal yoke this was more heavily enforced on them. Toleration gave place to severities, and Gregory vii. prescribed an exact con

formity to the Romish usages. In a celebrated letter, written by that pontiff in 1079 to Wratislaus, duke of Bohemia, he says, "Know, that by frequent meditation on the Holy Scriptures, we have found that it is pleasing to almighty God, that the language used in Divine service should be hidden, that it may not be known to all the world, especially to the simple."*

Gregory added, that the opposite practice was productive of contempt and heresy.+ This was followed by a division among the people of Bohemia-the higher classes adopted the Latin rites, the hearts of the multitude were attached, in preference, to the Greek custom; and when the use of the chalice was expressly forbidden to the laity, several churches in Bohemia continued to administer it, as being most in accordance with the directions of Scripture and ancient tradition. However, in the fourteenth century, under king Charles Iv., the Latin usage prevailed everywhere; and the communion in both kinds was never administered, unless in the privacy of the domestic fireside, or in the recesses

of the forests.

But when the eastern schism had shaken the pontifical authority, and brought back many minds to the consecrated fountain, the question as to giving the cup to the laity was again agitated. The difference between the old and new customs, the institution of Christ and the observance of the church, was evident; and it seized the feelings of the multitude, with increased strength, as it was apparent to the bodily senses, and whereever the reformers triumphed the use of the chalice was resumed.

In the fifteenth century this rite was known, throughout Europe, as a distinctive badge of the Hussites; yet it was not John Huss who in this instance urged the return to primitive usages; he was absent from Prague, and already imprisoned at Constance, when two doctors, both of whom were his friends and disciples, Peter of Dresden, and the celebrated James, or Jacques de Mise, or Jacobel, invited the public to receive the communion in both kinds.

If the catholic historian, Dubravius, is to be believed, John Huss at first re

*It would not be easy to reconcile this opinion of the pope with the language of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv.

+ This letter may be found amongst those written by Gregory VII. in vol. xxvi. of the Councils of the Louvre.

garded this conduct of his disciples as a serious act of hostility against the church, which would redouble the animosity of the council against himself; and he used this expression in speaking of them, 'They have at last found a cup which will hasten my death." But he wrote afterwards to Prague, to express his approbation of Jacobel. His letter was unknown to his judges, and he does not appear to have been called to answer before them on this subject. It was one of his ardent opposers, the bishop of Littomissel, who laid the complaint against Jacobel before the council. A commission of doctors was appointed by the assembly, who presented a report in six conclusions.*

The doctors admitted the fact of the communion being received in both kinds in the primitive church; they proceeded to declare that the contrary custom, though at first established without the formal decision of the church, ought to be regarded as law. Following St. Augustine, they said, that Christ had left the circumstances of the communion undecided as to time; and as to the manner, they alleged a considerable miracle in support of their opinion. Some religious professors, they said, desired to communicate in both kinds; the priest having broken the bread, the paten appeared filled with blood; and when the priest pressed together the two pieces of the host, the blood returned into them, and not a drop remained in the paten. A celebrated doctor of the thirteenth century, Alexander Hale, pledged himself a witness of this miracle, and hereby the question was decided as to the withdrawal of the cup. That practice, the ecclesiastics said, had been introduced upon sufficient grounds; and among other illustrious supporters of it, might be, included Richard Middleton, Peter de Tarentaise, Thomas Aquinas, and other famous doctors; it had prevailed for several centuries; and, without authority from the church, none was at liberty to disapprove it; therefore its opponents must be considered heretics, and be punished as such.

The conclusions of the commissioners were vigorously repulsed. Jacobel, in his answer, appealed to doctors against doctors, to St. Augustine against St. Augustine, and to Jesus Christ against his church. He said, "The miracle alleged

* Von der Hardt. t. iii. p. 586.

"Per

by Dr. Hale may be called in question; it is impossible to decide from it, in opposition to the certain practice and express command of the supreme Teacher. The most illustrious fathers, St. Augustine and St. Cyprian, have declared, that custom ought to give way to truth." haps you will allege custom in opposition to me," said pope Gregory; "but our Lord said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life,' and not I am the custom.*" Three other popes, Urban 11., Marcellus Symmachus, and also St. Augustine, have affirmed, that it is not permitted to either pope or emperor to change anything that is prescribed in the law or the gospel. Those, therefore, must be blamed who have withheld the cup from the people, contrary to the institution of Jesus Christ, and the practice of the ancient church. Those who have refused to communicate with both elements are wrong, not those who have desired to restore the institution.

Proceeding, next, to defend the university of Prague, which seemed desirous to return to the first appointment of the ordinance, Jacobel did not spare warm censures on his adversaries. He said, "The members of our university do not array themselves in brilliant and showy apparel, to give an increased dignity to their appearance; they are not such as the Saviour reproved, for loving the chief seats at feasts and in the synagogues, and greetings in public places, and to hear themselves called masters. 'Is it not a shame for the church,' as St. Jerome said, 'to preach Jesus Christ as poor, crucified, destitute of all things, while the body is loaded with fat, the face looks well fed, and the lips are ruddy.' If we are in the place of the apostles, we must not only preach their doctrines, but imitate their lives. And dare such men to affirm, that those whose doctrines differ from their own may be punished as heretics; yet, in the primitive church, the men who followed Jesus Christ, his disciples, his apostles, and Christ himself, were they not all declared to be heretics, and condemned as such by the priesthood?" Jacobel quoted Isaiah, Ezekiel, St. Cyprian, and St. Chrysostom, to show that the priests of the Romish church resembled those of the Jewish religion, in persecuting the true disciples and faithful servants of the Lord.

* Von der Hardt. p. 608.

"If it were possible," he proceeds, | "for Christ to appear in the midst of the council of Constance, with the members of the primitive church, and to repeat in this assembly the words uttered by him at Capernaum, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,' etc., and were he willing to administer, in that place, the sacrament, such as he appointed it, think you that those present would permit him thus to speak, thus to do? They would draw back, like those who were offended by his sayings at Capernaum, they would accuse him of heresy, and would condemn him, saying, 'What you are doing here is not the custom.' Such is their habit of acting; first they defame, then they summon; after wards they accuse, and, finally, they degrade, they abandon, as far as is in their power, the soul to demons, and the body to the secular power; and just as the priests of the Jews formerly said, "If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend;' so it is now said to the civil magistrate,This man is condemnable by your tribunal-he ought to be punished by the secular arm.' Damnable and dangerous hypocrisy! They deceive themselves at their peril,' said St. Augustine,* 'such men as imagine that those only are homicides who kill by their own hand. The Jews themselves did not put our Lord to death. They said, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death," and yet, the death of the Saviour is justly imputed to them, for they slew him with their tongues, when they cried out, "Crucify him." The Lord has said, 'Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.' O thou, King of kings, Lord of lords, everlasting Father-on every side I perceive danger impending. If I listen to thy well-beloved Son; if I believe his gospel, and rule my life by the examples of the first Christians, I shall be excommunicated and pronounced a heretic. I shall be condemned, burned, or otherwise subjected to death, by that church of Rome, which has ceased even to know what were the habits and usages of the primitive church. Should I disobey thy gospel, I must dread eternal death, and the flames that never can be quenched.

*Treatise on Penitence,

What must I do, then? what choice can I make? Ah, I know it is better to fall into the hands of men, than to sin against God."*

Jacobel, and the rite of communicating in both elements, had an opponent at the council more to be dreaded than the bishop of Litomissel, and the ecclesiastics who were summoned at his request; namely, Gerson, whose name and proceedings appear incessantly in all the matters of importance_which were discussed at Constance. To the arguments of the clergy, Gerson added others, first by word of mouth, then in writing, in a remarkable treatise which he published two years afterwards, at the request of the council, which is inserted in his works.t

After having considered the question, with respect both to the testimony of Scripture and that of tradition, Gerson enumerates the inconveniences which would attend the distribution of the cup to the faithful; he says, "It is necessary to avoid the dangers which might result, and which are manifold; there is danger, lest the wine should be spilled, in carrying it from place to place; danger, lest it should freeze, or lest it should happen to fail; danger, lest it turn sour, in which case it would cease to be the genuine blood of Christ; danger, lest it be corrupt, or lest the heat should produce flies in it; danger, lest it should adhere to the long beards of the laity." Gerson inquires "where vessels could be found sufficient for twenty thousand persons to communicate; he sees a serious evil, in a practice which might lead believers into many errors; as, for instance, to believe, that in the communion the laity are of equal dignity with the priests, or that the clergy, doctors, and prelates, who have inculcated a contrary usage have falsified Scripture, and are in a state of damnation; or that the virtue of this sacrament consists less in its consecration than in its being participated; or, in short, that the church of Rome, and its general or private councils, have erred respecting the sacraments."

Such were, in substance, the principal arguments produced on both sides before the council, as to the leading question, whether the cup should be withheld: a question which engendered numberless volumes, and occasioned the shedding of torrents of blood. On June 15th, 1415,

* Von der Hardt. t. iii. p. 591. J. Gerson, Oper. t. i. r. 457. 467. Ibid. p. 4C6,

the council pronounced, in the thirteenth session, the following decree, the tenor of which expresses only moderate respect for our blessed Lord himself:

"The holy council, desiring to provide for the salvation of believers, after the mature deliberation of several divines, declares and decides, that although Jesus Christ has appointed and administered to his apostles the holy sacrament, after supper, under the two elements of bread and wine, nevertheless, the honourable authority of the sacred canons, and the approved usage of the church, have maintained, and do maintain, that this sacrament ought only to be received by believers when fasting, except in case of sickness, or in some other necessity, admitted by the law, this custom having been reasonably introduced, to avoid some danger of offences. Even so, though in the primitive church this sacrament was received by the faithful under both the elements, it nevertheless can be proved, that it was, in the end, received in this manner only by the officiating priests, and was offered to the laity under the form of bread alone; because it must be believed firmly, and without doubt, that the whole body and blood of Jesus Christ are truly contained under the form of bread, as well as under that of wine. Wherefore this custom, introduced by the church and the holy fathers, and very long observed, ought to be regarded as a law, which it is not allowable to reject or change, without the authority of the church." The council concluded, by denouncing against those who should infringe it, the penalties due to heretics.

*

EVANGELICAL SOCIETY OF GENEVA.

THE "Société Evangelique" of Geneva, is not the exclusive property of the Christians of the Oratoire, as it has on its committee of direction persons connected with the Congregationalist or Independent church in the Pelisserie, and receives support from Christians of all evangelical denominations. Its design is to diffuse the knowledge of saving truth by means of evangelists, and by the circulation of the Scriptures by colporteurs. Its principal field of operation is the south of France, where its agents have been eminently assisted of God in their good work. A few extracts from the annual report for 1845, the last I have seen, will give a just idea of the labours of this valuable society, and at the same time of the religious condition of the people among whom its sphere of action lies.

Under the head of "Biblical and Colportage department," this report informs us, that last year the number of copies of the sacred Scriptures circulated by the society, was 17,300, and of tracts and pamphlets, 100,000. "If," adds the rapporteur,-who, on this occasion, was the truly excellent colonel Tronchin— "If our sixty-four agents had been exclusively occupied in circulating the sacred volume, it is probable that the sales would have been larger; but, as you have already heard, our purpose from the beginning has been to go in search of souls one by one, and to render them attentive to what is written concerning the Lamb of God. The agent who traverses countries plunged in popish darkness, has a difficult task, and cannot restrict himself to being a mere seller of books. Before he can make the people perceive the importance of his mission, he must take some words from the trea

sure which he carries, and thereby, through the power of the Holy Spirit, kindle as it were a fire in the heart of the sinner. Let but a soul begin to be changed, and immediately chaplets and scapularies will fall, and vain ceremonies will lose their charm. It will not be a fog, however thick and moist, that will avail to appease the thirst of a heart which has begun to melt under the rays of grace; having found the stream which flows from the Rock, such an one will regard only with disgust the stagnant pool which continually mocks his thirst. Such is the Roman Catholic when the hammer of the word has bruised his heart, and when he feels the point of the sword of the Spirit piercing him."

The agents employed in the work of colportage render to the committee regular reports of their proceedings, and of the scenes through which they pass. These, says the report, "form an exhaustless mine of Christian anecdote;" and, judging from the specimens afforded, I may add, of anecdote of the most interesting and instructive kind. A few of these may not be unacceptable to the reader:

"I knocked at the door of a house in E," says one, "and was at first repulsed, with the declaration that they had something else to attend to. An individual, however, afflicted with palsy, in an adjoining room, hearing the word Bible, requested, that I might be allowed to enter. 'You sell Bibles,' said he; 'a few years ago I bought some tracts; since then, placed on a bed of suffering, I have often occupied myself with reading them, and this made me desire to possess a Bible, of which I find mention made in these tracts.' He accordingly purchased one, and I addressed to him some words of consolation."

A colporteur from Auvergne writes, "I have been thrown into prison, where I remained forty-four days. During this time I disposed of three Bibles, four Testaments, and some tracts, for which I was paid secretly. At B., I had sold a New Testament to three young men; they came to the inn, and requested a room where they might read their book; the innkeeper told them there was a Protestant in the house. The young men sent to beg me to come up to them; afterwards two others arrived, and up to midnight I was enabled to preach Christ to them."

"In traversing the village of

says another colporteur, "I met the rector, along with a dealer in chaplets. I thought I might offer him my books. As soon as he had glanced at the title, he said, 'Go, sell these among the Protestants, and do not come to offer them to the Catholics.' " Why?' I rejoined. Is not this book good for all?' He then began to speak ill of the book. I asked him to prove it. He replied, 'I am not a theologian; I am an ignorant.' I hastened to reply, that nothing was more true, and that thus he would be more quickly vanquished; on which he went off. Turning to those who had gathered round us, I said to them, 'You see your rector feels himself unable to contend against the Bible, and the lessons which it contains. This is because the Bible is the book of God, which guides us to the salvation of our soul, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.'

6

"In another very papist place, a pastry-cook had bought a Bible. The rector ran to him, and ordered him immediately to burn that book. I will not burn it,' said the other; but in making my cakes, I will place the leaves under them, should I determine to destroy it.' No, no,' replied the rector, uneasy about his parish; it would be better to burn it, than to profane it so; for after all it is the word of God.' 'Sir,' replied the pastry-cook, 'you say this is the word of God, and yet you wish me to burn it! No, no; I shall keep it; and I pray God to grave it upon my heart. And you, Mr. Rector, take my advice, and strive not against God's word, for it will be stronger than you.'

"A priest in the department of Vperceiving that his eloquence was of no avail in dissuading some young people from buying the Gospels, bethought himself of this singular argument: 'My friends,' said he, we are your spiritual guardians, and we are obliged to prohibit your reading the Bible. Our reason is, that it is what they call crude food (de la viande crue); and one must have the stomach of a Protestant before he can digest it!'"

"At C. a missionary (priest), who had gathered a large concourse of people whilst preaching on the last day of Lent, made this announcement to them: 'Jesus Christ has no longer the power to forgive sins, having committed, once for all, his power to the church, and to the priests.''

"At B-," says one of the colporteurs, "God privileged me to dis