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therefore, are precluded from asserting, as to the grounds of transubstantiation, any thing more satisfactory than, that the tenet is rendered probable from Scripture, and certain from the unvarying testimony of ecclesiastical antiquity".

A careful examination of the most ancient theological works, undoubtedly genuine, will however overthrow this latter assertion. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who sealed his conviction with his

Gospel which enforceth any man to understand these words of Christ, This is my body, in a proper, and not in a metaphorical sense; but the Church having understood them in a proper sense, they are to be so explained: which words in the Roman edition of Cajetan are expunged by order of Pope Pius V. Cardinal Contarenus, and Melchior Canus one of the best and most judicious writers that Church ever had, reckon this doctrine among those which are not so expressly found in Scripture. I will add but one more of great authority in the Church, and a reputed martyr, Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who ingenuously confesseth that in the words of the institution, there is not one word from whence the true presence of the flesh and blood of Christ in our mass can be proved." Abp. Tillotson. Sermons. Lond. 1742. II. 202. where may be found references to the particular passages cited.

The Trentine fathers, accordingly, treated the grounds of this doctrine in the following vague and indefinite manner. They professed to "deliver the doctrine which the Catholic Church, instructed by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and by his Apostles, and taught by the Holy Spirit daily suggesting to them all truth, has always preserved, and will preserve to the end of the world." (Bp. Marsh, Comp. View, 28.) Thus these divines only ventured to bottom the leading article of their distinctive creed upon bare assertions, and did not descend in this case, as they did in some others, to particularise whether the revelations referred to were preserved orally, or in the Record, or by means of both.

blood at the beginning of the second century", speaks of the Eucharist in a manner offensive to Romish ears, terming it "the bread of God."

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Justin Martyr says, that the Eucharistic elements nourish the bodies of men; an assertion most unlikely to be made by one who believed those elements to be no other than the glorified body of Christ'. Irenæus" also speaks of the corporal nutriment derived by men from the Eucharistic elements, and says, that these consist of two things, one earthly, the other heavenly". Tertullian explains our Lord's words at the Last Supper by saying, that they mean, This is a figure of my body. Origen declares that the bread and cup are signs and images of our Saviour's body and blood', hence disposed of eventually in the same manner as other aliments which enter the human stomach. Sentiments resembling these,

He was torn in pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre at Rome, in the year 107, according to Archbishop Usher. Du Pin, II. 102. Abp. Wake's Apostolical Fathers, Lond. 1817. p. 55.

i Epistle to the Ephesians. Abp. Wake's translation, 222. * A. D. 144.

Tillotson, 209. Joh. (Cosin.) Episc. Dunelm. Hist. Transubst. Papal. Lond. 1675. p. 59.

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"This testimony is so very plain in the cause, that Sextus Senensis suspects this place of Origen was depraved by the heretics. Cardinal Perron is contented to allow it to be Origen's, but rejects his testimony, because he was accused of heresy

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might have been determined, upon grounds appearing sufficient to men of moderation and experience, that all who would not submit unreservedly to the projected visitation should be treated as enemies to the public peace. Such had already been the line of conduct pursued in the Bishop of London's case, and therefore, the council was bound in equity to treat in a similar manner the refractory spirit displayed by Bishop Gardiner. In this instance, however, the results of the course adopted were upon the whole unfortunate; for although the government overpowered for a time its most dangerous opponent, it placed him in a light far more advantageous than any that he had ever occupied before. Hitherto the Bishop of Winchester had been known only as a fortunate adventurer early conducted by his talents for secular affairs to a splendid ecclesiastical appointment, and though ever on the watch to maintain the religious principles in which he was bred, yet always willing rather to decline the open support of them than to make any personal sacrifice. Now, however, his artifices availed him no longer, and he found himself treated as an avowed partizan of the Romish cause, whose hostility to its designs the government had determined to crush. He was thus obliged either to stand forth as the champion of a party which, though rapidly sinking in political influence, was yet dear to a majority of the people, or to adopt the tergiversation displayed by his brother of London, to the great disgust of his friends, and to the serious injury of

that interest in whose exertions were centred all his hopes of regaining his own ascendancy in the state. Bishop Gardiner chose the former alternative, and his first appearance in the new character which he assumed reflects considerable honour upon his memory.

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He had not lain many days in prison before Cranmer endeavoured once more to work upon him by argument and persuasion. The Archbishop paying a visit to Dr. William May, the dean of St. Paul's ', in company with the Bishops of Lincoln and Rochester, Dr. Cox, and some others, desired to see Gardiner, at the deanery, and laboured to convince him, that the doctrines now recommended by authority were perfectly sound. This, however, the imprisoned prelate would by no means admit. In vain did Cranmer urge, that when justification was declared to flow through faith alone, nothing more was intended than to teach men the danger of confiding in their own merits as the ground of expecting God's favour. Gardiner challenged the whole party opposed to him to produce any ancient father affirm

"Elected Feb. 8, 1545, and in the first of Queen Mary he was deprived." Le Neve, 185.

* “Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, died the 7th of May preceding. The congé d'elire was not given till the 1st of August. Holbeach, Bishop of Rochester, was chosen to Lincoln on the 9th, and confirmed on the 20th of the same month." Life of Bishop Ridley, 211.

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Dr. Nicholas Ridley, who was recently consecrated to the see of Rochester; most probably on the 25th of September.

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ing, that faith excludes charity in the office of justification'. A few words of his own comprise all the account of this conference known to be extant, and the answer of his opponents does not appear. It is only certain, that nothing which passed, not even a hint from Cranmer that he could wish to see him reinstated at the councilboard, induced him to swerve from his determination, and accordingly he again found himself consigned for an indefinite time to his quarters in the Fleet.

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In the hope of shaking his resolution, Sir John Godsalve, one of the visitors for the London district', wrote to him to represent the ruinous consequences likely to flow to himself from a perseverance in his present conduct. Gardiner's answer, though rather verbose, contained passages worthy of any man, and of any cause. "Sixteen years, he wrote to the Knight, "have I held my bishopric, without infringing, in my official capacity, the laws of God, or those of the King. Equally blameless was I in these respects, on taking possession of my see; I have, therefore, the satisfaction of knowing, that the two portions of my life already spent have only been marked by such miscarriages as human frailty must be expected to pro

Collier, II. 232.

* "As Gardiner writ to the Protector." Burnet, Hist. Ref. II. 59.

As the diocese of Winchester was not included in this district it seems not unlikely, that Godsalve was a personal friend of the Bishop's.

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