and rational doctrine is then enforced by other instances of figurative language occurring in Scripture, such as no man ever dreamt of expounding literally; and the author proceeds to shew, with great learning and acuteness, that the Eucharistic reveries which Radbert had been pleased to advocate upon paper are at variance with Scripture, with the fathers, with the nature of a sacrament, and with human reason. Thus no sooner had something closely bordering upon transubstantiation been tangibly broached, than one of the first divines of the age stepped forward, at his sovereign's desire, to explain what really was the voice of Holy Writ, and of the Catholic Church, upon this question. The result was, that a short, but a very able and explicit piece appeared" which proves, to the infinite perplexity of modern self-called Catholics, that in the time of Charles the Bald, this appellation which they have arrogated exclusively to themselves was considered the property of such as hold, upon a point of the first importance, the doctrine of most modern Protestants.

The sentiments of Ratramn were so far from

Bishop Cosin assigns 860, as the date of Ratramn's work. The English translator places its composition, four or five years earlier. Ratramn is thought to have been preferred by Charles the Bald to the government of the monastery of Orbais, in the diocese of Soissons. Radbert resigned the abbacy of Corbey in 851, being harassed, as F. Mabillon conjectures, by the Eucharistic controversy which he had excited. Introd. to the Book of Bertram, 5, 6. 79.

giving offence to the more learned and judicious of his contemporaries, that we find them connected with almost every celebrated theological name by which the age was graced. Rabanus Maurus, the far-famed Archbishop of Mentz, Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, Claudius, Bishop of Turin", the illustrious John Scot, usually designated Erigena, Druthmar, and several other authors of

* "Cui, si Trithemium audimus, nec Italia similem, nec Germania peperit æqualem." (Usser. de Success. 24.) Abp. Usher, and Bp. Cosin, the latter especially, have given a sufficient specimen of this illustrious prelate's opinion upon the Eucharist. He speaks indeed so plainly against the corporal presence that William of Malmsbury, and Thomas of Walden rejected his authority as undoubtedly erroneous; but as Bp. Cosin observes, these writers, in condemning Rabanus, have taken upon themselves to condemn all the doctors of the ancient Church.

> In his work upon pictures and images; in which he denies the propriety of allowing to these objects any religious honours whatever. The book is forbidden in the Romish Index Expurgatorius. Nevertheless Agobard passes for a saint among the Romanists; it being their usage to claim as belonging to themselves every celebrated name in ancient times. Allix on the Albigenses, 97.

"A monk of Corbey. His sentiments upon the Eucharist are so completely opposed to modern Popery, that Sixtus of Sienna thought proper to qualify them by declaring, that his words, as generally received, do not agree exactly with a manuscript hitherto unused for the press. This manuscript, however, has not been produced, but the assertion of Sixtus has been placed in the margin of Druthmar's work, reprinted in the Bibliotheca Patrum, at Cologne. Cardinal Perron proceeds more boldly

high repute in their day, lent the aid of their talents to stay the progress of that unscriptural and irrational fancy by which the superstitious were labouring to embarrass the Eucharistic question. This fact explains the reason why the Roman Bishops allowed the controversy to rage without a single effort on their part to dogmatise. However well disposed they might have been to patronise the notions of Radbert, these were as yet so new, and so decidedly opposed by theologians of eminence, that it would evidently have been found impossible to obtain for them the sanction of any respectable synod d.

But the carnal presence, strong in its power to fascinate the heart of fallen man, soon recovered of the shock which it had received when first fairly before the world. That intellectual eclipse

with Druthmar. He says that the passage so decidedly subversive of transubstantiation, is corrupted by the Protestants. Unfortunately for the Cardinal's hypothesis, the passage is found entire in an edition of Druthmar, printed in 1514, that is, three years before Luther attacked indulgences. Allix on the Albigenses, 100.

* Their names, and citations from their works, may be seen in Bp. Cosin's history, and in the introduction to the Book of Bertram.

"Quelque animée que fût cette dispute, on ne tint point de concile pour la decider; comme il ne s'agissait point du fonds de la doctrine, mais seulement des termes, on la laissa discuter entre les theologiens, et les evêques ne s'en mêlèrent point." (Du Pin, 52.) This mode, however, of characterising the controversy, and of accounting for the conduct of the hierarchy during its course, will not bear examination.

which overshadowed Europe during the tenth century was eminently fitted for the growth of superstition, and through that gloomy period, Radbert's Eucharistic notions, no longer afraid of such geniuses as illumined the age, which first shewed them distinctly to mankind, gained constantly upon public opinion. Their progress was not, indeed, either unheeded, or unopposed, but minds equal to the task of effectually correcting popular errors were few and comparatively feeble. Hence as was to be expected, when the millenary year arrived, men of information were less indisposed than heretofore towards that doctrine of the Sacrament which had formerly experienced a reception so unpromising from the gerality of such as were most competent to decide upon it. Guitmund, Bishop of Aversa, Alger, a monk of Corbey, and other scholars of note now openly supported the carnal presence. The most celebrated advocate of this doctrine, however, was a native of Pavia, named Lanfranc, who, being left an orphan at an early age, passed into France, and was highly valued in that country as

"Hanc vero de corpore et sanguine Domini quæstionem deinceps varie fuisse agitatam, ostendunt scripta adversaria Ratherii, (qui ex monacho Lobiensi, Veronensis primum, deinde Leodiensis ecclesiæ factus est episcopus, temporibus Henrici Aucupis, et filii ejus Ottonis Magni Imp.) ac Herigeri Abbatis Lobiensis, qui sub finem decimi seculi, congessit contra Ratherium, (vel ut alii habent codices, contra Ratbertum) multa Catholicorum Patrum scripta de corpore et sanguine Domini." Usser. de Success. 26.

! Hospiniani Hist. Sacrament. Tigur, 1598. p. 340.

an instructor of youth. This eminent divine appears to have been somewhat over credulous, for it having been reported when he was a boy, that a priest in his neighbourhood had discovered flesh and blood where he expected to see only bread and wine", the young Lanfranc was fixed immovably in the opinions broached by Paschasius Radbert. The learned Italian became at length a monk of Bec, afterwards Abbot of Caen, and as his reputation ever stood high, it cannot be doubted that he was largely instrumental in spreading a belief of the corporal presence among his adopted countrymen. That doctrine, however, yet continued to find its principal supporters among the lovers of the marvellous in lower life; it being designated by its most illustrious opponent as the belief of Paschasius, of Lanfranc, and of the vulgar'.

• Dacherii Vit. Lanfr. Lut. Paris. 1648. p. 1.

"Scribit enim Guitmundus, lib. 2. Lanfrancum narrasse, se puero in Italia accidisse, quod cum presbyter quidam missam celebrans, inventa super altare veram carnem et verum in calice sanguinem, secundum propriam carnis et sanguinis speciem, sumere trepidasset, rem protinus suo episcopo, consilium quæsiturus, aperuisse: episcopum autem cum multis aliis episcopis ad hoc convocatis, calicem illum, cum eadem carne et sanguine Domini, diligenter opertum et sigillatum, in medio altaris pro summis reliquiis perpetuo servanda inclusisse." (Hospinian. 340.) The same imposture, it may be recollected, was practised at Calais. (Hist. Ref. under King Henry VIII. II. 458.) Hospinian seems to have considered that the wonderment which took, as we are informed, an effect so powerful upon Lanfranc's mind was brought about by diabolical agency.

'Lanfranc. adv. Berengar. 234.