Monday, November 23, 2020

Gaudentius of Brescia and Transubstantiation

Q. Did Gaudentius advocate the Roman dogma of transubstantiation?


Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia (c. ? - 410 A.D.):

Then as it is necessary for bread, which is of many grains of wheat reduced to flour, to be made by water, and finished by fire: very reasonably in it is received a figure [figura] of the body of Christ, etc. 

(J. P. Minge, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, [1845], Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tomus XX, Sermo II. De Exodi Lectione Secundus, Col. 860). Here Trans. (J. H. Treat, The Catholic Faith; Or, Doctrines of the Church of Rome Contrary to Scripture and the Teaching of the Primitive Church, [1888], p. 225). Here


For a figure [figura] is not the truth, but an imitation of the truth. [Figura etenim non est veritas, sed imitatio veritatis.] 

(J. P. Minge, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, [1845], Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tomus XX, Sermo II. De Exodi Lectione Secundus, Col. 855). Here Trans. (J. H. Treat, The Catholic Faith; Or, Doctrines of the Church of Rome Contrary to Scripture and the Teaching of the Primitive Church, [1888], pp. 218). Here


For He wished His benefits to remain with us; Hewished our souls to be ever sanctified by His precious blood, through the image of His own Passion, and on this account He commands the faithful disciples, whom He ordained the first priests over His Church, that without ceasing they should perform these mysteries of eternal life, which it is necessary that all priests throughout all the churches of the whole earth, should celebrate, until Christ comes again from heaven, in order that both the priests themselves, and the whole multitude of the faithful people elsewhere, having an example of Christ's Passion before their eyes daily, and bearing it in their hands, and receiving it also in their mouths and breasts, may be possessed with an indelible memory of our redemption, and obtain a sweet medicine for an everlasting safeguard against the venom of the devil. 

(J. P. Minge, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, [1845], Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tomus XX, Sermo II. De Exodi Lectione Secundus, Col. 860). Here  Trans. (J. H. Treat, The Catholic Faith; Or, Doctrines of the Church of Rome Contrary to Scripture and the Teaching of the Primitive Church, [1888], pp. 211). Here


John Ch. 6:

For a figure is not the truth, but an imitation of the truth. [Figura etenim non est veritas, sed imitatio veritatis.] …For the bread which came down from heaven, said: The bread which I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world. For properly, by the species of wine His blood also is expressed, because when He says in the Gospel: I am the true vine: He sufficiently declared that all wine which is offered in a figure [figura] of His passion, is His blood. 

(J. P. Minge, Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, [1845], Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tomus XX, Sermo II. De Exodi Lectione Secundus, Col. 855). Here and Here Trans. (J. H. Treat, The Catholic Faith; Or, Doctrines of the Church of Rome Contrary to Scripture and the Teaching of the Primitive Church, [1888], pp. 218, 181). Here and Here


See Also:

But a figure is not the reality of the Lord's passion. For a figure is not the truth, but an imitation of the truth. For man too was made in the image of God, but was not therefore God.  …For the bread which came down from heaven saith "the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." Rightly to is His blood expressed by the kind of wine, in that he saith in the Gospel, I am the true vine. He Himself plainly declares all which is offered in the figure of His Passion to be, in one, His blood.

(John Harrison, An Answer to Dr. Pusey's Challenge Respecting the Doctrine of the Real Presence, [London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1871], pp. 100, 101). Here



~ Soli Deo Gloria



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