BY M. D. TALBOT.
LETTER I. TO THE LORD BISHOP OF EXETER. cont
The same doctrine is fully and elegantly urged by St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, (next after Terasius, who assisted at this Council,) in the second of his three books, called Antirrhetici (Apud Leonem Allatium. Lib. 3, de Consensione Perpetua, cap. 15, §. 21, p. 1223); by Theodorus Graptus, his contemporary (Lib. de inculpata Christianorum Fide) ; and by Elias Cretensis, (In Comment Orationis primæ St. Gregor. Naz.,) one of the prelates who was present in the Seventh General Council.
Yet Dr. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, one of your most eminent Protestant divines, with an effrontery unheard of, had the face to declare that Transubstantiation was " invented about the middle of the twelfth century, and confirmed by no ecclesiastical or Papal decree before the year 1215." This is as correct as what Protestants continually advance against us, " That the Scriptures, the primitive Church, and the Fathers are all against us; and that we have nothing on our side but an unintelligible jargon of metaphysics. How blessedly, my Lord Bishop, is your Reformation reformed. When that pious work of Protestants was first set on foot, the language was, what do we care for the Fathers? But since its completion, the Fathers, they say, are all found to be on their side, which has been demonstratively proved to be false by Cardinal De Perron, Bellarmin, Scheffmacher, &c.
Dr. Cosin did not consider the condemnation of Berengarius in the eleventh century as a convincing proof, that Transubstantiation was not invented in the twelfth century; and he positively asserts, " At last a new form of retractation was imposed on Berengarius, (in the Roman Council, under Gregory VII., anno 1078,) whereby he was henceforth to confess, under pain of the Pope's high displeasure, that the mystic bread is substantially turned into the true and proper flesh of Christ." He pretends that almost the entire population of France, Italy, and England at that period were of Berengarius's opinion, and that it was maintained by many famous nations. Heavenly God! I am astounded how a Protestant prelate with the least regard for truth, could stand up, in the face of antiquity, in the face of all history, and have uttered such an egregioius falsehood; how true are not the words of that eminent Protestant theologian, Dr. Whitaker, who says, " I blush for the honour of Protestantism, for forgery seems peculiar to it, as a particular disease; in vain I look for such a cursed outrage among the disciples of Popery."— (Vindication of Mary, Vol. 3, p. 64.)
LETTER I. TO THE LORD BISHOP OF EXETER. cont
The same doctrine is fully and elegantly urged by St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, (next after Terasius, who assisted at this Council,) in the second of his three books, called Antirrhetici (Apud Leonem Allatium. Lib. 3, de Consensione Perpetua, cap. 15, §. 21, p. 1223); by Theodorus Graptus, his contemporary (Lib. de inculpata Christianorum Fide) ; and by Elias Cretensis, (In Comment Orationis primæ St. Gregor. Naz.,) one of the prelates who was present in the Seventh General Council.
Yet Dr. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, one of your most eminent Protestant divines, with an effrontery unheard of, had the face to declare that Transubstantiation was " invented about the middle of the twelfth century, and confirmed by no ecclesiastical or Papal decree before the year 1215." This is as correct as what Protestants continually advance against us, " That the Scriptures, the primitive Church, and the Fathers are all against us; and that we have nothing on our side but an unintelligible jargon of metaphysics. How blessedly, my Lord Bishop, is your Reformation reformed. When that pious work of Protestants was first set on foot, the language was, what do we care for the Fathers? But since its completion, the Fathers, they say, are all found to be on their side, which has been demonstratively proved to be false by Cardinal De Perron, Bellarmin, Scheffmacher, &c.
Dr. Cosin did not consider the condemnation of Berengarius in the eleventh century as a convincing proof, that Transubstantiation was not invented in the twelfth century; and he positively asserts, " At last a new form of retractation was imposed on Berengarius, (in the Roman Council, under Gregory VII., anno 1078,) whereby he was henceforth to confess, under pain of the Pope's high displeasure, that the mystic bread is substantially turned into the true and proper flesh of Christ." He pretends that almost the entire population of France, Italy, and England at that period were of Berengarius's opinion, and that it was maintained by many famous nations. Heavenly God! I am astounded how a Protestant prelate with the least regard for truth, could stand up, in the face of antiquity, in the face of all history, and have uttered such an egregioius falsehood; how true are not the words of that eminent Protestant theologian, Dr. Whitaker, who says, " I blush for the honour of Protestantism, for forgery seems peculiar to it, as a particular disease; in vain I look for such a cursed outrage among the disciples of Popery."— (Vindication of Mary, Vol. 3, p. 64.)
