his priesthood.-Christ is now the priest, according to the flesh born of Judah, not himself offering, but being the head of those that offer." For he calls the church his body, and by this church, as man, he exercises the priestly office, while, as God, he accepts the offerings that are made. For the church offers the symbols of his body and blood.(*) In Psal. cix. v. 4. T. 1. p. 852.

S. LEO, L. C.

Thus writes to Diascorus, the bishop of Alexandria: "That the discipline of our churches may in all things agree, this should be observed: That, when a more solemn feast calls the people together, and more assemble than the church can contain, the offering of the sacrifice be repeated.) lest any be deprived of it; for religion and reason demand, that the sacrifice should be as often offered,(") as there are people to partake. Otherwise, if the custom of one mass be followed, they who cannot find place must be deprived of the sacrifice. We therefore anxiously exhort you, that you do not neglect, but join with us, as in faith so in practice, to observe a rule that by tradition is come down to us." Ep. xi. al. lxxxi. ad Diosc. p. 437.

(4) οὐκ αυτος τι προσφέρων, άλλα των προσφεροντων κεφαλη χρηματίζων.

(α) δέχεται τε τα προσφερόμενα ως Θεός. Προσφέρει δε ἡ ἐκκλησια τα τα σώματος αντε και το ἁιματος.

() Sacrificii oblatio indubitanter iteretur.

Toties sacrificium subsequens offeratur.

(*) Si unius tantum Missæ, more servato, sacrificium offerre non possint.

S. EUCHERIUS,(a) L. C.

"Let all unbelief be gone, since he is witness of the truth, who is the author of the gift; for the invisible priest does, by his word and secret power, change the visible creatures into the substance of his body and blood,(6) saying thus: Take and eat, this is my body, &c. And therefore, as at the command of the Lord, the highest heavens, the deep waves, and the vast earth, suddenly rose out of nothing; so by the like power in the spiritual sacraments, the virtue of the word commands, and the effect obeys.) Let no one doubt that these creatures, by the nod of his power, by the presence of his majesty, pass into the substance of the Lord's body. When the creatures to be blessed by the heavenly words are placed on the altar, before they are consecrated by the invocation of

(a) St. Eucherius was bishop of Lyons, and had been a monk in the convent of Lerins. Some works, very elegantly written, are ascribed to him; but I would not say that the sermon, from which I quote this passage, is from him, though I find it under his name. It is admitted, however, to be ancient; and, as it delivers explicitly the doctrine, which, in this and in the preceding centuries had been taught, its authority may fairly be added to the general mass of evidence. He probably was contemporary with Vincent of Lerins; and died about the year 454. See Dupin and Cave.

(6) In substantia corporis et sanguinis sui, verbo suo, secretâ potestate convertit.

(e) Verbi præcipit virtus, et rei servit effectus.

(d) Novum et impossibile non debet videri, quod in Christi substantiam terrena et mortalia committuntur.

the Most High, the substance of bread and wine is there; but after the words of Christ, it is the body and blood of Christ. And what wonder is it, that he who could create these things by his word, should change them when created? Nay, it seems matter of less wonder, if that which is acknowledged to have been created of nothing, be now changed into better.(9) Search what is hard for him to do, to whom it was easy to raise things visible and invisible, by the power of his will; to whom it was easy to clothe man made of the matter of clay, with the image of his own divinity," &c. Hom. v. de Pasch. sub nomine Eusebii. Bibl. PP. T. vi. p. 636, 637.

COUNCIL OF TRENT.

"Because under the former testament, as the apostle Paul witnesses, (Heb. vii, ix, x.) on account of the weakness of the Levitical priesthood, there was no consummation, it became necessary-God so ordaining it—that another priest according to the order of Melchisedec should arise, our Lord Jesus Christ, who might be able to consummate all that were to be sanctified, and perfect them. Wherefore, this our Lord and God, although he was about to offer himself once, on the altar of the cross, to his Father, that on it he might operate our eternal redemption; yet, because, by death, his priesthood was not to cease, he, at his last supper, the same night in which he

(e) Post verba Christi, corpus et sanguis est Christi.

Verbo possit creata convertere.

(g) In melius valeat commutare.

was betrayed, (1 Cor. xi.) that he might leave to his church a visible sacrifice such as the nature of man requires, by which the bloody sacrifice, once to be completed on the cross, might be represented, and its memory might continue to the end of time, and its salutary virtue be applied to the remission of those sins which we daily commit;declaring himself to be the appointed priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedec, he offered to his father his body and blood under the appearances of bread and wine; and, under those appearances, delivered the same to his apostles, whom at the time he appointed the priests of the New Testament. To them, aud to their successors in the priesthood, he gave command to offer the same, saying, Do this for a commemoration of me. (Luke xxii.) So the Catholic church has always understood and taught. This is the clean offering which the prophet Malachias foretold should be offered in every place.-This the offering which was prefigured by the various typical sacrifices of the law and of nature, comprising whatever good things they signified, consummating and perfecting all." Sess. xxii. c. 1. p. 189. —“ And because in this divine sacrifice which is performed in the mass, the same Christ is contained and offered in an unbloody manner, who, on the altar of the cross, offered himself in a bloody manner-the holy synod teaches that this sacrifice is truly propitiatory, and that by it, to the sincerely penitent, the sins we commit, however enormous they be, are remitted. For it is one and the same victim, the same Christ now offering himself by the ministry of the priest, who offered himself on the cross; the difference being only in the manner of offering. By this offering, then, the fruits of that bloody offering are most plentifully received; so far is it from truth, that hereby the least part

is derogated from it.) lical tradition, the mass is duly offered not only for the benefit of the living, but also for those who, though dead in Christ, are not fully cleansed from all defilement." Ibid. c. ii. p. 191.

Wherefore, according to aposto

(I subjoin, on this important point, the Exposition of our great Bossuet: "The church is so far from believing that any thing is wanting to the sacrifice of the cross, that she deems it, on the contrary, so perfectly and so fully sufficient, that whatever is afterwards added, has been instituted to celebrate its memory, and to apply its virtue. We acknowledge that all the merit of the redemption of mankind is derived from the death of the Son of God: when, therefore, in the celebration of the divine mysteries, we say: 'We offer to thee this holy victim,' we pretend not by this oblation to make, or to present to God, a new payment of the price of our salvation; but to offer to him, in our behalf, the merits of Jesus Christ present, and that infinite price which he once paid for us upon the cross."-Exposition de la Doctrine Cathol. Sect. xiv, p. 168, Edit. Bruxelles, 1751.