The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wiseThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise

Theophilus. As much may I say of that that he hath said of his flesh and of his blood, speaking in this manner: verily, verily I say unto ¹you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, ye shall not have life in you. Doth not that proposition countervail as much, as if he had said: whosoever shall not eat my flesh and drink my blood, shall not have eternal life? none can deny the same. It followeth then, that all the young children are damned and all those which do not communicate in the Sacrament of the supper: if the Popish doctrine be true, that Jesus Christ ⟨p. 234⟩is really in the host, and that we must there eat his flesh and drink his blood, after the manner as they have taught us. It shall not be then no less necessary to keep the consecrated hosts, and of the Gods in the box, for to communicate to the little children, & to give unto them the Sacrament of the Eucharist, as the same of baptism. For the words of Jesus Christ do urge no less in the one of the places then in the other. And if thou do think, that there is great difference; I will show unto thee easily, that many among the ancients, have perceived & judged it to be so as I say: or otherwise, in the time of Charlemagne they would not have kept the Eucharistia, for to give it unto the little children, when they were sick, if they had not esteemed the thing very necessary. Yet nevertheless it is written in the book of Ansegisus, Abbot of Liege, that the ²same was done in that time there, and reciteth the canon which was made. But yet at this day that error continueth among the Bohemians and Moravians, the which ³yet nevertheless the Papists themselves do not allow: no more then that which S. Cyprian & Origene did, which did distribute the supper unto young children, when their fathers ⁴and mothers brought them in their arms, in coming to communicate the same. And they gave unto them not only the bread, but also the cup. Now let us think if already such errors were about the sacraments in that time there, what may chance afterwards. For Cyprian reigned about the year after the death and passion of Jesus Christ two hundred and fifty. Those worthy men would not have so much attributed unto the Sacraments, if they had not so much taken to the rigour and to the letter the words of Jesus Christ.