A19563:498
An answerAn aunsvvere
An answer by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and metropolitan, unto a crafty and sophistical cavillation, devised by Stephen Gardiner Doctor of Law, late Bishop of Winchester against the true and godly doctrine of the most holy sacrament, of the body and blood of our saviour Jesus Christ Wherein is also, as occasion serveth, answered such places of the book of Doct. Richard Smith, as may seem any thing worthy the answering. Here is also the true copy of the book written, and in open court delivered, by D. Stephen Gardiner ...An aunsvvere by the Reuerend Father in God Thomas Archbyshop of Canterbury, primate of all England and metropolitane, vnto a craftie and sophisticall cauillation, deuised by Stephen Gardiner Doctour of Law, late Byshop of Winchester agaynst the true and godly doctrine of the most holy sacrament, of the body and bloud of our sauiour Iesu Christ Wherein is also, as occasion serueth, aunswered such places of the booke of Doct. Richard Smith, as may seeme any thyng worthy the aunsweryng. Here is also the true copy of the booke written, and in open court deliuered, by D. Stephen Gardiner ...
London: printed by John Daye, 1580London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1580
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And although many authors use this manner of speech, that Christ maketh bread his body, and wine his blood, and wonder thereat: yet those authors mean not of the bread and wine in them selves, but of the bread and wine eaten and drunken of faithful people. For when Christ called bread his body, and wine his blood, he wake not those words to the bread & wine ⟨p. 66⟩but to the eaters and drinkers of them, saying: Eat, this is my body. Drink this is my blood, signifying to them that worthily do eat that bread & drink that cup, that they be inwardly and invisibly fed with Christs flesh and blood, as they outwardly and visibly receive the sacraments of them.
And although many authors vse this manner of speech, that Christ maketh bread his body, and wine his bloud, and wonder thereat: yet those authors mean not of the bread and wine in them selues, but of the bread and wine eaten and dronken of faithfull people. For when Christ called bread his body, and wine his bloud, he wake not those words to the bread & wine ⟨p. 66⟩but to the eaters and drinkers of them, saying: Eat, this is my body. Drink this is my bloud, signifying to thē that worthely do eat that bread & drink that cuppe, that they be inwardly and inuisibly fed with Christes flesh and bloud, as they outwardly and visibly receaue the sacraments of them.
To be short, here in this process you use plenty of words at your pleasure to make the reader believe, that I should suppose confusion, monstrousness, absurdity and unseemliness to be in Gods holy sacraments, where as I do no more but tell what monstrous absurdities and errors the Papists do §9teach in the sacraments. But if the reader take good heed to your talk, he shall find, that you lacking good matter to answer this comparison, do fall unto railing, and enforce your pen to invent such stuff as might bring me into hatred undeserved, which kind of rhetoric is called Canma facunda, and is used only of them that hunt for their own praise by the dispraise of their adversary, which is yet an other trick of the devils sophistry.