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Correspondence (1716–1725)
Eastern Patriarchs and the Nonjurors, ed. Williams, 1868
Another Short Synodical Explication of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
Plain is the word of Truth, nor does it want the Ornaments of art; having in itself a natural force and energy. Since therefore it is requisite for us to make manifest the truth in the Affair before us, we have determined to lay aside all sophistry of words; and to represent it in plain Language and with an honest intention, under the direction of the Divine Grace from above. Since therefore the Holy Catholick Church of Christ among us, has from the Apostolical age down to our own time, had such sentiments and belief of the most holy Sacrament of the sacred Eucharist, as are agreeable to our God and Saviour Christ’s institution; namely, that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly and actually present in it; so as that after the Consecration of the Bread and Wine, the Bread is converted and changed into that very Body of Christ which was born of the Virgin, and the Wine into that very Blood of our God and Saviour Christ, which was shed upon the Cross; and the substance of bread and wine no longer remains, but is truly and actually the very Body and Blood of Christ, under the visible Symbols of bread and wine: and also, that in every part of the consecrated bread and wine, there is not a part of the body and blood of Christ, but the whole entire Lord Christ substantially, together with His soul and Divinity, perfect God, and perfect Man. For, the same body of Christ, is at the same time, in heaven and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist; not that it comes from heaven, but the bread and wine are substantially changed into that very body and blood of our Lord; and they are truly and actually present in the Sacrament after an invisible manner.
But tho’ there are many Sacrifices offered in the World; yet we don’t believe there are many Christs and many Bodies of Christ; but that one only Christ is really and actually present, as has been said, in all the particular Churches of the faithful; and that His body and blood are substantially but one, and not many in many places, and to be adored with Latria. For truly, the very deified body of our Lord is present, and upon that account it is both called Latria, and is worship’d with it. And that the very same body and blood is distributed to all that come and are partakers, both Clergy and Laity, under both kinds. And that it procures remission of sins, sanctification and eternal life to the pious and worthy; but to those that receive it impiously and unworthily, condemnation and eternal punishment. But many Hereticks appearing at different times, and denying the substantial and actual change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament, and the sacred Doctors of Holy Church writing against them as was requisite, and the Hereticks again making use of equivocations and Sophisms to deceive the ignorant; the Church at last, for a clearer manifestation of the truth in the Sacrament according to her proper authority and custom, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, made use of the word μετουσίωσις, intending no more thereby than that there is a μεταβολὴ in the Sacrament. She made use of this Expression, because she abhorred equivocations, and was above all heretical Sophisms against the Sacrament. Not as if she borrowed it from the Latins, but was stored with it from her own proper and genuine orthodox Doctors, many ages before, as may be seen from the Writings of that great Champion of Religion, the Lord Gennadius Patriarch of Constantinople, who contended before Orthodox Princes and religious Patriarchs, and the holy Assembly and Doctors of Orthodoxy among us, for that word, as before settled and received by the Church in the Affair of the Holy Sacrament. Which word, from that time has been universally and indubitably maintained, nor has any one appeared against this usage of the Church, Hereticks only excepted; but all with one consent, and with the assistance of the holy Spirit, do both acknowledge and teach it without any difference, in a sincere and pure Conscience. And this is manifest and selfevident, from many excellent writings of persons afterwards illustrious, and learned Doctors of the Church, Maximus Margunius Bishop of the Cytheri, Meletius Pega Patriarch of Alexandria, Gabriel of Philadelphia, George of Koresius a Divine of the Church, Nectarius Patriarch of Jerusalem, and many other excellent Doctors, whom we forbear to name because of their number. Besides whom, the elaborate Writings of the Lord Meletius Syrigus a Doctor of the Church of happy memory upon this subject, explain this word and the meaning of it: As also the book intituled the Orthodox Confession, which was established by a Synod of the Œcumenical Throne, with the consent, votes, and subscriptions of the other most holy Patriarchs, and declared by the Church to be orthodox and unblameable. So also, a different one from that, containing a larger defence against the Articles of the Cyrillites, and in some measure against the Heresy of the Calvinists. But now I can’t tell how, there have appear’d some Objections which seem to quarrel with the word Transubstantiation, as a common and modern expression; but indeed are level’d against the integrity of the Sacrament, inasmuch as they deny, tho’ covertly, the actual and substantial presence of our Saviour therein. For, tho’ they use the word change, and call it an actual and real change, yet by the other Sophisms and hypocrisies contained in them, they mutilate the change, that is properly acknowledged and piously believed by the Orthodox, and interpret it contrary to the Sentiments of the Church. For, they don’t allow the visible bread and wine which is eaten, to be after consecration the real and substantial, but only the spiritual or rather imaginary body and blood of Christ; which is full of impiety, as the Synod assembled under Parthenius, the ancient Patriarch of Constantinople, to condemn this heretical opinion, express’d themselves against this Blasphemy. Wherefore, our Mediocrity having considered the matter in Council, together with the most blessed and holy Patriarch of the sacred City of Jerusalem and all Palestine the Lord Dositheus, and the most holy Bishops present, and all our worthy and beloved brothers in the holy Spirit, and fellowministers, and the honourable and learned Clergy of our Great Church of Christ, and the heads of our people, and other persons of reputation and learning, and other valuable pious and orthodox Christians, being determined to confirm the orthodox opinion of the Church concerning this question; we do assent, that this word transubstantiation is neither foreign nor heterodox, nor forcibly brought in upon the eastern Church by any heterodox people; but is a proper and genuine expression of our Holy Doctrine, and rightly and publickly made use of by the holy Doctors of the Church, nor at all disagreeable to her sentiments, as the abovementioned Writings belye her, nor different from the μεταβολὴ that is maintained in the Sacrament, nor productive of any notion varying from this. For, if it made any difference and alteration in the sense, the orthodox, wise, and learned Doctors who well knew how to distinguish matters, would not have received it as the same and equivalent to μεταβολή. But indeed as we said before, to preserve the Doctrine of the Holy Sacrament from all the evil artifices, falsehood, and latent malice, and from the errors and writings of hereticks, they brought this word into the Holy Church of Christ, as what would put a stop to the vile Doctrines of men of wicked sentiments, and silence hereticks, by the assistance of the Spirit from above, being minded to explain the opinion of the Catholick Church more clearly and indisputably. Upon which account, we both receive and confirm it, and religiously think and teach, and unanimously believe, that the bread and wine which are placed upon the Altar, are after the reciting our Lord’s words and after Consecration, substantially changed into the real Body and Blood of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, as we have said more largely above; and that this is what is meant by Transubstantiation, and nothing else varying from the ancient opinion of our Holy Church. But those writings, however they have appeared, we altogether disown and reject as deceitful and hypocritical and hurtful to the honour of the Church, and send them far from our Orthodox Church, and abrogate them, pronouncing them vain and invalid; and prohibit all the Orthodox from receiving them, and from believing in conformity to their doctrines, contrary to the religious sentiments of the Church, and from maintaining and defending them after an evil and erroneous manner. And we forbid all the faithful the liberty of taking them into their hands, and reading them privately or teaching them to others. And for the future, as many as shall be found studying, reading or writing them, and teaching them to others publickly or privately, whether they be Bishops, Priests, Monks or Deacons, Clergy or Officials of the Catholick Church, they shall immediately, without examination, scrutiny or delay, be given over to the severity of ecclesiastical punishment, and be directly degraded from their Degree and Order by Synodical Deprivation, and be banished far from the ecclesiastical body, by an open abdication and a publick denunciation of Anathema. But such as are Laicks and of a secular order, shall be anathematized and given over to destruction, and to the Damnation of eternal fire. And those who shall dare to transgress this ecclesiastical and synodical orthodox sentence, and will embrace those rejected and reprobate writings, in opposition to the Catholic orthodox Church, and shall favour persons of that sentiment, and vindicate and agree with them, and assist them in word or deed, whether they be Clergy or Laity, of what degree or condition soever, from the least to the greatest, Let them be separated from the Holy Consubstantial and Life-giving Trinity, one only God by nature, and be cursed and deprived of pardon and remission after death, both in this world and that to come; Let their portion be with the Traitour Judas, and the primitive hereticks and disturbers of the Church of Christ, and with the crucifiers of our Lord; and Let them be liable to Hell-fire, exposed to the curses of Fathers and Synods, and subject to an eternal anathema. For the exhibition therefore, and explication of our Orthodox Confession, concerning the venerable and saving mystery of the Holy Eucharist, and of this rightly and unblameably instructing word, the Transubstantiation we have been speaking of, we have drawn this Patriarchal, Synodical, and Commendatory Writing, and have Synodically confirmed it by the Subscriptions of the most holy Patriarchs, the most sacred Metropolitans, and the most honourable Clergy of the great Church of Christ among us, and other excellent and honourable persons, and have deposited it in the holy Register of the Great Church. 1691.
✠ Kallinicus, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople the new Rome, and Œcumenical Patriarch. ✠ Dosistheus, by the mercy of God, Patriarch of the Holy City Jerusalem: I consent in every thing. ✠ Theophanes of Ephesus. ✠ Cyril of Cyzicus. ✠ Gabriel of Chalcedon. ✠ Parthenius of Rhodes. ✠ Cyprian of Neocæsarea. ✠ Athanasius of Drystia. ✠ Gregory of Chius. ✠ Theodoret late of Lacedæmon. ✠ Palomius of Raidistus. ✠ George Great Œconomus, Priest. ✠ John Great Logothetes. ✠ Ralaces Great Ecclesiarch. ✠ Mbalases Great Chartophylax. ✠ Pspantones Dicæophylax. ✠ Chronmusius Logothetes.
✠ Samuel, by the mercy of God, Pope and Patriarch of the Great City of Alexandria, and Judge of the Universe.
Our Mediocrity, by this Patriarchal subscription and seal, bears witness and attests, that the contents of this paper are genuine and true, and faithfully transcribed; viz. the Answers agreed on in Synod, and the Synodical Expositions, exactly copied from the sacred Register of the Great Church of Christ, in the year of our Salvation 1718. in the month of April Indictione 11a.
(L.S.) ✠ Samuel of Alexandria confirms.