ing the heats excited by Berenger's attacks upon the doctrine of the corporal presence. Some Romish writers, naturally anxious to extenuate the opposition encountered anciently by assertors of that doctrine, have contended that Erigena's piece upon the Eucharist is, in fact, that which we have under the name of Ratramn, or Bertram. This opinion, however, has been satisfactorily disproved, and is, accordingly, now universally abandoned. Erigena flourished in the middle and latter half of the ninth century. Cave, Hist. Lit. 548. Du Pin, Eccl. Hist. IX. 73, 77. Eng. transl. L'Arroque's Hist. of the Euch. Engl. transl. Lond. 1684. p. 403. Labb. et Coss. IX. 1056.

17" Concede, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus, ut quem ænigmatice et sub aliena specie cernimus, quo sacramentaliter cibamur in terris; facie ad faciem eum videamus: eo sicuti est veraciter et realiter frui mereamur in cœlis: per eundem. Amen." (Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Laud. 201. fol. ult.) The volume, which is a collection of transcripts from Cambridge MSS. made by L'Isle, evidently with a view to publication, appears to have come into the possession of archbishop Laud in 1638. The prayer extracted above is one of a short collection to which the following title is prefixed: "Certaine Prayers of the Saxon times, taken out of the Nunnes Rules of St. James's Order, in Bennet Coll. Library.” This particular prayer is printed by Wanley, in the second volume of Hickes's Thesaurus, p. 101.

18Hoc ferme tempore quidam clerici, maligno errore seducti, asseverare conabantur, panem et vinum, quæ in altari ponuntur, post consecrationem, in priori substantia permanere, et figuram tantum

modo esse corporis et sanguinis Christi, non verum Christi corpus et sanguinem. Quorum enormem perfidiam, beatus Odo destruere cupiens, dum quadam die, in conspectu totius populi, sacrosanctis missarum solemniis devotus, intenderet; expressis lachrymis, Dei omnipotentis clementiam in suo ministerio affore postulavit; quæ, ad depellendos hominum errores, substantiam divinorum mysteriorum declararet proprietatem. Cumque ad confractionem vivifici panis ventum fuisset: (0 ineffabilem Dei miserationem, et præsentiam æternæ majestatis ostentationem!) confestim namque inter manus beati pontificis fragmenta corporis Christi tenentis sanguis guttatim defluere cœpit. Stans, itaque, pontifex, et præ gaudio uberes lachrymas fundens, innuit astantibus ministris, ut illi potissimum proprius accedant qui nuper in fidem titubaverant. Vocati igitur celeriter assunt, atque in tantarum rerum consideratione perterrefacti, pœnitenti voce exclamant: O te inter homines fœlicissimum hodie; cui Filius Dei semetipsum in carne dignatus est revelare! Et rursum; Exora, inquiunt, præsulum pater, exora Domini majestatem; ut in pristinam formam præsens sanguis commutetur; ne nos, propter infidelitatis errorem, ultio divina sequatur. Oravit ergo sacerdos. Post orationem, ad aram respexit; et ubi dimiserat sanguinem, consuetam vini reperit speciem." (Osbern. de Vit. S. Od. Archiep. Cantuar. Ang. Sacr. Lond. 1691. II. 82.)

As this relation rests upon the authority of a writer who lived at the distance of two centuries from Odo's time, it may be reasonably treated as a mere figment altogether. If the circumstanee, however, truly occurred, nothing, obviously, would have

been easier than to have contrived the pretended miracle beforehand. But the consistency of AngloSaxon testimony against transubstantiation renders it most likely that Odo's memory is not justly chargeable with the clumsy and impious piece of legerdemain imputed to him.

19 Inter. Credis sanctam catholicam atque apostolicam unam esse veram Ecclesiam, in qua unum datur Baptisma, atque vera omnium remissio pec

catorum? Resp. Credo. Inter. Credis panem quod in mensa Dominica ponitur panem tantummodo esse ante consecrationem, sed in ipsa consecratione, ineffabili potentia Divinitatis, converti naturam atque substantiam panis, in naturam atque substantiam carnis; carnis, vero, nullius alterius sed illius que concepta est de Spiritu Sancto, atque nata ex Maria Virgine? Resp. Credo. Inter. Similiter vinum, quod, aqua mixtum, in sanctificandum proponitur, vere atque essentialiter converti in sanguinem, qui, per lanceam militis, de vulnere Domini lateris emanavit? Resp. Credo." (Bibl. Publ. Cant. MSS. Ee. II. 3. "Codex membranaceus ante quinquenos annos scriptus. Pontificale." Nasmith. Catal.) These questions are also found in the Parker MS. (Bibl. C. C. C. C. LXXIX. Pontificale post Hug. de S. Vict. script. f. 44.) in the examination of bishops, at the time of consecration. In an earlier Pontifical, (XLIV.) preserved among the treasures of archbishop Parker's inestimable collection, (p. 7.) there is no trace of this interpolation, in the examination of bishops.

20 Ratramn has commonly passed under the name of Bertram. M. Claude has probably stated in the following passage the true reason of this confu

sion. ""Twas the custom to give the name Beatus to illustrious men in the Church, instead of Sanctus, which has been since affectedly given 'em; of which there are thousands of instances in manuscripts and printed books. "Tis then very likely that some transcribers, finding, in the manuscripts, the title of this book, B. Ratrami, or Be. Ratrami, which signifies Beati Ratramni, they have imprudently joyn'd all these letters, and made thereof but one name." The Cath. Doctr. of the Euch. by M. Claude, Engl. transl. Lond. 1684. p. 286.

"The following passage is palpably, from the words ateopiað, shew, and clypιað, call, most especially, shewn to be the original property of Ratramn: Soolice re hlap and p pin pe beoð þurh sacerda mæɲran zehalzode oder þing hi ateopiað menniscum andzitum piðutan 7 oder pinz hi clýpiad piðinnan geleaffullum modum. Truly the bread and wine which by the masse of the priest is hallowed, shew one thing without to humane understanding, and another thing they call within to believing minds. (A Sermon on Easter Day. L'Isle's Transl. p. 5.) "At ille panis qui per sacerdotis ministerium Christi corpus efficitur, aliud exterius humanis sensibus ostendit, aliud interius fidelium mentibus clamat." (Liber Ratramni de Cor. et Sang. Dom. Lond. 1686. p. 14.) It will be observed here, that Elfric, although manifestly borrowing from Ratramn, uses language more decidedly at variance with transubstantiation than his original. Among the preliminary matter to the edition of Ratramn, used above, (p. xl. et seqq.) may be seen more instances of parallelism between that celebrated foreigner and our own equally powerful witness

against the antiquity of a belief in the corporal presence. Of this latter, indeed, Johnson well observes, "I am fully persuaded that the Homilies of Elfric are more positive against the doctrine of transubstantiation than the Homilies of the Church of England, compiled in the reigns of Edward the Sixth and queen Elizabeth." Collection of Eccl. Laws, pref. p. xx.

22

Strype (Life of Archbishop Parker, Oxf. 1821, I. 472.) considers that the archbishop published Ælfric's famous testimonies against transubstantiation, in 1566. The book was printed by John Day, in octavo. Its correspondence with the original was attested by the signatures of the learned primate himself, of the archbishop of York, and of thirteen bishops. Foxe again published these interesting and most important remains of our ecclesiastical antiquities, in his Acts and Monuments, (Vol. II. Lond. 1610. pp. 1041, 1042.) L'Isle also rendered the same service to the cause of truth, in 1623, as did Whelock in his Bede, in 1643, (pp. 332, 333, 462.) and likewise, according to Strype, did Leon Litchfield, at Oxford, in 1675.

Of the famous paschal homily there are two copics among the MSS. in the public library at Cambridge, one in Ii. 4-6. and another in Gg. 3-28. Another copy is also in the library of Corpus Christi College in that University.

For a general account of this homily, see Hist. Ref. III. 162. Perhaps the most remarkable passage in it is the following: Micel is betpux dæɲe unzerepenlican mihte der halzan hurler· 7 þam zerepenlican hipe azenes zecýnder. Hit is on zecynde brorniendlic hlap 7 bɲorniendlic pin