§ 116. EUCHARISTIC PRACTICE AND SUPERSTITION. 721
this position Thomas Aquinas quotes side by side the words of our Lord, Luke 22 and Matt. 26, "which is shed for you" and "which is shed for many for the remission of sins," the latter passage being taken to include parties not present in the benefits of the sacrifice on the altar.
§ 116. Eucharistic Practice and Superstition.
The celebration of the eucharist is the central part of the service of the Latin Church. Thomas Aquinas said it is to be celebrated with greater solemnity than the other sacra ments because it contains the whole mystery of our salvation. He gives the meaning of the various ceremonies,1 such as the signing with the cross, the priest's turning his face to the people a certain number of times with reference to Christ's appearances after the resurrection, the use of incense, the stretching forth of the priest's arms, the breaking of the bread, and the rinsing of the mouth after the wine has been taken. How important the prescriptions were considered to be, may be inferred from the careful attention this great Schoolman gives to them. If a fly, he says, or a spider, be found in the wine after consecration, the insect must be taken out, carefully washed and burnt, and then the water, mingled with ashes, must be thrown into the sacrary. If poison be found in the consecrated wine, the contents of the cup are to be poured out and kept in a vessel among the relics.2
The priest's fitness to consecrate the elements lies in the sacerdotal power conferred upon him at his ordination. He consecrates the elements not in his own name but as the minister of Christ, and he does not cease to be a minister by being bad, mains? He alone is the mediator between God and the people, so that it lies not within the power of a lay man to administer the eucharist. The Angelic doctor de-
1 Summa, III. 83. 5 sq., Migne, IV. 844-853.
2 Th. Aq., III. 83. 5, Migne, IV. 850.
3 Non ex hoc desinit aliquis minister esse Christi quod est mains, Th. Aq., 82. 5, 7, Migne, IV. 821, 824; Anselm, ep. IV. 107, Migne, 159. 257, had said the same thing, nee a bono sacerdote mojus, etc.
3 A
722 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
clares that, while in the other sacraments the benefits accrue through the use of the elements, in the eucharist the benefit consists in the consecration of the elements by the priest and not in their use by the people.1
Ecclesiastical analysis and definition could go no farther in divesting the simple memorial meal instituted by our Lord of the element of immediate communion between the believer and the Saviour, and changing it as it were into a magical talisman. It would be disingenuous to ignore that with the Schoolmen the devotional element has a most prominent place in their treatment of the eucharist. Especially when they are treating it as a sacrifice is emphasis laid upon devotion on the part of the participants.2 But, after this is said, the Protestant Christian still feels that they did not appreciate in any adequate degree, the place of faith as the necessary organ of receiving the divine grace extended through this sacred ordinance. The definition which the mediaeval theologians gave to the Church and the mediatorial power they associated with the priesthood precluded them from estimating faith at its true worth.3
The theory of the sacrificial efficacy of the mass encour aged superstition. It exalted the sacerdotal prerogative of the priest4 who had it in his power to withhold or give this viaticum, the spiritual food for pilgrims looking forward to heaven. The people came to look to him rather than to Christ, for could he not by the utterance of his voice effect the repetition of the awful sacrifice of the cross ! The fre quent repetition of the mass became a matter of complaint.
1 Th. Aq., III. 80. 12, Migne, IV. 809. Perfectio hujus sacramenti non est in usu fidelium sed in consecratione material.
2 Requiritur ut cum magna devotione et reverentia ad hoc sacramentum accedat. . . . Eucharistia exigit actualem devotionem in suscipiente, Th. Aq., III. 80. 10, Supplem. Ill, 32. 4, Migne, IV. 805, 1038.
3 We cannot help feeling strongly with Harnack when he exclaims, " In its doctrine of the eucharist, the Church gave expression to all that she held dear, — her theology, her mystical relation to Christ, the communion of believers, the priesthood, sacrifice, etc., — only not to that faith which seeks assurance and to which assurance is given," Dogmengesch., II. 489 sq.
4 Populus indiget medio ad Deum qui per seipsum accedere ad deum non potest., Th. Aq., III. 22. 4, Migne, IV. 219,