CARDINAL. Ah, thou arrant heretic! I will thee remember. I am glad I know so much as I do: I have weighed thy reasons, and have found them so slender, That I think them not worthy to be answered [to].[48] How say you, Master Hypocrisy?
HYPOCRISY. I also think so; But let him go forward and utter his conscience, And we will a while longer hear him with patience.
CARDINAL. Say on, thou heretic: of the holy Sacrament; Of the body and blood of Christ, what is thine opinion?
PHILOLOGUS. I have not yet finished my former argument.
CARDINAL. Say on, as I bid thee: thou art a stout minion.
PHILOLOGUS. I shall then gladly: it is a sign of union, The which should remain us Christians among, That one should love another all our life long. For as the bread is of many cornels compounded, And the wine from the juice of many grapes do descend, So we, which into Christ our Rock are ingrounded, As into one temple, should cease to contend, Lest by our contention the Church we offend. This was not the least cause, among many more, Which are now omitted, that this Sacrament was given for. The chiefest cause why this Sacrament was ordained, Was the infirmity of our outward man; Whereas salvation to all men was proclaimed, That with true faith apprehend the same can, By the death of Jesus Christ, that immaculate Lamb; That the same might the rather of all men be believed, To the word to add a Sacrament it Christ nothing grieved. And as we the sooner believe that thing true, For the trial whereof more witnesses we find, So by the means of the Sacrament many grew Believing creatures, where before they were blind; For our senses some savour of our faith now do find, Because in the Sacrament there is this analogy, That Christ feeds our souls, as the bread doth our body.
CARDINAL. Ah, thou foul heretic! is there bread in the Sacrament? Where is Christ's body, then, which he did us give?
PHILOLOGUS. I know to the faithful receiver it is there present, But yet the bread remaineth still, I steadfastly believe.
CARDINAL. To hear these his errors it doth me greatly grieve: But that we may shortly to some issue come, In what sense said Christ, _Hoc est corpus meum_?
PHILOLOGUS. Even in the same sense that he said before: _Vos estis sal terrae, Vos estis lux mundi, Ego sum ostium_, and a hundred such more, If time would permit to allege them severally; But that I may the simple sort edify, You ask me in what sense these words I verify, Where Christ of the bread said, "This is my body." For answer herein I ask you this question: Were Christ's disciples into salt transformed When he said, "Ye are the salt of the earth every one," Or when the light of the world he them affirmed? Or himself to be a door when he confirmed? Or to be a vine, did his body then change? If not then, why now? this to me seemeth strange.