Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book II: On the Real Presence, from the Testimonies of the Fathers
Chapter 1: The Testimony of the Disciples of St. Andrew the Apostle (First Age of the Church)
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. IV, De Sacramento Eucharistiae, Book II: On the Truth of the Body of the Lord in the Eucharist, from the Testimonies of the Fathers. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
First, then, the testimonies of those must be examined who saw and heard the Apostles, which was the first age of the Church. And first there occurs the book of the passion of Saint Andrew the Apostle, written by his disciples, who were present at the passion. That this book is genuine is sufficiently established: both because none (so far as I know) have hitherto called its authority into question; and because in truth it contains nothing that smacks of novelty; and because the manner of Saint Andrew’s passion, and those words of his, “Hail, holy cross,” most celebrated in the whole Church, were without doubt taken from this book; and because Peter Damian, in his second sermon on Saint Andrew, speaks thus of this history: “Not without merit has it been received into the singular citadel of authority, since those who saw it wrote it for the world, and were ministers of the word”; and finally because John of Louvain, in his censure on the passions of the saints, which is had in the Martyrology of Molanus, judges this book to be read by all means; and the same was indicated by that most weighty man Aloysius Lipomanus, who described the lives of the Saints from approved authors; to omit that in the Roman Breviary, lately revised and purged, the passion of Saint Andrew from this book has its place.
In that book, then, are had these words of the Apostle Andrew: “I daily sacrifice to almighty God an immaculate lamb.” And below: “Who, although He be truly sacrificed, and His flesh truly eaten by the people, yet remains whole and living.” In which words, that phrase (truly eaten) excludes an eating in a sign or spirit alone. And besides, a little below, when Aegeas marveled and asked that it be explained to him how it could be that a lamb truly eaten remained whole and living, and Saint Andrew refused to explain the mystery to a heathen man, and the other insisted and wished to compel the Apostle by torments, at length the Apostle subjoined that it could in no way come about that, without faith in Christ, one should attain the knowledge of this mystery. But certainly, if the Eucharist is nothing but bread signifying Christ, it was not difficult, even without faith, to understand how Christ, eaten in a sign, remains whole. For if the image of some prince be imprinted on bread, certainly that prince can be eaten in his image without any injury to himself; nor is there any difficulty in understanding this. To this passage I have seen no answer of the heretics.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT PRIMUM. PRIMA JETAS ECCLESIAS AB ANNO DOMINI USQUE AD 100. Testimonium discipulorum S. Andre x Apostoli. Primo igitur excutienda sunt testimonia eorum, qui Apostolos viderunt, et audierunt, qute fuit prima retas Ecclesire. Ac primum occurrit liber passionis S. Andrese Apostoli scriptus ab ejus discipulis, qui passioni inter¬ fuerunt. Hunc librum legitimum esse satis constat; tum, quia nulli (quod sciam) adhuc in qusestionem ejus auctoritatem vocarunt ; tum, quia revera nihil continet, quod novi¬ tatem redoleat ; tum, quia genus passionis S. Andrern, et illa ejus verba : « Salve sancta crux», in tota Ecclesia celeberrima, ex hoc libro sine dubitatione sumpta sunt : tum quia Petrus Damianus in serm. 2. de S. Andrea de hac historia sic loquitur. Non immerito in singularem auctoritatis arcem suscepta est, quam qui viderunt, scripserunt orbi, et mi¬ nistri fuere sermonis : tum denique, quia Joannes a Lovanio in sua censura de passio¬ nibus sanctorum, quie habetur in Martyrolo- gio Molani, hunc librum omnibus modis le¬ gendum censet; et idem indicavit vir gravis¬ simus Aloysius Lipomannus, qui ex probatis auctoribus vitas Sanctorum descripsit ; ut omittam quod in Breviario Romano, nuper recognito, ac repurgato, suum locum habet passio S. Andrern ex hoc libro. In eo igitur libro habentur bsec verba Apostoli Andrcte : « Ego omnipotenti Deo immaculatum agnum quotidie sacrifico ». Et infra : « Qui cum sit vere sacrificatus, et vere a populo carnes ejus manducatm, inte¬ ger perseverat, et vivus » . In quibus verbis, illud ( Vere manducatx ) excludit manducatio¬ nem in solo signo aut spiritu. Ac prieterea paulo infra, cum /Egeas miraretur, ac pete¬ ret, sibi explicari, quomodo posset fieri, ut agnus vere manducatus, integer et vivus maneret, et S. Andreas recusaret homini ethnico mysterium explicare, et ille instaret, ac per tormenta cogere vellet Apostolum ; tandem Apostolus subjunxit, fieri non posse ullo modo, ut sine fide in Christum, ad hujus mysterii notitiam perveniret. At certe si ni¬ hil est Eucharistia, nisi panis significans Christum, non erat difficile etiam sine fide intelligere, quomodo Christus in signo man¬ ducatus, integer perseveret. Nam si in pane imprimatur imago principis alicujus ; certe sine ulla sua la3sione, comedi poterit princeps ille in sua imagine ; nec ulla difficultas est in hac re intclligenda. Ad hunc locum non vidi ullam responsionem haereticorum.