Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book II: On the Real Presence, from the Testimonies of the Fathers
Chapter 18: The Testimony of St. Gregory Nazianzen
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).
Saint Gregory Nazianzen, who flourished at the same time as the foregoing Fathers, in his second oration On the Pasch speaks thus: “Without confusion and doubt eat the body and drink the blood, if at least thou art held by the desire of life; and neither deny faith to the discourses which are had concerning the flesh, nor be offended on account of the passion; be constant, firm, and stable, and fluctuate in nothing on account of the discourses of the adversaries.” So he. Where he exhorts to faith toward so great a mystery, even though the adversaries, that is, the Gentile philosophers, mock us because we say that we eat the flesh of Christ; but this exhortation would be superfluous if we ate the flesh of Christ only in a sign.
Peter Martyr answers that Gregory speaks of faith in the passion of Christ, and exhorts the Christians to believe with certain faith that Christ had true flesh and truly died, and in this manner to eat the flesh of Christ spiritually. But Gregory did not in that place dispute of the passion, but of the Eucharist, of which the eating of the paschal lamb was a figure; for he explains in that place the various rites by which the Jews ate the great pasch, and accommodates them to the eating of the Eucharist. And since among the other rites of the Jews one was that they ate leaning on staffs, he says that by that staff it is signified that we too, firm and stable and without any doubt, should eat the flesh and drink the blood.
Another testimony exists in his oration On the Death of Gorgonia his sister, where he relates that Gorgonia, affected by an incurable disease, on a certain night hastened into the temple, and, falling down before the altar in the presence of the venerable Sacrament, prayed so that she was at once healed: “She falls down at the altar,” he says, “with faith, and beseeching Him who is worshipped upon it with a great cry,” and so forth. Now what is worshipped upon the altar cannot be doubtful, since nothing is there placed by the Christians but bread and wine to be changed into the body and blood of Christ; whence Optatus, cited a little before, called the altar the seat of the body of Christ.
This passage greatly burned and stung Peter Martyr, as appears from his book against Gardiner, objection 38. For first he attempts to disengage himself, and says that Christ is indeed worshipped upon the altar, but is worshipped in a symbol, as He is signified in a symbol. But this answer can help him nothing. For if He is worshipped in a symbol, either He is Himself really in that symbol, or He is not. If He is, the Sacramentarians err, who deny it; if He is not, then it is at least lawful to fall down before the symbols, and there to adore Christ even though absent; therefore it is lawful to venerate the Eucharist and the images of Christ, nor is it idolatry, as they everywhere cry out.
But not content with this solution, Peter Martyr a little below opens his mind, and says that that little woman was little instructed in the Christian religion; and that what she did was an abuse and superstition, since there is neither any altar for Christians, nor ought there to be any use of the Sacrament except at the sacred supper. But that holy woman is sufficiently defended from the petulance of that impious Apostate both by the authority of Saint Gregory, who not only proclaims her as most holy and most excellent, but also testifies that she was most learned in the letters of both Testaments; and by the evident miracle which happened that very night, since she was immediately cured of an incurable disease. But who would believe that an abuse and superstition could be the cause of so great a miracle? Add that, if it is ignorance and superstition to call the table of the Lord an altar, and to worship Christ in the Eucharist, then not Gorgonia alone, but Gregory himself too must be accused of ignorance and superstition. For it is he who calls the table an altar, and who says that Christ is worshipped in the Eucharist; for those words are Gregory’s, not Gorgonia’s: “She fell down at the altar with faith, beseeching with a great voice Him who is worshipped upon it,” and so forth.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XVIII. Testimonium. S. Grerjorii Naziauzeni. Sanctus GregoriusNazianzenus, qui eodem tempore floruit quo superiores Patres, in 2. orat, de Paschate ita loquitur : « Absque confusione et dubio comede corpus, et san¬ guinem bibe, si saltem vita} desiderio teneris, neque sermonibus, qui de carne habentur, fidem deneges, neque ob passionem offen¬ daris ; constans esto, firmus, et stabilis, in nulla re propter adversariorum sermones , fluctues ». IIicc ille. Ubi hortatur ad fidem erga tantum mysterium, etiamsi adversarii, id est, philosophi gentiles nos irrideant, quod dicamus nos carnem Christi mandu¬ care : ha}c autem cohortatio supervacanea esset, si tantum in signo Christi carnem man¬ ducaremus. Respondet Petrus Martyr, Grcgorium loqui de fide passionis Christi, atque hortari Chri¬ stianos, ut certa fide credant Christum ha¬ buisse veram carnem, et vere esse mortuum, et hoc modo spiritualiter manducent carnem Christi. At non disputabat eo loco Gregorius de passione, sed de Eucharistia, cujus figura fuit manducatio agni paschalis; explicat enim eo loco varios ritus, quibus manduca¬ bant Judaei paschale magnum, et accommodat illos ad manducationem Eucharistico. Et quoniam inter alios ritus Judaeorum unus erat, ut baculis nixi manducarent, dicit eo baculo significari, ut etiam nos firmi, et sta- CAPUT XIX. biles, et sine ullo dubio manducemus carnem, et bibamus sanguinem. Aliud testimonium exstat in orat, de obitu Gorgonix sororis suse, ubi refert, Gorgoniam morbo incurabili affectam , nocte quadam sese in templum proripuisse, ac procumben¬ tem ante altare coram venerabili Sacramento ita orasse, ut statim convaluerit : « Ad altare, inquit, cum fide procumbit , eumque qui super illud colitur, magno cum clamore obstestans, etc. » Quid autem super altare colatur, dubium esse non potest, cum nihil ibi ponatur a Christianis, nisi panis, et vinum mutanda in corpus et sanguinem Christi : unde Optatus paulo ante citatus, vocabat altare sedem corporis Christi. Petrum Martyrem valde ussit, pupugitque hic locus, ut apparet ex lib. ejus contra Gar- dinerum , objecto 38. Nam primum conatur se expedire, ac dicit, super altare coli qui¬ dem Christum, sed coli in symbolo , sicut in symbolo significatur. At hsec responsio nihil eum juvare potest. Nam si colitur in symbolo, vel est ipse revera in eo symbolo, vel non est. Si est; errant Sacramentarii, qui id ne¬ gant : si non est; ergo licet saltem coram symbolis procumbere, et ibi Christum licet absentem adorare; ergo licet Eucharistiam, et imagines Christi venerari , neque est idololatria, ut ipsi passim clamant. Sed hac solutione non contentus Petrus Martyr, paulo infra aperit mentem suam, ac dicit, mulierculam illam parum in Christiana religione fuisse instructam ; et abusum, ac superstitionem esse quod illa fecit, cum nec ullum sit altare Christianis, nec ullus Sacra¬ menti usus esse debeat, nisi ad sacram coe- nam. Atiliani sanctam foeminam satis defendit ab istius impii Apostatae petulentia tum sancti Gregorii auctoritas , qui illam non solum praedicat, ut sanctissimam, et optimam; sed etiam testatur fuisse doctissimam in litteris utriusque Testamenti ; tum evidens miracu¬ lum, quod illa ipsa nocte accidit, siquidem continuo curata est ab incurabili morbo. Quis autem credat abusum, et superstitionem tanti miraculi causam esse potuisse? Adde, quod si imperitia, et superstitio est, mensam Domini vocare altare, et Christum in Eucha¬ ristia colere, non sola Gorgonia, sed etiam ipse Gregorius accusandus erit imperitiae, et superstitionis. Nam ipse est, qui mensam vocat altare, et qui Christum in Eucharistia coli dicit; ipsius enim Gregorii, non Gorgonae verba sunt illa : « Ad altare cum fide pro¬ bi) cubuit, eum, qui super illud colitur, magna voce obtestaris etc. »