Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book II: On the Real Presence, from the Testimonies of the Fathers
Chapter 28: The Testimony of St. Leo
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 Leo, although he was younger than Theodoret, yet flourished in the same century, as is clear from the epistle of Theodoret to Leo, and from another of Leo to Theodoret.
Four testimonies are wont to be cited from Leo. The first is sermon 7 On the Passion of the Lord, where he says thus: “That therefore the shadows might yield to the body, and the images cease under the presence of the truth, the ancient observance is taken away by a new Sacrament, victim passes into victim, blood excludes blood, and the legal festivity, while it is changed, is fulfilled.” So he. The second is sermon 14 On the Passion of the Lord: “Let us,” he says, “taste Him throughout, both in spirit and in flesh.” The third is sermon 6 On the Fast of the Seventh Month: “You ought so to communicate at the sacred table that you doubt nothing at all of the truth of the body and blood of Christ. For that is received with the mouth which is believed by faith; and in vain do those answer Amen who dispute against that which is received.” The fourth is in epistle 23 to the clergy and people of Constantinople: “In the Church of God, in the mouth of all it is so consonant that not even by the tongues of infants is the truth of the body and blood of Christ kept silent among the Sacraments of the common faith.” In the two last passages Saint Leo strives to prove that Christ had true flesh, against the error of Eutyches then arisen; and this he proves from the Eucharist. For we should not receive true flesh if Christ had not true flesh.
Peter Martyr answers that Leo’s argument consists in this, that the Eucharist would not be a symbol of the body of the Lord if Christ had not a body. But he is deceived; for it would still be a symbol of the body such as the Eutychians posited, namely an apparent one; for even apparent bodies can be represented by some sign. Besides, Leo says that that very thing is received with the mouth which is believed by faith. But by faith we believe that Christ has true flesh; therefore we receive true flesh with the mouth. And he who answers Amen, while he receives the Sacrament, does not by his confession confirm that what he receives is a symbol, but that it is the body; for the priest does not say, Receive the symbol, but, Receive the body, as we also noted above from Ambrose. Finally, he says that the tongues of infants do not keep silent the truth of the body of the Lord in the celebration of the Sacraments; but infants are wont to speak simply, not figuratively and symbolically.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXVIII. Testimonium S, Leonis, Sanctus Leo, licet junior Theodoreto esset, eodem tamen saeculo floruit, ut patet ex epist. Theodoreti ad Leonem, et ex altera Leonis ad Theodoretum. Quatuor testimonia ex Leone citari solent. Primum est serm. vn. de passione Domini, ubi sic ait : « Ut ergo umbrae cederent corpori, et cessarent imagines sub praesentia verita¬ tis, antiqua observantia novo tollitur Sacra¬ mento, hostia in hostiam transit, sanguinem sanguis excludit, et legalis festivitas, dum mutatur, impletur. » Haec ille. Secundum est serm. 14. de passione Domini : « Ipsum, inquit, per omnia et spiritu, et carne guste¬ mus. » Tertium est serm. 6. de jejunio se¬ ptimi mensis : «Sic sacrae mensae communi¬ care debetis, ut nihil prorsus de veritate cor¬ poris Christi, et sanguinis ambigatis. Hoc enim ore sumitur, quod fide creditur, et fru¬ stra ab illis Amen respondetur, a quibus contra id, quod accipitur, disputatur. » Quar¬ tum est in epist. 23. ad Clerum, et populum Constantinopolitanum : « In Ecclesia Dei, in omnium ore tam consonum est, ut nec ab infantium linguis veritas corporis et sangui¬ nis Christi inter communis Sacramenta fidei taceatur. » In duobus postremis locis pro¬ bare nititur S. Leo Christum habuisse veram carnem contra errorem tunc exortum Euty- chetis; id vero probat ex Eucharistia. Neque enim acciperemus veram carnem, si Chri¬ stus non haberet veram carnem. Respondet Petrus Martyr, argumentum CAPUT XXX. 123 Leonis in eo consistere, quod non esset Eu¬ charistia symbolum corporis Domini, si Chri¬ stus non haberet corpus. Sed fallitur, nam adhuc esset symbolum corporis, quale pone¬ bant Eutychiani, nimirum apparentis : pos¬ sunt enim etiam corpora apparentia signo aliquo reprassentari. Praeterea Leo dicit idip- sum oro sumi, quod fide creditur. At fide credimus Christum habere veram carnem : veram igitur carnem ore sumimus. Et qui respondet, Anien, dum suscipit Sacramen¬ tum, non confirmat confessione sua, id quod accipit, esse symbolum, sed esso corpus : sacerdos enim non dicit, Accipe symbolum, sed, Accipe corpus, ut etiam ex Ambrosio supra notavimus. Denique dicit linguas in¬ fantium non tacere corporis Domini verita¬ tem in Sacramentorum celebratione : infan¬ tes autem simpliciter loqui solent, non figu¬ rate, et symbolice.