Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book V: On the Sacrifice of the Mass (First)
Chapter 11: The Same Is Proved from Chapter 4 of John
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. IV, De Sacramento Eucharistiae, Book V: On the Sacrifice of the Mass (First Book). 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).
The fifth argument can be drawn from chapter 4 of the Gospel according to John, where the Lord Himself seems to explain the prophecy of Malachi, of which we have already disputed enough, when He thus says: The hour cometh, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. And a little after: The hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For in this place by adoration is understood not any adoration whatever, but solemn and public adoration, through a sacrifice properly so called. And this we shall prove by three arguments, if first we briefly show that in the Scriptures it is not unusual for a sacrifice to be understood by adoration.
Genesis 22: Abraham, furnished with sword and fire for sacrificing, said to his servants: Stay here with the ass: I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have adored, will return to you. In this place, to adore signifies to sacrifice: for otherwise he could have adored anywhere, if by adoration only a certain bowing down were understood; but the Lord had commanded him to sacrifice on the mountain, and he was going thither, as we said, to sacrifice, furnished with sword and fire. John 12: Now there were certain Gentiles who had come up to adore on the festival day. Acts 8: The Ethiopian eunuch had come to adore in Jerusalem. In these and like places adoration signifies sacrifice; for men came from distant regions into Jerusalem for this reason, that in no other place could sacrifices be rightly offered to the true God: but simple adoration, as also prayers, could be made everywhere.
These things therefore being premised, the first argument, by which we prove that those words of the Lord, The true adorers shall adore in spirit and in truth, are to be understood of sacrifice, is drawn from the principal scope of that whole passage. The Samaritan woman had proposed to the Lord a question about the schism of the Jews and Samaritans: Lord, she says, I perceive that Thou art a prophet. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore. This question must necessarily be understood of adoration through sacrifice. For (as can be understood from Josephus, Book 11 of the Antiquities, chapter 8) the schism of the Jews and Samaritans arose from this, that the Samaritans built a temple on Mount Garizim, and contended that there men must sacrifice; but the Jews on the contrary taught that in the temple of Jerusalem alone could men lawfully sacrifice. This question, therefore, which then vexed many, the Samaritan woman proposed to Christ as to a prophet.
Moreover the very words of the Samaritan woman compel us to understand a sacrifice by adoration: for she speaks of an adoration tied to a certain place, and which elsewhere is not rightly done: You, she says, say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore; as if she had said: You Jews reprehend us because we adore outside Jerusalem according to the rite of our fathers, and you assert that adoration is lawful nowhere but in Jerusalem. But certainly there was never among the Jews an adoration tied to a certain place, except by reason of sacrifice: therefore the Samaritan woman speaks of adoration through sacrifice. And if this is so, it is necessary that the Lord's answer too be understood of adoration through sacrifice, otherwise the Lord would not have satisfied the question proposed. Therefore when the Lord says: Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father, the sense will be: The time shall come, when adoration through sacrifice shall not be tied either to this mountain, or to Jerusalem, but in every place a sacrifice shall be offered to the Lord. And this is what Malachi foretold: In every place is offered to my name a clean oblation.
But the following words, The true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth, make this sense: The true adorers, that is, those who shall lawfully worship the true God, namely the Christians, shall adore the Father, that is, shall sacrifice to God: in spirit and in truth, that is, with a spiritual and true sacrifice, not carnal and typical, as the Jews did. For spirit is opposed to flesh, and truth to figure: for the Jewish sacrifices were carnal, because they consisted in the slaying of flesh and the effusion of blood, and at the same time were types and shadows of things to come. But the Eucharist is a spiritual sacrifice, because (as we have often said) it is effected through the Holy Spirit and the words of consecration, and at the same time is a true and fulfilling of the ancient figures. For although it too is typical in respect of the sacrifice of the cross, yet in respect of the Jewish sacrifices it must be called not typical, but true. So expound these particles, In spirit and in truth, Chrysostom, Cyril, Euthymius on this passage. Yet these words could also be distinguished, as Theophylact and Saint Thomas in their commentary distinguish, so that spiritual worship is opposed to the carnal worship of the Jews, and true is opposed to the false worship of the Samaritans, who in truth did not lawfully, and therefore not truly, worship God by their sacrifices.
The second argument is drawn from those words: The hour cometh, and now is. For these words manifestly signify that the Lord speaks of a new adoration, which was not before, and which would have its beginning from Christ. But simple adoration, and all the improperly so-called sacrifices, as hymns, prayers, almsdeeds, were always in use, both in the law, and also before the law; therefore the Lord does not speak of simple adoration, but of adoration through sacrifice, and through a sacrifice not improperly so called and common to every age, but through a sacrifice properly so called, and proper to the New Testament and to the Church of the Christians.
The third argument is taken from this, that without doubt the Lord speaks of external, public, and solemn adoration, not of internal and private. For both the question of the Samaritan woman requires this, and moreover the Lord speaks most openly of adoration among the Christians, which should succeed that which among the Jews was not lawfully done except in the temple of Jerusalem; but that was external, public, and solemn. But simple adoration, and the improperly so-called sacrifices, can all be done privately, and often by the mind alone; therefore the Lord does not speak of that adoration, nor of those sacrifices, but of the true, external, and public sacrifice of the Church, which is either none, or is the Eucharist.
Add that Theodoret and Rupert, in their commentary on Malachi, wish this passage of John to be altogether like the prophecy of Malachi explained above, which also before them Eusebius asserted, Book 1 of the Demonstration of the Gospel, chapter 6. Wherefore if the passage of Malachi is understood of a sacrifice properly so called, as we have now sufficiently demonstrated, certainly this passage of John too must be understood of a sacrifice properly so called.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XI. 33o CAPUT XI. Idem probatur ex cap. iv Joanms. Argumentum quintum duci potest ex cap. iv. Evangeli* secundum Joannem, ubi Domi¬ nus ipse vaticinium Malachiai, de quo satis jam disseruimus, explicare videtur, cum sic ait: Venit hora, quando neque in monte hoc . neque in Hierosolymis adorabitis Patrem. Et paulo post : Venit hora , et nunc est , quando veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu, et veritate. Hoc enim loco per adorationem non intelligitur quaevis adoratio, sed solemnis, et publica, per sacrificium proprie dictum. Id vero tribus argumentis comprobabimus, si primum breviter ostenderimus, in Scripturis non esse inusitatum, ut per adorationem in- telligatur sacrificium. Genes, xxn. Abbaham instructus gladio, et igne ad sacrificandum, dixit famulis suis : Expectate hic cum asino, eqo et puer illuc us¬ que properantes, postquam adoraverimus, re- vetermur ad vos. Hoc loco, adorare, sacrificare significat : nam alioqui ubique adorare po¬ tuisset, si tantum per adorationem incurva¬ tio quaedam intelligeretur ; sed jusseral ei Dominus, ut in monte sacrificaret, et eo pro¬ ficiscebatur, ut diximus, ad sacrificandum gladio, atque igne instructus. Joan. xii. Erant equidem Gentiles, qui ascenderant, ut adorarent in die festo. Act. vili. Eunuchus ^Ethiops venerat adorare in Hierusalem. In his, et similibus locis (adoratio) sacrificium significat ; ideo enim ex loginquis regionibus homines in Hierusalem veniebant, quia non poterant in alio loco Deo vero sacrificia rite offerri : adoratio autem simplex, ut etiam preces, ubique fieri poterant. His ergo praemissis, Primum argumentum, quo probamus illa verba Domini : Veri ado¬ ratores adorabunt in spiritu, et veritate, intel- ligenda esse de sacrificio, ducitur a princi¬ pali scopo totius illius loci. Quajstionem proposuerat Samaritana Domino de schi¬ smate Judaeorum, et Samari torum : Domine, inquit, video, quia Propheta es tu. Patres no¬ stri in monte hoc adoraverunt, et vos dicitis, quia Hierosolymis est locus, ubi adorare opor¬ tet. Ista quaestio necessario de adoratione per sacrificium intelligenda est. Nam (ut ex Joseplio intelligi potest, lib xi. antiquit* cap. 8.) schisma Judaeorum, et Samaritano¬ rum exortum est ex eo, quod Samaritani templum aedificaverunt in monte Garizim, et ibi sacrificantdum esse contendebant : Judaei autem contra docebant, in solo templo Hierosolymitano legitime sacrificari posse. Hanc igitur quaestionem, quae tunc multos vexabat, Samaritana Christo ut Prophetae proposuit. Praeterea ipsa verba Samaritanae cogunt, ut per adorationem intelligamus sacrificium : nam loquitur de adoratione alligata certo loco, et quae alibi non rite fiat : Vos, inquit, dicitis, quia Hierosolymis est locus, ubi adorare oportet ; ac si dixisset : Vos Judaei reprehen¬ ditis nos, quod extra Hierusalem adoremus juxta ritum Patrum nostrorum, neque alibi, quam in Hierusalem licitam esse adorationem asseritis. At certe nunquam fuit apud Judaeos adoratio alligata certo loco, nisi ratione sa¬ crificii : loquitur igitur Samaritana de ado¬ ratione per sacrificium. Quod si hoc ita se habet, necesse est, ut etiam Domini respon¬ sio de adoratione per sacrificium intelligatur, alioqui Dominus non satisfecisset quaestioni propositae. Ergo cum Dominus ait : Mulier crede mihi, quia veniet hora, quando neque in monte hoc, neque in Hierosolymis adorabitis Patrem : sensus erit, Veniet tempus, quando non erit aligata adoratio per sacrificium, neque huic monti, neque Hierosolymis, sed in omni loco offeretur Domino sacrificium. Et hoc est, quod praedixit Malachias : In omni loco offertur nomini meo oblatio munda. Verba autem sequentia : Veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu, et veritate, hunc sensum faciunt : Veri adoratores, id est, qui verum Deum legitime colent, nimirum Christiani, adorabunt Patrem, id est, Deo sacrificabunt : in spiritu et veritate, id est, saGrificio spirituali, et vero, non car¬ nali, et typico, ut Judaei faciebant. Oppo¬ nitur enim spiritus carni, et veritas figurae : erant enim sacrificia Judaica carnalia, quia in mactatione carnis, et sanguinis effusione consistebant, et simul typi, et umbrae erant futurorum. At Eucharistia sacrificium est spirituale, quia (ut saepe diximus) per Spiritum sanctum, et verba consecrationis efficitur, et simul est verum ac impletivuin veterum figurarum. Nam et si est etiam ty¬ picum respectu sacrificii crucis, tamen re¬ spectu sacrificiorum Judaicorum, non typi¬ cum, sed verum dicendum est. Ita exponunt 336 LIBER V. has particulas: Ia spiritu et veritate , Chry- sostomus, Cyrillus, Euthymlus in hunc lo¬ cum. Possent tamen etiam ita distingui ilice voces, ut Theophylaclus, et S. Thomas in commentario distinguunt, ut spiritualis cul¬ tus, opponatur cultui carnali Judaeorum : ve¬ rus autem opponatur cultui falso Sainari tu¬ torum, qui revera non legitime, et per hoc non vere Deum colebant sacrificiis suis. Secundum argumentum dicitur ah illis verbis: Venit hora , et nunc est. Heec enim verba manifeste significant Dominum loqui de adoratione nova, qme antea non erat, et queo initium haberet a Christo. At adoratio simplex, et omnia sacrificia improprie dicta, ut hymni, preces, eleemosyna}, semperin usu fuerunt, tum iti lege, tum etiam ante legem ; non ergo Dominus loquitur de adoratione simplici, sed de adoratione per sacrificium, et per sacrificium non improprie dictum, et com¬ mune omni aitati, sed per sacrificium pro¬ prie dictum, et proprium Testamento novo, et Ecclesia} Christianorum. Tertium argumentum sumitur exeo, quod sine dubio loquitur Dominus de adoratione externa, publica, etsolcmni; non de interna, et privata. Nam et quaistio Samaritana} id postulat, et praiterea Dominus apertissime loquitur de adoratione apud Christianos, qua} succedat illi, quse apud Jiukeos non fiebat legitime, nisi in templo Hierosolymi¬ tano ; illa autem erat externa, publica, et solemnis. Atqui adoratio simplex, et sacri¬ ficia improprie dicta, possunt omnia privatim fieri, et stepe sola mente ; non ergo loquitur Dominus de ista adoratione, neque de istis sacrificiis, sed de vero externo, et publico sacrificio Ecclesia1, quod aut nullum est, aut Eucharistia est. Adde, quod Theodoretus, et Rupertus in commentario Malachise hunc locum Joannis, volunt omnino similem esse vaticinio Mala- chia} supra explicato, quod etiam ante eos asseruit Eusebius lib. i. demonstrat. Evang. cap. 6. Quare si locus Malachiai 'de Sacrificio proprie dicto intclligitur, ut satis jam de¬ monstravimus, certe etiam locus hic Joan¬ nis de sacrificio proprie dicto intelligendus erit.