Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacrament of the Eucharist · Book V: On the Sacrifice of the Mass (First)
Chapter 22: The Same Is Proved from the Difference Between a Sacrament and a Sacrifice
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 third reason can be taken from the difference which is between a Sacrament and a sacrifice. For it is common to all Sacraments that they be given by one and received by another: nor does anyone administer a Sacrament to himself. So we see happen in Baptism and the other Sacraments; for no one is allowed to baptize himself, even if extreme necessity be present. By like reason no one confirms himself, no one absolves himself, no one initiates himself into sacred Orders, no one anoints himself. In the same way therefore, if the Eucharist were only a Sacrament, no one could minister it to himself; the contrary of which yet was always in use as regards those who consecrate the Eucharist.
Then, all Sacraments consist in an action, not in any permanent thing, as is clear of Baptism and the other Sacraments; for not the consecrated water, but the ablution is the Sacrament of Baptism. The Eucharist alone consists not in an action, but in a permanent thing, as was proved above; of which difference scarcely any other reason can be given, except because the Eucharist ought to be not only a Sacrament, but also a sacrifice.
Finally, no other Sacrament really contains the body of Christ, but they are only visible signs, virtually containing the grace of sanctification, nor is anything else required for the nature of a Sacrament, since Sacraments are nothing else but instruments of sanctification. Wherefore the Eucharist too could have been truly and properly a Sacrament, even if it did not really contain the body of Christ. What cause therefore is there why the Eucharist necessarily ought to contain really the body of Christ, except that it might be truly and properly offered by us to God the Father, and accordingly be a sacrifice truly and properly so called? And truly it is wonderful why the Lutherans grant that the body of Christ is truly and really present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and at the same time admit it to be the most excellent victim of all that ever were; and yet most obstinately deny that it can or ought to be offered to God, as if it were not altogether explored and certain that we ought to offer to God that which we have best.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXI L. Probatur idem ex differentia .! Sacramenti , et sacrificii. M oo nemo sibi cani ministrare posset ; cujus ta¬ men contrarium semper fuit in usu quod attinet ad eos, qui Eucharistiam consecrant. Deinde , Sacramenta omnia in actione consistunt, non in re aliqua permanente, ut patet de Baptismo, et caeteris Sacramentis; non enim aqua consecrata, sed ablutio est Sacramentum Baptismi. Sola Eucharistia non in actione , sed in re permanente con¬ sistit, ut supra probatum est, cujus differen- tiec vix alia ratio reddi potest, nisi quia Eu¬ charistia non solum Sacramentum , sed etiam sacrificium esse debuit. Denique, nullum aliud Sacramentum con¬ tinet reipsa corpus Christi, sed solum sunt signa visibilia, continentia virtualiter gratiam sanctificationis, neque aliud requiritur ad rationem Sacramenti, cum Sacramenta nihil sint aliud, nisi instrumenta sanctificationis. Quare etiam Eucharistia potuisset vere, et proprie Sacramentum esse, etiamsi Christi corpus reipsa non contineret. Quse igitur causa est cur debuerit necessario Eucharistia Christi corpus reipsa continere, nisi ut posset vere, et proprie Deo Patri a nobis offerri, et proinde sacrificium esse vere ac proprio dictum ? Et sane mirum est, cur Lutherani concedant, corpus Christi vere, et realiter prresens esse in Sacramento Eucharistici, et simul admittant victimam esse omnium, quse unquam fuerunt, prsestantissimam ; et tamen pertinacissime negent, posse, aut de¬ bere offerri Deo, quasi non sit omnino ex¬ ploratum et certum, debere Deo offerri id, quod habemus optimum. caput xxnr. Tertia ratio ex differentia, qme est inter