Prefatio Crimina I posterior J.VI: The Beza–Calvin heaven-from-earth charge answered from the Scultetus letter

J. VI.

The POSTERIOR PART of the FIRST CRIMINATION — by which the accuser said I had written that Christ's Body is farther distant from the Holy Supper and from the blessed bread of the Holy Supper than the heaven of heavens is from the terraqueous globe — is convicted of the most open falsehood by the mere repetition of my own words by which I am judged to have so written. For thus the words of my Letter written to Scultetus run:

I for my part take it upon myself in turn to require and solicit you, most distinguished Scultetus — you who have solicited me about many things and obtained my assent — that both you and the venerable Calixtus may judge the sincere and clear mind of the Reformed in this cause to be that which one of you adduced from blessed Calvin's Institutes, Book IV, chapter 17, section 9, in these words: Whatever can serve to express the true and Substantial Communication of the Lord's Body and Blood, which is exhibited to the Faithful by the Sacred Symbols of the Supper, I gladly receive — and that in such a way that they are understood to perceive it not with imagination alone or the intelligence of the mind, but to enjoy it in very deed as food of eternal life. Reconcile the harder voice of Calvin commonly Beza, thrust out precipitately in the Consensus with the Zurichers as Doctor Calixtus says — that the Body and Blood of our Savior are at that time, when the Sacred Eucharist is administered, distant from us by as great an interval of places as heaven is situated from earth — with the immediately recited words of the same Calvin, so that there he may be held to have spoken of the Crucified Body of Christ, and here of the Glorious. The Glorious, or Glorified, Body of Christ, according to the Sentence of Calvin and the Reformed, is in the heavens, sitting there at the right hand of the Father, to return thence to judge the living and the dead; but the Crucified Body of Christ is most present in the Eucharist. For this is the sincere and clear Sentence of the Reformed concerning the Lord's Supper which I dare to weigh in the name of them all: that All Believers who receive and manducate the blessed Bread receive and manducate the Crucified Body of Christ; and that the same account holds of the consecrated Wine; but that the Mode by which it comes about that Christ's crucified Body and His shed Blood are really present to Believers in the Sacred Supper and are in very deed received, eaten, and drunk by them, we do not know, and that that Mode is Hyperphysical.

Did I then truly assert that Christ's Body is farther distant from the Holy Supper and the blessed bread of the Holy Supper than the heaven of heavens is from the terraqueous globe? When, namely, I asserted: (1) that the Crucified Body of Christ is most present in the Supper; (2) that this is the sincere and clear Sentence of the Reformed concerning the Lord's Supper — that All Believers who receive and manducate the blessed bread receive and manducate Christ's crucified Body, and that the same account holds of the consecrated wine; (3) that the Mode alone by which it comes about that Christ's crucified Body and His shed Blood are really present to Believers in the Holy Supper, and are in very deed received, eaten, and drunk by them, we do not know; and that that Mode is Hyperphysical.

Let it be permitted to add now: even if perhaps the Lutheran Doctors universally all hold which nevertheless I would somewhat doubt that Christ's Body which is now present in the Supper is Christ's glorified Body, and therefore, as to qualities, other than that which was present to the disciples in the first Supper — that is, humbled and near to Crucifixion, or about to be crucified — called by Christ Himself given didomenon (Luke 22:19), and by Paul broken klomenon (1 Corinthians 11:24) — contrary to what I hold, who have asserted that Christ's Body, as crucified more than as glorified, is present in the Holy Supper Substantialiter nevertheless, though Spiritualiter; by that very fact, because I most clearly maintained in one and the same place that Christ's crucified Body, as crucified, is present in its Substance Spiritually, that is, and therefore Sacramentally in every Holy Supper — by what face, I ask, can I be said to have opined that Christ's Body is farther distant from the blessed bread of the Holy Supper than the heaven of heavens from the terraqueous globe? Nor does it obstruct that I meanwhile believe, led by the Apostles' Creed, that Christ's Body ascended into heaven, sits there at the right hand of God the Father, and will someday return thence to judge the living and the dead. For I believe all this, with very many Lutherans, concerning the Corporal, Local, and Dimensional Presence of Christ's Body in Heaven, having never denied the Spiritual and therefore Sacramental Presence of the same Body of Christ in the Holy Supper, but most sincerely, with God granting, ready to confess it to the last breath of life.