Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §181

Annotatio II §.IV open: All Protestant dissent praeter-fundamental — Coena words: Luther, Carlstadt, Zwingli

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§. IV. So every dissent among Protestants is rightly called praeter-fundamental. Its origin, progress, and peak (akme) may be sketched here in brief.

That dissent begins in the controversy over interpreting the words of the Supper — which the three first Reformers, Carlstadt, Luther, and Zwingli, each framed differently as a counter to Roman abuses, and not equally handy in every respect (Calixtus, Judgment of Controversies §. 47).

Luther kept the line drawn from his former teacher Peter d'Ailly, Cardinal of Cambrai, and still held by the fewer and better Romanists: that Christ's body is predicated of the bread so that, the bread remaining, Christ's body is joined with the bread in the Supper's use (Wittenberg Latin Tom. II, fol. 70 B) — predicated of the bread as contained in the bread, by a proposition unusual yet proper, and empty of any rhetorical trope.

Carlstadt, pressing the Romans harder, invented an identical proposition: driving the bread of the Lord's Supper out by Christ's body (much as the more common Roman view), as if Christ had given his disciples only the received, blessed, broken bread, and while giving, pointing to his own body, had said of that — not of the bread — "This is my body."

Zwingli, midway between them, meant to keep both bread and Christ's body in the Supper — the bread corporally, the body spiritually — and taught that Christ's body is improperly predicated of the bread by the impropriety common to all sacramental propositions: by metonymy the significate is said of the sign, which signifies it and exhibits it spiritually.

Latin

§. IV. Itaque omnis Dissensus Protestantium, inter se, Praeter-Fundamentalis meritò audit, cujus & Ortus & Progressus & ἀκμὴ seu Fastigium, hoc loco per compendium recensenda. Initium dicti dissensûs ponendum in Controversia de Interpretatione verborum Coenae, quam aliam aliamque primi Reformatores tres, Carolostadius, Lutherus, & Zwinglius, Pontificiis abusibus opponendam, meditati fuerant non per omnia aequè commodam. Calixt. Jud. Controv. §. 47. Et Lutherus quidem, à Praeceptore quondam suo Petro de Aliaco, Cardinali Cammeracensi, haustam, & Pontificiis paucioribus melioribusque adhuc receptam, retinebat, quâ ita Corpus Christi de pane praedicari innuebat, ut cum pane manente Corpus Christi in usu Coenae conjungeretur. Tom. II. Wittenb. Lat. fol. 70. B. eóq; praedicaretur de pane ceu in pane contentum, per propositionem inusitatam quidem, interim propriam, ac Tropô Rhetoricô quocunque cassam. Carolostadius Pontificiis adversaturus magis, Propositionem Identicam comminiscebatur, Corpus Christi, (haud secus ac Pontificia communior Sententia,) Panem Coena Domini exturbaturus, quasi Christus acceptum, benedictum fractumque panem eumque solum discipulis suis dedisset, inter dandum verò, digito in corpus suum directo, de hoc, non autem de Pane, dixisset: Hoc est corpus meum. Zwinglius denique, medius inter duos, & Panem, & Corpus Christi in Coena, sed istum Corporali, hoc Spirituali modo retenturus, Corpus Christi de Pane impropriè praedicari docebat improprietate omnibus Propositionibus Sacramentalibus communi, quâ per Metonymiam, Signatum de Signo dicitur, quod per signum significatur, modoque spirituali exhibetur.

About this text

Samuel Strimesius — Prefatio through Controversiae Post Lutherum Controv. III-XIII + XV Tolerantia, Hexades Annotationum Prooemium and Annotatio I through Decem Theses / Francus plus Annotatio II §.I-§.VI and Annotatio III §.I–§.VII (through Cassellanum 1661) from Ingenua in Controversias Evangelicorum (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1708). Honest partial; Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio III §.VIII+ fruits / §.IX+, Hexades theses body, deeper Controversiae / Part II remain.

English follows the locked 1708 Francofurti ad Viadrum Latin of Prefatio §I–II, Crimina defenses through III, Part I Protheoria through Controversiae Obices/Historia/Varii gradus, Formula Discord/Disparitas, Ulterius confirmatur / Classes / Formula protest / triplex differentia, Coena Domini Controversiae Priores through Precariae Hypotheses (Controv. print pp. 34–40), Controversiae Post Lutherum Natae Controv. III–XV tip (providence through De Tolerantia mutua; Controv. print pp. 40–78), Hexades Annotationum Prooemium H.I–§.III (Hexades print pp. 1–4 / PDF ~182–185), and Annotatio I De Augustana Confessione §.I–§.VIII tip (Hexades print pp. 5–24+ / PDF ~186–205+), reconstructed from Google Books PDF page images (ONB copy, id 3epYAAAAcAAJ) with pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Sister Halle digitization of Ingenua in Arminianismum (DOI 10.25673/65287) remains Anubis-blocked — skipped; Controversias only. Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio I §.IX+, Hexades theses body beyond §.VIII, and remainder of Controversiae / folio remain.

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