3. Augustine's Check upon Development
The Western development would probably have
reached the same conclusion as the Eastern at an
even earlier period, if it had
not been for Augustine. His position
on the subject is the
same
as his general attitude in regard
to the sacraments (see
Sacrament)
"the sacrament is one thing, the
virtue of the sacrament, another "; (" On
John's Gospel"xxvi. ll); "grace is the
virtue of the
sacrament " (Eruirrstio
in Psalmos,
Ixxvii. 2). The
res sacrsmenti,
the benefit to
which
the
signum
points, is here also the " sanctification
of invisible grace " (Qucestionza
in HePtateuchum, iii.
84), with all that this includes. The sanctification
by invisible grace is defined by him in three ways:
either he thinks, in accordance with the traditional
symbolic-sacrificial view, of the appropriation by
faith of the redeeming work of Christ
(De doctriren
Christians, iii.
16. 24); or, turning
in a spiritualist
direction, he considers the mystical union with
Christ given with the sanctification
(De civitate
Dei, xxi. 25, 4); or, with a reference to
I Cor. x. 17,
he deals with the thought that grace incorporates us into the Church-the body of Christ
(" On John's Gospel," xxvi. 15; Ser»ao, cclxxii.).
Of an actual presence of
the body and blood
there
is no mention; Christ is, indeed, " everywhere entirely present like God," but " in some place in
heaven after the manner of a real body " (Epist.,
clxxxvii. 13, 41). The fact that he uses expressions which sound "realistic" moat not mislead in
the light of his own explanation (Epist., xeviii. 9):
"For if sacraments had not some points of real
resemblance to the things of which they are the
sacraments, they would not be sacraments at all.
In moat cases, moreover, they do in virtue of this
likeness bear the names of the realities which they
resemble. As, therefore, in a certain manner the
sacrament of Christ's body is Christ's body," etc.
(NPNF, 1 ser., i. 410). There is scarcely a passage in the early literature so illuminating for our
purpose.-unless it be
De catechizandiF rudibua,
xxvi. 50, where
he waCllg the C4%0hUmCp " t
hit if
he hears anything even in the Scriptures which
may carry a carnal sound, he should, even although
he fails to understand it, nevertheless believe
that
something spiritual is signified thereby, which
bears upon holiness of character and the future
life " (NPNI' 1 aer., iii. 312). Here the " something spiritual " throws a light on the " heavenly
reality " already discussed. But although Augustine's " realistic " expressions have no significance
as regards his own position, they have much for the
hater history. He provided the later Roman Catholic
development, which departed from his own symbolicspiritualistic view, with a quantity of formulas,
and made it possible for people to close their eyes
to the fact that the most important teacher of the
early Western Church held a doctrine of the Lord's
Supper scarcely distinguishable from that of the
"heretics" Berengar, Wyclif, Calvin, and their
followers. But the result of his actual teaching
was also an important one. He
checked the development toward transubstantiation in the West.
