A the God-bearing Fathers always understand and receive it as designating the existence of the most holy Spirit, just as they do both the procession itself and the production. Wherefore, those who innovate anything concerning this term, or decree it, or consign it to writings—namely, that at one time it designates existence in the divine Scriptures, and at another time revelation, illumination, and explanation—are considered adulterators of right dogmas and those who have wandered far from the truth; furthermore, they are detestable and worthy of being shunned by all. The holy Church of God has known, held, sanctioned, taught, and professed these things in this manner in times past. We ourselves, too, have learned from the same source to hold, decree, teach, and profess these things in more than one way, B long before this time. If those who to this day have been carrying on disputes with us would profess these things in this manner, both by word and in writing—partly embracing them as consonant with right doctrine, and partly, in the case of what is blasphemous, consigning them to anathema, and judging them with us—then from this time forward they shall be our own brothers and correctly minded. We shall then be perfectly reconciled with them, and they shall experience us embracing them from the heart and in peace; but if they have anything else in mind—which God forbid!—that shall never happen, at no time and in no way.
ANNO DOMINI MCXCVI.
NICOLAUS, BISHOP AND METROPOLITAN OF METHONI IN THE PELOPONNESE
NOTITIA
(FABRIC. Biblioth. Gr. vol. VI, p. 294.)Nicolaus, bishop and metropolitan of Methoni in the Peloponnese, much later than Michael Cerularius and to be referred to the twelfth century, and not to be confused with Nicolaus Cabasilas (a), wrote many things against the Latins, the greatest part of which is still unpublished: the first book *On the Primacy of the Pope* is cited by Nic. Comnenus, p. 366, in the preface to the *Mystagogia*; the second book, *Against the Latins*, p. 356. Allatius, in his *De consensu*, lib. II, c. 10, § 2, p. 627, testifies that he also examined his *Syllogisms on the Procession of the Holy Spirit*, the opening of which is: "It has been acknowledged that the whole Godhead is a monad and the one." And another which begins: "It was not necessary to apologize to those so novel-voiced and novel-believed." Also a third, *On Unleavened Bread*, whose opening is: "I have made my speech, O Latin-lover, to you." The same author mentions another writing *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit* which begins: "O heavenly King, good Comforter," but he suspects that this latter should be attributed to a certain younger Nicolaus, who wrote after Nicephorus Blemmydas. Preserved in the Bavarian library, besides the book *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit* (Greek-Latin), are the book *On the Holy Eucharist to be Consecrated in Leavened Bread*; the book *On the Fasting of the Latins on Saturday*, and *On the Marriage of Priests*, and *That a Complete Mass is Not to be Celebrated in Lent*. In the same library, and in others, one finds this Nicolaus's *Discussion of the Theological Institution of Proclus, the Platonic Philosopher*. From the writing *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit*...
(a) Allat. *De consensu*, pp. 858 and 554.
OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
A This sacred petition seems to be his, or a fragment regarding the Holy Trinity in the library of Caesarea, which begins: *Who at all would endure among those numbered as Christians to introduce two causes concerning the Holy Trinity?* Nic. Comnenus cites his oration against the transgressors of the divine law, page 166. That many things were repeated and expressed verbatim in the writings of Nicholas of Otranto from the Bishop of Methone, Allatius noted in *De consensu*, p. 627. I do not know if anything else of this Methonensian exists in print other than the brief writing *To those who doubt and say that the consecrated bread and wine are not the Body and Blood of the Lord*. [Editions in Greek with the Liturgies of SS. James, Basil, and Chrysostom, Paris, 1560, fol., pp. 129-133; in Latin in the Liturgies of Claude de Sainctes, Antwerp, 1562, 8vo, p. 77; and in the *Bibliotheca Patrum*, such as the Lyon edition, tom. XXIII, p. 634; then in Greek and Latin in the *Auctarium Ducaeanum*, tom. II, p. 372, and in the *Bibliotheca Patrum Morelliana*, Paris, 1644, 1654, tom. XII, pp. 516-520.]
OF NICHOLAS, THE MOST BLESSED BISHOP OF METHONE, TO THOSE WHO HESITATE AND SAY THAT THE CONSECRATED BREAD AND WINE ARE NOT THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
A We believe that this mystical and unbloody sacrifice, through which the bread and the cup are sanctified and transmuted into the Body and Blood of the Lord—from whom would you say it received its beginning? Is it not from God and our Savior Jesus Christ himself, just as the sacred Gospels teach us? Entirely from Him. And what is that word by which it is delivered? "Do this," He says, "in remembrance of Me." And the divine Paul: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord." In what manner and by what rite we learned from the Savior Himself. For taking the bread, He says, and giving thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken and given for you." Likewise also the cup, after He had supped, saying: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood." The same thing, according to the divine Matthew, is also to say: "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for you." B But what is the target and the end
of this tradition? What else, if not the participation in Christ and the eternal life in Christ of those who partake? For if anyone, He says, eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and: "The bread which I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world"; and: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life"; and again: "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father; and: He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me." For by placing His own flesh as bait upon the hook, by His divine power He suppresses the serpent, but raises us up. O, how fearful and trembling is the mystery! A He who delivered this is God, who through mercy and His kindness also became man, and went forward like a sheep to the slaughter and to death, in order that He might rescue from death the man who was liable to death because of sin. The cause of this tradition is the remembrance of this great benefit. The body and blood of Christ are what are perfected by this rite; the end of the rite is the participation in Christ and eternal life; which is the same as to say, the deification of those who partake, as the divine Paul proclaims with a great voice: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" Then he adds the reasoning, how we become the body of Christ, and B he says: "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread." For what is the bread, he says? It is evidently the body of Christ. And what do those who partake become? They are evidently the body of Christ; for by partaking of the body of Christ, we also become that same thing. For because our whole flesh was corrupted by sin, we had need of new flesh.
Who, then, is so bold and utterly reckless as to attempt some innovation against this tradition, and to accuse the mystery of falsehood, and thus to abrogate Him who so delivered and instituted it? "He who has despised Moses' law," says the Apostle, "dies C without mercy, on the testimony of two or three witnesses: of how much worse punishment do you suppose he will be thought worthy, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant as a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" But who is it that is accused of trampling underfoot the Son of God and the other things mentioned? Is it not clear that it is he who through ingratitude abrogates His body, and does not accept it, and makes of no account the tradition and commandment of that mouth which is truthful and alien to all falsehood? The mouth of Him saying, "This is My body"; and, "This is My blood"; and, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." D Why do you hesitate? Why do you attribute impotence to the Almighty? Is it not He who brought all things out of nothing as...
one of the three persons of the Godhead, and who in the last of A times was incarnate, and commanded the bread to be transmuted into His own body? Why do you again seek after the cause and order of nature for the transmutation of the bread into the body of Christ, and of the water and wine into blood; when He was born of a Virgin above nature, and reason, and mind? You will then disbelieve also in the resurrection of the dead, and the ascension into heaven, and the other miracles of Christ which are above nature, mind, and thought. It happens to you, then, that you confess Christ, not as true God and Son of God, but you lean toward Arianism, or rather, you embrace Judaism.
But perhaps you hesitate and do not believe, because B you do not see flesh and blood, but bread and wine. Regarding this, you ought to know, O ungrateful and senseless one, in regard to your Benefactor, that God, who knows all things, being most philanthropic, did this in the way of providence, condescending to human infirmity, that the multitude might not turn away from the pledge of eternal life, and bear it ill, looking upon flesh and blood. Therefore, He willed that this should come to pass through things accustomed to nature, joining His own divinity to them, when He said: "This is my body"; and: "This is my blood"; and: "Take, eat, and drink from it all of you, for the remission of sins"; and again: "The bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world"; and: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you." Do this in my remembrance. C Therefore, believing Him, we thus offer perfect and living bread—that is, the body of Christ, which remained perfect and entire even after the passion (for not a bone of Him was broken), and inseparable from divine life, and entirely such as He Himself, our first and great High Priest, and sacrificer and victim, delivered to His own disciples. And they in turn, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers to the Word, delivered it to the Catholic Church from the ends to the ends of the limits of the inhabited world: all of them, indeed, to that of Jerusalem, where also the divine James, brother and successor of the first and great High Priest, set forth the mystical and unbloody Liturgy. Peter and Paul to that of Antioch; D Paul indeed peculiarly to the whole world; Mark to that of Alexandria; John and Andrew to that of Asia and Europe; and all of them delivered it to the universal Church wherever it may be, by means of the Liturgy which holy Clement recorded; in which these things are thus held word for word:
"Mindful, therefore, of those things which He suffered for us, we give thanks to Thee, God Almighty, not as much as we ought, but as much as we are able, and we fulfill His ordinance. For on the night in which He was betrayed, taking bread into His holy and immaculate hands, and"
A lifting up His eyes to Thee His God and Father, He broke it, and gave it to us, saying: Take, eat: This is my body which is broken for many, for the remission of sins. Likewise, also, having mingled the cup with wine and water, and sanctified it, He gave it to us, saying: Drink of it all of you; this is my blood which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. Being mindful, therefore, of His passion and death, and resurrection, and return into the heavens, and His future second advent, in which He shall come to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his works, we offer to Thee, O King and God, according to His ordinance, this bread and this cup, giving Thee thanks through Him, because Thou hast deemed us worthy to stand before Thee and to perform for Thee the priestly office. And we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst look with a propitious and serene countenance upon these gifts set forth before Thee, Thou who art the God who needest nothing; and may it be pleasing to Thee that they be B for the honor of Thy Christ, and mayest Thou deign to send down Thy Holy Spirit upon this sacrifice, the witness of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, that He may make this bread the body of Thy Christ, and this cup the blood of Thy Christ.”
And again that great Paul: “I received from the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said: Take, eat: this is my body which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of me.” As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come. But if you suppose this which is celebrated by us to be less than that [original action], you do not know that Christ is even now at work and is present now; for “I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age,” He promised. C This mystery, then, the divine Apostle, as if overcome with absolute wonder, exhorts us to partake of worthily with the fear of God and faith, and ordains punishment for the transgressor: “Whosoever,” he says, “shall eat this bread, or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” This is the same as if he were to say (by the sentiment of the divine Chrysostom): Just as Judas once betrayed Him, and the Jews afterwards raged against Him petulantly: so do they cast disgrace and infamy upon Him who unworthily take His most holy body with their mouth, and bring it to an impure body. Therefore, he says, D “Let a man prove himself; not one another, for this is to judge, but first let each person test himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning,” that is, not weighing and considering, “the body of the Lord” set forth. But if he who, through himself, has fallen into some human vice, and approached indiscreetly, as one unworthy of communicating, is deemed worthy of so much