On the Mass & Transubstantiation

“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life…  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed…  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you that believe not.”

Jn. 6:53-64

“I am the door…”

Jn. 10:9

“I am the vine, ye are the branches…”

Jn. 15:5

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Subsections

7 Sacraments of Romanism
Works Against Bellarmine on the Mass

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Order of Contents

Articles  6+
Book  1
Historical Theology  1
Latin

Supper: Not a Literal Sacrifice  1
Attending the Mass  2
Removing the Cup  2


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Articles

1500’s

Knox, John – A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass Is Idolatry  (1550)  in The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing, 3:29-70

Ridley, Nicholas – Works of Nicholas Ridley

Brief Declaration, or Treatise Against Transubstantiation, pp. 1-46

Answer to Certain Queries Touching the Abuses of the Mass, pp. 316-18

Ridley (d. 1555) was one of the English Reformers burned at the stake by Bloody Mary.

Calvin, John – ch. 18, ‘Of the Popish Mass, how it Not Only Profanes, but Annihilates the Supper’  in Institutes, bk. 4

Beza, Theodore & Antoine de la Faye – ch. 61, ‘Principles Touching the Popish Mass’  in Propositions & Principles of Divinity Propounded & Disputed in the University of Geneva by Students…  (1586)

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1600’s

Junius, Francis – ‘On the Mass’  tr. Charles Johnson  (d. 1602)  as quoted in Johannes Hoornbeek, Institutions of Theology, ch. 15, pp. 642-47

Featley, Daniel – A True Relation of that which Passed in a Conference, at the End of Paternoster-Rowe, called, Amen, Touching Transubstantiation, April 18, 1623  (1624)  32 pp.  The pages are numbered: 117-49.

Featley was a Westminster divine.

Gataker, Thomas – A Discussion of the Popish Doctrine of Transubstantiation wherein the same is declared by the confession of their own writers, to have no necessary ground in God’s Word: as also it is further demonstrated to be against Scripture, nature, sense, reason, religion & the judgment of the ancients, & the faith of our Ancestors  (1624)  13 pp.

Gataker was a Westminster divine.

Polyander, Johannes – 46. ‘On the Sacrifice of the Mass & its Abuses’  in Synopsis of a Purer Theology: Latin Text & English Translation  Buy  (1625; Brill, 2016), vol. 3, pp. 254-306


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Book

1600’s

Featley, Daniel – Transubstantiation Exploded: or an Encounter with Richard the Titulary Bishop of Chalcedon concerning Christ’s presence at his Holy Table.  Faithfully related in a Letter sent to D. Smith the Sorbonist, styled by the Pope Ordinary of England & Scotland, Whereunto is Annexed a public & solemn disputation held at Paris with Christopher Bagshaw D. in Theology, & rector of Ave Marie College  (1638)  276 pp.

Featley was a Westminster divine.


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Historical Theology

On the Post-Reformation

Cunningham, William – ‘The Popish View of the Lord’s Supper’  in Historical Theology, vol. 2, pp. 142-43

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Latin

1600’s

Alsted, Johann H. – ch. 27, ‘On the Mass’  in Theological Common Places Illustrated by Perpetual Similitudes  (Frankfurt, 1630), pp. 156-63


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The Lord’s Supper is Not a Literal Sacrifice

Protestants held rightly, along with Scripture and the Early & Medieval Churches, that the Lord’s Supper may be considered a figurative sacrifice.

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Article

Davenant, John – ‘The Popish Mass is Not a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living & the Dead’  in The Determinations, or Resolutions of Certain Theological Questions, Publicly Discussed in the University of Cambridge  trans. Josiah Allport  (1634; 1846), pp. 283-90  bound at the end of John Davenant, A Treatise on Justification, or the Disputatio de Justitia...  trans. Josiah Allport  (1631; London, 1846), vol. 2


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On Attending the Mass

1500’s

Bradford, John – The Harm of Attending the Mass, pt. 1 (How Evil the Mass is), 2 (Why it is Sinful), 3 (Objections Answered)  (d. 1555; 1561)  See the unabridged work here.

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1600’s

Davenant, John – Question 7, ‘Protestants Cannot with a Safe Conscience Attend the Mass’  in The Determinations, or Resolutions of Certain Theological Questions, Publicly Discussed in the University of Cambridge  trans. Josiah Allport  (1634; 1846), pp. 257-62  bound at the end of John Davenant, A Treatise on Justification, or the Disputatio de Justitia...  trans. Josiah Allport  (1631; London, 1846), vol. 2


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Romanists’ Taking the Cup Away From the People

Books

1600’s

Featley, Daniel – The Grand Sacrilege of the Church of Rome in taking away the sacred cup from the laity at the Lord’s Table: detected and convinced by the evidence of holy Scripture and testimonies of all ages successively from the first propagation of the catholic Christian faith to this present, together with two conferences: the former at Paris with D. Smith, now styled by the Romanists B of Calcedon; the later at London with M Euerard, priest  (1630)  306 pp.

Ley, John – A Comparison of the Parliamentary Protestation with the Late Canonical Oath & the Difference between them as also the Opposition between the Doctrine of the Church of England & that of Rome, so cleared that they who made scruple of the oath may cheerfully & without doubt address themselves to take the protestation, as also a further discussion of the case of conscience touching receiving the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper when either bread or wine is wanting [lacking] or when by antipathy or impotence the party that desires it cannot take it, wherein the impiety, injury and absurdity of the popish half-communion is more fully declared & confuted  (1641)  59 pp.

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Related Pages

The Lord’s Supper

Works of the Westminster Divines on the Lord’s Supper