Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/163

ON COMMUNION IN ONE KIND. the species of bread and wine; that institution and delivery do not therefore tend thereunto, that all the faithful of the Church be bound, by the institution of the Lord, to receive both species. But neither is it rightly inferred, from that discourse which is in the sixth of John, however according to the various interpretations of holy fathers and doctors it be understood, that the communion of both species was enjoined by the Lord: for He who said, Except ye shall eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye shall have no life in you, also said, He that eateth this bread shall live for ever; and He who said, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, also said, The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world; and, in fine, He who said, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me and I in him, said, nevertheless, He that eateth this bread shall live for ever.

It furthermore declares, that this power has ever been in the Church, that, in the dispensation of the sacraments, their substance remaining untouched, it might ordain, or change, what things soever it might judge most expedient for the profit of those who receive, or for the veneration of the said sacraments, according to the variety of circumstances, times, and places. And this the apostle seems to have intimated not obscurely, when he says, Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. And indeed it is sufficiently certain that he himself exercised this power, as in many other things, so also in regard of this very sacrament; when, after having ordained certain things touching the use thereof, he says, The rest will I set in order when I come. Wherefore, Holy Mother Church, knowing this her authority in the administration of the sacraments, although the use of both species has, from the beginning of the Christian religion, not been unfrequent, yet, in progress of time, that custom having already been very widely changed, she, induced by