Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/164

132 weighty and just reasons, has approved of this custom of communicating under one species, and decreed that it was to be held as a law; which it is not lawful to reprobate, or to change at pleasure, without the authority of the Church itself.

It furthermore declares, that although, as hath been before said, our Redeemer, in that last supper, instituted, and delivered to the apostles, this sacrament in two species, yet it is to be confessed, that Christ whole and entire, and a true sacrament, are received under either species alone; and that therefore, as appertaineth unto the fruit thereof, they, who receive one species alone, are not defrauded of any grace necessary to salvation.

Finally, this same holy synod teaches, that little children, who lack the use of reason, are not by any necessity obliged to the sacramental communion of the Eucharist: forasmuch as, having been regenerated by the laver of baptism, and being incorporated with Christ, they cannot, at that age, lose the grace already acquired, of [being] the sons of God. Not therefore, however, is antiquity to be condemned, if, in some places, it, at one time, observed that custom. For, as those most holy fathers had a probable cause for their conduct in respect of their times, so, assuredly, is it to be believed without controversy, that they did this without any necessity unto salvation.

If any one shall say, that, by the precept of God, or, by necessity of salvation, all and each of the faithful of Christ ought to receive both species of the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist; let him be anathema.

If any one shall say, that the holy Catholic Church was not induced by just causes and reasons to