Page:Faithcatholics.pdf/336

 or Sacrifice celebrated for his repose; because he merits not to be named at the altar in the prayer of the Priests, whose wish it was to withdraw them from the altar.” He, therefore, forbids prayers and oblations to be made for him. Ep. lxvi. p. 114.—“ Although I am sensible, that most Bishops, set over the Churches of God, hold to the maxims of evangelical truth and divine tradition, and depart not, by any human and innovating discovery, from that which Christ our Master taught and did; yet as some, through ignorance or simplicity, in the sanctification of the cup of the Lord, and in delivering it to the people, do not that, which Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, the teacher and founder of this Sacrifice, himself did and taught; therefore, I judge it necessary to write to you, in order that, if there be any one still in that error, when he sees the light of truth, he may return to the root and fountain of Christian tradition. Then proceeding to the point, he says: then advised, that, in offering the cup, the rule, ordained by Christ, be followed; that is, that the cup, which is offered in commemoration of him, be wine mixed with water. For, as he said: I am the true vine; not water, but wine, is the blood of Christ. And what is in the chalice cannot be thought the blood, by which we obtained redemption and life, if wine be wanting, whereby that blood is shewn, which, as all the Scriptures attest, was shed.” Ep. lxiii. Ad Cecilium, p. 104.--“In the Priest Melchisedec we see prefigured the sacrament of the Christian Sacrifice, the holy Scriptures declaring : Melchisedec, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the most high God, and he blessed Abraham. (Gen. xiv.) And that he bore the resemblance of Christ, the Psalmist announces : Thou art a