fundamental goal of union with Christ, whereas the Eucharist is that
very union with Christ that baptism intends. Further, baptism may be
done of deacons, even the laity, but the same is not the case with the
Eucharist, which requires the presence of the ordained ministry. Baptism
was never adored. Baptism, as the first sacrament is the most necessary,
but the Eucharist is the most honorable, and is the believer’s union in
Christ. Whatever defects may attend the other sacraments, they were
obliterated by the Eucharist (Sander quoted Dionysius the Areopagite
here). Most importantly, baptism united the Christian to Christ, not to
baptism; whereas the Eucharist is that union itself; being united to the
Eucharist is being united to Christ. Sander’s challenges then follow:
I know M. Juel will prove Baptism and the Eucharist to be of like
force, concerning the meane of uniting us to Christ, he must bring
forth such phrases, where Baptism may be called of Christ him self
the body of Christ, where the Eucharist may be sayd to prepare us
to Baptism, as well as Baptism to it. where Baptism is sayd to be
worthy the highest honour, as it is sayed of Christes body in the
Sacrament. where the last and highest copulation is assigned to
Baptism as it is the Eucharist. where speciall consecration of priests,
speciall prerogative of tyme, speciall warinesse in using the matter is
no lesse required to the substance of Baptism, then of the Eucharist
[that nothing be spilled or dropped on the ground].^71Stapleton, who cited Sander’s arguments on consecration, picks up on
this last point concerning the care with which the consecrated elements
are treated when he indicts the English Protestants for denying
consecration. Who can deny that the English lacked a consecration,
Stapleton asked, for if the action refers not to the people, but to the
elements, then why did bishop Ponet use the remainder of the
sacramental wine to water his flowers?^72
Instances of Catholic consternation over Jewel’s and his fellow
Protestants’ assertions could be multiplied. Questions concerning
Eucharistic adoration – to which should be appended the question of the
canopy, the particulars of transubstantiation, the Eucharistic sacrifice,
inter alia, are all attendant on the questions of whether and how the
Christian is united to the death of Christ in the Eucharist. If the
resurrected and life-giving body of Christ, born of the Virgin and
worshipped by the shepherds, is present in the sacrament of Christ’s
body and blood, as the Catholics maintained, then these other matters
were all demonstrable. One question as regards the Eucharist, however,
was not merely a matter of one side’s particular doctrines or Eucharistic
interpretation per se, but transcended the questions peculiar to the
148 JOHN JEWEL AND THE ENGLISH NATIONAL CHURCH
(^71) Ibid., ff. 377b–78a.
(^72) Stapleton,Return of Untruthes, f. 6b.
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