must be understood of the personal sympathy shown him before and after in the last commendatory
letters. B. then goes on to express confidence in the pope’s salvation, and forgives him his defection,
which he strangely compares with the separation of Barnabas from Paul. "Sed, quantum mihi videor
novisse hominem, de salute hominis certum constat, quicquid illi prejudicent, qui, secundum
dominicam sententiam [Matt. 23:24], culicem culantes, camelum sorbent. In Christo lesu, inquit
Apostolus [Gal. 6:15], neque circumcisio est aliquid, neque preputium, sed nova creatura. Quod
illum fuisse, quantum illum noveram, de misericordia presumo divina. Discessit a Paulo Barnabas
[Acts 15:39, 40], ut non cum illo secundum exteriorem commaneret hominem, nec minus tamen
secundum interiorem hominem Barnabas in libro vitae permansit." In remembrance of Gregory’s
conduct in forcing him at the Roman Council in 1079 to swear to a formula against his conviction,
he asserts that the power of the keys which Christ gave to Peter (Matt. 16:19) is limited. The binding
must not be arbitrary and unjust. The Lord speaks through the prophet to the priests (per prophetam
ad prelatos): "I will curse your blessings (Mal. 2:2: maledicam benedictionibus vestris)." From this
it follows necessarily that He also blesses their curses (Ex quo necessarium constat, quod etiam
benedicat maledictionibus talium). Hence the Psalmist says (Ps. 109:28): "Let them curse, but bless
thou." The blessed Augustin, in his book on the Words of the Lord, says: "Justice solves the bonds
of injustice;" and the blessed Gregory [I.] says [Homil. XXVI.]: "He forfeits the power to bind and
to loose, who uses it not for the benefit of his subjects, but according to his arbitrary will (ipsa hac
ligandi atque solvendi potestate se privat, qui hanc non pro subditorum moribus, sed pro suae
voluntatis motibus exercet)." Berengar thus turns the first Gregory against the seventh Gregory.
Hildebrand’s real opinion on the eucharistic presence can only be inferred from his conduct
during the controversy. He sincerely protected Berengar against violence and persecution even
after his final condemnation; but the public opinion of the church in 1059 and again in 1079
expressed itself so strongly in favor of a substantial or essential change of the eucharistic elements,
that he was forced to yield. Personally, he favored a certain freedom of opinion on the mode of the
change, provided only the change itself was admitted, as was expressly done by Berengar. Only a
few days before the Council of 1078 the pope sought the opinion of the Virgin Mary through an
esteemed monk, and received as an answer that nothing more should be held or required on the
reaI presence than what was found in the Holy Scriptures, namely, that the bread after consecration
was the true body of Christ. So Berengar reports; see Mansi, XIX. 766; Gieseler, II. 172; Neander,
III. 519. (The charge of Ebrard that the pope acted hypocritically and treacherously towards B., is
contradicted by facts).
The same view of a change of the elements in a manner inexplicable and therefore
indefinable, is expressed in a fragment of a commentary on Matthew by a certain "Magister
Hildebrand," published by Peter Allix (in Determinatio Ioannis praedicatoris de, modo existendi
Corp. Christi in sacramento altaris. Lond., 1686)." In this fragment," says Neander, III. 511, "after
an investigation of the different ways in which the conversio of the bread into the body of Christ
may be conceived, the conclusion is arrived at, that nothing can be decided with certainty on this
point; that the conversio therefore is the only essential part of the doctrine, namely, that bread and
wine become body and blood of Christ, and that with regard to the way in which that conversion
takes place, men should not seek to inquire. This coincides with the view which evidently lies at
the basis of the cardinal’s proceedings. But whether the author was this Hildebrand, must ever
remain a very doubtful question, since it is not probable, that if a man whose life constitutes an
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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