strongly believed, the divinity of Christ, and thus deprive the Lord’s Supper of its deeper significance
and power.
III. The Calvinistic Theory.—Calvin was the greatest divine and best writer among the
Reformers, and his "Institutes of the Christian Religion" have almost the same importance for
Reformed theology as the "Summa" of Thomas Aquinas for that of the Roman Church. He organized
the ideas of the Reformation into a clear, compact system, with the freshness and depth of genius,
the convincing power of logic, and a complete mastery of the Latin and French languages.^933
His theory of the Lord’s Supper occupies a via media between Luther and Zwingli; he
combines the realism of the one with the spiritualism of the other, and saves the substance for which
Luther contended, but avoids the objectionable form. He rests on the exegesis of Zwingli. He accepts
the symbolical meaning of the words of institution; he rejects the corporal presence, the oral
manducation, the participation of the body and blood by unbelievers, and the ubiquity of Christ’s
body. But at the same time he strongly asserts a spiritual real presence, and a spiritual real
participation of Christ’s body and blood by faith. While Zwingli dwelt chiefly on the negative, he
emphasizes the positive, element. While the mouth receives the visible signs of bread and wine,
the soul receives by faith, and by faith alone, the things signified and sealed thereby; that is, the
body and blood of Christ with the benefit of his atoning death and the virtue of his immortal life.
He combines the crucified Christ with the glorified Christ, and brings the believer into contact with
the whole Christ. He lays great stress on the agency of the Holy Spirit in the ordinance, which was
overlooked by Luther and Zwingli, but which appears in the ancient liturgies in the invocation of
the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who unites in a supernatural manner what is separated in space,
and conveys to the believing communicant the life-giving virtue of the flesh of Christ now glorified
in heaven.^934 When Calvin requires the communicant to ascend to heaven to feed on Christ there,
he does, of course, not mean a locomotion, but that devotional sursum corda of the ancient liturgies,
which is necessary in every act of worship, and is effected by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Calvin discussed the eucharistic question repeatedly and fully in his Institutes and in separate
tracts. I select a few extracts from his Institutes (Book IV., ch. XVII. 10 sqq.), which contain his
first and last thoughts on the subject.
(10) "The sum is, that the flesh and blood of Christ feed our souls just as bread and wine
maintain and support our corporal life. For there would be no aptitude in the sign, did not our souls
find their nourishment in Christ. This could not be, did not Christ truly form one with us, and refresh
us by the eating of his flesh, and the drinking of his blood. But though it seems an incredible thing
that the flesh of Christ, while at such a distance from us in respect of place, should be food to us,
let us remember how far the secret virtue of the Holy Spirit surpasses all our conceptions, and how
(^933) Henri Martin (Histoire de France, Tom. VIII. 188 sq.) says of Calvin’s Institutes that they gave a religious code to the Reform in
France and in a great part of Europe,"and that it is "une vraie ’Somme’ théologique, où se trouve impliqué l’ordre civil même, et qui n’est
pas, comme celle de Thomas d’Aquin, le résumé d’un système établi, mais le programne et le code d’un système à établir ... Luther attire:
Calvin impose et retient ... Volonté et logique, voilà Calvin" (p. 185). He calls him "le premier écrivain par la durée et l’influence de sa
langue, de son style."
(^934) Some of the strongest passages on this point occur in his polemic tracts against Westphal. In the Second Defense he says: "Christum
corpore absentem doceo nihilominus non tantum divina sua virtute, quae ubique diffusa est, nobis adesse, sed etiam facere ut nobis
vivifica sit sua caso" (Opera, IX. 76)."Spiritus sui virtute Christus locorum distantiam superat ad vitam nobis e sua carne inspirandam"
(p. 77). And in his last admonition: "Haec nostrae doctrinae summa est, carnem Christi panem esse vivificum, quia dum fide in eam
coalescimus, vere animas nostras alit et pascit. Hoc nonnisi spiritualiter fieri docemus, quia hujus sacrae unitatis vinculum arcana est
et incomprehensibilis Spiritus Sancti virtus" (p. 162). For a good exposition of the Calvinistic theory which substantially agrees with ours,
we may refer to Ebrard (Abendmahl, II. 550-570), Stähelin (Calvin, I. 222 sqq.), and Nevin (Mystical Presence).