Annotation CXCVII

”Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man.” — John 6:53

On the eating of the sacrament.

Cardinal Cajetan, expounding these [words] in the commentaries, Ambrosius [Catharinus] — refuting [him] in a prolix treatise in the fifth book of the Annotations — marks with a twofold fault: first, that against the common opinion of the holy [fathers] he tried by empty arguments to show that the present passage does not pertain to the sacramental eating of the body of Christ; secondly, that he dared to ascribe to the holy doctors this interpretation, which is peculiar to Luther and Oecolampadius — whereas it is certain that Cyril, Augustine, Cyprian, Chrysostom, and other fathers, as well ancient as more recent, interpreted this passage of the sacramental eating of the body of Christ.