Annotation CCLXXXIX
”In whom we have redemption through his blood.” — Ephesians 1:7
On the Eucharist.
Bertram [Ratramnus] the presbyter usurps Jerome’s interpretation from this passage, in the book On the Body and Blood of the Lord, to show that in the Eucharist there is neither the true and real flesh of Christ, which was crucified for us, nor that true blood which was shed for us, but a mystical blood, and spiritual and typical flesh, set forth not in truth, but in figure. The words of Jerome run thus: “IN A TWOFOLD manner is the blood of Christ and [his] flesh understood: either that spiritual and divine [flesh], of which he himself said, ‘My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink,’ and, ‘Unless you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, you shall not have eternal life’; or the flesh and blood which was crucified, and which was shed by the soldier’s lance. According to this division, a diversity of blood and of flesh is taken also in his saints — so that there is one flesh, which shall see the salvation of God; [and] another flesh and blood, which cannot possess the kingdom of God.” This sentence of Jerome seems to allude to those [things] which Clement of Alexandria wrote, [in] book 2 of the Paedagogus, chapter 2, in these words: “TWOFOLD is the blood of the Lord: for one is carnal, by which we are redeemed from destruction; but the other spiritual, by which, namely, we are anointed. And this is to drink the blood of Jesus — to be partaker of the incorruption of the Lord. For the strength of the Word is the spirit, as the blood [is] of the flesh. By a moderate proportion, therefore, and fittingness, wine is mingled with water, but the spirit with man. And the tempered wine indeed, as concerns faith, is received at the banquet; but the spirit is led to incorruption. But the mixture of both — namely, of the drink and of the Word — is called Eucharist; of which those who are partakers by faith are sanctified in body and soul.” The Master of the Sentences, [in] book 4, distinction 8, says that Jerome’s words are to be interpreted by the rule of “the sacrament and the reality of the sacrament,” by which we are taught that the flesh of Christ is twofold: the one contained and signified by the Eucharist, which was crucified and dead, and after death, revived, ascended into heaven; but the other signified by the Eucharist and not contained, which is the unity of the Church in the predestined and the glorified. And according to the same rule the sayings of Clement are to be taken. This argument has been treated more copiously [in] Annotation 196 of this book.