"What we have hitherto said of the sacrament, abundantly shows that it was not instituted to be received once a-year and that perfunctorily (as is now commonly the custom); but that all Christians might have it in frequent use, and frequently call to mind the sufferings of Christ, thereby sustaining and confirming their faith: stirring themselves up to sing the praises of God, and proclaim his goodness; cherishing and testifying towards each other that mutual charity, the bond of which they see in the unity of the body of Christ" (_Institutes_, IV.17.44). [John Calvin, _Institutes of the Christian Religion_, Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1957 [Trans. Henry Beveridge], Volume Two.]

"The sum is, that the flesh and blood of Christ feed our souls just as bread and wine maintain and support our corporeal 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 foolish it is to measure its immensity by our feeble capacity. Therefore, what our mind does not comprehend let faith conceive --viz. that the Spirit truly unite things separated by space. That sacred communion of flesh and blood by which Christ transfuses his life into us, just as if it penetrated our bones and marrow, he testifies and seals in the Supper, and that not by presenting a vain or empty sign, but by there exerting an efficacy of the Spirit by which he fulfils what he promises...For this reason the apostle said, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (I Cor. x. 16.) There is no ground to object that the expression is figurative, and gives the sign the name of the thing signified...For unless we would charge God with deceit, we will never presume to say that he holds forth an empty symbol. Therefore, if by the breaking of the bread the Lord truly represents the partaking of his body, there ought to be no doubt whatever that he truly exhibits and performs it" (_Institutes_, IV.17.10).

"Commencant un peu à sortir des ténèbres de la Papauté, et ayant pris quelque petit goût à la saine doctrine, quand je lisais en LUTHER qu'OECOLAMPADE et ZWINGLE ne laissaient rien dans les sacraments que des figures nues et des représentations sans la vérité, je confesse que cela me détourna de leurs livres, en sorte que je m'abstins longtemps d'y lire. Or devant que je commencasse à écrire, ils avaient conféré ensemble à Marbourg, et par ce moyen leur première véhémence était modérée, tellement que, encore que le temps ne fut pas tout-à-fait remis au beau, l'obscurité la plus épaisse avait un peu commencé à se dissiper" (_Seconde Défense contre Westphal_, _Op. Calv._, t. IX, p.51, quoted in Jean Cauvin, _Petit Traité de la Sainte Cène de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ dans lequel sont montrés sa vraie institution, son profit et son utilité_, Paris: Collection ''Les Bergers et les Mages'', 1959? [1566]).

On the non-Calvinistic, rationalistic, and secularizing tendency of Zwinglian and "Reformed" theology properly so-called see Louis Bouyer, _Orthodox Spirituality and Protestant and Anglican Spirituality_, The Seabury Press, French: Editions Montaigne 1965, English: 1969 Burns & Oates, London, and Declee Co., Inc., New York: "It was because these Churches were later to adopt the practical organization put into effect by Calvin that they are persistently and misleadingly called "Calvinist" by Catholics, though they have always called themselves simply "reformed". This is misleading because the "reformed" Churches as a whole, and leaving aside the Presbyterian synodal organization and some minority groups of Scottish and Dutch theologians, have always felt the greatest repugnance for the theological theses that properly belong to Calvinism...And if most of the reformed Churches took over the firmly organized framework that the Calvinist Church offered them, they would never (a small number of theologians apart) accept the Calvinist system that gave it its point and tried to infuse it with a soul" (pp.78,84). While, Fr. Bouyer may well be correct about this, my impression is that in general he is much less open to the redeeming features of the Reformation than he could have been. For more details on the rejection of Calvin by contemporaries and by those who came after him, see Lynne Courter Boughton, _Supralapsarianism and the Role of Metaphysics in Sixteenth-Century Reformed Theology_, Westminster Theological Journal 48:63-96(1986). See also Basil Hall, _Calvin Against the Calvinists_, in G. E. Duffield (ed.), _John Calvin_, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966. On the possibility of a *reception* of the doctrine of Real Presence already in the Reformed standards, that would make it a *habitus* in Reformed church practice, see Paul R. Fries, _"Wine Becomes a Wing at Last" Reception and the Real Presence_, Perspectives 6(6):9-12(June 1991) [Reformed Church Press].

Calvin believed that if we are not prepared to ascend to Heaven already in this life (the reciprocal ascent by faith and descent of the Holy Spirit -- *meditatio coelestis (or *futurae*) vitae* --), we should not expect to be with Christ hereafter. On Calvin as mystic, see R. S. Wallace, _Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian Life_, Eerdmans, 1961 [Oliver and Boyd Ltd., 1959], Lucien Joseph Richard, _The Spirituality of John Calvin_, Altlanta: John Knox Press, 1974, E. Rozanne Elder, _The Spirituality of Western Christendom_, Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, Inc., 1976, Thomas F. Torrance, _Theology in Reconstruction_, SCM Press Ltd, 1965, Eerdmans, 1975, p.279, and Ford Lewis Battles, _Calculus Fidei Some Ruminations on the Structure of Calvin's Theology_, Grand Rapids: Calvin Theological Seminary, 1978 [Privately-published edition with the Appendices].

January, 1998

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Index