Riches from the Past
JUNE 2026
We affirm that bread and wine are holy and heavenly mysteries of the body and blood of Christ, and that by them Christ Himself, being the true bread of eternal life, is so presently given unto us as that by faith we verily receive his body and his blood.
Bishop John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, was a Reformational Anglican figure and stalwart defender of the reforms undertaken under Queen Elizabeth. First swept up in the Reformational fervour of England during King Edward VI and heavily influenced by the Reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli, Jewel eventually fled the country when Queen “Bloody” Mary came to power and temporarily returned the Church of England to the Roman fold. He then returned under Elizabeth and was a formidable writer against the Romish doctrines.
The work for which he is most well-known, The Apology of the Church of England, was later described by historian Mandell Creighton as “the first methodical statement of the position of the Church of England against the Church of Rome”. In it, Bishop Jewel marshals argumentation drawing upon a number of topics, from ecclesiology to ethics to church history, so as to clarify why it was that under Queen Elizabeth, the gap between the Church of England and the Church of Rome had become unbridgeable.
Bishop Jewel’s tome gave many good and sound arguments as to why the separation from Rome was justified. However, today I would like to focus on his sacramentology, namely his doctrine of the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper. One of the major historic focuses of difference between Roman-Catholicism and us has been centred on the Supper. Rome’s doctrine, called transubstantiation, holds that after the words of institution, although the bread and wine retain the “accidents”, or the outside qualities, of bread and wine, they are no longer bread and wine in substance, but rather only substantially Christ’s body and blood. Bishop Jewel demonstrates from Church History and Scripture that this is a novel understanding, and that the Anglican position (that we receive Christ’s body and blood spiritually by faith through the signs of bread and wine) is the ancient and Apostolic paradigm.
NOTE: This rendering of the text is taken from Gutenberg. To read more, scan the QR code.
AN EXCERPT FROM THE APOLOGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
We affirm that bread and wine are holy and heavenly mysteries of the body and blood of Christ, and that by them Christ Himself, being the true bread of eternal life, is so presently given unto us as that by faith we verily receive his body and his blood. Yet say we not this so, as though we thought that the nature and substance of the bread and wine is clearly changed and goeth to nothing: as many have dreamed in these later times, which yet could never agree among themselves, of this their dream.
For that was not Christ’s meaning, that the wheaten bread should lay apart his own nature, and receive a certain new divinity: but that he might rather change us, and (to use Theophylact’s words) might transform us into His body. For what can be said more plainly, than that which Ambrose saith: “Bread and wine remain still the same they were before, and yet are changed into another thing:” or, that which Gelasius saith: “The substance of the bread, or the nature of the wine, ceaseth not so to be:” or, that which Theodoret saith: “After the consecration the mystical signs do not cast off their own proper nature; for they remain still on their former substance, form, and kind:” or that which Augustine saith: “That which ye see is the bread and cup, for so our eyes tell us: but that which your faith requireth to be taught, is this: the bread is the body of Christ, and the cup is His blood:” or that which Origen saith: “The bread which is sanctified by the Word of God, as touching the material substance thereof, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy:” or that which Christ Himself said, not only after the blessing of the cup, but after he had ministered the communion: “I will drink no more of this fruit of the vine.” It is well known that the fruit of the vine is wine, and not blood.
And in speaking thus, we mean not to abase the Lord’s Supper, that it is but a cold ceremony only, and nothing to be wrought therein (as many falsely slander us we teach). For we affirm, that Christ doth truly and presently give His own self in His Sacraments; in Baptism, that we may put Him on; and in His Supper, that we may eat Him by faith and spirit, and may have everlasting life by His Cross and blood. And we say not, this is done slightly and coldly, but effectually and truly. For although we do not touch the body of Christ with teeth and mouth, yet we hold Him fast, and eat Him by faith, by understanding, and by the Spirit. And it is no vain faith which doth comprehend Christ: and that is not received with cold devotion, that is received with understanding, with faith, and with spirit. For Christ Himself altogether is so offered and given us in these mysteries, that we may certainly know we be flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bones; and that Christ “continueth in us, and we in Him.” And therefore in celebrating these mysteries, the people are to good purpose exhorted before they come to receive the Holy Communion, to lift up their hearts, and to direct their minds to heavenward: because He is there, by whom we must be full fed, and live.
Cyril saith, when we come to receive these mysteries, all gross imaginations must quite be banished. The Council of Nice, as is alleged by some in Greek, plainly forbiddeth us to be basely affectioned, or bent toward the bread and wine, which are set before us. And, as Chrysostom very aptly writeth, we say, “that the body of Christ is the dead carcass, and we ourselves must be the eagles,” meaning thereby that we must fly high, if we will come unto the body of Christ. “For this table,” as Chrysostom saith, “is a table of eagles, and not of jays.” Cyprian also, “This bread,” saith he, “is the food of the soul, and not the meat of the belly.” And Augustine, “How shall I hold Him,” saith he, “which is absent? How shall I reach my hand up to heaven, to lay hold upon Him that sitteth there?” He answereth, “Reach hither thy faith, and then thou hast laid hold on Him.”
We cannot also away in our churches with the shows, and sales, and buying and selling of masses, nor the carrying about and worshipping of bread: nor such other idolatrous and blasphemous fondness: which none of them can prove that Christ or His Apostles did ever ordain, or left unto us. And we justly blame the bishops of Rome, who, without the word of God, without the authority of the holy fathers, without any example of antiquity, after a new guise, do not only set before the people the sacramental bread to be worshipped as God, but do also carry about the same upon an ambling horse, whithersoever themselves journey, as in old times the Persians’ fire, and the relics of the goddess Isis, were solemnly carried about in procession: and have brought the Sacraments of Christ to be used now as a stage play and a solemn sight: to the end, that men’s eyes should be fed with nothing else but with mad gazings and foolish gauds, in the self-same matter, wherein the death of Christ ought diligently to be beaten into our hearts, and wherein also the mysteries of our redemption ought with all holiness and reverence to be executed.
Besides, where they say, and sometimes do persuade fools, that they are able by their masses to distribute and apply unto men’s commodity all the merits of Christ’s death, yea, although many times the parties think nothing of the matter, and understand full little what is done, this is a mockery, an heathenish fancy, and a very toy. For it is our faith that applieth the death and cross of Christ to our benefit, and not the act of the massing priest. “Faith had in the Sacraments,” saith Augustine, “doth justify, and not the Sacraments.” And Origen saith, “Christ is the Priest, the Propitiation, and Sacrifice: which Propitiation cometh to every one by means of faith.” So that by this reckoning, we say that the Sacraments of Christ without faith do not once profit these that be alive; a great deal less do they profit those that be dead.
CONCLUSION
While these issues are complex and thorny, we should never lose sight of the fact that many Roman Catholics are our brethren insofar as they profess Christ. Yet I hope you gathered from the excerpt that Anglican theology of the sacraments is ancient and deep. We stand in that self-same line of Christians as the early church, and we seek to profess the same faith of the venerable and learned saints of the Church through time. May Christ bless the Church and ever reform her to reflect more of Him. Amen.
Daniel Liegmann