For "those things" says St. Cyril of Alexandria "are
generally derided, which are not understood" adv. Julianum. The
pagans, at the instigation, it would appear, of the Jews and early
heretics, availed themselves of this secret discipline to charge
the Christians with the detestable crimes of Oedipus and Thyestes,
pretending that in their secret assemblies they murdered an infant
covered with flour, and drank his blood. (Cecilius ap. Minut. Fel.)
It was solely with the view of refuting these calumnies, that Justin
Martyr explained, in his apology addressed to Antoninus Pius, the
catholic doctrine of the eucharist. S. Blandina on the contrary
endured the most cruel torments rather than reveal it, though its
profession would have confuted the same odious calumnies; and S.
Augustine observes a similar reserve when answering the pagan Maximus
Madaurensis.
"Who" says the protestant Casaubon "is so little versed in the
writings of the fathers, as to be ignorant of the formulary used
principally of the sacraments, the initiated understand what is said:
it occurs at least fifty times in Chrysostom, and almost as frequently
in Augustine". S. Fulgentius inserts in his answer to the deacon
Ferrandus the following words of S. Augustine to the neophytes "This
which you see on the altar of God you saw last night: but what it was,
what it meant, and of what a great thing it contains the sacrament,
you have not yet heard.
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