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← ExitThe Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

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Multiplication and the Eucharist

blessed tree, it drives from bodies and spirits every infirmity, misery, languor, sadness, greed, poverty, care, anxiety, and encumbrance; so that, enjoying this divine nectar, one seems to enjoy in advance the delights of future blessedness.

The multiplication and nature of the stone represent the figure and symbol of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist

It is marvelous to see how greatly this sacrament of the Eucharist is praised and honored in the Church, how greatly it was by the ancient philosophers of the first testament, and how much power and efficacy it has had in every age. Thus, although many holy faithful persons have given us many indications and testimonies of it—as in the multiplication of oil and grain performed by Elisha, and the raising of the Naamatite woman’s son, or, so to speak, in the juxtaposition

of the prophet’s limbs with those of this little child; in the changing of Moses’ rod into a serpent that devoured the others; and in the mystery of manna preserved in the tabernacle as testimony of this sacrament, possessing every taste one wished it to have. Jesus Christ, among others, was not only its author but also its prophet: he is the foundation and basis of so exalted and hidden a mystery, and left us such certain and indubitable signs of this future mystery in the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana and in the limitless multiplication of one loaf and one or two small fish. Almost no one, unless out of their mind, dares deny it, although the whole family of angels trembles with awe at so august a sacrament, and it is impossible to write or speak of it in sufficiently exalted terms; although the Devil remains silent and cannot comprehend such a great benefit from God to humanity, and all created nature cannot open its mouth

on something so sublime. We have nevertheless resolved to explain what this last operation of the physical stone, containing its multiplication, conveys, albeit in rough outlines, before entirely concluding this natural and Christian philosophy. At least, if something, or several important things fitting to manifest its immensity and dignity, is lacking, we do not relate them. Let nothing be reproached to us and let us not be blamed, because there is no progressing from the finite to the infinite, and we shall do ourselves no dishonor by saying nothing of them. Thus, if in this chapter we speak of symbols and figures of this sacrament drawn from our stone, we shall say nothing of ourselves; we shall only try to bring to light the shadows and pure models it contains, as far as our feeble understanding permits. We shall discharge this task with all the more joy and attention because the infinite, immense, incomprehensible Son of God willed to be enclosed in a little host and under the appearances of bread

and wine; and because he has graciously left us, although we are unworthy, true and certain proofs of so great a mystery in this almost divine secret of our stone. We have sought it throughout our whole life, less to amass treasures or acquire honor and glory than to know, love, and serve God. If the school of the pagans gives no credence to Holy Scripture, if Jesus Christ’s words do not please them, they need only listen to and question nature. She will answer that God entrusted her with the symbol of so august a mystery, containing everything we believe enclosed in the other mysteries of our faith in a divine, immense, impenetrable manner. For it contains not only Jesus Christ incarnate, but risen from death and most perfectly glorified in Heaven as he is at present; and also the substance of bread and wine transformed into Jesus Christ’s body and blood, found beneath the accidents of each, so that in it are seen all the miracles of the whole Church

and of our faith, and of all nature’s secrets in a manner worthy of wonder. For as he is the sovereign author of this sacrament, as also of nature, and is the sacrament itself and the divine, invisible exemplar of nature and the whole visible world, pagans, heretics, and still more every faithful Christian may seek great and profound marvels in the nature of this sacrament.

But I hear certain heretics murmuring at these words, as though any mortal could speak of it otherwise than superficially. I agree and willingly grant it; yet I say again that they should look at nature herself and her works, and see for themselves what she has enclosed and hidden in this last preparation, namely multiplication. This is the figure and image of so great a mystery, whereas they wish the sacrament itself to be the figure, according to Jesus Christ’s words: ‘The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.’ Are they ignorant of what we have just said

of the miracles of Elisha, Moses, and Jesus Christ himself, which were then figures and images of this sacrament—as though they have been or could be called figures of figures? Do they not know that all created nature is the character and visible, sensible type of invisible things, and is not Jesus Christ himself? What must one conclude but that Jesus Christ cannot be both the sacrament and the figure of the sacrament? Moreover, if this sacrament is the epitome and abridgment of all Jesus Christ’s miracles, then everything was merely shadow and figure, even our Church—or rather yours; for it would then be no more than a certain idea and a certain sacred enigma conceived only in heretics’ minds. But if it comes about that Jesus Christ had this power, let them at least consider what Jesus Christ, Son of God, with the Father and Holy Spirit, could accomplish with a single word. He is the Word of the indivisible Most Holy Trinity and the wisdom that is wholly spirit and life, according to these words: ‘I am the way and the truth of life.’ Let them therefore see how full of spirit and life Jesus Christ’s words are

since they are not the figure of Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ himself, upon whom our firmly established faith rests—a faith full of life and spirit that will never be overthrown.

Let them see, I say, whether what lies beyond their powers can be seen, and whether the penetrating power of the mind, at the sight of so many marvels shining around it on every side, does not greedily fill itself with everything God has wrought in nature. In this treatise nature presents you with a symbol and faithful figure of the mystery you must believe, so that today you may be obliged—to your shame and confusion—to acknowledge that what you have hitherto believed impossible for the mighty God is possible for his creature. To unfold the matter openly and convince even the blindest, it is fitting that I set forth here the advantages and qualities our stone acquires in its multiplication, through its dissolution and corruption, which, being, so to speak, penetrated by an incorruptible, fixed, immortal spirit and full of vegetative, animal, and sensitive life,

it can renew, glorify, and rectify not only plants and animals but also the human body and all nature itself—that is, bring everything to a supreme, perfect nature. Thus, for the matter of our stone to act upon plants, animals, and minerals, it must possess a vegetative, animal, and mineral soul. Moreover, to act upon metals it must above all possess subtlety and pass through all their parts, which depends upon mercurial fusibility. It also needs fixity; otherwise its tincture would vanish into the air without awaiting the proper time to introduce its new form.

These are the qualities of our glorious physical stone corresponding to those of glorified bodies, although they possess the nature of spirit or of our quintessence. Since local movement is not granted to the metal which it has refused, the metal does not possess glorified bodies’ agility; fusibility is substituted in its place, which

419.The list combines bodily suffering, inward distress, and material deprivation. The divine nectar’s effects are presented as an anticipation of future blessedness, leading directly into the Eucharistic chapter.

420.The Elisha references compare multiplication and restoration of life with the sacrament: compare the widow’s oil in 2 Kings 4:1–7 and the barley loaves in 4:42–44. The child’s raising is elaborated in the continuation; the manuscript’s Naamatite name is retained and discussed there.

421.The source names the mother Naamatite on the preceding page. The bodily juxtaposition corresponds to Elisha and the Shunammite woman’s child in 2 Kings 4:32–35. The witness’s name is retained rather than silently corrected.

422.The manuscript attributes the swallowing rod to Moses. Compare Exodus 7:9–12, where Aaron’s staff swallows the others; the note records the difference without changing the author’s attribution.

423.Compare John 2:1–11 for Cana and John 6:9–13 for the feeding miracle. The manuscript’s one loaf and ‘one or two’ small fish are retained; John’s account specifies five barley loaves and two fish.

424.The final operation is multiplication of the physical stone. The author presents its exposition as a concluding part of the work’s natural and Christian philosophy, offered in rough outlines.

425.The distinction between finite and infinite defines the stated limit of the analogies: the stone contains shadows and models, which the author proposes to reveal. The Eucharistic claim at the end is made explicitly by the manuscript and continues on the next page.

426.The author explicitly gives knowing, loving, and serving God priority over treasure, honor, and glory as the purpose of his lifelong search for the stone.

427.Substance and accidents are distinguished in the Eucharistic account: bread and wine’s substance is said to be transformed, while Christ is present beneath their accidents. The stone is presented as the natural symbol through which the author proposes to make this mystery intelligible.

428.Christ is called both sacrament itself and the divine invisible exemplar of visible nature. These titles support the author’s permission to seek natural marvels as a route into the sacrament’s mystery.

429.The sentence distinguishes multiplication as a figure of the sacrament from the opponents’ treatment of the sacrament itself as a figure. The quoted words correspond to John 6:63, which the author contests as a warrant for that latter interpretation.

430.Character and type designate the visible sensible representation of invisible things. The polemic argues that turning the sacrament into only another figure would make the scriptural preparations ‘figures of figures’; it expressly distinguishes created nature from Christ himself.

431.The source reads Je suis la voie et la vérité de la vie, retained as ‘the way and the truth of life’. Compare John 14:6, where the saying enumerates way, truth, and life. The wording is not silently replaced by the standard biblical form.

432.The opening elles continues the preceding page’s words of Christ, but the ensuing identification with Christ himself is grammatically compressed. The translation retains the claim and then follows the explicit subject notre foi.

433.The contrast between human inability and natural operation is the author’s challenge to his opponents. He proceeds to the stone’s acquired qualities as the natural symbol offered in support of the mystery; the claimed possibility is presented as part of his argument.

434.The stone’s claimed action across plants, animals, minerals, and the human body is grounded in the author’s doctrine of corresponding souls. ‘Rectify’ preserves his vocabulary of perfecting matter.

435.The clause au métal qu’elle a refusé is awkward as transmitted. It is retained rather than silently rewritten as a description of smelting. The comparison substitutes fusibility for movement from place to place.