That all the superstitious opinions are to be repulsed and only bread and wine mixed with water be offered as a sacrifice.

 

Since every crime and sin is deleted by sacrifices offered to God, what else will be given to the Lord in return for expiation of sins when there is an error in the offering of the sacrifice? We have heard that some people, driven by schismatic ambition against the divine orders and apostolic institutions, offer milk in divine sacrifices instead of wine, and others distribute to the people the Eucharist dipped [in the wine] for completion of the communion, and that some others also did not offer in the mystery of the chalice of the Lord the pressed wine, but gave the communion to the people in the form of grapes. It is not difficult to demonstrate from the fount of truth from which the ordered matter of the sacraments proceeds that those practices are contrary to the evangelic and apostolic doctrine and opposite to ecclesiastical custom. For when the teacher of the truth commanded that his disciples make a true offering of our salvation, he blessed in this sacrament, as we know, not the milk but only bread and wine. The evangelic truth has thus proclaimed it. Jesus took bread and a chalice, blessed them and gave to his disciples. Let milk be no longer offered in sacrifices, because from the evangelic example of the truth it clearly and evidently follows that nothing else can be offered except bread and wine. Also the fact that the Eucharist dipped in wine is distributed to the people for completion of the communion does not find its source in the passage from the Gospel in which the Lord gives his disciples his body and blood, because it mentions that the giving of bread was separate from the giving of the chalice. We do not read that Christ offered to the others dipped bread to others, except the disciple to whom He passed a dipped morsel of bread so as to indicate that he was a traitor - this was not meant to sanction the institution of the sacrament. As for the unpressed grapes, when the people communicate with grape berries, this is indeed a great confusion. For the chalice of the Lord, according to the doctrine of a certain teacher [=Cyprian of Carthage, Letter 62], has to be offered as a mixture of wine and water, because the water signifies the people, and the wine the blood of Christ.

 

 

And therefore, from now on offering anything but bread and a chalice of wine mixed with water in the divine sacraments, according to the ancient decrees of the councils, is not allowed. If someone does it differently than is precepted, he shall abstain from offering until he has been punished by the proper penance and regains the grade of his office which he lost.

 

(trans. M. Szada)