And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Ver. 27. And he took the cup] Anciently of glass, afterwards of wood, and lastly of silver or gold. Whence that saying of a father, Once there were wooden cups, golden priests; now there are golden cups, but wooden priests.
Drink ye all of it] This is express against that Antichristian sacrilege of robbing the people of the cup. Eckius a saith the people ought to content themselves with the bread only, because, Equi donati non sunt inspiciendi dentes, " A gift horse is not to be looked in the mouth." He thought, likewise, that laymen could not claim any right to the bread either. Bellarmine, a little wiser, grants they have a right to the bread, but adds, that in eating the bread transubstantiated by the priest into the body of Christ, they drink his blood also. But Lombard (his master) denies this: saying, that the bread is not turned but into Christ's flesh; nor the wine, but into his blood. And thus these Babel-builders are confounded in their language, and hard it is to know what the Church of Rome holdeth. The Council of Constance speaketh out, and saith, That albeit Christ instituted, and accordingly administered, this sacrament in both kinds, tamen hoc non obstante, all this notwithstanding, the authority of the holy canons and the approved custom of the Church hath and doth deny the cup to the laity. And Nicolas Shetterden, martyr, in his answer compelled the commissary to grant that Christ's testament was broken, and his institution changed from the way he left it. But he said, they had power so to do. Christ's redemption is both precious and plenteous. He makes his people a full feast. Bread and wine comprehend entire food; for humidum et siccum, moist and dry, are all that is required unto food, Isaiah 25:6. Therefore as he gave them in the wilderness the bread of angels, so he set the rock abroach for them, and so fed them with sacraments. They did "all eat the same spiritual bread, and they did all drink the same spiritual drink," 1 Corinthians 10:3,4, that the ancient Church might give no warrant of a dry communion. The Russians a kind of mongrel Christians, communicate in both kinds; but mingling both together in a chalice, they distribute it both together in a spoon. (Breerwood's Inquiries.)
a Apud Manlium in loc. com.