[8] This practice of the Greek church, at the first elevation of the elements, is what gives just offence both to the Roman and Reformed churches; for tho of late they have generally embraced the doctrine of transubstantiation, yet by this act they pay a divine worship to the bread and wine even before this pretended conversion into the body and blood of Christ. Not but that this observation may be well improved to evince the novelty of this persuasion among the Greeks; and to shew, that both these ceremonies were at first but a meer bodily respect to the elements, and implied nothing of a divine adoration.
[9] To such as are not conceiv’d always worthy, or ready to communicate, the Greeks after the celebration of their Liturgy distribute the ἀντίδωρον, or bread barely blessed, but not consecrated; which they conceive to be a symbol of the body of the Virgin Mary, and to be given instead of that of Christ.
Nec pulcher Ganges, atque auro turbidus Hermus,
Laudibus Italiae certent. Virg. Georg. ii. 137.
Non illi satis est turbato sordidus auro
Hermus. Mart. L. viii. Ep. 77.
[12] Liv. Lib. xxxvii. cap. 37. Circa Magnesiam, quae ad Sipylum est, posuit castra. Idem cap. 44. A Magnesia, quae ad Meandrum est, et ab Epheso legati ad dedendas urbes venerunt.
[13] Καταφέρεται δ’ ὁ Πακτωλὸς εἰς Ἑρμὸν, εἰς ὃν καὶ ὁ Ὕλλος ἐμβάλλει, νυνὶ Φρύγιος καλούμενος. Strabo, Lib. xiii. pag. 626.