and injury is done the Sacrament by the spilling of the
liquid. Because of the great multitude there would be
difficulty also in giving the chalice cautiously for the form
of wine, which also when kept for a long time would sour and
cause nausea or vomition to those who would receive it;
neither could it be readily taken to the sick without danger
of spilling. For these reasons and others the churches in
which the custom had been to give both forms to laymen were
induced, undoubtedly by impulse of the Holy Ghost, to give
thereafter but one form, from the consideration chiefly that
the entire Christ is under each form, and is received no less
under one form than under two. In the Council of Constance,
of such honorable renown, a decree to this effect appeared,
and so too the Synod of Basle legitimately decreed. And
although it was formerly a matter of freedom to use either
one or both forms in the Eucharist, nevertheless, when the
heresy arose which taught that both forms were necessary, the
Holy Church, which is directed by the Holy Ghost, forbade
both forms to laymen. For thus the Church is sometimes wont
to extinguish heresies by contrary institutions; as when some
arose who maintained that the Eucharist is properly
celebrated only when unleavened bread is used, the Church for
a while commanded that it be administered with leavened
bread; and when Nestorius wished to etablish that the
perpetual Virgin Mary was mother only of Christ, not of God,
the Church for a time forbade her to be called Christotokos,
mother of Christ. Wherefore we must entreat the princes and
cities not to permit this schism to be introduced into
Germany, into the Roman Empire, or themselves to be separated
from the custom of the Church Universal. Neither do the