o think that Christ, having kept the
passover according to the law (which is not particularly related, but
supposed, by the evangelists), sat down to a common or ordinary supper, at
which he told the disciples that one of them should betray him. And of
this judgment are Calvin and Beza, upon Matt. xxvi. 21; Pareus, upon Matt.
xxvi. 21; Fulk and Cartwright, against the Rhemists, upon 1 Cor. xi. 23;
Tolet and Maldonat, upon John xiii. 2; Cornelius Jansenius, _Conc.
Evang._, cap. 131; Balthazar Meisnerus, _Tract, die Fest. Virid._, p. 256;
Johannes Forsterus, _Conc. 4, de Pass._, p. 538; Christophorus Pelargus,
in John xiii., quest. 2, and others. The reasons whereby their judgment is
confirmed are these:--

1. Many societies convened to the eating of the paschal supper by
twenties.(1234) And if twenty was often the number of them who convened to
the eating of the same (which also confirmeth their opinion who think that
other men and women in the inn did eat both the paschal and evangelical
supper together with the apostles in Christ's company), it is not very
likely (say some) that all those were sufficiently satisfied and fed with
one lamb, which, after it was eight days old, was allowed to be offered
for the passover, as Godwin noteth.(1235) _Neque esus umus agni_, saith
Pareus, _toti familiae sedandae fami sufficere poterat._(1236)

2. The paschal supper was not for banquetting or filling of the belly, as
Josephus also writeth.(1237) _Non tam exsatiendae nutriendaeque naturae_,
saith Maldonat, _quam servandae legalis ceremoniae causa sumebatur_.(1238)
_Non ventri_, saith Pareus, _sed religionis causa fiebat_.(1239) But as
for that supper which Christ and his apostles did eat immediately before
the eucharistical, Cartwright doubts not to call it a carnal supper,(1240)
an earthly repast, a feast for the belly, which lets us know, that the
sacramental bread and wine was ordained, not for feeding their bodies,
which were already satisfied by the ordinary and daily supper, but for the
nourishment of the soul.

3. That beside the paschal and evangelical suppers, Christ and his
apostles had also that night another ordinary supper, Fulk proveth by the
broth wherein the sop was dipped,(1241) John xiii. 26. Whereas there was
no such broth ordained by the divine institution to be used in the paschal
supper.

4. That there were two suppers before the eucharistical they gather from
John xiii. For, first, the paschal supper was e