The Eucharist Through the Centuries: The Twelfth through the Sixteenth Century

Consecration of the Blessed Sacrament - Holy Trinity Church El Dorado Hills, California 

"The main purpose of this work is to trace elements of Eucharistic  doctrine from the day our Lord Jesus Christ announced it for the first time in the synagogue in Capernaum (John, Chapter 6) down to our day."  Rev. Roberto de la Vega, Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Eucharist Through The Centuries. 

12th Century           

Eucharistic Doctrine Begins to be Clarified 

 "Among the first questions that the theologians took up was:  What happens to the substance of the bread and wine at Mass?  They taught correctly that the substance of bread and wine does not coexist with the body and blood of Christ.  However, they erred in believing that the substance of the bread and wine simply ceased to exist, and that in its place there was substituted the body and blood of Christ.  Later the Church would clarify that the substance of the bread and wine is changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. Thus, Christ does not enter the bread and wine; but the bread and wine are changed into Christ."  (page 349 Eucharist Through the Centuries)

13th Century 
Marked Development of Eucharistic Doctrine 

The Church officially used the word "transubstantiation" to describe what takes place during the Consecration at the IV Ecumenical Lateran Council in 1215.  The following is from the Council: 

"In the universal Church of the faithful Jesus Christ is the priest himself and the sacrifice.  His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine.  By divine power the bread is transubstantiated into his body and the wine into his blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity, we ourselves receive from him what he took from us (our human nature). And surely no one can perform this sacrament except a priest who has been rightly ordained in accordance to the keys of the Church, which Jesus Christ himself gave to the Apostles and their successors." 

14th and 15th Century 
A Great Heresy Looms 

Following the 13th century the Church entered 200 years of controversy.  The spiritual chaos of those years in Europe led to the Protestant Reformation.  

Father John Wycliffe (1324 - 1384) denied transubstantiation claiming that the bread and wine remain after Consecration. 

16th Century 

The Protestant Reformation 

Father Martin Luther may had originally only intended to reform the Church but his attack on religious doctrine set the ground work for what was more likely the Protestant Revolution and 200 new churches in the United States alone, with new churches continuing to come and go even to this day. 

From the first Apostles, the Church understood the rule of faith to be God's Revelation as contained in the written word of the Bible as well as Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium.  When Luther proposed that the rule of faith is not found in Sacred Tradition or the Magisterium but in the Bible alone and as it is interpreted by individuals, he denied the pope's authority and made every man his own pope.   This naturally led to various "Reformers" teaching different ideas concerning the Church as well as the Eucharist.  

Luther accepted the Real Presence but denied transubstantiation when he stated,  "My conscience is effectively firm in the opinion that in the Eucharist there is true bread and true wine together with the true flesh and true blood of Christ."  

Luther also decided that Christ was only present from the time of Consecration to Communion.  He was  not present in the tabernacle or at any other time.  

Zwingli (1484 - 1531) taught that the Eucharist was only a symbol or figure of Christ.  Not his true Body and Blood.  Calvin (1509 - 1564), the founder of the Presbyterians said that the bread and wine contain a power of the body but not the real Body of Christ.  

As more Protestant churches formed most adopted Zwingli's idea that the Eucharist was a mere symbol of Christ.  

The Catholic Churches Answer 
The Council of Trent (October 11, 1551) 

From the Council of Trent on the Holy Eucharist:  

"In the nourishing sacrament of the Holy Eucharist after the consecration of the bread and wine our Lord Jesus Christ true God and true man, is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things."  

"He wished that this sacrament be received as the spiritual food of souls (Matthew 26:26) by which they may be nourished and strengthened, living the life of him who said: 'He who eats me, the same shall also live by me.' (John 6:57) The Eucharist is clearly a nourishing sacrament to nourish Sanctifying Grace, that participation of Christ's life in the soul."  

"Christ wished that this sacrament be a pledge of future glory and of everlasting happiness....Anyone who east my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day."  

"The Eucharistic sacrament is a symbol of that one body (the Church) of which he himself is the head, and to which he wished us to be united, as members, by the closest bond of faith, hope and charity, that we might all speak the same thing and there might be no schisms among us."  

"The other sacraments first have the power of sanctifying, when one uses them; but in the Eucharist there is the Author of sanctity himself before it is used."  

"Immediately after the consecration the true body of our Lord and his true blood together with his soul and divinity exist under the species of bread and wine...Therefore, it is very true that as much is contained under either species as under both.  For Christ whole and entire exists under the species of bread and under any part whatsoever of that species; likewise the whole Christ is present under the species of wine and under its parts."  

"By the consecration of the bread and wine a conversion takes place of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of his blood.  This conversion is appropriately and property called 'transubstantiation' by the Catholic Church." 

"Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to Communion." 

For the Protestants to come back to the Church: 

"This holy Synod with paternal affection admonishes, exhorts, entreats and beseeches, 'through the bowels of the mercy of God', that each and all who are called under the Christian name will now finally agree and be of the same opinion in this 'sign of unity,' in this 'bond of charity'...Mindful of so great a majesty and such boundless love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his own beloved soul as the price of our salvation, and gave his 'own flesh to eat', may they believe and venerate these mysteries of his body and blood with that constancy and firmness of faith, with that devotion of soul, that piety and worship, as to be able to receive frequent that super-substantial bread." 

The Council of Trent on the Mass 
'Do this in Memory of Me'

 "The clean and perfect sacrifice of the Mass cannot be defiled by any unworthiness on the part of those who offer it." 

"The priesthood which men posses today is simply a sharing in Christ's own priesthood."

"It is the power of Christ the Priest that the human priest uses to change bread and wine into Christ at Mass and to forgive sins in the sacrament of Confession." 

"In this divine sacrifice, which is celebrated in the Mass, that same Christ is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner, who on the altar of the cross once offered himself in a bloody manner...It is one and the same Victim..." 

"The holy Synod teaches that Mass is truly propitiatory and has this effect, namely if contrite and penitent we approach God with a sincere heart and right faith, with fear and reverence, we obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid. For appeased by this oblation, the Lord grants the grace and gift of penitence, pardons crimes and even great sins.  The fruits of Christ's bloody oblation on the cross are received most abundantly through the unbloody oblation of the Mass."  

"Mass is offered rightly according to the tradition of the Apostles not only for the sins of the faithful living and for their punishments and other necessities, but also for the dead in Christ who are not yet fully purged."  

"And though the Church has been accustomed to celebrate some Masses now and then in honor and in memory of the Saints, yet she does not teach that the sacrifice is offered to them, but to God alone who has crowned them...They priest gives thanks to God for their victories and implores their patronage, so that they themselves may deign to intercede for us in heaven, whose memory we celebrate on earth."  

The Council of Trent 
First Catechism of Catholic Church (September 1566) 

"That as there is 'one lord, one faith' there may also be one standard and prescribed form of propounding the dogmas of faith, and instructing Christians in all the duties of piety." 

"All the doctrines of Christianity, in which the faithful are to be instructed, are derived from the word of God, which includes Scripture and Tradition."  

"Without faith it is impossible to please God." 

"Of all the sacred mysteries bequeathed to us by our Lord as unfailing sources of grace, there is  none that can compare to the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist." 

"This sacrament is significant of three things:  the passion of Christ, a thing past; divine grace, a thing present; and eternal glory, a thing future." 

"That our Lord made use of wine in the institution of this Sacrament has been at all times the doctrine of the Catholic Church...with the wine used in the sacred mysteries the Church of God, however has always mingled water, because, as we know on the authority of councils and the testimony of St. Cyprian, our Lord himself did so; and also because this mixture renews the recollection of the blood and water that issued from his sacred side....This rite, derived from apostolic tradition, the Catholic Church  has at all times observed.  But care  must be taken not only to mingle water with wine, but also to mingle it in a small quantity; for in the opinion of the ecclesiastical writers the water  is changed into wine."  

"As the bread and wine, though invisibly, are really and substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ, so are we, although interior and invisibly, yet really, renewed to life, receiving in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the true life."  

"The Catholic Church then firmly believes and openly professes that in this sacrament the words of consecration accomplish three things:  first, that the true and real body of Christ, the same that was born of the Virgin and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, is rendered present in the Holy Eucharist; secondly, that however repugnant it may appear to the dictate of the senses,  no substance of the elements (bread and wine) remains in the Sacrament; and thirdly, a natural consequence of the two preceding and one which the words of consecration also express, that the accidents (appearances) which present themselves to the eyes or other senses exist in a wonderful and ineffable manner without a subject.  The accidents of bread and wine we see; but they inhere in no substance, and exist independently of any.  The substance of the bread and wine is so changed into the body and blood of our Lord, that they altogether cease to be the substance of bread and wine."  

"With great truth is the Holy Eucharist called the fountain of all grace, containing as it does after an admirable manner, the source of all gifts and graces, the author of all the Sacraments, Christ our Lord, from whom as from their source, they derive all their goodness and perfection." 

"It will also be found expedient to consider attentively the nature of bread and wine, the symbols of this sacrament: what bread and wine are to the body, the Eucharist is in a superior order to the health and joy of the soul."  

"These spiritual treasures must be poured into the soul which receives with purity and holiness him who says of himself:  'He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him.'"

"The life of the soul is not only sustained but also invigorated by feasting on the Eucharistic banquet, which imparts to it an increasing zest for heavenly things." 

"That the Holy Eucharist remits lighter offenses or, as they are commonly called venial sins, cannot be a matter of doubt.  Whatever losses the soul sustains by falling into some slight offenses through the violence of passion, these the Eucharist, which cancels lesser sins, repairs in the same manner..." 

"Of this heavenly Sacrament justly, therefore, has St. Ambrose said: 'This daily bread is taken as a remedy for daily infirmity.' This, however, is to be understood of venial imperfections only." 

"Also represses the licentious desires of the flesh and keeps them in due subjection to the spirit." 

"The Holy Eucharist facilitates to an extraordinary degree the attainment of eternal life:  'He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,' says the Redeemer, hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day' (John 6:54)"

"The pastor will teach in the first place that the Eucharist was instituted by our Lord for two great purposes, to be the celestial food of the soul, preserving and supporting spiritual life, and to give to the Church a perpetual sacrifice, by which sin may be expiated, and our heavenly Father, whom our crimes have often grievously offended, may be turned from wrath to mercy, from the severity of just vengeance to the exercise of benignant clemency...Nor could our divine Lord, when about to offer himself to his eternal Father on the altar of the cross, have given a more illustrious proof of his unbounded love for us, than by bequeathing to us a visible sacrifice, by which the bloody sacrifice, which a little while after was to be offered once on the cross, was to be renewed, and its memory celebrated daily throughout the universal Church even to the consummation of time, to the great advantage of her children."  

"We therefore confess that the sacrifice of the Mass is one and the same sacrifice with that of the cross:  the victim is one and the same, Christ Jesus, who offered himself, once only, a bloody sacrifice on the altar of the cross.  The bloody and unbloody victim is still one and the same, and the oblation of the cross is daily renewed in the Eucharistic sacrifice, in obedience to the command of the Lord:  'This do, for a commemoration of me.'  The priest is also the same, Christ our Lord; the ministers who offer this sacrifice consecrate the holy mysteries not in their own but in the person of Christ.  This the words of consecration declare:  the priest does not say, 'This is the body of Christ,' but 'This is my body'; and thus invested with the character of Christ, he changes the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of his real body and blood." 

"So acceptable to God is the sweet odor of this sacrifice, that through its oblation he pardons our sins, bestowing on us the gifts of grace and repentance."  

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.