§ 125. The Two Theories of the Lord's Supper.
The doctrine of the Lord's Supper became the subject of two controversies in the Western church, especially in France. The first took place in the middle of the ninth century between Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramtms, the other in the middle of the eleventh century between Berengar and Lanfranc. In
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the second, Pope Hildebrand was implicated, as mediator be tween Berengar and the orthodox party.
In both cases the conflict was between a materialistic and a spiritualistic conception of the sacrament and its effect. The one was based on a literal, the other on a figurative interpreta tion of the words of institution, and of the mysterious discourse in the sixth chapter of St. John. The contending parties agreed in the belief that Christ is present in the eucharist as the bread of life to believers; but they differed widely in their conception of the mode of that presence : the one held that Christ was lite rally and corporeally present and communicated to all commu nicants through the mouth ; the other, that he was spiritually present and spiritually communicated to believers through faith. The transubstantiationists (if we may coin this term) believed that the eucharistic body of Christ was identical with his histo rical body, and was miraculously created by the priestly conse cration of the elements in every sacrifice of the mass; their opponents denied this identity, and regarded the eucharistic body as a symbolical exhibition of his real body once sacrificed on the cross and now glorified in heaven, yet present to the believer with its life-giving virtue and saving power.
We find both these views among the ancient fathers. The realistic and mystical view fell in more easily with the excessive supernaturalism and superstitious piety of the middle age, and triumphed at last both in the Greek and Latin churches; for there is no material difference between them on this dogma.1 The spiritual theory was backed by the all-powerful authority of St. Augustin in the West, and ably advocated by Ratramnus and Berengar, but had to give way to the prevailing belief in transubstantiation until, in the sixteenth century, the controversy was revived by the Reformers, and resulted in the establish-
1 The Greek fathers do not, indeed, define the real presence as transubstaniiatio or uerova/ua/c, but Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, and John of Damascus use similar terms which imply a miraculous change of the elements.
546 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
ment of three theories : 1) the Roman Catholic dogma of tran substantiation, re-asserted by the Council of Trent; 2) the Lu theran theory of the real presence in the elements, retaining their substance;1 and 3) the Reformed (Calvinistic) theory of a spiritual real or dynamic presence for believers. In the Roman church (and herein the Greek church fully agrees with her), the doctrine of transubstantiation is closely connected with the doctrine of the sacrifice of the mass, which forms the centre of worship.
It is humiliating to reflect that the* commemorative feast of Christ's dying love, which should be the closest bond of union between believers, innocently gave rise to the most violent con troversies. But the same was the case with the still more im portant doctrine of Christ's Person. Fortunately, the spiritual benefit of the sacrament does not depend upon any particular human theory of the mode of Christ's presence, who is ever ready to bless all who love him.
§ 126. The Theory of Paschasius Radbertus.
PASCHASIUS RADBERTTJS (from 800 to about 865), a learned, devout and superstitious monk, and afterwards abbot of Corbie or Corvey in France,2 is the first who clearly taught the doctrine of transubstantiation as then believed by many, and afterwards adopted by the Roman Catholic church. He wrote a book "on
1 The Lutheran theory, as formulated by the Formula of Concord, is usually and conveniently styled consubstantiation, in distinction from transubstantiation; but Lutheran divines disown the terra, because they confine the real presence to the time and act of the sacramental fruition, and hence reject the adoration of the consecrated elements.
2 Corbie, Corvey, Corbeia (also called Corbeia aurea or vetus], was a famous Benedictine Convent in the diocese of Amiens, founded by King Clotar and his mother Bathilde in 664, in honor of Peter and Paul and the Protomartyr Stephen. It boasted of many distinguished men, as St. Ansgarius (the Apostle of the Danes), Kadbert, Ratramnus, Druthmar. New Corbie (Nova Corbeia) was a colony of the former, founded in 822, near Hoxter on the Weser in Germany, and became the centre for the Christian ization of the Saxons. See Gallia Christiana, X.: Wiegand, Oesch. v. Corvey, Hoxter, 1819; Klippel, Cor vey, in Herzog2 III. 365-370.