§ 115. THE EUCHARIST. 713
§ 115. The Eucharist.
The eucharist, called by the Schoolmen the crown of the sacraments and the sacrament of the altar, was pronounced both a sacrament and a sacrifice. In the elaboration of the doctrine, scholastic theology reached the highest point of its speculation. Albertus Magnus devoted to it a distinct treatise and Thomas Aquinas nearly four hundred columns of his Summa. In practice, the celebration of this sacrament became the chief religious function of the Church.1 The festival of Corpus Christi, commemorating it, was celebrated with great solemnity. The theory of the transmutation of the elements and the withdrawal of the cup from the laity were among the chief objects of the attacks of the Reformers.
The fullest and clearest presentation of the eucharist was made by Thomas Aquinas. He discussed it in every possi ble aspect. Where Scripture is silent and Augustine uncer tain, the Schoolman's speculative ability, though often put to a severe test, is never at a loss. The Church accepted the doctrines of transubstantiation and the sacrificial meaning of the sacrament, and it fell to the Schoolmen to confirm these doctrines by all the metaphysical weapons at their command. And even where we are forced by the silence or clear mean ing of Scripture to regard their discussion as a vain display of intellectual ingenuity, we may still recognize the solemn religious purpose by which they were moved. Who would venture to deny this who has read the devotional hymn of Thomas Aquinas which presents the outgoings of his soul to the sacrificial oblation of the altar?
Pange lingua gloriosi cor ports mysterium. Sing my tongue the mystery telling.2
1 Quasi omnis devotio in ecclesia est in ordine ad illud sacr amentum. Duns Scotus as quoted by Seeberg, Dogmengesch., II. 113.
2 See Schaff's Christ in Song, pp. 465 sqq. The verse, depicting the doc trine of transubstantiation, runs : —
Verbum caro, panem verum verbo carnem efficit Fitque sangnis Christi merum ; etsi sensus deficit Ad firmanditm cor sincerum sola fides sufficit.
714 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
The culminating point in the history of the mediaeval doctrine of the eucharist was the dogmatic definition of transubstantiation by the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. Thenceforth it was heresy to believe anything else. The definition ran that " the body and blood of Christ are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread being transubstantiated into the body and the wine into the blood by divine power."1 The council did not foist upon the Church a new doctrine. It simply formulated the prevailing belief.
The word " transubstantiation " is not used by Hugo of St. Victor and the earlier Schoolmen. They used " transition " and "conversion," the latter being the favorite term. The word " transubstantiation" seems to have been first used by Hildebert of Tours, d. 1134. 2 According to Duns Scotus, the doctrine cannot be proved with certainty from the Scrip tures and must be accepted upon the basis of the decision of the Church.3 The passages, chiefly relied upon for prov ing the doctrine, are John 6 and the words of institution, " this is my body," in which the verb is taken in its literal sense. Rupert of Deutz is the only Schoolman of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries who dissented from it. He seems to have taught the theory of impanation.4
Three names, applied to the eucharist, had special signifi cance.5 It is a sacrifice because it repeats Christ's oblation on the cross. It is a communion because it presents the unity of the Church. It is a viaticum because it is heavenly manna for pilgrims on their way to heaven. Thomas Aquinas also uses the term of John of Damascus, assumption, because the sacrament lifts us up into the Deity of Christ, and calls it hostia, or the host, because it contains Christ himself, who
1 Corpus et sanguis in sacramento altarts sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur, transubstantiatis pane in corpore et vino in sanguinem potestate divina. 2 Migne, 171. 776. 3 See Schwane, p. 656.
4 Schwane, p. 641, and Rocholl under Rupert in Herzog, XV. 229 sqq.
5 Th. Aq., III. 73. 4, Migne, IV. 701 ; Bonaventura, Brev. VI. 9, Peltier's ed., 322, eucharistice dedit in sacrificium oltlationis, et sacramentum communionis et viaticum refectionia.