The document discusses the evolution of theological views on the Eucharist, particularly through figures such as Amalar of Metz, Paschasius Radbertus, and Berengar of Tours. It highlights the shift from a physical presence of Christ in the bread and wine to a more spiritual understanding, emphasizing the sacramental reality and the adoration of the host. The text also notes the impact of Aristotelian philosophy and a renewed interest in Church fathers during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on these theological discussions.

1. Changes in Theology

3. : the expression by means
of symbolic fictional figures and
actions of truths or generalizations
about human existence.
: a symbolic representation
Allegory

4. Amalar of Metz

5. He proposed that the real meaning
of the Mass was the life of Christ,
symbolically represented by the
various prayers and actions.
Amalar of Metz

6. • The opening psalm symbolized
the prophets announcing the
coming of Christ.
• The hymn of glory represented
the song of the angels at his
birth.
• The separate consecration of the
bread and wine stood for
Christ's death
Amalar of Metz

7. • Dropping a piece of host
into wine signified his
return to life.
Amalar of Metz

8. The only theologically acceptable
view was that the Mass represented
just one event in the life of Christ,
his redemptive death, and that it
not only represented it bút
mysteriously reenacted it.

9. He took the notion of sacrifice a step
further and concluded that the real
flesh and blood of Christ must be
physically present on altar during
the Mass: by the power of of God the
words of consecration changed the
bread and wine into the same flesh
and blood that Christ had assumed.
Paschase Radbert

10. It gave a convincing explanation
of why priests saying the Mass
experienced the presence of
Christ after saying the words of
consecration
Paschase Radbert

11. For him, it seemed natural to
assume that things were what
they appeared to be, and since
the bread and wine did not
change their appearance after
the words of consecration were
spoken, he reasoned that they
must still be bread and wine.
Berengar of Tours

12. •It is spiritual, not a physical
presence.
•Augustine’s definition, “a sign
of a sacred reality“.
Berengar of Tours

13. If the eucharistic bread and
wine were a sacrament, he
argued, they had to be a sign
of Christ's body and blood, not
identical with it.
Berengar of Tours

14. He did deny that Christ was
physically present in the Eucharist,
and he did deny that the body and
blood of Christ could logically be
called a sacrament. For him, they
were not a sacrament at all but a
reality, a spiritual reality perceived
by the eyes of faith and received
spiritually in communion.
Berengar of Tours

15. • The elements remain in substance as well as in
appearance, after the consecration, although they
acquire a new significance.
• However the wine and bread are not mere symbols, but
in some sense they still are body and blood of Jesus
which they represent.
• Christ is spiritually present and is spiritually received by
faith.
• The communion in the Eucharist is a communion with
the whole undivided person of Jesus Christ, and not the
blood and body of Jesus as separate elements. As the
whole body of Christ was sacrificed in death, it is
received in a spiritual manner as the whole body; and
as Christ’s body is now glorified in heaven, we must
spiritually ascend to heaven.
Berengar of Tours

16. A council of bishops in 1059 cited
him for heresy and Berengar was
forced to sign an oath admitting that
"the bread and wine which are
placed on the altar after the
consecration are not only the
sacrament but also the true body
and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and that they are palpably handled
and broken by the hands of the
priest and torn by the teeth of the
faithful, not simply as a sacrament
but as a true fact."

17. Theologically
It led to the development of the
concept of a sacramental reality, the
sacramentum et res, by means of
which the eucharistic bread and wine
could be referred to as both a
sacrament and a reality.
Practically
It led to an increased sense of
realism about the eucharistic
elements.

18. Since the days of Pope Gregory,
some consecrated bread had
usually been reserved in a
cupboard near the altar for use
as viaticum which could be
carried to persons who were
dying.

19. To give it more prominence the
sacrament was placed in a
tabernacle or repository on the
altar, and a lamp was kept lit in
the sanctuary to remind those
who entered the church that
God was present there.

20. Some of Berengar's opponents
had argued that Christ was not
divided when the host was
broken but that the whole
Christ was present in every
piece of bread and in every
drop of wine, and this soon
became the prevailing view.

21. Priests were required to
genuflect every time they
touched the host and to
keep the fingers that
touched it joined until they
were rinsed after
communion.

22. Moreover, since Christ was
equally present in the bread
and the wine, priests stopped
passing the chalice to
communicants, reasoning that
even those who received only
the host received the whole
Christ.

23. The growing sense of Christ's
miraculous presence in the
eucharist, however, led more
and more people to abstain
from communion altogether,
and since they could not
participate in the mass by
hearing and responding to the
prayers, their worship came to
focus on the adoration of the
host.

24. Priests were asked to raise the
host over their head after the
consecration, and in some places
people were known to cry out to
the priest to hold it higher so
they could see it better. Later the
chalice was also elevated during
the mass, and a bell was rung so
that people who had been
praying privately would know
when to look up to adore the
sacrament.

25. Stories were circulated about
hosts that miraculously bled
after being broken by
doubting priests or stabbed
by a sacrilegious unbeliever.

26. There were even priests who
feared for their faith
because the bread and wine
they consecrated still tasted
like bread and wine, not like
meat and blood.

27. • If consecrated wine turned
into vinegar, did Christ
remain in it?
• If a mouse got into the
tabernacle and ate some of
the reserved hosts, did it
receive communion?

28. Many of these superstitions
remained popular throughout the
Middle Ages, and many people
continued to have a rather
physicalistic belief in Christ's
eucharistic presence. But during the
reawakening of intellectual life in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
theologians came to regard this
extremely physical view as
unnecessary and ultimately
untenable.

29. Aristotelian philosophy which was
then being reintroduced to the west
gave Christian thinkers a much more
sophisticated analysis of reality, and
together with a renewed study of
the church fathers it enabled them
to understand the presence of Christ
as a metaphysical rather than a
physical reality.

30. Thank you for listening!!!