This article demonstrates
that for more than two centuries leading up to the Reformation, a large number
of medieval theologians “thought that transubstantiation was not a necessary
consequence of the doctrine of the physical presence.” Indeed, it was
nearly a century after the Fourth Lateran Council that its proceedings were
commonly understood as having made transubstantiation “a sine qua non of orthodoxy” (385). Before then, transubstantiation
was simply the common favorite of three distinct possibilities, including the
view that would come to be known as consubstantiation. Once we reach
Thomas Aquinas, however, we encounter for the first time a vast difference. Not
only does Thomas deem consubstantiation inappropriate and impossible, he also
labels the view heretical. In this clear, well-written article, the author
quotes the original Latin in the text of his paper and provides English
translations in the footnotes. A superb and convincing piece of work.
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