medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I hope I am not being too much of pedant here, but I would suggest that
bleeding hosts were meant to support a belief in the real presence, not
in transubstantiation. I realize that Tom Izbicki is more than aware
of the distinction between real presence and transubstantiation and
that he was using transubstantiation as a short hand for real presence
as most people do. I thought, however that some clarification would be
helpful for those interested in the theological opinion of the time on
miracle hosts.
The distinction between real presence and transubstantiation would be
that a belief in the real presence asserts that somehow the risen
Christ is present in the eucharistic celebration and specifically in
the bread and wine consecrated in that context. Transubstantiation is
a term that covers a variety of possible explanations of how that might
be possible. I would want to stress the difference for a couple of
reasons. First, transubstantiation was a techinical concept understood
by theologians and used probably only by them. Ordinary folk may have
heard the word, but if they did (and that's doubtful), they didn't
understand it except that in so far as it meant a belief in the real
presence. This is important since theologians after about 1225 were
very suspicious of miracle hosts and even when they did accept the
possibility, they insisted that any flesh and blood produced by a
miracle could not be the flesh and blood of Christ. Transubstantiation
in fact makes this impossible since substance, not accidents (sense
data roughly) are what change here. Thomas Aquinas has a good
discussion of all this. Secondly, theologians including Thomas Aquinas
would have held that a belief in the actual physical (that is sensed)
presence of the body and blood of Christ would be a heresy
(Capharnaism). So, for many theologians in the thirteenth and
fourteenth century (actually all that I have read, but I don't claim
to have read them all), any suggestion that the sensed, physical body
and blood of Christ is present in a miracle would be suspect at best
and heresy at worst. The presence they would accept and describe by
the term "transubstantiation" would be a substantial presence which
could be accessed only by the mind since that is how one accesses
substances.
On Apr 25, 2005, at 9:02 AM, Thomas Izbicki wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> I tend to regard bleeding hosts as ratifying transsubstantiation in
> the late medieval millieu.
>
> Tom Izbicki
>
> Thomas Izbicki
> Collection Development Coordinator
> Eisenhower Library
> Johns Hopkins
> Baltimore, MD 21218
> (410)516-7173
> fax (410)516-8399
>
>>>> [log in to unmask] 04/25/05 11:45 AM >>>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> Thanks to all who have sent references, which I will follow up.
> I´m intrigued that so much of the Holy Blood derives from bleeding
> hosts. I shouldn´t be surprised by this, especially in the later Middle
> Ages, but was expecting to find relics that might have emerged from
> the East during the crusades, i.e. that claimed to be blood from
> the Crucifixion itself.
> Meg
>
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Gary Macy, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism
University of San Diego
5998 Alcalá Park
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619-260-4053
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