The Council of Trent, in the thirteenth session, 1551, reaffirmed the doctrine against the
Protestants in these words: "that, by the consecration of the bread and of the wine, a conversion is
made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord
(conversionem fieri totius substantiae panis in substantiam corporis Christi Domini), and of the
whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood; which conversion is by the holy Catholic
Church suitably and properly called Transubstantiation." The same synod sanctioned the adoration
of the sacrament (i.e. Christ on the altar under the figure of the elements), and anathematizes those
who deny this doctrine and practice. See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, II. 130–139.
- Thomas Aquinas, the prince of scholastic divines, has given the clearest poetic expression
to the dogma of transubstantiation in the following stanzas of his famous hymn, "Lauda Sion
Salvatorem," for the Corpus Christi Festival:
"Dogma datur Christianis,
Quod in carnem transit panis,
Et vinum in sanguinem.
Quod non capis, quod non
Animosa firmat fides
Praeter rerum ordinem.
"Hear what holy Church maintaineth,
That the bread its substance changeth
Into Flesh, the wine to Blood.
Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Faith, the law of sight transcending,
Leaps to things not understood.
"Sub diversis speciebus,
Signis tantum et non rebus,
Latent res eximiae.
Caro cibus, sanguis potus,
Manet tamen Christus totus,
Sub utraque specie.
Here, in outward signs, are hidden
Priceless things, to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things, are all we see:
Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine:
Yet is Christ, in either sign,
All entire, confess’d to be.
"A sumente non concisus,
Non confractus, non divisus,
Integer accipitur.
Sumit unus, sumunt mille,
Quantum isti, tantum ille,
Nec sumitus consumitur.
They, too, who of Him partake,
Sever not, nor rend, nor break,
But entire, their Lord receive.