Eugenius IV, Pope 245elevating Ferrara to a leading role in several aspects of the
RENAISSANCEof the 15th century.
Further reading:Clifford M. Brown, Isabella d’Este and
Lorenzo da Pavia: Documents for the History of Art and Cul-
ture in Renaissance Mantua(Geneva: Droz, 1982); Trevor
Dean, Land and Power in Late Medieval Ferrara: The Rule of
the Este, 1350–1450 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988); Werner L. Gundersheimer, Ferrara: The Style
of a Renaissance Despotism(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1973); Thomas Touhy, Herculean Ferrara:
Ercole d’Este, 1471–1505, and the Invention of a Ducal Capi-
tal(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Estonia SeeLIVONIA.
eternity of the world and of the soul This was an
idea inherited from the Greeks that the world and the soul
are eternal. The concept of the eternity of the world was
often discussed by the philosophers and theologians of
the Middle Ages, notably in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Their thinking was inspired by ideas of the Greeks PLATO,
ARISTOTLE, and PLOTINUSas well as the Muslim thought of
Averroës or IBNRUSHD, whose thought was derived from
his Muslim precursors AL-FARABI, Avicenna or IBNSINA,
and AL-GHAZALI, themselves influenced by the Greeks. It
was not merely a question of distinguishing eternity from
duration, but of resolving consequential questions, such
as the problem, posed by the GOSPELSand the QURAN,of
an eternal GODwho knew the salvation of the elect and
the damnation of sinners. This was really about whether
Christian predestination or Muslim destiny (qadar)ques-
tioned the reality of human freedom or free will.
See alsoESCHATOLOGY.
Further reading:Richard C. Dales and Omar Arg-
erami, eds., Medieval Latin Texts on the Eternity of the
World(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991); John, Peckham, Ques-
tions Concerning the Eternity of the World,trans. Vincent
G. Potter (New York: Fordham University Press, 1993).
Ethelred SeeÆTHELREDII THEUNREADY.
Ethiopia SeeABYSSINIA.
Eucharist SeeSEVEN SACRAMENTS.
eucharistic controversies These were disputed ques-
tions about the real or symbolic presence of Christ in the
Eucharist. During the early Christian era, the church was
not much concerned by such controversies about the
Eucharist. The writings of two ninth-century Benedictine
monks of Corbie began a discussion about the real pres-
ence. Paschasius Radbertus asserted the presence of both
the spiritual body of Christ and his historical body.
Ratramnus (d. 868) questioned the presence of both the
symbolic and the real.
This difference of opinion in the mid-11th century
was the basis for a more serious controversy that influ-
enced the basic sacramental theology of the Eucharist.
In about 1048, BERENGARof Tours, a canon of Saint
Martin at Tours, discovered Ratramnus’s treatise on the
Eucharist and attributed it to JOHNScottus Eriugena. He
saw a symbolism quite opposed to the realism of
Paschasius. Berengar was attacking the contemporary
concept of the Eucharist. He saw the presence of
Christ’s body as a symbolic reality. The later Scholastic
theologians used the concepts of accidents and sub-
stances to try to resolve this question. This issue was
not settled by the Catholic Church until the 16th cen-
tury by the affirmation of the doctrine of transubstantia-
tion. This was based on the ideas of Thomas AQUINAS
that the substances of the bread and wine were changed
into the substances of the body and blood of Christ,
while the species, appearances, or the accidents of bread
and wine remained the same.
See alsoHRABANUS,MAURUS; SEVEN SACRAMENTS.
Further reading:David Burr, Eucharistic Presence and
Conversion in Late Thirteenth-Century Franciscan Thought
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1984);
Gary Macy, The Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early
Scholastic Period: A Study of the Salvific Function of the
Sacrament according to the Theologians, c. 1080–c. 1220
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984); Jaroslav Pelikan, The
Christian Tradition, A History of the Development of Doc-
trine,Vol. 2; The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600–1700)
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974); Miri
Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Cul-
ture(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).Eugenius IV, Pope (Gabriele Condulmer, Condulmaro)
(ca. 1383–1447)Venetian pope
Born to a noble and mercantile Venetian family about
1383, Gabriel Condulmaro in his youth founded a com-
munity of secular clerics who practiced an austere form
of the Rule of Saint AUGUSTINE. He was made bishop of
SIENAon December 31, 1407, and was a CARDINALat the
papal court between 1408 and 1420. He became legate in
the March of Ancona on February 7, 1420. At the death
of Martin V (r. 1417–31), he was elected pope on March
3, 1431. His pontificate was marked by problems.
Threatened by the great Roman feudal lords, he had to
flee Rome from 1434 to 1443. He took strong issue with
the Council of BASEL, which claimed to be superior to
the pope, transferring it to FERRARAin 1438, then to
FLORENCE, where a treaty of union with the Greeks was
signed on July 5, 1439. A rump of the council remained
at Basel, where it deposed and replaced him
in 1439 with Felix V, the layman Amadeus VIII of