o Chapter schools were the seedbeds for the eventual
development of universities in such cathedral cities as Paris,
Bologna, and Oxford.• Especially in England, cathedrals also were the location for
anchorites and anchoresses; the terms derive from the Greek word
for “living apart” as a hermit. These people lived literally walled
into the cathedral, dependent on the offerings of the faithful,
while fasting and praying on their behalf. The honor shown such
anchorites by the populace again testifies to the complex social
interrelationships developed in medieval Christendom.The Controversy of the “Real Presence”
• The liturgical and educational context of the medieval cathedral
is essential for understanding one of the major theological
controversies of the 11th century. It concerned the nature of the “real
presence” of Christ in the Eucharist.
• Berengar of Tours (1010–1088) was a theologian whose entire life
was spent in the context of the cathedral chapter and school, first
as a canon of St. Martin’s in Tours, then as a student at Chartres
(1028), then as archdeacon (1040) and treasurer (1047) on the staff
of the cathedral at Angers, and finally, once more as “master of the
schools” at St. Martin’s (1070).• Berengar caused controversy through his teaching that at the words
of consecration, there is only a “symbolic” presence of Christ in the
Eucharist; he was attacked by Lanfranc of Bec for the inadequacy of
his statement of “the real presence.” Berengar then wrote a treatise
traditionally known as De sacra coena (“on the sacred meal”), in
which he argued for a “real” presence that did not require a material
change in the elements.• This controversy is important for several reasons.
o The doctrine of transubstantiation used the philosophical
categories of Aristotle and the debate used the techniques of