The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation

Lecture 30: Cathedrals and Chapters

dialectic: The controversy was a stepping-stone on the way to

medieval Scholasticism.

o More important, the controversy reveals that attention was

given to the Eucharist as an “object” to be worshiped and

adored, rather than as the element of a meal to be eaten.

o The more the Eucharist was understood in this fashion, the

more the distinction between clergy and laity consisted in the

“mysterious/magic” power to effect the “transformation” of

bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Note that

the Protestant taunt that yielded the phrase “hocus-pocus” for

something magical and phony was based on the solemn words

of consecration in the Catholic Mass in Latin: Hoc est Corpus

Meum, “This is my body.”

Clark, Medieval Cathedrals.

Scott, The Gothic Enterprise.

1. How can disputes over the Eucharist (transubstantiation) be connected
   to the character of Christian liturgy as performed in the great
   medieval cathedrals?


2. Discuss the role of cathedral chapters as centers for Christian life in the
   towns and cities of medieval Europe.

Suggested Reading

Questions to Consider