CATHOLIC AND
PROTESTANTWORSHIP
The Protestant Reformation was an assault not only on the overwhelming authori-
ty of the papacy, but on the great mass of “traditions” that, the Reformers felt, were
nothing more than human accretions that had grown up around the simple witness
of Scripture. Among these latter were the Church’s seven sacraments, acts whose
performance won God’s saving grace. The Reformers thought that there was a
scriptural basis for only two of them, Baptism and the Eucharist, the latter of which
they preferred to call the “Lord’s Supper.”
Medieval Christian theology called the transformation of the bread and wine upon
the altar into the body and blood of Christ “transubstantiation,” whereby the two “sub-
stances” were changed even though their “appearances”—texture, taste, smell—
remained that of bread and wine. The Reformers, who were suspicious of this kind of
theological reasoning and explanation, whose methods and terms were so remote
from Scripture, were not so sure. Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, the principal Reformers,
all had different views of what occurred in the Eucharistic liturgy, and their followers
still do. Catholics (Roman and Anglican) continue to adhere to some version of the
classical Eucharistic theology, but the Protestant Churches more or less regard the
Eucharist as commemoration rather than a reenactment, an act of personal faith
rather than an actual, though miraculous, transformation.
The ritual too was diminished by the Reform. From the beginning, the
Reformers objected to many of the rituals—and ritual trappings like statues,
music, incense–which surrounded the Eucharist and other Christian rites. While
this opposition seemed to urge post-Reform Catholics to embrace ever more dra-
matic church rituals and styles, Protestant services became notable for their sim-
plicity and sobriety.