Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

to doubt the testimony of the Gospels, nor the independent testimony of the apostle
Paul in I Cor. 11:23-26.
B. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER IN HISTORY.
1. BEFORE THE REFORMATION. Even in the apostolic age the celebration of the Lord’s
Supper was accompanied with agapae or love-feasts, for which the people brought the
necessary ingredients, and which sometimes led to sad abuses, I Cor. 11:20-22. In course
of time the gifts so brought were called oblations and sacrifices, and were blessed by the
priest with a prayer of thanksgiving. Gradually these names were applied to the
elements in the Lord’s Supper, so that these assumed the character of a sacrifice brought
by the priest, and thanksgiving came to be regarded as a consecration of those elements.
While some of the early Church Fathers (Origen, Basil, Gregory of Nazianze) retained
the symbolical or spiritual conception of the sacrament, others (Cyril, Gregory of Nyssa,
Chrysostom) held that the flesh and blood of Christ were in some way combined with
the bread and wine in the sacrament. Augustine retarded the realistic development of
the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper for a long time. While he did speak of the bread and
wine as the body and blood of Christ, he distinguished between the sign and the thing
signified, and did not believe in a change of substance. He denied that the wicked,
though receiving the elements, also received the body, and stressed the commemorative
aspect of the Lord’s Supper. During the Middle Ages the Augustinian view was
gradually transplanted by the doctrine of transubstantiation. As early as 818 A.D.
Paschasius Radbertus already formally proposed this doctrine, but met with strong
opposition on the part of Rabanus Maurus and Ratramnus. In the eleventh century a
furious controversy again broke out on the subject between Berenger of Tours and
Lanfranc. The latter made the crass statement that “the very body of Christ was truly
held in the priest’s hand, broken and chewed by the teeth of the faithful.” This view was
finally defined by Hildebert of Tours (1134), and designated as the doctrine of
transubstantiation. It was formally adopted by the fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
Many questions connected with this doctrine were debated by the Scholastics, such as
those respecting the duration of the change of bread and wine into the body and blood
of Jesus Christ, the manner of Christ’s presence in both elements, the relation of
substance and accidents, the adoration of the host, and so on. The final formulation of
the doctrine was given by the Council of Trent, and is recorded in Sessio XIII of its
Decrees and Canons. Eight Chapters and eleven Canons are devoted to it. We can only
mention the most essential points here. Jesus Christ is truly, really, and substantially
present in the holy sacrament. The fact that He is seated at the right hand of God does
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