ow that
there is _some change_ in the bread and wine themselves, but granted
that an actual transformation of their power and efficacy takes place.

The greater accordance of the first view with the credulity of the age,
its love for the wonderful and magical, the interest of the priesthood
to add lustre, in accordance with the heathens, to a rite which enhanced
their own office, resulted in the doctrine of Transubstantiation being
declared an article of faith of the Christian Church.

Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into the
body and blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the powers of
argument and pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their
senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first
Protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the
reputed words of Jesus in the institution of the sacrament. Luther
maintained a _corporeal_, and Calvin a _real_ presence of Christ in the
Eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a
spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed in the
reformed churches.[315:1]

Under Edward VI. the reformation was more bold and perfect, but in the
fundamental articles of the Church of England, a strong and explicit
declaration against the real presence was _obliterated_ in the original
copy, to please the people, or the Lutherans, or Queen Elizabeth. At the
present day, the Greek and Roman Catholics alone hold to the original
doctrine of the _real presence_.

Of all the religious observances among heathens, Jews, or Turks, none
has been the cause of more hatred, persecution, outrage, and bloodshed,
than the Eucharist. Christians persecuted one another like relentless
foes, and thousands of Jews were slaughtered on account of the Eucharist
and the Host.

FOOTNOTES:

[305:1] Matt. xxvi. 26. See also, Mark, xiv. 22.

[305:2] At the heading of the chapters named in the above note may be
seen the words: "Jesus keepeth the Passover (and) _instituteth_ the
Lord's Supper."

[305:3] According to the Roman Christians, the Eucharist is the natural
body and blood of Christ Jesus _vere et realiter_, but the Protestant
sophistically explains away these two plain words _verily_ and _indeed_,
and by the grossest abuse of language, makes them to mean _spiritually
by grace and efficacy_. "In the sacrament of the altar," says the
Protestant divine, "is the _natural_ body and blood of Chri