ated,
there was no being but God, and the causes of all things were in him,
so, after the end of the world, there will be no being but God, and the
causes of all things in him." This final resolution he denominated
deification, or theosis. He even questioned the eternity of hell,
saying, with the emphasis of a Saracen, "There is nothing eternal but
God." It was impossible, under such circumstances, that he should not
fall under the rebuke of the Church.

[Sidenote: The conflict begins on transubstantiation.]
Transubstantiation, as being, of the orthodox doctrines, the least
reconcilable to reason, was the first to be attacked by the new
philosophers. What was, perhaps, in the beginning, no more than a jocose
Mohammedan sarcasm, became a solemn subject of ecclesiastical
discussion. Erigena strenuously upheld the doctrine of the Stercorists,
who derived their name from their assertion that a part of the
consecrated elements are voided from the body in the manner customary
with other relics of food; a doctrine denounced by the orthodox, who
declared that the priest could "make God," and that the eucharistic
elements are not liable to digestion.

[Sidenote: Opinions of Berengar of Tours.] And now, A.D. 1050, Berengar
of Tours prominently brought forward the controversy respecting the real
presence. The question had been formularized by Radbert under the term
transubstantiation, and the opinions entertained respecting the sacred
elements greatly differed; mere fetish notions being entertained by
some, by others the most transcendental ideas. In opposition to Radbert
and the orthodox party, who asserted that those elements ceased to be
what to the senses they appeared, and actually became transformed into
the body and blood of the Saviour, Berengar held that, though there is a
real presence in them, that presence is of a spiritual nature. These
heresies were condemned by repeated councils, Berengar himself being
offered the choice of death or recantation. He wisely preferred the
latter, but more wisely resumed his offensive doctrines as soon as he
had escaped from the hands of his persecutors.[Sidenote: The pope
privately adopts them.] As might be supposed from the philosophical
indefensibility of the orthodox doctrine, Berengar's opinions, which,
indeed, issued from those of Erigena, made themselves felt in the
highest ecclesiastical regions, and, from the manner in which Gregory
VII. dealt with the heresiarch, there is re