Transubstantiation (Latin: transsubstantiatio; Greek: μετουσίωσις metousiosis) is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of his Blood. This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit. However, the outward characteristics of bread and wine, that is the 'eucharistic species', remain unaltered."[1] In this teaching, the notions of "substance" and "transubstantiation" are not linked with any particular theory of metaphysics.[2]

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that in the Eucharistic offering bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ.[3] The affirmation of this doctrine was expressed, using the word "transubstantiate", by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215.[4][5] It was later challenged by various 14th-century reformers, John Wycliffe in particular.[6]

The manner in which the change occurs, the Roman Catholic Church teaches, is a mystery: "The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ."[7] In Anglicanism, the precise terminology to be used to refer to the nature of the Eucharist and its theological implications has a contentious history: "bread and cup" or "Body and Blood"; "set before" or "offer"; "objective change" or "new significance".[8]

In the Greek Orthodox Church, the doctrine has been discussed under the term of metousiosis, coined as a direct loan-translation of transsubstantiatio in the 17th century. In Eastern Orthodoxy in general, the Sacred Mystery (Sacrament) of the Eucharist is more commonly discussed using alternative terms such as "trans-elementation" (μεταστοιχείωσις, metastoicheiosis), "re-ordination" (μεταρρύθμισις, metarrhythmisis), or simply "change" (μεταβολή, metabole).

History Edit
Summary Edit
From the earliest centuries, the Church spoke of the elements used in celebrating the Eucharist as being changed into the body and blood of Christ. Terms used to speak of the change included "trans-elementation", "transformation", "transposing", and "alteration". Augustine speaks of the consecrated bread as "becoming" the body of Christ.

The term "transubstantiation" was used at least by the 11th century and was in widespread use by the 12th century. It was used at the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. With the acceptance in Western Europe of Aristotelian metaphysics, the Eucharistic change was interpreted in terms of Aristotelian substance and accidents. This was used in the sixteenth-century Reformation as a reason for rejecting the teaching. The Council of Trent did not impose the Aristotelian theory of substance and accidents or the term “transubstantiation” in its philosophical meaning, but stated that the term is a fitting and proper term for the change that takes place by consecration of the bread and wine. The term, which for that Council had no essential dependence on scholastic ideas, is commonly used in the Catholic Church to affirm the fact of Christ's presence and the mysterious and radical change which takes place, but not to explain how the change takes place,[9] occurring as it does "in a way surpassing understanding".[7] The term is mentioned in both the 1992 and 1997 editions of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and given prominence in the later (2005) Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.