Dogma of Transubstantiation

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philipmarus

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Where can I find where the Church officially defined the dogma of transubstantiation? I have Denizers Sources of Catholic Dogma but could not find the Dogmatic definition where the Church defined
Transubstantiation.
 
The Catholic Encyclopedia:
The term transubstantiation seems to have been first used by Hildebert of Tours (about 1079). His encouraging example was soon followed by other theologians, as Stephen of Autun (d. 1139), Gaufred (1188), and Peter of Blois (d. about 1200), whereupon several ecumenical councils also adopted this significant expression, as the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215), and the Council of Lyons (1274), in the profession of faith of the Greek Emperor Michael Palæologus. The Council of Trent (Sess. XIII, cap. iv; can. ii) not only accepted as an inheritance of faith the truth contained in the idea, but authoritatively confirmed the “aptitude of the term” to express most strikingly the legitimately developed doctrinal concept.
 
Philipmarus,

Transubstantiation is not just a “dogma”–it is a doctrine of the faith.

The Lord said it right at the last supper–“This is my body… this is my blood.” He didn’t say “this is a symbol…”

Pio
 
It is my understanding that the Church has always believed in the REAL PRESENCE from 33 A.D on
(Mk 14;Mt 26;Lk 22;Jn 6;1 Cor 11). The Didache, Letter of Clement (81-96 A.D), The Epistles of Ignatius (107 A.D) all speak of the Real Presence. Transubstantiation is merely the church’s offical explanation of “how” what the Church has always believed occurs. This definition is what I wish to read.
 
Scott had a great reply. For this and other questions, you can also go to www.newadvent.com It is a Catholic website which houses a huge Catholic Encyclopedia.

God Bless,
Donna
 
christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/euch2.html

1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”

[204] 204 Council of Trent (1551): DS 1642; cf. Mt 26:26 ff.; Mk 14:22 ff.; Lk
22:19 ff.; 1 Cor 11:24 ff.
 
fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.html
The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215

CANON 1
Text: We firmly believe and openly confess that there is only one true God, eternal and immense, omnipotent, unchangeable, incomprehensible, and ineffable, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; three Persons indeed but one essense, substance, or nature absolutely simple; the Father (proceeding) from no one, but the Son from the Father only, and the Holy Ghost equally from both, always without beginning and end. The Father begetting, the Son begotten, and the Holy Ghost proceeding; consubstantial and coequal, co-omnipotent and coeternal, the one principle of the universe, Creator of all things invisible and visible, spiritual and corporeal, who from the beginning of time and by His omnipotent power made from nothing creatures both spiritual and corporeal, angelic, namely, and mundane, and then human, as it were, common, composed of spirit and body. The devil and the other demons were indeed created by God good by nature but they became bad through themselves; man, however, sinned at the suggestion of the devil. This Holy Trinity in its common essense undivided and in personal properties divided, through Moses, the holy prophets, and other servants gave to the human race at the most opportune intervals of time the doctrine of salvation.

And finally, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God made flesh by the entire Trinity, conceived with the co-operation of the Holy Ghost of Mary ever Virgin, made true man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh, one Person in two natures, pointed out more clearly the way of life. Who according to His divinity is immortal and impassable, according to His humanity was made passable and mortal, suffered on the cross for the salvation of the human race, and being dead descended into hell, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. But He descended in soul, arose in flesh, and ascended equally in both; He will come at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead and will render to the reprobate and to the elect according to their works. Who all shall rise with their own bodies which they now have that they may receive according to their merits, whether good or bad, the latter eternal punishment with the devil, the former eternal glory with Christ.

There is one Universal Church of the faithful, outside of which there is absolutely no salvation. In which there is the same priest and sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine; the bread being changed (transsubstantiatio) by divine power into the body, and the wine into the blood, so that to realize the mystery of unity we may receive of Him what He has received of us. And this sacrament no one can effect except the priest who has been duly ordained in accordance with the keys of the Church, which Jesus Christ Himself gave to the Apostles and their successors
 
Folks forget that SCRIPTURE ITSELF IS AN EXPRESSION OF THE MAGISTERIUM, WHICH APPROVED THE SCRIPTURAL CANON.

So, wherever Scripture teaches Transubstantiation, literally or by typological figure, the “Church” is teaching it.
 
Transubstantiation may be a dogma of the Church; however, the Church has never defined what exactly is ‘substance’. I am inclined to the Aristotelean/Thomist defintion but that is not an infallible definition.

Adam
 
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