Scholastic & Reform · AD 1201–1300
The 13th-Century Witness to the Real Presence
From AD 1201 to 1300, 2 voices of the Church — Fourth Lateran Council, and St. Thomas Aquinas — testified that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. These are their primary-source words, with dates and sources.
1215 · Ecumenical council that first dogmatically used the term "transubstantiation"
“His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread and wine having been changed in substance, by God’s power, into his body and blood. ”
Canon 1 · Read more →
St. Thomas Aquinas
c. 12701225 – 1274 · Dominican friar and Doctor of the Church
“Some men accordingly, not paying heed to these things, have contended that Christ's body and blood are not in this sacrament except as in a sign, a thing to be rejected as heretical, since it is contrary to Christ's words.”
Summa Theologica · Read more →