Happy Radbertus Day!
Paschasius Radbertus (785-860) was the first person in history to write about the elements of Holy Communion changing into the actual flesh and blood of Christ (although appearing still to look like bread and wine). This was the first reference to the doctrine of transubstantiation (according to the 16th century Cardinal Robert Ballermine). Transubstantiation wasn’t the word Radbertus used, but it was certainly his theology (De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, “Concerning Christ's Body and Blood”). The term “transubstantiation” entered our vocabulary in the 12th century, but April 26 is recognized as Radbertus' feast day in the Roman Catholic Church. Transubstantiation was officially adopted by the Roman Church at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), reaffirmed by the Council of Trent (1545-1563), and is the current teaching of the Roman Catholic Church today.
Of course, the Roman Church claims that transubstantiation was the implied teaching of the church fathers, and the patristic authors clearly made statements like, “The bread is the body of Christ and the cup is his blood.” But in their historical context, there is no clear indication that they intended for us to view the bread and wine of Communion as becoming the literal, corporeal flesh and blood of our Savior on an altar in a moment of consecration. Not until Radbertus articulated such a view!
Contemporary of Radbertus was Bertram, the Monk of Corbie Abbey in Picardy, France (his real name was Ratramnus, but it was abbreviated in time to “Bertram” - thank goodness!). After Radbertus wrote his influential book, Charles the Bald, the King of West Francia, asked Bertram to write on the Lord’s Supper for clarification “whether that which in the church is received into the mouth of the faithful becomes the body and the blood of Christ is a mystery or in truth?” Bertram’s book of the same title as Radbertus’ stood in stark opposition to his teacher. Bertram’s was the clearest of the two and demonstrated a greater familiarity with the church fathers. He emphasized the spiritual presence of Christ in Holy Communion, and the importance of a faithful reception of the grace offered in the sacrament - “For it is spiritual food and spiritual drink which spiritually feeds the soul and bestows on it the life of eternal happiness… since faith receives not what the eye beholds, but what it believes.” There is no record of any fight or falling out between the two monks, even though in the same year Bertram’s book was published (840), Radbertus became Bertram’s abbot at Corbie.
The Book of Bertram was largely buried and forgotten for the next several hundred years until it was rediscovered with enthusiasm by the 16th century Protestant reformers. A nineteenth century introduction to Bertram claims that “its perusal led, first Ridley and then Cranmer, to reject the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and to adopt what we believe to be scriptural views on the subject of the Lord’s Supper.” Bishop Nicholas Ridley said of Bertram: “This man was the first that pulled me by the ear, and forced me from the common error of the Roman church to a more diligent search of Scripture and ecclesiastical writers on this matter.”
Anglicans do not locate Christ’s real presence in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, but in the hearts and affections of those who receive by faith the grace offered in the sacrament. We reject transubstantiation, “the change of the substance of bread and wine,” because it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, and because it has caused many superstitions (Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, Article XXVIII). We believe that Jesus bodily ascended to heaven, and any idea that he rushes back to make a corporeal showing in bread and wine with each mass said seriously compromises the meaning of the Ascension and the Second Coming of Christ. We reject that grace is ever automatically communicated apart from faith. And we reject any idea of a sacrificing priesthood who have the power in their special hands and words to make ordinary bread into the body of Christ, because we have only one mediator between God and his people, Jesus our Great High Priest (1 Tim 2:5).
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the Book of Common Prayer (and all the Anglican formularies), stated that "They [Roman Catholics] say that Christ is received in the mouth and entereth in with the bread and wine: we say, that he is received in the heart, and entereth in by faith." The focus of historic Anglicanism is not a change in the bread and wine, but the transformation of the faithful recipients, who by the Holy Spirit are linked afresh to the saving efficacy of Christ's Incarnation and Passion.