In the twelfth century, another notion, a little modified from the former, prevailed on this subject; which was, that consecration by a Priest had the power of abolishing the substance of the bread, and of substituting the very body of Jesus Christ.

This was called the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

This doctrine appeared to Luther, at the dawn of the reformation, to be absurd; and he was of opinion that the sacrament consisted of the substance of Christ’s body and blood, together with the substance of the bread and wine; or, in other words, that the substance of the bread remained, but the body of Christ was inherent in it, so that both the substance of the bread and of the body and blood of Christ was there also.  This was called the doctrine of Consubstantiation, in contradiction to the former.

Calvin again considered the latter opinion erroneous:  he gave it out that the bread was not actually the body of Jesus Christ, nor the wine his blood; but that both his body and blood were sacramentally received by the faithful, in the use of the bread and wine.  Calvin, however, confessed himself unable to explain even this his own doctrine.  For he says, “if it be asked me how it is, that is, how believers sacramentally receive Christ’s body and blood?  I shall not be ashamed to confess, that it is a secret too high for me to comprehend in my spirit, or explain in words.”

But independently of the difficulties which have arisen from these different notions concerning the nature and constitution of the Lord’s supper, others have arisen concerning the time and the manner of the celebration of it.

The Christian churches of the east, in the early times, justifying themselves by tradition and the custom of the passover, maintained that the fourteenth day of the month Nissan ought to be observed as the day of the celebration of this feast, because the Jews were commanded to kill the Paschal Lamb on that day.  The western, on the other hand, maintained the authority of tradition and the primitive practice, that it ought to be kept on no other day than that of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Disputes again of a different complexion agitated the Christian world upon the same subject.  One church contended that the leavened, another that unleavened bread only should be used upon this occasion:  others contended, whether the administration of this sacrament should be by the hands of the clergy only:  others, whether it should not be confined to the sick:  others, whether it should be given to the young and mature promiscuously:  others, whether it should be received by the communicant standing, sitting, or kneeling, or as the Apostles received it:  and others, whether it should be administered in the night time as by our Saviour, or whether in the day, or whether only once, as at the passover, or whether oftener in the year.