It is clear from the evidence of the early Western liturgies that, for at least six centuries, the primitive conception of the nature of the Christian sacrifice remained. There is a clear distinction between the sacrifice and the communion which f ol lowed it, and that which is offered consists of the fruits of the earth 'and not of the body and blood of Christ. Other ideas no doubt attached themselves to the primitive conception, of which there is no certain evidence in primitive times, e.g. the idea of the propitiatory character of the offering, but these ideas rather con firm than disprove the persistence of those primitive concep tions themselves. All Eastern liturgies, in their present form, are of later date than the surviving fragments of the earlier Western liturgies, and cannot form the basis of so sure an induction; but they entirely confirm the conclusions to which the Western liturgies lead.
In the course of the 8th and 9th centuries, by the operation of causes which have not yet been fully investigated, the theory which is first found in Cyprian became the dominant belief of Western Christendom. The central point of the sacrificial idea was shifted from the offering of the fruits of the earth to the offering of the body and blood of Christ. The change is marked in the rituals by the duplication of the liturgical forms. The prayers of intercession and oblation, which in earlier times are found only in connection with the former offering, are repeated in the course of the same service in connection with the latter. The designations and epithets which are in earlier times applied to the fruits of the earth are applied to the body and blood. From that time until the Reformation the Christian sacrifice was all but universally regarded as the offering of the body and blood of Christ. The innumerable theories which were framed as to the precise nature of the offering and as to the precise change in the elements all implied that conception of it. It still remains as the accepted doctrine of the Church of Rome. For, although the
council of Trent recognized fully the distinction which has been mentioned above between the Eucharist and the sacrifice of the mass, and treated of them in separate sessions (the former in Session xiii., the latter in Session xxii.), it continued the mediaeval theory of the nature of the latter.
The reaction against the mediaeval theory at the time of the Reformation took the form of a return to what had no doubt been an early belief,—the idea that the Christian sacrifice con sists in the offering of a pure heart and of vocal thanksgiving. Luther at one period (in his treatise De captivitate Babylonica) maintained, though not on historical grounds, that the offering of the oblations of the people was the real origin of the conception of the sacrifice of the Mass ; but he directed all the force of his vehement polemic against the idea that any other sacrifice could be efficacious besides the sacrifice of Christ. In the majority of Protestant communities the idea of a sacrifice has almost lapsed. That which among Catholics is most commonly regarded in its aspect as an offering and spoken of as the "mass" is usually regarded in its aspect as a participation in the symbols of Christ's death and spoken of as the "communion." But it may be inferred from the considerable progress of the Anglo-Catholic revival in most English-speaking countries that the idea of sacrifice has not yet ceased to be an important element in the general conception of religion.
See J. H. Srawley and H. Watt, art. "Eucharist" in Hastings, Ency clopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. v.; R. A. S. Macalister, art. "Sacrifice (Semitic)," ibid. vol. ix., p. 31 ; M. Gaster; art. "Sacrifice, Jewish," ibid. p. 24 ; G. F. Moore, art. "Sacrifice" in the Encyclopaedia Biblica; W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites (1889 ; reprint of 2nd ed., 1907) ; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, pt. vi., "The Scapegoat," and Folklore in the Old Testament.