REAL PRESENCE, in the Eucharist, a doctrine forming an article in the belief of the Roman, the Greek, and other eastern churches, and of some bodies or individuals in other Christian communions, according to which it is held that, under the appearance of the Eucharistic bread and wine, after consecration by the priest, Christ himself is really and substantially present, body and blood, soul and divinity. The word really is used in opposition to "figuratively;" and the decree of the council of Trent, which is the authoritative expositor of the Roman Catholic belief, conjoins with that word the terms " truly" and "substantially," the former being used in order to exclude the notion of a barely typical representation. such as is in the paschal lamb and the other Messianic types of the old law; and tit; latter fir the purpose of meeting the view ascribed to Calvin, that Christ, as apprehended by the faith of the believer, was for such believer rendered virtually present in the Eucharist, and that his body and blood were received in virtue and efficacy, although not in corporeal substance. The belief of the Roman and eastern churches as to the reality of the presence, was shared by Luther.
who, however, differed from Catholics as to the mode; and has always been followed also by one school of divines in the Anglican church, whose doctrine became very prominent in the time of Laud, and has been revived in the late Tractarian movement. But between Catholics and all the non-Catholic schools of whatever class, one marked difference exists. According to the former, the presence of -Christ in the consecrated Eucharist is permanent; so that he is believed to be present not alone for the communi cant who receives the Eucharist during the time of his communion, but also remains present in the consecrated hosts reserved after communion. On the contrary, all the Lutherans, and almost all Anglicans, confine their belief of the presence to the time of communion, and all, with hardly an exception, repudiate the worship of the reserved elements, as it is practiced by Catholics.
The question as to the reality of Christ's presence in the Eucharist is quite distinct from that which regards the mode of the presence, for which see TRANSUBSTANTIATION.
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