TRANSUBSTANTIATION (NIL. transub stantiatio, transsubstantiatio, change of sub stance, from transubstantiare, transsubstantiare, to change to another substance, from Lat. trans, across, through + substantia, substance, essence, material, from substare, to stand under, be present, from sub, under + stare, to stand). A word used by Roman Catholic theologians to designate the change which they believe to take place in the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine, in virtue of the consecration. The term was first officially adopted by the Church at the Lateran Council of 1215, and the doctrine in volved by it explicitly defined as an article of faith by the Council of Trent: "The whole sub stance of the bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the whole substance of the wine into His Blood, the species alone remaining." The definition of the manner of Christ's pres ence is really rather a philosophical than a theological one, resting as it does upon the Aristotelian system of philosophy adopted by the mediaeval theologians. It is based upon the be lief in the existence in everything of an essen tial distinctive principle not cognizable by the senses, called `substance:' the 'species' or 'ac cidents' of the thing are qualities which are perceived by the senses—color, taste, smell, so lidity, etc. In transubstantiation, accordingly,
the accidents remain unchanged, while the un derlying substances of bread and wine cease to exist, their places being taken by the substance of the body and blood of Christ. The objections to the doctrine have been chiefly drawn from the philosophical difficulties which are involved in it ; and the defenders of it have therefore added to the proofs which they profess to draw from the Scripture and tradition a general demonstration that the doctrine, although mys terious, does not involve any philosophical re pugnance or impossibility. Leibnitz (q.v.), al though a Protestant, has not only entered at great length, and in several portions of his works, into this philosophical discussion, but professes to prove, by strict philosophical prin ciples—by the consideration of the properties of matter, of substance, of space, extension, and the like—that the essential principle of the body "may exist in many places at the same time, nay, under far-distant and distinct species." Consult, for an excellent English treatment of both philosophical and theological aspects of the question, Dalgairns, The Holy Coninvunion (Dub lin, 1S61) ; and see LORD'S SUPPER; SUBSTANCE.