The Eucharist in Medieval Canon Law

Thomas Izbicki

My present interests include the Eucharist in medieval canon law. The issues involved include how Transubstantiation entered into the vocabulary of the canonists and how they accommodated a heightened sense of the Real Presence into disciplinary norms. This includes not just instructions for rites but pressing parishes to have available the vessels (like pyxes and sacring bells) that were necessary for the proper veneration of the consecrated host. One paper, on custody of the Eucharist, is in press in the proceedings of the Thirteenth International Congress of /Medieval Canon Law/, /Esztergom/-Budapest (Hungary), August 3-9, 2008. It includes a demonstration that the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) on custody was mostly motivated by a fear of the theft of hosts for magical practices. Another paper, on Viaticum processions, delivered at Millersville University in December of 2009 at a conference honoring Peter Landau, revealed a concern that the laity venerate the host being carried to the dying but not be given the wrong signals when a priest was returning without one. This might lead to idolatry. A similar warning about not leading the laity to venerate unconsecrated bread was found in recent research on elevation of the host during the mass.

Thomas Izbicki is Humanities Librarian at Rutgers University. His books include Writing on Church and Reform; Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius; with Chris Bellitto he has written Nicholas of Cusa and His Age and The Church, the Councils and Reform.