Is it true that the Lateran Council of 1215 argued that the Eucharist became literal flesh when it reached the middle of the celebrant's throat?

by zaaakk

This is an uncited claim in Art & Money by Marc Shell, and I can't find anything else about it online.

Herissony_DSCH5

Not in those words, no. What the 1st canon of Lateran IV does is to state the dogma of transubstantiation — that is the transformation of the Eucharistic host into the literal Body of Christ—using the term “transsubstantio” for the first time for this concept. Here is a translation of the passage in question, from Fordham’s Medieval Sourcebook - https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/lateran4.asp

“There is one Universal Church of the faithful, outside of which there is absolutely no salvation. In which there is the same priest and sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine; the bread being changed (transsubstantiatio) by divine power into the body, and the wine into the blood, so that to realize the mystery of unity we may receive of Him what He has received of us. And this sacrament no one can effect except the priest who has been duly ordained in accordance with the keys of the Church, which Jesus Christ Himself gave to the Apostles and their successors.”

That’s the entire passage. As you can see, there’s nothing there about the celebrant’s throat. It does mention that only a priest can “effect” this sacrament—that is, to say the words as part of the Mass that cause the transformation to take place.

This concept being stated in this way for the first time was, indeed, a Big Deal. Transubstantiation becomes one of the keystones of Catholic dogma about the Eucharist, which will, of course, be a key point of contention during the Protestant Reformation, starting with John Wycliffe.

It sounds very much like the cited passage is embroidering on this critical concept for dramatic effect. In fact, the usual teaching is that the Host becomes the literal Body of Christ when the priest elevates it during the Mass and says “Hoc est corpus meus...”. The transformation does not happen after the celebrant (or anyone receiving it) actually consumes it, which is the reason that consecrated hosts were stored in special vessels called monstrances, used by priests when offering benediction to demonstrate the physical presence of Christ in the blessing.