Transubstantiation - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition transubstantiation

Definition :

Transubstantiation, 'the change of the substance of the Bread and Wine in the Supper of our Lord' (Art. 28 of the Thirtynine Articles of Religion); 'a conversion of the whole substance of the Bread into the Body and of the whole substance of the Wine into the Blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation.'-Creed of Pope Pius IV., founded on Ch. iv., sess. xiii., of the Council of Trent.

Declaration against Transubstantiation.-A Declaration (commonly called the 'Declaration against Transubstantiation') was required of all members of either House of Parliament in 1678, by 30 Car. 2, st. 2, c. 1, with the effect of disabling Roman Catholics from sitting in either House till the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 (10 Geo. 4, c. 7).

Declaration by each new Sovereign.-Both the Bill of Rights (1 W. & M. sess. 2, c. 2), and the Act of Settlement (12 & 13 Wm. 3, c. 2), by an incorporation, by reference only, of 30 Car. 2, st. 2, c. 1 (of which 'so much as is unrepealed' was repealed by the Parliamentary Oaths Act, 1866), required the sovereign 'on the first day of the meeting of the first Parlyament next after his or her comeing to the crowne sitting in his or her throne in the House of Peeres in the presence of the lords and commons therein assembled or at his or her coronation (which shall first happen),' to 'make subscribe and audibly repeate' the Declaration, as also did, in the case of many officials, etc., the Test Act and the Toleration Act. The Declaration was as follows:-

I A. B. do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess testify and declare that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are superstitious and idolatrous, and I do solemnly in the presence of God profess testify and declare that I do make this declaration and every part thereof in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me as they are commonly understood by English protestants without any levasion [sic., but, in the Statutes of the Realm evasion] equivocation or mental reservation what-soever, and without any dispensation already granted me for that purpose by the Pope or any other authority or person whatsoever or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or man or absolved of this declaration or any part thereof although the Pope or any other person or persons or power whatsoever should dispense with or annual the same or declare that it was null and void from the beginning.

See now the (English) Accession Declaration Act, 1910, under the title BILL OF RIGHTS.