Council of Trent on the Lord's Supper
The elements become Christ's body and blood
by the consecration of the bread and of the wine, a conversion is made of the whole substance of the bread
THE POSITION
The Thirteenth Session (1551) teaches that consecration changes the whole substance of the bread into the body of Christ and the whole substance of the wine into his blood. It adopts "Transubstantiation" as the proper name for that change.
5 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Met in twenty-five sessions over three periods, at Trento in northern Italy except for two sessions held at Bologna in 1547. Called by Paul III and closed under Pius IV. It answered the Reformation point by point: Scripture and tradition, the canon, original sin, justification and the seven sacraments. From the Sixth Session on, each subject is set out in chapters and then in canons ending "let him be anathema." The Catholic Church counts it the nineteenth ecumenical council; the Orthodox and Protestant churches do not count it as ecumenical. Read here in J. Waterworth's 1848 translation.
Cite this page
"Council of Trent on the Lord's Supper", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/trent/lords-supper (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/trent/lords-supper).