Does the substance of the bread and wine remain in the sacrament after the consecration?
Ambrose says, “Although the shape of the bread and wine still be seen after the consecration, you must believe them to be nothing other than the body and blood of Christ.” Some have held that the substance of the bread and wine remains in this sacrament after the consecration. This opinion cannot stand, for four reasons: 1. It destroys the truth of the sacrament. The truth is that Christ’s body exists in the sacrament although it was not there before the consecration. Now, a thing cannot be somewhere it was not previously, except by change of place or unless something else changes into it. Fire, for example, comes to be in a house, either because it was carried there, or because it started there. Now, it is clear that Christ’s body does not come to be present in this sacrament by a change of place, for three reasons. a) If it did, it would cease to be in heaven, because things that change place do not come to be in one place unless they leave the previous place. b) Everything that chan
