By this time, however, the hierarchy of Rome appear
to have become sensible, that the doctrine, which

fave to the sacramental rite the character of a pro-
igy, was admirably fitted to exah the mystic and
hierui^cal dignity of the priesthood. The theology
of Berengarius was, accordingly, assailed with out-
rageous vehemence. The terrors of spiritual power
were levelled asainst it, fiercely and angrily by Leo
IX. and Nicholas II., somewhat more faintly and
doubtfully by Greger^^ VII. The heretic was com-
pelled to sign, successively, three distinct confessions,
each difiering from the other, but all of them amount-
ing to an abjuration of his own real opinions ; and
his latter days were i)assed in exercises of penitence
for his unworthy dissimulation.* It was not, how*



r



LIFE OF WICLIF. 231

etec, till ^ beginning of the thirteenth century that
all liberty of speech and opinion, relative to this sub-
ject, was finally suppressed. The Pontiff who claims
the honour of this triumph over human reason is
Innocent III. In the fourth council of Lateran,
(which was held in 1215, and at which were assem-
ble(^ a vast concourse of ecclesiastics, besides the
ambab^adors of nearly all the powers of Europe,)
he formerly established that doctrine, which, to the
present hour, is held by the Church of Rome as the
only orthodox and true one, and which, from that
time, has been uniformly designated by _. ^
the term transubstantiation. This word, traji^^tanH^
which was unknown before the days of a/>on eataUiah-
Innocent III., was introduced to express ^^^ innocent
the precise nature of the change effected
in the elements at the moment of consecration. It
is obvious that the grand difficulty which thoughtful
persons would have to^ encounter, in Receiving Uie
doctrine in question, arose from Uie astounding cir-
cumstance, that the mystic words of the priest left
the sensible qualities of the sacramental bread wholly
unaltered. That Ohrist himself should, in some
mysterious and spiritual sense, be present at the
solemnity, might not be too much for the faith of ths
most enlightened believer. 