persecution.  Twice  he  made  his  submission  to  a  council  of
the  Church,  overborne,  not  by  arguments,  but  by  clamour
and  threats,  but  did  not  cease  to  retain  and  to  teach  his  own
opinions.  He  entered  into  a  controversy  with  Lanfranc  on
the  subject.  Lanfranc's  book  has  been  always  preserved,  and
that  of  Berengarius  has  recently  been  recovered.  Lanfranc
supports  the  doctrine  of  Paschasius.  Berengarius's  doctrine
is  not  that  mere  figurativism  which  is  sometimes  attributed
to  him.  "  He  distinguishes  between  the  visible  sacrament
and  the  inward  part  or  thing  signified ;  it  is  to  the  outward
part  only  that  he  would  apply  the  terms  for  which  he  had
been  so  much  censured — sign,  figure,  pledge,  or  likeness.
He  repeatedly  declares  that  the  elements  are  'converted'  by
consecration  into  the  very  body  and  blood  of  our  Saviour ;
that  the  bread,  from  having  been  something  common,
becomes  the  beatific  body  of  Christ,  not,  however,  by  the
corruption  of  the  bread,  or  as  if  the  body,  which  has  so  lang
existed  in  a  blessed  immortality,  could  now  again  begin  to
be ;  that  consecration  operates  not  by  destroying  the  pre-
vious substance,  but  by  exalting  it.  It  is  not  a  portion  of
Christ's  body  which  is  present  in  each  fragment,  but  He  is
fully  present  throughout."  *

Successive  councils  condemned  the  views  of  Berengarius,
and  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  became  the  accepted
doctrine  of  the  Western  Church.  When  the  Norman  Con-
quest threw  England  more  open  to  continental  influences,
and  Lanfranc,  one  of  the  foremost  champions  of  the  new
doctrine,  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  doctrine
spread  into  England  also.
