A central aspect of worship during the Middle Ages was ritual, and nowhere was this tendency more apparent than in the Eucharist (YOO-kuh-rist), or Communion service. The Eucharist had originated with the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples. There Jesus stated that the bread they ate was his body, which would soon be broken on the cross, and the wine they drank was his blood, which would soon be shed. In the future, he told them, they should eat bread and drink wine together “in remembrance of me."
Originally it was understood that the bread and wine were symbols of Christ's body and blood, but by the 1000s, the church had come to embrace the idea of transubstantiation (trans-sub-stan-shee-AY-shun). According to tran-substantiation, the bread became Christ's literal body, and the wine his actual blood. This did not mean it was physically the same as actual flesh and blood, but it was Christ's body and blood all the same. In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council confirmed the doctrine of transubstantiation.
Out his days under the protection of the de Hautevilles. Yet Gregory passed his fervor for reform and papal authority on to Urban II (ruled 1088-99), who would prove the ability of the church to make emperors and kings do its bidding.
Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain, was a favorite destination for pilgrims because it was said to be the burial place of the apostle James. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation.
World History
