THE object of the present book is to set out in as simple and clear a form as may be possible the doctrines about the Holy Eucharist which have been current among Christians. It is not the aim of the author to enter into controversial arguments or theological reasonings to any extent beyond that which the intelligible treatment of facts necessarily involves. The world and the Church being as they are, such arguments and reasonings have their use and their proper place and even their necessity. But the purpose of the following pages is to provide an historical account of the actual forms in which Christian belief has been held. In attempting to carry out this purpose the author cannot disguise from himself that he will be compelled to call attention to much which very many might wish to be forgotten. The surprises of history, and perhaps especially of Church history, are often unwelcome. The complexities which historical treatment reveals are sometimes provoking or painful or perplexing to those who have found in simple beliefs a stay for life or a power in teaching. Nor may the student and the scholar ever rightly forget that a sign of the kingdom of Him who is the Light and the Hope of the world is that “the poor have the Gospel preached to them”. Yet to close the eyes to facts is to invite an awful Nemesis. History has its own ways of avenging itself on those who ignore its lessons. Candid investigation is not always the enemy of faith. And, if there is to be a way out of current controversies, and a lessening of discord, and a step towards that outward unity of Christendom for which true Christians long, it will be as facts are realised and the history of doctrine is grasped and understood. Those who live in the present and work for the future will build on but insecure foundations if they suffer themselves to be unmindful of the past.

The needs thus contemplated will not be met simply by collections of facts and catenæ of quotations. The facts and the quotations cannot be properly understood apart from their setting. If the right value is to be assigned to evidence of this kind, the evidence must be systematically grouped and scientifically treated.