PART I

THE lines followed by the theologians of the Church of Rome in the period subsequent to the Reformation were those laid down by the Council of Trent. Thus, while in the case of English theology it is requisite for a due understanding of the facts to take the divines of the Caroline period in close connection with those of Edwardine and Jacobean and Elizabethan times, the Council of Trent affords the best point of division between the theology of the Reformation period and that to be regarded as post-Reformation in the Church of Rome. From the time of the Council until the present time Roman Catholic writers have dealt with the subject of the Eucharist with great fulness and learning and power; and in an historical survey such as is attempted in this book all that is possible is to select out of a literature of enormous extent and much complexity a few characteristic and representative instances of doctrinal teaching and methods of treatment.