The Accidents or Accidentals of the Holy Eucharist

A substance is a reality regularly suited to exist as itself, and not to exist merely as the mark or qualification or determinant of something else. An accident, or an accidental, is a reality regularly suited to exist, not as itself, but as the mark or qualification ordeterminant of something else. Thus, a man is a substance. But aman’s size, age, appearance, knowledge, and so forth, exist,not as themselves, but as marks or qualifications ofthe man; these are accidents or accidentals of the man. Accidentals are said to inhere in the reality which they mark or determine or qualify. And the reality qualified byaccidentals is called their subject. The subject ofaccidentals is fundamentally a substance. The substance of bread isthe subject of the accidentals of bread; the substance of wine isthe subject of the accidentals of wine. When, bytransubstantiation, the substance of bread and the substance of wine are changed into the substance of Christ, the accidentals of bread and wine remain in existence without a subject. These accidentals of bread and wine remain accidentals of bread and wine; they do not inhere in the substance of Christ; theyarenot accidentals of Christ. Hence, while we can say of the sacred host that it is round, and white, and brittle, and that it is two or three inches in diameter, we cannot say any of these things ofthe reality which the sacred host actually is, that is, the body and blood, the soul and divinity, of Jesus Christ.

It seems that in the Holy Eucharist, the quantity of the bread and of the wine endures, and thatthe other accidents (such as color, flavor, brittleness) exist inthis quantity as in their subject.

The sacramental species can, by divine power (since all action ultimately depends on God as first agent), affect other bodies. Thus, we can feel the sacred species on the tongue, taste its flavor, etc.

The accidentals (species) of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist are subject to corruption, that is, to spoiling, tosouring. When such corruption is advanced to the degree that would make ordinary bread and wine cease to be true bread and wine, our Lord ceases to be present under the species.

When the sacred species are destroyed (corrupted by rotting, spoiling, souring, or mingled or melted in much water, or burned with fire), they generate other things; for instance, ashes,if the species be burned. Such corrupting does not affect the body and blood of Christ who ceases to be present as soon as corruption of the species occurs.

The normal effect of natural bread and wine (that is,its effect of nourishing the person who takes it in as food and drink) is in the sacred species, the accidentals of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist. But when these species are digested by the receiver, they are corrupted, and Christ ceases to be present under them.

The breaking or dividing of the species is not a breaking or dividing of Christ. It is a change of quantity which isan accidental of the species, and not an accidental of the body and blood of Christ. Christ is present, whole and entire, unchanged andundiminished, in every part of the broken host, and in every separated amount of liquid in the consecrated chalice.

Any liquid added to the chalice that would make it other than the consecrated matter of the Eucharist, would corrupt the species, and Christ would no longer be present. If only a drop or two of liquid were so added, the presence of Christ would be withdrawn from the tiny quantity which these drops would substantially change, but would not be withdrawn from the contents of the chalice as a whole.