A ‘Deformed’ Christianity: Ethical Transubstantiation in English Reformation Plays

The dispute over the Catholic dogma of transubstantiation was central to the English Reformation, especially in its early stages, during the reign of Henry VIII, who, as the Ten Articles of Religion' (1536) and the subsequent 'Act of Six Articles' (1539) testify, always refused to deny the actual presence of Christ's body and blood in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. It remained of paramount importance during the reign of Henry's son, Edward VI, who, in his first year, was obliged to make a statute 'against revilers of the sacrament of the altar' (1 Edward VI, cap. 1) supplemented by a proclamation 'Silencing the disputes on the Eucharist' (issued on 27 December 1547). This essay, however, will not deal with transubstantiation in its original, doctrinal sense. It will be concerned, instead, with an 'ethical transubstantiation', a regenerative process that the reformers fervently advocated, but which does not seem to have satisfactorily taken place in the English Church of the sixteenth century.