Topic: 4. Sacrifice and Eucharist (16th-18th Century)
The redemptive role of Christ’s sacrifice was at the centre of early modern doctrinal controversies. During this time, the debate revolved around the sacramental role of the sacrifice in the eucharist and the Mass. This section contains numerous early modern printed sources and images, as well as the related bibliography on the theme (19th-21st Century).
The Altar of Incense (1534)
from: De Biblie uth der uthlegginge Doctoris Martini Luthers in dyth düdesche ulitich uthgestellet, mit sundergen underichtingen alse men seen mach,Ludowich Dietz 1534
Loores del dignissimo Lugar de Calvario (1551)
from: Antonio de Aranda. Loores del dignissimo Lugar de Calvario: en que se relata todo lo que nuestro redemptor Jesus hizo y dixo en el, conforme al texto del sacro evangelio, perteneciente a su passion, muerte, sepultura y resurrection, Alcalá de Henares, Salzedo, 1551
The Description of the Horrible Burning of Iohn Badby, and How he Was Used at his death. (1563)
from: Foxe, J. Book of Martyrs, 1684
Atla Digital Library
The Lambe speaketh. Anti-catholic satire with a wolf-headed Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, biting the neck of a sacrificial lamb suspended by its hind legs above an altar; to right, the bishops of London and Durham, the dean of Westminster and other Roman Catholic clerics (all with wolves' heads) drink the blood that spurts from the lamb; at Gardiner's feet lie six further lambs bearing the names of Cranmer, Ridley and other Protestant reformers; at upper left, three men pull at a rope tied around Gardiner's neck (members of the House of Lords who threw out Gardiner's heresy bill on 1 May 1554) while at lower left a group of gullible men (the Commons who had passed the bill a month earlier) are attached from rings in their noses to a rope around Gardiner's waist; the Pope as the devil appears top right (1555)
British Museum, London
The Triumph of the Eucharist, Christ as the Man of Sorrows supported by two angels standing in a chalice (1550–1600)
from: Italy
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Saint Gregory's Mass (1494)
from: Exterior of the Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi
Museo del Prado
Sacrifice of the Mass (1743)
Cathedral San Michele Arcangelo, Marcianise (Caserta)
Allegory of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist [1460]
Chiesa di S. Salvatore, Campi, Norcia (Umbria, Italia)
Scenes related to Saint Augustine addressing the Romans, featuring the Mass and, in the upper right, an animal sacrifice in the Temple. Augustine's words on a scroll read: «C'est le vray sacrifice a Dieu agreable». [1480]
from: St. Augustin [Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis]: La cité de Dieu. Enlumineur Maître de Coëtivy, Traducteur: Raoul de Presles (1316-1382). Miniature at the beginning of book 10
France, Mâcon, Médiathèque et Archives municipales, Ms. 1, fol. 305
The Mass at Bolsena (1512)
Stanza di Eliodoro, Raphael Rooms, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
Pope Urban IV verifies the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena (1357-1364)
Cathedral of Orvieto
Gregory the Great celebrating Mass (1465-1480)
from: Book of Hours Spain, perhaps Burgos or Segovia
New York, The Morgan Library Library & Museum, MS M.854 fol. 225v
Allegory of the Catholic Faith (picture made when public celebrations of the Mass were forbidden in the Dutch Republic) [1670 - 1672]
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York