The Epiclesis Debate at the Council of Florence by Christiaan Kappes;

Author:Christiaan Kappes;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)
Published: 2019-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Ultimately, Odo’s exegesis favors the Greek position. Yet, taking into account the regional and limited adoption of consecratory signs of the cross at the Jube haec perferri, one cannot argue for a universal Latin tradition of consecratory blessing of the gifts at the epiclesis after the manner of Byzantium.

In conclusion, Scholarius clearly provided his interlocutors with a completely legitimate theory of the epicletic prayer that would have satisfied Franciscans and eclectic Thomists. The considerable humanist contingent at the council varied in idiosyncratic approaches to theology, but can safely be said to have held less allegiance to orthodox Thomistic positions than anyone else present save the Franciscans. Notwithstanding, Torquemada and his fellow Dominicans (e.g., John Montenero) demonstrated a single-mindedness that would have been unlikely deterred from demanding a purely orthodox Thomistic solution. Be that as it may, the objectively dogmatic commitments of the Roman Church at Florence, as today, could not have appealed to a single decretal, synod, ecumenical council, or hefty authority to oppose the Scholarian thesis on doctrinal grounds. Of course, the Scholarian solution does explain how the problem of the hand-blessings of the bread and wine at the epiclesis can be integrated into the Aristotelian causes, as a form or condition of consecration. This problem is only apparent, for it was universally held among the Schoolmen that words were signs. Yet, whenever a penitent was unable to speak, hand-signs (nowadays, sign language) also sufficed to dispose a penitent for absolution in auricular confession.42 In point of fact, hand-crosses on bread and wine simply signified the objects of blessing for the epiclesis and were, thus, part of specifying the intention of epicletic prayer. Nonetheless, in the next section I will argue that even that question could have been resolved by Franciscans present at Florence. Scholarius knew Franciscan theology well, and he praised its subtlety as superior to Thomism in several areas of theology.43 Even today, a Scotistic solution is in fact still a viable option vis-à-vis the Roman Catholic Church (paralleled by contemporary Thomistic arguments to accept the validity of the anaphora of Addai and Mari that lacks even an institution narrative).44

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