Sacrifice in the Eucharist in the texts of the fathers from the New Testament to the council of Chalcedon

Abstract

This thesis examines the evidence for the notion of Eucharistic Sacrifice which is found in the original texts of all the principal Fathers and ecclesiastical authors of the Early Church. The period covered is from the time of the writing of the New Testament to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. Each of the principal Fathers is examined in historical order, as far as this is possible, except when there is another link between them such as their city of origin. Apart from a few exceptions, the texts are presented in their Greek or Latin original in the footnotes, but an English translation is supplied for every case in the main text of the thesis. The aim of the thesis is not to provide an exhaustive analysis of the above data, but to present them in an orderly way and to make initial exploratory comments on the texts themselves and of the work of various scholars. The final conclusion resulting from this exercise is that, although there is indisputable evidence that the notion of Eucharistic sacrifice was widely upheld by Patristic authors, its actual content varied from author to author and presents a richness which it is not easy to classify.