[terycarl]

I get all of that, but I can find just as many church fathers who did not accept real presence.

name 6

[CynicalBear]

See HERE

[.45 Long Colt]

Well, you’ve got 1) Justin Martyr, 2) Clement of Alexandra, 3) Theodoret, 4) Eusebius of Caesarea, 5) Irenaeus of Lyons, and 6) Origen. For good measure, how about Tertullian, Pope Gelasius I, Serapion, Jerome, Athanasius, Ambrosiaster, Macanus of Egypt, Eustathius of Antioch, and Augustine.

There simply is no teaching during the first 800 or so years of the church that has these characteristics:

1) The bread becomes not just the body of Christ, but the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, and no longer remains bread, and

2) The wine becomes not just the blood of Christ, but the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, and no longer remains wine.

Yet that is what Trent teaches and makes central to the Roman faith. You may find fathers who echo the Scriptural metaphor of the bread being the body and the cup being the blood. You may even find some fathers who go further, and insist that the relationship is more than a mere symbol, but instead is a symbol with power. You may find fathers that talk about a spiritual presence. But you won’t find what Trent teaches.