The Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the English Protestant Dispossession of Demons

Abstract

The early English Protestant practice of ‘dispossessing’ (exorcizing) demons ironically depended on the intellectual acceptance of some of the principles underlying the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. The Protestant practice of dispossession thus implied an inchoate theology not as far removed from Catholicism as its advocates believed. As Protestantism developed, gradually abandoning the principles common to both tran substantiation and dispossession, it also abandoned the practice of the latter.