Since little has been previously written about the existence of the body of Christ under the species of bread; it remains that some views be set forth concerning the accidents remaining after the consecration of the substance of the bread.
Let it be shown, first, that those accidents do not exist subjectively in the body of Christ; which is obvious from this, that contrary qualities in a body are not at the same time in the body of Christ. Moreover, for the same reason by which the qualities of one host might exist subjectively in the body of Christ, the qualities of another host might affect the same body of Christ. But it is obvious to sense that sometimes some qualities of diverse hosts are contrary to themselves. From which it follows that neither these qualities nor those affect the body of Christ.
Likewise, the body of Christ is not changed anew to sensible qualities, which might, however, happen if the accidents of the bread could inform the body of Christ. This is also confirmed by the passage of the Master of the Sentences in Book IV., Distinction XII. “There,” he says, “is no substance except that of the body and the blood of the Lord which is not affected by those accidents. For the body of Christ does not have in itself such form, but such as will appear in the judgment.”
Moreover, those accidents do not affect the surrounding air; for no accident, neither as regards itself as a whole nor as regards any part of itself, is separate in place and situation from its primary subject. But to the sense it appears that some part of an accident of the host is separate in place and situation from the surrounding air and from each part of it; therefore, the same accident is not in the air subjectively, nor for the same reason is any of the others. Likewise, an accident never occupies a place other than the place of its subject, but it is manifest that the host and the air occupy distinct places; therefore, it is manifest that accidents are not subjectively in the air.
Moreover, those accidents are not subjectively in the substance of the bread, because that substance is not, as was shown previously. Therefore, it remains that the accidents remain without a subject; which is confirmed through the Master of the Sentences in Book IV., Distinction XII., where he says at the beginning: “But if any inquiry is made concerning the accidents which remain; namely, of the species, ‘taste’ and ‘heaviness,’ in what subject they may be found, it seems to me to cause these accidents to be without a subject rather than to be in a subject.”
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