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The sacrament of the Altar was a central symbol of the culture of late medieval Europe. In the complex and changing world of the Renaissance the Sacrament functioned as a symbol of unity that transcended the limiting structures of language, ethnicity, social convention, regional authority, as well as social, economic, and intellectual status. The Lord's Supper possessed universal meaning. Despite its controversial appropriation by heretics and movements of dissent, Holy Communion remained the hinge upon which late medieval European religious experience turned. Not even twelve centuries of unrest between Christianity and western civilization could dislodge the Sacrament of the Altar from its place at the center of liturgical and spiritual life. |
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