ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Eucharist’s success and spread in modern Italy through its contestation. Religious authorities’ insistence on the sacrament produced many forms of opposition to the worship and devotional practices of Catholicism. Witches made magical and superstitious use of the host: in some cases, they attempted to “appropriate” the divine presence within the host; in others, they challenged it through irreverent gestures and outright profanations. Transubstantiation was also openly opposed by the semi-clandestine communities which, also in Italy, adhered to the principles of the Protestant Reformation: the heterodox contested and mocked the sacrament, attributing an essentially symbolic value to it adopting a position similar to those of Zwingli and Calvin. The Jewish minority – discussed in the third section – expressed their impatience with the impositions and rituals of the Christian majority through gestures and rituals that mocked the Catholic belief in the real presence. A final challenge came from certain artists and scientists who faced various accusations of (voluntary or involuntary) irreverence towards the sacrament.
