ABSTRACT
Marian theologians were intent on renewing Catholic forms of worship, especially the doctrine and celebration of the seven sacraments as essential means of salvation. Although the sacramental theology remained largely unchanged from the late-medieval period, these theologians hoped to reshape sacramental practice, and reeducate people regarding what it signified in their lives. A sacramental spirituality was evoked in many Marian texts, recalling people to the virtue of the sacraments including and beyond actual participation, as the source of a life-giving relationship with Christ. The eucharist, the sustenance of believers in this spiritual war, stood as the single most important doctrinal and devotional issue for Marian theologians. The transformation of bread and wine into Christ's substantial body and blood occurred through transubstantiation, another eucharistic doctrine over which Catholics and Protestants contended, and Marian writers generally followed the arguments of Fisher, More and Cochleus on this issue.
