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Summa Theologiae · III, q. 81

Question 81. Of the Use Which Christ Made of This Sacrament at Its Institution

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Third Part. 4 articles.

Read in the reading room → This question at New Advent

Text: Summa Theologiae, Project Gutenberg #19950, Third Part (Tertia Pars), translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. The Third Part of the Summa in the English Dominican translation (first printed 1911 to 1925; second and revised edition from 1920). A sample check on 2026-11-09 against pre-1931 printings at the Internet Archive (first printings of 1915 and 1916 and the second and revised edition of the 1920s) found that the article text matches, with no 1947 introduction, synopsis, or index. The phrase “From the Complete American Edition” in Gutenberg's catalog title is a provenance note only. Question and article numbers were added by the transcriber. The Gutenberg text ends at question 90 of the Third Part, where Aquinas stopped writing; the Supplement is a separate edition here, transcribed from 1917 to 1922 printings of the same translation. Rights: Public domain (US)

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We have now to consider the use which Christ made of this sacrament at its institution; under which heading there are four points of inquiry:

(1) Whether Christ received His own body and blood?

(2) Whether He gave it to Judas?

(3) What kind of body did He receive or give, namely, was it passible or impassible?

(4) What would have been the condition of Christ's body under this sacrament, if it had been reserved or consecrated during the three days He lay dead?

Articles

  1. Whether Christ Received His Own Body and Blood?
  2. Whether Christ Gave His Body to Judas?
  3. Whether Christ Received and Gave to the Disciples His Impassible Body?
  4. Whether, If This Sacrament Had Been Reserved in a Pyx, or Consecrated at the Moment of Christ's Death by One of the Apostles, Christ Himself Would Have Died There?

Also online, linked only: the same translation at New Advent and the Latin text at Corpus Thomisticum. Neither is copied here.

Source: Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Third Part. Project Gutenberg #19950. Project Gutenberg record. Public domain in the USA. Outside the U.S., check local copyright rules. Project Gutenberg notices retained. The full Project Gutenberg license is kept in the hosted text.