“Scholasticism, as it is called, or Thomism (from the final great work of St. Thomas), might be called “the official philosophy” of the Church, as it had stood throughout the later Middle Ages: but it was (and is) important to distinguish between this “official” acceptation of Thomism and the invariable teaching authority of the Faith. For instance, in St. Thomas’ philosophy and that of his predecessors, the Real Presence is expressed in the term of “Trans-substantiation”; but no Catholic is bound to accept the scholastic doctrine of substance, and so long as the truth of the Real Presence is maintained (i.e., that the whole of the Humanity and Divinity of Our Lord is present in the Blessed Sacrament after the words of Consecration, and in either element; and that the original bread and wine wholly cease to be), Catholic doctrine is satisfied.”
~Hilaire Belloc: Characters of the Reformation, Chap. 1.
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