Editing Host desecration (section)

{{Short description|Form of sacrilege in some Christian denominations}}
[[File:OHM - Hostienfrevel Bild 1.jpg|thumb|250px|Painting (16th century) showing the alleged desecration of hosts by [[Jews]] in [[Passau]] in 1477 (detail), {{Interlanguage link|Oberhausmuseum|de}} (Passau)]]
'''Host desecration''' is a form of [[sacrilege]] in Christian denominations that follow the doctrine of the [[real presence of Christ in the Eucharist]]. It involves the mistreatment or malicious use of a [[consecrate]]d [[Sacramental bread|host]]—the bread used in the [[Eucharist]]ic service of the [[Divine Liturgy]] or [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] (also known by Protestants simply as Communion bread). It is forbidden by the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], [[Oriental Orthodox]], and [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]es, as well as in certain [[Protestant]] traditions (including [[Anglicanism]], [[Lutheranism]], and [[Methodism]]). In Catholicism, where the host is held to have been [[transubstantiation|transubstantiated]] into the body of [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus Christ]], host [[desecration]] is one of the gravest sins. Intentional host desecration incurs the penalty of [[excommunication]] {{lang|la|[[latae sententiae]]}}.<ref name="law1367">{{Cite web |url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P50.HTM |title=Code of Canon Law #1367 |access-date=2019-09-03 |archive-date=2019-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911104051/http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P50.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="law1442">{{Cite web |url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_P142.HTM |title=Code of canons of Oriental Churches #1442 |access-date=2019-09-03 |archive-date=2019-08-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804011911/http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_P142.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref> Throughout history, a number of groups have been accused of desecrating the Eucharist, often with grave consequences due to the spiritual importance of the consecrated host.

Accusations against [[Jews]] were a common reason given for massacres and expulsions throughout the [[Middle Ages]] in Europe.<ref name="je">{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7906-host-desecration-of|title=Desecration of the Host|access-date=7 May 2007|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com|archive-date=4 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604190402/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=938&letter=H&search=host%20desecartion|url-status=live}}</ref> Similar accusations were made against Muslims,<ref name="Freidenreich">{{Cite book|author=David M. Freidenreich|chapter=Muslims Killed Christ!? Theological Arguments and Political Agendas|title=Jewish Muslims: How Christians Imagined Islam as the Enemy|location=Oakland, California|publisher=University of California Press|year=2022|pages=162–3|isbn=9780520975644|lccn=2022017143|language=en}}</ref> Protestants<ref name="Goda">{{cite journal|author=Károly Goda|journal=Theatrum Historiae|title=Metamorphoses of Corpus Christi: Eucharistic Processions & Clashes in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Vienna|url=https://theatrum.upce.cz/index.php/theatrum/article/download/2066/1833|volume=15|year=2014|pages=28–31}}</ref> and in [[Witch trials|witchcraft trials]]; witch-hunter's guides such as the ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'' refer to hosts as being objects of desecration by witches.<ref>Summers, Montague, ed. ''The Malleus Maleficarum of Kramer and Sprenger'', 1948. Originally in Latin, Germany, 1487.  e.g. ''Part II, Question I, Chapter IV:"...they are bound to observe certain other abominable ceremonies at the command of the devils, such as to spit on the ground at the Elevation of the Host."''</ref> It is part of many descriptions of the [[Black Mass]], both in ostensibly historical works and in fiction.<ref>See the studies by: Rhodes, H.T.F. ''The Satanic Mass'', 1954 and Zacharias, Gerhard ''The Satanic Cult'', 1980.</ref>