The Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 Guitmund (died ca. 1090–95), bishop of Aversa, was a Benedictine monk who was an adversary of Berengar of Tours

Berengar of Tours

Berengar of Tours was a French 11th century Christian theologian and Archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set an example of intellectual inquiry through the revived tools of dialectic that was soon followed at cathedral schools of Laon and Paris, ...

.

In his youth he entered the Benedictine monastery of La-Croix-Saint-Leufroy

Leutfridus

Leutfridus was a French monk and saint of the eighth century.Leutfridus studied at Condat Abbey and at Chartres, and was for a time a teacher at Evreux. A Benedictine, he was also a spiritual student of Saint Sidonius of Saint-Saëns. He spent time as a hermit at Cailly and at Rouen; he founded...

 in the diocese of Évreux, and about 1060 he was studying theology at the abbey of Bec, where he had Lanfranc

Lanfranc

Lanfranc was Archbishop of Canterbury, and a Lombard by birth.-Early life:Lanfranc was born in the early years of the 11th century at Pavia, where later tradition held that his father, Hanbald, held a rank broadly equivalent to magistrate...

 as teacher and Anselm

Anselm of Canterbury

Anselm of Canterbury , also called of Aosta for his birthplace, and of Bec for his home monastery, was a Benedictine monk, a philosopher, and a prelate of the church who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109...

  as fellow-student, each of them later Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

. In 1070 William the Norman

William I of England

William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...

 called him to take up a diocese in England, to which the monk responded with an Oratio ad Guillelmum , denouncing the Norman Conquest.

In Normandy he defended the doctrine of transubstantiation

Transubstantiation

In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...

 against Berengar of Tours. During the 1070s he wrote a treatise on the Holy Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

, entitled De corporis et sanguinis Jesu Christi veritate in Eucharistia ("On the body and blood of Jesus Christ truly in the Eucharist"), which takes the familiar literary form of a dialogue between himself and a fellow monk, Roger, to present the doctrine of the real presence

Real Presence

Real Presence is a term used in various Christian traditions to express belief that in the Eucharist, Jesus Christ is really present in what was previously just bread and wine, and not merely present in symbol, a figure of speech , or by his power .Not all Christian traditions accept this dogma...

 of Christ in the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

. He attributes the perceived decay of the reserved sacrament

Reserved sacrament

During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the second part of the Mass, the elements of bread and wine are considered, in some branches of Christian practice, to have been transubstantiated into the veritable Body and Blood of Jesus Christ...

, not as an accident

Accident (philosophy)

Accident, as used in philosophy, is an attribute which may or may not belong to a subject, without affecting its essence. The word "accident" has been employed throughout the history of philosophy with several distinct meanings....

 of its essential substance

Essence

In philosophy, essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity. Essence is contrasted with accident: a property that the object or substance has contingently, without...

 (the orthodox view), but merely as a deception of our senses. The first printed edition of Guitmund's De corporis et sanguinis was edited by Erasmus (Freiburg, 1530).

Shortly after Guitmund had published his treatise

Treatise

A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.-Noteworthy treatises:...

 against Berengar, he obtained permission from his abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

, Odilo, to make a pilgrimage to Rome, where he lived for a time in a Roman monastery under the pseudonym of Christianus, which afforded him obscurity. Pope Urban II

Pope Urban II

Pope Urban II , born Otho de Lagery , was Pope from 12 March 1088 until his death on July 29 1099...

, formerly a monk at Cluny, appointed Guitmund Bishop of Aversa in 1088.