Impanation

(Lat. impanare, “to impane, to embody in bread”). A description of certain theories of the Eucharist propounded in the Middle Ages and at the Reformation which sought to safeguard the Real Presence of Christ in the elements without positing the change of the natural bread and wine. Originally, in the eleventh and twelfth century, the word described the “heretical” doctrines of such people as the followers of Berengar who taught that the relation between Christ and the bread and wine was similar to that of the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. During the sixteenth century Roman Catholics accused Luther, and Carlstadt accused Osiander, of teaching impanation. The first use of it as a technical term seems to have been by Guitmund of Aversa (d. c.1090); Alger of Liége (d.1131) also used the term when writing against transubstantiation.