In all of his puritan outcry, Wyclif aroused no hostility like that sparked by his attack upon the traditional doctrine of transubstantiation. In the summer of 1380 he published twelve arguments against the idea that the bread and wine of Holy Communion were transformed into the physical body and blood of Christ. He asserts that the early church held that the consecrated elements of bread and wine were efficacious symbols of Christ’s body and blood. Hence, Christ is present in the elements sacramentally, not materially. The end of the sacrament is the presence of Christ in the soul.
