a name applied by ecclesiastical writers to the doctrine of those who deny the actual presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist. The denomination took its rise from Berengarius, archdeacon of the church of St Mary at Anjou about the year 1035, who maintained that the bread and wine, even after consecration, do not become the true body and blood of our Lord, but only a figure and sign thereof; and who thus laid the foundation of the Protestant doctrine.