The Merchant of Venice

In the course of Justice none of us should see salvation. We do pray for mercy.

A Eucharistic tale that uses the topic of usury to deepen the Church’s teaching on the body and blood of our Savior. In 1570, Pope Saint Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth. Within one year, she changes laws of usury as well as clarifies the Anglican position on the Eucharist, taking severely anti-Catholic positions on both.

And so, Shakespeare uses the insights on usury to help the audience identify the characters — Shylock represents Queen Elizabeth’s Anglican position and Antonio represents the Catholic position. By the way, names matter in Shakespeare’s plays, and Antonio is the birth name of Pope Saint Pius V, the same pope who excommunicates Elizabeth.

As the play builds to the marvelous court scene we hear Shylock (like Elizabeth) crave the law to extract the pound of Antonio’s fair flesh. Audiences knew this was an obvious allusion to the Catholic priesthood and the treason laws which made killing Catholic priests legal in Elizabethan England.

At the time, and an important historical footnote critical to the play, Anglicans also defined and created a novel teaching on the Eucharist, departing from ancient Catholic teaching. Anglicans believe that the change of the substance of Bread and Wine into the body and blood of our Lord “repugnant to the plain words of scripture” (Article 28. Of the Lord’s Supper). For them, the bread and wine are symbols, not a divine reality.

But, as Flannery O’Connor puts it, “if it’s just a symbol, to hell with it.”

As symbols, well, symbols can be separated and segmented and segregated. Theoretically, the symbol of Christ’s body could be the bread and a symbol of his blood the wine, theoretically. In reality, as a divine reality and manna from heaven, as an eternal gift from our Lord, as the true bread of life and cup of salvation, well, the body and blood can’t be separated. And that’s the crux of the famous court scene, Shylock is granted flesh but cannot extract it lest he spill one ounce of Christian blood and pay the penalty under the law for spilling Christian blood. Yes, Shakespeare is genius! In one stroke he reminds audiences that earthly laws need to be subject to divine revelation.

Shakespeare’s genius shines thru once again by putting a deep theological and Catholic teaching into story. Shakespeare teaches us about the Eucharist in a time and country where the body and blood of our Savior was being denied to his bride. Shakespeare maintains Catholic teaching on the Eucharist — the body and the blood cannot be separated. The fullness of Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity is present in the consecrated host; the fullness of Jesus’s body, blood, soul, and divinity is present in the consecrated cup. The central message of this story proclaims Catholic teaching about the Eucharist.

Let us repeat, Shakespeare chose to center the plot of The Merchant of Venice on Catholic teaching of the Eucharist.

To hear Shakespeare is to love Jesus.

The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O what a goodly outside falsehood hath.

Handing over the Keys, by Charles Frederick Lowcock (1878-1922)