To all Christians, of all denominations whatsoever, the bread-wafer when once consecrated is a holy thing.

To Catholics and Lutherans there is there, substantially, the Presence of God.

No imaginable act of sacrilege can be more unpardonable than the desecration of the tabernacle and the wilful defilement and destruction of the Sacred Host.
This was Unorna's determination.

Beatrice should commit this crime against Heaven, and then die with the whole weight of it upon her soul, and thus should her soul itself be tormented for ever and ever to ages of ages.
Considering what she believed, it is no wonder that she should have shuddered at the tremendous thought.

And yet, in the distortion of her reasoning, the sin would be upon Beatrice who did the act, and not upon herself who commanded it.