In a 1988 study in Past and Present , Charles Zika examines processions and pilgrimages in 15th-century Germany as sites of conflict between the extra-clerical use of relics and the clerically-dependent uses of the host. Devotion to the host was promoted, he argues, in order to bring lay devotion under the control of clerical religion.

Zika writes, “Precisely because the host seemed to assure a religiosity which could be kept within the control of the clergy, its promotion was so strongly fostered by the clerical church and soon gained the enthusiastic support of the laity. The host represented a means through which a new Christ- and the priest-centred religiosity could be forged, but it also maintained a bridge to the more traditional, though of course still lively, cult based on the relics of the saints.”

In contrast to relics, “the host was a sacred object very heavily dependent upon the power of the clergy. It was the product of the priestly power of consecration and largely dependent upon the priest for the recurring release of its powers. It served as a demonstration of priestly power - to be proclaimed in the face of attempts by individual lay persons to appropriate the host for their private use.” Thus, “the host became the vehicle for fundamental conflicts within the clergy over the organization of religious practice and its relationship to clerical authority. As a consequence the host became central in the theological discourse of the period. Nicholas of Cusa’s attempt in the 1450s to eliminate bleeding-host shrines and severely to limit exposition of the host represents simply one important moment in that conflict.”