Part Three: Articles Concerning Which We May Treat

Concerning the following articles we will be able to treat with learned and reasonable men, or even among ourselves. The Pope and the Papal government do not care much about these. For with them conscience is nothing, but money, glory, honors, power are to them everything.

p. 321 I. Of Sin

Here we must confess, as Paul says in Rom. 5:11, that sin originated [and entered the world] from one man Adam, by whose disobedience all men were made sinners, and subject to death and the devil.¹ This is called original or capital sin.

¹ Rom. 5:12, 19.

The fruits of this sin are afterwards the evil deeds which are forbidden in the Ten Commandments, such as [distrust] unbelief, false faith, idolatry, to be without the fear of God, arrogance, blindness, and, to speak briefly, not to know or regard God; secondly, to lie, to swear by [to abuse] God’s name [to swear falsely], not to pray, not to call upon God, not to regard God’s Word, to be disobedient to parents, to murder, to be unchaste, to steal, to deceive,² etc.

² Apology, ii.: 7 sq.; 24 sq.

This hereditary sin is so deep [and horrible] a corruption of nature, that no reason can understand it, but it must be [learned p. 322 and] believed from the revelation of Scriptures,¹ Ps. 51:; Rom. 5:12 sqq.; Ex. 33:; Gen. 3:7 sqq. Wherefore the dogmas² of the scholastic doctors are pure errors and obscurations contrary to this article, for by them it is taught:

Parallel passages: Augsburg Confession, ii., xviii.; Apology, ii., chap (iii.); Formula of Concord, Ep. and Sol. Dec., i.

¹ Formula of Concord, Epit., i.: 8, p. 520.

² Aug. Conf., xviii.: 8, p. 43; Apology, ii.: 8 sq., p. 79.

That since the fall of Adam the natural powers of man have remained entire and incorrupt, and that man by nature has right reason and a good will, as the philosophers teach.

And that man has a free will to do good and omit evil, and, again, to omit good and do evil.

Also that man by his natural powers can observe and do all the commands of God.

And that, by his natural powers, he can love God above all things, and his neighbor as himself.

Also if a man do as much as is in him, God certainly grants to him his grace.

And if he wish to come to the sacrament, there is no need of a good intention to do good, but it is sufficient if he have not a wicked purpose to commit sin; so entirely good is his nature and so efficacious the sacrament.

Also that it is not founded upon Scripture that, for a good work, the Holy Ghost with his grace is necessary.

Such and many similar things have arisen from want of un-derstanding and learning concerning both sins and Christ our Saviour, and they are truly heathen dogmas which we cannot endure. For if these dogmas would be right, Christ has died in vain, since there is in man no sin and misery for which he should have died; or he would have died only for the body, not for the soul, inasmuch as the soul is entirely sound, and the body only is subject to death.

p. 322 II. Of the Law

Here we hold that the Law was given by God, first to restrain in by threats and the dread of punishment, and by the promise and offer of grace and favor. But all these miscarried, on account of the wickedness which sin has wrought in man. For thereby a part were rendered worse, who are hostile to the Law, because it forbids those things which they do willingly, and enjoins those things which they do unwillingly. Therefore, if they were not restrained by punishment, they would do more against the Law than before. For these are rude and p. 323 wicked [unbridled and secure] men, who do evil wherever they have the opportunity.

Parallel passages: Apology, chap. (iii.), xii.: 88 sq.; Formula of Concord, Ep. and Sol. Dec., v., vi.

The rest are blind and arrogant, and think that they observe and can observe the Law by their own powers, as has been said above concerning the scholastic theologians; thence come the hypocrites and false saints.¹

¹ Cf. Formula of Concord, Sol. Dec., v.: 10, p. 635.

But the chief office or power of the Law is that it reveal original sin with all its fruits, and show man how very low his nature has fallen, and that it has become utterly corrupted; as the Law must tell that man neither has nor cares for God, and adores other gods, a matter which before and without the Law would not have been believed. In this way he becomes terrified, is humbled, desponds, despairs and anxiously desires aid; neither does he know whither to flee; he begins to be enraged at God, and to murmur, etc. This is what Paul says (Rom. 4:15): “The Law worketh wrath.” And Rom. 5:20: “Sin is increased by the Law.” [“The Law entered that the offence might abound.”]

p. 323 III. Of Repentance

This office [of the Law] the New Testament retains and exercises, as St. Paul (Rom. 1:18) does, saying: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” And 3:19: “All the world is guilty before God.” “No man is righteous before him.” And Christ (John 16:8) says: “The Holy Ghost will reprove the world of sin.”

This therefore is a thunderbolt of God, by which he strikes manifest sinners and hypocrites in one mass, and declares no one righteous, but forces them all together to terror and despair.² This is the hammer, as Jeremiah says (23:29): “Is not my Word like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” This is not activa contritio, or manufactured repentance, but passiva contritio [torture of conscience], true sorrow of heart, suffering and sense of death.³

² See above, Part III., Art. ii., § 4.

³ Cf. Apology, xii.: 29, p. 254.

For that is the beginning of true repentance; and here man must hear such a sentence as this: “You are all of no account, whether you be manifest sinners or saints [in your own opinion]; you all must become different and do otherwise than you now p. 324 are and are doing, be you great, wise, powerful and holy as you may. Here no one is [righteous, holy], godly,” etc.¹

Parallel passages: Augsburg Confession, xii.; Apology, xii.; chap. (vi.), 16 sq.; Large Catechism, Baptism, 497, § 77 sqq.; Formula of Concord, iv.: 16 sq.; v.: 7 sq.

¹ Cf. Rom. 3:10–12.

But to this office the New Testament immediately adds the consolatory promise of grace through the Gospel, which must be believed, as Christ declares (Mark 1:15): “Repent and believe the Gospel,” i. e. become different and do otherwise, and believe my promise. And before him John is named a preacher of repentance, but “for the remission of sins,” i. e. John was to accuse all, and prove that they were sinners, that they might know what they were before God, and might acknowledge that they were lost men, and might thus be prepared for the Lord, to receive grace, and to expect and accept from him the remission of sins. Thus Christ also (Luke 24:47) himself says: “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.”

But when the Law alone, without the co-operation of the Gospel, exercises this, its office is death and hell, and man must despair, as Saul and Judas;² just as St. Paul (Rom. 7:10) says that through sin the Law killeth. On the contrary, the Gospel brings consolation and remission, not only in one way, but through the Word and sacraments and the like, as we will hear afterward that “with the Lord is plenteous redemption,” as Ps. 130: says, against the dreadful captivity of sin.

² Apology, xii., 8, p. 168.

We will next contrast the false repentance of the sophists with true repentance, in order that both may be the better understood.

Of the False Repentance of the Papists

It was impossible that they should teach correctly concerning repentance, since they did not rightly know what sins are. For, as has been shown above,³ they do not believe aright concerning original sin, but say that the natural powers of man have remained unimpaired and incorrupt; that reason can teach aright, and the will can accordingly do aright [those things which are taught], that God certainly gives his grace when a man does only as much as is in him, according to his free will.

³ See above, Part III., i., 4 sq., p. 310.

From this dogma it follows that they must repent only for actual sins, such as wicked thoughts that are acquiesced in (for wicked emotion [concupiscence, vicious feelings and inclinations], lust and improper dispositions [according to them] are not sins), and for wicked words and deeds, which the free will could readily have omitted. And to such repentance they fix three parts, contrition, confession and satisfaction, with this consolation p. 325 and promise added: If man truly repent, confess, render satisfaction, he thereby merits forgiveness, and settles for his sins with God. Thus in repentance men were instructed to repose confidence in their own works. Hence the expression originated, which was employed in the pulpit when public absolution was announced to the people: “Prolong, O God, my life, until I shall make satisfaction for my sins and amend my life.”

Here neither Christ nor faith was mentioned; but they hoped, by their own works, to overcome and efface sins before God. And with this intention we became priests and monks, that we might array ourselves against sin.

As to contrition, the state of the case was this: Since no one could retain all his sins in memory (especially as committed through an entire year), they inserted this provision, viz. that if the remembrance of a concealed sin should perhaps return, this also should be repented of and confessed, etc. Meanwhile they were commended to the grace of God.

Since also no one could know how great the contrition ought to be which would be sufficient before God, they gave this consolation: He who could not have contrition, at least ought to have attrition, which I may call a half or beginning of contrition. Both these terms every one of them has understood, and now knows, as little as I.¹ Such attrition is reckoned as contrition to those going to confession.

¹ Apology, chap. (vi.): 81, p. 201.

And when any one said that he could not have contrition, or could not lament his sins (as might have occurred in illicit love or the desire for revenge, etc.), they asked whether he did not wish or desire to lament. When one would reply Yes (for who, save the devil himself, would here say No?), they accepted this as contrition, and forgave him his sins on account of this good work of his [which they adorned with the name of contrition]. Here they cite the example of Bernard, etc.

Here we see how blind reason, in matters pertaining to God, gropes about, and, according to its own imagination, seeks for consolation in its own works, and cannot think of Christ and faith. But if it be considered in the light, this contrition is a manufactured and fictitious thought [or imagination], derived from man’s own powers, without faith and without the knowledge of Christ. And in it, sometimes the poor sinner, when he reflected upon his own lust and desire for revenge, would have laughed, rather than wept, except one who either has been struck by [the lightning of] the Law, or has been vainly vexed by the devil with a sorrowful spirit. Such contrition is certainly mere hypocrisy, and has not mortified p. 326 the lust for sins [flames of lust]; for they must grieve, even though, if it had been free to them, they would have preferred to sin.

With confession it stood thus: Every one must enumerate all his sins (which is an impossible thing). This was a great torment. But if any one had forgotten some sins, he would be absolved on the condition that if they would occur to him he must still confess them. Thereby he could never know whether he had confessed sufficiently, or when the confession would ever have an end. Yet they were pointed to their own works, and comforted thus: The more perfectly one confesses, and the more he is ashamed of himself and blames himself to the priest, the sooner and better he renders satisfaction for his sins; for such humility certainly earns grace before God.

Here there was no faith or Christ, and the virtue of the absolution was not declared to him, but upon the enumeration of sins and the shame depended the consolation. What torture, rascality and idolatry such confession has produced cannot be enumerated.

But the satisfaction is most indefinite [involved] of all. For no man could know how much to render for a single sin, to say nothing for all. Here they have resorted to the device of a small satisfaction, which could indeed be rendered, as five Paternosters, a day’s fast, etc.; for the rest of the repentance they point to purgatory.

Here also there was extreme misery. For some thought that they would get out of purgatory, because, according to the old canons, seven years’ repentance belongs to a single mortal sin. Nevertheless confidence was placed upon our work of satisfaction, and if the satisfaction could have been perfect, confidence would have been placed in it entirely, and neither faith nor Christ would have been of use. But this was impossible. If any one had repented in that way for a hundred years, he would still not have known whether he had repented enough. This is always to repent and never to come to repentance.

Here now the holy See at Rome came to the aid of the poor Church, and invented indulgences, whereby it remitted and waived [expiation or] satisfaction, first, for a single year, for seven years, for a hundred years, and distributed them among the cardinals and bishops, so that one could grant indulgence for a hundred years, and another for a hundred days. But it reserved to itself alone the power to waive all the satisfaction.

Since now this began to yield money, and the traffic in bulls was profitable, it devised a golden jubilee year [a truly gold-bearing year], and fixed it at Rome. It called this the remission of all punishment and guilt. Thither the people ran, because p. 327 every one wished to be freed from a grievous, insupportable burden. This was to find and raise the treasures of the earth.

Immediately the Pope pressed still further, and multiplied the golden years one upon another. But the more he devoured money, the wider did his jaws open. Therefore by his legates these years were published [everywhere] in the countries, until all churches and houses were full of the jubilee. At length he resorted to purgatory among the dead, first by establishing masses and vigils, afterwards by indulgences and a golden year, and finally souls became so cheap that he released one for a farthing.

Nevertheless even this is not half. For although the Pope taught men to depend upon, and trust in, these indulgences for salvation, yet he rendered the whole matter again uncertain. For in his bulls he puts it thus: He who wishes to become participant in the indulgences of a year of jubilee, ought to be contrite, and to have confessed, and to pay money. Moreover we have heard above that this contrition and confession are with them uncertain and hypocrisy. Likewise also no one knew what soul was in purgatory, and if some were therein, no one knew who had repented and confessed aright. Therefore he took the coveted money, and comforted them meanwhile with his power and indulgence, and pointed them again to their uncertain work.

If now there were some who did not regard themselves guilty of such actual sins in thoughts, words and works (as I and my like, in monasteries and chapters, wished to be monks and priests, and by fasting, watching, praying, saying Mass, harsh clothing and hard beds to protect ourselves from evil spirits, and with heart and soul to be holy), yet the hereditary, inborn evil sometimes in sleep did that (as also St. Augustine and Jerome among others confess) which is its nature. Nevertheless each one was regarded by the others as so holy, as we taught, without sin and full of good works, that we could communicate and sell our good works to others, as being superfluous to us for heaven. This is indeed true, and seals, letters and illustrations are at hand.

Such as these did not need repentance. For of what would they repent, as they had not acquiesced in the wicked thoughts? What would they confess [concerning words not uttered], as they had avoided the expression? For what should they render satisfaction, as they were so guiltless of any deed that they could even sell their superfluous righteousness to other poor sinners? Such saints were also the Pharisees and Scribes in the time of Christ.

Here comes the fiery angel, St. John, the true preacher of p. 328 repentance, and strikes with one bolt all of both classes [those selling and those buying works] in one mass, and says: “Repent” (Matt. 3:2). Thus the former imagine: We nevertheless have repented. The latter: We need no repentance. John says: Repent ye all, for ye are false penitents; so are these false saints, and all of both classes need the forgiveness of sins, because ye all still know not what true sin is, to be silent as to your obligation to repent and escape from it. For no one of you is good; you are full of unbelief, stupidity and ignorance of God and God’s will. For here he is present: “Of whose fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16), and without him no man can be just before God. Wherefore if you wish to repent, repent aright; your repentance is nothing. And you hypocrites, who do not need repentance, you generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? etc. (Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7).

In the same way Paul also preaches (Rom. 3:10–12): “There is none righteous, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, there is none that doeth good, no not one; they are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable.” And Acts 17:30: “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” “All men,” he says; no one excepted who is a man. This repentance teaches us to discern sin, viz. that we are altogether lost, and that with us, both within and without, there is nothing good, and that we ought absolutely to become other and new men.

This repentance is not partial and beggarly [incomplete], such as is that for actual sins, nor is it even as uncertain as that. For it does not dispute as to whether there is or is not sin, but it overthrows everything in a mass, and affirms that with respect to us, all is nothing but sin. For why do we wish longer to investigate, to divide or distinguish? Therefore, this contrition also is not uncertain. For nothing remains there by which we can think of any good thing to pay for sin, but we only despair concerning all things that we are, that we think, that we speak and do, etc.

Likewise the confession also cannot be false, uncertain or partial. For he who confesses that all in him is nothing but sin, comprehends all sins, excludes none, forgets none. So also the satisfaction cannot be uncertain, because it is not an uncertain, sinful work of ours, but it is the suffering and blood of the innocent Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

Of this repentance John preaches; and afterwards Christ in the Gospel, and we also. By this preaching of repentance we dash to the ground the Pope and everything that is built upon our good works. For all are built upon a rotten and vain p. 329 foundation, which is called a good work or law, even though no good work be there, but only wicked works, and no one does the Law (as Christ, John 7:19, says), but all transgress it. Therefore the building is nothing but falsehood and hypocrisy, even [in the part] where it is most holy and beautiful.

This repentance in Christians continues until death, because, through the entire life, it contends with sin remaining in the flesh, as Paul (Rom. 7:14–25) shows, that he wars with the law in his members, etc.; and this not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Ghost that follows the remission of sins. This gift daily cleanses and purges the remaining sins, and works so as to render man pure and holy. Hereof the Pope, the theologians, the jurists, and every other man know nothing [from their own reason], but it is a doctrine from heaven revealed through the Gospel, and is proclaimed as heresy by the godless saints.

But if certain sectarists would arise, some of whom are perhaps already present, and in the time of the insurrection of the peasants came to my view, holding that all those who have once received the Spirit or the forgiveness of sins, or have become believers, even though they would afterwards sin, would still remain in the faith, and sin would not injure them, and cry thus: “Do whatever you please; if you believe, it is all nothing; faith blots out all sins,”¹ etc.—They say, besides, that if any one sins after he has received faith and the Spirit, he never truly had the Spirit and faith. I have seen and heard of many men so insane, and I fear that such a devil is still remaining in some.—

¹ Antinomians; cf. Form. of Con., v.: 15, p. 636.

If, therefore, I say, such persons would hereafter also arise, it is necessary to know and teach that if saints who still have and feel original sin, and also daily repent, and strive with it, fall in some way into manifest sins, as David into adultery, murder and blasphemy, faith and the Holy Ghost are then absent from them [they cast out faith and the Holy Ghost]. For the Holy Ghost does not permit sin to have dominion, to gain the upper hand so as to be completed, but represses and restrains it so that it must not do what it wishes. But if it do what it wishes, the Holy Ghost and faith are not there present. For St. John says (1 Ep. 3:9): “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, . . . . and he cannot sin.” And yet that is also the truth which the same St. John says (1 Ep. 1:8): “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

p. 330 IV. Of the Gospel

We will now return to the Gospel, which not merely in one way gives us counsel and aid against sin; for God is super-abundantly rich in his grace. First, through the spoken Word by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world; which is the peculiar office of the Gospel. Secondly, through baptism. Thirdly, through the holy sacrament of the altar. Fourthly, through the power of the keys, and also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren, Matt. 18:20: “Where two or three are gathered together,” etc.

p. 330 V. Of Baptism

Baptism is nothing else than the Word of God [with mer- sion] in the water, commanded by his institution, or as Paul says: “A washing in the Word;” just as Augustine also says: “The Word comes to the element, and it becomes a sacrament.” Therefore, we do not hold with Thomas and the monastic preachers or Dominicans, who forget the Word (God’s institution) and say that God has imparted to the water a spiritual power, which, through the water, washes away sin. Nor do we agree with Scotus and the Barefooted monks [Minorites or Franciscan monks], who teach that, by the assistance of the divine will, baptism washes away sins; and that this ablution occurs only through the will of God, and by no means through the Word and water.

Of the baptism of children, we hold that children ought to be baptized. For they belong to the promised redemption made through Christ, and the Church should administer it to them.

p. 330 VI. Of the Sacrament of the Altar

Of the sacrament of the altar we hold that bread and wine in the Supper are the true body and blood of Christ, and are given and received not only by the godly, but also by wicked Christians.

And that not only one form is to be given. For we do not need that high art which teaches us that under the one form p. 331 there is as much as under both, as the sophists and Council of Constance teach.

Parallel passages: ART. IV.: Apology iv., 48 sq., chap. (iii.), 62; Formula of Concord, Ep. and Sol. Dec., v.

Parallel passages: ART. V.: Augsburg Confession, ix.; Apology, ix.; Small Catechism, 361; Large Catechism, 384, 485; Formula of Concord, Ep. xii., 6 sq.; Sol. Dec., xii., 11 sq.

Parallel passages: ART. VI.: Augsburg Confession, x., xxii. Apology, x., xxii.; Small Catechism, 365; Large Catechism, 499; Formula of Concord, Epit. and Sol. Dec., vii.

For although it may perhaps be true that there is as much under one as under both, yet the one form is not the entire ordinance and institution established and commanded by Christ. And we especially condemn, and in God’s name execrate, those who not only omit both forms, but also tyrannically prohibit, condemn and blaspheme them as heresy, and so exalt themselves against and above Christ, our Lord and God, etc.

We care nothing about the sophistical subtlety concerning transubstantiation, by which they teach that bread and wine leave or lose their own natural substance, and remain only the appearance and color of bread, and not true bread. For it agrees best with Holy Scripture that the bread be and remain there, as Paul himself calls it (1 Cor. 10:16): “The bread which we break.” And (1 Cor. 11:28): “Let him so eat of that bread.”

p. 331 VII. Of the Keys

The keys are an office and power given by Christ to the Church for binding and loosing sins, not only such as are gross and well known, but also such as are subtle, hidden, and known only to God, as it is written in Ps. 19:13: “Who can understand his errors?” And in Rom. 7:25, St. Paul complains that with the flesh he serves the law of sin. For it is not in our power, but belongs to God alone, to judge what, how great and how many are sins, as it is written in Ps. 144 (143:2): “Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” And Paul (1 Cor. 4:4) says: “For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified?”

p. 331 VIII. Of Confession

Since absolution or the power of the keys is also a consolation and aid against sin and a bad conscience, appointed by Christ himself in the Gospel, Confession or absolution ought by no means to be abolished in the Church, especially on account of [tender and] timid consciences and uncultivated youth, in order that they may be heard, and instructed in Christian doctrine.

But the enumeration of sins ought to be free to every one, as to what he wishes to enumerate or not to enumerate. For p. 332 as long as we are in the flesh, we will not lie when we say: “I am a poor man, full of sins.” Rom. 7:23: “I see another law in my members,” etc. For since private absolution arises from the office of the keys, it should not be neglected, but must be esteemed of the greatest worth, just as all other offices also of the Christian Church.

Parallel passages: ART. VII.: Augsburg Confession, Art. xxvii.; Apology, Arts. xi., xii., 39 sq.; xxviii.; Smalcald Articles, 333, 24, 68.

Parallel passages: ART. VIII.: Augsburg Confession, Arts. xi., xxv.; Apology, Art. xi., xii., chap. (vi.); Smalcald Articles, Part II., Art. iii., § 19 Small Catechism, 363.

And in those things which concern the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants his Spirit or grace to no one, except through or with the preceding outward Word. Thereby we are protected against enthusiasts, i. e. spirits who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word, and accordingly judge Scripture or the spoken Word, and explain and stretch it at their pleasure, as Münzer did, and many still do at the present day; they wish to be acute judges between the Spirit and the letter, and yet know not what they say or propose. Because the Papacy also is nothing but enthusiasm, by which the Pope boasts that all laws exist in the shrine of his heart, and whatever he decides and commands in his churches is spirit and law, even though it be above and contrary to Scripture and the spoken Word.

All this is the old devil and old serpent, who also converted Adam and Eve into enthusiasts, and led them from the outward Word of God to spiritualism and self-conceit, and nevertheless he effected this through other outward words. Just so our enthusiasts [at the present day] condemn the outward Word, and nevertheless they themselves are not silent, but they fill the world with their pratings and writings, as though indeed the Spirit were unable to come through the writings and spoken word of apostles, but he must come through their writings and words. Why therefore do not they also omit their own sermons and writings, until the Spirit himself come to men, without their writings and before them, as they boast that they have received the Spirit without the preaching of the Scriptures? But of these matters there is not time now to dispute at greater length; we have heretofore paid sufficient attention to this subject.¹

¹ E. g. Luther’s Exposition of Gospel of John, Luther’s Works, Walch’s ed., vii., p. 1140 sq., 2225, 2327; Seckendorf’s History, 3:166.

For even those who believe before baptism, or become believing in baptism, believe through the outward Word that precedes, as the adults, who have come to reason, must first have heard: “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved,” even though they are at first unbelieving, and receive the Spirit and baptism ten years afterwards. Cornelius (Acts 10: sqq.) had heard long before among the Jews of the coming Messiah, through whom he was righteous before God, and in such faith p. 333 his prayers and alms were acceptable to God (as Luke calls him devout and fearing God), and without such preceding Word and hearing could not have believed or been righteous. But St. Peter had to reveal to him that the Messiah (in whom, as one that was to come, he had hitherto believed) had already come, and his faith in the coming Messiah did not hold him captive among the hardened and unbelieving Jews, but he knew that he was now to be saved by a present Messiah, and he neither denied nor persecuted him, as did the Jews.

In a word, enthusiasm inheres in Adam and his children, from the beginning to the end of the world; its poison has been implanted and infused into them by the old dragon, and is the origin, power and strength of all heresy, especially of that of the Papacy and Mahomet. Therefore in regard to this we ought and must constantly maintain that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the sacraments, and that whatever without the Word and sacraments is extolled as spirit is the devil himself. For God also wished to appear to Moses through the burning bush and spoken Word; and no prophet, neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments or spoken Word. Neither was John the Baptist conceived without the preceding word of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his mother’s womb without the voice of Mary. And Peter says (2 Ep. 1:21): “The prophecy came not by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Without the outward Word they were not holy, neither as unholy did the Holy Ghost move them to speak; but they were holy Peter says, when the Holy Ghost spake through them.

p. 333 IX. Of Excommunication

The greater excommunication, as the Pope calls it, we regard only as a civil penalty, and not pertaining to us ministers of the Church. But the less is true Christian excommunication, which prohibits manifest and obstinate sinners from the sacrament and other communion of the Church until they are reformed and avoid sin. And ministers ought not to confound this ecclesiastical punishment or excommunication with civil penalties.

p. 333 X. Of Ordination and the Call

If the bishops were true bishops, and would devote themselves to the Church and the Gospel, they might be allowed, p. 334 for the sake of love and unity, and not from necessity, to ordain and confirm us and our preachers; nevertheless, under the condition that all masks and phantoms [deceptions, absurdities and appearances] of unchristian nature and display be laid aside. Yet because they neither are nor wish to be true bishops, but worldly lords and princes, who will neither preach, nor teach, nor baptize, nor administer the Lord’s Supper, nor perform any work or office of the Church, but persecute and condemn those who being called discharge this duty; for their sake the Church ought not to remain without ministers.

Parallel passages: ART. IX.: Augsburg Confession, xxviii.; Apology xxviii.: 13, 14; Smalcald Articles, 342:74.

Parallel passages: ART. X.: Augsburg Confession, v., xiv.; Apology xiv.; Smalcald Articles, 340 sqq.; Small Catechism, 369 sqq.

Therefore, as the ancient examples of the Church and the Fathers teach us, we ourselves will and ought to ordain suitable persons to this office; and (even according to their own laws) they have not the right to forbid or prevent us. For their laws say that those ordained even by heretics should be regarded and remain as ordained, as St. Jerome writes of the Church at Alexandria, that at first it was governed in common by the bishops through the priests and preachers.

p. 334 XI. Of the Marriage of Priests

In prohibiting marriage, and burdening the divine order of priests with perpetual celibacy, they have neither reason nor right, but have treated it as antichristian, tyrannical, sceptical scoundrels, and have afforded occasion for all kinds of horrible, abominable sins of impurity, in which they still wallow. But just as the power has been given neither to us nor to them to make a woman out of a man, or man out of a woman, or to annihilate both, so also it has not been given them; so also power has not been given them to sunder and separate such creatures of God, or to forbid them from living honorably in marriage with one another. Therefore we are unwilling to assent to their abominable celibacy, nor will we even tolerate it, but we wish to have marriage free as God has instituted and appointed it, and we wish neither to rescind nor hinder his work; for Paul says that this prohibition of marriage is a doctrine of devils (1 Tim. 4: sqq.).

p. 334 XII. Of the Church

We do not acknowledge them as the Church, and they are not [because in truth they are not the Church]; we also will p. 335 not listen to those things which, under the name of Church, they either enjoin or forbid. For, thank God, to-day a child seven years old knows what the Church is, viz. saints, believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd. For the children repeat: “I believe in one holy [Catholic or] Christian Church.” This holiness does not consist in an alb, a vnsure, a long gown and other of their ceremonies devised by them beyond Holy Scripture, but consists in the Word of God and true faith.

Parallel passages: ART. XI.: Augsburg Confession, xxiii.; Apology xiii.; Large Catechism, 424 sq.

Parallel passages: ART. XII.: Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, Augsburg Confession, vii., xv.; Apology, vii.; Small Catechism, 358; Large Catechism, 456 sqq.; Formula of Concord, Sol. Dec., x., 19 sq.

p. 335 XIII. How Man Is Justified before God, and of Good Works

What I have hitherto and constantly taught concerning this I cannot in the least change, viz. that by faith (as St. Peter says) we acquire a new and clean heart, and God accounts, and will account us righteous and holy, for the sake of Christ, our Mediator. And although sin in the flesh has not been altogether removed and become dead, yet he will not punish or regard this.

For good works follow this faith, renewal and forgiveness of sins. And that in them which is still sinful and imperfect is not accounted as sin and defect, even for Christ’s sake; but the entire man, both as to his person and his works, is and is called just and holy, from pure grace and mercy, shed upon us [unfolded] and displayed in Christ. Wherefore we cannot boast of our many merits and works, if they be viewed apart from grace and mercy, but as it is written, (1 Cor. 1:31): “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,” viz. that he has a gracious God. For thus all is well. We say besides that if good works do not follow, faith is false and not true.

p. 335 XIV. Of Monastic Vows

As monastic vows directly conflict with the first chief article,¹ they ought to be absolutely abolished. For it is of them that Christ says (Matt. 24:5, sqq.): “I am Christ,” etc. For he who makes a vow to live in a monastery believes that he will enter upon a mode of life holier than the ordinary Christians, and by his own works wishes to earn heaven not p. 336 only for himself, but also for others; this is to leny Christ. And they boast from their St. Thomas that a monastic vow is on an equality with baptism.¹ This is blasphemy against God.

¹ See Smalcald Articles, Part II., Art. i., § 1.

Parallel passages: ART. XIII.: Augsburg Confession, iv., vl., xx.; Apology, ii. (iii.), xx.; Smalcald Articles, Part II., Art. i.; Formula of Concord, Epit. and Sol. Dec., iii., iv.

Parallel passages: ART. XIV.: Augsburg Confession, xxvii.; Apology, xvi., xxvii.; Smalcald Articles, Part II., Art. iii. Cf. Luther: “De Votis Monasticis,” Wittenberg, 1521.

¹ Apology, xxvii., § 20. Luther wrote on the margin of the Apology: ‘Blasphemy of St. Thomas.”

p. 336 XV. Of Human Traditions

The declaration of the Papists that human traditions serve for the remission of sins, or merit salvation, is altogether unchristian and condemned, as Christ says (Matt. 15:9): “In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” And Tit. 1:14: “That turn from the truth.” Also their declaration that it is a mortal sin if one do not observe these statutes, is not right.

These are the articles on which I must stand; and if God so will I shall stand even to my death. And I do not know how to change or to concede anything in them. If any one else will concede anything, he will do it at the expense of his conscience.

Lastly, the Pope’s bundle of impostures still remains, concerning foolish and childish articles, as the dedication of churches, the baptism of bells, the baptism of the altar-stone, with its godfathers to pray and offer gifts. Such baptism is administered to the reproach and mockery of holy baptism, and should not be tolerated. Afterwards, concerning the consecration of wax tapers, palm-branches, cakes, spices, oats, etc., which nevertheless cannot be called consecrations, but are nothing but mockery and fraud. There are infinite other such deceptions, which we commit to their god, and which may be adored by them, until they are weary of them. We will not be confused by [ought to have nothing to do with] them.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER subscribed.

DR. JUSTUS JONAS, Rector, subscribed.

DR. JOHN BUGENHAGEN, POMERANUS subscribed.

DR. CASPAR CREUTZIGER subscribed.

Niclas Amsdorf of Magdeburg subscribed.

George Spalatine of Altenburg subscribed.

I, PHILIP MELANCHTHON, approve the above articles as right and Christian. But of the Pope, I hold that if he would allow the Gospel, for the sake of the peace and general unity of Christians, who are now under

Parallel passages: Augsburg Confession, xv., xxvi.; Apology, vii., 30 sq.; xv.; Formula of Concord, Epitome and Sol. Dec., x.