Baptism, however, which we have applied to the whole of life, will truly be a sufficient substitute for all the sacraments we might need as long as we live. And the bread is truly the sacrament of the dying; for in it we commemorate the passing of Christ out of this world, that we may imitate Him. Thus we may apportion these two sacraments as follows: baptism belongs to the beginning and the entire course of life, the bread belongs to the end and to death. And the Christian should use them both as long as he is in this poor body, until, fully baptised and strengthened, he passes out of this world and is born unto the new life of eternity, to eat with Christ in the Kingdom of His Father, as He promised at the Last Supper,--"Amen I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." [Matt. 26:29] Thus He seems clearly to have instituted the sacrament of the bread with a view to our entrance into the life to come. Then, when the meaning[197] of both sacraments is fulfilled, baptism and bread will cease.

[Sidenote: Conclusion]

Herewith I conclude this prelude, and freely and gladly offer it to all pious souls who desire to know the genuine sense of the Scriptures and the proper use of the sacraments. For it is a gift of no mean importance, to know the things that are given us, as it is said in I Corinthians ii [1 Cor. 2:12], and what use we ought to make of them. Endowed with this spiritual judgment, we shall not mistakenly rely on that which does not belong here. These two things our theologians never taught us, nay, methinks they took particular pains to conceal them from us. If I have not taught them, I certainly did not conceal them, and have given occasion to others to think out something better. It has at least been my endeavor to set forth these two things. Nevertheless, not all can do all things[198]. To the godless, on the other hand, and those who in obstinate tyranny force on us their own teachings instead of God's, I confidently and freely oppose these pages, utterly indifferent to their senseless fury. Yet I wish even them a sound mind, and do not despise their efforts, but only distinguish them from such as are sound and truly Christian.

I hear a rumor of new bulls and papal maledictions sent out against me, in which I am urged to recant or be declared a heretic[199]. If that is true, I desire this book to be a portion of the recantation I shall make; so that these tyrants may not complain of having had their pains for nothing. The remainder I will publish ere long, and it will, please Christ, be such as the Roman See has hitherto neither seen nor heard. I shall give ample proof of my obedience[200]. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Why doth that impious Herod fear When told that Christ the King is near? He takes not earthly realms away, Who gives the realms that ne'er decay.[201]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Born at Steinheim, near Paderborn, in Westphalia; a proofreader in Melchior Lotter's printing-house at Leipzig, with whose oldest son he went to Wittenberg in 1519; professor of poetry at the university; rector of the same, 1525; one of Luther's staunchest supporters; rector of the school at Lunenberg, 1532 until his death in 1540. Compare Enders, Luther's Briewechsel, II, 490; Tschackert, op. cit., 203, and literature in Clemen, I, 426.

[2] Resolutiones disputatio num de indulgentiarum Virtute, 1518; others think he refers to the Sermon von Ablass und Gnade, of the same year.

[3] Sylvester Prierias and the Dominicans. Comp. Kostlin-Kawerau, Luther, I, 189 ff.

[4] Resolutiones super prop, xiii., 1519.

[5] Comp. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. I, p. 392.

[6] Comp. Fr. Lepp, Schlagworter des Ref. zeitalters (Leipzig, 1908), p. 62.

[7] The Franciscan Augustin Alveld. See Introduction, and compare Lemmens, Pater Aug. v. Alveld (Freiburg, 1599).

[8] Isidore Isolani. See Introduction.

[9] Luther pokes fun at the use of revocatio with an objective genitive.

[10] See above, p. 58, and compare Preserved Smith, Luther's Correspondence, Vol. I, letter no. 265.

[11] Cf. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. I, p. 337. The title-page of Alveld's treatise contained twenty-six lines.

[12] A satiric reference to a section in Alveld's treatise, on the name of Jesus, which he spells IHSVH and brings proofs for this form from the three languages, mentioned. See Seckendor, Hist. Luth., lib. I, sect. 27, section lxx, add. ii.

[13] Alveld calls himself, on his title-page, Franciscanus regularis observantiae Sanctae Crucis. The Observantines were Franciscan monks of the stricter rule, who separated from the Conventuals in the XV. Century. See _Prot. Realencyklopadie^3, VI, 213 ff.

[14] In the Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament; see above, p. 9.

[15] The universities of Cologne and Louvain had ratified Eck's "victory" over Luther at the Leipzig Disputation. See Kostlin-Kawerau, I, 266, 298.

[16] De disputatione Lipsicensi, 1519.

[17] A venatione Luteriana Aegocerotis assertio, 1519.

[18] Some theologians--e. g., Cajetan and Durandus--doubted whether the Sacrament of Order was received by deacons; the Council of Trent decided against them.--Cath. Encyclop., IV, 650.

[19] For Luther's opinion of Aristotle see above, pp. 146 f.

[20] The Franciscans are meant. The allusion may be to the seraphic vision of St. Francis.

[21] See above, pp. 153 ff.

[22] A less lenient view was taken by Boniface Amerbach, writing to his brother Basil at Basle, October 20, 1520: "The good man (Luther) was not a little injured by the libel of a poor impostor, who, by pretending that Martin had recanted, brought back even those who had entered upon the way of truth to their former errors." See Smith, op. cit., I, no. 316.

[23] The present did not last very long; see below, p. 292.

[24] So called because of the withholding of the wine from the laity.

[25] Cf. 1 Tim. 3:16. See Kostlin, Theology of Luther (E. Tr.), I, 403; and below, pp. 258 f.

[26] The Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament, 1519.

[27] See page 174.

[28] See above, p. 10, note 1.

[29] Decretal. Greg., lib. Ill, tit. xli, cap. 17.

[30] Migne, XLIV, 699 f.

[31] Verklarung etlicher Artikel, 1520. Weimer Ed., VI, 80 11 ff.

[32] An allusion to his opponents' doctrine of the complete freedom of the will, which Luther denied. Compare his De servo arbitrio (1525). Weimar Ed., XVIII, 600 ff. He finds in their treatment of Scripture and of logic a practical expression of this doctrine of theirs.

[33] Luther humbly identifies himself with the erring priesthood,

[34] Alveld.

[35] The res sacramenti. The sacrament consisted of these two parts--(1) the sacramentum, or external sign, and (2) the res sacramenti, or the thing signified, the sacramental grace. Another distinction is that between (1) materia, or the external sign, and (2) forma, or the words of institution or administration. See below, p. 223.

[36] Cf. Weimar Ed., VI, 505, note 1.

[37] Cf. Vol. I, p. 325, and Realencyklopadie, X, 289, pp. 11 ff.

[38] Cf. Weimar Ed., VI, 506, note 2.

[39] Cf. W. Kohler, Luther unci die Kirchengeschichte (Erlangen, 1900), chap. viii.

[40] On the spiritual reception of the sacrament see H. Hering, Die Mystik Luthers (1879), pp. 173 f. Cf. above, p. 40.

[41] See above, p. 172.

[42] John Wyclif (Died 1384), the keenest of the mediaeval critics of the doctrine of transubstantiation.

[43] Pierre d'Ailly (Died 1425), who, with his master Occam, greatly influenced Luther.

[44] The Sentences of Peter Lombard, the text-book of medieval theology.

[45] In the dogma of transubstantiation (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215) the Church taught that the substance of bread and wine was changed into the substance of Christ's body and blood, while the accidents of the former--i. e., their attributes, such as form, color, taste, etc.--remained.

[46] Aquinas.

[47] Thus the Erlangen Ed.; the Weimar Ed. reads: an accidentia ibi sint sine substantia.

[48] See above, p. 20.

[49] i. e., the host, or wafer.

[50] Decretal. Greg. lib. I, tit. i, cap. I, section 3.

[51] See above, pp. 26 ff.

[52] See above, p. 137.

[54] Comp. Vol. I, pp. 295 ff.

[55] The Douay Version has here been followed.

[56] See Luther's own definition above, pp. 22 ff.

[57] See above, p. 181, note.

[58] See above, p. 198.

[59] See above, p. 195.

[60] See above, p. 10.

[61] See above, p. 187, note 1.

[62] See above, p. 188.

[63] See above, p. 182, note 2.

[64] On "fruits of the mass" compare Seeberg, Dogmengesch.., III, p. 472.

[65] Comp. Vol. I, p. 307.

[66] Comp. Vol. I, pp. 302 f.

[67] See above, pp. 22 f.

[68] See p. 23.

[69] See Vol. I, pp. 187 ff.

[70] See above, p. 196.

[71] That portion of the mass included between the Sanctus and the Lord's Prayer.

[72] See Vol. I, p. 312, and Prot. Realencyklop., XIV, 679, 41 ff.

[73] See above, p. 211, note 2.

[74] See above, p. 16.

[75] See Vol. I, p. 306.

[76] The offertory prayers in the mass. C. Prot. Realencyklopadie, XII, 720, 46 ff.

[77] The private mass does not require the presence of a congregation. Besides the celebrant there need be present only a ministrant. There is no music, the mass is only read. See Realencyklopadie, XII, 723.

[78] The res sacramenti. See above, p. 182.

[79] Masses celebrated by special request or in honor of certain mysteries (e. g., of the Holy Trinity, of the Holy Spirit, or of angels). Realencyklopadie, XII, 722.

[80] Pope Gregory I. See Realencyklopadie, XII, 681 f.

[81] See above, p. 196, note, and comp. Seeberg, Dogmengesch., Ill, 461 f.

[82] For letters of indulgence.

[83] E p. 130, 9 (Migne, XXII, 1115).

[84] Factions in the monastic orders.

[85] The reference may be to Blandina, who suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius.

[86] The three parts of penance; see below, p. 247.

[87] See Vol. I, p. 91.

[88] Peter Lombard, the fourth book of whose Sentences treats of the sacraments; see above, p. 188.

[89] See p. 182, note 2.

[90] The scholastics distinguished between the "material" and the "form" of a sacrament. In baptism, the material was the water; the form, the words, "I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

[91] Alexander, of Hales, denied the validity of baptism "in the name of Jesus," which Peter Lombard defended. Cf. Realencyklopadie, XIX, 412.

[92] Cf. Weimar Ed., I, 544, and Erlangen Ed., XLIV, 114 ff.

[93] See above, p. 203.