So also he rules out of the sphere of the confession the violation of matters of purely ecclesiastical regulation. Nothing is to be regarded a sin except that which is a violation of one of the Ten Commandments. To make that a sin which God's law does not make sin, is only the next step to ecclesiastical regulations to the level of divine commands, we lower divine commands to the level of ecclesiastical regulations. Even Private Confession, therefore, useful as it is, when properly understood and practised, since it rests after all upon ecclesiastical rule, is so little to be urged as a matter of necessity that Luther here defends the suggestion of Gerson, that occasionally one should go to the Lord's Supper without having made confession, in order thereby to testify that it is in God's mercy and His promise that we trust, rather than in the value of any particular outward observance.

The treatment of "Reserved Cases," with which this tract ends, shows the moderation and caution with which Luther is moving, but, at the same time, how the new wine is working in the old bottles, which soon must break. The principle of "the reservation of cases" he discusses in his Address to the German Nobility.[11] It is critical also in Augsburg Confession, Article XXVIII, 2, 41; Apology of the Augsburg Confession, English Translation, pp. 181, 212. The Roman Catholic dogma is officially presented in the Decrees of Trent, Session XIV, Chapter 7,[12] viz., "that certain more atrocious and more heinous crimes be absolved not by all priests, but only by the highest priests." Thus the power is centralized in the pope, and is delegated for exercise in ordinary cases to each particular parish-priest within the limits by which he is circumscribed, but no farther.[13] The contrast is between delegated and reserved rights. The Protestant principle is that all the power of the Church is in the Word of God which it administers; that wherever all the Word is, there also is all the power of the Church; and hence that, according to divine tight, all pastors have equal authority. For this reason, Luther here declares that in regard to secret sins, i. e., those known only to God and the penitent, no reservation whatever is to be admitted. But there is still a distinction which he is ready to concede. It has to do with public offences where scandal has been given. As "the more flagrant and more heinous crimes," If public, have to do with a wider circle than the members of a particular parish, the reparation for the offence should be as extensive as the scandal which it has created. In the Apology, Melanchthon claims that such reservation should be limited to the ecclesiastical penalties to be inflicted, but that it had not been Intended to comprise also the guilt involved; it was a reservatio poenae, but not a reservatio culpae.[14] Luther suggests the same here, but with more than usual caution.

In the same spirit as in his Treatise on Baptism, he protests against the numerous vows, the binding force of which was a constant subject of treatment in pastoral dealing with souls. The multiplication of vows had caused a depredation of the one all-embracing vow of baptism. Nevertheless the pope's right to give a dispensation he regards as limited entirely to such matters as those concerning which God's Word has given no command. With matters which concern only the relation of the individual to God, the Pope's authority is of no avail.

Literature.—Chemnitz, Martin, Examin Concilii Tridentini, 1578

(Preuss edition), 441-456. Steitz, G. E., Die Privatbeichte und

Privatabsolution d. luth. Kirche aus d. Quellen des XVI. Jahrh.,

1854. Pfeisterrer, G. F. Luthers Lehre von der Beichte, 1857.

Klieftoth, Th. Lit. Abhandlungen, 2: Die Beichte und

Absolution, 1856. Fischer, E., Zur Geschichte der evangelischen

Beichte, 2 vols., 1902-1903. Rietschel, G., Lehrbuch der

Liturgik, vol 2, particularly secs. 44, 45, Luthers Affassung

der Beichte and Luthers Auffassung von der Absolution.

Koestlin, Julius, Luther's Theology (English Translation),

I:357, 360, 400. See also Smalcald Articles, Book of Concord

(English Translation), 326, 899.

Henry E. Jacobs.

Mount Airy, Philadelphia.

FOOTNOTES

[1] 1. Decem Praecepta Wittebergenai praedicata populo, 1518, Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat., I, 218. A series of sermons entering into almost minute analyses of sins.

2. Die zehen Gebote Gottes mit einer kurzen Auslegung ihre Erfüllung und Uebertretung, Weimar Ed., I, 247 ff; Erl. Ed., XXXVI, 145-154. Reduces contents of the sermons to a few pages. A brief handbook for use in the confessional first printed in tabular form, giving a very condensed exposition of each commandment, followed by a catalogue of sins prohibited and virtues enjoined. Written a month before the publication of the Theses, and published the next year.

3. Instructio pro confessione peccatorum abbrevianda secundum decalogum. Latin form of the above, published shortly after the original. Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat., XII, 229-230.

4. Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soll. Weimar Ed., II, 57 ff.; Erl. Ed., XXI, 245-253 prepared by request of Spalatin, first in Latin, and then translated, Köstlin thinks by Spalatin, into German. Published 1518. Contains eight introductory propositions, followed by lists of sins against each commandment.

5. Confitendi Ratio, published in 1520, a re-elaboration by Luther of the preceding German treatise. Weimar Ed., VI, 159-169; Erl. Ed., IV, 152-170; St. Louis Ed., XIX, 786-806.

[2] "Ja, mein ganzes Leben, und alles, das ich thu, handel, red und gedenk, ist also gethan, das es todlich und vordammlich ist." These are almost the words of the public confessional prayer in the Kirchenbuch of the General Council of the Lutheran Church in America: "Also dans alle meine Natur und Wesensträflich und verdammlich ist."

[3] Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., IV, 89 aq. "Si enim suum malum sentiret, infernum sentiret, nam infernum in se ipso habet." See this volume, p. 115f.

[4] Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat., XIX, 1-154.

[5] Erl. Ed. (2d ed.), XI, 173.

[6] See the opening paragraph of this treatise.

[7] Erl. Ed., XI, 166, XXIX, 352-359. Cf. with this, the still fuller treatment by Chemnitz, Examin Concilii Tridentini (Preuss edition), 441-453.

[8] Babylonian Captivity, Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., V, 82.

[9] Cf. Augsburg Confession, Art. XXV; Apology in Book of Concord, English Translation, pp. 133, 173, 185, 188, 196; Smalcald Articles, 330-339; Small Catechism, 371.

[10] Sermon vom Sacrament der Busse, Erl. Ed., XX, 190. For definition of "mortal and venial," see Introduction to XCV Theses, above, p. 19.

[11] See Vol. II. of this edition.

[12] Deninger, Enchridion Symbolorum, soc. 782; Sceaff's Creeds of Christendom.

[13] "As though the Word of God cannot forgive sins, except where power derived from the Pope assist it." Chemnitz, Examen Concilii Tridentini (Preuss ed.), p. 456.

[14] Apology, p. 212; "There is a reservation of canonical punishments; there is not a reservation of guilt before God in those who are truly converted."

A DISCUSSION OF CONFESSION

(CONFITENDI RATIO)

1520

FIRST

[Sidenote: Need of Faith]

In this our age, the consciences of almost all have been led astray by human doctrines into a false trust in their own righteousness and their own works, and knowledge about faith and trust in God has almost ceased. Therefore, for him who is about to go to confession, it is before all things necessary that he should not place his trust in his confession—either the confession which he is about to make or the confession which he has made—but that, with complete fulness of faith, he put his trust only in the most gracious promise of God; to wit, he must be altogether certain that He, Who has promised pardon to the man who shall confess his sins, will most faithfully fulfil His promise. For we are to glory, not because we confess, but because He has promised pardon to those who do confess; that is, not because of the worthiness or sufficiency of our confession (for there is no such worthiness or sufficiency), but because of the truth and certitude of His promise, as says the xxiv. Psalm: "For Thy Name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity." [Ps. 25:35] It does not say, "for my sake," or "for my worthiness' sake," or "for my name's sake," but "for Thy Name's sake." So it is evident that the work of confession is nothing else than an occasion by which God is called to the fulfilment of His own promise, or by which we are trained to believe that we shall without doubt obtain the promise. It is just as if we were to say: "Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy Name give glory, [Ps. 115:1] and rejoice, not because we have blessed Thee, but because Thou hast blessed us, as Thou sayest by Ezekiel." [Ezek. 20:44] Let this be the manner of our confession, that he who glories may glory in the Lord, and may not commend himself, but may glorify the grace of God; and it shall come to pass that "confession and majesty shall be the work of God." [1] Psalm cxi [Ps. 111:3].

SECOND

[Sidenote: God's Promises]