But Satan, though
he could not quench the power of baptism in little children,
nevertheless succeeded in quenching it in all adults, so that scarcely
anyone calls to mind their baptism and still fewer glory in it. So many
other ways have they discovered of ridding themselves of their sins and
of reaching heaven. The source of these false opinions is that
dangerous saying of St. Jerome's — either unhappily phrased or wrongly
interpreted — which he terms penance "the second plank" after the
shipwreck, as if baptism were not repentance. Accordingly, when men
fall into sin, they despair of "the first plank," which is the ship, as
though it had gone under, and fasten all their faith on the second
plank, that is, penance. This has produced those endless burdens of
vows, religious works, satisfactions, pilgrimages, indulgences, and
sects, from this has arisen that flood of books, questions, opinions
and human traditions, which the world cannot contain. So that this
tyranny plays worse havoc with the Church of God than any tyrant ever
did with the Jewish people or with any other nation under heaven.
[NOTE:
The word “penance” is derived from the same root as “repentance”, and
was originally used as a synonym for repentance. However, while the
Church of Rome defined penance as “contrition, confession, and
satisfaction” Luther defined it Biblically as “contrition (sorrow for
sin) coupled with faith in Christ” (which is still the Lutheran
definition of repentance).]
It was the duty of
the pontiffs to abate this evil, and with all diligence to lead
Christians to the true understanding of baptism, so that they might
know what manner of men they are and how Christians ought to live. But
instead of this, their work is now to lead the people as far astray as
possible from their baptism, to immerse all men in the flood of their
oppression, and to cause the people of Christ, as the prophet says, to
forget Him days without number. (Jeremiah 2:32) How unfortunate are all
who bear the name of pope today! Not only do they not know or do what
popes should do, but they are ignorant of what they ought to know and
do. They fulfill the saying in Isaiah 56: "His watchmen are all blind,
they are all ignorant. The shepherds themselves knew no understanding.
All have declined into their own way, every one after his own gain."
Now, the first
thing in baptism to be considered is the divine promise, which says: "
He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." This promise must be
set far above all the glitter of works, vows, religious orders, and
whatever man has added to it. For on it all our salvation depends. We
must consider this promise, [of forgiveness in Christ] exercise our
faith in it and never doubt that we are saved when we are baptized. For
unless this faith [assurance of forgiveness in Christ] be present or be
conferred in baptism, we gain
nothing from baptism. No, it becomes a hindrance to us, not only in the
moment of its reception, but all the days of our life. For such lack of
faith calls God's promise a lie, and this is the blackest of all sins.
When we try to exercise this faith, we shall at once perceive how
difficult it is to believe this promise of God. For our human weakness,
conscious of its sins, finds nothing more difficult to believe than
that it is saved or will be saved. Yet unless it does believe this, it
cannot be saved, because it does not believe the truth of God that
promises salvation [as a free gift].
This message should
have been persistently impressed upon the people and this promise
diligently repeated to them. Their baptism should have been called
again and again to their mind, and faith constantly awakened and
nourished. Just as the truth of this divine promise, once pronounced
over us, continues to death, so our faith in the same ought never to
cease, but to be nourished and strengthened until death, by the
continual remembrance of this promise made to us in baptism. Therefore,
when we rise from sins, or repent, we are only returning to the power
and the faith of baptism from which we fell, and find our way back to
the promise then made to us, from which we departed when we sinned. For
the truth of the promise once made remains steadfast, ever ready to
receive us back with open arms when we return. This, if I am not
mistaken, is the real meaning of the obscure saying, that baptism is
the beginning and foundation of all the sacraments, without which none
of the others may be received.
Therefore a
penitent will gain much by laying hold of the memory of his baptism
above all else, confidently calling to mind the promise of God, which
he has forsaken. He should plead it with His Lord, rejoicing that he is
baptized and therefore is yet within the fortress of salvation. He
should detest his wicked ingratitude in falling away from its faith and
truth. His soul will find wondrous comfort, and will be encouraged to
hope for mercy, when he considers that the divine promise which God
made to him and which cannot possibly lie, still stands unbroken and
unchanged, yes, unchangeable by any sins, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.
"If we do not believe, He continues to be faithful, He cannot deny
Himself." Yes, this truth of God will sustain him, so that if all else
should sink in ruins, this truth, if he believes it, will not fail him.
For in it he has a shield against all assaults of the enemy, an answer
to the sins that disturb his conscience, an antidote for the dread of
death and judgment, and a comfort in every temptation — namely, this
one truth, — he can say, " God is faithful that promised, Whose sign I
have received in my baptism. If God be for me, who is against me?"
The children of
Israel, whenever they repented of their sins, turned their thoughts
first of all to the exodus from Egypt, and, remembering this, returned
to God Who had brought them out. This memory and this refuge were many
times impressed upon them by Moses, and afterward repeated by David.
How much rather ought we to call to mind our exodus from Egypt, and,
remembering, turn back again to Him Who led us forth through the
washing of regeneration, which we are bidden remember for this very
purpose. And this we can do most fittingly in the sacrament of bread
and wine. Indeed, in ancient times these three sacraments —repentance,
baptism and the bread — were all celebrated at the same service, and
one supplemented and assisted the other. We read also of a certain holy
virgin who in every time of temptation made baptism her sole defense,
saying simply, "I am a Christian." Immediately the adversary fled from
her, for he knew the power of her baptism and of her faith which clung
to the truth of God's promise.
See, how rich
therefore is a Christian, the one who is baptized! Even if he wants to,
he cannot lose his salvation, however much he sin, unless he will not
believe. For no sin can condemn him save unbelief alone. All other sins
— so long as the faith in God's promise made in baptism returns or
remains —all other sins, I say, are immediately blotted out through
that same faith, or rather through the truth of God, because He cannot
deny Himself. If only you confess Him and cling believing to Him that
promises. But as for contrition, confession of sins, and satisfaction —
along with all those carefully thought out exercises of men — if you
turn your attention to them and neglect this truth of God, they will
suddenly fail you and leave you more wretched than before. For whatever
is done without faith in the truth of God, is vanity of vanities and
vexation of spirit.
Again, how
perilous, no, how false it is to suppose that penance is the second
plank after the shipwreck! How harmful an error it is to believe that
the power of baptism is broken, and the ship has foundered, because we
have sinned! No! That one, solid and unsinkable ship remains, and is
never broken up into floating timbers. It carries all those who are
brought to the harbor of salvation. It is the truth of God giving us
its promise in the sacraments. Many, indeed, rashly leap overboard and
perish in the waves. These are they who depart from faith in the
promise and plunge into sin. But the ship herself remains intact and
holds her steady course. If one be able somehow to return to the ship,
it is not on any plank but in the good ship herself that he is carried
to life. Such a one is he who through faith returns to the sure promise
of God that lasts forever. Therefore Peter, in 1 Peter 1, rebukes those
who sin, because they have forgotten that they were purged from their
old sins, in which words he doubtless chides their ingratitude for the
baptism they had received and their wicked unbelief.
What is the good,
then, of writing much on baptism and yet not teaching this faith in the
promise? All the sacraments were instituted for the purpose of
nourishing faith, but these godless men so completely pass over this
faith that they even assert a man dare not be certain of the
forgiveness of sins, that is, of the grace of the sacraments. With such
wicked teachings they delude the world, and not only take captive but
altogether destroy the sacrament of baptism, in which the chief glory
of our conscience consists. Meanwhile they madly rage against the
miserable souls of men with their contritions, anxious confessions,
circumstances, satisfactions, works and endless other absurdities.
Read, therefore, with great caution the Master of the Sentences in his
fourth book, or, better yet, despise him together with all his
commentators, who at their best write only of the material and form of
the sacraments, that is, they discuss the dead and death-dealing letter
of the sacraments, but pass over in utter silence the spirit, life and
use, that is, the truth of the divine promise and our faith.
So be careful, that
the external pomp of works and the deceits of human traditions mislead
you, so that you may not wrong the divine truth and your faith. If you
would be saved, you must begin with the faith of the sacraments,
without any works whatever. But on faith the works will follow. Only do
not think lightly of faith, which is a work, and of all works the most
excellent and the most difficult to do. Through it alone you will be
saved, even if you should be compelled to do without any other works.
For it is a work of God, not of man, as Paul teaches. The other works
He works through us and with our help, but this one He works in us and
without our help.
From this we can
clearly see the difference, in baptism, between man the minister and
God the Doer. For man baptizes and does not baptize. He baptizes, for
he performs the work, immersing the person to be baptized. He does not
baptize, for in that act he officiates not by his own authority, but as
God's representative. Hence, we ought to receive baptism at the hands
of a man just as if Christ Himself, no, God Himself, were baptizing us
with His own hands. For it is not man's baptism, but Christ's and God's
baptism, which we receive by the hand of a man, just as every other
created thing that we make use of by the hand of another, is God's
alone. Therefore beware of dividing baptism in such a way as to ascribe
the outward part to man and the inward part to God. Ascribe both to God
alone, and look upon the person administering it as the instrument in
God's hands, by which the Lord sitting in heaven thrusts you under the
water with His own hands, and speaking by the mouth of His minister
promises you, on earth with a human voice, the forgiveness of your sins.
This the words
themselves indicate, when the priest says: " I baptize you in the Name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen," and not:
"I baptize you in my own name." It is as though he said: " What I do, I
do not by my own authority, but in the name and as God's
representative, so that you should regard it just as if our Lord
Himself had done it in a visible manner. The Doer and the minister are
different persons, but the work of both is the same work, or, rather,
it is the work of the Doer alone, through my ministry." For I hold that
"in the name of" refers to the person of the Doer, so that the name of
the Lord is not only to be uttered and invoked while the work is being
done, but the work itself is to be done not as one's own work, but in
the name and as another's representative. In this sense, in Matthew 24,
Christ says, "Many shall come in my name," and in Romans 1 it is said,
"By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the
faith, in all nations, for His name."
This view I freely
endorse. It is very comforting and greatly aids faith to know that one
has been baptized not by man, but by the Triune God Himself through a
man acting among us in His name. This will dispose of that fruitless
quarrel about the "form" of baptism, as these words are called. The
Greeks say: "May the servant of Christ be baptized," while the Latins
say: "I baptize." Others again, pedantic triflers, condemn the use of
the words, "I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ" — although it is
certain that the Apostles used this formula in baptizing, as we read in
the Acts of the Apostles — they would allow no other form to be valid
than this: " I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost." But their contention is in vain, for they bring
no proof, but merely assert their own dreams. Baptism truly saves in
whatever way it is administered, as long as it is not administered in
the name of man but in the name of God. No, I have no doubt that if one
received baptism in the name of the Lord, even though the wicked
minister should not give it in the name of the Lord, he would yet be
truly baptized in the name of the Lord. For the effect of baptism
depends not so much on the faith or practice of him that confers it as
on the faith or practice of the one who receives it — of which we have
an illustration in the case of the play-actor who was baptized as a
joke. Such anxious disputings and questionings are aroused in us by
those who ascribe nothing to faith and everything to works and forms,
while we owe everything to faith alone and nothing to forms, and faith
makes us free in spirit from all those scruples and fancies.
The second part of
baptism is the sign, or sacrament, which is that immersion into water
from this also it derives its name. For the Greek baptizo means "I
immerse," and baptisma means "immersion." For, as has been said, signs
are added to the divine promises to represent that which the words
signify, or, as they now say, that which the sacrament "effectively
signifies." We shall see how much of truth there is in this.
The great majority
have supposed that there is some hidden spiritual power in the word or
in the water, which works the grace of God in the soul of the
recipient. Others deny this and hold that there is no power in the
sacraments, but that grace is given by God alone, Who according to His
covenant aids the sacraments He has instituted. Yet all are agreed that
the sacraments are effective signs of grace, and they reach this
conclusion by this one argument: If the sacraments of the New Law
merely "signified," it would not be apparent in what respect they
surpassed the sacraments of the Old Law. Hence they have been driven to
attribute such great power to the sacraments of the New Law that in
their opinion they benefit even such men as are in mortal sins, and
that they do not require faith or grace. It is sufficient not to oppose
a "bar," that is, an actual intention to sin again.
But these views
must be carefully avoided and shunned, because they are godless and
faithless, being contrary to faith and to the nature of the sacraments.
For it is an error to hold that the sacraments of the New Law differ
from those of the Old Law in the effectiveness of their "signifying."
The "signifying" of both is equally effective. The same God Who now
saves me by baptism saved Abel by his sacrifice, Noah by the rainbow,
Abraham by circumcision, and all the others by their respective signs.
So far as the "signifying" is concerned, there is no difference between
a sacrament of the Old Law and one of the New — provided that by the
Old Law you mean that which God did among the patriarchs and other
fathers in the days of the law. But those signs which were given to the
patriarchs and fathers must be sharply distinguished from the legal
types which Moses instituted in his law, such as the priestly rites
concerning robes, vessels, meats, dwellings, and the like. Between
these and the sacraments of the New Law there is a vast difference, but
no less between them and those signs that God from time to time gave to
the fathers living under the law, such as the sign of Gideon's fleece,
Manoah's sacrifice, or the sign which Isaiah offered to Ahaz, in Isaiah
7. for to these signs God attached a certain promise which required
faith in Him.
This, then, is the
difference between the legal types and the new and old signs is that
the types do not have attached to them any word of promise requiring
faith. Hence they are not signs of justification, for they are not
sacraments of the faith that alone justifies, but only sacraments of
works. Their whole power and nature consisted in works, not in faith,
and he that observed them fulfilled them, even if he did it without
faith. But our signs, or sacraments, as well as those of the fathers,
have attached to them a word of promise, which requires faith, and they
cannot be fulfilled by any other work. Hence they are signs or
sacraments of justification, for they are the sacraments of justifying
faith and not of works. Their whole efficacy, therefore, consists in
faith itself, not in the doing of a work. For whoever believes them
fulfils them, even if he should not do a single work. From this has
arisen the saying, "Not the sacrament but the faith of the sacrament
justifies." Thus circumcision did not justify Abraham and his seed, and
yet the Apostle calls it the seal of the righteousness of faith,
because faith in the promise, to which circumcision was added,
justified him and fulfilled that which circumcision signified. For
faith was the spiritual circumcision of the foreskin of the heart,
which was symbolised by the literal circumcision of the flesh. And in
the same manner it was obviously not Abel's sacrifice that justified
him, but it was his faith, by which he offered himself wholly to God
and which was symbolized by the outward sacrifice.
Even so it is not
baptism that justifies or benefits anyone, but it is faith in the word
of promise, to which baptism is added. This faith justifies, and
fulfils that which baptism signifies. For faith is the submersion of
the old man and the emerging of the new. Therefore it cannot be that
the new sacraments differ from the old, for both have the divine
promise and the same spirit of faith. But they do differ vastly from
the ancient types on account of the word of promise, which is the one
decisive point of difference. Even so, today, the outward show of
vestments, holy places, meats and of all the endless ceremonies has
doubtless a fine symbolical meaning, which is to be spiritually
fulfilled. Yet because there is no word of divine promise attached to
these things, they can never be compared with the signs of baptism and
of the bread, nor do they in any way justify or benefit one, since they
are fulfilled in the very observance, apart from faith. For while they
are taking place or are being performed, they are being fulfilled. The
Apostle says of them, in Colossians 2,"Which are all to perish with the
using, after the commandments and doctrines of men." The sacraments, on
the contrary, are not fulfilled when they are observed, but when they
are believed.
It cannot be true,
therefore, that there is in the sacraments a power efficacious for
justification, or that they are effective signs of grace. All such
assertions tend to destroy faith, and arise from ignorance of the
divine promise. Unless you should call them effective in the sense that
they certainly and efficaciously impart grace, where faith is
unmistakably present. But it is not in this sense that efficacy is now
ascribed to them. Witness the fact that they are said to benefit all
men, even the godless and unbelieving, provided they do not put an
"obstacle" in the path of grace — as if such unbelief were not in
itself the most obstinate and hostile of all obstacles to grace. That
is how firmly they are bent on turning the sacrament into a command,
and faith into a work. For if the sacrament confers grace on me because
I receive it, then indeed I obtain grace by virtue of my work and not
of faith. I lay hold not on the promise in the sacrament, but on the
sign instituted and commanded by God. Do you not see, then, how
completely the sacraments have been misunderstood by our theologians of
the Sentences? They do not account for either faith or the promise, in
their discussions on the sacraments. They only cling to the sign and
the use of the sign, and draw us away from faith to the work, from the
word to the sign. Thus they have not only carried the sacraments
captive (as I have said), but have completely destroyed them, as far as
they were able.
Therefore, let us
open our eyes and learn to give more heed to the word than to the sign,
and to faith than to the work, or the use of the sign, remembering that
wherever there is a divine promise there faith is required, and that
these two are so necessary to each other that neither can be
efficacious apart from the other. For it is not possible to believe
unless there be a promise, and the promise is not established unless it
be believed. But where these two meet, they give a real and most
certain efficacy to the sacraments. Hence, to seek the efficacy of the
sacrament apart from the promise and apart from faith, is to labor in
vain and to find damnation. Thus Christ says: "He that believe and is
baptized, shall be saved. He that does not believe shall be damned." He
shows us in this word that faith is so necessary a part of the
sacrament that it can save even without the sacrament. For which reason
He did not see fit to say: "He that does not believe, and is not
baptized..."
Baptism, then,
signifies two things —death and resurrection — that is, full and
complete justification. When the minister immerses the child in the
water, baptism signifies death. When he draws the child forth again,
baptism signifies life. Thus Paul expounds on this in Romans 6, "We are
buried together with Christ by baptism into death. As Christ is risen
from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in
newness of life." This death and resurrection we call the new creation,
regeneration, and the spiritual birth. And this must not be understood
only in a figurative sense, of the death of sin and the life of grace,
as many understand it, but of actual death and resurrection. The
significance of baptism is not an imaginary significance, and sin does
not completely die, nor does grace completely rise, until the body of
sin that we carry about in this life is destroyed. This the Apostle
teaches in the same chapter. For as long as we are in the flesh, the
desires of the flesh stir and are stirred. When we begin to believe, we
also begin to die to this world and to live to God in the life to come.
Faith is truly a death and a resurrection, that is, it is that
spiritual baptism in which we are submerged and from which we rise.
Hence it is indeed
correct to say that baptism washes sins away, but that expression is
too weak and mild to bring out the full significance of baptism, which
is rather a symbol of death and resurrection. For this reason I would
have the candidates for baptism completely immersed in the water, as
the word says and as the sacrament signifies. Not that I deem this
necessary, but it would be well to give to so perfect and complete a
thing a perfect and complete sign. Thus it was also doubtless
instituted by Christ. The sinner does not so much need to be washed as
he needs to die, in order to be wholly renewed and made another
creature, and to be conformed to the death and resurrection of Christ,
with Whom, through baptism, he dies and rises again. Although you may
properly say that Christ was washed clean of mortality when He died and
rose again, yet that is a weaker way of putting it than if you said He
was completely changed and renewed. In the same way it is far more
forceful to say that baptism signifies that we die completely and
rising to eternal life, than to say that it signifies merely our being
washed clean from sins.
Here, again, you
see that the sacrament of baptism, even in respect to its sign, does
not last only for a moment, but continues on forever. Although its
administration is soon over, yet the thing it signifies continues until
we die, no, until we rise at the last day. For as long as we live we
are continually doing that which our baptism signifies,that is, we die
and rise again. We die, that is, not only spiritually and in our
affections, by renouncing the sins and vanities of this world, but in
reality we die. We begin to leave this bodily life and to lay hold on
the life to come. So there is, as they say, a real and even a bodily
leaving of this world to go to the Father.
We must, therefore,
beware of those who have reduced the power of baptism, making it
something thin and small. While they do say that baptism indeed pours
the grace of God into us, but afterwards sin pours it out again. So,
they say, one must reach heaven by another way. As if baptism had then
become entirely useless! Do not hold such a viewpoint, but know that
baptism signifies that you die and live again. Therefore, whether it is
by penance or by any other way, you can only return to the power of
your baptism, and once again do what you were baptized to do and what
your baptism signified. Never does baptism lose its power, unless you
despair and refuse to return to its salvation. You may, indeed, for a
time wander away from the sign, but that does not mean that the sign is
powerless. You have, thus, been baptized once in the sacrament, but you
must be constantly baptized again through faith, you must constantly
die, you must constantly live again. Baptisms absorbs your whole body,
and gives it back again. Even so that which baptism signifies should
absorb your whole life in body and soul, and give it back again at the
last day, clothed in robes of glory and immortality. We are, therefore,
never without the sign of baptism nor yet without the thing it
signifies. No, we must be baptized ever more and more completely, until
we perfectly fulfill the sign, at the last day.
Therefore, whatever
we do in this life that promotes the mortifying of the flesh and the
giving life to the spirit, belongs to baptism. The sooner we depart
this life the sooner we fulfill our baptism. The greater our sufferings
the more closely do we conform to our baptism. Hence those were the
Church's happiest days, when the martyrs were being killed everyday and
accounted as sheep for the slaughter. For then the power of baptism
reigned supreme in the Church, which power we have today lost sight of
in the midst of the multitude of works and doctrines of men. For all
our life should be baptism, and the fulfilling of the sign, or
sacrament, of baptism. We have been set free from all else and wholly
given over to baptism alone, that is, to death and resurrection.
This glorious
liberty of ours, and this understanding of baptism have been carried
captive in our day. And whom have we to thank for this but the Roman
pontiff with his despotism? More than all others, it was his first
duty, as chief shepherd, to preach and defend this liberty and this
knowledge, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 "Let a man so account of us
as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries, or
sacraments, of God." Instead of this, he seeks only to oppress us with
his decrees and his laws, and to enslave and ensnare us in the tyranny
of his power. By what right, in God's name, does the pope impose his
laws upon us — to say nothing of his wicked and damnable neglect to
teach these mysteries? Who gave him power to despoil us of this
liberty, granted us in baptism? One thing only (as I have said) has
been enjoined upon us all the days of our life — be baptized — That is,
to be put to death and to live again, through faith in Christ. This
faith alone should have been taught, especially by the chief shepherd.
But now there is not a word said about faith, and the Church is laid
waste with endless laws concerning works and ceremonies So the power
and right understanding of baptism are put aside, and faith in Christ
is prevented.
Therefore I say:
neither the pope nor a bishop nor any other man has the right to impose
a single syllable of law upon a Christian man without his consent. If
he does, it is done in the spirit of tyranny. Therefore the prayers,
fasts, donations, and whatever else the pope decrees and demands in all
of his decretals, as numerous as they are evil, he demands and decrees
without any right whatever. He sins against the liberty of the Church
whenever he attempts any such thing. In fact, today's churchmen are
indeed such vigorous defenders of the liberty of the Church, that is,
of wood and stone, of land and rents — for "churchly" is nowadays the
same as "spiritual" — yet with such fictions they not only take captive
but utterly destroy the true liberty of the Church, and deal with us
far worse than the Turk, in opposition to the word of the Apostle, "Do
not be enslaved by men." Yes, to be subjected to their statutes and
tyrannical laws is to be enslaved by men.
This impious and
sinful tyranny is fostered by the pope's disciples, who here drag in
and pervert that saying of Christ, "He that hears you hears me." With
puffed cheeks they blow up this saying to a great size in support of
their traditions. Though Christ said this to the apostles when they
went forth to preach the Gospel, and though it applies solely to the
Gospel, they pass over the Gospel and apply it only to their fables. He
says in John 10 "My sheep hear my voice, but the voice of a stranger
they do not hear." To this end He left us the Gospel, that His voice
might be uttered by the pontiffs. But they utter their own voice, and
themselves desire to be heard. Moreover, the Apostle says that he was
not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel. Therefore, no one is
bound to the traditions of the pope, nor does he need to give ear to
him unless he teaches the Gospel and Christ, and the pope should teach
nothing but faith without any restrictions. But since Christ says, "He
that hears you hears me," and does not say to Peter only, "He that
hears you," why doesn't the pope also hear others? Finally, where there
is true faith, there must also be the word of faith. Why then does not
an unbelieving pope now and then hear a believing servant of his, who
has the word of faith? It is blindness, sheer blindness, that holds the
popes in their power.
But others, more
shameless still, arrogantly ascribe to the pope the power to make laws,
on the basis of Matthew 16, "Whatever you shall bind," etc., though
Christ treats in this passage of binding and loosing sins, not of
taking the whole Church captive and oppressing it with laws. So this
tyranny treats everything with its own lying words and violently wrests
and perverts the words of God. I admit indeed that Christians ought to
bear this accursed tyranny just as they would bear any other violence
of this world, according to Christ's word: " If someone strikes you on
your right cheek, turn to him also the other cheek." But this is my
complaint — that the godless pontiffs boastfully claim the right to do
this, that they pretend to be seeking the Church's welfare with this
Babylon of theirs, and that they foist this fiction upon all mankind.
For if they did these things, and we suffered their violence, well
knowing, both of us, that it was godlessness and tyranny, then we might
number it among the things that contribute to the mortifying of this
life and the fulfilling of our baptism, and might with a good
conscience rejoice in the inflicted injury. But now they seek to
deprive us of this consciousness of our liberty, and would have us
believe that what they do is well done, and must not be censured or
complained of as wrongdoing. Since they wolves, they want to look like
shepherds. Since they are antichrists, they want to be honored as
Christ.
I only lift my
voice to defend this freedom of conscience. I confidently cry out: No
one — not men — not angels — may justly impose laws upon Christians
without their consent, for we are free from all things. If any laws are
laid on us, we must bear them in such a way as to preserve the
consciousness of our liberty. We must know and stongly affirm that the
making of such laws is unjust, that we will bear and rejoice in this
injustice. We will be careful neither to justify the tyrant nor
complain against his tyranny. "For who is he," says Peter, "that will
harm you, if you are followers of that which is good?" " All things
work together for good to the elect." Nevertheless, since few know this
glory of baptism and the blessedness of Christian liberty, and cannot
know them because of the tyranny of the pope, I for one will walk away
from it all and redeem my conscience by bringing this charge against
the pope and all his papists: Unless they will abolish their laws and
traditions, and restore to Christ's churches their liberty and have it
taught among them, they are guilty of all the souls that perish under
this miserable captivity, and the papacy is truely the kingdom of
Babylon, yes, the kingdom of the real Antichrist! For who is " the man
of sin" and "the son of perdition" but he that with his doctrines and
his laws increases sins and the perdition of souls in the Church, while
he sits in the Church as if he were God? All this the papal tyranny has
fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, these many centuries. It has
extinguished faith, obscured the sacraments and oppressed the Gospel.
But its own laws, which are not only impious and sacrilegious, but even
barbarous and foolish, it has enjoined and multiplied world without
end.
Behold, then, our
miserable captivity. How empty is the city that was full of people! The
mistress of the Gentiles has become like a widow. The princess of
provinces has been made a client nation! There is none to comfort her.
All her friends despise her. There are so many orders, so many rites,
so many sects, so many vows, exertions and works, in which Christians
are engaged, that they lose sight of their baptism. This swarm of
locusts, cankerworms and caterpillars — not one of them is able to
remember that he is baptized or what blessings his baptism brought him.
are engaged in no efforts and no works, but are free in every way,
secure and saved only through the glory of their baptism. For we are
indeed little children, continually baptized anew in Christ.