History of the variations of the Protestant churches

tihvaxy of t:he t:heolo0ical ^tmxnaxy

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

The John M. Krebs
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FEB 2 2 197
HI ST OR YV 4-.

VARIATIONS

PROTESTAIT CHURCHES

BY JAMES BENIGN BOSSUET,

BISHOP OF MEAUX ;

ONE OF HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY'S HONORABLE PRIVY-COUNCIL,

HERETOFORE PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN, AND CHIEF

ALMONER TO THE DAUPHINESS.

IN TWO VOLUMES,

TRANSLATED FROM THE LAST FRENCH EDITION.

VOL. I.

NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIER, 58 GOLD-STREET.

1845.

.♦ m

PREFACE,

THE DESIGN OF THIS WORK.

1. — Jl general idea of the Protestant Religion, and the variations of it. The
discovery of them useful to true doctrine and the peace of the human mind. —
The Authors to tohom reference is made in this History.

If Protestants knew thoroughly how their rehgion was form-
ed ; with how many variations and with what inconstancy their
confessions of faith were drawn up ; how they first separated
themselves from us, and afterwards from one another ; by how
many subtleties, evasions, and equivocations, they labored to
repair their divisions, and to re-unite the scattered members of
their disjointed reformation ; this reformation of which they
boast would afford them but little satisfaction, or rather, to
speak my mind more freely, it would excite in them only feel-
ings of contempt. It is the history of these variations, these
subtleties, these equivocations, and these artifices, which I de-
sign to write ; but in order to render this detail more useful
to them, some principles must be laid down which they cannot
contravene, and which the current of a narration would not
permit me to deduce, when once engaged in it.

2. — Vm'icdions in faith a certain proof of falsehood. — Those of the Arians.-^
Steadiness of the Catholic Church.

When in expositions of faith, variations were seen among
Christians, they were ever considered as a mark of falsehood
and inconsistency, if I may so speak, in the doctrine pro-
pounded. Faith speaks with simplicity ; the Holy Ghost sheds
pure light ; and the truth which he teaches has a language
always uniform. Whoever is but the least conversant in the
history of the Church, must know she opposed to each heresy
appropriate and precise expositions which she never altered ;
and if we attend to the expressions by which she condemned
heretics, it ^vill appear that they always proceed by the shortest
and most direct route to attack the error in its source. She
acts thus, because all that varies, all that is overlaid with doubt-
ful or studiously ambiguous terms, has always appeared sus-
picious, and not only fraudulent, but even absolutely false, be-

4 PREFACE.

cause it betrays an embarrassment with which truth is unac-
quainted.

This was one of the grounds on which the ancient doctors
condemned the Arians, who were constantly making new con-
fessions of faith, without ever being able to settle themselves.
Since their first confession of faith, which was made by Arius,
and presented by this arch-heretic to his bishop, Alexander,
they never ceased to vary. With this did St. Hilary reproach
Constantius, the protector of those heretics ; and whilst this
emperor called new councils to reform their creeds and frame
new confessions of faith, this holy bishop addressed him in
these forcible words :* " Your case is similar to that of un-
skilful architects, who are never pleased with their own work.
You do nothing but build up and pull down ; whereas the
Catholic Church, the first time it assembled, raised an immor-
tal edifice, and gave in the symbol of Nice so full a declaration
of truth, that to condemn Arianism for ever, nothing more is
necessary than to repeat that creed."

3. — The character of heresies is to be changeable — a celebrated passage of
TertuUian.

But they are not the Arians alone who have varied in this
manner. From the origin of Christianity, all heresies have
had the same character, and long before the time of Arius,
Tertuliian had said :t " Heretics vary in their rules ; namely,
in their confessions of faith ; every one of them thinks he has
a right to change and model what he has received according to
his own fancy, as the author of the sect composed it according
to his own fancy. Heresy never changes its proper nature in
never ceasing to innovate ; and the progress of the thing is like
to its origin. What is permitted to Valentine is allowed to the
Yalentinians ; the Marcionites have equal power with Marcion,
nor have the authors of a heresy more right to innovate than
their disciples. All changes in heresy, and when examined to
the bottom, it is found, in course of time, entirely different in
many points from what it had been at its birth."

4. — This character of heresy recognised in all ages of the Church.

This character of heresy has been always observed by Cath-
olics, and two holy authors of the eighth centuryj have written
*' that heresy, however old, is always in itself a novelty ; but
that, the better to retain the title of being new, it innovates
daily, and daily changes its doctrine."

5. — The charter of immutability in Faith of the Catholic Church.

But whilst heresies, always varying, agree not with them-
selves, and are continually introducing new rules, that is to

* Lib. contra Const. N. 23. Cal. 1254. f De Prseter, c. 42.

I Eth. et Beat. lib. 1. contra Eliss.

PREFACE. 5

say, new symbols, Tertullian says, " That in the church, the
rule of faith is unalterable, and never to be reformed."* It is
so, because the church which professes to speak, and teach
nothing but what she hath received, does not vary ; and on the
contrary, heresy, which began by innovating, daily innovates,
and changes not its nature.

6. — A principle of instability in all new doctrines. — St. Paul. — St. Chrysostom.
Hence, St. Chrysostom, speaking of this precept of the
Aposde, " Shun profane babbUngs which will increase into
more ungodliness,"^ " avoid novelties in your discourses, for
things do not stop there ; one novelty begets another, and
there is no end to error when once you have begun to err."

7. — Txco causes of instability in heresies.

In heresies, two things cause this disorder : one drawn from
the nature of the human mind, which having once tasted the
bait of novelty, ceases not to seek with disordered appetite
this deceitful allurement ; the other is drawn from the differ-
ence that exists between the works of God and those of man.
The Catholic truth proceeding from God, has its perfection at
once ; heresy, the feeble offspring of the human mind, can be
formed only by ill-fitting patches. When, contrary to the pre-
cept of the \vise man, we venture to removej '* the ancient
landmarks set by our fathers," and to reform the doctrine once
received among the faithful, we launch forth, without a thorough
insight into the consequences of our attempt. That, which at
the commencement, a false light, made us hazard, is found
attended with such inconsistencies, as to oblige these reformers
every day to reform themselves, so that they cannot tell when
their own minds are at rest, or their innovations terminated.

8. — What those variations are, which loe undertake to shoxo in Protestant
Churches.

These are the solid and steady principles by which I under-
take to demonstrate to Protestants the falsehood of their doc-
trine, from their continual variations, and the unstable manner
in which they have explained their dogmas. I do not speak of
the unsteadiness of individuals, but of the body of the church,
in the books which they call symbolical ; namely, those that
have been made to express the consent of the churches ; in a
word, from their own confessions of faith, decreed, signed and
published ; the doctrine of which has been given out as the doc-
trine containing nothing but the pure word of God, and which,
notwithstanding, has been changed in so many different ways in
its cliief articles.

* De Berg. vel. N, 1. f Thorn. 5 in 2, ad Tim. I Proverbs xxii, 281

1*

6 PREFACE.

9. — The Protestant parly divided, into tiuo maiii bodies.
But when treating of those who, in these latter ages, have
called themselves Reformed, it is not my design to speak of
the Socinians, nor the different societies of Anabaptists, nor of
the other different sects which have sprung up in England and
elsewhere, in the bosom of the new reformation ; but of those
two bodies only, one of which is composed of Lutherans,
namely, those who have for their rule the Confession of Augs-
burg ; the other, who follow the sentiments of Zwinglius and
Calvin. The former, in the institution of the Eucharist, de-
fend the literal sense ; the latter, the figurative. By this char-
acter chiefly shall I distinguish one Irom the other ; though
many other very weighty and very important differences exist
between them, as will appear by what follows.

10. — The variations of one party are a proof against the other, chiefly those of
Luther and the Lutherans.

The Lutherans will tell us here, that they are very little
concerned in the variations and conduct of Zwinglians and
Calvinists ; and some of those may imagine in their turn, that
the inconstancy of Lutherans affects them as Uttle : but both
one and the other are mistaken, since the Lutherans can see
in the Calvinists the consequences of those commotions which
they excited ; and, on the contrary, the Calvinists ought to
remark in the Lutherans the disorder and uncertainty of that
original which they have followed. But the Calvinists in par-
ticular, cannot deny, that they have always looked upon Luther
and the Lutherans, as the authors of their reformation, and not
to speak of Calvin, who often mentioned Luther with respect,
as the head of the reformation, we shall see, in the sequel of
this history, that all the Calvinists, (by this name I call the sec-
ond party of Protestants,) the Germans, English, Hungarians,
Poles, Dutch, and all others in general, who assembled at
Frankfort,* through the influence of Queen Elizabeth, all these
having acknowledged " those of the Confession of Augsburg,"
namely, the Lutherans, " as the first that gave a new birth to
the church," acknowledge also the Confession of Augsburg as
common to the whole party, " which they did not pretend to
contradict, but to ' understand correctly ;' " and this in one
article only, that of the Supper ; for this reason also naming
amongst their fathers, not only Zwinglius, Bucer, and Calvin,
but Luther and Melancthon, and placing Luther at the head of
all the reformers.

After that, let them say that the variations of Luther and
the Lutherans affect them not ; we will tell them, on the con-

* Act. Auth. Blond, p. 65. -

PREFACE. 7

trary, that, according to their own principles, and their own
declarations, to show the variations and inconsistencies of Lu-
ther and the Lutherans, is to point out the spirit of giddiness
in the source of the reformation, and the head where it had
been first conceived.

11. — The collection of the Confessions of Faith, printed at Geneva.
A long time since, a collection of Confessions of Faith has
been printed at Geneva,* in which with that of the defenders
of the figurative sense, namely, that of France and the Swiss,
are also those of the defenders of the literal sense, namely,
that of Augsburg and some others. What is still more re-
markable is this, that though the confessions there collected be
so different, and in many articles of faith condemn one another,
in the preface to this collection, they are, notwithstanding, pro-
posed " as one entire body of sacred divinity, and as authentic
records, which men ought to have recourse to in order to know
the ancient and primitive faith." They are dedicated to the
kings of England, Scotland, Denmark, and Swe3«n, and those
princes and republics by whom they are followed. That those
kings and states should be separated from each other in com-
munion, as well as in faith, is a matter of no consequence
Those of Geneva address them, notwithstanding, as true be-
lievers, " enlightened in these latter times by the special grace
of God, with the true light of the Gospel," and then present
them with all these confessions of faith, as " an external monu-
ment of the extraordinary piety of their ancestors."

12. — The Calvinists approve of the Lutheran Confessions of Faith, at least, as
containing nothing contrary to fundamental points.

It is because these doctrines are equally adopted by the
Calvinists, either as absolutely true, or at least as having noth-
ing in them contrary to the foundation of faith ; hence it fol-
lows, that when we shall see in this history the doctrine of the
confessions of faith not only of France and Switzerland, and
the other defenders of the figurative sense, but of Augsburg
and others set forth by the Lutherans, this doctrine must not
be considered as foreign to Calvinism, but as a doctrine which
the Calvinists have approved expressly as true, or left uncen-
sured in the most authentic acts that have passed among them
13. — The Lutheran Confessions of Faith.

I shall say less of the Lutherans, who instead of being
moved by the authority of those who defend the figurative
sense, have nothing but a contempt and aversion for their sen-
timents. Their own inconstancy ought to confound them.
When we should but read the titles of their Confessions of
* Syntagma Conf. Fidei. Gen. 1654.

8 PREFACE.

Faith, in this Geneva collection, and in the other books of the
same kind, where they are collected together into a body, we
would be astonished at their multitude. The first that appears
is that of Augsburg, whence the Lutherans derive their name.
It will be seen as presented to Charles V, in 1530, and after
that to have been touched and retouched several times. Me-
lanchton who had penned it, entirely altered the sense of it in
the apology which he wrote afterwards. This apology was sub-
scribed to by the whole party. Thus it was changed in coming
forth from the hands of its very author. From that time they
never ceased reforming and explaining it in different ways ; so
difficult these reformers found it to satisfy themselves, and so
little accustomed to teach precisely what was to be beheved.
But, as if one confession of faith alone were not sufficient on
the same subject, Luther judged it necessary for him to deliver
his sentiments after another manner ; and in 1637, he drew up
the articles of Smalcald, in order to have them presented to the
council which Paul III had called at Mantua. These articles
were signed by the whole party, and are inserted in what the
Lutherans call the Book of Concord.*

This exphcation did not fully satisfy. It was necessary to
draw up the confession called Saxonic, which was presented to
the Council of Trent in 1551, and that of Wirtemberg, which
in 1552 was also presented to the same council.

To these are to be added the exphcations of the church of
"Wirtemberg, the birthplace of the Reformation, and the rest of
them, which shall in order take their place in this history; par-
ticularly those of the Book of Concord, in the "Abridgment
of Articles," and also in the same book, the " Explications
Repeated." All these are so many several confessions of
faith, authentically published by the party, embraced by some
churches, impugned by others in points the most important ;
and yet these churches would wish to appear as forming one
body, because, through policy, they dissemble their dissensions
on ubiquity and other matters.

14. — The Confessions of Faith of the Figurative- Sense Defenders, and the
second party of Protestants,

Nor was the other party of Protestants less fruitful in con-
fessions of faith. At the same time that the Confession of
Augsburg was presented to Charles V, those who dissented
from it presented to him their own, pubHshed in the name of
four cities of the empire, the first of which was Strasburg.

This so Httle pleased the defenders of the figurative sense,
that every one would make his own ; we shall see four or five
after the fancy of the Swiss. But if the ZwingUan ministers
♦ Concord, pp. 298, 730, 570, 778.

PREFACE. 9

had their way of thinking, others were no less singular in
theirs : this diversity gave rise to the confession of France and
Geneva. About the same time were published two confes-
sions of faith in the name of the Church of England ; as
many in the name of the Kirk of Scotland. Frederick III, Elec-
tor Palatine, would make his own separately and apart ; this,
with the others, took its place in the collection of Geneva.
The Dutch would adhere to none of those already made : we
have, therefore, a Dutch confession of faith approved by the
Synod of Dort. But why should not the Calvinists of Po-
land have theirs 'i Indeed, though they had subscribed the last
confession of the Zuinglians, yet we still find they published
another at the Synod of Czenger. Not satisfied with this,
assembled at Sendomir, with the Lutherans and Vaudois, they
agree to a new way of expounding the article on the Eucha-
rist,— yet so that none of them departed from their former sen-
timents.

15. — Other authentic Acts. — Hoio these variations prove the weakness of the
Protestant Religion.

To omit the confession of faith framed by the Bohemians
who wished to please both parties of the new reformation — I
speak not of the treaties of concord which were made between
the churches with so many variations and so many equivoca-
tions, they will appear in their proper place, with the decisions
of national synods, and the other confessions of faith made in
different circumstances. Great God ! Is it possible, that upon
the same matters and the same questions, so many multiplied
acts, so many decisions, and different confessions of faith are
necessary ? And yet I cannot boast that I know all, and I
know that I cannot find all. The Catholic Church never had
occasion to oppose the same heresy a second time ; but the
churches of the new reformation, which has produced such a
number, strange to say, and yet true, are not yet content ! And
we shall see in this history that the Calvinists have new confes-
sions, which have suppressed or reformed all the others.

These variations fill us with astonishment. They will ap-
pear worse when we learn the detail and the manner in which
these acts, so authentic, were drawn up. We are amused — I
speak it without exaggeration — with the name of a confession
of faith — and nothing has been less serious in the new refor-
mation than that which is most serious in all religion.

16. — The Protestants are ashamed of so many Confessions of Faith. — The vain
pretexts by v;hich they endeavor to excuse them.

This prodigious multitude of confessions of faith has alarmed
those who made them : we shall see the weak reasons by which
they endeavor to excuse them ; but I cannot avoid mention-

10 PREFACE.

ing those which have been set forth in the preface of the
collection of Geneva,* because they are general, and bear
equally upon all the churches which call themselves reformed.

The first reason assigned to establish the necessity of multi-
plying these confessions is, that as many articles of faith were
attacked, it became necessary to oppose many confessions to
this great number of errors. I agree to the justice of this
reasoning and at the same time, by a contrary reason, I de-
monstrate the absurdity of all these confessions of faith of the
Protestants, since all, as it appears by reading the titles, only
regard articles precisely the same ; so that we can address
them with St. Athanasius,| " Why a new council — new confes-
sions— a new creed? What new question has been raised?"

Another excuse alleged is, that the whole world ought (as
the apostle says,) to render an account of their faith, so that
the churches spread in different places, have a right to declare
their belief by a public testimony ; as if all the churches in the
world, however separated they may be, cannot agree in the
same testimony, when they have the same belief; as, in fact,
from the origin of Christianity we have witnessed a like con-
sent in the churches. Who will show me that the churches of
the east have had in primitive times a confession different from
that of the west ? Has not the symbol of Nice served equally
as a testimony against all the Arians — the definition of Chal-
cedon against all the Eutychians — the eight chapters of Car-
thage against all the Pelagians ? and so of the rest.

But, say the Protestants, was there one of the reformed
churches which could make a law for all the rest ? No, cer-
tainly ; all these new churches, under the pretext of shaking
off domination have deprived themselves of order, and are
unable to preserve the principle of unity. But, in fine, if the
truth governs all, as they boast, to unite them in one confes-
sion of faith, nothing more is necessary than that all should
enter into the sentiment of him to whom God had given the
grace first to explain the truth.

In fine, we read in the preface of Geneva, that if the refor-
mation had produced but one confession of faith, this consent
might have been taken for a studied combination ; whereas, a
concDrdarice between so many churches, and confessions of
faith, without agreement, is the work of the Holy Ghost.
This agreement would indeed be surprising ; but, unfortunately,
it is uot found in these confessions of faith ; and from this his-
tory it will appear, that in a matter so serious there never was
such inconstancy.

* Synt. Conf. Praef. f Athan. de Syn. et Ep. ad Afr.

PREFACE. 11

17. — The Protestants^ of the two parties in vain endeavor to re unite under (me
sole and uniform Confession of Faith.

This great evil was deeply felt in the reformation, and the
attempt to remedy it proved fruitless. All the second party
of Protestants held a general assembly to draw up a common
confession of faith ; but we see by the acts, that having no
principle of unity, an agreement was impossible.*

The Lutherans, who appeared more united in the confession
of Augsburg, were not less embarrassed with different editions,
and could find therein no better remedy.|

18. — Hoio much these varieties degenerate from the ancient simplicity of
Christianity.

We shall be tired, no doubt, of witnessing these variations,
and so many false subtleties of the new reformation ; so many
cavils on words ; so many different agreements ; so many
equivocations and forced explanations, on which these have
been founded. Is this, it will be often said, the Christian reli-
gion, which the Pagans have formerly admired as so simple, so
pure, so precise in its dogmas 1 Is this the Christian religion,
perfect and simple ? No, certainly it is not. Ammian Mar-
cellin was right when he said, that Constantius, by all his
councils and all liis symbols, had strayed from this admirable
simplicity, and that he had weakened the whole vigor of the
faith, by the perpetual fear which he entertained lest he should
be deceived in his sentiments. J

19. — Why it wUl be very necessary in this history to speak of those whom the
Protestants call the Reformers.

While it is my intention to represent in this work the confes-
sions of faith and the other public acts, where the variations
appeared not only of individuals, but of entire churches of the
new reformation, at the same time I cannot avoid speaking of
the chiefs of the party who have drawn up these confessions,
or have made those changes. Thus Luther, Melancthon, Car-
lostad, Zuinglius, Bucer, Ecolampadius, Calvin, and the others,
will appear often in their places ; but I shall not say anything
which is not taken from their own writing, or authors above
suspicion, so that there will not be in all this narrative any fact
that is not certain and useful in elucidating the variations whose
history I write.

20. — Parts of this history, whence they are drawn. — Why no history more cer-
tain and more authentic than this.

With regard to the public acts of Protestants, besides their
confessions of faith and their catechisms, which are in the
hands of the whole world, I have found some others in the col-

* Liv. 12. j Ibid. 3, 8. t Ammian Marcel, lib. 21.

12 PREFACE.

lection of Geneva ; others in the book called the " Concord,"
printed by the Lutherans in 1654 ; others in the result of the
national synod of the pretended reformers, which I have seen
in an authentic form in the king's library ; others in the Sa-
cramentarian History, printed at Zurich in 1602, by Hospinian,
a Zuinglian author ; or, in fine, in other Protestant authors ;
in a word, I shall say nothing which is not authentic, and in-
contestable. As to the rest, to speak plainly, it is well known
of what persuasion I am ; for certainly I am a Catholic, as
submissive as any other to the decisions of the church, and so
disposed, that no one fears more to prefer his own private opin-
ion to the universal judgment. After that, to pretend to be
neutral or indifferent to the cause whose history I write, or to
dissemble what I am, would be to offer a gross illusion to the
reader ; but with this sincere avowal, I maintain that Protes-
tants cannot deny that I am entitled to belief, and that they will
never read a history more indubitable than this ; since in all that
I have to say against their churches and their authors,! will men-
tion nothing which is not clearly proved by their own witnesses.

21. — Some objections that may be made against this work.
I have not spared pains to transcribe them. The reader
will perhaps complain that I have not spared his. Others will
probably condemn my dwelling upon things which may appear
trivial to them ; but besides that those, who are accustomed to
treat on matters of religion, well know, in a subject of such
delicacy and importance, every thing, even to the least word,
is essential ; we ought to consider not what things are in them-
selves, but what they have been, and what they are in the
minds of those with whom we have to deal ; and, after all, it
will be easily seen that this history is entirely of a description
quite peculiar ; that it ought to come forth to the world with
all its proofs, and armed as it were on all sides ; and in order
to render it more convincing and useful, it was necessary to
make it less amusing.

22. — Some things which it was necessary to trace farther hack ; as the history
of the Vaudois, of the Albigenses, of John Wickliff, and of John Huss.

Though my plan may appear to confine me to the history of
Protestants, in certain places I judged it necessary to ascend
to matters of a more distant date ; at that period especially,
when the Vaudois and Hussites were seen to re-unite them-
selves with the Calvinists and Lutherans. In this place it was
necessary to know the origin and sentiments of these sects, to
point out their extraction, and to distinguish them from those
with whom some have wished to confound them ; to detect the
Manxcheism of Peter of Bruis, and the Albigenses, and show

PREFACE. 13

how the Yaudois emanated from them ; to give an account of
the blasphemies of WickUif, from whom Huss and his disciples
took their birth ; in a word, to reveal the shame of all these
sectaries to those who glory in such predecessors.

23. — Why the order of thne is followed without distinction of the subject matter.
As to the arrangement of this work, the disputes and decis-
ions will, without the distinction of matter, be seen to proceed
in it in the same order in which they happened. By this means,
it is certain that the variations of Protestants, and the state of
their churches, will be more clearly m.arked. By thus taking
in at one view the circumstances of time and place, we shall
obtain a clearer viev/ of what may serve for the conviction or
defence of the parties concerned.

24. — The lohole dispute regarding the Church put together. — The present state
of this famous question, and to lohat terms it is reduced by the ministers
Claude and Jurieu.

There is but one controversy, the history of which I give
separately ; it is that which regards the church. This is a
matter of such importance, that by its decision alone all dis-
putes might be terminated, were it not as much obscured in the
writings of Protestants, as it is clear and intelligible in itself.
To restore it to its native plainness and simplicity, I have col-
lected, in the last book, a.11 I had to mention on this subject ;
that the reader, having once seen the difficulty to the bottom,
may perceive what obliged these new churches to change into
so many shapes in succession, — what in the end is but one and
the same. For, in a word, the whole matter at issue is to show
where the church was before the reformation. Naturally and
accordingly to the commonly received opinions of all Chris-
tians, it ought to be acknowledged as visible ; and in their first
confessions of faith, namely those of Augsburg and Strasburg,
the first of each party, they went thus far. By this they
obliged themselves to show, as agreeing with them in one and
the same belief, not private individuals scattered up and down,
some on one point and some on another, but bodies of a church,
namely, bodies composed of pastors and people. For a long
time they amused men in saying, that the church indeed was
not always in a state of splendor, but in all times there was,
at least, some little assembly where truth made itself heard ; at
last they having well perceived they could not point out any
one, either little or great, obscure or illustrious, which was of
the Protestant belief, the subterfuge of an invisible church
very opportunely occurred to them, and the dispute long turned
upon this question. In our days they have more clearly per-
ceived, that a church reduced to an invisible state was a chi-

2

14 PREFACE.

mera, irreconcilable with the plan of scripture, and common
notions of Christians, and this bad position is now abandoned.
The Protestants have been obliged to seek for their succes-
sion in the church of Rome. Two celebrated ministers of
France vied with each other which should best cover the
inconsistencies of this system, to use an expression then in
fashion. It is well known, that those two ministers are M.
Claude and Jurieu. These men were gifted with wit and
learning, subtlety and address, and every qualification neces-
sary to make a good defence. None put on a better counte-
nance than they, nor classed their adversaries, with a more
haughty and disdainful air, with weak people and missionaries
for whom they entertained so great contempt ; the difficulty,
however, which they would make appear so hght, proved at last
so great, that it raised a division in the party. At length they
were obliged to acknowledge publicly, that in the Church of
Rome, as in other churches, eternal salvation with the essential
succession of true Christianity were found — a secret which the
policy of the party had so long kept concealed. They have
given us great advantages besides ; they were driven into such
visible excesses ; they have so far forgotten both the ancient
maxims of the reformation, and their own confessions of faith,
that I could not but relate this change in full. Having applied
myself with great care to trace out exactly the plan of these
two ministers, and show plainly the state in which they have
placed the question, I must acknowledge sincerely, that I have
found in their writings, with the most dexterous shifts, as much
erudition and as much subtlety as ever I have observed in all
the Lutheran or Calvinistic authors with whom I am acquaint-
ed. If among Protestants it should be judged advisable, under
the pretext of the absurdities into which they have been forced,
to contradict and recall what they have granted, and again take
shelter in the invisible church, or other retreats equally aban-
doned, this would be like the disorder of a defeated army, who,
dismayed at their overthrow, should seek to re-enter those forts
which they had been unable to maintain, at the peril of being
soon forced out a second time : or like the restlessness of a
sick person, who, after much turning to-and-fro in bed in search
of a more easy place, comes back to that he had just left, where
he soon finds himself as uncomfortable as before.

25. — What complaints Protestants may make, and how frivolous.

I have but one thing to fear : it is, if I may be allowed to
speak it, lest I should lay too open to our brethren the weak-
ness of their reformation. Some there are, who, seeing their
religion so manifestly rn the wrong, rather than be pacified,

PREFACE. 15

will be exasperated against us, though alas ! I am far from
imputing to them the misfortunes of their birth, and I pity, much
more than I blame them. But they will not fail to rise up
against us. TVTiat recriminations will be prepared against the
church, and what reproaches against myself, probably, on the
nature of this work 1 How many of our adversaries, though
■svithout reason, will tell me, that departing from my own char-
acter and maxims, and converting disputes of religion into per-
sonal and particular accusations, I have abandoned that m.odera-
tion, which they themselves have praised 1 But certainly they
will merit the blame, — if this history renders the reformation
odious, honest minds will clearly see, that it is not I, but the
thing itself that speaks. In a discourse in which with regard
to matters of faith, I propose to show the most authentic acts
of the Protestant religion, nothing less than personal facts can
be the question in hand ; and if these be found in their authors,
whom they represent as men sent in an extraordinary manner
to revive Christianity in the sixteenth century, a conduct directly
opposed to such a design ; if through the whole party they have
formed, characters quite contrary to a reviving of Christianity
be seen ; in this part of the history, Protestants will learn not
to dishonor God and his providence, by attributing to him a
special choice which would be evidently bad.

26. — What recriminations may be allowed them.

We must bear with recriminations, together with all those
inventions and calumnies with which our adversaries are accus-
tomed to load us. I require of them but two conditions, which
they must allow to be just. The first is, not to think of ac-
cusing us of variations in matters of faith, until after they have
cleared themselves ; for they cannot deny, that this course
would not be an answer to this history, but would tend to be-
wilder and delude the reader ; secondly, not to oppose reason-
ings or conjectures to certain facts ; but certain facts to certain
facts, and authentic decisions of faith to authentic decisions
of faith.

And if by such proofs they show us the least inconsistency,
or the least variation, in the dogmas of the Catholic Church,
from her first origin down to us, that is from the foundation of
Christianity, I will readily own to them that they are right, and
I myself will suppress my whole history.

27. — This History very conducive to the knowledge of Truth.

It is not, however, my design to make a jejune and insipid
recital of Protestant variations. I shall disclose their causes ;
I shall show that no change happened among them, which does
not argue an inconsistency in their doctrine, and is not the

16 PREFACE.

necessary result of it. Their variations, like those of the
Arians, will discover what they would have excused, what
supplied, what disguised in their behef. Their disputes, their
contradictions, and their equivocations, will bear witness to
Catholic truth, which, from time to time, must also be repre-
sented such as it is in itself, in order to make it appear by how
many ways its enemies have been forced at length to draw
near to it again. Thus, in the very midst of so many disputes,
the dark and inevitable confusions of the new reformation.
Catholic truth, like a beautiful sun piercing through opaque
clouds, will everywhere display its lustre ; and this treatise,
should the execution equal the desire with which God has in-
spired me, will be the more convincing demonstration of the
justice of our cause, as it will proceed from principles and
facts allowed for certain by all.

28. — A7id to facilitate a re-union.
In short, the contests and agreements of Protestants will
point out to us in what, on one side or the other, they have
placed the fundamentals of religion, and the point at issue :
what they must aver, what, at least, they must support in con-
formity v/ith their own principles. The Confession of Augsburg
alone, with its apology, will decide more in our favor than one
thinks, and, I presume, what is most essential, we shall con-
vince the Calvinist, complaisant to some, inexorable to others,
that what appears odious in the Catholic, and not so in the
Lutheran, at bottom is not essentially different ; when it will
appear, that what is aggravated against one, is extenuated and
tolerated in the other ; this will prove sufficiently, that such
conduct proceeds not from principle, but aversion, which has
ever been the true spirit of schism. This trial to which the
Calvinist subjects himself, will reach much further than he is
aware. The Lutheran will also find disputes greatly lessened
by the truths he already acknowledges, and this work, which at
first might seem contentious, will tend more to promote peace
Jhan strife.

29. — How Catholics ought to be affected by this History.

As to the Catholic, he will everywhere praise the Almighty,
for the continual protection he affords liis church, in order to
maintain her simplicity, and inflexible uprightness, amidst the
subtleties with which men strive to bewilder the truths of the
Gospel.

The perverseness of heretics will be a great and instructive
spectacle to the humble of heart. They will learn to despise
that knowledge which puffs up, and that eloquence which daz-
zles ; and the talents wliich the world admires wdll appeal* to

PREFACE. 17

them of little value, when they see such vain curiosities, such
caprices in learned men, such dissimulation, such artifices in
the most polite writers ; so much vanity and ostentation, such
dangerous illusions amongst those called men of wit ; and
finally, so much arrogance and passion, and consequently so
many and so manifest errors in men that appear great, because
they are followed by the crowd. They will deplore the errors
of the human mind, and be convinced that the only remedy for
these great evils, is to break off all attachment to private judg-
ment, for it is this which distinguishes the Catholic from the
Heretic. The property of the heretic, that is, of one who has
a particular opinion, is, to be wedded to his own conceits : the
property of the Catholic, that is, universal, is, to prefer the
general sense of the whole church to his own sentiments ; this
is the grace for which we shall petition in behalf of those that
err. We shall, however, be filled with a salutary and holy awe,
when we contemplate the dangerous and slippery temptations
with which God tries his church, and the judgments which he
exercises on her ; nor shall we cease to pour forth prayers to
obtain for her, pastors equally enlightened and exemplary, since
it is through want of them that the flock, which has been re-
deemed at so great a price, has been so miserably ravaged.

2*

THE HISTORY

OF THE

VARIATIONS OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.

BOOK I.

[From the year 1517 to the year 1520.]

Brief summary : — The beginnmg of Luther's disputes. — His agitations. —
His submissions to the Church and Pope.— The foundations of his Refor-
mation laid in imputed justice ; his unheard of propositions ; liis condem-
nation.— His passion, furious threats, vain prophecies, and tlie miracles of
which he boasts. — The Papacy to be overthrown all of a suddcjn, without
violence. — He promises he will not permit men to rise in arms for the
maintenance of his gospel.

1. — A reformalion of the Church desired many ages ago.

A REFORMATION of ecclesiastical discipline had been desired
several ages since. " Who will grant me," says St. Bernard,
*' before I die, to see the church of God such as she had been
in the primitive times 1"* If this holy man had any thing to
regret at his death, it was, that he had not witnessed so happy
a change. Durino; his whole hfe he bewailed the evils of the
church : he never ceased to admonish the people, the clergy,
the bishops, and the Popes themselves of them. Nor did he
conceal his sentiments on this subject from his own religious,
who partook of his atliiction in their solitude, and extolled the
Divine goodness in having drawn them to it so much the more
gratefully, as the world was more universally corrupted. "f" Dis-
orders had still increased since that time. The Roman church,
the mother of churches, which for nine whole ages had, by
setting the example of an exact observance of ecclesiastical
discipline, maintained it throughout the universe to her utmost
power, was not exempt from evil ; and from the time of the
council of Vienna, a great prelate, commissioned by the Pope
to prepare matters there to be discussed, laid it down as a
groundwork to this holy assembly, " to reform the church in
the head and members." The great schism which happened

* Bern. Epist. 257, ad Eugen. Papam. nunc 238. N. 6.
t Guil. Durand. Episc. :P^imat. Speculator dictus, Tract, de Modo Gen.
Cone, celeb, tit. 1. part. 3 cjusd. part Tit. 33, &c.

BOOK I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 19

soon after made this saying common, not only with particular
doctors, Gerson, or Peter D'Aily, and other great men of the
time, but also with the councils ; and nothing was more fre-
quently repeated in those of Pisa and Constance. What hap-
pened in the council of Basil, where a reformation was unfor-
tunately eluded, and the church reinvolved in new divisions,
is well known. The disorders of the clergy, chiefly those of
Germany, were represented in this manner to Eugenius IV,
by Cardinal JuHan. " These disorders," said he, " excite the
hatred of the people against the whole ecclesiastical order, and
should they not be corrected, it is to be feared lest the laity,
like the Hussites, should rise against the clergy, as they loudly
threaten us."* If the clergy of Germany were not quickly
reformed, he predicted, that after the heresy of Bohemia, and
when it would be extinct, another still more dangerous would
soon succeed ; for it will be said, proceeded he, " that the
clergyl are incorrigible, and will apply no remedy to their dis-
orders. When they shall no longer have any hopes of our
amendment," continued this great Cardinal, " then will they
fail upon us. The minds of men are pregnant with expectation
of what measures will be adopted, and are ready for the birth
of something tragic. The rancor they have imbibed against us
becomes manifest ; they will soon think it an agreeable sacrifice
to God to abuse and rob ecclesiastics, as abandoned to extreme
disorders, and hateful to God and man. The little respect now
remaining for the ecclesiastical orders will soon be extinguished.
Men will cast the blame of these abuses on the court of Rome,
which will be considered the cause of them, because it had
neglected to apply the necessary remedy." He afterwards
spoke more emphatically : " I see," said he,J " the axe is at
the root : the tree begins to bend, and instead of propping it
whilst in our power, we accelerate its fall." He foresees a
speedy desolation in the German clergy. The desire of de-
priving them of their temporal goods would form the first spring
of motion. " Bodies and souls," said he, "will perish together.
God hides from us the prospect of our dangers, as he is accus-
tomed to do with those whom he destines for punishment : we
run into the fire which we see lighted before us."

2. — This desired reformution regarded not faith, hit only discipline.
Thus, in the fifteenth century, did this Cardinal, the greatest
man of his time, lament the abuses of those days, and foresee
their alarming consequences. He seems to have foretold those
evils in which Luther was about to involve all Christendom,
beginning with Germany. Nor was he mistaken, when he

* Epiat. 1. Julian Card, ad Eug. iv. inter Op. iEn. Siiv. p. 66. f Ibid. J Ibid.

20 THE HISTORY OF [boOK

supposed that a reformation which was despised, and a hatred
redoubled against the clergy, would speedily bring forth a sect
more terrible to the church than that of the Bohemians. Under
the banner of Luther appeared this sect, and in assuming to
themselves the title of Pteformed, they boasted they had realized
the wishes of Christendom, because a reformation had been long
desired by the Catholic world, people, doctors, and prelates.
In order to justify this pretended reformation, whatever had
been said by the writers of the church against the disorders of
the clergy and people, was collected with great industry.

But here is a manifest deceit in the passages cited ; not one
of these doctors even for once thought of changing the faith
of the church, or of correcting her worship, which chiefly con-
sisted in the sacrifice of the altar, or of subverting the authority
of her prelates, and chiefly that of the Pope, which was the
great end of this new reformation as founded by Luther.
3. — The testimony of St. Bernard.

Our reformers cite to us St. Bernard, who enumerating the
grievances of the church, all those she sustained at the begin-
ning during the persecutions, and those she suffered from
heresies in their progress, and those she was exposed to in
latter days, through the corruption of morals, allows the latter
to be far more frightful,* because they corrupt the very vitals,
and spread infection through all the members of the church :
whence, concludes this great man, the church may truly say
with Isaiah, "her bitterest and most painful bitterness is in
peace ;"| " when left in peace by infidels, and unmolested by
heretics, she is most dangerously assaulted by the depraved
morals of her own children." Even this were suflScient to
show that he did not deplore, as the reformers did, the errors
into which the church had fallen, since, on the contrary, he
represented it as safe on that side ; but such evils only as pro-
ceeded from relaxed discipline : accordingly, when, instead of
discipline, the dogmas of the church were attacked by turbulent
and restless men, — such as Peter of Bruis, as Henry, as Ar-
nauld of Bresse, — this great man would not suffer one of them
to be weakened, but fought invincibly for the faith of the church,
and the authority of the prelates. J
4. — The testimony of Gerson, and Cardinal Peter VAily, Bishop of Cambray.

It was so with the other Catholic doctors, who in the suc-
ceeding ages lamented abuses, and demanded a reformation of
them. Gerson was the most celebrated of these, and none
proposed with more energy a reformation of the church in her

* Bern. Serm. 33. in Cant. N. 10. f Isaise xxxviii. 17,

t Bern. Serm. 65, 66 in Cant.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 21

head and members. In a sermon, which he made after the
council of Pisa, before Alexander the Fifth, he introduces the
church demanding of the Pope a reformation and re-establish-
ment of the kingdom of Israel : but to show he complained of
no error that could be observed in the doctrine of the church,
he addresses the Pope in these words : "Why," says he, "do
you not send to the Indians,* whose faith may have been easily
corrupted, as they are not united to the church of Rome, whence
certainty of faith must be derived ?" His master. Cardinal
Peter D'Aily, sighed also for a reformation, but he fixed its
foundation on a principle entirely different from that on which
Luther would establish it, since the latter wrote to Melancthon,
" that sound doctrine could not subsist, whilst the authority of
the Pope existed ;" and, on the contrary, the Cardinal thought
" that the members of the church being separated from their
head, during the schism, and there being no administrator, and
apostolic director, namely, no Pope, that all the church acknow-
ledged no hope could be entertained of effecting a reforma-
tion."! Thus one made the reformation to consist in the
subversion of the papacy, and the other in the perfect re-estab-
lishment of that sacred authority, which was instituted by Jesus
Christ to preserve unity amongst his members, and retain all
in their respective duties.

5. — Two ways of desiring the reformation of the Church.
There were then two different sorts of persons, who called
for the reformation ; one, the truly peaceable and true children
of the church, without bitterness bewailed her grievances, and,
with respect, proposed a reformation of them, and in humility
bore with a delay. Far from desiring to effect this object by
schism, they, on the contrary, looked on schism as the greatest
of all evils. In the midst of these abuses, they admired the
providence of God, who, according to his promises, knew how
to preserve the faith of the church. And, though they could
not accomplish a reformation of morals, free from all bitterness
and passion, they deemed themselves happy that nothing pre-
vented them from accomplishing it in themselves. These were
the strong ones of the church, whose faith no temptation could
shake, nor induce to deviate from unity. Besides these, there
were proud spirits, who, struck with the disorders they saw pre-
vailing in the church, especially in her ministers, did not believe
the promises of her eternal duration could subsist in the midst
of such abuses ; whereas, the Son of God had taught to respect
the chair of Moses, notwitstanding the evil actions of the Scribes
and Pharisees who sat therein. J These became proud, and

* Gers. Serin, de Ascens, Dom. ad Alex. V, vol ii, p. 131,
t Ibid. 137. J Matth. xxiii, 3, 3.

22 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

thereby weak, yielding to the temptation which inclines to hate
the chair itself, in hatred to those who sat upon it ; and, as if
the wickedness of man could make void the work of God, the
aversion they had conceived against the teachers, made them
both hate the doctrines they taught, and the authority they had
received from God to teach.

Such were the Vaudois and Albigenses ; such were John
Wickliffe and John Huss. The ordinary bait by which they
induced weak souls into their nets, was the hatred with which
they inspired them against the pastors of the church. Influenced
by this spirit of bitterness, they sighed for a rupture. It is not
therefore surprising that, in the time of Luther, when invectives
and animosities were carried to the highest pitch, the most vio-
lent schism and apostacy of course ensued, that, perhaps, till
then had ever been seen in Christendom.

6. — Luther's commencements and qualities.

Martin Luther, an Augustinian Friar, by profession Doctor
and Professor of Divinity in the University of Wittenberg, first
excited these commotions. The two parties which called them-
selves reformed, have equally acknowledged him to be the
author of this new reformation. Not only his followers, the
Lutherans, vied with each other in extolHng him, but even
Calvin, often admires his virtues, his magnanimity, his con-
stancy, and the incomparable industry with which he opposed
the Pope. He is the trumpet, or rather he is the thunder, he is
the lightning that awaked the world from their lethargy : it was
not Luther that spoke, but God that thundered from his mouth.*

True it is, he had a strength of genius, a vehemence in his
discourses, a lively and impetuous eloquence, which captivated
the people and bore all before him, an extraordinary boldness
when supported and applauded, with an air of authority which
made his disciples tremble, insomuch that neither in little things,
nor in great, dared they venture to contradict him.
^[--.j Here I should relate the beginnings of the quarrel in
,^,Q* 1517, were they not known by all mankind. For who
is ignorant of the publication of the Indulgences of Leo
X, and the jealousy of the Augustinian Friars against
the Dominicans, who, on this occasion, were preferred to them?
Who does not know that Luther, an Augustinian Doctor, being
selected to maintain the credit of his order, first attacked the
abuses many made of indulgences, and the extravagances that
were uttered from the pulpit on that subject ? But he had too
much fire to keep himself within these limits : from the abuses

* Calv. II, Def. Cont. Vestph. Opusc. F. 785—787, et seq. Resp. Cont.
Pigh. IbidL fol. 137—141, &c.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 23

of the thing, he came to the thing itself. He went on step by
step, and though always diminishing indulgences and reducing
them almost to nothing by his mode of explaining them, however,
he seemed to agi-ee with his adversaries in the essential part ;
for when he began to write his propositions, one of them was
couched in the following terms : " Whoever denies the truth
of the indulgences of the Pope, let him be accursed."*

7.— jTAe groundwork of Luther's Reformation. — What imputed Justice^ and
♦ Justification by Faith mean.

Meanwhile, one subject led him on to another. As that of
justification, and of the efficacy of the sacraments bordered
nearly upon indulgences, Luther fell on these two articles ; and
this dispute soon became the most important.

Justification is that grace which, remitting to us our sins, at
the same time renders us agreeable to God. Till then, it had
been believed that what wrought this effect proceeded indeed
from God, but yet necessarily existed in man ; and that to be jus-
tified,— namely, for a sinner to be made just, — it was necessary
he should have this justice in him ; as to be learned and virtuous,
one must have in him learning and virtue. But Luther had not
followed so simple an idea. He would have it, that what justi-
fies us and renders us agreeable to God was nothing in us :
but we were justified because God imputed to us the justice of
Jesus Christ, as if it were our own, and because by faith we
could indeed appropriate it to ourselves.

8. — Luther^ s special Faith, and the cei'tainty of Justification.

But the mystery of this justifying faith had something in it that
was very singular. It did not consist in believing in general in
a Saviour, his mysteries and his promises ; but in believing
most assuredly, each one in his heart, that all our sins are for-
given us. "We are justified," said Luther without ceasing,
" from the time we with certainty believe ourselves so." The
certainty which he required was not that moral certainty alone,
which, grounded on reasonable motives, excludes trouble and
perturbation ; but an absolute and infallible certainty, by which
the sinner is to believe himself justified with the same faith as
he believes Christ came into the world.

Without this certainty there was no justification for the fedth
ful ; for they were told that they could neither call on God noi
trust in him alone, whilst they had the least doubt, not merely
of the Divine Goodness in general, but of that particular good
ness by which God imputes to each of us the justice of Jesu3
Christ ; and this is what he called special faith,

* Prop. 1517, 71, vol. i, Vited.

24 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

9. — According to Luther, mmi is assured of his Justification, without being
assured of his Repentance.

Here a new difficulty arose, whether, in order to be assured
of his justification, it was necessary, at the same time, that man
should be satisfied with the sincerity of his repentance. This
immediately occurred to every one ; and, since God promised
to justify the penitent only, if we are assured of our justifica-
tion, it seems necessary that we should be certain of the sin-
cerity of our repentance. But Luther abhorred this last cer-
tainty ; and so far from being assured of the sincerity of repent-
ance, " one was not even assured," said he, " by reason of the
most hidden vice of vain-glory or self-love, that he did not
commit many mortal sins in his very best actions."*

Luther went still much further ; for he had invented this dis-
tinction between the works of God and those of men, " that the
works of men, however beautiful in appearance, might seem-
ingly be good, yet were they grievous sins ; on the other hand,
the works of God, however deformed in appearance, might
seemingly be bad, yet were they of an eternal merit."! Deceived
by his antithesis and by tliis play of words, Luther imagined
that he had discovered the true difference between the works of
man and those of God ; not reflecting that the good works of
men are also the works of God, who, by his grace, produces
them in us, which, according to Luther himself, should give
them an eternal merit ; but this is what he was resolved to
avoid, — on the contrary concluding, " That all the works of
the just would be mortal sins were they not fearful of their
being so ; nor could there be any avoiding presumption, or
having a true hope, if, in every action they performed, they did
not fear damnation."];

Repentance, doubtless, is not compatible with mortal sins
actually committed ; for to be truly repentant of some grievous
sins, and not of all, or to be sorry for them, whilst one commits
them, is impossible. If, therefore, we are never certain, that in
every good work we fall not into divers grievous sins — if, on the
contrary, we ought to fear our constantly falhng into such, we
can never be assured of being truly penitent ; and could we be
assured of this, we need not, as Luther prescribes, fear damna-
tion, unless we at the same time believe that God, contrary to
his promise, would condemn to hell the contrite of heart. And
if, on account of his own want of disposition, of which he was
not assured, a sinner should happen to call in doubt his justifi-
cation, Luther told him he was not assured of his good dispo-
sition, nor did he know, for example, whether he were truly

* Luther, T. i. Prop. 1518. Prop. 48.

t Prop. Heidls. 1518. Prop. 3, 4, 7, 1 1. t Ibid.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 25

penitent, truly contrite, truly afflicted for his sins ; yet he was
not the less assured of his entire justification, because it de-
pended not on any good disposition on his part. On this account
this new Doctor declared to the sinner, " Believe firmly that
thou art absolved, and thou art so, whatever be thy contrition."*
This is equivalent to saying, whether you be penitent or not,
you need not concern yourself. All consists, said he continu-
ally, " in beheving, without hesitation, that you are absolved ;''
whence he concluded, whether the priest baptized or gave you
absolution in earnest or in jest, is a matter of no consequence ;'|'
because in the sacraments there was only one thing to fear,
namely, the not beheving strongly enough that all your crimes
were forgiven you, when you had once wrought on yourself to
b(^heve so.

10. — The Inconsistency of this DoctHne.

The Cathohcs perceived that this doctrine labored under a
most grievous difficulty, because the believer, being obliged to
hold himself assured of his justification, and not of his repent-
ance, consequently ought to believe he might be justified in the
sight of God, though he were not truly penitent, which opened
the way to impenitence.

True it is, however, (for nothing ought to be concealed,) that
Luther did not exclude from justification a sincere repentance,
namely, the horror of sin, and the will to do good, and, in short,
the conversion of the heart, and judged it as absurd, as we
do, to be justified without contrition or repentance. Between
him and Catholics, on this head, there appeared no difierence,
unless that the Catholics called these acts the dispositions of
the sinner to justification, and Luther judged he styled them
more justly, the necessary conditions. But this subtle distinc-
tion, at bottom, did not extricate him from the difficulty : for
these acts are essential for the remission of sin, name them as
you w^ill, either condition, or disposition, or necessary prepara-
tion; so that the question still returned, How Luther could say
the sinner ought to believe most assuredly that he was absolved,
bo his contrition what it may, that is, be his repentance what it
may ; as if the being penitent, or not, were a thing quite indif-
ferent to the remission of sins.

11. — Whether we may be assured of our Faith without being assured of o\ir
Repentance.

Here, then, was the great difficulty in the new dogma, or, in
modern phrase, the new system of Luther. How was it possi-
ble to have assurance of the entire remission of sin, when not
assured, nay, it was impossible one should be certain of true

* Serra. de Indulg. v. i. p. 52. f Prop. 1518. Ibid. Serm. de Indulg.

3

26 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

repentance, and true conversion? But it was enough, said
Luther, one was assured of faith. A new difficulty, to be
assured of faith, and not of repentance ; which faith, according
to Luther, always produces. " But," answers he, " the faithful
can say, ' I believe,'* and thereby his faith becomes sensible
to him ;" as if the same person might not in like manner say,
" I repent," and so become alike assured of his repentance.
*' If, lastly, it be repHed that the doubt will still remain, whether
he repent or not as he ought to do, I say the same of faith ;
and the sum of the whole is this, — that the sinner must rest
assured of his justification, without the possibility of an assu-
rance that he hath fulfilled as he ought that necessary condition
of obtaining it, v/hich God required at his hands."

Here there was a new labyrinth. Although faith did not, in
the opinion of Luther, dispose to justification, (for he ever had
an aversion to these dispositions,) it was, however, the neces-
sary condition, and the only means of appropriating to us Jesus
Christ and his justice. If, therefore, after all the efforts that a
sinner makes, in order to persuade himself fully that his sins are
forgiven him through his faith, this question should arise within,
Who will tell me, weak and imperfect as I am, whether or not
I have that true faith which changes the heart 1 This is a
temptation, according to Luther. We must believe, that by
faith all our sins are forgiven us, without troubling ourselves
whether this faith be such as God requires ; nay, without so
much as thinking of it. For this thought alone would be inaking
the grace of justification depend on a thing which maybe in us;
which the gratuitousness, as I may say, of justification, accord-
ing to him, would not suffer.

12. — The Security which Luther blames.

With this certainty of the remission of sin, advanced by
Luther, he however declared there was a certain state danger-
ous to the soul, which he called security. " Let the faithful
take care," says he, " that ihey come not to a security ;" and
immediately after, " There is a detestable arrogance and secu-
rity in those who flatter themselves, and are not truly afflicted
for their sins, which are still deeply rooted in their minds. "|
If to these two theses of Luther, we join that in which he said,
as has been seen already, that, on account of self-love, one
could never be assured he did not commit many mortal sins in
his very best actions, insomuch that he ought alM ays to fear
dam.nation,J it might seem that this Doctor, at bottom, agreed
with Catholics, and that this certainty, which he lays down, was
not to be taken, as it has been by me, in the most rigorous

* Ass. artic. damnat. v. ii. ad Prop. 14.

1 5 Disp. 1538. Prop. 44, 45. 1, T. J Prop. 1518, 48, v. i.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 27

sense. But in that we should be deceived ; Luther literally
maintains these two propositions, which appear so contraiy —
*' Man is never assured that he grieves for his sins as he ought
to do ; and he must rest assured that he has gained the forgive-
ness of them." Whence follow those two propositions, which
seem not less opposite : certainty is to be admitted, security is
to be feared. But what is, then, this certainty, if it be not
security 1 This was the inexplicable knot of the doctrine of
Luther, which never could be unravelled.

13. — The Ansioer of Luther, by the distinction of two kinds of Shi.

For my part, all I could ever find in his works tending to
unfold this mystery, is the distinction he makes between sins
committed with knowledge, and those committed " without
knowledge and against conscience — lapsus contra conscieniiam.-'"^
It seems, therefore, that Luther would have said, a Christian
cannot be assured of his being exempt from sins of the first
kind, but may be so with regard to the second ; and if in the
committing these he held himself assured of the remission of
his sins, he fell into that pernicious security condemned by Lu-
ther ; whereas, avoiding them, he may have a full assurance
that all the rest, even the most hidden, are forgiven him ; which
is sufficient for that certainty which Luther would establish.
14. — The difficv.lty still remains.

But still the difficulty returned ; for, according to Luther, it
remained indubitable that it is never known by man whether
tliis vice of self-love, so hidden, does not infect the best of all
his actions : on the contrary, in order to avoid presumption, he
must look upon it as unquestionable that they are mortally
infected with it : " that he flatters himself;'' and that when he
beUeves himself " truly grieved for his offences," it does not
follow that he really is as much so as is necessary for the
remission of them. If this be so, whatever he may think he
feels within himself, he never knows whether sin reigns not in
his heart, the more dangerously the more hidden it is. We
must, therefore, be brought to believe we may be reconciled to
God, whilst sin predominates in us, or there never will be any
such thing as certainty.

15. — The Contradiction of the Doctrine of Luther,

Thus all we are told of the certainty man may have with respect
to sin committed against conscience, is nothing to the purpose.
Luther should have gone farther and acknowledged that this
sin which liides itself, this secret pride, this self-love, which
lurks in so many shapes, and even assumes the form of virtue,

* Luth. Themat. v. i. p. 490. Conf. Aug. cap. de bon. op. Synt. Gen. 2.
part. p. 21.

28 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

may be, perhaps, the grand obstacle to our conversion, and the
ine^'itable subject of that continual fear which, after St. Paul,
is taught by Catholics. The same Catholics obsei-vcd, that the
answers on this subject were manifestly contradictory. Luther
had advanced this proposition : " No man should answer the
priest that he is contrite, that is, penitent."* And as the prop-
osition seems very strange, he cites these passages to support
it : "I am not conscious to myself of any thing, and yet 1 am
not on that account justified."! David says, " Who knoM^eth
his sins?" J St. Paul says, "He that commendeth himself is
not approved, but he whom God commendeth. "§ From these
texts Luther concluded that no sinner is so qualified as to
answer the priest, " I am truly penitent ;" and understanding
it rigorously, and for an entire certainty, he was right. Accord-
ing to him, therefore, man was not absolutely assured he was
penitent. According to him, however, he was absolutely cer-
tain his sins were forgiven him ; he was absolutely certain,
therefore, that forgiveness is independent of repentance. Cath-
olics labored in vain to understand these novelties : here is a
prodigy, said they, in doctrine and morals, nor can the church
bear this scandal. ||

18. — The Sequel of the Contradictions of Luthe7\
" But," said Luther, " we are assured of our faith, and faith
is inseparable from contrition." To which was rephed, " Allow,
therefore, the faithful to answer for their contrition equally with
their faith, or prohibiting one, prohibit the other." " But," pro-
ceeded he, " St- Paul has said, * Examine yourselves whether
you be in the faith; prove yourselves. 'IT Therefore we feel
faith," concluded Luther : " Therefore we feel it not," con-
cluded his adversaries. If it be a matter of proof, if a subject
of examination, it is not a tiling we know from feeling, nor,
as they say, from conscience. That which is called faith, con-
tinued they, may be, perhaps, notliing more than an illusory
image of it, and a weak repetition of what has been read in
books, or heard from the mouths of others. In order to be
certain we have that lively faith which works the true conver-
sion of the heart, we ought to be sure that sin no longer reigns
in us ; which Luther neither can nor will guarantee to us, whilst
he guarantees what depends thereon, namely, the forgiveness of
sins. Here is the contradiction, and the inevitable weakness
of his doctrine.

17. — The Continuation of them.
Nor let this text of St. Paul be alleged: "Whatman knoweth

* Assert, art. Damnat. ad art. 14. T. ii. f 1 Cor. iv. 4. J Ps. xviii. 13.
§ 2 Cor. X. 18. 11 Ibid, ad Prop. 12. 14. If 2 Cor. xiii. 5.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. ^9

the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him?"*
True it is, no other creature, neither man nor angel, sees any
thing in us but what we see : but it follows not from that we
ourselves do always see it ; otherwise, how could David have
said what Luther objected — " Who knoweth his sins r" These
sins, are they not in us ? And since it is certain we do not
always knew them, man will be always a mysteiy to himself,
and his own mind an eternal and inipenetrable subject of doubt.
It is, therefore, manifest folly to seek for a certainty of the for-
giveness of our sin, if we be not certain that w^e have entirely
withdrawn our hearts from it.
18. — Luther fcrrgot all that he had said well at the beginning of the Dispute.

At the beginning of the dispute Luther spoke much better;
for here are his first theses on Indulgences, in 1517, and at the
first rise of the discussion : " None is assured of the truth of
his confession, much less of the fulness of bis pardon. "| At
that time, on account of the inseparable union of repentance
and forgiveness, he acknowledged that the uncertaint} of the
one impHed that of the other. He afterwards changed, but
from good to bad ; still retaining the uncertainty of contrition,
he took away the uncertainty of forgiveness, and no longer
allowed forgiveness to be dependant on repentance. Thus
Luther reform.ed himself; such was liis progress, as bis anger
against the church increased, and as ho sunk deeper into
schism. In every thing he made it his study to take the reverse
of the sentiments of the church. Far from endeavoring, as we
do, to inspire sinners with a fear of the judgments of God, to
excite repentance in them, Luther v/ent to such excess as to
say, " That contrition, which looked back, in the bitterness of
heart, on years past, weighing the grievousness of sins, their
deformity, their multitude, beatitude lost, and damnation in-
curred, served only to make men greater hypocrites ;"J as if it
were hypocrisy in the sinner to rouse himself from insensibility.
But, perhaps, he meant no more than that these sentiments of
fear were not sufficient, unless they are united with faith and
the love of God. I acknowledge he afterwards explained him-
self thus,§ but in contradiction to his own principles; for, on
the contrary, he required, (and this, as we shall hereafter see,
is one of the fundamentals of his doctrine) that forgiveness of
sin should precede love ; and to establish this, abused the par-
able of the two debtors in the Gospel, of whom our Saviour
said, " He to whom is forgiven the greatest debt loveth most."||
From this Luther and his disciples concluded, one did not love
till after the debt, namely, the sin, was remitted to him. Such

* 1 Cor. ii. 2. {Prop. 1517. Prop. 20. T. i. f. 50. | Serra. de Indul.

§ Adver. esecr. Anticrist. Bull, t ii. fol. 93. || Luc. vii. 42, 43.

3*

so THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

was the great indulgence preached by Luther, and opposed by
him to those that were pubhshed by the Dominicans, and granted
by Leo X. No occasion for exciting fear, no necessity for
love ; to be completely justified from all kind of sins, man
required no more than to believe without hesitation that they
were all forgiven him, and in a moment the affair was settled.
19. — Luther^s strange doctrine concerning the war against the Turks.
Amongst the extraordinary things which he every day ad-
vanced, there was one that astonished the whole Christian
world. Whilst Germany, threatened with tlie formidable arms
of the Turk, was all in motion to oppose him, Luther established
this principle — " That it was necessary, not only to will what
God requires us to will, but all absolutely that God himself
wills." Whence he concluded, " that to fight against the Turk,
was to resist the will of God, who designed to v^sit us."*

20. — Lxither''s outioard humility, and hir, submission to the Pope.
In Mie midst of so many bold propositions, nothing in the ex-
terior was more humble than he — a man timid and retired. He
said,| " By force he had been drawn into the world, and rather
by chance tnan design, thrown into those troubles." His style
had nothing uniform, was even unpolished in some places, and
this on purpose. So far from promising immortality to his
name and writings, he had never so much as sought it. Nay,
he waited the decision of the Church respectfully, so far as to
declare expressly, " should he not abide by her judgment, he
consented to be treated as a heretic." In a word, all he said
breathed his submission, not only to the council, but to the holy
see, and the Pope himself, who, moved by the clamor which the
novelty of the doctrine had excited over all the church, had
taken cognizance of the cause ; and thus it was, that Luther
appeared most respectful. " I am not so rash," said he, J " as
to prefer my private opinion to that of all other men." As to
the Pope, this is what he wrote to him in 1518, on Trinity Sun-
day : " Whether you give life or death, call me this or that way,
approve or reprove as best seems fitting, I will hearken to your
voice, as to that of Christ himself. "§ For three entire years,
all his discourses were filled with similar protestations : nay
more, he referred himself to the decision of the universities of
Basil, Fribourg, and Louvain. Awhile after, he joined to them
that of Paris ; nor was there a tribunal in tlie church wliich he
would not acknowledge.

21. — The reasons on lohich he grounded his submission.
What he uttered concerning the authority of the holy see had

* Prop. 1517, 98, f. 56. f R-esoL de Pot. Papa?. Pra^f. T. 1. f. 310. Praef.
oper. ibid. 2. JCont. Prieri. t. i. f. 177. § Protest. Lutli. t, i. f 195.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 31

the appearance of sincerity ; for the reasons which he assigned
for his attachment to this great sec were, indeed, the most capa-
ble of affecting a Christian heart. In a book which he wrote
against Sylvester Prierius, a Dominican, he begins with citing
these words of Jesus Christ, " Thou art Peter," and these
" Feed my sheep." The whole world, says he, confesses, that
from these texts proceeds the authority of the Pope. In the
same place, after saying that the faith of the whole world ought
to be regulated by that which the church of Rome professes, he
thus proceeds : " I give thanks to Jesus Christ, for preserving
on earth this only church by a great miracle, and which alone
may demonstrate that our faith is true, insomuch as never, by
any one decree, hath she departed from the true faith." Even
after the ardor of dispute had shaken a little these good princi-
ples, " the consent of all the faithful retained him in a reverence
for the authority of the Pope." " Is it possible," said he, " for
Jesus Christ not to be with this great number of Christians]"*
Thus he condemned the Bohemians, who separated from our
communion, and protested it should never be his fate to fall into
a like schism.

22. — FIls sallies of passion, for which he begs pardoii.

However, there was something haughty and violent percepti-
ble in all his writings. But though he attributed his pasoion to
the violence of his adversaries, whose excesses, in that way,
were not inconsiderable, yet he asked pardon for it. "I ac-
knowledge" (thus he wrote to Cardinal Cajetan, legate then in
Germany) " I have been transported indiscreetly, and have been
wanting in due respect to the Pope. I am sorry for it. Though
urged to it, I shoidd not have answered the fool that wrote
against me, according to his folly. Be so good," continued he,
" as to represent the matter t^ the holy father ; I desire no more
than to hear the voice of the church, and to obey it."

23. — A new protestation of submission to the Pope. — He offers Leo X, and
Charles F, to be silent for the future.

After his citation to Rome, and whilst appealing from the
Pope ill-informed to the Pope well-informed, he did not cease to
say, " that the appeal, inasmuch as it regarded him, did not seem
necessary to him," he always abiding submissive to the judg-
ment of the Pope, yet excused his going to Rome on account
of the expense. I And moreover, said he, this citation before
the Pope was needless to a man who waited for notliing but the
decree of the Pope, in order to comply with it. J

In the course of this proceeding, on Sunday, the 28th of No^
vember, he appealed from the Pope to the council ; but in his

+ Disput, Lips. t. i. f 251. f Ad Card. Cajetan. J Ibid.

32 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

act he persisted in always saying, " that he neither presumed to
doubt the supremacy, or authority of the holy see, nor yet to say
any thing contrary to the power of the Pope well-advised and
well-informed." And, indeed, on the third of March, 1519, he
wrote again to Leo X, that " he did not design in anywise to
interfere with his authority, or that of the church of Rome."*
And, provided a similar injunction were laid on his adversaries,
he bound himself, as he had all along done,. to an eternal silence ;
for he could not bear a partial judgment ; and, if we may be-
lieve him, he would have remained satisfied with the Pope, had
he but imposed on both parties an equal silence. So little was
this reformation, so much boasted of since, deemed by him
necessary to the welfare of the church. As for retractation, he
would never hear it mentioned, however sufficient matter there
was for it, as observed above. And yet, so far from e:3fagger-
ating, I do not tell the whole. But, said he, *• being once en-
gaged, his Christian reputation would not suffer him to abscond
in a corner," or to retreat. This was his excuse after the rup-
ture commenced ; but, during the contest, he assigned one, the
more probable as it was more submissive. " For, after all,"
said he, " I see not what use would be my retractation, since it
is not what I have said, but what the church will say to me,
whom I shall not pretend to answer as an adversary, but to hear
as a disciple."!

In the beginning of the year 1520, he spoke somewhat h'gher ;
_ Ke)f^ the contest, too, grew warmer, and the party was in-
creased. He wrote, therefore, to the Pope, — " I abhor
disputes ; I will attack no man, nor be myself attacked ; if
I be, having Jesus Christ for my lord and master, they shall
not go unanswered : as for recanting what I have said, let no
man look for it. Your holiness, with cne word, may terminate
all these contests, by bringing the cause to your x>wn tribunal,
and imposing silence on both parties. "J Tliis is what he wrote
to Leo X, dedicating to him, at the same time, the Book of
Christian Liberty, full of new paradoxes, the dreadful effects of
which we shall soon witness. The same year, after the univer-
sities of Lou vain and Cologne had censured this, and the other
books of Luther, he complained thus : " V/herein hath Leo, our
holy father, offended these universities, that they should snatch
out of his hands a book dedicated to his name, and laid at his
feet, there to await his sentence?' In short, he wrote to
Charles V, " that he would be an humble and obedient son of
the Catholic Church, even unto death ; and* promised to hold
his peace, if his enemies would but let him."§ He called the

* Luth. ad Leon. X. 1519. j Ad Card. Caj. t. i. p. 216.

X Ad Leon. X. t. ii, f. 2—6. § Luth. ad Car. V. ib. 44.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 33

whole universe, and the two greatest powers thereof to witness,
that these disputes might be terminated ; and to this he bound
himself in the most solemn manner.

24. — He is condemned by Leo X, and flies into horrible excesses.
But this affair had made too great a noise to be dissembled.
The sentence issued from Rome ; Leo X published his Bull
of condemnation, dated June 18, 1520 ; and, at the same time,
Luther forgot all his submissions, as if they had been empty
compliments. From that time he became furious ; clouds of
libels were scattered against the Bull : first, appeared his notes
and comments on it, filled with contempt ; a second pamphlet
bore this title, " Against the execrable Bull of Antichrist," which
he concluded with these words, " In the same manner that they
excommunicate me, I excommunicate them again."* Thus
did this new Pope pass sentence. He put out a third in " de-
fence of the articles condemned by the Bull."! Far from
retracting any of his errors, or in the least moderating his ex-
cesses, he went beyond them, and confirmed every thing, even
to this proposition, namely, " Every Christian woman or child,
in the absence of the priest, may absolve, in virtue of these
words of Jesus Christ, — All that ye shall unbind, shall be un-
bound ;" even to that wherein he said, that to fight against the
Turk was to resist God. Instead of correcting so scandalous
a proposition, he maintained it anew, and assuming the tone of
a prophet, spoke thus : " If the Pope be not brought to an ac-
count, Christendom is ruined ; he that can, let him flee to the
mountains ; or let this Roman homicide be slain. Jesus
Christ shall destroy him by his glorious coming ; it shall be he
and no other. "J Thus, borrowing the words of the prophet
Isaiah, " Oh Lord," cried out this new prophet, " who believeth
in thy word 1" And concluded, in delivering to men this com-
mandment, as an oracle sent from heaven : " Forbear ye to
make war against the Turk, until the name of the Pope be taken
from beneath the heavens ; I have said it."

25. — His fury against the Pope and those Princes who supported him.
This was plainly declaring to them, that henceforward the
Pope was to be held as their common enemy, against whom
all were to unite. But Luther spoke much plainer afterwards ;
when disappointed that these prophecies did not proceed fast
enough, he endeavored to accelerate their accomplishment by
these words ; " The Pope is a wolf, possessed by an evil spi-
rit ; from every village and every borough men must assemble
against him ; neither the sentence of the judge, nor the autho-
rity of a council must be waited for ; no matter if Kings and

* T. i. 88, 91. t Assert, art. per Bull, damnat. J Ibid. t. ii. Prop. 33.

34 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

Caesars make war in his behalf; he that rises in arms under a
thief, does it to his own cost. Kings and Caesars bear not
themselves guiltless, by saying they are the defenders of the
church, because they ought to know what is the church."*
In short, whoever had believed him, must have set all on fire,
and reduced to one heap of ashes, both Pope and princes that
supported him ; and what is still more strange, as many propo-
sitions as we have seen were as many theses of divinity, v/hich
Luther undertook to maintain. Nor was this an orator whom
the warmth of the harangue might have betrayed into indelibe-
rate conclusions ; but a doctor, that dogmatized in cold blood,
and erected all his phrenzies into theses.

Although he did not, as yet, exclaim quite so high in that libel
which he published against the Bull, yet the commencement of
that intemperance might have been discovered in it ; and it was
the same passion which made him say, on the subject of the
citation on v/hich he did not appear, " I defer my appearing
there, till I am followed by five thousand horse, and twenty
thousand foot ; then will I make myself be believed, ""f All
was of this character : and through his whole discourse appeared
mockery and violence ; the two marks of exasperated pride.

He was reproved in the Bull for maintaining some of the
propositions of John Huss ; instead of excusing himself, as he
would have done heretofore, " It is true," said he to the Pope,
" all that you condemn in John Huss I approve ; all that you
approve I condemn. Here is the recantation you enjoin me ;
do you require more ?"J

The most burning fevers cause not more frantic ravings.
Tliis was called by the party the height of courage ; and Lu-
ther, in the notes he made on the Bull, told the Pope under the
name of another, " We know full well that Luther will not bate
you an inch, because so great a courage cannot relinquish the
defence of the truth he has once undertaken."§ When, through
hatred that the Pope had caused his works to be burned at
Rome, Luther, in his turn, caused the Decretals to be burnt at
Wittenberg ; the acts recording this exploit, ordered by him to
be registered, said, " That he had held forth with a surprising
beautifulness of diction, and a happy elegance, in his mother
tongue." II With this charm he ravished and led away mankind.
But, above all, he forgot not to mention it was not enough to
have burnt those Decretals, and it had been much more to the
purpose, if the like had been done to the Pope himself; "that
is to say," added he, moderating a little his expression, " to the
Papal chair."

* Disp. 1 540, Prop. 59, et seq. t. i. f. 407. f Adv. execr. Antchr. Bull. t. ii. f. 91.
J Ibid. Prop. 30. f. 109. § Not. in Bull. t. ii. f. 56. || Exust. acta. t. iL f. 123.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. S5

26. — Hcno Luther came at last to reject the authority of the Church.

When I consider so much passion after so much humility, I
am at a loss whence this apparent humility could proceed in a
man of such temper. Was it from artifice and dissimulation ?
Rather, was it not that pride, unacquainted with itself in its
beginnings, and fearful at first, hides behind its contrary, till an
occELsion presents of appearing to advantage ?

After the rupture was opened, Luther himself confesses " that
in the beginning he was like one in despair, nor could man
comprehend from what weakness God had raised him to such
courage ; nor how, from such trembling, he came to so great
strength."*

Whether God or the occasion made this change, I shall leave
to the judgment of the reader, and, for my part, am content
with the fact which Luther owns during this alarm : in one
sense, it is very true that his humility was not feigned. What
might cause one, however, to suspect artifice in his discourses,
is, that occasionally he forgot himself so far as to say, " that
he never would change his doctrine ; and though he had referred
his whole dispute to the determination of the supreme bishop,
it was because respect ought to be observed towards him who
bore so great a charge." f But whoever shall reflect on the
interior conflicts of a man, whom pride on one side, and the
remains of faith on the other, never ceased to distract interiorly,
will not consider it at all impossible that such different senti-
ments should appear alternately in his writings. Be that as it
may, it is certain the authority of the Church restrained him for
a long time, nor can we read without indignation, as well as
pity, what he writes regarding it. " After," says he, " I had
gotten the better of all the arguments which were opposed to
me, one remained still which, with extreme difficulty and great
anguish, I could scarce conquer even with the assistance of
Jesus Christ; namely, that we ought to hear the church." J
Grace, I may say, with reluctance abandoned this unhappy
man. He prevailed at length ; and to complete his blindness,
mistook Jesus Christ's abandonment of him, for the immediate
assistance of his hand. Who would have thought, that refusing
presumptuously to hear the church, contrary to the express
command of Christ, should be attributed to the grace of Chrisf?
After this fatal victory, which cost Luther so dear, he cries out
like one set free from irksome bondage, " Let us break their
bands asunder, and cast their yoke from us ;"§ for he made
use of these words in answering the Bull ; and in his last strug-
gle to shake off* church authority, not reflecting that this inau-

* Prcef. Op. t. i. f. 49, 50, et seq. f Pio. Lect. t. i. f. 212. J Praef. Oper.
Luth. t. i. f. 49. § Not. in Bull, t i. f. 63. Ps. ii. 3.

36 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

spicious canticle is 'What David put into the mouth of rebels,
whose conspiracies were against tlie Lord, and against his
anointed, Luther, in his blindness, applies it to himself, exulting
that, exempt from all constraint, he may henceforward speak
and decide, as he wishes, in all things. His despised submis-
sions rankle in his breast ; — he keeps no temper ; — ^liis sallies,
that should scandalize his disciples, encourage them ; they
catch, by hearing, the contagious phrenzy ; so rapid a motion
reaches soon to a great distance ; and numbers look on Luther
as sent by God for the reforaiation of mankind.

27. — Luther^s Letter to the Bishops. — His pretended extraordinary mission.
Then he apphes himself to maintain his mission as extraordi-
nary and divine. In a letter he wrote to the bishops, " falsely
so styled," said he, he assumed the title of Ecclesiastes or
Preacher of Wittenberg, which none had ever given him ; nor
does he pretend any thing else, but that he gave it to himself;
" that so many Bulls, and so many excommunications, so many
condemnations from the pope and emperor, had stript him of
all his former titles, and defaced the character of the beast in
him ; yet he could not remain without a title, and had therefore
given himself this, as a token of the ministry to which God had
called him, and which he had received not from man, nor by
man, but by the gift of God, and by the revelation of Jesus
Christ."* Here we have his vocation as immediate, and as
extraordinary, as that of St. Paul. On tliis foundation, at the
beginning, and throughout the entire body of the letter, he qual>-
ifies himself " Martin Luther, by the grace of God, Ecclesiastes
of Wittenberg ;"| and declares to the bishops, " lest they should
pretend ignorance, that this is his own title which he bestows
on himself, with an egregious contempt of them and Satan ;
and that he might, with as good a claim, have called himself
evangelist by the grace of God : for Jesus Christ most cer-
tainly named him so, and considered him as Ecclesiastes."

By virtue of this celestial mission he did every thing in the
church ; he preached, he visited, abrogated some ceremonies,
left others remaining, instituted and deposed. He that never
was more than a priest, dared to make, I do not say other priests,
which itself would be an attempt unheard of in the entire Church
since the origin of Christianity ; but what is much more unheard
of, even a bishop. It was deemed expedient by the party to
invade the bishopric of Nuremburg. Luther went to this city,
and by a new consecration ordained Nicholas Amsdorf bishop
of it, whom he had already made minister and pastor of Magde-
burg. He did not, therefore, make him bishop, in the sense

*Ep. ad falso nominat. ordin. Episcoporum, t. ii. f. 305. f Ibid. 14. 220.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 37

he sometimes calls by that name all pastors, but he made him
bishop, with aJl the prerogatives annexed to this sacred name,
and gave him that superior character which himself had not ;
but all was comprised in his extraordinary vocation ; and an
evangelist, sent immediately from God like another Paul, could
do all he pleased in the church.

23. — Luther's arguments against the Anabaptists, who preached without ordinary
mission and miracles.

Such attempts as these, I know very well, are esteemed
nothing in the new reformation. These vocations and missions,
so much respected in all ages, are nothing more, after all, than
formalities to these new doctors, who require on]y what they
call essentials ; but these formalities established by God, pre-
serve what is essential. They are formalities, if they please,
but in the same sense the sacraments are so — divine formalities,
which are the seals of the promise, and the instruments of grace.
Vocation, mission, succession, lawful ordination, are alike with
them to be called formalities. By these sacred formalities God
seals the promise he made to his church of preserving her for
ever. " Go, teach and baptize ; and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world :"* with you, teaching and bap-
tizing ; not with you here present only, and whom I have im-
mediately chosen, but with you in the persons of those who
shall be for ever substituted in your place by my appointment.
Whoever despises these formalities of legitimate and ordinary
missions, may, with the same reason, despise the sacraments,
and confound the whole order of the church. And without en-
tering further into this subject, Luther, who said he was sent
with an extraordinary title immediately from God as an evan-
gelist and apostle, was not ignorant himself that that extraordi-
nary vocation ought to be confirmed by miracles. Therefore,
when Muncer, with his Anabaptists, assumed the title and
function of a pastor, Luther would not suffer the question to
turn on what he might call essential, or admit he should prove
his doctrine from the Scriptures ; but ordered he should be
asked, " Who had given him commission to teach V " Should
he answer — God ; let him prove it," says Luther, " by a manifest
miracle ; for when God intends to alter any thing in the ordinary
form of mission, it is by such signs that he declares himself."!

Luther had been educated in good principles, aiid could not
avoid sometimes returning to them. Witness the treatise which
he wrote of the authority of magistrates, in 1534. This date
is remarkable, forasmuch as four years after the Augsburg
Confession, and fifteen after the rupture, it cannot be said that
the Lutheran doctrine had not at that time taken its form ; and
* Mat. xxviii. 20. fSleid. lib. v. Edit. 1555-69. In Ps. kxxii.de Magi3.tiii.

38 ^ THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

yet Luther there declared agam, " That he had much rather a
Lutheran should leave the parish, than preach there against his
pastor's consent ; that the magistrate ought not to suffer either
private assemblies, or any to preach without lawful vocation ;
if they had suppressed the Anabaptists when they began to
spread their doctrine without vocation, the many evils wliich
desolated Germany would have been prevented ; that no man
truly pious should undertake any thing without vocation, which
ought to be observed so religiously, that even a gospeller (for
so he calls his own disciples) might not preach in the parish of
a papist or a heretic, without the consent of him who was pastor
of it ;" " which he spoke," proceeds he, " in warning to the
magistrates, that they might shun those prattlers, who brought
not good and sure testimonials of their vocation, either from
God or men ; without this, though they preached the pure gos-
pel, or were angels dropt from heaven, yet they ought not to be
admitted." This is to say, sound doctrine is not sufficient;
but, besides this, one of two things is requisite, either miracles
to testify God's extraordinary vocation, or the authority of those
pastors who were already qualified to confer the ordinary voca-
tion in due form.

When Luther wrote this, he was well aware it might be
asked, whence he himself had received his authority] and
therefore answered, *' He was a doctor and a preacher who
had not intruded himself, nor ought he to cease to preach, after
it had been forced upon him, neither could he dispense with
himself in teaching his own church ; but for other churches, he
did no more than communicate his writings to them, which was
but what charity required."
29. — What xoere the miracles ly which Luther pretended to authorise his mission.

But when he spoke with this assurance of his church, the
question was, v/ho had given him a charge of it ; and how that
vocation which he had received with dependance, on a sudden
became independent of the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy'?
However that be, Luther, for this time, was willing his vocation
should be ordinary ; at other times, when he was more sensible
of the impossibility of maintaining it, he styled himself, as above,
God's immediate envoy, and boasted he was deprived of all
these titles which had been conferred on him by the church
of Rome, that he might enjoy so celestial a vocation. Then,
as for miracles, he was at no loss : he would have the great
success of his preaching considered miraculous ; and, at his
renouncing the monastic life, he wrote to his father, who seemed
a little shocked at this change, that God had withdrawn him
from that state by visible miracles. " Satan," says he, " seems
to have foreseen from my infancy all that one day he was to

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 39

suffer from me. Is it possible, that I, of all mortals, should
be the only one he attacks at this time t Formerly, you were
desirous of taking mc from the monastery ; God hath taken
me thence mihout you. I send you a book wherein you will
see, by how many miracles and extraordinary instances of his
power he hath absolved me from monastic vows."* These
wonders and prodigies were not only the boldness, but also the
unlooked for success of his undertaking. It was this he gave
for miraculous, and his disciples were persuaded of it.
30. — Sequel of Luther's boasted Miracles,

They even accounted it supernatural that a petty monk had
conceived the courage to attack the Pope, and stood intrepid
amidst so many enemies. The people took him for a hero, a
man liom heaven, when they heard him defy threats and dan-
gers, and say, " though he absconded for awhile, the devil
knew full well " (a fine witness) " it proceeded not from fear ;
— that when he appeared at Worms before the emperor, nothing
was capable of terrifying him ; and though he had been assured
of meeting there as many devils ready to seize him as were
tiles on the house-tops, he would have dared them all with the
like resolution."! These were his ordinary expressions. He
had always in his mouth the devil and the pope, as enemies he
was about to crush ; and his disciples discovered in these words
a divine ardor, a celestial instinct, and the enthusiasm of a heart
influenced with the glory of the gospel.

When some of his party undertook, as we shall see, during
his absence, and without consulting him, to destroy images at
Wittenberg, — " I am quite unlike these new prophets," said he,
" who think they do something marvellous and worthy of the
Holy Ghost, when they pull down statues and pictures. For
my part, I have not lent my hand to the overthrowing of the
least single stone ; I have set lire to no monastery, yet, by my
mouth and my pen, almost ail monasteries have been laid waste ;
and the report is public that I alone, without violence, have
done more injury to the Pope, than any King could have done
with all the power of his kingdom." J These were the miracles
of Luther. His disciples admired the force of this plunderer
of monasteries, never reflecting that this formidable strength
^might be the same with that of the angel whom St. Joliii calls
the " destroyer."§

31. — Luther acts the Prophet : promises to destroy the Pope immediately without
suffering the taking of arms.

Luther assumed the tone of a prophet against those who

+ De Vot. Monas. ad Johannem Lut. Parent, suum. t. ii. 263.
t Ep. ad Frid. Sax. Ducem. apud Chyt. 1. x. p. 247.
+ Frider. Due. Elect. &c., t. vii. p. 507—509. § Apoc. ix. 11.

1*

40 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

Opposed his doctrine. After admonishing them to submit to it,
he threatened at last to pray against them. " My prayers,"
said he, " will not be Salmoneus's thunder, no empty rumbling
in the air. Luther's voice is not to be stopt so, and I wish your
highness find it not to your cost."* Thus he wrote to the
Prince of the House of Saxony. " My prayer," continued he,
" is an impregnable bulwark, more powerful than the devil him-
self. Had it not been for that, long ago, Luther would not be
so much as spoken of ; and men will not stand astonished at so
great a miracle !" When he threatened any with the divine
judgments, he would not have it behoved he did it upon general
views. You would have said that he read it in the book of fate.
Nay, he spoke with such certainty of the approaching downfall
of the Papacy, that his followers no longer doubted of it. Upon
his assertion, it was deemed certain that two antichrists, the
Pope and the Turk, were clearly pointed out in Scripture. The
Turk was just falling, and the attempts he was then making in
Hungary were to be the last act of this tragedy. As for the
Papacy, it was just expiring, and the most he could allow was
two years' reprieve : but above all, let them beware of employ-
ing arms in this work. Thus he spoke, whilst yet but weak ;
mid prohibited all other weapons than the word, in the cause of
his gospel. The Papal reign was to expire on a sudden by the
breath of Jesus Christ ; — namely, by the preaching of Luther.
Daniel was express on the point ; St. Paul left no doubt ; and
Luther, their interpreter, would have it so. Such prophecies
are still in fashion. The failure of Luther prevents not our
ministers from venturing at the like event now ; they know the
infatuation of the vulgar, ever destined to be charmed with some
spell. These prophecies of Luther stand in his works upon
record to this day, an eternal evidence against those who so
lightly gave them credit, "f* Sleidan, his historian, relates them
with a serious air. He lavishes all the elegance of his fine
style, all the purity of his polished language, to represent to us
a picture which Luther had dispersed throughout Germany,J
the most foul, the most base, the most disgraceful that ever was.
Yet, if we beheve Sleidan, it was a prophetic piece ; nay, the
accomplishment of many of Luther's prophecies had been seen
already, and the remainder of them was still in the hands of God.
Luther was not looked on as a prophet by the people alone.
The learned of the party would have him esteemed such. Philip
Melancthon, who, from the beginning of the disputes, had en-
tered liimself on the Ust of his disciples, and was the most able

* Ep. ad George Due. Sax. t. ii. f. 491. f Assert, art. Damnat. t. v. f. 3. ad
Prop. 3. ad Prop. 33. Ad. lib. Amb. Cathar. ib. f. 161. Cent. Reg. Aug.ib.
331, 332, et seq. J Sleid. 1. iv. 70. xiv. 225. xvi. 261, &c.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 41

as well as the most zealous of them all, conceived at first a firm
persuasion that there was somethmg in this man extraordinary
and prophetic ; and, notwithstanding all the weaknesses he dis-
covered in his master, he was a long time before he could relin-
quish the conviction ; and, speaking of Luther, he wrote to
Erasmus, " you know we ought to prove and not to despise
prophecies.*'*
S2. — The boastings of Luther and the contempt he entertained for- all the Fathers.

This their new prophet, ho>vever, fell into unheard-of extrav-
agances. He was always in extremes. Because the p/ophet
made terrible invectives by God's commandment, he becomes
the most profuse of abusive language, and the most violent of
men. Because St. Paul, for man's good, had extolled the gifts
of God in his own ministry with that confidence which pro-
ceeded from manifest truth, confirmed by divine miracles from
above, Luther spoke of himself in such a manner, as made all
his friends blush for him. They, however, grew accustomed
to it, and called it magnanimity, admired the holy ostentation,
the holy vauntings, the holy boasts of Luther ; and Calvin him-
self, though prejudiced against him, styled them so.| Elated
with his learning, superficial in reality, but great for the time,
and too great for his salvation and the peace of the church, he
set himself above all mankind, not his contemporaries only, but
the most illustrious of past ages.

In the question of free-will, Erasmus objected to him the con-
sent of the Fathers, and all antiquity. " You do very well,"
said Luther ; " boast to us of ancient Fathers, and rely on what
they say, when you have seen that all of them together have
neglected St. Paul ; and buried in a carnal sense, have kept
themselves, as on set purpose, at a distance from this morning
star, or rather from this sun." And again : " What wonder that
God hath left all the nations of the earth, and all the churches,
to go after their own ways'?" What a consequence ! If God
abandoned the gentile world to the blindness of their hearts,
does it follow that churches, delivered from it with such care,
must be abandoned like them 1 Yet this is what Luther says
in his book of " Man's Will Enslaved." And what deserves
still more to be observed here, is, that in what he there main-
tains, not only against all the Fathers, and all the churches, but
against all mankind, and their unanimous consent, — namely,
that there is no such thing as free-will, he is abandoned, as will
be seen, by all his disciples, and that even in the Confession of
Augsburg ; which shows to what excess his rashness was car-
ried, since he treated with such outrageous contempt all churches
and Fathers, in a point where he was so manifestly in error.

* MeL Ub. iii. Epist. 85. f Defcn. Cent. Vestph. opusc. f. 788.

4*

42 THE HISTORY OF [boOK

The praises which these holy doctors have, with one voice, be-
stowed on chastity, rather disgust than move him. St. Jerome
is not to be endured for recommending it. He pronounces that
all the holy Fathers, together with him, would have done much
better, if they had married. In other matters he is not less ex-
travagant. In a word, Fathers, Popes, councils, general and
particular, in every thing, and every where, are esteemed noth-
ing by him, unless they concur in his sentiments. He dis-
poses of them in a moment, by quoting Scripture, interpreted in
his own way, as if, before his time, men had been ignorant of
Scripture ; or the Fathers, who so religiously kept and studied
it, sought not, but neglected, its true sense.

33. — His huffoonei'y and extravagances.
To such a degree of extravagance did Luther now arrive
from that excessive modesty he professed at first, he passed to
this extreme. What shall I say of his buffooneries, no less
scandalous than degrading, with which he stuffed liis writings ?
Let but one of his most partial disciples take the trouble to read
that one discourse he composed against the Papacy, in the
time of Paul III, certain I am he would blush for Luther. He
will there fiiid throughout the whole, I do not say so nmch fury
and transpoit, but such wretched puns, such low jests, and such
filthiness, and that of the lowest kind, as is not heard but from
the mouths of the most despicable of mankind. " The Pope,"
says he, " is so full of devils, that he spits and blows them from
his nose." Let us not finish what Luther was not ashamed to
repeat thirty times. Is this the language of a reformer 1 But
the Pope was in question ; at that name alone he fell into all
his fury, and he was no longer master of himself. But may I
venture to relate what follows in this foolish invective ? It
must be done, though abhorrent to my feelings, that it may ap-
pear, for once, into what paroxysms of fury the chief of this
new reformation fell. I will, then, force myself to transcribe
these words, addressed by him to the Pope : — " My hitle Paul,
my little Pope, my little ass, walk gently ; 'tis freezing ; thou
wilt break a leg ; thou v/ilt befoul thyself; and they will cry
out, Oh the devil ! how the little ass of a Pope has befouled
himself!'-* Pardon me. Catholic readers, for repeating these
irreverences. Pardon me, too, ye Lutherans, and reap at least
the advantage of your own confusion. But after these foul
ideas, it is time to see the beautiful parts. They consist in
tlius playing on words ; coelestissimus, scelestissimus ; sanctis-
simus, satantissimus ; and it is what you find in every line. But
what will you say of this fine figure 1 " An ass knows that he
is an ass, a stone knows that it is a stone : but these little asses
+ Papapismus.

I.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 43

of Popes do not know that they are asses."* And lest the
same should be returned upon him he obviates the objection :
" And," says he, " the Pope cannot take me for an ass ; for he
knows very well that, through God's goodness, and by his par-
ticular grace, I am more learned in Scripture than he and all
his asses put together. "| To proceed ; here the style begins
to rise : " Were I a sovereign of the empire, [where will this
fine beginning lead him?] I would make but one bundle of
both pope and cardinals, and place them altogether in the little
ditch of the Tuscan sea ; this bath would cure them, I pass my
word for it, and give Jesus Christ for security."J Is not the
sacred name of Jesus Christ brought in here much to the pur-
pose ? Enough is said ; let us be silent, and tremble under
the dreadful judgments of God, who, in punishment of our
pride, has permitted that such gross intemperance of passion
should have so powerfully swayed to seduction and error.
34. — Sedition and violence.
I say notliing of seditions and plunderings, the first fruits of
the preachings of this new evangelist. I'hese served but to
foment his vanity. The gospel, said he, and his disciples after
him, has always caused disturbances, and blood is necessaiy
for its establishment. § Calvin defends himself the same way.
Jesus Christ, all of them cried out, came to send a sword into
the midst of the world. || Blind ! not to perceive, or unwiUing
to learn, what sword was sent by Jesus Christ, and what blood
was shed on his account. True it is, the wolves, in the midst
of whom Christ sent his disciples, were to spill the blood of his
innocent sheep ; but did he say the sheep should cease to be
sheep — should form seditious confederacies, and, in their turn,
spill the blood of the wolves 1 The sword of persecutors v/as
drav/n against his faithful ; but did they draw the sword, — I do
not say to assault their persecutors, — but to defend themselves
against their onsets 1 In a word, seditions were raised against
the disciples of Jesus Clirist ; but the disciples of Jesus Christ,
during three hundred years of an unmerciful persecution, never
so much as raised one. The gospel rendered them modest,
peaceable, submissive to the lav,^ful powers, even though these
powers were hostile to the faith ; and filled them with true zeal
— not that bitter zeal which opposes sourness to sourness,
arms to arms, violence to violence. Supposing, then, if they
please, Catholics to be unjust in persecuting ; those who gave
themselves out for reformers, on the model of the church apos-
tolic, ought to have begun their reformation with an invincible
patience : but, on the contrary, said Erasmus, who witnessed

* Papapismus. f Adv. Papism, o. 4/4. J Ibid.

§ De Sei-v. Art. f. 43 1 , &c. |1 M^tt. x. 34-47.

44 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

the birth of their beginning, " I behold them coming out from
their sermons, with fierce looks and threatening countenances,
like men that just came from hearing bloody invectives and
seditious speeches." Accordingly, we find " these evangehcal
peop'e always ready to rise in arms, and equally as good at
fighting as disputing."* Perhaps the ministers may grant us,
that the Jewish and the idol priests gave room for as bitter
satires as those of the church of Rome, however hideous they
may represent them to have been. When did it ever happen
that St. Paul's new converts, on their return from hearing his
sermons, fell to pillaging the houses of these sacrilegious priests,
as thi3 auditors of Luther and his disciples have been known to
do £<) frequently at their separation, promiscuously flying to
the plunder of all ecclesiastics, without distinction of good or
bad I What do I say of idol priests 1 The very idols them-
selves were spared, in some measure, by the Christians. When
did it happen at Ephesus or Corinth, when they absconded,
after St. Paul's or the apostles' preaching, that they overthrew
so much as one of them ? On the contrary, the town-secretary
of Ephesus bears witness to his fellow-citizens, that St. Paul
and his companions " did not blaspheme against their god-
dess ;"| namely, that they spoke against false deities, without
raisirg disturbances, or breaking the public peace. Yet I can-
not but believe the idols of Jupiter and Venus were full as
odious as the images of Jesus Christ, of his blessed mother,
and his saints, which our reformers trampled under foot.

BOOK II.

[From the year 1520 to 1529.]

A brief Summary. — Luther's variations on TransubstantiatioR. — Carlosta-
dius begins the Sacramentarian contest. — The circumstances of this rup-
ture.— The Boors revolt ; the part Luther acts. — His Marriage, of wliich
himself and his friends are ashamed. — The extremes into which he runs
on Free -Will, and against Henry VIII, king of England. — Zuinglius and
CEcolampadius appear. — The Sacramentarian s prefer the Catholic to the
Lutheran doctrine. — The Lutherans take up arms, contrary to all their
promises. — Melancthon is afflicted at it. — They unite themselves under the
name of Protestants. — Fruitless projects of agreement between Luther
and the ZuingUans. — Conference of Marpurg.

1. — The Book of the Captivity of Babylon. — Luther'' s Sentiments concerning the
Eucharist, and his great desire of destroying the reality.

The first treatise, in which Luther fully discovered himself,
was that which he composed in 1520, of the captivity of Baby-
lon. In it he loudly exclaimed against the church of Rome,
* Lib. xix. 1 1 3, 24, 31, 47. p. 2053, &c. t Acts xix. 37.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 45

which had but just condemned him ; and amongst the dogmas,
whose foundations he aimed to destroy, one of the first was
transubstantiation. He would most wilhngly have undermined
the real presence, had he been able ; and every one knows
what he himself declares in his letter to those of Strasburg,
where he writes, that " it would have been a great pleasure to
him, had some good means been afforded him of denying it,
because nothing could have been more agreeable to the design
he had in hand of prejudicing the Papacy."* But God sets
hidden boundaries to the most violent minds, and permits
not innovators to afflict his church equally with their desires.
Luther was iiTCCoverably struck with the force and simplicity
of these words — " This is my body, this is my blood : this body
given for you, this blood of the New Testament, this blood
shed for you, and for the remission of your sins ;" j" for thus
ought these words of our Lord to be translated, in order to give
them their full force. The church had believed without dif-
ficulty, that Jesus Christ, to consummate his sacrifice and the
figures of the old law, had given us his proper flesh sacrificed
for us. She judged the same of the blood shed for our sins.
Accustomed from her infancy to mysteries incomprehensible,
and to ineffable tokens of the divine love, the impenetrable
miracles included in the literal sense had not shocked her faith;
nor could Luther ever persuade himself, either that Jesus
Christ would have obscured, on set purpose, the institution of
his sacrament, or that simple words were susceptible of such
violent figures, or could possibly have any other sense than
that which naturally entered into the minds of all Christians in
the east and the west ; insomuch, that they never could be di-
verted from it, either by the sublimity of the mystery, or the
subtleties of Berengarius and Wickliffe.

2. — The change of substance attacked by Luther, and his g ross ivay of explaining it.
He was determined, however, to mix with it something of
his own. All those who, to his time, had well or ill explained
the words of Jesus Christ, had acknowledged they wrought some
sort of change in the sacred gifts. Those that would have the
body there in a figure only, said that our Saviour's words wrought
a change wliich was purely mystical, so that the conseciated
bread became the sign of the body. Those that maintained the
literal sense, with a real presence, by an opposite reason, ad-
mitted accordingly an effectual change. For which reason, the
reality, together with the change of substance, had naturally in-
sinuated itself into the minds of men; and all Chrisfian churches,
in spite of whatever sense could oppose, had come into a belief
so just and so simple. Luther, however, would not be directed
♦ Ep. ad Argentin. t. vii. f. 501. f Matt. xxvi. 28. Liike xxii. 19, 20. 1 Cor. xi. 24.

46 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

by such a rule. " I believe," says he, " with Wickliffe, that the
bread remains ; and with the Sophists, (so he called our di-
vinec^,) I believe the body is there."* He explained his doc-
trim; in several ways, which, for the most part, were very gross.
One time he said the body was with the bread, as fire is with
red4iot iron. At other times he added these expressions, " that
the body was in the bread, and under the bread, as wine is in
and under the vessel ;" — from this the celebrated propositious
in, siih, cum; importing that the body is in the bread, under the
bread, and with the bread. But Luther was very sensible that
these words, " This is my body," required something more than
placing the body in this, or with this, or under this ; and to ex-
plain, " This is," he thought hmiself obliged to say that these
words — " This is my body," imported, — this bread is substan-
tially and properly my body ; a thing unlieard of, and embar-
rassed with insuperable difficulties.

3. — Iinpanation asserted by some Lutherans — rejected by others.
However, in order to surmount them, some of Luther's dis-
ciples maintained, that the bread was made the body of our
Lord, and the wine his precious blood, as the Divine Word v/as
made man : so that, in the Eucharist, a true impanation was
mad 3, as in the Virgin's womb a true incarnation. This opinion,
which had appeared at the time of Berengarius, was renewed
by Osiander, one of the principal Lutherans ; — a thing unintel-
ligible to man. Every person saw, that for bread to be the
body of our Lord, and wine his blood, as the Divine Word is
man, by that kind of union which divines call personal or hy-
postatic, how necessary it was that, as man is the person, the
body should also be the person, and the blood likewise ; which
destroys the very principles of reasoning and of language. The
human body is part of the person, but not itself the person, nor
the vvhole, nor, as they speak in schools, the suppositum. The
blood is still less so ; and this is in no respect the case when
personal union can find admittance. Every one is not learned
enough rightly to employ the term hypostatic union : but when
it is once explained, every person must perceive to what it can
be applied. So Osiander was left to defend alone his impana-
tion and invlnation, and to say as much as he pleased. This
bread is God ; for he went to that excess. "j* But so strange an
opinion required not refutation : it fell of itself by its own ab-
surdity ; nor was it approved by Luther.

4. — Luther'' s variations on Trans^.ibsiantiation — a neio way of deciding in tnat-
ters of faith.

Yet what he himself said led the direct way to it. No one
could conceive how bread, remaining bread, could be at the
* Du Capt. Bab. t. ii. f Mei. lib. ii> Ep. 447.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 47

same time the true body of our Lord, as he asserted, without
admitting, between both, this hypostatic union rejected by him.
But he was resolute in rejecting it ; and yet united both sub-
stances, even so far as to say one was the other.

At first, however, he spoke but doubtfully of the change of
substance : and though he preferred the opinion which retains
the bread, to that which changes it into the body, the matter
seemed but tiivial to liim. " I permit," says he, " both one and
the other opinion ; the scruple is the only thing I take away."*
Such was the decision of this new pope ; transubstantiation and
consubstantiation were alike indifferent to him. In another
place, having been upbraided with making the bread remain in
the Eucharist, he owns as much : but, adds he, " I do not con-
demn the contrary opinion ; I only say it is not an article of
faith. "t But in the answer he made to Henry VIII, King of
England, who refuted his Captivity, he soon advanced much
further. " I had taught," says he, " it was a matter of no im-
portance whether, in the sacrament, bread remained or not ; but
now I transubstantiate my opinion ; I say it is an impiety and
a blasphemy to hold that the bread is transubstantiated ;" and
he carries his condemnation to an anathema. J The motive
which he alleges for this change is remarkable. This is what
he writes in his book to the Vaudois : " True it is, I believe it
an error to say the bread does not remain, although this error
hath hitherto appeared to me of hght importance ; but now that
we are too much pressed to admit this error without the author-
ity of Scripture, to spite the Papists, I am determined to believe
that the bread and wine remain." This is what drew on Cath-
olics the anathema of Luther. Such were his sentiments in
1523. We shall see whether he will persist hereafter in them ;
but it may not be amiss to observe, even in this place, that a
letter is produced by Hospinian, in which Melancthon accuses
his master of allowing transubstantiation to certain churches in
Italy, to whom he had written on that subject. The date of
this letter is in 1534, twelve years after he had answered the
King of England.
5. — Strange flights of passion in the boolcs against He-m-y VIl I, King of England.

Now his transports of passion against this prince were so
violent, that the Lutherans themselves were ashamed of them.
There was nothing but atrocious contumelies, and outrageously
giving him the he in every page — " He was a fool, an idiot, the
most brutal of all swine and asses."§ Sometimes he addresses
him in this terrible manner : " Beginnest thou to blush, Henryl
— no longer king, but sacrilegious wretch !" His beloved dis-

* De Cap, Babvl. t. ii. f. QQ. ] Resp. ad art. extract, ibid. 172.

I Contra Reg. Aug. T. 11. § Cont. Reg. Aug. 333.

48 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK

ciple, Melancthon, durst not reprove, and knew not how to ex-
cuse him. Some even of his own disciples were scandaHzed at
the outrageous contempt with which he treated all that the uni-
verse had esteemed most grand, and at his capricious manner
of deciding in controversies in faith. To define one way, and
then all on a sudden, the very opposite, merely in despite of the
Papists, was too visibly abusing the authority which was given
him, and insulting, as we may say, the credulity of mankind.
But he was complete master in liis ov,n party, and they dared
not disapprove whatever he said.

6. — A Letter of Erasmus to Melancthon concerning Luther^s transports.

Erasmus, astonished at the extravagance of passion which he
had endeavored in vain to moderate by his advice, in a letter to
his friend Melancthon explains the causes of it : — "What shocks
me most in Luther is," says he, " that whatever he takes in
hand to maintain, he carries to extremity and excess. Warned
of his excesses, so far from moderating them, he runs on more
headstrong ; and seems to have no other design than to proceed
to still greater intemperance. By his writings," adds he, " I know
the man's temper as much as if I had lived with him — a fiery
and impetuous spirit. You see an Achilles, whose warmth is
invincible, through the whole tenor of them. You are no stran-
ger to the artifices of the Enemy of mankind. Add to this, so
great success, so declared an approbation, so universal applause
of his audience, — against such allurements a modest mind would
scarce stand uncorrupt."* Although Erasmus never left the
communion of the church, yet he maintained amid these dis-
putes of religion a particular character, which makes Protest-
ants give him credit for those facts of which he was witness.
But it is on other grounds most certain, that Luther, ela,ted
with the victory which he thought he had already gained over
the power of Rome, no longer kept himself within bounds.
7. — Division mnongst the pretended Gospellers. — Carlostadius attacks Luther
and the reality.

Strange ! that he and his party should have looked upon the
prodigious number of their followers, as they all did, for a mark
of divine favor, without reflecting that St. Paul had foretold of
heretics and seducers, that " their speech spreadeth like a can-
cer,"! that " they grow worse and worse, erring and driving into
error. "J But the same St. Paul says also, that their progress
is limited, " they shall proceed no farther."§ The unhappy
conquests of Luther were checked by the division which broke
out among these new reformers. It has been long since said,
that the disciples of innovators beheve they have a right to in-

* Erasm. lib.vi. Epist 3, ad Luther, lib, xiv.Ep. 1, &c.— Id. lib. xix. Ep.3, ad
Melanct. t 2 Tim. ii. 17. J Ibid. iii. 13. § Ibid. iii. 9.

11.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 49

novate after the example of their masters ;* the leaders of
rebels meet with rebels as rash as themselves. But without
more reflections, to speak the simple fact, Carlostadius, whom
Luther had so much commended, | however unworthy he may
have been, and. whom he called his venerable preceptor in Jesus
Christ, found himself able to oppose him. Luther had attacked
the change of substance in the Eucharist, — Carlostadius at-
tacked the reality, which Luther had not dared to undertake.

Carlostadius, if we beheve the Lutherans, was a brutal, igno-
rant person, yet artful and turbulent ; void of piety, without
humanity, and rather a Jew than a Christian. This is what
Melancthon, a man moderate and naturally sincere, says of
him. But without citing the Lutherans in particular, his friends
as well as enemies are agreed he was the most restless and im-
pertinent of men. 'No more proof of his ignorance is neces-
sary than the exposition he gave of the Eucharistic institution,
where he maintained that, by these words, " This is my body,"
Jesus Christ, without any regard to what he gave, m.eant no
more than to show himself seated at table, as he then was with
his disciples ; — so ridiculous a conceit, that one has a difficulty
to believe it ever entered into the mind of man. J
8. — Origin of the contests hetxoeen Luther and Carlostadius. — Luther^ s pride.

Before he had given this monstrous interpretation, two great
contests had already happened between him and Luther. For
in 1521, whilst Luther lay concealed for fear of Charles V, who
had put him under the ban of the empire, Carlostadius had
thrown down images, taken away the elevation of the blessed
sacrament, and even low masses, and set up communion under
both kinds in the church of Wittenberg, where Lutheranism
began. Luther did not so much disapprove of those changes,
but rather judged them as done in an improper time, and in
themselves unnecessary. But what provoked him the most, as
he shows plainly in the letter he wrote on the subject, was, that
Carlostadius had despised his authority,^ and would have set
himself up for a new doctor. Remarkable are the sermons he
made on this occasion ; for, without naming Carlostadius, he
reproached the authors of these enterprises, that they had acted
without mission, as if his own had been more valid. " Easily,"
said he, " could I defend them before the Pope, but I know
not how to justify them before the devil, when this evil spirit shall,
at the hour of death, oppose against them these words of Scrip-
ture, ' Every plant that my father hath not planted shall be rooted
up ;' and again, ' They did run, and it was not I that sent them.'
What will they answer then? They shall be cast down into hell."

* Tert. de Prcescr. c. 42. f Ep. Dedic. Comm. in Gal. ad Carlostad,

t Zuin. Ep. ad. Matt. § Ep. Luth. ad Gasp. Gustol. 1522.

5

50 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

f). — Luther^s sermon^ wherdn to spite Carlosiadius and those lohofolloioed him,
he threatens to retreat and re-establish the mass. — His extravagances in boast-
ing of his poioer.

Thus spoke Luther whilst he yet lay concealed. But com-
ing forth from his Patmos (for so he called the place of his
retreat) he made a quite different sermon in the church of Wit-
tenberg. He there undertook to prove that hands ought not to
be employed in tlie reforming of abuses, but the word alone.
" It was the word," said he, " whilst I slept quietly, and drank
my beer with my dear Melanctbon and Amsdorf, that gave the
Papacy such a shock as never was given by prince or emperor.
Had I been inclined," he proceeds, " to have done things in a
tumultuary way, all Germany should have sv/am in blood ; and
when at Worms, I could have put things into such a state that
the emperor himself had not been safe in it."* This is what
history had not informed us of. But people once prejudiced
believed every thing ; and so sensible was Luther of his being
master, that he had courage to tell them in full audience, " more-
over, if you pretend to continue doing things by these common
deliberations, I will unsay, without hesitation, all that I have
written or taught. I will make my recantation, and leave you.
Remember, I have s'aid it ; and, after all, what hurt will the
popish mass do you ]" One thinks himself in a dream when
he reads these things in the writings of Luther printed at Wit-
tenberg ; you return to the beginning of the volume to see if
there be no mistake, and say in astonishment, — W^hat is this
new gospel 1 Could such a one as this pass for a reformer ?
Will men never open their eyes ? Is it, therefore, so difficult a
thing for man to confess his error ?

10. — Luther decides in the most important matters from spite. — The elevation;
tioo kinds,

Carlostadius, on his side, did not remain quiet, but, provoked
at being so warmly treated, labored to combat the real presence,
as much to attack Luther as from any other motive. Luther
also, though he had thoughts of laying aside the elevation of
the host, yet retained it out of spite to Carlostadius, as he him-
self declares, " and lest," proceeds he, " it might seem we had
learned something from the devil."!

He spoke not more moderately of communion under both
kinds, v/hich the same Carlostadius had introduced by his pri-
vate authority. Luther, at that time, held it for a thing quite
indifferent. In the letter he wrote on the reformation of Car-
lostadius, he reproaches him " v/ith having placed Christianity
in things of no account, — communicating under both kinds,
taking the sacrament into the hand, abolishing confession, and

* Serm. qiiid Christiano pracstandum, t. vii. f. 373.

I Lutb. par Confess. Tlospin. part ii. f. 188.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC, 61

burning images."* And again, in 1523, he says in the formu-
lary of the mass, " If a council did ordain or permit both kinds,
in spite of the council we would take but one, or take neither
one nor the other, and would curse those who should take both,
in virtue of this ordinance."! Behold what was called Chris-
tian liberty in the new reformation ! Such was the modesty
and humility of these new Christians !

11. — How the war was declared between Luther and Carlostadius.
Carlostadius being driven from Wittenberg, was obliged to
retire to Orlemond, a town of Thuringia, subject to the Elector
of Saxony. At this time all Germany was in a flame. The
boors, revolting against their lords, had taken up arms, and
implored the aid of Luther. Besides their following his doc-
trine, it was supposed that his book of Christian hberty had not
a little contributed to inspire them with rebellion, by that bold
manner with which he spoke against laws and legislators. J
For, though he defended himself by saying, that he meant not
to speak of magistrates, or of civil laws, it was, however, true
that he made no distinction between secular and spiritual powers ;
and to pronounce in general, as he did, that a Christian v/as
not subject to any man, was, till the interpretation came, nour-
ishing the spirit of insubordination in the people, and giving
dangerous views to their leaders. Add to this, that to despise
the powers supported by the majesty of religion, is to leave
others destitute of support. The Anabaptists, another shoot
of the doctrine of Luther, who were formed by pushing his
maxims to their greatest extent, mixed in the tumult of the
boors, and began to turn their sacrilegious inspirations to mani-
fest rebellion. Carlostadius was infected with these novelties,
at least Luther accuses him of it ; and true it is, he held a
great intimacy with the Anabaptists, murmuring continually
with them, as well against the Elector as against Luther, whom
he called a flatterer of the Pope, chiefly on account of what
little he had preserved of the mass and real presence :§ for the
contest was, who should most condemn the church of Rome,
and depart farthest from its doctrine. These disputes having
raised great commotions at Orlemond, Luther was sent there
by the prince to appease the tumult. In his way he preached
at Jena, in the presence of Carlostadius, whom he failed not
to charge with sedition. From this began the rupture ; the
memorable account of which I shall relate exactly as it is found
in the works of Luther, as it is acknowledged by the Lutherans,
and as Protestant historians have deiivered it. \\ The sermon

* Epist. ad Gasp. Gustol. t Form. Miss. t. ii, 384, 386.

t De Libert. Christ, t. ii. f. 10, 11. § Sleidan, lib. v. xvii.

jl Luth. T. 1 1 . Jen. 447, Calixt. Judic. N. 49. Hosp. 2. Part, ad an. 1 524. f. 32.

52 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

of Luther being over, Carlostadius went and visited him at
the Black Bear, where he lodged, a place famous in this his-
tory for giving birth to the Sacramentarian war between the
new-reformed. There, amongst other discourses, Carlostadius
having excused himself in the best manner he was able as to
sedition, he declares to Luther he could not bear his opinion
of the real presence. Luther, with a disdainful air, defies him
to write against him, promising him, at the same time, a florin
of gold if he would undertake it. The money is produced.
Cadostadius puts it into his pocket. They shake hands mu-
tually, promising each other fair play. Luther drinks to the
health of Carlostadius, and to the success of the fine work he
was about to publish. Carlostadius pledges him in a bumper ;
and thus was the war declared, German-like, the twenty-second
of August, 1624. The parting of the champions was as re-
markable. " May I see thee broken on a wheel !" says one ;
" Mayest thou break thy neck before thou leavest town !" says
the other.* The entry of Luther had not been less extraor-
dinary ; for upon his arrival at Orlernond, Carlostadius had
ordered it so, " that he was received with great vollies of stones,
and almost smothered with dirt." Such is the new gospel.
Such the acts of the new apostles !

12. — The loars of the Jinahaptists, and that of the revolted peasants. — The share
that Lxithtr had in these revolts.

Soon afler occurred more bloody battles, but, perhaps, not
more dangerous. The revolted peasants had met together to
the number of forty thousand. The anabaptists rose in arms
with unheard-of fury. Luther, called upon by the peasants to
pronounce upon the claims they had against their lords, acted a
very strange part. On one hand, he wrote to the peasants, that
God had forbid sedition. On the other hand, he wrote to the
lords, that they exercised such a tyranny '° as the people could
not, would not, ought not to endure."! By these last words,
he rendered back to sedition those arms which he seemed to
have taken from it. A third letter, written in common to both
sides, laid the fault on both, and denounced the dreadful judg-
ments of God against them, should they not dispose matters
amicably. Here his weakness was blamed. Soon after, oc-
casion was given of reproaching him -with intolerable cruelty.
He published a fourth letter, exciting the princes, powerfully
armed, " to exterminate, without pity, those miserable wretches
who had not followed his advice, and to spare those only who
should voluntarily lay down their arms :" as if a seduced and
vanquished populace were not a fit object of compassion, but

* Epist. Luth. ad Argent, t. vii. f. 502. f Sleid. lib. v. Ibid. 75.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 53

ought to be treated Vvdth as much rigor as the heads that misled
them. But Luther would have it so ; and when he saw so cruel
a sentiment was condemned, incapable of owning himself ever
in the wrong, he m.ade a book expressly to prove that truly " no
mercy at all ought to be showed rebels, nor were even those to
be forgiven, whom the multitude had drawn by force into any
seditious action."* Then were seen those famous battles which
cost Germany so much blood. Such was its state when the
Sacramentarian dispute added new fuel to the flames.
13. — The Marriage of Luther, xohich had been preceded by that of Carlostadius.
Carlostadius, who began it, had already introduced a novelty
singularly scandalous ; for be was the first priest of any reputa-
tion that took a wife ; and this example was attended with sur-
prising effects in the sacerdotal order, and in the monasteries.
Carlostadius was not as yet at variance with Luther. The mar-
riage of this old priest was laughed at, even among the party ;
but Luther, v/ho earnestly desired to do the same, uttered not a
word. He was fallen in love with a nun of quality, and singular
beauty, whom he had taken out of her convent. It was a maxim
of the new reformation, that vows were a Jewish practice, and
none of them less obligatory than that of chastity. The Elector
Frederick suffered Luther to speak after this manner, but could
not bear that he should reduce these opinions to practice. He
nad nothing but contempt for those priests and religious who
married, contrary to the canons, and that discipline which had
been revered for so many ages. Therefore, not to lose his
credit with that prince, Luther was obliged to have patience
during the prince's life ; but he was no sooner dead than Luther
married his nun. Tliis marriage happened in 1525, that is, in
the height of the civil wars of Germany ; at v/hich time the
Sacramentarian disputes were inflamed to the utmost violence.
Luther was then forty-five years old ; and this man, who, under
the shelter of religious discipline, had passed his whole youth
blameless in continency, in so advanced an age, and whilst he
w^as hailed throughout the universe as the restorer cf the Gospel,
blushed not to abandon so perfect a state of life, and look be-
hind him. Sleidan passes lightly over this fact. " Luther,"
says he, " married a nun, and thereby gave room for fresh accu-
sations from his adversaries, who called him madman, and slave
of Satan ;"| but he does not disclose the whole secret ; nor
were they only Luther's adversaries who blamed his marriage ;
he himself was ashamed of it ; his disciples, the most devoted
to him, were surprised at it ; and all tliis we learn from a cu-
rious letter of Melancthon to liis intimate friend, the learned
Camerarius.

* Sleid. lib. X. p. 77. 1 Sieid. lib. v. p. 77.

5*

54 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

14. — A remarhtble Letter of Melandhon to Camerarius on Lulher''s marriage.

It is written all in Greek, for so they corresponded on secret
matters. He informs him, that " Luther, when least expected,
had taken Boren to wife, (this was the nun's name,) without the
least intimation of it to his friends : but that, one evening, having
invited Pomeranus the minister to supper, together with a painter
and a lawyer, he had the usual ceremonies performed ; that it
was astonishing to see that at so miserable a time, when good
men had so much to suffer, he could not command himself so
as to compassionate, at least, their misfortunes ; but on the con-
trary, seemed so regardless of the miseries that threatened them,
as to suffer his reputation to be weakened, even at a time when
Germany stood most in need of his prudence and authority."
Then he relates to his friend tlie causes of this marriage : " that
he very well knows Luther was no enemy to human nature, and
that natural necessity, he really believes, was what engaged him
in this marriage ; therefore, he ought not to wonder that Luther's
magnanimity should thus be moUilied ; that this manner of life
is low and common, but holy : and after all, the scripture allows
marriage as honorable ; in the main, there is no crime in it ;
and if more than this be laid to Luther's charge, it is a manifest
calumny." This he says on accour.t of a rumor which had
spread of the nun's being with child, and ready to lie in when
Luther married her, which proved false. Melancthon was there-
fore in the right to justify his master on this head. He adds,
" that all that can be blamed in this action of his, is the unsea-
sonable time in which he did so unexpected a tiling, and the
pleasure he thereby gave his enemies, v/ho only seek to accuse
him. In conclusion, he beholds him full of trouble and vexation
for this change, and does what he can to comfort him."

It is plain enough ho ,v much Luther was ashamed of and
concerned at his marriage, and how greatly Melancthon was
struck, notwithstanding all the respect he had for him. What
he adds in the conclusion, intimates likewise, how much he be-
lieved Camerarius would be affected, since he stfys he was de-
sirous of preventing him, " lest through his zeal for the contin-
uation of Luther's glory, always untarnished and reproachless, he
should give himself over to too much trouble and dejection at
this surprising news."

They had at first regarded Luther as a man superior to all
ordinary wealinesses. That which he evinced by this scandalous
marriage dejected them. But Melancthon comforts his friend
and himself as well as he is able, by reason that " there may,
perhaps, be something in it that is hidden and divine ; that he
has certain marks of Luther's piety; and some humiliations
befalling them may turn to good, there being so much danger

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 55

m elevated stations, not only for the ministers of holy things, but

for all mankmd in general ; and after all, the greatest saints of

antiquity had their failings ; and, lastly, that we ought to em-
brace the word of God for its own sake, not for the merits of
those who preach it, there being nothing more unjust than to
blame the doctrine for the faults into which its teachers fall."

Doubtless, the maxim is good ; but they ought not to have
laid much stress on personal defects — not built so much on
Luther, whom, however presumptuous, they experienced to be
so weak ; nor, lastly, have boasted to us so much of their ref-
ormation, as the marvellous work of God's hand, seem.g the
chief instrument of this wondrous work was a man, not only so
vulgar, but swayed by such violent passions.

15. — A notalle diminution of Luther' s authority.

It may easily be judged from the conjuncture of affairs, that
the unseasonableness of time at which Melancthon is so much
disturbed, and that unfortunate diminution of Luther's glory,
which he is troubled should happen then when most required,
regarded it is true, these horrible disasters, by which Luther
foreboded the ruin of G ermany ; but more especially bore a re-
lation to the Sacramentarian dispute, which Melancthon well
knew would weaken the authority of his master. And, indeed,
Luther was not believed innocent of the disturbances of Ger-
many, as they originated with those who followed his gospel,
and appeared animated by his writings ; besides, we have seen
that, at the commencement, he had as much encouraged as
restrained these rebel peasants. The Sacramentarian contest
also was esteemed the effect of his doctrine. Catholics re-
proached him that, by exciting so great a contempt for church
authority, and shaking this foundation, he brought every thing
into question. " See," said they, " what it is to place the au-
thority of deciding in the hands of every private person ; to have
given the scripture tor so plain and easy, that, to understand it,
no more is necessary than to read it, without consulting jhurch
or antiquity." All these things grievously troubled Melaiicthon ;
he, that was naturally a man of discernment, saw a division
rising in the midst of the reformation, which not only rendered
it odious, but enkindled in it an endless war.

16. — \M dispute on Free-Will between Erasmus and Lxdher. — Melancthon hc-
wails the transports of Luther.

Other things happened at the same time, which gave him
great anxiety. The dispute about free-will had grown warm
between Erasmus and Luther. Erasmus was held in great
esteem throughout all Europe, though he had many enemies
on all sides. At the beginning of these troubles, Luther used
all his efforts to gain him, and wrote to him in such respectful

56 THE HISTORY OF [eOOK

terms as approximated even to meanness.* At first Erasmu.s
favored lum, yet not to such an extent as to leave the church.
When he saw the schism manifestly declared, he abandoned him
entirely, and wrote against him with great temper. But Luther,
instead of imitating him, published so acrimonious a reply, as
induced Melancthon to say, " I wish to God Luther had been
silent. I had hopes that old age would have rendered him
more mild ; and I see that, pushed on by his adversaries, and
the disputes into which he is obliged to enter, "j he daily grows
more violent." As if a man, who called himself the reformer
of the world, ought so soon to forget his character as not to
remain master of himself, whatever might be the provocation !
" That torments me strangely, (said Melancthon ;) and if God
lend not his helping hand, these disputes will be attended with
an unfortunate event.^J Erasmus, finding himself treated so
rudely by one to whom he had been so mild, said, pleasantly
enough, " I thought marriage would have tamed him ;" and
deplored his fate in seeing himself, notwithstanding his meek
temper, " condemned, old as he v/as, to fight against a savage
beast, a furious wild boar."

17. — The blasphemies and audaciousness of Luther in his treatise on J\Ian'*s
iVill Enslaved.

The outrageous language of Luther did not constitute his
greatest excess in those books he wrote against Erasmus. The
doctrine itself was horrible ; for he not only concluded that free-
will was totally extinguished in mankind since their fall— a
common error in the new reformation — " but, moreover, that it
is impossible any other should be free but God ; that his pres-
ence and divine providence are the cause of all things falling
out by the unchangeable, eternal, and inevitable will of God,
who thunder-strikes and breaks to pieces all free-will : that the
name of free-will is a name which appertains to God alone, in-
compatible either with man, with angel, or any other creature. "§

From these principles he was obliged to make God the author
of crimes ; nor did he conceal the thing, saying in express
terms, that " free-will is a vain title ; that God works the evil
in us, as well as the good ; that the great perfection of faith
consists in believing God to be just, although, necessarily, by
his will, he renders us worthy of damnation, so as to seem to
take pleasure in the torments of the wretched." || And again :
" God pleases you when he crov/ns the unworthy ; he ought not
to displease you when he condemns the innocent :"![ he adds
for conclusion, " that he said these things not by way of exam-

* Ep. Luth. ad Erasm. inter. Erasm. Ep. lib. vi. 3.

t Ep. Mel. lib. iv. Ep. 28. J Lib. xviii. Ep. 1 1, 22.

§ De Serv. arb. t. ii, 426, 429, 431, 435. || Ibid. f. 444. U Ibid. f. 465.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 57

ination, but by way of deciding ; that he meant not to subject
them to the decision of any person ; but advises the whole world
to submit to them."

It is not surprising that such excesses troubled the modest
mind of Melancthon ; not that he himself, at the commence-
ment, had not approved these prodigies of doctrine, having him-
self said with Luther, " that God's foreknowledge renders free-
will absolutely impossible ; and that God was not less the cause
of the treason of Judas, than of the conversion of St. Paul."
But besides that he had been drawn into these opinions, rather
by the authority of Luther than his own choice, nothing was
more opposed to his character than such opinions, established
in so violent a manner, and he knew not where he was, when
he witnessed the transports of his master.

18.— J^eio ti'ansports against the King of England. — Luther boasts of his own
meekness.

He saw them redoubled at the same time against the King of
England. Luther, who had conceived a somewhat good opinion
of this prince, because of his mistress Anne Boleyn, who was
favorable enough to Lutheranism, had so far relented as to make
excuses to him for his violence at first.* The king's answer
'was not such as he expected. Henry VHI reproached him
with the levity of his temper, the errors of his doctrine, his scan-
dalous and shameful marriage. Then Luther, who never hum-
bled himself except to induce others to crouch to him, and never
failed to attack those who did not do so immediately, answered
the king, " That he was sorry for having treated him so mildly ;
that he did it at the request of his friends, in hopes such sweet-
ness might be serviceable to this prince ; with the same view
he had formerly written to the Legate Cajetan, to George Duke
of Saxony, and to Erasmus, but he found it succeeded badly ;
for which reason he should not be guilty of the like fault for the
future."t

Amidst all these excesses, he even boasted of his extreme
meekness. " For, relying on the ever firm support of his learn-
ing, he yielded not in pride either to emperor, or king, or prince,
or Satan, or the whole universe ; but if the king would lay aside
his majesty, to treat more freely with him, he should find that
he would conduct himself humbly and meekly to the most infe-
rior persons ; a true sheep in simplicity, that could believe no
evil of any one. "J

19. — Zuinglius and (Ecolampadius undertake the defence of Carlostadius. — Who
Zuingliiis loas : his doctnne on the salvation of heathens.

What could Melancthon think, in his own temper the most

* Epist. ad Reg. Aug. t. ii. 92.

t Ad maled. Reg. Angliee. Resp. t. ii. 493. Sleid. lib. vi. p. 80. J Ibid. 494, 495.

58 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

peaceable of men, when he saw the outrageous pen of Luther
raise up so many enemies abroad, whilst the Sacramentarian
contest created him so many formidable ones at home ]

And indeed, at this time, the best pens of the party were
directed against him. Carlostadius had found such defenders
as placed him above the reach of contempt. Eagerly attacked
by Luther, and driven from Saxony, he had retired to Switzer-
land, where Zuinglius and (Ecolampadius took up his defence.
Zuinglius, minister of Zurich, had begun to disturb the church,
on account of indulgences, as well as Luther, but some years
after him. He was a daring man, whose fire surpassed his
learning ; — in language, clear and intelligible ; nor excelled by
any of the pretended reformers, in a precise, uniform, and co-
herent way of expressing his thoughts ; nor, indeed, did any
carry them to a greater length, or with more presumption.

As the character of his genius will be better known by his
own sentiments than my words, I shall produce a part of the
most finished piece of his whole works : it is the " Confession
of Faith," which, a little before his death, he sent to Francis I.
There, explaining the article of life everlasting, he says to this
prince, " that he must hope to see the assembly of all men that
ever have been holy, valiant, faithful, and virtuous, from the be-
ginning of the world. There you will see," he proceeds, " both
Adams — the redeemed and the Redeemer. You will there see
an Abel, an Enoch, a Noah, an Abraham, an Isaac, a Jacob, a
Juda, a Moses, a Joshua, a Gideon, a Samuel, a Phineas, an
Elias, an Eliseus, an Isaiah, with the Virgin Mother of God,
whom he announced ; a David, an Ezekiahs, a Josiah, a John
Baptist, a St. Peter, a St. Paul. You will there see Hercules,
Theseus, Socrates, Aristides, Antigonus, Numa, Camillus, the
Catos and Scipios. There you will see your predecessors and
all your ancestors who have departed this world in the faith. In
a word, not one good man, one holy spirit, one faithful soul,
whom you will not there behold with God. What more beau-
tiful, what more glorious, more agreeable, can be imagined, than
such a sight ?"* What man had ever dreamed of thus placing
Jesus Christ confusedly with the saints ] And in the train of
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and our Saviour himself, even
Numa, the father of Roman idolatry, even Cato, who killed
himself like a maniac, and not only so many worshippers of
false divinities, but even the gods, the heroes whom they wor-
shipped ? I cannot conceive why he did not rank amongst them
Apollo, or Bacchus, and Jupiter himself ; and if such crimes pre-
vented him as poets lay to their charge, were those of Hercules
less infamous 1 This is what heaven is composed of, accord-
* Christ. Fidei clara expos. 1536. p. 27.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 59

ing to this head of the second party of the Reformation : this is
what he wrote in a confession of faith, dedicated by him to the
greatest King in Christendom ; and what BulHnger, his succes-
sor, has given us as " the masterpiece and last song of this me-
lodious swan."* And is it not astonishing that such as these
could pass for men sent in an extraordinary manner by God for
the reformation of his church.

20. — The frivolous Answer of those of Zurich in defence ofZtdnglius.

Luther did not spare him on this head, but declared openly
" that he despaired of his salvation ; because, not satisfied with
continuing to impugn the sacrament, he had become a heathen
by placing impious heathens, even Scipio the Epicurean, even
Numa, the devil's instrument in founding idolatry among the
Romans, in the mmiber of blessed souls. For what does bap-
tism avail us — what the other sacraments, the Scriptures, and
Jesus Christ himself, if the impious, the idolaters, and the Epi-
cureans, are saints and in bliss 1 And what is this else than
teaching, that every man may be saved in his own faith and
rehgion ?''f

To answer him was no easy task. Nor did they answer him
at Zurich in any other way than by a wTetched recrimination,
accusing him also of placing amongst the faithful, Nebuchad-
nezzar, Naaman the Syrian, Abimelech, and many others, who,
born out of tiie Covenant and race of Abraham, were however
saved, as Luther says, " by a fortuitous mercy of God. "J But
not to defend this " fortuitous mercy of God," which in reality
is something strange, it is one thing to have said with Luther,
that there may have been men out of the number of Israelites,
who knew God ; another thing, to place v/ith Zuinglius in the
number of blessed souls, such as worshipped false divinities ;
and if the Zuinglians v/ere right in condemning the excesses
and violence of Luther, there was much more reason to con
demn tliis prodigious extravagance of Zuinglius. For, in short,
this was not one of those mistakes into which a man may be
betrayed in the heat of discourse : he was writing a confession
of faith, and intended to make a simple and brief exposition of
the Apostles' Creed ; a work that, above all others, required a
mature consideration, exact doctrine, and a settled head. It
was in the same strain he had before spoken of Seneca " as of
a most holy man, in whose heart God had written the faith with
his own hand,"§ because he had said in his letter to Lucilius
*' that nothing was hidden from God." Thus we have all the
platonic, peripatetic, stoic philosophers enrolled amongst the
saints, and full of faith, because St. Paul acknowledges they

* Praf. Bulling. f Parv. Conf. Luth. Hosp. p. 2. 187.

J Lath. Horn, in Gen. c. iv. 20. § Oper. ii. 6, Declar. de Pec. Orig.

60 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

had understood the invisible things of God by the visible works
of his power ;* and what furnishes this Apostle with reasons
to condemn them in his Epistle to the Romans, has justified
and sanctified them, in the opinion of Zuinglius.

21. — The Error of Zuinglius upon original Sin.

To teach such extravagances as these, a man must have no
notion of Christian justice, or of the corruption of our nature.
And, indeed, Zuinglius was quite a stranger to original sin. In
that confession of faith, which he sent to Francis I, and in four
or five treatises which he made expressly to prove the baptism
of the little children against anabaptists, and explain the effect
of baptism in this infant age, he does not so much as speak of
its cancelling original sin, which, however, is allowed by all
Christians to be the chief fruit of their baptism. He had done
the same in all his other works ; and when this omission of an
effect so considerable was objected to him, he shows that he
did so designedly, because, in his opinion, no sin is taken aivay
by baptism. He carries still farther his rashness, when he says,
" It is no sin, but a misfortune, a vice, a distemper ; that nothing
is weaker or more distant from the Scripture sense, than to say,
original sin is not only a distemper, but also a crime."! ^^
conformity to these principles, he decides that men indeed are
born " prone to sin from their self-love," but not sinners, except
improperly, by taking the penalty of sin for sin itself: and this
" proneness to sin," which cannot be sin, makes, according to
him, the whole evil of our origin. In the sequel of his discourse,
it is true, he acknowledges that all men would perish, were it
not for the grace of the Mediator, because this proneness to sin
would not fail in time to produce it, were it not stopped ; and
it is in this sense he acknowledges that all men are damned by
the " force of original sin ;" a force which consists not, as we
have just now seen, in making men truly sinners, as all Chris-
tian churches have decided against Pelagius, but in making
them only " prone to sin," through the weakness of their senses
and self-love, which the Pelagians and heathens themselves
would not have denied.

The decision of Zuinglius, on the remedy of this evil, is not
less strange ; for he maintains that it is taken away from all
men whatever, by the grace of Jesus Christ, independently of
baptism : insomuch that original sin damns no man, not even
the children of the heathens. As to those, though he dares not
fix their salvation in the same degree of certainty with that of
Christians and their children, he says, however, that, like the rest,
as long as they are incapable of the law, they are in the state
of innocence, alleging this text of St. Paul — " where no law is,
* Rom. i. 19. f Declar. de Pec. Orig.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 61

there is no transgression."* " Now," proceeds this new doctor,
" it is certain that children are weak, without experience, and
ignorant of the law, and are not less without law than St. Paul,
when he said, ' I lived without the law heretofore.'! Therefore,
as there is no law for them, neither is there any transgression
of the law, and, by consequence, no damnation. St. Paul says,
that he lived without the law once, but there is no age in which
man is more in this state than his infancy ; cor.sequently, it
must be said, with the same St. Paul, that without the law sin
vv^as dead in them. "J Just so disputed the Pelagians against
the church. And although, as above stated, Zuinglius here
speaks with greater assurance of the children of Christians than
of others, he, however, in reality speaks of all children whatever,
without exception. It is plain to what point his proof is directed ;
and, certainly, since the time of Julian tliere never was a more
complete Pelagian than Zuinglius.

22. — The ei^or of Zuinglim on Baptism,
Nay, the Pelagians acknowledged, that baptism could at least
give grace, and remit the sins of the adult. Zuinghus more
rash than they, ceases not to repeat what has been already told
of him, " that baptism takes away no sin, and gives no grace."
" It is the blood of Jesus Christ," says he, " that remits sins,
therefore, it is not baptism." Here an instance may be seen
of that perverted zeal the reformation had for the glory of Jesus
Christ. It is more clear than day, that to attribute the remis-
sion of sins to baptism, which is the means of taking them away
established by Jesus Christ, does no more injury to Jesus Christ,
than you offer to a painter, by attributing the fine coloring and
the beautiful touches of his picture to tlie pencil he makes use
of. But the reformation carries its vain reasonings to such
excess, as to imagine it gives glory to Jesus Christ, to destroy
the efficacy of these instruments which he employs. And to
continue so gross an illusion to the utmost extremity, when a
hundred passages from the Scriptures were objected to Zuin-
ghus, where it is said, that baptism saves us, that it remits our
sins ; he thinks he has fully satisfied by answering, that baptism
is here taken for the blood of Jesus Christ, of which it is the sign.
23. — Zuinglius accustomed to wrest the Scripture in every thing. — His contempt
for antiqmtij, the source of his error.

Such licentious explications make every thing one wishes to
be found in Scripture. It is not surprising that Zuinglius there
finds that the Eucharist is not the body, but the sign of the body,
though Christ has said, " This is my body ;" since he is able
to find that baptism does not indeed give the remission of sins,
but figures it to us as already given; though the Scripture has
* Rom. iv. 15. \ Rom. vii. 9. J Rom. vii. S.

6

62 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

said a hundred times, not that it figures, but gives it to us. It
is no matter of surprise that the same autlior, to destroy the
reality which incommoded him, eludes the force of these words,
" This is my body;" since to destroy original sin, which shocked
him, he was able to evade these words ; " all have sinned in one
man," and again, " by the disobedience of one man many were
made sinners."* But still more strange is the confidence of
this author in supporting his new interpretations against original
sin, with a manifest contempt of all antiquity. " We have seen,"
says he, " The ancients teach another doctrine concerning
original sin : but in reading them it is easily perceived how
obscure and embarrassed, not to say entirely human, rather than
divine, is all they say on that head. For my part, this long
time I have not leisure to consult them." In 1526 he composed
this treatise ; and for many years before, he had no leisure to
consult the ancients, nor go back to the fountain-bead. Mean-
while he reformed the church. Why not, will our Reformers
say ? And what had he to do with the ancients, since he pos-
sessed-the Scriptures] but on the contrary, here is an instance
how little safety there is in searching the Scriptures, when one
pretends to understand them, without having recourse to anti-
quity. By understanding the Scriptures in such a manner,
Zuinglius discovered there was no original sin, tha.t is to say,
there was no redemption ; and the scandal of the cross was
made void ; and pushed his notions to such a length, as to
place amongst the saints those, who, indeed, whatever he might
say, had no part with Jesus Christ. Thus is the church re-
formed, when men undertake its reformation without concerning
themselves about what was the sense of past ages ; and, accord-
ing to this new method, it is easy to arrive at a reformation like
that of the Socinians. •"

24. — The character of (Ecolampadius.
Such were the heads of the new reformation. Men of talent,
it is true, and not deficient in hterature, but bold, rash in their
decisions, and puffed up with their vain learning : men who de-
lighted in extraordinary and particular opinions, and therefore
aimed, not only to raise themselves above those of their ow^n
age, but also above the most holy of ages past. Q^^colampadius,
the other defender of the figurative sense amongst the Swiss,
was both more moderate, and more learned ; and if Zuinglius
appeared by his vehemence another Luther, (Ecolampadius more
resembled Melancthon, whose particular friend he was also. In
a letter, which, when a youth, he wrote to Erasmus, you observe
the marks of a piety equally affectionate and enlightened, to-
gether with much wit and politeness. "j" From the feet of the
* Rom. V. 12, 19. t Ep. Erasm. Lib. vii. Ep. 42, 45.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 63

crucifis, before which he had been accustomed to pray, he wrote
sach tender things to Erasmus on the ineffable sweetness of
Jesus Christ, whom this pious image represented so Hvely to
his imagination, that there is no reading it without being affected.
The reformation which came to trouble these devotions, and
account them idolatry, began at that time ; for it was in 1517 that
he wrote this letter. He entered into rehgion in the first heat
of these disturbances, with much courage and reflection ; at an
age, as Erasmus observes, too advanced for any imputation of
youthful precipitancy.* We also learn from the letters of Eras-
mus, that he was greatly enamoured with the course of Hfe he
had anderta^ken, and relished God in peace of mind, and therein
lived quite remote from the novelties that v/ere then spreading.
However, (such is human weakness, so great the contagion of
novelty,) he left his monastery, preached the new reformation
at Basil, where he was pastor, and tired of celibacy, like the
rest of the reformers, married a young girl, with whose beauty
he was enamoured. " This is the v/ay," said Erasmus, " they
choose to mortify themselves ;"| he could not but admire these
new apostles, who were sure to abandon the solemn profession
of celibacy to take wives ; whereas, the true apostles of our
Saviour, according to the tradition of all the fathers, in order to
attend to God and the Gospel only, left their wives to embrace
celibacy. " It seems," said he, " as if the reformation aimed at
nothing more than to strip a few monks of their habits, and to
marry a parcel of priests ; and this great tragedy terminates at
last in a conclusion that is entirely comical, since, just like
comedies, all ends in marriage."J The same Erasmus com-
plains, in other places, § that after his friend (Ecolampadius had
abandoned his tender devotion, together with the church and
monastery, in order to embrace this impious and contemptible
reformation, he was no longer the same man ; instead of can-
dor, which this minister professed whilst he acted of himself,
nothing but artifice and dissimulation could be found in him,
after he had once entered into the spirit of the party.
25. — The progress of the Sacramentmian doctrine.
After the Sacramentarian dispute had been raised in the man-
ner we have seen, Carlostadius scattered abroad little tracts
against the real presence ; and, although on all hands they were
allowed to be replete with ignorance, || yet they were relished
by the people already charmed with novelty. Zuinglius and
(Ecolampadius wrote in defence of this new doctrine : the first
with much wit and vehemence ; the other with much learning,

* Erasm. Lib. xiii. Ep. 12, 14. Lib. xiii. 27. f Lib. xix. Ep. 41.

I Ep. Erasm. Lib. xix. § Lib. xviii. Ep. 23, 19, 113, 31, 47. Col. 2057, &c.

II Ibid Lib. xix. Ep. 113, 31, 59. p. 2106.

64 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

and so sweet an eloquence, that, " were it possible," says Eras-
mus, " and would God have permitted it, it were capable of se-
ducing even the elect."* God put them to this trial ; but his
promises and truth upheld the simplicity of the faith of the
church agaiust human reasoning. A little after Carlostadius
was reconciled with Luther, and appeased him by saying that
what he had taught upon the Eucharist, was rather by the way
of proposing and examining, than deciding. | This man's life
was one uninterrupted scene of feuds ; and the Swis9, who re-
ceived him a second time, were never able to calm his turbulent
temper.

His doctrine spread more and more, but on more plausible
interpretations of our Saviour's words than what he had for-
merly given. Zuinglius said, " the good man said well enough,
there was some hidden sense in these divine words, but could
never find out what it was." He and QEcolampadius, with
somewhat different expressions, agreed on the whole, that these
words, " This is my body," were figurative : " Is," said Zuin-
gulius, " is as much as to say, signifies ;" " body," said (Ecol-
ampadius, " is the sign of the body." Their leaders, Bucer
and Capito, became zealous defenders of the figurative sense.
The reformation divided itself; and those who embraced this
new party were called Sacramentarians. They were also
named Zuinglians, either because Zuinglius had first supported
Carlostadius, or because his authority prevailed in the minds of
the people, who were led away by his vehemence.

26. — Zuinglius careful to take from the Eucharist whatever was raised above
the senses.

We must not be surprised that an opinion so favorable to hu-
man sense becam_e so fashionable. Zuinglius said positively,
there was no miracle in the Eucharist, or any thing incompre-
hensible ; that the bread broken represented to us the body im-
molated ; and the wine, the blood shed : that Jesus Christ, at
the institution of these sacred signs, had given them the name
of the thing itself: that it was not, however, a simple spec-
tacle, nor sions wholly naked, for as much as the remembrance
of, and faith in, the body immolated and the blood shed, sup-
ported our souls ; that the Holy Ghost meanwhile sealed in our
hearts the remission of sins ; and therein consisted the whole
mystery. Human reason and sense had nothing to suffer from
this explication. J The Scripture was all the difficulty : but
when one side opposed " This is my body," the other answered,
" I am the vine; I am the door ; the rock was Christ." True
it is, these examples came not to the point. It was not in pro-

+ Lib. 18. Ep. 9. t Hosp. 2 part, ad an. 1225— f. 40.

J Zuing. Conf. Fid ad Franc, et Epist. ad car. 5.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 65

posing a parable, or explaining an allegory, that Jesus Christ
said, " This is my body ; this is my blood." These words,
entirely detached from the context, carried their fuU meaning in
themselves, — a new institution was in hand, — which ought to
be made in simple terms, and yet no place in Scripture had
besn found, where the sign of the institution received the name
of the thing itself the moment it was instituted, and without any
previous preparation.

27. — Of the Spirit which appeared to Zuhiglizis^ to furnish him with a pas-
sage, lohere the sign of the institution received immediately the name of the
thing instiiuted.

This argument tormented Zuinglius ; he sought day and night
for a solution. In the meantime, however, mass was abolished,
in opposition to all the exertions of the town-secretary, who dis-
puted powerfully for the Catholic doctrine and the real presence.
Twelve days after, Zuinglius had this dream, with which he
and his disciples have been so much upbraided. In it he tells
us, that imagining he was disputing against the town-secretary,
who pressed him closely, on a sudden, he saw a phantom, white
or black, appear before liim,* who spoke these words : " Coward
why answerest thou not what is WTitten in Exodus, — ' The
Lamb is the passover,' J — intimating it was the sign ?" This is
the celebra-ted passage so often repeated in the writings of the
Sacramentarians, in \vhich they thought to have found the name
of the thing given to the sign, and in the very institution of the
sign ; and thus it was conceived by Zuinglius, who availed him-
self of it. His disciples will contend, vvhen he said he knew
not who suggested this thought, whether he was white or black,
he meant only, that it was an unlvuown person, and true it is,
the Latin terms will bear this explication. But, besides that
concealing himself, so as not to discover what he was, is the
natural character of an evil spirit, Zuinghus was also mani-
festly in error : — these v/ords, " The Lamb is the passover," by
no means signify it was the figure of the passover. It is a com-
mon Hebraism, where the word sacrifice is understood ; so sin
merely is tlie sacrifice for sin ; and barely passover is the sacri-
fice of the passover ; which the Scripture itself explains a little
farther on, where it says at full length, not that the Lamb is the
passover, but the sacrifice of the passover. This most certainly
was the sense of that place in Exodus. Other exa,mples were
afterwards produced, as we shall see in due time ; but this was
the first. There was nothing in it, as we see, that should much
comfort the mind of Zuinglius, or that showed him the sign at
the very institution received the name of the thing. He awoke,
however, at this new explication of his unknown friend, read

* Hosp. ii. p. 25, 26. Exod. xii. 1 1. f Exod. xii. 1 1.

6*

66 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

the place of Exodus, and went to preach what he had discovered
in his dream. Men were too well prepared not to believe him ;
the mists which still remained on their minds were dissipated.

28. — Luther writes against the Sacramentarians, and lohy he treated Zuingliii^
more severely than the rest.

It provoked Luther to see, not only individuals, but whole
churches of the new reformation, now rise up against him. But
he abated liothing of his accustomed pride. We may judge
from these words, — " I have the Pope in front ; I ha.ve the
Sacramentarians and Anabaptists in my rear ; but I will march
out alone against them all ; I will defy them to battle ; I will
trample theiu under my feet." And a Utile after, — " I will say
it without vanity, that for these thousand years the Scripture
has never been so thoroughly purged, nor so well explained, nor
better under tood, than at this time it is by me."* He wrote
these words in 1525, a little after the contest had commenced.
In the same year he composed his book " against the heavenly
prophets ;" thereby ridiculing Carlostadius, whom he accused
of favoring the visions of the Anabaptists. This book consisted
of two parts. In the first he maintained the impropriety of
breaking dov>^n images ; that in the law of Moses nothing was
prohibited as the object of adoration, but the images of Crod ;
that the imaji^es of crosses and of saints were not comprehended
in this prohibition ; that none under the gospel were obliged to
aestroy images by force, because that was contrary to gospel-
liberty ; and those who destroyed them were doctors of the law,
and not of the gospel. By tliis reasoning he justified us from
all those accusations of idolatry, with which we were unreason-
ably charged on this head. In the second part he attacked the
Sacramental ians. But (Ecolampadius he treated with modera-
tion at the commencement; yet he attacked Zuinghus with vio-
lence. This doctor had written, that before the name of Luther
was known, he had preached the gospel, — that is, the reforma-
tion in Switzerland — ever since the year 1516 ; and the Swiss
gave him the glory of this beginning, which Luther arrogated to
himself. I Offended at these words he wrote to those of Stras-
burg, " that he durst assume to himself the glory of first preach-
ing Jesus Christ, but that Zuinglius wished to deprive hina of
that glory. How is it possible," proceeds he, " to be silent,
whilst these men disturb our churches and impugn our author-
ity 1 If they are unwilling to suffer their ov/n to be weakened ;
for the same reason they ought not to weaken ours." In con-
clusion, he declares, " there is no medium, either he or they
must be the ministers of Satan." J

* Ad Maled. Reg. Ang. t. ii. 498. f Zuing. in explan. rrtic IS Ges. in
Bibl. etc. Calk. Judic. 53. | T. ii. Jen. epist. p. 202.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 67

29. — The words of a celebrated Lutheran on the jealousy of Luther against
Zuingliiis.

An ingenious Lutheran, and the most celebrated of those
that have written in our days, here makes this reflection : —
" Those who despise all things, and expose not only their for-
tunes, but their lives, often are not able to raise themselves
above glory, so flattering are its charms, so great is human
weakness. On the contrary, the higher a man's courage is
elevated the more does he covet praises — the m-ore concerned
to see those bestowed on others, which he believes due to him-
self.* It should not be, therefore, a matter of surprise, if a
man of Luther's magnanimity wrote those things to those of
Strasburg."
30. — LHther''s strong arguments for the real presence; and hoio he boasts of them.

In the midst of these strange transports, Luther, by powerful
arguments, confirmed the faith of the real presence. Both the
Scripture, and ancient tradition, supported him in this cause.
He demonstrated, that to convert so simple, so precise words
of our Saviour to a figurative sense, under protext that there
were figurative expressions in other places of the Scripture, was
to open a v/ay by which the whole Scripture, and all the myste-
ries of our religion, would be turned to figures : that the same
submission was, therefore, required here, with which we receive
the other mysteries, without attending to human reasoning, or
the laws of nature, but to Jesus Christ and his words only ; that
our Saviour spoke not, in the institution, either of faith or the
Holy Spirit, but said, " This is my body," and not that faith
would m.ake you partake of it ; wherefcro, the eating, of which
Jesus Christ there spoke, was not a mystical eating, but an eat-
ing by the mouth : that the union of faith was consummated ou^
of the sacrament ;| nor could it be believed that Jesus ChriL
gave us nothing that was particular by such emphatic words ;*|
that it is evident his intention was to render certain his gift, by
giving us his person ; that the remembrance he recommended
to us of his death, excluded not his presence, but obliged us to
receive this body and this blood as a victim immolated for us ;
that the victim became ours, indeed, by manducation ; that, in
reality, faith ought then to intervene, in order to make it profit-
able to us : but to show that, even without faith, the word of
Jesus Christ had its eflect, there needed but to consider the
communion of the unworthy. He urged here forcibly the words
of St. Paul, when, after relating these words, " This is my
body," he condemned so severely those " who discerned net
the body of the Lord, and who rendered themselves guilty of his

* Calix. Judic. n. 53. | Serm. de Corp. et Sang. Christ, defen. Verbi.

Coenre, t. vii. 277, 381. I Cat. Mag. de Sac, alt. Concord, p. 551.

68 THE HISTORY OP [boOK

body and blood."* He added, that St. Paul meant to speak
throughout of the " true body," and not of the body in figure ;
and •hat it was evident from his expressions, that he condemned
those impious persons of insulting Jesus Christ, not in his gifts,
but i'nmediately in his person.

But where he manifested his greatest strength, was in demol-
ishing the objections which were raised against these heavenly
truths. He asked of those who objected to him, "flesh profit-
eth nothing,"! with what assurance they durst say, that the
flesh of Jesus Christ profiteth nothing, and apply to this life-
giving flesh what Jesus Christ said of the carnal sense, or,
at most, of the flesh taken after the manner in which the
Capliarnaites understood it, or evil Christians received it,
not uniting themselves thereto by faith, nor receiving at that
same time that spirit and life with which it abounds 1 When
tliey presumed to ask him. What, therefore, did this flesh avail
taken by the mouth of the body, he again asked of these proud
opponents. What did it avail that the V/ord was made flesh ?
Could not iruth have been announced, nor mankind redeemed,
but by this means 1 Are they acquainted with all God's se-
crets, to say unto him, he had no other way by which to save
man '^ And who are they, thus to set laws to their Creator, and
prescribe to him the means by which he would apply his grace
to them ? if, at last, they opposed against him human reasons,
how a body could be in so many places at once — a human body,
whole and entire, in so small a space 1 He destroyed all these
engines levelled against God, by asking, how God preserved
his uaity in the trinity of persons 1 how, of nothing, he had cre-
ated heaven and earth 1 how he had clothed his Son in a human
body ? how he made him be born of a virgin ? how he delivered
him up to death ? and how he was to raise up all the faithful on
the last day ? What did human reason pretend by opposing
these vain difficulties against God, which he blasted witli a
breach t They say that all the miracles of Jesus Christ are
sensible. J " But w^ho has told them that Jesus Christ did re-
solve never to work any other 1 When he was conceived by
the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin, to whom was this, the
greatest miracle of all, become sensible? Could Mary have
known what it was she bore in her womb, had not the angel
announced the divine secret to her ? But when the divinity
d»velt corporeally in Christ Jesus, who saw it, or v/ho compre-
hended it ] Now who sees him at the right hand of his Father,
from whence he exerts his omnipotence over the whole universe *
Is this what obliges them to wrest, to break to pieces, to crucify
the words of their Master ? I do not comprehend, say they,

* 1 Cor. xi. 21, 28, 29. f John vi. 63. | Serm. quod verba stent, ibid.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 69

how he can execute them literally. They prove to nie very
well, by this reason, that human sense agrees not with G od's
wisdom ; I allow it ; I agree with them ; but I never knew be-
fore that nothing was to be believed but what we discovered by
opening our eyes, or what human reason can comprehend."

Lastly : when it was said to him, that this matter was not of
consequence, or of sufficient importance for breaking peace :—
" who then obliged Carlostadius to begin this quarrel ? What
forced Zuinglius and (Ecolampadius to write 1 May that peace
for ever be accursed, that is made to the prejudice of truth !"
By such arguments he often silenced the Zuinglians. It must
be acknowledged, he had a great strength of genius ; he wanted
nothing but the rule, which can be had no where but in the
Church, and under the yoke of a legitimate authority. Had
Luther continued obedient to that yoke, so necessary for the
regulation of all minds, but especially for fiery and impetuous
minds like his, he might have kept his writing free from those
transports, those buffooneries, that brutal arrogance, those ex-
cesses, or rather extravagances ; and the force with which he
treated some truths, would not have contributed to seduction.
It is for this reason we see him still invincible, when he sets
forth the ancient doctrines he had learned in the bosom of the
Church ; but pride closely pursued his victories. So much was
this man captivated with himself for having fought so strenu-
ously for the proper and literal sense of our Saviour's words, that
he could not refrain from boasting of it. " The Papists them-
selves," said he, " are <^bhged to allow me the praise of having
defended the doctrine of the literal sense much better than they.
And, in reality, I am assured, were they all melted down into
one mass, they never would be able to maintain it with the
strength that I do."*

31. — The Zuinglians prove against Luther that Catholics understand the literal
sense better than he.

He was mistaken ; for although he fully proved that the lite-
ral sense was to be maintained, he knew not how to understand
it in all its simpUcity ; and the supporters of the figurative sense
demonstrated to him, that if the hteral sense were to be followed,
transubstantiation would carry it. This is what Zuinglius, and
all the defenders of the figurative sense, in general, proved most
clearly. They observe, that Jesus Christ has not said, " My
body is here, or my body is under tliis, and with this, or this
contains my body, but only. This is my body." Thus, what he
is to give the faithful, is not a substance which contains his
body, or which accompanies it, but his body, " without any other

* Epist. Luth. ad Hosp. 2 Part, ad An. 1534, f. 132.

70 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

foreign substance."* Neither has he said, " This bread is my
body," which is another of Luther's explications ; but he has
said, " This is rny body," by an indefinite term, to show that
the substance he gives is no longer bread, but his body.

And when Luther explained " This is my body ;" that is, this
bread is my body, really and without figure, contrary to his in-
tentions, he destroyed his own doctrine. For we may very
well say with the Church, that bread becomes the body, in the
same sense that St. John has said, " the v/ater was made wine,"f
at the marriage-feast in Cana of Gahlee, namely, by the change
of one into the other. In the same manner may it be said, that
what is bread in appearance, is, in effect, the body of our Lord ;
but that true bread, remaining such, should be at the same time
the true body of our Lord, as Luther maintained, the defenders
of tha figurative sense proved to him, as did the Catholics, that
it was a reasoning void of sense, and concluded that he ought
either to admit a moral change only, together with them, or a
change of substance, together with the Papists.
32. — Beza proves the same truth.

It is for this reason that Beza, at the Conference of Mont-
beliart, maintains against the Lutherans, that of the two expli-
cations which adhere to the literal sense — namely, that of the
Catholics, and that of the Lutherans, " It is that of the Catholics
which departs least fi-om the words of the institution of the Lord's
Supper, w^ere they to be expounded word for word." He proves
it by this reason : because " the Transubstantiators say, that by
virtue of these divine words, that which before was bread, hav-
ing changed its substance, becomes immediately the body itself
of Jesus Christ, to the end that, by this means, this proposition
maybe true, ' This is my body.' Whereas the exposition of
the consubstantiators, saying, that these words, ' This is my body,'
do £ 'gnify my body is essentially in, with, or under this bread,
declares not what is become of the bread, and what that is, which
is the body, but only where it is. "J This reason is plain and
intelligible. For it is clear, that Jesus Christ, having taken bread
in order to make it something, must have declared to us what
kind of something he did intend to make it ; it is not less evi-
dentn that the bread became that which the Almiglity did intend
to make it. Nov/ these words show he intended to make it his
body, whatever that is understood, since he said, " This is my
body." If, therefore, this bread is not become his body in figure,
it is become so in effect ; and there is no way to avoid admit-
ting either the change in figure, or the change in substance.

Thus, if we only understand simply the words of Jesus Christ,
+ Hosp. ad an. 1527, f. 49. f John ii. 9.

J Conf. de Mont. Imp. a Gen. 1587, p. 52.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 71

the doctrine of the Church must be embraced ; and Beza is cor-
rect in stating, that it is attended with less difficulties, as to the
manner of speaking, than that of the Lutherans, that is to say,
it is more agreeable to the literal sense.* Calvin frequently con-
firms the same truth ; and, not to dwell on the sense of individ-
uals, a whole Synod of Zuinglians have acknowledged it.

33. — A whole Synod of ZvAnglians in Poland establishes the same tmfh.

It is the Synod of Czenger, a town in Poland, published in
the Collection of Geneva. This synod, after having rejected
Papistical Transubstantiation, shows " that the Lutheran Con-
substantiation is untenable," because, " as the wand of Moses
was not a serpent but by transubstantiation, and the water in
Egypt was not blood, nor, at the marriage of Cana, wine, with-
out a change ; so the bread of the supper cannot be the body
of Christ substantially, if it be not changed into his flesl , by
losing the form and substance of bread. "f

It was good sense that dictated this decision. In fact, the
bread remaining bread, can be no more the body of our Lord,
than the wand remaining a wand, could be a serpent, or than the
water remaining water, could be blood in Egypt, or wine at the
marriage of Cana. If, therefore, what was bread becomes the
body of our Lord, either it becomes so in figure by a mys tical
change, according to Zuinglius's doctrine, or it becomes so, in
effect, by a real change, as is maintained by Catholics.

34. — Luther understood not the force of these loords, " This is my body.''''

Thus, Luther, who boasted that he alone had defended the
literal sense better than all the Catholic divines, was greatly mis-
taken ; since he did not even comprehend the true ground which
holds us to this sense, nor understand the nature of those prop-
ositions which operate what they express. Jesus Christ says to
that man, " Thy son Uveth." J Jesus Christ says to that woman,
'' Thou art loosed from thine infirmity. "§ In speaking, he does
what he says : nature obeys ; things are changed, and the sick
person becomes sound. But words' which regard only acci-
dental things, as health and sickness, operate only accidental
changes- Here, where a substance is concerned, for Jesus
Christ said, " This is my body, This is my blood," the change
is substantial ; and by an effect as real as it is surprising, the
substance of the bread and of the wine is changed into the sub-
stance of the body and the blood. Consequently, when we fol-
low the literal sense, we must not only believe that the body of
Jesus Christ is in the mysteiy, but also that it makes the whole
substance of it ; and this is what the words themselves lead us

♦ Conf, de Mont. Imp. a Gen. 1587, p. 52. f Syn. Czeng. tit. de Cccna.
m Synt Gen. part 1. X John iv, 50, 51. § Luke xiii, 12.

72 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

to, Jesus Christ not having said, my body is here, or this con-
tains my body, but this is my body ; and he would not even say,
iiis bread is my body, but this, indefinitely. And in the same
jmnner as if he had said, when he changed the water into wine ;
f at which you are going to drink is wine, it ought not to be
understood that he had preserved together both water and wine,
but that he had changed the water into wine ; so when he de-
clares, that what he presents is his body, it ought not in any way
to be understood that he mixes his body with the bread, but that
he effectually changes the bread into his body. To this the
literal sense leads us, as the Zuinghans themselves acknowl-
edge, and this it is which Luther could never understand.

35. — The Sacrajnentarians proved to Luther that he admitted, a kind of figurative

sense.

On account of not understanding it, this great defender of the
literal sense fell necessarily into a kind of figurative sense.
According to him, " This is my body," imported, this bread con-
tains my body, or this bread is joined with my body ; and, by
this means, the Zuinglians forced him to acknowledge, in this
expression, that grammatical figure which substitutes that which
containeth for that which is contained, or the part for the whole.*
Then they pressed him in this way : if it be lawful for you to
admit in the words of the institution, that figure v/hich puts the
part for the whole, why will you prevent us from admitting in
them that figure which substitutes the thing for the sign ? Figure
for figure, the metonomy which we aknowledge is worth full as
much as the synecdoche which you receive. These gentlemen
were humanists and grammarians. All their books were soon
filled with the synecdoche of Luther, and the metonomy of
Zuinglius ; it was necessary for Protestants to engage on one
side or other of these two figures of rhetoric ; and it appeared
manifest, that none but the Catholics, equally distant from one
and the other, and admitting in the Eucharist neither bread noi
a bare sign, justly established the Uteral sense.
36. — The difference between doctrine invented, and doctrine received hj tradition.

Here was perceived the difference between the doctrines in-
troduced anew by particular authors, and those which come in
their natural channel. The change of substance had of itself
spread over both the east and the west, entering into all minds
together with the words of our Lord, without ever causing any
disturbance ; neither were those who believed it, ever marked
by the Church as innovators. When it was contested, and men
labored to wrest the literal sense with which it had spread over
the whole earth, not only the Church remained firm, but also

* Vid. Hosp. 2 Part. 12, 35, 47, 61, 76, 161, &c.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 73

her very adversaries were seen to combat for her, whilst they
combated against each other. Luther and his followers proved
invincibly that the literal sense ought to be retained. Zuinglius,
with his party, established with no less force, that it could not
be retained without the change of substance : thus they agreed
in this only, to prove against each other, that the Church, which
they had abandoned, had more reason on her side than any of
them : by I know not what force of truth, all those who aban-
doned her, retained something of it, and the Church which kept
the whole, gained the victory.

37. — The Catholic sense is visibly the most natural sense.
Hence, it ctearly follows, that the interpretation of Catholics,
v/ho admit the change of substance, is the most natural and the
most simple ; both because it is followed by the greatest number
of Christians, and because of these two, who impugn it by dif-
ferent ways, one of them, that is Luther, undertook to oppose it
purely out of a spirit of contradiction, and in spite of the Church;
and the other, that is Zuinglius, agrees, that if with Luther the
literal sense is to be received, the change of substance must be
received also with the Cathohcs.

38. — (Question : whether the Sacrament he destroyed in Transubstantiation ?
Afterwards, the Lutherans, once engaged in error, confirmed
themselves therein with this argument, that it is destroying the
sacrament, to take from it, as we do the substance of bread and
wine. I am obliged to acknowledge I have not found this reason
in any of the writings of Luther ; and, indeed, it is two weak
and two far-fetched to occur immediately to the mind ; for it is
known that a sacrament, that is, a sign, consists in that which
appears, not in the interior or substance of the thing. It was
not necessary to show Pharaoh seven real kine, and seven ears
of real corn, to notify to him the fertility and the famine of seven
years. The image that was form.ed in his mind was quite suf-
ficient for that purpose ; and if we must come to things with
which the eyes have been aflTected, in order that the dove should
represent the Hcly Ghost, and that chaste love with all its sweet-
ness, which he inspires into holy souls, it was not at all neces-
sary that it should be a real dove which descended visibly upon
Jesus Christ ; it was sufficient it had the whole exterior ; in the
same manner, in order that the Eucharist might specify to us,
that Jesus Chirst was our bread and our drink, it wtis sufficient
that the characters and ordinary effects of these aliments were
preserved : in a word, it was enough, there was nothing changed
with regard to the senses. In the signs of the institution, that
which denotes their force is the mtention declared by the words

of the institutor ; now, by saying over the bread, " This is my

7

74 THE HISTORY OF [boOK

body," and over the wine, "This is my blood," and seeming, by
virtue of these divine words, actually invested with all the ap-
peai-ances of bread and wine, he shows clearly enough, that he
is truly a nourishment, who has taken on him the resemblance
of it, and under that form appears to us. If, to the reality of
the sacrament, true bread and true wine be necessary, it is like-
wise true bread and true wine that are consecrated ; and which,
by consecration, are made the true body and true blood of our
Redeemer. The change that is made in the interior, without
any alteration of the exterior, makes also one part of the sacra-
ment— namely, of the sacred sign ; inasmuch as this change,
become sensible by the words, makes us see that by the words
of Jesus Christ operating in a Christian, he ought to be most
really, though in a different manner, changed inwardly, retain-
ing only the exterior of other men,

39. — Hoio the names of bread and icine may remain in the Eucharist. — Two
rules draivnfrom Scripture.

Thereby those passages are explained, in which the Eucharist
is called bread, even after consecration ; and this difficulty is
manifestly solved, by the rule of changes, and the rule of ap-
pearances. By the rule of changes, the bread become the body,
is called bread, as in Exodus, the wand become a serpent, is
called a wand, and the water become blood, is called water.
These expressions are made use of to show at once, both the
thing which was made, and the material employed to make it
of. By the rule of appearances, in the same manner that, in
the Old and New Testament, the angels who appeared under
human shape, are called, at the same time, angels,* because
they are so, and men, because they appear so ; so the Eucharist
will be both called the body, because it is so, and bread, because
it so appears. If, then, one of these two reasons is sufficient
to preserve to it the name of bread without prejudicing the
change, the concurrence of both will be much stronger. And
no diificulty should be imagined of discerning truth amidst these
different expressions; for, when the Holy Scripture explains
the same thing by different expressions, to prevent all ambiguity,
there is always a principal place, to which the rest are to be re-
duced, and where things are expressed, such as they are, in pre-
cise terms. What if these angels be called men in some places?
there will be a place where it will be clearly seen thai they are
arngels. What if this blood and this serpent be called water
and wand 1 you will find the principal place, where the change
will be specified ; and it is by that the thing should be defined.
What will be the principal place, by which we are to judge of
the Eucharist, if it be not that of the institution, where Jesus
♦ Exod. vii. 12, 18.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 75

Christ made it to be what it is ? So, when we would name it
with relation to what it was, and what it appears, we may call
it bread and wine ; but when we would name it with respect to
what it is in itself, it will have no other name than that of body
and blood. And it is by this it ought to be defined, since it can
never be any thing else than what it is made by the all-powerful
words which gave it being. Both of you, as well Lutherans as
Zuinglians, do, contrary to nature, explain the principal text by
other places, and both of you, departing from the rule, do sepa-
rate still to a greater distance from one another, than you do
from the Church which you chiefiy aimed to oppose. The
Church, which follows the natural order, and reduces all the
passages where the Eucharist is mentioned, to that which, be-
yond dispute, is the principal and foundation of all the others,
holds the true key of the mystery ; and trium.phs not only over
both one and the other, but also over the one by the other.

40. — Luther dismayed at these disputes ; his dejection deplored by Melancthon.

In effect, during these Sacramentarian disputes, those who
called themselves Reformed, notwithstanding their common in-
terest, which at times united them in appearance- waged a more
cruel war against each other than against the Church itself,
mutually calling each other " furies, maniacs, slaves of Satan,
greater enemies to the truth and the members of Jesus Christ,
than the Pope himself;" which to them was saying everything.

In the meantime, the authority which Luther was desirous of
maintaining in the new Reformation, that had arisen under his
standard, was becoming contemptible. He was overwhelmed
with grief; and that haughtiness, which he showed exteriorly,
could not support him under that dejection of mind which he
felt interiorly ; on the contrary, the more haughty he was, the
more insupportable it was to him to be despised by a party,
of whom he wished to be the sole leader. The concern he
felt communicated itself to Melancthon ; " Luther," says he,
" causes in me great troubles, by the long complaints he makes
to me of his afflictions ; writings, judged not contemptible, have
quite dejected and disfigured him ; through the compassion I
have for him, I find myself afflicted to the utmost extremity, for
the calamities of the Church. The doubtful vulgar divide them-
selves into contrary sentiments ; and had not Jesus Christ
promised to be with us even to the consummation of ages, I
should apprehend the utter destruction of religion from these
dissensions ; for nothing is more true than the sentence which
says, through much disputing, truth escapes from us."*

* Luth. ad Jac. Prap. Brem. Hosp. 82. Luth. Maj. Conf. ibidem. Zuing.
Resp. cd Luth. Hosp. 44. Lib. iv. Ep. 76, ad Gamer.

76 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

41. — Luther teaches Ubiquity.
•^cf^yy Strange agitations of a man, who hoped to seethe
^' Church repaired, and now sees her ready to fall by the
very means taken for her re-establishment ! What com-
fort could he find in the promises made to us by Jesus Christ,
of being always with us ? It is for Catholics to nourish them-
selves with this faith ; for them, v/ho believe the Church can
never be overcome by error, however violent the assault, and
who, in fact, have ever found her to be invincible. But how
can they advance claims to this promise in the new Reforma-
tion, whose first foundation, when they separated from the
Church, was that Jesus Christ had so forsaken her, as to let her
fail into idolatry ! Moreover, though it is true that truth remains
always in the Church, and becomes the more purified in propor-
tion as it is attacked, iVlelancthon was right in thinking, that by
much disputation individuals fell into error. There was no
error so monstrous, into which the heat of dispute had not im-
pelled the passionate mind of Luther. It made him embrace
that monstrous opinion of ubiquity. These are the arguments
on which he grounded this strange notion. The humanity of
our Lord is united to his divinity ; therefore, the humanity, as
well as the other, is every where : Jesus Christ, as man, is seated
at the right hand of God ; the right hand of God is every where ;
therefore, Jesus Christ, as man, is every where. As man, he
was in heaven before he had ascended into it. He was in the
monument when the angels said he was not tnere. The Zuin-
glians fell into a worse extreme, by saying that God had it not
even in his power to put the body of Jesus Christ in several
places. Luther runs into another excess, and maintains that
this body was necessarily in every place ; that is what he taught
in a book already mentioned, which he wrote in 1527, in order
to defend the literal sense, and what he ventured to insert in a
" Confession of Faith," which he published in 1528, under the
title of "The Great Confession of Faith."*
42. — Luther declares anew that it imports little lohether the substance of bread

be admitted or taken away ; the gross divinity of this Doctor, at which Me-

lancthon is scandalized.

He says, in this last book, that it is of little importance,
whether the bread be admitted in the Eucharist or not ; but that
it was more reasonable to acknowledge therein. " A carnal
bread and a bloody wine—^panis carneus et vinum sanguineum.''^
This was the new language, by which he expressed that new
union he placed between the bread and the body. These words
seemed to aim at impanation, and often such fell from him, which
had a further tendency than he meant. But, at least, they pro-
* Serm. quod verba stent, t. iii. Jen. Couf. Maj. t. iv. Jen. Calix. Jud. N. 40. et. seq.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 77

posed a certain mixture of bread and flesh, of wine and blood,
which appeared very gross, and was insupportable to Melanc-
thon — " I have spoken," says he, " to Luther, concerning this
mixture of the bread and the body, which appears a strange
paradox to m.any people. He answered me peremptorily, that
he would alter nothing in it ; and, for my pai't, I do not think
it proper to meddle any more in this affair.'-* Which is as
much as to say, he was not of Luther's mind, yet dared not to
contradict him,

43. — The Sacramentarian contest upset the foundations of the Reformation. —
Calvhi's woi'ds.

Meanwhile, the excesses into which they fell on both sides
of the new reformation, discredited it with men of good sense.
This dispute alone destroyed the comm-on foundation of each
party. They believed they could terminate all disputes by the
Scripture alone, and would have no other judge than that ; and
the whole world was witness, there was no end to their disputes
on Scripture^ even on one passage of it, than which none ought
to be more clear, since it regarded a last will and testament.
They exclaimed one to the other, " All is clear, and nothing
more is necessary than to open your eyes." By this evidence
of Scripture, Luther discovered that nothing was more impious
and daring than to deny the literal sense ; and Zuinglius found
notliing more gross and absurd than to follow it. Erasmus,
whom both were desirous of gaining, said the same to them that
all Catholics did : — " You ail appeal to the pure word of God,
and believe yourselves its true interpreters. Agree, then,
amongst yourselves, before you set laws to all mankind, "'j*
Whatever excuse they invented, they were quite ashamed that
they could not agree, and in the bottom of their heaits, ail
thought the same that Calvin wrote to his friend IMelancthon, —
" It is of great importance, that the least suspicion of the divis-
ions, which are amongst us, pass not to future ages ; for it is
ridiculous beyond any thing that can be imagined, after we
have broken off from the whole world, we should so httle agree
amongst ourselves ever since the beginning of our reformation." J

44. — The Lutherans take up arms tender the Landgrave''s command, who oions
that he is in the ivrong.

Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, very zealous for the ncM^ gospel,
had foreseen this disorder, and from the beginning of the rup-
ture endeavored to effect a reconciliation. As soon as he saw
the party sufficiently strong, and, moreover, threatened by the
emperor and the Catholics, he began to form designs of a con-
federacy. The maxims laid dovyn by Luther for the foundation

* Lib. iv. Ep. 76, 1528. f Lib, xviii. 3, xix. 3, 113, xxxi. 50, p. 2102.

I Calvin, epist. ad Mel. p. 145.

7*

78 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

of his reformation, to seek no support from arms, were soon for-
gotten. They rose in arms under pretext of an imaginary treaty,
said to have been made between George, Duke of Saxony, and
the other Cathohc princes, to exterminate the Lutherans.* The
matter indeed was adjusted : the Landgrave was satisfied with
the great sums of money, which some ecclesiastical princes
were obhged to pay down, to indemnify him for raising forces,
which he himself acknowledged he had done on false reports.

Melancthon, who did not approve of this conduct, found no
other excuse for the Landgrave, but the reluctance he felt to let
it appear that he had been deceived, and had nothing more to
say in his defence, than that an " evil shame"! ^^^^ influenced
him. But other thoughts gave him much more uneasiness.
They had boasted among thcnselves that the Papacy should be
destroyed, without making war and shedding blood. Previous
to the time of the Landgrave's tumult, and a little after the revolt
of the peasants, jWelancthon had written to the Landgrave him-
self, " That it was better to sutler every thing than to take up
arms^in the gospel cau^e ;"J and now it happened, that those
who had labored so much to convince the world of their pacific
principles, were the first to run to arms, and that on a false re-
port, as Melancthon himself acknowledges. § Accordingly he
adds, " When I see what a scandal the good cause is liable to,
I am almost overwhelmed with this concern." || Luther was
far from these sentiments : though in Germany it was known
as certain, and Protestant authors have acknowledged it,ir that
this pretended treaty of George of Saxony was a mere illusion.
Luther vdshed to believe it true ; and wrote several letters and
libels, in which he is so transported against that prince, even as
to call him, " of all fools, the greatest fool ; a proud Moab, v/ho
always undertook what was above his strength," adding, that he
would pray to God agahist him : then that he would give notice
to the princes to exterminate such people, who wished to see
all Germany in blood :"** that is to say, lest the Lutherans
themselves should be placed in that condition, and begin by ex-
terminating such princes as were opposed to their designs.

This George, Duke of Saxony, so insulted by Luther, was
as much opposed to the Lutherans, as his kinsman the Elector
was favorable to them. Luther prophesied against him with
ail his strength, regardless that he was of the same family with
his Lord and master ; and it is plain that it was not his fault
that his prophesies were not fulfilled with the edge of the sword.

* Sleid. Lib. vi. 92. Mel. Lib. iv. Epist. 70. f Ibid.

t Mel. Lib. iii. Enist. 16. § Lib. iv. Ep. 70, 72. Ibid. 72. || Ibid.

IT Mel. ibid. Sleid. ibid. Dav. Chyt. in Saxon, ad an 1528. p. 312.

** Luth. Ep. ad Vcnces, Lync. t vii. et np. Chyt. in Sax. p. 312 et 982.

II.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 79

45. — The name of Protestants. — The conference of Marptcrg, where the Lancia
grave labors in vain to reconcile both parties of Protestants. — 1529.

This armament'of the Lutherans, which in 1528 made all
Germany tremble, had raised their pride to such a height, that
they judged themselves in a condition to protest openly against
the decree, published against them the year following in the
Diet of Spires, and to appeal from it to the emperor, to the fu-
ture general council, or to that which should be held in Ger-
many. It was on this occasion they re-united themselves un-
der the name of Protestants ; but the Landgrave, who had more
sagacity, more capacity, and more valor than any of them, per-
ceived that the diversity of sentiments would be an everlasting
obstacle to that perfect union, which he desired to form amongst
them ; therefore, the same year that the decree passed at Spires,
he procured the conference of Marpurg, where he caused all
the leaders of the new reformation to meet, namely, Luther,
Osiander, and Melancthon, on one side ; Zuinglius, CEcolam-
padius, and Bucer, on the other, to pass over those less distin-
guished. Luther and Zuinglius were the only speakers ; for
the Luthefans, long before this, were silent when Luther was
present ; and Melancthon frankly acknowledges that he and his
companions were but "mute figures."* They thought not
then of amusing each other with equivocal explications, as they
did afterwards. The true presence of the body and blood was
plainly maintained on one side, and denied on the other. On
both sides it was understood, that a presence in figure, and a
presence by faith, was not a true presence of Jesus Christ, but
a moral presence — a presence improperly so called, and in met-
aphor. They agreed, in appearance, on all articles, except the
Eucharist. I say in appearance, for it is clear from tv/o letters,
which, during this conference, Melancthon wrote to his princes
to give them an account of it, that, in reality, they very little
understood each other's meaning. — " We discovered," says he,
" that our adversaries understood very little of* Luther's doctrine,
although thoy endeavored to imitate his language ;"t that is,
they agreed through complaisance, and in words, though in re-
reality they understood not each other ; and the truth is, Zuin-
glius had never comprehended any thing of Luther's doctrine
on the sacraments, nor of liis imputed justice." J Those of
Strasburg, with Bucer their minister, were also accused of not
having good sentiments, that is, as they meant it, not Lutheran
enough en this head, and so it afterwards appeared, as we shall
soon perceive. The truth of the thing is, Zuinglius and his
companions were somewhat troubled about these matters, and

* Mel. Lib. iv. Ep. 88.
I Ibid. Ep. ad Elect. Sax. et ad Hen. Due. et ap Lutli. T. iv. Jen. \ Mel

80 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

spoke whatever miglit please Luther, having nothing in their
thoughts hut the real presence. As to the manner of treating
things, Luther, as usual, spoke with haughtiness. Zuinglius
showed much ignorance, so far as to ask several times, " How
a wicked priest could perform a sacred thing ?"* Luther pressed
him closely, and made him see from the example of haptism
that he knew not what he said. When Zuinghus and his com-
panions saw they could not prevail on Luther to admit their
figurative sense, they entreated him at least to hold them for
brethren, but were sharply repulsed. " What fraternity do you
ask of me," replied Luther, " if you persist in your behef ? It
is a sign you doubt of it, since you desire to be their brethren
who reject it."t Thus ended the conference. However, they
promised mutual charity. Luther interpreted this charity such
as we owe to enemies, and not such as is allowed to those of
the same communion. " They were indignant," said he, " to
see themselves treated like heretics." They agreed, however,
to write no more against each other. " But it was only to give
time," continued Luther, " to come to themselves."

This agreement, such as it was, continued but a sliort time ;
on the contrary, by the different accounts that v/ere given of this
conference, their minds were more exasperated than before.
The proposal of fraternity made by the Zuinglians was consid-
ered by Luther a stratagem, and he said, " that Satan so reigned
in them that they had it no longer in their power to advance any
thing but lies."!

BOOK III.

[From the year 1529 to the year 1530.]
A brief summary. — The Confessions of Faith of both parties of Protestants
— That of Augsburg composed by Melancthon. — Th^^t of Strasburg, or of
the Four Towns, by Bucer. — That of Zuinghus. — Variations in that of
Augsburg concerning the Eucharist. — The ambiguity of that of Strasburg.
— Zuinglius alone plainly asserts the figurative sense. — The term sub-
stance, why applied to explc^n the reality. — The Apology of the Augsburg
Confession penned by Melanc'thon. — The Church calumniated in almost
every pomt, chiefly in that of Justification, Operation of the Sacj-amehts,
and Mass. — The merit of good works acknowledged on both sides ; also
Sacramental Absolution, Confession, Monastic Vows, with many other
Articles. — The Chjurch of Roma many ways acknowledged in the Confes-
sion of Augsburg. — A demonstration, from the Augsburg Confession and
Apology, that the Lutherans would return to us, did they but lay aside
their calumnies, and well comprehend their own doctiine.
1. — The famous Diet of Jlugshurg, where the Confessions of Faith are presented
to Charles V.

In the midst of all these differences, preparations were mak-
ing for the famous Diet of Augsburg, which Charles V had
* Kosp. Ibid, t Luth. Ep. ad Jen. Praep. Bremens. Ibid. { Luth. Ep. ad Jen.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 81

called in order to pacify the troubles which this new gospel had
raised in Germany. He came to Augsburg, the 15th of June,
1530. This period is remarkable ; for then it was, for the first
time, that the Confessions of Faith, published under the name
of each party, appeared in form. The Lutherans, defenders of
the literal sense, presented to Charles V the Confession of
Faith, called the Confession of Augsburg. The four towns of
the empire, Strasburg, Meiningen, Lindau, and Constance,
Avhich defended the figurative sense, gave in their Confessions
of Faith separately to the same prince. This was called the
Confession of Strasburg, or of the four tortus ; and Zuinglius,
who was not inclined to be silent on so solemn an ocr-asion,
although he was not of the body of the empire, also sent to the
emperor his Confession of Faith,

2. — The Confession of Augsburg digested by Melcmclhon, and presented to tke

emperor.

Melancthon, the most eloquent, the most pohte, and at the
same time the most moderate of all the disciples of Luther,
drew up the Augsburg Confession in concert with his master,
on whom they had prevailed to approach near the place of the
diet. This Confession was presented to the emperor in Latin
and in German, the 25th of June, 1530, subscribed by John,
Elector of Saxony, by six other princes, of whom one of the
chief was Philip, Landgrave of Hesjse, and by the towns of Nu-
remberg and Reutlingen, to which four other towns associated
themselves. It was read publicly in the diet, in presence of the
emperor ; and agreed that no copy of it should be spread abroad,
cither printed or written, but by his orders.* Many editions of
it have been since made, as well in the German as in the Latin
language, all materially differing ; and yet it has been received
by the whole party.

3. — Of the Confession of Strasburg, or of the Four Toions, and ofBucer loho
formed it.

Those of Strasburg, with their associate defenders of the
figurative sense, offered to subscribe it, excepting only the article
of the Lord's Supper. They were not admitted on those terms,
so they compiled their own particular confession, wliich was
drawn into form by Bucer.

He was a man of sufficient learning, of a pliant mind, and
more fruitful in distinctions than the most refined scholastics ;
an agreecble preacher ; his style something heavy ; but the ad-
vantage of his figure and sound of voice gained upon his hear-
ers. He had been a Dominican, and was married like the rest,
and even, as I may say, more so than the others, for on the
death of his first wife he proceeded to a second, and so to a
* Chyt. Hist. Confess. Aug.

82 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

third marriage. The holy fathers received not to priesthood
any person who, whilst a layman, had been twice married.
Bucer, both a priest and a religious, during his new ministiy
married three times without sCTuple. This circumstance rec-
ommended him to the party ; they wished by these daring ex-
amples to confound the superstitious observances of the ancient
Church.

It does not appear that Bucer had concerted any thing with
Zuinglius ; the latter with the Swiss spoke plainly and openly;
Bucer's thoughts were wholly intent on compounding matters,
and never was man "so fertile in equivocations. Yet neither he
nor his party could at that time unite themselves with the Luther-
ans, and the new reformation made two bodies visibly separated
by two different confessions of faith.

After they had been drawn up, these Churches seemed to have
assumed their last form, and it was time, at least at that juncture,
to hold themselves steady ; but, on the contrary, here it was they
betrayed most their variations.

4. — Of the Confession of .Augsburg, and its topology; the authority of these two
pieces throughout the tohole party.

The Augsburg Confession is the most considerable of all in
every respect. Besides that it was first presented and subscribed
by a greater body, and received with more ceremony, it has also
this advantage, that it was considered afterv/ards, not only by
Bucer, and by Calvin himself in particular, as a work common
to the Reformation, but also by the whole party of the figurative
sense assembled in a body, as will appear from what follows.
The Emperor had caused some Catholic divines to refute it ;
Melancthon made its Apology, which he enlarged a short time
after. 1 his Apology, however, must not be regarded as a par-
ticular work, since it was presented to the Emperor in the name
of the whole parly who laid before him the Confession of Augs-
burg, and the Lutherans have held no assembly since that time
to declare their belief, in which the Confession of AugsDurg and
Apology were not placed by them upon equal authority, as ap-
pears from the acts of the assembly of Smalkald, in 1537, and
from others.*

5. — The tenth article of the Confession of Augsburg, which relates to the Lord's
Supper, expressed four different ways. — The Vanationof the tivo first.

It is certain, the intention of the Confession of Augsburg was
to establish the real presence of the body and blood ; and, as the
liUtherans say h) the Book of Concord, " It was then expressly
designed to reject the error of the Sacram.entarians, who, at the
same time, presented their own particular Confecsion of Augs-

* Prasf. Apol. in Lib. Concord, p. 48. Act. Sraal. ibid. 356. Epitome
Act. ib. 571. Solid Rdp6t« ibid. 633. 726.

III.j THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 83

burg."* But the Lutherans were so far from speaking in a
uniform manner on this subject, that, on the contrary, we see
at first sight the tenth article of their confession, which is that
in which they design to establish the reality ; we behold, I say,
this tenth article couched in four different forms, being scarcely
able to discern which is the most authentic, since they all ap-
peared in editions which had the marks of public authority.

Of these four ways we see two in the Geneva Collection,
where the Confession of Augsburg is delivered to us as it was
printed in 1540, at Wittenberg, the birthplace of Lutheranism,
in the presence of Luther and Melancthon. YVe there read the
article of the last supper two different ways. In the first, which
is that of the Wittenberg edition, it is said, that " with the breed
and wine, the body and blood of Jesus Christ are truly given to
those who partake of the supper."| The second speaks not of
bread and wine, and is expressed in these terms ; " They (the
Protestant churches) believe that the body and blood are truly
distributed to those who eat, and disapprove of those who teach
the contrary. "J

Here is a variation at the first step of sufficient importance,
since the last of these expressions agrees with the doctrine of the
change of substance, and the other seem.s calculated to oppose
it. The Lutherans, however, stopped not there ; and although,
of the two ways of expressing the tenth article, which appear in
the Geneva Collection, they have followed the last in their Book
of Concord, at the place where the Augsburg Confession is there
inserted ; however, this same tenth article is seen two other
ways expressed in the same book.§
6. — Two other xcays in which the same Article is couched, and their differences.

And truly, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession will be
found in this book, where the same Melancthon who had drawn
it up, and defends it, transcribes the article in these terms : " In
the Lord's Supper the body and blood of Jesus Christ are truly
and substantially present, and are truly given together with the
things that are seen, that is, with the bread and wine, to those
who receive the sacrament."

In fine, we also find these words in the same Book of Con-
cord : " The article of the supper is thus taught from the word
of God in the Augsburg Confession : that the true body and the
true blood of Jesus Christ are truly present, distributed and re-
ceived in the holy supper, under the species of bread and wine ;
and those are disapproved of who teach the contrary." || And
it is in this manner also that the tenth article is delivered in

* Concord, p. 728. f Conf. Aug. art. 10. J Conf. Aug. art. 10. Syn-
tagm. Gen. 2 part, p. 13. § Conf. Aug. art. 10, in Lib. Concord, p. 13.

11 Apol. Conf. Aug. Cone. p. 157,

84 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

the Frencli version of the Confession of Augsburg, printed at
Frankfort, in 1673.*

If these two ways of expressing the reaUty be compared, there
is no person who does not see that this of the Apology expresses
it in stronger words than did the two preceding ones from the
collection of Geneva, but at the same time departs farther from
transubstantiation ; and that the last, on the contrary, accom-
modates itself to the expressions which the Church makes use
of, that Catholics might subscribe it.

7. — Which of these ways is the oi'iginal one.

If it be asked, which of these four different ways is the origi-
nal one presented to Charles V, the thing admits of no small doubt.

Hospinian maintains the last to be the original, because it is
that which appears in the impression which was made in the year
1530, at Wittenberg, that is in the seat of Lutheranism, the
abode of Luther and Melancthon.|

He adds the cause why this article was changed, because it
too openly favored transubstantiation, signifying the body and
blood to be truly received, not with the substance, but under the
species of bread and wine, wliich is the very expression made
use of by Catholics.

And this is the very thing which enforces the belief that the
article was thus expressed at first, since it is certain from Sleidan
and Melancthon, as well as from Celestin and Chytrffius, in their
histories of the Confession of Augsburg, that the Cathohcs con-
tradicted not this article in the refutation of the Augsburg Con-
fession, which they there made by the order of the Emperor. J

Of these four ways, the second was that which was inserted
in the Book of Concord ; and it might seem that this was the most
authentic, because the princes and states who subscribed this
book, seem to aflirm in the preface that they transcribed the
Augsburg Confession, as it is still to be found in the archives
of their predecessors, and in those of the empire. § But, upon
more exact inquiry, this will be found inconclusive, since the
authors of this preface only say, that having compared their copies
with the archives, " they found that theirs was wholly and through-
out of the same sense with the Latin or German originals ;"
which shows the pretension of agreeing in substance with the
other editions, but not the positive fact, that is, that the words are
throughout the same ; otherwise, such different ones would not
be found in another part of the same book, as we observed before.

Be that as it may, as the Confession of Augsburg could be
presented to the emperor but in one way, it is strange there should

* SoIiJ. Rdp^t. t Hospin. part 2, p. 94, 132, 173. \ Sleid. Apol. Conf.
Aug. ad. Ait. 10. Chytr. Hist. Conf. Aug. Cffilest Hist. Conf. Aug. t. iii.
§ Praet: Con.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 85

appear three others so different from that, and altogether as au-
thentic, as we have just seen, and that so solemn an act should
be so many times altered by its authors in an article so essential.

8. — The Fifth way in which this same Tenth Article is expressed in the Apology
of the Confession of Augsburg.

But they stopped not in so fine a way, but immediately after
the Confession of Augsburg, they gave to the emperor a fifth
explication of the article of the supper, in the Apology for their
Confession of Faith, drawn up at their order by Melancthon.

In this Apology, Melancthon being careful to express in formal
terms the literal sense, approved, as has been seen, by the whole
party, was not content to have already acknowledged a true and
sflbstantiai presence, adding, that Christ was " corporeally given
to us," and that this was the " ancient and common'' sentiment,
not only of the " Church of Rome," but also of the " Greek
Church."*

9. — The manner in which the Reality is explained by the Apology, tends at the
same time to establish the Change of Substance.

And although this author but little favors the change of sub-
stance even in this book, yet his dislike to it is not so great, but
that he makes honorable mention of the authorities which es-
tablish it ; for in order to prove his doctrine of the " corporeal
presence," from the sentiment of the eastern churcli, he cites the
canon of the Greek mass, when the priest prays expressly, says
he, that the proper body of Jesus Christ be made in the change
of bread, or by the change of bread. Far from condemning any
thing in this prayer, he makes use of it as a record whose au-
thority be o^vns ; and with the same judgment produces the words
of Theophylast, archbishop of Bulgaria, who affirms that the
bread is not the figure only, but is truly changed into flesh. "j" It
so happens, that of three authorities which he adduces to con-
firm the doctrine of the real presence, two there are which assert
tiie change of substance ; so necessarily do these tv/o truths fol-
low each other, so natural a connexion is there bee ween them.
When these passages, which appeared at the first pubhcation,
were afterwards mutilated in some editions by the enemies of
transubstantiation, it was because they were displeased that they
could not estabhsh the reality, which they approved, without
admitting transubstantiation at the same time, which they had
been determined to deny.

10. — The evasion of the Lutherans, with regard to these Vanations.

Such were the uncertainties into which the Lutlierans fell at

their commencement ; no sooner did they undertake to give a

settled form to their church, by a confession of faiih, than they

were so irresolute, that they immediately published an article

+ Apol. Confess. Aug. in Art. 10. p. 157. f Apol. Aug. Conf.
8

86 THE HISTORY OP [boOK

of such importance as that of the Eucharist, in five or six differ-
ent forms. They were not more unchangeable, as shall be seen,
in the other articles : and what they commonly answer, that the
council of Constantinople added something to that of Nice,
avails them nothing ; for the truth is, a new heresy rising up,
after the council of Nice, which denied the divinity of the Holy
Ghost, it was necessary to add some words for its condemnation ;
but in our present case, where nothing new occurred, it was
nothing but want of steadiness which introduced among the
Lutherans the variations we have seen.

11. — The Sacramentarians are not more steady in explaining their Faith.

If the defenders of the figurative sense reply, that their party
fell not into similar inconsistencies, let them not flatter them-
selves with this persuasion. In the " Diet of Augsburg," where
the confessions of faith commence, it has been demonstrated
that the Sacramentarians at first produced two different ones ;
and we shall soon see the diversity of them. In course of time
they were not less fruitful in different confessions of faith than
the Lutherans, and have appeared no less embarrassed, no less
uncertain, in the defence of the figurative, than the others in that
of the literal sense.

This is what may justly surprise us ; for it would seem that
a doctrine so easy to be understood, according to human reason,
as is that of the Sacramentarians, should afford no embarrass-
ment to those who undertook to explain it. But it is because the
words of Jesus Christ naturally make an impression of reality
on the mind, which all the refined subtleties of the figurative
sense are not able to destroy. As, therefore, the greatest part
of those who opposed it, could not divest themselves of this
entirely ; and, on the other hand, were desirous to please the
Lutherans, who retained it, Ave must not be surprised, that, with
their figurative interpretations, they mingle so many expressions
which savor of the reality ; nor that, having left the true idea of
the real presence taught them by the Church, they were so
pressed to please themselves with the terms they had chosen,
in order to retain some image of it.

12. — The indefinite and ambigvous expressions of the Confession of Strasburg,
on the article of the Lord's Supper.

This was the cause which introduced those equivocations,
we shall see. into their Catechisms and Confessions of Faith.
Bucer, the great architect of all these subtleties, gave a slight
specimen of them in the Strasburg Confession ; for, though
unwilling to make use of the same terms as the Lutherans to
explain the real presence, he affects to say nothing that might
be expressly contrary to it, and expresses himself in words
ambiguous enough to bear that sense. Thus he speaks, or

I

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 87

rather makes those of Strasburg and the others to speak : " When
Christians repeat the supper, which Jesus Christ made before
his death, in the manner that he instituted it, he. gives to them,
by the Sacraments, his true body and blood to eat and drink
truly, to be the food and drink of souls."*

In reality, they say not with the Lutherans, " That this body,
and tliis blood, are truly given with the bread and wine ;^' and
yet less, " that they are truly and substantially given ;" Bucer,
as yet, had not proceeded so far ; but he says nothing contrary
to it, and nothing, in fact, which a Lutheran, and even a Catholic
might not approve. We all consenting to this, " that the true
body and true blood of our Lord are given to us to eat and drink
truly,'" not for the food of bodies, but, as Bucer said, for the
food of souls. So this confession kept itself within general
expressions ; and even when it says, " We truly eat and drink
the true body and true blood of our Lord," it seems to exclude
eating and drinking by faith ; which, indeed, is no more than a
metaphorical eating and drinking : so much were they afraid of
acknowledging that the body and blood are only spiritually given,
and of inserting into a confession of faith, what to Christians
was so great a novelty. For although the Eucharist, as well
as the other mysteries of our salvation, had a spiritual effect for
its end, it had, like the other mysteries, that which was accom-
plished in the body for its foundation. — Jesus Christ was to be
born, to die, to be spiritually risen again in the faithful ; yet he
was also to be born, to die, and to rise again really, and according
to the flesh. In the same manner, we were to partake spirit-
ually of his sacrifice ; yet also we were corporally to receive
the flesh of this victim, and to eat of it indeed. We were to be
united spiritually to the heavenly spouse ; yet his body which he
gave to us in the Eucharist, in order to a mutual possession of
ours, was to be the pledge and seal, as well as the foundation
of this spiritual union ; and this divine marriage, as well as the
ordinary ones, though in a far different way, was to unite minds
by uniting bodies. To speak therefore of the spiritual union
was, in reality, to explain the last end of this mystery ; but to
that intent, the corporal union, on which the other was grounded,
ought not to have been forgotten. At least, shice it was that
which separated the Churches, they ought, in a confession of
faith, to have spoken distuictly for or against it, — a course which
Bucer had not sufficient resolution to pursue.
13. — The progress of these same amUguities, and the remarkable effect they had
on those toi'jns that subscribed to them.

He was fully sensible he should be reproved for his silence ;
and to obviate the objection, after having said in general, " That
* Conf. Arc. Gent. c. xviii. de Ccena. Synt. Gen. part. i. p. 195.

88 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

we truly eat ''nd drink the true body and true blood of our Lord,
for the food ^f our souls," he makes those of Strasburg say,
" that keepiP'-^ themselves at a distance from all dispute, and all
curious and superfluous inquiry, they call back the niird to that
only which profits, and which by our Saviour v^as alone regarded,
namely, that, deeding on him, we may hve in Lim, and by him :"*
as if explaining tiie principle end proposed by our Saviour were
sufficient, without speaking one way or the other of the Real
Presence, which the Lutherans, as well as Catholics, granted
to be the means.

Having declared these things, they conclude, by protesting
" that they are calumniated when they are accused of changing
the words of Jesus Clirist, and mutilating them by human inter-
pretations, or of administering nothing in their supper but mere
bread and wiie, or of despising the Lord's Supj>er ; for, on the
contrary," they say, " we exhort the faithful to give ear to the
words of the Lord with a simple faith, by rejecting all false com-
ments, and rll human inventions, and by adhering closely to the
sense of tht words, without hesitating in any way ; finally, by
receiving the sacraments for the food of their souls."

Who cond-^mns not, with them, superfluous refinements, human
inventions, Mse comments on the words of our Lord ? What
Christian does not profess to adhere closely to the sense of these
divine words 1 But since this sense had been the subject of
disputation ^ir six whole years, and so many conferences had
been held to settle it, they ought to have determined what it was,
and what were those false glosses which were to be rejected.
What advantage is it to condemn that in general, and by indefi-
nite terms, v.hich is rejected by all parties 1 and who sees not,
that a confes-:ion of faith requires decisions more clear and more
precise ? Cutainly, were we to judge of Bucer's sentiments,
and those of his brethren, by this Confession of Faith only, and
knew not from other sources that they were not favorable to the
Real and Suostantial Presence, we might believe they were not,
at least, far from it. They have terms to flatter those who be-
lieve it, others by which to escape if pressed ; in a word, we
may say, without doing them an injustice, that whilst confessions
of faith are generally made to explain our thoughts on the dis-
putes which disturb the peace of the Church, these, on the con
trary, by lengthened discourses and tedious circumlocution,
discovered the secret of saying nothing distinctly on the subject
of discussion.

From thence an odd eflect followed : namely, that of the four
towns which had united themselves by this common confession
of faith, and had all embraced, at that time, sentiments contrary
* Contl Argent, c. 18. de Ccena. Synt. Gen. part. 1. p. 195.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 89

to the Lutherans, three, namely, Strasburg, Meningen, and
Lindau, without scruple, a short time afterwards, went over to
the doctrine of the Real Presence : so well had Bucer succeeded
by his ambiguous discourses in rendering their minds pliant, so
that they could easily turn to any side.

14. — The Confessimi of Faith cfZuinglius ve-i-y clear and free from all equivocation.

Zuinglius dealt more frankly. In the Confession of Faith
which he sent to Augsburg, and which received the approbation
of all the Swiss, he declared plainly, " That the body of Jesus
Christ, after his ascension, was no where else but in Heaven ;
nay, could be no where else ; that truly, in the supper, it was,
as it were, present by the contemplation of faith, and not really,
or by its essence."*

To defend this doctrine, he wrote a letter to the Emperor and
the Protestant Princes, where he establishes this difference be-
tween him and his adversaries ; that these would have " a natural
and substantial body, and he a sacramental body."| He is
uniform in the use of the same language ; and in another Con-
fession of Faith, which, at the same time, he directs to Francis
the First, he explains, " This is my body," " of a symbolical,
mystical, and sacramental body ; of a body by denomination
and signification ;" " in the same manner," says he, " as a
queen, showing amongst her jev/els her nuptial ring, says read-
ily, ' This is my king, that is, this is the ring of the king my
husband, wherewith he hath espoused me.' "J I know not of
any queen that ever used such an odd phrase ; but it was not
easy for Zuinglius to find, in ordinary language, such a mode
of speaking as he would ascribe to our Saviour. Nay, he ac-
knowledges no more in the Eucharist than a moral presence,
which he calls " Sacramental and Spiritual." He always places
the force of the sacraments in this, " that they assist the con-
templation of faith ; that they serve for a bridle to the senses,
and make them concur better with the thoughts." As to the
manducation, " which the Jews understood in the same sense
with the Papists," according to him, " it ought to cause the like
horror a father would feel who had his son given him to eat."
In general, " faith has a horror of a visible and corporal pres-
ence, which makes St. Peter say, ' depart from me, O Lord ;'
Jesus Christ must not be eaten in this carnal and gross way :
a faithful and religious soul eats his true body sacramentally and
spiritually." Sacramentally, that is to say, in sign ; spiritually,
that is, by the contemplation of faith, which represents to us
Jesus Christ suffering, and shows us he is wholly ours.

* Conf. Zuing. int. Oper. Zumg. et ap. Hosp. ad an. 1530 ; 101, et seq.
t Epist. ad Cffis. et Princ. Prot. ibid. J Conf. ad Franc. I.

8*

90 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

15. — The state of the question appears clearly in the Confession of Zuinglius.
It is not our business here to complain, that he calls our man-
ducation gross and carnal, though so much elevu^led above the
senses ; nor that he would raise a horror of it, as ci cruel and
bloody object. These are the usual reproaches which those of
his party have ever made to us and the Lutherans. We shall
see, by what follows, how those who nov/ reproach will justify
us ; it is enough that we here observe, that Zumglius speaka
plainly. Fiom these two Confessions of Faith we learn in what
the difficulty precisely consists ; on one side, a presence in
sign, and by faiih; on the other, a real and substantial presence;
and this it i which separated the Sacramentarian^ from Catho-
lics and Lutherans.

16. — Ir^hat rea'^on there was for making use of the word Substance in the Eu-
charist; that it is the same which n;ade it necessanj in the Trinity.

It will nov/ be easy to comprehend what was the reason why
the defendeui of the literal sense, both Catholic j and Lutherans,
used so mv!«;h the wcrds *' true body, real body, substance,
proper substance," and others of a similar nature. They made
use of the words " real and true," to signify that the Eucharist was
not a mere .-I'gn of the body and blood, but the very thing itself.

For this reason, also, they employed the word substance; and
if we trace it up to its origin, we shall find, that what introduced
this word ii-to the mystery of the Trinity, rendered it likewise
necessary in the mystery of the Eucharist. Before the subtleties
of heretics had confounded the true sense of these words of our
Saviour, " J and my father are one,"* the perfect unity of the
Father and Son was believed to be sufficiently expressed by
this text of Scripture, without the necessity of always saying
they were cne in substance : but ever since the t'me that here-
tics would persuade the faithful the unity of the Father and Son
was only a unity of concord, of thought, of affection, it was
deemed expedient to banish these pernicious equivocal terms,
by establishing consubstantiality — namely, the unity of sub-
stance. T> is term, which was not in Scripture, was judged
necessary to the right understanding of it, and keeping at a dis-
tance the dangerous interpretations of those who adulterated the
simplicity of God's word.

By adding these expressions to Scripture, it was not pretended
it explained itself, in respect of that mystery, obscurely or am-
biguously ; but it grew out of the necessity which existed of
opposing by these express words the evil interpretations of her-
etics, and of preserving that natural and primitive Scripture
sense, which would immediately have made impression on the
mind, were not the ideas confused by prejudice or false subtleties.
* John X. 30.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 91

It is easy to apply this to the subject of the Eucharist. Had
the natural and just sense, without refinement, been preserved
of these words, " This is my body, this is my blood," we should
have thought we had sufficiently explained a real presence of
Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, by saying, that what he there
gives is his body and blood ; but since it has been said that
Jesus Christ was then present in figure only, or by his spiiit, or
by his virtue, or by faith, then, to remove all am.biguity, it was
believed necessary to say, that the body cf our Lord v/as given
to us in its proper and true substance, or what comes to the
same, that he was really and substantially present. It is this
which gave rise to the term Transubstantiation, just as natural
to express a change of substance, as that of consubstantial was
to express a unity of substance.

17. — The Lutherans had the same reason as toe to make use of the word Suh-
stanci ; Zidnglius never used it, nor Bucer at the cominencevient.

For the same reason, tlie Lutherans, who acknowledge the
reahty without the change of substance, v/hen they rejected the
term Transubstcintiation, retained that of " ihe true and substan-
tial presence," as we have seen in the Apology of the Augsburg
Gonfes'iion ; and these terms were chosen to fix the natural
sense of these words, " This is my body," as the word consub-
stantial was chosen by the falhers of Nice to fix the literal
sease on these words, *' I and my Fatner are one," and these
other, the '' Word was God."

Accordingly, we do not find that ZuingHus, who first reduced
to form the opinion of the figurative sense, and explained it in
the frankest manner, ever employed the word substance. On
the contrary, he perpetually excluded " the manducation," as
well as the substantial " presence," in order that he might leave
nothing but a figurative manducation, that is, " In spirit and by
faith."*

Bucer, although more inclined to ambiguous expressions, did
not, at the beginning, make use of the word substance, or com-
munion and substantial presence, but was content not to con-
demn these terms, and confined himself only to the gener ;1 ex-
pressions which Vie have seen. Such was the first state of the
Sacramentarian controversy, into which Bucer's subtleties intro-
duced afterwards such a number of unseasonable variations as
we shall be obliged to relate in the sequel. For the present it
is sufficient to have pointed at the cause.

18. — Of the doctrine of Justification ; that there is no dijficidty in it after xohat
has been said on it in the Confession of Augsburg and in the Apolug'j.

The question of justification, in which that of free-will was
contained, seemed to Protestants of a far different importance,
* Ep. ad Cses. et Princ. Prot.

92 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

for which reason they twice demand of the emperor, in the
Apology, a particular attention to this subject, as being the most
imp(>rtant of the whole gospel, and that also on which they have
labored most.* But I hope it will soon be discovered they have
labored in vain, to say nothing more, and that in this dispute
there is much more of misunde^-standing than real difficulty.
19. — That the doctrine of Luther on Free- Will is retracted in the Confession of
Jlugshurg.

And first, we must remove from this dispute the question of
free-will. Luther had returned from that excess, which induced
him to say, that God's prescience wholly destroyed free-will in
all creatures ; and had consented to have this article placed in
the Augsburg Confession : — "That free-will is to be acknowl-
edged in all men that have the use of reason, not for the things
of God, which men cannot commence or at least finish without
him, but only with regard to the works of this present life and
the c'uties of civil society.|" Melancthon added to it in the
Apology, " with respect to the exterior works of God's law."J
The le are tv/o truths already which admit of no discussion ;
one, that there is a free-will ; and the other, that of itself it can
do nothing in works that are truly Christian.
'2.Q.—A word in the Augsburg Confession which tended to Semi-Pelagianism.

There was, moreover, a word, in that passage we have just
seen of the Augsburg Confession, which, from men who would
attribute all to grace, was not near so correct as we speak* in the
Catholic Church, It is in that place where it is said, that of
itself " free-will cannot commence, or at least finish the things
of G )d," a restriction which seems to insinuate it can at "least
commence" them by its proper strength — a Semi-Pelagian error,
from which we shall hereafter see the Lutherans at present are
not far removed.

The following article§ explained how " the will of the wicked
was the cause of sin ;" where, although it be not distinctly
enough said that God is not the author of it, as much at least
was insinuated, in opposition to the first maxims of Luther.

21. — All the reproaches made to Catholics founded on calumnies; the first
calumny on gratuitous Justification.

B it what is most remarkable, with respect to the other points
of Christian grace in the Confession of Augsburg is this, that
it every where supposes errors in the Catholic Church, which
errors were always detested by her ; so that they seemed rather
to he ve sought a subject for quarrelling than reforming, and the
thing will appear manifest upon expounding historically the
belief of the one and the other.

* /.d Art iv. de Justii". p. 60. de poen. p. 161. j Conf. Au^. Art. xviil

Apol. ad eund. Art. | Apol. ad eund. Art. § Art. xix. ibid.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 93

In the Confession of Augsburg and in the Apology, they
grounded themselves much on the remission of sins being
purely the result of generosity, which ought not to be attributed
to the merit and worth of precedent actions. Strange ! the
Lutherans everywhere ascribed to themselves the honor of this
doctrine, as if they had brought it back again into the Church,
end reproached Catholics, " that they believed they obtained the
forgiveness of their sins by their own works ; that they believed
they could merit it by doing, on their side, what they were able,
and even by their own strength ; that all they attribated to Jesus
Christ was the having merited for us a certain habitual grtice,
whereby we may more easily love God ; and although the will
had it in its power to love him, it did it more willingly from this
habit; that they taught no other justice than that of reason; thai
we could dravvnear to God by our proper works, independently
of the propitiation of Jesus Christ, and that we had dreamt of a
justirication without speakhig one word of him ;* which they
repeat incessantly, to conclude as often, " That we had buried
Jesus Christ."

22. — They attributed to Catholics two propositions that xoere coatradictory :
" ex opere operato," what it means.

But whilst they reproached Catholics with so gross an error,
they, on the other hand, imputed to them the opposite sentiraent,
accusing them of " believing themselves justified by the sole use
of the sacrament, ' ex opere operato,^ as they speak in schools,
without any good disposition. ""j" How could the Luth^irans
ima-gine, that amongst us so much was given to man, and at the
same time so little 1 But both one and the other are very dis-
tant from our doctrine, inasmuch as the Council of Trent is quite
full, on the one side, of the good sentiments by which we ought
to dispose ourselves for baptism, for penance, and for communion,
declaring even in express terms, " that the reception of grpce is
voluntaiy :" and, on the other side, it teaches, that the forgive-
ness of sins is purely gratuitous ; and that all which prepares
us for it, either proximately or remotely, from the beginning of
the vocation and the first horrors of a conscience shaken by
fear, even to the most perfect act of charity, is the gift of God. "J

23. — According to the Lutheran doctrine, the Sacraments operate " ex opere

operato."

True it is, we say with regard to infants, that by his infinite

mercy baptism sanctifies them, though they co-operate not by

any good motives to this great work ; but besides, that in this

* Conf. Art xx. Apol. Cap. de Justif. Cone. p. 61. Ibid. pp. 62, 74, 102, 103.
t Conf. Aug. Art. xiii. etc.

j Sess.6. cap.v.vi. 14. Sess.xiii. 7. Sess.xiv.4. Sess.vi.7. Ibid. cap. viii. ibid,
cap. V. vl Can. 1, 2, 3. Sess. xiv. 4.

94 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

the merit of Jesus Christ, together with the efficacy of his blood,
displays itself, the Lutherans themselves say as much ; they
themselves confessing that " little children ought to be baptized;
that baptism is necessary for tlieir salvation ; and that by this
sacrament they are made the children of God."* Is not this an
acknowledgment of the force of the sacrament, of itself and by
its own action effectual, " ex opere operato^''^ in children 1 For
I do not find that the Lutherans consider themselves bound to
maintain with Luther, that children brought to baptism, produce
therein an act of faith. They must then necessarily say with
us, that the sacrament, by which they become regenerated, ope-
rates by its own proper virtue.

If it be objected, that amongst us the sacrament has the same
efficacy in the adult, and operates in them " ex opere operato^''
it is easy to comprehend that this is not admitted to exclude the
nece^.sary good dispositions in them, but only to show that what
God works in us, when he sanctifies us by the sacrament, is
above all our merits, all our works, all our foregoing dispositions ;
in a 'vord, the pure effect of his grace, and of the infinite merits
of Jesus Christ.

24. — That according to the Council of Trevt, the remission of sins is purely
gratuitous.

There is no merit therefore of ours that obtains the remission
of sias ; and the Confession of Augsburg ought not to have
assu>aed the glory of this doctrine, as if it were peculiar to itself;
since the Council of Trent equally acknowledged, " that we are
said tO be justified gratuitously, because all that precedes justi-
fication, whether faith or works, cannot merit this grace ;" con-
formr^bly to what the Apostle says, " if it be grace, it is not
therefore works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. "j"

Hjre then is the remission of sins, and justification gratui-
tously and without merit, established in as express terms in the
Catholic Church as it could possibly have jjeen done in the
Comession of Augsburg.
25. — 'ilie second calumny on the Merit of Works ; that it is acknowledged in the

Aiii:shurg Confession, and by Luther, in Ihe same sense as it is in the Church.

If after the remission of sins, when the Holy Ghost dwells,
and '"harity reigns in us, and the soul is rendered agreeable by
a gratuitous bounty, we acknowledge merit in our good works,
— thvi Confession of Augsburg agrees with us in this, seeing that
in the Geneva edition, printed after that of Wittenberg, which
was made under the inspection of Luther and Melancthon, we
read that " the new obedience is reputed a justice, and merits
reward." And yet more expressly, that " although far distant
from the perfection of the law, it is a justice, and merits re-
+ Art. ix. t Cone Trid. Sess. vi. cap. 8.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 95

ward." And a little after, that " good works are worthy of
great praises, that they are necessary, and that they merit
recompenses."*

Afterwards, explaining these words of the Gospel, "Whoso-
ever hath, to him shall be given," it says, " that our action must
be joined to God's gifts, which it preserves in us ; and that it
MERITS their increase ;"| and praises this saying of St. Austin,
" that charity, when it is exercised, merits the increase of
charity." Here then is our co-operation necessary in express
terms, and its merit confirmed by the Confession of Augsburg.
Therefore they thus conclude this article : " thereby good men
may understand what true good works are, and how they please
God, and how they are meritorious. "J Merit cannot be
better established, nor more inculcated ; nor does the Council
of Trent insist further on this matter.

All this was taken from Luther, and from the grounds of his
sentiments ; for in his commentary on the Epistle to the Gala-
tians, he writes, that " where he speaks of justifying faith, he
means that which works by charity; for," says he, "faith mlrits
that^the Holy Ghost be given us."§ He had just said, that with
this Holy Ghost all virtues are given us, and it was thus hs ex-
plained justification in that famous commentary : it was pi.'nted
at Wittenberg, in 1553 5 so that twenty years after Lutlie. had
commenced the Reformation, nothing as yet was found in merit
tliat deserved correction.

26. — The Apology asserts the Merit of Works.

It must not then be a matter of surprise, if in the Apology of
the Augsburg Confession, this opinion be found so strongly
grounded. There Melancthon makes new efforts to explain the
subject of justification, as his letters testify, where he thus
teaches, " that there are rewards proposed and promised io the
good works of the faithful, and that they are meritorious, not
of forgiveness of sins or of justification, (which we have not
othervvise than by faith,) but of other corporal and spiritual re-
wards in this life, and that to come ;" according to what St.
Paul saith, " that each one shall receive his reward accoiding to
his works. "II Arid Melancthon is so full of this truth, that he
confirms it anew in the answer to the objections by these words :
" We confess, as we have often done already, that although jus-
tificaiion and life eternal appertain to faith, good works, hov/-
ever, merit other corporal and spiritual rewards, and different
degrees of rewards, according to what St. Paul says, ' that each
one shall be rewarded according to his labor :' for gospel justice

* Art. vi. Synt. Gen. p. 12. Ibid. p. 20. cap. deBon. Oper. f Ibid. p. 21.

I Page 22. § Comment, in Ep. ad Gal. t. v. 213.

II Apol. Conf. Aug. ad Art. iv. v. vi. Resp. ad Object. Concord, p. 96.

96 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

bein^ occupied about the promise of grace, gratuitously receives
justification and life ; but the fulfilling of the law, which pro-
ceeds as the result of faith, is occupied about the law itself; and
then the recompense, continues he, is offered not gratui-
tously, but according to works, and it is due ; and accord-
ing those WHO MERIT this reward are justified before they fulfil
the law."*

Thus the merit of works is constantly recognized by those
of the Augsburg Confession as a thing comprised in the nofion
of a reward, there being nothing indeed more naturally united
than merit on one side, when reward is promised and proposed
on the other.

And verily, what they reprehend in Catholics is not their ad-
mission of merit, which is also asserted by them, but is, says
the Apology, " that, as often as merit is spoken of, they transfer
it from other rewards to justification."! If, then, we acknowl-
edge no merit but what follows and not precedes justification,
the difiiculty will be removed ; and it is the very thing that was
done at Trent by this decision, " that we are said to be gratu-
itously justified, because not any of those things, whether faith,
or works, which precede justification, can merit it. "J And
again, " that our sins are gratuitously forgiven us, by the divine
mercy, for the sake of Jesus Christ. "§ Whence it follows,
also, that the Council admits no merit, " but in regard to the
augmentation of grace, and fife eternal." ||
27. — Melandhon is inconsistent with himself in the Apology, when he there
denies that good works merit eternal life.

As to the augmentation of grace, it was agreed to at Augs-
burg, as already seen ; and for life eternal, true it is, Melanc-
thon v/ould not acknowledge it was merited by good works,
since, according to him, they merited other recompenses only,
which are promised to them in this life and the next. But when
Melancthon spoke thus, he did not reflect what he had said in
this same place, that it is " eternal glory which is due to those
who are justified," according to this saying of St. Paul, "Those
whom he hath justified, he hath glorified also. "IT Again, he
reflected not that eternal life is the true recompense promised
by Jesus Christ to good works, conformably to that text of the
Gospel cited by him in another place in support of merit, that
those who shall obey the Gospel " shall receive a hundred fold,
in this world, and life everlasting in the next ;"** where is seen,
besides the hundred fold which shall be our recompense in this
life, that life eternal is promised as our reward in the life to
come ; so that if merit is grounded on the promise of a recom-

* Resp. ad Object. Com. p. 137. f Apol. Conf. Aug. p. 137.

X Sess. vi. cap. 8. § Ibid. cap. 9. || ibid. cap. 16. ct Can. 32.

% Apol. Conf. Aug. 137. *+ In Locis Comni. cap. de Justif. Mat. xix. 29.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 97

pense, as Melancthon asserts, and with truth, nothing is more
merited than eternal Hfe, though, in other respects, nothing more
gratuitous, according to that excellent doctrine of St. Augustin,
" Life eternal is due to the merits of good works ; but the mer-
its unto which it is due are gratuitously given us by our Lord
Jesus Christ."*

28. — That there is something in eternal life lohich falls not under merit.

It is also true, that what prevents Melancthon from absolutely
holdAig eternal life as a recompense promised to good works,
is, that eternal life being always, in a certain manner, annexed
to grace, it is without works given to little children, and would
be given to the adult in case they were even surprised by death
the very moment they were justified, without their having had
time to act afterwards ; which prevents not, in another respect,
the eternal kingdom, eternal glory, eternal life, from being prom-
ised as a reward to good works, and also from being merited,
in the sense expressed by the Augsburg Confession.

29. — Variations 'of the Lutherans in that which they curtailed in the Confession
of .Augsburg.

What does it avail the Lutherans to have altered this Confes-
sion, and to have erased in their Book of Concord, and other
editions, those passages which sanction merit ? Can they, by
this act, prevent this confession of faith from having been print-
ed at Wittenberg, under the eyes of Luther and Melancthon,
with no contradiction from any of the party, and with all the
passages we have cited ] What other effect does the erasure
of them produce, but to make us remark the force and impor-
tance of them ] But to what purpose is it to erase the merit
of good works in the Confession of Augsburg, whilst they them-
selves leave it as entire in the Apology, as they have caused it
to be printed in their Book of Concord? Is it not certain the
Apology was presented to Charles V by the same princes and
in the same diet as the Confession of Augsburg?'!' But what
is still more remarkable, it was presented, as the Lutherans
confess, " in order to preserve its true and proper sense ;"J for
so it is worded in an authentic writing, in which the Protestant
princes and states declare their faith. Therefore, it is not to
be doubted but the merit of works is agreeable to the spirit of
Lutheranism, and of the Confession of Augsburg, and it is
unjustly that the Lutherans disturb the Church of Rome on
this head.

30. — Three other calumnies against the Church. — Thefulfdling of the law ac-
knowledged in the Apology in the same sense as in the Church.

I foresee, however, it may be said they have not approved the

* Aug. ep. 105, num. 194. N. 19. De Comp. et Grat. cap. 13. N. 41.
t Praef. Apol. Cone. p. 48. J Solid, repct. Cone. 633,

9

98 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

merit of works in the same sense as we do, for three reasons ; —
first, because they do not acknowledge with us, that the just
man can and ought to fulfil the law ; secondly, because for this
very reason they do not admit that merit which is called of con-
dignity, whereof all our books are full ; thirdly, because they
teach that the good works of man justified stand in need of the
gratuitous acceptation of God in order to obtain for us eternal
life, which they will not allow that we admit. Here, it will be
said, are three characters by which the doctrine of the Confes-
sion of Augsburg and of the j^poloa^y will ctand separated eter-
nally from ours. But these three characters subsist not, except
by as many misrepresentations of our belief: for, in the first
place, if we say we ought to satisfy the law, the whole world
agrees in it, since all agree we ought to love, and the Scripture
pronounces that " love or charity is the fulfilling of the law."*
There is even an express chapter in the Apology which bears
this title : " Of love and the fulfiUing of the Law."| And we
have just seen in it, that " the fulfilling of ihe law proceeds as
the result of justification ;" and this is there repeated in a hun-
dred places, and cannot be called in question. But farther, it
is not true that we pretend, after one is justified, he satisfies the
law of God in full rigor ; since, on the contrary, we are taught
by the Council of Trent that we are daily under the necessity
of saying, " Forgive us our trespasses."]; So that, however
perfect our justice may be, there is always something God
amends in it by his grace, renews by his holy spirit, supplies by
his bounty.

31. — The merit of Condignity.
As to the merit of condignity, besides that the Council of
Trent has not made use of this term, the thing bears no diffi-
culty, since, at the bottom, it is agreed upon, that after justifi-
cation, that is, after the person has become agreeable, and the
Holy Ghost dwells, and charity reigns in him, the Scripture at-
tributes to tiim a kind of dignity : " They shall walk with me
in white, because they are worthy." § But the Council of Trent
has clearly explained that all this worthiness proceeds from
grace ; and the Catholics have declared it to the Lutherans ever
since the time of the Augsburg Confession, as appears from the
history of David Chytrceus, and from that of George Ceelestin,
both Lutheran authors. || Both these historians give an account
of the confutation of the Augsburg Confession made by the
Catholics at the Emperor's command, when they declare, "that
man cannot merit eternal life by his own proper strength, and
without the grace of God, and that all Catholics confess our

* Rom. xiii. 10. j Apol. 83, lb. p. 137. J Sess. vi. c, 1 J. § Apoc. iii.
II Chyt. Hist. Conf. Aug. post Conf. George C eel. Hist. Conf. Aug. Aug. t. iii.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 99

works of themselves are not of any merit ; but that the grace
of God renders them worthy of Hfe eternal."

32. — The merit of Con^rruity.
With regard to the good works we perform before we are
justified — because the person then is neither agreectble nor just,
on the contrary, is accc-unted still as in sin, and an enemy— in
this state he is incapable of any true merit ; and tl!e merit of
congruity or seemhness which divines allow in him, is not, in
their opinion, any true merit, but a merit improperly so called,
which has no further signification, tlian that it is suitable to the
Divine Goodness to. have a regard to the sighs and tears v, hich
he himself has inspired into the sinner who begins to be
converted.

The same must be answered with regard to alms which a
sinner bestows to " redeem his sins," according to the advice of
Daniel ;* and to that " charity which covereth the multitude of
sins," according to St. Peter ;| and forgiveness prom.ised by
Jesus Christ himself to " those who forgive their brethren." J
The Apology answers here, that Jesus Christ does not add
" By doing alms, or by forgiving, one merits forgiveness, ex
opere opcrato^ in virtue of this action, but in virtus of faith. "§
But v/ho pretends otherwise ? Who has ever said that good
works, v/hich please God, must not be done according to the
spirit of faith, without v/hich, as St. Faul says, " it is impossible
to please God ^'H Or who ever thought that these good v/orks,
and the faith which produces them", merited forgiveness of sins
ex opere operato, and were capable of operating it of themselves 1
None so much as ever thought of employing this expression, e.v
opere operato, in the good works of the faithful ; it was applied
only to the Sacraments, which are nothing but instruments of
God. It v/as employed to show that their action was divine,
all-powerful, and effectual of itself ; and nothing but a calumny,
or gross ignorance, could suppose that in Catholic doctrine,
good works wrought, after this manner, the forgiveness of sins,
and justifying grace. God, who inspires them, has regard
thereunto, of his bounty for the sake of Jesus Christ ; not be-
cause we are worthy he should have a regard to them in order
to justify us, but because it is worthy of him to look down with
pity on humble hearts, and therein complete his own work.
Such is the merit of congruity, which may be attributed to man
even before he is justified. The thing, at bottom, is indisputa-
ble ; and truly, if the term displeases, it is not used in the
Council of Trent, even by the Church herself.

33. — The Mediation of Jesus Christ alioays necessary.
But although God looks with another eye on sinners already
* Dan. iv. f 1 Peter, iv. 8. J Lulce vi. 37. § Resp. ad Arg. 1| Heb. xi. 6.

100 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

justified, and the works which he then produces by his spirit
dwelhng in them tend more immediately to eternal life, it is not
true, according to us, that a voluntary acceptation of them is not
requisite on God's part, because all is here grounded, as says
the Council of Trent, on the promise which " God has made to
us mercifully," that is, gratuitously, " for the sake of Jesus
Christ,"* ^ giving eternal life to our good works, without which
we could not promise ourselves so high a recompense. Thus,
when in the Confession of Augsburg, and the Apology,! it is
every where objected against us, that after justification we be-
lieve we have no further need of Jesus Clnist's mediation, we
cannot be more visibly calumniated ; since, besides that it is
through Jesus Christ alone we preserve the grace received, we
stand in need of God's incessantlyhaving a regard to that promise
which he of his sole mercy, and by the blood of the Mediator,
has made unto us in the new covenant.

34. — How the merits of Jesus Christ appertain to us ; and how they are imputed

to us.

In a word, whatever the Lutheran doctrine has that is good,
had not only been entire in the Church, but also had been much
better explained, inasmuch as all false ideas were clearly re-
moved from it. The truth of this assertion appears principally
in the doctrine of imputed justice. The Lutherans imagined
they had discovered something wonderful and peculiar to them-
selves, when they said, " God imputed to us the justice of Jesus
Christ, who had perfectly satisfied for us, and rendered his merits
ours." Yet the Scholastics, so much censured by them, were
full of this doctrine. Who amongst us has not ever believed
and taught that Jesus Christ superabundantly satisfied for men,
and that the Eternal Father, contented with this satisfaction of
his Son, dealt with us as favorably as if we ourselves had sat-
isfied his justice ? If this be all that is understood, when the
justice of Jesus Christ is said to be imputed to us, it is what no
one doubted, nor should they have disturbed the whole world,
nor taken on themselves the title of reformers, for so known and
so avowed a doctrine. The Council of Trent did acknowledge,
with sufficient fulness, that " the merits of Jesus Christ, and of
his passion," were rendered ours by jusuncation, since it repeats
so often, " that by it they are communicated to us," and without
it none can be justified.J

35. — Justification, regeneration, sanctification, renovation, hoxo in substance they
are all the same grace.

What Catholics, together with this council, understand, when,
not satisfied with the simple imputation of the merits of Jesus
Christ, they permit not that alone to be relied on, is, that God
* Cone. Tiid. Sess. vi. c. 16. f Apol. Resp. ad Arg. p, 127. \ Sess. vi. c. 3—7.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 101

himself is not satisfied with that only ; but in order to apply those
merits to us, he at the same time regenerates us, vivifies us, ren-
ovates us, diffuses his holy spirit into us, which is the spirit of
holiness, and by that means does sanctify us : and all this to-
gether in our doctrine makes up the justification of a sinner.
This also was the doctrine of Luther and Melancthon.* Those,
subtle distinctions between justification and regeneration or
sanctification, in which at present the whole nicety o^ the Prot-
estant doctrine is placed, were born after them, and since the
Confession of Augsburg. The Lutherans now acknowledge that
these things were confounded by Luther and Melancthon, even
in the Apology, so authentic a work of the whole party-. Luther,
indeed, thus defines iustif}'ing faith : " True faith is the work
of God in us, by which we are renovated, and born again of God
and the Holy Ghost. And this faith is that true justice which
St. Paul calls the justice of God, and which God approves."!
By this, therefore, we are both justified and regenerated at the
same time; and since the Holy Ghost, that is, God himself, act-
ing in us, interposes in this work, it is no imputation out of us,
as Protestants will nov/ have it, but a work witbJn us.

And as to the Apology, Melancthon repeats there in every
page, " that faith justifies and regenerates us, and brings to us
the Holy Spirit." And a little after, that " it regenerates hearts,
and brings forth a new life. "J And again, more clearly : " To
be justified, is of unjust to be made just ; and to be regenerated
is to be declared and reputed just :'■' which shows that these two
things concur together. Not the least appearance of the con-
trary is to be found in the Confession of Augsburg ; and there
is nobody but perceives how well those ideas which the Luther-
ans then had comcide with ours.

36. — Satisfactory uiorks achioicledged In the Jlvology, and JMonks reckoned
among the Saints.

It seems as if they had separated farther on satisfactory works,
and the austerities of a religious life ; for they reject them fre-
quently, as contrary to the doctrine of gratuitous justification.
But, in reality, they do not condemn them so severely as one
might at first be induced to think ; for not only St. Anthony, and
the monks of the first ages, men of frightful austerity, but also
of these latter days, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, and St. Francis,
are numbered amongst the holy fathers in the Apology. Their
mode of life, far from being censured, is judged worthy of the
saints, " because," say they, " it prevented them not from be-
lieving themselves justified by faith for the love of Jesus Christ."§
A sentiment far removed from the excesses which we at this day

* Solid. Rep^t. Cone. p. 686. Epit. aitic. Ibid. 185. f Preef. in Epist. ad
Rom. t. V. f. 97, 98. J Cap. de Justif. Cone. pp. 68, 71, 72, 73, 74, 82. Cap.
de Dilect. 83. § Apol. Resp. ad Arg. vi. 99. De Vot. Monast 281.

9*

103 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

witness in the new reformation, where they blush not to con-
demn St. Bernard, and rank St. Francis in the hst of fools. True
it is, after having placed these great men in the number of the
holy fathers, the Apology condemns the monks who followed
them, upon the pretence that " they believed they merited the
forgiveness of sins, grace, and justice, by these works, and did
not receive it gratuitously."* But the calumny is manifest, since
the religious now-a-days still believe, as did those of old, to-
gether with the Catholic Church and the Council of Trent, that
the forgiveness of sins is purely gratuitous, and given through
the merits of Jesus Christ alone.

And that it may not be supposed the merit which we attribute
to these works of penance was then disapproved of by the de-
fenders of the Augsburg Confession, they teach, in general, "of
works and afflictions, that they do not merit justification, but
other recompense ; and of alms in particular, when they are
done in the state of grace, that they merit many benefits from
God ; THAT THEY MITIGATE PAINS ; that they BiERiT that we
should be assisted against the perils of sin and death."! What
prevents their saying as much of fasting and other mortifications?
And all this, well understood, is nothing in substance, but what
is taught by all Catholics.

37. — The necessity of baptism, and the amissibiUty of justice taught in the Con-
fession of ^iugsburg.

Calvinists have departed from the true ideas of justification,
by saying, as we shall see, that baptism is not necessary for little
children ; that justice once received is never lost, and, what is
a consequence of this, that it is preserved even in crime. But
the Lutherans, when they saw these errors spring up among the
Anabaptist sects, condemned them by these three articles of the
Confession of Augsburg :

" That baptism is necessary to salvation, and that they con-
demn the Anabaptists who assert children may be saved without
baptism, and out of the Church of Jesus Christ. "J

" That they condemn the same Anabaptists, who deny the
Holy Ghost may be lost after a man is once justified. "§

" That those who fall into mortal sin are not just ; that we
ought to resist evil inclinations; that those who, contrary to God's
commandment, obey them, and act contrary to their conscience,
are unjust, and have neither the Holy Ghost, nor faith, nor con-
fidence in the divine mercy." ||

3S. — The inconsistencies of certainty, and of special faith, are not removed by the
K^iigsburg Confession.

One will be astonished to see so many articles of importance

* Apol. Resjj. ad Aug. vi. 99. De Vot. Monast. 281. 1 Ibid. p. 136,

^ Art. ix. p. 12. § Alt. xi. p. 13. 1| Art. vi. p. 12. Cap. de bon. Oper. p. 21.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 103

decided in the Augsburg Confession conformably to our senti-
ments ; and truly, when I consider what it is which they have
discovered, that is particular, I see nothing but that special faith
of which we spoke at the commencement of this work, and the
infalhble certainty of the forgiveness of sins which they will have
it to produce in consciences. And, indeed, it must be acknowl-
edged this is what they give us as the capital point of Luther's
doctrine, the masterpiece of his reformation, and the strongest
foundation of piety and comfort to the faithful. However, no
remedy was discovered against that terrible difficulty we at first
observed, — in being assured of the forgiveness of sin, without
ever being able to be certain of the sincerity of repentance. For
after all, let imputation be what it may, it is certain that Jesus
Christ imputes his justice to none but those who are penitent,
and sincerely penitent, that is, sincerely contrite, sincerely af-
flicted for their sins, sincerely converted. Let this sincere re-
pentance have in itself whatever of worth, perfection, merit,
there may be, or let it not, I have sufficiently explained myself
before on the subject, and shall add no more upon tliis occasion.
Let it be either condition, or disposition and preparation, or in
a word what you please, it concerns me not, since, whatever it
may be, it must be had, or there is no forgiveness. But, ac-
cording to the principles of Luther, I can never be assured
whether I have or have it not ; since, according to him, I can
never know whether my repentance be not an illusion, the vain
conceit of my own self-love ; nor whether the sin I believe
rooted out of my heart, reign not there more securely than ever,
as it escapes my sight.

It is to no purpose to say with the Apology, " that faith is
incompatible with mortal sin;"* now I have faith ; therefore,
I have not mortal sin. For it is from this springs all the dif-
ficulty, since it ought to be said on the contrary, " Faith is
incompatible with mortal sin." It is what the Lutherans have
now just taught. Now I am not assured that I have not mortal
sin ; it is what we have proved by the doctrine of Luther :'\ I
am not, therefore, certain that I have faith. In effect, they ex-
claim in the Apology, " Who loves God sufficiently? Who
fears him sufficiently ] Who suffers with sufficient patience]"
Now, it may be said in the same manner. Who beheves as he
ought? Who beheves sufficiently to be justified before God?
And what follows in the Apology confirms this doubt ; for it
proceeds, " W' ho doubts not frequently whether it be God or
chance tiiat governs the world? W^ho doubts not frequently
whether he shall be heard of God?"J Therefore, you doubt
frequently of your own proper taith. How, then, are you as-
* Apol. Cap. de JustiC 71—81. f Sup. Book I. J Apol. Cap. de Justif. 91,

104 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

sured of ihe forgiveness of your sins ? You have not, therefore,
this forgiveness ; or else, contrary, to the dogma of Luther, you
have it without being assured you have it : or, which is the
height of bhndness, you are assured of it without being assured
of the sincerity of your faith, or of that of your repentance ; and
so the forgiveness of sins becomes independent of both one and
the other. See to what this certainty conducts us — this ground-
work, on which is wholly built the Confession of Augsburg, this
fundamental dogma of Lutheranism.

39. — That, conformably to the principles of Lutherans themselves, the uncertainty
acknmoledged by the Catholics should g'lve no trouble, nor aisturb the repose
of conscience.

Now what they oppose to us, namely, that by the uncertainty,
wherein we leave afflicted consciences, we cast them into trouble,
or even into despair, is not true ; and to this the Lutherans must
agree, for this reason — because, however they may boast of the
assurance they have of their justification, they dare not abso-
lutely assure themselves of their perseverance, nor consequently
of their eternal happiness. On the contrary, they condemn
those who say, justice once received can never be lost.* But
by this loss, one forfeits all right he had, as a justified person,
to eternal inheritance. Therefore, one is never certain of not
losing this right, smce he is not certain that he shall never lose
that justice to which it is annexed. Yet he hopes, however,
for this blessed inheritance. In this sweet hope he lives happy,
according to St. Pa\il, " rejoicing in hope.""!* Therefore, ex-
clusive of this last assurance, v/hich prohibits all kind of doubt,
one may enjoy as much repose as the state of this hfe permits. .

40. — What is the true repose of Conscience in Justification, end lohut certainty
is received therein

Hence is seen what must be done in order to the acceptance
of the promise, and the application of it ; it is to believe, read-
ily-, that the grace of Christian justice, and, consequently, life
eternal, belong to us in Jesus Christ ; and not only to us in
general, but also to us in particular. Gn the part of God, I
acknowledge, there is no impediment to this ready and firm be-
lief: heaven and earth shall pass away sooner than his promises
fail us. But that we have no impediment, nothing to fear on
our side, the terrible example of those who persevere not to the
end, and who, according to the Lutherans, were not less justi-
fied than the elect themselves, evidently establishes the con-
trary. Here, then, in a fev»^ words, is the whole doctrine of
justification. Although, to nourish humility in our hearts, we
are always in fear as far as regards ourselves, with respect to
God all things are made sure to us ; so that our repose in this

* Conf. Aug. Art. vi. 11. Cap. de Bon. Operib. pp. 12, 13, 21. f Rom. xii. 12.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 105

life consists in a firm confidence in his paternal goodness, and
in a perfect resignation to his high and incomprehensible will,
together with a profound adoration of this his impenetrable secret.
41. — The Confession of Stmsburg explains Justification like the Church of Rome.

As to the Confession of Strasburg, if we consider its doctrine,
we shall see how much reason there was, at the Conference of
Marpurg, to accuse those of Strasburg, and the Sacramentarians
in general, of understanding nothing of the justification as ex-
pounded by Luther and the Lutherans : for this confession of
faith says not a word either of justice by imputation, or of the
required certainty thereof. On the contrar}^, it defines justifica-
tion to be that by which, " of unjust we become just, and of
wicked good and upright,"* without giving us any other idea
of it. It adds, that it is gratuitous, and attributes it to faith ;
but to faith joined with charity, and fruitful in good works. " Thus
it says, with the Confession of Augsburg, " that charity is the
fulfilling of the whole law, conformably to the doctrine of St.
Paul :""f yet explains more strongly than Melancthon had done,
how necessarily the law ought to be fulfilled, asserting " that
no one can be completely saved, if he be not so guided by the
spirit of Jesus Christ as not to fail in any of those good works, for
the practising of which God has created us ; and that it is so
necessary the law should be fulfilled, that heaven and earth shall
sooner pass away than an abatement be made in the least tittle
of the law, or in one single iota." No Catholic ever spoke
more strongly of the accomplishment of the law than this Con-
fession. But, although this be the foundation of merit, Bucer
spoke not a word of it there ; though, elsewhere, he makes no
difficulty of acknowledging it in the sense of St. Augustin, which
is that of the Church.

42. — Of Merit, according to Bucer.

Whilst we are on this subject, it may not be unnecessary to
consider what were the opinions of this Doctor, one of the chief
leaders of the second party of the new Reformation, in a solemn
conference, where he expressed his sentiments in these terms :
— " Whereas, God will judge each one according to his works,
we must not deny that good works performed by the grace of
Jesus Christ, and which he himself operates in his servants, do
merit eternal life ; not, indeed, from their intrinsic worth, but
from the acceptation and promise of God, and the covenant
made with him ; for it is to such works the Scripture promises
the reward of eternal hfe, which, in another respect, however,
is a favor, because these good works, to which a recompense is
given, are the gifts of God. "J This is what Bucer wrote in
1539, in the dispute of Leipsic, that it may not be supposed
* See before, Book II. f Conf. Argent cap. iii. et iv. J Disp, Lips. an. 1539.

106 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

these tilings were written at the beginning of the Reformation,
before they had time for reflection. Conformably to this same
principle, the same Bucer decides, in another place, that it must
not be denied but " one may be justified by ¥/orks, as St. James
teaches, since God will render to each man according to his
works." And he proceeds, — " The question is not of merits :
we reject them not in any way, and even acknowledge that eternal
hfe IS MERITED according to this saying of our Saviour, '■ He
that shall leave off all for the love of me, shall have a hundred
fold in this life, and, hereafter, life everlasting.' "*

43. — Bucer undertakes to defend the Prayer? of the Church, and shows in what
sense the merits of the Saints jxrofit us.
The merits which every one may acquire for himself, and even
with respect to eternal life, cannot be more clearly acknowledged.
Bat Bucer advanced still farther ; and, whereas the Church was
accused of attributing merits to Saints, not only for themselves,
but for others also, he justified it by these words : — " With re-
gard to the public prayers o^ the Church, called Collects, where
mention is made of the prayers and merits of the Saints^ whereas,
in these same prayers, whatever is entreated in that way, is en-
treated of God and not of the Saints, and, moreover, is entreated
through Jesus Christ, by this all those who make this prayer,
acknowledge that all the merits of the Saints are gifts of God
gratuitously granted." And, a little after, " For we, m.oreover,
do confess and preach with joy, that God rewards the good
works of his servants, not in themselves alone, but in those also
for whom they pray, since he has promised he will do good to
those who love him, to a thousand generations."! Thus Bucer
disputed for the Catholic Church, in 1546, at the Conference of
Ratisbon ; and, indeed, these prayers were made by the greatest
men of the Church, and in the most enlightened ages ; and St.
Augustin himself, however great an enemy he was to presump-
tuous merit, acknowledged, however, that the merits of the Saints
were useful to us, when he said, " one of the reasons for cele-
brating in the Church the memory of martyrs, was in order that
we might be associated to their merits, and assisted by their
prayers."{ Thus, lei what may be said, the doctrine of Chris-
tian justice, of its works, and its merits, was acknov/ledged by
both parties of the new Reformation ; and what has since raised
so much difficulty, at that time made none at all, or at most, if it
did, it was from this cause alone, — that frequently, in the Ref-
ormation, men were swayed by the spirit of contradiction.

44. — Strange doctrine of the Confession of Augsburg on the Love of God.
I cannot here omit an odd doctrine of the Augsburg Confes-
* Resp. ad Abrinc. j Disp. Ratisb. J Lib. xx. contra Faust Manich. 31.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 107

sion on justification ; namely, that not only the love of God v/as
not necessary for it, but necessaiily supposes it already accom-
plished. Luther had told us as much before ; but Melancthon
explains it at length in the Apology. " It is impossible to love
God," says he, " if, previously, one has not, by faith, the forgive-
ness of sins ; for a heart that has a true feeling of an incensed
Deity cannot love him — it must see him appeased ; Vvhilst he
threatens, whilst he condemns, human nature cannot so far ele-
vate itself as to love him in his ^vl'ath. It is an easy matter for
idle contemplative s to imagine these dreams of the lo\ e of God,
that a man guilty of mortal sin may love him above rJl things ;
because they are not sensible what ihe wrath and judgment of
God are ; but a troubled conscience perceives the vanity of these
philosophical speculations." From this he concludes every
where — " That it is impossible to love God, if, previously, one
be not assured of forgiveness obtained."*

That we are justified, therefore, before we have the least spark
of divine love, is one of the niceties of Luther's justification :
for the whole tenor of the Apology is not only to establish that
one is justified before he loves, but, also, that it is impossible
to love unless he be justified previously ; insomuch tliat pardon
offered with so great bounty can gain nothing on our hearts —
we must have received it already to be capable of loving God.
Not so speaks the Church in the Council of Trent : — " Man
excited and assisted by grace," says this Council, " believes all
that God has revealed, and all he has promised ; and this he
believes before all things, that the impious man is justified by
the grace, by the redemption wliich is in Christ Jesus. Con-
scious, then, to himself, that he is a sinner, from that justice by
which he is alarmed, he turns himself towards the Divine mercy,
which raises up his hope in the confidence he has that
God will be propitious to him through Jesus Christ,
and he begins to love him as the author of all justice,"| namely,
as the gracious being who gratuitously justifies the impious.
This love, so happily commenced, moves him to detest his
crunes ; he receives the sacrament — he is justified. Charity is
gratuitously diffused into his heart by the Holy Ghost ; and hav-
ing commenced to love God when he ofiered to him his grace,
he loves him still more when he has received it.

45. — Another errofr in the Lutheran Justification.

But here is a new fi?cesse of the Lutheran justification. St.
Augustin, after St. Paul, establishes, that one of the differences
of Christian justice from that of the law, is, that the justice of
the law is built on the spirit of fear and terror ; whereas, Chris-

■*■ Art. V. 20. cap. de bon. Oper. Synt. Gen. ii. 2d part. Apol. cap. de
JustiC p. 81. t Sess. vi. cap. 6.

108 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

tian justice is inspired by the spirit of affection and love. But
the Apology expounds it in a different way ; and that justice, to
which the love of God is judged necessary, into which it enters,
in which consists its purity and truth, is there throughout repre-
sented as the justice of works, the justice of reason, justice
through its own proper merits ; in a word, as the justice of the
law, a Pharisaical justice. These were new ideas, with which
Christianity was as yet unacquainted : a justice which the Holy
Ghost infuses into our hearts, by infusing charity, is a Phari-
saical justice, which cleanses but the exterior ; a justice infused
gratuitously into our hearts for the sake of Jesus Christ, is a
justice of reason, a legal justice, a justice through works ; and,
finally, they accuse us of maintaining a justice by its own proper
powers, whereas it appears clearly from the Council of Trent,
that we maintain a justice which has faith for its foundation, grace
for its principal cause, the Holy Ghost for its author from its
very beginning, even to the last perfection to which it can arrive
in this life.

I believe it now appears how necessary it was to give a clear
idea of the Lutheran justification from the Confession of Augs-
burg and Apology, because, as this exposition has fully discovered
that in an article which is considered by the Lutherans as the
masterpiece of their Reformation, after all nothing has been done
except to calumniate us in some points, to justify us in others,
and even in tliose, when some dispute may still remain, evidently
to leave us the advantage.

46. — The Lutherans acknoivledge the Sacrament of Penance, and Sacramental
^solution.

Besides this principal article, there are others in the Augsburg
Confession or Apology, of the highest importance : for example,
that " particular absolution ought to be retained in confession ;
that to reject it is an error of the Novatians, and a condemned
error : that this absolution is a true sacrament, and properly so
called ; that the power of the keys remits sins, not only in the
sight of the Church, but also in the sight of God."* As to their
reproaching us with maintaining that " this sacrament conferred
grace without any good motive on the part of him who receives
it," I believe the reader is already tired with hearing a calumny
already refuted so frequently.

47. — Confession, with the necessity of Emanerating Sins.

As to what is taught in the same place, that confession being
retained, " the enumeration of sins ought not to be exacted in
it, because the thing is impossible, according to these words,
' Who is there that knoweth his sins V ""j* For sins that are not

* Art. xi. xii. xxii. Gen. p. 21. Apol. de Pcenit. p. 167. 200, 201.
t Conf. Aug. art. xi. cap. de Gonf.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 109

known, thi-s was indeed a good excuse, but no sufficient reason
for not subjecting to the keys of the Church those thf>t are known.
And, truly, it must be candidly acknowledged, neither Luther
nor the Lutherans differ in sentiments from us on this subject ;
since, in Luther's little Catechism, which is unanimously re-
ceived by the whole party, we find the-se words : — " In the sight
of God we must hold ourselves guilty of our hidden sins ; but,
with respect to the Minister, we must confess those only which
are known to us, and which we feel within our hearts."* And,
the better to discover the Lutheran conformity with us in the ad-
ministration of this sacrament, it will not be irrelevant to con-
sider the absolution, which, as the same Luther, in the same
place, sets its down, the confessor gives the penitent, after con-
fession, in these terms : — " Do you not believe that my forgive-
ness is that of God?" " Yes !" answers the penitent. " And
I," replies the confessor, " by the orders of our Lord Jesus
Christ, forgive you your sins, in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."!

48. — The Seven Sacraments.

For the number of sacraments, the Apology teaches us that
Baptism, the Supper, and Absolution are three true sacraments.
Here is a fourth, since " No difficulty ought to be made of ad-
mitting Orders into this rank, by taking it for the ministry of the
word, because it is commanded of God, and has great prom-
ises."! Confirmation and Extreme Unction are specified as
" ceremonies received by the fathers," which, however, have
not an express promise of grace. I know not, then, what can
be the meaning of these words of St. James's epistle concern-
ing the unction of the sick : " If he be in sin, it shall be forgiven
him ;"§ but the thing was, perhaps, that Luther had no opinion
of this epistle, though the Church had never called it in ques-
tion. This daring Reformer cut off from the canon of Scriptures
whatever did not accord with his opinions ; and it is on account
of this Unction that he writes, in his Captivity of Babylon, with-
out the least testimony of antiquity, " that this epistle seems not
to be St. James's, nor worthy of the apostolic spirit." ||

As for Marriage, those of the Augsburg Confession acknowl-
edge its divine institution, its promises too, yet temporal ; as
if it were a temporal concern to bring up in the Church the chil-
dren of God, and to save one's own soul in thus taking care of
them ;M or that one of the fruits of Christian matrimony were not
to provide that the children born in it be named saints, as des-
tined to sanctity.**

* Cat. Min. Concord, p. 378. f Ibid. p. 380. t Apol. cap. de Num. Sac.

ad art. 13. p. 200, et seq. § James v. 18. || De C. Babyl. t. xi. 86.

TI 1 Tim. ii, 15. • ** 1 Cor. vii. 14.

10

110 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK

But the Apology, at bottom, seems not much to oppose our
doctrme concerning the number of the sacraments, " provided,"
it says, "this sentiment, which predominates throughout the
whole Pontifical kingdom, be rejected, that the sacraments ope-
rate grace without any good motion of him that receives them."*
For they are never tired with making us this unjust reproach.
It is there they place the whole stress of the question ; that is,
were it not for the false ideas of our adversaries, scarcely any
difficulty would remain about it.

49. — Monastic Vows, and that of Continency.

Luther had expressed himself in a revolting manner against
monastic vov/s, even to say on that of Continency, (stop your
ears, chaste souls ! ) that " it v/as as impossible for one to keep
it as to divest himself of his sex."! Modesty would be offended
shou.ld I repeat the words he, in many places, makes use of on
this subject ; and to see how he deUvers himself on the impos-
sibility of continence. For my own part, I know not what will
become of that life he says he led without reproach, during the
whole time of his celibacy, and to the forty-fifth year of his age.
Be this as it may, all is softened in the Apology, since not only
St. Anthony and St. Bernard, but also St. Dominic and St.
Francis, are there numbered among the saints ; and all that is
required from their disciples is, that, after their example, they
seek the forgiveness of their sins from the gratuitous bounty
of God, which the Church has too well provided for to fear any
reproach on that head. J

10. — St. Bernard, St. Francis, St. Bonavenhire, placed by Lvther amongst the
Saints; his strange doubt regarding the Salvation of St. Thomas ofAqxdn.
This place of the Apology merits attention, these of the latter
ages being there placed on the list of saints, so that the Church
which brought them forth and nourished them at her breast, is
acknowledged for the True Church. Luther could not refuse
this glorious title to these great men. He enumerates every-
where among the saints, not St. Bernard only, but also St,
Francis, St. Bonaventure, and others of the thirteenth century.
St. Francis, above all, seemed to him an admirable man, and
animated with a wonderful fervor of spirit. He carries down
his praises as far as Gerson, the same that, in the Council
of Constance, had condemned Wickhffe and John Huss, and
calls him " a great man in every respect."§ Thus the Church
of Rome was still the mother of saints in the fifteenth century.
There is but St. Thomas of Aquin of whom Luther would doubt ;
for what reason I know not, unless it were that this saint was a

* Apol. p. 203. t Ep. ad Vol. t. vii. p. 505. J Apol. resp. ad Arg. p. 09. De Vot.
Mon. p. 281. § Thess. 1522. t.i. u 377, adv. Paris Theoloo;ast. t. ii. p. 193, de
abrog. Miss, priv. primo. Tract. Ibid. 258,259, de "Vot. Mon. Ibid. 271, 278.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. Ill

Dominican, and Luther could not forget the sharp disputes he
had held with that order. Whatever it might be, " he knows not,'*
so he says, " if Thomas be damned or saved :"* tnough, doubt-
less, he made no other kind of vows than the other religious,
had said no other mass, and had taught no other faith.
51. — The Lucherun Mass.

To return to the Augsburg Confession and the Apology, even
the article of the Mass is passed over there so lightly, that it can
scarcely be perceived that Protestants designed any change in
it. They commence by complaining of the " unjust reproach
against them of abolishing the mass." — " It is celebiated,"
say they, " amongst us with extreme reverence, and in it are
preserved almost all the ordinary ceremonies. "t In reality,
when, in 1523, Luther reformed the mass, and drew up iiis
formula, J scarcely any thing v/as altered by him that struck the
eyes of the people. The Introitv/as there retained, the Kyrie,
the Collect, the Epistle, the Gospel, with the vv^ax candies and
incense, if they pleased ; the Credo, the Preaching, the Prayers,
the Preface, the Sanctus, the Words of Consecration, the Ele-
vation, the Lord's Prayer, the Agaus Dei, the Communion,
the Thanksgiving. Such is the order of the Lutiieran mass,
which exteriorly appeared little different from ours ; moreover,
the singing was retained, and even in Latin : and this is what
was said of it in the Confession of Augsburg, — " Together with
the chanting in Latin, a»-e mingled prayers in the German tongue,
for the instruction of the people. In this mass we see the altar
ornaments and sacerdotal garments, and great care was taken
to retain tiiem, as appeared from their practice, and the confer-
ences then held."§ What is still more, nothing was said in the
Augsburg Confession against the oblation ; on the contrary, it
is insinuated in this passage cited from the tripartite history : —
" In the city of Alexandria they assemble together on Wednes-
day and Friday, and the whole service is then pei-formed, except
the solemn oblation." || The reacon was, they were unwilling to
discover to the people that they had made any alteration in the
public service. To judge by the Augsburg Confession alone,
it might seem that masses only, without comm.unicants, were
objected to, " which were abolished," said they, " because they
were scarcely ever celebrated but for lucre ;"T[ so that, on con-
sidering merely the terms of the Confession, one would have
said that nothing except the abuse was the object of attack.
52. — The Oblation^ hoio taken aioay.

Meamvhile, those words, in which there is mention of the
oblation made to God of the proposed gifts, were cut off from

* Proef. adv. Latom. Ibid. 243. f Cap. de Miss. % Form. Miss. t. ii.

§ Chjt. Hist. Conf. Aug. || Conf. Aug. cap. de Miss. ibid. IT Ibid.

112 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

the canon of the mass. But the people, always struck exteriorly
with the same objects, attended not to it at the commencement;
and to render, however, this change supportable to them, it was
insinuated that " the canon was not the same in all churches ;
that the canon of the Greeks differed from that of the Latins —
and even among the Latins, that of Milan from that of Rome."*
This was done to amuse the ignorant ; but they did not think
proper to acquaint them that these canons or liturgies had none
other than accidental difference^ ; that all the liturgies agreed
unanimously as to the oblation, which was made to God of the
proposed gifts before they were distributed ; and this is what
they changed in practice, without daring to acknowledge as much
in the public Confession.
53. — What IV as invented in order to render the Oblation in the Mass odious.

But, in order to render this oblation odious, they would pre-
tend to make the Church believe she attributed to it " a merit
of remitting sins, without the necessity of bringing to it either
faith or any good motive ;" which was repeated three times in
the Confession of Augsburg, and they omitted not in the Apology
to inculcate the same — insinuating that Catholics admitted the
mass for no other reson than to extinguish piety.

In the Confession of Augsburg they even attribute to the
Catholics this strange doctrine, " That Jesus Christ had satis-
fied for original sin in his passion, and had instituted the mass
for mortal and venial sins, which were committed every day ;"t
as if Jesus Christ had not equally satisfied for all sins ; and, by
way of a necessary elucidation, they added, that Jesus Christ
had offered himself to bear the cross, " not for original sin only,
but for all others too,"J a truth of which none ever doubted.
It is not a matter of surprise that the Catholics, as Lutherans
themselves relate, on hearing this reproach, all, as if with one
common voice, cried out against it, saying : " That never had
such a thing been heard among them."§ But the people were
to be made believe that these wretched Papists were even igno-
rant of the first elements of Christianity.

54.- -The Prayer and Oblation for the Dead.

Now, whereas the faithful, at all times, had the oblation made
for the dead deeply impressed upon their minds, the Protestants
would not seem to be ignorant of, or conceal a thing so well
known, and in the Apology spoke of it in these terms — " With
regard to what is objected against us concerning oblation for the
dead having been practised by the Fathers, we acknowledge that

* Consult Lut. apud, Chyt. Hist. Aug. Conf. tit. de Canone.
t Conf. Au«:. edit. Gen. cap. de.Miss.p. 25. Apol. cap. de Sacram. et Sacrif.
et de Vocab. Miss. p. 269.

J Conf. Aug. in tit. Cone. cap. de Miss. § Chyt. Hist Conf.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 113

they prayed for the dead, and we prevent none from now
DOING IT ; but we do not approve of the appHcation of the Lord's
Supper for the dead, in virtue of the action, ex opere opcrato.^^*
Here every thing abounds with artifice : for, in the first place,
whilst they say they do not prevent this prayer, they had it cut
off from the canon, and by so doing defaced a practice as ancient
as the Church. Secondly, the objection spoke of the oblation,
and their answer is concerning prayer, not daring to let the
people see that antiquity had offered for the dead ; because that
was too convincing a proof that the Eucharist was profitable
even to those who received not the comniunion.
55. — The Lutherans reject the doctrine ofAerixis, contrary tonrayerfor the Dead.

But the following words of the Apology are remarkable :
*' Unjustly do our adversaries reproach us with the condemna-
tion of Aerius, whom they will have condemned for denying that
the mass was to be offered for the living and the dead. This
is their custom — to oppose the ancient heretics against us, and
to compare our docti-ine with theirs. St. Epiphanius declares,
that Aerius taught that prayers for the dead v/ere unprofitable.
We support not Aerius, but dispute against you — who say, con-
trary to the doctrine of the Prophets, of the Apostles and FatJiers,
that the mass justifies men in virtue of the action, and merits
the forgiveness for sinners, to whom it is apphed, of the guilt
and pain, provided they put no obstacle to it."| Thus is an
imposition practised upon the ignorant. If it were not the in-
tention of the Lutherans to maintain Aerius, why do they main-
tain this particular dogma, which this Arian heretic had added
to the Arian heresy — " That we ought not to pray or offer up
oblations for the dead?" J This is what St. Augustin relates
of Aerius after St. Epiphanius, of whom he had given an epit-
ome. If they reject Aerius, if they dare not support a heretic
condemned by the holy Fathers, they ought to replacs in the
Liturgy, not only prayer, but also the oblation for the dead.

56. — How the Oblation of the Eucharist is profitable to the whole uwrld.

But here is the great subject of complaint in the Apology :
namely, say they, that St. Epiphanius, by condemning Aerius,
did not assert as you do, " That the m.ass justifies men in virtue
of the action, ex opere operato, and merits for the wicked to w hom
it is applied, the forgiveness of the guilt and the pain, provided
they put no obstacle thereto." To hear them speak, one would
say, that the mass of itself was to justify all kind of sinners for
whom it is said, without their so much as thinking of it. But
where is the advantage of thus deceiving men "? The manner,
say we, by which the mass is profitable, even to those who

♦AT)ol.c.deVocMiss.p.274. flbid. J Aug.Lib.deHaer.53.Ep.H«r.75.

10*

114 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

think not of it, even the most wicked, contains no difficulty at
all. It is profitable to them like prayer, Avhich certainly we
should never offer for the most obdurate sinners, did we not
suppose it could obtain of God thdt grace which would over-
come their obduracy of heart, if they did not resist it, and which
often obtains it so abundantly as to prevent their resistance. It
is thus the oblation of the Eucharist is profitable to the absent,
the dead, and even sinners themselves ; because, in reaUty, the
consecration of the Eucharist, placing before the eyes of God
so agreeable an object as the Body and Blood of his Son, car-
ries with it a most powerful manner of intercession, which, how-
ever, sinful men too often render useless by the impediment
which they oppose to its efficacy.

What could be offensive in this manner of explaining the ef-
fect of the mass ] As for those who converted so pure a doc-
trine to sordid gain, Protestants know very well the Church did
not approve of them ; and for masses without communicants,
the Catholics told them ever since that time, what since has
been confirmed at Trent, that, if none communicate at it, it is
not the fault of the Church ; " since, on the contrary, she wished
the assistants would communicate at the mass they hear ;"* so
that the Church resembles a rich ben'efactor, who always keeps an
open table, and ready served, although the guests come not to it.
The whole artifice of the Augsburg Confession, concerning
the mass, is now seen : it consists in scarcely touching the ex-
terior ; in changing the interior, even what was most ancient,
without apprising the people of the alteration ; in accusing Cath-
olics of the grossest errors — even so as to make them say, con-
trary to their own principles, that "the mass justified the sinner,"
(a thing always reserved to the Sacraments of Baptism and
Penance,) and that too without any good motive, in order to
make the Church and her Liturgy more odious.

57. — A horrible calumny, groimided on Prayers made to Saints.
They were not less industrious in disfiguring the other parts
of our doctrine, and particularly that of prayer to the saints.
" There are those," says the Apology, " who attribute down-
right divinity to the saints, by saying, they see in us the hidden
thoughtsl of our hearts." Where are those divines, who attrib-
ute to saints the seeing of the hidden secrets of hearts like to
God, or seeing them otherwise than by that light he imparts to
them, as, when he pleased, he did to the Prophets 1 " They
make the saints," said they, " not only intercessors, but also
the MEDIATORS OF REDEMPTION. They dcviscd that Jesus
Christ was more difficult, and the saints more easy, to be ap-
* Chyt. Hist. Conf. Cath. c. de Miss. Cone. Trid. Sess. 22. c. 6.
t Ad Art. xxi. c. de Invoc. SS. p. 225.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 115

peased ; they confide more in the mercy of the saints, than in
that of Jesus Christ ; and, flying from Jesus Christ, they
seek the saints."* It is unnecessary to justify the Church from
these abominable excises. But to remove all doubt that this
was literally Catholic doctrine, " We speak not now," added
they, " of popular abuses ; we speak of the opinion of doctors."
And a little after, " they exhort to confide more in the mercy of
the saints than in that of Jesus Christ. They enjoin to trust in
the merits of the saints, as if we were reputed just by reason of
their merits, as we are reputed just by reason of the merits of
Jesus Christ." After imputing such excesses to us, they say
gravely, " We invent nothing ; they state in the indulgences
that the merits of the saints are applied to us."| A little equity
would have enabled them to see in what manner the merits of
the saints are useful to us ; and Bucer himself, an unsuspected
author, has sufficiently vindicated us from the reproach which
they objected to us on that head.

58. — Calumnies regarding Images, and a gross imposture with respect to
Invocation of Saints.

But their object was to exasperate and irritate the minds of
men ; and, therefore, they further add, " From the invocation
of saints they proceed to images. They honored them, and
believed there was a certain virtue in them, as the magicians
make us believe there is in the images of the constellations when
they are made at a certain time. "J Thus they excited the
public hatred. It must be acknowledged, however, that the
Confession of Augsburg proceeded not to this extremity ; and
that these images were not so much as mentioned in it. To
satisfy the party, something more severe must be said in the
Apology. Particular care, however, was taken not to let the
people see that these prayers, addressed to the saints, that they
might pray for us, were common in the ancient Church. On
the contrary, they spoke of it as " a new custom, introduced
without the testimony of the Fathers, and of which nothing had
been seen before St. Gregory, that is, before the seventh cen-
tury."§ The people were not yet accustomed to despise the
authority of the ancient Church ; and the Reformation, as yet
timorous, reverenced the great names of the Fathers. But now
it assumed boldness, and knew not how to blush ; insomuch that
they have conceded to us the fourth century, and are not
ashamed to assure us that St. Basil, St. Ambrose, St. Augus-
tin, in a word, all the Fathers of this so venerable an age,
have, with the invocation of saints, set up, in the new idolatry,
the reign of Antichrist. ||

* Ad Art. xxi. cap. de Invoc. f Ibid. J Ibid. 229. § Ibid.

II Dail. de Cult. Satin. Josep. Mida in Comment, ap. Jur. Ace. de Prop.

116 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

59. — The Lutherans durst not reject the authority of the Church of Rome.

Then, and during the time of the Augsburg Confession, the
Protestants boasted, that they had on their side die holy Fathers,
chieiiy in the article of justification, which they esteemed most
esse.itial ; and they not only pretended the ancient Church was
for thera, but thus concluded the exposition of their doctrine.
** Such is the abridgment of our faith, where nothing will be seen
contrary to Scripture, nor to the Catholic Church, nor even to
THE Church of Rome, as far as she can be known from her
writers.* The matter which is the subject of dispute regards
som3 few abuses, which, without any certain authority, have
been introduced into the Churches ; and though there should
be some difference, it ought to be tolerated, since it is not
necessary that Church rites should be every where the same."!

In another edition are read these words : "We despise not
THE consent of THE Catholig Church, nor will v/e main-
tain the impious and seditious opinions she has condemned ; fo**
It is not irregular passions, but the authority of God's word, and
OP the ancient Church, that has moved us to embrace this
dociine, in order to increase the glory of God, and provide for
the advantage of pious souls in the Universal Church." J

Also in tne Apology, after the exposition of the article of Jus-
tification, considered without comparison the most important,
they said, " That it was the doctrine of the Prophets, the Apos-
tles, and the Holy Fathers, of St. Ambrose, St. Augustin, and
the greatest part of the other Fathers, and of the whole Church,
v.ho acknowledged Jesus Christ for propitiator, and author of
justification; and that all which was approved by the Pope, some
card nals, bishops, divines, or monks, was not to be taken for the
docf'ine of the Church of Rome :"§ whereby particular opin-
ions were manifestly distinguished from the received and con-
stant doctrine, with which they professed not to interfere.

60. — Memorable words of Luther, acknoxoledging the true Church in the
Communion of Rome.

The people, therefore, still believed they followed in every
thin^^ the sentiments of the Fathers, the authority of the Catholic
Chu*'ch, and even that of the Church of Rome, a veneration for
which was deeply imprinted upon all minds. Even Luther him-
self, however arrogant and rebellious, returned at times to his
good sense, and manifested plainly, that the ancient veneration,
whic h he had formerly entertained for the Church, was not wholly
extiv guished. About the year 1634, so many years since his
revc't, and four years after the Confession of Augsburg, was

* Conf. Aug. Art. xxi. edit. Gen. p. 22. f Apol. Resp. ad Arg. p. 141. &c.
J Edit. Gen. Art. xxi. p. 22. § Apol. Resp. ad Arg. p. 141.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 117

published his treatise for abohshing the Private Mass. It is the
same in which he relates his famous conference with the prince
of darkness.* There, though so much incensed against the
Catholic Church, even so far as to hold it for the seat of Anti-
christ and abomination, so far from taking from it the title of
Church, on that account, he concluded, on the contrary, " That
she was the true Church, the pillar and ground of truth, and the
most holy place. In this Church," continued he, " God miracu-
lously preserves baptism, the text of the Gospel in all languages,
the remission of sins, and absolution as well in Confession as in
public ; the vSacrament of the altar towards Easter, and three
or four times a year, though one kind has been taken away from
the people ; the vocation and ordination of pastors, comfort in
the agony of death ; the image of the crucifix, and at the same
time the remembrance of the death and passion of Jesus Christ:
the Psalter, Lord's Prayer, the Symbol, the Decalogue, and many
pious canticles in Latin and German." And a little after : —
" Where the true relics of saints are to be found, there, without
doubt, has been, and still is, the Holy Church of Jesus Christ ;
there the saints have dwelt ; for the institutions and sacraments
of Jesus Christ are there, excepting one kind that has been forci-
bly taken away. For which reason it is certain, Jesus Christ
has been there present, and his Holy Spirit there does preserve
his true knowledge, and the true faith in his elect." Far from
looking on the cross put into the hands of dying persons as an
object of idolatry, he, on the contrary, holds it for a monument
of piety, and a wholesome admonition, that recalled to our minds
the death and passion of Jesus Christ. As yet, the revolt had
not extinguished in his heart those good remnants of the piety
and doctrine of the Church ; nor am I surprised that, in the
frontispiece of all the volumes of his works, he is represented,
with the Elector his master, kneeling before a crucifix.

61. — Both kinds.

As to what he says of taking away one kind, the Reformation
found itself very much embarrassed about this article, and this
is what was said of it in the Apology : " We excuse the Church,
which, not being able to receive both kinds, has suffered this
injury ; but we excuse not the authors of this prohibition."!

To comprehend the mystery of this part of the Apology, but
few v/ords are necessary. Its author, Melancthon, writes to
Luther, consulting him on this subject, whilst the Catholics and
Protestants were disputing it at Augsburg. " Eckius believed,"
said he, " that communion under one or both kinds should be
held for indifferent. Which I would not allow ; and yet I ex-

* Tr. de INlissa, t. vii. p. 236, et seq. | Cap. de utriusque Specie, p. 235,

118 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

cused those who hitherto, through error, had received but one ;
for they exclaimed, we condemned the whole Church."*

They durst not then condemn i;he v/hole Church : they ab-
horred the very thought ; whirh led Melancthou to this pure
expedient of excusing the Church in an Ci ror. What more could
thos;; who condemn her say, since the error here meant, is sup-
posed to be an error in faith, and an error tending even to the
entire subversion of so great a sacrament as that of the Eucha-
rist? But no other method was to be found : Luther approved
it ; ;)nd the better to excuse the Church, which communicated
under one kind only, he joined the violence she suffered from her
pastors in that point, to the error into which she wa?: led : thus
she ,/as admirably excused, and by this method the promises of
Jesu-s Christ never to abandonher were excellently well preserved.

The words of Luther in -reply to Mclancthon merit observa-
tion : " They cry out, that we condemn the whole Church."
The whole world was astonished at this. " But," answers Lu-
ther, " we say that the Church being oppressed and deprived by
violence of one kind, ought to be excused; as we excuse the
syni gogue in not having observed all the ceremonies of the law
during the captivity of Babylon, when she had itnot in her power.'*!

The example was unhappily cited ; for certainly those who de-
taint d the synagogue captive were not of her body, as the pastors
of the Church, whom they here represented as her oppressors,
were of the body of the Church. Again, the synagogue, though
externally under control as to its observances, was not on that
account drawn into error, as Mclancthon maintained the Church
had been, in being deprived of one kind : but, in short, the article
passed. Lest they should condemn the Church, it was agreed
to excuse her, as to the error she had been in, and the injwy
which had been done her ; and the whole party subscribed to
this answer of the ApoJgy.

Ail this but little coincided with the seventh article of the
Auguburg Confession, where it is declared, " That there is one
Holj Church, which shall remain for ever. Now the Church
is the assembly of the Saints, where the Gospel is taught, and
the sacraments rightly administered."J To salve this idea of
the Church, not only the people were to be excused, but the
sacrrjnents also were to be well administered by the pastors ;
and .f that of the Eucharist did not subsist under one kind alone,
no longer could the Church herself be made to subsist.

62. — The body of the Lutherans submit themselves in the Augsburg Confessicm
to the judgment of the General. Council.

Tne difficulty in condemning the doctrine of the Church was

* IMel. lib. i. Ep. 15. t Resp. Lntlu ad JNlel. t. ii. Sleid. lib. vii. p. 112.
X Conf. Aug. Art vii.

III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 119

not less pressing, and this was the reason that the Protectants
durst not acknowledge, that their confession of faith was oppo-
site to the Church of Rome, or that they had withdrawn ihem-'
selves from her. They endeavored to have it behoved, as we
have just seen, that they were not distinguished but by certain
rites and some slight observances. And, moreover, to show
they always pretended to make one body with her, they openly
submitted to her council.

This appears in the Preface of ihe Confession of Augsburg,
addressed to Charles V. " Your imperial majesty has declared,
that you could determine nothing in this affair, wherein religion
was concerned, but would have recourse to the Pope, to pro-
cure the convention of an universal council. You repeated the
same declaration in the last year in the last diet held at Gpire,
and manifested that you persisted in the resolution of procuring
this assembly of a general council : adding that the affairs be-
tween you and the Pope being concluded, you believed he might
easily be induced to call a general council." By this it is seen
what council it was, of which there was question. It was a
general council, to be assembled by the Pope, and the Protes-
tants submitted themselves to it in these terms : " If matters of
religion cannot be amicably arranged with our parties, we offer
in all obedience to your imperial majesty, to appear and plead
our own cause before such a general, free, and Christian coun-
cil." And, finally, " It is to this general council, and to your
imperial majesty conjointly, that we have and do appeal, and
we adhere to this appeal."* When they spoke in this manner,
it was not their intention to give the emperor authority U. pro-
nounce on the articles of faith : but upon appealing to the coun-
cil, they also named the emperor in their appeal as the p'^rson
who was to procure the convocation of this holy assembl} , and
whom they solicited to retain in the meantime all things in sus-
pense. So solemn a declaration will remain for ever upon record
in the most authentic act the Lutherans have ever made, and in
the very front of the Augsburg Confession, in testimony a^jainst
them, and in acknowledgment of the inviolable authority o ;' the
Church. All then submitted to it, and whatever might be done
before her decision arrived, was all provisional. With this spe-
cious appearance they retained the people, and perhaps even
deceived themselves. They involved themselves still further,
however, and the horror they had for schism diminished daily.
After they had been accustomed to it, and the party had gained
strength by treaties and leagues, the Church was forgotten ; all
they had said of her holy authority vanished hke a dream, and
the title " of a free and Christian Council," used by them, bc-
+ Pi-aef. Conf. Aug. Concord, p. 8.

120 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

came a pretext to render their calling for a council illusory, as
will be seen hereafter.

63. — The Conclusion of this matter : hoio useful it ought to be in reclaiming the
Lutherans.

This is the history of the Augsburg Confession and of its Apol-
ogy. We see the Lutherans would relinquish many things, and
almost all, I dare say, should they only take the trouble to lay
aside the calumnies with which they there charge us, and com-
prehend fully the dogmas in which they are so visibly conform-
able to our doctrine. If they had been advised by Melancthon,
they would have drawn still nearer to Catholics, for he spoke not
all he wished ; and whilst he was laboring at the Confession of
Augsburg, he, himself, writing to Luther, concerning the Articles
of Faith, which he entreated him to revise, " They must," says
he, " be often changed, and fitted to the occasion."* Thus did
they patch up this famous Confession of Faith, which is the foun-
dation of the Protestant religion ; and thus were the dogmas
therein treated. Melancthon was not permitted to soften mat-
ters as he wished : — " I changed something," says he, " every
day, and changed again, and should have changed much more
if our companions would have suffered me.""]" "But," proceeded
he, " they are concerned at nothing ;" the meaning was, as he
explained it every where, that, without foreseeing what might
happen, they thought of nothing but carrying all to extremities ;
for which reason Melancthon, as he acknowledges himself, " was
always oppressed with cruel anxieties, endless cares, and insup-
portable regrets. "J Luther held him under greater restraints
than all the rest together. We see, in the letters which he wrote
to him, that he knew not how to assuage this proud spirit ; some-
times he was carried against Melancthon " into such a passion,
that he even refused to read his letter. "§ Express messengers
were sent to him in vain ; they returned without an answer ; and
under the&e restraints the unfortunate Melancthon, who did all
he could to check the impetuosity of his master, and of the party,
always weeping and sighing, wrote the Confession of Augsburg.

♦Lib. i. Ep. 2. t Lib. iv. Ep. 95. | Ibid. § Lib. i. Ep. 6.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 121

BOOK IV.

[From the year 1530 to 1537.]

A brief summary. — The Protestant Leagues, and the resohition of taking up
arms warranted by Luther. — Melancthon's embarrassment upon these new
projects so contrary to the first plans. — Bucer displays his Equivocati«is,
in order to unite the whole Protestant party and the Sacramentarians with
the Lutherans. — They are equally rejected by Zuinglius and Luther. — ■
Bucer at length deceives Lutlier, by acknowledging that tl>e unwortJiy do
receive the Ti-uthofthe Bod}'. — The Agreement of Wittenburg concluded
on that foundation. — Whilst they are returning to the opinion of Luther,
Mclancthon begins to doubt of it, however subscribes every thing required
by Luther. — The Articles of Smalkald, and Luther's new explication of the
Real Presence. — Melancthon's Umitation of the Article which regards the
Pope.

1. — The Leagues of the Protestants after the Decree of the Diet of ^ugshurg^
and the resolution of taking np arms approved by Luther.

Rigorous was the decree of the Diet of Augsburg against
Protestants. '- As the Emperor then set up a kind of defensive
league with all the Catholic states against the new religion, the
Protestants, on their part, resolved more than ever to unite among
th.emselves. But the division regarding the Lord's Supper,
which had broken out so openly at the Diet, was a perpetual
obstacle to the reunion of the whole party. The Landgrave, in
no way scrupulous, m.ade his treaty with those of Basil, Zurich,
and Strasburg. But Luther would not hear it mentioned ; and
the Elector, John Frederick, persisted in the resolution of mak-
ing no league with them : in order, therefore, to settle this matter,
the Landgrave despatched Bucer, the great negotiator of those
times in matters of religion, who, by his orders, had an inter-
view with Zuinglius and Luther.*

At this time a Utde pamphlet of Luther's put all Germany in
a ferment. We have seen that the great success of his doctrine
had made him believe that the Church of Rome was going to
fall of itself ; and he then maintained strongly that arms ought
not to be employed in the cause of the Gospel, not even to de-
fend themselves against oppression. | The Lutherans agree,
that nothing was more inculcated in his writings than this maxim.
He was desirous of giving his new church this beautiful char-
acter of primitive Christianity ; but he could not adhere to it long.
Immediately after the Diet, J and vv'hile Protestants were labor-
ing to form the league of Smalkald, Luther declared,that although
he had constantly taught hitherto, "it was not allowable to resist
lawful powers, at present he referred to the lawyers, to whose
maxims he was a stranger when he wrote his first works : more-
over, that the Gospel was not contrary to political laws ; and in

* Recess. Arg. Sleid. Lib. vii. 3. f Lib. i. n. 3. ii. 9. J Sleid. Lib. vii. viii.

11

1^2 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

such bad times one might be brought to extremity, when not
only the civil law, but conscience also, would obhge the Faithful
to take up arms, and associate themselves against all those who
should make war upon them, even against the Emperor."* The
letter, which Luther had written against George, Duke of Sax-
ony,! h^^ already given a full evidence that the evangelical
patience, so boasted of in their first writings, was considered by
them as at an end ; but that was a letter written to a private in-
dividual only. Here, however, is a public writing,' by which
Luther authorized those who took up arms against their prince.
2. — Melancthoii's concern at these neio resolutions of war.
If we credit Melancthon, Luther had not been consulted par-
ticularly about the leagues ; the affair was somewhat palliated to
him, and this writing came forth without his knowledge. But
either Pdelancthon spoke not all he knew, or all was not dis-
covered to Melancthon. It is certain, from Sleidan, that Luther
was expressly consulted ; nor is it found that his writing was
published by any but himself, and truly who would have dared
to do it without his orders ? J This writing set all Germany in
a flame. Melancthon complained of it, but in vain. " To what
purpose," says he, " was the circulation of this writing through-
out all Germany? Ought the alarm to have thus been sounded
to excite all the towns to make confederacies ?'§ It was with
difficulty he was brought to renounce that beautiful idea of ref-
ormation Luther had instilled into him, and which he had so
v/ell maintained, when he wrote to the Landgrave, " That it was
better to suffer every thing than to take up arms in the cause of
the Gospel," II He had said as much about the leagues the
Protestants were treating about, and which he had endeavored
to prevent, as far as he was able, at the time of the Diet of Spire,
to which he had been conducted by his Prince, the Elector of
Saxony. " It is my opinion," said he, " that all good men ought
to oppose these leagues :"?! but in such a party these fine senti-
ments could not be supported. When it was seen that proph-
ecies went on too slowly, and Luther's blast was too weak to
cast down this so much detested Papacy, instead of entering into
themselves, they permitted themselves to be carried away by the
most violent measures. At length Melancthon hesitated, but not
without extreme reluctance : nay, the agitation he showed while
these confederacies were forming excites compassion: he writes
to his friend Camerarius, " We are no longer consulted about
the question — whether or not it be lawful to defend ourselves by
making war : there may be just reasons for it. So great is the
malice of some, that should they find us defenceless, they would
* Sleid. Lib. vii. 117. f Sleid. Lib. ii. n. 42. J \\h. iv. Ep. 3. Lib. vii. 117.
§ Lib. iv. Ep. 3. || Lib. ill Ep. 16. U Lib. iv. Ep. 85. 3. lb. Ep. 85.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 123

be capable of any enterprise. Strange are the aberrations of
men, and their ignorance extreme ! None are touched \vith this
saying — ' Be not sohcitous, for your heavenly Father knoweth
what is needful for you.' Man believes not himself secure un-
less he has good and secure supports. In this weakness of
minds our theological maxims could never make themselves be
heard."* Then he ought to have opened his eyes, and seen that
the new Reformation, incapable of maintaining the maxims of
the Gospel, was not what he imagined it to be until then. But
let us attend to the following part of the letter : " I will not,'*
says he, " condemn any person ; neither do I believe the pre-
cautions of our people ought to be blamed, provided that they do
nothing that is criminal, which we shall well know how to pro-
vide against." No doubt these Doctors knew perfectly well
how to withhold armed soldiers, how to set bounds to the ambi-
tion of princes, after they have engaged them in a civil war.
Alas ! if this war itself was a crime, according to the maxims he
had always maintained, could he hope to prevent crimes during
the course of this war ? But he durst not admit his party to be
in the wrong ; and after he was unable to frustrate their resolu-
tions to a war, he found himself under the obligation of support-
ing them by arguments. This caused him to sigh. *' Oh 1"
says he, " how well did I foresee, at Augsburg, all these com-
motions !" It was then he so bitterly lamented the transports of
his friends, who pushed all to extremities, and were, said he,
" concerned at nothing." For this he wept incessantly ; nor
could Luther, with all the letters he wrote, give him relief. His
giief increased when he saw so many projects of leagues war-
ranted by Luther himself. But, " in conclusion, my dear Cam.-
erarius," thus he finishes his letter, "this thesis is wholly singular,
and may be considered several ways, for which reason we must
pray to God."t

His friend Camerarius, in his heart, approved no more than
he of these warhke preparations ; and Melancthon did always
what he could to support him. Above all, Luther* was to be
excused. A few days after the above letter, he acquaints the
same Camerarius, " That Luther had written extremely mode-
rately, and it v/as with great difficulty they had extorted his
determination from him. I believe," says he, " you see com-
pletely we are not in error. In my opinion, we ought to give
ourselves no more concern about these same leagues ; and,
truly, such is the present conjuncture, that, in my opinion, we
ought not to condemn them. So let us again pray to God. "J

Very right ; but God holds in derision prayers made to him
in deprecation of pubhc calamities, when we do not oppose such
* Lib. iv. Ep. 110. t Lib. iv. Ep. iii. X 1^^.

124 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK

proceedings as bring them on us. What do I say 1 When we
approve, when we subscribe to them, though with reluctance.
Melancthon was sensible of this ; and troubled, as well for what
he himself, as what others did, entreats his friend to comfort
and support him. " Write to me often," thus he speaks ; " I
have no ease but from your letters."

3. — Bucer's negotiations. — The death of Zuinglius in battle.
This, then, was a point determined in the new Reformation,
that it was lawful to take up arms, and necessary to join in
leagues. At this period Bucer entered upon his negotiations
with Luther ; and whether it was that he found him inclined
to peace with the Zuinglians, from a desire to form a strong
league, or that by some other means he was able to meet him
in good humor, he obtained from him fair words. He sets off
immediately to obtain the adhesion of Zuinghus ; but the nego-
tiation was interrupted by the war that intervened between the
Catholic and Protestant cantons. The latter, though stronger,
were vanquished ; Zuinglius was killed in battle, and manifested,
that however warm a disputant, he was no less bold a combat-
ant. The party found it difficult to defend, in a pastor of souls,
this unbecoming bravery, and the excuse was, that he followed
the Protestant army in the capacity of a minister, rather than
that of a soldier ;* but, after all, it was certain that he had ad-
vanced far into the hottest of the engagement, and died sword
in hand. His death was followed by that of (Ecolampadius.
Luther says he was beaten to death by the devil, whose assault
he was unable to resist ;t and others, that he died of grief,
being unable to support the anguish which so many troubles
brought upon him. In Germany, the peace of Nuremberg
moderated the rigors of the decree of the Diet of Augsburg ;
but the Zuinglians were not included in this agreement, either
by Catholics or Lutherans ; and the Elector, John Frederick,
obstinately refused to admit them into the league until they
should have agreed with Luther in the article of the Real Pres-
ence. Bucer, not desponding, pursued his object, and, by all
possible ways, labored to surmount this only obstacle to the re-
union of the party. To persuade either party was deemed im-
possible, and already fruitlessly attempted at Marpurg. A mutual
toleration, each one retaining his own sentiments, had been re-
jected there by Luther with contempt, who persisted to say,
with Melancthon, that this would be injurious to the truth, which
he defended. No other method was left for Bucer, but to have
recourse to equivocation, and to acknowledge the substantial
presence so as to leave himself a way of escaping.

♦ Hosp. ad an. 1521. f Tr. de abrog. Miss. t. vii. p. 230.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 125

4. The grounds of Bucer's equivocations, in order to reconcile parlies.

The plan he adopted to effect so considerable a concession
is surprising. It was an ordinary discourse with the Sacra-
mentarians, that they ought to be cautious not to place simple
signs in the sacraments. Zuinglius himself had made no dif-
ficulty of acknowledging something more in them; and, to verify
his words, some promise of grace annexed to the sacraments
was sufficient. The example of baptism sufficiently proved
this. But, whereas the Eucharist was not only instituted as a
sign of grace, but, moreover, was called the body and blood, —
not to be a simple sign, it was necessary the body and blood
should be received in it. It was said, therefore, they were re-
ceived by faith : the true body was therefore received, for Jesus
Christ had not two. When they had come so far as to say the
true body of Jesus Christ was received by faith, they acknowl-
edged the proper substance was received. To receive it, with-
out it being present, was a thing incomprehensible. Behold,
then, said Bucer, Jesus Christ substantially present. There
was no further occasion for speaking of faith ; it was sufficient
to understand it. Thus did Bucer, absolutely and without re-
striction, acknowledge the real and substantial presence of our
Lord's body and blood in the Eucharist, although they v/ere only
in heaven ; which, hovv^ever, was afterwa,rds softened by him.
In this manner, without admitting any thing new, he changed
his v/hole language ; and, by habituating himself to speak like
Luther, began at length to say, they never had understood each
other, and that this long discussion, which had caused so much
excitation, was nothing but a dispute on words.

5. — The agreement Bucer proposes is only in loords.

He had spoken more justly, had he said their agreement was
in words only ; since, after all, this substance, which was said
to be present, was as distant from the Eucharist as heaven is
from earth, and was no more received by the faithful than the
substance of the sun is received by the eye. This is what
Luther and Melancthon said. The first called the Sacramen-
tarians a double-tongued faction,* on a,ccount of their equivoca-
tions ; and said, " They made a devilish game with the words
of our Lord."! " The presence, which Bucer admits," says
the latter, " is but a presence in word, and a presence of virtue.
But it is the presence of the body and blood, and not that of
their virtue, which we require. If tliis body of Jesus Christ be
no where else but in heaven, and is not with the bread, nor in
the bread» — if, finally, it is not to be found in the Eucharist but

* Luth. Ep. ad Sen. Francof. Hosp. ad 1533, 128.
t Ep. Mel. apud Hosp. 1530. 110.
11*

126 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

by the contemplation of faith, it is nothing but an imaginary
presence."

6. — Equivocation on spiritual presence and real presence.

Bucer and his companions were displeased that what was
done by faith was here called imaginary, as if faith were nothing
but a simple imagination. " Is it not enough," said Bucer,
*' that Jesus Christ is present to the pure spirit and to the soul
elevated on high 1"* There was much equivocation in these
words. The Lutherans agreed that the presence of the body
and blood, in the Eucharist, was above the senses, and of a
nature not to be perceived but by the mind and by faith ; but
required, however, that Jesus Christ should be present, in the
sacrament, in his proper substance. T\'hereas Bucer would not
have him present, indeed, elsewhere than in heaven, where the
mind, by faith, sought him ; which had nothing in it that was
real, nothing that answered to the idea given by these sacred
words, — " This is my body, this is my blood."

7. — The presence of the body, hoio spiritual.

But that which is spiritual, is it not real also 1 and is there
nothing real in baptism, because there is nothing in it that is
corporeal ? Another equivocation. — Spiritual things, such as
Grace and the Holy Ghost, are as present as they can be, when
they are spiritually present. But what is a body present in
spirit only, if not a body absent in reality, and present only in
thought? a presence which cannot, without fallacy, be called
real and substantial. But would you, then, said Bucer, have
Jesus Christ corporeally present, and do not yourselves ac-
knowledge the presence of his body in the Eucharist to be spir-
itual 1 Neither Luther, with his companions, no more than the
Catholics, denied that the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eu-
charist was spiritual as to the manner, provided it were granted
to them, that it was corporeal as to the substance ; that is, in
more plain words, the body of Jesus Christ was present, but in
a divine, supernatural, incomprehensible manner, which the
senses could not reach ; spiritual, inasmuch as the mind alone,
subject to faith, could know it, and that its end was entirely
celestial. St. Paul had justly called the human body, raised
from the dead, *' a spiritual body,"! on account of the quahties
with which it was invested, divine, supernatural, and above the
reach of the senses : with much more reason, the body of our
Saviour, placed after so incomprehensible a manner in the
Eucharist, might be so called.

8. — If the presence of the body be only spiritual, the words of the institution are
nugatory.

Again, all they said of the mind being elevated on high, to
* Ep. Mel. p. 3. t 1 Cor. xv. 44. 46.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 127

seek Jesus Christ at the right hand of his Father, was no more
than a metaphor, not at all capable of representing a substan-
tial reception of the body and blood, since this body and blood
remained only in heaven, as the soul, united to its body, re-
mained only on earth ; nor was there any more a true and sub-
stantial union between the faithful and the body of the Lord,
than if there never had been a Eucharist, and Jesus Christ had
never said, " This is my body." Let us suppose these words
had never been uttered by him at all ; the presence, by the mind
and by faith, would still subsist in a manner entirely similar, and
never mortal man have dreamt of calling it substantial. Now,
if the words of Jesus Christ obhge us to more strong expres-
sions, it is because they grant us what would not have been
given without them, namely, the proper body and the proper
blood, v/hosc immolation and effusion have saved us on the cross.

9. — Whether a local presence were to be admitted.

Two fruitful sources of cavilling and equivocation remained
for Bucer ; one in the word local, and the other in the word
sacrament or mystery. Luther and the defenders of the real
presence never had pretended that the body of our Lord was
contained in the Eucharist, as in a place to which it was com-
mensurate, and in which it was comprehended after the ordinary
manner of bodies ; on the contrary, they believed nothing to be
in the flesh of our Lord v/hich was distributed to them at the
holy table, but the simple and pure substance, together with the
grace and life with which it abounded ; nay, more than this,
divested of all sensible quahties and modes of existence with
which we are acquainted. Accordingly, Luther easily granted
to Bucer that the presence under debate was not local, provided
it were granted to him it was substantial ; and Bucer strongly
insisted on the exclusion of local presence, believing he had
vv^eakened as much by this as he had been forced to allow of the
substantial presence. He even made use of this artifice to ex-
clude the oral manducation of our Lord's body. He conceived
it to be not only useless, but even gross, carnal, and little wor-
thy of the spirit of Christianity ; as if this sacred pledge of the
flesh and blood, offered on the cross, which our Saviour still gave
us in the Eucharist, to certify to us that the victim and immo-
lation of it were wholly ours, had been a thing unworthy of a
Christian ; or that this presence ceased to be true, under pre-
text that, in a mystery of faith, God had not designed to make
It sensible ; or, lastly, that a Christian was not touched with this
inestimable token of divine love, because it was not known to
him otherwise than by the word alone of Jesus Christ ; things
so far distant from the spirit of Christianity, that the grossness

128 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

of their minds is inconceivable, who, not able to relish them,
look on others, that do, as gross minded.

10. — Equivocation on the word Sacrament and Mystery.

The other source of equivocation was in the words Sacrament
and Mystery. Sacrament, in the ordinary acceptation, means
a sacred sign : but in the Latin language, from which this word
is taken, sacrament often signifies a high, secret, and impene-
trable thing. This also is the signification of the word mystery.
The Greeks have no other word to express sacrament than that
of mystery ; and the Latin Fathers frequently call the mystery of
the Incarnation, the sacrament of the Incarnation, and so of the rest.

Bucer and his followers thought they had gained their point,
when they said the Eucharist was a mystery, or a sacrament of
the body and blood : or, that the presence acknowledged in it,
and the union then effected with Jesus Christ, was a sacramental
presence and union ; and, on the contrary, the defenders of the
Real Presence, both Catholics and Lutherans, understood it to
be a presence and union, real, substantial, and properly so called ;
but hidden, secret, mysterious, supernatural in its manner, and
spiritual in its end, proper, in a word, to this sacrament ; and
it was for all these reasons that they called it sacramental.

Far, therefore, were they from denying that the Eucharist
was a mystery in the same sense as the Trinity and Incarnation ;
namely, a thing high as well as secret, and altogether incom-
prehensible to the mind of man.

11. — The Eucharist is a sign, and how ?

Nor did they even deny that it was a sacred sign of the body
and blood of our Lord ; for they knew that the sign does not
always exclude the presence ; on the contrary, there are signs
of such a nature as denote the thing present. When it is said,
a sick person has given signs of life, fhe meaning is, from these
signs it is seen that the soul is still present in its proper and true
substance. The external acts of religion are intended to mani-
fest, that truly we have religion in our hearts ; and when the
angels appeared in human shape, under this appearance, which
represented them to us, they were in person present. Thus,
the defenders of the literal sense spoke nothing incredible, when
they taught that the sacred symbols of the Eucharist, accom-
panied with these words, " This is my body, this is my blood,"
denote to us Jesus Christ present, and that the sign is most
closely and inseparably united to the thing.

12. — Ml the Mysteries of Jesus Christ are signs in certain respects.

It must be acknowledged still further, that what is most true
in the Christian religion, if I may so speak, is both together a
mystery, and a sacred sign. The incarnation of Jesus Christ

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 129

figures to us that perfect union we ought to have with the Di-
vinity in grace and glory. His birth and death are the figure
of our spiritual birth and death. If, in the mystery of the Eu-
charist, he condescends to approach our bodies in his own proper
flesh and blood, thereby he invites us to the union of minds, and
figures it unto us. In a word, until we have arrived to the full
and manifest truth, which will render us for ever happy, every
truth will be to us the figure of a truth more intimate : we shall
not taste Jesus Christ all pure and in his proper form, and en-
tirely disengaged from figure, until we shall see him, in the ful-
ness of his glory, at the right hand of his Father : for which
reason, if in the Eucharist he is given to us in substance and in
truth, it is under a foreign species. This is a great Sacrament
and great Mystery, in which, under the form of bread, is hidden
from us a true body ; in which, in the body of a man, the maj-
esty and power of a God are hidden from us ; in which such
great things are performed after a manner impenetrable to
human senses.

13. — Bucer plays with loords.
What latitude for the equivocations of Bucer, in these several
significations of the word Sacrament and mystery ! And how
many evasions might not be prepared from terms, which each
one wrested to serve his own purpose ! If he granted a real and
substantial presence and union, though he did not always express
that he understood it by faith, he believed he saved all, by adding
to expressions the word Sacramental ; this done, he exclaimed,
they disputed only on words, and how strange it was they should
disturb the Church, and prevent the progress of the Reformation,
for so frivolous a dispute.

14.- (Ecolampadius had teamed Bucer of the fallacy there ivas in his equivocations.
No person would credit him in this. Not only Luther and
the Lutherans laughed at his pretence, that the whole Eucharistic
dispute was only a dispute on words, — even those of his own
party told him plainly he imposed on the world by his substantial
presence, which, after all, was only a presence by faith. (Eco-
lampadius had observed how much he had confused the subject
by this his substantial presence of the body and blood, and a
little before he died, had written to him, that, in the Eucharist,
there was only for those " Who believed, an effectual promise
of the remission of sins, by the body given, and the blood shed;
that our souls were nourished therewith, and our bodies asso-
ciated to the resurrection by the Holy Ghost : that we thus re-
ceived the true body, and not bread only, nor a simple figure,"
(he took good care not to say that we received it substantially;)
" that in truth the wicked received but a figure ; but that Jesus

130 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

Christ was present to those who were his, as God, who strength-
ens and who governs us."*

This was all the presence CEcolampadius would allow, who
concluded in these words : " This is all, my dear Bucer, we can
grant the Lutherans. — Obscurity is dangerous to our Churches. '
Act after such a manner, my dear brother, as not to deceive
our hopes."

15. — The sentiments of those of Zurich.

Those of Zurich declared to him with still greater freedom,
that it was an illusion to say, as he did, that this dispute was
only verbal, and warned him that his expressions led him to the
doctrine of Luther, to which he arrived at length, but not so
soon. Then they raised loud complaints of Luther, who would
not treat them like brethren ; yet, however, acknowledged him
" for an excellent servant of God ;"| but it was observed by the
party, this suavity served only to make him " more inhuman and
more insolent."J

16. — The Confession of Faith of those of Basil.

Those of Basil showed themselves far removed both from the
sentiments of Luther and the equivocations of Bucer. In the
Confession of Faith, which is placed in the collection of Geneva
in the year 1532, and in Hospinian's history in the year 1534,
because, perhaps, it was published for the first time in the one
of these two years, and renewed in the other, they say, that "as
water remains in Baptism, where the forgiveness of sins is offered
to us ; so the bread and wine remain in the Supper, where, with
the bread and wine, the true body and true blood of Jesus Christ
are figured to us, and offered by the minister. "§ To explain
tliis more plainly, they add, " Our souls are nourished with the
body and blood of Jesus Christ, by a true faith," and by way
of elucidation put in the margin, " That Jesus Christ is present
in the Supper, but sacramentally, and by the remembrance of
faith, which raises man up to heaven, and does not take Jesus
Christ from thence." — Finally, they conclude by saying, '^That
they confine not the natural, true and substantial body of Jesus
Christ in the bread and wine, nor adore Jesus Christ in the signs
of bread and wine, commonly called the Sacrament of the body
and blood of Jesus Christ ; but in heaven at the right hand of
God his Father, whence he shall come to judge the living and
the dead." This is what Bucer would neither say, nor explain
clearly ; that Jesus Christ, as man, was no where than in heaven,
ulthough, as far as a judgment can be formed, he was then of
that opinion. But he plunged still more deeply into notions so

* Epist. oecol. ap. Hosp. an. 1520. 112. f Ep. ad March. Brand, ib.
Hosp. 127. § Conf. Bas. 1532. Art. ii. Synt. i. Pait. 72.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 131

metaphysical, that neither Scotus, nor the most refined Scotists,
came near to him ; and all his equivocations turned on these
abstracted ideas.

17. — Luther's Conference icith the Devil.

At this time Luther published his book against private mass,
where that famous conference is to be found, which he formerly
had with the angel of darkness, and where, convinced by his
reasons, he abolishes, like an impious wretch, that mass he had
said for so many years with so much devotion, if we may be-
lieve him.* It is surprising to see how seriously and lively he
describes his awaliening, as in a surprise, in the dead of night ;
the manifest apparition of the devil to dispute against him.
" The terror with which he was seized, his sweat, his trembling,
and the horrible palpitation of his heart in this dispute ; the
strong arguments of the demon, who leaves no repose to the
mind ; the sound of his thundering voice ; his oppressive ways
of arguing, when he makes both question and answer perceptible
at once. I then was sensible," says he, " how it so often happens
that men die suddenly towards the dawn of day : it is by means
of the devil, who can kill and strangle them, and without all that,
by his disputes reduce them to such difficulties, that it is enough
to cause death, as I have many times experienced." He in-
forms us in passing, that the devil frequently attacked him in
this manner, and to judge of the other attacks by this, it is to
be believed he had learned many things from him besides the con-
demnation of the mass. It is here he attributes to the evil spirit
the sudden death of (Ecolampadius, as well as that of Emzer,
formerly so great an enemy to Lutheranism in its birth. I mean
not to enlarge on so trite a subject : I am satisfied with having
observed, that God, for the confusion, or rather for the conver-
sion of the enemies of the Church, has permitted Luther to fall
into so great a bhndness, as to acknowledge, I do not say, that
he was frequently tormented by the devil, which might be com-
mon to him with many samts ; but what is pecuUar to him, that
he was converted by his industry, and that the spirit of falsehood
had been his tutor in one of the principal points of his reformation.

In vain do they pretend here, that the devil disputed against
Luther, only to overwhelm him with despair, by convincing him
of his crime ; for the dispute had not that tendency. "When
Luther appears convinced, and unable to answer any thing more,
the devil presses no farther, and Luther rests satisfied he had
learned a truth of which he was before ignorant. If this be true,
how horrible to be tutored by such a master ! If Luther fancied
it, what illusions, what dismal thoughts occupied his mind 1 If
he invented it, how sad a story had he to boast of !
* De abrog. Miss.' priv. t vii. p. 226.

132 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

18. — The Sioiss are incensed against Luther.

The Swiss were scandalized at the conference of Luther, not
so much because the devil appeared there in the capacity of a
doctor : they were embarrassed enough to defend themselves
against a similar vision, of which ZuingUus boasted,* as we have
already seen ; but they could not endure the manner in which
he there treated (Ecolampadius. Most severe libels came out
on this subject : but Bucer went on negotiating ; and through
his mediation a conference was held at Constance, for the re-
union of both parties. There, those of Zurich declared they
would compromise with Luther, provided, on his side, he would
grant them three points : one, that the flesh of Jesus Christ was
not eaten but by faith ; another, that Jesus Christ, as man, was
only in a particular place in heaven ; the third, that he was present
in the Eucharist, by faith, in a manner proper to the sacraments.
These words were plain and void of equivocation. The other
Swiss, and in particular those of Basil, gave their joint appro-
bation to so clear a proposal. And, indeed, it was wholly con-
formable to the Basil Confession of Faith : but, although this
confession gave a perfect idea of the doctrine of the figurative
sense, those of Basil, who had drawn it up, failed not to draw up
another, two years after, on the occasion we are going to relate.
19. — Another Basil Confession of Faith, and the former modified.

In 1536, Bucer and Capito came from Strasburg. These two
celebrated architects of the most refined equivocations, taking
occasion from the Confessions of Faith, which the chiu-ches sep-
arated from Rome prepared to send to the council which the Pope
had just convened, solicited the Swiss to make one, " which
might be so framed as to assist the agreement they had consid-
erable hope||Of effecting;"! that is, it was proper to select such
terms as the Lutherans, ardent defenders of the Real Presence,
might take in good part. With this view, a new Confession
of Faith was drawn up, which is the second of Basil ; the ex-
pressions we have related in the first, which specified, too pre-
cisely, that Jesus Christ was not present, except in heaven, and
that nothing but a Sacramental Presence, and by remembrance
only, was to be acknowledged in the Sacrament, are here re-
trenched. In reality, the Swiss appeared strongly intent on
asserting, as they had done in the first Basil Confession, " that
the body of Jesus Christ is not contained in the bread." Had
they used these terms without some modification, the Lutherans
would easily have perceived their object was directly to oppose
the Real Presence ; but Bucer had expedients for every thing.
By his insinuations, those of Basil were determined to say,

* Hosp. ad an. 1533. 131. f Synt Conf. Gen. de Helv, Conf. Hosp. Part ii. 141.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 133

" That the Body and Blood are not naturally united to the Bread
and Wine ; but that the Bread and Wine are symbols, by which
Jesus Christ himself gave us a true communication of his Body
and Blood, not to serve as a perishable nourishment to the
stomach, but to be a food of life eternal."* The remainder is
nothing but a somewhat long application of the fruits of the
Eucharist, which all the world receives.

20.— Equivocation on this Confession of Faith.

There was not here so much as one word to which the Luther-
ans might not agree ; for they do not pretend the body of Jesus
Christ is a food for our stomachs, but teach that Jesus Christ is
united to the bread and wine, in an incomprehensible, celestial,
and supernatural manner ; so as, it may well be said, without
offending them, that he is not " naturally united" to them. The
Swiss proceeded no farther ; so that, by means of this expres-
sion, the article passed in terms a Lutheran might admit, and
wherein nothing else, at most, could be desired, but more pre-
cise and less general expressions. Of the substantial Presence,
a thing discussed at that time, they would say neither good nor
evil ; this was all Bucer could gain of them. Afterwards, they
neither adhered to the first nor the second Confession of Faith,
which they had published by mutual agreement ; and in due time we
shall see a third make its appearance, with quite new expressions.
21. — Each (me followed the Impressions of his Guide.

Those of Zurich, taught by Zuinglius, and full of his spirit,
made no compromise with Bucer; and instead of drawing up, like
those of Basil, a new Confession of Faith, to manifest how they
persevered in the doctrine of their master, they published that
v/hich he had sent to Francis I, which has been mentioned al-
ready ; and in which he will admit of no other presence in the
Eucharist, than that which is made " by the contemplation" of
Faith, clearly excluding the substantial presence. Thus they
continued to speak naturally. They alone did so among all the
defenders of the figurative sense ; and it may be seen at this
time, how, in the new Reformation, every Church acted accord-
ing to the impression received from their respective masters.
Luther and Zuinglius, ardent, and in extremes, inspired the
Lutherans and those of Zurich with similar dispositions, and
rejected all temperate measures : if (Ecolampadius were more
gentle, those of Basil were on that account more pliant ; and
the people of Strasburg entered into all the mitigations, or
rather all the equivocations and fallacies of Bucer.

22. — Bucer acknoxoledges that the unioorthy redly receive the Body.
He carried the thing so far, tliat, after granting all that could

* ConC Bas. 1536. Art. xxii. Synt. p. 1, 70.
12

134 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

be desired, on the real, essential, and substantial, even natural
presence, that is, the presence of Jesus Christ according to his
nature, he found out expedients to mal^e the faithful, unworthily
communicating, receive him really. He required only that the
impious and infidels, for whom this holy mystery was not insti-
tuted, should be excepted : yet, however, said he was resolved,
even in that point, to have no difference with any person.*

1535. With all these explications, it is not surprising he
appeased Luther, until then implacable. Luther believed the
Sacramentarians truly came over to the doctrine of the Augs-
burg Confession and Apology. Melancthon, with whom Bucer
was negotiating, acquainted him that he found Luther more
tractable, and that he began to speak more amicably of him and
his companions. At last the Assembly of Wittenberg, in Saxony,
was held, at which the deputies of the German churches, on both
sides, were present.'l" Luther at first spoke in a lofty tone. He
v/ould have Bucer and his companions declare that they re-
tracted, and entirely rejected all they said to him of the thing
itself, as being not so much the subject of discussion as the man-
ner. But at length, after much discussion, in which Bucer dis-
played all his pliancy, Luther took those articles, which this
minister and his companions granted him, for a retractation.

23. — The Agreement of Wittenberg^ and its Six Articles.

1. "That, according to the words of St. Iren8eus,the Eucharist
consists of two things — the one terrestrial, and the other celestial ;
and, by consequence, the body and blood of Jesus Christ are
truly and substantially present, given, and received with the
bread and wine."

2. " That, although they had rejected Transubstantiation, and
did not believe that the body of Jesus Christ was contained
locally in the bread, or had with the bread any union of long
continuance out of the use of the sacrament, it ought, however,
to be acknowledged that the bread was the body of Jesus Christ,
by a sacramental union ; that is, that the bread being present, the
body of Jesus Christ was at the same time present, and truly given."

3. They add, however, " That out of the use of the sacra-
ment, whilst it is kept in the ciborium, or shown in processions,
they beheve it is not the body of Jesus Christ."

4. They concluded by saying, " That this institution of the
sacrament has i^s force in the Church, and depends not on the
worthiness or uriworthiness of the minister, nor of him who re-
ceives."

5. " That as for the unworthy, who, according to St. Paul,
truly eat the sacrament, the body and blood of Jesus Christ are

* Hosp. Part. ii. fol. 135. f Hosp. an. 1535, 1536.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 135

truly presented to them, and thet truly receive them, when
the words of Christ's institution are observed."*

6. " That, however, they take it to their judgment," as says
the same St. Paul, " because they abuse the sacrament, by tak-
ing it without repentance, and without faith."

24, — Bucer deceives Luther, and evades the terms of agreement.

Luther, it seems, had nothing more to desire. When they
grant him that the Eucharist consists of two things — the one
heavenly and the other terrestrial, and from this conclude, that
the body of Jesus Christ is substantially present with the bread,
they manifest sufficiently that he is not present only to the mind,
and by faith. But Luther, who was not unacquainted with the
subtleties of the Sacramentarians, urges them on still further,
and induces them to say, that those even " who have not faith,
do, however, truly receive the body of our Lord."!

One would not have suspected they believed the body of Jesus
Christ was ijot present to us but by faith, since they acknowl-
edged that it was present and truly received by those who were
without repentance, and without faith. After this avowal of the
Sacramentarians, Luther easily believed that he had nothing
more to demand, and judged they said all that was necessary
to confess the reality : but he had not as yet sufficiently under-
stood that these Doctors had particular secrets to explain every
thing. However lucid the words of agreement appeared to him,
Bucer had reserved a way of escaping. He has published sev-
eral writings, where he acquaints his friends in what sense he
understood each word of the agreement : he there declares, that
" Those who, according to St. Paul, are guilty of the body and
blood, receive not only the sacrament, but the thing itself indeed,
and are not without faith ; although," says he, " they have not
that lively faith which saves us, nor a true devotion of heart." J

Who would ever have believed that the defenders of the fig-
urative sense could have acknowledged a true reception of the
body and blood of our Lord in the Supper, without having the
faith which saves us ? What ! is a faith, which is unable to justify
us, sufficient, according to their principles, to communicate Jesus
Christ truly to us 1 Their whole doctrine contradicts this senti-
ment of Bucer. Nor can this minister, however subtle, pos-
sibly reconcile what he says here with his other maxims. But
it is not my object, in this place, to examine the subtleties by
which Bucer extricates liimself from the agreement of Witten-
berg : I am content with remarking this undoubted fact — that all
the churches of Germany, which defended the figurative sense,
assembled in a body, by their deputies agreed, in an authentic

* Hosp. p. ii. an. 1535. f. 145. in Lib. Cone. 729. f Art.i. Art v. et vi

I Buc. Declar. Cone. Vit Id. ap. Hosp. an. 1536. 148, et seq.

136 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

act, " That the body and blood of Jesus Christ are truly and
substantially present, given and received in the Supper, with the
bread and wine ; and that the unworthy, who are without faith,
do, however, receive this body and this blood, provided they
adhere to the words of the institution."

If these expressions can accord with the figurative presence,
henceforth it is no longer known what is the meaning of words,
and all things may be discovered in any thing. Men, who have
accustomed themselves to wrest in this manner human language,
will make the Scripture and Fathers speak what they please ; nor
must we be surprised at so many violent interpretations they
give to the most plain passages.

25. — Calvin'' s Sentiments on Equivocations in matters of Faith.

Whether T>ucer had a settled design of amusing the world
with these affected equivocations, or whether some confused idea
of the reality induced him to believe he might safely subscribe
these expressions, so evidently contrary to the figurative sense,
I leave the Protestants to determine. Certain it is, Calvin, his
friend, and, in some manner, his disciple also, when he wished
to express a reprehensible obscurity in a profession of faith, said,
" There was nothing so embarrassed, so ambiguous, so intricate
in Bucer hiir.self."*

These artificial ambiguities were so congenial to the spirit of
the new reformation, that Melancthon himself, naturally the most
sincere of men, who had most condemned equivocations in mat-
ters of faith, permitted himself to be drawn into them contrary
to his inclinations. We find a letter of his in 1541, where he
^vl•ites that nothing is more unworthy of the Church, " than to
use equivocations in Confessions of Faith, and to draw up arti-
cles which required other articles to explain them ; that it was
establishing peace in appearance, and in fact exciting war ;"
and, in short, that it was " similar to the false council of Sirmium
and the Arians, mingling truth with error."j" His judgment
was certainly correct ; and, at the same time, however, when
the first assembly of Ratisbon was held, to reconcile the Cath-
olic religion with the Protestant, " Melancthon and Bucer (it is
not Catholics that v/rite it, but Calvin, who was present, and the
intimate friend of both) composed, on transubstantiation, equiv-
ocal and deceitful forms of faith, in order to satisfy, if possible,
their adversaries in conceding nothing to them. "J Calvin was
the first to condemn these affected obscurities and shameful dis-
simulations : " With reason," says he, " you blame the obscu-
rities of Bucer. "§ " It must be spoken freely," says he in
anotlier placa, " It is not lawful to embarrass that with obscure
and equivocal words which requires fight ; those who would
* Ep. Cal. p. 50. t Lib. i. Ep. 25. 1 541. lb. Ep. 76. J Ep. Cal. p. 38. § Ep. p. 50.

IV.J THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 137

hold a medium, forsake the defence of truth."* And with re-
gard to those snares just mentioned, which Bucer and Melanc-
thon, by their ambiguous discourses, laid for the Catholics nom-
inated to confer with them at Ratisbon, this is what the same
Calvin says of them : " As to myself, I do not approve of their
design, although they have their reasons ; for they hope the
points of discussion will emit light, and be elucidated of them-
selves. For this reason they pass over many things, and fear
not these ambigtuties ; they do it with a good design, but yield
too much to the times. ""f Thus did the authors of the new
Reformation, with very bad reasons, either practise or excuse
the most criminal of all dissimulations — that is, affected equiv-
ocations in points of faith. We shall learn from what follows,
if Calvin, who seems as much opposed to the practice himself,
as he is indulgent to it in others, will always continue of the
same opinion ; and we must return to the artifices of Bucer.

26. — Whether the Presence be permanent in the Eucharist.

In the midst of the advantages he conceded to the Lutherans
in the Agreement of Wittenberg, he gained at least one thing
which Luther let pass, — that the body and blood of Jesus Christ
had no permanent union, out of the sacramental use, with the
bread and v/ine ; and that the body was not present, when shown,
or carried in procession. J This was not the sentiment of Lu-
ther ; till then he had always taught that the body of Jesus Christ
was present from the time the words were said, and remained
present till the species was altered ;§ so that, according to him,
" he was present even when carried in procession," although he
would not approve that custom. And truly, if the body was
present in virtue of the words of institution, and these words be
understood according to the letter, as Luther maintained it, it is
clear the body of Jesus Christ ought to be present at the instant
he says, " This is my body," since he does not say, "this will
be," but " This is." It was suitable to the power and majesty
of Jesus Christ, that his words should have a present effect, and
the effect subsist as long as things should remain in the same
state. Nor was it ever doubted, from the earhest times of
Christianity, that the portion of the Eucharist reserved for the
communion of the sick, and for that which the faithful practised
daily in their houses, was as much the true body of our Saviour
as that distributed to them at Church. Luther had always un-
derstood it thus ; and yet he was induced, I know not how, to
tolerate the contrary opinions which Bucer proposed at the time
of the agreement.

+ Ep. p. 50. t Ep. p. 38. t Art. ii. 3.

§ Luth. Ser. cont, Lucr. et Ep. ad quend. Hosp. il p. 14, 44, 132.

12*

138 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

27. — Sequel. — Conclusion of the Agreement.

He would not, however, permit him to say that the body was
not in the Eucharist, except precisely at the time of using it,
that is, in the reception; but only " that, out of the sacramental
use, there Wcis no permanent union between the bread and the
body."* This union subsisted, therefore, out of the use, that
is, out of communion ; and Luther, who made the holy sacra-
ment be elevated, and adored, even at the time the Agreement
was framing, would not permit it should be denied him, that
Jesus Christ was there present during these ceremonies ; but
in order to take away the presence of the body of our Lord in
tlie tabernacles and procession of Catholics, which was the ob-
ject of Bucer, it was sufficient to permit him to say, that the
presence of the body and blood in the bread and wine was not
of long duration.

Now, had it been asked of these doctors how long, therefore,
this presence was to remain, and to what time they limited the
effect of the words of our Lord, they would have been strangely
embarrassed. It will appear from what follows, and we shall
see, when they abandoned the natural sense of the words of our
Saviour, as they had no longer any certain rule, so they no
longer had precise terms, nor certain faith.

Such was the issue of the Concord of Wittenberg. The
articles are reported in the same manner by both parties of the
new Reformation, and were signed at the end of May in 1536.1
It was agreed that it should not have force until it had received
the approbation of the Churches. Bucer and his companions
so little doubted of the approbation of their party, that imme-
diately after the Agreement was signed, they celebrated the
Supper with Luther in token of perpetual concord. The Lu-
therans have always praised this agreement. The Sacram.en-
tarians refer to it as an authentic treaty, which had reunited all
Protestants. Hospinian pretends that the Swiss — a part, at
least, of that body — and Calvin himself, gave it their approba-
tion. "J An express approval of it, in fact, is found among the
letters of Calvin :§ so that this Agreement ought to have place
among the public acts of the new reformation, since it contains
the sentiments of all Protestant Germany, and of almost all the
reformation.

28. — Those of Zurich laugh at the equivocations of Bucer.

Bucer was solicitous to have it approved by those of Zurich.
He went to their assembly, and harangued them in words lofty
and indefinite ; then presented them a long writing. || In such

* Form. Miss. b. ii. Hosp. an. 1536. p. 148. f Cone. p. 729. Hosp.
part ii. fol. 145. Chytr. Hist. Confess. Aug. J Ann. 1536, 1537, 1538.

§ Caiv. ep. p. 324. H Hosp. p. ii. f. 150, et seq.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 139

verbosity equivocations lie concealed, and a few words are suf-
ficient to speak the faith plainly. In vain did he display his
subtleties ; he could not make the Swiss digest his substantial
presence, nor his communion of the unworthy ; they wished
always to express their thoughts just as they were, in plain terms,
and to say, as Zuinglius did, that there was no physical or nat-
ural presence here, nor a substantial one, but a presence hj
faith, a presence by the Holij Ghost, reserving to themselves the
liberty of speaking of this mystery as they should find most
suitable, and always in the most plain and intelhgible manner
that is possible. This is what they wrote to Luther ; and Lu-
ther, scarcely recovered from a dangerous illness, and fatigued,
perhaps, with so many disputes, sought repose, and referred the
affair to Bucer, with whom he imagined that he perfectly agreed.*

29. — The Zuinglians will not hear miracles mentioned, nor Omnipotence in the
Eucharist.

But having mentioned in his letter, that, agreeing about the
Presence, they were to leave the manner to the Divine Omnip-
otence ; those of Zurich, astonished that he should speak to
them of Omnipotence in an action, where they conceived noth-
ing that was miraculous, no more than their master Zuinglius,
complained of it to Bucer, who took great pains to satisfy them;
but the more he insisted with them that there was something
incomprehensible in the manner Jesus Christ gave himself to
us in the Supper, the more the Swiss, on their part, repeated to
him that there was nothing more easy. A figure in these words,
" This is my body ;" the meditation on the death of our Lord,
and the operation of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of the faithful,
were attended with no difBculty, and they were determined to
admit no other miracles in it. So, indeed, should the Sacra-
mentarians speak, would they speak naturally. The Fathers,
it is true, did not speak so ; they found no example too elevated
to raise up the minds of men to the belief of this mystery ; but
employed for the purpose the creation, the incarnation of our
Lord, his miraculous birth, all the miracles of the Old and New
Testament, the wonderful change of water into blood, and of
water into wine ; persuaded as they were, that the miracle, v/hich
they acknowledged in the Eucharist, was not less the work of
Omnipotence, and yielded in nothing to the most incomprehen-
sible miracles of the hand of God. Thus it was proper to speak
in the doctrine of the Real Presence, and Luther had, with this
faith, retained the same expressions. From a contrary reason,
the Swiss found all easy, and chose rather to turn the words of
our Lord into a figure, than to call upon his Omnipotence to
verify them ; as if the most simple manner of explaining the
+ Hosp. p. ii. £ 157.

140 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

Holy Scriptures were always that in which reason encounters
the least difficulty ; or miracles cost the Son of God any thing,
where he wished to give us a pledge of his love.

30. — Doctrine of Bucer, and return of the Towns from his belief to that of the
Real Presence.

Although Bucer could not prevail on those of Zurich, during
two years continually treating with them, after the Agreement
of Wittenberg, and foresaw very well that Luther would not
always be so peaceable as at that time, he used every expedient
in order to retain him in this quiet disposition. As for his part,
he adhered so closely to the Agreement, that, ever after, he was
considered by those of the Augsburg Confession as a member
of their churches, and in every thing acted conjointly with them.

Whilst he treated with the Swiss, and endeavored to make
them comprehend something in the Supper more high and im-
penetrable than they imagined, among other things he told them,
that although there was no doubt of Jesus Christ being in
heavvjn, they did not well understand where this heaven was,
nor what it was, and that " heaven was even in the Supper ;"*
which carried with it so clear an idea of the Real Presence, that
the Swiss could not bear to hear him.

The comparisons he employed tended rather to enforce than
weaken the reality. He often instanced that ordinary action
of shaking one another by the hand ;| a very plain example to
show that the same hand used to execute treaties may be a
pledge of the will to fulfil them ; and that a transitory contract,
yet leal and substantial, may become, by the institution and
usage of men, the most effectual sign they can give to each
other of perpetual union.

Since he had commenced to treat about the Agreement, he
was not fond of saying with Zuinglius, that the Eucharist was
the Body, as the Rock was Christ, and as the Lamb was the
Passover. He chose rather to say it was so, as the Dove is
called the Holy Ghost, which shows a Real Presence ; there
being none that doubt that the Holy Ghost was present, in a
particular manner, under the form of the dove. He adduced
also the example of Jesus Christ breathing on the Apostles, and
at the same time giving them the Holy Ghost : J which still
proved that the body of Jesus Christ is not less communicated,
nor less present, than the Holy Ghost was to the Apostles.

W^ith all this, however, he approved of the doctrine of Calvin,
replete with sacramentarian notions ;§ and was not afraid to
subscribe a confession of faith, where the same Calvin said, that
the manner in which the body and blood of Jesus Christ were

* Hosp. 162. f Ep. ad Ital. int. Calv. Ep. p. 44.

X Ep. ad Ital. int. Colv. Ep. p. 44. § Int. Ep. Calv. p. 378.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 141

received in the Supper consisted in the Holy Ghost uniting
therein what was separated in place. This, it seems, was clearly
acknowledging Jesus Christ to be absent. But Bucer explained
every thing, and had surprising solutions for all kinds of diffi-
culties. But what is here most remarkable, the disciples of
Bucer, and as we have before observed, whole towns, that un-
der liis guidance had so far removed from the Real Presence,
came now again insensibly into this belief. The words of Jesus
Christ were so well deliberated on, and so often repeated, that
at last they produced their effect, and men naturally returned to
the literal sense.
31. — Melancthon begins to doubt the dodiine of Luther. — The Weakiiess of
his Theology.

While Bucer and his disciples, the declared opponents of the
doctrine of Luther on the real presence, drew near to him, Me-
lancthon, the dear disciple of the same Luther, the author of the
Augsburg Confession, and of the Apology, in which he had
maintained tjie reality, to such a length as to appear inclined to
transubstantiation, began to waver.

In 1535, or about that time, this doubt came into his mind ;*
before that time, it may be seen how very steady he had been.
He had even composed a book of the sentiments of the holy
Fathers on the Supper, in which he had collected many pas-
sages most expressly for the real presence.

As the criticism of those days was not very accurate, he per-
ceived, at length, that some of them were spurious,| and that the
transcribers, through ignorance or carelessness, had attributed
to the ancients some works of which they were not the authors.
This troubled him, although he had cited a sufficient number of
passages which were incontestable. But he was more embar-
rassed to find many places in the ancients where they called the
Eucharist a figure. J He collected these passages, and was
astonished, said he, " to see in them so great a diversity."
Weak divine ! not to understand that neither the condition of
faith, nor of this present hfe, could permit us to enjoy Jesus
Christ face to face, for which reason he gave himself unto us
under a borrowed form, necessarily joining truth with the figure,
and the Real Presence with an exterior sign that concealed it
from us. From this proceeds that apparent diversity of the
Fathers which surprised Melancthon. The same difficulty
would have appeared to him, had he closely investigated the
mystery of the Incarnation, and the divinity of the Son of God,
before the disputes of heretics had induced the Fathers to speak
of these matters with more precision. In general, where two
truths that appear contraiy are to be reconciled, as in the mys-
* Hosp. an 1535. 137, et seq. f Lib. iii. Epist. 114, ad Joan. Brent. J Ibid.

142 THE HISTORY OP [boOK

tery of the Trinity, and that of the Incarnation, to be equal and
to be inferior ; and in the Eucharist, to be present and to be in
figure ; naturally, a sort of language is used that appears con-
fused, unless we have the key of the Church, as we may say,
and the full comprehension of the entire mystery : besides the
other reasons which obliged the Fathers to conceal the myste-
ries in some places, affording in others the certain means by
which to understand them. Melancthon did not know so much.
Dazzled with the name of reformation, and the exterior of Lu-
ther then somewhat specious, he immediately enlisted in the
party. As yet but young and a great humanist, and only a
humanist, newly called by the Elector Frederick to teach the
Greek language in the University of Wittenberg, he could have
made but little progress in the investigation of ecclesiastical
antiqaity with his master Luther, and was strangely shocked at
the contrarieties he supposed he found in the Fathers.

3^. — A dispute in the time of Ratramnus, that confounds Melancthon.

To embarrass himself completely, he must also read the book
of Bertram or Ratramnus, which then began to appear ; an
ambiguous book, where certainly the author did not always un-
derstand himself:* the Zuinglians support their cause much by
it. The Lutherans cite it for themselves, and find nothing in
it to condemn, but that it sowed the seeds of Transubstantiation.
There is, indeed, sufficient to content, or rather to embarrass
both sides. Jesus Christ, in the Eucharist, is so much a human
body by his substance, and so unlike a human body by his quah-
ties, that it may be said he is one, and is not one, in different
respects ; that in one sense, considering his substance only, it
is the same body of Jesus Christ, which was born of Mary ; but
that in another sense, considering the manner alone, it is a dif-
ferent one, which he has made himself by his own word, which
he conceals under shadows and figures, whose truth reaches not
the senses, but discovers itself to faith alone.

This is what raised a dispute amongst the faithful in the time
of Ratramnus. Some, with respect to the substance, said, the
body of Jesus Christ was the same in the womb of the Virgin
and the Eucharist : others, with respect to the qualities, or,
rather, manner af existence, would have it another. Thus we
see St. Paul, speaking of a body risen again, makes, as it were,
another body of it, far different from what we have in this mortal
life, though, in reality it be the same :'j' but, on account of the
different qualities with which this body is vested, St. Paul makes
of it as it were two bodies, one of which he calls " the animal
body," and the other " the spiritual body."J In this same sense,
and v/ith much m.ore reason, one might say, that the body re-
* Lib. iu. Ep. 188, ad Vit. Theod. + 1 Cor. xv. 37, et seq. J Ibid. 42,43, 44, 46.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 1.4S

ceived in the Eucharist, was not that which came from the blessed
womb of the Virgin. But though this might be said in a certain
sense, others feared, by saying it, they should destroy the truth
of the body. Thus did Catholic Doctors, agreeing in substance,
dispute about the manner ; some following the expressions of
Paschasius Rathbert, who would have the Eucharist to contain
the same body which came from the Virgin ; others adhering to
those of Ratramnus, who maintained it was not the same. With
this another difficulty was connected, inasmuch as a strong per-
suasion of the real presence, which obtained over the vvhole
Church, both in the East and West, had induced many Doctors
no longer to permit in the Eucharist the term " figure," \v-hich
they believed was contrary to the truth of the body; and others,
who considered that Jesus Christ does not give himself in the
Eucharist in his proper form, but under a foreign one, and in a
manner so full of mysterious significations, acknowledged, in-
deed, that the body of our Saviour was really in the Eucharist,
but under figures, under veils, and in mysteries: which to them
appeared the more necessary, as, in other respects, it was most
certain that, to possess Jesus Christ in his manifest truth, under
the cover of no figure, was a privilege reserved for the next life.
All this was true in the main ; but, before it could be well ex-
plained, there was room for long disputes. Ratramnus, who
followed the last party, had not sufficiently investigated this
matter, and, ^vithout differing in substance from other Catholics,
sometimes fell into obscure expressions, which it was difficult to
reconcile : the very cause that all his readers, Protestants as well
as Catholics, have understood him in so m.any different senses.
Melancthon found that this author left his reader to guess at his
meaning, instead of explaining it with clearness, and, with him,
lost himself in a subject which neither he nor his master Luther
had ever well comprehended.

33. — JMelancthon wishes for a new decision. — Luther''s tyranny.
By this reading, and these reflections, he fell into a deplo-
rable uncertainty ; but whatever might be his opinion, of which
we shall hereafter speak, he began to dissent from his master,
and wished most ardently that an assembly might be held to
treat anew on this subject, " without passion, without soph-
istry, and without tyranny."* This last word visibly regarded
Luther, for in all the assemblies, till then, held in the party, as
soon as Luther appeared, and declared his opinion, Melancthon
himself assures us the others had no alternative but silence, and
all was terminated. But whilst, disgusted with such proceed-
ings, he demanded new deliberations, and receded from Lv.ther,
yet he rejoiced that Bucer, with his companions, drew near to
♦ Lib. ii. Ep. 40. iii. Ep. 188, 189.

144 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

him. We have but just seen him approve the agreement in
which the real presence was fixed more than ever to the external
symbols ;* because it was there established that it subsists in
the communion of the unworthy, " although there be neither
faith nor repentance." It is necessary to cast our eyes only for
a moment on the Agreement of Wittenberg, not only subscribed
but also obtained by Melancthon, to be convinced how posi-
tively he there assents to a thing of which he had conceived so
great a doubt.
34. — Lidher makes a new declaration of his Faith, in the Jlrticles of Smalkald.

The reason was, Luther always pushed forward, and was so
resolute upon this point, that he knew not how to contradict him.
The year after the agreement, that is, in 1537, while Bucer con-
tinued negotiating with the Swiss, the Lutherans met at Smal-
kald, the ordinary place of their assemblies, and where all their
leagues were formed. The Council summoned by Paul the
Third gave occasion to this assembly. Luther could not be
well satisfied with the Confession of Augsburg, nor the Apology,
nor the manner in which his doctrine was there explained, since
he himself draws up new articles, " in order," says he, " that it
may be known what are the points from which he is resolved
never to depart ;"| and for this reason he procured this assembly.
There Bucer declared himself so explicitly on the Real Pres-
ence, " that he satisfied," says Melancthon, who mentions it
with joy, " even those of our people who were the most difficult
to be pleased."J Consequently, he satisfied Luther; and here,
again, Melancthon is delighted that the sentiments of Luther
are followed, whilst he himself abandons them ; that is, he was
delighted to see all the Protestants of Germany reunited. Bucer
had given his assent ; the town of Strasburg, with their Doctor,
declared for the Confession of Augsburg ; human pohcy, their
most important object, had attained its end ; and, as for doctrine,
they were afterwards to provide for that.

35. — ^ nexo way of explaining the Words of the Institution.

It must be acknowledged, however, that Luther proceeded in
this with more sincerity. He was determined to speak plainly
on the subject of the Eucharist, and thus explained the sixth
article of the Sacrament of the Altar : — " As to the Sacrament
of the Altar," says he, " we believe that the bread and wine are
the true body and true blood of our Lord ; and are not only
given and received by pious Christians, but also by the impious. "§
These last words are the same we have seen in the Concord of
Wittenberg, except that, instead of the word " unworthy," he

* Lib. iii. Ep. 1 14. ad Brent. f Art. Smal. Pnef. in lib. Cone.

X Ap. Hosp. an. 1537, p. 155. Mel. iv. Ep. 196. § Cone. p. 330.

IV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 145

uses the v/ord ** impious," which is stronger, and removes the
idea of faith to a still greater distance. It is also to be ob-
served that, in this article, Luther says nothing against the pres-
ence out of the use of the Sacrament, nor against the perma-
nent union ; but only, " that the bread was the true body ;" not
determining when it was, nor for how long a time.
36. — Whether Bread can be the Body.

Yet this expression, " that the bread was the true body," be-
fore that time had never been inserted by Luther in any public
act. The terms which he generally used were, that the body
and blood were given " under the bread" and " under the wine ;"*
thus he explains himself in his little Catechism. He adds a
word in the large one, and says, " that the'body is given to us in
the bread and under the bread. "'j* I caimot discover exactly at
what time these two Catechisms were written, but it is certain
the Lutherans acknowledge them both for authentic acts of their
religion. To the two particles, " in," and " under," the Con-
fession of Augsburg adds " with ;" audit is the ordinary phrase
of the true Lutherans, *' that the body and blood are received
in, under, and with the bread and -vvine ;" but, hitherto, it had
never been said in any public act of the whole party, that the
bread and wine were the true body and true blood of our Lord.
Luther here decides the point, and necessary it was for Melanc-
thon, how great soever his repugnance might be, to unite the
bread with the body, — to subscribe even that the bread was the
true body.
37. — Luther cannot evadethe equivocations of the Sacramentarians who. elude all.

The Lutherans in theirBookof Concord assure us, that Luther
was forced to tliis expression by the subtleties of the Sacramen-
tarians,J who invented evasions to accommodate to their moral
presence Luther's strongest and most precise expressions, for
the real and substantial presence : from this v/e may again, as
we go on, observe, that it is not a matter of surprise, if the de-
fenders of the figurative sense invent expedients to call in the
support of the fathers ; since Luther himself living and speak-
ing, who knew their subtleties, and who undertook to oppose
them, found it difficult to prevent them from wresting his words
to their o^n sense by their interpretations : fatigued with their
subtleties, he directed his mind to the discovery of such ex-
pressions as they might no longer wrest, and drew out the article
of Smalkald in the above form.

And, indeed, as we have before observed,§ if the true body
of Jesus Christ, according to the opinion of the Sacramen-
tarians, be not received except by means of a lively faith, it can-

* Cone. p. 330. t Ibid. p. 553. X Ibid. p. 720. § Lib. ii. N. 3. p. 3.

13

146 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

not be said with Luther, that " the impious receive it ;" and as
long as they shall maintain, that the bread is not the body of
Jesus Christ, except in figure, without doubt they will never say
with the Article of Smalkald, " That the bread is the true body
of Jesus Christ ;" thus Luther, by this expression, excluded
the figurative sense, and all the Sacramentarian interpretations.
But he was not aware he no less excluded his own doctrine,
since we have shown that the bread cannot be the true body,
unless it become so by a true and substantial change, which
Luther would not admit'.'

Thus when Luther, and the Lutherans, after turning the Ar-
ticle of the Real Presence so many different ways, endeavor at
last to explain it so precisely, as that the Sacramentarian equiv-
ocations might remain entirely excluded, we see them fall in-
sensibly into expressions, which, according to their principles, have
nosense,andcannotbemaintainedexceptinthe Catholic doctrine.

38. — The violence of Luther against the Pope in the .Articles of Smalkald.

At Smalkald, Luther expresses himself with great asperity
against the Pope, who, as we have seen, was not even named in
the Articles of the Augsburg Confession, nor in the Apology ;
and lays down, among the articles from which he resolved never
to depart, " That the Pope is not of divine right ; that the power
he has usurped is full of arrogance and blasphemy ; that all he
has done or now does, in virtue of this power, is diabolical ; that
the Church can and ought to subsist, without a head ; that al-
though the Pope should acknowledge he is not of divine right,
but was made purely to maintain, more conveniently, the unity
of Christians among sectaries, yet no good could ever come from
such authority ; and that the best way to govern and preserve
the Church, is for all the bishops, though unequal in their gifts,
to remain equal in their ministry, under the one only head Christ
Jesus : lastly, that the Pope is antichrist."*
39. — Melancthon wishes that the authoiity of the Pope should be acknowledged.

I expressly mention, at length, these decisions of Luther, be-
cause Melancthon gave them a limitation which cannot be suf-
ficiently considered.

At the conclusion of the Articles are seen two Hsts of sub-
scriptions, in which appear the names of all the Ministers and
Doctors of the Confession of Augsburg. I Melancthon signed
with all the others ; but because he refused to agree to what
Luther had said of the Pope, he made his subscription in these
terms, " I, Philip Melancthon, approve the foregoing articles as
pious and Christian. As for the Pope, my opinion is, if he would
receive the Gospel, that for the peace and tranquillity of those

+ Art. iv. p. 312. f Cone. p. 336.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 147

who are already under him, or shall be hereafter, we may grant
to him that superiority over the bishops, which he enjoys already
by human right."*

This superiority of the Pope, however established, was the
object of Luther's aversion. Ever since the time the Popes
condemned him, he became irreconcilable to this power, and
induced even Melancthon to sign an act, by which the whole
new reformation declared in a body, " We never will approve
of the Pope's having power over the rest of the bishops. "f At
Smalkald, Melancthon retracts it. It was the first and only time
he ever, by a pubhc act, opposed his master ; and because his
complaisance, or submission, or some similar motive, whatever
it might be, induced him to pass over, in spite of all his doubts,
the much more difficult point of the Eucharist, we must beheve
that powerful reasons influenced him to resist in this. These
reasons merit investigation the more, as by this examination we
shall discover the true state of the new reformation ; the partic-
ular dispositions of Melancthon ; the cause of all the troubles
which constantly agitated him, even to his death ; how a man
engages on the side of error with general good intentions ; and
how he there remains in the midst of the most violent anxieties
that can be felt in this hfe. The thing merits to be deeply
understood, and Melancthon himself, by his own writings, will
discover it to us.

BOOK V.

[General Reflections on the agitations of Melancthon, and the state of
the Reformation.]

A brief summary. — Melancthon's agitations, regrets, vacillating condition. —
The cause of all his errors, and ot his disappointed hopes. — The unhappy
success of the Reformation, and the wretched motives that attract men to
it, acknowledged by the Authors of the party. — Melancthon in vain ac-
knowledges the perpetuity of the Church, the authority of her judgments,
and that of her Prelates. — Imputed Justice leads him away, though, by his
Confession, he does not find it in the Fathers, not even in St. Augustin, on
whom he had formerly rested.

1. — Hoio Melancthon was attracted to Luther.
The first proceedings of Luther, at which time Melancthon
devoted himself entirely to him, were attended with a specious
appearance. Exclaiming against abuses, which were but too
true, with much force and liberty ; mingling with his discourses
pious sentiments, the remnants of a good education ; and at the
same time leading a life, if not perfect, at least bla.meless in the
eyes of men, are things which have no small attractive influence.
* Cone. p. 338. t Mel. Lib. x. Ep. 76.

148 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

We are not to suppose that heresies always have for their authors
libertines and wicked men, who designedly make religion sub-
servient to their passions. St. Gregory Nazianzen does not
represent to us Heresiarchs as men destitute of rehgion, but as
men who mistake it. " They are,'* says he, " men of great
minds, for weak minds are equally useless for good or evil.
But these great wits," proceeds he, " are withal ardent and
impetuous, who pursue the affair of religion with a boundless
warmth :"* that is, who have a false zeal, and mingling proud
disgust, and invincible assurance, and their own conceits with
rehgion, urge all to extremes : to this also must be united an air
of regularity, or where would be that seduction so often pre-
dicted in the Scripture 1 Luther had formerly a zest for devo-
tion. In his early life, alarmed by a clap of thunder, which he
thought would have struck him dead, he entered into religion
with dispositions sufficiently sincere. What occun*ed with re-
gard to indulgences has already been explained. If he advanced
extraordinary tenets of doctrine, he submitted himself to the
Pope. Condemned by the Pope, he appealed to the Council,
which the whole Christian world, many ages before, had deemed
necessary to redress the grievances of the Church. To reform
corrupt morals was an object desired by the universe : and
although sound doctrine always subsisted equally well in the
Church, yet it was not explained equally well by all preachers.
Many preached nothing but indulgences, pilgrimages, almsgiv-
ing to the religious, and made those practices, which were only
the accessaries of piety, the foundation of religion. They spoke
little of the grace of Jesus Christ ; and Luther, who, by the
dogma of imputed justice, took a new view of it, appeared to
Melancthon, as yet but young, and more acquainted with polite
literature than theology, to be the only preacher of the Gospel,

2. — Melancth(yii captivated loith noveltij, and the deceitful appearance of imputed

justice.

It is but just to give all to Jesus Christ. The Church attributed
all to him in the justification of the sinner, as well and better than
Luther, but in a different manner. We have seen how Luther at-
tributed all to him, by absolutely taking all from man; and, on the
other hand, the Church attributed all to him, by maintaining, for an
effect of his grace, all the good man has, and even the right use
of his free-will in all that regards a Christian life. The novelty of
Luther's doctrine and opinions captivated men of wit. Melanc-
thon was the chief of them in Germany. To erudition, to polite-
ness, and to elegance of style, he united a singular moderation
He was considered to be the only person capable of succeeding;
in learning, to the reputation of Erasmus ; and Erasmus him
* Orat. p. 26.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 149

himself, by his own choice, would have elevated him to the first
honors among the learned world, had he not seen him engaged
in a party against the Church ; but the tide of novelty bore him
down with the crowd. From the beginning of his attachment
to Luther, he wrote to one of his friends, " I have not yet treated
the matter of justification as it should be treated, and I am aware
that none of the ancients treated it in this manner."* These
words demonstrate a man captivated with the charms of the
new doctrine ; and yet he has but touched so great a subject,
and already knows more than all the ancients. We see him
charmed at a sermon which Luther made on the subject of the
Sabbath-day. f He there taught that repose, in which God did
all, and man nothing. A young professor of the Greek language
heard such novel ideas, promulgated by the most lively and
vehement orator of his age, with all the ornaments of his native
language, and immense applause : it is not a matter of surprise
that he was captivated. To him Luther appears the greatest
of all men- — a man sent by God — a Prophet. The unexpected
success of the new reformation confirmed this^ opinion. Me-
lancthon was sincere and credulous ; men of talent are often so :
there he was taken. All the votaries of polite literature follow
his example — Luther becomes their idol. He is attacked, and
perhaps with too much acrimony. The ardor of Melancthon
is enkindled ; the confidence of Luther engages him still more ;
and with his master, he permits himself to be captivated with
the temptation of reforming Bishops, Popes, Princes, Kings, and
Emperors, even at the expense of unity and peace.
3. — Hmo Melancthon excused the violence of Luther.
Luther, it is true, was the slave of unheard-of excesses : this
was a subject of sorrow to his moderate disciple. He trembled
whenever he thought of the implacable wrath of this Achilles ;
and feared " nothing less from the old age of a man, whose
passions were so violent, than the transports of a Hercules, a
Philoctetes, and a Marius ;"J that is, he anticipated what, in-
deed, happened, something furious. This he writes confiden-
tially, and in Greek, according to his custom, to his friend
Camerarius : but, as with men of wit, a witty saying often has
great influence, a bonmot of Erasmus supported him. Eras-
mus said that the world, stubborn and obdurate as it was, required
a master as rude as Luther :§ that is, as he explained it to him,
Luther seemed necessary to the world, as tyrants are, whom
God sends for its correction ; as a Nebuchadnezzar, a Holo-
fernes ; in a word, as a scourge of God. In this there was no
subject in which to glory ; but Melancthon, who had understood

* Lib. iv. Ep. 126. Col. 574. f Ibid. Col. 575.

t Lib. iv. Ep. 240, 315. § Lib. xviu. Ep. 25, 19, 3.

13*

150 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

it on the fair side, persuaded himself, at the commencement,
that, in order to awaken the world, nothing less was necessary
than the violence and thunder of Luther.

4. — The commencement of the agitations of Melancthon.
But at length the arrogance of this imperious master declared
itself. The whole world rose up against him, even those who
were equally intent upon the reformation of the Church. A
thousand impious sects enrolled themselves under his banner,
and, under the name of Reformation, arms, seditions, and civil
wars, devastated Christianity. To increase these sorrows, the
Sacramentarian contest divided the new-born reformation into
two almost equal parts. However, Luther urged every thing
to extremes ; and his discourses, instead of calming, imbittered
the minds of men. His conduct appeared so weak, and his
excesses so singular, that Melancthon neither could excuse nor
support them. From that time his agitations were exceedingly
great. Every moment he wished for death. For thirty years
his tears ceased not to flow.* " And the Elbe," said he, " with
all it streams, would not have furnished him' with water sufficient
to weep for the sorrows of the divided reformation. '^f
5. — Melancthon achioivledges at length that Luther^s great success proceeded
from a bad principle.

The unexpected success of Luther, with which he had been
at first dazzled, and which with all others he considered as a mark
of the finger of God, was but a weak relief to him, when time
had discovered to him the true causes of this great progress and
its deplorable effects. He soon perceived that licentiousness
and independence had been the great supporters of the reforma-
tion. If the cities of the empire were seen to run in crowds to
this new gospel, it was not to adopt its doctrine. Our reformed
will feel pain at these words, but it is Melancthon who writes
them, and writes them to Luther : — " Our people blame me be-
cause I restore the jurisdiction to Bishops. The people accus-
tomed to liberty, having once cast off the yoke, will not receive
it again : and the imperial towns are most averse to this authority.
They seek not doctrine and rehgion, but power and liberty."!
He repeats this complaint again to the same Luther : — " Our
associates," says he, '* dispute not for the Gospel, but who shall
govern. "§ These towns, therefore, sought not for doctrine but
independence ; and if they were averse to their Bishops, it was
not because they were their pastors, but because they were their
sovereigns.

6. — He anticipates the disorders which were to anse from the contempt of
Episcopal anthority.

To speak all, Melancthon was not anxious to re-establish the

* Lib. iv. Ep. 100—1 19, 842. f Lib. ii. Ep. 202. | Lib. i. Ep. 17. § Lib. i. Ep. 20.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 151

temporal power of the Bishops ; but what he wished to have
restored, was the ecclesiastical government, the spiritual juris-
diction, and, in a word, " the Episcopal administration ;" because
he saw that without that every thing would fall into confusion.
" Would to God I could confirm, not the sovereignty of Bishops,
but restore their administration ; for I see what kind of Church
we are likely to have if we subvert the ecclesiastical government.
I see that tyranny will be more insupportable than
EVER."* It is what always happens when the yoke of lawful
authority is thrown off. Those who excite the people to insur-
rection under the pretext of liberty, become tyrants thems^elves ;
and if it be not yet sufficiently seen that Luther was of that
number, what follows will establish it beyond all doubt. Melanc-
thon proceeds ; and after blaming those who loved not Luther,
only because, through his means they removed the Bishops, he
concludes, " They had gained a liberty which would do posterity
no good. -For what will be," proceeds he, " the state of the
Church, if we change all the ancient customs, and there be no
more prelates nor certain guides'?"

7. — Ecclesiastical authority and discipline entirely despised in the iKew Churches.
— The testimony of Capito and others.

In this disorder he anticipates each one will become his own
master. If the ecclesiastical powers, to whom the authority of
the Apostles came by succession, be not acknowledged, how
will the new ministers subsist v/ho have taken their places ? It
is only necessary to hear Capito speak, the colleague of Bucer
in the administration of the Church of Strasburg : — " The au-
thority of the ministers," says he, " is wholly abohshed ; all is
lost — all falls to ruin. There is not any Church amongst us,
not so much as one, where there is any discipline. The people
say boldly to us — you wish to tyrannize over the Church which
is free — you wish to establish a new Papacy." And a little
after : " God has given me to understand what it is to be a
pastor, and the injury we have done the Church by our precipi-
tate judgment^ and the inconsiderate vehemence which induced
us to reject the Pope. For the people, accustomed to, and
nourished, as it were, in licentiousness, have rejected the curb
altogether, as if, by destroying the power of the Papists, we, at
the same time, destroyed the force of the Sacraments and the
Pfiinistry. They loudly tell us, I know enough of the gospel ;
what need have I of your aid to find out Jesus Christ ; go and
preach to those that are disposed to hear you."| What Babylon
more confused than this Church, which boasted she had come
forth from the Church of Rome as from a Babylon? Such was
the Church of Strasburg ; that Church which the new reformed
+ Lib. iv. Ep. 104. f Ep. ad Far. Int, Ep. Calv. p. 5.

152 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

incessantly proposed to Erasmus, when he complained of their dis-
orders, as the most orderly and modest of all the churches. Such
was this Church in 1537, that is, in her vigor and in her bloom.

Bucer, the colleague of Capito, entertained no better opinion
of it in 1549; and acknowledges that nothing had been there
more sought after, " than the pleasure of living after their own
fancy."*

Another minister complains to Calvin, that there was no order
in their churches, and gives this reason, " That a great number
of their people believed they had withdrawn themselves from
the power of Antichrist, by revelling with the wealth of the
Church, as pleased them best, and by despising all discipline, "f
These are not discourses which censure disorders with exagge-
ration ; they are what the new Pastors write to each other in
confidence ; and by them are seen the sad effects of the new
reformation.

8. — Another fruit of the Reformation. — The servitude of the Churchy in which
the Magistrates make themselves Popes.

One of the fruits it produced was the slavery into which the
Church fell. It is not surprising if the new reformation pleased
princes and magistrates, who then became masters of all, even
of doctrine itself. The first effect of the new gospel, in a town
adjoining Geneva, Montbeliart, was an assembly there held, by
the principal inhabitants, in order to know " what the Prince
could ordain concerning the Supper. "J In vain Calvin resists
this abuse : he has httle hopes of a remedy ; and all he can do
is to complain of it, as the greatest disorder that can be brought
into the Church. Mycon, the successor of CEcolampadius in
the ministry of Basil, makes a similar complaint to as little pur-
pose : " The laymen," says he, "assume all to themselves, and
the magistrate has made himself Pope." §

This was an evil unavoidable in the new Reformation ; it
estabhshed itself by rising up against the Bishops, by warrant
from the magistrates. The magistrate suspended the mass at
Strasburg, abolished it in other places, and modelled the divine
service ; the new pastors were instituted by his authority ; after
that it was but just that he should have all power in the Church.
Thus all that was gained in the new reformation, by rejecting
the Pope, the ecclesiastical successor of St. Peter, was to give
themselves a lay-pope, and place the authority of the Apostles
in the hands of the magistrates.
9. — Luther receives the Missio^i of the Prince to make the Ecclesiastical Visitation.

Luther, proud as he was of his new Apostleship, could not
defend himself against so great an abuse. Sixteen years had

+ Int. Ep. Calv. p. 509, 510. f Int. Ep. Calv. p. 43.

X Calv. Ep. p. 50, 51, 52. § Int. Ep. Calv. p. 52.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 153

elapsed since the establishment of his Reformation in Saxony,
without ever thinking of visiting the Churches, even to see if
the pastors whom they had appointed discharged their duty, or
if the people knew, at least, their Catechism. " They were
taught very well," says Luther, " to eat flesh on Fridays and
Saturdays, to lay aside confession, to believe they were justified
by faith alone, and that good works merited nothing ;"* but se-
riously to preach repentance, Luther well assures us, was a thing
they never thought of. — The Reformers were otherwise em-
ployed. At last, to restrain this disorder, in 1538, they thought
of the remedy of a Visitation, so recommended in the Canons.
*' But not a man amongst us," says Luther, " was as yet called
to this ministry ; and St. Peter prohibits any thing being done
in the Church without being assured, by a certain deputation,
that what one does is the work of God ;" that is, in a word, "a
mission, a vocation, a lawful authority is necessary for that
end.""f Observe, these new evangehsts were assured of their
extraordinary mission from above, to cause the people to rise up
against their bishops, to preach in opposition to them, to take
upon themselves the administration of sacraments, contrary to
their prohibition : but for the true episcopal function, wliich is
to visit and correct, not one of them had received the vocation
or appointment from God, so imperfect was this heavenly mis-
sion ; so much those, who boasted of it, did distrust it in reality.
The remedy discovered for this defect was to have recourse to
" the Prince, as to a power undoubtedly ordained by God in this
country."! Thus Luther speaks. But was this power of God's
appointment established for this function 1 Luther acknowl-
edges it was not, and rests upon this foundation, that a visitation
is an apostolic function. Why, then, have recourse to the
prince ? " Because," says Luther, " although the secular power
be not charged with this office, they will not fail, in charity, to
name visitors ;" and Luther exhorts the other princes to folio v/
this example ; that is, he would have the function of Bishops
be exercised by the authority of princes : and this attempt, in
the language of the Reformation, is called charity.

10. — The Lutheran Churches have no better discipline^ and Melancthon
acknowledges it.

This statement demonstrates that the Sacramentarians were
not the only people who, destitute of lawful authority, had filled
their Churches with confusion : Capito, it is true, after com-
plaining, as we have seen, that discipline was unknown in the
Churches of his sect, adds, " there was no discipline except in
the Lutheran Churches. "§ But Melancthon, who was ac-

* Visit. Sax. c. de Doct c. de Libert. Christ. f Ibid.

t Visit. Sax. cap. de Doct. cap. de Libert. Chiist. § Int. Epist. Calv. p. n. 7,

154 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

quainted with them, speaking of these Churches, in 1532, and
much about the time that Capito wrote liis letter, relates, " that
discipline was destroyed among them, and they doubted of the
most important matters : however, that, like the others, they would
take no care to explain their tenets, and these evils were incu-
rable :"* so that no advantage remains on the part of the Lu-
therans, unless that their discipline, such as it was, so much
excelled that of the Sacramentarians as to excite their envy.
1 1. — Melancthon laments the Licentiousness of the party, in lohich people at
table decided points of Religion.

It is expedient we should also learn, from Melancthon, in
what manner the great men of the party treated theology and
ecclesiastical discipline. Confession of sins was but feebly
spoken of among the Lutherans ; and though little was said of
it, and though the remains of Christian discipline which they
wished to retain were small, yet they had such an influence on
a man of importance, as Melancthon relates, that he openly de-
clared at a " great banquet (for there only, says he, they treat
theology) that they ought to oppose it ; that they ought to be
on their guard, lest that liberty they had recovered should be
taken from them, otherwise they would be enchained by a new
slavery, and that already, by little and little, the ancient tradi-
tions were renewing."^ This is the consequence of exciting
the spirit of rebellion among the people, and indiscreetly inspir-
ing them with a hatred of traditions. We have in one single
banquet a representation of what was done in the others. This
spirit prevailed among all the people ; and Melancthon himself
says to his friend Camerarius, speaking of these new churches,
" You see the excesses of the multitude, and their blind de-
sires :"J no order could be established among them.

12. — Imputed justice diminished the necessity of good ivorks.

Thus the true reformation, namely, of morals, retrogaded
instead of advancing, and this for two reasons — one, because
authority was destroyed, and because the new doctrine inchned
to favor human passions. I undertake not to prove that the
new Justification had this bad effect. It is a subject often
treated of before, and foreign to my purpose. I shall speak
only of those notorious facts that, after the establishment of
imputed justice, the doctrine of good works fell into such dis-
repute, that some of the chief disciples of Luther said it was a
blasphemy to teach they were necessary. Others went so far
as to say they were contrary to salvation ; all concurred in de-
ciding they were not necessary. It is permitted, in the new
Reformation, to say, that good works are necessary, as things,
which God requires from man, but it cannot be said that they
* Lib. iv. Ep. 135. f Ibid. 71. Ibid. p. 769.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 155

are necessary to salvation. And why, then, does God require
them ? Is it not in order to save us 1 Has not Jesus Christ
himself said, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command-
ments ?"* It is, therefore, precisely for obtaining life and eternal
salvation that good works are necessary according to the Gos-
pel, and it is what the whole Scripture preaches to us. But the
new Reformation has discovered this subtlety, that one may
without difficulty allow them to be necessary, provided it be not
for salvation. The question regarded the adult, for as to little
children, all were agreed. Who would have behoved the Ref-
ormation was to bring forth such a prodigy 1 and that this prop-
osition, " Good works are necessary to salvation," should ever
have been condemned 1 It was done by Melancthon and all
the Lutherans in many of their conventions,"!* and particularly
that of Worms, in 1557, the acts of which we shall see in their
proper place.

13. — J^o Reformation of Morals m the Protestant Churches; the testimony of
Erasmus.

I intend not here to impeach Protestants with their bad
morals ; our own, with relation to most men, did not appear
better. I wish only to disabuse them of the idea that their Ref-
ormation was attended with the fruits that might be anticipated
from so beautiful a name, or that their new justification had pro-
duced one good effect. Erasmus frequently said, that of the
many whom he had seen embrace the new Reformation, (and
he maintained a familiarity with most of their chiefs,) he had
not seen so much as one whom it had not made worse instead
of making better. " What an evangelical generation is this !"
said he. J " Nothing was ever seen more licentious, and, withal,
more seditious ; nothing, in a word, less evangehcal than these
pretended evangelists : they abrogate vigils, and the divine ser-
vice of the night and day. They were, said they, Pharisaical
superstitions ; but then they should have substituted something
better in their place, and not become Epicureans to escape
Judaism. All is carried to extremes in this new Reformation.
They root up only what ought to be pruned ; they set fire to
the house in order to cleanse it. Morals are neglected ; luxury,
debauchery, adulteries, increase more than ever ; there is no
order, no discipline among them. The people indocile, after
having shaken off* the yoke of their superiors, will believe no
person ; and in so disordered a licentiousness Luther will soon
have reason to regret what he calls the tyranny of bishops."
When he wrote in tliis way to his Protestant friends regarding
the unhappy fruits of their reformation, § they candidly agreed

* Matt. xix. 17. t Mel. Ep. Lib. i. p. 70. col. 84.

X Ep. p. 818. 822. Lib. xix, Ep. 3, 31, 47. p. 2063. § Lib xLx. 2, 30, 62.

156 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

with him. " I had much rather," said he to them, " have to do
with those Papists you decry so much."* He reproaches them
with the mahce of Capito, the maUgnant falsehocJds of Farel,
whom (Ecolampadius, at whose table he hved, could neither
suffer nor restrain ; the arrogance and violence of Zuinglius,
and in a word, v/ith those of Luther, who sometimes seemed
to speak like the Apostles, and at other times abandoned him-
self to such strange excesses, and such vile scurrility, that it
was plainly seen the apostolic air he affected at times proceeded
not from his heart. The others with whom he was acquainted
were no better. " I find," said he, " more piety in one good
Cathohc bishop than in all these new evangeHsts."| What he
said was not to flatter the Catholics, whose disorders he im-
peached with sufficient freedom. But, besides that he disap-
proved their boasting of the reformation, without any superior
merit of their own, he judged there was an essential difference
between those v/ho neglected good works through weakness,
and those who lessened their dignity and necessity by maxim.
14. — The testimony ofBucer.
But here is a testimony which will press the Protestants more
closely : it is that of Bucer. For in 1542, and more than twenty
years after the reformation, this minister writes to Calvin, " that
among them the most evangelical did not so much as know what
true repentance was"J — so much had they abused the name of
reformation and gospel. We have just heard as much from the
lips of Luther. § Five years after this letter of Bucer, and in
the midst of the victories of Charles V, Bucer writes again to
the same Calvin : " God has punished the injury we have done
to his name by our long and pernicious hypocrisy."|| This
was confining a sufficiently proper name to licentiousness cov-
ered with the title of reformation. In 1649, he describes in
stronger terms the little fruit of the pretended reformation, when
he writes again to Calvin. " Our people have passed from tho
hypocrisy so deeply rooted in the Papacy, to a profession, such
as it is, of Jesus Christ ; and there is but a small number who
have departed from this hypocrisy. "IT Now he certainly seeks
for a subject of dispute, and endeavors to render the Church of
Rome guilty of that hypocrisy he acknowledges in his ovvn
party. For if by the Roman hypocrisy, according to the style
of the reformation, he understands the watchings, the abstinence,
and devotions performed in honor of the saints, and similar
practices, it was impossible for the new Reformed to be more
detached from these things than they were, having all of them

* Lib. xix. 3. t Lib. xxxi. Epist. 59. col. 2118. I Int. Ep. Calv. p. 54.
§ Visit. Sax. Cap. deDoct. c. de lib. clir. H Int. Ep. Calv. p. 100.

U Ibid. p. 509, 510.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 157

passed to the opposite extreme ; but as the foundation of piety
consisted not in these external things, it consisted still less in
abolishing them. If it were the opinion of merits that Bucer
here calls our hypocrisy, this was an evil, which the reformation
had too well corrected, which had taken away even that merit
whicti is the gift of grace, though the truth sometimes forced
its acknowledgment. However that may be, the reformation
had prevailed so little against hypocrisy, that very few, accord-
ing to Bucer, had abandoned so great an evil. " For which
reason," proceeds he, " our people labored more to appear
disciples of Jesus Chiist than to be so in reality ; and when
this appearance injured their interests, they relinquished it.
What pleased them was the separation from the tyranny and
supei^stitions of the Pope, and living after their own
FANCY." And a little after, *' Our people would never receive
sincerely the laws of Jesus Christ : neither have they courage
to enforce the laws against others, with a Christian constancy.
As long as they believed they had the arm of flesh to support
them, they generally returned answers of some vigor ; but when
this arm of flesh was broken, and they no longer had any human
aid, they forgot them."

Doubtless, the true reformation hitherto — I mean that of
morals — had but weak foundations in the pretended reforma-
tion ; and the work of God, so much boasted of, and so much
desired, was neglected by them.
15. — The insuppm'table tyranny of Luther; what Calvin icrites to Melancthon.

What Melancthon most expected in Luther's reformation, was
Christian liberty, and freedom from human authority ; but he
found himself much disappointed in his hopes. For almost fifty
years together, he beheld the Lutheran Church always under
tyranny or in confusion. She long had to sustain the punish-
ment of despising lawful authority. Never was there a master
more severe than Luther, nor a tyranny more insupportable than
what he exercised in points of doctrine. This arrogance was
so well known, as to induce Muncer to say there were two popes
— that of Rome and Luther ; and this latter was the more rig-
orous. Had it been only Muncer, a fanatic, and the leader of
fanatics, Melancthon might have consoled himself; but Zuin-
glius, Calvin, all the Swiss and all the Sacramentarians — men
not at all despised by Melancthon — said, loudly, without his
being able to contradict them, that Luther was another pope.
None are unacquainted with what Calvin wrote to his friend
Bullinger, " that the excesses of Luther could be no longer
borne, whose self-love would not permit him to see his own de-
fects, nor bear contradiction."* Here doctrine was in question,
♦ Ep. p. 526.
14

158 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK \

and it was principally in doctrine that Luther would make him-
self absolute. The thing was carried to such excess, that Calvin
complained of it to Melancthon himself. *' With what excess
does your Pericles deal out his thunder !"* It was thus Luther
was called, when they wished to give a fine name to his intem-
perate eloquence. " We owe much to him, I acknowledge, and
I will readily allow him a very great authority, provided he knows
how to govern himself; though it is time for him now to reflect
how much deference ought, in the Church, to be given to men.
All is lost where one alone has more power than all the others,
particularly if he fears not to use the extent of his power. And
certainly, we leave a singular example to posterity, whilst we
rather relinquish our liberty than by the least offence provoke
one single man. His temper, you may say, is violent, and all
his motives impetuous ; as if his violence were not augmented
by the obsequiousness of the whole world. Let us once have
courage to sigh freely." How great must be the captivity of
man when he may not sigh with freedom ! A man, I acknowl-
edge, may be chagrined ; though one of the first and least effects
of virtue is to overcome himself in this inequality of temper ; but
what is to be hoped of a man who has no more authority, nor
perhaps more learning than the others, who will hear nothing,
and must rule all things by his word ?

16. — Melancthon, tyrannized over by Luther, thinks of retiring
Melancthon could make no reply to those just complaints,
nor was he of a different opinion from the others. Those who
lived with Luther, never knew how this rigorous master would
take their sentiments in point of doctrine. He menaced them
with new formularies of faith, chiefly with regard to the Sacra-
mentarians, whose pride Melancthon was accused of fomenting
by " his meekness." This pretext was made use of to incense
Luther against him, as his friend Camerarius writes in his lifcf
Melancthon knew no remedy for those evils, except that of
flight ; and his son-in-law, Bucer, acquaints us, that he was re-
solved upon it."J He writes himself, that Luther was so in-
censed against him, on account of a letter received from Bucer,
that he thought of nothing but of withdrawing for ever from his
presence. § He was under such restraint with Luther, and the
heads of the party, and they had so overwhelmed him with labor
and uneasiness, that, quite exhausted, he wrote to his friend
Camerarius, " I am," says he, " in slavery, as one in the den
of the Cyclops ; for I cannot conceal my thoughts from you,
and I often think of flight." || Luther was not the only one that
so enchained him : amongst those who have withdrawn them-

* Calv. Ep. ad Mel. p. 72. f Cam. in. Vit. Phil. Mel.

1 Peuc. ep. ad Vit. Heod. Hosp. p. 2. § Mel. lib. iv. ep. 315. || Ibid. p. 255.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 15^

selves from lawful authority, every one is master at certain times,

and the most moderate man is always the greatest slave.

17. — He passes his whole life, without ever daring to explain his doctrine entirely.

When a man has entered into a party to speak his sentiments
with freedom, and this illusion has induced him to renounce the
established government, if he subsequently find the yoke to en-
slave him, and not only the master he has chosen, but even his
companions, retain him in more subjection than before, what
has he not to suffer, and how can we feel surprise at the con-
tinual lamentations of Melancthon? No, Melancthon never
spoke his full sentiments, with regard to doctrine, not even at
Augsburg, when he wrote his Confession of Faith, and that of
all the party. We have seen how "he accommodated his dogmas
to the occasion :"* he was ready to say many milder things,
that is, approximating more closely to the tenets received by
CathoHcs, "if his companions would have permitted him." Con-
strained on all sides, but more by Luther than any other, he
never dares to speak, and reserves himself for " better times,
if such should happen," says he, " for the designs I entertain. "f
This is what he writes in 1537, in the assembly of Smalkald,
where the articles above-mentioned were drawn up. Five years
after that time, and in 1642, we find him again sighing for a free
convention of the whole party, " where doctrine may be ex-
plained in a firm and precise manner."J Again, after this, and
towards the latter end of his hfe, he writes to Calvin and Bul-
linger, that some were about to write against him, on the subject
of the Eucharist, and the adoration of the bread. The Lu-
therans were to be the authors of this book. " If they publish
it," said he, " I will speak freely."§ But these better times,
these times of speaking freely, and declaring without fear what
he called truth, never came for him ; nor was he deceived when
he said, that, " Let matters turn out as they may, never should
they have the liberty of speaking freely on points of doctrine." ||
When Calvin and the others encourage him to speak his senti-
ments, he always speaks like one under the obligation of great
caution, and awaits an opportunity of explaining himself on cer-
tain matters, IF which, however, he never performed. — Thus one
of the chief teachers of the new reformation, and he who may be
said to have given Lutheranism its form, died without fully ex-
plaining himself on the most important controversies of his time.
18. — J^ew Tyranny in the Lutheran Churches after that of Luther.

The reason was, while Luther lived, he was forced to silence ;
-after his death, they were not more free. Other tyrants took

+ Lib. iii. N. 59. f Lib. iv. ep. 204. % Lib. i. ep. 1 10. col. 147.

§ Ep. Mel int. Calv. ep. p. 218, 236. || Lib. iv. ep. 136.

H Ep. Mel. int. Calv. ep. p. 199. Calv. Resp. p. 21L

160 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

his place. These were Illyricus, and the other leaders of the
people. The unhappy Melancthon considers himself, among
the Lutherans his colleagues, as in the midst of enemies, or, to
use his own words, in the midst of furious wasps, " and has no
hopes of finding sincerity, except in heaven."* I wish it were
allowed me to employ the word " Demagogue," which he uses.
Those were certain orators in Athens, and the popular states of
Greece, who became all-powerful with the people, by flattering
them. The Lutheran churches were led by similar speakers :
" Ignorant men," so speaks Melancthon, " who are strangers to
both piety and discipline. Such are they who domineer ; and
I am like Daniel among the Lions."']' This is the picture which
he draws of the Lutheran Churches. They had already fallen
into anarchy, that is, as he says himself, " into a state that at
once involves all evils :"J he wishes for death, and sees no hopes
but in Him who has promised to support his Church, " even in
her old age, and to the end of the world." Happy, could he have
perceived that consequently he never ceases to support her !
19. — Melancthon knows not where he is, and all his life searches after Religion.

Here it is that men should have stopped ; and since it was nec-
essary ultimately to return to the promises made to the Church,
Melancthon had only to reflect, that they ought to have been as
immutable in ages past, as he v/ished to beheve they were to be
in ages subsequent to the Reformation. The Lutheran Church
had no particular assurance of her eternal duration, nor ought the
reformation made by Luther to remain more immoveable than the
first institution estabhshed by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.
How was it possible for Melancthon not to see that the refor-
mation, whose faith he would change daily, was not the v/ork of
man 1 We have seen how he changed, and changed again, many
important articles of the Augsburg Confession, even after it had
been presented to the Emperor. § At different times, he even
took many important things from the Apology, although it had
been subscribed by the whole party with as much submission as
the Confession of Augsburg. In 1532, after the Confession
of Augsburg and Apology, he writes again, " That most im-
portant points remain undecided, and that they ought, without
noise, to seek means to explain their dogmas." || " How much,"
says he, " do I wish this to be done, and done well !" like a man
that knew in his conscience nothing hitherto had been done as
it ought. In 1533, " Who is there," says he, " that so much as
thinks of healing the conscience agitated with doubts, and of
discovering truth !"ir In 1535, " How much," says he, "do

+ Mel. epist. ad Calv. int. Calv. epist p. 144. f Lib. iv. ep. 836, 842, 845.

X Lib. iv. et lib. i. ep. 107, 4, 76, 876. § V. S. Ub. iii. N. 5. et seq. 23, 24,27.

II Lib. iv. ep. 135. IT Ibid. ep. 140.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. IGl

we deserve to be blamed, we that take no care to heal the con-
science agitated with doubts, nor to explain the dogmas, purely
and simply, without sophistry ! These things torment me ter-
ribly."* He wishes in the same year, " that a pious assembly
would determine the Eucharistic contest, without sophistry, and
without tyranny."f He judges then the thing as undecided ;
and five or six ways of explaining this article, which we find in
the Augsburg Confession and Apology, have not satisfied him.
In 1536, accused of still raising many doubts of the doctrine he
professed, he replies at once, that it was immoveable, for so it
was necessary he should speak, or abandon the cause. J But
immediately after, he gives to understand, that, indeed, many
defects remained in it ; and it must not be forgotten that he
speaks of doctrine. Melancthon imputes these defects to the
vices and obstinacy of ecclesiastics, " by whose means it hap-
pened," says he, " that amongst us things have been left to take
their own course, to say nothing worse ; that we have fallen into
many faults, and, at the commencement, have done many things
without reason." He acknowledges the disorder ; and the vain
excuse he seeks, by imputing the defects of his own religion to
the Catholic Church, will not conceal it. He had advanced no
further in 1537 ; and whilst all the Doctors of the party assem-
bled with Luther at Smalkald, there explained anew the points
of doctrine, or, rather, there subscribed to the decisions of Luther,
"I was of opinion," says he, "that, rejecting some paradoxes,
they should explain doctrine more simply ;"§ and, although he
subscribed, as we have seen, these decisions, he was so little
satisfied with them that, in 1542, we have heard him still wish
for another assembly, " where the dogmas might be explained
in a firm and precise manner." || Three years after, and in 1645,
he acknowledges that truth had been but very imperfectly dis-
covered to the preachers of the new gospel. " I beseech God,"
says he, " to prosper this glimmering of doctrine, such as he has
discovered to us."l[ He declares that, as to himself, he has
done all in his power : " the will," says he, " was not wanting to
me, but time, guides, and doctors." How ! was his master,
Luther, then wanting to him — the man he had believed to be
raised by God to dispel the darkness with which the world was
covered 1 Without doubt he confided but little in the doctrine
of such a master, when he so bitterly laments the want of a doc-
tor. And, indeed, after the death of Luther, Melancthon, who
in so many places so highly extols him, writing in confidence
to his friend Camerarius, contents himself with saying, coldly
enough, that *' he had at least well explained some part of the

+ Lib. iv. ep. 170. f Lib. ill. ep. 1 14. t Lib. iv. ep. 194.

§ Ibid. ep. 98. || Lib. i. ep. 110. If- Lib. iv. ep. 662.

14*

162 ' THE HISTORY OP [bOOK ^

heavenly doctrine."* A little after, he confesses " that he and
the others fell into many errors, which they could not avoid, upon
coming forth from so much darkness :"| and is satisfied with
saying that " many things have been well explained ;" which
agreed perfectly with the desire he had, that the rest should be
better explained. We see, in all the above passages, that the
dogmas of faith were the things in question ; since decisions,
and new decrees on doctrine, are there spoken of in every place.
Men, if they please, may now be surprised at those they call
Seekers in England. Here is Melancthon himself, who still
seeks for many articles of his rehgion forty years after the preach
ing of Luther and the estabhshment of the Reformation.
20. — What were the dog7nas which Melancthon found badly explained.
If it be asked what were the dogmas Melancthon pretended
were badly explained, it is certain that they were most important
ones — that of the Eucharist was in the number. In 1553, after
all the changes of the Augsburg Confession, after the explana-
tions of the Apology, after the Articles of Smalkald, which he
had signed, he still demands "a new formulary for the Supper." J
It is not well known what he wished to insert in this new formu-
lary ; it appears only, that neither those of his own nor those
of the opposite party pleased him, since he says, that both one
and the other did nothing but obscure the subject. Another
article which he wished might be decided was that of free-will,
the consequences of which so very much affected the subjects
of justification and grace. In 1548 he writes to Thomas Cran-
mer, that Archbishop of Canterbury who completely destroyed
the King, his master, by his obsequiousness : " Ever since the
commencement," says he, "the doctrines which have been ad-
vanced amongst us on free-will, according to the opinions of
the stoics, were too harsh, and we must think of making some
new formulary on this head."§ That of the Augsburg Confes-
' sion, though he himself had drawn it up, no longer pleased him ;
he began to think that free-will did not only act in the duties of
civil life, but moreover in the operations of grace, and by its
assistance. These were not the notions he had received from
Luther, nor ¥/hat Melancthon himself had explained at Augsburg. .
This doctrine raised him opponents among the Protestants. He
prepared himself for a vigorous defence, when he wrote to a
friend, " If they shall publish their stoical disputes, (regarding
fatal necessity and free-will,) I shall answer very gravely and
very learnedly." || Thus, in the midst of his misfortunes, he is
pleased with the thoughts of writing a fine work, and persists in
his beUef, as the following will more fully discover to us.
* Lib. iv. ep. 662. f Ibid. ep. 699. J Lib. ii. Ep. 447.

§ Lib. ui. Ep. 42. || Lib. ii. Ep. 200.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 163

21. — Melanclhon declares that he adhei-es to the Confession of Augsburg, at the
time he thinks of reforming it.

We might point out other things which Melancthon wished to
see decided, long after the Confession of Augsburg. But what
appears more singular is, that whilst he, who had made it, found
in his conscience, and acknowledged to his friends, the neces-
sity of reforming it in so many important articles, he himself, in
the public assemblies then held, never ceased to declare, with
all the others, that he adhered precisely to this Confession, such
as it was presented at the Diet of Augsburg, and to the Apol-
ogy, as the pure exposition of the word of God. Policy required
this ; and it would have too much dishonored the Reformation
to admit that it had erred in its foundation.

What repose could Melancthon have during these uncertain-
ties ? The evil was, they arose from the very grounds, and, as
I may say, from the constitution of his church in which there
was no regular power, no legitimate authority. Usurped au-
thority has no uniformity ; it bends or relaxes without modera-
tion. Thus tyranny and anarchy are felt in it alternately ; nor
is it known to whom application should be made to arrange
matters in a steady frame.

22. — These uncertainties jyroceeded from the constitvtimi of the Protestant
Churches.

So essential, and, at the same time, so inevitable a defect in
the constitution of the new Reformation, gave extreme trouble
to the miserable Melancthon. If any questions arose, there
were no means of terminating them ; the most certain traditions
were despised ; the Scripture was rested and forced by the ca-
price of every man ; all parties believed they understood it —
they all proclaimed it was clear ; not a man would yield to his
companion. Melancthon called out in vain for an assembly,
to terminate the Eucharistic dispute, which tore in pieces the
new-born Reformation. Conferences which they called amicable
bad nothing but the name, and served only to exasperate the
minds of men, and embarrass the cause : a juridical assembly
was necessary, a Council which should have the power of de-
ciding, and to w^hich all the people should submit. But where
was this to be had in the new Reformation ? The remembrance
of the despised bishops was still too recent ; the individuals,
who had possessed themselves of their places, could not assume
to themselves a more inviolable character ; and, indeed, both
sides, Lutherans and Zuinglians, wished to have their mission
judged of by the merits of the cause. He who spoke the truth
had, according to them, the true mission. The difficulty was
to know who spoke the truth, which every person claimed ; and
all tliose who rested their mission on tliis examination made it

164 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

doubtful. The Catholic bishops had a certain title, and their
vocation alone was indisputable. It was said they abused it,
nor was it denied that they had. Thus Melancthon always
wished to acknowledge them, and always maintained that it was
wrong "to yield nothing to the sacred order."* If their au-
thority was not re-established, he anticipated, with a lively and
inco'isolable sorrow, that "discord would have no end, and would
be attended with ignorance, barbarity, and all kinds of evil."

23. — The authority of the Church absolutely necessary in matters of Faitlu
It is very easy to say, as our reformed do, that they have an
extraordinary vocation ; that the Church, like kingdoms, is not
attached to an established succession ; and matters of religion
ouglt not to be judged in the same form that causes are at tri-
bunals. Conscience, say they, is the true tribunal, where each
one IS to judge matters as they are in themselves, and hear truth
from himself: these things, I repeat, are very easily said. Me-
lancthon said them, like the others ; but, in his conscience, was
very sensible some other foundation was necessary on which to
build the Church. For, in reality, why should she have less
order than empires 1 Why should she not have a legitimate suc-
cession in her magistrates 1 Ought a way to be left open to
every man who would say he was sent from God, or the faithful
to be obliged to investigate the cause to the bottom, though the
greatest part of men are incapable of such inquiry 1 Such lan-
guage may serve for disputation ; but when a matter is to be
terminated, — the peace of the Church to be established, — and
true repose, without impediment, given to the consciences of
men, we must have recourse to other means. Do what we may,
we must return to authority, which is neither certain nor lawful,
when, proceeding from nothing higher, it rests on itself for a
foundation. It is for this reason Melancthon wished to ac-
knowledge the bishops, whom succession had estabhshed, and
saw no other remedy for the evils of the Church.

24. — The sentiments of Melancthon on the necessity of acknoioledging the Pope
and Bi

The manner in which he explains himself, in one of his let-
ters on this subject, is admirable. " Our people are agreed that
ecclesiastical polity, by which Bishops are acknowledged the su-
periors of many churches, and the Bishop of Rome superior
to all Bishops, is allowable. It was also lawful for kings to
endow churches with revenues : so there is no dispute about the
superiorty of the Pope, and the authority of Bishops ; and the
Bishops, as well as the Pope, may easily retain this authority :
for guides are necessary to retain the Church in ordej, to watch

* Lib. iv. Ep. 196.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 165

over those who are called to the Ecclesiastical ministry and the
doctrine of priests, and to exercise Ecclesiastical judgments.
If there were not such Bishops, it would be necessary to

CREATE THEM. ThE PoPE's MONARCHY WOuld alsO tc of

great use to the agreement of doctrine between different nations.
Thus the superiority of the Pope might easily be admitted,
were we but agreed in all the rest ; and Kings themselves might
easily moderate the attempts of Popes on the temporalities of
their kingdoms."* This was what Melancthon thought of the
authority of the Pope and Bishops. The whole party enter-
tained the same sentiments when he wrote this letter. " Our
people," says he, *' are agreed :" far from looking upon the au-
thority of Bishops with the superiority and monarchy of the Pope,
as a mark of the an ti- Christian empire, he held it for a tiling
desirable, and which ought to be created, if not established. It
is true that he added this condition, that ecclesiastical powers
" should not oppress sound doctrine :" but, if it may be per-
mitted to say they do oppress it ! and, under this pretext, refuse
the obedience due to them, they fall again into the difficulty they
seek to avoid, and the ecclesiastical authority becomes a mock
authority for all that wish to contradict.

25. — Melancthon, in the .Assembly of Smalkdd, is of opinion that they should
acknowledge the Council convened by the Pope — a7id why 7

It was for this reason also that Melancthon always sought for
a remedy to so great an evil. It was not certainly his design
that the disunion should remain for ever. Luther submitted to
the Council at the time Melancthon embraced his doctrine.
The whole party pressed its convocation, and Melancthon hoped
from it the termination of the schism, without which, I presume,
he never would have engaged in it. But, after the first step,
men venture farther than they had intended. To the demand
of the Council, the Protestants added, that they demanded it
" free, pious, and Christian." The demand is just — Melancthon
agrees to it ; but such fair words concealed a profound artifice.
By the name of a free Council, they explained their meaning
to be such a Council as the Pope, and all those who professed
submission to him, should be excluded from. These, they said,
were interested persons — the Pope was the guilty party, the
Bishops were his slaves — they could not be judges. "V\ho, then,
should hold the Council ] The Lutherans, mere private indi-
viduals % or priests in rebellion against their bishops ? What an
example to posterity ! And, again, were they not also interested?
Were they not considered guilty by Catholics, who, without
doubt, formed the greatest, not to say the best part of the Chris-
tian world? What ! to have indifferent judges, should then the
+ Resp. ad Bell.

166 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

appeal be made to Turks or Heathens, or ought God to send
us angels "? And was any thing more necessary than to accuse
all the magistrates of the Church, in order to deprive them of
their power, and render judgment impossible ? Melancthon had
too much sense not to see this was but an illusion. What can
he do? He informs us himself. In 1537, when the Lutherans
were assem.bled at Smalkald, in order to discover what was best
to be done with regard to the council Paul the Third had sum-
moned at Mantua, it was said the Pope ought not to be allowed
the authority of forming a convention in which himself was to be
accused, nor should a council so convoked be acknowledged by
them.. But Melancthon could not agree to this. " My opinion
was,^' says he, " not to refuse the Council absolutely, because,
although the Pope cannot be judge therein, however he has

THE RIGHT OF CALLING IT TOGETHER, and the Council mUSt

order the proceeding on to judgment."* Here he immediately
acknowledges the Council; and what is still more remarkable,
the whole world allowed he had, on the whole, reason on his side.
" Men more acute than myself," proceeds he, " said that my
reasons were subtle and true, but useless ; that the tyranny of
the Pope was such, that if we once consented to be present at
the Council, it would be understood that we thereby granted to
the Pope the power of judging. I saw very well there was some
difficulty in my opinion ; but, after all, it was the most honest.
The other carried it, after great disputes, and I believe there is
in this somewhat of fatality."

26. — When certain principles are overturned, all we do is unwarrantable and
contradictory.
This is generally said when one knows not what to say.
Melancthon seeks for an end to the schism, and, for want of
comprehending truth whole and entire, what he says is not con-
sistent. On one side he was sensible what service an acknowl-
edged authority does the Church. He saw clearly, among so
many dissensions then arising, that a principal authority was
then necessary to maintain unity, nor could he recognise this
authority any where but in the Pope. On the other hand, he
would not have him to be judge in the impeachment the Lu-
therans brought against him. Thus he grants him the authority
of calling the Assembly, and, after that, will have him excluded
from it — an odd opinion, I acknowledge. But, for all this,
Melancthon ought not to be deemed a person unskilled in these
matters : he was not so reputed by his own party, — the only
person, I may say, in whom they could boast, and excelled by
none among them in sense or erudition. If he proposes things
contradictory, it was because the new Reformation allowed
* Lib. iv. Ep. 196.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 167

nothing that was right or consistent. He was correct in saying
that it belonged to the Pope to call the Council, for who else
should call it, particularly in the present state of Christianity?
Was there any other power, except that of the Pope, which the
whole world acknowledged ? and to deprive him of it at once,
before the Assembly, in which they said they had intended to
accuse him, was not this too unjust a prejudice 1 Above all,
when the matter in debate was no personal crime of the Pope,
but the doctrine which he had received from his predecessors
so many ages ago, and which was common to him with all the
bishops of the Church ? These reasons were so sohd, thr.t the
rest of the Lutherans, opposed to Melancthon, acknowledged
them, as he himself has just told us, " to be true." But those
who acknowledged this truth, however, maintained at the same
time, and with good reason, that if they granted the Pope the
power of forming the Assembly, they could no longer exclude
him from it. The bishops, who ever acknowledged him the
Chief of their order, and saw themselves in a synodical body
convened by his authority, would they suffer their assembly to
commence with dispossessing a natural President for a cause
common to them all 1 Would they give an example unheard
of in all past ages ? These things were inconsistent ; and in
this conflict of the Lutherans it appeared manifestly that, after
certain principles are overthrown, everything that follov/s is
untenable and contradictory.

27. — Reasons for the restriction which Melancthon placed to his Subscription zu
the articles of Smalkald.

If they persisted in refusing the Council which the Pope had
convened, Melancthon had no further hopes of a remedy for the
schism ; and it was on this occasion he spoke the words above
cited, " that discord would be everlasting,"* in consequence of
not recognising the authority of the sacred order. Afflicted at
so great an evil, he pursues his point ; and although the opinion
he had proposed for the Pope, or, rather, for the unity of the
Church, in the Assembly of Sm.alkald, was there rejected, he
made his own subscription to the above form, as we have seen,
reserving the authority of the Pope. The important causes and
reasons which obhged him to concede the superiority of the
Pope over the Bishops are now seen. Peace, — which reason
and experience of the dispositions of his own sect made him
consider impossible without these means, — forced him, in oppo-
sition to Luther, upon so necessary an expedient. His con-
science, at this time, triumphed over his complaisance ; and he
added only, that he gave the Pope a superiority of " human
right :" unhappy in not seeing that a Primacy which experience
* Lib. iv. Ep. 196.

168 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

showed him to be so necessary for the Church, well deserved
to have been instituted by Jesus Christ ; nay more, what is found
established in all ages, could proceed from none but him !
28. — The words of Melancthon on the authority of the Church.
Surprising were the sentiments he had with regard to the au-
thority of the Church. For, although, like other Protestants,
he would not allow the infallibility of the Church in disputes, lest,
said he, too great a prerogative should be given to men, the dic-
tates of his mind carried him still farther. He frequently repeated,
that Jesus Christ had promised his Church to support her for
ever ; that he had promised his " work," that is, his Church,
" should never be dissipated nor abolished ;" and, therefore, to
ground himself upon the faith of the Church, was to ground
himself not on man, but on the promise of Jesus Christ him-
self.* This induced him to say even, " Sooner may the earth
open under my feet, than it happen to me to depart from the
sentiment of the Church in which Jesus Christ does reign."
And, in other numberless places, " Let the Church judge — I
submit myself to the judgment of the Church."! The truth is,
that faith, which he had in the promise, vacillated frequently ;
and, once, after having said, according to the sentiments of his
heart, " I submit myself to the Cathohc Church," he adds, "that
is to say, to good men, and learned men."J This, his limita-
tion, I acknowledge destroyed the whole ; and it is easily seen
what that submission was, which, under the name of good and
learned men, acknowledges none, at the bottom, but such as he
pleases : for this reason he wished always to come to a fixed
character, an avowed authority, which was that of the Bishops.

. 29. — Melancthon cannot depart from the opinion of imputed justice, xchatever
grace God bestows on him for his return. — Tioo truths acknowledged by him.

If it be now asked. How it happened that a man so desirous
of peace did not seek it in the Church, but remained separated
from that sacred order he was so intent on establishing 1 it is
easily answered — it was chiefly because he could never abandon
his imputed justice. God, however, had given him great graces,
since he had the knowledge of two truths capable of reclaiming
him : one, that a doctrine not found in antiquity ought not to b»
followed. " Consult," said he, to Brentius, " with the ancient
Church :"§ and, again, " Opinions unknown to the ancient
Church are not to be received." j| The other truth, that is, his
doctrine of imputed justice, was not to be met with in the Fa-
thers. As soon as he began to set about explaining it, we have
heard him say, " He found nothing Hke it in their writings. "If

* Lib. i. Ep. 107. iv. 76, 733, 845, 876, etc. f Lib. iii. Ep. 44. Lib. i. Ep.
67, 105^ Lib. ii. Ep. 159, etc. % Lib. i. Ep. 109. § Lib. iii. Ep. 114.

II Mel. de Eccles. Cath. ap. Lut. t. i. p. 444. "IT Lib. iii. Ep. 126, col. 574, S. n. 2.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 169

Nevertheless, they thought fit to say, in the Augsburg Confession
and Apology, that nothing was advanced therein but was con-
formable to their doctrine. Above all, St. Augustin was cited;
and it had been too shameful to the Reformers to own that so
great a Doctor, the defender of Christian grace, had been igno-
rant of the foundation of it. But what Melancthon writes to a
friend in confidence, shows us plainly that it was only for form
sake, and to save appearances, they named St. Augustin in the
party. For he repeats three or four times, with a kind of con-
cern, that what hinders his friend from well understanding this
matter is, because " he is still too much wedded to St. Augus-
tin's imagination," and that " he must turn away his eyes en-
tirely from the imagination of this Father."* But, then, what
is this imagination he must turn his eyes from ? Why it is, says
he, the imagination of being held for just by the fulfilling of the
law, which the Holy Ghost works within us. This fulfilling,
according to Melancthon, avails nothing towards rendering man
agreeable to God, and it was a false imagination in St. Augustin
to have thought the contrary : thus does he treat so great a man.
And, nevertheless, he cites him, on account, says he, of the
public opinion men have of him. But, in the main, continues
he, "he does not sufficiently explain the justice of faith." As
if he said, on such a subject, we ought at least to cite a Father
the whole world considers the best interpreter of this article,
although, to speak the truth, he makes not for us. He found
nothing more favorable in the rest of the Fathers. " What dense
darkness," said he, " do we find on this subject in the common
doctrine of tlie Fathers and our adversaries."! What became
of those fine words. Consult with the ancient Church? Why
did he not practise what he advised others ? And seeing he
knew no piety, (as, indeed, none there is but what is grounded
on the true doctrine of justification,) how could he beheve so
many saints were ignorant of it ? How could he imagine he
saw so clearly in Scripture what he did not see in the Fathers,
not even in St. Augustin, the doctor and defender of justifying
grace against the Pelagians, whose doctrine also, in this point,
the whole Church had constantly followed ?

30. — Melancthon can neither satisfy himself in imputed justice, nor resolve to
abandon it.
But what most deserves our observation in this place is, that
he himself, smitten as he was with the specious idea of his im-
puted justice, never could succeed in explaining it to his own
liking. Not content with laying down the dogma regarding it
in the most ample manner in the Confession of Augsburg, he
applies himself wholly to the expounding of it in the Apology;
+ Lib. i. Ep. 94. t Lib. iv. Ep. 228.

15

170 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

and, whilst he composed it, he wrote to his friend Camerarius,
" I truly suffer a very great and painful labor in the Apology,
in the points of justification, which I desire to explain profit-
ably."^^ But, however, after all this pains-taking, has he fully
explained it ? Let us hear what he writes to another friend ; it
is the same we have seen him reprove as too much wedded to
St. Augustin's imaginations. " I have endeavored," says he,
" to explain this doctrine in the Apology, but, in such discourses
as these, the calumnies of our adversaries permit not the ex-
plaining of myself so as I do to you at present, though, in reality,
I say the same thing. "| And, a little after, " I hope you will
find some kind of help from my Apology, although I there speak
with caution of so great matters." This whole letter scarcely
contains one single page, the Apology has more than a hundred
on this subject ; and, notwithstanding, this letter, according to
him, explains it better than the Apology. The thing was, he
durst not say in the Apology as clearly as he did in this letter,
" that we must entirely take off our eyes from the accomplish-
ment of the law, even from that which the Holy Ghost works in
us." This is what he called rejecting St. Augustin's imagina-
tion. He saw himself always pressed with this question of the
Catholics : If we are agreeable to God independently of all
good works, and all fulfilling of the law, even of that which the
Holy Ghost works in us, how and whereto are good works nec-
essary ? Melancthon perplexed himself in vain to ward off this
blow, and to elude this dreadful consequence : " Therefore good
works, according to you, are not necessary." This is what he
called calumnies of adversaries, which hindered him from own-
ing frankly, in the Apology, all he had a mind to say — this was
the cause of that great labor he had to undergo, and of those
precautions of which he spoke.

To a friend the whole mystery of the doctrine was disclosed,
but in public he was to be on his guard ; he yet further added
to his friend, that, after all, this doctrine is not well understood,
except in " the conflicts of conscience :" which was as much as
to say, that when a man could do no more, and knew not how
to assure himself of having a will sufficient for fulfilling the law,
the remedy for preserving all this, notwithstanding the undoubted
assurance of pleasing God preached up in the new Gospel, was
to take off their eyes from the law and the fulfilling of it, in or-
der to believe that, independently of all this, God reputed us for
just. This was the repose Melancthon flattered himself with,
and which he never would relinquish. This difficulty, indeed,
always occurred, that of holding oneself assured of the forgive-
ness of sins without a like assurance of conversion ; as if these
* Lib. iv. Ep. 110. Omninovalde multum laboris sustineo, &c. f Lib. i, Ep. 94.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 171

two things were separable, and independent one of the other.
This occasioned, in Melancthon, that great labor ; and therein
he could never satisfy himself; so that after the Confession of
Augsburg, and so many painful inquiries of the Apology, he
comes besides, in the Confession called Saxonic, to another ex-
position of justifying grace, where he advances other novelties,
which we shall see in time.

Thus is man agitated when smitten with an idea that has but
a delusive appearance — fain would he explain his thoughts, but
knows not how — fain would he find in the Fathers what he
searches after ; no such principle is to be found in them, yet
cannot he renounce the flattering idea that so agreeably prepos-
sesses him. Let us tremble and humble ourselves — let us ac-
knowledge that, in man, there is a profound source of pride and
error ; and that the weaknesses of the human mind, like to the
judgments of God, are unfathomable.

31. — Melancthon' s grievous agonies — he foresees the dreadful consequences of the
overthroiu of Church authority.

Melancthon was persuaded he saw truth on one side, and
lawful authority on the other. His heart was divided, and the
struggle to reunite these two gave him continual torment. He
was not able to renounce the charms of liis imputed justice, nor
to make the body of the bishops receive a doctrine unknown to
those who had governed the Church till then. Hereupon, the
authority which he loved for being lawful, became odious to him,
because it opposed that which he mistook for truth. At the same
time that you hear him say " he never called the authority of
bishops in question," he arraigns their " tyranny," chiefly be-
cause they opposed his doctrine, and believes " he weakens his
own cause by laboring to re-establish them."*

Mistrusting his own conduct, he racks himself, nor foresees
any thing but disasters. " What will this Council be," says he,
" if held, but a tyranny either of Papists or of others : a battle
of divines more cruel and stubborn than that of centaurs ?""(■
Well was he acquainted with his master, Luther, and feared no
less the tyranny of his own than that he attributed to the adverse
party ! The fury of divines makes him tremble. He sees, au-
thority once shaken, that all the dogmas, even the most impor-
tant, will be called in question, one after another, without know-
ing where to stop. The disputes and differences about the
Lord's Supper discovered to him what was to happen on other
articles. " Good God !" says he, " what tragedies will pos-
terity behold, if these questions ever come to be moved, whether
or no the W^ord, whether the Holy Ghost be a person !" J These

* Lib. iv. Ep. 228. f Ibid. Ep. 140. J Ibid.

172 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK

matters began to be moved in his time, but he judged this be-
ginning to be but weak as yet ; for he perceived the minds of
men to become insensibly bolder and bolder against the estab-
lished doctrines, and the authority of ecclesiastical decisions.
What would have been the case had he seen the other pernicious
consequences of the doubts which the Reformation started 1 the
whole order of discipline publicly overthrown by some, and in-
dependence set up, that is, anarchy, with its whole train of evils,
under the specious and flattering name of liberty ; the spiritual
power placed by others in the hands of princes ; Christian doc-
trine impugned in every point ; Christians denying the work of
the creation, and that of man's redemption ; destroying hell ;
abolishing the soul's immortahty ; stripping Christianity of all
its mysteries, and changing it into a sect of philosophy wholly
adapted to the senses : thence indifference of religions arising,
and, what naturally ensues, the very foundation of religion sap-
ped; the Scripture directly combatted; the way opened to Deism,
that is, to Atheism in disguise ; and the books that broach these
prodigious doctrines issuing from the bosom of the Reformation,
and from those quarters where she predominates. What would
Melancthon have said had he foreseen all these evils ? and what
would have been his lamentations ? He had seen enough to
trouble him his whole life long. The contests of his own times
and party were sufficient to make him say that without a visible
miracle, all religion would be soon extinct.

32. — The causes of Melancthoti's errors— he alleges the promises made to the
Church, but trusts not enough in them.
What benefit did he then find in those divine promises,
whereby, as he himself attests, Jesus Christ had bound himself
to maintain his Church, even in her extreme old age, and never
to sutler her to perish 1* Had he thoroughly considered this
blessed promise, he would not have been satisfied with owning,
as he has done, that the Gospel doctrine would subsist eter-
nally, in spite of errors and disputes : but would have owned,
moreover, that it ought to subsist by the means established in
the Gospel, that is, by an inviolable succession of the ecclesi-
astical ministry. He would have seen that, it was to the Apos-
tles and to the successors of the Apostles this promise was
addressed — " Go, teach, baptize ; and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world."! Had he comprehended well
these words, he would never have imagined that truth could be
separated from that body, wherein succession and lawful au-
thority were found ; and God himself would have taught him,
that as the profession of truth can never be overruled by error,
the force of the apostolic ministry can receive no interruption
* Lib. i. Ep. 107, 476, etc. v. n. 28. J Matt, xxviii. 20.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. ITS

by any relaxation of discipline. This is the faith of Christians :
thus, with Abraham, they must believe the promise, " In hope
against hope ;"* and further believe that the Church will pre-
serve her succession, and bring forth children even then when
she shall appear the most barren, and her strength, through
length of days, the most exhausted. Melancthon's faith could
not stand this trial. He believed, indeed, in the promise in
general, whereby the profession of truth was to subsist, but had
not sufficient faith in the means God had appointed for its
maintenance. What did the retaining so many good sentiments
avail him ? The enemy of our salvation, says St. Gregory, the
Pope,| does not always wholly extinguish them ; and as God
leaves in his children some remains of concupiscence, which keeps ;
them in humility, Satan, his imitator, in a contrary sense, leaves j
also in his slaves, however strange it may seem, some remains
of piety, (false, to be sure, and deceitful,) but yet apparent, j
whereby he accomplishes their seduction. To complete the
mischief, they believe themselves saints, without reflecting that
piety unattended with all its requisites, is nothing but hypocrisy.

Melancthon, from some interior impulse, was moved to think
that peace and unity, without which there is neither faith nor
Church, had no other support on earth but the authority of the
ancient pastors. He did not follow this divine light to its whole
extent ; his foundations were all subverted ; every thing fell out
contrary to his hopes. He aspired to unity ; he lost it for ever,
without being able to meet with so much as the shadow of it in I
the party wherein he had sought it. The Reformation, brought '
about or supported by arms, filled him with horror ; he saw
himself under the necessity of finding out excuses for an ex-
travagance which he detested. Let us reflect on what he wrote
to the Landgrave of Hesse, whom he saw ready to take up
arms : — " May your Highness be persuaded that it is better to"'^^
endure all extremities than to take up arms for the Gospel J
cause. "J But he was forced to retract this fine maxim, when
the party had entered into a confederacy to make war, and Lu-
ther himself had declared for them.

The unfortunate Melancthon could not even retain his natural
sincerity ; but was obliged to join with Bucer in laying snares
for the Catholics, in affected equivocations ; to load them with
calumnies in the Confession of Augsburg ;§ to approve publicly
this Confession, which he wished from the bottom of his heart ■
to see reformed in so many points ; to speak always as best
pleased others ; to pass his whole life in perpetual dissimulation ;
and that even with respect to religion, the first act whereof is to

* Rom. iv. 18, t Pastor, part iii. Adm. 31.

+ Lib. iii. Ep. 16. Lib. iv. Ep. 1 10, 1 1 1. § V. S. lib. iv. n. 2. et seq. lb. n. 24.

174 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

believe, as the second is to confess. What constraint ! what
corruption ! But party zeal carries all before it ; one hardens
and animates another ; they must not only defend themselves,
but multiply ; the fine name of Reformation makes all lawful,
and the first engagement makes all necessary.

33. — The Princes and Doctors of the parly are alike insupportable to him.

Meanwhile the heart is stung with secret reproaches, and
such a state becomes irksome. Melancthon often declares that
strange things pass in his mind, and knows not how to express
his internal anguish. In the account he gives his intimate
friend Camerarius, concerning the decrees of the Assembly of
Spire, and the resolutions taken by the Protestants, all the terms
he employs to represent his grief are extreme. " They are in-
credible agitations and the torments of hell; he is almost brought
to death's door. What he feels is horrible : his consternation
is astonishing. During his oppressions he is sensibly convinced
how much certain people are to blame."* When he dares not
to speak out, it is some head of the party that is to be under-
stood, and principally Luther : it was not certainly out of any
fear of Rome that he wrote with so much precaution, and kept
within such bounds ; and, on the other hand, it is most certain
nothing troubled him so much as what passed in the party itself,
where all things were carried on by pohtical interests, under-
hand contrivances, and violent counsels ; in a word, nothing
was there treated on but leagues, " which all good men," said
he, " ought to prevent."! All the affairs of the Reformation
turned on these leagues of princes with the confederate towns,
which the emperor had a mind to break, and the Protestant
princes were resolved to maintain ; and this is what Melancthon
^vi-ote to Camerarius on the subject : — " You see, my dear friend,
that in all these conventions nothing is less thought on than re-
ligion ; fear makes them propose agreements, such as they are,
for a time and with dissimulation; and no wonder if such treaties
succeed ill ; for is it possible that God should bless such' coun-
sels ?' J Far from exaggerating when he speaks thus, it is per-
ceived, even from his letters, that he saw something in the party
still worse than what he wrote. " I see," says he, " that there
is something secretly contriving, and I wish I were able to stifle
all my thoughts. "§ He had such a disgust against the princes
of his own party and their assemblies, into which they always
brought him, in order to draw from his eloquence and facility
excuses for counsels he approved not of, that at length he cried
out — "Happy are they who meddle not with public affairs." ||

* Lib. iv. Ep. 85. f Sleid. lib. viii. X Lib. iv. Ep. 137.

§ Ibid. Ep. 70. II Ibid. Ep. 85.

v.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 175

Nor did he ever find the least repose, till, after a too clear con-
viction of the evil intentions of those princes, " he had quite left
off giving himself any concern about their projects."* But they
entangled him again in their intrigues in spite of him ; and we
shall soon see how he was obliged to authorize, by writing, their
most scandalous proceedings. The opinion he had of the Doc-
tors of the party, and how Httle he was satisfied with them, has
been already shown : but here is something still stronger.
" Their manners are such," says he, " that, to speak very mod-
erately, many people, moved at the confusion they behold
amongst them, think any other state a golden age comparatively
to that they put us in."! He judged " these wounds incurable ;" J
and the Reformation, from the very beginning, stood in need of
another reformation.

34. — The prodigies, the prophecies, the horoscopes, xohereioith Melancthon was
disturbed.

Besides these agitations, in his correspondence with Came-
rarius, Osiander, and the rest of the heads of the party, and with
Luther himself, he was continually upon the subject of the pro-
digies that happened, and the dreadful threats of the angry
heavens. Sometimes you know not v/hat he would be at : but
it is always something terrible — something, I know not what,
which he promises to disclose in private to his friend Camerarius,
raises a kind of horror when you read him.§ Other prodigies,
almost coincident with the sitting of the Diet of Augsburg, ap-
peared to him favorable to the new Gospel. At Rome, " the
extraordinary overflowing of the Tiber, and a mule's bringing
forth whose foal had a crane's foot ;" in the territory of Augs-
burg, the birth of a " calf with two heads," were to him a sign
of an unquestionable change in the state of the universe, and
in particular of "Rome's approaching ruin by schism :"|| it is
what he writes most seriously to Luther himself, informing him
withal, that this happened on that same day the Confession of
Augsburg was presented to the emperor. Here we see with
what notions the authors of this Confession, and the heads of
the Reformation, fed themselves at so great a conjuncture : Me-
lancthon's letters are quite full of dreams and visions, and one
is apt to think he is reading Titus Livius, upon viewing all the
prodigies there related. Is this all ? Oh, the extreme weak-
ness of a mind in other respects admirable, and, but for his pre-
possession, so penetrating ! The threats of astrologers terrify
him. He is continually under frights from the ominous con-
junctions of the stars — " a dreadful aspect of Mars" makes him
tremble for his daughter, whose horoscope he himself had cast.

+ Lib. iv. Ep. 228. 1 Ibid. Ep. 742. J Ibid. Ep. 759.

§ Lib. ii, Ep. 89, 269. 11 Lib. i. Ep. 120. iii. 69.

176 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

He is not less " dismayed at the horrible flame of a comet ex-
tremely northern."*

While the conferences were held at Augsburg upon matters
of religion, he comforts himself for their proceeding so slowly
on, because " the astrologers foretell that the stars will be more
propitious to ecclesiastical disputes towards autumn. "| God
was above all these presages, it is true ; and Melancthon repeats
it frequently, as well as the almanac-makers ; but, after all, the
stars rule even Church affairs. We find his friends, that is, the
heads of the party, entered with him into these reflections : as
for himself, his unlucky nativity promised him nothing but end-
less contests on doctrine, great labors, and little fruit. He is
astonished, born as he was on the hills adjacent to the Rliine,
that it should have been foretold him he was to suffer shipwreck
on the Baltic Sea ; J and being sent for into England and Den-
mark, he is determined not to venture himself on that sea. To
so many prodigies and so many threats of unfriendly constella-
tions, to complete the illusion, he joined also prophecies. It
was one of the party's weaknesses to believe that their whole
success had been foretold ; and here is one of the most remarkable
predictions they boast of. In 1 6 1 6 , as they say, and a year before
the commotions of Luther, some cordelier or other, comment-
ing on Daniel, had taken it into his head to say, that the " Pope's
power was going to decline, and would never rise again. "§ This
prediction was equally true with that other which this new prophet
tacked to it, namely, that in 1600, "the Turk would be master
of all Italy and Germany." Notwithstanding, Melancthon seri-
ously relates the vision of this fanatic, and boasts of having the
original by him, just as it was written by the brother cordeher.
Who would not have trembled at this news ? The Pope, it seems,
already staggered at Luther's blow, and now they will have it
that he is quite laid flat. Melancthon takes all this for prophecy ;
so weak is man when prepossessed. After the Pope's downfall
he believes he sees the victorious Turk pressing forward ; nay,
the earthquakes that happened then confirm him in this thought.

Who would believe him capable of all these impressions, if
all his letters were not full of them ? We must do him this honor
— they were not his own dangers which caused him so much
trouble and anxiety. In the midst of his most violent agitations
we hear him say confidently, " our dangers disturb me less than
our faults." II He assigns a fine motive for his grief — the public
grievances, and particularly the grievances of the Church : but
the truth is, he was sensible in his conscience, as he frequently

* Lib. ii. Ep. 37. 445. Lib. iv. Ep. 119, 135, 137, 195, 198, 759, 844, etc.
119, 146. t lb. Ep. 93. I Lib. ii. Ep. 448. 37.

§ Mel. Lib. i. Ep. 65. || Lib. iv. Ep. 70.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 177

acknowledges, how great a -share those persons had in these
grievances who had boasted of being the reformers of them.
But enough of the troubles which afflicted Melancthon in par-
ticular : the reasons of his behavior at the Assembly of Smal-
kald, and the motives for the restriction he put to that furious
article which Luther proposed against the Pope, have been suf-
ficiently explained.

BOOK VI.

[From the year 1537 to the year 1546.]

A brief Summary. — The Landgrave endeavors to maintain union between
the Lutherans and ZuingUans. — A new remedy discovered for the incon-
tinence of this Prince, by allowing him to marry a second wife, the first
being aUve. — The remarkable instruction he gives to Bucer, in order to in-
duce Luther and Melancthon to adopt this sentiment. — The dogmatical
judgment of Luther, Bucer, and Melancthon, in favor of Polygamy. — The
new marriage ensues in consequence of this consultation. — The Party is
ashamed, and has not courage to deuy or acknowledge it. — The Landgrave
prevails on Luther to suppress the elevation of the Holy Sacrament inTavor
of the Swiss, whom this ceremony had alienated from the League of Smal-
kald. — On this occasion Luther is provoked anew against the Sacramen-
tarians.' — Melancthon's design to destroy the foundation of the Altar Sac-
rifice.— It is acknowledged in the Party that tliis Sacrifice is inseparable
from the Real Presence and Luther's doctrine. — As much confessed con-
cerning Adoration. — A Momentaneous Presence, and in the sole reception,
how allowed. — Luther's sentiment despised by Melancthon and the Di-
vines of Leipsic and Wittenberg. — Luther's fiirious Theses against the
Divines of Louvain. — He acknowledges the Sacrament to be adorable,
detests the Zuinglians, and dies.

1. — The scandalous Incontineiicy of the Landgrave, and what remedy was found
for it in the Reformation.

The agreement of Wittenberg continued not long ; it was
foolish to imagine that a peace so patched up could be of long
duration, and that so great an opposition in doctrine, ^\ith so
great an emotion in the minds of men, could be surmounted by
equivocations. Luther could not forbear uttering angry words
and venting his spleen against Bucer. Those of Zurich were
not backward in defending their Doctor ; but Philip, Landgi-ave
of Hesse, who had always warlike projects in contemplation,
kept the whole Protestant party united, as far as he was able,
and for some years withheld them from coming to an open rup-
ture. This Prince was the support of the League of Smalkald,
and, considermg the great need they had of him in the party,
they allowed to him what no example before had waiTanted
among Christians — it was to have two wives at once ; nor could
the Reformation find out any other remedy for his incontinence.

The historians who have written that this Prince was, in other

178 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

respects, very temperate,* were not let into the whole secret of
the party ; they did all they could to conceal the intemperance
of a Prince whom the Reformation cried up above all others.
We find from Melancthon's letters, in 1539,| at the time when
the League of Smalkald became so formidable, that this Prince
had a distemper which was carefully concealed ; it was one of
those that are not to be named. He recovered ; and, for his
intemperance, the heads of the Reformation prescribed the new
remedy above-mentioned. They concealed, as much as they
were able, this shame of the new doctrine. M. de Thou, with
all his penetration into foreign affairs, could, it seems, discover
no more than that this Prince, " by the advice of his pastors,"
had a concubine together with his wife. This is enough to cover
these false pastors with confusion who thus authorized concu-
binage : but it was not then known that these pastors were Luther
himself and all the heads of the party, and that they permitted
the Landgrave to have a concubine under the title of a lawful
wife, although he had then another whose marriage subsisted in
full force. At present this whole mystery of iniquity is discovered
by the authentic papers which the late Elector Palatine, Charles
Lewis, caused to be printed, and part of which, Ernest, Prince
of Hesse, descended from Philip, has made public since his
becoming Catholic.

2. — Important acts relating to this matter, taken from a book printed by order of
the Elector Charles Lewis, Count Palatine.

The book which the Prince Palatine caused to be printed
bears this title, — " Conscientious Considerations on Marriage,
with a Dilucidation of the Questions till this present time de-
bated, touching Adultery, Divorce, and Polygamy." The book
came out in German, in 1679, under the borrowed name of
Daphneus Arcuarius, under which was concealed that of Lau-
rentius Boeger, that is, Laurence Archer, one of this Prince's
counsellors. The design of the book is, apparently, to justify
Luther against Bellarmine, who accused him of authorizing
polygamy, but, in reality, he shows that Luther favored it ; and
lest it might be said he, perchance, advanced this doctrine at
the beginning only of the Reformation, he produces what was
done long after, in this new marriage of the Landgrave. He
instances in three pieces, the first of which is an instruction of
the Landgrave himself delivered to Bucer, for he was the person
commissioned to negotiate with Luther the whole business,
whence it is plain that the Landgrave at times employed him in
adjusting matters of a quite different nature than were the Sa-
cramentarian contests. You have here a faithful copy of this
^struction ; and, as the piece is remarkable, it may be here seen
+ Thuan. Lib. iv. ad an. 1557. ] Mel. Lib.iv. Ep. 214.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 179

entire, translated word for word, from German into Latin, and
by a good hand.*

3. — Biccer sent to Luther and other heads of the Party to obtain leave for marrying
a second wife — this Pnnce's instructions to his Envoy.
The Landgrave begins by setting forth how that, " since his
last illness, he had reflected much on his state, and chiefly upon
this, that a few weeks after his marriage he had begun to wallow
in adultery : that his pastoj-s had frequently exhorted him to ap-
proach the holy table, but he did believe he should there meet
with his judgment, because he will not abandon such a course
of life.""f He imputes to his wife the cause of all his disorders,
and gives the reasons for his never loving her ; but, having a
difficulty in explaining himself on these matters, he refers them
to Bucer, whom he had made privy to the whole affair. Next
he speaks of his complexion, and the effects of high living at the
assemblies of the empire, at which he was obliged to be present.
To carry thither a wife of such a quality as his own, would be
too great an encumbrance. When his preachers remonstrated to
him that he ought to punish adulteries and such like crimes,
" How," said he, " can I punish crimes of which I myself am
guilty ? When I expose myself in war for the Gospel cause, I
think I should go to the Devil should I be killed there by the
sword or a musket-ball. J I am sensible that, with the wife I
have, NEITHER CAN I, NEITHER WILL I, chaugc my life, whereof
I take God to witness ; so that I find no means of amendment
but by the remedies God afforded the people of old, that is to
say, polygamy. "§

4. — Sequel to the Instruction — the Landgrave promises the revenues of Monas-
teries to Luther if he will favor his design.
He there states the reasons which persuade him that it is not
forbidden under the Gospel ; and what deserves most notice,
is his saying, " that, to his knowledge, Luther and Melancthon
advised the King of England not to break off* his marriage with
the Queen, his wife ; but, besides her, also to wed another." ||
This, again, is a secret we were ignorant of: but a Prince, so
well informed, says he knows it ; and adds, that they ought to
allow him this remedy so much the readier, because he demands
it only " for the salvation of his soul." " I am resolved," pro-
ceeds he, " to remain no longer in the snares of the Devil ;
NEITHER CAN I, NEITHER WILL I, withdraw mysclf but by this
way ; wherefore I beg of Luther, of Melancthon, of Bucer him-
self, to give me a certificate, that I may embrace it. But, if they
apprehend that such a certificate may turn to scandal at this
time, and prejudice the Gospel cause, should it be printed, I

* See the end of this (6th) book. t Inst. N. 1, 2. lb. n. 3.

i Inst. N. 5. § Ibid. N. 6. || Ibid.N. 6. et seq. Ibid. N. 10. Ibid. N. 11, 12.

180 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

desire at least they will give me a declaration in writing, that
God would not be offended should I many in private ; and that
they will seek for means to make this marriage public in due
time, to the end that the woman I shall wed may not pass for a
dishonest person, otherwise, in process of time, the Church
would be scandalized."* Then he assures them that " they
need not fear lest this second marriage should make him injure
his first wife, or even separate himself from her ; since, on the
contrary, he is determined on this occasion to carry his cross,
and leave his dominions to their common children. Let them,
therefore, grant me," continues this Prince, "in the name of
God, what I request of them, to the end that I may both live
and die more cheerfully for the Gospel cause, and more wiUingly
undertake the defence of it ; and, on my part, I will do what-
soever they shall in reason ask of me, whether they demand the
revenues of monasteries, or other things of a similar nature. "|
5. — Continuation of it — the Landgrave proposes to have recourse to the Emperor ^
and even to the Pope, in case of refusal.

We see how artfully he insinuates the reasons which he, who
knew them so thoroughly, was sensible would have most influ-
ence on them ; and, as he foresaw that scandal was the thing
they would most dread, he adds, " That already the ecclesiastics
hated the Protestants to such a degree, that they would not hate
them more or less for this new article allowing polygamy : but
if, contrary to his expectation, Melancthon and Luther should
prove inexorable, many designs ran in his head — amongst others,
that of applying to the Emperor for this dispensation, whatever
money it might cost him." J This was a tickhsh point — " For,"
continues he, " there is no likelihood of the Emperor's granting
this permission without a dispensation from the Pope, for which
I care but little," says he ;§ "but for that of the Emperor I ought
not to despise it, though I should make but httle account of that
too, did I not otherwise believe that God had rather allowed
than forbidden what I wish for ; and if the attempt I make
on this side (that is upon Luther) succeed not, a human fear
urges me to demand the Emperor's consent, certain as I am to
obtain all I please, upon giving a round sum of money to some
one of his ministers. But although I would not for any thing
in the world withdraw myself from the Gospel, or be engaged
in any affair that might be contrary to its interest, I am, never-
theless, afraid lest the Imperialists should draw me into some-
thing not conducive to the interests of this cause and party. I,
therefore, call on them," concludes he, " to afford me the redress
I expect, lest I should go seek it in some other place less agree-
able ; desirous a thousand times rather to owe my repose to their
* Inst. N. 12. t Ibid. N. 13. \ Ibid. N. 14. § Ibid. N. 15. et seq.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 181

permission than to all other human permissions. Finally, I de-
sire to have, in writing, the opinion of Luther, Melancthon, and
Bucer, in order that I may amend myself, and with a good con-
science approach the Sacrament." — ^Given at Melsinguen, the
Sunday after St. Catherine's Day, 1539.

"Philip, Landgrave of Hesse."

6. — The dogmatical advice of Luther. — Polygamy dlowed by him and the other
heads of the Protestants.

The instruction was equally pressing and ticklish. We see
the secret springs which the Landgrave sets in motion : he for-
gets nothing ; and whatever contempt he showed for the Pope,
the very naming him on this occasion was too much for these
new Doctors. So dexterous a Prince let not that word slip
without design ; and, besides, the very hint of entering into
conjunction with the Emperor, was enough to make the whole
party tremble. These reasons carried with them much more
weight than those the Landgrave had striven to draw from Scrip-
ture. To cogent reasons there was joined an artful agent. Ac-
cordingly, Bucer obtained of Luther a consultation in form, the
original of which was in German, in Melancthon's hand and
style.* It is permitted to the Landgrave, according to the
Gospel,| (for every thing is done in the Reformation under that
name,) to marry another wife besides the one he has already.
They deplore, indeed, the condition he is in, " that he cannot
refrain from his adulteries as long as he shall have but one wife ;"J
and represent to him this state as very bad in the sight of God,
and contrary " to the security of his conscience. "§ But at the
same time, and in the next period, they grant him their leave,
and declare to him that " he may marry a second wife, if he be
fully bent upon it, provided only he keep it secret." Thus the
same mouth pronounces good and evil;|| thus the crime be-
comes la\vful by concealing it. I blush to write these things,
and the Doctors who wrote them were themselves ashamed of
them. This may be seen through the whole tenor of their per-
plexed and winding sentences : but they, in the end, were obliged
to speak the word, and allow the Landgrave, in express terms,
this bigamy he so much coveted. This was the first time it was
ever said, since the birth of Christianity, by men styling them-
selves Doctors in the Church, that Jesus Christ had not forbid-
den such marriages : that text of Genesis, " They shall be two
in one flesh,"Tr was eluded, although Jesus Christ had reduced
it to its first sense and primitive institution, which suffers but
two persons in the nuptial band.** The resolution, in the Ger-
man language, was signed by Luther, Bucer, and Melancthon.

* See the end of this (6th) Book. fConsul.de Luther, N. 21,22. |Ibid.N.20.
§ Ibid. N. 21. II Jam. iii. 10. II Gen. ii. 24. *♦ Matt. xix. 4, 5, 6.

16

THE HISTORY OP [BOOK

Two other Doctors, one of them Melander, the Landgrave's
minister, signed it also, in Latin, at Wittenberg, in the month
of December, 1539.* This permission was granted in form
of dispensation, and reduced to a case of necessity,| for they
were ashamed of passing this practice into a general law. They
found out necessities against the Gospel, and, after having so
much blamed the dispensations of Rome, they ventured to give
one of that high importance. All the most renowned persons
of the Reformation in Germany consented to this iniquity :
God visibly gave them over to a reprobate sense ; and those
who exclaimed against abuses in order to render the Church
odious, themselves commit much stranger and more numerous
ones at the very beginning of their Reformation, than they could
either rake up or invent during the course of so many ages that
they upbraid the Church with her corruption.

I.' — What was answered in this Consultation with relation to the Emperor.

The Landgrave had very well foreseen he should make his
Doctors tremble with the bare mentioning his thoughts of treat-
ing with the Emperor on this affair. They answer him, that
this Prince has neither faith nor religion — " that he is a cheat,
who has nothing of German manners in him, with whom it is
dangerous to enter into any engagements."! Writing thus to
a Prince of the empire, what is it else but putting all Germany
in a flame 1 Then what can be more abject than what appears
at the beginning of this advice 1 " Our poor, little, miserable,
and abandoned Church," say they, " stands in need of virtuous
governing princes."§ Here is the reason, if taken right, these
new Doctors go upon. But these virtuous princes the Refor-
mation stood in need of, were princes who would make the Gos-
pel subservient to their passions. The Church, indeed, may
want the support of princes for her temporal repose ; but to broach
pernicious and unheard-of points of doctrine, purely to please
them, and, by this means, to sacrifice to them the Gospel they
boast of re-estabhshing, is the true mystery of iniquity, and the
abomination of desolation in the sanctuary.

8. — The secret of the second Marriage, whichwasto pass for Concuhinage — this
scandal despised by those who were of the Consultation.

So infamous a Consultation was enough to discredit the whole
party ; nor could the Doctors who subscribed it have silenced
the clamors, nor shunned the odium of the people, who, as them-
selves do own, would have " ranked them with Mahometans, or
Anabaptists, that make a jest of marriage." || Accordingly they
took their measures, and, in their advice, forbade the Landgrave,
above all things, ever to discover this new marriage. There were

+ Book of Conscien. Confid. S. N. 2. f Consult. N. 4, 10, 21.

t Ibid. N. 23, 24. § Ibid. N. 2. || Consult. N. 10, 18.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 183

but a very small number of witnesses to be present, who were
also to be bound to secrecy " under the seal of confession,"* —
thus spoke the Consultation. The new bride was to pass for a
concubine. They preferred this scandal in the house of this
Prince to that which would be caused throughout all Christen-
dom by the sanctioning of a marriage so contrary to the Gospel,
and to the common doctrine of all Christians. |
9. — The second Marriage is made in private — the contract agreed upon. — 1540.
The consultation was followed by a marriage, in form, betwixt
Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, and Margaret of Saal, by the con-
sent of Christina of Saxony, his wife. The Prince had no more
to do but declare, at his marriage, that he did not take this sec-
ond wife " through any levity or curiosity, but from inevitable
necessities of body and conscience, which his Highness had laid
before many learned, prudent, Christian, and devout preachers,
who had advised him to put his conscience in repose by this
means. "J The instrument of this marriage, dated the 4th of
March, 1540, may be found, together with the consultation, in
the book which was published by order of the Elector Palatine.
Prince Ernest has also furnished the same pieces, so that they
are become public in two ways. It is ten or twelve years since
copies of them have been produced in a book dispersed through
all France, § and never contradicted ; and now we have them in
such an authentic form that there is no room left for doubt.
That nothing further might be required, I have added thereto
the Landgrave's instruction, and the history is now complete.

10. — The Landgrave's and Luther^s Answer to those who reproach them with
this Marriage.

Evil deeds generally come out one way or other. Whatever
caution was used to conceal this scandalous marriage, it began,
nevertheless, to be suspected ; and certain it is, both the Land-
grave and Luther were upbraided with it in public writings, but
they shifted off the matter by equivocating. A German author
has pubhshed a letter of the Landgrave's to Henry, the young
Duke of Brunswick, where he speaks to him in these words : —
" You reproach me with a report that prevails of my having taken
a second wife, whilst the first is still living ; but I declare to
you, that if you or any other person say that I have contracted
an unchristian marriage, or that I have done any thing unworthy
of a Christian Prince, it is all downright calumny : for although,
towards God, I look upon myself as a miserable sinner, I Uve,
however, before him, in my faith and in my conscience, after
such a manner that my confessors do not hold me for an un-

* Consult. N. 21. t Ibid. J Inst. Copalat— See the end of this (6th) Book.
§ Lettres de Gastineau. — Varill. Hist, de I'Heres. liv. xii.

184 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

christian person. I give scandal to no one, and live with the
Princess, my wife, in a perfect good understanding."* All this
was true, in his way of thinking, for he did not allow that the
marriage he was reproached with was unchristian. His first
lady was satisfied with it, and the Consultation had stopped the
mouths of the Confessors of this Prince. Luther answers with
no less artifice. " They reproach the Landgrave," says he,
" with being a polygamist. I have not much to say on that sub-
ject. The Landgrave is able, and has men learned enough to
defend him. As for myself, I know one only Princess and
Landgrave of Hesse, who is and ought to be named wife and
mother in Hesse ; and there is no other that can give young
Landgraves to this Prince, but the Princess who is the daughter
of George, Duke of Saxony. "f And, indeed, they had ordered
matters so that neither the new bride nor her children could bear
the title of Landgraves. To defend themselves thus, is aiding
their own conviction, and acknowledging the shameful corrup-
tion introduced in doctrine by those who, in all their works, spoke
of nothing but re-establishing the pure Gospel.

11. — Luther's scandalous Sermon on Marriage.
After all, Luther did but follow those principles he had laid
down in other places. I have always dreaded speaking of these
" inevitable necessities" which he recognised in the union of
the two sexes, and of that scandalous sermon he delivered at
Wittenberg on marriage ; but, since the series of this history
has made me at once break through that barrier which modesty
had laid in my way, I can no longer dissemble what is found
printed in Luther's works. J It is true, then, that in a sermon
which he delivered at Wittenberg, for the reformation of mar-
riage, he blushed not to pronounce these infamous and scan-
dalous words : — " If they are stubborn (he speaks of wives) it
is fitting their husbands should tell them, if you will not another
will : if the mistress refuse to come, let the maid be called."
A man would blush to hear such words in a farce, and on the
stage. The chief of the reformers preaches this seriously in
the Church ; and, as he turned all his excesses into dogmas, he
adds : — " However, it is necessary for the husband to bring his
wife first before the Church, and to admonish her two or three
times ; after that put her away, and take Esther instead of
Vasthi." This was a new cause for divorce superadded to that
of adultery. Thus did Luther handle the subject of the refor-
mation of marriage. We must not ask him in what Gospel he
found this article ; it is sufficient that it is included " in those
necessities," which he fain would believe were above all laws

* Hortlederus de Caus. Bell. Germ. An. 1540. f Jen. T. vii. fol. 425.
J Serm. de Matrim. t. v. fol. 123.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 185

and precautions. After this, will any one wonder at what he
allowed the Landgrave ? In this sermon, it is true, he orders
to repudiate the first wife before the other be taken ; and, in the
consultation, he permits the Landgrave to have two at once.
But, then, the sermon was pronounced in 1622, and the Con-
sultation was penned in 1539. It was but fair that Luther
should have learned something after seventeen or eighteen years
spent in reforming.

12. — The Landgrave obliges Lxither to suppress the elevation of the blessed Sac-
rament in the Mass. — Hoio this occasion was made use of to inflame him aneio
against the Sacramentarians. — 1542, 1543.

From that time forward the Landgrave had almost an abso-
lute sway over this patriarch of the Reformation ; and after
having found out his weak side in so essential a point, he no
longer thought him capable of resisting him. This Prince was
little versed in controversies ; but, to make amends, like an ex-
pert politician, he knew how to conciliate the minds of men, to
manage different interests, and keep up confederacies. His
chief aim was to prevail upon the Swiss to enter into that of
Smalkald ; but he perceived they were offended at many things
in practice among the Lutherans, and particularly at the eleva-
tion of the Holy Sacrament, which was still in use, with the ring-
ing of the bell, and the people striking their breasts, with sighs
and groans. Five-and-twenty years had Luther preserved these
motions of a piety which he knew had Jesus Christ for its ob-
ject : but nothing was permanent in the Reformation. The
Landgrave never ceased attacking Luther on this head, and im-
portuned him in such a manner, that after suffering this custom
to be abolished in some Churches of his party, he at length set
it aside in the Church of Wittenberg, which was under his im-
mediate direction. These changes happened in 1542 and 1543.*
The Sacramentarians triumphed at it ; they believed that Luther
was now relenting : and, even among the Lutherans, it was said
he was at length falling off from that admirable resolution, where-
with he had, up to that period, maintained the ancient doctrine
of the Real Presence, and that he was about coming to an un-
derstanding with the Sacramentarians. He was nettled at these
reports ; for he was impatient of the most trifling circumstance
that infringed on his audiority.| Peucer, Melancthon's son-in-
law, from whom we have taken this account, observes, he took
no notice of it for awhile ; for, says he, " his great heart was not
easily wrought upon. "J We shall now, however, see by what
means they roused him. A physician named Wildus, of great

* Gas. Peuc. Nar. Hist, de Phil. Mel. soceri. sui. sent, de Coen. Dom.
Ambergae, 1596, p. 24.

t Peuc. ibid. Sultzeri. id. Ep. ad Cal. inter, Calv. Ep. p. 52. J Peuc. ibid.
16*

186 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

repute in his profession, and much esteemed by the nobility of
Misnia, where these reports were most spread against Luther,
came to visit him at Wittenberg, and met with a kind reception
at his house. " It fell out," proceeds Peucer, " that, at a feast,
where Melancthon was also present, this physician being heated
with wine, (for at the Reformers' tables men drank as in other
places, and such abuses as these were not what they had under-
taken to correct ;) this physician, I say, began to talk unguard-
edly of the elevation lately suppressed, and told Luther very
frankly, that the common opinion was, he had made this altera-
tion only to please the Swiss, and that he had at length adopted
their opinions. This great heart was not proof against these
words uttered in liquor ; his emotion was perceptible, and Me-
lancthon foresaw what ensued.

13. — Luther's old jealousy aioakened against ZuingUus and his disciples. — 1545.

In this manner was Luther animated against the Swiss, and
his wrath became implacable on account of two books, which
those of Zurich caused to be printed the same year. One was
a translation of the Bible made by Leo of Juda, that famous
Jew who embraced the Zuinglian doctrine ; the other was the
works of Zuinglius, carefully collected, with great eulogiums of
this author. Although there was nothing in these books against
Luther's person, immediately upon their publication he flew out
into the greatest extravagance, nor had his transports ever ap-
peared so violent. The Zuinglians published, and the Luther-
ans have almost owned the same, that Luther could not endure
that any one, besides himself, should meddle with translating
the Bible.* He had made a very elegant version of it in his
own language, and thought it was not consistent with his honor
that the Reformation should have any other, at least where Ger-
man was understood. The works of Zuinglius awakened his
jealousy, j" and he believed they were always resolved to set up
this man against him, to dispute with him the glory of being the
first reformer. J Be that as it will, Melancthon and the Luther-
ans all owned that, after a truce of five or six years' standing,
Luther first renewed the war with greater fury than ever. What-
ever power the Landgrave had upon Luther, he could never
restrain his transports for any considerable time. The Swiss
produce letters in Luther's own hand, where he forbids the book-
seller, who had made him a present of Leo's translation, ever
to send him any thing from those of Zurich, " for they were
damned men, who dragged away others into hell ; and the
churches no longer could communicate with them, nor consent

+ Hosp. part ii. p. 183. Calix, Judicium, N. 72. p. 121, 122.
t Hosp. ibid. f. 184. J Ibid.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 187

to their blasphemies, and he had resolved to oppose them by his
writings and his prayers, to his very last breath."*
14. — Luther xoUl riot suffer the Sacramentanans tobe any longer prayed for, and
believes them inevitably damned. — 1544.

He kept his word. The year following he published a com-
ment upon Genesis, where he placed Zuinglius and (Ecolam-
padius with Arius, with Muncer, and the Anabaptists, among
the Idolaters, who made for themselves " an idol of their own
thoughts, and adored them in contempt of God's word." But
what he afterwards published was much more terrible — it was
his little " Confession of Faith," where he calls them "madmen,
blasphemers, miserable wretches, damned souls, for whom it
was no longer lawful to pray :"! for he carried matters to this
extremity, and protested he never would have any further com-
munication with them, " neither by letters, nor by words, nor by
works," if they did not confess " that the bread of the Eucharist
was the true natural body of our Lord, which the impious, and
even the traitor Judas, received not less by the mouth than St.
Peter and the rest of the faithful."

15. — Luther'' s Anathemas.

By that means he beheved he had put an end to the scan-
dalous interpretations of the Sacramentarians, who turned all to
their own sense ; and declared he held all for fanatics, who
should refuse subscribing this last " confession of faith. "J For
he now assumed so high a tone, and so threatened the world
with his anathemas, that the Zuinglians no longer called him
any thing but the " new Pope, and new Anti-Christ."

16. — The Zuinglians reprove Luther for ahoays having the Devil in his mouthj
and call him a madman.

Thus not less vigorous was the defence than the attack.
Those of Zurich, scandalized at this strange expression, " the
bread is the true natural body of our Lord," were much more
so at Luther's outrageous contumelies ; insomuch that they
wrote a book, entitled, " Against the vain and scandalous Cal-
umnies of Luther," in which they maintain " that a man must
be as mad as himself to bear with his furious sallies ; that he
dishonored his old age ; and, by his violence, rendered himself
contemptible ; and he ought to be ashamed of filling his books
with so much abusive language, and so many devils." The
truth is, Luther had taken care to place the devils within and
without, at top and at bottom, at the right hand and the left, be-
fore and behind the Zuinglians ; inventing, withal, new phrases
to pierce them through and through with devils, and repeating
this odious name even so as to excite horror.

+ Ibid. f. 183. t Hosp. Ibid. p. 186, 187. Calix. Jud. N. 73. p. 123. et seq.
Lut. parv. Cons. J Cone. p. 734. Luth. t. ii. f. 325. Hosp. 193.

188 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

17. — Luther's scandalous Prayer, icho says he never offended the Devil.
Such was his custom : in 1542 the Turk threatened Germany
more than ever ; he had pubhshed a prayer against him, where
he brought in the Devil after a strange manner. " Thou know-
est," said he, " O Lord, that the Devil, the Pope, and the Turk
have neither right nor reason to torment us, for we have never
offer ded them : but because we confess that thou, O Father,
and thy Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, are but one
only God eternal — there is our sin, there is our whole crime ;
for that it is they hate and persecute us ; and we should no
longer have to fear any thing from them, did we but renounce
this faith."* What a blindness, to jumble together the Devil,
the Pope, and the Turk, as the three enemies of the faith in the
Trinity ! what a calumny to aver that the Pope persecutes them
for this faith ! and what folly to exculpate himself to the enemy
of mankind as one that never had given him any displeasure !
18. — Bucer''s own Confession of Faith — He confirms that the unworthy do really
receive the body of our Lord. — Invention of solid Faith.

Sometime after Luther had renewed his indignation against
the Sacramentarians, in the manner already mentioned, Bucer
framed a new confession of faith. These men were never tired
of that ; it seemed as if he had a mind to oppose it to the little
confession which Luther had but just published. That of Bucer
came up pretty near to the expressions of the Wittenberg agree-
ment, whereof he was the mediator ; but he would not have
made a new confession of faith, had he not intended to change
something. The thing was (he would no longer say as distinctly
and generally as he had done) that the body of our Saviour
might be taken without faith, and taken very really in virtue of
our Lord's institution, which our evil disposition could not de-
prive of its efficacy, j" Bucer here corrects that doctrine, and
seems to lay it down as a condition for the presence of Jesus
Christ in the Supper, not only that it be celebrated according to
Christ's institution, but also "that men have a solid faith in those
words by which he gives himself."J This Doctor, who durst
not give a lively faith to those who communicated unworthily,
in favor of them invented " this solid faith," which I leave to
the examination of Protestants ; and he would have it, that, by
such a faith, the unworthy received " not only the sacrament,
but the Lord himself. "§

19. — The same Author'' s perplexities with relation to the Communion of the
Impious.

He seems puzzled what to say of the communion of the im-
pious ; for Luther, whom he would not openly contradict, de-
cided, in his little confession, that they as truly received Jesus
* Sleid. lib. xiv. f Ibid. lib. iv. N.xxiii. J Conf. Bucer, ibid. art. 22. § Ibid. 23.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 189

Christ as the saints. But Bucer, who feared nothing so much
as speaking plainly, says, that those amongst the impious, " who
have faith for awhile, receive Jesus Christ in an enigma, as
they receive the Gospel." What prodigies of expression ! and
for those who have no faith at all, it seems he ought to say, they
do not at all receive Jesus Christ. But that would have been
too clear ; he is content with saying, " they do not see, nor
touch, in the Sacrament, any thing but what is sensible." But
what else wouM he have men see and touch therein, besides
what is capable of striking the senses 1 The rest, that is, the
body of our Saviour, may be beheved, but no one boasts of
either seeing him, or touching him in himself ; nor have tlie
faithful any advantage in that respect above the impious. Thus
Bucer, according to his custom, does nothing but perplex ; and,
by his subtleties, prepares the way, as we shall see, to those of
Calvin and the Calvinists,

20. — Melancthon labors to make the Real Presence niomentaneous, and places it
only in the act of using it.

Meanwhile, Melancthon made it his particular endeavor to
diminish, as I may say, the Real Presence, by striving to reduce
it to the precise time of its reception. This is a principal dogma
of Lutheranism, and it is of great moment clearly to understand
how it was established in the sect.

21. — The aversion for the Mass is the true foundation of this dogma, — Two things
the Protestants cannot bear therein.

The Mass was the great aversion of the new Reformation,
though, in point of fact, it was nothing else but the public prayers
of the Church, consecrated by the celebration of the Eucharist,
wherein, Jesus Christ present, honors his Father, and sanctifies
the faithful. But two things offended the new Doctors, because
they never thoroughly had understood them : one was the obla-
tion, the other the adoration given to Jesus Christ present in
these mysteries.

22. — Luther^s blind hatred to the Oblation and the Canon of the Mass.

The oblation was nothing but the consecration of the bread
and wine, in order to make them the body and blood of Jesus
Christ, and render him, by this means, truly present. It was
impossible this action should not, of itself, be agreeable to God ;
nor that the sole presence of Jesus Christ, showed to his Father,
by honoring his supreme majesty, should not be capable of
drawing down his graces on us. The new Doctors were bent
to believe that a virtue of saving men, independently of faith,
was attributed to this presence, and to the action of the Mass :
we have seen their error, and on so false a pre-supposition, did
the Mass become the object of their aversion. The most holy
words of the canon were decried. Luther discovered poison

190 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

in every part thereof, even in that prayer we there make a httle
before Communion — " 0 Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Hving
God, who by thy death hast given hfe to the world, by thy body
and blood free from all my sins." Luther, who could believe
it ! condemned these last words, and would imagine that we
attributed our deliverance to the body and blood, independently
of faith, without reflecting that this prayer, addressed to Jesus
Christ, Son of the hving God, who by his death has given life
to the world, was itself, in every part, an act of the most lively
faith. No matter : " Luther said, that the monks attributed
" their salvation to the body and blood of Jesus Christ, without
mentioning one word of faith."* If the priest, at communion,
said with the Psalmist, " I will take the heavenly bread, and
call upon the name of the Lord,"! Luther found fault with it,
and said, " that we improperly, and unseasonably, turned off the
mind from faith to works." How blind is hatred ! How en-
venomed must that heart be which poisons such holy things !
23. — In lohat sense we offer in the Mass for the redemption of 7na7ikind. — The
Ministers forced to approve this sense.

No wonder if, after this, they showed the same virulence
against the words of the canon, where it is said that " the faith-
ful offer this sacrifice of praise for the redemption of their souls."
The most passionate of their ministers are now obhged to own,
that the intention of the Church here is to offer for the redemp-
tion, not to merit it anew, as if the cross had not merited it, but
" in thanksgiving for so great a benefit," and with the design
of applying it to us. J But never would Luther or the Luther-
ans enter into so natural a sense ; nothing would they see in
the Mass but horror and abomination : thus, all that was most
holy in it was wrested to an evil sense ; and thence concluded
Luther " that the Canon ought to be as much abominated as the
Devil himself."

24. — The ivhole Mass is comprehended in the Real Presence alone. — This Pres-
ence cannot be admitted without oxoning it permanent^ and existing out of the
Reception.

In the hatred which the reformation had conceived against
the Mass, nothing was so much desired as to sap the foundation
of it, which, after all, was nothing else but the Real Presence.
For upon this presence did the Catholics ground the whole worth
and \ irtue of the Mass : this was the only basis of the oblation,
and I'll the other worship ; and Jesus Christ there present con-
stituted its very essence. Calixtus,§ a Lutheran, has owned,
that one of the reasons, not to say the principal one, which made
so great a part of the Reformation to deny the Real Presence,

* De abomin. Mis. priv. seu Canonis, t. ii. pp. 393, 394.

t Ps. cxv. I Blond. Prsef. in lib. Albert de Euchar.

§ Judic. Calix. N. 47, p. 70, N. 51, p. 78. S. lib. ii. N. 1.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 191

was, because they knew no better way to destroy the Mass and
the entire worship of Popery. Luther, could he have done it,
would himself have come into this sentiment ; and we have seen
what he said of the inclination he had to shake off Popery in
this particular as well as others. And yet, whilst he retamed,
as he saw himself forced to do, the literal sense, and the Real
Presence, it was evident that the Mass subsisted entire ; for,
upon his retaining this literal sense, the Catholics concluded,
not only that the Eucharist was the true body, since Jesus
Christ had said " this is my body," but also that it was the body
from the time Christ had pronounced it so ; consequently , be-
fore the manducation, and from the very instant of consecration,
since it was not then said, "this shall be," but "this is;" a
doctrine wherein we shall now perceive the whole Mass to be
contained.

25. — The Real Presence permanent and independent of the Reception retained
by Luther, even after he had suppressed the Elevation.

This consequence which the Catholics drew from the Real
Presence to the Permanent Presence, and subsisting indepen-
dent of its use, was so clear that Luther had acknowledged it;*
it was on this foundatjpn that he had always retained the Eleva-
tion of the Host, even to the year 1543, and, even after he had
abolished it, he still writes, in his " Little Confession," in 1544,
that " it might be retained with piety, as a testimonial o^ the
real and corporeal presence in the bread, since, by this action,
the priest did say, ' Behold, Christians, this is the body of Jesus
Christ, which was given for you.' " Whence, it appears, that,
although he had changed the ceremony of Elevation, he did not
change the foundation of his sentiment on the Real Presence,
but continued to own it immediately after the Consecration.

26. — Melancthon fijids no other means of destroying the Mass, but by denying
the Permanent Presence.

With this faith it is impossible to deny the sacrifice of the
altar ; for what will they have Jesus Christ do before his body
and blood are eaten, but to render himself present for us before
his Father 1 It was, then, in order to hinder so natural a con-
sequence, that Melancthon sought always to reduce this pres-
ence to the sole manducation ; and it was chiefly at the con-
ference of Ratisbon that he displayed this part of his doctrine.
Charles the Fifth had ordered this conference in 1541, betwixt
the Catholics and Protestants, that means might be found out
for reconciling both rehgions. it was there that Melancthon,
acknowledging, according to his custom, the real and substan-
tial presence together with the Catholics, took great pains to
show that the Eucharist, like other sacraments, was not a sacra-
* Luth. parv. Conf. 1544. Hosp. p. 13.

192 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK '

ment, except in the lawful use thereof, that is, as he understood
it, except in the actual reception.*

27. — Melancthori's frivolous reasons.

The comparison he drew from the other Sacraments was very-
weak ; for, in signs of this nature, where all depends on the will
of the institutor, it appertains not to us to prescribe him general
laws, nor to tell him he can make but one kind of sacraments ;
in the institution of his sacraments he might have proposed to
himself divers designs, which must be understood from the words
he employed at each particular institution. Now, Jesus Christ
having said, precisely, " this is," the effect ought to be as speedy
as the words are powerful and true ; nor was there room for
further reasoning.

28. — Other, as frivolous, reasons.

But Melancthon rephed ; and this was his main argument,
which he ceased not to repeat, that God's promise not being
made to the bread, but to man, the body of our Lord ought not
to be in the bread but when man received it.f By a similar
method of reasoning it might as well be concluded, that the bit-
terness of the waters of Mara was not corrected, J nor the waters
of Cana made wine,§ but at the time they were drunk, since
these miracles were wrought only for the men who drank of it.
As, then, these changes were made in the water, but not for the
water, there is no reason we should not likewise acknowledge
a change in the bread which is not for the bread ; there is no
reason why this heavenly bread, as well as the terrestrial, should
not be made and prepared before it be eaten, nor can I conceive
how Melancthon should lay such stress on so pitiful an argument.
29. — These reasons of Melancthon destroyed all Luther^s doctrine.

But the most considerable thing here is, that by this reasoning,
he attacked his master Luther, no less than he did the Catholics ;
for, by proving that nothing at all was done in the bread, he
proved that nothing was done in it in any instant, and that the
body of our Lord is not there, either in the reception, or out of
the reception ; but that man, to whom this promise is addressed,
receives it at the presence of the bread, as at the presence of
water he receives, in baptism, the Holy Ghost and sanctifying
grace. Melancthon saw well this consequence, as it will appear
hereafter ; but whether he had the cunning to conceal it then, or
Luther looked not so narrowly into it, the hatred he had con-
ceived against the Mass, made him pass over all that was ad-
vanced in order to destroy it.

30. — Melancthon''s last reason more loeak than all the rest.

Melancthon made use of another argument still weaker than

+ Hosp. pp. 154, 179, 180. f Hosp. pp. 154, 179, 180. Mel. Lib. ii.

ep. 25, 40. Lib. iii. 188, 189, &c. | Exod. xv. 23. § Joan. ii.

TI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 193

the foregoing ones. He said that Jesus Christ would not be
tied ; and that to bind him to the bread, further than the time of
using it, was to take away his free-will.* How can one think
such a thing, and say, that the free-will of Jesus Christ is de-
stroyed by a tie that proceeds from his own choice ? His word
binds him, without doubt, because he is faithful and true ; but
this bond is not less voluntary than inviolable.

31. — Melancthori's true reason loas, because he could not separate the Mass from
the Real Presence, were that owned permanent. — Luther^s saying.

This was what human reason opposed to the mystery of Jesus
Christ ; vain subtleties, mere quirks : but a weightier motive
lay at the bottom of all this. Melancthon's true reason was,
because he could not deny but that Jesus Christ, placed on the
holy table before the manducation and by the sole consecration
of the bread and wine, was an object of itself agreeable to God,
which attested his supreme excellence interceded for men, and
had all the conditions of a true oblation. In this manner the
Mass subsisted, neither could it be overthrown, but by over-
hrowing the Real Presence out of the manducation. Accordingly,
when Luther was told that Melancthon had strenuously denied
this presence at the Conference of Ratisbon, Hospinian reports,
he cried out, " Cheer up, my dear Melancthon, the Mass is now
fallen to the ground — thou hast destroyed the mystery which,
hitherto, I had struck at, but in vain."! Thus, by the Prot-
estants' own confession, the sacrifice of the Eucharist will ever
remain immoveable, as long as in these words, " This is my
body," an effectual presence shall be admitted ; and in order
to destroy the Mass, the effect of our Saviour's words must be
suspended, their natural sense be taken away, and " this is" be
changed into " this shall be."

32. — Melancthon'' s dissimulation. — Luther'' s notable Letters in favor of the Per-
manent Presence.

Although Luther permitted Melancthon to say whatever he
pleased against the Mass, yet he in nowise departed from his
former notions, nor did he reduce the presence of Jesus Christ
in the Eucharist to the bare reception of it. It is even plain
that Melancthon shifted with him on this subject ; and there are
two of Luther's letters, in 1543, wherein he commends a saying
of Melancthon's, " that the presence was in the action of the
Supper, but not in a precise and mathematical point. "J As for
Luther, he determined the time to be from the Pater Noster
which was said in the Lutheran Mass immediately after the
Consecration, until all the people had communicated, and all
the remaining particles were consumed. But why stops he

* Mel. ep. Sup. cit. Hosp. Part ii. p. 1S4, etc. Joan. Sturm. Antip. iv.
Part 4. t Hosp. p. 180. J Jen. t. iv. pp. 585, 586, et ap. Caelest.

17

194 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

there ? If, at that instant, the communion had been carried to
the absent, as St. Justin tells us was done in his time,* what
reason would there have been to say, that Jesus Christ had im-
mediately withdrawn his sacred presence 1 But why should he
not continue it for some days after, when the Holy Sacrament
should be reserved for the communion of the sick ? It is noth-
ing but mere caprice to take away the presence of Jesus Christ
in this case ; and Luther and the Lutherans had no longer any
rule, when, out of the actual reception, they admitted the use
of it but for never so short a time. But what made still more
against them is, that the Mass and Oblation always remained ;
and, had there been but one moment of presence before the
communion, this presence of Jesus Christ could not be deprived
of any of the advantages which attended it. For which reason
Melancthon always aimed, whatever he might say to Luther, at
placing the presence in the precise time of the reception alone,
and this only way could he find of destroying the Oblation and Mass,
33. — The Elevation irreprehensible, according to Luther's sentiments.

Nor was there any other way for destroying the Elevation
and Adoration. It has been shown that, at taking away the Ele-
vation, Luther, so far from condemning it, approved the prin-
ciple of it. I repeat once more his words : — " The Elevation,"
he says, " may be preserved, as a testimonial of the real and
corporal presence ; since the doing that is saying to the people.
Behold, Christians, this is the body of Jesus Christ, which was
given for you." j" This was what Luther wrote after abolishing
the Elevation ; but why, then, one may say, did he abolish it ?
The reason is worthy of the man ; and we learn from himself,
" that if he attacked the Elevation, it was only out of spite to
the Papacy ; and, if he retained it so long, it was out of spite
to Carlostadius. In a word," concludes he, " it should be re-
tained when it was rejected as impious, and it should be rejected
when commanded as necessary."^ But, upon the whole, he
acknowledged what, indeed, is not to be doubted — that there
could be no difficulty in showing to the people this divine body
from the very time it began to be present.
34. — The Moration necessary. — Formal avowed of Luther after many variations.

As to the Adoration, after having one while held it as indif-
ferent, and another laid it down as nece&sary, he at length ad-
hered to his last conclusion ;§ and in the positions which he
published against the Doctors of Louvain,in 1545, that is, a year
before his death, he called the Eucharist " the adorable sacra-
ment." || The Sacramentarian party, who had so much tri-

* Just. Apol. ii. t S. u. 24. Parv. Conf. % Ibid.

§ Hosp. 14, 1545. II Ad Art. Lov. Thesi. 16. t. ii. 501.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 195

umphed when he set aside the Elevation, was in a consternation ;
and Calvin wi'ote, " that, by this decision, he had raised up the
idol in God's temple."*

35. — The divines of Wittenberg and Leipsic own, loith Melancthon, that there
is no avoiding the sacrifice, the Transubstantiation and the Adoration, but by
changing Luther^s doctrine.

Melancthon was then more than ever convinced that it was
impossible to destroy the Adoration, or the Mass, without re-
ducing the whole Real Presence to the precise moment of the
manducation. He saw, even, that it was necessary to go further,
and that all the points of Catholic doctrine relating to the Eu-
charist returned upon them one after another, if they did not find
out a way to separate the body and blood from the bread and
M'ine. He then pushed the principle already spoken of so far as
that nothing was done for the bread and wine, but all for man :
insomuch, that in man only was the body and blood to be really
found. Melancthon has never explained in what manner he
would have this to be done : but as to the foundation of this
doctrine, he never left off insinuating it with great secrecy, and
in the most artful manner he was able : for there were no hopes,
as long as Luther lived, of making him relent on this point, nor
of being able to speak freely what men thought : but Melanc-
thon so deeply rooted this' doctrine in the minds of the Witten-
berg and Leipsic divines, that, after Luther and he were dead,
they plainly explained themselves in favor of it in an Assembly,
which, by the Elector's orders, they held at Dresden, in 1661.
There they feared not to reject Luther's proper doctrine, and
the Real Presence which he admitted in the bread ; and finding
no other means of defending themselves against Transubstan-
tiation, the Adoration, and Sacrifice, they went over to the Real
Presence taught them by Melancthon ; not in the bread and
wine, but in the faithful who received them."!" They declared,
therefore, " That the true substantial body was truly and sub-
stantially given in the Supper, although there was no necessity
of saying that the bread was the essential body or the proper
body of Jesus Christ, or that it was corporally and carnally taken
by the corporeal mouth ; that ubiquity raised a horror in them ;
that it was a subject of astonishment that men should be so pos-
itive in affirming that the body was present in the bread, since
it was of much more importance to consider what is done in man,
for whom, and not for the bread, Jesus Christ rendered himself
present." After that they explained their sentiments concerning
the Adoration, and maintained that it could not be denied, ad-
mitting the Real Presence in the bread, although it should even

* Ep. ad Buc. p. 108. f Wit. et Lips. Theol. Ortliod. Conf. Heidelb.

an. 1575. Hosp. an. 1561, p. 291.

196 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

be explained that the body is not present in it except in the ac-
tual use : " That the Monks would always have the same reason
for beseeching the eternal Father to hear them through his Son,
whom they rendered present in this action ; that the Supper hav-
ing been instituted for the remembrance of Jesus Christ, as he
could not be taken nor remembered without believing in, and
calling on him, the addressing one's self to him in the Supper
as present, and as placing himself in the hands of sacrificing
priests after the words of Consecration, could by no means be
hindered." By the same reason they maintained that, admitting
this Real Presence of the body in the bread, the sacrifice could
not be rejected, and they proved it by this example : " It was,"
said they, " the ancient custom of all suppliants, to take in their
arms the children of those whose assistance they implored, and
present them to their fathers, in order to prevail with them by
their interposition." They said, in the same manner, that hav-
ing Jesus Christ present in the bread and wine of the Supper,
notliing could hinder us from presenting him to his Father, in
order to render him propitious to us ; and, lastly, they concluded
" that it would be much more easy for the monks to establish
their Transubstantiation, than for those to impugn it, who, re-
jectmg it in word, affirmed, nevertheless, that the bread was the
essential body, that is, the proper body of Jesus Christ."

36. — Luthefs doctrine, immediately after his death, changed by the Divines
of Wiltenherg.

Luther had said at Smalkald, and made the whole party sub-
scribe to it, that the bread was the true body of our Lord equally
received by saints and sinners : he himself had said, in his last
" Confession of Faith," approved by the whole party, *' that the
bread of the Eucharist is the true natural body of our Lord."*
Blelancthon and all Saxony had received this doctrine with all
the rest, for Luther would be obeyed : but, after his death, they
fell off from it, and owned with us, that these words, " the bread
is the true body," import necessarily the change of bread into
the body ; since, it being impossible for the bread to be the
body by nature, it could not become so but by a change ; thus
they openly rejected their master's doctrine. f But they went
much further in the above declaration, and confess that, admit-
ting, as Lutherans had hitherto done, the Real Presence in the
bread, there could be no objection to the sacrifice, which Catho-
lics offer to God, nor to the adoration they pay to Jesus Christ
in the Eucharist.

37. — JVb ansivering the arguments of these Divines.

Their proofs are convincing. If Jesus Christ is believed to
be in the bread, if faith lays hold of him in this state, can this
* Art. vi. Cone. p. 330. f S. lib. iv. Parva. Conf. S. n. 14.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 1&7

faith subsist without adoration? Does not this faith itself neces-
sarily imply the highest adoration, since it draws after it the
invocation of Jesus Christ, as Son of God, and as there present?
The proof of the sacrifice is not less conclusive : for, as these
divines say, if, by the sacramental words, Jesus Christ is ren-
dered present in the bread, is not this presence of Jesus Christ
of itself agreeable to the Father, and can our prayers be sanc-
tified by a more holy oblation than that of Jesus Christ present?
What do Catholics say more, and what is their sacrifice else but
Jesus Christ present in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and
representing himself to his Father the victim by which he had
been appeased ? There is no way, then, of avoiding the sacri-
fice, no more than the adoration and transubstantiation, without
denying this real presence of Jesus Christ in the bread.
38. — The Wittenberg Divines return to Luthefs sentiment, and ichy ? The
Catholics alone have a consistent doctrine.

Thus the Church of Wittenberg, the Mother of the Reforma-
tion, and whence, according to Calvin, the light of the Gospel
proceeded in our days as it proceeded formerly from Jerusa-
lem, no longer can maintain the sentiments of Luther, her first
founder.* The whole doctrine of this head of the Reformation
contradicts itself: he invincibly establishes the literal sense and
Real Presence : he rejects the necessary consequences there-
from, as maintained by Cathohcs. If, with him, the Real Pres-
ence is admitted in the bread, the whole Mass, with the Catho-
lic doctrine, must of course be admitted without reserve. This
seems too grating to these new Reformers ; for what good have
they been doing, if they must be forced to approve these things,
with the whole worship of the Church of Rome ? but, on the
other side, what more chimerical than a Real Presence separated
from the bread and wine ? Was it not, in showing the bread
and wine, that Jesus Cluist said, " This is my body?" Has
he said, we should receive his body and blood divided from
those things wherein it was his pleasure they should be con-
tained ; and if we are to receive the proper substance of them,
must it not be after such a manner as he declared at the insti-
tution of this mystery ? In these- inextricable difficulties, the
desire of abolishing the Mass prevailed ; but the method which
Melancthon and the Saxons had taken to destroy it was so bad,
that it could not subsist. Those of Wittenberg and Leipsic
themselves soon after came back, and Luther's opinion, which
placed the body in the bread, kept its ground.

39. — Luther more furious than ever towards the end of his days : his transports
agaiyist the doctors of Louvain.

Whilst this head of the Reform-ers drew near his end, he

* Ep. Calv. p. 590.
17*

198 THE HISTORY OF [bOOIC

daily became more and more furious. His theses against tho
doctors of Louvain are a proof of it. I never can believe that
his disciples will behold, without shame, the prodigious aberra-
tions of his mind even to the last period of his hfe. Sometimes
he plays the buffoon, but in the lowest way imaginable, and fills
his theses with these wretched equivoques ; vaccidtas, instead of
faculias ; cacolyca ecclesia, instead of catholica ; because he finds
in these two words, vaccultas and cacolyca, a frigid allusion to
kine, wicked men, and wolves. To scofl^ at the custom of calling
doctors our masters, he always styles those of Louvain, nostrolli
magistrolli, briita magistroUia : persuaded he makes them very
odious or contemptible by these ridiculous diminutives of his
own coining. When he has a mind to speak more seriously,
he calls these doctors " Downright beasts, hogs. Epicureans,
pagans, and atheists, who are unacquainted with any other
repentance but that of Judas and Saul, who do not take from
Scripture, but from the doctrine of men, all they vomit out ; and
adds, what I dare not translate, quidquid ructant, voinunt, et
cacanV^*- Thus did he forget all kind of shame, and valued not
the making himself a public laughing-stock, provided he drove
all to extremes against his adversaries.

40. — His last sentiments concerning the Zuinglians.

He treated the Zuinglians no better ; and, besides what he
said of the adorable sacrament, which utterly destroyed their
doctrine, he declared seriously that he held them for heretics,
and shut out of the pale of God's Church. | He wrote, at the
same time, a letter, wherein, upon the Zuinglians having called
him an unhappy wretch, " They have afforded me a great plea-
sure," says he : " I, therefore, the most unhappy of all men,
esteem myself happy for one thing only, and covet no other beati-
tude than that of the Psalmist : happy is the man that hath not
been in the council of the Sacramentarians, and hath never
walked in the ways of the Zuinglians, nor sat in the chair of
those of Zurich. Melancthon and his friends were ashamed
of these extravagances of their master. There were secret
murmurings in the party, but none durst speak out. If the
Sacramentarians complained of Luther's transports to Melanc-
thon, and those who were better affected towards them, they
answered, " That he softened the expressions in his books by
his familiar discourses, and comforted them, for that their master,
when he was heated, spoke more than he meant to speak;
which," said they, " was a great inconvenience," J but what they
could not help.

* Cont. Art.Lov. Thes. 28. f Hosp. 199.

t Ep. Crucig. ad Vit Theod. Hosp. 194, 199, &c.

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 199

41. — Lutherh Death.

The above letter was of the twenty-fifth of January, 1546.
The eighteenth of February following, Luther died. The Zuin-
glians, who could not refuse him praises without ruining the
Reformation, of which he had been the founder, to comfort them-
selves for the implacable enmity he had evinced towards them,
even to his death, spread abroad some conversations he had
held with his friends, wherein they pretended he was much
mitigated. These accounts carried no appearance of truth ;
but truly, whether they did or not, it is of little importance to
the design of this work. I write not on private conversations,
but acts only and public works ; and if Luther had given these
new instances of his inconstancy, it would, however, be the
business of the Lutherans to furnish us wherewith to defend him.
42. — A new piece produced by Mr. Burnet on Luther^s sentiment.

To omit nothing of what I know concerning this fact, I shall
observe, moreover, that I find in Mr. Burnet's " History of the
English Reformation," a letter of Luther's to Bucer, which is
given us under this title : " A paper concerning a reconciliation
with the Zuinglians."* This piece of Mr. Burnet, if considered,
not in the extract which this artful historian makes of it in his
history, but as it is in his " Collection of Records, "| will set
forth the extravagances that pass in the minds of innovators.
Luther begins with this remark, " That it must not be said, they
understood not one another." This is what Bucer always pre-
tended, that their disputes were only on words, and that they
understood not one another ; but Luther could not suffer such
an illusion. In the second place, he proposes a new thought
to reconcile the two opinions : " The defenders of the figurative
sense must allow," says he, " that Jesus Christ is truly present:
and we," proceeds he, " will grant that the bread alone is eaten:
panem solum manducari.^^ He does not say, we will grant, " that
in the sacrament there is truly bread and wine," as Mr. Burnet
has translated it ; for that had not been a new opinion, such as
Luther here promises. It is sufficiently known that consub-
stantiation, which admits both the bread and wine in the Sacra-
ment, had been received in Lutheranism from its first beginning.

But the new thing he proposes is, that although the body and
blood be truly present, nevertheless there is nothing eaten but
bread alone : so absurd a refinement, that Mr. Burnet could
not liide the absurdity of it in any other way than by suppress-

* The author was not apprised that Bishop Burnet had falsified tliis record
by changing m^i/ minus into nihUominus. This he was first charged with, and
the fact proved against liim, by Dr. Hicks. In the latter editions of his liis-
tory the fault is corrected in the " Collection of Records," though his infer-
ences from it still remain in the body of liis work. T. xi. Li. Au. 1549. p. 105.

t CoUec. of Records, part ii. lib. i. n. 34.

200 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

ing it. But there is no need of troubling oneself to find out
sense in this new project of agreement. After having proposed
it as useful, Luther turns short ; and considering what an inlet
would thereby be opened to new questions tending to intro-
duce Epicurism : " No," says he, " it is better leaving these
two opinions just as they are, than proceed to these new expli-
cations of them, which, far from making them pass on mankind,
would indeed only serve to exasperate them the more. Finally,
to allay this dissension, which, he says, he would have redeemed
with his body and blood, he declares on his side, that he is will-
ing to believe his adversaries are sincere. He demands they
would beUeve as much of him, and concludes for mutually bear-
ing with one another, without specifying in what manner that
was to be done : so that he seems to mean nothing else by it,
than abstaining from writing and giving one another abusive
language, as had already been agreed upon, but with very little
success, at the conference of Marpurg. This is all that Bucer
could obtain for the Zuinglians, even when Luther was in his
best humor, and, probably, during those years when there was
a kind of suspension of arms. However that may be, he soon
returns to his old temper ; and, for fear the Sacramentarians
should endeavor, after his death, to wrest him by their equivoca-
tions to their own sentiments, towards the end of his life, he
made those declarations against them we have already seen,
leaving his disciples as much animated against them as he him-
self had been.

RECORDS CONCERNING THE SECOND MARRIAGE OF THE
LANDGRAVE SPOKEN OF IN THIS BOOK VI.

INSTRUCTIO.

(luid Doctor Martinus Bucer apud Doctorem Martinum Lutherum, et Philip-
pum Melancthonem solicitare debeat, et, si id ipsis rectum vidcbitur, poslmo-
dum apud Electorem Saxionae.

I. Primo, ipsis gratiam et fausta meo nomine denunciet, et
si corpore animoque adhuc bene valerent, quod id libentor in-
telligerem. Deinde incipiendo quod ab eo tempore quo me
noster Dominus Deus infirmitate'visitavit, varia apud me con-
siderassem, et prsesertim quod in me repererim quod ego ab
aliquo tempore, quo uxorem duxi, in adulterio et fornicatione
jacuerim. Quia vero ipsi et mei proedicantes saepe me adhor-
tati sunt ut ad Sacramentum accederem : Ego autem apud me
talem praefatam vitam deprehendi, nulla bonsi conscienti^ aliquot
annis ad Sacramentum accedere potui. Nam quia talem vitam
DESERERE NOLO, qua bona conscientia possem ad mensam
Domini accedere 1 Et sciebam per hoc non aliter quam ad
judicium Domini, et non ad Christianam confessionem me per-

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 201

venturum. Ulterius legi in Paulo pluhbus quam uno locis, quo-
modo nullus fornicator, nee adulter regnum Dei possidebit.
Quia vero apud me deprehendi quod apud meam uxorem prae-
sentem a fornicatione ac luxuria, atque adulterio abstinere non
possim : nisi ab hale vit£i desistam, et ad emendationem me con-
vertam, nihil certius habeo expectandum quam exhaeredationem
h, regno Dei et aeternam damnationem. Causae autem, quare h.
fornicatione, adulterio, et his similibus abstinere non possim
apud banc meam praesentem uxorem sunc istae.

II. Primo quod initio, quo earn duxi, nee animo nee deside-
rio earn complexus fuerim. Quali ipsa quoque complexione,
amabilitate, et odore sit, et quomodo interdum se superfluo potu
gerat, hoc sciunt ipsius aulae praefecti, et virgines, aliique plures :
cumque ad ea describenda difficultatem habeam, Bucero tamen
omnia declaravi.

III. Secundo, quia validal complexione, ut medici sciunt, sum,
et saepe contingit ut in foederum et Imperii comitiis diu verser,
ubi lauta vivitur et corpus curatur ; quomodo me ibi gerere
queam absque uxore, cum non semper magnum gynaeceum
mecum ducere possim, facile est conjicere et considerare.

IV. Si porro diceretur quare meam uxorem duxerim, vere
imprudens homo tunc temporis fui, et ab aliquibus meorum con-
siliariorum, quorum potior pars defuncta est, ad id persuasis sum.
Matrimonium meum ultra tres septimanas non servavi, et sic
constantfer perrexi.

V. Ulterius me concionatores constanter urgent, ut scelera
puniam, fornicationem, et alia ; quod etiam libenter facerem :
quomodo autem scelera, quibus ipsemet immersus sum, puniam,
ubi omnes dicerent, " Magister, prius teipsum puni?" Jam si
deberem in rebus evangelicae confcederationis bellare, tunc id
semper malcl conscientia facerem et cogitarem : Si tu m hac
vita gladio, vel sclopeto, vel alio modo occubueris, ad Demo-
nem perges. Saepe Deum interea invocavi, et rogavi : sed
semper idem remansi.

VI. Nunc vero diligenter consideravi scripturas antiqui et
novi Testamenti, et quantiim mihi gratiae Deus dedit, studiose
perlegi, et ibi nullum aliud consilium nee medium invenire po-
tui ; cum videam quod ab hoc agendi modo penes modernam
uxorem meam nec possim, nec velim abstinere (quod coram
Deo tester) quam talia media adhibendo, quae a Deo permissa
nec prohibita sunt. Quod pii Patres ut Abraham, Jacob, David,
Lamech, Solomon, et alii, plures quam unam uxorem habuerint,
et in eundum Christum crediderent, in quern nos credimus,
quemadmodum S. Paulus ad Cor. x. ait ; et praetrea Deus in
veteri Testamento tales Sanctos valde laudarit : Christus quo-
que eosdem in novo Testaijiento valde laudat, insuper lex Mo-

THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

isis permittit, si quis duas uxores habeat, quomodo se in hoc
gerere debeat.

VII. Et si objiceretur, Abrahamo et antiquis concessum
fuisse propter Christum promissum, invenitur tamen clare quod
Lex Moisis permittat, et in eo neminem specificet ac dicat,
utrum duse uxores habendse, et sic neminem excludit. Et si
Christus solum promissus sit stemmati Judse, et nihilominus
Samuelis pater, Rex Achab et ahi, plures uxores habuerunt, qui
tamen non sunt de stemmate Judae. Idcirco hoc, quod istis id
solum permissum fuerit propter Messiam, stare non potest.

VIII. Cum igitur nee Deus in antique, nee Christus in novo
Testamento, nee Propheta, nee Apostoli prohibeant, ne vir duas
uxores habere possit ; nullus quoque Propheta, vel Apostolus
propterea Reges, Principes, vel alias personas punierit aut vitu-
per^rit, quod duas uxores in matrimonio simul habuerint, neque
pro crimine aut peccato, vel quod Dei regnum non consequen-
tur, judicarit ; ciim tamen Paulus multos indicet qui regnum
Dei non consequentur, et de his qui duas uxores habent, nullam
omnino mentionem faciat. Apostoli quoque ciim gentibus in-
dicarent quomodo se gerere, et a quibus abstinere deberent, ubi
illos primo ad fidem receperant, uti in Actis Apostolorum est :
de hoc etiam nihil prohibuerunt, quod non duas uxores in ma-
trimonio habere possent ; cum tamen multi Gentiles fuerint qui
plures quam unam uxorem habuerunt : Judseis quoque prohibi-
tum non fuit, quia lex illud permittebat, et est omnino apud
ahquos in usu. Quando igitur Paulus clare nobis dicit opor-
tere Episcopum esse unius uxoris virum, similiter et Ministrum :
absque necessitate fecisset, si quivis tantum unam uxorem de-
beret habere, quod id ita praBcepisset et plures uxores habere
prohibuisset.

IX. Et post hsec ad hunc diem usque in orientalibus regio-
nibus aliqui Christiani sunt, qui duas uxores in matrimonio ha-
bent. Item Valentiniamis Imperator, quem tamen Historici,
Ambrosius, et alii Docti laudant, ipsemet duas uxores habuit,
legem quoque edi curavit ; quod alii duas uxores habere possent.

X. Item, licet quod sequitur non multum curem. Papa ipse-
met Comiti cuidam, qui sanctum sepulchrum in visit, et intel-
lexerat uxorem suam mortuam esse, et ideo aliam vel adhuc
unam acceperat, concessit ut is utramque retinere posset. Item
ecio Lutherum et Philippum Regi Anglise suasisse, ut primam
uxorem non dimitteret, sed aliam proeter ipsam duceret quem-
^dmodum prceter propter consilium sonat. Quando vero in
contrarium opponeretur, quod ille nullum masculum hseredem
ex prima habuerit, judicamus nos plus hicconcedi oportere causae
quam Paulus dat, unumquemque debere uxorem habere propter
fbrnicationem. Nam utique plus situm est in bon^ conscientili,

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 203

salute animoe, christian^ vita, abstractione ab ignominiEi et inor-
dinate luxuria, qukm in eo ut quis hseredes vel nullos habeat.
jVam omninb plus animse quam res temporales curandae sunt.

XI. Itaque haec omni ame permoverunt, ut mihi proposuerim,
quia id cum Deo fieri potest, sicut non dubito, abstinere a for-
nicatione, et omni impudiciti^, et vi£l, quam Deus permittit, uti.
Nam diutius in vinculis diaboli constrictus perseverare non
intendo, et alias absque h^c vi^ me prseservare nec possum,
NEC voLO. Quare haec sit mea ad Lutherum, Philippum et
ipsum Bucerum petitio, ut mihi testimonium dare velint, si hoc
facerem, illud illicitum non esse.

XII. Casu quo autem id ipsi hoc tempore propter scandalum,
et quod Evangelicae rei fortassis praejudicare autnocere posset,
pubhce typis mandare non vellent ; petitionem tamen meam
esse, ut mihi scripto testimonium dent : si id occulto facerem
me per id non contra Deum egisse, et quod ipsi etiam id pro-
matrimonio habere, et cum tempore viam inquirere velint, quo-
modo res haec publicanda in mundum, et qu^ ratione persona
quam ducturus sum, non pro inhonest^, sed etiam pro honestS,
habenda sit. Considerare enim possent, quod ahks personae
quam ducturus sum graviter accideret, si ilia pro tali habenda
esset quae non Christiane vel inhoneste ageret. Post qukm
etiam nihil occultum remanet, si constanter ita permanerem, et
communis Ecclesia nesciret quomodo huic personae cohab-
itarem, utique haec quoque tractu temporis scandalum causaret.

XIII. Item non metuant quod propterea, etsi aliam uxorem
acciperem, meam modernam uxorem malo tractare, nec cum
ea dormire ; vel minorem amicitiam ei exhibare velim, quam
antea feci : sed me velle in hoc casu crucem portare, et eidem
omne bonum praestare, neque ab eadem abstinere. Volo etiam
filios, quos ex prima uxore suscepi, Principes regionis relinquere,
et reliquis aliis honestis rebus prospicere : esse proinde adhuc
semel petitionem meam, ut per Deum in hoc mihi consulant, et
me juvent in iis rebus, quae non sunt contra Deum, ut hilari an-
imo vivere et mori, atque EvangeHcas causas omnes eo liberiiis,
et magis Christiane suscipere possim. Nam quidquid me jus-
serint quod Christianum et rectum sit, sive Monasteriorum
BONA, seu alia concernat, ibi me promptum reperient.

XIV. Vellem quoque et desidero non plures quam tantiim
unam uxorem ad istam modernam uxorem meam. Item ad
mundum vel mundanum fructum hac in re non nimis attenden-
dum est ; sed magis Deus respiciendus, et quod hie praecipit,
prohibet, et liberum relinquit. Nam imperator et mundus me et
quemcunque permittent, ut publice meretrices retineamus ; sed
plures qukm unam uxorem non facile concesserint. Quod Deus
permittit hoc ipsi prohibent : quod Deus prohibet, hoc dissim-

204 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

ulant, et videtur mihi sicut matrimonium Sacerdotum. Nam
Sacerdotibus nullas uxores concedunt, et meretrices retinere
ipsis permittunt. Item Ecclesiastici nobis adeo infensi sunt,
ut propter hunc articulum quo plures Christianis uxores permit-
teremus, nee plus nee minus nobis facturi sint.

XV. Item Philippe et Luthero post modum indicabit, si apud
illos, prseter omnem tamen opinionem meam de illis nullam
opem inveniam ; tum me varias cogitationes habere in animo :
quod vehm apud Csesarem pro hac re instare per mediatores,
etsi multis mihi pecuniis constaret, quod Csesar absque Pontificis
dispensatione non faceret ; quamvis etiam Pontificum dispensa-
tionem omnino nihili faciam : verxim Csesaris permissio mihi om-
nino non esset contemnenda ; quam Caesaris permissionem
omnino non curarem, nisi scirem quod propositi mei rationem
coram Deo haberem, et certius esset Deum id permisisse quam
prohibuisse.

XVI. Veriim nihilominus ex humano metu, si apud banc
partem nullum solatium invenire possem, Csesareum consensum
obtinere, uti insinuatum est, non esset contemnendum. Nam
apud me judicabam si aliquibus Csesaris Consiliariis egregias
pecuniae summas donarem, me omnia ab ipsis impetraturum :
sed, prseterek timebam, quamvis propter nullam rem in terra ab
Evangelio deficere, vel cum divina ope me permittere velim
induci ad aliquid quod Evangelicse causae contrarium esse pos-
set : ne Caesareani tamen me in aliis saecularibus negotiis ita
uterentur et obligarent ut isti causae et parti non foret utile :
esse idcirco adhuc petitionem meam, ut me alias juvent, ne
cogar rem in iis locis quaerere, ubi id non libenter facio, et quod
millies libentiiis ipsorum permissioni, quam cum Deo et bonS,
conscientia facere possunt, confidere velim, quam, Caesarea,
vel ALUS HUMANis pemiissionibus : quibus tamen non ulterius
confiderem nisi antecedenter in diving Scriptura fundatae essent,
uti superivis est declaratum.

XVII. Denique iterato est mea petitio ut Lutherus, Philip-
pus, et Bucerus mihi hac in re scripto opinionem suam velint
aperire, ut posteU, vitam meam emendare, bona conscientia ad
Sacramentum accedere, et omnia negotia nostrae rehgionis eo
liberius et confidentiiis agere possim.

Datum Melsingce Dominica post Catharince Jlnno 1539.

PhILIPPUS LaNDGRAFFIUS HASSIiE.

VI.]

THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

205

THE CONSULTATION OF LUTHER AND THE OTHER PROT-
ESTANT DOCTORS CONCERNING POLYGAMY.

To the most serene Prince and Lord Philip Landgrave of Hesse, Count of
Catzenlemhogen^ of Diets, of Ziegenhain, and J^idda, our gracious Lord, loe
loish above all things the Grace of God through Jesus Christ.

Most Serene Prince and Lord,

I. Postquam vestra Celsi- I. We have been informed by
tudo per Dominum Bucerum Bucer, and in the instruction

diuturnasconscientisesusemo-
lestias, nonnuUas simulque
considerationes indicari cu-
ravit, addito scripto seu in-
structione quam illi vestra
Celsitudo tradidit; licet ita
properanter expedire respon-
sum difficile sit, noluimus
tamen Dominum Bucerum,
reditum, utique maturantem,
sine scripto dimittere.

II. Imprimis sumus ex ani-
mo recreati, et Deo gratias
agimus, quod vestram Celsi-
tudinem difficili morbo libera-
verit, petimusque, ut Deus
Celsitudinem vestram in cor-
pore et animo confortare et
conservare dignetur.

III. Nam prout Celsitudo
vestra videt, paupercula et
misera Ecclesia est exigua
et derelicta, indigens probis
Dominis Regentibus, sicut
non dubitamus Deum aliquos
conservaturum, quantumvis
tentationes diversseoccurrant.

IV. Circa qusestionem quam
nobis Bucerus proposuit, hsec
nobis occurrunt considera-
tione digna : Celsitudo vestra
per se ipsam satis perspicit
quantum differant universa-
lem legem condere, vel in

which your Highness gave him,
have read, the trouble of mind,
and the uneasiness of conscience
your Highness is under at this
present ; and although it seemed
to us very difficult so speedily
to answer the doubts proposed;
nevertheless, we would not per-
mit the said Bucer, who was
urgent for his return to your
Highness, to go av/ay without
an answer in writing.

II. It has been a subject of
the greatest joy to us, and we
have praised God, for that he
has recovered your Highness
from a dangerous fit of sickness,
and we pray that he will long
continue this blessing of perfect
health both in body and mind.

HI. Your Highness is not
ignorant how great need our
poor, misera?ble, little, and aban-
doned Church stands in of vir-
tuous Princes and Rulers to
protect her ; and v/e doubt not
but God will always supply her
with some such, although from
time to time he threatens to de-
prive her of them, and proves
her by sundry temptations.

IV. These things seem to us
of greatest importance in the
question which Bucer has pro-
posed to us : your Highness
sufficiently of yourself compre-
hends the difference there is be-
twixt settling an universal law,

18

206

certo casu gravibus de causis
ex concessione diving, dis-
pensatione uti ; nam contra
Deum locum non habet dis-
pensatio.

V. Nunc suadere non pos-
sumus, ut introducatur pub-
lice, et velut lege sanciatur
permisso plures quam unam,
uxores ducendi. Si aliquid
hac de re prselo committe-
retur, facile intelligit vestra
Celsitudo, id praecepti instar
intellectum et acceptatum iri,
unde multa scandala et diffi-
cultates orirentur. Conside-
ret, qu3esumus,Celsitudo ves-
tra quam sinistre acciperetur,
si quis convinceretur banc le-
gem in Germaniam introdux-
isse, quae aeternarum litium et
inquietudinum (quod limen-
dum) futurum esset semina-
rium.

VI. Quod opponi potest,
quod coram Deo sequum est
id omnino permittendum, hoc
cert^ ratione et conditione est
accipiendum. Si res est man-
data et necessaria, verum est
quod objicitur ; si nee man-
data, nee necessaria sit, alias
circumstantias oportet expen-
dere ut ad propositam ques-
tionem propius accedamus :
Deus roatrimonium instituit
ut tantiim duarum et non plu-
rium personarum esset soci-
etas, si natura non esset cor-
rupta ; hoc intendit ilia sen-
tentia : Erunt duo in came
una, idque primatus fuit ob-
eervatum.

THE HISTORY OP

[book

and using (for urgent reasons
and with God's permission) a
dispensation in a particular case :
for it is otherwise evident that
no dispensation can take place
against the first of all laws, the
divine law.

V. We cannot at present ad-
vise to introduce publicly, and
establish as a law in the New
Testament, that of the Old,
which permitted to have more
wives than one. Your Highness
is sensible, should any such thing
be printed, that it would be taken
for a precept, whence infinite
troubles and scandals would
arise. We beg your Highness
to consider the dangers a man
would be exposed unto, who
should be convicted of having
brought into Germany such a
law, which would divide families,
and involve them in endless
strifes and disturbances.

VI. As to the objection that
may be made, that what is just
in God's sight ought absolutely
to be permitted, it must be an-
swered in this manner. If that
which is just before God, be be-
sides commanded and neces-
sary, the objection is true : if it
be neither necessary nor com-
manded, other circumstances,
before it be permitted, must be
attended to ; and to come to the
question in hand : God hath in-
stituted marriage to be a society
of two persons and no more,
supposing nature were not cor-
rupted ; and this is the sense of
that text of Genesis, " There
shall be two in one flesh," and this
was observed at the beginning.

m

VI.]

THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

207

YII. Sed Lamech pluralita-
tem uxorum in matiimonium
invexit, quod de illo Sciiptura
memorat tanquam introduc-
tum contra primam regulam.
VIII. Apud infideles tamen
fuit consuetudine receptum ;
postea Abraham quoque et
poster! ejus plures duxerunt
uxores. Certum est hoc post-
modumlege Mosispermissum
fuisse, teste Scriptura, Deu-
ter. 2. 1. 1. ut homo haberet
duas uxores : nam Deus fra-
gih naturse ahquid indulsit.
Cum vero piincipio et crea-
tion! consentaneum sit unica
iixore contentum vivere, hu-
jusmodi lex est laudabilis, et
ab EcclesisL acceptanda, non
lex huic contraria statuenda ;
nam Christus repetit banc sen-
tentiam: Erunt duo in came
una, Matth. xix. et in memo-
riam revocat quale matrimo-
nium ante humanam fragili-
tatem esse debuisset.

IX. Certis tamen casibus
locus est dispensation!. Si
quis apud exteras nationes
captivus ad curam corporis
et sanitatem, inib! alteram
uxorem superinduceret ; vel
si quis haberet leprosam ; his
casibus alteram ducere cum
consilio sui Pastoris, non in-
tentione novam legem indu-
cendi, sed suae necessitati con-
sulendi, hunc nescimus, qua
ratione damnare licerit.

VII. Lamech was the first
that married many wives, and
the Scripture witnesses that this
custom was introduced contrary
to the first Institution.

VIII. It nevertheless passed
into custom among infidel na-
tions ; and we even find after-
wards, that Abraham and his
posterity had many wives. It
is also certain from Deuteron-
omy, that the law of Moses per-
mitted it afterwards, and that
God made an allowance for frail
nature. Since it is then suitable
to the creation of men, and to
the first establishment of their
society, that each one be con-
tent with one wife, it thence fol-
lows that the law enjoining it is
praiseworthy; that it ought to be
received in the Church ; and no
law contrary thereto be intro-
duced into it, because Jesus
Christ has repeated in the nine-
teenth chapter of St. Matthew
that text of Genesis, " There
shall be two in one flesh :" and
brings to man's remembrance
what marriage ought to have
been before it degenerated from
its purity.

IX. In certain cases, how-
ever, there is room for dispensa-
tion. For example, if a mar-
ried man, detained captive in a
distant country, should there take
a second wife, in order to pre-
serve or recover his health, or
that his own became leprous, we
see not how we could condemn,
in these cases, such a man as,
by the advice of his Pastor,
.hould take another wife, pro-
jided it were not with a design
of introducing a new law, but

208

THE HISTORY OF

X. Cum igitur aliud sit in-
ducere legem, aliud uti dis-
pensatione, obsecramus ves-
tram Celsitudinem sequentia
velit considerare.

Primo ante omnia caven-
dum, ne hcec res inducatur in
orbem ad modum legis, quam
sequendi libera omnium sit
potestas. Deinde conside-
rare dignetur vestra Celsitu-
do scandalum nimium, quod
Evangelii hostes exclamaturi
sint, nos similes esse Anabap-
tistis, qui simul plures duxe-
runt uxores. Item Evangeli-
cos eam sectari libertatem
plures simul ducendi, quae in
Turcia in usu est.

XI. Item principum facta
latiiis spargiquam privatorum
consideret.

XII. Item consideret pri-
vatas personas, hujusmodi
principum facta audientes,
facile eadem sibi permissa
persuadere, prout apparet ta-
lia facile irrepere.

XIII. Item considerandum
Celsitudinem vestram abun-
dare nobilitate efferi spiritiis,
in qua multi, uti in aliis quo-
que terris sint, qui propter
amplos proventus, quibus ra-
tione cathedralium beneficio-
rum perfruuntur, valde evan-
gelio adversantur. Non ig-
noramus ipsi magnorum nobi-
lium valde insula dicta ; et

[book

with an eye only to his own
particular necessities.

X. Since then the introducing
a new law, and the using a dis-
pensation with respect to the
same law, are two very different
things, we entreat your Highness
to take what follows into con-
sideration.

In the first place, above all
things, care must be taken, that
plurality of wives be not intro-
duced into the world by way of
law, for every man to follow as
he thinks fit. In the second
place, may it please your High-
ness to reflect on the dismal
scandal which would not fail to
happen, if occasion be given to
the enemies of the Gospel to ex-
claim, that we are like the Ana-
baptists, who have several wives
at once, and the Turks, who take
as many wives as they are able
to maintain.

XI. In the third place, that
the actions of Princes are more
widely spread than those of pri-
vate men.

XII. Fourthly, that inferiors
are nosoonerinformedwhattheir
superiors do, but they imagine
they may do the same, and by
that means licentiousness be-
comes universal.

XIII. Fifthly, that your High-
ness's estates are filled with an
untractable nobility, for the most
part very averse to the Gospel,
on account of the hopes they are
in, as in other countries, of ob-
taining the benefices of cathe-
dral churches, the revenues
whereof are very great. We
know the impertinent discourses
vented by the most illustrious

VI.J

THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

209

qualem se nobilitas et sub-
dita ditio erga Celsitudinem
vestram sit prsebitura, si pub-
lica introductio fiat, baud dif-
ficile est arbitrari;

XIV. Item Celsitudo ves-
tra, quae Dei singularis est
gratia, apud reges et potentes
etiam exteros magno est in
honore et respectu ; apud
quos merito est, quod timeat
ne hsec res pariat nominis di-
minutionem. Ciim igitur hie
multa scandala confluant, ro-
gamus Celsitudinem vestram,
ut banc rem maturo judicio
expendere velit.

XV. lUud quoque est va-
rum quod Celsitudinem ves-
tram omni modo rogamus et
hortamur, ut fornicationem
et adulterium fugiat. Habui-
mus quoque, ut, quod res est,
loquamur, longo tempore non
parvum meerorem, quod in-
tellexerimus vestram Celsitu-
dinem ejusmodi impuritate
oneratam, quam divina ultio,
morbi, aliaque pericula sequi
possent.

XVI. Etiam rogamus Cel-
situdinem vestram ne talia
extra matrimonium, levia
peccata velit sestimare, sicut
mundus hsec ventis tradere et
parvi pendere solet: Veriim
Deus impudicitiam ssepe sev-
erissime punivit : nam poena
diluvii tribuitur regentum
adulteriis. Item adulterium
Davidis est severum vindictse
divinse exemplum, et Paulus
ssepiiis ait ; Deus non irride-
tur. Adulteri non introibunt

of your nobility, and it is easily
seen how they and the rest of
your subjects would be disposed,
in case your Highness should
authorize such a novelty.

XIV. Sixthly, that your High-
ness, by the singular grace of
God, hath a great reputation in
the empire and foreign coun-
tries ; and it is to be feared lest
the execution of this project of
a double marriage should greatly
diminish this esteem and respect.
The concurrence of so many
scandals obliges us to beseech
your Highness to examine the
thing with all the maturity of
judgment God has endowed you
with.

XV. With no less earnestness
do we entreat your Highness, by
all means, to avoid fornication
and adultery; and, to own the
truth sincerely, we have a long
time been sensibly grieved to
see your Highness abandoned
to such impurities, which might
be followed by the effects of the
divine vengeance, distempers,
and many other dangerous con-
sequences.

XVI. We also beg of your
Highness not to entertain a no-
tion, that the use of women out
of marriage is but a light and
trifling fault, as the world is used
to imagine ; since God hath often
chastised impurity with the most
severe punishment : and that of
the deluge is attributed to the
adulteries of the great ones ; and
the adultery of David has afi'ord-
ed a terrible instance of the di-
vine vengeance ; and St. Paul
repeats frequently, that God is

18*

210

THE HISTORY OF

in regnum Dei : nam fidei
obedientia comes esse debet,
lit non contra conscientiam
agamus, 1 Timoth. iii. Si cor
nostrum non reprehenderit
nos, possumus laeti Deum in-
vocare ; et Rom. viii. Si
carnalia desideria spiritu mor-
tificaverimus, vivemus ; si
alitem secundum carnem am-
bulemus : hoc est, si contra
conscientiam, agamus, morie-
mur.

XVII. Hsec referrimus, ut
consideret Deum ob talia
vitia non ridere, prout aliqui
audaces faciunt, et ethnicas
cogitationes animo fovent.
Libenter quoque intelleximus
vestram Celsitudinem ob ejus-
modi vitia angi et conqueri.
Incumbunt Gelsitudini vestras
negotia totum mundum con-
cernentia. Accedit Celsitudi-
nis vestrse complexio subtilis,
et minime robusta, ac pauci
somni, unde merito corpori
parcendum esset, quemadmo-
dum mutti alii facere cogun-
tur.

XVIII. Legitur de laudatis-
simo Principe Scanderbego,
qui multa praeclara facinora
patravit contra duos Turca-

[book

not mocked with impunity, and
that adulterers shall not enter
into the kingdom of God. For
it is said, in the second chapter
of the first Epistle to Timothy,
that obedience must be the com-
panion of faith, in order to avoid
acting against conscience ; and
in the third chapter of the first
of St. John, if our heart con-
demn us not, we may call upon
the name of God with joy : and
in the eighth chapter of the Epis-
tle to the Romans, if by the spirit
we mortify the desires of the
flesh, we shall live : but, on the
contrary, we shall die, if we walk
according to the flesh, that is,
if we act against our own con-
sciences.

XVII. We have related these
passages, to the end that your
Highness may consider seriously
that God looks not on the vice
of impurity as a laughing matter,
as is supposedby those audacious
libertines, who entertain heathen-
ish notions on this subject. We
are pleased to find that your
Highness is troubled with re-
morse of conscience for these
disorders. The management of
the most important affairs in the
world is now incumbent on your
Highness, who is of a very deli-
cate and tender complexion ;
sleeps but little ; and these rea-
sons, which have obliged so
many prudent persons to man-
age their constitutions, are more
than sufficient to prevail with
your Highness to imitate them.
XVIII. We read of the incom-
parable Scanderberg, who so
frequently defeated the two most
powerful Emperors of the Turks,

VI.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 211

rum Imperatores, Amiirathem Amurat II and Mahomet II, and

et Mahumetem, et Grseciam
dum viveret, feliciter tuitus
est, ac conservavit. Hie suos
milites ssepius ad castimo-
niam hortari auditus est, et
dicere, nullam rem fortibus
viris seque animos demere ac
Venerem. Item quod si ves-
tra Celsitudo insuper alteram
uxorem habeiet, et nollet
pravis afFectibus et consuetu-
dinibus repugnare, adhuc non
esset vestrcE Celsitudini con-
sultum ac prospectum. Opor-
tet unumquemque in externis
istis suorum membrorum esse
dominum, uti Paulus scribit :
Curate ut membra vestra sint
arma justitia. Q.uare vestra
Celsitudo in consideratione
aliarum causarum, nempe
scandali, curarum, laborum
ac solicitudinum, et corporis
infirmitatis velit banc rem
sequa lance perpendere, et si-
mul in memoriam revocare,
quod Deus ei ex moderna
conjuge pulchram sobolem
utriusque sexiis dederit, ita
ut contentus hac esse possit.
Quot alii in suo matrimonio
debent patientiam exercere
ad vitandum scandalum? No-
bis non sedet animo Celsitu-
dinem vestram ad tam diffi-
cilem novitatem impellere,
aut inducere ; nam ditio ves-
trse Celsitudinis, aliique nos
impeterent, quod nobis eo
minus ferendum esset, quod
ex pr?ecepto divino nobis in-
cumbat matrimonium, omnia-
que humana ad divinam in-
stitutionem dirigere, atque in
e^ quoad possibileconservare,

whilst alive, preserved Greece
from their tyranny, that he often
exhorted his soldiers to chastity,
and said to them, that there was
nothing so hurtful to men of
their profession, as venereal plea-
sures. And if your Highness,
after marrying a second wife,
were not to forsake those hcen-
tious disorders, the remedy pro-
posed would be to no purpose.
Every one ought to be master
of his own body in external ac-
tions, and see, according to the
expression of St. Paul, that his
members be the arms of justice.
May it please your Highness,
therefore, impartially to examine
the considerations of scandal, of
labors, of care, of trouble, and
of distempers, which have been
represented. And at the same
time remember that God has
given you a numerous issue of
such beautiful children of both
sexes by the Princess your wife,
that you have reason to be sat-
isfied therewith. How many
others, in marriage, are obhged
to the exercise and practice of
patience, from the motive only
of avoiding scandal 1 We are
far from urging on your High-
ness to introduce so difficult a
no\^lty into your family. By
so doing, we should draw upon
ourselves not only the reproaches
and persecution of those of
Hesse, but of all other people.
The which would be so much the
less supportable to us, as God
commands us in the ministry
which we exercise, as much as
we are able, to regulate marriage,
and all the other duties of human

212

THE HISTORY OF

omneque scandalum remo-
vere.

XIX. Isjamestmossseculi,
ut culpa omnis in Predica-
tores conferatur, si quid diffi-
cultatis incidat ; et humanum
cor in summse et inferioris
conditionis hominibus insta-
bile, unde diversa pertimes-
cenda.

XX. Si autem vestra Cel-
situdo ab impudicEl vita non
abstineat, quod dicit sibi im-
possibile, optaremus Celsitu-
dinem vestram in meliori statu
esse coram Deo, et securci
conscientia vivere ad proprige
animse salutem, et ditionum
ac subditorumemolumentum.

XXI. Quod si denique ves-
tra Celsitudo omnino conclu-
serit, adhuc unam conjugem
ducere, judicamus id secretb
faciendum, ut superiiis de dis-
pensdtione dictum, nempe ut
tantiim vestrae Celsitudini, illi
personse, ac paucis personis
fidelibus constet Celsitudinis
vestrae animus, et conscientia
sub sigillo confessionis. Hinc
non sequuntur alicujus mo-
menti contradictiones aut
scandala. Nihil enim est inu-
sitati Principes concubinas
alere ; et quamvis non omni-
bus e plebe constaret rei ratio,
tamen prudentiores inteliige-
rent, et magis pjaceret hssc
moderata vivendi ratio, quam
adulterium et alii belluini et
impudici actus ; nee curandi
aliorum sermones, si recte
cum conscientia agatur. Sic
et in tantum hoc approbamus :

[book

life, according to the divine Insti-
tution, and maintain them in that
state, and remove all kind of
scandal.

XIX. It is now customary
among worldlings, to lay the
blame of every thing upon the
Preachers of the Gospel. The
heart of man is equally fickle in
the more elevated and lower sta-
tions of life ; and much have
we to fear on that score.

XX. As to what your High-
ness says, that it is not possible
for you to abstain from this im-
pure life, we wish you were in
a better state before God, that
you lived with a secure con-
science, and labored for the sal-
vation of your own soul, and the
welfare of your subjects.

XXI. But after all, if your
Highness is fully resolved to
marry a second wife, we judge
it ought to be done secretly, as
we have said with respect to the
dispensation demanded on the
same account, that is, that none
but the person you shall wed,
and a few trusty persons, know
of the matter, and they, too,
obliged to secrecy under the seal
of confession. Hence no con-
tradiction nor scandal of moment
is to be apprehended ; for it is no
extraordinary thing for Princes
to keep concubines; and though
the vulgar should be scandal-
ized thereat, the more intelligent
would doubt of the truth, and pru-
dent persons would approve of
this moderate kind of life, pref-
erably to adultery, and other
brutal actions. There is no need
of being much concerned for
what men will say, provided all

TI.]

nam quod circa matrimonium
in lege Mosis fuit permissum,
Evangelium non levocat, aut
vetat, quod externum regi-
men non immutat, sed adfert
seternam justitiam et aeternam
vitam, et orditur veram obe-
dientiam erga Deum, et co-
natur corruptam naturam re-
parare.

XXII. Habet itaque Celsi-
tudo vestra non tantum om-
nium nostrum testimonium in
casu necessitatis, sed etiam
antecedentes nostras consi-
derationes quas rogamus, ut
vestra Celsitudo tanquam lau-
datus, sapiens, et Christia-
nus Princeps velit ponderare.
Oramus quoque Deum,. ut
velit Celstitudinem vestram
ducere ac regere ad suam
laudem et vestrae Celsitudinis
animse salutem.

XXIII. Quod attinet ad
consilium banc rem apud Cae-
sarem tractandi ; existimamus
ilium, adulterium inter minora
peccata numerare ; nam mag-
nopere verendum, ilium Pa-
pistica, Cardinalitia, Italic^,
Hispanicel, Saracenica imbu-
tum fide, non curaturum ves-
trse Celsitudinis postulatum,
et in proprium emolumentum
vanis verbis sustentaturum,
sicut intelligimus perfidum ac
fallacem virum esse,morisque
Germanici oblitum.

THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

213

goes right with conscience. So
far do we approve it, and in those
circumstances only by us spec-
ified ; for the Gospel hath nei-
ther recalled nor forbid what was
permitted in the law of Moses
with respect to marriage. Jesus
Christ has not changed the ex-
ternal economy, but added jus-
tice only, and life everlasting,
for reward. He teaches the true
way of obeying God, and en-
deavors to repair the corruption
of nature.

XXII. Your Highness hath
therefore, in this writing, not
only the approbation of us all, in
case of necessity, concerning
what you desire, but also the re-
flections we have made there-
upon ; we beseech you to weigh
them, as becoming a virtuous,
wise, and Christian Prince. We
also beg of God to direct all for
his glory and your Highness's
salvation.

XXIII. AstoyourHighness's
thought of communicating this
affair to the emperor before it
be concluded, it seems to us
that this Prince counts adultery
among the lesser sort of sins ;
and it is very much to be feared
lest his faith being of the same
stamp with that of the Pope, the
Cardinals, the Italians, the Span-
iards, and the Saracens, he malie
light of your Highness's pro-
posal, and turn it to his own ad-
vantage by amusing your High-
ness with vain words. We know
he is deceitful and perfidious,
and has nothing of the German
in him.

^14

THE HISTORY OP

XXIV. Videt Celsitudo
vestra ipsa, quod nuUis neces-
sitatibus Christianis sincere
consulit. Turcam sinit im-
perturbatum, excitat tantum
rebeliiones in Germanic, ut
Burgundicam potentiam ef-
ferat. Quare optandum ut
nulli Christiani Principerillius
infidus machinationibus se
misceant. Deus conservet
vestram Celsitudinem. Nos
ad serviendum vestrss Celsi-
tudini sumus promptissimi.
Datum Vittenbergse die Mer-
curii post festum Sancti Ni-
colai, 1539.
Yestrse Celsitudinis parati ac

subjecti servi,

Martinus Luther.
Philippus Melancthon.
Martinus Bucerus.
Antonius Corvinus.
Adam.

Joannes Leningus.
Justus Wintferte.
Dionysius Melanther.

[book

XXIV. Your Highness sees,
that he uses no sincere endeavor
to redress the grievances of
Christendom ; that he leaves the
Turk unmolested, and labors for
nothing but to divide the empire,
that he may raise up the house of
Austria on its ruins. It is there-
fore very much to be wished that
no Christian Prince would give
into his pernicious schemes.
May God preserve your High-
ness^ We are most ready to
serve your Highness. Given
at Wittenberg the Wednesday
after the feast of Saint Nicholas,
1539.

Your Highness's most humble,
and most obedient subjects
and servants,

Martin Luther.

Philip Melancthon.

Martin Bucer.

Antony Corvin.

Adam.

John Leningue.

Justus Wintferte.

Denis Melanther.

Ego Georgius Nuspicher,
accepta k Csesare potestate,
Notarius publicus et Scriba,
tester hoc meo chirographo
public e, quod banc copiam ex
vero et inviolato originali pro-
pria manu h Philippo Me-
lancthone exarato, ad instan-
tiam et petitionem mei cle-
mendssimi Domini et Princi-
pis Hassiae ipse scripserim,
et quinque foliis numero ex-
cepta inscriptione complexus
sim, etiam omnia proprie et
diligenter auscultarim et con-
tulerim, et in omnibus cum

I George Nuspicher, Notary
Imperial, bear testimony by this
present act, written and signed
with my own hand, that I have
transcribed this present copy
from the true original which is
in Melancthon's own handwrit-
ing, and hath been faithfully pre-
served to this present time, at
the request of the most serene
Prince of Hesse ; and have ex-
amined with the greatest exact-
ness every line and every word,
and collated them with the same
original ; and have found them
conformable thereunto, not only

VI.]

originali et subscriptione no-
minum concordet. De quare
terum testor propria manu.

Georgius Nuspicher,
Notarius.

THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

Instrumentum Copulationis
Philippi Landgravii, et
Margaretae de Saal.
In nomine Domini Amen.
Notum sit omnibus et sin-
gulis, qui hoc publicum in-
strumentum vident, audiunt,
legunt, quod Anno post Chris-
tum natumi 1540, die Mercurii
mensis Martii, post meridiem
circa secundam circiter, In-
dictionis Anno 13, potentissi-
mi et invictissimiRomanorum
Imperatoris Caroli-quinti,cle-
mentissimi nostri Domini
Anno regiminis 21, coram me
infrascripto Notario et teste,
Rotemburgi in arce comparu-
erint serenissimus Princeps
et Dominus Philippus Land-
gravius Comes in Catznelen-
bogen, Dietz, Ziegenhain, et
Nidda, cum aliquibus suae
Celsitudinis consiliariis ex
un^ parte ; et honesta, ac vir-
tu osa Virgo Margareta de
Saal, cum aliquibus ex sua
consanguinitate ex alter^L
parte ; ilia intentione et vo-
luntate coram me publico
Notario ac teste, publice
confessi sunt, ut matrimonio
copulentur ; et posted ante
memoratus meus clementissi-
mus Dominus et Princeps
Landgravius Philippus per
Reverendum Dominum Dio-

in the things themselves, but also
in the signs manual, and have
delivered the present copy in
five leaves of good paper,
whereof I bear witness.

George Nuspicher,

Notary.

The Marriage Contract of Phil-
ip, Landgrave of Hesse, with
Margaret de Saal.
In the name of God, Amen.
Be it known to all those, as
well in general as in particular,
who shall see, hear, or read this
public instrument, that iD the
year 1640, on Wednesday, the
fourth day of the month of March,
at two o'clock or thereabouts, in
the afternoon, the thirteenth year
of the Indiction, and the twenty-
first of the reign of the most
puissant and most victorious
Emperor Charles V, our most
gracious lord ; the most serene
Prince and Lord Phihp Land-
grave of Hesse, Count of Catz-
nelenbogen, of Dietz, of Zieg-
enhain, and Nidda, with some
of his Highness's Counsellors,
on one side, and the good and
virtuous Lady Margaret de Saal
with some of her relations, on
the other side, have appeared
before me. Notary, and witness
underwritten, in the City of Ro-
tenburg, in the castle of the same
city, with the design and will
publicly declared before me.
Notary public and witness, to
unite themselves by marriage ;
and accordingly my most gra-
cious Lord and Prince Philip the
Landgrave hath ordered this to
be proposed by the Reverend

216

THE HISTORY OF

nysium Melandrum suae Cel-
situdinis Concionatorem, cu-
ravit proponi ferme hunc sen-
sum. Cum omnia aperta sint
oculis Dei, et homines pauca
lateant, et sua Celsitudo velit
cum nominatsL virgine Mar-
garets matrimonio copulari,
etsi prior suae Celsitudinis
conjux adhuc sit in vivis, ut
hoc non tribuatur levitati et
curiositati, ut evitetur scanda-
lum, et nominatae virginis et
illius honestse consanguini-
tatis honor et fama non pati-
atur ; edicit sua Celsitudo hie
coram Deo, et in suam con-
scientiam et animan hoc non
fieri ex levitate, aux curiosi-
tate,nec exaliquavilipensione
juris et superiorum,sed urgeri
aliquibus gravibus et inevita-
bilibus necessitatibus consci-
entise et corporis, adeo ut
impossibile sit sine alia su-
perinducta legitima conjuge
corpus suum et animan sal-
vare. Quam multiplicem
causam etiam sua Celsitudo
multis praedoctis, piis, pru-
dentibus, et Christianis Prae-
dicatoribus antehac indicavit,
qui etiam consideratis inevita-
bilibus causis id ipsum sua-
serunt ad suae Celsitudinis
animae et conscientiae consu-
lendum. Quae causa et ne-
cessitas etiam Serenissimam
Principem Christianam Du-
cissam Saxoniae, suae Celsi-
tudinis primam legitimam con-
jugem, utpote sdtk principali
prudentia et piS mente prae-
ditam movit, ut suae Celsi-
tudinis tanquam dilectissimi
mariti animae et corpori ser-

[book

Denis Melander, preacher to his
Highness, much to the sense as
follows : — " Whereas the eye of
God searches all things, and but
little escapes the knowledge of
men, his Highness declares that
his will is to wed the said Lady
Margaret de Saal, although the
Princess his wife be still living,
and that this action may not be
imputed to inconstancy or cu-
riosity ; to avoid scandal and
maintain the honor of the said
Lady, and the reputation of her
kindred, his Highness makes
oath here before God, and upon
his soul and conscience, that he
takes her to wife through no
levity, nor curiosity, nor from
any contempt of law, or supe-
riors ; but that he is obliged to
it by such important, such inev-
itable necessities of body and
conscience, that it is impossible
for him to save either body or
soul, without adding another
wife to his first. All which his
Highness hath laid before many
learned, devout, prudent, and
Christian preachers, and con-
sulted them upon it. And these
great men, after examining the
motives represented to them,
have advised his Highness to
put his soul and conscience at
ease by this double marriage.
And the same cause and the
same necessity have obliged the
most serene Princess, Christina
Duchess of Saxony, his High-
ness's first lawful wife, out of
her great prudence and sincere
devotion, for which she is so
much to be commended, freely
to consent and admit of a part-
ner, to the end that the soul and

V..]

THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

217

viret, et honor Dei promove-
retur ad gratiose consentien-
dum. Quemadmodum suae
Celsitudinis haec super relata
syngrapha testatur ; et ne cui
scandalum detur eo quod du-
as conjuges habere moderno
tempore sit insoUtum ; etsi in
hoc casu Christianum et lici-
tum sit, non vult sua Celsi-
tudo pubhce coram pluribus
consuetas ceremonias usur-
pare, et palam nuptias cele-
brare cum memorata virgine
Margareta de Saal; sed hie
in privato et silentio in prse-
sentia subscriptorum testium
volunt invicem jungi matri-
monio. Finito hoc sermone
nominati Phihppus et Mar-
gareta sunt matrimonio juncti,
et unaquaeque persona ahe-
ram sibi desponsam agnovit
et acceptavit, adjuncta metua
fidehtatis promissione in no-
mine Domini. Et anteme-
moratus princeps ac Dominus
ante hunc actum me infra-
scriptum Notarium requisivit,
ut desuper unum aut phu*a
instrumenta conficerem, et
mihi etiam tanquam personse
pubUcse, verbo ac fide Prin-
cipis addixit ac promisit, se
omnia hsec inviolabihter sem-
per ac firmiter servaturum,
in praesentia reverendorum
prasdoctorum Dominorum M.
Phihppi Melancthonis, M.
Martini Buceri, Dionysii
Melandri, etiam in pra3sentia
strenuorum ac praestantium
Eberhardi de Than Electo-
rahs Consiliarii, Hermanni de
Malsberg, Hermanni de Hun-
deishausen, Domini Joannis

body of her most dear spouse
may run no further risk, and the
glory of God may be increased,
as the deed written with this
Princess's own hand sufficiently
testifies. And lest occasion of
scandal be taken from its not
being the custom to have two
^vives, although this be Christian
and lawful in the present case,
his Highness v/ill not solemnize
these nuptials in the ordinary
way, that is, publicly before
many people, and with the.
wonted ceremonies, with the
said Margaret de Saal ; but both
the one and the other will join
themselves in wedlock, privately
and without noise, in presence
only of the witnesses underwrit-
ten."— After Melander had fin-
ished his discourse, the said
Philip and the said Margaret
accepted of each other for hus-
band and wife, and promised
mutual fidelity in the name of
God. The said Prince hath re-
quired of me. Notary underwrit-
ten, to draw him one or more
collated copies of this contract,
and hath also promised, on the
word and faith of a prince, to me
a public person, to observe it
inviolably, always and without
alteration, in presence of the
Reverend and most learned mas-
ters Philip Melancthon, Martin
Bucer, Denis Melander ; and
likewise in the presence of the
illustrious and valiant Eberhard
de Than, counsellor of his elec-
toral Highness of Saxony, Her-
man de Malsberg, Herman de
Hundelshausen, the Lord John
Fegg of the Chancery, Rudolph
Schenck ; and also in the pres-

19

218

THE HISTORY OF

Fegg Cancellarise, Lodolphi
Sclienck, ac honestse ac vir-
tiiosae Dominse Annas natae
de Miltitz viduse defuncti
Joannis de Saal memoratse
sponsae matris, tanquam ad
hunc actum requisitorum tes-
tium.

Et ego Balthasar Rand de
Fulda,potestate Csesaris No-
tarius publicus, qui huic ser-
moni, instructioni, et matri-
moniali sponsioni, et copula-
tion! cum suprei memoratis
testibus interfui, et haec om-
nia et singula audivi, et vidi,
et tanquam Notarius publicus
requisitus fui, hoc instrumen-
tum publicum mea manu
scripsi, et subscripsi, et con-
sueto sigillo munivi in fidem
et testimonium.

Balthasar Rand.

[book

ence of the most honorable and
most virtuous Lady Anne of
the family of Miltitz, widow of
the late John de Saal, and
mother of the spouse, all in
quality of requisite witnesses
for the validity of the present
act.

And I Balthasar Rand, of
Fuld, Notary public imperial,
who was present at the discourse,
instruction, marriage, espousals,
and union aforesaid, with the said
witnesses, and have heard and
seen all that passed, have written
and subscribed the present con-
tract, being requested so to do ;
and set to it the usual seal,
for a testimony of the truth
thereof.

Balthasar Rand.

BOOK VII.

[An Account of the Variations and Reformation of England under Henry
VIII, from the year 1529 to 1547; and under Edward VI, from 1547 to
1553 ; with the subsequent history of Cranmer, until liis death, in 1556.]

A brief Summary. — The EngUsh Reformation condemned even from Mr.
Burnet's own history. — The divorce of Henry VIII. — ^His furious transports
against the Holy See. — His Ecclesiastical Supremacy. — The grounds of,
and consequences from, this doctrine. — This point excepted, the Catholic
Faith remains whole and entire. — Henry's decisions in matters of Faith. — ■
His Six Articles. — The History of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Can-
terbury, author of the English Reformation. — His base compliances, cor-
ruption, and hypocrisy. — His shameful sentiments concerning the Hie-
rarchy.— The conduct of the pretended Reformers, and in particular of
Thomas Cromwell, the King's Vicar-General and Vicegerent in Spirituals.
— That of Anne Boleyn, against whom the divine vengeance declares itself.
— The prodigious bUndness of Henry through the whole course of his life. —
His death. — The minority of Edward VI, liis son. — Henry's decrees re-
versed.— The King's Ecclesiastical Supremacy alone remains in force. — It
is carried to such a pitch, that even Protestants are ashamed of it. — Cran-
mcr's Reformation built on this principle. — The King looked upon as judge
in matters of Faith. — Antiquity despised. — Continual Variations. — The
death of Edv/ard VI. — Cranmer's treason, in conjunction with others,
against Glueen Mary, the late King's sister. — The Catholic Rehgion re-
established.— Cranmer's ignominious end. — Some particular remarks on
Mr. Burnet's History and the Enghsh Reformation.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 219

I.— The death of Henry VlII, King of England.— On this occasion the account of
the beginning and -progress of the English Reformation is enteredupon. — 1547.
The death of Luther was soon followed by another death,
which caused great changes in rehgion. It was that of Henry
VIII, who, after giving such great hopes in the first years of his
reign, made so bad use of the rare qualifications of body and
mind, with which the divine bounty had so liberally endowed
him. Nobody is ignorant of the irregularities of this Prince,
nor of the blindness he fell into by his unhappy amours, nor how
much blood he shed after he had given himself up to them,
nor of the dreadful consequences of his marriages, fatal, almost
every one of them, to those he took to his bed. Nor is it less
known on what occasion he, once a very CathoUc Prince, made
himself the author of a new sect, equally detested by Catholics,
Lutherans, and Sacramentarians. The Holy See having con-
demned the divorce, which, after a marriage of five-and-tv/enty
years, he had made from Catherine of Arragon, relict of his
brother Arthur, and the maniage he had contracted with Anne
Boleyn, he not only rose up against the authority of that See
which condemned him, but also, by an attempt till then unheard
of among Christians, declared himself head of the Church of
England, as well in spirituals as temporals ; and from thence
begins the Enghsh Reformation, whereof so ingenious a history
has been given us of late years, and, at the same time, so full
of rancor against the Catholic Church.

2. — The foundation here built upon is Mr. BurneVs own history. — The Doctcr''s
pompous loords concerning the English Reformation.

The author of it. Dr. Gilbert Burnet, upbraids us in his very
Preface, and through the entire progress of his History, with
having derived great advantage from the conduct of Henry VIII,
and that of England's first Reformers. Above all, he complains
of Sanders, a Catholic historian, whom he accuses of having
invented heinous facts to make the English Reformation odious.
These complaints are then turned against us and the Catholic
doctrine. " A religion," says he, " whose foundation was laid
in falsehood, and superstructure raised on imposition, may be
supported by the same means which gave it birth."* He even
carries this outrageous invective to a higher pitch : " Sanders's
book might well serve the ends of that Church, which has, all
along, raised its greatness by pubHc cheats and forgeries." The
colors he paints us in are not more black than the ornaments
he decks his own Church with are pompous and glittering.
*' The Reformation," proceeds he, " was a work of light, and
needs not the aid of darkness to give it a lustre. A full and dis-
tinct narrative of what was then done will be its apology as well
* Appen. t. iii. p. 303.

220 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

as its history." These are fine words, nor could more magnifi-
cent ones be used, if, in the changes that happened in EngTand,
he had been to show us even the same sanctity which shone
forth at the first birth of Christianity. Since he desires it, let
us then consider this history, which, by its naked simplicity alone,
justifies the Reformation. We stand not in need of a Sanders ;
Mr. Burnet will suffice to let us clearly see what was this work
of light, and the bare series of facts related by this artful de-
fender of the Enghsh Reformation is enough to give us a just
idea of it. And if England there finds the sensible marks of
that blindness, which God sometimes diffuses over kings and
nations, let her not blame me, who do but follow a history which
the whole body of the Parliament has honored with so authentic
an approbation ;* but let her adore the hidden judgments of God,
who has permitted the errors of this learned and illustrious nation
to rise to so visible a height, only to the end she might, by this
means, the more easily know herself.

3. — The first fact avowed that the Reformation began by a man equally rejected
by all parties.

The first important fact I observe in Mr. Burnet, is what he
advances even in his preface, and continues to give proofs of
through the whole body of his book : that " when Henry VIII
began the Reformation, the King's design seemed to have been
in the whole progress of these changes to terrify the Court of
Rome, and force the Pope into a compliance with what he de-
sired : for, in his heart, he continued addicted to the most ex-
travagant opinions of that Church, such as Transubstantiation
and the other corruptions in the Sacrifice of the Mass, so that
he rather died in this communion than in that of the Protestants."
Whatsoever Mr. Burnet may please to say of this matter, we
shall not admit this Prince, whom he seems to offer us, a mem-
ber of our communion ; and since he casts him off" from his
own, the immediate result of this fact is, that the author of the
English Reformation, and who, in reality, laid the true founda-
tion of it, in the hatred he excited against the Pope and Church
of Rome, is one equally rejected and excommunicated by all sides.
4. — What was the Faith of Henry VIII, author' of the Reformation.

What in this place mostly deserves our observation is, that
this Prince was not content with believing in his heart, and out-
wardly professing all those points of faith, which Mr. Burnet
calls the greatest and most extravagant of our corruptions, but
even by law, in his new capacity of supreme head, under Jesus
Christ, of the Church of England, made them that church's
articles of faith. He caused them to be approved by all the

* Ext. from tlie Journ. of the House of Lords and Com., 3d Jan. 1681, 23d
Dec. 16S0, and 5tli Jan. 1681, in the begimiing of the 2d vol. of Bur. Hist.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 221

Bishops and all his Parliaments, that is, by all the tribunals in
which the highest degree of ecclesiastical authority in the Church
of England resides at this day, he made them be subscribed,
and put in practice throughout all England, and in particular by
the Cromwells, the Cranmers, and all the rest of Mr. Burnet's
heroes, who, whether Lutherans or Zuinglians in their hearts,
and zealous for setting up the new Gospel, went nevertheless,
as usual, to Mass, as to the public worship which was paid to
God, or said it themselves ; in a word, practised all the rest of
the doctrine and service received in the Church in spite of their
religion and consciences.

5. — What loere the instruments made use of by Henry Vlllin the Reformation. —
Cromioell, his Vicegerent mi spirituals.

Thomas Cromwell was the person the King appointed his
Yicar-General in spirituals, in 1633, immediately after his con-
demnation; and whom,in 1536, as Supreme Head of the Church,
he made his Vicegerent, Avhereby he placed him at the head of
all ecclesiastical affairs, and of the whole sacred order, though
he were no more than a layman, and always remained such.*
Till then that title had not been met with on the list of the Crown-
officers af England, nor among the employments recorded in
the review of the empire, "f nor in any Christian kingdom what-
soever ; and it was Henry VHI that first showed England, and
the Christian world, a Lord Vicegerent and a King's Vicar-
General in spirituals.

6. — Thomas Cranmer is Mr. BurneVs Jiero.

Cromwell's intimate friend and chief manager of the English
Reformation was Thomas Cranmer, xirchbishop of Canterbury.
This is Mr. Burnet's great hero. He abandons Henry VHI,
whose scandals and cruelties are too flagrant. But he was well
aware, should he do the same by Cranmer, whom he looks upon
to be the author of the Reformation, this would be giving us at
once too bad an idea of this whole work. Therefore he en-
larges much in the praises of this prelate ; and not content with
admiring eveiy where his moderation, his piety, and prudence,
he sticks not at making him as irreprehensible, or even more so,
than St. Athanasius and St. Cyril ; and of such extraordinary
worth, that " we shall find as eminent virtues, and as few faults
in him, as in any prelate that has been in the Christian Church
for many ages. "J

7. — J\Ir. BumeVs heroes are not always, even in his judgtrvent, the best of men. —
What he relates of Montluc, Bishop of Valence.

The truth is, we must not rely much on the praises Mr. Burnet
gives the heroes of the Reformation : witness those he bestowed
on Montluc, Bishop of Valence. " He was," says he, " one of

* Bum. 1. iii. p. 181. f Notitia Imperii. J Preface, towards tiie end.

19*

222 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

the wisest ministers of his time, and always for moderate coun-
cils in matters of religion, which made him be sometimes sus-
pected of heresy. And, indeed, the whole sequel of his life
declared him to be one of the greatest men of that age : only
being so long, and so firmly, united to the interest of Queen
Catharine Medicis, takes off a great deal of the high character
which the rest of his life has given him."* The crime certainly
was not very great, since he owed all to this Princess, who be-
sides was his Queen, the wife and mother of his Kings, and
always in union with them ; so that this Prelate, against whom
this only exception could be made of being faithful to his bene-
factress, in Mr. Burnet's judgment, must have been the most
irreproachable of all his contemporaries. But the eulogiums
the Reformers bestow on the great men of their sect are not to
be taken literally. The same Mr. Burnet, in the very book
wherein he so highly extols Montluc, speaks thus of him — " This
Bishop was eminent ; but he had his faults." After what he has
said of him, these faults, v/e ought to think, will be but trifling ;
but read to the end, and you will find they consisted in this, that
" he had endeavored to corrupt the daughter of an Irish gentle-
man who had received him into his house ; and had with him an
English mistress whom he kept,"! ^^^^ having drunk, without
reflection, the precious balm which Solyman the Magnificent
had made this Prelate a present of, " he fell into such a rage,
that all the house was disturbed with it, whereby he discovered
both his lewdness and passion at once." Here are the trifling
faults of a Prelate, " the whole course of whose life declared
him to be one of the greatest men of that age. The Reforma-
tion, either not over nice in virtue, or indulgent to her heroes,
easily forgives them such abominations ; and if Montluc, for hav-
ing only a little spice of Reformation, was a man, notwithstanding
such crimes, almost irreproachable, no wonder so great a Re-
former as Cranmer should have merited such high encomiums.
Thus warned against any imposition for the future, from the
great commendations, wherewith Mr. Burnet extols his Re-
formers and Cranmer most particularly ; let us now form the
history of this Prelate on the facts related by this historian, his
perpetual admirer, and observe, at the same time, in what spirit
the Reformation was conceived.

8. — Cranmer, a Lutheran according to Mr. Burnet. — Hoio he came into the

King's favor and that of Jltine Boleyn.

Ever since the year 1629, Thomas Cranmer had put himself

at the head of that party, which favored the Queen's divorce,

and the marriage the King was resolved upon with Anne Boleyn.

In 1530, he wiote a book against the validity of Catharine's

* 2d Part. 1. i. p. 85. f 2d Part. 1. i. p. 204.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 223

marriage, and we may judge how successfully, by thus flattering
the predominant passion of his Prince, he made his court. From
that time, he began to be considered at Court as a kind of
favorite, and looked on as the person likeliest to succeed in
credit to Cardinal Woolsey. Cranmer was then devoted to
Luther's doctrine, and as Mr. Burnet says, was looked on as
the most learned of those who had embraced it.* Anne Bo-
leyn, proceeds this author, had also received some impressions
of this doctrine. I Afterwards he makes her appear wholly de-
voted to the sentiments of those whom he calls the Reformers.
By this word we must always understand the hidden or avowed
enemies of the Mass and Catholic doctrines. Crome, Shaxton,
Latimer, and others, adds he, of that society, favored the King's
cause. J Here we have the secret which linked Cranmer and
his adherents with Henry's mistress : here lies the foundation
of this new favorite's interest, and the beginnings of the
English Reformation. The unhappy Prince, who knew nothing
of these associations and designs, did himself insensibly com-
bine with the enemies of that faith, which he till then had so
well defended, and through their secret machinations, became
unwittingly subservient to the designs of destroying it.

9. — Cranmer, sent to Rome on acconnt of the divorce, is there made the Pope^s
Penitentiary. — He marries, though a Priest, but in private.

Cranmer was sent into Italy and Rome in behalf of the
divorce, and there carried the dissimulation of his errors so far,
that the Pope made him his penitentiary ; which shows he was
a priest. He accepted of this employment, Lutheran as he was.
From Rome he went into Germany, there to manage his good
friends the Protestants ; and then it was he married Ossiander's
sister. Some say, he had debauched her, and was forced to
marry her ; but I shall not vouch for these scandalous facts till
I find them well attested by those of the party or at least by un-
suspected authors. § As for the marriage, the fact is certain.
These men are accustomed, in spite of the canons, in spite of
the profession of continency, to look on such marriages as good.
But Henry was of another mind, and held mamed priests in ab-
horrence. II Cranmer had been already expelled Jesus College,
in Cambridge, for a former marriage. The second he contract-
ed, whilst a priest, would have brought him into much more
dreadful circumstances, since, by the canon law, he would have
been excluded from this holy order by a second marriage, though
contracted even before priesthood. The Reformers, in their
hearts, made but a jest both of the sacred canons and their own
vows ; but for fear of Henry, it was necessary to keep this mar-

* Burn. lib. ii. p. 87. f Ibi<3. l Ibid.

§ Bum. t. i. lib. ii. p. 92. || Ibid. p. 75.

224 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

riage private, and this great Reformer set out by deceiving his
master in a concern of this importance.

10. — Cranmer, nominated Archbishop of Canterbury, receives the Pope^s Bulls,
though a married man and a Lutheran.

Whilst he was in Germany, in the year 1633, the Arch-
bishopric of Canterbury became vacant by Warham's death.
The King of England nominated Cranmer, and he accepted of
it.* The Pope, who knew no error in him, but that of main-
taining the nullity of Henry's marriage, (a thing at that time un-
decided,) gave him his bulls ; Cranmer received them, and
dreaded not, by so doing, to contaminate himself by receiving,
as the party used to speak, with the character of the beast.
11. — Cranmer' s consecration; profession of suhmissisn to the Pope; his hypocrisy.
At his consecration, and before they proceeded to ordain him,
he took the usual oath of fidelity to the Pope, introduced some
ages before. This was not without scruple, as Mr. Burnet tells
us ; but Cranmer had ways and means of coming off, and salved
all by protesting that he intended not to restrain himself by this
oath from what he owed his conscience, his king, and his coun-
try : a protestation in itself quite needless ; for who of us
imagines he engages himself by this oath to any thing that is
contrary to his conscience, or the service of his king and country 1
Far from thinking we prejudice any of these, it is even expressed
in the oath, that we take it without prejudice to the rights of our
order. Salvo ordine meo. The submission which is sworn to the
Pope in spirituals,"!" is of a different order from what we natu-
rally owe our Prince in temporals, and without protesting, we
have always well understood, that one does not interfere with the
other. But in a word, either this oath is a mere empty form, or
it obliges to acknowledge the Pope's spiritual jurisdiction. The
new Archbishop, therefore, acknowledged it in word, though he
believed no such thing. Mr. BurnetJ grants that this expedient
^id but little agree with Cranmer's sincerity ; and in order to
extenuate as far as he was able so criminal a dissimulation, adds
a little after, " by which, if he did not wholly save his integrity,
yet it was plain he intended no cheat." What is it, then, we
call a cheat, or can there be a greater than to swear what you
do not believe, and come prepared with shifts to elude your oath,
by a protestation conceived in words so indeterminate 1 But
Mr. Burnet thinks not fit to tell us that Cranmer, who was con-
secrated with all the ceremonies of the Pontifical, besides this
oath he pretended to evade the force of, made other declarations,
against which he did not protest : viz. " To receive with sub-
mission the traditions of the Fathers and the constitutions of
the Holy See-Apostolic, to render obedience to St. Peter in the
* Burn. t. i. lib. ii. p. 128. \ Pont. Rom. in Consc. Ep. J Burn. lib. ii. p. 129.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 225

person of his vicar the Pope and his successors, according to
canonical authority ; to keep chastity," which in the intention of
the Church, as expressly declared from the time one is admitted
to subdeaconship, imported celibacy and continency. This is
what Mr. Burnet makes no mention of. He does not tell us
that Cranmer said Mass according to custom together with his
consecrator. Cranmer ought also to have protested against this
act, and against all the Masses he said when officiating in his
Church ; or, at least, during the whole reign of Henry VHI,
that is, for thirteen years successively. Mr. Burnet speaks not
a word of all these fine actions of his hero. He tells us not,
that when he made priests, as doubtless he did in the space of
so many years as he was Archbishop, he made them according
to the terms of the Pontifical, wherein Henry changed nothing,
no more than in the Mass. He, therefore, gave them power
" of changing the bread and wine into the body and blood of
Jesus Christ by their holy benediction, of offering the sacrifice,
and saying Mass as well for the living as the dead."* It would
have been much more important to protest against so many acts
so contrary to Lutheranism, than against the oath of obedience
to the Pope. But the thing was, Henry YHI, whom a protes-
tation against the Pope's supremacy did not offend, would not
have endured the rest. This was the cause of Cranmer's dis-
simulation. Here then we have him, all at once, a Lutheran, a
married man, a concealer of his marriage, an Archbishop ac-
cording to the Roman Pontifical, subject to the Pope, whose
power he detested in his heart, saying Mass which he did not
beheve in, and giving power to say it ; yet, nevertheless, if we
believe Mr. Burnet, a second Athanasius, a second Cyi-il, one
of the most perfect prelates the Church ever had. What a no-
tion would he give us, not only of St. Athanasius and St. Cyril,
but also of St. Augustin, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, and all the
Saints in general, had they nothing in them more excellent, nor \
less defective, than a man who practises, for so long a time, what I
he believes the very height of sacrilege and abomination t Thus '
are men blind in the new Reformation ; and thus the darkness <
which overcast the minds of the first Reformers, is diffused <f
around their defenders to this very day.

12. — Reflection on Cranmer's 'pretended moderation.
Mr. Burnet pretends that his Archbishop did all he could to
waive this eminent dignity, and admires his moderation. For
my part, I am far from disputing with the greatest enemies of
the Chuich, certain moral virtues, to be met with in heathens
and philosophers ; which, in heretics, were nothing else but a

* Pont. Rom. in Ord. Presbyt.

226 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

snare of Satan to entrap the weak, and a part of that hypocrisy
which seduces them. But Mr. Burnet has too much wit not to
see that Cranmer, who had on his side Anne Boleyn, with whom
the King was so smitten ; who did all which could be required
to favor the amorous passion of that prince ; and who, after de-
claring against Catharine's marriage, had made himself so neces-
sary to the breaking of it, was very sensible Henry could never
choose an Archbishop more favorable to his designs : so that
nothing was more easy for him than to obtain the Archbishopric
by refusing it, and thus add the reputation of moderation to the
honor of so great a prelacy.

13. — Cranmer proceeds to a sentence of Divorce. — He takes the title of Legate
of the Apostolic See in giving the sentence.

Accordingly, no sooner was Cranmer raised to this dignity,
but he bestirred himself to make an interest in the parliament in
favor of the divorce. Before this time, in the year 1532, the
King had already privately married Anne Boleyn : she was with
child, and the secret was ready to break out. The Archbishop,
who was privy to it, signalized himself in this juncture, and
evinced much vigor in flattering the King. By his archiepis-
copal authority, he wrote him a very serious letter on his inces-
tuous marriage with Catharine : " a marriage," said he, " the
world had long been scandalized with ;"* and declared to him
that, for his part, he was determined to suffer no longer so great
a scandal. Here is a man of wonderful resolution, a second
John the Baptist. Thereupon he cites the King and Queen to
appear before him : he proceeds : the Queen does not appear :
the Archbishop declared her contumacious, and the marriage
null from the beginning ; nor did he forget, in his sentence, to
take upon him, as was customary with the Archbishops of Can-
terbury,! the quality of Legate to the See Apostolic. Mr. Bur-
net insinuates,! this might be done in order to make the sen-
tence firmer : that is to say, the Archbishop, who in his heart
neither owned Pope nor Holy See, was willing, for the King's
sake, to take that title which would best authorize his pleasures.
Five days after, he confirmed the private marriage of Anne
Boleyn, though contracted before that of Catharine was declared
void, and the Archbishop hesitated not to ratify so irregular a
proceeding.

14. — The sentence of Clement VII, and Henry's rage against the Holy See.
The definitive sentence of Clement VH against the King of
England is known sufficiently. It followed soon after that
which Cranmer had given in his behalf; Henry, entertaining
still some hopes from the Court of Rome, had again submitted
himself to the decision of the Holy See, even after the Arch-
* Burn. lib. ii. p. 131. f Ibid. J Ibid.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 227

bishop's judgment. There is no need of relating to what ex-
cess of wrath the King was transported, and Mr. Burnet himself
owns " he kept no measure in his resentments."* Accordingly,
from that period he began to carry his title, of Supreme Head
of the Church of England, to its utmost extent.

15. — More and Fisher condemned to Death for refusing to oion the King Head
of the Church. — 1534.

Then it was the world lamented the death of two, the greatest
men of England for piety and learning : of Thomas More, Lord
High Chancellor; and Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. | Mr.
Burnet himself grieves at the occurrence, and looks upon the
" tragical end af these two great men to have left one of the
greatest blots on this King's proceedings. "J

These were the two most illustrious victims of the ecclesias-
tical supremacy. More being very much urged to own it, made
this fine answer : " That he should distrust his own understand-
ing, were he alone against the whole Parhament : but, although
the great council of England was against him, the whole Church,
the great Council of Christendom, was on his side." Fisher's
end was not less glorious, nor less Christian.

16. — The memorable date of Henry's Cruelties and other excesses.

Then began executions indifferently against Catholics as well
as Protestants, and Henry became the most sanguinary of all
princes. But remarkable is the date : " It does not appear,"
says Burnet, " that cruelty was natural to him. For, in twenty-
five years' reign, none had suffered for any crime against the
State" § but two men, whose punishment could not be imputed
to him. " Yet, in the ten last years of his life," says the same
author, "many instances of severity occurred. "|| Mr. Burnet will
not have him imitated, nor condemned with too much severity ;
but none condemns him more sharply than Burnet himself, who
thus speaks of this Prince : " The vastness and irregularity of
his expense procured many heavy exactions, and twice extorted
a public discharge of his debts, debased the coin, with other
irregularities. His proud and impatient spirit occasioned many
cruel proceedings ; the taking so many lives only for denying
his supremacy, particularly Fisher's and More's, the one being
extremely old, and the other one of the glories of his nation, for
probity and learning." The rest may be seen in his Preface ;
but I cannot omit the last touch : " That which was the first of
all, and deserved most to be blamed, was the laying a prece-
dent for the subversion of justice, and oppressing the clearest
innocence, by attainting men without hearing them." All this
notwithstanding, Mr. Burnet would have us believe, that although

+ Burn. lib. ii. p. 134. f P- 156. J P. 155,156.

§ Lib. iu. p. 180. II Burn. lib. iii. p. 181.

228 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

" upon slight grounds he was too ready to bring his subjects to
the bar, yet they were indicted and judged always according to
law,"* — as if the making unjust laws, such as condemning the
accused without allowing them a hearing, and laying snares for
the innocent in the formalities of justice, were not the height of
cruelty and tyranny. But what can be more horrible than what
is added by the same historian ? " That this Prince, whether
impatient of contradiction, or perhaps blown up, either with the
vanity of this new title of Head of the Church, or with the praises
which flattery bestowed on him ; he thought all persons were
bound to regulate their behef by his dictates."| These are,
indeed, " such odious blemishes in the life of a Prince," as Mr.
Burnet speaks, " that no honest man can excuse ;" and we are
obliged to this author for having saved us the trouble of looking
out for proofs of all these excesses in histories that might be
more suspected. But what cannot be dissembled is, that Henry,
so averse before to these horrible disorders, did not fall into
them, according to Mr. Burnet's own confession, till the ten last
years of his life ; that is, he fell into them immediately after his
divorce, after his open rupture with the Church, after he had
usurped, " by an example unprecedented" in all ages, the eccle-
siastical supremacy : and forced he is to own, that one of the
causes of his prodigious blindness was, " this glorious title of
Head of the Church," which his people had bestowed upon him.
I now leave the Christian reader to judge, whether these be the
characters of a Reformer ; or rather, of a Prince, whose excesses
the divine justice revenges by other excesses ; whom it delivers
over to the desires of his own heart, and abandons visibly to a
reprobate sense.
17. — Cromtoell made Vicegerent. — Every thing concurs to excite the King
against the Faith of the Church. — 1535.

The death of Fisher and More, and so many other bloody
executions, cast terror into all minds ; every body swore to
Henry's Supremacy, and none durst stand up against it. This
Supremacy was established by divers Acts of Parliament, and
" the first act of the king's supremacy was the nominating
Cromwell vicar-general in spirituals, and visitor of all the mon-
asteries and other privileged places throughout England. "J
This was properly declaring himself Pope ; and what is more
remarkable, this was placing the whole ecclesiastical power in
the hands of a Zuinglian, for I am persuaded Cromwell was one,
or, if Mr. Burnet likes better, at least a Lutheran. It has ap-
peared, that Cranmer, Cromwell's intimate friend, was of the
same party, and that both of them acted unanimously, in order
to excite the incensed King against the ancient faith. § The

♦ Burn. lib. iii. p. 180. f Ibid. } P. 181. § Burn. fib. ii. p. 171.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 229

new Queen favored them with all her power, and took Shaxton
and Latimer, hidden Protestants, to be her chaplains, and pro-
moted them to the bishoprics of Salisbury and Worcester. But
although every thing went contrary to the old rehgion, and the
chief ecclesiastic and secular powers conspired its utter subver-
sion, it is not always in the hands of men to carry on their evil
purposes as far as they desire. Henry was provoked only against
the Pope and Holy See. Accordingly, he attacked only this
authority ; and God willed it so, that the Reformation, from her
infancy, should bear marked on her forehead the impression of
this Prince's hatred and revenge. Whatever, therefore, might
be the vicar-general's aversion to the Mass, power was not then
given him, like another Antiochus, against the perpetual sacri-
fice ;* one of his visitorial injunctions was, that every priest
should say Mass daily, and the religious observe their rule care-
fully, and particularly their three vows.|

18. — Cranmer's JMetropolitical Visitation by the King's authority.

Cranmer also made his metropolitical visitation, but it was
after he had obtained the King's license for it : they began to
perfonn all acts of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in virtue of the
royal authority. The whole drift of this visitation, as of all the
actions of those days, was firmly to estabhsh the King's eccle-
siastical supremacy. J At that time, the complying archbishop
had nothing so much at heart as this, and the first act of juris-
diction, which the bishop of the first See in England did, was
to enslave the Church, and subject to the earthly Kings that
power which she had received from heaven.

19. — The Plundering of Monasteries.

The visitations were followed by the suppression of Monas-
teries, whose revenues the King appropriated to himself. Prot-
estant and Catholic countries indifferently cried out shame against
the sacrilegious rapine of goods consecrated to God ; but to the
character of revenge, which the Enghsh Reformation bore from
the beginnings was to be joined that also of an infamous avarice ;
and this was one of the first fruits of Henry's supremacy, who
made himself head of the Church, to have a title to plunder it.

20. — The death of Q,ueen Catharine. — A comparison betwixt this Pnncess and
Anne Boleyn.— 1536.

Soon after this, died Queen Catharine : " she was a devout
and pious Princess," says Mr. Burnet, " and led a severe and
mortified life. In her greatness, she wrought much with her
own hands, and kept her women well employed about her;" and
to join common with great virtues, the same historian adds that,
by the writers of those times, " she is represented as a most

* Dan. viii. p. 12. f Burn. lib. iji. p. 186. J Ibid. p. 184. § Ibid. p. 183.

20

gSO THE HISTORY OF [eOOK

wonderful good woman."* These characters are widely dif-
ferent from those of her rival Anne Boleyn. Allowing she
might be vindicated from those infamous actions, which her
favorites, at their death, charged her with, Mr. Burnet| does not
deny that her gaiety was immodest, her liberties indiscreet, her
behaviour irregular and licentious. A virtuous woman, not to
say a queen, never bears with the failure of due respect, so far
as to suffer such declarations as men of all degrees, even the
lowest, made to this Princess. Why do I say suffer? — be pleased
With them, — and not only take part therein, but also draw them
on herself, and not blush to say to one of her gallants, " that he
looked for dead men's shoes, and if aught came to the King but
good, he would look to have her."J All these things are owned
by Anne, and far from showing a greater discountenance to those
bold lovers, it is certain, without entering farther into the matter,
she did but treat them the better for it. In the midst of this
strange conduct, " we are assured that she grew more full of
good works, and alms-deeds,"§ and with the exception of her
advancing the pretended Reformation, which nobody disputes,
this is all that is told us of her virtues.

21. — Sequel of the comparison, and visible mark of God's Judgment. — Cranmer
annuls the King's Marriage xoith Anne.

But if we carry our reflections still higher, we cannot but
acknowledge the hand of God on this Princess. She enjoyed
but three years that glory to which so many troubles had ele-
vated her : a new fit of love raised her up, and a new amour
pulled her down ; and Henry, who had sacrificed Catharine to
her, soon sacrificed Anne to the youth and charms of Jane
Seymour. But Catharine, when she lost the King's affections,
preserved, at least, his esteem to the very end ; whereas, he had
Anne executed infamously on a scaffold. || This death happened
a few months after that of Catharine. But Catharine preserved
to the very last the character of gravity and constancy, which
she had kept up during the entire course of her life. As for
Anne, at the moment she was taken, whilst she prayed to God
in tears, she was observed to break out into a fit of laughing,
like a distracted person :![ the words she vented in passion
against her lovers, who had betrayed her, showed the disorder
she was in, and the troubled state of her conscience. But here
is a visible mark of the hand of God. The King, always hurried
on by his new amours, caused his marriage with Anne to be
annulled in favor of Jane Seymour, as he had annulled Catha-
rine's in favor of Anne. Ehzabeth, Anne's daughter, was de-
clared illegitimate, as Mary, Catharine's daughter, had been

+ Burn. lib. iii. p. 192. t Ibid. p. 197. t Ibid. p. 199.

§ Ibid. p. 196. II Ibid. p. 192. IF Ibid. p. 199.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 231

before By a just retaliation, Anne fell into the same pit she
had dug for her innocent rival. But Catharine, even to death,
maintained the dignity of a Queen, the truth of her marriage,
and the honor of Mary's birth. Anne on the contrary, through
a shameful compliance, owned what was false, — that she had
married Henry whilst Lord Piercy was living, with whom she
had before contracted ; and by confessing, contrary to her con-
science, the nullity of her marriage with the King, involved
her daughter Elizabeth in her own shame. To the end that
God's justice might appear more manifest in this memorable
event, Cranmer, that same Cranmer who had annulled Catha-
rine's marriage,"^ annulled, likewise, that of Anne, to whom,
of all persons living, he was most obliged. God struck with
bUndne&s all who had contributed to the breach of so solemn a
marriage as was that of Catharine : Henry, Anne, the archbishop
himself, not one escaped. Cranmer's base pusillanimity, and
his extreme ingratitude to Anne, excited the abhorrence of all
good men ; and his shameful comphance, in brealdng all mar-
riages just as it pleased Henry, took from his first sentence all
the appearance of authority which the name of an Archbishop
could have given to it.

22. — Cranmer'' s base compliance ill excused by Mr. Burnet.
Mr. Burneff sees with great concern so odious a blot in the
life of his great Reformer, and to excuse him says, that Anne
declared, in his presence, her marriage with Lord Piercy ; by
which it was evident, that which she had made with the King
was not vahd ; upon which confession he could not but separate
her from this Prince, and give sentence for the nullity of the
marriage. But here is a too manifest imposition ; it was noto-
rious in England that Anne's engagement with Piercy, far from
being a concluded marriage, was not even a promise of mar-
riage to be concluded, but a bare proposal of a marriage desired
by this lord : which, so far from invalidating a subsequent mar-
riage, would not even have been an impediment to the contract-
ing of it. Mr. Burnet agrees herein, and lays down all these
facts as certain. J Cranmer, who knew the whole secret of what
had passed between the King and Anne, could not be ignorant
of them; and Piercy, the Queen's pretended husband, had "taken
his oath before the two Archbishops, that there was no contract,
nor promise of marriage even between them, and received the
Sacrament upon it before the principal of the King's privy-
council ; wishing it might be to his damnation, if there were
any such thing."§ So solemn an oath received by Cranmer
discovered to him plainly that Anne's confession was not free.
When she made it, she was adjudged to die, and, as Mr. Bur-
* Cranmer's letter, Bum. lib. lii. p. 200. f Ibid. 1. iii. p. 203. J Ibid. § Ibid.

232 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

net says, " even thunderstruck with the terrible sentence of being
burnt."* This the laws had condemned her to ; and the mitigatiitg
so cruel a part of her judgment depended on the King alone.
Cranmer might easily judge that, in such a condition, she might
be wrought upon to confess what they pleased, " either by some
hopes of life, or by mitigating her sentence. "| Then was the
time for an Archbishop to lend his helping hand to an oppressed
person, whom trouble, or hopes of softening her punishment,
makes to speak against her conscience. If Anne, his benefac-
tress, did not move him, he ought, at least, to have compassion-
ated the innocence of Elizabeth just going to be declared born
in adultery, and, as such, incapable of inheriting the crown, and
this on no other grounds but a declaration extorted from the
Queen her mother. Nor does God bestow so great an authority
on bishops, but with the obligation of lending the assistance of
their eloquence to the infirm, and their strength to the oppressed.
But virtues, to which Cranmer was a stranger, were not to be
expected from him : not even the courage to represent to the
King, the manifest contrariety of the two sentences, which he
caused to be pronounced against Anne ; one of which con-
demned her to death for defiling the King's bed by her adulte-
ries ; the other, by reason of a pre-contract, declared she never
had been married to the King. J Cranmer dissembled so fla-
grant an iniquity ; and all he did in behalf of the unhappy
Princess was to write a letter to the King, wherein he wishes
she may declare herself innocent ;§ which he concludes with a
postscript, protesting he is exceedingly sorry that such faults
can be proved, as he heard by relation :|| so much did he fear
giving Henry the least suspicion that he disapproved of any
thing he did.

23. — The Execution of Anne Boleyn.
It had been thought his credit was shaken by Anne's down-
fall. And, indeed, immediately upon it, he was forbidden to
approach the King ; but he soon found means of ingratiating
himself at the expense of his benefactress, and by cancelling
her marriage.^ The unfortunate Princess was in hopes of
moving the King, by owning all he desired. This confession
only saved her from the stake, and Henry condemned her to
the block. She comforted herself on the day of her death, be-
cause she had heard say, the executioner was very dexterous ;
and besides, said she, I have a slender neck. At the same time,
adds the witness of her death, she put her hands about it, laugh-
ing heartily ; either from ostentation of an uncommon intrepidity,
or because her head was turned at death's approach ; and it
seems to have been God's judgment on that unhappy Princess,
* Burn. lib. iii. p. 203. f Ibid. J Ibid. § Ibid. p. 200. || Ibid. p. 201. H Ibid. p. 203.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 233

that her end, dismal as it was, should yet have something in it
no less ridiculous than tragical.

24. — Henry's decisions of Faith. — He confirms that of the Church concerning the
Sacrament of Penance.

It is time to relate the definitions of faith which Henry made
in quahty of Supreme Head of the Church of England. In
these articles, drawn up by the king himself, we have a confirma-
tion of the Catholic doctrine. Here we find " the absolution
of the priest taught, as instituted by Jesus Christ, and to be
looked upon as valid as if given by God himself, with the ne-
cessity of confession to a priest, if it may be had."* On this
foundation are built the three acts of penance divinely instituted,
contrition and confession in express terms, and satisfaction
under the name of worthy fruits of penance, which we must
bring forth, although it be true that God pardons sins only for
the satisfaction of Jesus Christ, and not on account of our
merits. Here is the whole substance of the Catholic doctrine.
Nor must it be imagined by Protestants, that what is said of
satisfaction is peculiar to themselves, since the Council of Trent
has ever believed that the forgiveness of sins is a pure grace,
granted on account of the sole merits of Jesus Christ.
25. — Concerning the Eucharist.

In the Sacrament of the Altar is owned, " The very same
body of Christ, that was born of the Virgin Mary, truly and sub-
stantially given under the forms of bread and wine ;" or, as the
English original speaks, " Under the form and figure of bread:"
which marks most distinctly the Real presence of the body, and
gives to understand, according to the usual expression, that
nothing but the species of bread remains.

26. — Concerning Images and Saints.

Images were retained, with full liberty of incensing them,
kneeling before them, bringing offerings, and showing respect
to them, in consideration that these homages were a relative
honor, directed to God, and not to the Image. "f This was not
only approving the honor of Images in general, but those things,
in particular, wherein it is carried to its greatest height.

The people were to be taught that it was good to pray to the
saints, that they would pray for, and with us, yet so as not to
think to obtain those things at their hands which were only to
be obtained of God." J

When Mr. Burnet looks upon this as a kind of " Reformation,
that the immediate worship of Images was removed, and the
direct invocation of saints changed into a simple prayer of pray-
ing for the faithful," § he does but trifle ; since there is not a
Catholic but will own to him that he hopes for nothing from the

+ Burn. lib. iii. p. 216. f Ibid. X Ibid. p. 217. § Ibid. p. 218.
20*

234 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

saints but by their prayers, nor renders any honor to images but
what is here expressed with relation to God.
27. — Of Ceremonies. — Of Ihe Cross.
Touching ceremonies, these are expressly approved of, viz.
" holy water, blessed bread, hallowing the font, the exorcisms
in baptism, giving ashes on Ash- Wednesday, bearing palms on
Palm-Sunday ; creeping to the cross on Good-Friday, and kiss-
ing it in memory of Christ's death :"* all these ceremonies were
looked upon as a kind of mysterious language, which brought
to mind God's benefits, and excited the soul to raise itself up to
heaven, which, in reality, is the very notion all Catholics have
of them.

28. — On, Purgatory and Masses for the dead.

The custom of praying for the dead is warranted as having a
certain foundation in the book of Maccabees, and a continuation
in the Church from the beginning : all is approved of, and it is
held " consistent with the due order of charity to pray for them,
and to make others pray for them, in Masses and Exequies, and
to give alms to them for that end t"! whereby that was acknowl-
edged in the Mass, which was the great aversion of the new
Reformation, viz. that virtue by which, independently of com-
munion, it profited those for whom it was said, inasmuch as those
souls, doubtless, did not communicate.

29. — The King decides concerning Faith, by his own authority.

With relation to each of these articles the King said, that he
enjoined all bishops to announce them to the people, " By him
committed to their spiritual charge ;" a language till then quite
unheard of in the Church. The truth is, when he decided these
points of Faith, he had before heard the bishops, as judges hear
lawyers ; but it was he that prescribed and decided. All the
bishops signed, after Cromwell, the Vicar-general, and Cranmer,
Archbishop of Canterbury.

30. — Cranmer and the rest suhscrihed Henry''s articles against their consciences.
— Mr. Burnet strives in vain to excuse them.

Mr. Burnet is ashamed to see his reformers approve the chief
articles of the Catholic doctrine, and even the Mass itself, which
alone contained them all. But he excuses them, saying, " That
some of the bishops and divines were not then so fully convinced
about some matters, which afterwards they arrived to a clearer
understanding of, and so it was their ignorance and not their
cowardice or pohcy, that made them compliant in some things." J
But is not this bantering the world in too gross a manner, to
make the Reformers ignorant of what was most essential in the
Reformation ?§ If Cranmer and his adherents sincerely approved

* Burn. lib. iii. p. 217. f Collec. of Records, t. i. add. p. 306.

X Bum. 1. iii. p. 219. § Ibid. p. 21.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 235

all these articles, even the Mass, wherein could they be called
Lutherans 1 and if, from that time, they rejected in their hearts
all these pretended abuses, as doubtless they did, what was their
signing them else but a shameful prostitution of their con-
sciences ] Nevertheless, Mr. Burnet will have it, at all events,
that the Reformation took a great step at that very time, because
in the first of Henry's articles the " Scriptures and the ancient
Creeds were made the standards of the people's faith,"* with a
prohibition of saying any thing that was not conformable to
them ; a thing which nobody denied, and which, consequently,
stood in no need of being reformed.

Such are the articles of faith which were established by Henry
in 1536. But although he had omitted some, and in particular
no mention was there made of four Sacraments, Confirmation,
Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony, it is certain, however,
that he altered nothing therein no more than in the other points
of our faith ; but his design was to express particularly, in those
articles, what was most controverted at that time, to the end that
he might leave no doubt of his perseverance in the ancient faith.

31. — To draw in the Gentry, Church lands are sold at l&io rates.
At the same time, by Cromwell's advice, and in order to draw
in the gentry to his sentiments, he sold them in their several
counties the lands of those monasteries that had been suppressed,
and at very low prices. | Such was the cunning of the Re-
formers, and such the ties that linlied men to the Reformation.

32. — Cromwell and Cranmer confirm anew the Faith of the Church, which they
detested in their hearts.

The Vicegerent published also a new ecclesiastical regulation,
which had the doctrine of the above articles, so conformable to
Catholic doctrine, for its foundation. Mr. Burnet finds a great
likelihood that these injunctions were opened by Cranmer,J and
gives us a new instance, that, in point of religion, this Arch-
bishop was capable of the most criminal dissimulations.
33.— Henn/'s Six Articles.— 1539.

Henry explained himself more distinctly as to the ancient
faith, in the famous declaration of those six articles which he
published in 1539. In the first, he established Transub^tan-
tiation ; in the second. Communion in one kind ; in the third,
the Celibacy of Priests, with the penalty of death for those who
should trespass against it ; in the fourth, the obligation of keep-
ing Vows ; in the fifth, the use of private Masses ; in the sixth,
the necessity of auricular Confession. § These articles were
published by authority of the King and parUament ; and it was

+ Burn. 1. iii. p. 218. f Ibid. p. 223. J Ibid. p. 225. § Ibid. p. 256.

236 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

enacted that those who obstinately opposed thena should suffer
death, and the rest be prisoners during the King's pleasure.

34. — The King's marriage with Anne of Cleves, CromweWs design, who pro-
posed it. — The King^s neio amours. — Cromioell condemned to death. — 1540.

Whilst Henry declared himself in so terrible a manner against
the pretended Reformation, Cromwell, the Vicegerent, and the
Archbishop, saw no other way of advancing it, than by giving
the King a wife, who might protect them and their designs.
The Queen, Jane Seymour, died in the year 1537, in childbed,
of Edward. If she experienced not Henry's fickleness, Mr.
Burnet is of opinion, it was owing, in all likelihood, to the short-
ness of her life. Cromwell, who remembered how much power
Henry's wives had over him as long as they continued in his
affection, beheved that Anne of Cleves'* beauty would be a great
prop to his measures, and prevailed with the King to marry her;
but unluckily this Prince fell in love with Catharine Howard,f
and scarce had he accomplished his marriage with Anne, but he
bent all his thoughts to break it off. The Vicegerent underwent
the punishment of having advised him to it, and found his ruin
where he thought to meet with his support. It was perceived
that he gavQ private encouragement to the new preachers, ene-
mies of the Six Articles and Real Presence, J which the King
defended vehemently. Some words spoken by him on this
occasion against the King, were brought to his ears.§ Where-
upon the Parliament, by the King's orders, condemned him for
a heretic and traitor to his country. || It was observed, he was
condemned without being heard, and so bore the punishment of
that detestable advice he had been the first author of, to attaint
people without hearing them. And after this, will any one say
that the arm of God was not visible on these miserable Re-
formers, the most wicked, as we see, no less than the greatest
hypocrites of all mankind 1

35. — CromweWs hypocrisy — Mr. BurneVs vain artifices.
Cromwell, above all the rest, prostituted his conscience to
flattf^ry ; he, in his quality of Vicegerent, authorizing in public
all Henry's articles of faith, which he strove secretly to destroy.
Mr. Burnet conjectures that if he was refused a hearing, it was
because " It was very probable that in all he had done that way,
viz. for the pretended Reformation, he had the King's warrant
for it, and acted only by his order, whose proceedings towards a
Reforaiation are well knovvn."lT But this time the artiiice is
too gross, and to be deluded by it a man must wilfully blind
himself. Will Mr. Burnet have the face to say, that the pro-
ceedings towards a Reformation, which he attributes to Henry,

* Burnet, p. 271. \ Ibid. p. 276. % Ibid. p. 277.

§ Ibid. p. 278. II Ibid. p. 277. T Ibid. p. 279.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 237

were in prejudice to his Six Articles, or the Real Presence, or
the Mass 1 This would be giving himself the lie, since he owns
throughout his whole work, that this Prince was always very
zealous for, or, to use his own words, addicted to, all these arti-
cles. Nevertheless he would here have us believe, that Cromwell
had secret orders to undermine them, when at the same time he
is put to death for having favored those who impugned them.

36. — Cranmer''s prostitution of conscience — he annuls the King's marriage loith
Anne of Cleves — the magnificent terms of this unjust sentence — the King
7narries Catharine Howard, xoho is favwable to the Reformation, and soon
beheaded for her infamous behaviour — the judgment of the Convocation.

But let us leave Mr. Burnet's conjectures, and his vain shifts
to color the Reformation, and confine ourselves to facts which
truth will not suffer him to deny. After Cromwell's attainder,
it was still requisite, for the King's satisfaction, to rid him of his
odious wife, by making void the marriage with Anne of Cleves.
The pretext was very gross. The betrothing of this Princess
to the Marquis of Lorrain whilst both parties were minors, and
which they never ratified when of age, was alleged as the cause
of nullity. It was plain nothing could be more weak in order
to dissolve a perfectly complete marriage. But, though rep.sons
were wanting, the King had a Cranmer ready for all jobs. By
means of this Archbishop this marriage was cancelled similarly
to the two others. " The sentence was pronounced on the 9th
of July, 1540, and the whole convocation, without one dissent-
ing vote, judged the man-iage null. The sentence was signed
by all the ecclesiastics of both chambers, and sealed with the
seals of both Archbishops." Mr. Burnet is ashamed, and owns*
*' this was the greatest piece of compliance that ever the king
had from his clergy ; for they all knew there was nothing of
weight in that pre-contract," which was made the foundation of
the divorce. "f Therefore they acted openly against their con-
sciences ; but lest we should, at another time, be imposed
upon by the specious terms of the new Reformation, it is proper
to take notice that they pass this sentence, as representing the
great Council, after having said that the King required nothing
of them but what was true, was just, was honorable, and holy :
in this manner spoke those corrupted Bishops. J Cranmer, who
presided over this assembly, and carried the result of it to the
Parliament, was the greatest coward of them all ; and Mr. Bur-,
net, after having strained hard to paUiate the matter, is forced to
own that, overcome with fear, (for he knew it was contrived to
send him quickly after Cromwell,) he consented with the rest.§
Such was the courage of the second Athanasius, the virtue of

* Burnet, p. 2S1. Coll. n. 19. f Ibid.

t CoUec. Rec. lib. iii. n. 19. p. 197. § Burnet, p. 28L

238 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

this second Cyril. Upon this unjust sentence the King married
Catharine Howard, no less zealous for the new Reformation than
Anne Boleyn. But strange was the destiny that attended these
female Reformers. Her scandalous life soon brought her to
the scaffold, nor was Henry's house ever clear from the stains
of blood and infamy.

37. — A neio declaration of Faith conformable to the Church's doctrine.

The prelates made a new confession of faith, which this
Prince confirmed by his authority ; wherein the belief of the
seven sacraments was declared in express terms, that of penance,
in the absolution given by the priest ; the necessity of con-
fession, transubstantiation, concomitancy. " So that," says Mr.
Burnet, "communion in both kinds was not necessary; the ven-
eration of images and praying to saints, in the same sense we
have seen in the King's first declaration, which is the sense of
the Church ; the necessity and merit of good works in order to
obtain life everlasting ; prayers for the dead ; and, in short, all
the rest of the Catholic doctrine, except the article of Suprem-
acy, whereof we shall speak apart."*

38. — Cranmefs hypocrisy, who signs all of them.

Cranmer, with the rest, subscribed to every one ; for, although
Mr. Burnet asserts that some articles passed which were con-
trary to his sentiments, yet he yielded to the plurality, and we
observe no opposition on his part to the common judgment.
The same exposition had been pubUshed by the King's authority
ever since the year 1538, signed by nineteen Bishops, eight
Archdeacons, and seventeen Doctors, without any opposition.
Such, at that time, was the faith of the Church of England and
of Henry, whom she had owned for her head. The Archbishop
approved of all against his conscience. His master's will was
his sovereign rule ; and, instead of the Holy See with the Cath-
olic Church, the King alone was to him infallible.
39. — Nothing considerable was changed in the Missals and the other books of the
Church. — Continuation of Cranmer'' s hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, he continued saying Mass, which he rejected in
his heart, although nothing was changed in the Mass-books.
Mr. Burnet agrees, " The alterations they made were inconsid-
erable, and so slight, that there was no need of reprinting either
the Missals, Breviaries, or other Offices: for," proceeds this his-
torian, "a few erasures of these Collects, in which the Pope was
prayed for, of Thomas Becket's Office (St. Thomas of Canter-
bury,) and the Offices of other Saints, whose days were, by the
King's injunctions, no more to be observed, with some other
dele lions, made that the old books did still serve."! After all,
then, the same worship was still practised, Cranmer complied
* Part I lib. iii. p. 290, et seq. f Burn. lib. iii. p. 294.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 239

with it ; and if you would know all that troubled him, it was, as
we learn from Mr. Burnet, because, excepting Fox, Bishop of
Hereford,* as great a dissembler as himself, the other Bishops
that adhered to himf were rather clogs than helps to him, be-
cause they would not be managed and governed by politic and
prudent measures, but were flying at many things that were not
yet abolished. Cranmer, who betrayed his conscience, and at-
tacked in secret what he approved and practised in public, was
more cunning, since he knew how to introduce his skill, in man-
aging his politic measures, into the very heart and vitals of
religion.

40. — Cranmer^s behaviour in relation to the Sia: Articles.
One may wonder, perchance, how a man of this temper ven-
tured to speak against the Six Articles ; for this is the only place
where Mr. Burnet makes him courageous ; but he himself dis-
covers the cause to us. It was because he had a particular
interest in the article which condemned married priests to oeath,
for he was then married himself. J It had been too mu< h to
suffer his own condemnation to pass in Parhament for a stand-
ing law, and his fear even made him then show some kind of
courage : accordingly, though he spoke but faintly against the
other articles, yet he delivered himself fully against this. But,
after all, it does not appear that he did any more on this occa-
sion than, after a vain struggle to dissuade the passage cf the
law, to fall in at last, as his custom was, with the general opinion.
41. — Mr. BumeVs account of Cranmefs resistance.
But here is the greatest act of his resolution. Mr. Burnet
would have us believe, upon the credit of an author of Crom-
well's life, that the King, being concerned for Cranmer o\i ac-
count of the act on behalf of the Six Articles, was desirous of
knowing why he opposed them, and ordered him to put all his
arguments in writing, which he did.§ The paper, written out
fair by his secretary, fell into the hands of one of Cranmer's
enemies. It was immediately carried to Cromwell, then living,
with the design of having the author taken up ; but Cromwell
stifled the tiling, and so Cranmer escaped this hazard. ||

This account naturally leads us to beheve that the King knew
nothing at all of Cranmer's writing against the Six Articles ; and
that, had he known it, this prelate would have been utterly
ruined ; and, lastly, that he escaped purely by his cunning and
perpetual dissimulation: however, if Mr. Burnet had rather
have it so, I am willing to beheve the King foimd so great a
propensity in Cranmer to approve, in public, all his master could
desire, that this prince had no reason to be under any concern

* Burn. lib. iil p. 254. f Ibid. p. 255.

I Ibid. p. 257. § Burnet, p. 265. H Ibid. p. 266.

240 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

what a person of such compHance might think in private, nor
could he find in his heart to part with so commodious acounsellor.

42. — Cranmer's shameful sentiments on the Ecclesiastical authority, which he
sacrifices to the Crown.

It was not only with regard to his new mistresses that the
King experienced him to be so great a flatterer : Cranmer had
forged for him, in his own brain, that new idea of supremacy
annexed to the Crown : and what he says concerning it, in a
paper pr<?duced by Mr. Burnet among his Records, is unex-
ampled.* He teaches then, " That all Christian Princes have
committed unto them immediately of God the whole cure of all
their subjects, as well concerning the administration of God's
word, for the cure of souls, as concerning the ministration of
things political and civil governance ; and, in both these minis-
trations, they must have sundry ministers under them to supply
that which is appointed to their several offices ; as for example,
the Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, Lord Great Master, and
the Sheriffs for Civil Ministers ; and the Bishops, Parsons,
Yicars, and such other Priests as he appointed by his Highness
in the ministration of the word ; as for example, the Bishop of
Winchester, the Parson of Winwick, &c. All the said officers
and ministers, as well of that sort as the other, must be ap-
pointed, assigned, and elected, and in every place, by the laws
and orders of Kings and Princes, with divers solemnities, u^hich
be not of necessity, but only for good order and seemly fashion :
for if such offices and ministrations were committed without such
solemnity, they were, nevertheless, truly committed ; and there
is no more promise of God, that grace is given in the commit-
ting of the ecclesiastical office, than it is in the committing of
the civil office."

43. — Cranmer'' s Answer to an Objection. — Shameful Doctrine concerning the
authority of the Church during persecutions.

After thus making all ecclesiastical ministry to rest on a simple
delegation of princes, without so much as ordination or eccle-
siastical consecration being necessary on the occasion, he ob-
viates an objection which immediately occurs ; to wit, how
pastors exercised their authority under princes that were not
Christians ; and answers conformably to his principles, that there
was no remedy then for the correction of vice, or appointing of
ministers in the Church of God ; but the people accepted of such
as were presented to them by the apostles, or others whom they
looked upon as filled with the spirit of God, and this of their
own voluntary will ; and afterwards gave ear to them, as a good
people ready to obey the advice of good counsellors. This is
what Cranmer spoke in an assembly of bishops ; and this was
* Rec. p. i. lib. iii. n. 21. p. 220.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 241

the notion he had of that divine power which Jesus Christ gave
to his ministers.

44. — Cranmer always persisted in these sentiments.
I am under no necessity of rejecting this prodigy of doctrine
so strongly refuted by Calvin and all the other Protestants, since
Mr. Burnet himself blushes for Cranmer, and is willing to take
for a retractation of this opinion, what he elsewhere signed con-
cerning the divine institution of bishops. But, besides what has
already appeared, that his subscriptions are not always a proof
of his real sentiments, I must tell Mr. Burnet, that he conceals
from us, with too much artifice, Cranmer's true notions. It
made not against him, though the institution of bishops and
priests was divine, and he acknowledges this truth in that very
piece of which we have just produced the extract. For at the
close of this ninth question, it is expressly mentioned, that " all
of them were agreed," and consequently Cranmer, "that the
apostles had received from God the power of creating bishops
or pastors.^'* Neither could it be demed,*without too manifestly
contradicting the Gospel. But what Cranmer and his adherents
pretended was, that Jesus Christ had instituted pastors to exer-
cise their power dependantly of the prince in every function ;
which certainly is the most monstrous and the most scandalous
flattery that ever entered into the heart of man.

45. — The dogma, which makes all ecclesiastical jjoioer floio from the Crown,
reduced to practice.

Accordingly, it thence came to pass, that Henry YIII gave
the bishops power to visit their diocese with this preface ; —
*' That all jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical as secular, pro-
ceeded from the regal power, as from the first foundation of all
magistracy in all kingdoms ; that those who, till then, had ex-
ercised this power precariously, were to acknowledge it as coming
from the liberality of the prince, ajid give it up to him when he
should think fit ; and upon these grounds he gives power to such
a bishop, as to the King^s vicar, to visit his diocese by the regal
authority ; and to promote whom he shall judge proper to holy
orders, and even priesthood ;" and, in short, to exercise all the
episcopal functions, " with power to subdelegate," if he thought
it necessary.!

4Q.— Cranmer acts conformably to this dogma, — the only one wherein the Ref
ormation has not varied.

Let us say nothing against a doctrine which destroys itself
by its own enormity, and only take notice of that horrid propo-
sition which makes the power of bishops so to flow from that
of the King, that it is even revocable at his will. Cranmer was

+ Omnes conveniunt Rec. part 1. lib. iii. n. xxi. p. 223.
f Powers Cominis. Ibid. xiv. p. 184.
21

242 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

SO persuaded of this royal power, that he was not ashamed, him-
self archbishop of Canterbury, and primate of the whole Church
of England, to take out a new commission of the same from
under Edward VI, though but a child, when he reformed the
Church according to his own model ; and of all the articles
published by Henry, this was the only one he retained.*
47. — (lueen Elizabeth's scruple concerning the power given her in the Church.

This power was carried to such a pitch in the English Ref-
ormation, that Ehzabeth had some scruples about it ; and the
horror men had of seeing a woman the Church's supreme head,
and the fountain of all pastoral power, whereof, by her sex, she
was incapable, opened their eyes at length to see, in some
measure, the excesses to which they had been carried. t But we
shall see, without diminishing the force, or removing the grounds
of it, they did no more than just palhate the matter; nor can
Mr. Burnet, at this day, but lament to see excommunication,
belonging only to the spiritual cognisance, and which ought to
have been reserved for the bishop with the assistance of the
clergy, by a fatal neglect given over to secular tribunals ; that is,
not only to Kings, but likewise to their officers : — " an error,"
proceeds this author, " grown since into so formed a strength,
that it is easier to see what is amiss, than to knowhowtorectifyit."
48. — .M manifest contradiction in the English doctrine.

And, certainly, I do not conceive any thing can be imagined
more contradictory, than to deny their Kings, on one side, the
administration of the word and sacraments ; and grant them,
on the other, excommunication, which, in reality, is nothing else
but God's word armed with the censure which comes from
Heaven, and one of the most essential parts of the administra-
tion of the sacraments : since, undoubtedly, the right of depriving
the faithful of them can appertain to none else but those who are
appointed by God to give them to the people. But the Church
of England went much further, inasmuch as she has attributed
to her Kings and to the secular authority, the right of making
rituals and liturgies, and even of giving final judgment without
further appeal, in points of faith ; that is, of that which is most
essential m the administration of the sacraments ; and the most
inseparably annexed to the preaching of God's word. And as
well under Henry VHI as in the succeeding reigns, we find no
ritual, no confession of faith, no liturgy, which derives not their
ultimate sanction and force from the authority of the King and
parliament, as the sequel will make plain. They went even to
that excess, that, whereas the orthodox emperors, if formerly
they made any constitutions concerning faith, either they made

♦ Burn, part 2. lib. L p. 6. | Burn. lib. iii. p. 386, 376. part ii. lib. i. p. 44.

VII. J THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 243

them in order to put in execution Church decrees, or at least
waited for the confirmation of their ordinances. In England
they taught, on the contrary, " that the decrees of councils, in
points of faith, were not laws, nor of any force, till they were
ratified by princes ;"* and this was the fine idea which Cranmer
gave of Church decisions in a discourse of his reported by Mr.
Burnet.

49. — Cranmer^s flattery, and Henry's disorders, the cause of the English
Reformation.

This Reformation, therefore, took its rise from Henry's vices,
and the flatteries of this archbishop. Mr. Burnet takes great
pains to heap up examples of very vicious princes, whom God
has made subservient to great ends.j* Who questions it? But
without examining the histories he quotes, where he blends truth
with falsehood, and what is certain with what is doubtful ; can
he show one only example, where God, intending to reveal to
men some important, and, during so many ages, unknown truth
— not to say utterly unheard of — ever did choose so scandalous
a King as Henry VIH, and so base, so corrupt a bishop as
Cranmer 1 If the schism of England, in the English Reforma-
tion, be a divine work, nothing in it is more divine than the
King's ecclesiastical supremacy, since, by that, not only did
commence the breach with Rome, the necessary foundation,
according to Protestants, of every good reformation, but that
also is the only point wherein they have never varied since the
schism. God made choice of Henry VIII to introduce this
new article of faith among Christians, and, withal, made choice
of this very prince to be a remarkable instance of his most pro-
found and most terrible judgments ; not of that sort by which
he subverts monarchies, and gives to impious Kings a manifestly
disastrous end ; but of that other, whereby, delivering them over
to their flatteries and passions, he suffers them to run headlong
into the utmost excess of wilful blindness. Meantime, while
he thinks fit, he withholds them on this brink, in order to make
manifest in them those mysteries of his counsels he is willing
men should know. Henry VIII attempts nothing against the
other Catholic verities. All his attacks are levelled only at St.
Peter's chair ; by that, it became apparent to the whole universe,
that this prince's design was only to revenge himself on that
pontifical power which had condemned him, and that his hatred
was his sole rule of faith.

50.— If concerns not Faith to examine the conduct of Clement VII, and his
methods of proceeding.

After that, I am under no necessity of examining all Mr.
Burnet relates, whether as to the intrigues of Conclaves, Or the
* Burnet, part ii. lib. ii. p. 176. f P^ef.

244 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

behaviour of Popes, or the artifices of Clement VII. What ad-
vantage can he draw from thence 1 Neither Clement, nor the
other Popes are, amongst us, the authors of any new article of
faith. Nor have they separated us from the holy Society in
which we were baptized ; nor have they taught us to condemn
our ancient pastors. In a word, they make no sect among us,
and their vocation has nothing in it that is extraordinary. If
they enter not by the door, which is always open in the Church,
that is, by canonical ways, or, if they make ill use o1* the ordi-
nary and lawful ministry intrusted to them from above, this is
the very case specified in the Gospel,* of honoring the chair
without approving, or imitating the persons. Nor ought I at all
concern myself whether Julius II's dispensation were well given,
nor whether Clement VII could, or ought to revoke it, and annul
the marriage. For, although I look upon it as certain, that this
last Pope acted well in the main, and, in my opinion, nothing
can be blamed on this occasion but, at the most, his policy,
which was at one time too timorous, and at another too hasty :
this is not a question for me to decide in this place, nor a pre-
text for impeaching the Church of Rome of error. These mat-
ters of dispensation are often regulated by simple probabilities;
nor is one obliged to look therein for the certainty of faith,
whereof they are not always even capable. But since Mr.
Burnet makes from this a capital accusation against the Church
of Rome, I cannot, methinks, but dwell a little upon it-

51 — The accmmt of the Marriage Dispute entered upmi. — The fact is laid dmvn.
— The vain pretexts icith which Henry covered his passion.

It is a fact, notoriously known, that Henry VII had obtained
a dispensation from Julius II to marry the widow of Arthur,
his eldest son, to Henry, his second son and successor. This
Prince, after he had seen all the reasons for doubting, consum-
mated, when a King, and at age, this marriage, with the unan-
imous consent of all the estates of his realm, the 3d of June,
1509, that is, six weeks after his coming to the crown, "j* Twenty
years elapsed without calling in question a marriage so sincerely
and honestly contracted. Henry, falling in love with Anne Bo-
leyn, called conscience in to assist his passion ; and his marriage
becoming odious to him, at the same time became doubtful and
suspected. Meanwhile, a Princess had sprung from this mar-
riage, who from her infancy had been acknowledged heiress of
the kingdom ; J so that the pretext which Henry took for breaking
off* the marriage, lest, said he, the succession of the realm should
be doubtful, was a mere trick, since none dreamed of disputing
it with his daughter, Mary, who, in fact, was unanimously owned
for Queen, when the order of birth called her to the crown. Oa
* Matt, xxiii. 2. f Burn. p. i. lib. ii. p. 3G. J Ibid.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 245

the contrary, if any thing could obstruct the succession of this
great kingdom, it was Henry's doubt ; and, it appears, that all
he published relating to the doubtfulness of his succession, was
nothing but a cloak, as well for his new amour, as for the dis-
gust he had taken to the Queen his wife, on account of some
infirmities she had contracted, as Mr. Burnet himself owns.*
52. — Julms^s dispensation attacked by Arguments from fact and right.

A Prince, whom passion rules, would have it beheved he has
reason on his side : so to please Henry, the dispensation, on
which his marriage was grounded, was attacked several ways,
some taken from fact, others from right. As to fact, the dis-
pensation was maintained to be null, because granted on false
allegatians. But as these arguments of fact, reduced to these
minute niceties, were over-ruled by the favorable condition of
a marriage that had subsisted so many years ; those from right
were chiefly insisted on, and the dispensation maintained null,
as granted in prejudice to the law of God, which the Pope could
not dispense with.
53, — Arguments of right grounded on Leviticus. — The state of the question.

The question was, whether or no the prohibition in Leviticus,
not to contract within certain degrees of consanguinity or affinity,
and, among others, that of marrying the brother's widow, did so
appertain to the law of nature, as to be obligatory in the Gospel
law. I The reason for doubting was, because we do not read
that God ever dispensed with what was purely of the law of
nature : for example, since the multiplication of mankind, there
has been no instance of God's permitting the marriage of brother
and sister, nor others of this nature in the first degree, whether
ascending, or descending, or collateral. Now, there was an
express law in Deuteronomy,J which, in certain cases, enjoined
a brother to take his sister-in-law and the widow of his brother
to wife. God, therefore, not destroying nature, which he is the
author of, gave thereby to understand that this marriage v/as
not of that sort which nature rejects ; and this was the founda-
tion which Julius H's dispensation was grounded upon.

54. — The Protestants of Germany favorable to Juliuses dispensation, and
Henry'' s first marriage.

We must do the Protestants of Germany this justice : Henry
could never obtain from them the approbation of his new mar-
riage, nor the condemnation of Julius II's dispensation. When
this affair was spoken of in a solemn embassy, which this Prince
sent to Germany, in order to join himself to the Protestant con-
federacy, Melancthon decided thus : " We have not been of
the English Ambassador's opinion ; for, we believe, the law of
not wedding a brother's wife, is susceptible of dispensation,
+ Burn. p. i. lib. ii. p. 36. t Levit. xviii. 20. J Deut. xxv. 5.
21*

246 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

although we do not beheve it to be abolished."* And, again,
more concisely in another place : " The Ambassadors pretend,
that the prohibition against marrying a brother's wife is indis-
pensable ; and we, on the contrary, maintain it may be dispensed
with."! This was exactly what they stood for at Rome, and
Clement VIPs definitive sentence against the divorce rested on
this foundation.

55. — Bucer of the same, opinion.

Bucer was of the same opinion upon the same motives ; and
we learn from Mr. Burnet, that, according to this author, one of
England's Reformers, " The law of Leviticus did not bind, and
could not be moral, because God hath dispensed with it. "J
56. — Zuinglius and Calvin of the contrary opinion.

Zuinglius and Calvin, with their disciples, were favorable to
the King of England ; and it is not unlikely but that a design
of settling their doctrine in that kingdom, contributed not a little
to their complaisance : but the Lutherans sided not with them,
although Mr. Burnet makes them to vary a little in the matter:
At first, " they thought," says he, " the laws in Leviticus were
not moral, and did not obhge Christians ; yet, after much dis-
puting, they were induced to change their minds, but could not be
brought to think that a marriage once made might be annulled. "§
57. — The odd decision of the Lutherans.

And truly their decision, as reported by Mr. Burnet, is a very
odd one ; since, after their owning that " The law of Leviticus
is divine, natural, and moral, and to be observed as such in all
churches, insomuch that a marriage, contracted contrary to this
law with a brother's mdow, is incestuous ;"|| they conclude,
nevertheless, that this marriage ought not to be broken : with
some doubt at first, but, at length, by a final and definitive deter-
mination, as Mr. Burnet ov/ns ; so that an incestuous marriage,
a marriage made contrary to divine, moral and natural laws,
which still remain in their full force throughout the whole Chris-
tian Church, ought to subsist, in their judgment ; nor is a
divorce, in this case, allowable.

68. — Remarks on the conformily of the Protestants^ opinions with the sentence
of Clement VII.

This decision of the Lutherans is, by Mr. Burnet, referred
to the year 1530: that of Melancthon, just mentioned, is poste-
rior, and in 1536. However, it is a favorable precedent for Ju-
lius IPs dispensation, and the sentence of Clement YII, that
these Popes have met with defenders among those who sought
nothing more than to censure their proceedings at any rate.
The Protestants of Germany were so resolute in this sentiment

* Melanc. lib. iv. ep. 185. f Ibid. ep. 183. t Bum. lib. ii. p. 92.

§ Ibid. p. 94. y Collec. of Rec. part v. lib. ii. n.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 247

that, for all the ties and interests Cranmer had then with them,
he could engage none on his master's side, but only his brother-
in-law, Osiander, whose authority will hereafter appear of no
great weight.

59. — Henry bribes some Catholic Doctors.

As for Cathohcs, Mr. Burnet acquaints us that Henry VIII
had bribed two or three Cardinals. Without informing myself
of the truth of these facts, I shall observe only, that a cause
must be bad indeed that stands in need of such infamous sup-
ports. And as for the Doctors, whose subscriptions Mr. Bur-
net boasts to us, where is the wonder that, in so corrupted an
age, so great a King was able to find those who were not proof
against his presents and solicitations? Our historian will not
allow us to call in question the authority of Fra-Paolo, nor of
De Thou.* Let him give ear to these two historians. One
says, " that Henry having consulted in Italy, in Germany, and
in France, he found one part of the divines favorable, and the
other contrary. That the greatest number of those of Paris
were for him, and many believed they had done it more from the
persuasion of the King's money than that of his arguments."'!*
The other says, " that Henry made diligent inquiry into the
opinions of divines, and in particular of those at Paris, and the
report ran, that these being gained by money, had subscribed
in favor of the divorce. "J
60. — Cuncerning the pretended Consultation of the Paris Facidty of Divinity.

I will not decide whether the conclusion of the Faculty of
Divinity, at Paris, produced by Mr. Burnet§ in favor of Henry's
pretensions, be true or not ; others will take this question in
hand : this only shall I say, that it is very much to be suspected,
as well on account of the style, far different from that which the
faculty is accustomed to make use of, as because Mr. Burnet's
conclusion is dated the 2nd of July, 1630, at the Mathuriils ;
whereas, at that time, and for some years before, the assemblies
of the faculty were held commonly in the Sorbonne.
61. — The testimony of the Lawyer, Charles du Moulin.

In the notes which Charles du Moulin, that renowned civilian,
has made on Decius's Consultations, he speaks of the debate
of the Doctors of Divinity at Paris, in favor of the King of
England, the 1st of June, 1530, but this author places it in the
Sorbonne. II He makes but little account of this declaration,
wherein the party that favored the King of England carried it
by fifty-three votes against forty-two ; " which majority of eight
voices," says he, "deserved no great weight, on account of the

* Burn. t. i. Pref. f Hist. del. Cone. Trid. lib. i. An. 1534.

t Thu. Hist lib. i. An. 1534, p. 20. § Rec. part. i. lib. ii. n. 34. p. 89.

II Not. ad Cons. 602.

248 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

English angels of gold which were distributed for the purchase
of it : this," he affirms, "he knew from the attestations which the
President du Fresne and Poliot had given in by order of Fran-
cis I." Whence he concludes, the true judgment of the Sor-
bonne, that is, their genuine and unbought judgment, was that
which favored the King's marriage with Catharine. It is, more-
over, very certain that, during the deliberation, Francis, who
then favored the King of England, had charged M. Lisset, the
first President, to solicit the Doctors in his behalf, as appears by
the original letters still kept in the King's library, wherein the
President gives an account of his diligent comphance. Whether,
then, this deliberation was made by the faculty in body assem-
bled, or whether it was only the judgment of several Doctors,
pubhshed in England under the name of the faculty, as happens
in like cases, is a matter which I am not interested in examining
into at present. It is apparent enough that the King of Eng-
land's conscience was rather burdened than eased by such con-
sultations, carried on by intrigue, by money, and by the authority
of two so great monarchs. The rest of them, alleged by our
author, were not transacted with more integrity. Mr. Burnet
himself assures us, " that the King of England's agent in Italy,
in many of his letters, said that, if he had money enough, he did
not doubt but he should get the hands of all the divines in
Italy."* Money, therefore, not the good-will, was wanting.'}'
But not to dwell any longer on the minute stories Mr. Burnet
is so triflingly circumstantial in, there is nobody but will own
that Clement YII had been too unworthy of his place, if in an
affair of this importance, he had shown the least regard to these
mercenary consultations.

62. — Reasons for the decision of Clement VII.
And, indeed, the question was determined on more solid
prmciples. It appeared, clearly, that the prohibition of Leviticus
bore not the character of a natural and indispensable law,
since God derogated from it in other places. The dispensation
of Julius II, grounded on this reason, had so probable a foun-
dation, that it appeared such even to the Protestants of Ger-
many. No matter what diversity of sentiments there might
have been on this subject, it was sufficient that the dispensation
was not evidently contrary to the divine laws, which obliged
Christians. This matter, then, was of the nature of such things,
wherein all depends on the prudence of superiors, where sin-
cerity and uprightness of heart must give all the repose con-
science can have. It was also but too manifest that, had it not
been for Henry YIII's new fit of love, the Church never had
been troubled with the shameful proposal of a divorce, after a
* Bum. lib. ii. p. 90. j Ibid.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 249

marriage contracted and continued with a good conscience so
many years. Here is the knot of the affair ; and without speak-
ing of the process, wherein, perchance, poUcy, good or bad,
might intervene, Clement VII's decision, when all is said, will
be a testimony to future ages, that the Church knows not how to
flatter the passions of Princes, nor approve their scandalous
proceedings.
G3. — Two points of Reformation under Henry VIII, according to Mr. Burnet,

We might here conclude what concerns the reign of Henry
VHI, did not Mr. Burnet oblige us to consider two commence-
ments of Reformation, which he remarks at this time : one is,
his putting the Scriptures into the hands of the people ; the
other, his showing that every nation might reform itself inde-
pendently of all others.

64. — First Point — The reading of the Scriptures, hoxo granted to the people
under Henry VHI.

As for what regards the Bible ; this is what Henry VHI said
in 1540, in his Preface to the Exposition of the Christian Faith
above spoken of: " That, whereas there were some teachers
whose office it was to instruct the people ; so the rest ought to
be taught, and to those it was not necessary to read the Scrip-
tures ; and that, therefore, he had restrained it from a great
many, esteeming it sufficient for such to hear the doctrine of the
Scriptures taught by their preachers." Afterwards he allowed
the reading of them that same year, upon condition " that his
subjects should not presume to expound, or take arguments
from Scripture ;"* which was obhging them anew to refer them-
selves to the pastors of the Church for Scripture interpreta-
tions ;! in which case it is agreed the reading of this divine
book must undoubtedly be very wholesome. Moreover, if at
that time the Bible was translated into the vulgar language,
there was nothing new in that practice. We have the like ver-
sions for the use of Catholics in ages preceding the pretended
Reformation ; nor is that a point of our controversies.

65. — Whether the progress of the Reformation be ovnng to the reading of the

Scriptures, and in lohat manner.

Mr. Burnet, pretending to show that the progress of the new

Reformation was owing to the reading of Scripture allowed to the

people, ought to have stated that this readmg was preceded by

artful and cunning preachers, who had filled their heads with new

interpretations. In this manner was it that an ignorant and

headstrong people found, indeed, nothing in Scripture but those

errors they had been prepossessed with : and what hastened and

completed their ruin was the rashness inspired into them, of

every man's deciding for himself which was the true sense of

+ Burn. lib.iii. p. 293. f Ibid. p. 303.

k

250 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

Scripture, of every man's making for himself his own creed.
Thus it was that ignorant and prejudiced people found in Scrip-
ture, the pretended Reformation : but what man is there of the
least sincerity that will deny me, that, by the same means, they
would as clearly have found Arianism in it, as they conceived
they did Lutheranism or Calvinism 1

66. — Hoio men are deceived by Scripture ill-interpreted.
When this notion is once put into the heads of the ignorant,
that all is clear in Scripture, that they understand it in all that
is necessary for them, and, therefore, that the judgment of all
pastors and of all ages is quite needless to them, they take for
certain truth the first sense that offers, and what they are accus-
tomed to always appears the most genuine. But, they ought
to be made sensible that, in this case, it is the letter often which
kills, and in those very passages, which appear the most plain,
God has often hid the greatest and most awful mysteries.

67. — Proof from Mr. Burnet of the snares laid foi- the unlearned in the pretended
perspicuity of Scripture.

For example, Mr. Burnet proposes to us this text, " Drink
ye all of this," as one of the most clear that can be imagined,
and which leads us the most directly to the necessity of both
kinds. But it will now appear to him, from what he owns him-
self, that what he thinks so plain becomes a snare to the igno-
rant ; for these words, " Drink ye all of this," in the institution
of the Eucharist, are not, after all, more plain than these in the
institution of the Passover : " Thus shall ye eat the paschal
iamb, with your loins girded, and your staff in your hand:"*
consequently, standing ; and in the posture of people ready to
depart, for that, indeed, was the spirit of this Sacrament. Nev-
ertheless, we are assured by Mr. Burnet,t this was not practised
by the Jews, who, afterwards, changed this custom into the
common table posture, and lay down, according to the custom
of the country, at the eating of the lamb, as at other meals ; and
that this change, which they made in the Divine institution, we
are sure was not criminal, since our Saviour made no scruple
in complying with it. J I ask him in this case, whether a man
who should have taken this divine commandment literally, with-
out consulting the tradition and interpretation of the Church,
would not have found in it his certain death, since he would have
found in it the condemnation of Jesus Christ ;§ and whereas this
author adds afterwards, it seemed reasonable to allow the Chris-
tian Church the like power in such things with the Jewish, why
then should a Christian, in the new Passover, believe he has
seen every thing relating to the Supper, upon reading the words
only of the institution 1 and will not he be obUged to examine,
* Exod. xii. 11. t Part 2. 1. i. p. 171. J Ibid. § Ibid.

VII. 1 THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 251

besides these words, the tradition of the Church, in order to
know what she always looked upon as necessary and indispen-
sable in the Communion? Without pushing this examination
any further, this is enough to show Mr. Burnet they must of
necessity come into it; nor can the pretended perspicuity, which
the illiterate think they find in these words, " Drink ye all of
this," be any thing but an illusion.

68. — Henry VIIPs secmid point of Reformation according to Mr. Burnet ; that
the Church of England acted by a schismaticcd p'hiciple, when she believed
she could regulate her Faith independently of all the rest of the Church.

The second ground of Reformation, pretended to be laid by
Henry YIII, Mr. Burnet makes to consist in the establishment
of this principle, that every national Church was a complete^
body within itself, so that the Church of England, with the au-
thority and concurrence of their head and King, might examine
and reform all errors and corruptions, whether in doctrine or
worship. These are fine words. Discover but their meaning,
and you will find that such a reformation is nothing but a schism.
A nation, which looks on itself as a complete body, which regu-
lates its faith, in particular, without regard to what the rest of
the Church believes, is a nation which separates itself from the
universal Church, and renounces unity of faith and sentiments,
so much recommended to the Church by Jesus Christ and his
Apostles. When a Church thus cantoned makes the King her
head, she gives herself, in matters of religion, a principle of
unity, which Jesus Christ and the Gospel have not established ;*
changes the Church into a body politic, and gives room to erect
as many separate Churches, as states may be formed. This
idea of Reformation and Church was first conceived in the brain
of Henry VIII and his flatterers, nor had Christians ever before
been acquainted with it.

69. — Whether the €hurch of England in this followed the ancient Church, as
Mr. Burnet pretends it did.

We are told, that all the provincial councils in the ancient
Church were so many precedents for this, who condemned her-
esies, and reformed abuses."f But this is visibly imposing on
mankind. True it is, provincial councils were obliged imme-
diately to condemn heresies which arose in their respective
countries : for in order to suppress them, ought they to have
waited till the contagion had spread and alarmed the whole
Church? Nor is that our question. What he should have
made appear to us is, that these Churches looked on themselves
as a complete body, in the same manner they do in England ;
and reformed their doctrine, without taking for their rule what
the whole body of the Church unanimously did believe. Of
♦ Pref. and part 1 1. iii. p. 294. f Ibid.

25s5 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

this, I say, no example will ever be produced. When the
African Fathers condemned the infant heresy of Celestius and
Pelagius, they laid for a foundation the prohibition of interpreting
the Holy Scripture otherwise than the Cathohc Church, spread
over the whole earth, had always interpreted and understood it.
Alexander of Alexandria laid down the same foundation against
Arius, when, condemning him, he said, " We know but one
Catholic and Apostolic Church, which, incapable of being sub-
verted by the world's whole power, overthrows every impiety
and every heresy." And again, " In every one of these articles
we believe what hath pleased the Apostolic Church."* Thus
did the Bishops and particular Councils condemn heresies by a
prior judgment, by conforming themselves to the common faith
of the whole body. These decrees were sent to all churches,
and from this unity they drew their utmost force.

70. — Whether the Church of England had reason to believe, that noio-a-days it
is too difficult a thing to consult the Faith of the whole Church.

But, say they, the remedy of a universal council, easy as it
was under the Roman empire, when the Churches had one com-
mon sovereign, is become too difficult, now that Christendom
is divided into so many states : another fallacy. For, in the first
place, the consent of Churches may be declared otherwise than
by general councils : witness, in St. Cyprian, the condemnation
of Novatian ; witness that of Paul of Samosata, of whom it
was written, that he had been condemned by the council and
judgment of all the bishops of the world, because all had con-
sented to the council held against him at Antioch ;t lastly, wit-
ness the Pelagians, and so many other heresies, which, without
a general council, have been sufficiently condemned by the
united authority of the Pope and all the Bishops. When the
necessities of the Church required a general council to be as-
sembled, the Holy Ghost always provided means ; and so many
councils, as have been held since the fall of the Roman empire,
have made it plainly appear, that to assemble the pastors when
requisite, there needed not its assistance. The reason is be-
cause, in the Catholic Church there is a principle of unity inde-
pendent of the kings of the earth. To deny this, is making the
Church their captive, and rendering the heavenly government,
instituted by Jesus Christ, defective. But the English Protest-
ants would not acknowledge this unity, because the Ploly See
is the external and common bond thereof; and it was more
agreeable to them to have, in matters of religion, their king for
their head, than to own, in St. Peter's chair, a principle by God
established for the unity of all Christians.

* Cone. Milev. cap. 9. Epis. Alex. Episc. Alexandriae ad Alex. Constantinop.
J Ep. Alex. Episc. Alex, ad Alex. Constanti.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 253

71. — Ml sorts of novelties crept into England in spite of the severities of Henry
VIII. — The reason why.

The Six Articles published by the authority of King and Par-
liament had the force of law during the whole reign of Henry
VIII. But what sway over consciences can decrees concern-
ing rehgion have, which, drawing all their strength from regal
authority, to which God has intrusted no such commission, have
nothing in them but what is political ? Though Henry VIII
enforced them with innumerable executions, and cruelly put to
death, not only Catholics, who detested his supremacy, but also
the Lutherans and Zuinglians, who impugned the other articles
of his faith, all manner of errors crept insensibly into England,
nor did the people any longer know what to stand to, when they
saw St. Peter's chair despised, from whence it was notorious
faith first came to this great isle, whether the conversion of its
inhabitants under Pope Eleutherius be considered, or that of the
English, which was procured by St. Gregory the Great.

The whole estabhshment of the Church of England, the whole
order of her discipline, — the whole disposition of the hierarchy
in this kingdom ; in a word, the mission, as well as the conse-
cration of bishops, was so certainly derived from this great Pope
and the chair of St. Peter, or from bishops holding him for the
head of their communion, that the English could not renounce
this power without weakening among them even the origin of
Christianity, and all the authority of ancient traditions.

72. — They argued in England from false principles, when they rejected thePope^s
Supremacy.

When they set about rejecting the authority of the Holy See
in England, it was observed by them " that Gregory the Great
had exclaimed against the ambition of that title of Universal
Bishop, and refused it much about the time that England re-
ceived the faith from those he sent over ;" whence, concluded
Cranmer and his associates, " When our ancestors received the
faith, the authority of the See of Rome was within the limits of
a laudable moderation."*

73. — Whether St. Gregory, Pope, under whom the English were converted,had
different notions of the authmity of his See from ichat xoe have.

Not to dispute, in vain, on this title of Universal which the
Popes never do assume, and may be more or less supportable
according to the different senses it is taken in ; let us consider
for a moment what St. Gregory, who rejected it, believed nev-
ertheless relating to the authority of his See. Two passages
known to the whole world will decide this question. " As for
what concerns," says he, " the Church of Constantinople, who
questions its being subjected to the See Apostolic, which neither

* Bum. part 1. 1, ii. p. 139,
22

254 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

the Emperor nor our brother Eusebius, bishop of that city, do
cease to acknowledge ?"* And in the following letter, speaking
of the primate of Africa, as to what he says, " that he is subject
to the See Apostolic, I know no bishop that is not subject to it
when delinquent. Furthermore, when delinquency requires not
otherwise, we are all brethren according to the law of humility. "f
Here, then, have we all bishops manifestly subject to the au-
thority and correction of the Holy See, and this authority ac-
knowledged even by the Church of Constantinople, at that time
the second Church of the whole world in dignity and power.
Here is the foundation of the pontifical power ; the rest, which
custom or toleration, or, if you please, even abuse might have
introduced or increased, might be preserved, or suffered, or ex-
tended more or less, as order, peace, and public tranquillity
should require. Christianity was born in England with the
confession of this authority. Henry VHI could not endure it,
even with this laudable moderation owned by Cranmer in St.
Gregory: his passion and policy made him annex it to his crown,
and by this so strange an innovation, he opened the way for all
that followed.

74.— Death of Henry VIII.
Some say this unhappy Prince, towards the end of his days,
felt some remorse for the excesses he had run into ; and, in
order to calm his conscience, sent for some bishops to him. I
vouch it not ; those who, in scandalous sinners, but particularly
in Kings, are for discovering such biting stings of conscience
as appeared in an Antiochus, are not acquainted with all God's
ways, nor reflect sufficiently on that deadly insensibility and
false peace he sometimes suffers his greatest enemies to fall into.
Be that as it will, should Henry have consulted his bishops, what
could be expected from a body which had enslaved the Church?
Whatever indications Henry might give of desiring to be sin-
cerely advised in this juncture, he could not restore to the bishops
that liberty which his cruelties had deprived them of; dreadful
to them were the vicissitudes of temper this prince was subject
to; and he who could not brook truth from the mouth of Thomas
More, his Chancellor, nor from the holy Bishop of Rochester,
both of whom he put to death for speaking it freely to him, never
more deserved to hear it.

75.— Every thing is changed after his death.-^The young King's Guardian is a
Zuinglian.— 1547, 1548.

In this state he died ; and no wonder if, after his death, things
grew worse. The foundations once shaken, by little and little,
all goes to ruin. Edward VI, his only son, succeeded him ac-
cording to the law of the land. As he was scarce ten years old,
* Lib. vii. Ind. 2. Ep. 64. t Ibid. 65.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 255

the kingdom was governed by a Council, appointed by the de-
ceased King ; but Edward Seymour, brother to Queen Jane,
and the King's uncle by the mother's side, had the chief au-
thority, with the title of Protector of the Kingdom of England.
He was a Zuinglian in his heart, and Cranmer was his bosom
friend. This Archbishop then threw off the mask, nor did he
longer conceal any of that venom which lay lurking in his heart
against the Church.

76. — The Reformation founded on the ruin of ecclesiastical ,iuthority.
In order to prepare the way for their intended reformation
under the King's name, they set out by declaring him, as Henry
had been before, the supreme head of the Church of England in
Spirituals and temporals.* In Henry's time it was a settled
maxim, that the King was Pope in England. But far different
prerogatives were conferred on this new papacy than the Pope
had ever pretended to. The bishops took out new commissions
from Edward, revocable at the King's pleasure, as heretofore
had been enjoined in King Henry's time ; and, in order to ad-
vance the reformation, it was judged necessary to keep them
under the subjection of an arbitrary power. The Archbishop
of Canterbury, and primate of all England, was the first to bend
his neck under this shameful yoke. This is not to be wondered
at, since he was the person who inspired all these sentiments :
the rest did but follow the pernicious example he set to them.l
This was somewhat moderated afterwards, and the bishops were
obliged to look upon it as a favor to hold their bishopricks of
the King during life. J In the tenor of their commissions, it
was plainly expressed, as under Henry, pursuant to Cranmer's
doctrine, that the episcopal power, as well as that of the secular
magistracy, flowed from the crown as from its source, that the
bishops exercised it only precariously as delegates in the King's
name, and which they were to deliver up again when it should
please him to call for it, from whom they had received it. § " The
King gave them faculties to ordain and deprive ministers, inflict
censures and punish scandalous persons, and to do all the other
parts of the episcopal function, all which they were to execute
and do in the King's name and under his authority." || At the
same time, it was owned, that this pastoral charge was com-
mitted to bishops by the word of God. It was necessary to
make use of this word to give themselves credit. But although
nothing was found therein for the regal power, except what re-
lated to the concerns of this world, it was nevertheless extended
to what is most sacred in the pastoral charge. Commissions
for consecrating bishops were issued out by the King, and

* Burn. part. 1. 1. iii. p. 267. part. 2. 1. i. p. 6. Col. of Rec. part 2. 1. i. p. 90.
t Ibid. X Ibid. § Ibid, and part 1. p, 276. H Part 2. 1. i. p. 218.

256 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

directed to whom he pleased : so that, according to this new
hierarchy, as the bishops were not consecrated but by the royal
authority, so by the same only could they proceed to ordination.*
Even the form and prayers of ordination, as well of bishops as
of priests, were regulated by Parliament. The same was done
in respect to the liturgy and public service, and the whole ad-
ministration of the sacraments. In a word, all was subject to
the King, and, upon abolishing the ancient law, the Parliament,
it seems, was to make a new body of canons. All these at-
tempts were grounded on a maxim which the Parliament of
England had laid down for a new article of their faith, viz., that
all jurisdiction, both spiritual and temporal, was derived from the
King, as from its source. f

77 — Sequel of the ruin of Ecclesiastical Jluthority.
It is not here to our purpose to deplore the calamities of the
Church thus enslaved, and shamefully degraded by her own
ministers. Our business is to relate facts, and a bare relation
of them will suffice to show their enormity. " Not long after,
the King declared he intended to visit his kingdom, therefore,
neither the archbishops nor any other should exercise any juris-
diction while that visitation lasted. { There was proclamation
from the King, commanding all to remember him in the pubhc
prayers as the supreme head of the Church of England, which
was to be observed under the pains of excommunication, se-
questration, or deprivation. "§ Thus, together with ecclesiastical
censures, the whole pastoral authority is openly invaded by the
King, and the most sacred depositum of the sanctuary wrested
from the priestly order, without sparing even that of faith, which
the Apostles had left to their successors.

78. — Reflection on the miserable beginnings of the Refwmation, wherein the
sacred order had no share in the affairs of Religion and Faith.

I cannot but stop here a moment to consider the groundwork
of the English Reformation, " that work of light, a full and dis-
tinct narrative whereof makes its apology as well as history."
The Church of England glories above all the other Churches
of the Reformation, for having proceeded orderly and by lawful
assembhes. To afford some color for this boasting, it was, in
the first place, and above all, necessary that ecclesiastics should
have had the chief share in the management of this great altera-
tion in rehgion. But quite the reverse was done, and ever since
the time of Henry VIII, " they were cut off from meddling with
it, except as they were authorized by the King."|| All the com-
plaint they made amounted to no more than that an encroach-

* Bum. part 1. 1. L pp. 141, 142, 143. f I^id- p. 43. I Ibid. p. 27 ;

and Col. n. 7. § Ibid. p. 29. I| S. n. 2. Bum. part 2. 1. i. p. 49.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 257

merit was made on their privileges ; as if for them to meddle
with religion were only a privilege, and not essential to the very
being of the ecclesiastical order.

But perchance one may imagine they met with better treat-
ment under Edward, when, as Mr. Burnet pretends, the Refor-
mation was set on a more sohd basis. Quite the contrary; they
begged it as a favor of the Parliament, " at least, that matters
of religion should not be determined till they had been consult-
ed, and had reported their opinions and reasons."* What a
wretched state had they brought themselves to, not to intermed-
dle otherwise than by barely offering their opinions ; they who
were the proper judges in such cases, and of whom Christ had
said, " He that hears you, hears me !" but this, says our histo-
rian, could not be obtained. J But, at least it may be allowed
them to decide on articles of faith, of which they were the
preachers. By no means. The King's counsellors resolved
to follow the method begun by the late King, of sending visiters
over England with ecclesiastical injunctions and articles of
faith ; and it was the business of the King's council to regulate
the articles of religion that were to be proposed to the people
by his authority. § Meanwhile, the Six Articles of Henry YIII
were to be adhered to, until they should think better of the mat-
ter ; nor were they ashamed to require of the bishops an express
declaration, "to make profession of such doctrine as afterwards,
at any time, should be certified by the archbishop to the other
bishops in the King's name."|| Besides, it was but too evident
the clergy were only named for form sake, since all was done in
the King's name.

79. — The King is made absolute master of the Pulpit, and forbids Preaching all
over his Kingdom till further orders.

It seems we need say no more, after the relation of such
great excesses. But lamentable as it is, let us continue it. It
is in some manner laboring to heal the Church's wounds to be-
wail them in the sight of God. The King took to himself so
absolute an authority over the word and preaching, that a proc-
lamation was issued, by which none were to preach without
license from the King or his visiters — the Archbishop of Canter-
bury or the bishop of the diocese ; so that the chief right was in
the King, nor had the bishops, but by his permission only, any
share therein. Sometime after, the Council allows those to
preach who were likely to set forth the pure word of God after
such sort as the Holy Ghost should for the time put in the
preacher's mind. IT The Council, it seems, had changed their
minds ; after they had made preaching depend on the regal

* S. n. 2. Bum. part 2. 1. i. p. 49. f Ibid. J Rec. n. pp. 16, 17.

§ Ibid. p. 26. II Ibid. p. 59. IT Ibid. p. 61.

22*

258 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

power, they here leave it to the discretion of those who should
imagine themselves filled with the Holy Ghost, and by this
means all fanatics are admitted to it. The year following they
changed again. " To restrain the clashing and contention of
pulpits, the power of granting licenses to preach was taken
from the bishops of each diocese, so that none might give them
but the King and the archbishop."* By this means it is an easy
matter to authorize the preaching up of any heresy. But the
effects of this restraint are not what we are now upon. What
ought to be considered is, that the whole authority of the word
was delivered up to the prince alone. Things were carried so
far, that after declaring to the people that the King had employed
learned men to take away all subjects of controversies, " till
the order now preparing should be set forth, he did inhibit all
manner of persons to preach in any public audience. "j" Here
then was preaching suspended throughout the whole kingdom,
the bishops silenced by the King's proclamation, and all waiting
in suspense, ignorant what religion the King would think fit to
coin for them. " To this was tacked an admonition, exhorting
all persons to receive with submission the orders that should, in
a short time, be sent down to them." Thus was the English
Reformation brought about ; that work of light, a distinct narra-
tive whereof makes, according to Mr. Burnet, its history as well
as its apology.

80. — The Six Articles abolished.

These preparations being thus made, the English Reforma-
tion was set on foot, in the King's name, by the Duke of Som-
erset and Cranmer ; and here the regal power pulled down that
faith which the regal power had before set up. The Six Arti-
cles, which Henry VHI had caused to be published with his
whole spiritual and temporal authority, were repealed ;J and,
notwithstanding all the precautions he had taken in his will to
preserve those precious remains of the Catholic religion, and
perhaps, in time, to restore it wholly, the Zuinglian doctrine, so
much detested by this prince, gained the ascendant.
81. — Peter Martyr called over, and Zuinglianism established. — 1549, 1550, 1551.

Peter Martyr, a Florentine, and Bernardin Ochin, afterwards
the declared enemy of Jesus Christ's divinity, were called over
to begin this Reformation. Both of them, like the rest of the
reformers, had exchanged the monastic state for that of wed-
lock. Peter Martyr was a downright Zuinglian. The doctrine
which he proposed in England concerning the Eucharist in
1549, was reduced to these three positions : —

I. There is no transubstantiation.

* Rec. n. p. 80. f Ibid. p. 81. J Ibid, part 2, 1. i. p. 40.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 259

II. The body and blood of Jesus Christ are not corporeally
in the Eucharist, nor under the species of bread and wine.

III. The body and blood of Chiist are united to the bread and
wine sacramentally, that is, figuratively, or at most, virtually.*

82. — Bucer not hearkened to.

Bucer did not approve the second proposition ; for, as hath
been seen, he was for excluding a local presence, but not a cor-
poreal and substantial one. He maintained that Jesus Christ
could not be separated from the Supper, and that he was after
such a manner in heaven, as not to be substantially removed out
of the Eucharist. Peter Martyr believed it was an illusion to
admit a corporeal and substantial presence in the Supper, and
not admit in it the reality which Catholics maintained, together
with the Lutherans ; and what respect soever he might have for
Bucer, the only Protestant he had any consideration for, yet he
did not come into his sentiments. A set of articles| was drawn
up in England, conformable to Peter Martyr's opinion : it was
there specified, " That the body of Jesus Christ was no where
but in heaven : that he could not be really present in different
places ; so that no corporeal or Real Presence of the body and
blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist was to be believed."
This is what was defined. But, as yet, their faith was not in its
utmost perfection, and, in due time, we shall see this article
pretty much reformed.

83. — Mr. BurneVs Confession concerniyig the Belief of the Greek Church.

We are here obliged to Mr. Burnet for owning a thing of no
small weight : for he grants us that the Real Presence is
acknowledged by the Greek Church. These are his words :
" The Lutherans seemed to agree with that which had been the
doctrine of the Greek Church, that in the Sacrament, there was
both the substance of bread and wine, and Christ's body like-
wise. "J Herein he is more sincere than the greatest part of
those of his rehgion ; but, at the same time, opposes a greater
authority against the novelties of Peter Martyr.
84. — The Reformers repent themselves of having said that in the Reformation
of the Liturgy they had acted by the assistance of the Holy Ghost.

Then did the spirit of change entirely possess England. In
the Reformation of the Liturgy and common prayers, which
was made by the authority of Parliament, (for God gave ear to
none but such,) it had been set forth in the preamble to the
Act, that the commissioners named by the King to draw them
up " had finished the work with one uniform agreement, and by
the aid of the Holy Ghost. "§ Men were astonished at this
expression. But the Reformers had their answer ready, viz.,

+ Hosp. part 2. An. 1547. pp. 207, 208, et seq. Bum. part 2. 1. i. p. 106.
t Bum. p. 170. Col. n. 55. J Ibid. p. 104. § Ibid. p. 93.

260 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

" That this was not so to be understood, as if they had been in-
spired by extraordinary assistance ; for then there had been no
room for any correction of what was now done."* Now these
Keformers were still for correcting and changing on ; and never
did pretend to frame their rehgion all at once. And, indeed,
very considerable alterations were soon made in this Liturgy,
and their chief aim was to deface all the tracks of antiquity
that hitherto had been preserved.

85. — Ml the remains of Antiquity at first retained in the Liturgy are now
destroyed.

In the consecration of the Eucharist this prayer had been
retained, " With thy Holy Spirit vouchsafe to bless and sanctify
these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may
be unto us the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son,"|
&c. They were willing to preserve, in this prayer, somewhat
of the Church of Rome's Liturgy, which St. Augustinthe Monk
sent to the Enghsh by St. Gregory, had brought in with Chris-
tianity. But although they had maimed it by lopping off some
words, yet still it was found " too much to favor transubstan-
tiation,"J or even the corporeal presence, and was afterwards
entirely erased.

86. — England abrogates the Mass, which she had heard from her first conversion
to Christianity.

The words of that prayer were yet much stronger, as the
Church of England used it at the time she embraced Chris-
tianity : for, whereas they had put in the reformed Liturgy, that
these gifts may be unto us the body and blood of Jesus Christ;
in the original it stands thus, that " This oblation be made unto
us the body and blood of Jesus Christ." This word made, im-
ports a true action of the Holy Ghost, who changes the gifts,
conl">rmably to what is said in the other liturgies of antiquity :
" Make, 0 Lord, of this bread, thy own body ; and of this wine,
the own blood of thy Son ; changing them by thy Holy Spirit."§
And these words, " be made unto us the body and blood," were
said in the same spirit with those of Isaiah, " Unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given :"|| not implying, that the sacred
gifts are then only made the body and blood when we receive
them, as the Reformers will have it ; but signifying that it is for
us they were formed in the Eucharist, as for us they were formed
in the Virgin's womb. The Enghsh Reformation has corrected
every thing that too much favored transubstantiation. The word
oblation would likewise have too much favored a sacrifice : to
give the sense of it in some manner, they substituted gifts. At
length, it was wholly taken away, and the Church of England

* Bum- p. 94. Col. n. 55. f Lib. i. p. 76. J Ibid. p. 170.
§ Lit of S. Basil, &c. || Is. ix. 6.

VII.] THE* VARIATIONS, ETC. 261

would no longer hear that sacred prayer she heard, when, coming
forth from the baptismal font, she first received the bread of life.
87. — The Galilean Mass andthe rest, in themain, are the same with that of Rome.

If it be insisted on that the holy priest Augustin brought them
the GaUican Liturgy or Mass, rather than the Roman, the free
choice of either having been left to him by St. Gregory, that
alters not the case : the Gailican Mass, said by the Hilaries
and the Martins, in the main, differed not from the Roman, nor
the rest.* The Kyrie Eleison, the Pater, the Pax, or the blessing,
may be given in one place of the Mass rather than another, and
such things, as little essential, made the whole difference ; and
for this reason was it that St. Gregory left the choice thereof to
the holy priest he sent into England. f As well in France, as
at Rome, and in all the rest of the Church, a prayer was made
to beg the transformation and change of bread and wine into the
body and blood ; the merit and mediation of saints with God
was every where employed, but a merit grounded on the divine
mercy, and a mediation supported by that of Jesus Christ. In
all of these Liturgies the dead were frequently prayed for ; and,
with respect to all these things, there was but one language in
the East and West, in the South and North.

88. — The Reformation corrects itself ivith respect to Prayers for the Dead.

The English Reformation had retained, in Edward's time,
something of prayer for the dead ; for, at funerals, they recom-
mended the soul departed to God's mercy, and, as we now do,
they prayed that his sins might be pardoned. J But all these
remains of the primitive spirit are abolished : this prayer savored
too much of purgatory. It is certain it was said from the first
ages, both in the East and the West : no matter, it was the Pope's
Mass, and that of the Church of Rome : it must be banished
England, and every word of it turned to the most odious sense.
89. — Sequel of Alterations.

The Church of England, I may venture to say it, altered
every thing she derived from antiquity. § Confirmation must
be nothing but a catechism to renew the baptismal vows. But,
said Catholics, the fathers, from whom we receive it by a tra-
dition founded on the Acts of the Apostles, and as ancient as
the Church, say not so much as a word of this notion of cate-
chism. This is true, and they are forced to own it. Confir-
mation, nevertheless, is turned to this form, otherwise it would
be too papistical. The holy chrism is taken away, which the
most ancient fathers had called the instrument of the Holy
Ghost ; II the use of oil, even in extreme unction, will at last be
laid aside, whatever St. James may say ; and though St. Inno-
* Burn, part 2, 1. i. p. 72. f Greg. lib. \ii. ind. ii. ep. 64.

I Burn. p. 77. § Ibid. f, Ibid. p. 170.

262 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

cent Pope spoke of this unction in the fourth age, it will be de-
cided that extreme unction was not heard of till the tenth century.
90. — Ceremonies and the sign of the Cross retained.
Among these alterations three things remained ; holy cere-
monies, the festivals of saints, abstinence and Lent. They
thought it but meet that priests, in the public service, should put
on a mysterious dress, symbols of purity and the other disposi-
tions which the divine worship does require. Ceremonies were
looked upon as a mystical language, and Calvin appeared too
extravagant in rejecting them.* The use of the cross was re-
tained, " as a public declaration that they were not ashamed of
the cross of Christ."| At first, it was ordered to be kept up
" in the sacrament of baptism, and in the office of confirmation,
and in the consecration of the sacramental elements, as an out-
ward expression of the veneration" they had for this holy cere-
mony. J Nevertheless, it was at last suppressed, in confirma-
tion and the consecration, in which St. Augustin, with all
antiquity, bears testimony, that it was ever practised ; nor can
I devise why it was retained only in baptism.
91. — England justifies us in the observance of Festivals, even those of Saints.
Mr. Burnet justifies us with relation to fasts and holydays ;
which days he will not have accounted holy of their own nature,
nor liom any magical virtue in that time.§ This we consent
to, and certainly, such a natural or magical virtue, which he
thinks himself obliged to reject, never entered into any man's
head. He says, " that none of these days were properly dedi-
cated to any saint ; but only to God in remembrance of such
saints." II This is our very doctrine. In a word, he every
where, and in every thing, vindicates us on this subject, since
he af;;rees to a conscientious observing of such times. IT Where-
fore, those who object to us, that we follow the commandments
of men,** need but object this to the Church of England, and
she will vindicate us.

92. — The same in abstinence from Flesh.
They do no less evidently justify us from the reproach of
teaching the doctrine of devils, when we abstain from certain
meats for penance sake. Mr. Burnet answers for us, when
he blames carnal men, who will not conceive " that the frequent
use of fasting, with prayer and true devotion joined to it, is per-
haps one of the greatest helps that can be devised to advance
one to a spiritual temper of mind, and to promote a holy course
of life."|t Since it is from this spirit, not a kind of temporal
policy, as many do imagine, that the Church of England hath
forbidden flesh on Fridays and Saturdays, on Vigils, the four
* Burn. p. 75. f Ibid. p. 79. I Ibid. p. 170. § Ibid. p. 191.
11 Ibid. IT Ibid. *+ Matth. xv. 9. ft Burn. p. 96.

VII.] THE VAPaATIONS, ETC. 263

Ember-weeks, and throughout Lent, we have nothing on this
subject to upbraid one another with. There is only reason to
wonder that the King and Parhament should command these
holydays and abstinences ;* that the King should declare what
were fish-days, and grant licenses and dispensations from these
observances;! and, lastly, that in matters of rehgion they should
prefer the King's commandments to those of the Church.
93. — Cranmer in his Reformation inverts all order.

But something still more surprising in the English Reforma-
tion, was a maxim of Cranmer's. Whereas, in reality, the
worship depends on faith, and should by that be regulated, Cran-
mer confounded this order ; and, before he had examincvl the
doctrine, suppressed, in the worship, what most displeased him.
According to Mr. Burnet, the belief of Christ's presence in every
crumb of bread gave occasion to laying aside the cup. J And
indeed, argues he, in this hypothesis, " communion in both kinds
was not necessary."§ So that the question about the necessity
of both kinds depended on that of the Real Presence. Now, in
1648, England still believed the Real Presence, and the Par-
liament declared, that "the whole body of Christ was contained
in every piece of consecrated bread, whether it were small or
great." || The necessity, nevertheless, of communicating under
both kinds had been already estabhshed ; that is, they had drav.n
the consequence before they were well assured of the principle.
94. — Sequel.

The year following, Christ's presence in the sacrament was
greatly called in question, and the thing left undecided. Yet
the adoration of Jesus Christ in the sacrament had already been
suppressed provisionally ; as if one, seeing the people stand in
great awe as in the King's presence, should say, — Good people,
let us, in the first place, lay aside these exterior tokens of re-
spect ; there will afterwards be time to examine whether the
King be present or no, and whether this honor be agreeable to
him. The oblation of the body and blood was in like manner
taken away ; although this oblation, after all, be nothing else
but the consecration made before God of this body and olood
as really present before the manducation ; and without exam-
ining the principle, that which inevitably ensued from it, was
already destroyed.

The cause of so irregular a proceeding was the leading the
people by motives of hatred, and not of reason. It was an easy
matter to excite hatred against certain practices, whereof they
concealed from the people the beginning and right use, espe-
cially when some abuses were interwoven with them -.TF thus it

* Burn. p. 95. f Ibid. p. 191. | Ibid, part 2, p. 42.

§ Ibid, part 1, p. 290. |1 Ibid. p. 651. H S. L vi. n. 21, et seq.

264 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

was easy to render priests odious who abused the Mass for sor-
did gain ; and hatred once inflamed against them, was by a
thousand artifices insensibly turned against the mystery they
celebrated, and even, as hath appeared, against the Real Pres-
ence, the foundation of it.

95. — Hoio the public haired loas raised against the Catholic doctrine. — Example
in the Instruction of young Edward, and concerning Images.

The same was done with respect to Images, and a French
letter, which Mr. Burnet gives us of Edward VI to his uncle,
the protector, makes it palpable. To exercise this young
prince's style, his master sent him about collecting all the pas-
sages wherein God speaks against idols. " In reading the Holy
Scripture, I was desirous," said he, " to note several places
which forbid both to adore and to make any images, not only of
strange Gods, but also to form any thing ; thinking to make it
like to the Majesty of God the Creator." In this credulous age,
he had simply believed what was told him, that Catholics made
images, thinking they made them like to the Majesty of God.
" I am quite astonished," proceeds he, " God himself and his
Holy Spirit having so often forbidden it, that so many people
have dared to commit idolatry by making and adoring images.^^*'
He fixes the same hatred, as we see, on the making, as on the
adoring them ; and, according to the notions that were given
him, is in the right, since, undoubtedly, it is not lawful to make
images with the thought of making something " like to the Ma-
jesty of the Creator," For, as this prince adds, God cannot be
seen in things that are material, but will be seen in his own
works. Thus was a young child deluded by them. His hatred
was stirred up against Pagan images, in which man pretends
to represent the Deity : it was shown him that God forbids to
make such images, but they not having as yet taken it into their
heads to say that it is unlawful to make such as ours, or unlaw-
ful to represent Jesus Christ and his saints, they took care to
conceal from him, that those of Catholics were not of this na-
ture. A youth of ten or twelve years old could not discover it
of himself ; to make images odious to him in general, and con-
fusedly, was enough for their purpose. Those of the Church,
though of a different order and design, passed in the same light
as the others: dazzled with the plausible reasoning and authority
of his masters, every thing was an idol to him ; and the hatred
he had conceived against idolatry was easily turned against the
Church.

96. — Whether any advantage can be draxonfrom the sudden progress of the pre-
tended Reformation.

The people were not more cunning, and it was but too easy
* Rem. part ii. 1. ii. p. 68.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 265

to animate them by the like artifices. After this, can the sud-
den progress of the Reformation be taken for a visible miracle,
the work of God's own hand 1 With what assm^lfte could Mr.
Burnet say it ; — he ! who has so thoroughly discovered to us the
deep causes of this lamentable success 1 A prince blinded with
inordinate passion, and condemned by the Pope, sets men at
work to exaggerate particular facts, some odious proceedings
and abuses which the Church herself condemned. All pulpits
ring with satires against ignorant and scandalous priests ; they
are brought on the stage, and made the subject of farce and
comedy, insomuch that Mr. Burnet himself expresses his indig-
nation at it.* Under the authority of an infant King, and a pro-
tector violently addicted to Zuinglianism, invective and satire
are still carried to a higher pitch. " The laity, that had long
looked on their pastors with an evil eye,"| greedily swallowed
down the poisonous novelty. The difficulties in the mystery
of the Eucharist are removed, and the senses, instead of being
kept under subjection, are flattered. Priests are set free from
the obligation of continency ; monks from all their vows ; the
whole world from the yoke of confession, wholesome, indeed,
for the correction of vice, but burdensome to nature. A doc-
trine of great liberty was preached up, and which, as Mr. Bur-
net says, " showed a plain and simple way to the kingdom of
heaven." j Laws so convenient met with but too ready a com-
pliance. Of sixteen thousand Ecclesiastics, who made up the
body of the English clergy, we are assured by Mr. Burnet, three
parts renounced their celibacy in Edward's time ;§ that is, in
the space of five or six years ; and good Protestants were made
of these bad Ecclesiastics, who thus renounced their vows. Thus
was the clergy gained. As for the Laity, the Church revenues,
exposed to rapine, became their prey. The vestry-plate en-
riched the prince's exchequer : the shrine alone of St. Thomas
of Canterbury, with the inestimable presents that had been sent
to it from all parts, produced a royal treasure of immense sums
of money. II This was enough to degrade that holy martyr.
He was attainted, that he might be pillaged ; nor were the riches
of his tomb the least of his crimes. In short, it was judged
more expedient to plunder the Churches, than, conformably to
the intention of the founders, to apply their patrimony to its
right use. Where is the wonder, if the nobihty, the clergy, and
the people were so easily gained upon? is it not rather a visible
miracle that there remained a spark in Israel, and that all other
kingdoms did not follow the example of England, Denmcirk,
Sweden and Germany, which were reformed by the same means?

* Lib. iii. p. 313. t Ibid. p. 31. t Ibid.

§ Ibid, part ii. 1. ii. p. 276. |1 Ibid, part i. 1. ii. p. 244.

23

266 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

97. — Whether the Duke of Somerset had the show of a Reformer.
x\midst all these Reformations, the only one that visibly made
no progresd^pias that of manners. The success of Luther's
Reformation in Germany, as to this point, I have already ob-
served upon, and we need but read Mr. Burnet's history to be
convinced that things went on no better in England. We have
seen Henry VIII, her first Reformer ; the ambitious Duke of
Somerset was the second. He equalled himself to crowned
heads, though but a subject ; and assumed the title of " Duke
of Somerset, by the grace of God."* In the midst of the ca-
lamities which afflicted the whole nation, when London " was
much disordered by the plague, his thoughts were only bent on
designing such a palace as had not been seen in England ; and
to aggravate his guilt by sacrilege, he built it upon the ruins,
and with the materials, of three Episcopal palaces and a parish
church : and the revenues extorted from several Bishops and
Chapters, who " had resigned many manors to him for obtaining
his favor, none daring to oppose his will."| He did this, it is
true, with leave obtained from the King ; but his abusing thus
the authority of a minor, and the inuring his pupil to such sacri-
legious donations, inflamed the guilt. I pass over the rest of
his misdeeds, for which the Parliament condemned him, first to
resign the authority he had usurped over the council, and after-
wards to lose his head. But not to examine the reasons he had
to condemn the Admiral, his brother, to the block ; how shameful
a thing to have subjected a man of that dignity, and his own
brother, to that iniquitous law, of " attainting a man" on the
bare allegation of witnesses, " without bringing him to make his
own defence !" By virtue of this law, the Admiral, besides
many others, was judged without a hearing.J The Protector
prevailed upon the King to order the Commons to proceed in
it without hearing the party accused, and in this manner it was
that he tutored up his pupil to do justice.

98. — Vain forwardness of Mr. Burnet to excuse Cranmer in little things, with-
out speaking a word of great ones.

Mr. Burnet takes a great deal of pains to justify his Cranmer
for signing. Bishop as he was, the death of this unhappy person,
and meddling in a cause of blood contrary to the canons. In
order to this, he lays down, according to his custom, one of
those specious plans, whereby he always strives, indirectly, to
make odious the Church's faith, and elude the canons, but keeps
at a distance from the main point. § If Cranmer was to be ex-
cused, it ought not to have been merely for violating the canons,
which, as an Archbishop he was obliged, above ail others, to
have a great regard for ; but for breaking through the law of
* Burnet, part ii. lib. i. p. 134. f Ibid. | Ibid. p. 100. § Ibid.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 267

nature, sacred even among heathens, of " not delivering any
man to die, before that he, who is accused, have the accusers
face to face, and have hcense to answer for himself."* Cran-
mer, notwithstanding this law, condemned the Admiral and
signed the warrant for his execution. Should not so great a
Reformer have stood up against so barbarous a procedure ? no
truly : he deemed it a business of more importance to demolish
altars, beat down images, not sparing even those of Jesus Christ,
and abolish the Mass, which had been said and heard by so
many Saints ever since the first estabhshment of Christianity
among the English.

99. — Cranmer and the rest of the Reformers spirit up rebellion against Q,ueen
Mary.— 1553.

To conclude the life of Cranmer : at the death of Edward
VI, he set his hand to the entail of the Crown, in which this
young Prince, out of hatred to the Princess his sister, who was
a Catholic, changed the order of succession. Mr. Burnet would
have us believe that the archbishop signed it v/ith great reluc-
tance, and is satisfied if this great Reformer shows but some
scruple in committing crimes. "f Yet the Council, which Cran-
mer was at the head of, gave all necessary orders to arm the
people against Queen Mary, and maintain the usurper Jane
Grey ; preachers were set to work in the cause, and Ridley,
Bishop of London, had orders to " set out Queen Jane's title in
a sermon at PauPs."J When her affairs proved desperate,
Cranmer, with the rest of them, owned his crime, and had re-
course to the Queen's clemency. This Princess resettled the
Catholic rehgion, and England reunited herself to the Holy
See. As Cranmer had always suited his religion to that of the
King, it was easily believed he would also follow that of the
Queen, and manifest no more difficulty with regard to saying
Mass than he had done under Henry, thirteen years together,
without believing in it. But his engagement vvas too strong,
and had he thus turned with every wind, he had too openly de-
clared himself void of all rehgion. § He was sent to the Tower
both for the crime of treason and that of heresy, and deposed by
the Queen's authority. || This authority was lawful with respect
to him who had owned and even estabhshed it. It was by this
authority he himself had deposed Bonner, Bishop of London,
and was therefore punished by laws of his own maldng. For
the like reason the bishops, who, by patents, had received their
bishoprics for a certain time, were deprived ; and till the eccle-
siastical order should be entirely re-estabhshed, the Protestants
were proceeded against according to their own maxims.

* Acts XXV. 16. t Burnet, part ii. p. 223.

X Ibid. Ub. ii. p. 238. § Ibid. p. 250. |1 Ibid. p. 274

268 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

100. — Cranmer declared a heretic, and for what article. — 1555.

Cranmer, after his deposition, was left some time in prison.
Afterwards, declared a heretic, he himself owned that it " was
because he had denied the presence of Jesus Christ on the
altar."* By that is seen wherein the principal part of the Ref-
ormation under Edward VI was made to consist, and I am
wiUing to take notice of it here, because all that will take a new
turn under Elizabeth.

101. — Cranmer' s false answer before his judges. — 1556.

When Cranmer's punishment was to be determined according
to form. Commissioners from the Pope, and those of Philip and
Mary (for the Queen had then married Philip II, King of Spain)
sat in judgment against him. The accusation turned on his
marriages and heresies. | Mr. Burnet assures us that the
Queen forgave him ttie treason for which he had been already
condemned by Parhament. He confessed the facts which were
imputed to him concerning his doctrine and marriages, " only
said he had never forced any to subscribe. "J

102. — Cranmer condemned by his own principles.

From these words, so full of meekness, one might be induced
to think Cranmer had never condemned any person on account
of doctrine. Not to mention here the imprisonment of Gardiner,
Bishop of Winchester, that of Bonner, Bishop of London,§ and
other things of the like nature, the archbishop had signed and
consented, in Henry's time, to Lambert's and Anne Askew's
death, for denying the Real Presence ; || and under Edward, to
that of Joan of Kent and of George Van Pere, both burnt for
heresy. What is still more, Edward, thinking it a piece of
cruelty, refused to sign the warrant for burning her, and could
not be persuaded to it but by Cranmer's authority.lT If, then,
he was condemned for heresy, he himself had often enough set
the example.

103. — Cranmer tivice abjures the Reformation a little before his execution.

With the design of putting off the time of his execution, he
declared " he was willing to go to Rome and defend his doctrine
before the Pope, yet denied any authority the Pope had over
him :"** from the Pope, in whose name he was condemned, he
appealed to a General Council, but seeing nothing availed, he
renounced all the errors of Luther and Zuinglius, a,nd, together
with the Real Presence, distinctly owned all the other points
of the Catholic faith. The abjuration which he signed, was
conceived in such terms as expressed the truest sorrow for his
former errors. The Protestants were extremely shocked at it.

* Burn. lib. ii. p. 283. j Ibid, part ii. p. 257. t Ibid. p. 332.

§ Ibid, part ii. lib. i. p. 37. |1 Ibid. p. 1 12, II Ibid. p. 1 1 1. * * Ibid. 33 -J 333.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 269

However, their Reformer made a second abjuration ; that is,
when he saw, notwithstanding his preceding abjuration, the
Queen was determined not to pardon him, he returned to his
first errors ; but he soon recanted them, " all this time," says
Mr. Burnet, " being under some small hopes of hfe." So that,
continues this author, having been " dealt with to renew his
subscription, and then to write the whole over again, he also did
ito" But here was the secret he found out to secure his con-
science. Mr. Burnet goes on : " But conceiving likewise some
jealousies that they might burn him, he wrote secretly a paper,
containing a sincere confession of his faith ; and, being brought
out, he carried that along with him." This confession, thus
secretly written, shows us clearly enough that he was deter-
mined not to appear a Protestant as long as any hopes remained.
At last, finding himself utterly disappointed, he resolved to de-
clare what his heart had concealed, and so give himself the
appearance of a martyr.

104. — Mr. Burnet compares Cranmer^s fault to that of St. Peter.
Mr. Burnet uses all his address to hide the shame of so mis-
erable a death ; and after alleging, in behalf of his hero, the
faults of St. Athanasius and St. Cyril, which we find no mention
of in ecclesiastical history, he now produces St. Peter's denial,
so memorable in the Gospel. But what comparison is there
betwixt a momentary weakness of this great Apostle, and the
wretchedness of a man who betrayed his conscience during
almost the whole course of his life, and for thirteen years to-
gether, to begin from the very time he was made a bishop ? who
never dared to avow his sentiments but when he had a King to
back him? And, lastly, on the very brink of death, confessed
all that was required of him, as long as he had but a glimpse of
nope ; so that his counterfeit abjuration was manifestly nothing
else but a continuation of the base dissimulation of his whole life,

105. — Whether it be true, that Cranmer complied no more with Henry VIII
than his conscience permitted.

Nevertheless, our author will still boast to us the steady firm-
ness (good God) of this perpetual flatterer of kings, who sacri-
ficed every thing to the will of his masters, annulling as many
marriages, setting his hand to as many condemnations, and con-
senting to as many laws as they pleased, even to those which
were, either in fact or in his opinion, the most unjust ; who,
finally, was not ashamed to bring the heavenly authority of
bishops under subjection to that of the Kings of the earth, and
enslave the Church, in discipline, in preaching the word, in the
administration of Sacraments, and in Faith. Nevertheless, but
one only blemish of his life does Mr. Burnet find, that of his

23*

270 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

abjuration ;* and, as for the rest, allows only, that he was some-
what too much subjected to the will of Henry YIII,! yet, to
justify him completely in all his compliances, he afhrms, " he
thought none of them a sin,"t consequently was no further ob-
sequious to Henry than his conscience allowed him. His con-
science then allowed him to annultwo marriages on pretexts
notoriously false, founded on no other principle than Henry's
new amours. His conscience allowed him, though a Lutheran,
to set his hand to articles of faith, wherein Lutheranism was
condemned, and the Mass, the unjust object of the horror of
the new Reformation, was established. His conscience allowed
him to say Mass as long as Henry lived, without believing in
it ; to offer to God, even for the dead, a sacrifice which he held
for an abomination : to ordain priests, giving them also the
power of offering ; and according to the form of the Pontifical,
which he durst not alter, to exact chastity of those whom he
made sub-deacons, although he did not think himself obliged to
it, being a married man ; to swear obedience to the Pope, whom
he looked upon as Antichrist ; to accept his Bulls, and receive
Archiepiscopal institution by his authority ; to pray to Saints,
and incense their images, notwithstanding that, in the Lutheran
principles, all this was nothing less than idolatry ; in a word, to
profess and practise all that he believed ought to be banished
from the house of God, as an execration and a scandal.
106. — Mr. Burnet but ill excuses his Reformers.

But the thing was, " the Reformers," it is what Mr. Burnet
tells us, " did not know, as yet, that it was absolutely a sin to re-
tain all these abuses till a proper occasion offered for abolishing
them."§ Doubtless, they did not know it was a sin to change,
according to their notion, the Lord's Supper into sacrilege, and
to defile themselves with idolatry. To make them abstain from
such things, God's commandment was not sufficient : they were
to wait till the King and Parliament should think it fitting.
107. — Illusion in Mr. BurneVs examples.

Naaman is brought forward as an instance, who, obliged by
his office, to give the King his hand, would not remain standing
whilst his master knelt down in the temple of Remmon ; and
acts of religion are compared with the duty and decorum of a
secular employment. || The Apostles are brought forward to
us, who, " After the law was dead, continued to worship at the
temple, to circumcise, and to offer sacrifices ;"1T and the cere-
monies, which God had instituted, and which all the Fathers
allow ought to be buried honorably, are compared with actions
beheved to be manifestly impious.** The same Apostles are
* Burner, p. 336. f Ibid. | Pref. torn. i.

§ Burn. t. i. Pref. |1 Ibid. 4 Reg. v. 18, 19. TI Ibid. ** Ibid.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 271

adduced to us, who made themselves all things to all men, and
also the primitive Christians, who adopted some ceremonies of
paganism. But if the primitive Christians adopted ceremonies
that were indifferent, does it follow from thence, that men ought
to practise such as they believe are full of sacrilege ? How
blind, how contradictory to itself is the Reformation, which, in
order to raise a horror of the Church's practices, must call them
idolatrous ! Obliged to excuse the same things in her first
authors, she holds them for indifferent, and makes it more con-
spicuous than the sun, that she banters the whole universe by
calhng that idolatry which is not so, or that those she admires for
her heroes were, of all men, the most corrupt. But God hath
revealed their hypocrisy by their own historian, and Mr. Burnet
is the man that hath exposed their shame in full view.
108. — Mr. Burnet not ahoays to be credited in his facts.
However, if to convict the pretended Reformation by their
own witnesses, I have only, as it were, abridged Mr. Burnet's
history, and received as true the facts I have related : I do not
mean thereby to grant the rest, and allow all he relates as fact
for the sake of those truths he was not able to deny, though
prejudicial to his own religion. I shall not, for example, allow
him, what he asserts without witnesses or proof, that there was
a resolution taken between Francis I and Henry YHI to with-
draw themselves by agreement from the Pope's obedience,* and
change the Mass into a bare Communion ;| that is, to suppress
the Oblation and Sacrifice. This fact, averred by Mr. Burnet,
was never even heard of in France. We are as much at a loss
to know what this historian means by affirming, that the reason
which made Francis I alter his resolution of abolishing the
Pope's power was, because Clement VII " had granted him so
great pov/er over his own clergy, that he could scarce have ex-
pected more, if he had set up a patriarch in France ;"J for here
is nothing but mere empty words, a thing unknown to our his-
torians. Mr. Burnet is no better versed in the history of the
Protestant reUgion, when he so boldly advances, as a thing
avowed among the Reformers, that good works were indispen-
sably and absolutely necessary to salvation,§ for he hath seen,
and will see this proposition, good works are necessaiy to sal-
vation, expressly condemned by the Lutherans in their most
solemn assembhes. It would be departing too much from my
design, were I to descend to other facts of the like nature ; but I
cannot but make it known to the world, how little credit this
historian merits, with relation to the Council of Trent, which
he ran over in so negligent a manner, that he did not so much

* Burn, part i. 1. ii. p. 133. f Ibid. 1. iii. p. 140. | Ibid. p. 133.
§ Part i. 1. iii. p. 286, 287. Sup. 1. v. n. 12. Inf. 1. viii. n. 30, et seq.

272 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

as take notice of the very title, which this council placed at the
beginning of all its decisions. For he upbraids it with " having
usurped the most glorious title of the most holy Oecumenical
Council, representing the Catholic Church,"* although this qual-
ity be not found in any one of its decrees : a thing of little im-
portance in itself, since it is not this expression that makes a
council ; yet it never could have escaped a man that had but
just opened the book with the least attention.

109. — Mr. BurneVs fallacy with regard to Fra-Pnolo.

It behooves one, therefore, to be very cautious how he credits
our historian in what he pronounces touching this council on the
testimony of Fra-Paolo, its declared enemy rather than historian.
Mr. Burnet pretends that this author ought, with respect to
Cathohcs, to be above all exception, because he is one of their
own party ;"{" and this is the common artifice of all Protestants.
But they are very well convinced in their consciences, that this
Fra-Paolo, who counterfeited our religion, was in reality nothing
but a Protestant in a monk's disguise. None knows him better
than Mr. Burnet, who boasts him to us. He who, in his history
of the Reformation, sets him forth for an author of our party, in
another book, lately translated into our language, takes off the
mask and shows him a Protestant, that had concealed himself ; J
that looked upon the English common-prayer book as his pat-
tern ; that occasionally, from the falling out between Paul V and
the republic of Venice, labored for nothing more than to bring
this republic§ " to an entire separation, not only from the Court,
but also from the Church of Rome ; who believed himself to be
in a defiled and idolatrous Church, wherein he continued never-
theless ; heard Confessions, said Mass, and quieted the remorse
of his conscience by passing over many parts of the canon, and
not joining in those parts of the offices that went against his
conscience." II This is what Mr. Burnet writes in the life of
William Bedell, the Protestant Bishop of Kilmore, in Ireland,
who was present at Venice at the time of the difference, and to
whom Fra-Paolo had disclosed his sentiments. There is no
need of mentioning this author's letters, which are all Protes-
tant, and were in every library, and which Geneva at length hath
made public. I speak to Mr. Burnet only of what he wrote
himself, at the time he counted amongst our authors Fra-Paolo,
a Protestant under a monk's disguise, who said Mass not be-
lieving it, and who remained in a Church whose worship ap-
peared to him idolatry.
1 10. — The plans of Religion lohich Mr. Burnet makes after Fra-PaoWs example.

But what he deserves the least to be pardoned in is, when,

* Part. ii. 1. i. p. 20. f Part. 1. Pref. J The Life of Bedell, Bishop
of Kilmore, p. 8. § Ibid. p. 23. 1| Ibid. p. 16.

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 273

in imitation of Fra-Paolo, and with as little truth, he lays before
us those ingenious plans of Primitive- Church doctrine. This
invention, I must own, is equally commodious and agreeable.
An artful historian, in the midst of his narration, slily introduces
all he pleases of antiquity, and erects for us a scheme of his own
contrivance. Under pretext, that a historian ought not to enter
into proofs, or play the Doctor, he is content with alleging such
facts as are favorable to his own religion. Is he inclined to rid-
icule the veneration of images or relics, or the Pope's authority,
or prayer for the dead, or even, to omit nothing, the pallium ?
he gives to these practices such a form and such a date as he
thinks fit. He says, for example,* of the pallium, " that this
w^as a device set up by Pope Paschal II ;" although it be found
five hundred years before, in the letters of Pope Vigilius and
St. Gregory. The credulous reader, finding a history all over
interspersed with these reflections, and seeing every where, in a
work whose character ought to be sincerity, an abridgment of
the antiquities of several ages, without once dreaming that the
author gives him, either his prejudices or conjectures for certain
truths, admires the erudition and agreeable turns of the work,
believes he has reached to the very original of things, and drinks
at the fountain-head. But it is not just that Mr. Burnet, under
the insinuating title of a historian, should thus peremptorily de-
cide on Church-antiquity, nor that Fra-Paolo, whom he copies
after, should acquire a right to make what he pleases pass for
truth concerning our religion, because that, under a Monk's
habit, he liid a Calvinistic heart, and labored under-hand to dis-
credit the Mass he said daily.

111. — Gerson cited strangely from the purpose.

Let not Mr. Burnet, therefore, be any longer credited as to
what he relates of the Church's dogmata.,^; since he turns all of
them to a wrong sense. Whether he speaks of himself, or in-
troduces in his history a third person that speaks of our doctrine,
his inward design is ever to decry it. Can his Cranmer be
borne with, when, abusing a treatise which Gerson had made
De avferibilitate papod, he concludes, as from this Doctor, " That
the papal power is a quite needless thing]" whereas, he means
only, as the sequel of this work demonstrates, so as to leave no
room for doubt, that the Pope may be deposed in certain cases.
IVhen an author relates such things seriously, his design is to
trifle with mankind, and he destroys his own credit with all
thinking persons.

112. — A gross Error relating to Celibacy and the Roman Pontifical.

But the subject on which our historian has exhausted all his

* Life of Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, p. 340. f Burn. part. ii. 1. ii p. 175.

274 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

ingenuity, and has employed, as I may say, as his finest color-
ing, is that regarding the Celibacy of Ecclesiastics. I shall not
discuss what he says, either in his own, or Cranmer's name.
One may judge of his remarks on antiquity,* by those he makes
on the Roman Pontifical, which will easily be granted me has
nothing in it obscure with respect to celibacy : " It was consid-
ered," says he, " that the promise made by clergymen, accord-
ing to the rites of the Roman Pontifical, did not necessarily
oblige them to celibate. He that confers the orders asks of him
that receives them, ' Wilt thou promise to live in chastity and
sobriety !' To which the sub-deacon answers, ' I will.' " Mr.
Burnet concludes from these words, that no other chastity was
here understood, but that which one is obliged " in a state of
marriage, as well as out of it." But the imposition is too gross
to be borne with. The words he relates are not said in the or-
dination of a sub-deacon, but in that of a bishop. "j" And in that
of a sub-deacon, he that presents himself to this order is stopped
to hear declared to him that, till then, he was free ; but if he
proceeds further, he fhust keep chastity. Will Mr. Burnet now
say again, that the chastity here in question is that which is kept
in a state of marriage, and which teaches us " to abstain from
all unlawful embraces ?" — Must we then wait for the sub-dea-
conship to enter into this obligation ? And who is it that does
not acknowledge here that profession of continency, which is
imposed, according to the ancient canons, on the principal clerks
from the very time they are raised to the sub-deaconship 1

113. — ^ vain shift.

Mr. Burnet still replies,J that, whatever might be required by
the Roman Pontifical, the English priests, who were married in
the time of Edward, had been ordained without any such " ques-
tion or answer made, and so were not precluded from marriage
by any vow." But the contrary appears from himself, he hav-
ing owned that in the time of Henry VHI nothing was altered
in the rituals, nor in the other books of offices, except some ex-
travagant prayers addressed to saints, or some other matter of
light importance ; and it is easy to be seen, that this Prince was far
enough from taking from ordination the profession of continency,
as he had even prohibited the violation of it ; first, under pain
of death, and, when he was most mitigated, " under the forfeiture
of goods and chattels. "§ And this, indeed, was the reason why
Cranmer never durst declare his marriage during the Ufe of
Henry VHI ; but, to save himself, was forced to add to a for-
bidden marriage the reproach of clandestinity.

* Burn. part. ii. 1. i. pp. 91, 92. f Pont. Rom. in Consec. Ep,

i Ibid. § Part i. 1. iii. p. 282^

VII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 275

114. — Conclusion of this Book.
No wonder then, that under such an Archbishop, no regard
was had to the doctrine of his holy predecessors, St. Dunstan,
St. Lanfranc, St. Ansehm, and such others, whose admirable
virtues, and particularly that of continency, were an honor to
the Church. Nor do I wonder, that in his time, St. Thomas
of Canterbury's name, whose hfe was the condemnation of
Thomas Cranmer, was effaced from their Calendar of Saints

St. Thomas of Canterbury resisted the attempts of unjust

Kings ; Thomas Cranmer prostituted his conscience to them,
and indulged their passions. The one, banished, his goods con-
fiscated, persecuted in his own and the persons of his dearest
friends, every way afflicted, purchased the glorious liberty of
speaking what his conscience dictated for truth, with a generous
contempt of all the conveniences of life, and of life itself : the
other, to please liis Prince, spent his life under a shameful dis-
simulation, and an outward conformity in everything to a religion,
which he inwardly condemned. The one combated even to blood
for the Church's minutest rights ; and by maintaining her pre-
rogatives, as well those which Jesus Christ had acquired by his
death, as those which pious Princes had endowed her with, de-
fended the very outworks of tlie holy city : the other surrendered
to the Kings of the earth her most sacred trust ; the word, wor-
ship, sacraments, keys, censures, authority, even faith itself. In
a word, every thing was inthralled, and the whole ecclesiastical
authority being united to the royal throne, the Church had no
more power than the State pleased to allow. Lastly, the one,
intrepid and exemplary pious through the whole course of his
life, was yet more so in the last period of it : the other, always
dastardly and trembhng at death's approach, shrunk even below
himself, and at the age of three-score and two, sacrificed even,
to the dregs of a despicable life, his faith and conscience. Ac-
cordingly, he has left but an odious name amongst men ; nor
can any thing but stress of wit and quirk, which plain facts belie,
excuse him even to his own party: but the glory of St. Thomas
of Canterbury will live as long as the Church ; and his virtues,
which France and England have venerated >vith a kind of emu-
lation, will never be forgotten. Nay, the more doubtful the
cause of this holy martyr appeared to the politic world, the more
did the divine power declare itself in his behalf, by the signal
chastisements of Henry II, this holy Prelate's persecutor, by
the exemplary penance of this Prince, which alone could ap-
pease the wrath of heaven, and by miracles of so great a lustre,
v.rought at his tomb, that they drew to it the Kings of France
as well as England. Miracles, I say, so continual, and so well
attested by the unanimous consent of all the historians of those

276 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

times, that to deny them is to reject at once the truth of all his-
tory whatsoever. The English Reformation, nevertheless, hath
struck the name of so great a man out of the Calendar of Saints.
More flagrant still have been their attempts : nothing but the
degradation of all that nation's saints, since it first became Chris-
tian, can satisfy them. Bede, their venerable historian, tells
them nothing but fables ; at most, but legendary stories, when
he relates the miracles of their conversion, the holiness of their
pastors, of their Kings, and their religions. St. Augustin, the
Monk, who brought them to the Gospel, and St. Gregory, Pope,
who sent him, escape not the hands of the Reformation : they
are attacked and defamed by her chief writers. To believe
them,* the mission of those saints, who laid the foundation of
the English Church, was the work of the ambition and policy
of Popes; and St. Gregory, so humble, so holy a Pope, by con-
verting the English, aimed rather at subjecting them to the
Holy See, than to Jesus Christ. This is what is pubhshed in
England, and her Reformation establishes itself by trampling
under foot and polluting the whole Christianity of the nation in
its very source. But so learned a nation, it is to be hoped, will
not always remain under this seduction : the respect they retain
for the Fathers, and their curious and continual researches into
antiquity, will bring them back to the doctrine of the first ages.
I cannot believe the chair of St. Peter, whence they received

Christianity, will always be the object of their hatred The

time of vengeance and illusion shall pass away, and God will
give ear to the prayers of his Saints.

BOOK YIII.

[From the year 1546 to the year 1561.]

A brief Summary. — The war begun between Charles V and the Confederates
of Smalkald. — Luther's Theses which had excited the Lutherans to take
up arms. — A new subject of war on account of Herman, Archbishop of
Cologne. — The prodigious ignorance of this Archbishop.' — The Protestants
defeated by Charles V. — The Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of
Hesse made prisoners. — The Interim, or the Emperor's book, which regu-
lates matters of Reh^ion provisionally for the Protestants alone, till the
meeting of the Council. — The disturbance caused in Pmssia by Osiander,
a Lutheran: his new doctrine concerning Justification. — Disputes among
the Lutherans after the Interim. — Illyricus, Melancthon's Disciple, strives
to undo lum on account of indifferent ceremonies. — He renews the doc-
trine of Ubiquity. — The Emperor presses the Lutherans to appear at the
Council of Trent. — The confession called Saxonic, and that of the Duchy
of Wirtemberg, drawn up on this occasion. — The distinction between mor-

* Whitak. cent. Durae. Fulk. cont. Stapl. Jewel. Apol. Ecc. Angl.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 277

tal and venial Sins. — The merit of Good Works acknowledged anew. —
The Conference at Worms for reconciling Religions. — The Lutherans at
variance among themselves, however unanimously agreeing that Good
Works are not necessary to Salvation. — Melancthon's death under a dread-
ful perplexity. — The Zuinglians condemned by the Lutherans in a S}Tiod
held at Jena. — Assembly of the Lutherans at Naumburg in order to agree
about the true edition of the Confession of Augsburg. — The uncertainty
still as great as ever. — Ubiquity set up as far almost as Lutheranism ex-
tended.— New decision on the co-operation of Free-will. — The Lutherans
inconsistent with themselves, and, in order to answer Libertines as well as
weak Christians, they fall into Demipelagianism. — An account of the Book
of Concord compiled by the Lutherans, and containing all their decisions.

1. — Luther's Theses in order to stir up the People to take up arms. — 1540, 1545.
Formidable was the Smalkaldic league which Luther had
excited in a manner so furious, that the worst excesses were to
be dreaded from it. Elated with the power of so many con-
federated Princes, he had pubHshed the Theses abovementioned.
Never was any thing seen more violent.* He had maintained
them from the year 1540, but we learn from Sleidan that he pub-
lished them anew in 1545, that is, a year before his death. There
he compared the Pope to a mad wolf, " against whom the whole
world takes up arms at the first signal, without waiting for com-
mands from the magistrate. And if, after he has been shut up
in an enclosure, the magistrate sets him at liberty, you may con-
tinue," said he, " to pursue this savage beast, and with impunity
attack those who prevented his destruction. If you fall in the
engagement before the beast has received its mortal wound, you
have but one thing only to repent of, that you did not bury your
dagger in its breast. This is the way to deal with the Pope ;
all those who defend him must also be treated like a band of
robbers under their captain, be they kings, be they Csesars."|
Sleidan, who relates a great part of these bloody Theses, durst
not venture to repeat these last words, they appeared so homble
to him ; but they were in Luther's Theses, and still are to be
seen in the edition of his works. J

2. — Herman, Archbishop of Cologne, calls the Protestants into his Diocese. —
His extreme Ignorance.

A fresh subject of feud happened at this time. Herman,
Archbishop of Cologne, took it into his head to reform his dio-
cese after the new fashion, and to that purpose had sent for
Bucer and Melancthon. Of all prelates, this was certainly the
most illiterate ; and a man ever resigned to the will of whom-
soever governed him. Whilst he gave ear to the sage counsel
of the learned Gropper, he held \ery holy councils for the de-
fence of the ancient faith, for the true reformation of manners.
Afterwards, the Lutherans got possession of his mind, and made
him fall blindly into all their sentiments. As the Landgrave

* Sleid. 1. i. n. 25. j Sleid. lib. xvi. p. 261. J T. i. Wit p. 407.

24

278 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

was one day speaking to the Emperor about this new reformer,*
*' WTiat will the poor man reform V^ answered he, " scarcely
does he understand Latin : he never said Mass but thrice in all
his life. I heard him twice ; he did not know so much as the
beginning of it." The fact is certain ; and the Landgrave, who
durst not say he knew a word of Latin, repUed only, " he had
read good books in the German tongue, and understood re-
ligion." Understanding it, in the Landgrave's notion, was
favoring the party. As the Pope and the Emperor joined to-
gether against him, the " Protestant Princes promised him their
assistance, in case he were attacked on the score of religion. "f

3. — It is doubted among the Confederates whether Charles V should be treated
as Emperor. — The victory of Charles V. — The Book of Interim. — 1546.

They soon came to open force. The rnore the Emperor
declared that he did not take up arms on account of rehgion,
but in order to do himself justice on certain rebels that were
headed by the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave, the more
these pubhshed in their manifestoes, that this war was not en-
tered upon but by the secret instigation of the Roman Anti-
christ and the Council of Trent. In this manner they endeavored,
conformably to Luther's Theses, to make the war they waged
against the Emperor appear lawful : J yet there was a dispute
amongst them how Charles V was to be treated in their public
writings. The Elector, more conscientious than the rest,
w ould not have him styled Emperor, because, " If so," said he,
" they could not lawfully wage war against him." The Land-
grave had none of these scruples ; and, besides, who had de-
graded the Emperor 1 Who had deprived him of the empire 1
Was it to become a maxim, that whosoever united himself with
the Pope, resigned the title of Emperor 1 The thought was as
ridiculous as criminal. In conclusion, to please all parties, it
was resolved, without owning or denying Charles Y for Em-
peror, that he should be treated as bearing himself for such, and
by this expedient all hostilities were allowable. But the issue
of the war was not favorable to the Protestants. Overthrown
by the famous victory of Charles V near the Elbe, (1547,) the
Duke of Saxony and the Landgrave taken prisoners, they knew
not which way to turn themselves. The Emperor, of his own
authority, proposed to them a form of doctrine called the Inte-
rim, (1548,) or the Emperor's book, which he enjoined them to
follow provisionally till the Council sat. In it all the errors
of the Lutherans were rejected ; and the marriage of such priests
as had become Lutherans, with communion under both kinds
where it was re-established, were tolerated only. The Emperor

t Sleid. lib. xvii. p. 276. f Epist. Wit. Theod. inter. Ep. Cal. p. 82.

X Sleid. lib. xvii. p. 289, 295, &c. Ibid. p. 297.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 279

was blamed at Rome for undertaking to pronounce in matters
of religion. Those on his side answered, he had not taken upon
him to make a decision or law for the Church, but only to pre-
scribe to the Lutherans what they might best do till the Council
met. This question belongs not to my subject ; it is sufficient
to observe by the way, that the Interim cannot pass for an au-
thentic act of the Church, since neither the Pope nor the bishops
have ever approved it. Some Lutherans accepted of it rather
by force than otherwise : the greatest part rejected it, and the
project of Charles V had but httle success.

4. — The project of the Interim. — Conference ofRatisbon in 1541.

Whilst I am on the subject of this book, it will not be amiss
to observe, that it had been formerly proposed at the conference
of Ratisbon in 1541. Three Cathohc divines, Pflugius, Bishop
of Naumburg, Gropper and Eckius, by the Emperor's orders,
were there to treat about the reconciliation of religions with
Melancthon, Bucer, and Pistorius, three Protestants. Eckius
rejected the book, and the Prelates, together with the Catholic
States, did not think it fit that a body of doctrine should be pro-
posed, without being communicated to the Pope's Legate, then
at Ratisbon. Cardinal Contarenus was the man, a \ery learned
divine, and whom even the Protestants have praised. Where-
fore, the Legate having been consulted, answered, that an affair
of this nature ought to be " referred to the Pope, in order to be
regulated either in the general Council, that was going to be
opened, or by some other proper method."*
6. — Articles agreed and not agreed upon in this Conference, and imohat manner.

The truth is, these conferences went on nevertheless ; and
when the three Protestants were agreed with Pflugius and
Gropper on any articles, they were called articles accorded,
although Eckius all the while opposed them.| The Protestants
desired the Emperor to authorize these articles in the meantime,
while the rest were under debate. But this was opposed by the
Catholics, who declared several times, they could not consent
to the changing of any dogma, or rite, received in the Cathohc
Church. The Protestants on their side, who pressed the re-
ception of the articles accorded, put their own explications on
them, which were not agreed to, and made a list of " things
omitted in the articles accorded. "J Melancthon, who digested
these remarks, wrote to the Emperor in the name of all the
Protestants, tliat the " articles accorded" should be received,
" provided they were well understood ;" that is, they themselves

* Sleid. lib. xiv. Act. Coll. Ratisb. Argent. 1542. p. 199. Ibid. 132. Mel.
lib. i. Ep. 24, 25. Act. Ratisb. Ibid. 136. f Ibid. 153. Sleid. Ibid. 157.

X Act. Batisb. Resp. Princ. 78. Annotata, out omissa in artic. Concil. 82.
Lib. Ep. 29. ad Car. V.

280 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

were sensible of their being conceived in ambiguous terms, and
it was nothing but an imposition to press, as they did, the recep-
tion of them. Thus all the projects of accommodation vanished
into smoke : the which I am pleased with remarking occasion-
ally, that it may not be thought strange I should speak only, as
it were, by-the-by, of so famous an action as the conference of
Ratisbon.

6. — Another Conference. — The finishing stroke put to the Interim. — The little
success of this Book. — 1546.

Another was held in the same city, and with as little success,
in 1546.* The Emperor, nevertheless, ordered his book to be
revised, and Pflugius, Bishop of Naumburg, Michael Helding,
the titular Bishop of Sidon, and Islebius, a Protestant, put the
finishing stroke to it. But he did but set a new example, how
bad success these imperial decisions were used to have, in mat-
ters of religion.

7. — Biccer''s nexo Confession of Faith.

Whilst the Emperor was exerting himself to make his Interim
be received in the city of Strasburg, Bucer published there a
new confessiorT of faith, in which this Church declares, that she
always unchangeably retains her first confession of faith pre-
sented to Charles Y at Augsburg, in 1530, and likewise receives
the agreement made at Wittenberg with Luther, namely, that
act which imported that even those who have not faith, and who
abuse the sacrament, receive the proper substance of the body
and blood of Jesus Christ."}" In this confession of faith, Bucer
excludes nothing expressly but transubstantiation, and leaves
whole and entire all that can establish the real and substantial
presence.

8. — Two contrary acts are received at Strasburg at the same time.

The most remarkable thing in this is, that Bucer, who in sub-
scribing the Articles of Smalkald, at the same time, as hath ap-
peared, had subscribed the Confession of Augsburg, still retained
the Confession of Strasburg ; that is, he authorized two acts
which were made to destroy each other ; for it may be remem-
bered, that the Confession of Strasburg was made only to avoid
the subscribing that of Augsburg, and that those of the Confes-
sion of Augsburg would never admit for brethren, those of Stras-
burg, nor their associates. J All this is now reconciled ; that
is, in the new Reformation it is lawful to change, but not lawful
to acknowledge that you change. The Reformation, should it
own this, would appear too human a work ; and it is better to
approve four or five contradictory acts, provided it be not ac-

* Sleid. lib. xx. p. 344. f Hosp. An. 1 548. p. 204 \ Sup. lib. iv. Sup. lib. iii.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 281

knowledged that they are so, than to own one's self wrong,
especially in confessions of faith.

9. — Bucer goes to England, ivhere he dies, without being able to change any
thing in Peter J\Iartyr^s Arlicles.

This was the last action that Bucer did in Germany. During
the commotions occasioned by the Interim, he found a refuge
in England among the new Protestants, who gathered strength
•under Edward. There he died in great esteem, yet not being
able to alter any thing in the Articles which Peter Martyr had
established there : so that pure Zuinglianism was the religion
then. But Bucer's notions will have their turn, and we shall
see Peter Martyr's Articles changed under Elizabeth.

10. — Osiander also abandons his Church of Jfureniburg, and sets all Pmssia in
an uproar.

The troubles, caused by the Interim, dispersed very many of
the Reformers. The Protestants even were scandalized to see
them thusforsake their Churches. To venture their hves for them,
or for the Reformation, was what they were not accustomed to;
and it has been an observation of old standing, that none of
them laid down their lives for their flock ; unless it were Cran-
mer, who yet did all he could to save his, by forswearing his
religion, as long as swearing was to his purpose. The famous
Osiander Mas one of the first that fled. On a sudden, he dis-
appeared at Nuremburg, and left the Church which he had gov-
erned twenty-five years, and ever since the beginning of the
Reformation. Prussia was the place he retreated to. Of all
countries this was one of the most addicted to Lutheranism. It
belonged to the Teutonic Order (1625 ;) but the great master
of it. Prince Albert of Brandenburg, conceived all at once a de-
sire of maiTying, of reforming, and making himself a hereditary
sovereign. And thus did the whole country become Lutheran,
and the doctor of Nuremburg soon excited there new disorders.
11. — What sort of man Osiander was — his doctrine about Justifcation.

Andrew Osiander had signalized himself among the Luther-
ans by a new opinion he had introduced concerning Justifica-
tion.* He would not have it to be by the imputation of Jesus
Christ's justice, as all other Protestants maintained, but by the
intimate union of God's substantial justice with our souls,
grounded on that saying often repeated in Isaiah and Jeremy,
" The Lord is our righteousness. "f For, as, according to him,
we live by God's substantial life and love, by the essential love
he bears himself, so we are just by liis essential justice commu-
nicated to us ; to which, the substance of the word incarnate

* Chyt. lib. xvii. Saxon, tit. Osiandrica. p. 444.
t Isa. xxiii. 6, 16, 33. Jer. xxiii. 6.
24*

282 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

dwelling in us by faith, by the word, and the sacraments, is to
be added. Ever since the time that the Confession of Augs-
burg was in hand, he had used his utmost endeavors to prevail
with the whole party to embrace this prodigy of doctrine, and,
to Luther's face, defended it with the greatest boldness. At the
Assembly of Smalkald men were astonished at his rashness ;
yet, fearing lest new divisions might break out in the party,
wherein he had distinguished himself by his great learning, they
chose to bear with him. He, above all men, had the talent of
diverting Luther ; and Melancthon, at their return from the Con-
ference of Marpurg, held with the Sacramentarians, wrote to
Camerarius* that " Osiander had made Luther and all of them
exceedingly merry.

12. — Osiander^ s profane spirit observed by Calvin.
This he did by playing the droll, chiefly at table, when his
wit abounded most ; but in such profane jests, that I have a
difficulty in repeating them. It is Calvin who informs us,t in
a letter which he writes to Melancthon concerning this man,
" That, as often as he found good wine at an entertainment, he
praised it by applying it to those words which God uttered with
respect to himself, ' I am that I am.' " And, again : " Here
is the Son of the hving God." Calvin had been present at the
banquets in which he vented these blasphemies, at which he
conceived a horror. Yet they passed off without any exception
being taken to them. The same Calvin J speaks of Osiander
as of a " brutal man, a wild beast not to be tamed. As for him,"
said he, " the very first time I saw him, I detested his profane
spirit and infamous behaviour, and always looked upon him as
the shame of the Protestant party." Yet he was one of the
pillars of it : the Church of Nuremburg, one of the first of the
sect, had placed him at the head of her pastors from the year
1522, and he is every where found at the conferences among
the chief of the party ; but Calvin is astonished " that they
were able to bear with him so long, and cannot conceive, con-
sidering all his furies, how Melancthon could have lavished so
much praise upon him.
13. — Mtlancthon's opinion, and that of othei- Protestants, concerning Osiander.

It will be thought, perchance, that Calvin used him thus
harshly from a particular hatred of his own, for Osiander was
the most violent enemy the Sacramentarians had, and he it was
that carried the subject of the Real Presence to such extremity
as to maintain that they ought to say of the Eucharistic bread,
" this bread is God."§ But the Lutherans entertained no better
opinion of lim ; and Melancthon, who often found it served his

* Lib. iv. Ep. 88. f CaL Ep. ad Mel. 146. J Ibid. 146. § S. 1. ii. n. 3.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 283

turn to praise him, as Calvin reproaches him with doing to ex-
cess, writing to his friends,* does nevertheless blame "his
extreme arrogance, his ravings, his other excesses, and the
monstrousness of his opinions." It was not Osiander's fault
that he did not go to trouble England, where he hoped that the
esteem in which his brother-in-law, Cranmer, was held, would
give him credit ; but Melancthon acquaints us| that persons of
authority and learning had represented the danger there was of
bringing into that country a man who had spread in the Church
so great a chaos of new opinions. Cranmer himself gave ear to
reason on this head, and listened to Calvin,J who spoke to him
of the illusions whereby Osiander bewitched himself and others.

14. — Osiander, puffed up with the Pnnce''s favor, keeps loithin no bounds.

He was no sooner arrived in Prussia than he set the Uni-
versity of Koningsberg§ in a flame with his new doctrine of
Justification. However eager always in its defence, yet he
stood in f( ar, say my authors, "of Luther's magnanimity," and,
during his life, never durst write anything on that subject. ||
The magnanimous Luther feared him no less : in general, the
Reformation, void of authority, feared nothing so much as new
divisions, which she knew not how to terminate ; and, leat they
should irritate a man whose eloquence was formidable, he was
left at liberty to utter what he pleased by word of mouth. In
Prussia, finding himself free from the party's yoke, and, what
elated his heart, in great favor with the Prince, who had given
him the first chair in his University, he gave himself free scope,
and soon divided the whole country.

15. — The dispute on Ceremonies, or things indifferent.

Other disputes were enkindled at the same time in the other
parts of Lutheranism. That which arose about ceremonies, or
things indifferent, was carried on with a great deal of acrimony. IT
Melancthon, supported by the Academies of Leipsic and VVit-
tenburg, where he was all-powerful, would not have them re-
jected (1549.) It had ever been his opinion that, in the exterior
worship, the less was changed the better. For which reason,
during the Interim, he made himself very easy about these in-
different practices, nor did believe, sa.y3 he,** " that for a sur-
plice, for some holydays, or for the order of lessons," they ought
to draw a persecution on themselves. This doctrine was made
criminal in him, and it was decided in the party that these indif-
ferent things ought absolutely to be rejected, because the use

* Lib. u. Ep. 240, 259, 447, &c. f Ibid. J Calv. Ep. ad Cranm. Col. 134.
§ Acad. Regiomontana, || Chytr. lib. xvii. p. 445.

^ Sleid. lib. xxi. p. 365. xxii. p. 37S. ++ Lib. L Ep. 16. ad Phil. cant.

An. 1525. Lib. i. Ep. 70. Lib. li. Ep. 36. Concord, p. 514, 7S9.

284 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

made of them was contrary to the liberty of the Churches, and
contained, said they, a kind of profession of Popery.

16. — Illyricus'^s jealousy and hidden designs against Melancthon.
But Flacius Illyricus, who started this question, had a deeper
design. His aim was directed at Melancthon's ruin, whose
discijjle he had been, but of whom he was afterwards become
so jealous as not to endure him.* And now particular reasons
urged him on more than ever : for, whereas Melancthon en-
deavored then to undermine Luther's doctrine of the Real Pres-
ence, Illyricus and his friends carried it to such extremes as
to maintain ubiquity. In fact, we see it decided by the greatest
part of the Lutheran Churches, and the acts thereof are printed
in the Book of Concord, which almost all the Lutherans in Ger-
many have accepted. It shall be spoken of hereafter : and, to
follow the order of time, I must speak at present of the Confes-
sion of Faith called Saxonic, and of that of Wirtemberg,| not
Wittenburg in Saxony, but the capital city of the Duchy of
Wirtemberg.

17. — Saxonic Confession, and that of Wirtemburg, — Why made, and by xohat
Authors.— Ibbl, 1552.

They were both made much about the same time, namely, in
1651 and 1552, in order to be presented to the Council of Trent,
where the victorious Charles V would have the Protestants make
their appearance. The Saxonic Confession was drawn up by
Melancthon, and, as we learn from Sleidan, J by order of Mau-
rice, the Elector, whom the Emperor had put in the place of
John Frederick. All the doctors and all the pastors, solemnly
convened at Leipsic, approved it with one voice ; nor ought
there to be any thing more authentic than a confession of faith
made by so renowned a person, in order to be presented in a
general council. § And, truly, it was received not only through-
out all the territories of the House of Saxony and of many other
Princes, but also by the Churches of Pomerania and that of
Strasburg, as appears by the subscriptions and declarations of
those Churches. Brentius was the author of the Confession of
Wirtemberg, next to Melancthon the most famous man of the
whole party. || Melancthon's Confession was called by himself
the repetition of that of Augsbiirg. Christopher, Duke of Wir-
temberg, by whose authority the Confession of Wirtemberg was
published, declares likewise that he confirms, and does but re-
peat, the Confession of Augsburg ; but, in order to repeat it,
there was no necessity of making another; and this word, repeat,
only shows they were ashamed of producing so many new con-
fessions of faith.

* Sleid. Ante. f Synt Gen. Part ii. p. 48, 98. % Lib. zxii.

§ Synt. Gen. Part ii . p. 94. et seq. |1 Ibid.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 285

18. — Article of the Euchanst in the Saxonic Confession.
Accordingly, to begia with the Saxonic ; the article of the
Eucharist was there explained in terms very different from those
employed at Augsburg.* For, to say nothing of the long dis-
course of four or five pages which Melancthon substitutes in
lieu of two or three lines of the tenth article of Augsburg,| which
decided this matter ; here is what was essential in it : " It is
necessary," said he, " to inform mankind that the sacraments
ai-e actions instituted by God, and that things are not sacraments
except in the time of their use so established ; nevertheless, in
the established use of this communion, Jesus Christ is truly and
substantially present, truly given to those who receive the body
and blood of Jesus Christ; whereby Jesus Christ testifies that
he is in them, and makes them his members."

19. — Changes lohich Melancthon made by the Saxonic Confession, in the Articles
of that of Augsburg and Smalkald.

Melancthon avoids saying what he had said at Augsburg,
*' That the body and blood are truly given with the bread and
wine, and much more, what Luther had added at Smalkald, that
the bread and wine are the true body and the true blood of Jesus
Christ, the which are not only given and received by pious
Christians, but also by the impious." These important words,
which Luther had chosen with so great care, in order to explain
his doctrine, although signed by Melancthon at Smalkald, as
hath appeared, were by Melancthon himself cut off from his
Saxonic Confession. It seems he was no longer of opinion that
the body of Jesus Christ was taken by the mouth together with
the bread, nor received substantially by the impious, although
he did not deny a substantial presence, in which Jesus Christ
came to the faithful, not only by his virtue and spirit, but also
in his own proper flesh and substance, divided, nevertheless,
from bread and wine : for it seems, among the many novelties
on this subject, this, too, was to show itself, and, according to
the prophecy of the venerable Simeon, Jesus Christ, in this
mystery, was to be " a mark set for contradictions"! in these
latter ages, as, with respect to his divinity and incarnation, he
had been in the first ages of Christianity.

20. — Article of the Euchanst in the Wirtemberg Confessimi.

In this manner was the Confession of Augsburg and Luther's
doctrine repeated in the Saxonic Confession. The Confession
of Wirtemberg§ departs no less from that of Augsburg, nor
from the Articles of Smalkald. It says, " that the true body
and true blood are distributed in the Eucharist, and rejects those
who say the bread and wine are signs of the body and blood of

+ Cap. de Coena. f Synt Gen. Part ii. p. 72. t Liilce ii. 34. PosiUis
in sigimra, cui contradicetur. § Conf. Wirt. C. de Euch. Ibid. p. 115.

286 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

Jesus Christ absent. It adds, that it is in the power of God to
annihilate the substance of bread, or to change it into his body;
but that God uses not this power in the Supper, and true bread
rema'ns with the true presence of the body. It manifestly es-
tabhshes concomitancy, by deciding that, although Jesus Christ
be distributed whole and entire, as well in the bread as in the
wine of the Eucharist, the use, nevertheless, of both parts ought
to be universal." Thus it grants us two things ; one, the pos-
sibility of transubstantiation, the other the certainty of concom-
itancy : but though it defends the reality so far as to admit con-
comitancy, it explains nevertheless these words, " This is my
body," by those of Ezekiel, who says, " This is Jerusalem,"
showing the representation of that city.

21. — TJu confusion man falls into when he delivers himself over to his oivn conceits.
Thus there is nothing but confusion when man departs from
the straight path to follow his own ideas. As the abettors of
the figurative sense receive some impression from the literal
one, so the abettors of the hteral sense are sometimes dazzled
by the deceitful subtleties of that which is figurative. But it is
not our business to examine here, whether or not, by torturing
the different expressions of so many confessions of faith, some
violent mode may be found out to bring them to a conformity
of sense. It is enough for me to point out what difficulty those
had in satisfying themselves with their own confessions of faith,
who had forsaken the faith of the Church.

22. — God wills not Sin. — Jin article better explained in the Saxonic Confession^
than it had been in that of Jlugsburg.*

The other articles of these confessions of faith are not less
remarkable than that of the Eucharist.

The Saxonic Confession acknowledges that " the will is free;
that God wills not sin, nor approves, nor co-operates to it ; but
that the free-will of men and devils is the cause of their sin and
fall." Melancthon is here to be commended for correcting
Luther and correcting himself, and for speaking more clearly
than he had done in the Confession of Augsburg.
23. — The co-operation of Free-will.

I have heretofore observed that, at Augsburg, he did not own
tlie exercise of free-will, except in the actions of civil hfe, and
that afterwards he extended it even to Christian actions.! This
he begins to discover more plainly to us in the Saxonic Confes-
sion ; for, after explaining the nature of free-will, and the choice
of the will, and that it suffices not alone for the works, which
we call " supernatural," he twice repeats, that " the will after

* Conf. Wirt. C. de Euck p. 53.

t Cap. derem. pecc. de lib. arb. etc. Synt. Gen. part ii. p. 54, 60. 61, eta

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 287

having received the Holy Ghost, remains not idle," namely,
that it is not vi^ithout action ; which seems to give to it, as the
Council of Trent likewise does, a free action under the guidance
of the Holy Ghost who moves it interiorly.

24. — Melancthon^s doctrine on the co-operation of Free-ioUl.

And what Melancthon gives us to understand in this confes-
sion of faith, he explains in his letters more distinctly ; for he
proceeds even to own the human will, in supernatural works, as
" a joint agent ;" agens partiale, according to the school lan-
guage ;* as much as to say, that man acts with God, a,.d of
both there is made one total agent. Thus he explained himself
at the Conference of Ratisbon in 1541, and though he well knew
that this explication would be displeasing to his companions, yet
he adhered to it, because, says he, the thing is true. Thus did
he come back from the excesses he had learned from Luther,
though Luther persisted in them to the very last. But he de-
livers himself more at large on this subject, in a letter written
to Calvin :| " I had a friend," says he, " who, reasoning on
predestination, equally believed these two things, — that all hap-
pens among men as Providence ordains, and that there is a con-
tingency nevertheless :" yet he owned he was not able to rec-
oncile these points. " For my part," proceeds he, " who hold
that God is not the cause of sin, and wills not sin, I own this
contingency in the infirmity of our judgment, to the end that the
ignorant may confess that David fell of himself, and by his own
will, into sin ; and might have preserved the Holy Ghost he had
within him, and that in this combat there is some action of the
will to be acknowledged," which he confirms by a passage of
St. Basil, who says, " Only have the will, and God will come
unto you." Whereby Melancthon seemed to insinuate, not only
that the will acts, but also begins ; which St. Basil rejects in
other places, and Melancthon does not appear to me ever to
have rejected sufficiently, since we have before taken notice,
how he had introduced a word into the Confession of Augsburg, J
by wliich he seemed to intimate, there was not so much harm
in saying that the will could begin, as that it could finish of itself
the work of God.

25. — The exercise of Free-will plainly oioned by Melancthon in the operations

of grace.

Be that as it will, it is certain he owned the exercise of free-
will in the operations of grace, since he so plainly ov/ned that
David could have preserved the Holy Ghost at the time he lost
it, as he might have lost it at the time he preserved it : but al-
though this was his sentiment, he durst not declare it distinctly
* Demipelagian, lib. iv. Ep. 240. f Ep. Mel. inter. Cal. Ep. p. 384.

X Conf. Aug. art. xviii. S. I. iii. n. 181. p. 20.

288 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

in the Saxonic Confession ; — ^happy for him he could insinuate it
gently by these words, — " The will is not idle, nor without action."
The thing was, Luther had so dreadfully thunderstruck free-
will, and bequeathed to his sect such an aversion to the exercise
of it, that Melancthon durst not utter, but with fear and trem-
bling, what he believed regarding it, and even his own confes-
sions of faith were ambiguous.

26. — His doctrine condemned by his Brethren.
But all his precautions could not secure him from censure.
Illyricus and his followers would never forgive him this short
sentence which he had placed in the Saxonic Confession, —
" The will is not idle, nor without action." They condemned this
expression in two synodical assembUes, together with the text
of St. Basil, which, as we have seen, Melancthon made use of.
This condemnation is set down in the Book of Concord.*
All they did to save Melancthon's honor, was not to name him,
but only to condemn his expressions under the general name of
new authors, or papists, or scholastics. But whoever shall con-
sider with what care the very expressions of Melancthon were
culled out for condemnation, will plainly see that he was the
person aimed at, and the sincere Lutherans own as much.
27. — Confusion of the neio Sects.
Here is, in short, the nature of these new sects. Men suffer
themselves to be prejudiced against certain doctrines, of which
they take up false notions. Thus did Melancthon, at first, run
into extremes with Luther against free-will, and would allow it
no action in works supernatural. Convinced of his error, he
leans to the opposite extreme, and so far from excluding the
action of free-will, he proceeds to attribute to it even the begin-
ning of supernatural actions* When a little inclined to return
to truth, and to own that free-will hath its agency in the opera-
tions of grace, he stands condemned by his own people : such
is the confusion and perplexity man falls into, by casting off the
salutary yoke of Church authority.

28. — Doctrine of the Lutherans, which contradicts itself.
But although one part of the Lutherans will not receive these
terms of Melancthon, the will is not without action in v/orks of
grace. I see not how they can deny the thing, since they all
confess, unanimously, that man, under grace, may reject and
lose it.

This is what they have asserted in the Confession of Augs-
burg ; what they have repeated in the Apology ; what they have
anew decided and inculcated in the Book of Concord ;'j" so that
nothing among them is more certain. Whence it is plain they
♦ Page 5, 82, 680. f Ibid. p. 675, etc.

V^III.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 289

acknowledge "Aith the Council of Trent a free-will, acting under
the operation of grace, so as to be able to reject it ; which thing
it is proper to remark, on account of some of our Calvinists,
who, for want of well understanding the state of the question,
make that doctrine criminal in us, which they support, never-
theless, in their brethren the Lutherans.

29. — A considerable article of the Saxonic Confession concerning the distinction
of mortal and venial sins.*

There is also an article in the Saxonic Confession, so much
the more deserving of notice, as it overthrows one of the foun-
dations of the new Reformation, which will not own that the
distinction between sins, mortal and venial, is grounded on the
nature of sin itself. But here the divines of Saxony confess
with Melancthon, that there are two sorts of sin ; " one which
banishes the Holy Ghost from the heart ; the other, which does
not banish him." In order to explain the nature of these dif-
ferent sins, they observe two kinds of Christians ; " one who
repress concupiscence ; the other, who obey it. In those who
combat against it," proceed they, " sin is not reigning ; it is
venial ; it bereaves us not of the Holy Ghost ; it subverts not
the foundation, and is not. against conscience." They add,
" that such sort of sins are covered," that is, they are not im-
puted " through God's mercy." Certain it is, according to this
doctrine, that the distinction of mortal and venial sins consists,
not only in God's pardoning some, and not pardoning others, as
is commonly said in the pretended Reform.ation, but that it pro-
ceeds from the nature of the thing. Now, to condemn the doc-
trine of imputed justice, no more than this is requisite ; since
it is allowed for certain, notwithstanding the sins the just man
flills into daily, that sin reigns not in him, but rather charity reigns
in him, and consequently justice, which suffices to denominate
him truly just, since a thing takes its denomination from what is
prevailing therein. Whence it follov/s, that to explain " gratu-
itous justification," there is no necessity of saying, we are jus-
tified by imputation, but rather, that we are truly justified by a
justice which is in us, yet proceeding from the gift of God.
30. — Merit of Works in the Confession of Wirtcmberg.

Melancthon omitted, for what reason I know not, to insert in
the Saxonic Confession, what he had inserted in the Augsburg
Confession and Apology concerning the merit of good works. "j*
But it must not be concluded from hence, that the Lutherans
had rejected this doctrine, since, at the same time, a chapter is
found in the Confession of Wirtemberg, where it is said, "that
good works ought necessarily to be practised, and through the
gratuitous bounty of God they merit their corporal and spiritual
* Page 75. f Conf. Wirt. c. de bonis operib. Ibid. p. 106.

25

290 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

rewards :" which, by the way, makes it appear, that the nature
of merit perfectly agrees M'ith grace.

31. — The Conference of Worms to reconcile both Religions. — Division of the
Lutherans. — 1557.

In 1557, a new assembly, by the appointment of Charles V,
w^as held at Worms for setthng religion. Pflugius, the author
of the Interim, presided in it. Mr. Burnet, ever attentive to
turn every thing to the advantage of the new Reformation, gives
a short account of it, in which he represents the Cathohcs as
men, " who, unable to bear down those they call heretics with
open force, divide them among themselves, and engage them
into heats about lesser matters." But Melancthon's own testi-
mony, in this case, will discover the true state of the affair.*
As soon as the Protestant doctors named for the conference
were come to Worms, the ambassadors of their respective princes
assembled them together to acquaint them, from the said princes,
that, above ail things, and before they conferred with the Cath-
olics, they were " to agree among themselves, and, at the same
time, to condemn four sorts of errors. 1. That of the Zuin-
ghans. 2. That of Osiander about justification. 3. That prop-
osition which affirms good works are necessary to salvation.
4. And lastly, the error of those who had received indifferent
ceremonies. This last article expressly glanced at Melancthon,
and it was lUyricus with his cabal that proposed it. Melanc-
thon had been warned of his designs, and in his journey wrote
to his friend Camerarius,| that, " at table, and over the bottle,
certain preliminary articles were drawn, with the design of mak
ing him and Brentius sign them." With the last he was very
much united, and represents Illyricus, or some one of that cabal,
" as a fury that went from door to door to exasperate people."
It was also believed in the party, that Melancthon was pretty
favorable to the Zuinghans, and Brentius to Osiander. The
same Melancthon appeared much inchned to the necessity of
good works, and this whole enterprise visibly aimed at him and
his friends. Hitherto, therefore, it was not the Catholics that
labored to divide the Protestants. They were sufficiently di-
vided of themselves ; nor was it, as Mr. Burnet pretends,
" about lesser matters ;" since, except the question of indifferent
ceremonies, all the rest, concerning the real presence, Osiander's
monstrous justification, and the manner in which good works
were to be judged necessary, were of the utmost consequence.
32. — The Lutherans unanimously co^idemn the necessity of Good Works for
Salvation. J
As to the first of these points, Melancthon agreed, that the
* Mel. lib. i. Ep. 70. Burn, part ii. lib. ii. p. 355. Lib. i. Ep. 70. ejusd.
Ep. .1(1 Albert. Hardenb. et ad Bulling, apud Hospin. An. 1557, 250.
Lib. iv. 8G8. et seq. { Loc. sup. cit. S. lib. vii. n. 108

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 291

" Zuinglians deserved to be condemned as well as the Papists."
To the second, that Osiander was not less worthy of censure.
To the thhd, that from this proposition, " good works are neces-
sary for salvation," the last word should be cut off, so that good
works, in spite of the Gospel, which denounces that, without
them, we have no share in the kingdom of God, remain " neces-
sary" it is true, but not " for salvation ;" and whereas Mr. Bur-
net hath affirmed that the " Protestants always declared good
works indispensably and absolutely necessary to salvation ;"
quite on the contrary, we find this equally rejected by Melanc-
thon's enemies, and by himself, — namely, by both parties of the
Protestants in Germany.

33. — Osiander spared by the Lutherans.
As for Osiander, Brentius did not fail to take his part, not by
defending the doctrine imputed to him, but by maintaining that
they had not comprehended this author's sense, though Osiander
had so plainly expressed himself, that neither Melancthon nor
anybody else doubted of it. It appeared, then, to the Luther-
ans, a very easy matter to agree all in the condemnations re-
quired by Illyricus and his friends ; but Melancthon put a stop
to it, who was ever apprehensive of raising new disturbances
in the Reformation, which, by its great divisions, already seemed
threatened with destruction.

34. — The Divisions of the Lutherans break forth, xchich the Catholics endeavor
to improve for their Salvation.

These disputes of the Protestants soon reached the ears of
the Catholics, for Illyricus and his friends raised great clamors,
not only at Worms, but over all Germany. The Cathohcs had
resolved to press, in the conference, the necessity of submitting
to the Church's judgment, in order to put an end to disputes
arising among Christians ; and the contentions of Protestants
very opportunely fell in with this design, they making it appear
that they themselves, who spoke so much of the perspicuity of
Scripture, and its full sufficiency to terminate all disputes, agreed
so little among themselves, nor had hitherto found out the v/ay
of finishing the least debate. The weakness of the Reformation,
so ready at starting difficulties, so bad at solving them, was vis-
ible to every eye. Then Illyricus and his friends, to show the
Catholics they were not unprovided of means to repress others
bred in the Protestant party, laid before the Catholic deputies a
copy of condemnations they had drawn, but which was rejected
by their companions ; thus the division blazed abroad in a man-
ner not to be concealed. The Catholics judged it to no purpose
to continue on these conferences, where, indeed, every thing
was at a stand, and accordingly left the Illyricans to dispute

292 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

with the Melacthonists, as St. Paul* left the Pharisees to dispute
with the Sadducees, drawing all the advantage he could from
their notorious dissensions.

33. — Osiander's triumph in Prussia. — The memorable conversion of Staphylus.
In Prussia, something vigorous, and some resolute decision,
was expected against Osiander, whose insolence was no longer
to be borne with. He made it openly appear how little account
he made of the Augsburg Confession, of Melancthon, its au-
thor, and of the merits even of Jesus Christ, which he did not
so much as mention in the justification of sinners. Some di-
vines of Koningsberg did what they could to oppose his doc-
trine, and among others, Frederick Staphylus, one of the most
renowned professors in divinity of that university, who, for six -
teen years together at Yvittenberg, had heard Luther and Me-
lancthon ;■(■ but finding they gained nothing by their learned
works, and Osiander's eloquence prevailed universally, they
had recourse to the authority of the Church of Wittenberg, and
the rest of the Protestant Churches in Germany. When, in-
stead of distinct and vigorous condemnations, which the weak
faith of the people stood in need of, they beheld nothing come
from those quarters but timorous writings, from which Osiander
reaped advantage, they pitied the weakness of the party thus
bereft of all authority against errors. Staphylus opened his
eyes, and returned to the bosom of the Catholic Church.
36. — A new form of the Lutherans in order to explain the Eucharist in the As-
sembly of Frankfort. — 1558.

The Lutherans asembled themselves at Frankfort the year
after, in order to agree about a form relating to the Eucharist,
as if, till then, they had done nothing. They began, according
to custom, by saying, they did but repeat the Confession of
Augsburg. J Notwithstanding, they added to it, " that Jesus
Christ was given in the use of the Sacrament, truly, substan-
tially, and in a vivifying manner ; and that this Sacrament con-
tained two things, — namely, the bread and the body ; and that
it is an invention of the Monks unknown to all antiquity, to
say, that the body is given us under the species of bread."

Strange confusion ! they did nothing, said they, but repeat the
Confession of Augsburg ; yet this expression, condemned by
them at Frankfort, namely, " this body is present under the
species," is found in one of the editions of that same Confes-
sion which they pretended to repeat, and even in that edition
owned at Frankfort to be so genuine, that to this day, in the rit-
uals used by the French church of that city, we read the tenth
article of the Augsburg Confession, couched in these terms —

* Acts xxiii. 6. f Chyt. in Sax. lib. xvii. Tit. Osiand. p. 444, et seq.

Ibid. 448. I Hosp. f. 264.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 293

" The body and blood are received under the species of bread
and wine."*

37. — The question of Ubiquity made Melancthon trim towards the Sacramen-
tanans. — 1559.

But the concern of most weight among the Lutherans at that
time, was that of ubiquity, which Westphalus, James Andrew
SmideHn, David Chythroeus, and others, set up with ail their
might. Melancthon opposed two reasons against them, than
which nothing could be more convincing : one, that this doctrine
confounded the two natures of Jesus Christ, making him im-
mense, not only according to his divinity, but his humanity like-
wise, and even with respect to his body ; the other, that it de-
stroyed the mystery of the Eucharist, by taking away every
thing that is peculiar to it, should Jesus Christ, as man, be no
other way therein present than he is in wood and stone. These
two reasons made Melancthon look with horror on the doctrine
of ubiquity, and the aversion he had to it made him insensibly
begin to mcline towards those who defended the figurative sense.
He held a particular communication with them, above all, with
Calvin. But certain it is, he did not find in his sentiments w4iat
he desired.

38. — The incompatibility of Melancthon' s sentiments with those of Calvin.

Calvin obstinately maintained,'!' that a believer once regen-
erated could not lose grace ; and Melancthon agreed with the
Lutherans, that this doctrine was damnable and impious. Calvin
could not endure the necessity of baptism, and Melancthon
would never depart from it. Calvin condemned what Melanc-
thon taught on the co-operation of free-will, and Melancthon
did not believe he could recant.

It appears sufficiently they were no less at variance about
predestination ; and although Calvin repeated frequently that
Melancthon in his heart could not help thinking as he did, yet
he never could draw any thing from him to that purpose.
39. — Whether or not Melancthon icas a Calvinist with respect to the Eucharist.

As for what concerns the Supper, Calvin boasts every where
that Melancthon was of his opinion ; but as he does not produce
one word of Melancthon's clearly to that purpose, but, on the
contrary, taxes him in all iiis letters and books with having never
explained himself sufficiently on that subject, methinks one may
reasonably doubt of what he has advanced; and what seems to
me to be most probable is this, that neither of these two authors
thoroughly understood the other : Melancthon being imposed
upon by the expressions of a proper substance, which Calvin eveiy
where affected, as we shall see ; and Calvin, drawing to his own

* Sous les especes du pain et du vin. f Lib. i. Ep. 70.

26*

294 ' THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

sense the words by which Melancthon separated the bread from
the body of our Lord, yet without the design of derogating
thereby from the substantial presence, which he owned in the
faithful communicants.

If Peucer, Melancthon's son-in-law, may be believed, his
father-in-law was a downright Calvinist. Peucer became one
himself, and suffered greatly afterwards for his correspondence
with Beza, in order to introduce Calvinism into Saxony.* ' He
took a pride in following the sentiments of his father-in-law, and
wrote books where he gives an account of what he had heard
from him in private relating to this subject. But without im-
peaching Peucer's credit, it is no unlikely thing that he, in a
matter they had so perplexed with equivocal expressions, might
not have fully comprehended Melancthon's meaning ; and for
want of that, have adapted his words to his own preconceived
opinions.

After all, to know what Melancthon thought one way or other,
is to me of very small importance. Many Protestants in Ger-
many, more interested in this cause than we are, have under-
taken his defence ; in whose behalf I shall only say, what candor
and truth oblige me to, viz., that I have no where found in any
of this author's writings that Jesus Christ is not received, ex-
cept by faith ; which, howsoever, is the true chara,cteristic of the
figurative sense. Neither do I find that he has ever said, v.^ith
those that maintain it, that the unworthy do not receive the true
body and true blood ; but, on the contrary, it appears to me
that he persisted in what was determined on this subject in the
Wittenburg agreement. |

40. — Melancthon dares not speak.

What we know for certain is, that through the fear Melanc-
thon was in of increasing the scandalous divisions of the new
Reformation, which he saw was quite void of all moderation, he
scarce ventured to express himself but in terms so general, that
each one might find in them whatever meaning he thought fit. The
Sacramentarians did not suit him ; the Lutherans ran all into
ubiquity. Brentius, almost the only Lutheran he had maintained
a perfect union with, went over to that side ; this prodigy of
doctrine spread insensibly through the whole sect. He would
willingly have spoken, but knew not what to say ; so great was
the opposition he met with to what he believed was truth. J
" Have I the power," said he, " to unfold truth whole and entire
in the country I am in, and would the court endure it ?" To
which he often added : " I will speak the truth when courts shall
not prevent me."

* Peuc. naiT. hist, de sent. Mel. It. hist, career. &c.

t S. Ub. iv. n. 23. J Hoep. ad An. 1557. pp. 249, 250.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 295

It is true, it is the Sacramentarians that make him speak after
this manner : but, besides that they produce his letters, which
they pretend to have the originals of, one needs but read those
his friends have published, to see that these discourses, which
pass for his, agree perfectly with that disposition which the im-
placable dissensions of the new Reformation had placed him in.

His son-in-law, who relates the facts with a great deal of
simphcity, affirms he was so hated by the Ubiquitarians, that
one time Chythraeus, one of the most zealous of them, said,
*' They ought to make away with Melancthon, otherwise they
should find in him a perpetual obstacle to their designs." He
himself, in a letter he wrote to the Elector Palatine, which
Peucer makes mention of,* says, " That he would no longer
dispute against men whose cruelties he did experience." And
this was but a few months before his death. How many times,"
says Peucer, " and with how m-any sighs, hath he unfolded to
me the reasons which hindered him from discovering to the
world the bottom of his sentiments ?" But what could constrain
him in the court of Saxony, where he then was, and in the
midst of Lutherans, but the court itself, and the violence of his
companions 1

41. — Melancthon^ s sad condition^ and his death.

How deplorable a state, never to meet with peace, or truth,
as he understood it ! He had left the ancient Church, which
had on her side succession, and all preceding ages. The Lu-
theran Church, which he and Luther had founded, and which
he behoved the only refuge of truth, embraced ubiquity, which
he abhorred. The Sacramentarian churches, which, next to
the Lutheran, he believed the most pure, were full of other
errors he could not endure, and which, in all his confessions of
faith, he had rejected. He was respected, as appeared, by the
Church of Wittenberg ; but the grievous restraints he lay
under, and the measures he was bound to follow, prevented his
speaking all he thought ; and in this state he ended his miser-
able life in 1560.

42. — The Zuinglians cmdemned by the Lutherans, and the Catholics justified
by this conduct. — 1560.

Illyricus and his companions triumphed upon his death ;
Ubiquity was established almost throughout all Lutheranism,
and the Zuinghans were condemned by a Synod held at Jena,
a town in Saxony :| till then, Melancthon had restrained them
from pronouncing such a sentence. From the time it passed,
nothing in all writings against the Zuinglians was spoken of,
but the authority of the Church, to which all were bound to yield

* Peuc. Hist. car. Ep. ad. Pal. ap. Hosp. 1559. 260. Peuc. Aulicua.
t Hosp. 1560. p. 269. 2. Def. Cont. Westph.

296 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

without further dispute. The principal party of the new Ref-
ormation, the Lutherans, began to discover that nothing but
Cliurch authority could curb men's minds and prevent divisions;
and, indeed, we see Calvin* never ceases to reproach them for
laying greater stress on the name of the Church than the very
Papists did, and for going counter to the principles established
by Luther. This v/as true, and the Lutherans, in their turn,
were obhged to answer all the arguments which the Protestant
party had opposed against the Catholic Church and her council.
They objected against the Church, that she made herself judge
in her own cause, and that the Pope, with his bishops, were at
one and the same time the accused, the accusers and the judges.
The Sacramentarians said as much of the Lutherans, by whom
they stood condemned. The whole body of Protestants said to
the Church, that their pastors ought to take their place amongst
the rest, in the council going to be held, and to judge on ques-
tions of faith ; otherwise, it were prejudging against them with-
out a hearing. The Sacramentarians made the same reproach
to the Lutherans, and maintained to them, that by taking on
themselves the authority to condemn them without calling their
pastors to the sitting, they began themselves to do that which
they had called tyranny in the Church of Rome.j It appeared
evident that they must ultimately imitate the Catholic Church,
which alone knew the true method of judging questions of faith:
nor did it appear less manifest, by the contradictions the Lu-
therans fell into upon following this method, that it did not
belong to innovators, nor could subsist but in a body, which had
practised it from the origin of Christianity.

43. — Assembly of the Lutherans at JsTaumburg to agree about the Confession of
Jiugsburg. — 1561.
It was resolved at this time to choose, among all the editions
of the Augsburg Confession, that which should be deemed au-
thentic. J It was a surprising thing, that a confession which
regulated the faith of all the Protestants in Germany and the
w^hole North, and had given a name to the whole party, should
have been published so many ways, and with such considerable
differences, at Wittenburg and elsewhere, under Luther and
Melancthon's inspection, without any care taken to adjust these
variations. At last, in 1561, thirty years after this confession
was made, in order to silence the reproaches which were flung
at Protestants, of not having as yet fixed a confession, they met
at Naumburg, a city of Thuringia, and there selected an edition ;
but in vain, inasmuch as the other editions having been printed

* Cal. Ep. p. 324, ad 111. Germ. Prin. 2, Defens. cont. West, opusc. 2S6.
Hosp. An. 1560. p. 269, et seq. f Hosp. An. 1560. pp. 270, 871.

X Act conv. Naum. ap. Hosp. 1561, p. 280, et seq.

VIII,] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 297

by public autbority, they never could suppress them,* nor hinder
one from following one, others another, as we have elsewhere
mentioned.

What is still more, the assembly of Naumburg, in choosing
one edition, declared expressly, it was not thence to be con-
cluded that they disapproved of all the rest, especially that which
had been made at Wittenburg in 1540, under the inspection
of Luther and Melancthon, which, besides, had been publicly
made use of in the Lutheran schools, and in the conferences
with Catholics.

Nay, it cannot even be decided which of these editions were
preferred at Naumburg. It seems most probable to have been
that which is printed with the consent of almost all the princes,
and stands at the beginning of the book of Concord ; but even
that is not certain, since we have shown four editions of the
supper-article, equally owned in the same book.| Again, if
the merit of good works was cut off from the Confession of
Augsburg, we have found it remaining in the Apology ; and that
even is a proof of what was originally in the Confession, since
it is certain that the Apology was made on no other account
than to defend and explain it.

But the dissensions of the Protestants, on the sense of the
Confession of Augsburg, were so far from being terminated at
the assembly of Naumburg, J that on the contrary, Frederic the
Elector Palatine, who was one of the members of it, believed,
or would seem to believe, that he found in this Confession the
Zuinglian doctrine he newly had embraced ; so that he adhered
to the Confession of Augsburg, and, not concerning himself
about Luther, still remained a Zuinglian.

44. — Raillery of the Zuinglians.

Thus, it seems, every thing was found in this Confession. §
The jeering and malicious Zuinglians called it Pandora's box,
whence issued forth good and evil ; the apple of discord, among
the goddesses ; a shoe for every foot ; a vast wide cloak which
Satan might hide himself in, as well as Jesus Christ. These
men had proverbs at their fingers' ends, and dealt them out not
sparingly to ridicule the different senses that each one found in
the Confession of Augsburg. Ubiquity was the only thing that
could not be discovered in it ; and yet this ubiquity became a
dogma among the Lutherans, authentically inserted in the book
of Concord.

45. — Ubiquity established.

Here is what we find in that part of the book which bears this
title, — " An abridgment of articles controverted among the Di-

* S. 1. iii. t Ibid. J Hosp. An. 1561. p. 281. § Ibid*

THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

vines of the Confession of Augsburg."* In the seventh chapter,
entitled — Of the Lord's Supper : — " The right-hand of God is
every where, and Jesus Christ is truly and effectually united to
it according to his humanity." And still more expressly in the
eighth chapter, entitled — Of the Person of Jesus Christ, —
wherein is explained what that Majesty is, which in the Scrip-
tures is attributed to the word " incarnate :" there we read those
words, — "Jesus Christ, not only as God, but also as man,
knows all things : is able to do all things ; is present to all
creatures." This is a strange doctrine. True it is, the Holy
Soul of Jesus Christ can do all it will in the Church, since it
wills nothing but what the Divinity wills who governs it. True
it is, this Holy Soul knows all that regards the world present,
since all therein hath a relation to mankind, whereof Jesus
Christ is the redeemer and judge, and the angels themselves,
who are the ministers of our salvation, are subject to this power.
True it is, Jesus Christ may render himself present where he
pleases, even according to his humanity, and with respect to
his body and blood ; but that the soul of Jesus Christ knows,
or can know, all that God knows, is attributing to a creature an
infinite knowledge, or wisdom, and equalling it to God himself.
To make the human nature of Jesus Christ be necessarily
wherever God is, is giving it an immensity not suitable to it,
and manifestly abusing the personal union ; for it ought to be
said by the same reason, that Jesus Christ, as man, is in all
times, which would be too open an extravagancy, but, never-
theless, would follow as naturally from the personal union, ac-
cording to the reasoning of the Lutherans, as the presence of
Jesus Christ's humanity in all places.

46. — Another declaration abo^it Ubiquity, under the name of a repetition of the
Confession of Augsburg.

The same doctrine of ubiquity may be seen, but with more
perplexity and a wider compass of words, in a part of this same
book which bears this title if — " A solid, easy, and clear Rep-
etition of some Articles of the Augsburg Confession, which have
been disputed on for some time by some Divines of this Con-
fession, and are here decided and accorded by the rule and
analogy of God's word, and the brief form of our Christian doc-
trine." Let who will expect from such a title the clearness and
brevity it promises him ; for my part, I shall only observe two
things on this word repetition : J the first, that ahhough the doc-
trine of ubiquity, which is here established, be in no kind spoken
of in the Augsburg Confession, this is called, nevertheless, " a
repetition of some articles of the Augsburg Confession." They

♦ Lib. Concor. p. 600, j Solida. plana. &c. Cone. p. 628.

I C. vii. deCcEna. p. 762, et seq. viii. de pers. Ch. p. 761, et seq. p. 782, et. seq.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 299

were afraid of making it appear that they were obliged to tack
some new doctrine to it, and all the novelties they had broached
were thus made to pass under the name of a repetition. The
second, that it hath never been the luck of Protestants to have
explained themselves aright the first time. They were always
forced to come to repetitions, which, when all was said, were
not a whit clearer than what went before.

47. — The design of the Lutherans in setting up Ubiquity.

To conceal no doctrine of the Lutherans of any importance
in the book of Concord, I hold myself obliged to say, that they
do not place ubiquity for the foundation of Jesus Christ's Pres-
ence in the Supper: it is certain, on the contrary, that they
make this Presence depend on the words of the institution only ;
but they set up this ubiquity to stop the mouths of the Sacra-
mentarians, who had ventured to say, that it was impossible for
God to put Jesus Christ's body in more than one place at once ;
which appeared to them, not only contrary to the article of
God's Omnipotence, but also to the Majesty of Jesus Christ's
person.
48. — Tu)o memorable decisions of the Lutherans, on the co-operation of Free-Will.

We must now consider what the Lutherans say concerning
the co-operation of the will with grace : so weighty a question
in our controversies, that we cannot refuse it our attention.

On this the Lutherans say two things, which will afford great
light towards the finishing of our contests. I am going to pro-
pose them with as much order and clearness as I am able, and
shall use my utmost endeavor to ease the reader's mind, which
might be wearied with the subtlety of these questions.
49. — Doctnne of the Lutherans, that %ve are without action in our conversion.

The first thing the Lutherans do* in order to explain the co-
operation of the will with grace, is to distinguish the moment of
conversion, from what ensues ; and having taught, that man's
co-operation hath no place in the conversion of a sinner, they
add, that this co-operation ought only to be owned in the good
works which we do afterwards.

I own, it is hard enough to comprehend what they would be
at. For the co-operation, wliich they exclude from the moment
of conversion, is explained in certain places after such a manner,
as seems to exclude nothing,'f but " the co-operation which is
made by our own natural strength and of ourselves," as St.
Paul speaks. If it be so, we are agreed : but then we do not
see what need there was of distinguishing between the moment
of conversion, and all that followed after, since man neither
operates, nor co-operates through the whole sequel, any more
* Con. pp. 582, 673, 680, 68 1 , 682. f Pp. 656, 662, 668, 674, 678, 680, et seq.

300 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

than in the moment of conversion, but by the grace of God.
Nothing, therefore, is more ridiculous tiian to say with the Lu-
therans,* that in the moment of conversion man acts no more
than a stone or clay, since it cannot be denied, but in the mo-
ment of conversion he begins to repent, to beheve, to hope, to
love by a true action, which a log or stone can nowise do. And
it is plain, that a man who repents, who believes, and loves
perfectly, repents, beheves, and loves with more force, but not
in the main after another manner, than when he begins to repent,
to beheve, and to love : so that, in one and the other state, if
the Holy Ghost operates, man co-operates with him, and sub-
jects himself to his grace, by an act of the will.

50. — The confusion and contradiction of the Lutheran doctrine.

In effect, it seems that the Lutherans, in concluding for the
co-operation of free-will, would exclude that only which is at-
tributed to our own strength. "When Luther," say they,
" affirms that the will is purely passive, and in nowise acts in
the conversion, his intention was not to say that no new motion
was excited in our souls, and no new operation therein begun ;
but only to give to understand, that man can do nothing of him-
self, or by his own natural strength."!

This was setting out well : but what follows is not of a piece.
For after saying, what is very true, " That man's conversion is
an operation and gift of the Holy Ghost, not in any of its parts
only, but in the whole, they conclude very preposterously, that
the Holy Ghost acts in our understanding, our heart, and our
will, as in a subject that suffers, man abiding without action,
purely passive."

This bad conclusion, which they draw from a true principle,
makes it plain they do not understand themselves ; for, after
all, what seems to be their meaning is, that man can do nothing
of himself, and that grace anticipates him in all, which, I say
again, is incontestable. But if it follow from this principle, that
we remain without action, this consequence reaches not only
the moment of conversion, as the Lutherans pretend, but ex-
tends itself also, contrary to their notions, to the whole Christian
life, since we can no more preserve grace by our own strength,
than acquire it, and whatever state we are in, it anticipates us
in every thing.

51. — Conclusion. — If we understand one another, there remains no dispute ahout
co-operation.

I know not, then, what the Lutherans mean when they say,
it must not be believed, that " man converted, co-operates with
the Holy Ghost, as two horses concur to draw a cart ;"t for

* Con. p. 602. t Ibid. p. 680. f Ibid. p. 674.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. SOI

that is a truth wliich no one disputes with them, since one of
these horses receives not the strength he has from the other :
v/hereas, we agree that man co-operating hath no stiength which
is not given him by the Holy Ghost ; and that nothing is more
true than what the Lutherans say in the same place,* viz.,
" When you co-operate with grace, it is not by your own natural
powers, but by new powers which the Holy Ghost bestows upon
you."

Thus, the least right understanding between us clears tliis
point of all shadow of difficulty. When the Lutherans teach,
that our will does not act in the beginning of conversion, they
only mean to say, that God excites good motions in us, which,
though in us, are not from ourselves : the thing is unquestion-
able, and it is what is called exciting grace. If they will say,
that the will, when consenting to grace, and, by this means, be-
ginning to convert itself, acts not by its own natural strength,
this again is a point avowed by Catholics. If they will say, it
acts not at all, but is purely passive, they do not understand
themselves, and, contrary to their own principles, destroy all
action and co-operation, not only in the beginning of conversion,
but also through the whole course of a Christian life.

52. — The objection of Libertines, and the difficulty of weak Christians, concern-
ing co-operation.

The second thing which the Lutherans teach, concerning the
co-operation of the will, deserves to be observed, because it
discovers to us what a labyrinth man bewilders himself in when
he forsakes his guide.

The book of Concord strives to clear the following objection
raised by libertines on the foundation of Lutheran doctrine. |
" If it be true," say they, " as is taught amongst you, that the
will of man hath no part in the conversion of sinners, but the
Holy Ghost does all therein, I have no occasion either to read
or hear sermons, or frequent the Sacraments, but will wait till
the Holy Ghost sends me his gifts."

This same doctrine involved the faithful in great perplexities :
for as they were taught, that as soon as ever the Holy Ghost
acted in them, he alone wrought upon them in such a manner,
that they had nothing at all to do ; all those, who did not feel
this ardent faith within them, but rather nothing, only misery
and weakness, fell into these dismal thoughts, this dangerous
doubtfulness — Am I of the number of God's elect, and will
God ever send me his Holy Spirit ?

53. — The Lutherans'' solution grounded on eight propositions, the four first cmi-
taining general principles.

In answer to these doubts of libertines and weak Christians,

* Con. p. 674. t Ibid. p. 669.

26

302 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

who deferred their conversion, there was no saying to them that
they resisted the Holy Ghost, whose grace interiorly sohcited
them to yield themselves up to him ; since they were told, on
the contrary, that in these first moments of a sinner's conversion,
the Holy Ghost did all himself, and a man acted no more than
a log of wood. Wherefore, they take another method to make
sinners comprehend that it is their fault if they be not converted,
and, in order to that, they lay down these positions : —

" I.* God wills that all men be converted, and attain to eter-
nal salvation.

" H. For that end he hath commanded the Gospel to be
preached in public.

" III. Preaching is the means whereby God gathers together
from amongst mankind a Church, the duration whereof has no
end.

" IV. Preaching and hearing the Gospel are the instruments
of the Holy Ghost, whereby he acts effectually in us, and con-
verts us."

Having laid down these four general positions touching the
efficacy of preaching, they apply them to the conversion of a
sinner, by four other more particular ones, viz. —

54. — Four other propositions in order to apply the first.
" V.t Before ever a man is regenerated, he may read, or hear
the Gospel outwardly ; and in these exterior things he hath, in
some manner, his free-will to assist at Church assemblies, and
there to hear, or not to hear, the word of God.

" VI. They add to this : that by this preaching, and by the
attention given to it, God mollifies hearts ; a little spark of faith
is enkindled in them, whereby the promises of Jesus Christ are
embraced, and the Holy Ghost, who works these good senti-
ments, is, by this means, sent into the hearts of men.

" VII. They observe, that, although it be true that neither the
preacher nor the hearer can do any thing of themselves, and
that it is necessary for the Holy Ghost to act in us, to the end
we may believe the word ; yet neither the preacher nor the hearer
ought to have any doubt of the Holy Ghost's being present by
his grace, when the word is announced in its purity according
to God's commandment, and men give ear to, and meditate
seriously thereon.

" VIII. Lastly, they conclude that, in truth, this presence and
these gifts of the Holy Ghost do not always make themselves
be felt, yet, nevertheless, it ought to be held for certain that the
word hearkened to is the instrument of the Holy Ghost, whereby
he displays his efficacy in the hearts of men."

* Con. p. 669, et seq. f Ibid.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC.

55. — The resolution of the Lutherans grounded on the eight preceding proposi-
tions, is doxonright Demipelagian.

By this way, therefore, the whole difficulty, according to them,
is clearly solved, as well in regard to libertines as weak Chris-
tians. In regard to libertines, because by the first, second, third,
fourth, sixth, and seventh propositions, preaching, attentively
given ear to, operates grace. Now, by the fifth, it is laid down
that man is fi-ee to hear preaching ; he is, therefore, free to give
to himself that, by which grace is given him, and so libertines
are content. And for weak Christians, who, although attentive
to the word, know not whether they be in grace, inasmuch as
they do not feel it ; there is a remedy for their doubt from the
eighth proposition, which teaches them that it is not lawful to
doubt but the grace of the Holy Ghost, though not felt, does
accompany attention to the word : so that there remains no dif-
ficulty, according to the Lutheran principles, and neither the
libertine nor weak Christian have any tiling to complain of; since,
for their conversion, all, in short, depends on attention to the
word, which itself depends on the free-will.

56. — A proof of the Lutherans'* Demipelagianism.

And that it may not be doubted what attention it is they speak
of, I observe they speak of attention,* inasmuch as it precedes
the grace of the Holy Ghost : they speak of attention, applied
by the free-will to hear or not to hear ; they speak of attention,
whereby one gives ear externally to the Gospel, whereby one
assists at Church assemblies, where the virtue of the Holy Ghost
displays itself, whereby an attentive ear is given to the word,
which is his organ. It is this free attention to which the Lu-
therans annex divine grace ; and they are excessive in every
thing, since they will have it on one hand, when the Holy Ghost
begins to move us, that we do not act at all ; on the other, that this
operation of the Holy Ghost, which converts us without any
co-operation on our side, is attracted necessarily by an act of
our will, in which the Holy Ghost has no part, and wherein our
liberty acts purely by its natural strength.
57. — Semipelagianism of the Lutherans. — An example proposed by Calixtus.^

This is the current doctrine of the Lutherans, and the most
learned of all of them, that have written in our days, has ex-
plained it by this comparison. He supposes all mankind plunged
into a deep lake, on the surface of which God has provided a
salutary oil to swim, which by its virtue alone will deliver all
these wretches, provided they will use the natural strength that
is left them to draw near to this oil, and swallow but some drops
of it. This oil is the word announced by preachers. Men of

* Con. p. 671. i Calixt. judic. n. 32, 33, 34

304 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK.

themselves may apply their attention to it ; but as soon as they
approach by their natural strength, in order to listen thereto, of
itself, without their further intermeddling, it diffuses a virtue in
their hearts which heals them.
5S.— The confusion of the neio Sects passing from one extremity to the other.
Thus all the vain scruples, which made the Lutherans, under
pretext of honoring God, at first destroy free-will, and after-
wards grow fearful at least of allowing too much to it, and at
last in giving to it so great power, that to its action, and the most
natural exercise of it, all is annexed. This it is to walk without
rule, the rule of tradition once forsaken : they think to avoid the
error of Pelagians, but, winding about, they return to it another
way, and the compass they take brings them back to Demipe-
lagianism.

59.— r/ie Ccdvinists come into the Demipelagianism of the Lutherans.
This Demipelagianism of the Lutherans, by little and little,
spreads even to Calvinism, from the inclination that party hath
of uniting itself with the Lutherans ; in whose favor they have
begun to say already, that Demipelagianism does not damn, that
is, there is no harm in attributing to free-will the beginning of
salvation.*

60. — ^ difficulty in the book of Concord, concerning the certainty of Salvation.
I find, moreover, another thing in the book of Concord,!
which, were it not well understood, might cause a great confu-
sion in the Lutheran doctrine. It is there said, that the faithful,
in the midst of their weaknesses and combats, " ought by no
means to doubt either of the justice wliich is imputed to them
by faith, or of their eternal salvation." Whereby it might seem
that Lutherans admit the certainty of their salvation as well as
Calvinists. But this would be too visible a contradiction in their
doctrine, since, to beheve the certainty of salvation in every one
of the faithful, as the Calvinists believe, they ought also to be-
lieve, with them, the inamissibility of justice, which, as hath
been seen, the Lutheran doctrine expressly rejects.

61. — ^ solution from the doctnne of Doctor John Andrexo Gerard.
To adjust this contrariety, the Lutheran Doctors answer two
things : one, that by the doubt of salvation, which they exclude
from the faithful soul, they understood nothing but the anxiety,
agitation, and trouble, which we exclude as well as they ;J the
other, that the certainty they admit in all the just, is not an abso-
lute certainty, but conditional, and supposes that the faithful
soul does not depart from God by voluntary wickedness. The

t Jur. Syst. de I'Eg. lib. ii. ch. iii. pp. 249, 253. f Con. p. 585.

t Con. Catk 1679, Lib. ii. Part iii. Art 22. c. 2. Thesi. iiL n. 2, 3, 4, and
Art. xxiii. c. 5. Thesi. unic. n. 6. pp. 1426 et 1499.

VIII.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 305

matter is thus explained by Doctor John Andrew Gerard, who has
pubKshed lately an entire body of controversy ; the meaning of
Mhich is, that, in the Lutheran doctrine, the believer may rest
fully assured that God on his side will never be wanting to him,
if he be not first wanting to God — a thing not to be doubted of.
To give the just more certainty, is too evidently contradicting
that doctrine which teaches us that, be we never so just, we may
fall from justice, and lose the spirit of adoption ; a point as little
questioned by Lutherans as Catholics.

62. — Jl bnef account of the book of Concord.

Since the book of Concord has been compiled, I take it the
Lutherans in body have never made any new decision of faith.
The parts of which this book is composed are from different
authors and of different dates ; and the Lutherans' design was
to give us in this collection what is most authentic amongst
them. The book came out in 1679, after the famous assem-
blies held at Torg and Berg, in 1576 and 1577. This last place,
if I am not mistaken, was a monastery near Magdeburg. I
shall not relate in what manner this book was subscribed in Ger-
many, nor the tricks and force, which, as is reported, were put
on those who received it, nor the oppositions of some princes
and cities who refused to sign it. Hospinian* has written a
long history of it, which appears well enough grounded as to
the chief of its facts. Let the Lutherans who are concerned
therein, contradict it. The particular decisions, which relate to
the Supper and Ubiquity, were made near the time of Melanc-
thon's death, viz., about the years 1558, 1569, 1660, and 1661.
63. — The troubles in France begin. — Confession of Faith draxon by Calvin.

These years are famous am.ongst us for the beginnings of
our disturbances in France. In the year 1569, our pretended
Reformists drew up a confession of faith, which they presented
to Charles IX in 1661, at the Conference of Poissy.| This
was one of Calvin's productions, whom I have often already
spoken of; and the reflections I must make on this confession
of faith, oblige me to set forth more thoroughly the conduct and
doctrine of this its author.

* Hosp. Concord, discors. imp. 1607. f Bez. Hist. Ecc. 1. iv. p. 520.

26*

306 THE HISTORY OF [BOOK

BOOK IX.

[In the Year 1561, Calvin's Doctrine and Character.]

A brief summary. — Protestants begin to appear in France. — Calvin is their
head. — His notions concerning Justification, wherein he reasons more con-
sequently than the Lutherans ; but, grounding himself upon false principles,
falls into more manifest difficulties. — Three absurdities by him added
to the Lutheran doctrine. — The certainty of salvation, inamissibility of
justice. — Infant justification independently of Baptism. — Contradictions
on this tliird point. — In respect to the Eucliarist, he equally condemns
Luther and ZuingUus, and aims at a medium between both. — He proves
the necessity of admitting the Real Presence, beyond what he does in
fact admit. — Strong expressions for maintaining it. — Other expressions
which destroy it. — The pre-eminence of CathoUc doctrine. — Those who
impugn it are forced to speak our language and assume our principles. —
Three different confessions of the Calvinists to satisfy three different sorts
of people, the Lutherans, the Zuinglians, and themselves. — Calvin's pride
and passion. — His genius compared with that of Luther. — The reason
why he did not appear at the Conference of Poissy. — There Beza pre-
sents the Protestants' Confession of Faith : they tack to it a new and
long explication of their doctrine about the Eucharist. — The Catholics ex-
press themselves intelligibly and in few words. — What happened with
relation to the Augsburg Confession. — Calvin's sentiments.

1. — Calvin's genius. — He subtilizes more than Lviher.

Calvin's genius possibly might not have been so well adapted
as Luther's was to excite people and inflame their minds :
but after these commotions were once set on foot, he raised
himself in many countries, in France especially, above even
Luther himself, and became the head of a party, which yields
but little to that of Luther.

By the pentration of his wit, and the boldness of his deci-
sions, he refined upon, and outstript all his contemporary
builders of new churches, and new-reformed the but new
Ke formation.
2. — Tioocapitd points of the Reformation. — Calvin's refinements on both of them.

The two points they laid the main stresses upon, were Justi-
fication and the Eucharist.

As for justification, Calvin looking upon it as the common
foundation of Protestancy, adhered to it at least equally with
Luther, but grafted on it three important articles.

3. — Three things added by Calvin to imputed justice. — First, the certainty of
salvation.

In the first place, that certainty which Luther owned for jus-
tification only, was by Calvin extended to eternal salvation ; that
is to say, vvhereas Luther required no more of the faithful than
to believe with an infallible certainty that they were justified ;
Calvin, besides this certainty of justification, required the like
of their eternal predestination : insomuch that a perfect Cal-

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 307

vinist can no more doubt of his being saved, than a perfect
Lutheran of his being justified.*

4. — ..3 memorable Confession of Faith made by Frederick III, Electw Palatine.
So that, were a Calvinist to make his particular confession
of faith, he would put in this article, " 1 am assured of my sal-
vation." We have an example of it. In the Collection of
Geneva stands the confession of Prince Frederic III, Count
Palatine, and Elector of the Empire. This Prince explaining
his creed, after setting forth how he believes in the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, when he comes to explain how he
believes the Catholic Church, says, " That he believes that
God never ceases gathering it together, by his word and Holy
Ghost out of the mass of all mankind ; and that he believes
he is of that number, and ever shall be a hving member of it."|
He adds, he believes " That God being appeased by the satis-
faction of Jesus Christ will not remember any of his sins, nor
all the wicl^edness with which I shall," says he, " go on combat-
ing through the whole course of my life ; but that he ^vill gra-
tuitously give me the justice of Jesus Christ, insomuch that /
have no reason to apprehend the judgments of God. Lastly, I
know most certainly," continues he, " that I shall be saved, and
shall appear with a cheerful countenance before the tribunal of
Jesus Christ." There spoke a tme Calvinist, and these are the
true sentiments inspired by Calvin's doctrine, which this Prince
had embraced.

5. — The second Dogma by Ccdvin added to imputed justice, viz., That it never
can be lost.

Thence followed a second dogma, that whereas Luther al-
lowed that a justified believer might fall from grace, as we have
observed in the Augsburg Confession, Calvin maintains, on the
contrary, that grace once received can never be lost : so that,
whoever is justified and receives the Holy Ghost is justified,
and receives the Holy Ghost for ever. For which reason the
aforesaid Palatine placed amongst the articles of faith, that " he
was a living and perpetual member of the Church." This is
the dogma called the inamissibility of justice ; namely, that doc-
trine by which it is believed that justice once received never can
be lost. This word hath such a sanction from its universal use
on this subject, that to avoid multiplying words we must accus-
tom our ears to it.
6. — The third Dogma of Calvin : viz. That Baptism is not necessary to salvation.

There was also a third dogma, which Calvin established as a
corollary from imputed justice, viz., that baptism could not be
necessary to salvation, as the Lutherans maintain.

* Sup. 1. iii. n. 38. Instit. 1. 3. 2. n. 16. &c. 24. c. Antid. Con. Trid. in
Sess. vi. cap. 13, 14. opusc. p. 185. f Synt. Gen. part li pp. 149, 156.

308 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

7. — Cdvui's reasons drawn frwn Luther'' s principles ; and first loith respect to
the ce7'tcdnty of Salvation.

Calvin was of opinion that the Lutherans could not reject
these tenets, without destroying their own principles. They re-
quire of the behever to be absolutely assured of his justification,
as scon as he asks it, and to trust in the divine goodness, because,
according to them, neither his prayer nor trust can admit of the
least doubt. Now, prayer and trust regard salvation no less
than justification and forgiveness of sins ; for we pray for our
salvation, and hope to obtain it as much, as we pray for the for-
giveness of sins, and hope to obtain it : therefore we are as
much assured of the one as of the other.

8. — With respect to the inamissibUity of justice.

If, then, we believe, that we cannot miss of salvation, we must
also believe we cannot fall from grace, and must reject the Lu-
therans who teach the contrary.

9. — Against the necessity of Baptism.

Again, if we are justified by faith alone. Baptism is neither
necessary in fact nor desire. For which reason Calvin will not
admit that it works in us forgiveness of sins, or infusion of grace,
but h a seal only, and token, that we have received them.

10. — The consequence from this Doctrine, that the Children of the Faithfxd are
bom in Grace.

It is certain, that whosoever says these things ought also to say
that infants enjoy gi'ace independently of baptism. Nor did
Calvin make any difficulty of owning it. This made him broach
that novelty, viz., that the children of the faithful were born in
the Covenant, that is, in that sanctity, which baptism did no more
than seal in them ; an unheard-of doctrine in the Church, but
necessary for Calvin, in order to support his principles.
11, — ^ passage by lohich Calvin upholds this new Dogma.

The foundation of this doctrine, according to him, is in that
promise made to Abraham, I will be " thy God, and the God of
thy seed after thee." Calvin maintained* that the new alliance,
no less efficacious than the old, ought, for this reason, to pass
like that from father to son, and be transmitted the same way ;
whence he concluded that, the substance of baptism, that is, its
grace and covenant, " appertaining to infants, the sign of it could
not be refused them ; to wit, the Sacrament of baptism ;" a doc-
trine by him held so certain, that he inserted it into his Catechism
in the same terms I have now worded it, and in full as strong,
into the form of administering baptism.
12. — Why Calvin is looked upon as the Author of the three precedent Dogmas.

When I name Calvin as the author of these three tenets, I do
* Inst. iv. XV. n. 22. xvi, 3, &c 9. Gen. xvii. 7. Dom. 50.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 809

not mean to say he was the first that ever taught them ; for the
Anabaptists, and others, too, liad maintained them before, either
in the v/hole, or in part ; but I only say he gave them a new
turn, and showed better than any one else the conformity they
have with imputed justice.

13. — Supposing these pnnciples, Calvin reasoned better than Luthe^', but went
further astray.

For my part, I cannot help thinking that, in these three arti-
cles, Calvin argued more consequently than Luther ; but withal,
run himself into greater difficulties, as must necessarily happen
to those who reason on false principles.

14. — Difficulties attending the certainty of Salvation.

If, in Luther's doctrine, a great difficulty result from man's
being assured of his justification, there is a much greater one,
and which exposes human weakness to a more dangerous temp-
tation, m being assured of his Salvation.

15.^ — Difficidties attending Calvin'' s inamissibility of justice.

Nay, by saying the Holy Ghost and justice can no more be
lost than faith, you oblige the faithful, once justified, and per-
suaded of their justification, to believe, that no crime, be it ever
so great, can cause them to fall from this grace.

In fact, Calvin maintained,* that, " upon losing the fear of
God, faith, which justifies us, is not lost." The terms he made
use of were indeed extraordinary : for he said, faith " was over-
whelmed, buried, smothered ; that the possession of it was lost,
that is to say, the feeling and knowledge of it." But after all
this he added, " it was not extinct."

An uncommon subtlety is requisite, to reconcile all these words
of Calvin ; but the truth is, willing as he was to maintain liis
tenet, he could not but allow something to that horror in man,
of owning justifying faith in a soul that has lost the fear of God,
and fallen into the worst of crimes.
16. — Diffictdty of that doctrine lohich teaches that Children are bom in Grace.

If to these three points you join also that doctrine which teaches
that the children of the faithful bring grace with them intc the
world at their birth, what a horror must this raise ! it following
necessarily from thence, that the whole posterity of every true
believer is predestinated ! The demonstration is obvious, ac-
cording to Calvin's principles. Whosoever is born of a believer,
is born in the covenant, and consequently, in grace ; whosoever
has once had grace, can never lose it ; if he has it not only for
himself, but also necessarily transmits it to his whole posterity,
we have then grace extended to infinite generations. If so much
as one true believer be found in a whole lineage, all the descend-
* Ant. Cone. Trid. in Sess. 6. c. 16. opusc. p. 288.

310 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

ants of this person are predestinated. If so much as one be
found to die a reprobate, it must be concluded that all his an-
cestors were damned.

17. — Luther not less to be condemned for establishing these principles, than Cal-
vin for drawing these consequences.

But the horrid consequences of Calvin's doctrine condemn no
less the Lutherans than the Calvinists ; and if these last are not
to be excused for running themselves into such dreadful straits,
the former are not less blameworthy for laying down the prin-
ciples, whence such consequences so clearly follow.
18. — Whether these three Dogmas are to be found in the Confession of Faith,

Notwithstanding that the Calvinists have embraced these three
dogmas, as a groundwork of the Reformation, the respect they
have for the Lutherans, if I am not mistaken, has been the cause
that, in their confessions of faith,* they rather insinuated than
expressly established the two first tenets, namely, the certainty
of salvation, and the inamissibihty of justice. An authentic
declaration of them was no where made, properly speaking, till
in the Synod of Dort ; it shall appear in its own place. As for
the dogma, which owns, in the children of the faithful, grace
inseparable from their birth, we find it in the Catechism which I
have quoted verbatim, and in the form of administering baptism.

19. — Tivo Dogmas of the Calvinists relating to Children, little conformable to
their principles.

However, I will not aver that Calvin and the Calvinists are
very steadfast in this last tenet. For although they say on the
one hand, that the children of the faithful are born in the cov-
enant, and the seal of grace, which is baptism, is not due to them,
but because the thing itself, namely, grace and regeneration, is
acquired to them by their being happily born of faithful parents ;
it appears on the other hand, they will not allow that the children
of the faithful are always regenerated when they receive bap-
tism, and this for two reasons : the first, because, according to
their maxims, the seal of baptism hath not its effect with regard
to the predestinated ; the second, because the seal of baptism
works not always a present effect, even with regard to the pre-
destinated, since such a person may have been baptized in his
infancy who was not regenerated till old age.

20. — Agreement xoith those of Geneva. — 1554.

These two doctrinal points are taught by Calvin in several
places,! but particularly in the agreement lae made in 1554,
between the Church of Geneva and that of Zurich. This agree-
ment contains the doctrine of both these churches ; and being

* Conf. de Fr. Art. 18-22. Cat. Dim. 18-20. Cat. Dim. 50. Forme du
Bapt. 5. n. 11.

t Con. Tigur. et Genev. Art. 17, 20. opusc. Cal. p. 754.Hosp. An. 1554.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 311

received by both, it has the full authority of a confession of faith,
insomuch that the two aforesaid points of doctrine being there
expressly taught, they may be reckoned among the articles of
faith of the Calvinistic Church.

21. — Ccmtradictions in the Calvinist doctrine.

It is then plain, this Church teaches two things that are
contradictory. The first, that the children of the faithful are
certainly born in the covenant and in grace, which imphes a
necessary obligation of giving them baptism : the second, that
it is not certain they are born in the covenant or in grace, since
no one knows whether he be of the number of the predestinated.
22. — Another contradiction.

There is besides a great inconsistency in saying, on the one
side, that Baptism, of itself, is a certain sign of grace, and on
the other, that many of those who receive it without putting any
obstacle on their part to the grace it offers them, (as in the case
of infants,) yet receive from it no effect. But leaving to Cal-
vinists the trouble of reconciling their own jarring tenets, I rest
satisfied with relating what I find in their confessions of faith.
23. — Calvin'' s refinement on the other point of the Reformation, xchich is that of
the Eucharist.

Hitherto Calvin soared above the Lutherans, but fell withal
much lower than they had done. On th.e subject of the Eucha-
rist, he not only raised himself above them, but also, above the
ZuingHans, and, by the same sentence, condemned both parties,
which, for so long a time, had divided the whole Reformation.
24. — Calvin'' s Treatise in order to shoio timt, after fifteen years disputing, the
Lutherans and ZuingHans had not understood one another.

They had disputed for fifteen years successively on the arti-
cle of the Real Presence without ever being able to agree,
whatever could be done to reconcile them, when CaJvin,* then
but young, made himself umpire, and decided that they had not
understood each other, and that the heads of both parties were
in the wrong; Luther, for too much pressing the corporeal
Presence ; Zuinglius and (Ecolampadius, for not having suffi-
ciently expressed that the thing itself, that is, the Body and
Blood, were joined to the sign ; a certain Presence of Jesus
Christ in the Supper, which they had not sufficiently compre-
hended, being to be acknowledged.

25. — Calvin, already knoion by his Institutions, makes himself more considerable
by his Treatise on the Supper.

This work of Calvin was printed in French in 1540, and

afterw^ards translated into Latin by the -author himself. He had

already gained a great repute by his Institutions, which he pub-

hshed, for the first time, in 1534, and which after that he made

* Tract, de Coen. Dom. opusc. p. I.

312 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

frequent editions of, with considerable additions, being extremely
particular in pleasing himself, as he says in his prefaces. But
men's eyes were more turned upon him, when they saw one,
so little advanced in age, undertake to condemn the Chiefs of
both parties of the Reformation, and the whole world was big
with expectation of the novelty he was going to produce.
26. — Calvhi's doctrine about the Eucharist almost forgotten by his folloxoers.

This is, indeed, one of the most memorable points of the new

Reformation, and deserves the more to be considered, the more

it seems forgotten by the Calvinists now-a-days, although it

makes one of the most essential parts of their confession of faith.

27. — Calvin is not content with receiving a sign in the Supper.

If Calvin had only said, that the signs in the Eucharist are
not empty, or that the union we there have with Jesus Christ is
effective and real, and not imaginary, this would be nothing :
we have seen that Zuinglius and Gicolampadius, whom Calvin
was not quite satisfied with, had said altogether as much as that
in their writings. The graces we receive by the Eucharist, and
the merits of Jesus Christ applied to us therein, suffice to
make us understand, that, in this Sacrament, the signs are not
empty, and none ever hath denied but the fruit we gather from
it is very real.

28. — JN'ot even an efficacious sign.

The difficulty then lay, not in discovering to us how grace,
united to the sacrament, became an efficacious sign, and full of
virtue, but in showing how the Body and Blood were effectually
communicated to us in this Sacrament : for this was the thing
peculiar to this Sacrament, and what all Christians were accus-
tomed to look for in it, by virtue of the words of the institution.
29. — J^or the virtue and merit of Jesus Christ.

To say that, together with the figure, the virtue and merit of
Jesus Christ were in it received by faith, was what had been so
fully said by Zuinglius and (Ecolampadius, that Calvin could
have found nothing wanting in their doctrine, had he not required
something more than this.
30. — CalvhVs doctrine partakes something of that of Bucer and the articles of
Wittenberg.

Bucer, whom he acknowledged, in some measure, for his
master, by confessing, as he had done at the Wittenberg agree-
ment, a Substantial Presence common to all communicants,
worthy and unworthy, thereby established a Real Presence inde-
pendent of faith, and had endeavored to come up to the idea of
reality, with which the words of our Saviour naturally fill the
mind. But Calvin thought he said too much ;* and although he
* Ep. ad Illust. Princ. Germ. p. 324.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 313

approved of producing to the Lutherans the articles of Witten-
berg, in order to show that the quarrel relating to the Eucharist
was concluded by them, yet he did not, in his heart, abide by
this decision. Wherefore, he borrowed something from Bucer
and this agreement, and modelling it after his own fashion, en-
deavored to strike out a new system peculiar to himself.

3].— The state of the questmi resumed. — The sentiments of the Catholics on these
words, " This is my Body.''''

To understand the principle of it, it will be necessary to trace
back in a few words the state of the question, and not fear re-
peating sometliiiig of what has been already said on this subject.
The matter in question was to know the sense of these words,
" This is my Body, this is my Blood." Catholics maintained,
the design of our Saviour was thereby to give us his Body and
Blood to eat, as, in the old law, the flesh of the victims, sacri-
ficed for the people, w^as given to them.

As this m.anducation was to the ancients a sign that the victim
was theirs, and that they partook of the sacrifice ; so the Body
and Blood of our Saviour, sacrificed for us, being given us to
take by the mouth with the Sacrament, are to us a sign that they
are ours, and that it was for us the Son of God made a sacrifice
of them on the cross.

To the end that this pledge of the love of Jesus Christ might
be certain and efficacious, it was requisite we should not only
have the merits, the spirit, and the virtue, but also the proper
substance of the sacrificed victim, and that it should be as truly
given us to eat, as the flesh of the victims had been given in the
Jewish dispensation.

Thus were these words understood, " This is my Body given
for you, this is my Blood shed for you,"* viz., This is as truly
my Body, as it is true this Body was given for you ; and as truly
my Blood, as it is true this Blood was shed for you. By the
same reason, it was understood that the substance of this flesh
and blood was given to us no where but in the Eucharist, since
Jesus Christ said no where else, " This is my Body, this is my
Blood."

Now, we receive Jesus Christ many ways through the whole
course of our lives, by his grace, by his illuminations, by his
Holy Spirit, by his Omnipotent virtue ; but this singular manner
of receiving him, in the proper and true substance of his Body
and Blood, was peculiar to the Eucharist.

Thus was the Eucharist looked upon r.'S anew miracle, which

confirmed to us all the others which God hath wrought for our

salvation. A human body, whole and entire, given in so many

places, to so many people, under the species of bread, was

* Matt. xxvi. 26, 28 j Luke xxii. 29 ; 1 Cor. xi. 24.

27

314 THE HISTORY OF [bOOIC

enough to startle every mind, and we have already seen, that
the Fathers made use of the most surprising effects of the
Divine Omnipotence, to explain this by.

32. — What Faith does in this mystery. — The sentiment of Catholics concerning
these words, " Do this in remembrance of 7ne."

Little would have availed so great a miracle wTought in our
behalf, had not God afforded us the means of reaping advantage
from it, and this we could not hope for, but by faith.

This mystery was, nevertheless, like all the rest, independent
of faith. Believe or not believe it, Jesus Christ took flesh,
Jesus Christ died, and offered himself a sacrifice for us ; and
by the same reason, whether we believe it or not, Jesus Christ
does give us the substance of his Body to be eaten in the
Eucharist ; for it was requisite he should, by that, confirm to us
that it was for us he took it, and for us he sacrificed it : the
tokens of the divine love, in themselves are independent of our
faith ; our faith is only requisite to receive the benefit of them.

At the same time that we receive this precious earnest, certi-
fying to us that Jesus Christ sacrificed is wholly ours, we must
apply our minds to this inestimable testimony of the divine
love. And as the ancients eating the sacrificed victim, were to
eat it as sacrificed, and remember the oblation, which had been
made to God, in sacrifice for them ; those likewise who, at the
holy table, receive the substance of the body and blood of the
lamb immaculate, must receive it as sacrificed, and call to mind
that the Son of God had made a sacrifice of it to his Father,
for the salvation, not only of the whole world in general, but
also of each one of the faithful in particular ; for which reason,
when he said, " This is my body, this is my blood !"* he sub-
joined immediately after, " This do in remembrance of me ;"
that is, as the sequel makes appear, in remembrance of me
sacrificed for you, and of that immense charity which made me
lay down my life for your redemption, conformably to the saying
of St. Paul, " ye shall show the Lord's death until he come."f

We must therefore be very careful not to receive only the
sacred body of our Saviour into our bodies ; we must also
luiite ourselves to it in mind, and remember that he gives us his
body, to the end that we may have a certain pledge that this
sacred victim is wholly ours. But whilst we stir up this pious
reflection in our minds, we ought to enter into the sentiments
of an affectionate acknowledgment to our Saviour ; and this is
the only means of perfectly enjoying this inestimable pledge of
our salvation.
33. — In what manner the possessing of ChrisVs body is spiriiucd and peft^manent.

And although the actual reception of tliis body and blood be
+ Luke .xxii. 19 ; 1 Cor. xi. 24, 25. f 1 Cor. xi. 26.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 315

not allowed us but in certain moments, namely, in communion,
our thankfulness is not confined to so short a time ; and the
having received this sacred pledge at certain moments, is enough
to perpetuate the spiritual enjoyment of so great a good through
all the moments of our lives. For though the actual reception
of the body and blood be but momentary, yet the right we have
to receive it is perpetual ; like to that sacred right one has over
another by the bond of maiTiage. Thus the mind and body
ttnite themselves to enjoy their Saviour, and the adorable sub-
stance of liis body and blood ; but as the union of bodies is the
foundation, that of minds is the perfection of so great a work.
Whoever, therefore, does not unite himself in mind to Jesus
Christ, whose sacred body he receives, enjoys not as he ought
so great a gift : like to those brutal and treacherous spouses
who unite bodies without uniting hearts.

34. — The body and mind must be united to Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ wishes to find in us that love with which he
abounds at his approach. When he finds it not, the union of
bodies is not less real ; but, instead of being fruitful, it is odious
and insulting to the Son of God. Those \tho draw near to his
body without this lively faith, are " the crowd that press him ;'*
those that have this faith are the sick woman " that touches
him."* All touch him, rigorously speaking ; but those who
touch him without faith, press and importune him : those who,
not content with touching him, look upon this touch of his flesh
as an earnest of that virtue which goes out of him unto those
who love him, touch him truly, because they touch alike his
heart and body.

This it is which makes the difference between those who
communicate^ discerning, or not discerning, the body of the
Lord ; receiving, with the body and blood, the grace which ac-
companies them naturally, or rendering themselves guilty of the
sacrilegious attempt to profane them. By this means, Jesus
Christ exercises on all that almightiness given to him in heaven
and on earth, applying to himself, to some as a Saviour, to
others as a rigorous judge.
35. — The precise state of the question laid down from the precedent doctrine.

This is what was necessary to be re-considered concerning
the mystery of the Eucharist, in order to understand what I
have now to say ; and it is plain, the state of the question is,
to know, on the one hand, whether the gift which Jesus Christ
bestows upon us in the Eucharist of his body and blood be a
mystery, like the rest, independent of faith in its substance, and
only requiring faith to profit by it ; or, whether the whole mys-

* Mark v. 30, 31. Luke viii. 45, 46.

316 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

tery consists in the union we have with Jesus Christ by faith
alone, without any thing else intervening on his part but spiritual
promises, figured by the Sacrament, and announced by the word.
By the first of these sentiments the real and substantial presence
is established ; by the second, it is denied that Jesus Christ is
no way united to us, except in figure in the Sacrament, and in
spirit by faith.

36, — Calvin seeks to reconcile Luther and Zuinglius.
We have seen that Luther, whatever design he might have
to reject the Substantial Presence, had from the words of our
Saviour so strong an impression of it, that he never could give
it up. We have seen that Zuinglius and (Ecolampadius, dis-
heartened at the impenetrable loftiness of a mystery so far
raised above our senses, could never enter into it. Calvin,
urged on the one side with the impression of reality, and on the
other with the difficulties which thwart our senses, seeks a
middle way, difficult enough to make agree in all its parts.
37. — How strongly Calvin speaks of the reality.
In the first place, he admits* that we really partake of the
true body and blood of Jesus Christ ; and this he expressed
with such energy, that the Lutherans almost believed he sided
with them : for he repeats a hundred and a hundred times, that
*' Truth must be given us, together with the signs, that under
these signs we truly receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ ;
that the flesh of Jesus Christ is distributed in the Sacrament ;
that it penetrates us ; that we are partakers, not only of the
spirit of Jesus Christ, but also of his flesh ; that we have the
proper substance, and are made partakers of it : that Jesus
Christ unites himself to us whole and entire, and for that end
unites himself to us in body and mind ; that we must not doubt
but we receive his proper body ; and if there be one in the
world that confesses this truth sincerely, he is the man."
38. — One must be united to the body of Jesus Christ more than by virtue and thought.
He not only acknowledges in the Supper, " The virtue of the
body and blood, but will have the substance joined to it ;" and
declares,! when he speaks of the manner of receiving Jesus
Christ in the Supper, he means not to speak of the parts you
there have : " In his merits, in his virtue, in his efficacy, in the
fruit of his death, in his power." Calvin rejects all these ideas,
and complains of the Lutherans, who, says he, reproaching
him that he gave nothing to the faithful but a share in the merits
of Jesus Christ, "darken the communion which he requires we
should have with him." He carries his thought so far, that he

* Instit. lib. iv. c. 1 7. n. 1 7, &c. Diluc. Expos. Adm. con t. Westp. int. opusc. &c.
t Tr. de Coen. Doniini, 1540. Int. opusc. Inst. iv. xvi. 18, &,c. &c. Diluc.
Exp. opusc. 846. Ibid. Brev. Admon. ae Co^nd. Domini int. Ep. p. 594.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 317

excludes even as insufficient all the union that may be had with
Jesus Christ, not only by the imagination, but also by the
thought, or by the sole apprehension of the mind. " We are,"
says he, "united to Jesus Christ, not by fancy and imagination,
or by thought, or the sole apprehension of the mind, but really,
and in effect, by a true and substantial union."

39. — A neio effect of Faith, according to Calvin.

Yet he still says we are united to him only by faith, which but
little agrees with liis other expressions ; but the thing is, from
a notion as odd as it is novel, he will not have that which is
united to us by faith, be united to us barely by thought ; as if
faith were any thing else than a thought or an act of our minds,
divine indeed and supernatural, which the Heavenly Father
alone can inspire, but still a thought.

40. — Calvin requires the proper substance.

There is. no knowing what all these expressions of Calvin
mean,* if they do not signify that the flesh of Jesus Christ is in
us, not only by its virtue, but in itself, and by its proper sub-
stance ; nor are these strong expressions only to be found in
Calvin's books, but also in his Catechisms^ and the confession
of faith which he gave to his disciples, which shows how literally
they are to be understood.

41. — He will have us to receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ otherioise
than the ancient Hebrcivs could9o it.

Zuinglius and (Ecolampadius had often objected to Catholics
and Lutherans that we received the body and blood of Jesus
Christ as the ancient Hebrews received them in the desert ;
v/hence it followed that we receive them not in substance, their
substance not existing then, but in spirit only. But Calvinf
cannot suffer this reasoning, and owning that our fathers re-
ceived Jesus Christ in the desert, he maintains they did not re-
ceive him like us, since we now have " the substance of his
flesh, and our manducation is substantial, which that of the an-
cients could not be."

42. — If toe imderstand Calvbi's expressions nalurally, xoe must believe that the
reception of the body and blood is independent of faith.

Secondly, he teaches that this body once offered for us,1: " Is
given to us in the Supper to ascertain to us that we have part in
his sacrifice," and in the reconciliation it brings with it ; which
naturally speaking, is as much as to say, we must distinguish
what is on God's side from v/hat is on ours, and that it is not
our faith which renders Jesus Christ present to us in the Eu-
charist, but that Jesus Christ, otherwise present as a sacred
pledge of divine love, serves as a support to our faith. For, as

* Dim. 51, 52, 53. Conf. xxxvi. f 2. Def. cont. Westph. p. 779.

I Cat. Dim. 52.

27*

318 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

when we say, the Son of God made himself man to certify to us
that he loved our nature, we own his incarnation as independent
of our faith, and, withal, as means given us v/hereby to support
it ; in like manner, to teach that Jesus Christ gives us his body
and blood in this mystery, to ascertain to us that we have part
in the sacrifice he made of them, in truth, is owning that the
body and blood are given us, not because we believe, but to the
end that our faith, being excited by so great a present, may rest
more assured of the divine love, which by such an earnest we
are made certain of. Hereby, then, it appears manifestly that
the gift of the body and blood is independent of faith in the sa-
crament ; and Calvin's doctrine leads us to this conclusion by
another way.
43. — According to Calvin's expressions^ the true body must be in the Sacrament.

For he says in the third place,* and repeats it frequently, that
*'the Holy Supper is composed of two things, or that there are
two things in this Sacrament, the material bread and the wine
which we behold with our eyes, and Jesus Christ, wherev/ith
our souls are nourished interiorly." We have seen these words
in the Wittenburg agreement. Luther and the Lutherans had
taken them from a famous passage of St. Irenaeus, wherein it is
said that the " Eucharist is composed of a celestial and a terres-
trial thing ;" namely, as they explained it, as well of the sub-
stance of bread as tli»t of the body. This explanation of theirs
was disputed by the Catholics ; and, without entering here into
this controversy against the Lutherans, if to them this explana-
tion seemed contrary to Catholic transubstantiation, it manifestly
overthrew the Zuinglian figure, and at least established Luther's
consubstantiation : for to say we have in the Sacrament, namely,
in the sign itself, the thing terrestrial together with the celestial,
that is, according to the Lutherans' sense, the material bread
with the veiy body of Jesus Christ, is manifestly placing both
substances together ; but to say that the sacrament is composed
of bread, which we see before our eyes, and of Jesus Christ,
who is in the highest heavens, at the right hand of his Father,
would be an expression completely extravagant. They must
therefore say that both substances are indeed in the sacrament,
and that the figure is there joined with the thing itself.

44. — Another expression of Calvin, that the body is under the sign of the breads
as the Holy Ghost is under that of the dove.

It is to this that expression tends which we find in Calvin,
" that under the sign of the bread we take the body, and under
the sign of the wine we take the blood, distinctly one from the
other, to the end we may enjoy Jesus Christ whole and entire."

* Inst. lib. iv. c. 17. n. 11. 14. Catech. Dim. 53. Sup. lib. n. 23. Lib. iv.c. 34

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 319

And the thing here most remarkable is, that Calvin says* the
body of " Jesus Christ is under the bread, as the Holy Ghost
is under the dove ;" which necessarily imports a substantial
presence, nobody doubting but the Holy Ghost was substantially-
present under the form of the dove, as, in a particular manner,
God ever was when he appeared under some figure.

The words he makes use of are precise : " we do not pre-
tend," says he, " that a symbolical body is received ; as it was
not a symbolical spirit which appeared in the baptism of our
Lord : the Holy Ghost was then truly and substantially present ;
but he rendered himself present by a visible symbol, and was
seen in the baptism of Jesus Christ, because he truly appeared
under the symbol, and under the external form of the dove."

If the body of Jesus Christ is as present to us under the
])read as the Holy Ghost was present under the form of a dove,
I know not what more can be desired for a real and substantial
presence. And Calvin says all these things in a work, wherein
he purposes to explain more clearly than ever how Jesus Christ
is received, since he says them after having long disputed v»^ith
the Lutherans on this subject, in a book which bears this title,
" A clear Exposition of the manner how we partake of the body
of our Lord."

45. — Another expression of Calvin, which makes Jesus Christ present under the
bread, as God was in the ark.

In the same book he says,! " Jesus Christ is present in the
sacrament, as God was present in the ark, where," says he,
"he rendered himself truly present ; and not only in figure, but
in his proper substance." Thus, when this mystery is very
clearly and very plainly to be spoken of, expressions are natu-
rally employed, which lead the mind to the Real Presence.
4G. — Calvin says he only disputes the manner, but admits the thing as much as ice.

And it is for this reason, in the fourth place, that Calvin says
here, J and every where else, that he disputes not of the thing,
but only of the manner. " I dispute not," says he, " about the
presence, nor the substantial manducation, but about the maimer
both of the one and the other." He repeats, a hundred times
over, that he agrees to the thing, and only questions which way
it is accomplished. All his disciples speak the same language,
and even to this day our reformed are angry when we tell them
the body of Jesus Christ, according to their faith, is not as sub-
stantially with them, as, according to ours, it is with us ; which
shows that it is a dictate of the spirit of Christianity to make
Jesus Christ as present in the Eucharist as possible, and that
his words naturally guide us to what is most substantial.
* InsL iv. c. 17. r. 1G, 17. Diluc. exp. sanre doct opusc. p. 839. Ibid. p. 844.
I Ibid. I Inst. et. Opusc. p. 777, ct seq. pp. 839, 844, etc.

320 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

47. — Calvin admits an ineffable and miractdous presence of the body.

Thence it comes, fifthly, that Calvin admits of a presence that
js wholly miraculous and divine.* He is not like the Swiss,
who are angry when you speak to them of a miracle in the Sup-
per : on the contrary, he is vexed when you tell him there is
none. He is continually repeating that the mystery of the Eu-
charist surpasses the senses ; that it is an incomprehensible
work of the divine power ; a secret impenetrable to the mind of
man ; that words are wanting to express his thoughts ; and his
thoughts, though greatly transcending his expressions, fall far
beneath the summit of this unutterable mystery : " insomuch,"
says he, " that he rather experiences what this union is, than
understands it:" which shows he feels, or thinks he feels, the
effects, but the cause is above his reach. Accordingly, he in-
serts in the Confession of Faith,| " that this mystery, by its
loftiness, surpasses the measure of our senses, and the whole
order of nature ; and, forasmuch as it is celestial, cannot be ap-
prehended, that is, comprehended, but by faith." And laboring
to explain, in the Catechism, J how it is possible that " Jesus
Christ should make us partakers of his proper substance, con-
sidering that his body is in heaven, and we on earth, he answers,
" This is done by the incomprehensible virtue of his spirit,
which, indeed, conjoins things separated by distance of place."
48. — Jl reflection on these loords of Calvin.

A philosopher would easily comprehend that the divine power
is not confined within the limits of place : the meanest capacities
understand how they may be united in spirit and in thought, to
what is most distant from them ; and Calvin, leading us by his
expressions to a more miraculous union, either speaks without
meaning, or excludes the union by faith alone.
49. — Calvin admits a Presence lohich is proper and peculiar to the Supper.

Accordingly we see, sixthly, that he admits§ a participation
in the Eucharist which is neither in baptism nor preaching, since
he says in the Catechism, " That although Jesus Christ be therein
truly communicated to us, nevertheless, it is but in part, and not
fully ;" which shows that he is otherwise given to us in the
Supper than by faith, since faith, being as lively and perfect in
baptism and preaching, he would be as fully given to us then as
in the Eucharist.

50. — The sequel of Calvin's expressions.

What he adds, in order to explain this fulness, is yet stronger,

for there it is he says what has been already cited, that " Jesus

Christ gives us his body and blood, to ascertain to us that we

receive the fruit thereof." Here then is that fulness which we

* Inst. iv. 17, 32. f Art. 36. J Dim. 53. § Ibid. 52.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 821

receive in the Eucharist, and not in baptism or preaching :
whence it follows, that faith alone does not give us the body and
blood of our Saviour ; but that this body and blood being given
to us after a special manner in the Eucharist, ascertain to us, to
wit, give us a certain faith, that we have part in the sacrifice
which was made of them.

51. — The Communion of the unworthy, how real, according to Ccdvin.

Lastly, what Calvin lets fall, speaking even of the unworthy,
makes appear how far a miraculous presence, independent of
faith, is to be believed in this Sacrament : for, although what
he most inculcates is,* that the unworthy not having faith, Jesus
Christ is ready to come to them, but does not come in effect, the
force of truth, nevertheless, obliges him to say, that " He is
truly offered and given to all those who are seated at the holy
table, although he be not received with fruit, but by the faithful
only," which is the very way of speaking that we employ.

In order then to understand the truth of the mystery which
Jesus Christ works in the Eucharist, it must be believed that
his proper body is therein truly offered and given, even to the
unworthy, and is also received, although not received with fruit :
which cannot be true, if it be not also true, that what is given
us in this Sacrament is the proper body of the Son of God, in-
dependently of faith.

52. — Continuation of Calvin's expressions concerning the Communion of the
univorthy.

Calvin confirms this again in another place, where he writes
thus :-\ " In this consists the integrity of the Sacrament, which
the whole world cannot violate, to wit, that the flesh and blood
of Jesus Christ are as truly given to the unworthy as to the
faithful and elect." Whence it follows, that what is given them
is the flesh and blood of the Son of God independently of faith,
since it is certain, according to Calvin, that they have not faith,
or at least do not exercise it in this state.

Thus have CathoHcs reason to say, that what makes the sacred
gift, which we receive in the Eucharist, be the body and blood
of Jesus Christ, is not the faith we have in his word, but the
word alone by its all-powerful energy : insomuch that faith adds
nothing to the truth of the body and blood, but only makes them
profitable to us ; and nothing is more true than this saying of
St. Augustin,J that the Eucharist is not less " the body of our
Lord to Judas, than to the rest of the Apostles."

53. — Jl compariso^i of Calvin, which upholds the truth of the body being received
by the umoorthy.

The comparison which Calvin makes use of in the same place
* Inst. iv. 17. 10. Opusc. de Coena Domini. 1540. f Inst. ibid. n. 33.

I Auf:;. Serm. xi. de verb. Dom.

322 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

still more strengthens the reality : for, after having said of the
body and blood, what we have just seen, " That they are not
less given to the unworthy than to the worthy," he adds, this
happens alike as with rain, " which, falling on a rock, runs off
without penetrating : in like manner," says he, " the impious
repel the grace of God, and hinder its penetrating into them."*
Observe, he here speaks of the body and blood, which, by con-
sequence, must be given to the unworthy, as really as rain falls
upon a rock. As to the substance of the rain, it falls no less
on rocks and barren places, than on those where it fructifies ;
and so, according to this comparison, Jesus Christ must be no
less substantially present to the obdurate than to the faithful who
receive his Sacrament, though only in these it fructifies. The
same Calvinl tells us again with St. Augustin, that the un-
worthy who partake of his Sacrament, are those troublesome
people who press him in the Gospel, and the faithful, who re-
ceive him worthily, are that pious woman that touches him.
If we consider the body only, all touch him alike : but there is
reason to say, those who touch him with faith alone touch him
truly, because they only touch him fruitfully. Can one speak
in this manner, without owning Jesus Christ is most really pres-
ent both to the one and the other, and that these words, " this is
my body," have always infallibly the effect expressed by them ?
54. — Calvin speaks inconsequently.
I am well aware that when Calvin speaks thus strongly of the
body being given to the impious as truly as to saints, J he, nev-
ertheless, distinguishes betwixt giving and receiving ; and that,
in the same place, where he says, the flesh of Jesus Christ " is
as truly given to the unworthy as to the elect," he hath also said
that it is not received, except by the elect alone ; but this is an
abuse of words. For, if he means that Jesus Christ is not re-
ceived by the unworthy in the same sense that St. John has said
in the Gospel, " He came unto his own, and his own received
him not,"§ that is, believed not in him, he is in the right. But
as those who received not Jesus Christ after this manner, did
not hinder, by their infidelity, his coming as truly to them as to
the rest ; nor did they hinder " the w ord made flesh to dwell
among us,"|l from being truly received, with regard to his per-
sonal presence, in the midst of the world, nay, even in the midst
of the world that knew him not and crucified him : in like man-
ner must it be said, to speak consequently, that these words,
*' this is my body," render him not less present to the unworthy,
who are guilty of his body and blood, than to the worthy who

* Inst lib. iv. c. 17. n. 33. 2. Def. opusc. p. 781.

t Dilnc. Exp. opusc. p. 848. J Inst. lib. iv. c. 17, n. 33.

§ John i. 11. II Ibid.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 323

approach them with faith ; and barely with respect to the cor-
poreal presence, he is equally received by both.

55. — Calvin explains, as we do, these xoords, The flesh profitcth nothing.

I shall here observe one word of Calvin's, which vindicates
us from a reproach he and his followers are continually laying
at our door. How often do they object to us these words,
" The flesh profiteth nothing ?" and yet Calvin explains them
thus,* " The flesh profiteth nothing, of itself alone, but it prof-
iteth together with the spirit." This is exactly what we say,
and what ought to be concluded from these words : not that
Jesus Christ does not give us the proper substance of his flesh
independently of our faith, for he has given it, even according
to Calvin, to the unworthy ; but, that it profiteth nothing to re-
ceive his flesh, if it be not received together with his spirit. And
if his spirit be not always received together with his flesh, this is
not because it is not always there, for Jesus Christ comes to us
full of spirit and grace ; but because, in order to receive that
spirit which he brings, ours must be opened by a lively faith.

56. — An expression of Balvin, that the wnoffrthy, according to us, receive only
the carcass of Jesus Christ.

It is not, therefore, a body without a soul, or, as Calvin speaks,
a " carcass," which we make the unworthy receive, when they
receive the sacred flesh of Jesus Christ without profiting : no
more than it is a carcass and a body without soul and spirit,
which Jesus Christ gives them, even in the sentiments of Calvin
himself. f It is but a vain exaggeration to call that body a car-
cass, which is known to be animated ; for Jesus Chi'ist, risen
from the dead, dies now no more ; he hath life in him, and not
only that life which makes the body live, but that life also which
enlivens the soul. Jesus Christ, wherever he comes, carries
with him life and grace. He brought with, and in him, his
whole virtue with respect to the crowd, that thronged about him ;
but " this virtue went not forth," but in behalf of that woman
who touched him with faith. So, when Jesus Christ gives him-
self to the unworthy, he comes to them with the same virtue and
spirit which he sheds on the faithful ; but this virtue and spirit
act only on those who believe ; and, on all these points, Calvin
must speak the same things we do, to speak consequently.

57. — Calvin weakens his own expressions.
But, it is very true, he does not speak them. True, that, al-
though he says we are partakers of the proper substance of the
body and blood of Jesus Christ, he will have this substance only
united to us by faith ; and after all, in spite of these great words

* Diluc. Ex. opusc. p. 859. f Inst. iv. xvii. n. 33. Ep. ad Mart Schal. p 247.

324 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

of Proper Substance, his design is, to own nothing else in the
Eucharist but a presence of virtue.

It is true, hkewise, that after he had said,* we are partakers
of the " proper substance" of Jesus Christ, he refuses to say,
" he is really and substantially present ;" as if the participation
were not of like nature with the presence, and the proper sub-
stance of a thing could ever be received when it is present only
by its virtue.

58. — He eludes the miracle which he owns in the Supper.

By the same artifice he shifts off that great miracle which he
ilimself is sensible he is obliged to own in the Eucharist ; it is,
said he, an incomprehensible secret, a miracle surpassing all
sense and understanding of man. And what is this secret, this
miracle? Calvin thinks he has expressed it in these words :|
" Is it reason which teaches us, that the soul, immortal and
spiritual by its creation, is enhvened by the flesh of Jesus Christ,
and that so powerful a virtue flows from heaven on the earth ?"
But he deludes us and himself too. The singular miracle which
the Holy Fathers, and, after them, all Christians ever believed
in the Eucharist, does not regard that virtue precisely which the
flesh of Jesus Christ derives from the incarnation. The miracle
consists in the verifying of these words, " this is my body,"
when nothing but mere bread appears to the eye, and in the giv-
ing the same body, at the same time, to so many different per-
sons. It was in order to explain these incomprehensible wonders,
that the Fathers alleged all the other miracles of the divine
power, the changing of water into wine, and all the other changes,
even that great change which of nothing made all things. But
Calvin's miracle is not of this nature, not even a miracle that
is peculiar to the sacrament of the Eucharist, nor a sequel from
these words, " this is my body." It is a miracle which is wrought
in the Eucharist and out of the Eucharist, and which, to speak
the truth, is what essentially flows from the very mystery of the
incarnation.

59. — Calvin is sensible of the insufficiency of his Doctrine to explain the miracle
of the Eucharist,

Calvin himself was aware that some other miracle was to be
sought in the Eucharist. He has expressed as much in several
places of his works, but particularly in the Catechism :'|; " How
comes it to pass," says he, "that Jesus Christ makes us partakers
of the proper substance of his body, considering his body is in
heaven, and we on earth." In this consists the miracle of the
Eucharist. What does Calvin answer to this, and what do all
Calvinists answer with him ? " That the incomprehensible vir-
tue of the Holy Ghost, indeed, conjoins things separated by

* 2 Defens. opusc. p. 775. j Diluc. Exp. opusc. 845. % Dim. 53.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 325

distance of place." Does he mean to speak like a Catholic,
and say, the Holy Ghost can every where render present what
he has a mind to give in substance? I understand him, and ac-
knowledge the true miracle of the Eucharist. Vv^ould he say
that things separated, and remaining separated as far as heaven
is from earth, are, nevertheless, united, substance to subtance 1
This is no miracle of the Almighty, but a chimerical and con-
tradictory proposition, which nobody can understand.

60. — The Calvmists did not so much admit a miracle in the Eucharist, as they
were sensible one ought to be admitted.

But in reality, to speak the truth, neither Calvin nor the Cal-
vinists do admit of any miracle in the Eucharist. A presence
by faith, and a presence by virtue, is not miraculous ; the sun
has as much virtue, and produces as great effects, at as great a
distance. If, therefore, Jesus Christ be only pres":;nt in virtue,
there can be no miracle in the Eucharist ; for which reason the
Swiss, men naturally sincere, who have no other use for words
than to speak just as they think, would never hear it mentioned.
Calvin, in this more penetrating, very well saw with all the
Fathers and all the faithful, that, in these words, " this is my
body," there was as clear a mark of omnipotence, as in these
"let there be light." To answer this idea, it was necessary,
at least, to sound high the name of a miracle ; but in the main,
nobody was less disposed than Calvin to beheve one in the Eu-
charist ; otherwise, why does he continually upbraid us that we
confound the laws of nature, that a body cannot be in several
places, nor be given us whole and entire under the form of a
morsel of bread l Is not this reasoning derived from philoso-
phy? Undoubtedly; and, nevertheless, Calvin, who all along
employs it, declares in many places,* " that he will not make
use of natural, nor philosophical reasons, of which he makes no
account," but of Scripture only. And why? because, on one
hand, he cannot divest himself of them, nor so far raise himself
above man as to despise them ; and, on the other hand, he is
very sensible that receiving them in matters of religion, is not
only destroying the mystery of the Eucharist, but all the mys-
teries of Christianity at once.

61. — The perplesdties and contradictions of Calvin in the defence of the figurative

sense.

The same confusion appears when these words, " This is my
Body," are to be explained. All his books, all his sermons, all
his discourses, are full of the figurative interpretation, and the
figure metonymy, which puts the sign for the thing. This is
the way of speaking, which he calls " sacramental," which he
will have the Apostles beforehand well accustomed to, when
* Diluc. Exp. opusc. p. 858.
28

326 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

Jesus Christ instituted the Supper. The Rock was Christ, the
Lamb is the Passover, Circumcision is the Covenant, " This is
my Body," according to him, are all the same ways of speak-
ing : and this is what you find in every page.

Whether or not he were fully satisfied with this, the following
passage will make appear.* It is taken out of a book entitled,
"A clear Explanation," already by me quoted, and which was
written against Heshusius, a Lutheran minister. " Behold,"
says Calvin, " how this hog makes us speak. In this phrase,
This is my Body, there is a figure like to this ;" Circumcision
is the Covenant, the Rock was Christ, the Lamb is the Pass-
over. " The Forger imagined he was prattling at table, and
spending his wit among his guests. Never will such fooleries
be found in our writings ; but, in plain words, this is what we
say, viz. when we talk of Sacraments, a certain and particular
way of speaking, usual in Scripture, must be followed. Thus,
without escaping under the covert of a figure, we think it enough
to say, what would be clear to the whole world, did not these
beasts obscure even the sun himself, that the figure metonymy
must here be owned, whereby the name of the thing is given to
the sign."

62. — What it was that puzzled him.

Had Heshusius fallen into such a contradiction, Calvin would
certainly have told him in plain terms he was drunk; but Calvin
was sober, I must own, and when he confounds himself, it is
because he does not find in his own expositions what can please
him. He disowns here what he says through every page ; he
rejects that figure with contempt which he is forced to betake
himself to again the same moment ; in a word, he can stand to
nothing he says, and is ashamed of his own doctrine.

63. — He saw further into the difficulty than the rest of the Saa'amentarimis. —
Hoic he endeavored to clear it.

It must be owned, nevertheless, that he was more exact than
the rest of the Sacramentarians, and besides the superiority of
his wit, the dispute which had been so long on foot, had given
him leisure more fully to digest this matter. For he does not
stand so much upon allegories and parables, — I am the door, I
am the vine, — nor on other expressions of the like nature, which
always carry their own expositions with them so clear and man-
ifest, that a child even could not be mistaken. | And besides, if
because Jesus Christ made use of allegories and parables, every
thing was to be understood in that sense ; he plainly saw that
would be nothing but fiUing the whole gospel with confusion.

To remedy this, CalvinJ bethought himself of these forms of

* Diluc. Exp. opusc. p. 861. f Admon. ult.ad Westph. opusc. p. 813.
t 3 Def. opusc. p. 781, etc. ; pp. 812, 813, 818, etc.

IX.] THE HISTORY OF 327

expression which he calls " sacramental," wherein the sign is
put for the thing ; and, by admitting them in the Eucharist, which,
beyond doubt, is a sacrament, he believes he has found a cer-
tain means of establishing in it a figure, without bringing the
same into a precedent for other matters.

64. — The examples lohich he drew from Scnpture. — That of Circumcision,
xohich confutes instead of serving him.

He also brought more apposite examples from scripture than
any of the Protestant writers before him. The chief difficulty
lay in finding out a sign of institution, wherein, at the institution
itself, the name of the thing is immediately given to the sign
without preparing the mind for it, and this with the proper word
by which this sign is instituted. The question was, whether
any such example could be found in scripture. Catholics main-
tained there could not; and Calvin thought to convince them by
this text of Genesis, in which Almighty God, speaking of cir-
cumcision which he instituted, named it the Covenant : — " My
covenant," says he, " shall be in your flesh."* But he was
plainly mistaken, since Almighty God, before he had said, " my
Covenant shall be in your flesh," had said already, " it shall be
a sign of the covenant." The sign was therefore instituted
before the name of the thing was given to it, and the mind, by
this exordium, prepared to the understanding of what ensued :
from whence it follows, that our Saviour should have prepared
the minds of the apostles, in order to take the sign for the thing,
had he designed to have given this sense to these words, —
" This is my Body — this is my Blood ;" but having not done
this, it is to be believed he intended to leave the words in their
natural and obvious sense. Calvin owns as much himself, since,
by saying that the apostles ought already to have been accus-
tomed to these sacramental Ways of speaking, he owns it would
have been incongruous to employ such, had they not been ac-
customed to them. As it then manifestly appears they could
not be accustomed to give the name of a thing to the sign of
institution, without being forewarned, and there being no example
of this nature in the Old or New Testament, from Calvin's own
principles, it must be concluded against Calvin, that Jesus Christ
ought not to have spoken in this sense, and had he done it, his
Apostles would not have understood him.

65. — Another example which makes nothing to the question, viz. that the Church
is also called the Body of Jesus Chnst.

And, indeed, the truth is, although he placed his chief strength
in these ways of speaking, by him called sacramental, and in all
intricacies, ever guided himself by this clue, he is so little satis-
lied therewith, that he says in other places, that the scriptures
* Gen. xviL 13. Ibid. 11.

328 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

naming the Church the Body of our Lord, is the chief snppor+
of his doctiine. To make this his chief defence, shows him,
indeed, conscious of his weakness. Is the Church the sign of
our Lord's body, as Calvin makes the bread to be ?* By no
means ; she is his body, as he is her head, by that so common
a way of speaking, by which a whole nation, and the prince who
governs them, are represented as a kind of natural body, which
hath its head and members. What can then be the reason, that
after Calvin had laid his main stress on these sacramental ways
of speaking, he depends still more on a manner of speaking,
which is absolutely of another kind : unless it be, that to support
a figure of which he stands in need, he calls to his assistance
all the figurative ways of speech, of what nature soever they be,
what little coherence soever they may have 1

66. — Calvin makes new efforts to preserve the idea of the Reality.
The rest of his doctrine gives him no less pain, and the vio-
lent expressions he makes use of plainly discover it. We have
seen how he will have the flesh of Jesus Christ to penetrate us
by its substance. I have taken notice that, notwithstanding all
these great words, he means no more by them, than that it pene-
trates us by its virtue ; but this manner of speaking appearing
weak to him, in order to mix the substance therewith, he makes
us receive in the Eucharist,| as it were, " an extract of the
Flesh of Jesus Christ, upon condition, however, that it remain
in heaven, and from its substance life flow down upon us ;" as
if we received the quintessence and the choicest part of his
flesh, the rest abiding in heaven. I will not say he believed it
so ; but only, that the grounds of doctrine not being able to
supply him wherewith to answer the idea of reality he was so
full of, he supplied this defect by far-fetched, unheard-of, and
extravagant expressions.

67. — He cannot ansioer the idea of Reality, which our Saviour^s institution
impresses on the mind.

That I may not here dissemble any part of Calvin's doctrine,
concerning the communication which we have with Jesus Christ,
1 am obhged to say, he seems in some places to make Jesus
Christ as present in Baptism as in the Supper ; for, in general,
he distinguishes three things in the sacrament besides the signj
^ — " the signification, which consists in the promises ; the matter
or the substance, which is Jesus Christ, with his death and
resurrection ; and the effect, namely, sanctification, life eternal,
and all the graces which Jesus Christ brings to us." Calvin
acknowledges all these things, as well in the Sacrament of
Baptism, as in that of the Supper ; and he teaches of Baptism

♦ Inst. iv. 17. t Dil|ic. Expos, opusc. p. 864. \ Inst. lib. iv. c. xvii. n. 11.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 829

in particular, that* " the Blood of Jesus Christ is not less pres-
ent to wash souls, than the water to wash bodies ; and, according
to St. Paul, we are indeed there clothed with Jesus Christ, and
our clothing does not less encompass, than our nourishment
penetrates us." Hereby, then, he openly declares that Jesus
Christ is as present in Baptism, as in the Supper ; and the con-
sequence from his doctrine, I own, naturally leads him to it ;
for, after all, he neither admits of any other presence in the
Supper than by faith, nor of any faith in the Supper but what
is in Baptism ; consequently, I am far from pretending he ad-
mits in it any other presence in effect. What I pretend to show
is, the perplexity he is cast into by these words, " This is my
Body." For either he must confound all mysteries, or he must
be able to give a reason why Jesus Christ spoke no where else
but in the Supper with this energy. If his body and blood be
as present, and as really received every where else, there was no
reason to choose these emphatic words for the Eucharist rather
than for baptism ; and the eternal wisdom would have spoken
in vain. This very thing will be the everlasting and inevitable
confusion of those who defend the figurative sense. On one
side, the necessity of allowing something particular to the Eu-
charist with respect to the presence of the Body ; and on the
other, the impossibility of doing this, according to their princi-
ples, will always involve them in perplexities from which they
can never disengage themselves ; and to extricate himself was
what made Calvin use so many strong expressions relating to the
Eucharist, which he never durst apply to baptism, though there
was the same reason for doing it, according to his principles.

6S. — The Calvinists in the main have abandoned Calvin. — How he is explained
in the book called the Preservative.

His expressions are so violent, and the turns he here gives
to his doctrine are so strained, that his disciples have been forced
to abandon him in the main, nor can I but observe in this place
a notorious variation in the Calvinistic doctrine ; inasmuch as
the Calvinists now-a-days, under pretext of interpreting Calvin's
words, reduce them to nothing at all. To receive the " proper
substance of Jesus Christ" is, according to them,| nothing else
but receiving him " by his virtue, by his efficacy, by his merit,"
the very things which Calvin had rejected as insufficient. All
that we can hope from these great words, "the proper substance"
of Jesus Christ received in the Supper, is only this,J viz. that
what we there receive, is not the substance of another : but, as
for his substance it is no more received, than the substance of
the sun is received by the eye when enlightened by its rays : the
meaning of which is, that they are indeed quite strangers now to
* Diluc. Exp. opusc. p. 864 j Prcserv. p. 195. J Ibid. p. 196.
28*

3S0 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

that proper substance so mucti inculcated by Calvin. If they
defend it, it is only from a point of honor, and lest they should
seem too openly to recant ; and if Calvin, who abetted it with so
much force in his books, had not also inserted it in the Cate-
chisms and Confession of Faith, it would have long since been
quite abandoned.

69. — A sequel of the explanations given to Calvin's words.

The same may be said of those words of Calvin and of the
Catechism, viz. that Jesus Christ is received fully in the Eu-
charist, but in preaching and baptism " in part only."* This,
naturally understood, implies, that the Eucharist hath something
particular in it, which baptism and preaching have not : no such
thing ; it means now no more, than three are more than two ;
that, after having received grace by baptism and instruction by
the word, when to all this God adds the Eucharist, grace in-
creases, and is strengthened, and we possess Jesus Christ more
perfectly. Thus, all the perfection of the Eucharist is its coming
in the last place ; and although, in instituting it, Jesus Christ
made use of such particular terms, it hath nothing particular not-
withstanding, nothing more than baptism, unless, perhaps, a new
sign ; and Calvin's talking so big of the proper substance was
all to no manner of purpose.

By this means, the explanations now given to Calvin's words,
and to those of the Catechism and Confession of Faith, under
the pretext of interpretation, are a real variation in doctrine, and
a proof that the illusions, by which Calvin endeavored to blind
mankind, in order to keep up a notion of reality, could not long
subsist.
70. — Whether there be nothing in these passages of Calvin, but bare defects
of expression.

To cover this manifestly weak side of the sect, it is true, the
Calvinists answer,| that from these expressions we reproach
them with, at most nothing can be concluded but that, perchance,
the terms employed by them in explaining their doctrine at the
beginning might not be quite so proper. But to answer in this
manner, is affecting that they did not see the difficulty. What
ought to be concluded from these expressions of Calvin and the
Calvinists is, that the words of our Saviour had, at first, do what
they would, made such an impression of reality on their minds,
as they never could come up to by words, and which, afterwards,
forced them upon expressions, which, having no sense in their
belief, give testimony to ours ; which is not only imposing on
themselves by an erroneous way of speaking, but confessing an
error in the thing itself, and, even in their confession of faith,
bearing the stamp of their own conviction.

* Dim. 52. Preserv. p. 197. f Preserv. Ibid. p. 194.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 3S1

71, — Calvin ivished to have understood more than in reality he said.

For instance, Avhen he is forced to say, on one side, that the
proper substance of the body and blood of our Lord is received ;
and on the other, that they are only received by their virtue, as
the sun is received by its rays, this is confounding himself and
uttering contradictions.

Then again, when he is forced to say on one side, that the
proper substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ is as
much received, in the Calvinistic supper as in that of the Cath-
olics, and that there is no difference but in the manner ; and on
the other side, that the body and blood of Jesus Christ are as
far distant from the faithful as heaven is from earth, and that a
Real and Substantial Presence is, after all, one and the same
thing with an absence, at so prodigious a distance ; this is a
prodigy unheard of in human language, and such expressions
only serve to make us see they would fain have it in their
power to say, what, according to their own principles, they can-
not say in reason.

72. — Why Heretics are obliged to imitate the language of the Church.

And that I may show once for all, not to come back to it
again, the consequence of these expressions of Calvin and the
first Calvinists ; let us reflect, that never as yet could any here-
tics be found, that did not affect to speak like the Church. The
Arians and Socinians say, as well as we, that Jesus Christ is
God, but improperly, and by representation, because he acts in
the name of God, and by God's authority. The Nestorians
make no difficulty of saying, that the Son of God and the Son
of Mary are but the same person ; but just as an ambassador
is the same person with the Prince he represents. Shall we say
that they hold the sam.e principles as the Catholic Church, and
only differ in the way of expressing their thoughts ? On the con-
trary, it will be said, they speak like her without thinking like
her, because falsehood is forced at least to mimic truth. With
relation to proper substance and such like expressions in the
works of Calvin and the Calvinists, the case is just the same.
73.— The triumph of Truth.

Here we may observe the conspicuous triumph of Catholic
verity, inasmuch as the literal sense of the words of Jesus
Christ, which we defend, after forcing Luther to maintain it,
however contrary to his inclinations, as hath been seen, hath also
forced Calvin, who denies it, to confess nevertheless so many
things, which make for, and establish it in an invincible manner.

74. — tM passage in Calvin fm- a Real Presence, independent of Faith.

Before I quit this subject, I must observe one passage in

332 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

Calvin,* which affording great room for speculation, I question
whether I shall be able to dive to the bottom of it. It concerns
the Lutherans, who, without destroying the bread, enclose the
body in it. " If," says he, " what they pretend, be only this,
that, whilst the bread is presented in the mystery, the body is
also presented at the same time, because truth is inseparable
from its sign, this is what I shall not much oppose."

Here is, then, a thing which he neither altogether approves
nor disapproves. It is a middle opinion, betwixt his own and
that of the generality of the Lutherans : an opinion establishing
the body inseparable from the sign ; by consequence, indepen-
dently of faith, since it is certain, that, without it, the sign may
be received : and what is this else, but the opinion, which I
have attributed to Bucer and Melancthon, whereby they admit
a Real Presence, even in the communion of the unworthy, and
without the assistance of faith ; requiring this Presence to ac-
company the sign as to time, but not to be confined to, or con-
tained in it, as to place 1 This is what Calvin will not much
oppose ; that is, he does not much disapprove of a Ileal Pres-
ence inseparable from the sacrament, and independent of faith.

75. — Ceremonies rejected by Calvin.

I have endeavored to make known the doctrine of this second
Patriarch of the new Reformation, and persuade myself I have
discovered what it was that gave him so much authority in that
party. It appeared he had new ideas about imputed justice,
which was the groundwork of the Reformation, and about the
Eucharist which had divided them for so long a time ; but there
was still a third point, which greatly enhanced his credit among
those who valued themselves for men of wit. It was his bold-
ness in rejecting ceremonies much beyond whatever the Luther-
ans had done,| for they had made it a law to themselves, to
retain those which were not manifestly contrary to their new
tenets. But on this head Calvin was inexorable. He con-
demned Melancthon, who, in his opinion, thought ceremonies
of too little a concern ; and if the worship, introduced by him,
appeared to some too naked, even this had a new charm for the
men of taste and spirit, v/ho thought thereby to raise themselves
above their senses, and soar beyond the vulgar. And because
the Apostles had written little on ceremonies, which they were
satisfied with establishing by practice, or often left to the dis-
posal of each Church, the Calvinists boasted, above all the
Reformers, that they adhered with the greatest purity to the
letter of Scripture, which in England and Scotland gave them
the name of Puritans.

* Inst. iv. p. 17, n. 16. f Ep. ad Mel. p. 120, etc.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 333

76. — What opinion the other Protestants had of the Calvinists.

By this means Calvin refined upon, and outstripped the first
authors of the new Reformation. The party which bore liis
name was hated extremely by all the other Protestants, who
looked upon them as the most haughty, restless, and seditious
of any that had appeared as yet. There is no need of alleging
what has, in several places, been written of them by James I,
King of England and Scotland. He makes, nevertheless, an
exception in favor of Puritans of other countries, thinking it
enough to publish, from his own experience, that he knew none
more dangerous, or greater enemies to the regal power, than
those he had met with in his own kingdoms. Calvin made much
progress in France ; and this great kingdom, by the attempts
of his followers, saw itself on the very brink of ruin : so that he
was in France much like what Luther was in Germany : and
Wittenberg, which gave the new Gospel its first birth, was
rivalled by Geneva, where ruled this head of the second party
of the new Reformation.

77. — Calviii's pride.

How much smitten he was with this glory, we shall perceive
by a few words he wrote to Melancthon.* " I own myself,"
says he, " much your inferior ; yet am nowise ignorant to wha+
a degree God has raised me on this theatre, nor cwa our friend-^
ship be violated without injuring the Church." To see himself
as it were, exposed upon a grand theatre, and the eyes of all
Europe turned upon him ; to see himself advanced to the fore-
most rank by his eloquence ; to be conscious of the name he
had acquired, and an authority revered by such a party made
Calvin no longer able to contain himself; to him this was too
alluring a charm, and it is the same charm that has made all
heresiarchs.

78. — His boasting.

It was from a sense of this secret pleasure that, in his answer
to Balduinus,! his great adversary, he thus expressed himself:
" He tells me, with reproach, that I have no children, and that
God has snatched away the son he had bestowed upon me.
Ought I to be thus reproached 1 I, who have so many thousands
of children throughout all Christendom !" To which he adds,
" To all France is known my irreproachable faith, my integrity,
my patience, my watchfulness, my moderation, and my assiduous
labors for the service of the Church ; things that, from my early
youth, stand proved by so many illustrious tokens. With the
support of such a conscience, to be able to hold my station to
the very end of life, is enough for me."

* Ep. Calv. p. 195. t I^esp. ad Bald. int. opusc. Calv. p. 370,

334 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

79. — The difference between Luther and Calvin.

He had so much extolled the holy ostentation and rnagna-
nimitj of Luther, that he was not easy till he had followed the
example ; although, to avoid the ridicule which Luther fell into,
he particularly set up for the character of modesty, as one who
had p. mind to have it in his power to brag, that " he was with-
out pride, and feared nothing so much as boasting :"* so that
the difference between Luther's and Calvin's ostentation is, that
Luther, who was hurried away by the impetuosity of his temper,
ever thoughtless of moderation or restraint, praised himself as
it were in transport : but the self-commendations Calvin fell into,
in spite of all the laws of modesty which he had set to himself,
burst from the centre of his heart, and violently broke through
all barriers. How pleasing was he in his own eyes, when he
commends so much| " His own frugahty, his incessant labors,
his constancy in dangers, his watchfulness to comply with his
charge, his indefatigable application to extend the kingdom of
Christ Jesus, his integrity in defending the doctrine of piety
and the serious occupation of his whole life in the meditation
of heavenly things." Nothing Luther ever said came up to
this, nor did the sallies of unbridled passion ever make him say
so much as Calvin utters of himself in cold blood.
80. — Hoio Calvin boasted of his eloquence.

Nothing delighted him more than the glory of writing well ;
and Westphalus, a Lutheran, having called him a declaimer,
*' Do what he will," says Calvin, " nobody will ever give him
credit, and the whole world is fully satisfied how well I know
how to press an argument, and how distinct is that conciseness
wdth which I write. "J

. This is giving to himself, in three words, the whole glory that
the art of eloquence can bestov/ on man. Here is, at least, a
commendation which Luther never arrogated to himself; for
though he was one of the sprightliest orators of his age, so far
from making it appear that he valued himself for eloquence, he
took a pleasure in saying he was a poor monk, bred up in
schools and obscurity, unacquainted with the art of speaking.
But Calvin, wounded in this tender part, flies out, and, at the
expe ase of modesty, cannot forbear saying that nobody delivers
his thoughts more distinctly, or argues more strongly than himself.
81. — Calvin'' s eloquence.

Let us then allow him this glory, since he is so fond of it, of
having written as well as any of that age ; nay, if he desires
it, let us even set him above Luther : for, although Luther had
something more original and lively, Calvin, inferior in genius,

* 2 Def. ad Westp. opusc. 788. f Il>id. 842. J 2 Def. 791.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 335

seems to carry it by dint of study. Luther triumphed in speak-
ing ; but Calvin's pen was more correct, especially in Latin ;
and his style, v/hich was more serious, was also much more
coherent and more chastened. They both spoke their native
language in perfection : the vehemence of both was extraordi-
nary ; both gained many disciples and admirers by their taknts ;
elated with their success, they both despised the Fathers ; both
were impatient of contradiction, nor did their eloquence sver
flow more copiously than when fraught with contumelies.
82. — His temper as violent, but sourer than Luther^s. •

Whoever blushed at those expressions which Luther's arro-
gance drew from his pen, will not be less confounded at the
excesses of Calvin : his adversaries are always knaves, fools,
rogues, drunkards, furies, madmen, beasts, bulls, asses, dogs,
swine ; and Calvin's fine style is polluted with this filth through
every page. Be they Catholics or Lutherans, it is all one to
him, he spares none. Westphalus's school is to him a stinking
hog-sty. The Lutherans' supper is almost always called a sup-
per of Cyclopes, " at which a barbarity may be seen becoming
Scythians ;"* if he is used to say that the devil drives on
Papists, he repeats a hundred times| he has bewitched the
" Lutherans, and that he cannot comprehend why he, above all
others, is assaulted by them, unless it be that Satan, whose vile
slaves they are, so much the more urges them on against him,
as he sees his labors more useful to the Church than theirs."

The individuals whom he treats thus were the chief and most
renowned among the Lutherans. Amidst these invectives he
still boasts of his sweetness ;J and after having stuffed his book
with all Ihat can be imagined, not only most bitter, but also most
atrocious, he thinks he comes well off by saying,§ " That he
was so remote from any gall, when he penned these injurious
taunts, that he himself, upon reading his work over again, stood
quite astonished that so much harsh language could have ever
been uttered by him, and his heart still void of bitterness. It
was," says he, " the heinousness of the subject which alone
furnished him with all these abusive words, which stood ready
to bolt from him. After all, he is not displeased that these stupid
creatures have, at last, smarted under the lash, and hopes this
may help to mend them." Yet he does not refuse to own he
has said something more than he would have done, and that the
remedy applied by him was a little too violent. But, after this
modest confession, he indulges his passion more than ever, and
in the very same breath that he interrogates, " Dog, dost thou
understand me ? Madman, dost thou comprehend me 1 Dost

* Opusc. p. 799. Ibid. pp. 803, 837. f Diluc. Expos. Ibid. p. 839.

I 2 Def. in Westph. § Ult. Adm. p. 795.

336 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

thou take me right, great beast?" he adds, "that he is well
pleased that the contumelies men load him with are not retal-
iated."* Luther's passion, compared with this, was meekness
itself; and, should a comparison be instituted between them,
there is not a man who had not rather stand the brunt of the
impetuous and insolent fury of the one, than of the profound
and bitter malice of the other, who brags of being cool in the
disgorging of such a flow of rancor upon all that come in his way.
83. — The contempt he has for the Fathers.

Berth of them, after their attacks on mortal men, turned their
malice against heaven, by openly despising the authority of the
Holy Fathers. Every body knows how often Calvin had trampled
on their decisions, what a pleasure he took in taking them to task
like school-boys, in giving them their lessons, and the outrageous
manner whereby he thought to elude their unanimous consent,
by saying, for instance,! " that these good men followed, with-
out discretion, a custom that prevailed without reason, and which
was but a little while in getting into vogue."
84. — The Fathers make themselves respected by Protestants in spite of them.

The subject he then had in hand was prayer for the dead.
All his writings are full of the like discourses. But, in spite of
heretical pride, the authority of the Fathers and ecclesiastical
antiquity hes weighty on their minds. For all Calvin's avowed
contempt of the Fathers, he cites them, nevertheless, as wit-
nesses, whose authority it is not lawful to reject, when, after
quoting them, he writes these words : J " What will they say to
the ancient Church 1 will they damn the ancient Church, or will
they banish St. Augustin out of the Church ]" The very same
might be retorted on him, regarding the subject of prayer for
the dead, and in the rest ; where it is certain, and often by his
own confession, that he hath the Fathers against him. But with-
out entering into this particular dispute, I am satisfied with hav-
ing observed that our Reformists are often constrained by the
force of truth, to respect the sentiments of the Fathers more
than their doctrine and inclination carries them to.
85. — Whether Calvin ever varied in his doctrine.

Those who have seen the endless variations of Luther may
inquire whether Calvin fell into the same fault. To which I
shall answer, that, besides a more coherent way of thinking, he
had the advantage of writing a long time after the beginning of
the pretended Reformation ; so that matters having been already
much discussed, and doctors having had leisure to digest them,
Calvin's doctrine seems more uniform than that of Luther. But,
however, we shall see hereafter (whether from a policy usual
* Opusc. 838. t Tr. de Ref. Eccl. J 2 Def. opusc. 777. Admon. ul. 836. Ibid.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 337

to the heads of new sects to mend and perfect their own v/ork,
or, by a necessity common to those who fall into error) that Calvin
also varied very much, not only in his own particular writings,
but also in the public acts, which he drew in the name of all his
followers, or v/hich he inspired them with. And even to go no
further, upon considering only what I have already related of
his doctrine, we may have seen that it abounds with contradic-
tions, that he follows not his own principles, and, with great
words, says just nothing.

86. — Variations in the Acts of the Calvinists. — The Agreement of Geneva com-
pared with the Catechism and the Confession of France. — 1554.

And if we make never so little reflection on those acts which
he framed, or which the Calvinists, with his approbation, pub-
lished in five or six years' time,* neither he nor they can in any
way clear themselves of the guilt of having expounded their
faith with a criminal dissimulation. In 1554, we have seen a
solemn agreement made between those of Geneva and Zurich ;
it was drawn by Calvin, and the common faith of these two
Churches is there set forth. " Concerning the Supper, no more
is said there than that these words, ' This is my body,' must not
be taken precisely in a hteral sense, but figuratively ; so that
the name of the body and blood is by metonymy given to the
bread and wine which signify them ; and that if Jesus Christ
nourishes us by the food of his body, and the drink of his blood,
this is done by faith and the virtue of the Holy Ghost, without
any transfusion or other mixture of substance, but because we
have life by his body once sacrificed, and his blood once shed
for us." If, in this " agreement," we find nothing mentioned
either of the proper " substance" of the body and blood received
in the Supper, or of the incomprehensible miracles of this Sacra-
ment, or such like things as have been remarked in the Cate-
chism and the Confession of Faith of the French Calvinists,
the reason is obvious. Namely, because the Swiss, as hath
appeared, and those of Zurich, having been instructed by Zuin-
glius, would never come into the notion of any miracle in the
Supper ; and satisfied with a virtual presence, knew not the
meaning of that communication of proper substance, which Cal-
vin and the Calvinists kept such a stir about : in order, there-
fore, to come to an agreement, these things were necessarily to
be suppressed, and such a confession of faith as the Swiss could
accept was to be presented to them.

87. — A third Cohfession of Faith sent into Germany. — 1557.

To these two confessions of faith drawn by Calvin, one for
France, the other to please the Swiss, a third also during his

* Opusc. Cal. 752. Hosp. An. 1554. Art. xxii. xxiii.
29

338 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

life was added in favor of the German Protestants. Beza and
Farel, deputed by the reformed churches of France and that of
Geneva in 1667, carried it to Worms, where the Princes and
States of the Augsburg Confession were assembled. The de-
sign was to engage them to intercede, in the Calvinists' behalf,
with Henry II, who, treading in the steps of Francis I, his father,
did his utmost to depress them. The expressions of " proper
substance," readily laid aside when the Swiss were treated with,
were not forgotten now : nay, so many other things were added,
and so much said, that, how all this can be reconcileable with
the doctrine of a figurative sense is past my skill to discover.
For it is there said,* "That not only the benefits of Jesus Christ
are received in the Supper, but even his proper flesh and sub-
stance ; that the body of the Son of God is not there proposed
to us in figure only and by signification symbolically or typically
as a memorial of Jesus Christ absent, but that he is truly and
certainly rendered present with the symbols, which are not mere
signs. And if," said they, " we add, that the manner whereby
this body is given to us is symbolical and sacramental, this is
not because it is only figurative, but by reason that, under the
species of things visible, God offers to us, gives to us, and, with
the symbols, renders present to us, that which is there signified
to us ; and this we say, to the end it may appear that in the
Supper we retain the proper body and the proper blood of Jesus
Christ ; and, if any dispute still remain, it concerns nothing but
the manner."

Till now, we had never heard the Calvinists say that the
Supper was not to be looked upon as a memorial of Jesus Christ
absent : we had never heard them say, that in order to give us,
not his benefits, but his substance and his proper flesh, he ren-
dered it truly present to us under the species ; nor that in the
Supper was to be confessed a presence of the proper body and
the proper blood ; and were we not acquainted with the equivo-
cations of the Sacramentarians, we could not but take them for
as zealous defenders of the Real Presence as the Lutherans
themselves. To hear them talk, one might reasonably doubt if
any difference between theirs and the Lutheran doctrine sfill
remained. " If," said they, " any dispute still remain, it con-
cerns not the thing itself, but the manner of the presence only;"
so that the presence they acknowledge in the Supper must, in
reality, be as real and as substantial as that which the Lutherans
confess.

And, in fact, when afterwards they treat on the manner of
this presence, they reject nothing in this manner but what the
Lutherans reject : they reject the natural or local manner of
* Hosp. ad 1557, f. 252.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 339

uniting himself to us ; and nobody says that Jesus Christ is
united to us in the natural and ordinary way, or that he is in
the sacrament, or in the faithful, as bodies are in their place —
for he is there certainly in a more elevated manner. They re-
ject the effusion of the human nature of Jesus Christ ; to wit.
Ubiquity, which the Lutherans rejected likewise, and which, as
yet, had not so highly gained the ascendant. They reject a
gross mixture of the substance of Jesus Christ together with
ours, which nobody did admit, for nothing can be less gross, and
further remote from vulgar mixtures, than the union of our Lord's
body with ours, which is no less avowed by Lutherans than by
Catholics. But what they, above all things, reject utterly, is
that gross and diabolical Transubstantiation, without saying so
much as a word of the Lutheran Consubstantiation, which, as
we shall see, they did not think in their hearts a whit less dia-
boUcal or less carnal. But it behooved them to be silent on that
head, for fear of offending the Lutherans, whose assistance they
were then imploring. And, finally, they concluded quite short,
by saying that the presence which they acknowledge, is brought
about in a spiritual manner, and supported by the incom-prehen-
sible virtue of the Holy Ghost ; — words which the Lutherans
themselves employed, as well as Catholics, in order to exclude,
together with a presence in figure, even a presence in virtue,
which has nothing in it that is miraculous or beyond compre-
hension.

88. — Another Confession of Faith made by those in PHson, in order to be sent
to the Protestants.

Such was the Confession of Faith which the Calvinists of
France sent to the Protestants of Germany. Those who were
imprisoned in France on the score of religion, joined to it their
particular declaration, in which they expressly receive the Con-
fession of Augsburg in all its articles, excepting only that of the
Eucharist ; adding, nevertheless, what is not less strong than
the Augsburg Confession, that the Supper is not a sign of Jesus
Christ absent ; then, turn themselves immediately against the
Papists, and their change of substance and adoration, without
speaking so much as a word against the particular doctrine of
Lutheranism.

This was the cause that induced the Lutherans, with the joint
consent of all their divines, to judge that this declaration sent
from France was conformable, in every point, to the Confession
of Augsburg, notwithstanding what was there said concerning
the tenth article ; because, in the main, it said more on the
Real Presence than this article had done.

The article of Augsburg expressed " that, with the bread and
wine, the body and blood were truly present and truly distributed

340 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

to those who took the Supper." These say, " that the proper
flesh, and the proper substance of Jesus Christ, is truly present,
and truly given with the symbols, and under the visible species ;"
and the rest nothing less precise than what has been related ;
insomuch, that if it be asked which more strongly express the
Substantial Presence, the Lutherans who believe it, or the Cal-
vinists who disbelieve it, the last will certainly have the preference.

89. — Ml the other articles of the Augsburg Confessions are oioned by the

Calvinists.

As for the other articles of the Confession of Augsburg, they
stood confirmed by the sole exception of this article of the
Supper ; that is to say, the Calvinists, even those who were de-
tained in prison for their religion's sake, professed, contrary to
their belief, the necessity of baptism, the amissibillity of justice,
the uncertainty of predestination, the merit of good works, and
prayer for the dead ; all points which we have read in express
terms in the Augsburg Confession ; and in this manner did the
martyrs of the new Reformation destroy, by their equivocations,
or express denial, that faith for which they died.

90. — Reflections on these three Confessions of Faith.

Thus have we clearly seen three different languages of our
Calvinists in three different Confessions of Faith. By that
which they made for themselves, they appeared anxious to please
themselves : to content the Zuinglians, they lopped off some-
thing from it ; and, in case of need, they knew what to add to
make the Lutherans their friends.

91. — The Conference of Poissy. — Hoio undertaken. — Calvin comes 7iot to it,
but leaves the affair to Beza. — 1561.

We shall now hear the Calvinists explain their doctrine, not
among one another, or to the Zuinglians or Lutherans, but to
the Catholics. This happened in 1561, in the minority of
Charles IX, at the famous Conference of Poissy, where, by the
orders of Queen Catharine de Medicis, his mother and regent
of the kingdom, the prelates were assembled, in order to confer
with the ministers about reforming those abuses v/hich gave a
pretext to heresy.* *

As in France people grew weary of the long delays of a
general council, so often promised by the Popes, and of the fre-
quent interruptions of that which was at length convened by
them at Trent, the Queen, deceived by some prelates of sus-
pected doctrine, whose sentiments were backed by the Lord
Chancellor de PHdpital, a great personage, and very zealous for
his country, beheved too easily, that in so universal a commotion
she might of herself take care of France apart, without the au-

* Hosp.ad An. 1561. Bez. Hist. Eccl. I.iv.La Poplin. 1. vii. Thuan. 1. xxviii.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 341

thority of the Holy See and council. She was made to believe
that a conference would reconcile men's minds, and that the
disputes v/hich divided them would more surely be determinded
by an agreement than by a decision, which could not fail of dis-
pleasuig one or the other side. The cardinal Charles of Lorrain,
Archbishop of Rheims, who, having governed all under Francis
II, with his brother Francis, Duke of Guise, had always main-
tained himself in great repute, a great genius, a great state sma.i,
of a sparkling and winning eloquence, learned even for a man
of his quahty and employments, hoped to signalize himself in
public, and withal to please the court, by entering into the
Queen's design. By this means the assembly of Poissy was
set on foot. The Calvinists deputed thither the ablest men they
had, excepting Calvin, whom they would not show, whether from
fear of exposing to the pubhc hatred the head of so odious a
party, or he himself beheved it safer for his honor to send his
disciples, he remaining at Geneva where he ruled, and under-
hand managed the assembly, than to engage in person.

It is likewise true, that the weakness of his health, and the
violence of his headstrong temper, rendered him less able to
maintain a conference, than Theodore Beza, who v/as of a more
robust constitution, and had more command of himself: Beza,
then, was the man that most appeared, or rather, who alone ap-
peared in this assembly. He was looked upon as the principeJ
disciple, and the intimate friend of Calvin, who had chosen him
for a coadjutor in his ministry and labors at Geneva, which
seemed the metropolis of his Reformation. Calvin despatched
his instructions to him, and Beza returned him a full account
of all transactions, as appears from both their letters.

92. — Matters treated of in the Conference, and the opening of it.

Two points of doctrine only, properly speaking, were debated
in this assembly ; one relating to the Church ; the other to the
Supper. There lay the stress of the whole affair, because the
article of the Church was looked upon by Catholics as a general
principle, which subverted the very foundation of all new
churches ; and among the particular articles disputed on, none
appeared so essential as that of the Supper. The Cardinal of
Lorrain urged the opening of the Conference, though the main
body of the prelates, especially the Cardinal de Tournon, Arch-
bishop of Lyons, who presided over them in quahty of the oldest
Cardinal, had an extreme repugnance to it. They apprehended,
and with reason too, lest the subtleties of the ministers, their
dangerous eloquence heightened with an air of piety, never
wanting to the most perverse of heretics, and more than all this,
lest the charms of novelty might impose on courtiers, before
whom they were to speak, but chiefly oh the King and Queen,

29*

S42 THE HISTORY OP [book

both susceptible, he by reason of his tender age, she from nat-
ural curiosity, of any impressions, rather bad than good, con-
sidering the wretched disposition of human nature, and the temper
which then prevailed at court. But the Cardinal of Lorrain,
supported by Montluc, Bishop of Valence, carried the point, and
so the conference began.

93. — The harangue of the Cardinal of Lorrain. — The Calvinists* Confession
of Faith presented to the King in the Assembly. — Beza speaks, and says more
than makes for him concerning the absence of Jesus Christ in the Supper.

There is no need of my giving an account, either of the ad-
mirable harangue made by the Cardinal of Lorrain, and its
merited applause, or of the honor which Beza acquired by offer-
ing to answer at the moment to the Cardinal's premeditated dis-
course ;* but it is of some importance to remember, that, in this
august assembly, the ministers presented publicly to the King,
in the name of all their churches, their joint Confession of Faith,
drawn under Henry II, in their first synod held at Paris, as
above mentioned. Beza, who presented it, made at the same
time, by a long discourse, the defence of it, when, notwithstand-
ieg all his address, he fell into a great self-contradiction. He,
who a few days before, being accused by the Cardinal of Lor-
rain in the presence of Queen Catharine, and the whole court,
of having written in one of his books, that Jesus Christ was no
more in the Supper than in the mire, JVo72 magis in Ccend quam
in Cceno, had rejected this proposition as impious and detested
by the whole party, advanced the equivalent to it, at the Con-
ference, even in the face of all France. For, being on the sub-
ject of the Eucharist, in the heat of his discourse, he said, that
with respect to place, and the presence of Jesus Christ con-
sidered according to his human nature, his body was as far dis-
tant from the Supper as the highest Heavens are from earth.
The whole assembly v/as in a commotion at these words. "j*
They remembered with what a horror he had spoken of that
proposition, which as much excluded Jesus Christ from the
Supper, as from the mire. He now falls into it again, when
nobody urges him. The murmur from all sides made it appear
how much men were struck with so strange a novelty. Beza
himself, under confusion for having said so much, did not cease
thereafter to importune the Queen, by frequent and reiterated
requests, to obtain the liberty of explaining himself, on the plea
that, being pressed by time, he had not had the leisure of making
his thought rightly understood before the King. But so many
words are not required to utter what a man believes. And, in-
deed, one may venture to say, that what disturbed Beza was not
any deficiency in expounding his tenets, but rather, what gave

* Ep. Bez. ad Calv. inter. Ep. Calv. p. 330. f Thuan. xxviii. 48.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 343

him and his friends so much anxiety, was, that by laying open
in too distinct terms the bottom of the party's doctrine on the
real absence of Jesus Christ, he had made it but too visibly
appear, that the great words of Proper Substance and the like
which they employed to keep up some notion of reality, were
nothing but mere sham.

94. — Another explanation of the Supper-article full of perplexed ivords.

From harangues they soon proceeded to particular confer-
ences, chiefly on the Supper, wherein the Bishop of Valence,
and Duval, Bishop of Sees, to whom a smattering of erudition,
not to mention other motives, gave a secret propensity towards
Calvinism, were set on nothing else, together with the ministers,
but to find out some ambiguous formulary which both sides, in
some measure, might rest satisfied with, without diving to the
bottom of the question.

The strong expressions, which we have seen in the Confes-
sion of Faith then presented, were pretty well adapted to this
scheme ; but the ministers must needs make further additions
which ought not to be admitted. This will appear surprising ;
for, as they ought to have done their best fully to explain their
doctrine in the confession of faith, which they but just presented
to so solemn an assembly, it seems that, when questioned con-
cerning their belief, they should have nothing else to do than
refer them-selves to so authentic an act : but this is what they
did not do ; and behold here in what manner they proposed
their doctrine by common consent. " We confess the presence
of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the holy Supper, where
he truly gives us the substance of his body and blood by the
operation of his Holy Spirit, and that we receive and eat spirit-
ually and by faith, this same true body, which was sacrificed for
us ; to the end we might be bone of his bone, and flesh of his
flesh, and be enlivened, and receive all that is profitable to our
salvation ; and by reason that faith, supported by God's promise,
makes present the things received, and takes really and in fact
the true natural body of our Lord, by virtue of the Holy Ghost ;
in this sense, we do believe and confess the presence of the
proper body and the proper blood of Jesus Christ in the Supper."
Here are still those great phrases, those pompous expressions,
and those long discourses for the purpose of saying nothing. But
after all this verbosity, they were not yet satisfied with their ex-
position, but soon after subjoined, " That the distance of place
could be no hindrance to our partaking of the body and blood
of Jesus Christ, by reason that our Lord's Supper is a heavenly
thing, and although we on earth receive with our mouths the
bread and wine as the true signs of the body and blood, our
souls, which are nourished therewith, being raised up to heaven

344 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

by faith, and the efficacy of the Holy Ghost, enjoy present the
body and blood of Jesus Christ ; and in that manner the body
and blood are truly united to the bread and wine, but in a sacra-
mental way, to wit, not according to place, or the natural posi-
tion of bodies, but inasmuch as they efficaciously signify, that
God gives this body and this blood to those who faithfully par-
take of the signs themselves, and that by faith they truly do re-
ceive them." How many words, only to express, that the signs
of the body and blood, received with faith, do, by this faith in-
spired from God, unite us to the body and blood which are ill
heaven ! No more than this had been requisite to explain them-
selves distinctly ; and this substantial enjoyment of the body
truly and really present, and the rest of that strain, are to no
other purpose than to raise a mist of confused ideas, instead of
dispelling, by setting things in a clear light, which, in an expla-
nation of faith, we are obhged to do. But in this simplicity,
which we demand of them. Christians would not have found
what they desired, namely, the true presence of Jesus Christ in
both his natures ; and, deprived of this presence, would have
perceived, as it were, a certain void, which, for want of the
thing itself, the ministers endeavored to fill up with this multi-
phcity of sounding, yet insignificant expressions.
95. — The reflections of Catholics on these indeterminate and pompous discourses.
The Catholics, at a loss to know the meaning of all this mon-
strous language, could only perceive from it that Beza's great
design, by all these phrases, was to supply what he was con-
scious was too hollow and defective in the Calvinistic Supper.
The whole force of them lay in these words, " Faith makes
present the things promised." But this discourse appeared
very indeterminate to Catholics. By this means, said they,
judgment and the general resurrection, the glory of the blessed,
as well as the fire of the damned, will be equally present to us
with the body of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist ; and if this
presence, by faith, makes us receive the very substance of things,
nothing hinders the happy souls that are in heaven from receiv-
ing, actually and before the general resurrection, the proper sub-
stance of their bodies as truly as we are here made to receive by
faith, the proper substance of the body of Jesus Christ. For, if
faith renders things so truly present, as thereby to possess the sub-
stance of them, how much more the beatific vision ! But in order
to unite to us the proper substance of the body and blood, what
avails this lifting up our souls to heaven by faith ? Can a moral
elevation, and in affection only, bring about such unions ? In
this manner, what substance is there that cannot be embraced ?
What does the efficacy of the Holy Ghost work here ? The
Holy Ghost inspires faith, out faith thus inspired, be it never so

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 345

strong, unites itself no more to the substance of tilings than
other thoughts, than other affections of the mind. What can
be the meaning of those indefinite words, " We receive from
Jesus Christ what is profitable to us," without declaring what this
is 1 if these words of our Saviour, " Flesh profiteth nothing,"
are, as the Ministers will have it, to be understood of the true
flesh of Jesus Christ considered as to its substance, to what
purpose so much noise about what they pretend afibrds no profit]
why is there kept so great a work about the substance of the
flesh and blood received so really? why not reject, concluded
Catholics, these empty words, and, in proposing their faith, at
least lay cant aside, and speak intelligibly 1
96. — Peter Martyr'' s opinion concerning the equivocations of the Ministers.
Peter Martyr, a native of Florence, and one of the most
famous Ministers that were in this assembly, was of this mind,
and frequently declared that, for his part, he knew no meaning
this word substance had ; yet endeavored to explain it the best
way he could, not to give offence to Calvin and his companions.

97. — What Dr. Depense added to the expressions of the Ministers, in order to
make them pass the better.

Claude Depense, a Parisian Doctor, a man of good sense,
and learned for a time when matters had not so well been can-
vassed and cleared up, as they have since been by so much dis-
putation, was among those who were to labor with the Ministers
to reconcile the article of the Supper. Being sincere, and of a
mild temper, he was judged proper for this design : but, for all
his mildness, he could not bear with the doctrine of the Calvin-
ists ; but thought those insupportable who made the work of
God, namely, the presence of the body of Jesus Christ, to de-
pend not on the word and promise of him who gave it, but on
their faith who were to receive it ; accordingly he disapproved
their article from the first proposition, and before all the addi-
tions which they since made to it. For his part, therefore, to
render our communion, with the substance of the body, inde-
pendent of the faith of men, and annexed only to the efficacy
and operation of the word of God, letting pass the first words
as far as those where the Ministers say, " That faith makes
things present," he substituted these words in lieu thereof,
namely, " And because the word and promise of God makes
present the things promised, and by the efficacy of this word we
do really and in fact receive the true natural body of our Lord,
in this sense we confess and acknowledge in the Supper the
presence of his proper body and proper blood." Thus he owned
a real and substantial presence independently of faith, and in
virtue of the sole words of our Lord ; whereby he thought to

346 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

determine the ambiguous and unsettled sense of those terms
which the Ministers made use of.

98. — The decision of the Prelates, delivering very plainly and in few words the
whole Catholic doctrine.

The Prelates approved of nothing in all this, and pursuant to
the opinions of the Doctors, whom they had brought along with
them, declared the article of the Ministers heretical, captious,
and insufficient: heretical, because it denied the substantial,
and properly so called, presence ; captious, because, in denying
it, it seemed to favor the thing ; insufficient, because it concealed
and dissembled the ministry of priests, the force of the sacra-
mental words, and the change of substance, the natural effect
thereof.* On their side they opposed to the Ministers a dec-
laration of their faith, as full and as precise as that of the Cal-
vinists was imperfect and perplexed. Beza relates it in these
terms : — " We believe and confess, that in the holy sacrament
of the altar, the true body and blood of Jesus Christ is really
and substantially under the species of bread and wine, by the
virtue and power of the divine word pronounced by the priest,
the sole minister ordained for this effect, according to the insti-
tution and commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ."! Here is
nothing captious or equivocal, and Beza owns this was all that
*' could be drawn at that time from the clergy, in order to allay
the troubles of religion, the prelates having made themselves
judges, instead of conferring amicably." I desire no other
testimony than this of Beza, to show that the Bishops did their
duty in fairly explaining their faith, avoiding great words which
impose on men by their sound, and signify nothing distinctly,
and by refusing to enter into any composition in what relates to
faith. Such plain dealing as this suited not the Ministers, and
so this great assembly broke up without any manner of success.
God baffled the policy and pride of those who thought by their
eloquence, little arts, and weak contrivances, to quench, in its
first fury, so great a conflagration.

99. — The vain discourses of the Bishop of Valence, concerning the reformation
of manners.

The reformation of discipline succeeded but little better.
Fine speeches were uttered, fine proposals made, but to little or
no effect. The Bishop of Valence discoursed admirably, as his
custom was, against abuses, and on the duties and charge of
Bishops, chiefly on that of residence, which he observed the
least of any. But, to make amends, he was quite silent as to
celibacy, and the exact observance of it, though, by the Fathers,
it was always insisted on as the brightest ornament of the eccle-

* Bez. Hist. Eccl. 1. iv. p. 611—614. La Poplin, I. vii.
t Hist. Eccl.i.iv. p. 611 -614.

IX.] THE HISTORY OF 347

siastical order. He had not feared to violate it by a clandestine
marriage, in spite of the canons ; nay, a Protestant historian,
who, notwithstanding he sets him off for one " of the wisest
and greatest men of that age through the whole sequel of his
life,"* reveals to us his passion, his avarice, and the shameful
disorders of his life, the noise of which reached as far as Ireland,
in the most scandalous manner imaginable. Yet he declaimed
loudly against vice, and convinced mankind that he was one of
those admirable reformers who could correct and reprove every
thing in their neighborhood, provided you leave them but alone
to their own corrupted inclinations.

100. — The Tenth Article of the Augsburg Confession is proposed to the Cdvinists,
but they refuse to sign it.

As for the Calvinists, it was a triumph to them to have been
so much as heard in such an assembly. But this imaginary
triumph was but short, for the Cardinal of Lorrain had a long
while conceived a design to propose to them the signing of the
the Tenth Article of the Augsburg Confession : should they
sign it, this would be embracing the Reality, which all those of
that confession so strenuously defended ; should they refuse it,
this would be condemning Luther and his followers in an essen-
tial point, who were unquestionably the first authors of the new
Reformation, and its main support. In order to make the division
of all these Reformers more manifest all over France, the Car-
dinal had taken his measures beforehand, and agreed with the
Lutherans of Germany to send him three or four of their ablest
doctors, who, appearing at Poissy under pretext of making up
their whole differences at once, should there undertake the Cal-
vinists. Thus these new doctors, all of them proclaiming the
Scripture to be so very clear, would have been seen urging one
another with its authority, yet never able to come to the least
agreement. The Lutheran doctors arrived too late ; but the
Cardinal nevertheless failed not to make his proposal. Beza
and his companions, resolved not to sign the Tenth Article, as
proposed, thought to escape by inquiring of the Catholics, in re-
turn, whether they were willing to subscribe the rest ; by which
means they should all, in every thing, agree, except the Tenth
Article of the Supper alone, a subtile, but frivolous evasion. f
For after all, the Catholics had no manner of reason to concern
themselves with Luther's authority, nor the Confession of Augs-
burg, nor the defenders of it, all which the Calvinists could not
be too tender of, for fear of condemning the Reformation in
its very source. However that may be, this was all the Cardinal
obtained ; and content with making it appear to all France, that
this party of Reformers, who outwardly appeared so terrible, were

* V. S. lib. vii. n. 7. f Ep. Bez. ad Calv. inter Cal. Ep. pp. 346, 347.

S48 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

yet inwardly so weak by their own divisions, he suffered the
assembly to break up. But Anthony of Bourbon, King of
Navarre and first Prince of the blood, very favorable, till then,
to the new party, which he was only acquainted with under the
appellation of Lutherans, undeceived himself; and instead of
that piety, which he had before believed in them, began, from
that time, to be convinced there was nothing in it but bitter zeal
and prodigious infatuation.

101. — The Confession ofJlugsburg received by the Calvhiists in all other points,
yet through policy only.

Yet it was no small advantage to the Catholic cause, to have
obliged the Calvinists, in such an assembly, to receive anew the
Confession of Augsburg, with exclusion only of the article of
the Supper; since, as we have seen, they renounced by this means
so many important points of their own doctrine. Beza, never-
theless, spoke out, and made a solemn declaration of it, with the
consent of all his colleagues. But whatsoever policy, and the
desire of supporting themselves as much as possible by the Con-
fession of Augsburg, might have extorted from them on this
occasion, as on many others, their thoughts and words did not
agree ; nor can this be doubted of, when the instruction, which
even during the Conference, they received from Calvin,"* is
looked into. " You," says he, " that assist at the Conference,
ought to be upon your guard, lest in maintaining your own just
right, you appear stubborn, and so cause the whole blame of the
rupture to be cast on you. The Confession of Augsburg, you
are sensible, is the torch which your furies employ to light up
that fire which has set all France in a combustion ; but you
ought to look narrowly into the reason which makes them press
you so much to receive it, considering that its suppleness has
ever been displeasing to men of good sense, and that Melanc-
thon, its author, often repented of having drawn it up : and
lastly, that in many places it is adapted to the practice in Ger-
many ; besides that its obscure and defective brevity has this
evil in it, of omitting sundry articles of the greatest moment."

It then plainly appears, that it was not the sole article of the
Sapper, but, in general, the whole Confession of Augsburg which
displeased him. This only article, nevertheless, was excepted
against ; though when Germany was concerned, it was often
found proper to waive even this exception.

102. — Hoio many different parts to ere played by Calvin and the Calvhiists with
respect to the Confession of Augsburg,

This is what appears by another letter of the same Calvin,
written also during the Conference, whereby we may perceive
how many different parts he played at the same time. It was,

* Ep. p. 342.
♦ Hosp.ad An. 1561. Bez. Hist. Eccl. l.iv.La Poplin. 1. vii. Thuan. 1. icxviii.

IX.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 349

I say, at this very time, and in the year 1561, that he wrote a
letter to the Princes of Germany in behalf of those of Strasburg ;
at the beginning of which he makes them say,* " That they are
of the number of those who receive the Confession of Augsburg
throughout, even in the article of the Supper ;" and he adds,
"that the Queen of England (Elizabeth) although she approves
of the Confession of Augsburg, rejects nevertheless the carnal
ways of speaking of Heshusius, and others," who could not
endure either Calvin, or Beza, or Peter Martyr, or Melancthon
himself, whom, with respect to the Supper, they accused of re-
laxation.

103. — A like dissimulation in the Elector Frederick TIL
The same behaviour may be seen in the Confession of Faith
of the Elector Frederick III, Count Palatine, reported in the
Collection of Geneva : a confession wholly Calvinistical, and
as inimical to the Real Presence as any ever was ; since this
Prince there declares, that Jesus Christ is not in the Supper
*' in any manner, either visible, or invisible, comprehensible, or
incomprehensible, but in heaven only."| Nevertheless, his son
and successor, John Casimir, in the preface which he places
before this Confession, says expressly, " that his father never
did depart from the Confession of Augsburg, nor even from the
Apology which was joined to it :" it is that of Melancthon, which
we have seen to be so distinct and full for the Real Presence ;
and, if the son should not meet with credit, the father himself,
in the body of his Confession, declares the selfsame thing, in
the selfsame terms.

104. — Calviii's shifting address with regard to the Tenth Article of the Augs-
burg Confession.

It was therefore a method pretty much in vogue, even amongst
the Calvinists, to approve purely and simply the Confession of
Augsburg when Germany was concerned, either out of a certain
respect for Luther, the common father of the whole pretended
Reformation ; or because that confession only had been tolerated
in Germany by the States of the empire ; and even out of the
empire itself had obtained so great an authority, that Calvin and
the CalvinistsJ durst not own, without great deference and pre-
caution, that they departed from it ; seeing that, in the excep-
tion even of the sole article of the Supper, which they often
made, they rather chose the subterfuge of diversity of editions,
and difference of sense put upon this article, than absolutely to
reject it.

And accordingly, Calvin, who makes so free with the Con-
fession of Augsburg, when he speaks in confidence to his friends,

♦ Ep. p. 324. X Syn. Gen. part ii. pp. 141, 142.

X Ep. p. 319. 2. Def. Ult Adm. ad Westp.
30

350 THE HISTORY OF THE VARIATIONS, ETC. [bOOK IX.

every where else shows an outward respect for it, even in regard
to the article of the Supper, owning he receives it when rightly
explained,* and in the same manner Melancthon, the author
thereof, did himself understand it. But there is nothing more
frivolous than this evasion ; for, although this Confession was
penned by Melancthon, he did not expound therein his own par-
ticular doctrine, but that of Luther and the whole party, whose
secretary and interpreter he was, as he himself often declares.
And allowing that in a public act the private sentiments of
that person who drew it up might be referred to, it ought, how-
ever, to be considered, not what Melancthon's notions were
afterwards, but what they and those of all his sect were at that
time ; there being no reason to doubt but he endeavored to explain
naturally what they all believed : so much the more, as we have
seen that he as sincerely rejected the figurative sense at that
time, as Luther himself; which he never openly approved, not-
withstanding the various shifts and inconstancy he afterwards
was subject to. It is not, therefore, upright and just dealing to
appeal to Melancthon's judgment in this matter ; and for all
Calvin's continual boasts of speaking his real sentiments with-
out the least dissimulation, yet it is plainly seen that his design
was to flatter the Lutherans. Nay, so palpable became this
flattery, that at length they were ashamed of it even in the party ;
and this was the reason that, in the acts we have just considered,
especially in the Conference of Poissy, they resolved to accept
the article of the Supper, but that only ; not at all concerned
that by their approbation of all the rest, they passed sentence
against their own Confession of Faith, which they had but a
little before presented to Charles IX.

♦ Ep. p. 319. 2. Def. Ult. Adm. ad Westp.

INDEX

THE FIRST VOLUME.

CONTAINING WHATEVER OCCURS OF IMPORTANCE UNDER THB
SAME HEADS IN THE SECOND VOLUME.

Absolution, Sacramental, owned by
the Lutlierams, 108 — and by the
EngHsh under Henry VIII, 238.

Abstinence from flesh retained in Eng-
land, 262— the Church of Rome
justified by the English in her absti-
nence from flesh, ib.

Adoration, the Protestants cannot en-
dure the adoration rendered to Jesus
Christ in the Eucharist, 189 — Lu-
ther's doctrine implies adoration,
153 — the adoration of Jesus Christ
in the Eucharist suppressed in Eng-
land under Edward VI, 263 — Vide
Vol. II.

Aerius. The Lutherans' contradictory
sentiments on the doctrine of Aerius
against prayer for the dead, 113.

Ailiy, {Cardinal Peter D\) his opin-
ions concerning the Reformation of
the Church, 19, 20.

Albert, of Brandebourg, Great Master
of the Teutonic Order, turns Lu-
theran, and why, 2S1.

Amissibility of justice owned in the
Confession of Augsburg, 102 — re-
ceived in 1557, by the Calvinistsof
France, 395— Vide Vol. II.

Amsdorf, {J\''icholas,) ordained Bishop
of Naumburg by Luther, 36.

Anabaptists, the, preach without mis-
sion or miracles, 37 — they instil into
people the spirit of rebellion, 51 —
they rise in arms with unparalleled
fury, 52 — they are condemned in
tlie Confession of Augsburg with
respect to three considerable arti-
cles, 102.

Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII,
King of England, favors Lutheran-
ism, 57, 222— Henry VIII marries
her, 226 — she upholds with all her
power ThomasCromwellandCran-
mer in their designs, 228 — her im-
modest and licentious behaviour,
230— her infamous death, 230, 232
— her daughter Ehzabeth declared
illegitimate, 230.

Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII, King of
England, marries her, 236 — she is
repudiated, 237.

Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre,
disabused of the good opinion he
had of the Protestant party, 347.

Apology, the, for the Augsburg Con-
fession, made by Melancthon, 82 —
approved by the whole party, ib. —
altered by the Lutherans, 84.

Augustin, (St.,) his doctrine on justi-
fying grace approved by the Lu-
therans, 107 — rejected by Melanc-
thon, 169.

Augustin, (St.,) the Monk sent by St.
Gregory to convert the English, 260.

Augsburg, Diet of, where the Confes-
sions of Faith are presented to
Charles V, 80— the Augsburg Con-
fession of Faith, how drawn up by
Melancthon, 81— 107— this is held
in the greatest repute of all the
Protestant Confessions of Faith, 82
— the tenth Article of the Augsburg
Confession relating to the Supper
expressed four different ways, ib, —
which of these four is the original 84
— a word in the Augsburg Confes-

S52 INDEX.

sion, which tended to Demipela-
gianism, 92 — strange doctrine of
the Augsburg Confession concern-
ing the love of God, 106 — what is
said about the Mass in the Confes-
sion of Augsburg, 111 — the Zuin-
gUans' jests upon the Confession of
Augsburg, 297 — owned defective,
1 60, 298— corrected, 292— and nev-
ertheless from a point of honor
always approved, 170, 292 — the
different editions not to be recon-
ciled, 297, et seq. — the Calvinists
receive the Confession of Augsburg
in 1557, with the exception only of
the tenth article, 255 — which they
refuse to sign at Poissy, 347 — what
Calvin said concerning the Confes-
sion of Augsburg, 348 — the dissim-
ulation of the Elector Frederick III,
with respect to the Confession of
Augsburg, 349 — Calvin's shifting
address with regard to the tenth
Article of the Confession of Augs-
burg, ib.
•Authority of the Church- Vide Church.

Baptism, error of the Zuinglians on
baptism, 61 — infant baptism by the
Lutherans believed necessary to
salvation, 93 — the necessity of bap-
tism taught in the Confession of
Augsburg, 102 — this necessity de-
nied by Calvin, 293-Calvin teaches
that baptism is not necessary to
salvation, 308 — Calvin's contradic-
tions upon infant baptism, 31 1 — the
necessity of baptism received in
1557 by the Calvinists of France,
339.

Basil, the Confession of Faith of those
of Basil, 130 — another Confession
of those of Basil, and the precedent
one softened, 132 — the equivocation
of this Confession of Faith, 133.

Bernard, (St.,) his desire of the Ref-
ormation of Church-discipline, 18
— St. Bernard, ill-cited by Protest-
ants for the necessity of reforming
the Church, 20— St. Bernard placed
by Luther in the list of Saints,
110.

Bernardin Ochin, called into England
to begin the Reformation there, 258.

Beza maintains that the sense which
Catholics give to the words of the
institution is more supportable tlian
that of the Lutherans, 70 — he is

deputed by the Protestant Churches
of France to the assembly of Worms
and Geneva, 338 — he is present at
the Conference of Poissy, 341 — he
harangues there, and lets fall more
than he intended to have said with
relation to the absence of Jesus
Christ in the Supper, 342 — Vide
Vol. II.

Bishops, authority of Bishops despised
by Protestants, 1 52^-Melancthon
is for ovvninw Bishops, 164 — all the
Bishops in England subscribe ihe
decisions of Henry VIII, 234 — the
Bishops of England take out new
commissions from Edward VI, 255
— the Bishops of England have no
share in matters of religion and
faith, 257.

Bohemians, their separation condemn-
ed by Luther, 31 — the buffooneries
of Luther, 42, 198.

Brags of Calvin, 334.

Brentius, a famous Protestant, favors
Osiander, 291.

Bucer gives a figurative sense to the
words of the institution, 64 — he was
present at the Conference of Mar-
purg, 79 — he draws up the Stras-
burg Confession of Faith, 81 — his
character, ib. — his fruitfulness in
equivocations, lb. 86 — his doctrine
on the merit of good works, 105 —
he undertakes the defence of the
prayers of the Church, and shows
m what sense the merits of Saints
are useful to us, 106 — he is de-
spatched by the Landgrave of Hesse
to have an interview with Luther
and Zuinglius, 121 — his transac-
tions with Luther, 124 — his equivo-
cating shifts in order to reconcile
the parties, 125 — the agreement by
him proposed, no more than verbal,
ib. — his equivocations on the words
Sacrament and Mystery, 128 — he
plays with words, 129 — he owns
that the unworthy receive the body
of Jesus Christ really, 114, 196—
he grants six Articles to Luther con-
cerning the Supper, 134 — he de-
ceives Luther, and evades the terms
of agreement, 135 — liis equivoca-
tions owned by Calvin, 136 — those
even of Zurich make a jest of
them, 138 — explication of the doc-
trine, and the return of the towns
from his belief to that of the Real

INDEX.

353

Presence, 140 — he satisfies the Lu-
therans in the assembly of Smal-
Icald, 144 — Bucer's testimony con-
cerning the hypocrisy of the Pro-
testants, 136 — he is sent to Luther
by the Landgrave to obtain leave
for this Prince to marry a second
wife, his first still living, 179 — he
makes a new Confession of Faith,
188 — his perplexities with relation
to the communion of the impious, ib,
— his doctrine about the Eucharist
not hearkened to in England, 191 —
he is present at the Conference of
Ratisbon, 279 — he makes a new
Confession of Faith, ib. — he dies in
England without having been able
to change any thing in the articles
ofPeter Martyr, 281.
Burnet, (Mr.) a new piece pubhshed
by Mr. Butnet about Luther's sen-
timent touching a reconciliation
with the Zuinglians, 199 — he owns
that the Reformation began in Eng-
land by a man equally rejected by
both parties, 220 — Mr. Burnet's
magnificent words concerning the
English Reformation, 219 — the he-
roes of Mr. Burnet's history even
by his own testimony are not always
very virtuous men, 221 — what he
relates of Montluc, Bishop of Va-
lence, ib. — what he says of Cran-
mer, Archbishop of Canterbury,
222 — what he says of the oath Cran-
mer took at his Consecration, 224
— what he says of the cruelties and
excesses of Henry VIII, 227 — the
praises he gives to Clueen Catha-
rine, the lawful wife of Henry VIII,
229 — what he says of the disorderly
behaviour of Anne Boleyn, ib. — he
comes off" lamely in his excuse of
Cranmer's cowardice, 231 — how he
excuses the Protestants of England
for subscribing the decisions of
Henry VIII, who approved the
piincipal points of the Catholic doc-
trine, 234 — his vain artifices to ex-
cuse the hypocrisy of Thomas
Cromwell, 236 — he is ashamed of
that sentence which annulled the
marriage of Henry VIII with Anne
of CIeves,237 — he owns that scarce
any thing was changed in the Of-
fices and Rituals of the Church un-
der Henry VIII, 238 — what he says
of Cranmer's resisting the Six Ar-

ticles of Henry VIII, ib. — he is con-
founded at Cranmer's doctrine
about the power of the ministers of
the Church, 240 — he laments his
seeing in England the ecclesiastical
power in the hands of seculars, ib.
— he sets down two points of Ref-
ormation under Henry VIII, 249 —
a proof, from Mr. Burnet, of the
snares laid for the weak and simple
by the pretended perspicuity of
Scripture, 250 — Mr, Burnet's con-
fession of the behef of the Greek
Church, 259 — he vindicates us in
the obsei-vance of Saints-days and
abstinence from flesh, 262 — his vain
efforts to justify Cranmer in little
things, without saying a word of
great ones, 266 — he ill compares
Cranmer's twice abjuring his faith
to the denial of St. Peter, 269— he
badly excuses the Reformers, 270 —
the fallacy in the examples alleged
by him, ib. — his facts far from bemg
certain, 271 — his imposition with
regard to Fra-Paolo, 272 — his error
concerning the Pallium, 273 — his
gross error concerning- Celibacy and
the Roman Pontifical, ib. — Vide
Vol. II.

Calumnies of Protestants against the
Church on the point of Justification,
92 — other calumnies on the merit
of good works, 94 — three other
calumnies against the invocation of
Saints, and concerning Images, 115.

Calvin, liis esteem for Luther, 6, 23 —
what Calvin writes to Melancthon
upon the strange division of Prot-
estants, 77 — his sentiments on
equivocations in matters of Faith,
136 — what he writes to BuUinger
and Melancthon about the tyranny
of Luther, 157 — what he says of
the adoration of the blessed Sacra-
ment retained by Luther, 194 — he
favors Henry VIII in his divorce,
245 — he rejects the ceremonies of
the Church, 246 — what he says of
Osiander's profane temper, 282 —
the incompatibility of his sentiments
with those of Melancthon, 152 — he
draws up a Confession of Faith,
305 — his genius ; his refinements
surpass those of Luther, 306 — he
adds to imputed justice the certainty
of salvation, ib. — he teaches that

30*

S54 INDEX.

justice cannot be lost, 307 — he
teaches that Baptism is not neces-
sary to salvation, ib. — he maintains
that the chiklren of the faithful are
born in grace, 308 — Calvin's prin-
ciples but supposed ; he argued
better than Luther, but swerved
wider from truth, 309, — two tenets
of Calvin's concerning children, not
suiting with his principles, 310 —
his agreement with those of Geneva
and Zurich, ib. — the contradictions
of his doctrine upon Infant Baptism,
311 — his refinements upon the Eu-
charist, ib. — he shows that, after
fifteen years' disputing, the Luther-
ans and Zuinglians had not under-
stood one another on tliis point, ib.
— Calvin, already known on ac-
count of his Institutions, makes
himself more so by his treatise on
the Supper, ib. — his doctrine on the
Eucharist almost forgotten by his
followers, 312 — he is not satisfied
with receiving a sign only in the
Supper, ib. — not even an efficacious
sign, nor the virtue and merit of
Jesus Christ, ib. — his doctrine par-
takes somewhat of that of Bucer's
and of the Articles of Wirtemberg,
ib. — he endeavors to reconcile Lu-
ther and Zuinglius, 3 1 6 — with what
force he speaks of the Reality, ib.
— a new effect of Faith, according
to Calvin, 317 — he will have the
proper substance, and that we re-
receive the body and blood of Jesus
Christ otherwise than did the an-
cient Hebrews, ib. — according to
his expressions it must be believed
that the reception of the body of
Jesus Christ is independent of
Faith, ib. — and that the true body
is in the Sacrament, 318 — he main-
tains that the body is under the
sign of bread, as the Holy Ghost is
under the dove,i6. — he makes Jesus
Christ present in the bread as God
was in the ark, 319 — he says he
disputes but of the manner, and
admits the thing as much as we, ib.
— ^lie admits a presence of the body
which is miraculous and ineffable,
320 — he admits a presence that is
proper and peculiar to the Supper,
ib. — the communion of the unwor-
thy, how real, according to Calvin,
321 — a comparison by him made

use of to enforce the truth of the
body's being received by the un-
worthy, 321 — he speaks inconse-
quently, 322 — he explains as we do
that saying, "that flesh profiteth
nothing," 323 — he weakens his own
expressions, and eludes the miracle
which he owns in the Supper, ib. —
he is sensible of the insufficiency
of his doctrine to explain the miracle
of the Eucharist, 324 — his perplex-
ities and contradictions in the de-
fence of the figurative sense, 325
— the cause of his perplexity, 326
— he saw further into the difficulty
than the rest of the Sacramenta-
rians: how he endeavors to saive
it, ib. — the examples which he drew
from Scripture; that of Circum-
cision convicts instead of helping
him, 327 — another example nothing
to the purpose, viz. that the Church
is called the body of Jesus Christ,
ib. — he makes new efforts to salve
the notion of reality impressed by
the Institution of Jesus Christ, 328
• — how his doctrine is explained in
the book entitled, "DuPrlservatif,"
&c. 329 — he would make one un-
derstand more than he really meant
to say, 331 — a passage of Calvin's
for a Real Presence independent
of Faith, ib. — he rejects ceremonies,
332 — his pride and boastings, 333
— the difference between Calvin
and Luther, ib. — how he bragged
of his eloquence, 334 — he has as
nmch violence and more acrimony
than Luther 335 — the contempt he
passes on the Fathers, 336- whether
he has varied in his doctrine, ib.
— why he was not in person at the
Conference of Poissy, 340 — the in-
struction he sends to the Ministers
during the Conference, 348 — what
he says of the Confession of Augs-
burg, ib. — liis special caution with re-
gard to the tenth Article of the Augs-
burg Confession, 349— Vide Vol. II.
Calvinists (The) give in to the Semi-
pelagianism of the Lutherans, 304
— they have two tenets concerning
children not conformable with their
principles, 310 — the present Calvin-
ists have abandoned the doctrine of
Calvin about the Supper, 329 — Ihey
were more sensible that a miracle
ought to be admitted in the Eucha-

INDEX. S55

rist than they did indeed admit one,
324— what opinion other Protes-
tants had of the Calvinists, 333 —
Variations in the Acts ot'Calvinists,
337 — they send a Confession of
Faith into Germany, which is not
consistent with the figurative sense,
338 — they send thither another
Confession of Faith, in w^hich tlaey
dehver themselves more strongly in
favor of the Real Presence than the
Lutherans themselves, 340 — they
own all the Articles of the Augs-
burg Confession except the tenth,
ib. — ^they depute the ablest men
among them to the Conference of
Poissy, 341 — there they present
their Confession of Faith to Charles
IX, 342 — their explanation of the
Supper Article, full of intricate
words, 343'— t; ley refuse to sign the
tenth Article of the Augsburg Con-
fession, 347 — which they receive
throughout in all other points, but
only out of policy, 348 — how many
different parts they at tliat time
played with respect to the Confes-
sion of Augsburg, ib.

Ccnnerariiis, IVLelanctlion's friend, does
not approve the preparations for
Avar made by the Princes of Ger-
many, 123.

Capito, Minister of Stmsburg, his con-
fession of the insolence of his Re-
formedbrethren, and the injury done
to the Church by their rejecting the
Pope, 151, 152.

Carlostatlius attacks the reality, 48 —
his character, 49 — the sense he
gave to tlie words of the Institution,
ib. — the origin of his contests with
Luther, ib. — he pulls down images,
and sets up communion under both
kinds, ib. — he is driven from Wit-
tenberg, 50 — he unites himself with
the Anabaptists, 51 — he tumultu-
ates the people of Orlemond, ib. —
he drinks with Luther, and prom-
ises him to write against the Real
Presence, 52 — he marries, 53 — he
is reconciled to Luther, 64.

Catharine, Glueen of England, divorced
by Henry VIII against all laws,
222, 226— death of this Princess ;
a comparison between her and
Anne Boleyn, 229 — she maintains
to death the truth of her marriage
and the dignity of a Gtueen, 230.

Catharine Howard, mistress to Henry
VIII, 236 — this Prince first marries,
tlien puts her to death, ib.

Catharine Medicis causes the Confer-
ence of Poissy to be held, 340.

Catholics (The) by the Confession of
Sacramentarians themselves, un-
derstand the words of the Eucha-
ristic Institution better than the
Lutherans, 64 — even by the Con-
fession of a whole Synod, 70 — their
sense in this point is the most nat-
ural, 73 — they alone have a con-
sistent doctrine, 197 — they are jus-
tified by the divisions of the Prot-
estants, 1 35 — the sentiment of Cath-
olics on these words, "Tliisis my
body," 313 — and on these words,
"Do this in remembrance of me,"
314 — their reflections on the inde-
terminate and pompous expressions
of the Calvinists concerning the
subject of the Eucharist, 344.

Celibacy, despised by the pretended
Reformers, G3 — three parts in four
of the Ecclesiastics in England re-
nounced it under Edward VI, 265.

Ceremonies of the Church confirmed
by Henry VIII, King of England,
233 — rejected by Calvin, 262 and
332 — disputes among the Luther-
ans about Ceremonies, 283.

Certainly of Justification according
to Luther, 24 — this certainty is the
capital dogma of Luther, and the
master-piece of the Reformation,
103 — the difficulty it labors under,
ib. — what certainty is admitted in
Justification by theCathohc Church,
104 — the difficulty with respect to
the certainty of salvation in the
opinion of the Lutherans, 304 —
certainty of salvation taught by
Calvin, 306 — difficulties attending
the certainty of salvation, 309 —
Vide Vol. II.

Charles V, assembles the Diet of
Augsburg in 1530, where the Con-
fessions of Faith are presented to
him, 80 — he causes the Confession
of Augsburg to be refuted, 82 — he
makes a defensive league with all
the Catholic States against the
Protestants, 121 — his victor}^ over
the Protestants, 278 — he causes the
book of the Interim to be made, and
is blamed for it at Rome, 279 — he
makes a Conference be held at

356

INDEX.

Wonns in order to reconcile both
Religions, 290.

Charles du Moxdin, a famous Civilian ;
whit he says of a deUberation of
the Faculty of Paris, upon the di-
vorce of Henry VIII, 247.

Children of the Faithful born in grace,
according to Calvin, 309 — difficul-
ties of this doctrine, ih. — two tenets
of Calvinists concerning Children
not consistent with their principles,
310.

Church, authority of the Church re-
jected by Luther, 35 — what Me-
lancthon says of the promises made
to the Church, 160, 172— the Lu-
therans, at the time of the Augs-
burg Confession, durst not reject
the authority of theChurch of Rome,
1 16, 1 18 — remarkable words of Lu-
ther confessing the true Church in
the Romish Communion, 116 — per-
petual assistance promised to the
Church and confessed by Melanc-
thon, 160, 172 — the authority of the
Church absolutely necessary in
matters of Faith, 171 — Melancthon
owns it, ih. and 172 — all Protes-
tants own it, and are forced to prac-
tise what they called tyranny, 296
— the dreadful consequences of the
subversion of Church authority fore-
seen and experienced by Melanc-
thon and the rest of the Reformers,
15'^, 160, 171— authority of the
Church overthrown in the Ref-
ormation, 151 — sacrificed to the
Secular Power, ih. — Calvin con-
demns, but cannot hinder it, 152 —
the Church enslaved by the English
Reformation and Cranmer Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, 240 — the
doi^ma of Henry VIII concerning
the^authority of the Church, 241 —
a manifest contradiction in the Eng-
lish Doctrine upon the authority of
the Church given to Kings, 242 —
the consent of the whole Church
can declare itself other ways than
by General Councils, 252 — the
Reformation founded on the niin
of Church authority, 255 — how the
Church is the body of Jesus Christ,
32^ — why Heretics are forced to
imitate the language of the Church,
331 — that point relating to the
Church treated of in the Conference
of Poissy, 341— Fide Vol. II.

Chythrceua (David,) an Ubiquitarian,
293 — his hatred against Melanc-
thon, 2S5.

Clement VII, his sentence against
Henry VIII, King of England, 226
— it appertains not to Faith to ex-
amine the conduct and proceedings
of Clement VII, 243 — remarks
upon the conformity of the senti-
ment of Protestants with the sen-
tence of Clement VII, 246 — reasons
for the decision of Clement VII, 248.

Communion under both kinds set up
by Carlostadius, 50 — Luther holds
Communion under both kinds for
an indifferent thing, ib. — M^hat the
Lutherans say of it in the Apol-
ogy of the Augsburg Confession,
117 — what Luther says in excuse
for the whole Church on the subject
of Communion under one kind, ih.
— by the Protestants' own confes-
sion, the question of the necessity
of both kinds depends on the Real
Presence, 238— Fi^e Vol. II.

Concomitancy retained by Henry VIII,
King of England, 238— estabhshed
in the W^ittenburg Confession of
Faith, 285.

Concord, a brief account of the book
of Concord made by the Luther-
ans, 305.

Conference of Luther with the Devil,
131.

Confession, with the necessity of the
numeration of sins retained by the
Lutherans, 108 — and by tlie Eng-
hsh, 238.

Confession of Faith, a remarkable one
of the Elector Frederick III, 307—
the Confession of Faith of the
French Calvinists compared with
the agreement of Geneva, 337 — in
1557, it is sent to the Assembly of
Worms, 338 — another Confession
of Faith of the French Calvinists,
drawn in order to be sent to the
Protestants, 339.

Confession of Faith of Augsburg, iride
Augsburg.

Confession of Faith of Bucer, vide
Bucer.

Confession of Faith of Calvin, vide
Calvin.

Confession of Faith of Saxony, vide
Saxony.

Confession of Faith of Strasburg, vide
Strasburg.

INDEX.

357

Confession of Faith of Wirtemberg,
vide Wirtemberg.

Confirmation, reduced in England to
a bare Catechism, 261.

Confusion of new Sects, 28S, 304.

Consubstantiation taught by Luther,
with many variations, 46 — Vide
Vol. II.

Contarenus, Cardinal Legate of the
Pope at Ratisbon, 279 — what he
there says of tlie book of tlie Inte-
rim, ih.

Continency, perpetual, judged impos-
sible by Luther, 42, 1 10.

Co?iin<io?i,accordingtoLuther, makes
men greater hypocrites, 29.

Council. The body of the Lutherans,
in the Confession of Augsburg,
submit themselves to the judgment
of a General Council, 118 — Vide
Vol. II.

Cranmer, (Thomas) is the hero of Mr.
Burnet's History, 221 — how he
came into favor with Henry VLII
and Anne Boleyn, ib. — Cranmer
sent to Rome on account of the di-
vorce of the King of England, 223
— he conceals his belief, ib. — is
there made the Pope's Penitentiary ;
he marries in private, thouo;h a
priest, ib. — he is nominated Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and receives
tlie Pope's Bulls, though a married
man and a Lutheran, ib. — his con-
secration and liis hypocrisy, 224 —
a reflection on Cranmer's pretended
moderation in accepting the Arch-
bishopric of Canterbuiy, 225 —
Cranmer proceeds to the divorce,
and in the sentence takes upon him
the quality of Legate of the Holy
See, 226 — liis visitations made by
tlie authority of the King are fol-
lowed by a depredation of the goods
of Monasteries, 229 — he annuls
Henry VIII's and Anne Boleyn's
marriage, 230 — he subscribes the
articles of Henry VIII, 234— he
confirms the Church's Faith which
he condemned in his heart, 235 —
the prostitution of Cranmer's con-
science ; he breaks the marriage
with Anne of Cleves ; the magnifi-
cent terms of this unjust sentence,
237 — hypocrisy of Cranmer, who
subscribes every tiling that is de-
sired of him in point of religion, 238
— ^his behaviour with respect to the

Six Articles of Henry VIII, 239—
Cranmer's shameful notions con-
cernmg the Ecclesiastical Authority
which he sacrifices to the Crown,
240 — his Doctrine about the Au-
thority of the Church in time of
persecution, ib. — Cranmer's flat-
teries, the cause of the Reformation
in England, 243 — he is the first to
subject himself to the shameful
yoke which Edward VI imposes on
the Bishops, 255 — he, with the
Duke of Somerset, begins the Ref-
ormation in England, 258 — in his
Reformation he inverts all order,
263 — he signs the Admiral's death,
though condemned without a hear-
ing, ^267 — he spirits up rebellion
against Clueen Mary, ib. — he is de-
posed and cast into prison for trea-
son and heresy, ib. — he is declared
a heretic, and for what article, 268
— Cranmer's false answer before his
Judges ; he is condemned pursuant
to his own principles, ib. — whether
it be true that he was no further
compliant to Henry VIII than liis
conscience permitted him, 269.

Croiniuell ( Thomas) made Vicar-Gen-
eral in spirituals by Henry VIII,
221 — in his visitation he enjoins
every Priest to say Mass every day,
229 — he subscribes the decisions of
Henry VIII, 234 — he confirms tlie
Faith of the Church which he re-
jected in his heart, 235 — he is con-
demned to death as a heretic and a
traitor, 236 — his hypocrisy, ib.

Cross, use of, retained in England,
234, 262.

Crucifix. Luther praises God for that
the Crucifix is, by the Church of
Rome, put into the hands of dying
people, 117 — Luther's picture be-
fore his works represent liim on his
knees before a Crucifix, ib.

Czenger, a city in Poland ; the Zuin-
gUans there hold a Synod, where
they declare that our Doctrine upon
the Eucharist is more supportable
than that of the Lutherans, 71.

D'Mly—Vide Ailly, D'.

Decision of the Prelates assembled at
Poissy, who explain very plainly,
and in few words, the whole Cath-
ohc Doctrine concerning the Eu-
charist, 345.

358

INDEX.

Depen.^e, (Claude) what this Doctor
added to the expressions of the
Mi listers to make them more al-
lowable, 345.

Diet of Augsburg — Vide Augsburg.

Difference between invented Doctrine,
fid Doctrine received by tradition,
92.

Discipline, Ecclesiastical, entirely de-
spised by Protestants, 151.

Divisions among these pretended
Gospellers, 48, 290 — they over-
throw all the foundations of the
Reibrmation, 77 — Vide Church
Reformation.

Domi. deems preferred to the Augus-
tinians by Leo X, in publishing
Indulgences, 22.

DrinJc ye all of this, (text of) not so
clear as Protestants imagine, 250.

Eckius, present at the Conference of
Ratisbon; there rejects the book
of the Interim, 279.

Edico'd VI, son of Henry VIII, suc-
ceeds him, 254 — his guardian is a
Zumglian, 255 — under him com-
missions revocable at will are given
to the Bishops, ib. — he invades the
whole Episcopal authority, ih, — he
assumes an absolute authority over
the word of God and preacliing, 257
— he abrogates the Six Articles
pubhshed by Henry VIII, 258—
how he was prejudiced from his
childhood against Images, 264 —
Zumglianism takes deep root in
England under Edward VI, 281.

Edivirrd Seymmir, guardian to Edward
VI, 255 — undertakes the EngUsh
Reibrmation, ib. — his pride, vio-
lence, and crimes, 266.

Eleva'ion of the Eucharist taken away
by Carlostadius, 49 — retained by
Lui.her in despite of Carlostadius,
50, 111 — destroyed and judged at
the same time irreprehensible by
Luther, 185, 186, 194.

Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn,
is declared illegitimate by Gran-
nie r's sentence, 231.

England. Beginning of the pretended
Reformation of England, 219 — the
Reformation of England begun by
He iry VIII, who was equally re-
jected by both sides, 220 — what in-
struments Henry VIII makes use
of to set up the Reformation in

England, 221 — all the Bishops sub
scribed Henry VlII's decisions, 234
— nothing is changed in England in
the Missals and Office-books of
the Church under Henry VIII, 238
— the true cause of the English Ref-
ormation, 243 — two points of P».cf-
ormation in England, according to
Mr. Burnet, how groundless, 249 —
the Church of England acted by a
schismatical principle, when she
beheved she might regulate her
Faith independently of all the rest
of the Church, 251 — whether the
Church of England therein followed
the ancient Church, ib. — whether
she had reason to believe that
it was too difficult a matter to
consult the Faith of the whole
Church, 252 — all kind of novelties
creep into England in spite of all
the severities of Henry VIII, and
why, 253 — they argued from false
principles when they rejected the
Pope's Supremacy in England, ib.
— the foundation of the EngUsh
Reformation laid upon the ruin of
Ecclesiastical authority, 255 — the
Bishops of England have no share
in matters of Religion, 256 — the
Reformation begun in England by
Peter Martyr and Bernardin Ochiii,
258 — the Reformers in England re-
pent themselves of having said, that
in the Reformation of the Liturgy
they had acted with the assistance
of the Holy Ghost, 259— England
discards the Mass which she had
heard from her first conversion to
Christianity, 260 — England vindi-
cates us in the observance of the
festivals of Saints and abstinence
from flesh, 262— three partsinfourof
the EngUsh Clergy renounce celib-
acy under Edward VI, 265 — Zuin-
glianism strengthens itself in Eng-
land under Edward VI, 258— Vide
Vol. II.

Equivocations in matters of Faith,
agreeable to the spirit of the new
Reformation, 136 — equivocations
of the Sacramentarians with rela-
tion to the Eucharist, 126, 133— of
the Calvinists upon the same sub-
ject, 343— Peter Martyr's senti-
ments concerning these equivoca-
tions, 345.

Erasmus objects to Luther the unan-

INDEX.

359

imous consent of the Fathers in
behalf of Free-will, 4]i:-\vhat he
says of the fierce and threatening
air of the new Protestants, 44 —
Erasmus's letter to Melancthon
upon Luther's passionate trans-
ports, 48 — dispute between Eras-
mus and Lutlier about Free-will,
55 — what he writes concerning
CEcoIampadius and marriage of
these Reformers, 63 — what he says
to Protestants about their disputes
of the true sense of Scripture, 77
— Erasmus's testimony concerning
the disordinate behaviour of the
pretended Reformists, 155.
Eucharist, what Luther thought of it,
44 — what was always the Church's
Faith concerning it, 45 — how the
names of Bread and Wine may be
applied to the Eucharist after Con-
secratiouj- two iTiles taken from
Scripture, 74 — why the word Sub-
stance is made use of in the Eu-
charist, 90 — how the oblation of the
Eucharist is profitable to the whole
world, 112 — equivocations of the
Sacramentarians upon the Eucha-
rist, 126 — how the Presence of the
Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucha-
rist is spiritual, ib. — whether a local
Presence be to be admitted in the
Eucharist, 127 — how the Eucharist
is a Sign, 128 — whether the Pres-
ence of the Body of Jesus Christ be
durable in the Eucharist, 137 — Doc-
trine of tlie Cathohc Church about
the Eucharist confirmed by Henry
VIII, 233, 238— refinement of Cal-
vin upon the Eucharist, 311 — sen-
timent of the Catholic Church upon
the Eucharist, 313 — how the "en-
joyment of the Body of Jesus Christ
is perpetual and permanent in the
Eucharist, 314 — what must be done
to communicate worthily, ib. — we
must be united to the Body of Jesus
Christ more than by virtue and
thought, 316 — according to Calvin's
expression, the true Body of Jesus
Christ must be in the Eucharist,
317 — the subject of the Eucharist
debated in the Conference of Poissy,
341 — the decisions of the Bishops
on this head, 345 — Vide Real Pres-
ence, Vol. II.

Faith. According to Luther, one is

assured of his Faith without being
assured of his repentance, 24 —
Special Faith, according to Luther,
its difficulties, 23 — which ave not
removed intheConi'ession of Augs-
burg, 102 — what Faith does in the
Mystery of the Eucharist, oil —
what it does there, according to
Calvin, ib. — Vide Certainty, vide
Vol. II.

Farel is deputed from the Reformed
Churches of France, to the Assem-
bly of Worms and Geneva, ?38.

Fathers {Holy,) they pretend to ^ollow
them in the Reformation, ICi, 115
— in tlie main they despise them,
41, 115 — the Holy Fatliers detpised
by Calvin, 336 — they forced rtspect
from Protestants in spite of their
teeth, ib. — Vide Lutlier, vide Vol. II.

Festivals of Saints retamed in Eng-
land, 262.

Figure. The puzzling and contra-
dictions of Calvin in the defei;ce of
the figurative sense, 325 — tlie Cal-
vinists send into Germany a Con-
fession of Faith not agreeable to
the figurative sense, 338.

Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, is con-
demned to death for not acknowl-
edging the King for Head of the
Church, 227.

Flesh. Calvin explains as we d o this
passage, — " The flesh profiteth
nothing," 323.

Fox, Bishop of Hereford ; his dissim-
ulation, 239.

France. Beginning of tlie troubles of
France, 305.

Francis (St.,) numbered amongst the
Saints by Luther, 110.

Francis I. What Mr. Burnet imputes
to this Prince was never before
heard of, 272.

Frankfort. Assembly of the Luther-
ans at Frankfort, and hov/ they
there explain the Eucharist, 292.

Fra-Paolo, an imposition of Mr. Bur-
net's concerning Fra-Paolo, 272.

Frederick, Elector Palatine, retains
both the Confession of Augsburg
and the doctrine of Zuinglius to-
gether, 297.

Frederick III, Elector Palatine ; this
Prince's remarkable Confession of
Faith, 307 — his dissimulation with
regard to Uie Confession of Augs-
burg, 349.

360

INDEX.

Free-will. Luther writes against Free-
will, 55 — Luther's Doctrine against
Free-will retracted in the Augs-
burg Confession, 92— Melancthon's
Doctrine concerning the co-opera-
tion of Free-will, 287 — the Luther-
ans' Doctrine concerning Free-will
contradicts itself, 288 — decision of
the Lutherans about the co-opera-
tion of Free- will, 299 — the will free
to retain or reject Grace, a Doc-
trine confessed by Melancthon, but
condemned by his brethren, 288.

Fulfilling of the law owned in the
Apology of the Augsburg Confes-
sion in the same sense as in the
Church, 97 — and in the Confession
of Strasburg, 105.

Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, im-
prisoned by the orders of Cranmer,
Archbishop of Canterbury, 268.

Geneva. Calvin makes an agreement
with those of Geneva, 310 — com-
pared with the Catechism and Con-
fession of France, 337 — Calvin
rules Geneva, 341.

George, Duke of Saxony, shamefully
treated by Luther, 78 — he is an
enemy to the Lutlierans, ib.

Gerard, a Lutheran doctor; in what
manner he explains the certainty of
salvation taught by his party, 304.

Germany, set all in a flame by Lu-
ther's writings, 51 — the Lutherans
by a great armament make all Ger-
many tremble, 78 — all Germany in
arms at a writing of Luther's, 122.

Gerson, Chancellor of the University
of Paris, his opinion about the Ref-
ormation of the Church, 19, 20 —
he is praised by Luther, 110 — he
is cited to a wrong sense by Mr.
Burnet, 273.

God the atxthor of all crimes, accord-
ing to Luther's Doctrine, 56 — Vide
Vol. II. — Strange Doctrine of the
Lutherans concerning the love of
God, 106.

Goods, of Monasteries, pillaged in
England, 229 — the goods of the
Church sold at a low price in Eng-
land, 235 — the goods of the Church
exposed to the plunder of the Laity
under Edward VI, 265.

Grace. Grace once received can never
be lost, according to Calvin, 307 —
difficulties of this Doctrine, 310.

Gregory (St.) Pope, under whom the
English, were converted, had no
other sentiments than we have of
the authority of the Holy See, 253.

Gropper. By the advice of the learned
Gropper, Herman, Archbishop of
Cologne, holds very holy councils,
277 — he is present at the Confer-
ence of Ratisbon, 279.

Helding, titular Bishop of Sidon, pres-
ent at the Conference of Ratisbon,
and there revises the book of the
Interim, 280.

Henry II, King of France, did his ut-
most to depress the Calvinists, 338.

Henry VIII, King of England, is
basely handled by Luther, 47, 57
— he reproaches Luther with his
scandalous marriage and errors, ib.
— he is for marrying a second wife,
the first still living, his ceremonies,
219, 232, 245, &c.— what was the
Faith of this Prince, 220— he as-
sumes the title of supreme head of
the Church of England, ib. — what
were the instruments he made use
of in his Reformation, ib. — he mar-
ries AnneBoleyn, 226 — he becomes
enraged against the Holy See, ib.
— he puts to death Thomas More,
and Fisher, Bishop of Rochester,
227 — the remarkable date of his
cruelties, ih. — all England takes
the oath of Supremacy, 228 — he
appropriates to himself the goods
of Monasteries, 229 — he puts Anne
Boleyn, to death in favor of Jane
Seymour, 232 — he confirms the
Doctrine of the Church with regard
to Penance, 233 — tlie Eucharist
and Images, ib. — and invocation
of Saints and Ceremonies, 234 —
and Purgatory and Masses for the
dead, ib. — by his own authority he
pronounces on matters of Faith, ih.
— he confirms anew the Faith of
the Church, 235 — he marries Anne
of Cleves ; falls in love with Cath-
arine Howard, and executes Crom-
well, 236 — he repudiates Anne of
Cleves, 237 — he marries Catharine
Howard and puts her to death, 237,
238 — he confirms again the Faith
of the Church, 238 — he makes all
Ecclesiastical power proceed from
the Crown. 240 — his vices the be-
ginning of the English Reformation,

INDEX.

361

243 — examen of his first marriage,
and the frivolous pretexts with
which he covered his passion, 244
— he bribes some CathoUc Doctors,
247 — what judgment ought to be
passed on the pretended consulta-
tion of the faculty of Paris concern-
ing Henry's divorce, ib. — testimony
of the Civilian Charles du Moulin,
ib. — in what manner he allows the
people to read the Scriptures, 249
— he will have the Church of every
country regulate her Faith inde-
pendently of all other Churches,
251 — his death, 254 — a total change
in England after his death, ib.

Heretics. Why Heretics are forced to
mimic the language of the Church,
331.

Herman, Archbishop of Cologne, calls
the Protestants into his Diocese;
his extreme ignorance, 277 —

Heshusius, a Lutheran Minister, sadly
abused by Calvin on the subject of
the Eucharist.

Humility, apparent, of Luther, 30.

Huss, (John) inspires the people with
a hatred of the Clergy, 22 — his
Doctrine is approved by Luther, 34
—Vide Vol. II.

Jane Seymour is beloved by Henry
VIII, who marries her, 230 — her
death, 236.

Jealousy of Luther against the Domin-
icans, 22, 110.

Jena, Synod of Jena, where the Lu-
therans condemned the Zuinglians,
295.

Jllyricus, (Flaccus) his jealousy, and
his liidden designs against Melanc-
thon, 2S4 — he condemns Melanc-
thon's Doctrine about Free- will, 288.

Images, pulled down by Carlostadius,
50 — Luther's opinion concerning
Images, 66 — Calumnies of the
Protestants with respect to the
honor we show Images, ib. 117 —
Luther praises God for that the
Church of Rome preserves the Im-
ages of the Crucifix, 117 — the Doc-
trine of the Church concerning Ira-
ages confirmed by Henry VIII,
King of England, 233, 238— arti-
fices employed to excite young Ed-
ward VI against the Church's Doc
trine with relation to Images, 264
—Fide Vol. II.

Impanation, set up by some Luther-
ans, and rejected by Luther, 46.

Imputation, imputed justice — Vide
Justification.

Indulgences, attacked by Luther, 23
— the Indulgence that Luther
preached, 30.

Interim, {Book of the) made by order
of Charles V, and why, 278— this
Book never approved by the
Church, 279 — the last hand put to
it ; the little success it was attend-
ed with, 280.

Invocation. Calumny of the Lutherans
concerning Invocation of Saints,
115 — Invocation of Saints con-
finned by Henry VIII, 233, 238—
Vide Vol. II.

Islebius, a Protestant present at the
Conference of Ratisbon, 280.

Julian, what Cardinal Julian writes
to Eugenius IV concerning the
Reformation of the Clergy's man-
ners, 19.

Jidius II gives to Henry VIII, King
of England, a dispensation to marry
the widow of his brother Arthur,
244 — the dispensation of JuUus II
attacked by reasons of fact and
right, 245 — the Protestants of Ger-
many favorable to the dispensation
of Julius II, ib.

Justification, by imputation, is the
groundwork of Luther's Reforma-
tion, 23 — no difficulty about Justi-
fication since what has been said
concerning it in the Confession of
Augsburg, 92 — and that of Saxony,
289 — calumnies fixed on Catholics
about Justification, 92 — Justifica-
tion, Regeneration, Renovation, are
all in substance the same Grace,
100 — how Luther defines Justifica-
tion or justifying Faith, 101 — the
uncertainty of Justification wljich
Catholics own, hinders not the re-
pose of conscience, 104 — what is ill
Justification the true repose of con-
science, and what certainty is there
received, ib. — what is the Doctrine
of Justification according to the
Cathohc Church, 105 — error of
Lutheran Justification, that one is
assured of liis Justification and not
of his Conversion, 24, 100 — the
pernicious effects of this Doctrine,
and how much it encourages neg-
hgence and laxity, 150, 171, 172 —

31

362

iNDEX,

another error, 107 — Osiander's
Doctrine on Justification, 261 — to
Luther's Justification Calvin adds
the certainty of Salvation, 306 — -he
teaches that Justification cannot be
lost, 307 — difficulty resulting fi-om
this Doctrine, 30d— Vide Luther,
vide Melancthon, vide Vol. IL

Koningsberg. The University of
Koningsberg disturbed by the new
Doctrine of Osiander on Justifica-
tion, 283 — some Divines of Kon-
ingsberg oppose this Doctrine w^ith
great vigor, 292 — they are aston-
ished at tiie weakness of the Lu-
theran Party, ib. — one of them per-
ceiving the Protestant Churches
quite void of authority is converted,
ib.

Landgrave of Hesse, takes up arms to
maintain Luther's new Gospel, and
OAvns he is in the wrong, 77 — he
strives in vain to reconcile both Par-
ties of Protestants, 78 — he makes
a treaty with the people of Basil,
Zurich, and Strasburg, 121— he
sends Bucer to have an interview
with Luther and Zuinglius, ib. —
his scandalous incontinency, and
what remedy the Reformation ap-
phed to it, 177 — important Records
of this matter printed by order of
the Elector Charles Lewis Count
Palatine, 177— he asks of Luther
and the other heads of the Party
to grant him leave to mai-ry a sec-
ond wife, the first still living, 179—
he promises to Luther the goods of
Monasteries if they favor Ins pe-
tition, ib. — if they refuse liim, he
purposes to have recourse to the
Emperor, and even the Pope him-
self, 180 — he obtains leave to marry
another wife, 181 — his second mar-
riage is performed in secret, 1S2 —
the contract passed between the
parties, ib. — his answer to the young
Duke of Brunsvsdck relating to this
marriage, ib. — he obliges Luther to
suppress the Elevation of the Blessed
Sacrament in the Mass, 185 — rec-
ords appertaining to the Land-
grave's second marriage, 200, &c. ;
he is defeated by the Emperor, 278.

Latin. The Latin song preserved in
the Lutheran Mass, 111.

Leagues. Protestant leagues con-
demned at first by Luther and Me-
lancthon, afterwards approved by
both of them, 122, 123, 174, 277—
odious to Melancthon and all honest
men of the Party, 174 — made with
evil designs which create a horror
in Melancthon, 175 — Vide War.

Legislature (The) make themselves
Pope in the new Reformation, 152
— Calvin condemns the Doctrine
which makes the Church dependant
on the Legislature, ib.

Lent retained in England, 262.

Leo X causes Indulgences to be pub-
lished, and Luther opposes them,
29 — he makes Luther's writings be
burnt, 34.

Liturgy, reformed by Parliament in
Ejigland, 259 — all the remains of
antiquity which were at first pre-
served in the Engfish liturgy are
defaced, 260.

Loiivain. Luther's passion against
the Doctors of Louvain, 197.

Lxither, the false motives of his pre-
tended Reformation, 20, &c. — he
makes the Reformation depend on
the destruction of the Papacy, 21 —
his character and qualities, 22 — the
groundwork of his Reformation;
what he means by his "imputed
Justice and Justification by Faith,"
23 — what is by him called special
Faith, ih. — according to him, one is
assured of his Justification without
being assured of his Repentance,
25 — he maintains that all the sins
of the just are mortal, 26 — the dif-
ficulty which this Doctrine labors
under, 25 — he blames security, 26
— this Doctrine inexplicable, 27 —
his answer by distinction of two
kinds of sins, 28 — contradiction of
his Doctrine on Justification, ib. —
sequel of Luther's contradictions,
ib. — he spoke better at the begin-
ning of the dispute, 29 — his strange
Doctrine about the War against the
Turk, 30 — his apparent'' humility
and his submission to the Pope, ib.
— reasons he grounds this submis-
sion upon, ib. — his transports of
passioUj for which he asks pardon,
31 — he offers silence to Leo X and
Charles V, ib. — he will not hear of
recanting, 32 — he is condemned by
Leo X, and flies into horrible ex-

INDEX.

cesses, 33 — his rage against the
Pope and Princes that abet liim, ib.
— out of" spite he approves John
Huss's Doctrine, 34 — he makes the
Decretals be burnt, 35 — the diffi-
culty he had in rejecting the au-
thority of the Church, and how he
glories when he had compassed it,
ib. — Luther's letter to the Bishops ;
his pretended extraordinary mission,
36 — he presumes to make a Bishop,
ib. — his arguments against the Ana-
baptists who preached without mis-
sion and miracles, 37^-what sort
of miracles he pretends to author-
ize his mission by, 33 — what he
writes to liis Fatlier upon his quit-
ting the Monastery, ib. — he acts the
Prophet, and promises to destroy
the Pope without suffering arms to
be employed, 39 — liis boasts, and
the contempt he passes on all the
Fathers, 41 — he writes against
Free-will, ib. — he blames conti-
nency though commanded by all
the Fathers, 42 — his buffooneries
and extravagances, ib. — seditions
and violence are the first fruit of
Luther's preacliing, 43 — his book
"of the Captivity of Babylon ;" his
sentiments on the Eucharist, and
the desire he has to undermine the
Reality, 44 — he attacks Transub-
stantiation, 45 — his gross manner
of explaining the Reality, ib. — his
Variations upon Transubstantia-
tion ; his unheard-of method of de-
ciding in points of Faith, 46 — he
does not relish Liipaiiation, ib. — his
impotent rage against Henry VIII,
47 — he is attacked by Carlostadius,
43 — the origin of his contests Math
Carlostadius, 49 — his pride ; he up-
braids Carlostadius that he acts
without mission, 50 — Luther's ser-
mon wherein he threatens to recant
and set up the Mass again ; iiis ex-
travagance in boasting his power,
ib. — he decides out of spite in the
most important matters, ib. — how
war was declared betwixt him and
Carlostadius, 51 — hisBook of Chris-
tian Liberty spirits the people up to
rebellion, ib. — he is sent to Orle-
mond to Pacify the people tumult-
uated by Carlostadius, 52 — at his
entry into it he is pelted with stones,
t&.— drinking with Carlostadius at

an inn, he bids hJm defiance to write
against him, ib. — the share he had
in the revolt of the Peasants of Ger-
many, ib. — he marries a Nun, 53
— great diminution of his authority,
55 — his dispute with Erasmus about
Free-M'ill, ib. — his blasphemies in
his treatise of Will enslaved, 5G —
he makes God the author of all
crimes, ib. — new transports of pas-
sion against Henry VIII, 57 — he
brags of his pride, ib. — he does not
spare Zuinglius upon what he had
said of the Salvation of Heathens,
ib. — he writes against the Sacra-
mentarians, and treats Zuinghus
worse than all the rest, 66 — the
words of a famous Lutheran upon
Luther'sjealousy against Zuinglius,
ib. — Luther's strong arguments for
the Real Presence, and then his
boasting of them, 67 — v/hat he an-
swered to this objection of the Sa-
cramcntarians, " the flesh proiiteth
notliing," 68 — he refutes their other
objections, i6. — he will have neither
peace nor union with them, 69 —
the Zuinglians prove to him that the
Catholics understand the literal
sense better than he, ib. — how Lu-
ther overthrew his own Doctrine
about Consubstantiation without
thinking of it, ib. — he did not un-
derstand the force of these words,
" This is my Body," 71— the Sa-
cramentarians prove to him that he
admits a kind of figure, 72 — Luther
affrighted at these disputes, 75 — he
teaches Ubiquity, ib. — he declares
anew that it matters little whether
the Substance of Bread be admitted,
or taken away, 76 — he abuses
George, Duke of Saxony, after a
vile manner, 78 — he is present at
the Conference of Marpurg, and the
only man that speaks of his whole
Party, 79 — he will not there unite
himself to the Zuinglians, SO — his
Doctrine about Free-will retracted
in the Confession of Au^^sburg, 92
— how he defines justifying Faith,
101— he rejects the Epistle of St.
James, 110 — he admits St. Ber-
nard, St. Francis, St. Bonaventure
into the list of Saints; his odd
doubt of the Salvation of St. Thomas
of Aquine, ib. — he confesses the
true Church in the Romish Com-

364

INDEX.

munion, 116 — his picture at the be-
ginning of his works represents him
on liis knees before a Crucifix, 117
— what he says in excuse for the
whole Church with relation to Com-
munion under one kind, 118 — he
warrants the Protestants' resolu-
tion of taking up arms, 121 — he
calls the Sacramentaiians "a dou-
ble-tongued faction," 125 — the
Zuinglians complain of his inso-
lence and inhumanity, and at the
same time call him a great servant
of God, 130 — his Conference with
the Devil, 131 — he is deceived by
Bucer, 135 — his opinion concerning
the durable Presence of the Body
of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,
137 — he celebrates the Supper to-
gether with the Sacramentarians in
token of peace, 138 — he makes a
new declaration of tliis Faith in
the Smalkaldic articles, 144 — he
explains the words of the institu-
tion after a new manner, ih. — he
cannot evade the equivocations of
the Sacramentarians, who elude
everything, 145 — his fury against
the Pope in the Articles of Smal-
kald, 146 — he receives his mission
from the Prince to make his Eccle-
siastical visitation, 152 — liis insup-
portable tyranny, 157 — Calvin
grieves at it in vain, 158 — he allows
the Landgrave to have two wives
at once, 178, &c, — his dogmatical
advice on Polygamy, 181 — his an-
swer upon the second marriage of
the Landgrave, and his scandalous
sermon about marriage, 183, 184 —
he suppresses the Elevation of the
Holy Sacrament in the Mass,i6. — •
yet without disapproving of it, 191,
194 — his old jealousy againstZuin-
glius and his disciples is awakened,
186 — he will not suffer the Sacra-
mentarians to be prayed for, and
believes them inevitably damned,
187 — he has always the Devil in his
mouth ; his scandalous Prayer, in
wliich he savs he has never olfended
the Devil, 188, &c.— his blind hatred
to the Oblation and Canon of the
Mass, 189 — he retains the Real and
permanent Presence subsisting out
of the use of the Sacrament, 191 —
remarkable letters of Luther in be-
half of the permanent Presence,

193, &c. — ^liis Doctrine about the
Eucharist changed immediately af-
ter his death by the Divines of Wit-
tenberg, 196 — towards the end of
his days he is more furious than
ever; his passion against the Doc-
tors of Louvain, 197 — his last sen-
timents concerning the Zuinglians,
ib. — his death, 199 — a new piece
produced by Mr. Burnet, about
Luther's sentiment touching a rec-
onciliation with the Zuinglians, ib.
— Luther's consultation about Po-
lygamy, 181, &c. — Luther's Thesis
to 3tir up the Lutherans to rise in
arms, 277 — what he says of the
Pope, whom he compares to a mad
wolf, ib. — the difference between
Luther and Calvin, 334 — Luther
less bitter than Calvin, ib.
Lutherans (the) take up arms under
the conduct of the Landgrave, 77 —
they unite under the name of Pro-
testants, 78 — what they say in the
book of Concord about the tenth
Articleof the AngsburgConfession,
83 — the Lutherans' shifts in defence
of their Variations, 85 — in their
Doctriiie, the Sacraments operate
ex opere operato, 93 — ^they believe
Infant Baptism necessary to Salva-
tion, 102 — their Variations in what
they have retrenched from the Con-
fessions of Augsburg, 97 — the Lu-
therans agree that Justification,
Regeneration, and Sanctification,
are confounded by Luther and Me-
lancthon, 100 — according to the
Lutheran principles, the uncer-
tainty of Justification acknoM'l-
edged by Catholics ought to cause
no trouble of conscience, 104 — they
acknowledge the Sacrament of
Penance and Sacramental Absolu-
tion, 108 — what they say of the
Mass in the Augsburg Confession
and Apology, 111 — they cut off* the
Oblation of the proposed gifts, ib. —
what they have invented in order to
render this Oblation odious, 1 12 —
what they say of Prayer for the
Dead, and Aerius who rejected it,
113 — their calumnies about invo-
cating Saints, and concerning Im-
ages, 115 — they dare not reject the
authority of the Churc]i of Rome,
116 — the body of the Lutherans
submit themselves to the general

INDEX. 365

Council called by the Pope, 1 18 —
Mc4anctlion's description of the
Lutlieran Churches, 159 — the Lu-
theians are favorable to the dispen-
sation of Julius 11 and to the first
marriage of Henry VIII, 245 — their
odd decision in tliis matter, 246 —
their dispute relating to Ceremo-
nies, ib. — Their Doctrine about
Free-will self-contradictory, 288 —
their division in the Assembly at
AVorms, 290 — they all with one
voice condemn the necessity of good
works for Salvation, ib. — their di-
visions break forth, 291 — at Fiank-
foit they make a new formulary to
exphcate the Eucharist, 292 — they
condemn the Zuinglians at the Sy-
nod of Jena, 295 — they meet at
Naumbn.rg, in order to agree about
the Confession of Augsburg, 296 —
they set up Ubiquity, £97 — their
design in setting up Ubiquity, 298
— two remarkable decisions of the
Lutherans on the co-operation of
Free-will, 29S — the perplexity and
contradiction of the Lutheran Doc-
trine, 300 — how they answer to the
objections of Libertines, and to the
difficulties of weak Cluistians, upon
the co-operation of Free-will, 301 —
their resolution is clearly Demi-
Pelagian ; a proof of the Demi-
Pelagianism of the Lutherans, 303
— the Lutherans scurrilously used
by Calvin, 335— Vide Vol. II.

Manner s. No reformation of Man-
ners i n the Protestant Churches 1 55,
176 — Vide Reformation.

JMarpurg. Conference of Marpurg,
what passed at it, 78.

Marriage. Those of the Augsburg
Confession acknowledge in mar-
riage a divine institution and prom-
ises, 110 — Luther's marriage, 53 —
Carlostadius's marriage, ib. — CEco-
larnpadius's marriage, 63 — Bucer's
marriage, 81-Erasmu3's sentiments
on these scandalous marriages, 63
— Luther's scandalous sermon upon
marriage, 184, 185 — Thomas Cran-
mer's marriage, 224 — the Land-
grave's second mamage Vide

Landgrave of Hesso.

Mary, daughter of Henry VIII ; they
rebel against her in Enp^land, 267
— she restores Catholic religion and

31

makes Cranmer be condemned,
267.

Mass. Low Masses abolished by
Carlostadius, 50 — Luther threatens
his Disciples with re-establishing
the Mass, ib. — the Mass abolislied
at Zurich, 65 — tlie Lutheran Mass,
1 1 1 — Mass without communicants,
1 14 — in what sense it is believed by
Catholics that the Mass is profita-
ble to the whole world, 113 — Lu-
ther's treatise for abolishing the
Mass, 116 — in what sense we offer
in the Mass for the Redemption of
mankind, 190 — the whole Mass is
included in the sole Real Presence,
190, 196, 197— what Melancthon
does in order to destroy the Mass,
191 — Mass for the Dead retained
in England by Henry VIII, 234 —
Mass abrogated in England under
Edward Vl, 260-th8 Galilean Mass
and the rest are in substance the
same with that of Rome, 261 — the
Prayer begging the change of Bread
into the Body, 260, &c. — what is
the sense of this Prayer, ih. — re-
tained and afterward!^ taken away
under Edward VI, ib. — Canon of
the Mass ; what it is that Luther
blames therein, 189 — Ftde Oblation.

Mediation of Jesus Cluist always
necessary, 99.

Melancthoii looks on Luther as an ex-
traordinary man, 41 — he owns that
Luther ha^ allowed Transubstan-
tiation to certain Churches in Italy,
46 — what he says of Carlostadius,
49 — what he writes to Camerarius
concerning Luther's marriage, 54 —
his anxiety on Luther's account, 55
— he bewails the passionate trans-
ports of Luther, 56— in regard to
the Doctrine of Free-will he is more
m.oderate than Luther, ib. — he la-
ments the condition which the v.orld
was brought to by the disputes
about the Eucharist, 75 — he is scan-
dalized at Luther's Doctrine relat-
ing to the Eucharist, 76 — the quan-
dary he is in how to excuse the
Landgrave who had taken up arms
to maintain Luther's Reformation,
78 — he is present at the Conference
of Marpurg, ib. — he draMS up the
Confession^ of Augsburg, 81 — he
makes the Apology of it, 82— how
he there transcribes the Tenth Arti-

^sv-.

INDEX.

cle of the Augsburg Confession re-
lating to the Supper, 82 — he is
careful to express in the Apology
the Hteral sense of the words of In-
stitution, 83 — he knows not his
own meaning, when in the Apology
he denies that good works merit

life everlasting, 96 remarkable

words of Melancthon on the altera-
tions he has a mind should be made
in the Confession of Augsburg, 120
— his trouble about the new designs
of war, which were approved by
Luther, 122 — he wavers on this
head ; what he writes to Camera-
rius concerning it, ib. — what he
says of the Sacramentarians' Doc-
trine about the Eucharist, 125 — his
notion of equivocations in matters
of Faith, 137 — he begins to doubt
of Luther's Doctrine ; his unskilful-
ness in divinity, 141 — Ratramnus's
book puzzles him, 142 — he wishes
for a new decision about the Eu-
charist, 143 — he is for owning the
Pope's authority, 146 — how he was
drawn over to Luther, 147 — how
he excuses Luther's passion, 149 —
the beginning of his perplexities,
150 — how he owns that Luther's
great success was owing to bad
principles, ib. — he foresees the dis-
orders that would result ftom the
contempt of Episcopal Authority,
ib. — he complains that discipline
was quite ruined among the Lu-
theran Churches, 151 — he bewails
the licentiousness of the Party who
decided points of Religion at table,
154 — t3'rannized over by Luther;
he thinks of retiring, 150 — he is put
to a plunge ; his whole life long he
is in search after his religion, 159,
160 — what tenets he looked upon ill-
explained, 162 — at the very time he
tliinks of reforming the Confession
of Augsburg he declares he stands
by it, 163 — his sentiments about
the necessity of owning the Pope
and Bisiiops, 1 64 — at the Assembly
of Smalkald he is of opinion that
the Council called by the Pope
should be acknowledged, ib. — rea-
sons for the restriction he made to
his subscription of the articles of
Smalkald, 167 — Melancthon's re-
markable words concerning the
authority of the Church, 168 — he

cannot divesthimself of the opinion
of imputed justice whatever grace
God bestows to reclaim him ; two
truths by him confessed, ib. — he
foresees the dreadful consequences
of the subversion of Church Au-
thority, 171 — the grounds of his
errors; he alleges the promises
made to the Church, and does not
sufficiently trust in them, 172 — he
writes to Camerarius that the Prot-
ant Princes and Doctors are equally
insupportable, 174 — the prodigies,
the prophecies, and the horoscopes
which affiight him, 176 — his Dog-
matical advice concerning Polyga-
my, 181 — he labors to render the
Real Presence momentaneous, and
to place it solely in the actual use
thereof, 189 — no other means does
he find of destroying the Mass than
by denying the permanent Pres-
ence; his reasons, 191 — his dis-
sembling with Luther on this sub-
ject, 193 — he is present at the Con-
ference of Ratisbon, 279 — his opin-
ion concerning Osiaader, 282 — he
is against rejecting Ceremonies, 283
— he strives to undermine Lutlrer's
doctrine about the Real Presence,
284 — he draws up the Saxonic Con-
fession of Faith, ib. — he there ex-
plains the article of the Eucharist
ditFerently from that of Augsburg,
285 — he changes his opinion con-
cerning the Will of God, with re-
spect to sin, 287 — his Doctrine on
the co-operatio!i of Free- will, ib. —
his Doctrine on Free-will con-
demned by his Brethren, 288 — he
owns the distinction between venial
and mortal sins, 289 — ho complains
of the Decisions v.liich the Doctors
of the Party made against him at
their driid^ing bouts, 290 — he de-
clares, with the rest of the Luther-
ans, that good works arc not neces-
sary for salvation, ib. — the question
of Ubiquity makes him incline to-
wards the Sacramentarians, 293 —
whether Melancthon was a Cal-
vinist with respect to the Eucharist,
ib. — Melancthon's deplorable con-
dition, and his death, 295.
Merit. The Church traduced by the
Lutherans upon the merit of good

works, 94 the merit of good

works asserted in the Confession

INDEX.

367

01 Augsburg and Apology, 95 —
there is something in hie everlasting,
which falls not under merit, 97 —
merit of Condignity, 98 — merit of
Congruity, 99 — how the merits of
Jesus Christ are ours, and how im-
puted to us, 100 — of merit accord-
mg to Bueer, 105 — the merits of
Saints are profitable to us by Bu-
cer's Confession, 106 — the merit of
good works retained by the English
under Henry VIII, 233 — and own-
ed in the Confession of Wirtenberg,
289— in 1557 received by the Cal-

vinists of France, 340 Vide Vol.

II.

Miracle. Luther requires of the Ana-
baptists that they should warrant
their pretended mission by Mira-
cles, 37 — the miracles Luther boasts
of, 38 — the Zuinglians will not bear
the mentioti of any miracle in the
Eucharist, 139 — Calvin confesses a
miraculous presence of the Body of
Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, 313
— he shifts off the miracle whch he
admits in the Supper, 324 — what is
the miracle of the Eucharist accord-
ing to the Fathers, ib. — the Calvin-
ists were more sensible of the ne-
cessity of admitting a miracle in the
Eucharist than they did in fact ad-
mit one, 325.

Mission. Luther pretends his mission
was extraordinary, 36- — he con-
fesses the necessity of mission, 37,
50 — he receives his mission from the
Prince, in order to make his Eccle-
siastical visitation, 152.

Monastery. Pillaging of Monasteries
under Henry VIII', 229.

Monks. Monks reckoned among the
Saints in the Apology of the Augs-
burg Confession, 101.

Monlluc, Bishop of Valence ; what
Mr. Burnet says of him, 221 — he
is present at the Conference of Po-
issy, 340 — he endeavors to find out
some ambiguous formulary for the
Supper, 343 — his empty discourses
on the Reformation of manners,
346 — his private marriage, ib.

More, Thomas, Lord Chancellor of
England, is condemned to death for
not owning the King supreme head
ofthe Church, 227.

Mimcer, Father of the Anabaptists,
preaches without mission, 37— Lu-

ther condemned him on this head
only, ib.
Mystery. Equivocations of the Sa-
cramentarians on this word, 128 —
all the mysteries of Jesus Christ are
signs in some respects, ib.

J^aiimburg, assembly of the Luther-
ans at, and what passed there, 296.

Oblation ofthe Eucharist cut off from
the Lutheran Mass, 1 12 — M'hat
was invented in order to render this
Oblation odious, ib. — how the Ob-
lation of the Eucharist is profitable
to the whole world, 113 — it is a
necessary consequence from the
Real Presence ; the Lutherans
themselves own as much, 190, 191,
196 — it is suppressed in England
under Edward VI, upon a false
pretence, 260, 264 — Vide Mass.

CEcolampadiiis takes up the defence
of Carlostadius, 57 — his character,
62 — what Erasmus says of his mar-
riage, and the rest of his behaviour
63 — he writes against the Real
Presence, ib. — his death, 125 — he
had admonished Bucer, that there
was nothing but trick in his equivo-
cations, 129.

Operation, ex opere operato, ill-under-
stood by Protestants, 99, 113, 114
— it is admitted by them, 93.

Ordination of Pastors still preseiTcd
in the Church of Rome by Luther's
own Confession, 117 — ordination
of Bishops and Priests regulated by
the Parliament in England, 256.

Origin ofthe contests between Luther
and Carlostadius, 49.

Orlemonde, a town in Thuringia,
M^here Carlostadius takes shelter,
5] — he there raises great distur-
bances, and drinking M^ith Luther
declares war against him, 52.

Ornaments preserved in the Lutheran
Mass, 111— and in England, 262.

Osiander renews the Doctrine of im-
panation, 46 — he is present at the
Conference of Marpurg, 78 — liis
sister marries Thomas Cranmer,
223 — Osiander's character and his
Doctrine about Justification, 2S1 —
the profane spirit of Osiander ob-
served by Calvin, 282 — the notions
that Protestants had of Osiander,
ib. — he keeps within no bounds,
283 — his Doctrine on Justification is

368 INDEX.

spared at the Conference of Worms,
291 — his triumph in Prussia, 292.

Pans, The pretended consultation
of the Paris faculty of Divinity con-
concerning the divorce of Henry
VJII, 247.

Paschashis Radberlus, 143.

Peasants rebel in Germany, instigated
by Luther's Doctrine, 52, 122.

Penance. The Lutherans acknov^^l-
edge the Sacrament of Penance and
Sacramental Absolution, 108 —
Henry VIII confirms the Church's
Faith of the Sacrament of Pen-
ance, 238.

Peter D'Ailly. The sentiments of
Cardinal Peter D'Ailly, Bishop of
Cambray, on the Reformation of
the Church, 20 and 21.

Peter Martyr is called into England
to begin the Reformation there.
His Doctrine on the Eucharist, 250
— his opinion of the equivocations
of the rest of the Ministers, 345.

Piercy, Lord, Anne Boleyn falsely de-
clares that she was married to him
before she was wedded to Henry
VIII, 230 — what the engagement
which Lord Piercy had with Anne
Boleyn, ib.

Pistorius, a famous Protestant, pres-
ent with Bucer and Melancthon at
the Conference of Ratisbon, 279.

Poissy, Conference of Poissy, 340 —
how undertaken, ib. — matters han-
dled in thisConference,anditsopen-
ing, 341 — all there in commotion at
what Beza advanced against the
Real Presence, 342.

Polygamy, warranted by Luther and
the other heads of the Party, 181 —
the Landgrave's instruction, and the
dogmatical advice of Luther and
the other heads of the Party upon
polygamy, 181, 183, 200.

Pope. Luther's submission to the Pope,
30 — Luther's passionate transports
against the Pope, 146 — Melancthon
is for owning the Pope's authority,
146, &c. 165— tlie evils that resulted
from rejecting it, 150 — owned by
Capito, 151 — thePope's Supremacy
rejected in England on false prin-
ciples, 253— FitZe Vol. II.

Prayer, Bucer undertakes the defence
of the Church's prayer, 106 — prayer
and oblation for the dead, what is
said of them by the Lutherans, 112

— the calumnies on tire prayers we
address to Saints, 114 — Luther's
scandalous prayer, in which he says
he had never offended the Devil, 187
— prayer for the dead confirmed by
Henry VIII, 234, 238— retained for
awliile, and then abrogated under
Edward VI, 261 — pubhc prayers
reformed in England by the Parlia-
ment, 259 — prayers for the dead re-
ceived in the Confession of Augs-
burg, and by the Calvinists in 1557,
340.

Presence of the body of Jesus Christ
in the Eucharist, on what grounded,
49, 65, 76 — inseparable from Tran-
substantiation, 70, 71 — it raises
horror in ZuingUus, 89 — whether it
be gross and carnal, SO, 127, 128,
141 — Real Presence the foundation
of spiritual union, 87 — if the Pres-
ence of the body be no more than
spiritual, the words of the institu-
tion are in vain, 127 — they have a
difficulty in rejecting the Real
Presence, 87 — how spiritual, 126
— whether a local presence of the
body of Jesus Christ in the Eucha-
rist ought to be admitted, 127 —
whether the presence of the body
of Jesus Christ be durable in the
Eucharist, 137 — the real permanent
presence, and subsisting when not
in use, retained by Luther, 1 37, 191,
192 — the Real Presence owned in
the Greek Church by Mr. Burnet's
Confession, 259 — the Real Pres-
ence believed by the Enelish in
1 548, 263— absolutely rejected, 260,
264 — the liberty of beheving it af-
terwards allowed, ib. — Calvin ad-
mits a presence of the body of Jesus
Christ in the Eucharist that is in-
effable and miraculous, 329 — he
admits a presence that is proper and
peculiar to the Supper, ib. — he
eludes the miracle of this presence
after having confessed it, 324 — a
passage of Calvin for a Real Pres-
ence independent of Faith, 331 —
Vide Eucharist, Reality, Transub-
stantiation — Vide Yo\. II.

Preservative. How Calvin's doctrine
is explained in the book called " The
Preservative," 329.

Pride of Calvin, 333.

Primacy of the Pope — Vide Pope.

Protestants. All Protestants look on

INDEX.

369

Luther as their head, 21 — whence
came the name of Protestants, 78
— their confederacy after the Diet
of Augsburg, 121 — they despise the
authority of Bishops and ecclesias-
tical discipUne, 151 — their Refor-
mation whereon grounded accord-
ing to Melancthon, ib. — no Refor-
mation of manners among Protes-
tants, 155 — the Protestants of Ger-
many favorable to the dispensation
of Julius II, and to the first mar-
riage of Henry VIII, 245 — remarks
on the conformity of the sentiments
of Protestants with the sentence of
Clement VII, 246— the Protestants
of Germany vanquished by Charles
V, 273 — what opinion Protestants
had of the Calvinists, 333 — the
Holy Fathers force respect from
Protestants, though against their
will, 336.

Prussia set all in commotion by Osi-
ander, 281 — this country turns Lu-
theran, 281, 232.

Ps/Mg-ius, Bishop ofNaumburg, pres-
ent at the Conference of Ratisbon,
279 — he puts the finishing stroke
to the book of the Interim, ib. —
he presides in the Conference of
Worms, 290.

Purgatory. The Church's doctrine
on Purgatory confirmed by Henry
VIII, 234, 238— retained for a
while, then abolished under Ed-
ward VI, 277.

Puritcms. What James I, King of
England, said of the Puritans, 332.

Ratisbon. Conference of Ratisbon in
1541, and what passed at it, 279 —
another Conference of Ratisbon in
1549, and what passed at it, 280.

Ratramnus. Ratramnus's Book puz-
zles Melancthon, 142 — what the
dispute in Ratramnus's time, 143.

Reality. Luther had at the beginning
a great mind to subvert the reality,
from a very strange motive, 45 — the
reality attacked by Cailostadius,
48,51 — impugned by Zuinglius, 61
strongly defended by Luther, 67 —
Melancthon labors to place the re-
ality during the time of the sole use
of the Sacrament, 189 — Calvin
makes vain efforts to keep up the
idea of reality, 328 — he cannot sat-
isfy the notion of reality impressed
by our Lord's institution, ib. — the

reality well expressed by the Pre-
lates assembled at Poissy, 345 —
Vide Eucharist, Real Presence, vide
Vol II.

Reformation of the Church desired
more than an age ago, 18 — the
Reformation that was desired
touched only discipline, and not
faith, 20 — two ways of desiring the
Reformation of the Church, 21 —
the Reformation of Protestants es-
tablished by seditions and wars, 42
— the Reform makes two separate
bodies in Germany by different
Confessions of Faith, 81 — it is re-
solved in the new Reformation to
take arms, 121 — no Reformation of
maimers in the Protestant Church,
155, 174, 186,296— the causes of its
progress, 1 58 — no authority in the
Reformation to terminate their dis-
putes, 283, 286, 292, 296— Refor-
mation in England, vide England :
whether the progress of the Ref-
ormation be due to the reading of
Scripture, and how, 249 — founda-
tion of the Reform laid on the ruins
of ecclesiastical authority, 255 — the
Reformation under Edward began
in England by Peter Martyr, and
Bernardin Ochin, 258 — all order
subverted in the English Reforma-
tion, 263 — whether any advantage
can be drawn from the sudden pro-
gress of pretended Reformation, 264
— the Reformation goes from one
excess to another, 288, 305 — vain
discourses of the Bishop of Valence
on the Reformetion of manners, 346
—Vide Vol. II.

Reformers, or the heads of the Ref-
ormation, careful to secure them-
selves : Cranmer the only one
among them that dies for this cause,
281.

Remission of Sins — Vide Sin.

Rome. The Church of Rome praised
and respected by Luther, 30,

Sacrament. In the Lutheran doctrine
the Sacraments operate ex opere
operate, 93 — what the Lutherans
think of the seven Sacraments, 109
— equivocation of the Sacramenta-
rians on the word Sacrament, 128
— the seven Sacraments retained
bv the English under Henry VIII,
238.

370

INDEX.

Sacrammtanans. The beginning of
the Sacramentariaii war among the
new reformed, 49 — progress of the
Sacramentarian doctrine, 63 — the
Sacramentarian party form them-
selves, ih. — the Sacramen*"arians
prove to Luther that he admitted a
kind of figure, 73 — the Sacramen-
tarian dispute undermines the
groundwork of the Reformation,
77 — Calvin owns it, ih. — the Sacra-
mentarians offer to subscribe the
Confession of Augsburg excepting
the Supper-article, 8 1 — they are not
more steady in explaining their
Faith than the Lutherans, 86 —
their equivocating on the Eucharist,
126 — they make words signify just
what they please, and inure them-
selves to strain all kind of language,
61, 125, 129, 138, 143, 145— in to-
ken of peace they celebrate the
Supjier with Lutlier, 138 — Luther's
wrath again enkindles against
them, 186 — Luther will not have
the Sacramentarians any longer
prayed for, and beUeves them iiTe-
vocably damned, 187.

Sacrifice. Luther's doctrine imports a
Sacrifice, 196— Fia'e Mass, Vol. II.

Salvation. Certainty of salvation
taught by Calvin, 306.

Satisfaction. Satisfactory works
owned in the Apology for the
Augsburg Confession, 101.

Saxo7iy. The Saxonic Confession of
Faith, why made, and by what au-
thor, 284— how the Eucharistic ar-
ticle is there explained, 285 — other
alterations made in this Confession,
on the will of God touching sin, and
the co-operation of Free-will, ib. —
a considerable article in the Saxonic
Confession relating to the distinc-
tion of mortal and venial sin, 289.

Scripture. Luther boasts of under-
standing the Scripture better than
ever any man had done, GQ — Luther
owns that the Scripture is miracu-
lously preserved in the Church of
Rome, 116 — in M^hat sense Henry
VIII permits the people to read
Scripture, 249 — whether the pro-
gi-ess of the Reformation be owing
to reading of the Scripture and how,
ib. — how they impose on men by
Scripture ill -interpreted, 250 — what
the Holy Fathers have said of the

manner of understanding Scrip-
ture, 252— Vide Vol. II.

Seditions. The first fruits of Luther's
preaching, 43.

Semi-Pelagianism, favored in the Con-
fession of Augsburg, 92 — and by
Melancthon, 287 — taught by the
rest of the Lutherans, 303 — Vide
Vol. II.

Sign. How the Eucharist is a sign,
158 — all the mysteries of Jesus
Christ are signs in certain respects,
129 — Calvin is not content with re-
ceiving a sign in the Supper, 312.

Sin. Errors of the Zuinglians on
original sin, 60 — the forgiveness of
sins purely gratuitous, according to
the Council of Trent, 94 — enume-
ration of sins retained in confession
by the Lutherans, 108 — forgiveness
of sins conserved in tiie Church of
Rome by Luther's Confession, 116
— a considerable article in the Con-
fession of Saxony on mortal and
venial sins, 289.

Smalkald. The Lutherans labor to
form the Smalkaldic Confederacy,
122— the Assembly of Smalkald
occasioned by the Council called
by Paul III, 144 — Luther flies out
against the Pope in the Articles of
Smalkald, 146 — in the Assembly
of Smalkald, Melancthon is of
opinion that they should own the
Council summoned by the Pope,
167.

Somerset (Duke of) begins the Ref-
ormation in England, 258 — whether
this Duke had any thing of show of
a Reformer, 266.

Song-. Latin Song retained in the
Lutheran Mass, 111.

Staphihis, Professor of Divinity at
Koningsberg, 292 — his remarkable
conversion, ib.

Strasbivrg. The Strasburg Confession
of Faith, or of the four cities, 81 —
equivocal terms of this Confession
on the Article of the Supper, 85 —
the Confession of StraslDurg ex-
plains Justification in the same
manner as the Church of Rome,
105 — they at the same time receive
at Strasburo; two contraiy Confes-
sions of Faith, 2S0— Vide Vol. II.

Substance. Why this word is em-
ployed in the "Eucharist, 90 — Vide
Vol. 11.

INDEX. 371

Siciss, (The) are incensed against
Luther, 132.

Theses (The) of Luther, to excite the
Lutherans to take up amis, 277.

Thomas Aquinas. Luther's odd doubt
of the salvation of this Saint, 110.

Thomas {St.) of Canterbury, razed out
of the Hst of Saints by the EngUsh,
275 — the behaviour of this Saint
quite different from that of Thomas
Cranmer, ib.

Thomas Cranmer — Vide Cranmer.

Thomas Cromwell — Vide Cromwell.

Thomas More — Vide More.

Thomas JSIuncer — Vide Muncer.

Tournon, {Cardinal of,) Archbishop
of Lyons, presides in the Confer-
ence of Poissy, 341.

Transubstantiation attacked by Lu-
ther, 45 — Variation of Luther on
Transubstantiation, ib. 76 — it fol-
lows from his expressions, 4G, 145
— and from that of Melancthon in
the Apology, 191 — Transubstan-
tiation destroys not the Sacrament,
73 — why the name of bread re-
tained, 74 — why the Church makes
use of the word transubstantiation,
91 — Transubstantiation, according
to the Zuinglians, is established by
Luther's doctrine, 69 — and accord-
ing to the Divines of Leipsic and
Wittenberg, 195 — the doctrine of
Transubstantiation confirmed by
Henry VIII, 238— and abolished

under Edward VI, 263 Vide

Vol. II.

Turk. Luther's strange doctrine about
war against the Turk, 30.

Ubiquity, taught by Luther, 75 —
maintained by Illyricus and his
friends, 293 — the question of Ubi-
quity causes Melancthon to incline
towards the Sacramentarians, ib.

Ubiquity, after Melancthon's

death, estabhshed throughout al-
most all Lutheranism, 295 — Ubi-
quity rejected by the Calvinists,
297— Vide Vol. it.

Unworthy. The Communion of the
unworthy how real according to
Calvin, 321 — how the unworthy
receive the body of Jesus Christ
without receiving the spirit of it, 323.

Variations of Luther on Transubstan-
tiation, 46, 76 — Variations of the

tenth Article of the Augsburg Con-
fession, 82 — the Lutherans' evasion
with respect to these Variations, 85
— their Variations in what they
have lopped from the Confession
of Augsburg, 97 — Variation of the
Sacramentarians, how astonishing,
86 — Variations in the Acts of the
Calvinists, 337— Vide all the other
titles, vide Vol. II.

War, Luther and the Lutherans con-
fess that it is not lawful for them to
makewar,39,51,52,121,173— they
recant, 33, 77, 121, 174, 277— Vide
League, vide Vol. II.

Westphalus, a famous Lutheran,
teaches Ubiquity, 293.

Wirtemberg. The Confession of Faith
of Wirtemberg, why made, and by
what authors, 284 — the Article of
the Eucharist is there otherwise
couched than in that of Augsburg,
285 — the merit of good works is
there confessed, 289.

Wittenberg. Agreement of Witten-
berg, and its six Articles, 134 —
issue of this agreement, 138 — the
Divines of Wittenberg own that
there is no avoiding the Sacrifice,
Transubstantiation, and Adoration,
otherwise than by changing Lu-
ther's doctrine, 195 — the Divines
of Wittenberg change Luther's doc-
trine immediately after his death,
] 96 — the Lutherans unable to an-
swer the arguments of the Divines
of Wittenberg, ib. — the Divines of
Wittenberg come back to Luther's
sentiments, and why, 197.

Works. Satisfactory works owned
in the Apology of the Augsburg
Confession, 101 — the merit of good
works, vide Merit. — The necessity
of good works, in order to salva-
tion, condemned by the Lutherans,
290.

Worms. The Conferences of Worms,
in order to reconcile both religions,
290— Assembly at Worms inl557,
whither the Reformed Churches of
France and Geneva send Beza and
Farel, 338.

Zuinglius, his character and doctrine
on the salvation of Heathens, 57, 58
— his errors on original sin, 60 —
his errors on baptism, 61 — he forces

372 INDEX.

the Scripture in every thing, ib. —
his contempt of antiquity, ib. — he
writes against the Real Presence,
64 — he takes from the Eucharist
all that raises it above the senses,
ib. — a Spirit appears to him, and
suggests that text to him where the
sign of the Institution received im-
mediately the name of the thing,
65 — why Zuinglius is worse han-
dled by Luther than the rest of the

Sacramentarians, 66 Zuinglius

preaches the Reformation in Swit-
zerland, ib.-^he is present at the
Conference of Marpurg, where he
confers with Luther, 78 — he sends
his Confession of Faith to the Em-
peror, 81, 82 — his Confession of
Faith Jfree from equivocations, 89 —
what •».' presence of the body of Je-
sus CI -ist he acknowledges in the
Suppc ib. — Zuinglius's death in
battle, 124.

Zuinglians prove to Luther that the
Catholic? understand the literal
sense better than he, 70 — a whole
synod of Zuinglians in Poland as-
sert the sare^e truth, 71 — they prove
to Luther that he* admits a kind of
figurative sense, 72 — they will not
hear a miracle or omnipotence
spoken of in the Eucharist, 139 —
they reprove Luther for always
having the Devil in his mouth, and
call him madman, 188 — Luther's
last sentiments concerning the

Zuinglians, 198 Zninghanisra

gains ground in England, 258 —
the Zuinglians are condemned by
the Lutherans, 295 — their scoffs
at the Confession of Augsburg, 297.

Zurich. The Mass abolished at Zu-
rich, 65 — those of Zurich laugh at
Bucer's equivocations, 138 — Calvin
makes an agreement with those of
Zurich, 310.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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