We come in the third place to the sacrament of penance. On this
subject I have already given no little offence by my published
treatises and disputations[119], in which I have amply set forth my
views. These I must now briefly rehearse, in order to unmask the
tyranny that is rampant here no less than in the sacrament of the
bread. For because these two sacraments furnish opportunity for gain
and profit, the greed of the shepherds rages in them with incredible
zeal against the flock of Christ; although baptism, too, has sadly
declined among adults and become the servant of avarice, as we have
just seen in our discussion of vows.
[Sidenote: The Abuse of Penance]
This is the first and chief abuse of this sacrament: They have utterly
abolished the sacrament itself, so that there penance is not a vestige
of it left. For they have overthrown both the word of divine promise
and our faith, in which this as well as other sacraments consists.
They have applied to their tyranny the word of promise which Christ
spake in Matthew xvi, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind," etc. [Matt.
16:19], in Matthew xviii, "Whatsoever ye shall bind," [Matt. 18:18]
etc., and in John, the last chapter, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they
are remitted unto them," [John 20:23] etc. In these words the faith of
penitents is aroused, to the obtaining of remission of sins. But in
all their writing, teaching and preaching their sole concern has been,
not to teach Christians what is promised in these words or what they
ought to believe and what great comfort they might find in them, but
only to extend their own tyranny far and wide through force and
violence, until it has come to such a pass that some of them have
begun to command the very angels in heaven[120] and to boast in
incredible mad wickedness of having in these words obtained the right
to a heavenly and an earthly rule, and of possessing the power to bind
even in heaven. Thus they say nothing of the saving faith of the
people, but babble only of the despotic power of the pontiffs, whereas
Christ speaks not at all of power, but only of faith.
For Christ hath not ordained principalities or powers or lordships,
but ministries, in the Church; as we learn from the Apostle, who says:
"Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the
dispensers of the mysteries of God." [1 Cor. 4:1] Now when He said:
"He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved," [Mark 16:16] He
called forth the faith of those to be baptised, so that by this word
of promise a man might be certain of being saved if he believed and
was baptised. In that word there is no impartation of any power
whatever, but only the institution of the ministry of those who
baptise. Similarly, when He says here: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind,"
etc. [Matt. 16:19], He calls forth the faith of the penitent, so that
by this word of promise he may be certain of being truly absolved in
heaven, if he be absolved and believe. Here there is no mention at all
of power, but of the ministry of him that absolves. It is a wonder
these blind and overbearing men missed the opportunity of arrogating a
despotic power to themselves from the promise of baptism. But if they
do not do this in the case of baptism, why should they have presumed
to do it in the case of the promise of penance? For in both there is a
like ministry, a similar promise, and the same kind of sacrament. So
that, if baptism does not belong to Peter alone, it is undeniably a
wicked usurpation of power to claim the keys for the pope alone.
Again, when Christ says: "Take, eat; this is my body, which is given
or you. Take, drink; this is the chalice in my blood," etc. [1 Cor.
11:24 f.], He calls forth the faith of those who eat, so that through
these words their conscience may be strengthened by faith and they may
rest assured of receiving the forgiveness of sins, if they have eaten.
Here, too, He says nothing of power, but only of a ministry.
Thus the promise of baptism remains in some sort, at least to infants;
the promise of bread and the cup has been destroyed and made
subservient to greed, faith becoming a work and the testament a
sacrifice; while the promise of penance has fallen prey to the most
oppressive despotism of all and serves to establish a more than
temporal rule.
Not content with these things, this Babylon of ours has so completely
extinguished faith that it insolently denies its necessity in this
sacrament; nay, with the wickedness of Antichrist it calls it heresy
if any one should assert its necessity. What more could this tyranny
do that it has not done? [Isa. 5:4] Verily, by the rivers of Babylon
we sit and weep, when we remember thee, O Zion. We hang our harps upon
the willows in the midst thereof. [Ps. 137:1, 2] The Lord curse the
barren willows of those streams! Amen.
Now let us see what they have put in the place of the promise and the
faith which they have blotted out and overthrown. Three parts have
they made of penance,--contrition, confession, and satisfaction; yet
so as to destroy whatever of good there might be in any of them and to
establish here also their covetousness and tyranny.
[Sidenote: I. Contrition.]
In the first place, they teach that contrition precedes faith in the
promise; they hold it much too cheap[121], making it not a work of
faith, but a merit; nay, they do not mention it at all. So deep are
they sunk in works and in those instances of Scripture that show how
many obtained grace by reason of their contrition and humility of
heart; but they take no account of the faith which wrought such
contrition and sorrow of heart, as it is written of the men of Nineveh
in Jonah iii, "And the men of Nineveh believed in God: and they
proclaimed a fast," [Jonah 3:5] etc. Others, again, more bold and
wicked, have invented a so-called "attrition," which is converted into
contrition by virtue of the power of the keys, of which they know
nothing[122]. This attrition they grant to the wicked and unbelieving
and thus abolish contrition altogether. O the intolerable wrath of
God, that such things should be taught in the Church of Christ! Thus,
with both faith and its work destroyed, we go on secure in the
doctrines and opinions of men--yea, we go on to our destruction. A
contrite heart is a precious thing, but it is found only where there
is a lively faith in the promises and the threats of God. Such faith,
intent on the immutable truth of God, startles and terrifies the
conscience and thus renders it contrite, and afterwards, when it is
contrite, raises it up, consoles and preserves it; so that the truth
of God's threatening is the cause of contrition, and the truth of His
promise the cause of consolation, if it be believed. By such faith a
man merits the forgiveness of sins. Therefore faith should be taught
and aroused before all else; and when faith is obtained, contrition
and consolation will follow inevitably and of themselves.
Therefore, although there is something of truth in their teaching that
contrition is to be attained by what they call the recollection and
contemplation of sins, yet their teaching is perilous and perverse so
long as they do not teach first of all the beginning and cause of
contrition,--the immutable truth of God's threatening and promise, to
the awakening of faith,--so that men may learn to pay more heed to the
truth of God, whereby they are cast down and lifted up, than to the
multitude of their sins, which will rather irritate and increase the
sinful desires than lead to contrition, if they be regarded apart from
the truth of God. I will say nothing now of the intolerable burden
they have bound upon us with their demand that we should frame a
contrition for every sin. That is impossible; we can know only the
smaller part of our sins, and even our good works are found to be
sins, according to Psalm cxliii, "Enter not into judgment with thy
servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." [Ps.
143:2] It is enough to lament the sins which at the present moment
distress our conscience, as well as those which we can readily call to
mind. Whoever is in this frame of mind is without doubt ready to
grieve and fear for all his sins, and will do so whenever they are
brought to his knowledge in the future.
Beware, then, of putting your trust in your own contrition and of
ascribing the forgiveness of sins to your own sorrow. God does not
have respect to you because of that, but because of the faith by which
you have believed His threatenings and promises, and which wrought
such sorrow within you. Thus we owe whatever of good there may be in
our penance, not to our scrupulous enumeration of sins, but to the
truth of God and to our faith. All other things are the works and
fruits of this, which follow of their own accord, and do not make a
man good, but are done by a man already made good through faith in the
truth of God. Even so, "a smoke goeth up in His wrath, because He is
angry and troubleth the mountains and kindleth them," [Ps. 18:8] as it
is said in Psalm xviii. First comes the terror of His threatening,
which burns up the wicked, then faith, accepting this, sends up the
cloud of contrition, etc.
[Sidenote: 2. Confession]
Contrition, however, is less exposed to tyranny and gain than wholly
given over to wickedness and pestilent teaching. But confession and
satisfaction have become the chief workshop of greed and violence. Let
us first take up confession. There is no doubt that confession is
necessary and commanded of God. Thus we read in Matthew iii: "They
were baptised of John in Jordan, confessing their sins." [Matt. 3:6]
And in I John i: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a
liar, and his word is not in us." [1 John 1:9 f.] If the saints may
not deny their sin, how much more ought those who are guilty of open
and great sins[123] to make confession! But most effectively of all
does Matthew xviii prove the institution of confession, in which
passage Christ teaches that a sinning brother should be rebuked, haled
before the Church, accused and, if he will not hear, excommunicated.
But he hears when, heeding the rebuke, he acknowledges and confesses
his sin. [Matt. 18:15]
[Sidenote: Private Confession]
[Sidenote: "Reserved Cases"]
Of private confession, which is now observed, I am heartily in favor,
even though it cannot be proved from the Scriptures; it is useful and
necessary, nor would I have it abolished--nay, I rejoice that it
exists in the Church of Christ, for it is a cure without an equal for
distressed consciences. For when we have laid bare our conscience to
our brother and privately made known to him the evil that lurked
within, we receive from our brother's lips the word of comfort spoken
by God Himself; and, if we accept it in faith, we find peace in the
mercy of God speaking to us through our brother. This alone do I
abominate,--that this confession has been subjected to the despotism
and extortion of the pontiffs. They reserve[124] to themselves even
hidden sins, and command that they be made known to confessors named
by them, only to trouble the consciences of men. They merely play the
pontiff, while they utterly despise the true duties of pontiffs, which
are to preach the Gospel and to care for the poor. Yea, the godless
despots leave the great sins to the plain priests, and reserve to
themselves those sins only which are of less consequence, such as
those ridiculous and fictitious things in the bull _Coena
domini_[125]. Nay, to make the wickedness of their error the more
apparent, they not only do not reserve, but actually teach and
approve, the sins against the service of God, against faith and the
chief commandments; such as their running on pilgrimages, the perverse
worship of the saints, the lying saints' legends, the various forms of
trust in works and ceremonies, and the practicing of them, by all of
which faith in God is extinguished and idolatry encouraged, as we see
in our day. We have the same kind of priests to-day as Jereboam
ordained of old in Dan and Beersheba [1 Kings 12:26 ff.],--ministers
of the golden calves, men who are ignorant of the law of God, of faith
and of whatever pertains to the feeding of Christ's sheep, and who
inculcate in the people nothing but their own inventions with terror
and violence.
Although my advice is that we bear this outrage of reserved cases,
even as Christ bids us bear all the tyranny of men, and teaches us
that we must obey these extortioners; nevertheless I deny that they
have the right to make such reservations, nor do I believe they can
bring one jot or tittle of proof that they have it. But I am going to
prove the contrary. In the first place, Christ, speaking in Matthew
xviii of open sins, says that if our brother shall hear us when we
rebuke him, we have saved the soul of our brother, and that he is to
be brought before the Church only if he refuse to hear us; so that his
sin may be corrected among brethren. How much more will it be true of
hidden sins, that they are forgiven if one brother freely makes
confession to another? So that it is not necessary to tell it to the
Church, that is, as these babblers interpret it, the prelate or
priest. We have another proof of this in Christ's words in the same
chapter: "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in
heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in
heaven." [Matt. 18:18] For this is said to each and every Christian.
Again, He says in the same place: "Again I say to you, that if two of
you shall consent upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever that they
shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven."
[Matt 18:19] Now, the brother who lays his hidden sins before his
brother and craves pardon, certainly consents with his brother upon
earth in the truth, which is Christ. Of which Christ says yet more
clearly, confirming His preceding words: "Verily I say unto you, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them." [Matt. 18:20]
Hence, I have no doubt but that every one is absolved from his hidden
sins when he has made confession, either of his own accord or after
being rebuked, has sought pardon and amended his ways, privately
before any brother, however much the violence of the pontiffs may rage
against it; for Christ has given to every one of His believers the
power to absolve even open sins. Add yet this little point: If any
reservation of hidden sins were valid, so that one could not be saved
unless they were forgiven, then a man's salvation would be prevented
most of all by those aforementioned good works and idolatries, which
are nowadays taught by the popes. But if these most grievous sins do
not prevent one's salvation, how foolish it is to reserve those
lighter sins! Verily, it is the foolishness and blindness of the
pastors that produce these monstrous things in the Church. Therefore I
would admonish these princes of Babylon and bishops of Bethaven [Hosea
4:15; 10:5] to refrain from reserving any cases whatsoever. Let them,
moreover, permit all brothers and sisters freely to hear the
confession of hidden sins, so that the sinner may make his sins known
to whomever he will and seek pardon and comfort, that is, the word of
Christ, by the mouth of his neighbor. For with these presumptions of
theirs they only ensnare the consciences of the weak without
necessity, establish their wicked despotism, and fatten their avarice
on the sins and ruin of their brethren. Thus they stain their hands
with the blood of souls, sons are devoured by their parents, Ephraim
devours Juda, and Syria Israel with open mouth, as Isaiah saith [Isa
9:20].
[Sidenote: "Circumstances"]
To these evils they have added the "circumstances,"[126] and also the
mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers- and sisters-in-law, branches
and fruits of sins; since, forsooth, astute and idle men have worked
out a kind of family tree of relationships and affinities even among
sins--so prolific is wickedness coupled with ignorance. For this
conceit, whatever rogue be its author, has like many another become a
public law. Thus do the shepherds keep watch over the Church of
Christ; whatever new work or superstition those stupid devotees may
have dreamed of, they straightway drag to the light of day, deck out
with indulgences and safeguard with bulls; so far are they from
suppressing it and preserving to God's people the true faith and
liberty. For what has our liberty to do with the tyranny of Babylon?
My advice would be to ignore all circumstances utterly. With
Christians there is only one circumstance,--that a brother has sinned.
For there is no person to be compared with a Christian brother. And
the observance of places, times, days, persons, and all other
superstitious moonshine, only magnifies the things that are nothing,
to the injury of those which are everything; as if aught could be
greater or of more importance than the glory of Christian brotherhood!
Thus they bind us to places, days and persons, that the name of
brother may be lightly esteemed, and we may serve in bondage instead
of being free--we to whom all days, places, persons, and all external
things are one and the same.
[Sidenote: 3. Satisfaction]
How unworthily they have dealt with satisfaction, I have abundantly
shown in the controversies concerning indulgences[127]. They have
grossly abused it, to the ruin of Christians in body and soul. To
begin with, they taught it in such a manner that the people never
learned what satisfaction really is, namely, the renewal of a man's
life. Then, they so continually harp on it and emphasize its
necessity, that they leave no room for faith in Christ. With these
scruples they torture poor consciences to death, and one runs to Rome,
one to this place, another to that, this one to Chartreuse, that one
to some other place, one scourges himself with rods, another ruins his
body with fasts and vigils, and all cry with the same mad zeal, "Lo
here is Christ! lo there!" [Luke 17:20 f.] believing that the kingdom
of heaven, which is within us, will come with observation[128].
For these monstrous things we are indebted to thee, O Roman See, and
thy murderous laws and ceremonies, with which thou hast corrupted all
mankind, so that they think by works to make satisfaction or sin to
God, Who can be satisfied only by the faith of a contrite heart! This
faith thou not only keepest silent with this uproar of thine, but even
oppressest, only so thy insatiable horseleech have those to whom it
may say, "Bring, bring!" [Prov. 30:15] and may traffic in sins.
Some have gone even farther and have constructed those instruments for
driving souls to despair,--their decrees that the penitent must
rehearse all sins anew for which he neglected to make the imposed
satisfaction. Yea, what would not they venture to do, who were born
for the sole purpose of carrying all things into a tenfold captivity?
Moreover, how many are possessed with the notion that they are in a
saved state and are making satisfaction for their sins, if they but
mumble over, word for word, the prayers the priest has imposed, even
though they give never a thought meanwhile to amending their life!
They believe that their life is changed in the one moment of
contrition and confession, and it remains only to make satisfaction
for their past sins. How should they know better, when they are not
taught otherwise? No thought is given here to the mortifying of the
flesh, no value is attached to the example of Christ, Who absolved the
woman taken in adultery and said to her, "Go, and sin no more!" [John
8:11] thereby laying upon her the cross--the mortifying of her flesh.
This perverse error is greatly encouraged by our absolving sinners
before the satisfaction has been completed, so that they are more
concerned about completing the satisfaction which lies before them,
than they are about contrition, which they suppose to be past and over
when they have made confession. Absolution ought rather to follow on
the completion of satisfaction, as it did in the ancient Church, with
the result that, after completing the work, penitents gave themselves
with greater diligence to faith and the living of a new life.
But this must suffice in repetition of what I have more fully said on
indulgences, and in general this must suffice for the present
concerning the three sacraments, which have been treated, and yet not
treated, in so many harmful books, theological as well as juristic. It
remains to attempt some discussion of the other sacraments also, lest
I seem to have rejected them without cause.