Of this sacrament the Church of Christ knows nothing; it is an
invention of the church of the pope. Not only is there nowhere any
promise of grace attached to it, but there is not the least mention of
it in the whole New Testament. Now it is ridiculous to put forth as a
sacrament of God that which cannot be proved to have been instituted
by God. I do not hold that this rite, which has been observed for so
many centuries, should be condemned; but in sacred things I am opposed
to the invention of human fictions, nor is it right to give out as
divinely instituted what was not divinely instituted, lest we become a
laughing-stock to our opponents. We ought to see to it that every
article of faith of which we boast be certain, pure, and based on
clear passages of Scripture. But that we are utterly unable to do in
the case of the sacrament under consideration.
[Sidenote: The Church Cannot Institute Sacraments]
The Church has no power to make new divine promises, as some prate,
who hold that what is decreed by the Church is of no less authority
than what is decreed by God, since the Church is under the guidance of
the Holy Spirit. But the Church owes its life to the word of promise
through faith, and is nourished and preserved by this same word. That
is to say, the promises of God make the Church, not the Church the
promise of God. For the Word of God is incomparably superior to the
Church, and in this Word the Church, being a creature, has nothing to
decree, ordain or make, but only to be decreed, ordained and made. For
who begets his own parent? Who first brings forth his own maker? This
one thing indeed the Church can do--it can distinguish the Word of God
from the words of men; as Augustine confesses that he believed the
Gospel, moved thereto by the authority of the Church, which
proclaimed, this is the Gospel.[167] Not that the Church is,
therefore, above the Gospel; if that were true, she would also be
above God, in Whom we believe because she proclaims that He is God.
But, as Augustine elsewhere says,[168] the truth itself lays hold on
the soul and thus renders it able to judge most certainly of all
things; but the truth it cannot judge, but is forced to say with
unerring certainty that it is the truth. For example, our reason
declares with unerring certainty that three and seven are ten, and yet
it cannot give a reason why this is true, although it cannot deny that
it is true; it is taken captive by the truth and does not so much
judge the truth as it is judged by the truth. Thus it is also with the
mind of the Church [1 Cor. 2:16], when under the enlightenment of the
Spirit she judges and approves doctrines; she is unable to prove it,
and yet is most certain of having it. For as in philosophy no one
judges general conceptions, but all are judged by them, so it is in
the Church with the mind of the Spirit, that judgeth all things and is
judged by none, as the Apostle says [1 Cor. 2:15]. But of this another
time.[169]
[Sidenote: Ordination not a Sacrament]
Let this then stand fast,--the Church can give no promises of grace;
that is the work of God alone. Therefore she cannot institute a
sacrament. But even if she could, it yet would not follow that
ordination is a sacrament. For who knows which is the Church that has
the Spirit? since when such decisions are made there are usually only
a few bishops or scholars present; it is possible that these may not
be really of the Church, and that all may err, as councils have
repeatedly erred, particularly the Council of Constance[170], which
fell into the most wicked error of all. Only that which has the
approval of the Church universal, and not of the Roman church alone,
rests on a trustworthy foundation. I therefore admit that ordination
is a certain churchly rite, on a par with many others introduced by
the Church Fathers, such as the blessing of vases, houses, vestments,
water, salt, candles, herbs, wine, and the like. No one calls any of
these a sacrament, nor is there in them any promise. In the same
manner, to anoint a man's hands with oil, or to shave his head, and
the like, is not to administer a sacrament, since there is no promise
given to those things; he is simply prepared, like a vessel or an
instrument, for a certain work.
But you will reply: "What do you say to Dionysius,[171] who in his
_Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_ enumerates six sacraments, among which he
also includes orders?" I answer: I am well aware that this is the one
writer of antiquity who is cited in support of the seven sacraments,
although he omits marriage and thus has only six. We read simply
nothing about these "sacraments" in the other Fathers, nor do they
ever refer to them as sacraments; for the invention of sacraments is
of recent date. Indeed, to speak more boldly, the setting so great
store by this Dionysius, whoever he may have been, greatly displeases
me, for there is scarce a line of sound scholarship in him. Prithee,
by what authority and with what reasons does he establish his
hotch-potch about the angels, in his _Celestial Hierarchy_?--a book
over which many curious and superstitious spirits have cudgeled their
brains. If one were to read and judge fairly, is not all shaken out of
his sleeve and very like a dream? But in his _Mystic Theology_, which
certain most ignorant theologians greatly puff, he is downright
dangerous, being more of a Platonist than a Christian; so that, if I
had my way, no believing mind would give the least attention to these
books. So far from learning Christ in them, you will lose even what
you know of Him. I know whereof I speak. Let us rather hear Paul, that
we may learn Jesus Christ and Him crucified [1 Cor. 2:2]. He is the
way, the life and the truth; He is the ladder by which we come unto
the Father, as He saith: "No man cometh unto the Father but by me."
[John 14:6]
[Sidenote: Allegories]
And in the _Ecclesiastical Hierarchy_, what does this Dionysius do but
describe certain churchly rites and play round them with his
allegories without proving them? just as among us the author of the
book entitled _Rationale divinorum_.[172] Such allegorical studies are
the work of idle men. Think you I should find it difficult to play
with allegories round anything in creation? Did not Bonaventure[173]
by allegory draw the liberal arts into theology? And Gerson even
converted the smaller Donatus into a mystic theologian.[173] It would
not be a difficult task for me to compose a better hierarchy than that
of Dionysius, for he knew nothing of pope, cardinals and archbishops,
and put the bishop at the top. Nay, who has so weak a mind as not to
be able to launch into allegories? I would not have a theologian give
himself to allegorizing until he has perfected himself in the
grammatical and literal interpretation of the Scriptures; otherwise
his theology will bring him into danger, as Origen discovered.[175]
Therefore a thing does not need to be a sacrament simply because
Dionysius describes it. Otherwise, why not also make a sacrament of
the processions, which he describes in his book, and which continue to
this day? There will then be as many sacraments as there have been
rites and ceremonies multiplied in the Church. Standing on so unsteady
a foundation, they have nevertheless invented "characters"[176] which
they attribute to this sacrament of theirs and which are indelibly
impressed on those who are ordained. Whence do such ideas come? By
what authority, with what reasons, are they established? We do not
object to their being free to invent, say and give out whatever they
please; but we also insist on our liberty and demand that they shall
not arrogate to themselves the right to turn their ideas into articles
of faith, as they have hitherto presumed to do. It is enough that we
accommodate ourselves to their rites and ceremonies for the sake of
peace; but we reuse to be bound by such things as though they were
necessary to salvation, when they are not. Let them put by their
despotic demands, and we shall yield free obedience to their opinions,
and thus live at peace with them. It is a shameful and wicked slavery
for a Christian man, who is free, to be subject to any but heavenly
and divine traditions.
[Sidenote: The Alleged Scriptural Basis of Ordination]
We come now to their strongest argument. It is this: Christ said at
the Last Supper: "Do this in remembrance of me." [1 Cor. 11:24] Here,
they say, Christ ordained the apostles to the priesthood. From this
passage they also concluded, among other things, that both kinds are
to be administered to the priests alone.[177] In fine, they have drawn
out of this passage whatever they pleased, as men who might arrogate
to themselves the free will to prove anything whatever from any words
of Christ, no matter where found. But is that interpreting the words
of God? Pray, answer me! Christ gives us no promise here, but only
commands that this be done in remembrance of Him. Why do they not
conclude that He also ordained priests when He laid upon them the
office of the Word and of baptism, saying, "Go ye into all the world,
and preach the Gospel to every creature, baptising them in the name,"
[Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19] etc.? For it is the proper duty of priests
to preach and to baptise. Or, since it is nowadays the chief and, as
they say, indispensable duty of priests to read the canonical
hours,[178] why have they not discovered the sacrament of ordination
in those passages in which Christ, in many places and particularly in
the garden, commanded them to pray that they might not enter into
temptation? [Matt. 26:41] But perhaps they will evade this argument by
saying that it is not commanded to _pray_; it is enough to _read_ the
canonical hours. Then it follows that this priestly work can be proved
nowhere in the Scriptures, and thus their praying priesthood is not of
God, as, indeed, it is not.
But which of the ancient Fathers claimed that in this passage priests
were ordained? Whence comes this novel interpretation? I will tell
you. They have sought by this device to set up a nursery of implacable
discord, whereby clerics and laymen should be separated from each
other farther than heaven from earth, to the incredible injury of the
grace of baptism and the confusion of our fellowship in the Gospel.
Here, indeed, are the roots of that detestable tyranny of the clergy
over the laity; trusting in the external anointing by which their
hands are consecrated, in the tonsure and in vestments, they not only
exalt themselves above lay Christians, who are only anointed with the
Holy Spirit, but regard them almost as dogs and unworthy to be
included with them in the Church. Hence they are bold to demand, to
exact, to threaten, to urge, to oppress, as much as they please. In
short, the sacrament of ordination has been and is a most approved
device for the establishing of all the horrible things that have been
wrought hitherto and will yet be wrought in the Church. Here Christian
brotherhood has perished, here shepherds have been turned into wolves,
servants into tyrants, churchmen into worse than worldlings.
[Sidenote: The Priesthood of All Christians]
If they were forced to grant that as many of us as have been baptised
are all priests without distinction, as indeed we are, and that to
them was committed the ministry only, yet with our consent, they would
presently learn that they have no right to rule over us except in so
far as we freely concede it. For thus it is written in i Peter ii, "Ye
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a priestly kingdom."
[1 Peter 2:9] Therefore we are all priests, as many of us as are
Christians.[179] But the priests, as we call them, are ministers
chosen from among us, who do all that they do in our name. And the
priesthood is nothing but a ministry, as we learn from I Corinthians
iv, "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]
It follows herefrom that whoever does not preach the Word, called by
the Church to this very thing, is no priest at all. And further, that
the sacrament of ordination can be nothing else than a certain rite of
choosing preachers in the Church. For thus is a priest defined in
Malachi ii, "The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they
shall seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord
of hosts." [Mal. 2:7] You may be certain, then, that whoever is not an
angel of the Lord of hosts, or whoever is called to anything else than
such angelic service--if I may so term it--is never a priest; as Hosea
says, "Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that
thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me." [Hosea 4:6] They
are also called pastors because they are to pasture, that is, to
teach. Therefore, they who are ordained only to read the canonical
hours and to offer masses are indeed papist, but not Christian,
priests, because they not only do not preach, but are not called to
preach; nay, it comes to this, that such a priesthood is a different
estate altogether from the office of preaching. Thus they are
hour-priests and mass-priests, that is, a sort of living idol, having
the name of priest, while they are in reality such priests as Jeroboam
ordained, in Bethaven, of the off-scouring of the people, and not of
the tribe of Levi.[180][1 Kings 12:31]
Lo, whither hath the glory of the Church departed! The whole earth is
filled with priests, bishops, cardinals and clerics, and yet not one
of them preaches by virtue of his office, unless he be called to do so
by another and a different call besides his sacramental ordination.
Every one thinks he is doing full justice to his sacrament by mumbling
the vain repetitions of his prescribed prayers and by celebrating
masses; moreover, by never really praying those hours[181], or if he
does pray them, by praying them for himself, and by offering his
masses as a sacrifice--which is the height of perversity!--whereas the
mass consists in the use of the sacrament. It is clear, therefore,
that the ordination which, as a sacrament, makes clerics of this sort
of men, is in truth nothing but a mere fiction, devised by men who
understand nothing about the Church, the priesthood, the ministry of
the Word, or the sacraments. And as is the sacrament, so are the
priests it makes. To such errors and such blindness has come a still
worse captivity; in order to separate themselves still farther from
other Christians, whom they deem profane, they have unmanned
themselves, like the priests of Cybele, and taken upon them the burden
of a pretended celibacy.
It was not enough for this hypocrisy and error to forbid bigamy, viz.,
the having of two wives at the same time, as it was forbidden in the
law, and as is the accepted meaning of the term; but they have called
it bigamy if a man married two virgins, one after the other, or if he
married a widow. Nay, so holy is the holiness of this most holy
sacrament, that no married man can become a priest as long as his wife
lives. And--here we reach the very summit of holiness--even he is
prevented from entering the priesthood, who without his knowledge or
by an unfortunate chance married a fallen woman. But if one have
defiled a thousand harlots, or ravished countless matrons and virgins,
or even kept numerous Ganymedes, that would be no hindrance to his
becoming bishop or cardinal or pope. Moreover, the Apostle's word,
"the husband of one wife," [1 Tim. 3:2] must be interpreted to mean,
"the prelate of one church," and this has given rise to the
"incompatible benefices."[182] At the same time the pope, that
munificent dispenser, may join to one man three, twenty, one hundred
wives--I should say churches--if he be bribed with money or power--I
should say, moved by godly charity and constrained by the care of the
churches.
O pontiffs worthy of this holy sacrament of ordination! O princes, not
of the catholic churches, but of the synagogues, nay, the black dens,
of Satan! [Rev. 2:9] I would cry out with Isaiah: "Ye scornful men,
who rule over my people that is in Jerusalem" [Isa. 28:14]; and with
Amos: "Woe to you that are wealthy in Sion, and to you that have
confidence in the mountain of Samaria: ye great men, heads of the
people, that go in with state into the house of Israel." [Amos 6:1] O
the reproach that such monstrous priests bring upon the Church of God!
Where are there any bishops or priests who know the Gospel, not to
speak of preaching it? Why then do they boast of being priests? Why do
they desire to be regarded as holier and better and mightier than
other Christians, who are merely laymen? To read the hours--what
unlearned men, or, as the Apostle says, what men speaking with
tongues, cannot do that? [1 Cor. 14:23] But to _pray_ the hours--that
belongs to monks, hermits, and men in private life, all of them
laymen. The duty of the priest is to preach, and if he does not preach
he is as much a priest as a painted man is a man. Does ordaining such
babbling priests make one a bishop? Or blessing churches and bells? Or
confirming boys? Certainly not. Any deacon or layman could do as much.
The ministry of the Word makes the priest and the bishop.
[Sidenote: Ordination, the Rite of Choosing Preachers]
Therefore my advice is: Flee, all ye that would live in safety;
begone, young men, and do not enter upon this holy estate, unless you
are determined to preach the Gospel, and are able to believe that you
are not made one whit better than the laity through this sacrament of
ordination! For to read the hours is nothing, and to offer mass is to
receive the sacrament.[183] What then is there left to you that every
layman does not have? Tonsure and vestments? A sorry priest, forsooth,
who consists of tonsure and vestment! Or the oil poured on your
fingers? But every Christian is anointed and sanctified with the oil
of the Holy Spirit, both in body and soul, and in ancient times
touched the sacrament with his hands no less than the priests do
now.[184] But to-day our superstition counts it a great crime if the
laity touch either the bare chalice or the _corporale_;[185] not even
a nun who is a pure virgin would be permitted to wash the palls[186]
and sacred linens of the altar. O God! how the sacrosanct sanctity of
this sacrament of ordination has grown and grown. I anticipate that
ere long the laity will not be permitted to touch the altar except
when they offer their money. I can scarce contain myself when I
contemplate the wicked tyrannies of these desperate men, who with
their farcical and childish fancies mock and overthrow the liberty and
the glory of the Christian religion.
Let every one, therefore, who knows himself to be a Christian be
assured of this, and apply it to himself,--that we are all priests,
and there is no difference between us; that is to say, we have the
same power in respect to the Word and all the sacraments. However, no
one may make use of this power except by the consent of the community
or by the call of a superior. For what is the common property of all,
no individual may arrogate to himself, unless he be called. And
therefore this sacrament of ordination, if it have any meaning at all,
is nothing else than a certain rite whereby one is called to the
ministry of the Church. Furthermore, the priesthood is properly
nothing but the ministry of the Word, mark you, of the Word--not of
the law, but of the Gospel. And the diaconate is not the ministry of
reading the Gospel or the Epistle, as is the present practice, but the
ministry of distributing the Church's alms to the poor, so that the
priests may be relieved of the burden of temporal matters and may give
themselves more freely to prayer and the Word. For this was the
purpose of the institution of the diaconate, as we read in Acts vi.
[Acts 6:4] Whoever, therefore, does not know or preach the Gospel, is
not only not a priest or bishop, but he is a plague of the Church, who
under the false title of priest or bishop--in sheep's clothing,
forsooth--oppresses the Gospel and plays the wolf in the Church.
Therefore, unless those priests and bishops with whom the Church is
now filled work out their salvation in some other way, that is,
realise that they are not priests or bishops and bemoan the act that
they bear the name of an office whose duties they either do not know
or cannot fulfil, and thus with prayers and tears lament their
wretched hypocritical life--unless they do this, they are truly the
people of eternal perdition, and the words of Isaiah are fulfilled in
them: "Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not
knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their
multitude were dried up with thirst. Therefore hath hell enlarged her
soul and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones,
and their people, and their high and generous ones shall go down into
it." [Isa. 5:13 f.] What a dreadful word for our age, in which
Christians are sucked down into so deep an abyss!
Since, therefore, what we call the priesthood is a ministry, so far as
we can learn from the Scriptures, I cannot understand why one who has
been made a priest cannot again become a layman; for the sole
difference between him and a layman is his ministry. But to depose a
man from the ministry is so far from impossible that it is even now
the usual penalty imposed upon guilty priests; they are either
suspended for a season or permanently deprived of their office. For
that lying "indelible character" has long since become a
laughing-stock. I admit that the pope imparts this character, but
Christ knows nothing of it; and a priest who is consecrated with it
becomes thereby the life-long servant and captive, not of Christ, but
of the pope; as it is in our day. Moreover, unless I am greatly
mistaken, if this sacrament and this life all, the papacy itself with
its characters will scarcely survive; our joyous liberty will be
restored to us; we shall realize that we are all equal by every right,
and having cast of the yoke of tyranny, shall know that he who is a
Christian has Christ, and that he who has Christ has all things that
are Christ's and is able to do all things [Phil. 4:13]. Of this I will
write more, and more tellingly, as soon as I perceive that the above
has displeased my friends the papists.[187]