XII. De Aliis Haeresibus et Sectis

XII. De Aliis Haeresibus et Sectis

those who have never embraced the Augsburg Confession. Lest those heresies and sects be silently attributed to us through unspoken thought, because we have not made explicit mention of them in the declaration recalled above: it has seemed right to recite their articles plainly at the end (as it's called) of this writing, in which the heretics of our time dissent from the truth and teach what is contrary to our sincere religious life and confession.¹ The errors of the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists are divided into many sects: some defend more errors, others fewer. In general, however, all of them profess a teaching that can be tolerated neither in the Church, nor in civil government, nor in the household. Anabaptist articles that cannot be tolerated in the Church. I. That Christ did not take his flesh and blood from the Virgin Mary, but brought it from heaven. II. That Christ is not true God, but is merely superior to the other saints, because he has received more gifts of the Holy Spirit than any other holy person. III. That our righteousness before God consists not in the merit of Christ alone, but in renewal and indeed in our own uprightness, in which we walk. Indeed, that righteousness of the Anabaptists consists for the most great part in a chosen and humanly devised sort of sanctity, and in truth it's nothing other than a new kind of monasticism. IV. That infants who haven't been baptized aren't sinners before God, but righteous and innocent, and that in that innocence of theirs, since they don't yet have the use of reason, they obtain salvation without baptism — which, namely, they don't need according to their own opinion. And in this way they reject the whole teaching about original sin, along with the remaining doctrines that depend on it. V. That infants should not be baptized until they have reached the use of reason and can profess their own faith themselves. VI. The children of Christians are truly holy and are to be counted among the number of God's children, for this reason: because they are born to Christian and faithful parents, even apart from and before receiving baptism. For this reason, they neither place great importance on infant baptism nor make efforts to have infants baptized, because this directly contradicts the plain words of God's promise, for that promise pertains only to those who keep God's covenant and do not despise it. VII. That it is not a true and Christian church if some sinners are still found in it. VIII. No sermons are to be heard in those churches where pontifical Masses were once celebrated. IX. That a godly person should have nothing at all to do with church ministers who teach the Gospel of Christ according to the teaching of the Augsburg Confession and who censure and refute the gatherings and errors of the Anabaptists: and that it should not be permitted to serve such church ministers or hire out one's labor to them, but that these same men, as perverters of the divine word, are to be avoided and fled from. Anabaptist articles that are intolerable in civil society. I. That holding public office is not, under the New Testament, a way of life that pleases God. II. That a Christian cannot serve in the office of magistrate with a clear and unharmed conscience. III. That a Christian cannot, with a clear conscience, perform the office of a magistrate — when circumstances so require — by administering justice and carrying out sentences against the wicked, and that subjects cannot implore for their defense the very power that the magistrate has received from God. IV. That a Christian person with a clear conscience cannot take an oath, or having sworn one, promise obedience and loyalty to his own ruler or magistrate. V. That a magistrate, under the New Testament, cannot with a good conscience inflict capital punishment on wicked people. Anabaptist articles that cannot be sustained within the economy of the faith. I. That a devout person cannot keep and possess private property with a clear conscience, but must put everything they have, whatever resources they hold, into common use for all. II. That a Christian can keep an inn, or engage in commerce, or manufacture weapons — all with a clear conscience. III. That spouses may divorce on account of differing religious conviction, and may contract marriage with another person who does not disagree in religion. Errors of the Schwenkfeldians. I. That everyone who says Christ according to the flesh is a creature lacks true knowledge of the reigning heavenly King. II. That through his exaltation Christ's flesh has received all divine attributes in such a way that Christ, insofar as he is man, is altogether equal to the Father and to the Word in power, virtue, majesty, and glory through everything, in the degree and state of essence — with the result that now in Christ the two natures are of one essence, sharing the same attributes, the same will, and the same glory; and that Christ's flesh belongs to the essence of the most holy Trinity. III. That the ministry of the word preached and received by hearing is not the instrument through which God the Holy Spirit teaches people, grants saving knowledge of Christ, and brings about conversion, true repentance, faith, and new obedience in them. IV. That the water of baptism is not the means through which the Lord seals adoption into the sons of God and brings about regeneration. V. That bread and wine in the sacred Supper are not instruments through which and with which Christ distributes his body and blood. VI. That a godly person, truly regenerated through the Spirit of God, can perfectly keep and fulfill the law of God in this life. VII. It isn't the true Church of Christ if public excommunication doesn't flourish in it, and some solemn form of excommunication, or, as it's commonly called, the ordinary process.² VIII. A minister of the church can't teach others fruitfully or dispense the true Sacraments unless he himself has been truly renewed, reborn, and made truly righteous. THE ERROR OF THE NEW ARIANS. That Christ is not the true, substantial, natural God, of the same essence as the Father and the Holy Spirit, but is adorned with the Father only by divine majesty, in such a way that he is inferior to the Father. THE ERROR OF THE ANTITRINITARIANS. This is a completely new heresy, previously unknown in the churches of Christ — held by those who think, teach, and profess that there is not one single divine and eternal essence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but that just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons, so each person has a distinct essence of divinity, separated from the other persons. And others of these hold that the individual persons are in individual essences equal in power, wisdom, majesty, and glory — just as three other numerically distinct men are, by reason of their own essence, disjoined and separated from one another. Others hold that those three persons and essences are, by reason of essence and properties, so unequal that God the Father alone is true God. We reject and condemn these errors and all similar ones, and also those who rely on them or follow from them, inasmuch as they are false and heretical, and because they oppose the Word of God, the three approved Creeds, the Augsburg Confession, its Apology, the Smalcaldic Articles, and the Catechisms of Luther. All godly people, from the highest to the lowest, ought to beware of and avoid these same errors, unless they wish to bring loss upon their own eternal salvation. That this is the faith, teaching, and confession of all of us—the very one on which we are prepared to render an account to our Lord Jesus Christ, the judge, on that last day—and that we wish to say or write nothing against this teaching, whether secretly or openly, but through the grace of God to persevere in it steadfastly: as a pledge of this matter, with the matter well pondered, in the true fear of God and calling on his name, we have subscribed this summary with our own hands.^✦