History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution — Volume 1MacCaffrey, James
Religion
History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution — Volume 1
MacCaffrey, James
Catholic Church -- History -- Modern period, 1500-
With regard to the Sacraments Luther and Zwingli agreed that they were
only signs of grace, though in the explanation of this view Zwingli
was much more extreme, because much more logical, than Luther.
Believing as he did that justification depended upon faith alone, he
contended that the Sacraments were mere ceremonies by which a man
became or showed himself to be a follower of Christ. They were devoid
of any objective virtue, and were efficacious only in so far as they
guaranteed that the individual receiving them possessed the faith
necessary for justification. But it was principally in regard to the
Eucharist that the two reformers found themselves in hopeless
disagreement. Had Luther wished to be consistent he should have thrown
over the Real Presence as well as Transubstantiation, but the force of
tradition, the fear that any such teaching would arouse the opposition
of the people, and the plain meaning of the texts of Scripture forced
him to adopt a compromise. "Had Doctor Carlstadt," he wrote, "or any
one else been able to persuade me five years ago that the sacrament of
the altar is but bread and wine he would, indeed, have done me a great
service, and rendered me very material aid in my efforts to make a
breach in the Papacy. But it is all in vain. The meaning of the texts
is so evident that every artifice of language will be powerless to
explain it away." He contended that the words "This is My body and
This is My blood" could bear only one meaning, namely, that Christ was
really present, but while agreeing with Catholics about the Real
Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, he rejected the doctrine of
Transubstantiation, maintaining in its place Consubstantiation or
Impanation.
Though Luther insisted so strongly on the Real Presence, it is not
clear that in the beginning he had any very fixed views on the
subject, or that he would have been unwilling to change any views he
had formed, were it not that one of his lieutenants, Carlstadt, began
to exercise his privilege of judgment by rejecting the Real Presence.
Such an act of insubordination aroused the implacable ire of Luther,
who denounced his former colleague as a heretic, and pursued him from
Wittenberg and Jena, where he had fled for refuge. In the end
Carlstadt was obliged to retire to Switzerland, where his doctrine
found favour with the Swiss reformers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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