The intervention of the priest is unnecessary. Preaching and the sacraments have their place; but the offer of eternal salvation is made to the individual man, and it is for him to make it his own by faith. No excommunication can prevent the salvation from being his. He may be cursed by the Church, but if he has faith in Christ the curse cannot harm him. On the other hand, in the absence of faith all the blessings of the Church are unavailing. Bishops and priests had ceased to be necessary in order to open the channels of divine grace. "All Christians are priests," said Luther; "all may teach the Word of God, may administer baptism, may consecrate the Bread and the Wine; for has not Christ said-' Do this in remembrance of Me.' All we who are Christians have the power of the Keys. Christ said to the apostles, who were the representatives about Him of mankind at large, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." " Again," The priest should be elected by the suffrages of the people and afterwards confirmed by the bishop; that is to say, after the election, the first, the most venerable among the electors should lay his hands on the elected." 3 When the Calixtines of Bohemia found that the bishops of their country refused them ministers, they had gone so far as to take the first vagabond priest. "If you have no other means of procuring pastors [wrote Luther to them, in 1523], rather do without them, and let each head of a family read the Gospel in his own house, and baptize his children, sighing after the sacrament of the altar as the Jews at Babylon did for Jerusalem. The consecration of the Pope creates priests-not of God, but of the devil, ordained solely to trample Jesus Christ under foot, to bring His sacrifice to naught, and to sell imaginary holocausts to the world in His name. Men become ministers only by election and calling, and that ought to be effected in the following manner: First, seek God by prayer; then, being assembled together with all those whose hearts God has touched, choose in the Lord's name him or them whom you shall have acknowledged to be fitted for this ministry. After that, let the chief men among you lay their hands on them, and recommend them to the people and to the Church." 4 3 Michelet, Life of Luther, translated by W. C. Hazlitt (Bohn), 138. D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, iv. 38-39. IV The two central principles of the Reformation—the principles which gave inspiration, dignity, and passion to the whole Protestant movement-were fatal to the Catholic theory of episcopacy. The new faith could not tolerate the old polity. In whatever Church the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine of Justification by Faith were frankly adopted, bishops" with the powers and prerogatives which had been claimed for them since the time of Cyprian were impossible. Protestant Churches might consistently adopt either the Presbyterian or the Congregational polity; the Episcopalin the Catholic sense-was necessarily excluded. Early in the history of the Reformation a scheme of polity for the Protestant Churches-Congregational in its essential principles, with some Presbyterian modifications-was drawn up by Francis Lambert,5 and was formally adopted as the organisation of the Church in Hesse at a conference held in the Castle of Homberg in August, 1526. Ranke has given an admirable account of its central principle. "The idea was formed of constituting a Church consisting solely of true believers. The following was the scheme drawn up to that effect. It was proposed that, after a sermon, a meeting should be held, and every one should be asked whether he was determined to submit himself to the laws, or not. Those who refused should be put out and regarded as heathens. But the names of those who chose to be in the number of the saints should be written down; they must not be troubled if, at first, they should be few, for God would soon increase their number: these would constitute the congregation [i.e. the church]. The most important business of their meetings would be the choice of their spiritual leaders [here simply called bishops]. For this station any citizen of irreproachable life and competent instruction should be eligible, whatever his profession; but he should be allowed to retain it only so long as he preached the genuine Word of God." 6 The local Church was also to appoint deacons and officers charged with the care of the poor. It was to have the power of deposing as well as appointing all its officers. And it was See Note A on Francis Lambert, p. 43. • Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany (Mrs. Austin's translation), ii. 485–486. to have the power of excommunicating any of its members. Church meetings were to be held every Sunday. So far the scheme was purely Congregational. But a general Synod was to be held every year at which each Church was to be represented by its pastor and an elected layman. The Synod was to appoint Visitors, whose term of office was apparently to be annual, and who were to visit the Churches, to examine those who had been elected bishops, to confirm the bishops they approved, and to provide for the execution of the decrees of the Synod. The Synod was to be governed by the Word of God; for "the Word of God outweighs a majority. Its decisions were not to be decrees' or 'statutes,' but simply the answer of the Hessian Synod,' " and they were to be supported by Scripture. For the first year the Visitors were to be appointed by Philip of Hesse. There was also to be a permanent Committee for the general superintendence of the Churches. The Committee was to consist (1) of thirteen persons appointed by the Synod; and the princes and nobles present at the meeting of the Synod were to have the right of voting with the pastors and lay representatives of the Churches; (2) of the three Visitors; (3) of special representatives of the Church at Marburg. At the meetings of the Committee the Landgrave was to have the right to be present. It is obvious that the power entrusted to the Committee, the Visitors, and the Synod could not be exercised without limiting and repressing that independence of the separate Churches which Lambert was anxious to assert. He may have hoped that after a period of transition, during which the separate Churches might give sufficient proof of their strength to satisfy those who regarded the scheme with distrust, the functions of the Synod would naturally cease. But the scheme was never carried out. In Hesse, as elsewhere, the ecclesiastical authority assumed by the Civil Power suppressed the freedom of the Church." Luther's own position in relation to the questions raised 7 Lambert's treatise on The Sum of Christianity was translated into English with an Epistle to Anne Boleyn. See extracts from the Dedication to "the noble prince of Lausanne" in Waddington, i. (1200-1557), 543-544- This treatise had doubtless some influence in encouraging the development of Congregational tendencies in England. by Lambert's proposals is interesting and characteristic. In his German Order of Divine Service, which he declares is not to be regarded as "a compulsory law," but is to be used at the good pleasure of the Churches, and "where, when, and as long as circumstances favour and demand it," he speaks of three different forms of divine service. He is willing that the service should be conducted in Latin: "and if the Greek and Hebrew tongues were as familiar to us as the Latin, and possessed as great store of fine music and song as that does, were I able to bring it about, mass should be celebrated, and there should be singing and reading in our churches on alternate Sundays, in all four languages-German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew." The Latin service was to be for educated people : "for the sake of the simple laymen " he proposed that divine service should be in German. His conceptions of the nature and objects of the German service illustrate his estimate of the actual congregation for which he had to make provision. "There are many," he says, "who attend upon the public worship of God who are not yet believers or Christians; the greater part stand and gape, that they may see something new; and it is just as though we celebrated the service of God on an open square or field among Turks or heathens." The German service was to be an evangelical service; not a service for the complete expression of the life of the Church.8 But he thinks that the true type of evangelical order should include a third service. This should not be celebrated "publicly among all the people," but "Those who are desirous of being Christians in earnest, and are ready to profess the Gospel with hand and mouth, should register 8 Another passage confirms this statement. He says, "In fine, we institute this order not for the sake of those who are Christians already, for they have need of none of these things, nor do they live for them; but they live for the sake of those who are not yet Christians, that they may make them Christians; they have their divine service in their spirits. But it is necessary to have such an order for the sake of those who are to become Christians or are to grow stronger, just as a Christian has need of baptism, the Word, and the sacrament, not as a Christian, for as such he has them already, but as a sinner. But, above all, the order is for the simple and for the young folk. . . . For the sake of such we must teach, preach, write, and devise; and if it could in any way assist or promote their interests, I would have all the bells pealed and all the organs sounded, and let everything make a noise that could." Hagenbach, History of the Reformation, ii. 9–11. their names and assemble in some private house to read, to baptize, to receive the sacrament, and practise other Christian works. In this order, those whose conduct was not such as is befitting Christians might be recognised, reproved, reformed, rejected, or excommunicated, in accordance with the rule laid down by Christ. (Matt. xviii. 15 seq.). But I cannot and would not order or arrange such a congregation or assembly at present. I have not the requisite persons for it, nor do I see many who are urgent for it. But should it come to pass that I must do it-that I am so pressed upon as to be unable with a good conscience to leave it undone then will I gladly do my part to secure it, and will assist it as best I can. . . . In the meantime, I would abide by the two aforesaid methods, and publicly among the people aid in the promotion of such divine service, besides preaching, as shall exercise the youth, and call and incite others to faith, until those Christians who are thoroughly in earnest shall discover each other and cleave together, to the end that there may be no faction-forming (sectional partyism), such as might ensue if I were to take the management of the whole matter upon myself; for we Germans are a savage, rude, tempestuous people, not lightly to be led into anything new, unless there be most urgent occasion." " It appears from this that the organisation which Luther constructed was a missionary and educational agency rather than a Church. But he looks forward to the time when "those Christians who are most thoroughly in earnest shall discover each other and cleave together," and organise themselves into societies which will be Christian in the true sense of the word-Churches with the powers attributed by Christ Himself to those that are gathered together in His name. To Luther Congregationalism was the ideal polity; but, as he thought, the time had not come for attempting to institute it.10 NOTE A This remarkable man was born in Avignon about 1487. He was the descendant of a noble family; his father was Secretary of Legation at the apostolic palace. At fifteen years of age he entered the order of the Franciscans. Having an ardent and impassioned temperament, he became a most effective popular preacher. He studied the Scriptures with great earnestness, and expounded them to the country people in the villages about Avignon. His zeal Hagenbach, History of the Reformation, 12-13. 10 See Note B, p. 44. |