October 10, 1520 (Part 2)

Brother Martin Luther receives the papal bull Exsurge Domine. According to Canon Law, before a heretic is finally condemned, he must be given a fatherly warning. This bull, therefore, does not excommunicate Luther, but only threatens this penalty in case he does not recant within sixty days after its publication in Germany. Beginning with the words : “Arise, Lord, plead thine own cause, arise and protect the vineyard thou gavest Peter from the wild beast who is devouring it,” the bull sets forth 41 of the professor’s statements, quoted apart from their context, designates them as “either heretical, false, scandalous, offensive to pious ears, or misleading to the simple,” and condemns them. If, after all the Pope’s fatherly care and admonition, Luther does not recant and seek pardon, he is to be declared a stiff-necked, notorious, damned heretic and must expect the penalties due to his crime. According to the close relationship between church and state, such excommunication would necessarily be accompanied by an imperial ban under which Luther would be considered an outlaw.

At the same time, Luther’s critique of the sacramental practices of the Roman church, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church is in circulation. Our quotation is excerpted from the treatise’s discussion of baptism.

Quotation:

The First Part of Baptism: The Divine Promise

[continued from yesterday] … The children of Israel, whenever they repented of their sins, turned their thoughts first of all to the exodus from Egypt, and, remembering this, returned to God who had brought them out. This memory and this refuge were many times impressed upon them by Moses, and afterward repeated by David. [1] How much more should we to call to mind our exodus from Egypt, and, remembering, turn back again to him who led us forth through the washing of regeneration, [Titus 3:5] which we are bidden remember for this very purpose! And we can do this most fittingly in the sacrament of bread and wine. Indeed, in olden times these three sacraments — penance, baptism, and the bread — were all celebrated at the same service, and one supplemented and assisted the other. We read also of a certain holy virgin who in every time of temptation made baptism her sole defense, saying simply, “I am a Christian;” and immediately the adversary fled from her, because he knew the power of her baptism and of her faith which clung to the truth of God’s promise. [2]

See how rich, therefore, a Christian is — that is, one who is baptized! Even if he would, he cannot lose his salvation, however much he sins, unless he will not believe. For no sin can condemn him except unbelief alone. All other sins — if faith in God’s promise made in baptism return or remain — all other sins, I say, are immediately blotted out through that same faith, or rather through the truth of God, because he cannot deny himself if you confess Him and faithfully cling to him and his promises. But as for contrition, confession of sins, and satisfaction [3] — along with all those carefully thought-out human exercises — if you turn your attention to them and neglect this truth of God, they will suddenly fail you and leave you more wretched than before. For whatever is done without faith in the truth of God, is vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit [Eccl. 1:2, 14].

Again, how perilous, indeed, how false it is to suppose that penance is the “second plank” after the shipwreck! How harmful an error it is to believe that the power of baptism is broken and the ship has foundered, because we have sinned! No! That one, solid, and unsinkable ship remains, and is never broken up into floating timbers. It carries all those who are brought to the harbor of salvation, for is the truth of God giving us its promise in the sacraments. It is true that many rashly leap overboard and perish in the waves — those are they who depart from faith in the promise and plunge into sin. But the ship herself remains intact and holds its steady course. If one is able somehow by grace to return to the ship, it is not on any plank, but in the solid ship itself that he is carried to life. Such an person is he who through faith returns to the sure promise of God that abides forever. Therefore Peter, in his second epistle, rebukes those who sin, because they have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins [2 Peter 1:9]; and he clearly chides their wicked unbelief and ingratitude for the baptism they had received. … [to be concluded tomorrow]

 

Notes

[1] See, for example, Deut. 5:15; 6:12, 21; 8:14; Ps. 78:12f.; 80:8; 106:7f; Jer 2:5f.; Dan 9:15.

[2] The reference may be to Blandina, a slave who suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius in 177 in Lyon. Eusebius (c. 265-340), in Church History, reproduces a letter containing an account of the persecution in Lyon and Vienne: “… the whole wrath of the populace, and governor, and soldiers was aroused exceedingly against Sanctus, the deacon from Vienne, and Maturus, a late convert, yet a noble combatant, and against Attalus, a native of Pergamoswhere he had always been a pillar and foundation, and Blandina, through whom Christ showed that things which appear mean and obscure and despicable to men are with God of great glory [1 Cor. 1:27-28] through love toward him manifested in power, and not boasting in appearance. For while we all trembled, and her earthly mistress, who was herself also one of the witnesses, feared that on account of the weakness of her body, she would be unable to make bold confession, Blandina was filled with such power as to be delivered and raised above those who were torturing her by turns from morning till evening in every manner, so that they acknowledged that they were conquered, and could do nothing more to her. And they were astonished at her endurance, as her entire body was mangled and broken; and they testified that one of these forms of torture was sufficient to destroy life, not to speak of so many and so great sufferings. But the blessed woman, like a noble athlete, renewed her strength in her confession; and her comfort and recreation and relief from the pain of her sufferings was in exclaiming, ‘I am a Christian, and there is nothing vile done by us.'”

[3] The three parts of penance. See, for example, Peter Lombard (Sentences IV, d. 16, c.1): “In the performance of penance, three things are to be considered, namely compunction of heart, confession of the mouth, satisfaction in deed. … Just as we offend God in three ways, namely by heart, mouth, and hand, so also let us make satisfaction in three ways.”