A Dedication to Francis I
TO THE MOST HIGH, MOST MIGHTY, AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE, FRANCIS, MOST CHRISTIAN KING OF FRANCE, HIS
PRINCE AND SOVEREIGN LORD,
JOHN CALVIN WISHES PEACE AND SALVATION IN GOD.
When I first applied myself to writing this present book, Most Noble King, nothing was further from my mind than to write anything that would be presented to Your Majesty. My only purpose was to teach certain rudiments by which those who possessed any sincere affection for God might be instructed in true godliness.
By this labor I desired chiefly to serve my fellow Frenchmen, among whom I saw many hungering and thirsting for Jesus Christ, but very few who had received a right knowledge of him. This intention may readily be perceived from the book itself, which I have adapted to the simplest form of instruction possible.
But when I saw that the fury of certain wicked men had risen to such a height in your kingdom that it left no room for any sound doctrine, it seemed expedient to make this present book serve two purposes: first, as instruction for those whom I had originally determined to teach; and second, as a confession of faith addressed to you, by which you may learn the nature of that doctrine against which those who now trouble your kingdom with fire and sword are so furiously enraged.
For I will not be ashamed to confess that I have here presented a summary of that very doctrine which they believe ought to be punished with imprisonment, banishment, confiscation, and fire, and which they cry out must be driven from land and sea.
I know well with what horrible reports they have filled your ears and heart in order to make our cause exceedingly hateful to you. But in keeping with your clemency and gentleness, you ought to consider that no innocence would remain, whether in words or deeds, if accusation alone were sufficient.
Certainly, if anyone, seeking to stir up hatred against this doctrine—which I intend to defend before you—should argue that it has already been condemned by the common consent of every rank of society and that numerous judgments have been pronounced against it, he would be saying nothing except that it has been partly crushed by the violence and conspiracy of its adversaries and partly maliciously oppressed by their lies, deceits, slanders, and treachery.
It is force and violence when cruel sentences are pronounced against it before it has been permitted a defense. It is fraud and treachery when it is groundlessly branded as sedition and criminality.
Lest anyone suppose that we complain of these things without cause, you yourself, Most Excellent King, can bear witness to the false accusations by which this doctrine is daily defamed before you. You are told that it aims at nothing less than the overthrow of every kingdom and civil government, the disturbance of peace, the abolition of laws, the destruction of lordships and possessions—in short, the reduction of everything to chaos.
And yet you hear only the smallest portion of these accusations. For among the common people, horrible reports are spread against this doctrine which, if they were true, would rightly cause the whole world to judge both it and all its authors worthy of a thousand fires and a thousand gallows.
Who can now wonder why it is so universally hated, when such wicked slanders are believed? This is why every rank of society conspires with one accord to condemn us and our doctrine.
Carried away and inflamed by this passion, those appointed to judge the matter pronounce as their sentence the opinion they had already formed before leaving home. They believe they have faithfully discharged their duty so long as they condemn no one to death except those convicted either by their own confession or by reliable testimony.
But convicted of what crime? Of this condemned doctrine, they say. But by what law has it been condemned? The very point of the defense was not to disavow this doctrine but to maintain it as true. Yet here the accused are denied permission even to open their mouths.
Therefore, Most Illustrious King, I do not ask without reason that you undertake a complete examination of this cause, which until now has been conducted confusedly, without any proper legal procedure, and with impetuous passion rather than judicial moderation and gravity.
Do not suppose that I am attempting to present a private defense of myself in order to obtain permission to return to my native country. Although I bear toward it the natural affection that is proper, nevertheless, as matters now stand, I do not greatly grieve at being deprived of it.
Rather, I undertake the common cause of all believers, and indeed the cause of Christ himself—a cause that today has been so completely torn apart and trampled underfoot in your kingdom that it appears utterly desperate. This has certainly happened through the tyranny of certain Pharisees rather than by your will. But there is no need here to explain how this has occurred. Whatever the cause, Christ’s cause is grievously afflicted.
For the power of God’s adversaries has prevailed to such an extent that, although the truth of Christ has not been destroyed and scattered, it is nevertheless hidden and buried as something disgraceful. Moreover, the poor Church has either been consumed by cruel deaths, driven away by banishment, or so terrified by threats and alarms that she dares not utter a word.
Yet they still persist with their customary fury, seeking to overthrow the wall they have already shaken and to complete the ruin they have begun. Meanwhile, no one steps forward to oppose such violence and provide a defense against it.
And if there are some who wish to appear strongly favorable toward the truth, they say that some allowance should be made for the imprudence and ignorance of simple people. For this is how they speak: they call the most certain truth of God “imprudence and ignorance,” and those whom our Lord has so highly esteemed that he has communicated to them the secrets of his heavenly wisdom they call “simple people.” Thus everyone is ashamed of the gospel.
It belongs to you, therefore, Most Gracious King, not to turn away either your ears or your heart from so just a defense, especially when so great a matter is at stake: how the glory of God shall be maintained upon earth, how his truth shall retain its honor and dignity, and how the kingdom of Christ shall remain undiminished.
O cause worthy of your hearing, worthy of your jurisdiction, worthy of your royal throne! For this consideration makes a true king: that he recognizes himself as God’s true minister in governing his kingdom. On the contrary, whoever does not reign for the purpose of serving the glory of God exercises not kingship but robbery.
Anyone who expects lasting prosperity in a kingdom not governed by the scepter of God—that is, by his holy Word—is deceived. For the heavenly decree cannot lie by which it is declared that the people will be scattered when prophecy fails.
Nor should contempt for our lowly condition turn you away.
Certainly, we fully recognize how poor and contemptible we are: before God, miserable sinners; before men, despised and rejected; indeed, if you will, the filth and refuse of the world—or anything still more vile that can be named.
Thus nothing remains in which we may glory before God except his mercy alone, by which we are saved without any merit of our own; nor before men except our weakness, which everyone regards as a great disgrace.
Nevertheless, our doctrine must remain exalted and unconquerable above all the glory and power of the world. For it is not ours, but belongs to the living God and to his Christ, whom the Father has appointed King to reign from sea to sea and from the rivers to the ends of the earth.
He shall so reign that by striking the earth with the rod of his mouth alone, he will shatter all its strength and glory like a vessel of clay. Thus the Prophets foretold the majesty of his kingdom: that he would overthrow kingdoms hard as iron and bronze and glittering like gold and silver.
—Isaiah 11:4; Psalm 2:9; Daniel 2:31–45
It is true that our adversaries deny this, reproaching us for falsely claiming the Word of God, of which, they say, we are perverse corrupters. But by your own prudence you will be able to judge, upon reading our confession, how this reproach is not merely a malicious slander but an utterly shameless falsehood.
Nevertheless, it will be useful to say something here to prepare the way for that reading. When Saint Paul required that all prophecy conform to the analogy and likeness of faith, he established a most certain rule by which every interpretation of Scripture may be tested.
If our doctrine is examined by this rule of faith, the victory is already ours. For what accords more closely with faith than to acknowledge ourselves destitute of all strength, that we may be clothed by God; empty of every good, that we may be filled by him; slaves of sin, that we may be delivered by him; blind, that we may be enlightened by him; lame, that we may be made upright by him; weak, that we may be sustained by him; and to remove from ourselves every ground of glory, so that he alone may be glorified and we may glory in him?
When we say these and similar things, our adversaries cry out that in this way we overthrow that blind light of nature of which they speak, together with holy preparations, free will, works meritorious of eternal salvation, and their works of supererogation. For they cannot bear that the entire praise and glory of every good, all strength, righteousness, and wisdom should reside in God.
But we never read that those who drew too deeply from the fountain of living waters were reproved. On the contrary, those who dug for themselves dry and broken cisterns incapable of holding water are severely condemned.
Furthermore, what is more proper to faith than to promise ourselves that God will be a gentle and gracious Father when Christ is acknowledged as our brother and propitiator? What is more proper than to expect every good and every blessing from God, whose love toward us was so great that he did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all?
What is more proper than to rest in a certain expectation of salvation and eternal life when we consider that Christ has been given to us by the Father and that such treasures are hidden in him?
They oppose these things and say that such certainty of confidence is not free from arrogance and presumption. But just as we must presume nothing of ourselves, so we ought to expect everything from God. We are stripped of all vainglory for no other reason than that we may glory in God.
What more shall I say? Consider, O Most Virtuous King, every part of our cause, and judge us the most perverse of all men if you do not plainly find that we labor and suffer injuries and reproaches because we have placed our hope in the living God and because we believe that eternal life consists in knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent.
Because of this hope, some of us are confined in prisons, others whipped, others led forth to make public penance, others banished, others cruelly afflicted, and still others compelled to escape by flight. We are all oppressed by tribulation, regarded as accursed and detestable, subjected to insults, and treated inhumanely.
Now consider, on the other hand, our adversaries—I mean the order of priests, with whose approval and at whose prompting all the others oppose us—and observe with me for a moment the motives by which they are governed.
They readily permit both themselves and others to remain ignorant of, neglect, and despise the true religion taught to us in Scripture, which ought to be settled and agreed upon among all. They think it makes little difference what faith anyone does or does not hold concerning God and Christ, provided that, by what they call implicit faith, he submits his understanding to the judgment of the Church.
They are not greatly troubled even if the glory of God is profaned by open blasphemies, provided that no one utters a word against the authority of our holy mother Church.
Why, then, do they contend with such severity and harshness for the Mass, purgatory, pilgrimages, and such rubbish, even denying that true godliness can exist unless all these things are believed and maintained with the most explicit faith, although they prove none of them from the Word of God?
Why, except that their belly is their god and the kitchen their religion?
Take these things away, and they believe not only that they can no longer be Christians, but that they can scarcely remain alive. For although some live delicately amid abundance while others barely subsist by gnawing crusts, they all live from the same pot—a pot that without such assistance would not merely grow cold but freeze entirely.
Therefore, the one among them who cares most for his belly is the most zealous defender of their faith. In short, they all pursue the same purpose: either to preserve their dominion or to keep their bellies full. Not one of them displays the slightest appearance of sincere zeal.
Nevertheless, they do not cease to slander our doctrine and to discredit and defame it by every possible means, so that they may render it either hateful or suspect.
They call it new and only recently invented. They reproach it as doubtful and uncertain. They ask by what miracles it has been confirmed. They inquire whether it is right for it to prevail against the consent of so many ancient Fathers and such longstanding custom.
They insist that we must either confess it to be schismatic because it wages war against the Church, or else claim that the Church was dead throughout the many centuries in which no mention of this doctrine was heard.
Finally, they say that many arguments are unnecessary, since its character may be judged by its fruits—namely, that it produces such a multitude of sects, so many disturbances and seditions, and such boldness in wrongdoing.
Certainly, it is easy for them to gain the advantage over a deserted and defenseless cause, especially when they must persuade an ignorant and credulous populace. But if we were likewise permitted to speak, I believe that the fury with which they foam so violently against us would be somewhat cooled.
First, in calling this doctrine new, they do a grave injury to God, whose sacred Word did not deserve to be branded with novelty.
I do not doubt that it is new to them, since Christ himself and his gospel are new to them. But whoever knows that this preaching of Saint Paul is ancient—that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification—will find nothing new among us.
That this doctrine remained hidden and unknown for so long must be attributed to the impiety of men. Now that it has been restored to us by the goodness of God, it ought at least to be received in its ancient authority.
From the same source of ignorance arises their judgment that it is doubtful and uncertain. This is truly what our Lord complains of through his Prophet:
“The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but my people do not know me.”
But however much they ridicule its uncertainty, if they were required to seal their doctrine with their own blood and at the cost of their lives, it would soon become evident how highly they value it. Our confidence is altogether different, for it fears neither the terrors of death nor the judgment of God.
In demanding miracles from us, they act unreasonably. For we are not inventing some new gospel, but retain that gospel whose truth is confirmed by every miracle ever performed by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.
It might be said that they possess this advantage over us: that they can confirm their doctrine by continual miracles performed even to the present day. But instead, they allege miracles so frivolous or fraudulent that they might unsettle and cause doubt in a mind that would otherwise remain entirely at peace.
Yet even if their miracles were the most extraordinary and astonishing imaginable, they ought to possess no authority against the truth of God. For the name of God must always and everywhere be sanctified, whether through miracles or through the natural order of things.
Their argument might have a better appearance if Scripture had not instructed us concerning the lawful use of miracles. For Saint Mark says that the miracles performed by the Apostles served to confirm their preaching.
Likewise, Saint Luke says that by these means the Lord intended to bear witness to the Word of his grace.
To this corresponds the Apostle’s statement that the salvation proclaimed through the gospel was confirmed when God bore witness to it by signs, wonders, and miraculous powers.
When we hear that miracles are seals appointed to authenticate the gospel, shall we turn them to the destruction of its authority? When we hear that they are intended to establish the truth, shall we employ them to confirm falsehood?
Therefore, the doctrine that precedes the miracles, as the Evangelist says, must first be examined. If it is approved, it may then properly receive confirmation from miracles.
Now, as Christ says, a sure mark of true doctrine is that it seeks not the glory of men but the glory of God.
Since Christ declares that this must be the test, miracles are misused when they are directed toward any purpose other than glorifying the name of God.
We must also remember that Satan has his miracles. Although they are illusions rather than genuine works of power, they are nevertheless of such a kind that they may deceive the simple and unlearned.
—Deuteronomy 13:1–3; 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10
Magicians and sorcerers have always been renowned for miracles. The idolatry of the Gentiles was sustained by astonishing miracles, yet these are not sufficient to commend to us the superstition of either magicians or idolaters.
The Donatists once employed this same device to astonish the simple among the common people: they claimed to perform many miracles.
We therefore give our adversaries the same answer that Saint Augustine gave the Donatists: our Lord has sufficiently warned us against such wonder-workers by foretelling that false prophets would arise who, through great signs and wonders, would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
Saint Paul likewise warned that the reign of Antichrist would come with all power and with false signs and wonders.
“But our miracles,” they say, “are performed neither by idols, sorcerers, nor false prophets, but by the saints.” As though we did not understand that it is Satan’s craft to transform himself into an angel of light!
The Egyptians once made a god of Jeremiah, who was buried in their land, offering sacrifices to him and rendering all the other honors they customarily gave their gods. Were they not abusing God’s holy Prophet for their idolatry? Yet through such veneration of his tomb, they obtained healing from the bites of serpents.
What shall we say except that it has always been, and always will be, a most righteous judgment of God to send a powerful delusion upon those who have not received the love of the truth, so that they should believe a lie?
Therefore, we do not lack miracles, and these are most certain and not subject to ridicule. On the contrary, the miracles our adversaries claim for themselves are nothing but Satan’s delusions whenever they draw the people away from honoring their God and lead them into vanity.
Furthermore, they unjustly set the ancient Fathers against us—I mean the writers of the early Church—as though those Fathers favored their impiety. If the dispute between us were to be settled by their authority, the greater part of the victory would fall to us.
Although many things were written wisely and excellently by these ancient Fathers, they also experienced in some places what happens to all men: they failed and erred. Yet these good and obedient sons, according to the integrity of their minds, judgments, and wills, adore only the Fathers’ errors and faults.
As for the things the Fathers wrote well, they either fail to notice them, conceal them, or so thoroughly distort them that they appear to care for nothing except gathering dung from among gold.
Afterward, they pursue us with loud accusations, calling us despisers and enemies of the Fathers. But so far are we from despising them that, if it belonged to our present purpose, I could easily confirm by their testimony the greater part of what we teach today.
Yet we read their writings with such judgment that we always keep before our eyes what Saint Paul says—
Namely, that all things are ours to serve us, not to rule over us, and that we belong wholly to Christ alone, whom we must obey entirely and without exception.
Those who do not observe this order can possess no certainty in the faith, since the holy men in question were ignorant of many things, often differed among themselves, and sometimes even contradicted themselves.
“They do not command us without reason,” our adversaries say, “not to remove the boundaries established by our fathers.”
But the same rule does not apply to the boundaries of fields and to the obedience of faith. Faith must be ordered in such a way that it forgets its people and its father’s house.
Moreover, since they are so fond of allegories, why do they not regard the Apostles as their fathers rather than any others, whose boundaries it is unlawful to remove? For this is how Saint Jerome interpreted the passage, whose words they themselves have cited in their canons.
And if they insist that the boundaries of the Fathers whom they have in mind must be observed, why do they themselves overstep them so audaciously whenever it suits them?
Those were numbered among the Fathers, one of whom said that God neither drinks nor eats and therefore has no need of dishes or cups. Another said that the sacraments of Christians require neither gold nor silver, and that they are not made pleasing to God by gold.
They therefore overstep these boundaries when they take such delight in gold, silver, marble, ivory, precious stones, and silks in their ceremonies, and imagine that God is not rightly honored except through an abundance and superfluity of such things.
He too was a Father who said that he freely dared to eat meat during Lent while others abstained from it, because he was a Christian. They therefore break this boundary when they excommunicate anyone who has tasted meat during Lent.
Those also were Fathers, one of whom said that a monk who does not labor with his hands should be regarded as a robber. Another said that monks are not permitted to live from the possessions of others, even if they continually devote themselves to contemplation, prayer, and study.
They have likewise overstepped this boundary by placing the idle bellies of monks in brothels—that is, their cloisters—to be filled with the possessions of others.
He was a Father who said that it was a horrible abomination to see an image of Christ or of any saint in Christian churches.
—Epiphanius, in a letter translated by Saint Jerome
They are far from observing this boundary when they leave no corner of their churches empty of images.
Another Father advised that, after performing the duty of humanity toward the dead by burying them, they should be left to rest.
—Ambrose, On Abraham
They break this boundary when they require perpetual concern for the dead.
He too was numbered among the Fathers who denied that the true body of Christ was contained beneath the bread in the sacrament of the Supper, affirming instead that it was only a mystery of his body. These are his exact words.
—The author of the Imperfect Work on Matthew, formerly attributed to Chrysostom
They therefore exceed the proper bounds when they say that Christ’s body is locally enclosed there.
Those also were Fathers, one of whom ordered that anyone who received one of the elements of the Supper while abstaining from the other should be entirely excluded from its use. The other maintained that the blood of the Lord must not be denied to the Christian people, since they ought to shed their own blood in confessing him.
—Gelasius; Saint Cyprian
They abolished these boundaries when they rigorously commanded the very practice that the one punished by excommunication and the other condemned by powerful reasoning.
He too was a Father who affirmed that it is rash to determine any obscure matter one way or another without clear and evident testimonies from Scripture.
—Saint Augustine
They forgot this boundary when they established so many constitutions, canons, and authoritative determinations without any Word of God.
He too was a Father who, among the other heresies of Montanus, reproached him for being the first to impose laws concerning fasting.
—Apollonius, in the Ecclesiastical History
They likewise overstepped this boundary when they prescribed fasts by strict law.
He too was a Father who maintained that marriage ought not to be forbidden to ministers of the Church and declared union with a lawful wife to be chastity. And those were Fathers who agreed with his judgment.
—Paphnutius, in the Tripartite History
They passed beyond this boundary when they required their priests to abstain from marriage.
He too was a Father who wrote that Christ alone must be heard, concerning whom the heavenly Father said, “Hear him”; and that we must not regard what others before us have done or said, but only what Christ, who is first above all, has commanded.
—Saint Cyprian
They neither remained within these bounds themselves nor permitted others to remain there when they established another master besides Christ, both over themselves and over others.
All the Fathers, with one accord, abhorred and unanimously condemned the contamination of God’s holy Word by sophistical subtleties and its entanglement in philosophical disputes and controversies.
Do our adversaries remain within these boundaries when they spend their entire lives doing nothing but burying and obscuring the simplicity of Scripture beneath endless controversies and questions more than sophistical?
Indeed, if the Fathers were now raised from the dead and heard this method of disputation, which our adversaries call speculative theology, nothing would be further from their minds than to suppose that such disputes concerned God.
But how lengthy would our discourse become if I attempted to enumerate how boldly they cast off the yoke of the Fathers whose obedient children they wish to appear? Indeed, months and years would pass in recounting these matters. Yet their shamelessness is so brazen that they dare reproach us for overstepping the ancient boundaries.
Their appeal to custom accomplishes nothing. For it would be a great injustice if we were compelled to yield to custom. Certainly, if human judgments were upright, custom ought to be derived from the conduct of the good. But matters have often proceeded otherwise, for whatever is seen to be practiced by many soon acquires the authority of custom.
Yet human life has never been so well ordered that the best things pleased the majority. Thus from the individual vices of many has arisen a public error—or rather, a common consent in vice—which these worthy men now desire to be regarded as law.
Those who are not entirely blind perceive that seas of evil have overflowed upon the earth, that the whole world is corrupted by many deadly plagues, and, in short, that everything is falling into ruin. We must therefore either despair entirely of human affairs or remedy such evils, even by severe measures.
Yet the remedy is rejected for no other reason than that we have long been accustomed to these calamities. But even though public error may possess authority in human government, in the kingdom of God his eternal truth alone must be heard and obeyed. Against it, no passage of time, ancient custom, or conspiracy of any kind can prevail.
Thus Isaiah once instructed God’s elect not to call everything a conspiracy merely because the people called it a conspiracy. That is, they were not to join in the people’s conspiracy, nor fear what they feared or be terrified, but were instead to sanctify the Lord of hosts and make him alone their fear.
Let our adversaries, then, set before us as many examples as they please from both past and present. If we sanctify the Lord of hosts, they will not greatly terrify us.
Though many generations may have agreed in the same impiety, the Lord is mighty to execute vengeance to the third and fourth generation. Though the whole world may conspire in the same wickedness, he has taught us by experience what becomes of those who sin with the multitude: he destroyed the entire world by the flood, preserving Noah and his small family, who by his faith alone condemned the whole world.
In short, an evil custom is nothing other than a public plague, and those who die among the multitude perish no less certainly than if they perished alone.
Nor do they press us so forcefully by their argument that we must confess either that the Church was dead for many years or that we are now fighting against the Church.
Certainly, the Church of Christ has lived and will continue to live as long as Christ reigns at the right hand of his Father. She is sustained by his hand, protected by his guardianship, and strengthened by his power. For without doubt he will fulfill what he once promised: that he would remain with his people until the end of the age.
Against this Church we wage no war. For with one accord, together with the whole company of believers, we worship and honor one God and one Lord Jesus Christ, as he has always been worshiped by his servants.
But our adversaries depart far from the truth when they acknowledge no Church unless it is presently visible to the eye and seek to confine it within boundaries that do not contain it at all.
Our controversy consists in these two points. First, they always require a visible and outward form of the Church. Second, they locate that form in the see of the Roman Church and in the order of the prelates.
We, on the contrary, affirm that the Church may continue to exist without a visible appearance, and that her appearance must not be judged by the outward magnificence they so foolishly admire. She possesses entirely different marks: the pure preaching of God’s Word and the proper administration of the sacraments.
They are not satisfied unless the Church can always be pointed out with the finger. Yet how often was she so disfigured among the Jewish people that no appearance of her remained? What visible form do we suppose shone in the Church when Elijah complained that he alone had been left?
How many times since the coming of Christ has she remained hidden without outward form? How often has she been so oppressed by wars, seditions, and heresies that she appeared nowhere?
If these men had lived at such times, would they have believed that any Church existed? Yet Elijah was told that seven thousand men still remained who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
Nor should it be in any way uncertain to us that Jesus Christ has always reigned upon the earth since he ascended into heaven. But if believers amid such desolations had insisted upon seeing some definite outward appearance of the Church, would they not have lost heart?
Indeed, Saint Hilary regarded it as a great fault in his own day that men, blinded by a foolish reverence for the dignity of their bishops, failed to consider what deadly plagues were sometimes concealed beneath such disguises. He speaks in this manner:
“I admonish you: beware of Antichrist. You are too attached to walls, seeking the Church of God in the beauty of buildings and imagining that the unity of believers is contained there. Can we doubt that Antichrist will establish his seat there? The mountains, forests, lakes, prisons, and deserts are safer and more trustworthy to me, for the Prophets prophesied while hidden in such places.”
—Saint Hilary, Against Auxentius
What, then, does the world honor today in these mitered bishops except the assumption that those who preside over the greatest cities must be the most excellent?
Let us therefore cast aside such a foolish judgment. Since the Lord alone knows those who are his, let us permit him sometimes to withdraw the outward manifestation of his Church from human sight.
I readily confess that this is a dreadful judgment of God upon the earth. But if the impiety of men deserves it, why do we attempt to resist divine justice?
In this way the Lord punished the ingratitude of men in former ages. Because they refused to obey his truth and had extinguished his light, he permitted their blinded minds to be deceived by gross falsehoods and buried in profound darkness, so that no form of the true Church remained visible.
Yet amid these errors and darkness he preserved his own, however scattered and concealed they may have been. This is no wonder, for he has shown that he knows how to preserve them both amid the confusion of Babylon and in the flames of the burning furnace.
As for their insistence that the form of the Church must be judged by some kind of empty splendor, I will merely indicate in passing how dangerous this is, lest the discussion become too long.
“The pope of Rome,” they say, “who occupies the Apostolic See, together with the other bishops, represents the Church and must be regarded as the Church. Therefore, they cannot err.”
For what reason? “Because,” they reply, “they are pastors of the Church and consecrated to God.”
Aaron and the other leaders of Israel were also pastors. Aaron and his sons had already been chosen as God’s priests, yet they erred when they fashioned the calf.
According to this reasoning, why would the four hundred prophets who deceived Ahab not have represented the Church? Yet the Church stood with Micah alone—an insignificant and despised man, but one from whose mouth the truth proceeded.
—1 Kings 22
Did not those prophets who rose against Jeremiah bear the name of the Church when they boasted that the law could not fail among the priests, counsel among the wise, or the word among the prophets?
Did not the same outward appearance shine in the council assembled by the priests, teachers, and religious leaders to deliberate upon the death of Jesus Christ?
Let our adversaries now go and cling to these outward disguises, making Christ and all the Prophets of the living God schismatics while making Satan’s ministers instruments of the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, if they are speaking seriously, let them answer me honestly: in what region or among what people do they believe the Church resided after Pope Eugenius of Rome was deposed by the definitive judgment of the Council of Basel and Amadeus was appointed in his place?
Even if it caused them to burst with anger, they could not deny that the council, so far as outward solemnities were concerned, was lawful and legitimate, having been convened not merely by one pope but by two.
There Eugenius was condemned as a schismatic, rebel, and contumacious offender, together with the whole company of cardinals and bishops who had conspired with him to dissolve the council.
Nevertheless, being afterward sustained by the favor of princes, he retained possession of the papacy. The election of Amadeus, solemnly completed by the authority of the sacred and general council, vanished into smoke—except that Amadeus was pacified with a cardinal’s hat, like a barking dog with a piece of bread.
From those heretics, rebels, and contumacious offenders have proceeded all the popes, cardinals, bishops, abbots, and priests who have lived since.
Here they must inevitably be caught. On which side will they place the name of the Church?
Will they deny that the council was general, though it lacked nothing in outward majesty? It had been solemnly summoned by two papal bulls, opened by the legate of the Holy Apostolic See who presided over it, duly ordered in every ceremony, and continued in the same dignity to the end.
Will they confess that Eugenius and his whole faction were schismatics—the very faction by which they themselves were consecrated?
They must therefore define the form of the Church differently, or else, according to their own doctrine, we shall regard every one of them as schismatics, since they knowingly and willingly received ordination from heretics.
Even if it had never before been demonstrated that the Church is not bound to outward splendor, they themselves give us sufficient proof. Under the title and appearance of the Church, they have proudly made themselves feared throughout the world, though in truth they are deadly plagues of the Church.
I do not speak of their morals and execrable deeds, with which their whole lives are filled, since they describe themselves as Pharisees who must be heard but not followed.
But if you are willing to devote a little of your leisure to reading our teaching, you will clearly recognize that their doctrine itself—the very doctrine by which they demand to be acknowledged as the Church—is a cruel hell and slaughterhouse of souls, a firebrand, a ruin, and a destruction of the Church.
Finally, they act perversely when they reproach our doctrine for the disturbances, tumults, and controversies that have followed its preaching and for the fruits it now produces in many people. The blame for these evils is unjustly cast upon the doctrine itself when it ought to be attributed to Satan’s malice.
It is almost a distinguishing characteristic of the Word of God that it never comes forth without Satan awakening and taking up arms against it. This is a most certain mark by which it may be distinguished from false doctrines, which readily reveal themselves by being willingly received by everyone and pleasing the whole world.
Thus, some years ago, when everything lay buried in darkness, this lord of the world played with men as he pleased and, like Sardanapalus, rested and amused himself in undisturbed peace. For what else could he do but sport and jest while remaining in the peaceful and untroubled possession of his kingdom?
But since the light shining from above has begun to drive away his darkness, and since the stronger one has assaulted and disturbed his kingdom, he has immediately awakened from his idleness and taken up arms.
At first he stirred up the power of men, seeking through it violently to suppress the truth as it began to appear. When force accomplished nothing, he turned to ambushes. Then, through his Anabaptists and similar people, he raised up numerous sects and conflicting opinions in order to obscure that truth and finally extinguish it.
Even now he continues to assail it by both methods. Through the violence and hands of men, he attempts to tear up this true seed; and so far as he is able, he seeks through his tares to choke it, preventing it from growing and producing fruit.
Yet all his efforts will be in vain if we heed the Lord’s warnings. Long ago he exposed Satan’s schemes so that we should not be taken by surprise, and he has armed us with sufficiently strong defenses against his devices.
Besides, how perverse it is to burden the Word of God with the blame either for the hatred and seditions raised against it by foolish and reckless men or for the sects sown by deceivers!
Yet this is nothing new. Elijah was asked whether he was the one troubling Israel.
Christ was regarded by the Jews as a seditious man, and the Apostles were accused of stirring up the people to rebellion.
—Luke 23:2; John 19:12; Acts 24:5
What else are those doing today who impute to us the disturbances, tumults, and controversies raised against us?
Elijah has taught us what answer must be given: it is not we who sow errors or stir up disturbances, but they themselves who seek to resist the power of God.
Although this reason alone is sufficient to restrain their rashness, we must also care for the weakness of those who are often alarmed by such scandals and begin to waver in their distress.
Therefore, lest they have occasion to become discouraged and lose heart, they should remember that the same things we now witness occurred in the time of the Apostles.
There were then ignorant and unstable people who, as Saint Peter relates, distorted to their own destruction what Saint Paul had written by divine inspiration.
There were despisers of God who, when they heard that sin had abounded so that grace might abound all the more, immediately objected:
“Shall we therefore continue in sin so that grace may abound?”
When they heard that believers were not under the law, they replied:
“Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?”
There were some who accused Saint Paul of encouraging evil.
False prophets intruded themselves to destroy the churches he had established. Some preached the gospel from envy and contention rather than sincerity, and even maliciously, supposing thereby to increase the burden of his imprisonment.
—1 Corinthians 4; Galatians 1; Philippians 1:15–17; 2 Timothy 1:15
In some places the gospel made little progress. Everyone sought his own interests rather than the service of Jesus Christ.
Others turned back like dogs returning to their vomit and pigs to wallowing in the mire.
Many twisted the liberty of the Spirit into fleshly license. Many false brothers insinuated themselves among believers, from whom great dangers afterward arose. Even among the brothers themselves, various disputes broke out.
What were the Apostles to do amid these things? Was it expedient for them to conceal the gospel for a time, or to abandon and renounce it altogether, when they saw it becoming the seed of so many disputes, the source of so many dangers, and the occasion of so many scandals?
But amid such distress they remembered that Christ is a stone of stumbling and offense, appointed for the fall and rising of many, and a sign that would be opposed.
—Isaiah 8:14; Romans 9:33; Luke 2:34
Armed with this confidence, they advanced boldly and passed through every danger of tumult and scandal.
We must comfort ourselves with the same consideration, since Saint Paul testifies that this is a perpetual characteristic of the gospel: it is the aroma of death leading to death among those who perish, and the aroma of life leading to life among those who are saved.
But I return to you, O Most Magnanimous King. You ought not to be moved by those false reports through which our adversaries endeavor to cast you into fear and alarm—namely, that this “new gospel,” as they call it, seeks nothing but occasions for sedition and complete impunity in wrongdoing.
For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, and the Son of God is not the minister of sin, for he came to destroy the works of the devil.
—1 Corinthians 14:33; Galatians 2:17; 1 John 3:8
As for us, we are unjustly accused of ambitions of which we have never given the slightest suspicion.
It is indeed very plausible, they would have you believe, that we are plotting to overthrow kingdoms—though not a single seditious word has ever been heard from us, and our lives were always known to be simple and peaceable while we lived under your rule. Even now, though driven from our homes, we do not cease to pray to God for your prosperity and that of your kingdom.
It is equally plausible, they suggest, that we seek permission to commit every evil without fear of correction. Although our conduct is blameworthy in many respects, there is nevertheless nothing in it deserving so grave a reproach.
Moreover, thanks be to God, we have not profited so poorly from the gospel that our lives cannot provide these slanderers with examples of chastity, generosity, mercy, temperance, patience, modesty, and every other virtue.
Indeed, the truth plainly bears witness for us that we fear and honor God sincerely, since by both our lives and our deaths we desire his name to be sanctified.
Even the mouths of the envious have been compelled to testify to the innocence and upright civic conduct of some among us who were put to death for the very thing that deserved singular praise.
Now, if there are any who under the pretext of the gospel stir up tumults—something not seen until now in your kingdom—or who seek to conceal their fleshly license beneath the name of the liberty given to us by God’s grace, as I know many do, there are laws and punishments appointed by those laws to correct them severely according to their offenses.
But meanwhile, let not the gospel of God be blasphemed because of the crimes of the wicked.
O Most Magnificent King, I have exposed in sufficient words the venomous iniquity of our slanderers, so that you may not incline your ear too readily to believe their reports. Indeed, I fear that I have already spoken at excessive length, since this preface has almost assumed the proportions of a complete defense.
Yet my purpose here has not been to compose a full defense, but only to soften your heart so that you may grant our cause a hearing. Although your heart is presently turned and estranged from us—I might even say inflamed against us—I nevertheless hope that we may recover your favor if you will only read, without indignation and anger, this confession of ours, which we desire to serve as our defense before Your Majesty.
But if, on the contrary, the slanders of our enemies so obstruct your ears that the accused are given no opportunity to defend themselves, and if these violent persecutors, without your intervention, continue to exercise their cruelty through imprisonment, whippings, torture, mutilation, and burning, then we, like sheep appointed for slaughter, shall be reduced to every extremity.
Nevertheless, through patience we shall possess our souls and await the mighty hand of the Lord. Without doubt, it will reveal itself in due season and appear armed both to deliver the afflicted from their suffering and to punish those who despise him.
May the Lord, the King of kings, establish your throne in righteousness and your seat in equity, Most Mighty and Most Illustrious King.
From Basel, the twenty-third day of August, 1535.