Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/120

 82 Readings in European History only three, — baptism, penance, and the bread [i.e. the com- munion], and that by the court of Rome all these have been brought into miserable bondage, and the Church despoiled of all her liberty. And yet, if I were to speak according to the usage of Scripture, I should hold that there was only one sacrament, and three sacramental signs. I shall speak on this point more at length at the proper time ; but now I speak of the sacrament of the bread, the first of all sacraments. The mass not a good work or sacrifice. Luther realizes the difficulty of his task. After considering the question of the communion under both kinds advocated both by Wycliffe and Huss, and of transubstantiation, Luther turns to the mass as a good work. The third bondage of this same sacrament is that abuse of it — and by far the most impious — by which it has come about that at this day there is no belief in the Church more generally received or more firmly held than that the mass is a good work and a sacrifice. This abuse has brought in an infinite flood of other abuses, until faith in the sacra- ment has been utterly lost, and they have made this divine sacrament a mere subject of traffic, huckstering, and money- getting contracts. Hence communions, brotherhoods, suf- frages, merits, anniversaries, memorials, and other things of that kind are bought and sold in the Church, and made the subjects of bargains and agreements ; and the entire main- tenance of priests and monks depends upon these things. I am entering on an arduous task, and it may perhaps be impossible to uproot an abuse which, strengthened by the practice of so many ages, and approved by universal consent, has fixed itself so firmly among us that the greater part of the books which have influence at the present day must needs be done away with, and almost the entire aspect of the churches be changed, and a totally different kind of ceremonies be brought in, or rather, brought back. But my Christ lives, and we must take heed to the word of God with greater care than to all the intellects of men and