Complete Luther Library

That only one form of the sacrament cannot be enjoyed without sin.

Volume 10 from the one-column St. Louis Edition English DOCX texts, reformatted for mobile reading on Last Christian Ministries.

Source text used with permission from Back to Luther.

Volume 10

That only one form of the sacrament cannot be enjoyed without sin.

Return to Volume 10

To Mag. Wolfgang, pastor at Weißenfels. In January (?) 1542.

Grace and peace. My dear Magister Wolfgang! After you have informed me, as a pastor in Weißenfels, that the worthy Domina (woman, namely Aebtissin) in the monastery there does not want to or cannot believe that it is right to use both forms of the holy sacrament, unless I myself say or confess such to Doctor Martinus Luther; because I am supposed to have written before that a concilium should and must order to believe such. Thereupon you shall declare to the Domina: If she does not contest anything else, then I hereby declare her brotherly and sisterly.

See also in this section p. 1966: Brief report on both forms of the sacrament instituted by Christ; as well as

I have asked her to renounce her former mind and believe me now, because she wants to put it there as a faithful friend, that it is certainly right to use both forms, and now that the truth has clearly come to light, one form should not be used without sin. For what I said at that time has been left undone for the sake of weak consciences, as St. Paul did much the same. Hereby commanded by God, Amen. Naumburg, Anno 1542.

My hand:

Martinus Luther, D.

XIX. Part, Disputation of the Sacrament in Both Forms Against the Conciliar of Constance and its Confessors.

4. various questions concerning the sacrament of Holy Communion. The first is the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.