Some sayings against the Concilium Obstantiense (or Constantiense), which was held at Wittenberg, and where one still wants to.
Preface.
D. Martin Luther.
I recently fell about into the history of the Concilii at Constance (for I have before from other books what I have known and have not seen the main well or basic soup so), am moved from it to put these sayings against it. But it is worse than I would have believed, and can neither reach it with words nor thoughts, what kind of game the wretched devil has played there, is it otherwise one or some devils, and not the whole hell with all devils. The laudable city has a fine name: Constantia, that is, solid or firm male mind; hence they call it Constantiense Concilium. But I D. Martinus baptize them according to their proper name, which they themselves give them, Obstantiense Concilium; Obstantia, however, means resistance, because here 1) they have not only acted against Christ and his church, but also boast about it, and confirm that Christ may well set what he wants, but the gentlemen Obstantiensis concilii want to oppose it and not look at him nor his church. Non obstants Christo st Ecclesia they say freely: Christ together with his church shall not resist us, we are a higher and better church.
1) Erlanger: the.
other Christ and Church, because those are. For they are nothing against us.
Well, dear Lord Jesus Christ, it is also time that you uncover the furious, bloodthirsty red whore behind and in front, and show her disgrace to all the world, for the advance, as the dawn, shining before your bright future. Forgive those who were seduced at that time and have not understood the things until now. But your fruit banzers and resisters seek home. Et non miserearis omnibus, qui operantur iniquitatem, as your dear and faithful servant David prays Psalm 59, 6. Here say Amen to him that loveth his Lord Christ, and thinketh to comfort him, until he rend the heavens, and come down, and melt such iron foreheads of the lords of Obstanz; and let every man be grieved in his heart for the reproach that hath happened, and is still happening, unto his dear Saviour, by these dragon heads, which look and spit out at the ass of the Pabst.
Etliche Sprüche gegen das Constanzer Concilium gestellt, zu Wittenberg, durch D. Martin Luther, on both forms of the sacrament. 2)
(1) At the present time, we must no longer ask whether it is right or wrong to keep or not to keep the command of Christ in either form.
2. but: Whether it is Christian or un-Christian to force people away from Christ's command by force.
2) This caption is missing in the Jena edition.
3. whether Christ's command should be called heresy, and whether Christ himself and all those who follow his command should be called and be heretics.
(4) For Christ's command to be abated is a sin that may befall any saint, even the holy church, if it is a bad abatement.
5. as it may have happened in the past, when by the devil's art the church was deprived of both forms before it knew it, and did not know who, where or when it began, and no one can know yet.
(6) For it may well happen to the church that the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments are sometimes and to some extent omitted.
(7) Therefore, one can believe that such sin was then borne by God in patience, and afterward, when it was recognized, it was forgiven.
8. but the other sin, that is, the compulsion from and against the command of Christ, has arisen through the blasphemous bishops and blasphemous canonists.
(9) Such sin the true church of God does not do, for it does not compel from God or His Word, but compels and holds people to God's command and commandment.
(10) Just as the Church of God does not sin to force people away from the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, or the faith, but holds them to it, and is itself subject and obedient to it.
Now both forms of the sacrament are God's word or command, as well as the Ten Commandments, Our Father, baptism and the like.
The third sin, when the command of Christ is condemned as heresy and Christ is called a heretic: This is the last sin of the devil and the world.
Such sin is so far from the church of Christ that it has not heard nor can it hear anything more abominable, because such sin is committed by those who know Christ and consider Him to be the true God.
14. The Turk, nor any other enemy of God, commits such a sin, let alone any other common sinner.
15. but it has been saved on the
last basic soup, the most damned of all 1) boy schools, the Church of the Antichrist.
16 Because the papal church not only obeys the command of Christ, but also enforces it and opposes it,
(17) It is certain that it is not Christ's church, but Satan's school, which openly teaches sin and reproaches the law.
18. because they condemn as heretics all those who keep and follow the command of Christ their Lord:
19 Thus it is clear and irrefutable that she must be the abomination of the Antichrist and the devil's raging whore.
20 For whoever says that those who follow Christ's command and word are heretics, must also say that Christ, their Master, is heretic and that his teaching or command is heresy.
21 For the disciple cannot be called a heretic nor be a heretic unless his master, whom he follows, was previously a heretic and his teaching a heresy.
022 Whosoever therefore may say unto Christ, Thou art a heretic, and thy doctrine is of the devil, and yet knoweth truly that it is Christ the Lord and God, whom he blasphemeth so shamefully to his face, must be possessed not with seven, but with seven and seventy tons full of devils.
23 But the papal church does this knowingly and maliciously, confessing that it is Christ's command that it condemns.
24 For thus the accursed Concilium of Constance, that is, the desperate and cunning mob of sophists and canonists, may spit out of their infernal maw under the eyes of Christ, the King of Glory,
(25) Although Christ commanded both these forms in the Lord's Supper, and they are received by the laity in the Christian church, yet, notwithstanding this, the custom is to be considered right.
(26) See how the Papal Church can confirm as a right a pending custom that no one knows from where, from whom, and when it has come.
27 And for such a law, which condemns divine law and word and makes Christ and his church heretics.
1) So put by us after the Latin: tissimoruiri "t peräitissilnoriiW. In the editions: "damned".
28 They say that it is a praiseworthy custom to confess with the same mouth that Christ commanded otherwise and that his church held otherwise.
(29) As if what is publicly done against God's command and commandment could be a praiseworthy custom.
(30) Why should it be, dear God, that the dear Lord, who has redeemed us with His own blood, 1) should be struck so blasphemously in the mouth and called a heretic?
(31) Would it not be sin enough, and too much, for us to stand by and not keep such a faithful Savior's and Father's command, but to forbid and condemn it as if it were the devil?
(32) Even if Christ said or taught something that we should not keep: Nevertheless, his word should be held in high esteem and not condemned.
33. as when he teaches about virginity; whoever will not or cannot keep it, let him nevertheless praise it gloriously and leave it unbidden and uncondemned;
34 If he denies it or condemns it as heresy, he is as pious as the Council of Constance and has the same Holy Spirit.
(35) How much more should we leave unbidden and uncondemned that which Christ commands and calls to be done, saying, "Do this in remembrance of me"!
(36) And what devil has given the robbers of God and the thieves of the church the power to take from us and to defend us, which is not theirs but ours?
(37) They neither acquired it nor gave it, nor are they masters over it; but Christ acquired it and gave it to us, and appointed them servants.
38) But it is right that such masters of such a church should be afflicted with this blindness and madness, that they should despise Christ, the dear light, way, truth, etc., and call heretics to their faces, and instead worship a loose shameful habit of godless people as their right idol.
39 And this is the Moabite arrogance, which may say with unheard-of presumption:
1) "erarnt" - acquired.
Whether Christ commanded it, it is not necessary to respect it; whether the church kept it that way, it is not necessary to respect it.
40. What is Christ, what is the church against such lords over all creatures, the sow theologians and donkey lawyers?
(41) What harm is there in their throwing up their Pharisaic trunks against baptism, although Christ instituted baptism? But regardless of this, we, lords of Christ and God, set the contradiction.
Item: Although Christ instituted the gospel and the church keeps it, yet we, the lords of lords, err that our canons and custom shall prevail and abide.
43. although Christ commanded to absolve sinners, and the church does so, yet we will do it as we please.
(44) Dear, what will these nobles respect, regard, or be hindered by, who so gloriously and most insolently boast that they will not regard, respect, or be deceived and hindered by the church, Christ, or God?
Thanks be to you, dear cuckoo, that you so freshly cry out your own name, and boast that you want to be the Antichrist, to sit against and over God Himself and rule in His temple or church.
(46) By the way one may abrogate all articles of faith, and instead confirm the customs (which are great and powerful) in the world, and may God Himself not hinder us nor make us err.
(47) God wanted to annul both canons and canonists who want to teach us that the Church of God should be governed by the saying: custom shall be law. The jurists themselves say:
48. composito late foetenti quaeso ciba te, Qui vis exclusum crimen per temporis usum, 3) that is:
2) Latin: perckat.
3) In German: Lieber, feise dich mit einem weithin stinkenden Gericht, der du willst, dass durch langwierige Gebrauch eine unrecht Sache nicht mehr unrecht sei. - "Beißdrein" is therefore: filth. - In the Latin Jenaer these verses are printed, scandirt by commas, as follows:
Oomposi, tola, lese, tenti, yuae soei, date, Huivis, exelu, suru erl, men per, temporis, usum.
The jurist, who is a teacher of such art, shall eat into it: that long custom shall be called law, so always has been known to be wrong.
And the German saying:
What was wrong for a hundred years has never been right for an hour.
50 Thus they themselves publicly testify above their own necks that they are the true opposition of Christ and are called the lords of Obstänzer Concilio, who not only despise Christ but also condemn him.
51 With their larvae, they have still fooled and fooled the princes and the fine man, Emperor Siegmund, so that he may never have any happiness afterwards.
52. and if Christ (I put thus) would have released one or both figure, and not put both;
(53) Nevertheless, he would be mad and foolish who would forbid or condemn that which Christ Himself did not forbid or condemn.
54. How much more is he angry, furious and senseless above all, who rejects and condemns that which he knows to be established and commanded by God Himself in His own person, without means!
(55) For this matter is not like the things which the church gives, and afterwards abolishes or changes, as those which are freely in its power.
(56) But here is the Lord of majesty himself, which commandment is not in the power of the churches. But it says: "You shall hear this one", as the Father speaks, who also demands it and judges it.
57 Neither is it the same (as these asses' heads boast) that Christ held the sacrament after the Lord's Supper, and yet afterward the church reaches and needs sober in the morning.
(58) For Christ did not bind the sacrament to place or hour, but left it free, saying, "As often as ye do it," as if to say, "Applies equally when or where ye do it.
59. but the sacrament of himself, or of both, he hath not left free, that these swine and asses should change it, but that they should change it.
He says, "You shall do this," commanding that he wants it unchanged and left unchanged.
60 So also that Apost. 15, 29. is forbidden to eat the sacrifice of idols, blood and strangled food, and afterwards St. Paul allowed the sacrifice of idols to be free, does not apply here. For such things were free before among the Gentile Christians; therefore it might well be changed.
61 But the right main part of the same Concilii has always remained unchanged, quite firm, namely: That the Gentiles, having become righteous by faith, should be unconjured to the law.
62 And the sum is, they are unable to come up with any example in which the Church has ever changed God's order or pen.
63) But they 1) as the devil rides them, freely devise such examples, that it may be seen how diligently and earnestly they despise to read the Scriptures.
64) For when Ezekiel the king broke the bronze serpent, it had long since ceased to be in God's order.
065 And David's eating the sacred bread of the priests was right according to the law of love, though it was wrong according to the law of ceremonies.
For love is empress over ceremonies, and ceremonies should give way to love, but not love to ceremonies.
(67) As Christ also casts the Sabbath under the law of love: In which (he says) hang all the law and the prophets.
Therefore, in mere ceremonies, love shall be judge and master, but not in the faith or promises of God.
(69) But let faith rule over love, and let love yield to it, and let not faith yield to love.
Now the sacrament of faith is a matter between God and us. Therefore, love should be obedient here and not master it as if it were a mere ceremony.
71) It is precisely this kind of cleverness, when they tell the causes of a figure, to use only their own head, without some
1) Thus the Erlanger. In Latin: Ipsi. In the Wittenberg and Jena editions: See.
2) "der" is missing in the Wittenberg and in the Erlanger.
Letters or jars of writing and fathers.
The first is that the laity would like to believe that they do not receive as much in one form as in both. That would be a great danger.
O how drunk and mad Christ was when he instituted the Sacrament, that he did not consider such peril, nor consult such wise men!
And the Holy Spirit may have been over the field afterwards, or may have been asleep, that he did not see such danger in the church, and may not have let these wise people come to the aid of the poor, erring, blind church at the same time.
(75) Just as if there were not such danger among the priests that they might think they have not so much under one form as under both forms, therefore they ought to use only the one form.
(76) Yes, if such concern were their earnestness and not vain conceited, lazy, crude lies, they themselves would also let them be satisfied with one figure.
(77) But since they keep both forms, they testify against themselves that they believe not so much under one as under both.
For they would have enough of one figure as well as the laity, if they sincerely believed what they said.
79 Unless they alone among all Christians had a double Christ, a double sacrament, and wanted to call them double Christians, of whom God knows nothing.
(80) But be it under one form what they will: nevertheless it is true, that I receive not so much under one form, as under both.
For under one form I receive the half and corrupt command of Christ, but under both the whole command. What do you say to this?
If it is true that under the form of bread the whole Christ is to be believed, then under the form of wine the whole Christ is certainly to be believed.
From this it follows that the fruit dancers, just as they give the whole of Christ under the form of bread, take the whole of Christ under the form of wine.
So such new strange saints can give the whole of Christ at the same time, and yet with giving take away all again.
85. they would like to be called givers takers, 1) they give it, so they take it, and may say with the priest of Kalenberg: If they come, they do not come; if they do not come, they come.
What then does he who is deprived of the whole Christ receive just when he is given to him in his entirety?
What do you keep 2) if someone gives you a guilder and takes a guilder from you?
(88) But if you add or subtract Christ as you wish, you still do not give the whole sacrament, but rob half of it, contrary to Christ's command. Am I to be called right?
If I were a pope, or if I were to help advise in the Council, I would say that the laity should not be given the form of bread, and yet not take the whole of Christ.
90 First, they should have enough if they want to smell it. For the smell has as much as the whole shape of the bread.
91 Because they say that it is not bread, but only the shape of bread. They call it accidentia, as color, taste, thickness, length, width, roundness, smell, hearing etc.
Therefore, where there is odor, there must be the whole Christ, and he who desires it has the whole Christ.
After that, in time, the smell should also be forbidden, and only the color and roundness should be seen, in which the whole Christ should also be received.
94 For where the bread is in one form, there is the whole Christ, and whoever receives it must receive the whole Christ.
95 Thus, 3) the sacrament can be received first with the nose alone, then with the eyes alone.
96 And let us interpret Christ's word thus: Eat and drink, that is, smell it with the
1) Gebers Nehmers - Gebarsch Nehmarsch, a figure of speech by which children mock each other. - Erlanger: Gebers-Nehmer.
2) Erlanger: holds.
3) "denn" is missing in the Erlanger.
Nose and see with your eyes, and you have received the whole of Christ.
97 For the form of bread is undivided; as much as one tastes with the tongue, so much one smells with the nose and sees with the eyes, just as one receives as much under the form of bread as under the form of bread and wine.
Finally, the face as well as the smell should be forbidden, for it is enough that it is heard.
So, if one had to shake the monstrance or box so that one heard the hosts rustle, one would have received just as much as under both forms.
For such noise or hearing is also the shape of bread, as well as the smell, taste, color, roundness.
101) Now it must be held certain that under the One Form and under every part or piece of the Form is the whole of Christ, or the Concilium of Obstacles condemns you poor heretic.
See, so masterfully can Frau Klügliug, the reason, turn, if she wants to act without God's word in divine matters.
After that, it must be our Lord God's fault: he must hear this from obstante, that he so carelessly founds his thing, and forces the holy devil's bride to make everything better.
The other cause is that there is great danger of spilling, dribbling and the like among the laity.
Just as if the priests were free of such peril, when they have great books full of innumerable daily perils of the priests, who sometimes also overthrow the whole chalice.
It is a wonder that the thoughtless man Christ, and afterwards his dear bride, the church, did not allow such things to move until these most holy asses' heads came and had to teach such things.
What harm is there in forbidding children to be baptized, for one might be drowned in it or three might be drowned in it?
1) "One" is missing in the Wittenberg and in the Erlanger.
(108) Oh, how the devil should have defiled Moses and his God, when these wise men, living at that time, should have mastered circumcision.
Dear, isn't God and Moses foolish to circumcise a child of eight days? How? if the child had died from it?
110. And why did God establish marriage? Could He not consider the danger that they would become adulterers, or remain barren, or fight and fight daily?
Why does he preach the gospel? How? If many heard it and did not believe, the word would be in vain.
But the papists are also foolish to put on pants. How? if they were to open their mouths and act like fools?
And it is also dangerous that they sleep in beds and feathers. How? when they bite the lice and fleas?
Therefore, they may sleep in the snow and ice, or in the deep sea, or in the hellish fire, since lice and fleas cannot bite.
Why do they let the peasants work, if they want to spoil it in countless ways, and command them to live without bread?
Why are they so stingy, when the money is stolen, burned, or you are supposed to perish, or they themselves gather it for someone else, as happens every day?
(117) Yes, I wonder how such wise saints can remain on earth under heaven. How? if the earth sank or the sky collapsed? O great peril, which should justly forbid believing God a Creator of heaven and earth.
But what we like, no danger need hinder us; but where we are to be obedient to God, a fly on the other side of the Rhine hinders us.
The third reason is sweet and subtle, namely: In the old testament the Jews had nothing of the wet sacrifice, but only of the dry sacrifice; zero should be the old testament of the new figure or model.
120. but once Christ was mistaken, and the Holy Spirit in His Church, that they should go against Him.
such high art of this figure have not understood nor held.
(121) If this cause were to apply, the priests would also have to do without the chalice, for the wet sacrifice was burned so that neither priest nor layman had anything from it.
And how do the Law and the Gospel rhyme together here? There one gave sacrifices to God, here God gives us his gift etc.
The fourth cause is too delicious and the right great diamond and ruby of their wisdom, which they let see at Augsburg on the Imperial Diet.
124: Namely, that 1 Sam. 2. laid out God's punishment to the children of Eli, that they should beg a piece of sacrifice from the priest.
Now the children of Eli were priests themselves, who were punished with such begging; so our fruitants draw it upon the laity. Rhyme down the stairs!
If this saying about the sacrament should serve something, then the priests and not the laymen should be afflicted with a piece of the sacrament as the beggars, like the children of Eli with their begging piece.
But the main cause of the forbidden sacrament of both forms is the one confessed by the scholastic theologians:
That there should be a difference between the priests and the laity, and that the priests should be held higher and more worthy before other Christians.
This cause truly does it, for with it they unawares, yet unashamedly, confess that they have separated themselves from the church and with sacrilegious power exalted themselves above it.
130. Christ instituted such a sacrament that Christians should be alike in it, as one loaf of many grains, one drink of many berries.
This was not done rightly nor well; therefore it must be done better, and Christians must be made unequal among themselves and divided.
132. and must do even 1) with the same
1) eben" stands here either for "just this", or perhaps "eben thun" stands in the meaning of: "to act in an appropriate way"; of course ironically. In Latin this sentence is not.
Sacrament instituted to maintain equality and unity.
Shouldn't such clever, artistic people be considered gods above God and lords above Christ?
This is what we say: Let the kingdom of Pabst be the true counter-Christian kingdom, which has set itself against and above God and exalted itself in the temple of God.
They themselves confess this with words, prove it with deeds, and boast of it in their Obstantiensi Concilio.
Who should not willingly and gladly suffer from such devilish members with a good happy conscience, because we have such certain divine things?
Again, who should not despise such damned people, because it is so public in the day that their commandment and doctrine rage and rage against and against God Himself?
Therefore let all devout Christians who suffer over this article comfort themselves and give thanks that they have been chosen and called to such glorious and holy suffering.
For it is certain that they suffer with Christ and offer a noble sacrifice, themselves, to God.
There is no doubt that they are persecuted by God's adversaries and enemies, who unashamedly condemn Christ and His command.
And let no one be concerned that he despises or avoids the holy church of Christ if he despises or avoids the lords of Obstanza.
For there is their own confession and glory, that they have separated themselves from Christ and his church like the ripe filth from the body.
143 Not only are they divorced, but they also want to be called opponents and counterchurchers, not doing what Christ is called to do, nor what His church does, but condemning and persecuting it, teaching and doing against it.
This is what they say about themselves. Therefore, they should be judged according to their own words and condemned and shunned as obstancers or resisters of Christ.
145 They have also been anti-Christians for a long time before, but they have done it so freely.
never known and praised than in this Obstanzer Concilio.
146. Now is the time to hear and fulfill the prophecy of Revelation 18:6: "Come out, my people, from Babylon the great whore, that you be not partakers of her sins, neither suffer her plagues.
(147) If such devils' heads reproach us for this, Christ calls us to be confident and says, "Blessed are you when people curse you for my sake.
For to apostatize or separate from these vermin of the devil, or to become heretics against them, is to become righteous Christians and gather into the true holy church.
149. and is just as much as one who apostatizes from the devil himself, from death and sins, and is called a heretic in the devil's kingdom.
150 Therefore it is nothing that they praise the word "church," because fact and doctrine convince them that they are the worst enemies of the church.
151 The devil can also boast and claim to be God against Christ Himself, Matth. 4, but he is not and therefore does not become God.
152. a basic soup of thieves, robbers and murderers they are cheaply recognized and called.
First, like thieves, they secretly stole the One Figure, since the church did not notice or know about it.
154 Since the faithful little dog of the church, John Hus, was caught in such theft, he barked at him and betrayed him,
They went and made the theft an obvious robbery and began in their Obstauzer Concilio, since they got the great crowd and power, to defend such robbery and to confirm it as right,
156. in addition, the faithful innocent little dog, unheard and unconvinced, when the defiant angry murderers condemned and burned.
They were worried that wherever they heard or referred John Hus, they would be found guilty of Pabstism and enemies of God 1).
1) In Latin: ssini oen koste" eodssias.
For it can be seen that before the Obstanzer Concilio, there had been quarrels of both kinds in some churches.
159 And since the right church, which had the command of Christ in both forms before it and stood on it, the counterchristian church nevertheless increased and got the crowd for itself.
160 Then the pope and Obstanzer Concilium came, attached the crowd to themselves, confirmed the big and evil bunch and condemned the small righteous bunch.
161 Thus unrighteousness kept the field, and truth was cast down in the streets, and the godly was made to lie down before the wicked, as Solomon says.
162. which is the great wrath and plague that God brings upon the children of unbelief, to deceive and condemn them.
163 Thus both forms of the church were taken: first, by the devil's cunning, as a serpent crept in; then, by violence, as a raging lion, it was attacked.
164) Whether those who have sinned through ignorance or have neglected the command of Christ in a bad way are not condemned:
(165) Those who knowingly coerce and allow themselves to be coerced against the known truth of Christ's command have no excuse.
166 For the drivers or restrainers seek not only that Christ's command should remain, but that such restraint should be just, and the restraint Christian. This is not to be suffered by a Christian.
167 And what is still more abominable: they force that one should call Christ's command heresy, and Christ heretic,
168. After that, also persecute and kill such heretics, as the holy Obstanzer Concilium prescribes.
169 Where one admits such tyranny and rage, they will put another article. First, with a bad letup. 2)
170. after that, make a habit of it.
2) Latin: Hnaüam levi omissioQe.
1412 Erl. 31, 4og-4ii. 158 Etl. Sprüche wider d. Concilium zu Constanz. W. xix, 1718-1720. 1413
The people of the country are the ones who steal, steal by force, and confirm for law, as has been done in this article and many others.
Then, once again, people will have to give way and be obedient to the worldly authorities against God, and the custom that has long been abused will be called the law.
172. With the way, Christ would not keep any article, word, ministry nor work in the Church.
And the pabstles and angry bishops would force the church to worship not only its indulgences and other abominable lies and idolatry,
174) But also, if a stinky thing is taken out of their belly, or their stinking feet and shoes are given to us to kiss for sanctity, as they have done before with the bones of the dead and unclean hoddles 1).
Therefore, one must resist the devil in the beginning, and not yield to them one stiplein 2) nor tittle from God's command.
If the pope and the lords of Obstanz want to take, they take what is theirs or what they have given. But what is not theirs, but ours, given to us by God, we want to have taken without, or they shall be called the Antichrist,
In this Christ will stand by us and lead out his work in us, against the defiance of all devils, platters and pokers, amen.
And if anyone thought that the Papists should not be called anti-Christians because they condemn one article because they think much of the other;
179) This is of no avail: whoever knowingly denies or condemns Christ in one thing, has denied or condemned the whole of Christ, and does not hold the other articles to be true, as Jacob says, "He who lacks in one thing is guilty in all.
1) In Latin: mortuorum snäores st foetores. "Hoddeln" is probably the same as "Haddeln" i.e. rags.
2) Stiplin - little dots. In English: to stixxle - to prick in a punctured manner. - Erlanger: Stipflin.
180 Although they have not only taught against this article, but have suppressed almost all others.
181 For their indulgences, bulls, masses, purgatory, pilgrimage, service to the saints, monasteries and such works of their own show how much they have taught contrary to the faith.
There is no ship so large from the sea that it alone can carry the ledgers written to govern the church of the pope.
In all of them, there are hardly two pure lines about Christ and faith, and the rest are all against Christ.
And this should and must be called the holy Christian church governed, if it is flooded with humanity and jugglery.
For to make bad, loose habits articles of faith is certain idolatry, set up by the devil himself.
All articles of faith must and should be established by God's Word, otherwise everyone would believe what he wanted.
187 Faith says: I believe in God, therefore God's word must be there, or there can be no faith.
188 And their own decree teaches itself, how that Christ saith not, I am the habit, but I am the truth: I am the truth.
Say also further: That habit should give way to truth, just as all reason must confess.
190 But in the Obstanzer Concilio truth has had to give way to habit.
191 And there habit has become article of faith, truth has become heresy.
Habit must help those who obey and follow it to heaven.
Truth must lead to death here and hell there for all who believe and follow it.
But because they have exalted themselves above God and resisted, what wonder if they also exalt themselves and resist above themselves?
For Daniel prophesies that the Antichrist should rise above all things, therefore perhaps he must also rise above himself.