The Emperor, seeing the Protestants stand up, motioned them to sit down; and then the two chancellors of the Elector, Bruck and Bayer, advanced to the middle of the chapel, and stood before the throne, holding in their hands, the former the Latin, and the other the German copy of the Confession. The Emperor required the Latin copy to be read.[558] "We are Germans," said the Elector of Saxony, "and on German soil; I hope therefore your majesty will allow us to speak German." If the Confession had been read in Latin, a language unknown to most of the princes, the general effect would have been lost. This was another means of shutting the mouth of the Gospel. The Emperor complied with the Elector's demand.
Bayer then began to read the Evangelical Confession, slowly, seriously, distinctly, with a clear, strong, and sonorous voice, which re-echoed under the arched roof of the chapel, and carried even to the outside this great testimony paid to the truth.[559]
"Most serene, most mighty, and invincible Emperor and most gracious Lord," said he, "we who appear in your presence, declare ourselves ready to confer amicably with you on the fittest means of restoring one sole, true, and same faith, since it is for one sole and same Christ that we fight.[560] And in case that these religious dissensions cannot be settled amicably, we then offer to your majesty to explain our cause in a general, free, and christian council."[561]
THE CONFESSION—JUSTIFICATION.
This prologue being ended, Bayer confessed the Holy Trinity, conformably with the Nicene Council,[562] original and hereditary sin, "which bringeth eternal death to all who are not regenerated,"[563] and the incarnation of the Son, "very God and very man."[564]
"We teach moreover," continued he, "that we cannot be justified before God by our own strength, our merits, and our works; but that we are justified by Christ through grace, through the means of faith,[565] when we believe that our sins are forgiven in virtue of Christ, who by his death has made satisfaction for our sins: this faith is the righteousness that God imputes to the sinner.
"But we teach, at the same time, that this faith ought to bear good fruits, and that we must do all the good works commanded by God, for the love of God, and not by their means to gain the grace of God."
The Protestants next declared their faith in the Christian Church, "which is," said they, "the assembly of all true believers and all the saints,"[566] in the midst of whom there are, nevertheless, in this life, many false Christians, hypocrites even, and manifest sinners; and they added, "that it was sufficient for the real unity of the Church that they were agreed on the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments, without the rites and ceremonies instituted by men being everywhere the same."[567]—They proclaimed the necessity of baptism, and declared "that the body and blood of Christ are really present and administered in the Lord's Supper to those who partake of it."[568]
THE CONFESSION—FAITH.
The Chancellor then successively confessed the faith of the Evangelical Christians, touching confession, penance, the nature of the sacraments, the government of the Church, ecclesiastical ordinances, political government, and the last judgment. "As regards Free-will," continued he, "we confess that man's will has a certain liberty of accomplishing civil justice, and of loving the things that reason comprehends; that man can do the good that is within the sphere of nature—plough his fields, eat, drink, have a friend, put on a coat, build a house, take a wife, feed cattle, exercise a calling; as also he can, of his own movement, do evil, kneel before an idol, and commit murder. But we maintain that without the Holy Ghost he cannot do what is righteous in the sight of God."