Note 15. See his letter to Camerarius, dated June 26, 1530. "Ich veraenderte und gosz das meiste taeglich um, und wuerde noch mehreres geaedert [sic] haben, wenn es unsere Raethe erlaubt hatten." Niemeyer, p. 28.
Note 16. Melancthon had agreed to the restoration of the power of the bishops, and evidently, as seen by his letter to Luther, of June 26, if Luther had not objected, he would have made some retractions on the celibacy of the clergy, the communion in both kinds and even the private and closet masses. The Protestants did admit that the saints pray for us in heaven, and that commemorative festivals might be kept to pray God to accept the intercession of these saints; but by no means that our prayers should be addressed to the saints themselves. Niemeyer, p. 87.
Note 17. Luther's Works, Vol. XX, p. 196.
Note 18. Gottfried Arnold's Unpartheische Kirchen und Ketzer Historien,
Vol. I., p. 809, edit. 2d of 1740.
Note 19. Doctrine and Discipline of the Synod of South Carolina, pp. 18, 19, published in 1841.
CHAPTER IV. CUMULATIVE PROOF OF THE TRUTH OF THE SEVERAL POSITIONS OF THE DEFINITE SYNODICAL PLATFORM.
The Preamble.
On the subject of the preamble, we will add a few authorities for one or two of its positions, which we have heard called in question. On page 3, we read:—
"Subsequently, Luther and his coadjutors still further changed their views on some subjects in that Confession, such as the mass." The truth of this position is demonstrated even by the extract from the Smalcald Articles, given on p. 22 of the Platform. In the Augsburg Confession, Melanchon [sic] says (and Luther approved of it): "It, is unjustly charged against our churches, that they have abolished the mass. For it is notorious that the mass is celebrated among us with greater devotion and seriousness than by our opponents." But seven years later, in the Smalcald Articles, Luther employs this very different language, which was sanctioned by his coadjutors: "The mass in the Papal church, must be the greatest and most terrible abomination, since it is directly and strongly opposed to this chief article (of Justification through faith in Christ,)" &c. Here the contradiction in words is positive and unqualified. But we must recollect that the term mass here, as will be fully proved hereafter, does not signify the Papal mass in full. It is a well-known fact, and the Confession itself informs us, that the confessors had long before rejected private and closet masses, and also had rejected the idea of the public mass being a sacrifice, or offering of Christ, for the sins of the living or the dead. But that the word mass cannot be regarded as merely synonymous with Lord's Supper, or communion, in this passage, as it frequently is elsewhere, is clear from the context. For we are told that by proper and diligent instruction "in the design and proper mode of receiving the holy sacrament," "the people are attracted to the communion and to the mass," (zur communion und mess gezogen wird;) clearly proving that by mass they here meant something else than communion, namely, the public mass, divested of its sacrificial nature, and of its design to benefit any others than the communicants themselves; in short, regarding it, thus modified, as an admissible preparation for the holy communion. This mass, which the Platform, with great moderation, styles merely "Ceremonies" of the mass," p. 21, they confessedly did subsequently also abandon, as they had done private and closet masses before.
Again, if we may believe Luther himself, they certainly did a afterward change their ground in regard to the jurisdiction of the Pope and bishops. Hear his own language in 1533, three years later: "Hitherto we have always, and especially at the diet of Augsburg, very humbly offered to the Pope and bishops, that we would not destroy their ecclesiastical right and power, but that we would gladly be consecrated and governed by them, and aid in maintaining their prerogatives and power, if they would not force upon us articles too unchristian. But we have been unable to obtain this; on the contrary, they wish to force us away from the truth, to adopt their lies and abominations, or wish us put to death. If now, (as they are such hardened Pharaohs,) their authority and consecration should fare as their indulgences did, whose fault will it be?" He then proceeds to denounce the power and consecration which he had admitted at the time of the Augsburg Diet, and declares the church's entire independence of Rome for ordination. [Note 1]