The following extracts
of Luther’s response (1545) to the Thirty Two Articles of the Louvain
Theologists are worth noting for what Luther reveals of his own understanding of
the Lord’s Supper and what he thought of Zwingli and the Swiss.
Clause 15 – In the
sacrament of the eucharist, which is deserving of honor and adoration, the body
and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present, proferred and received
both by the worthy and by the unworthy.
Clause 27 – We earnestly
believe that the Zwinglians and all sacramentarians who deny that the body and
blood of Christ are taken with the bodily mouth in the venerable eucahrist are
heretics and estranged (alienos) from the church of God.
(Lewis W. Spitz, ‘Luther’s
Works’ volume 34 (Muhlenberg Press/Philadelphia 1960), pp355,356)
