Thursday, January 2, 2014

LUTHER AND THE SACRAMENTS



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)