# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 07 17_S180
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

180

but after his death error had entered as into a deserted house. The expressions about the loftiness of the episcopate and its dignity, which we now find here and there in the writings of otherwise good, well-meaning teachers of the Church, become ever more questionable. Yet at the end of the second and in the first half of the third century we still hear men like Tertullian and Cyprian bearing witness, still with great earnestness, for the rights of the priestly Christian people. But after, with the conversion of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, the persecutions had ceased and, in particular, earthly advantages of honor, income, and influence had attached themselves to the episcopal office, worldly-mindedness, avarice, and ambition began to gain more and more the upper hand, precisely among the teachers. Among other things, not long afterward an old, faithful teacher of the Church testifies in a writing which has come down to us under the name of Ambrose: that the order of lay elders, without whose counsel nothing was formerly undertaken in the Church, was abolished out of the pride of the priests, since the priests would now count for something in the Church alone.†)

†) It is characteristic that at the council held at Mâcon in the year 585 the following was laid down in the 15th Canon: "If a layman meets a clergyman on a journey, he shall submit himself to him to the lowest degree of reverence. If the layman sits on horseback and the clergyman likewise, the layman shall at once greet the clergyman with the removal of his hat; if the clergyman goes on foot and the other rides, the layman shall without delay, and as it were head over heels, leap down from his horse and give the clergyman his honor. Whoever transgresses this shall, by the bishop, for as long as it pleases him, be separated from the congregation (put under the ban)." — See the book: "Die bösen Priesterfeinde, welche Gott bekehre ꝛc. Dresden 1700," page 255, where the author adds: "But this zeal for the honor and esteem of the clergy has greatly fallen off!" — We set this down here not in order thereby to speak a word for the coarse, unclean despisers of the holy ministry and its faithful stewards; but shame and disgrace upon the ambitious priestlings who, for the sake of their office, which they nevertheless disgrace, wish to be worshipped by the laity as their creatures!

Above all it was the bishops at Rome who soon bore themselves as lords of the Church and only too early let it be not indistinctly perceived that their episcopal chair would become the throne of the Antichrist in the temple of God. Already at the end of the 2nd century the Roman bishop Victor put several Asia Minor congregations under the ban because they would not agree with his view concerning the time of the Easter celebration. To pass over other things, in the 5th century three successive Roman bishops, Zosimus, Boniface I, and Celestine I, made the attempt to gain supremacy also over the African congregations, for which purpose they even falsified the resolutions of the Nicene Council. But there Augustine and other African bishops at the 6th Council of Carthage still vigorously and successfully opposed the arrogations of Roman lust for dominion. But the more important the city of Rome was for the whole world, and the more natural it had therefore been earlier that great weight was attached to the voice of the Roman bishops and their Church, and that in many cases precedence and arbitral power had been voluntarily conceded to it: so much the more boldly and boldly did the antichristian self-exaltation over the Church of believers appear precisely here. To be sure, at the end of the 6th century the Roman bishop Gregory the Great still declared: "Whoever calls himself the universal bishop of all Christendom, or desires to be so called, is in his pride a forerunner of the Antichrist," because the bishop of Constantinople had wished to name himself so. Yet already Gregory's next successor, Boniface III, accepted this title without hesitation, which Emperor Phocas, the murderer of his predecessor, had confirmed to him. From then on the Roman bishops began their decrees with the words: "We will and command."

So we see, then, already at the beginning of the seventh century the apostolic prophecy of the rise of an Antichrist in the midst of the temple of God fully fulfilled, fulfilled namely in the now accomplished establishment of the Roman papacy. Now stood the abomination of desolation in the holy place.

But how should I be able now to carry past your eyes, in a few moments, even a somewhat complete picture of the whole tyrannical priestly rule with its abominations, which from this time until the time of the Reformation has shamefully and ruinously oppressed Christians! In the light of the evangelical doctrine come again to day we now see: as Satan once seduced mankind after the creation of man in God's image and thus attempted to bring to nought the first work of divine love toward us men: so the papacy, after the accomplished redemption of mankind, has now also attempted to rob it of the fruit of this second work of divine love, of the regained salvation. Through the papacy the Church was transformed into a priestly state, in which the Roman bishop, with his immense hosts of bishops, priests, and monks, ruled the whole of Christendom as its unlimited sovereign, pope, bishop, and priest having to command, the layman only to obey, the priest to administer the power of the keys of heaven as his exclusive privilege, and the layman to await salvation as a grace of the clergy and to buy it from them.

Peter says to Christians: "Ye are a royal priesthood;" but now the priestly dignity was taken from them and only the ordained of the pope were declared priests. Paul calls to Christians: "Ye which are spiritual;" but now the common estate of Christians was declared an unclean, worldly one, and only the priestlings were called the spiritual and only the estate of priestlings and monks spiritual and divine. Paul exhorts Christians: "Judge ye what I say," and in the first apostolic council at Jerusalem laymen had seat and voice; but now this right to judge of doctrine and to speak in the councils was stolen from them and granted only to the bishops; yea, the Christian people was declared to be the people that is cursed and knoweth not the law, while the pope bellowed: "Even if he dragged the Christians by whole crowds with him into the abyss of hell, no one should yet dare to call him to account for it and say: 'What doest thou?'" Christ says to the Jews, how much more to His believing Christians: "Search the Scriptures;" but now the reading of God's Word was forbidden under threat of heavy punishment, the fulfilling of this precious duty declared a crime, and the lay Christians expressly declared swine and dogs, to whom one must not cast the holy thing and the pearl. When in the time of the Apostles an apostle was to be chosen in the traitor's place, and in the congregation at Jerusalem the deacons were to be chosen, the Apostles called upon the brethren or the Christian people to choose; but now church servants were chosen only by pope and bishops, the layman had to be silent and recognize and accept his superior as his lord. Christ says to His Christians: "One is your Master, One is your Father;" now the pope said: I am your Master and your Pope, that is, the Father of all Christians. Paul says to Christians: "Not for that we have dominion over your faith; I say not that I command;" and Peter therefore calls to the servants of the Church: "Neither as being lords over God's heritage;" but now pope, bishop, and priest called to Christians: we will, command, and order, and what we prescribe to you to do and to believe, that ye must do and believe, or die under the ban as men accursed of God and heretics. Christ gives the final judgment to His Christians and says: "Tell it unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican;" now the church-tyrants cried: We are the Church; the ban is in our hand; whoever hears not us is a heathen and a publican. Christ says to all communicants: "Drink ye all of it;" but now the layman was declared unworthy of the holy cup, and this was handed only to the ordained servants of the pope. Paul says of the congregation of Christians: "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all;" but now it became a bondmaid of the pope and a slave of his priests. Paul calls finally to Christians: "All things are yours; and ye are Christ's;" but now pope, bishops, priests, and monks cried: All things are ours, and you are given to us; now the Church was regarded as a ship in which only clergy and monks were aboard, through whose official glory and merits alone the layman could still be taken along into heaven.