Francis the Illusionist, Part Two
by Thomas A. Droleskey
Did you like Francis The Hun two months ago now?
You did?
Great.
Why is that great?
Well, because you are about to read some quotes used in its text again under this new title. I mean, I have no intention staying up until 2:00 a.m. as I did yesterday morning, the third such late night posting in a row to provide new quotations when all that needs to be done to adapt older ones to events that have occurred since that time.
Thus it is that this adaptation of Francis The Hun seeks to remind readers that the love affair between the conciliar revolutionaries and the theological and ecclesiastical descendents of the insidious, lecherous, drunkard named Martin Luther is one that has gone on for many decades now. Francis the Illusionist simply wants us to believe that revolution against the Divine Plan that God Himself instituted to effect man's return to Him through the Catholic Church is what is principally responsible for plummeting men and their nations in the depths of the abyss is actually of God and that the Catholic Church, she who is the spotless, immaculate mystical spouse of her Divine Founder and Invisible Head, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, bears great guilt for the "injustices" done to Father Luther.
Oh, you don't believe me?
Let me allay your doubts as Make a few interjections here and there:
(Reuters) - Senior
Roman Catholic and Lutheran officials announced on Monday they would
mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 as a shared event
rather than highlight the clash that split Western Christianity.
The Vatican and the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) presented a report in Geneva admitting both were
guilty of harming Christian unity in the past and describing a growing
consensus between the two churches in recent decades. (Catholics, Lutherans jointly to mark Reformation anniversary.)
Interjection One:
Of course there is a "growing consensus" between Lutherans and the conciliarists as both are members of false religions founded upon rejections and redefinitions of the dogmas of the Catholic Faith.
Back to Reuters:
The 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 Theses, the doctrinal challenge that launched the Protestant Reformation, will be the first centenary celebration in the age of ecumenism, globalization and the secularization of Western societies.
"The awareness is dawning on Lutherans and Catholics that the struggle of the 16th century is over," the report said. "The reasons for mutually condemning each other's faith have fallen by the wayside."
They now agree belief in Jesus unites them despite lingering differences, it said, and inspires them to cooperate more closely to proclaim the Gospel in increasingly pluralistic societies.
"This is a very important step in a healing process which we all need and we are all praying for," LWF General Secretary Martin Junge said at the report's presentation in Geneva.
"The division of the church is something we cannot celebrate but we can see what is positive and try to find ways towards the future together," said Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican's department to promote Christian unity. (Catholics, Lutherans jointly to mark Reformation anniversary.)
Interjection Two:
Calling Francis the Illusionist and Kurt Koch, his assistant who works over at the "Pontifical" Council for Promoting Christian Unity, calling Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Is anyone out there in cyberspace?
Here is a little news flash for you both: Catholic doctrine does not simply "fall by the wayside." No one can simply "wave his hand" and pretend that the "passage of time" makes the doctrines of the Catholic Church, each of which have been revealed by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, somehow irrelevant or in need of a "new" understanding.
Here is another nifty little insight for you both: every false religion, including your own, is loathed by the true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Blessed Trinity.
In a mood for more, Jorge and Kurt?
Sure, happy to oblige.
Those with disparate beliefs cannot be "united."
Additionally, chaps, there are no such things as "lingering differences."
Permit me to introduce you to Pope Leo XIII's Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896:
Agreement and union of minds is the necessary foundation of this
perfect concord amongst men, from which concurrence of wills and
similarity of action are the natural results. Wherefore, in His
divine wisdom, He ordained in His Church Unity of Faith; a virtue which
is the first of those bonds which unite man to God, and whence we
receive the name of the faithful - "one Lord, one faith, one baptism"
(Eph. iv., 5). That is, as there is one Lord and one baptism, so should
all Christians, without exception, have but one faith. And so the
Apostle St. Paul not merely begs, but entreats and implores
Christians to be all of the same mind, and to avoid difference of
opinions: "I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms
amongst you, and that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same
judgment" (I Cor. i., 10). Such passages certainly need no interpreter; they speak clearly enough for themselves. Besides, all who profess Christianity allow that there can be but one faith. It
is of the greatest importance and indeed of absolute necessity, as to
which many are deceived, that the nature and character of this unity
should be recognized. And, as We have already stated, this is not to be
ascertained by conjecture, but by the certain knowledge of what was
done; that is by seeking for and ascertaining what kind of unity in
faith has been commanded by Jesus Christ. (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896.)
It is the likes of Francis the Illusionist and Kurt Koch who are deceived, not the people disparaged by the "Petrine Minister" as "restorationists."
All right, back to the cheery news from Reuters:
Roman Catholicism, the world's largest church, has about 1.2 billion members or just over half of all Christians. There are about 75 million Lutherans in LWF member churches and other Lutheran groups around the world.
Catholics and Lutherans began seeking theological common ground after the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, which opened the Roman church to better relations with other churches, and have ironed out many of their differences over the decades.
They took a major step forward in 1999 by agreeing a common view on justification, the doctrine at the core of their 16th century dispute. At issue was whether Christians attained eternal salvation by faith alone or also by doing good works. (Catholics, Lutherans jointly to mark Reformation anniversary.)
Interjection Three:
Who was it who helped to broker the "deal" that made the Conciliar-Lutheran Joint Declaration on Justification a reality?
That's right, Benedict the Contortionist, serving in his capacity as Joseph "Cardinal" Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Deformation, Destruction and Deconstruction of the Faith.
What's wrong with this "joint declaration"?
Well, please re-read Bishop Donald J. Sanborn's Critical Analysis of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.
Yes, there more from Reuters, sadly:
Both sides admitted in the 93-page report that they had often ridiculed each other's teachings in the past, sinning against the eighth commandment which bars giving false witness.
The Lutheran side confessed its shame and regret over "the vicious and degrading statements that Martin Luther made against the Jews" and rejected other "dark sides of Luther" including his support for the persecution of Anabaptists.
The report said Christians in developing countries, now an important region for both churches, could not identify with 500-year-old European rows. Secularization in Western societies in recent decades meant many old feuds were now forgotten there.
The rise of Pentecostal and charismatic movements over the past century "have put forward new emphases that have made many of the old confessional controversies seem obsolete", it added. (Catholics, Lutherans jointly to mark Reformation anniversary.)
Interjection Four:
"New emphases" have now made "old confessional controversies seem obsolete."
This means that the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, failed Pope Leo X when he issued Exsurge Domine, June 15, 1520, and came to the following conclusion:
Therefore we can, without any further
citation or delay, proceed against him to his condemnation and damnation
as one whose faith is notoriously suspect and in fact a true heretic
with the full severity of each and all of the above penalties and
censures. Yet, with the advice of our brothers, imitating the mercy of
almighty God who does not wish the death of a sinner but rather that he
be converted and live, and forgetting all the injuries inflicted on us
and the Apostolic See, we have decided to use all the compassion we are
capable of. It is our hope, so far as in us lies, that he will
experience a change of heart by taking the road of mildness we have
proposed, return, and turn away from his errors. We will receive him
kindly as the prodigal son returning to the embrace of the Church.
Therefore let Martin himself and all those adhering
to him, and those who shelter and support him, through the merciful
heart of our God and the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ by which and through whom the redemption of the human race and
the upbuilding of holy mother Church was accomplished, know that from
our heart we exhort and beseech that he cease to disturb the peace,
unity, and truth of the Church for which the Savior prayed so earnestly
to the Father. Let him abstain from his pernicious errors that he may
come back to us. If they really will obey, and certify to us by legal
documents that they have obeyed, they will find in us the affection of a
father's love, the opening of the font of the effects of paternal
charity, and opening of the font of mercy and clemency.
We enjoin, however, on Martin that in the meantime he cease from all preaching or the office of preacher.
{And even though the love of righteousness and
virtue did not take him away from sin and the hope of forgiveness did
not lead him to penance, perhaps the terror of the pain of punishment
may move him. Thus we beseech and remind this Martin, his supporters and
accomplices of his holy orders and the described punishment. We ask him
earnestly that he and his supporters, adherents and accomplices desist
within sixty days (which we wish to have divided into three times twenty
days, counting from the publication of this bull at the places
mentioned below) from preaching, both expounding their views and
denouncing others, from publishing books and pamphlets concerning some
or all of their errors. Furthermore, all writings which contain some or
all of his errors are to be burned. Furthermore, this Martin is to
recant perpetually such errors and views. He is to inform us of such
recantation through an open document, sealed by two prelates, which we
should receive within another sixty days. Or he should personally, with
safe conduct, inform us of his recantation by coming to Rome. We would
prefer this latter way in order that no doubt remain of his sincere
obedience.
If, however, this
Martin, his supporters, adherents and accomplices, much to our regret,
should stubbornly not comply with the mentioned stipulations within the
mentioned period, we shall, following the teaching of the holy Apostle
Paul, who teaches us to avoid a heretic after having admonished him for a
first and a second time, condemn this Martin, his supporters, adherents
and accomplices as barren vines which are not in Christ, preaching an
offensive doctrine contrary to the Christian faith and offend the divine
majesty, to the damage and shame of the entire Christian Church, and
diminish the keys of the Church as stubborn and public heretics.} . . . (Pope Leo X in Exsurge Domini, June 15, 1520.)
The contention made above in the joint conciliar-Lutheran statement on plans to celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther's diabolical revolution means also that God the Holy Ghost failed the Fathers of the Council of Trent when they condemned Luther's theological propositions in a systematic manner.
These contentions are blasphemous and a denial of the Divine Constitution of Holy Mother Church.
Let us have a look at the "controversies" engendered by Luther that have become "obsolete" somehow with the passage of time as each one of his major errors is listed and critiqued for you readers by way of reiteration of points made many times before on this site.
Luther believed in and asserted the following heretical propositions:
(1) That Our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did not create a visible, hierarchical Church.
(2) That there is no authority given by Our Lord
to the Pope and his bishops and priests to govern and to sanctify the
faithful.
(3) That each believer has an immediate and
personal relationship with the Savior as soon as he makes a profession
of faith on his lips and in his heart, therefore being perpetually
justified before God.
(4) Having been justified by faith alone, a
believer has no need of an intermediary from a non-existent hierarchical
priesthood to forgive him his sins. He is forgiven by God immediately
when he asks forgiveness.
(5) This state of justification is not earned by
good works. While good works are laudable, especially to help
unbelievers convert, they do not impute unto salvation. Salvation is the
result of the profession of faith that justifies the sinner.
(6) That grace is merely, in the words of Martin Luther, the snowflakes that cover up the "dung heap" that is man.
(7) That there is only one source of Divine Revelation, Sacred Scripture.
(8) That each individual is his own interpreter of Sacred Scripture.
(9) That there is a strict separation of Church
and State. Princes, to draw from Luther himself, may be Christians but
it is not as a Christian that they ought to rule.
These lies
have permutated in thousands of different directions. However, they have
sewn the fabric of the modern state and popular culture for nearly half
a millennium, serving as a good deal of the foundation of conciliarism
itself and its own devastation of souls.
Here below are explanations of these lies and their multifaceted implications for the world in which we live:
(1-2) The contention that Our Lord did not create a
visible, hierarchical church vitiates the need for a hierarchical,
sacerdotal priesthood for the administration of the sacraments. It is a
rejection of the entirety of the history of Christianity prior to the
Sixteenth Century. It is a denial of the lesson taught us by Our Lord by
means of His submission to His own creatures, Saint Joseph and the
Blessed Mother, in the Holy Family of Nazareth that each of us is to
live our entire lives under authority, starting with the authority of
the Vicar of Christ and those bishops who are in full communion with
him. The rejection of the visible, hierarchical church is founded on the
prideful belief that we are able to govern ourselves without being
directed by anyone else on earth. This contention would lead in due
course to the rejection of any and all religious belief as necessary for
individuals and for societies. Luther and Calvin paved the way for
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the French Revolution that followed so closely
the latter's deification of man.
(3-6) Baptism is merely symbolic of the Christian's
desire to be associated with the Savior in the amorphous body known as
the Church. What is determinative of the believer's relationship with
Christ is his profession of faith. As the believer remains a reprobate
sinner, all he can do is to seek forgiveness by confessing his sins
privately to God. This gives the Protestant of the Lutheran strain the
presumptuous sense that there is almost nothing he can do to lose his
salvation once he has made his profession of faith in the Lord Jesus.
There is thus no belief that a person can scale the heights of personal
sanctity by means of sanctifying grace. It is impossible, as Luther
projected from his own unwillingness to cooperate with sanctifying grace
to overcome his battles with lust, for the believer to be anything
other than a dung heap. Thus a Protestant can sin freely without for
once considering that he has killed the life of sanctifying grace in his
soul, thereby darkening his intellect and weakening the will and
inclining himself all the more to sin-and all the more a vessel of
disorder and injustice in the larger life of society.
(7-8) The rejection of a visible, hierarchical
Church and the rejection of Apostolic Tradition as a source of Divine
Revelation protected by that Church leads in both instances to
theological relativism. Without an authoritative guide to interpret
Divine Revelation, including Sacred Scripture, individual believers can
come to mutually contradictory conclusions about the meaning of
passages, the precise thing that has given rise to literally thousands
of Protestant sects. And if a believer can reduce the Bible, which he
believes is the sole source of Divine Revelation, to the level of
individual interpretation, then there is nothing to prevent anyone from
doing the same with all written documents, including the documents of a
nation's founding. If the plain words of Scripture can be deconstructed
of their meaning, it is easy to do so, say, with the words of a
governmental constitution. Theological relativism paved the way for
moral relativism. Moral relativism paved the way for the triumph of
positivism and deconstructionism as normative in the realm of theology
and that of law and popular culture.
(9) The overthrow of the Social Kingship of Jesus
Christ as it was exercised by His true Church in the Middle Ages by the
Protestant concept of the separation of Church and State is what gave
rise to royal absolutism in Europe in the immediate aftermath of
Luther's handiwork. Indeed, as I have noted any number of times before,
it is arguably the case that the conditions that bred resentment on the
part of colonists in English America prior to 1776 might never have
developed if England had remained a Catholic nation. The monarchy would
have been subject in the Eighteenth Century to same constraints as it
had in the Tenth or Eleventh Centuries, namely, that kings and queens
would have continued to understand that the Church reserved unto herself
the right to interpose herself in the event that rulers had done
things-or proposed to do things-that were contrary to the binding
precepts of the Divine positive law and the natural law and/or were
injurious of the cause of the sanctification and salvation of the souls
of their subjects. The overthrow of the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ
deposited power first of all in the hands of monarchs eager to be rid of
the "interference" of the Church and ultimately in the hands of whoever
happened to hold the reins of governmental power in the modern
"democratic" state. Despotism has been the result in both cases.
Let me restate once again that Catholic doctrine is no more mutable than God Himself.
Ah, it's time for the final excerpt from the Reuters report:
The report said Luther's 95 Theses were meant to begin a debate about practices such as selling indulgences and were not intended to found a new church. Both sides mishandled the crisis that followed, leading to the final split.
Disputes over the authority of the Bible, which Lutherans stress more than Catholics, have narrowed so much that lingering differences would no longer justify maintaining their split, the report said. It spoke of the two churches sharing "unity in reconciled diversity" over these issues.
But while ecumenical dialogue has developed new common understandings on some divisive points, other doctrines - such as the office of the Catholic pope or the nature of the ordained clergy - still remain significantly far apart.
The LWF said it wants to talk with Anglican, Mennonite, Reformed, Orthodox and Pentecostal churches about how they might also participate in the 2017 commemoration. (Catholics, Lutherans jointly to mark Reformation anniversary.)
Interjection Five:
For an refutation of the misrepresentation of Father Martin Luther's ninety-five theses, please see the full text of Pope Leo X's Exsurge Domine, which is appended below.
Let it be conceded that Father Martin Luther did not want to found a new church. A "new church," a false church, that is, is all that could have resulted from his heretical propositions, and the fact that the conciliar revolutionaries have found much "common ground" with Lutherans despite some "lingering difficulties" is just another proof of the falsity of conciliarism as it explains away or simply waves away as irrelevant Faith, Morals, Worship and even history itself the "sentiments" considered to be more "befitting" "modern man" in a "globalized" and "pluralistic world."
Religious conflict among those who believe themselves to be Christians?
Blame Martin Luther.
The rise of doctrinal and moral relativism as a result of the rejection of the dogmatic truth that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ instituted a visible, hierarchical Church and founded it upon the Rock of Saint Peter, the Pope?
Blame Martin Luther.
The prevalence of individualism as the means to "interpret" the words of Holy Writ and to act as one wants in the fallacious belief that men are "saved' by making a profession of faith in the Holy Name of Jesus in their hearts and on their lips?
Blame Martin Luther.
The rise of authoritarian and totalitarian statism that is plaguing every so-called "civilized" nation on the face of this earth today?
Blame Martin Luther.
Does Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis and Kurt Koch understand this?
Not really.
Father Patrick O'Hare's insights into Luther and his false religion are useful to call to mind once again:
"Anointed," as Luther was, "to preach the Gospel of
peace," and commissioned to communicate to all the knowledge which
uplifts, sanctifies and saves, it is certainly pertinent to ask what was
his attitude towards the ministry of the divine word, and in what
manner did he show by speech and behavior the heavenly sanctions of law:
divine, international and social?
As we draw near this man and carefully examine his career, we find that in an evil moment he
abandoned the spirit of discipline, became a pursuer of novelty, and
put on the ways and manners of the "wolf in sheep's clothing" whose
teeth and claws rent asunder the seamless garment of divine knowledge
which should have been kept whole for the instruction and the comfort of
all who were to seek the law at his lips. His words lost their
savor and influence for good, and only foulness and mocking blasphemy
filled his mouth, to deceive the ignorant and lead them into error,
license and rebellion against both Church and state. Out of the
abundance of a corrupt heart this fallen priest, who had departed from
the divine source of that knowledge, which is unto peace, shamelessly
advanced theories and principles which cut at the root of all order,
authority and obedience, and inaugurated an antagonism and a disregard
for the sanctity of law such as the world had not seen since pagan
times. His Gospel was not that of the Apostles, who issued from the
upper room of Jerusalem in the power of those "parted tongues, as it
were of fire." His doctrine, stripped of its cunning and deceit, was
nothing else, to use the words of St. James describing false teaching,
but "earthly, sensual, devilish"; so much so, that men of good sense
could no longer safely "seek the law at his mouth" and honestly
recognize him as "the angel of the Lord of Hosts" sent with instructions
for the good of the flock and the peace of the nations. Opposed to all
law, order and restraint, he could not but disgrace his ministry,
proclaim his own shame, and prove to every wise and discerning follower
of the true Gospel of peace, the groundlessness of his boastful claims
to be in any proper sense a benefactor of society, an upholder of
constituted authority and a promoter of the best interests of humanity.
Luther, like many another framer of
religious and political heresy, may have begun his course blindly and
with little serious reflection. He may never have stopped to estimate
the lamentable and disastrous results to which his heretofore
unheard-of-propaganda would inevitably lead. He may not have directly
intended the ruin, desolation and misery which his seditious preaching
effected in all directions. "But," as Verres aptly says, "if a man
standing on one of the snowcapped giants of the Alps were to roll down a
little stone, knowing what consequences would follow, he would be
answerable for the desolation caused by the avalanche in the valley
below. Luther put into motion not one little stone, but rock after rock,
and he must have been shortsighted indeed--or his blind hatred made him
so--if he was unable to estimate beforehand what effect his
inflammatory appeals to the masses of the people and his wild
denunciations of law and order would have." He should, as a matter of
course, have weighed well and thoroughly the merits or demerits of his
"new gospel" before he announced it to an undiscriminating public, and
wittingly or unwittingly unbarred the floodgates of confusion and unrest.
Deliberation, however, was a process little known to this man of many
moods and violent temper. To secure victory in his quarrel with the
Church absorbed his attention to the exclusion of all else, and,
although he may not have reflected in time on the effects of his
revolutionary teachings, he is nonetheless largely responsible for the
religious, political and social upheaval of his day which his wild and
passionate harangues fomented and precipitated. Nothing short of a
miracle could have prevented his reckless, persistent and unsparing
denunciations of authority and its representatives from undermining the
supports by which order and discipline in Church and state were upheld.
As events proved, his wild words, flung about in reckless profusion,
fell into souls full of the fermenting passions of time and turned
Germany into a land of misery, darkness and disorder. (Monsignor Patrick
F. O'Hare. The Facts About Luther, published originally in
Cincinnati, Ohio, by Frederick Pustet Company in 1916, reprinted in 1987
by TAN Books and Publishers, pp. 215-217.)
We must, of course, continue to
remember that this is the time that God has appointed from all eternity
for us to be alive. He has work for us to do. Let us do this work with
courage and valor as we never count the cost of being humiliated for the
sake of defending the integrity of Faith, as we never cease our prayers
for the conversion of all people, including those who adhere to the
falsehoods of Lutheranism and all other Protestant sects and of Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis the Illusionist and his fellow conciliarists themselves, to the
true Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which
there can be no true social order.
To this end, as always, we must make reparation for
our sins, especially during this season of Lent, living more and more
penitentially each day, spending time in prayer (when it is possible to
do so) before Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Real Presence
in the Most Blessed Sacrament, our weekly use of the the Sacred Tribunal
of Penance, and our daily consecrating our hearts and our very selves
to Christ the King through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary,
praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.
There is work to do. Let us be earnest about of the work of converting
our own souls by making reparation for our own sins so that the seeds we
plant for the conversion of others and for the triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in the fulfillment of her Fatima Message might
fall on more fertile ground.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and the hour of our death Amen
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!
Our Lady of the the Rosary, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.
Saint Juliana Falconieri, pray for us.
Saints Gervase and Protase, pray for us.
See also: A Litany of Saints
Appendix
The Text of Pope Leo X's Exsurge Domine, June 15, 1520
Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember
your reproaches to those who are filled with foolishness all through the
day. Listen to our prayers, for foxes have arisen seeking to destroy
the vineyard whose winepress you alone have trod. When you were about to
ascend to your Father, you committed the care, rule, and administration
of the vineyard, an image of the triumphant church, to Peter, as the
head and your vicar and his successors. The wild boar from the forest
seeks to destroy it and every wild beast feeds upon it.
Rise, Peter, and fulfill this pastoral office
divinely entrusted to you as mentioned above. Give heed to the cause of
the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith,
whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against
the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing
ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues
are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal,
contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth.
We beseech you also, Paul, to arise. It was you
that enlightened and illuminated the Church by your doctrine and by a
martyrdom like Peter's. For now a new Porphyry rises who, as the old
once wrongfully assailed the holy apostles, now assails the holy
pontiffs, our predecessors.
Rebuking them, in violation of your teaching,
instead of imploring them, he is not ashamed to assail them, to tear at
them, and when he despairs of his cause, to stoop to insults. He is like
the heretics "whose last defense," as Jerome says, "is to start spewing
out a serpent's venom with their tongue when they see that their causes
are about to be condemned, and spring to insults when they see they are
vanquished." For although you have said that there must be heresies to
test the faithful, still they must be destroyed at their very birth by
your intercession and help, so they do not grow or wax strong like your
wolves. Finally, let the whole church of the saints and the rest of the
universal church arise. Some, putting aside her true interpretation of
Sacred Scripture, are blinded in mind by the father of lies. Wise in
their own eyes, according to the ancient practice of heretics, they
interpret these same Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit demands,
inspired only by their own sense of ambition, and for the sake of
popular acclaim, as the Apostle declares. In fact, they twist and
adulterate the Scriptures. As a result, according to Jerome, "It is no
longer the Gospel of Christ, but a man's, or what is worse, the
devil's."
Let all this holy Church of God, I say, arise, and
with the blessed apostles intercede with almighty God to purge the
errors of His sheep, to banish all heresies from the lands of the
faithful, and be pleased to maintain the peace and unity of His holy
Church.
For we can scarcely express, from distress and
grief of mind, what has reached our ears for some time by the report of
reliable men and general rumor; alas, we have even seen with our eyes
and read the many diverse errors. Some of these have already been
condemned by councils and the constitutions of our predecessors, and
expressly contain even the heresy of the Greeks and Bohemians. Other
errors are either heretical, false, scandalous, or offensive to pious
ears, as seductive of simple minds, originating with false exponents of
the faith who in their proud curiosity yearn for the world's glory, and
contrary to the Apostle's teaching, wish to be wiser than they should
be. Their talkativeness, unsupported by the authority of the Scriptures,
as Jerome says, would not win credence unless they appeared to support
their perverse doctrine even with divine testimonies however badly
interpreted. From their sight fear of God has now passed.
These errors have, at the suggestion of the human
race, been revived and recently propagated among the more frivolous and
the illustrious German nation. We grieve the more that this happened
there because we and our predecessors have always held this nation in
the bosom of our affection. For after the empire had been transferred by
the Roman Church from the Greeks to these same Germans, our
predecessors and we always took the Church's advocates and defenders
from among them. Indeed it is certain that these Germans, truly germane
to the Catholic faith, have always been the bitterest opponents of
heresies, as witnessed by those commendable constitutions of the German
emperors in behalf of the Church's independence, freedom, and the
expulsion and extermination of all heretics from Germany. Those
constitutions formerly issued, and then confirmed by our predecessors,
were issued under the greatest penalties even of loss of lands and
dominions against anyone sheltering or not expelling them. If they were
observed today both we and they would obviously be free of this
disturbance. Witness to this is the condemnation and punishment in the
Council of Constance of the infidelity of the Hussites and Wyclifites as
well as Jerome of Prague. Witness to this is the blood of Germans shed
so often in wars against the Bohemians. A final witness is the
refutation, rejection, and condemnation no less learned than true and
holy of the above errors, or many of them, by the universities of
Cologne and Louvain, most devoted and religious cultivators of the
Lord's field. We could allege many other facts too, which we have
decided to omit, lest we appear to be composing a history.
In virtue of our pastoral office committed to us by
the divine favor we can under no circumstances tolerate or overlook any
longer the pernicious poison of the above errors without disgrace to
the Christian religion and injury to orthodox faith. Some of these
errors we have decided to include in the present document; their
substance is as follows:
1. It is a heretical opinion, but a common one,
that the sacraments of the New Law give pardoning grace to those who do
not set up an obstacle.
2. To deny that in a child after baptism sin remains is to treat with contempt both Paul and Christ.
3. The inflammable sources of sin, even if there be
no actual sin, delay a soul departing from the body from entrance into
heaven.
4. To one on the point of death imperfect charity
necessarily brings with it great fear, which in itself alone is enough
to produce the punishment of purgatory, and impedes entrance into the
kingdom.
5. That there are three parts to penance:
contrition, confession, and satisfaction, has no foundation in Sacred
Scripture nor in the ancient sacred Christian doctors.
6. Contrition, which is acquired through
discussion, collection, and detestation of sins, by which one reflects
upon his years in the bitterness of his soul, by pondering over the
gravity of sins, their number, their baseness, the loss of eternal
beatitude, and the acquisition of eternal damnation, this contrition
makes him a hypocrite, indeed more a sinner.
7. It is a most truthful proverb and the doctrine
concerning the contritions given thus far is the more remarkable: "Not
to do so in the future is the highest penance; the best penance, a new
life."
8. By no means may you presume to confess venial
sins, nor even all mortal sins, because it is impossible that you know
all mortal sins. Hence in the primitive Church only manifest mortal sins
were confessed.
9. As long as we wish to confess all sins without
exception, we are doing nothing else than to wish to leave nothing to
God's mercy for pardon.
10. Sins are not forgiven to anyone, unless when
the priest forgives them he believes they are forgiven; on the contrary
the sin would remain unless he believed it was forgiven; for indeed the
remission of sin and the granting of grace does not suffice, but it is
necessary also to believe that there has been forgiveness.
11. By no means can you have reassurance of being
absolved because of your contrition, but because of the word of Christ:
"Whatsoever you shall loose, etc." Hence, I say, trust confidently, if
you have obtained the absolution of the priest, and firmly believe
yourself to have been absolved, and you will truly be absolved, whatever
there may be of contrition.
12. If through an impossibility he who confessed
was not contrite, or the priest did not absolve seriously, but in a
jocose manner, if nevertheless he believes that he has been absolved, he
is most truly absolved.
13. In the sacrament of penance and the remission
of sin the pope or the bishop does no more than the lowest priest;
indeed, where there is no priest, any Christian, even if a woman or
child, may equally do as much.
14. No one ought to answer a priest that he is contrite, nor should the priest inquire.
15. Great is the error of those who approach the
sacrament of the Eucharist relying on this, that they have confessed,
that they are not conscious of any mortal sin, that they have sent their
prayers on ahead and made preparations; all these eat and drink
judgment to themselves. But if they believe and trust that they will
attain grace, then this faith alone makes them pure and worthy.
16. It seems to have been decided that the Church
in common Council established that the laity should communicate under
both species; the Bohemians who communicate under both species are not
heretics, but schismatics.
17. The treasures of the Church, from which the pope grants indulgences, are not the merits of Christ and of the saints.
18. Indulgences are pious frauds of the faithful,
and remissions of good works; and they are among the number of those
things which are allowed, and not of the number of those which are
advantageous.
19. Indulgences are of no avail to those who truly
gain them, for the remission of the penalty due to actual sin in the
sight of divine justice.
20. They are seduced who believe that indulgences are salutary and useful for the fruit of the spirit.
21. Indulgences are necessary only for public crimes, and are properly conceded only to the harsh and impatient.
22. For six kinds of men indulgences are neither
necessary nor useful; namely, for the dead and those about to die, the
infirm, those legitimately hindered, and those who have not committed
crimes, and those who have committed crimes, but not public ones, and
those who devote themselves to better things.
23. Excommunications are only external penalties and they do not deprive man of the common spiritual prayers of the Church.
24. Christians must be taught to cherish excommunications rather than to fear them.
25. The Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, is
not the vicar of Christ over all the churches of the entire world,
instituted by Christ Himself in blessed Peter.
26. The word of Christ to Peter: "Whatsoever you
shall loose on earth," etc., is extended merely to those things bound by
Peter himself.
27. It is certain that it is not in the power of
the Church or the pope to decide upon the articles of faith, and much
less concerning the laws for morals or for good works.
28. If the pope with a great part of the Church
thought so and so, he would not err; still it is not a sin or heresy to
think the contrary, especially in a matter not necessary for salvation,
until one alternative is condemned and another approved by a general
Council.
29. A way has been made for us for weakening the
authority of councils, and for freely contradicting their actions, and
judging their decrees, and boldly confessing whatever seems true,
whether it has been approved or disapproved by any council whatsoever.
30. Some articles of John Hus, condemned in the
Council of Constance, are most Christian, wholly true and evangelical;
these the universal Church could not condemn.
31. In every good work the just man sins.
32. A good work done very well is a venial sin.
33. That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit.
34. To go to war against the Turks is to resist God who punishes our iniquities through them.
35. No one is certain that he is not always sinning mortally, because of the most hidden vice of pride.
36. Free will after sin is a matter of title only; and as long as one does what is in him, one sins mortally.
37. Purgatory cannot be proved from Sacred Scripture which is in the canon.
38. The souls in purgatory are not sure of their
salvation, at least not all; nor is it proved by any arguments or by the
Scriptures that they are beyond the state of meriting or of increasing
in charity.
39. The souls in purgatory sin without intermission, as long as they seek rest and abhor punishment.
40. The souls freed from purgatory by the suffrages
of the living are less happy than if they had made satisfactions by
themselves.
41. Ecclesiastical prelates and secular princes would not act badly if they destroyed all of the money bags of beggary.
No one of sound mind is ignorant how
destructive, pernicious, scandalous, and seductive to pious and simple
minds these various errors are, how opposed they are to all charity and
reverence for the holy Roman Church who is the mother of all the
faithful and teacher of the faith; how destructive they are of the vigor
of ecclesiastical discipline, namely obedience. This virtue is the font
and origin of all virtues and without it anyone is readily convicted of
being unfaithful.
Therefore we, in this above enumeration, important
as it is, wish to proceed with great care as is proper, and to cut off
the advance of this plague and cancerous disease so it will not spread
any further in the Lord's field as harmful thornbushes. We have
therefore held a careful inquiry, scrutiny, discussion, strict
examination, and mature deliberation with each of the brothers, the
eminent cardinals of the holy Roman Church, as well as the priors and
ministers general of the religious orders, besides many other professors
and masters skilled in sacred theology and in civil and canon law. We
have found that these errors or theses are not Catholic, as mentioned
above, and are not to be taught, as such; but rather are against the
doctrine and tradition of the Catholic Church, and against the true
interpretation of the sacred Scriptures received from the Church. Now
Augustine maintained that her authority had to be accepted so
completely that he stated he would not have believed the Gospel unless
the authority of the Catholic Church had vouched for it. For, according
to these errors, or any one or several of them, it clearly follows that
the Church which is guided by the Holy Spirit is in error and has always
erred. This is against what Christ at his ascension promised to his
disciples (as is read in the holy Gospel of Matthew): "I will be with
you to the consummation of the world"; it is against the determinations
of the holy Fathers, or the express ordinances and canons of the
councils and the supreme pontiffs. Failure to comply with these canons,
according to the testimony of Cyprian, will be the fuel and cause of all
heresy and schism.
With the advice and consent of these our venerable
brothers, with mature deliberation on each and every one of the above
theses, and by the authority of almighty God, the blessed Apostles Peter
and Paul, and our own authority, we condemn, reprobate, and reject
completely each of these theses or errors as either heretical,
scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds,
and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that
all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned,
reprobated, and rejected . . . We restrain all in the virtue of holy
obedience and under the penalty of an automatic major
excommunication....
Moreover, because the preceding errors and many
others are contained in the books or writings of Martin Luther, we
likewise condemn, reprobate, and reject completely the books and all the
writings and sermons of the said Martin, whether in Latin or any other
language, containing the said errors or any one of them; and we wish
them to be regarded as utterly condemned, reprobated, and rejected. We
forbid each and every one of the faithful of either sex, in virtue of
holy obedience and under the above penalties to be incurred
automatically, to read, assert, preach, praise, print, publish, or
defend them. They will incur these penalties if they presume to uphold
them in any way, personally or through another or others, directly or
indirectly, tacitly or explicitly, publicly or occultly, either in their
own homes or in other public or private places. Indeed immediately
after the publication of this letter these works, wherever they may be,
shall be sought out carefully by the ordinaries and others
[ecclesiastics and regulars], and under each and every one of the above
penalties shall be burned publicly and solemnly in the presence of the
clerics and people.
As far as Martin himself is concerned, O good God,
what have we overlooked or not done? What fatherly charity have we
omitted that we might call him back from such errors? For after we had
cited him, wishing to deal more kindly with him, we urged him through
various conferences with our legate and through our personal letters to
abandon these errors. We have even offered him safe conduct and the
money necessary for the journey urging him to come without fear or any
misgivings, which perfect charity should cast out, and to talk not
secretly but openly and face to face after the example of our Savior and
the Apostle Paul. If he had done this, we are certain he would have
changed in heart, and he would have recognized his errors. He would not
have found all these errors in the Roman Curia which he attacks so
viciously, ascribing to it more than he should because of the empty
rumors of wicked men. We would have shown him clearer than the light of
day that the Roman pontiffs, our predecessors, whom he injuriously
attacks beyond all decency, never erred in their canons or constitutions
which he tries to assail. For, according to the prophet, neither is
healing oil nor the doctor lacking in Galaad.
But he always refused to listen and, despising the
previous citation and each and every one of the above overtures,
disdained to come. To the present day he has been contumacious. With a
hardened spirit he has continued under censure over a year. What is
worse, adding evil to evil, and on learning of the citation, he broke
forth in a rash appeal to a future council. This to be sure was contrary
to the constitution of Pius II and Julius II our predecessors that all
appealing in this way are to be punished with the penalties of heretics.
In vain does he implore the help of a council, since he openly admits
that he does not believe in a council.
Therefore we can, without any further citation or
delay, proceed against him to his condemnation and damnation as one
whose faith is notoriously suspect and in fact a true heretic with the
full severity of each and all of the above penalties and censures. Yet,
with the advice of our brothers, imitating the mercy of almighty God who
does not wish the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and
live, and forgetting all the injuries inflicted on us and the Apostolic
See, we have decided to use all the compassion we are capable of. It is
our hope, so far as in us lies, that he will experience a change of
heart by taking the road of mildness we have proposed, return, and turn
away from his errors. We will receive him kindly as the prodigal son
returning to the embrace of the Church.
Therefore let Martin himself and all those
adhering to him, and those who shelter and support him, through the
merciful heart of our God and the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ by which and through whom the redemption of the human race
and the upbuilding of holy mother Church was accomplished, know that
from our heart we exhort and beseech that he cease to disturb the peace,
unity, and truth of the Church for which the Savior prayed so earnestly
to the Father. Let him abstain from his pernicious errors that he may
come back to us. If they really will obey, and certify to us by legal
documents that they have obeyed, they will find in us the affection of a
father's love, the opening of the font of the effects of paternal
charity, and opening of the font of mercy and clemency.
We enjoin, however, on Martin that in the meantime he cease from all preaching or the office of preacher.
{And even though the love of righteousness and
virtue did not take him away from sin and the hope of forgiveness did
not lead him to penance, perhaps the terror of the pain of punishment
may move him. Thus we beseech and remind this Martin, his supporters and
accomplices of his holy orders and the described punishment. We ask him
earnestly that he and his supporters, adherents and accomplices desist
within sixty days (which we wish to have divided into three times twenty
days, counting from the publication of this bull at the places
mentioned below) from preaching, both expounding their views and
denouncing others, from publishing books and pamphlets concerning some
or all of their errors. Furthermore, all writings which contain
some or all of his errors are to be burned. Furthermore, this Martin is
to recant perpetually such errors and views. He is to inform us of such
recantation through an open document, sealed by two prelates, which we
should receive within another sixty days. Or he should personally, with
safe conduct, inform us of his recantation by coming to Rome. We would
prefer this latter way in order that no doubt remain of his sincere
obedience.
If, however, this Martin, his supporters, adherents
and accomplices, much to our regret, should stubbornly not comply with
the mentioned stipulations within the mentioned period, we shall,
following the teaching of the holy Apostle Paul, who teaches us to avoid
a heretic after having admonished him for a first and a second time,
condemn this Martin, his supporters, adherents and accomplices as barren
vines which are not in Christ, preaching an offensive doctrine contrary
to the Christian faith and offend the divine majesty, to the damage and
shame of the entire Christian Church, and diminish the keys of the
Church as stubborn and public heretics.} . . .
