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.
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