he says: "Above all other
abominations, the _masses_, that have hitherto been regarded as a
_sacrifice_ or _good work_, by which one designed to procure grace for
the other, are to be rejected." [Note 14] Here the distinction is not
only made between the mass and eucharist, but the doctrine of the mass
as a sacrifice of Christ offered by the priest for others, is also
denounced. It will also be recollected that this view of the mass as a
sacrifice, and as vicarious, is strongly denounced in the Augsburg
Confession, whilst the charge of having rejected the rite itself with
these and other modifications, is flatly denied, in these words: "It is
_unjustly_ charged against our churches, that they have abolished the
mass," (Art. XXIV., p. 21 of the Platform,) a thing never charged
against them in reference to the eucharist, for from the very beginning
of the Reformation, they charged the Papists with having mutilated it,
and claimed the restoration of the cup also to the laity.
5. In a _letter_ of September 20, 1530, addressed _to Justus Jonas_, one
of the theologians at the diet, Luther thus expresses himself: "For,
what else do our opponents, (the Papists,) presume to propose, than that
they shall not yield a hairsbreadth, but that we not only yield on the
subject of the canon, _the mass_, the _one kind_, (in the eucharist,)
celibacy, (of the clergy,) and jurisdiction (of the bishops); but shall
also admit that they have taught the truth, and acted properly in all
things, and were falsely accused by us.
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