To this decided declaration of Melancthon, we might add his assertions
on other occasions. Let a single one suffice. In his letter to Margrave
George, of Brandenburg, on the _private_ mass, he uses this language:
"Finally, as your excellence wishes to know what we retain in our
churches of the ceremonies of the mass, I would inform your excellence,
that the mass is entirely abolished, _except when are persons present_
who wish to receive the Lord's Supper;" [Note 37] that is, we have
entirely abolished private masses; at which, as it is well known, no
one communed but the priest himself, but retain the _public mass_ at
communion seasons.
_Finally_, to make assurance doubly sure, we will add a similar
testimony from Luther himself, in a letter of Counsel to Lazarus
Spengler, in 1528: "In the _first place_, let all masses be absolutely
dispensed with at which there are no communicants present; as they
properly ought to be set aside. Secondly, that in the two parish
churches (namely, in Nuerenberg, where Spongier resided,) one or two
masses should be held on Sabbath and holy days, according as there may
be many or few communicants." [Note 38]
Now, in this passage, the word mass either means Lord's Supper in
general or mass in particular. It does not mean the former, because it
was something which Luther says had been performed _without any_
communicants being present, but should not be performed hereafter,
unless there were communicants.
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