Calvin Synod Herald, 2000 (101. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-09-01 / 9-10. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 3 Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” of 1517 (Translated for Bishop Francis Vitéz by David Tripp, Bremen, Indiana) <...> words inserted into the text to make terms such as “they” or “this” more explicit. In love and zeal for elucidating the truth, these topics set out below will be disputed at Wittenberg under the presidency of the Revd Fr Martin Luther, Master of Arts, Master of Sacred Theology and also Lecturer-in-Ordinary of both Arts and Sacred Theology in that place. He asks that those who cannot personally attend to debate with us verbally should in their absence do the same by letter. In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. 1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, by saying “Perform repentance,” etc. decreed that the entire life of believers should be repentance. 2. This word cannot be interpreted as referring to sacramental penance )that is, the sacrament of confession and making satisfaction, performed by the ministry of priests). 3. Yet he did not refer solely to inward <penitence> - indeed, inward <penitence> is nothing, unless it results visibly in various mortifications of the flesh. 4. Punishment remains as long as hatred of oneself remains (that is, true penitence within), that is, until <our> entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. 5. The Pope does not intend nor has he the power to remit any penalties except those which he has imposed either by his personal judgement or that of the canons. 6. The Pope has no power to remit any guilt except by declaring and confirming that it has been remitted by God - or else, indeed, by remitting in cases reserved to his jurisdiction, and if these are treated with contempt, the guilt would still remain. 7. God remits guilt to no-one without at the same time humbling that person in all things and making them subject tot he priest as His representative. 8. The penitential canons apply only to the living, and, according to what they themselves say, no burden may be imposed upon people about to die. 9. The Holy Spirit, then, working in the Pope, benefits us by making a regular exception, in his <the Pope’s> decrees, for the moment of death of acute need. 10. The Priests who extend canonical penances into purgatory for the dying are acting ignorantly and wickedly. 11. Those weeds, the changing of canonical penances into the penalty of purgatory, were obviously sown when the bishops were asleep. 12. At one time, canonical penances were imposed, not after absolution, but before it, as if they were tests of true contrition. 13. Through their dying, those about to die resolve everything, and they are dead to the laws of the canonical system, being granted as if right a relaxation of those laws. 14. Imperfect < spiritual > health or charity in a dying person necessarily brings with it great fear, all the greater as it < the health or charity > is less. 15. This fear and horror is of itself enough (to say nothing of other matters) to create the pain of purgatory, since it is next to the horror of despair. 16. Hell, purgatory and heaven seem to differ from one another in the same way that despair, near-despair and safety differ from one another. 17. It seems necessary for souls in purgatory that, as their horror is reduced, their charity should be increased. 18. Nor does it seem proved, by arguments of reason or Scripture, that they < souls in purgatory > are beyond the possibility of merit or of the increase in charity. 19. Nor does this seem to be proved, that they, or in any case all of them, are assured and secured of their < eternal > blessedness, even if we are completely certain of it. 20. The Pope therefore, by <his> plenary remission of all penalties, does not mean literally “all,” but only <remission> of those < penalties > imposed by himself. 21. Those preachers of indulgences who say that anyone is loosed and saved from all penalty through the indulgences of the Pope are therefore in error. 22. Nor indeed does he remit to souls in purgatory any penalty which they ought, according to the Canons, to have undergone in this life. 23. If remission of all penalties whatsoever can be granted to anyone at all, it is certain that it cannot be granted to anyone but to those who are most perfect - which means, to extremely few. 24. For this reason, it si necessary that the greater part of the people are being deceived by that indiscriminate and presumptuous promise of the penalty loosed. 25. Whatever sort of power the Pope has in regard to purgatory, bishop and parish priest respectively have exactly the same in their specific diocese or parish. 26. The Pope is acting at his best when he grants souls remission, not by the power of the keys (which he simply does not possess), but in the form of intercessory prayer. 27. Those who perpetually say that, when the money rings as it is thrown into the collection-box, a soul flies out <of purgatory >, are preaching a mere human invention. 28. It is certain that, when money is ringing < as it falls > into the box, greed and avarice may on the increase; but the intercession of the church is totally dependent on the will of God. 29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be redeemed according to the story of what Saints Severinus and Paschal did? 30. No-one is certain of the reality of their own contrition, even less of the results of a plenary remission <of penalties for sin>. 31. How rare a true penitent is, and equally rare is one who truly buys < effective > indulgences - that is, extremely rare! 32. Those who believe that they are certain of their own salvation by virtue of letters of pardon will be damned for eternity, together with those who taught them so. 33. Beware especially of those who say that those “pardons” of the Pope are that inestimable gift of God whereby humankind are reconciled to God. 34. Those graces which are purchased relate only to those penalties established by mere human authority as conditions of satisfaction in the sacrament of penance. 35. Those who teach that contrition is not needed by people who set out to redeem their souls or to purchase the benefits of confession, are preaching non-Christian things 36. Any and every Christian who is truly contrite has a full re
