Luther developed this idea in his own way, and modified it in application to the visible
church. He started from the article of the Creed, "I believe in the holy catholic church," but identified
this article with the "communion of saints," as a definition of the catholic church.^686 He explained
the communion (Gemeinschaft) to mean the community or congregation (Gemeinde) of saints. He
also substituted, in his Catechism, the word "Christian" for "catholic," in order to include in it all
believers in Christ. Hence the term "catholic" became, or remained, identical in Germany with
"Roman Catholic" or "papal;"^687 while the English Protestant churches very properly retained the
word "catholic" in, its true original sense of "universal," which admits of no sectarian limitation.
The Romanists have no claim to the exclusive use of that title; they are too sectarian and exclusive
to be truly catholic.
Luther held that the holy church in its relation to God is an article of faith, not of sight, and
therefore invisible.^688 But as existing among men the true church is visible, and can be recognized
by the right preaching of the gospel or the purity of doctrine, and by the right administration of the
sacraments (i.e., baptism and the Lord’s Supper). These are the two essential marks of a pure church.
The first he emphasized against the Romanists, the second against what he called Enthusiasts
(Schwarmgeister) and Sacramentarians (in the sense of anti-sacramentarians).
His theory acquired symbolical authority through the Augsburg Confession, which defines
the church to be "the congregation of saints in which the gospel is rightly taught, and the sacraments
are rightly administered."^689 Worship and discipline, rites and ceremonies, are made secondary or
indifferent, and reckoned with human traditions which may change from time to time. The church
has no right to impose what is not commanded in the Word of God. In such things everybody is
his own pope and church. The Lutheran Confession has always laid great—we may say too
great—stress on the unity of doctrine, and little, too little, stress on discipline. And yet in no other
evangelical denomination is there such a diversity of theological opinions, from the strict orthodoxy
of the Formula Concordiae to every form and degree of Rationalism.
(^686) This identification may be questioned. The holy catholic church corresponds rather to the church visible, the communion of saints
to the church invisible. The communion of saints means that inward and spiritual fellowship of true believers on earth and in heaven
which is based on their union with Christ. It is their fellowship with God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Comp. 1 John 1:3; 1 Cor.
1:9; Phil. 2:1), and with each other, a fellowship not broken by death, but extending to the saints above. A most precious idea.
"The saints in heaven and on earth
But one communion make;
All join In Christ, their living Head,
And of his grace partake."
The article of the communio sanctorum (as well as the epithet catholica) is a later insertion, and not found in the creeds before the
fifth century. See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, I. 22 and II. 52. The oldest commentators understood it of the communion with the
saints in heaven. According to the Catechism of the Council of Trent, it means "a community of spiritual blessings," especially the
sacraments enjoyed in the Catholic Church. A more comprehensive and satisfactory exposition is given by Pearson on the Creed, Art.
IX., and in the Westminster Confession, Ch. XXVI.
(^687) The German proverb, ."Das ist um katholisch zu werden" (This is to turn Catholic), describes a condition of things that drives one
to desperation or madness.
(^688) In his second Commentary on the Galatians (Erl. ed., III. 38): "Recte igitur fatemur in symbolo, noscredereecclesiam sanctam. Est
eniminvisibilis, habitans in Spiritu, in loco inaccessibili, ideo non potestvideriejus sanctitas."
(^689) Art. VII., "Est autem ecclesia congregatio sanctorum [Germ. ed., Versammlung aller Gläubigen], in qua evangelium recte [rein]
docetur, et recte [laut des Evangelii] administrantur sacramenta." Comp. the Apol. Conf., Art. VII. and VIII. The same definition is
substantially given in the Anglican Art. XIX. It would exclude the Quakers, who reject the external sacraments, yet are undoubted believers
in Christ. The Calvinistic Confessions (e.g., Conf. Belgica, Art. XXIX.) and characteristically to those two marks a third one, the exercise
of discipline In punishing sin.