But the Anabaptists had their martyrs as well, and they died with the same heroic faith.
Hätzer was burnt in Constance, Hübmaier in Vienna. In Passau thirty perished in prison. In Salzburg
some were mutilated, others beheaded, others drowned, still others burnt alive.^809 Unfortunately,
the Anabaptists were not much better treated by Protestant governments; even in Zürich several
were drowned in the river under the eyes of Zwingli. The darkest blot on Protestantism is the burning
of Servetus for heresy and blasphemy, at Geneva, with the approval of Calvin and all the surviving
Reformers, including Melanchthon (1553). He had been previously condemned, and burnt in effigy,
by a Roman-Catholic tribunal in France. Now such a tragedy would be impossible in any church.
The same human passions exist, but the ideas and circumstances have changed.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SACRAMENTARIAN CONTROVERSIES.
§ 101. Sacerdotalism and Sacramentalism.
The Catholic system of Christianity, both Greek and Roman, is sacramental and sacerdotal.
The saving grace of Christ is conveyed to men through the channel of seven sacraments, or
"mysteries," administered by ordained priests, who receive members into the church by baptism,
accompany them through the various stages of life, and dismiss them by extreme unction into the
other world. A literal priesthood requires a literal sacrifice, and this is the repetition of Christ’s one
sacrifice on the cross offered by the priest in the mass from day to day. The power of the mass
extends not only to the living, but even to departed spirits in purgatory, abridging their sufferings,
and hastening their release and transfer to heaven.
The Reformers rejected the sacerdotal system altogether, and substituted for it the general
priesthood of believers, who have direct access to Christ as our only Mediator and Advocate, and
are to offer the spiritual sacrifices of prayer, praise, and intercession. They rejected the sacrifice of
the mass, and the theory of transubstantiation, and restored the cup to the laity. They also agreed
in raising the Word of God, as the chief means of grace, above the sacraments, and in reducing the
number of the sacraments. They retained Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as instituted by Christ
for universal and perpetual observance.
But here begins the difference. It consists in the extent of departure from the sacramental
system of the Roman Church. The Lutheran Confession is, we may say, semi-sacramental, or much
more sacramental than the Reformed (if we except the Anglican communion).^810 It retained the
doctrine of baptismal regeneration, with the rite of exorcism, and the corporal presence in the
eucharist. The Augsburg Confession makes the sacraments an essential criterion of the church.
Luther’s Catechism assigns to them an independent place alongside of the Commandments, the
Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. It adds to baptism and the Lord’s Supper confession and absolution
as a third sacrament. At a later period, confirmation was restored to the position of a quasi-sacrament
as a supplement of infant-baptism.
(^809) Ranke, III. 369.
(^810) Claus Harms, a typical Lutheran of the nineteenth century, published in 1817 Ninety-five Theses against Rationalism in the Lutheran
Church, one of which reads thus (I quote from memory): "The Catholic Church is a glorious church; for it is built upon the Sacrament.
The Reformed Church is a glorious church; for it is built upon the Word. But more glorious than either is the Lutheran Church; for it is
built upon both the Word and the Sacrament."