Crudelitas Gallica

the gratuitous imputation, in which Scripture alone commands us to acquiesce, does not suffice.

We confess that faith opens to us the access to the invocation of God (whom we also ought to pray to, with full confidence that He will hear us, just as He has promised us) and that this honor is owed to Him alone, as the primary sacrifice by which we declare that we refer all things received to Him. Although we are clearly unworthy to stand before His majesty, yet if we have Jesus Christ as mediator and advocate, there is nothing more required of us. Hence it follows that we abominate the superstition which some have devised, of approaching the Saints, as if they were to be Patrons for us before God.

We confess that both the entire rule of living well and the instruction of faith are most fully handed down in holy Scripture, to which it is a sin to add anything or to take away. Therefore, we detest whatever men have devised in order to foist it upon us as articles of faith, and to bind consciences with their own laws and statutes. And thus, in general, we repudiate whatever has been introduced without the authority of the word of God for the worship of God: of which kind are all Papisticae Papal/Catholic ceremonies. Finally, we detest that tyrannical yoke by which miserable consciences have been oppressed: such as the law concerning auricular confession, concerning celibacy, and other things of this kind.

We confess that it is necessary for the Church to be governed by pastors, to whom has been entrusted the duty of preaching the word of God and administering the Sacraments: nor is it permitted to anyone to usurp this duty by his own arbitrary will, without legitimate election, so that confusion may be avoided. But if any who are called to this duty do not prove themselves sufficiently faithful in upholding it, they are to be removed. to be removed