Crudelitas Gallica

Concerning Baptism and the Supper of the Lord

through Baptism: and in that matter, we detest the frenzies of the Anabaptists.

As it pertains to the Supper of the Lord, we confess that it is a testimony of our union with Christ: since He not only died once and rose again for us, but also truly feeds and nourishes us with His flesh and blood, so that we may be one with Him, and His life may be common to us. For although He remains in the heavens for the time being, until He comes to judge the world, we believe nevertheless that He, relying on the secret and incomprehensible power of His Spirit, vivifies our souls with the substance of His body and blood.

In general, however, we confess that God, in the Supper as well as in Baptism, gives to us in reality and effectively whatever He represents in them. But for the perception of such a great good, it is required that we join the word with the signs. In which matter we detest the abuse and perversion of the Papists, who have removed from the Sacraments what was most important, namely the doctrine which might teach us the true use and the fruit flowing from it, and they have changed them into magical illusions.

Likewise, we confess that water, although it is a perishable element, nevertheless truly testifies to us in Baptism the true presence of the blood of Jesus Christ and of His Spirit: and in the Supper of the Lord, that the bread and wine are to us true and not at all deceptive pledges that we are truly nourished by the body and blood of Christ. And thus we join to the signs the possession and the actual enjoyment of that which is offered to us there.

Likewise, since the holy Supper, such as it was instituted by Jesus Christ, is a sacred treasure of infinite value to us, we detest that intolerable sacrilege, that execrable abomination of the Mass, useful for this one thing alone: that whatever Christ left to us might be overturned. This is true both in that it is said to be a sacrifice for the living and the dead, and also in all the rest, which are diametrically opposed to the purity of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.