6

Against the Old and New Papistic Masses

(October 1524)

Karlstadt’s short pamphlet Wider die alte vnd newe Papistische Messen was concerned with issues of liturgical reform rather than the more controversial question of Christ’s bodily presence in the mass. It proved to be the most frequently reprinted of Karlstadt’s eucharistic pamphlets. In addition to the first edition printed by Thomas Wolff in Basel in October 1524 (VD16, B6261; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 131), there are two more imprints from 1524, one printed in Colmar (VD16, B6262; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 132) and the other in Strasbourg (VD16, B6186; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 133), with the variant title Ejn schone kurcze vnd Christliche vnterrichtung der rechten widder die alte vnnd neüwe papistische meß. There were two more imprints in 1525, the first printed in Augsburg (VD16, B6175; Barge and Freys, “Verzeichnis,” no. 134), with the title, Ain nutzliche vnd auß hayliger schrifft gegrünte vnderweisung, wider der alten vnd neuwen Papistischen Messzen müsszbrauch, and the second in Ulm (VD16, B6263; not in “Verzeichnis”). I have used the Basel imprint for my translation (Köhler, Flugschriften, 95, no. 256).

[A1v] Dear Brother N., you have asked me to write something about the German mass, and especially about the new inventions and additions, etc. I am willing to serve you not only in this matter but in others as well. Thus I will briefly respond to your articles, beginning with the first.

It is not only right but necessary that in our German lands we read, preach, and do the other things that Christ commanded chiefly in the German language. All bystanders should be edified by this and know whether one is proclaiming God’s word to them or not, as you see in 1 Corinthians 14[:5]. Paul took this reasoning from Moses, who told how some read the benediction over God’s servants and some [read] God’s curses against the devil’s members, and all the people were to say “amen,” as you can learn from Deuteronomy 27[:15–26] and other passages in Moses.

But the people can’t say “amen” to the statements of those leading worship if they hear the speaker using an unknown language. Thus it is necessary that one explain everything in the church to the people in their own language. Each one should lay aside his prayers and all else in the church and simply listen to what is being proclaimed,¹ and he should listen to the speaker or preacher as if he were going to judge or pass sentence on him. Thus Paul says that one or two should speak and the others interpret, 1 Corinthians 14[:27].

Second, watch out that some do not confirm the old errors using the German language and strengthen the poor simple people in their error. For they will soon say, “Now I’ve rightly heard the mass,” if the lesson has been read to them in German. This is what those do who call the Lord’s Supper a sacrifice with their words or works and deeds.

[A2r] Our poor neighboring priests are reformed in this way: they read to the simple people the Epistles and Gospels in German, which in itself is blameless, but they say at the same time and along with it that Christ is a sacrifice in the holy mass. But you as a Christian can judge what kind of abominable sin this statement is. For my part, I have revealed this in a pamphlet On the Priesthood and Sacrifice of Christ, and I hope you will not allow your pastor to bring forth our savior Jesus Christ as an executioner would treat an evildoer, for his misdeeds will also be credited to you for allowing this.

Some say, write, and preach that Christ isn’t a sacrifice, but they still use the word mass and call the Lord’s Supper a mass. This is the same as if I were to say publicly, “N. is a pious man, he doesn’t steal from others,” but I still called him a thief or robber. The reason is that the word mass is not German or Latin but Hebrew, and in good German it means “a voluntary offering.”² Although it is allowed for Christians to call Christ in the sacrament—or the sacrament in which Christ is supposed to be—a mass, I want you to know that this so much as says that Christ didn’t suffer sufficiently once and for all, that Christ is still mortal, that he must be tortured for our sins in the mass. Also, that Christ’s sacrifice is so small that a poor, stinking, impure, knavish priest can offer him, although no one can make this sacrifice but Christ himself, the highest and purest priest. Look at the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapters 4[:14–16], 5[:1–6], 8[:1–7], 9[:11–14], and 10[:11–14], and read it diligently and meditatively, and you will learn what an abominable sacrilege it is if a sinful man claims to sacrifice Christ.

It is much worse to say that Christ is a sacrifice when a priest holds mass than to say that Christ’s passion was insufficient, because from such a statement or saying [A2v] it follows that Christ’s sacrifice was and still is impure, guilty, sinful, blemished, insufficient, unreasoning, self-willed, and disobedient, as the lousy and wicked priest is who claims to sacrifice Christ’s body and blood. If the above-mentioned points are rightly considered, all kinds of abominations are seen to follow from them and it becomes clear that the word mass is now applied to Christ against Christ’s passion, sacrifice, and glory. In this Dr. Martin³ is completely wrong, and the poor bishop of Zwickau⁴ has in this case a papist holiness because he calls the Lord’s Supper a mass.

They confirm their falling away with their deeds and practices and confess that Christ is a sacrifice in the mass, although they squeak out something else with their pens, and they do it this way: they elevate the host as well as the cup, and show by this elevation that the one whom they elevate is still a sacrifice and that their bread and wine is a sacrifice, for this practice is based on the old law and has its origin and basis there.

In the old law God commanded that the Jews had to bring their sheaves of grain and other things to their priests, and the priests raised them up and then lowered them, and through this raising and lowering they offered such things to God, as you read in Leviticus 8[:27–29], 9[:21], 10[:14–15], 14[:21–24], 23[:12–20], and Numbers 21 [8:11–21]. This elevation or offering is called in Hebrew thruma.⁵ In the same way the priests raise up and lower the sacrament in the mass, and without vocation they put themselves forward as lazy priests of the angelic offering that Christ alone can offer and so step into the place of the executioners, persecutors, and murderers of Christ.

There was another type of elevation of what was offered that was called thnupha in Hebrew, in which he waved or raised the offering to the right and left, in front and behind himself,⁶ as they now move the sacrament around on the day of Corpus Christi, and so they again show that Christ [A3r] is a sacrifice and that the stinking, faithless priests can sacrifice to God and that the newly offered Christ can forgive sins. This [practice] is now beginning to decline and more so than the mass. But both are against God’s honor and a confession of their unbelief, for they value Christ less than the unbelieving Turks esteem him.

In the first elevation all Wittenberg errs, but they say that they don’t mean it this way and they boast that they are so highly freed from the law that they can twist God’s word and interpret it in another way than how God interpreted his word and practices. How Christian that is, you must decide. You know that Christ never did any of this, that he also never broke the law but fulfilled it, and that we should judge the Wittenbergers according to God’s law and may call them erring if they twist the work of the law or act wrongly. If they were to allow circumcision, wouldn’t we rightly call them circumcised Jews even if they snort and seethe about it? And so I say that if they can elevate the sacrament, then we can say or write that they are offering Christ because God appropriated and established elevation for offerings. If they protest that they don’t call Christ a sacrifice but they still offer him through their elevation or waving about, you know what their protestation means, which occurs as an act against the substance. God has blinded them in their willfulness and allowed them to fall into many horrible errors.

Act as a knightly Christian and let that go which has the color of an anti-Christian practice. Fear God and not men. The time for our lives is short and eternity approaches. You must remain eternally either in God’s wrath and punishment or in his grace and peace.

Now some have come up with a new practice: they turn [A3v] towards the people and read the words that Christ spoke, etc., and in the other hand they hold the sacrament and say, “Take, eat,” etc., and elevate it. This is as devilish and evil as the old custom because their elevation agrees entirely with the old elevation. It is as horrible as the old [custom] and has all the faults that the old has. It is more of a mockery because they say to the people, “Take, eat,” and show them the bread, and when they have said, “Take this bread” and offered it to them, then they immediately turn around as if they were worried that someone would take what is offered and they lay the bread aside. It belongs to one of those things they promise but don’t do.

If we held Christ’s ordinance plainly and considered Christ as wise and clever enough to establish and institute his Supper in the very best way, then we wouldn’t fall into so many kinds of errors. Then the Lord’s bread would have remained food and his cup a drink that we would all use rightly and well in his remembrance, as the apostles and their brethren used it.

To whom did Christ command that he should elevate his Supper in the air and show it to the people? But if Christ didn’t command it, how are we so bold that we criticize such a great prince and lord in his ordinance? Could they endure such sin against their laws? And they have neither redeemed us nor reconciled us to God. I don’t need to teach you how the Gospel speaks of the use of the Lord’s bread and cup, for the text is easy, clear, and bright enough in itself, Matthew 26[:26–28], Mark 14[:22–24], Luke 22[:19–20]; Paul, 1 Corinthians 11[:23–25], the other apostles in the histories, Acts 2[:46], 20[:11], 27[:35].

A supper means a food, but one puts food in the mouth. If it is a food or drink that one eats or drinks in remembrance of someone, then you must keep that same remembrance. Now Christ [A4r] gave us his bread and cup to eat so that we would think of him as one who gave his soul for us, who placed himself in the hands of the executioners and devils who had bound us and led us to death, as you have heard and well know. In the same way and in no other, we must take and eat the bread and cup of the Lord Christ. Anyone who wants to do it better acts as if he wants to teach and instruct Christ and as if he scorns Christ’s wisdom, as you can understand. See, if you had made an ordinance and a poor peasant came along and wanted to improve your ordinance, would you endure this without resentment? Wouldn’t you think that the peasant considers himself much wiser than you?

But isn’t it true what Paul says, Romans 8[:7], that the wisdom of the flesh is enmity with God and the death of men? Truly, truly, all our reason, understanding, and wisdom in divine things are our death, for they are opposed to God and can’t be subject to God. Our wisdom repudiates God’s wisdom and makes God into a fool in all of those things that our wisdom devises when it wants to serve God better than God instituted, as you have seen from the above-mentioned examples. Yes, although the wise man said, “You should not depend on or trust your own wisdom,” Proverbs [3:5], and Paul, “You should not consider yourselves wise,” Romans 12[:3]. You know what Peter heard from Christ when he wanted to make something better than what Christ said, Matthew 16[:23]. Didn’t Christ say, “you Satan,” only because he was wise according to his flesh and blood? But reason wouldn’t have been able to punish Peter.

Oh how constant and true is the statement, Isaiah 55[:8], “My thoughts are not like yours and my ways are not like your ways.” For God’s ways are constant, but our ways are a slippery path in the [A4v] darkness, Jeremiah 23[:12]. He who builds on his own thoughts and ways will be as firm as one who goes up a slippery, wet, and icy mountain in the dark. Thus God has overthrown all that we or others have devised. Nothing is fitting before him but what is his. Everything else must be uprooted, in accordance with what Christ said, “Every plant that my heavenly father has not planted must be uprooted,” Matthew 15[:13]. And he said the same thing against human inventions or teachings when he said, “Behold, the people want to honor me with human teachings, but their heart is far from me” [Mark 7:6–7]. It is truly far away, for it despises divine wisdom, although it appears good and divine.

God long ago recognized our carelessness and destroyed it through his prohibitions when he said to the Jews, “When you enter into the land of the Gentiles and see their lovely and harsh worship with which they serve their gods, you should not do as they do,” Deuteronomy 12[:29–31]. That is to say, “You should not be moved to worship me in any other way than I have commanded by either the appearance or the harshness of divine worship or anything else.” The Gentiles had a more harsh worship than the Jews did, for they sacrificed their children to worship their gods. But the Jews were not to do this, Deuteronomy 18[:10–12]. Thus one must not look at either the holiness or the harshness or at anything other than God’s ordinance.

For this reason it is truly devilish, as you write and say, that men can be so stubborn and stupid that they break the ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ and want to establish his worship better than Christ ordained for them. They have all broken their obligation to Christ.

Let the mass fall away completely, I advise you, but if you want to have the Lord’s Supper, hold it according to the ordinance of Christ, which is clear and bright and doesn’t need my explanation. If you aren’t content, write me about the faults you find, for I desire to serve you. 1524.