month in the time of the old covenant. But this day did not every year fall on the same day of the week. Many of the early Christians celebrated the passover although it was done away at the death of Christ, but they celebrated it at the same time as the Jews. The Eastern church continued to celebrate the passover at this time, but the Western church would observe it on the Sunday following the first new moon after the equinox of spring. In the year 196, the bishop of Rome endeavored to compel all Christians to observe the passover, or easter, on Sunday like the Roman Church. This attempt, however, did not succeed before 325, when the great council of Nice ordained that the time for the celebration of the easter should be the same through all the Christian church according to the custom of the Romans. 22 This together with Constantine's Sunday law published in 321 contributed greatly to exalt the day of the sun. Constantine's Sunday law read as follows: "Let all judges, inhabitants of the cities, and artificers rest on the venerable Sunday. But in the country, husbandmen may freely and lawfully attend to the business of agriculture; since it often happens that the sowing of corn and planting of vines cannot be so advantageously performed on any other day; lest by neglecting the opportunity, they should lose the benefits which the divine bounty bestows on us." 23 After this time the Western church enforced Sunday keeping more and more. This succeeded so well that the Catholic Church at last as a proof of its power and authority could point to the fact that it had changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Of the presumption of the Catholic Church in this direction we read in the Augsburg Confession, art. 28, par. 9: 22 Dowling's "History of Romanism," p. 32; Andrew's "History of the Sabbath," pp. 274, 275. 23 International Cyclopedia; Chamber's Cyclopedia, art. Sabbath. "They state that the Sabbath has been changed to Sunday, to all appearance contrary to the ten commandments, neither is there anything whereof they make so much ado as of the change of the Sabbath. Great, they say, must be the power of the church if it can exempt from keeping one of the ten commandments." 25 20 Just as the Lord presents the Sabbath as an everlasting sign of his divine power to create and to redeem, so the papal power presents the Sunday rest, which it has introduced in the place of God's Sabbath, as a mark of the power and authority of the church; and just as God has given his Sabbath to be a sign between him and his children for a perpetual covenant, so the man of sin claims that those who keep Sunday do thereby acknowledge that the Catholic Church has power to change the commandments of God and the worship ordained by him, and to ordain other commandments and ordinances. In this particular the papal power has certainly exalted itself above God. If any one should ask whether this is sufficient to prove that the papacy has exalted itself "above all that is called God, or that is worshiped," then we must answer, No. But before the reader has finished this and the two following chapters, he will, no doubt, see that the man of sin has exalted himself above all that pertains to God and his service. Indulgences. The Lord says: "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." 27 Our Saviour testifies: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me. And the apostle says: "Neither is there salvation. in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” ” "128 25 Konkordiebogen," pp. 38, 39. 27 Isa. 43: 25. 28 John 14:6. These texts show plainly that none but God can forgive sin, and that this forgiveness of sin can be obtained only through faith in Christ. But the Catholic Church teaches that no one can be saved without faith in the Catholic Church, and that the popes, being the successors of St. Peter, have power to forgive sin because Peter obtained the keys of the kingdom of heaven. At first the indulgences consisted in remitting some penance for sin (punishment prescribed by the church). In the ninth century this remittance could be obtained for a certain sum of money. In the sixteenth century, Pope Leo X ordered that indulgences should be preached in all the Catholic churches. The money should be used for building St. Peter's church in Rome. On this occasion the preachers of indulgences went so far with their nuisance that it provoked all the noble people and gave rise to the Reformation. The form of these indulgences was as follows: "May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by his authority, that of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and of the most holy pope, granted and committed to me by these parts, do absolve thee, first from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they have been incurred; then from all thy sins, transgressions and excesses, how enormous soever they may be even for such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy see, and as far as the keys of the holy church extend. I remit to you all punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account; and I restore to you the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to the innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism; so that when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delights, shall be opened; and if thou shalt not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force when you are at the point of death. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." According to a book, called the "Tax of the Sacred Roman Chancery," in which are contained the exact 29 Acts 4: 12. sums to be levied for the pardon of each particular sin, we find some of the fees to be thus: Tetzel, a learned monk, a prior of the Dominicans, who excelled all others in the nefarious work of selling indulgences, taught the people that God had given all power to the pope, and that those papal indulgences had saved more souls than St. Peter with his sermons. He also taught that the indulgences saved not only the living, but also the dead. Tetzel said: "The very moment that the money clinks against the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purgatory, and flies free to heaven." 31 But all were not deceived. Some even bought indulgences in order to oppose this wicked work. "On one occasion a gentleman of Saxony had heard Tetzel at Leipsic, and was much shocked by his impostures. He went to the monk, and inquired if he was authorized to pardon sins in intention, or such as the applicant intended to commit ? Assuredly,' answered Tetzel; 'I have full power from the pope to do so.' 'Well,' returned the gentleman, I want to take some slight revenge on one of my enemies, without attempting his life. I will pay you ten crowns, if you will give me a letter of indulgence that shall bear me harmless.' Tetzel made some scruples; they struck their bargain 30 Religious Cyclopedia, art. Indulgences. 66 31 Dowling's History of Romanism," book vi, chap. vi, par. 75. |