Note 1017 — Chapter XXXVIII · END OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. THE CHURCH-UNSEEN AND THE VISIBLE CHURCH-BY-LAW

To Anton Lauterbach, May 7, 1542, “Briefe,” ed. De Wette, 5, p. 468. The persons in question had already frequently communicated under both kinds as a sign of their entry into Lutheranism, but had passed unfavourable criticisms on certain measures of Luther’s. He commissions Lauterbach: “Ubi etiam pœnituerint, hoc exigendum est, ut hactenus a nobis gesta et in posterum gerenda probent. Alioqui quæ erit pœnitentia, si nostra facta damnaverint hoc est sua omnia per fictam pœnitentiam stabilierint?”