The Blood of the Martyrs Cry Out
Were the Protestant Reformers martyred for their faith to promote ‘diversity within the Christian community’ or was it for the cause of truth and the advancement of the gospel?
The existence of ‘division and struggle’ is to be expected according to the doctrine of Christ…
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” [Matthew 10:34-36]
But the false prophets say peace where there is no peace and seek the approval of men in disregard to truth.
What would be the response of John Knox to this mockery of his reputation as Reformer?
These words from Knox will give us a flavor of his opinion of the RCC, and it will also introduce the forgotten subject of why the Protestant Reformers were burned at the stake rather than recant their beliefs. What was so important to them that they sacrificed their life as testimony to us who would come after them in the faith?
A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry
By John Knox http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/vindicat.htm
[INTRODUCTION]
The fourth of April, in the year 1550, was appointed to John Knox, preacher of the holy evangel of Jesus Christ, to give his confession why he affirmed the Mass [to be] idolatry: which day, in [the] presence of the council and congregation (amongst whom were also present the bishop of Durham and his doctors), on this manner he began:
This day I do appear in your presence, honourable audience, to give a reason why so constantly I do affirm the Mass to be, and at all times to have been, idolatry and abomination before God. And because men of great erudition in your audience affirmed the contrary, most gladly would I that they were present here, either in person, or else by their learned men, to ponder and weigh the causes moving me thereto. For unless I evidently prove my intent by God's holy scriptures, I will recant it as wicked doctrine, and confess myself most worthy of grievous punishment.
How difficult it is to pull forth of the hearts of the people the thing wherein [their] opinion of holiness stands, declares the great tumult and uproar moved against Paul by Demetrius and his fellows, who, by idolatry, got great advantage, as our priests have done by the Mass in time past. The people, I say, hearing that the honour of their great goddess Diana stood in jeopardy, with furious voices cried, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians" (Acts 19:23-41). As [if] they would say, "We will not have the magnificence of our great goddess Diana (whom not only Asia but the whole world worships) called into doubt, come into question or controversy. Away with all men intending that impiety." And hereunto they were moved by long custom and false opinion.
I know that in the Mass has not only been esteemed great holiness and honouring of God, but also the ground and foundation of our religion. So that, in the opinion of many, [if] the Mass [is] taken away, there rests no true worshipping nor honouring of God in the earth. The deeper it has pierced the hearts of men, it occupies the place of the last and mystical Supper of our Lord Jesus. But if I shall, by plain and evident scriptures, prove the Mass (in her most honest garment) to have been idolatry before God, and blasphemous to the death and passion of Christ, and contrary to the Supper of Jesus Christ; then good hope have I, honourable audience and beloved brethren, that the fear, love, and obedience of God, who in his scriptures has spoken all verity [truth] necessary for our salvation, will have you give place to the same.
"O Lord eternal! move and govern my tongue to speak the verity, and the hearts of thy people to understand and obey the same."
...[CONCLUSION]
Consider now, beloved brethren, what the fruits of the Mass have been, even in her greatest purity. The Mass is nothing but the invention of man, set up without all authority of God's word, for honouring of God; and therefore it is idolatry. Unto it is added a vain, false, deceitful, and most wicked opinion: that is, that by it is obtained remission of sins; and therefore it is abomination before God. It is contrary unto the Supper of Jesus Christ, and has taken away both the right use and remembrance thereof, and therefore it is blasphemous to Christ's death...
But I pass on to a point which I hold to be one of cardinal importance in the present day. The point I refer to is the special reason why our Reformers were burned. Great indeed would be our mistake if we supposed that they suffered for the vague charge of refusing submission to the Pope, or desiring to maintain the independence of the Church of England. Nothing of the kind! The principal reason why they were burned was because they refused one of the peculiar doctrines of the Romish Church. On that doctrine, in almost every case, hinged their life or death. If they admitted it, they might live; if they refused it, they must die.
Stained glass window depicting Anglican martyrs
Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer
There is a wonderful and striking unity in the stories of our martyrs on this subject. Some of them, no doubt, were attacked about the marriage of priests. Some of them were assaulted about the nature of the Catholic Church. Some of them were assailed on other points. But all, without an exception, were called to special account about the real presence, and in every case their refusal to admit the doctrine formed one principal cause of their condemnation.
Now, were the English Reformers right in being so stiff and unbending on this question of real presence? Was it a point of such vital importance that they were justified in dying before they would receive it? These are questions, I suspect, which are very puzzling to many unreflecting minds. Such minds, I fear, can see in the whole controversy about the real presence nothing but a…strife of words. But they are questions, I am bold to say, on which no well-instructed Bible reader can hesitate for a moment in giving his answer. Such an one will say at once that the Romish doctrine of the real presence strikes at the very root of the Gospel, and is the very citadel and keep of Popery. Men may not see this at first, but it is a point that ought to be carefully remembered. It throws a clear and broad light on the line which the Reformers took, and the unflinching firmness with which they died.
Whatever men please to think or say, the Romish doctrine of the real presence, if pursued to its legitimate consequences, obscures every leading doctrine of the Gospel, and damages and interferes with the whole system of Christ's truth. Grant for a moment that the Lord's Supper is a sacrifice, and not a sacrament - grant that every time the words of consecration are used the natural body and blood of Christ are present on the Communion Table under the forms of bread and wine - grant that every one who eats that consecrated bread and drinks that consecrated wine does really eat and drink the natural body and blood of Christ - grant for a moment these things, and then see what momentous consequences result from these premises. You spoil the blessed doctrine of Christ's finished work when He died on the cross. A sacrifice that needs to be repeated is not a perfect and complete thing. - You spoil the priestly office of Christ. If there are priests that can offer an acceptable sacrifice of God besides Him, the great High Priest is robbed of His glory. - You spoil the Scriptural doctrine of the Christian ministry. You exalt sinful men into the position of mediators between God and man. - You give to the sacramental elements of bread and wine an honour and veneration they were never meant to receive, and produce an idolatry to be abhorred of faithful Christians. - Last, but not least, you overthrow the true doctrine of Christ's human nature. If the body born of the Virgin Mary can be in more places than one at the same time, it is not a body like our own, and Jesus was not "the second Adam" in the truth of our nature.
I cannot doubt for a moment that our martyred Reformers saw and felt these things even more clearly than we do, and, seeing and feeling them, chose to die rather than admit the doctrine of the real presence. Feeling them, they would not give way by subjection for a moment, and cheerfully laid down their lives. Let this fact be deeply graven in our minds. Wherever the English language is spoken on the face of the globe this fact ought to be clearly understood by every Englishman who reads history. Rather than admit the doctrine of the real presence of Christ's natural body and blood under the forum of bread and wine, the Reformers of the Church of England were content to be burned.