# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1863_S231
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Theological Axioms. 231

...ruling woman (mistress), and the bishops do not lord it over the church's faith, nor may they burden and oppress it against its will. For they are only servants and stewards, not lords of the church. (Luther.)

74. We can grant the bishops no power, whether by ecclesiastical or by secular law, to command anything to the church — however right and godly it might be — for nothing evil is to be done so that good may come of it. Even were they to proceed by force and to compel it, we must not obey nor consent to it, but rather die, to preserve the distinction between these two governments. (Luther.)

75. St. Peter has, with a single word, overthrown and condemned all the government that the pope now exercises, and concludes plainly that they have no power to command a word, but that they are to be only servants, and are to say: "This is what your Lord Christ says; therefore you shall do this." (Luther.)

76. Citant (papistae) et hoc: Obedite praepositis vestris. Haec sen-
tentia requirit obedientiam erga evangelium; non enim constituit regnum
episcopis extra evangelium. (Apologia.)

"Also they (the papists) cite this saying too, from Hebrews chapter 13: 'Obey those who lead you, etc.' This saying requires that one be obedient to the Gospel; for it gives the bishops no lordship of their own, or power to rule, outside the Gospel." (Apology.)

77. Advertendum est, quando episcopis Augustana confessio concedit
jus ordinandi ceremonias, id fieri pro istius temporis ratione, ubi ex jure
humano ipsis id quoque competebat. (Carpzovius.)

It is well worth noting that when the Augsburg Confession grants the bishops the right to order ceremonies, this happens in keeping with the character of that time, in which this too fell to them by human right.

78. In Novo Testamento ecclesiastica jurisdictio, quae juris divini
sit, nulla est, nisi generalis, ut omnia ordine et decenter fiant in ecclesia.
(Calovius.)

In the New Testament there is no ecclesiastical jurisdiction that would be of divine right, except the general one: that everything in the church be done in an orderly and honorable way.

79. Among Christians there shall and can be no ruling authority. (Luther.)

80. What, then, are priests and bishops? Answer: their governance is not a ruling authority or power, but a service and an office; for they are not higher or better than other Christians. Therefore they shall also lay no law or command upon others without those others' own will and leave, but their governing is nothing other than the driving home of God's Word, so that by it they may lead Christians and overcome heresy. (Luther.)

(To be continued.)