Maximilian, thus persuaded, placed all his force at the disposal of the
emperor.
The Elector of Saxony was a Lutheran; the Elector Palatine a Calvinist.
The Lutherans believed, that after the consecration of the bread and
wine at the sacramental table, the body and blood of Christ were
spiritually present with that bread and wine. This doctrine, which they
called _consubstantiation_, they adopted in antagonism to the papal
doctrine of _transubstantiation_, which was that the bread and wine were
actually transformed into, and became the real body and blood of Christ.
The difference between the Calvinists and the Lutherans, as we have
before mentioned, was that, while the former considered the bread and
wine in the sacraments as _representing_ the body and the blood of
Christ, the latter considered the body and the blood as spiritually
present in the consecrated elements. This trivial difference divided
brethren who were agreed upon all the great points of Christian faith,
duty and obligation. It is melancholy, and yet instructive to observe,
through the course of history, how large a proportion of the energies of
Christians have been absorbed in contentions against each other upon
shadowy points of doctrine, while a world has been perishing in
wickedness.
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