Article III Repentance
[1] The New Testament keeps and urges this office ‹of the Law›, as St. Paul does when he says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrigh-teousness of men” (Romans 1:18). Also, “the whole world may be accountable to God. … No human being will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:19–20). And, Christ says, the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin (John 16:8).
[2] This is God’s thunderbolt. By the Law He strikes down both obvious sinners and false saints. He declares no one to be in the right, but drives them all together to terror and despair. This is the hammer. As Jeremiah says, “Is not My word like … a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (23:29). This is not active contrition or manufactured repentance. It is passive contrition, true sorrow of heart, suffering, and the sensation of death.
[3] This is what true repentance means. Here a person needs to hear something like this, “You are all of no account, whether you are obvious sinners or saints ‹in your own opinions›. You have to become different from what you are now. You have to act differently than you are now acting, whether you are as great, wise, powerful, and holy as you can be. Here no one is godly.”
[4] But to this office of the Law, the New Testament immediately adds the consoling promise of grace through the Gospel. This must be believed. As Christ declares, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). That is, become different, act differently, and believe My promise. [5] John the Baptist (preceding Christ) is called a preacher of repentance, but this is for the forgiveness of sins. That is, John was to accuse all and convict them of being sinners. This is so they can know what they are before God and acknowledge that they are lost. So they can be prepared for the Lord [Mark 1:3] to receive grace and to expect and accept from Him the forgiveness of sins. [6] This is what Christ Himself says, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in [My] name to all nations” (Luke 24:47).
[7] Whenever the Law alone exercises its office, without the Gospel being added, there is nothing but death and hell, and one must despair, as Saul and Judas did [1 Samuel 31; Matthew 27:5]. St. Paul says, through sin the Law kills. [See Romans 7:10.] [8] On the other hand, the Gospel brings consolation and forgiveness. It does so not just in one way, but through the Word and the Sacraments and the like, as we will discuss later. As Psalm 130:7 says against the dreadful captivity of sin, “with the LORD is … plentiful redemption.”
[9] However, we now have to contrast the false repentance of the sophists with true repentance, in order that both may be understood better.
The False Repentance of the Papists
[10] It was impossible for them to teach correctly about repentance, since they did not know what sin really is. As has been shown above, they do not believe correctly about original sin. Rather, they say that the natural powers of human beings have remained unimpaired and uncorrupted. They believe that reason can teach correctly, so that the will can do what is right, and God certainly bestows His grace when a person does as much as he can, according to his free will.
[11] According to that dogma, they need to do penance only for actual sins. Those would include only the evil thoughts that a person yields to. Or evil words and evil deeds that free will could easily have prevented. (According to these people, wicked emotions, lust, and improper attitudes are not sins.)
[12] They divide repentance into three parts: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. They add this consolation and promise: If a person truly confesses, and renders satisfaction, he merits forgiveness. He has paid for his sins before God. So even in repentance, they taught people to put confidence in their own works. [13] This is where the expression comes from that was used in the pulpit when Public Absolution was announced to the people: “Prolong O God, my life, until I can make satisfaction for my sins and amend my life.”
[14] There was here no mention of Christ and faith. People hoped to overcome and blot out sins before God by their own works. With this intention, we became priests and monks, so we could protect ourselves against sin.
[15] As for contrition, this is how it was done. No one could remember all his sins (especially those committed over an entire year), so they inserted this provision: If an unknown sin is remembered later, it too has to be repented of and confessed, and so on. Until then, the person was commended to God’s grace.
[16] Furthermore, since no one could know how great the contrition ought to be in order to be enough before God, they gave this consolation: He who could not have contrition at least ought to have “attrition.” I call that half a contrition, or the beginning of contrition. The fact is, they themselves do not understand either of these terms, anymore than I do. But such attrition was counted as contrition when a person went to Confession.
[17] If anyone said that he could not have contrition or lament his sins (as might be the case with illicit love or the desire for revenge, etc.), they asked whether he wished or desired to have contrition. When one would reply “yes”—for who, save the devil himself, would say “no”?—they accepted this as contrition. They forgave him his sins on account of this good work of his. Here they cited the example of St. Bernard and others.
[18] Here one sees how blind reason gropes around in matters belonging to God [1 Corinthians 2:14]. According to its own imagination, reason seeks consolation in its own works and cannot remember Christ and faith. Viewed in the light, this contrition is a manufactured and fictitious thought. It comes from our own powers, without faith and without the knowledge of Christ. When he reflected on his own lust and desire for revenge, the poor sinner might have laughed rather than wept—unless he had either been truly struck by the lightning of the Law [Psalm 77:18] or had been tormented by the devil with a sorrowful spirit [1 Samuel 16:14]. With everyone else, such contrition was certainly mere hypocrisy and did not put to death the lust for sins. They had to grieve, but if they were free, they would rather have kept on sinning.
[19] As for Confession, the procedure was this: Everyone had to list all his sins (which is impossible). This was a great torment. If anyone had forgotten some sins, he would be absolved on the condition that, if they would occur to him, he must still confess them. So he could never know whether he had made a sufficiently pure confession or if confessing would ever come to an end. Yet he was pointed to his own works. He was comforted like this: The more fully you confess, and the more you humiliate yourself and debase yourself before the priest, the sooner and better you render satisfaction for your sins. Such humility would certainly earn grace before God.
[20] Here, too, there was neither faith nor Christ. The power of the Absolution was not declared to him. Rather, his consolation depended upon his listing of sins and his self-abasement. What torture, fraud, and idolatry this kind of confession has produced is more than can be said.
[21] As for satisfaction, this is by far the most complex part of all. For no one can know how much to render for a single sin, let alone how much for all. They resorted to the device of imposing a small satisfaction, which could indeed be rendered, as five “Our Fathers,” a day’s fast, or such. Then, for the rest of their repentance, they were directed to purgatory.
[22] Here, too, there was nothing but anguish and misery. Some thought they would never get out of purgatory. According to the old Church laws, seven years’ penance in purgatory is required for a single mortal sin. [23] Yet, confidence was placed in our work of satisfaction. If the satisfaction could be perfect, confidence would be placed in it entirely. Neither faith nor Christ would be necessary. But such confidence was impossible. For even though someone had done penance that way for a hundred years, he would still not know whether he had finished his penance. That meant doing penance forever and never coming to repentance.
[24] Then the Holy See at Rome, coming to the aid of the poor Church, invented indulgences. With these, it forgave and remitted satisfaction. First, for a single sin, an indulgence could cancel seven years in purgatory. Or an indulgence could cancel a hundred years. They distributed them among the cardinals and bishops, so that one could grant indulgence for a hundred years and another for a hundred days. But the pope reserved to himself alone the power to cancel the entire satisfaction.
[25] Since indulgences began to yield money and as the traffic in bulls became profitable, the pope devised the golden jubilee year‹—a truly gold-bearing year—› and established it at Rome [compare to Leviticus 25]. He said this would give the cancellation of all punishment and guilt. The people came running, because everyone would gladly be freed from this grievous, unbearable burden. This was meant to find and raise the treasures of the earth. Immediately, the pope pressed still further and multiplied the golden years one after another. The more he devoured money, the bigger his appetite grew.
Later, by his representatives to the countries, the pope issued ‹his golden years› everywhere, until all churches and houses were full of the golden year. [26] Ultimately, he made an inroad into purgatory, among the dead. First, he founded Masses and vigils, and, afterward, indulgences and the golden year. Finally, souls became so cheap that he released one for a penny.
[27] But all this, too, did nothing. Even though the pope taught people to depend on and trust these indulgences for salvation, he made the matter uncertain again. In his bulls he declares that whoever wants to share in the indulgences or a golden year has to be contrite and have confessed and pay money. We have already seen how, with the papacy, contrition and confession are uncertain and hypocritical. Besides, no one knew what soul was in purgatory. If some souls were in purgatory, no one knew who had properly repented and confessed. So the pope took the precious money, comforting people with his power and indulgence. But then he directed them again to their uncertain works.
[28] Now some did not believe themselves guilty of actual sins in thought, word, and deeds. I, and people like me in monasteries and religious communities, wanted to be monks and priests. We fought against evil thoughts by doing such things as fasting, staying awake, praying, saying Mass, wearing coarse garments, and sleeping on hard beds. In total sincerity and with great effort, we wanted to be holy. Yet the hereditary, inborn evil sometimes came out in sleep, as happens (St. Augustine and St. Jerome, among others, also confess this). Still, each one held the other in high esteem. According to our teaching, some monks were regarded as holy, without sin, and full of good works. Also, since we had more good works than we needed to get to heaven, we could communicate and sell our good works to others. This is actually true. Seals, letters, and examples are at hand ‹to prove that this happened›.
[29] These holy ones did not need repentance. What would they repent of, since they had not indulged their wicked thoughts? What would they confess about words they never said? What should they render satisfaction for, since they were so guiltless that they could even sell their extra righteousness to poor sinners? In the time of Christ, the Pharisees and scribes were these kinds of saints [Matthew 23].
[30] But here comes the fiery angel of St. John [Revelation 10], the true preacher of repentance. With one bolt of lightning, he hurls together both ‹those selling and those buying works›. He says: “Repent!” [Matthew 3:2].
[31] Now one group imagines, “Why, we have repented!” The other says, “We need no repentance.”
[32] John says, “Repent, both of you. You false penitents and false saints, both of you need the forgiveness of sins. Neither of you know what sin really is. Much less your duty to repent of it and shun it. For no one of you is good. You are full of unbelief, stupidity, and ignorance of God and God’s will. But He is present here, of whose ‘fullness we have all received, grace upon grace’ [John 1:16]. Without Him, no one can be righteous before God. Therefore, if you want to repent, repent rightly. Your works of penance will accomplish nothing. As for you hypocrites, who do not need repentance, you serpents’ brood, who has assured you that you will escape the wrath to come and other judgments?” [Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7].
[33] In the same way Paul also preaches, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10–12). [34] And God now “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). “All people,” He says. No one is an exception who is a human being. [35] This repentance teaches us to discern sin: We are completely lost; there is nothing good in us from head to foot; and we must become absolutely new and different people.
[36] Such repentance is not partial and beggarly, like that which does penance for actual sins. Nor, like that, is it uncertain. For it does not debate what is or is not sin. Rather, it hurls everything together and says: Everything in us is nothing but sin ‹there is nothing in us that is not sin and guilt [Romans 7:18]›. What is the use of always investigating, dividing, or distinguishing? This contrition is certain. For we cannot think of any good thing to pay for sin. There is nothing left. There is only a sure despairing about all that we are, think, speak, do, and so on.
[37] Confession, too, cannot be false, uncertain, or fragmentary. A person who confesses that everything in him is nothing but sin includes all sins, excludes none, forgets none. [38] Neither can the satisfaction be uncertain, because it is not our uncertain, sinful work. Rather, it is the suffering and blood of the innocent Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world [John 1:29].
[39] This is the repentance John the Baptist preaches [Matthew 3:1–12]. And afterward, Christ does this in the Gospel [Mark 1:15], and so do we. By this preaching of repentance, we dash to the ground the pope and everything built upon our good works. For all of that is built upon a rotten and vain foundation, which is called a good work or law. And yet, this foundation has no good works but only wicked works. No one keeps the Law (as Christ says) but all transgress it (John 7:19). Therefore, the building ‹that is raised upon that rotten foundation› is nothing but falsehood and hypocrisy, even where it seems most holy and beautiful.
[40] In Christians, this repentance continues until death. For through one’s entire life, repentance contends with the sin remaining in the flesh. Paul testifies that he wars with the law in his members (Romans 7:14–25) not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Spirit that follows the forgiveness of sins [Romans 8:1–17]. This gift daily cleanses and sweeps out the remaining sins and works to make a person truly pure and holy.
[41] The pope, the theologians, the Church lawyers, and the rest know nothing about this. But it is a doctrine from heaven (revealed through the Gospel), and the godless saints must call it heresy.
[42] On the other hand, certain sects may arise; some may already exist. During the peasant rebellion, I encountered some who held that those who had once received the Spirit or the forgiveness of sins or had become believers—even if they later sin—would still remain in the faith. Such sin, they think, would not harm them. They say, “Do whatever you please. If you believe, it all amounts to nothing. Faith blots out all sins,” and such. They also say that if anyone sins after he has received faith and the Spirit, he never truly had the Spirit and faith. I have seen and heard many such madmen. I fear that such a devil is still in some of them.
[43] So it is necessary to know and to teach this: When holy people—still having and feeling original sin and daily repenting and striving against it—happen to fall into manifest sins (as David did into adultery, murder, and blasphemy [2 Samuel 11]), then faith and the Holy Spirit have left them. [44] The Holy Spirit does not permit sin to have dominion, to gain the upper hand so it can be carried out, but represses and restrains it from doing what it wants [Psalm 51:11; Romans 6:14]. If sin does what it wants, the Holy Spirit and faith are not present. [45] For St. John says, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning … and he cannot keep on sinning” [1 John 3:9]. And yet it is also true when St. John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” [1:8].