oncerning perfection, and testifies that in his day it was a new saying
that the monastic life is a state of perfection.

So many wicked opinions are inherent in the vows, namely, that they
justify, that they constitute Christian perfection, that they keep the
counsels and commandments, that they have works of supererogation. All
these things, since they are false and empty, make vows null and void.

Article XXVIII: Of Ecclesiastical Power.

There has been great controversy concerning the Power of Bishops, in
which some have awkwardly confounded the power of the Church and the
power of the sword. And from this confusion very great wars and tumults
have resulted, while the Pontiffs, emboldened by the power of the Keys,
not only have instituted new services and burdened consciences with
reservation of cases and ruthless excommunications, but have also
undertaken to transfer the kingdoms of this world, and to take the
Empire from the Emperor. These wrongs have long since been rebuked in
the Church by learned and godly men. Therefore our teachers, for the
comforting of men's consciences, were constrained to show the difference
between the power of the Church and the power of the sword, and taught
that both of them, because of God's commandment, are to be held in
reverence and honor, as the chief blessings of God on earth.

But this is their opinion, that the power of the Keys, or the power of
the bishops, according to the Gospel, is a power or commandment of
God, to preach the Gospel, to remit and retain sins, and to administer
Sacraments. For with this commandment Christ sends forth His Apostles,
John 20, 21 sqq.: As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. Receive
ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto
them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. Mark 16, 15: Go
preach the Gospel to every creature.

This power is exercised only by teaching or preaching the Gospel and
administering the Sacraments, according to their calling either to many
or to individuals. For thereby are granted, not bodily, but eternal
things, as eternal righteousness, the Holy Ghost, eternal life. These
things cannot come but by the ministry of the Word and the Sacraments,
as Paul says, Rom. 1, 16: The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth. Therefore, since the power of the Church
grants eternal things, and is exercised only by the ministry of the
Word, it does not i