im there is none other." Dr Carlstadt was the first to
celebrate the Lord's Supper in accordance with Christ's institutions.
On the Sunday before Christmas-day he gave out from the pulpit that, on
the first day of the New Year, he would distribute the Eucharist in both
kinds to all who should present themselves; that he would omit all
useless forms, and wear neither cope not chasuble. Hearing, however,
that there might be some opposition, he did not wait till the day
proposed. On Christmas-day, 1521, he preached in the parish church on
the necessity of quitting the mass and receiving the sacrament in both
kinds. After the sermon he went to the altar, pronounced the words of
consecration in German; then, turning to the people, without elevating
the host, he distributed the bread and wine to all, saying, "This is the
cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant." At the
end he gave a public absolution to all, imposing no other penance than
this, "Sin no more."

No one opposed him, and in January the Council and University of
Wittemburg regulated the celebration of the Lord's Supper according to
the new ritual.

Thus fell the mass--the chief bulwark of Rome. It, and
Transubstantiation, had for three centuries been established. "It had
tended to the glory of man--the worship of the priest. It was an insult
to the Son of God; it was opposed to the perfect grace of His Cross, and
the spotless glory of His everlasting Kingdom. It lowered the Saviour,
it exalted the priest, whom it invested with the unparalleled power of
reproducing, in his hand, and at his will, the Sovereign Creator."

From the time of its establishment the Church seemed to exist not to
preach the Gospel, but simply to reproduce Christ bodily. The Roman
Pontiff, whose humblest servants created at pleasure the body of God
Himself, sat as God in the temple of God, and claimed a spiritual
treasure, from which he issued at will indulgences for the pardon of
souls. [Note 1.]

Luther at length agreed to have a conference with the prophets of
Zwickau. They said that they could work miracles. He desired them to
do so. They became furiously enraged. He quickly upset their
pretensions, and they, the same day, quitted Wittemburg, thoroughly
defeated. Thus by the wisdom of one man, tranquillity was restored, and
the Reformation was able to proceed with sure and certain footsteps,
unmolested.

The work of all others with which, next