WHY WERE OUR

REFORMERS BURNED

by Bishop J.C. Ryle

THE CHURCH OF

ROME RESPONSIBLE

For one thing, I ask my readers never to forget that for the burning of our reformers the Church of Rome is wholly and entirely responsible.

For another thing, I wish my readers to remember that the burning of the Marian martyrs is an act that the Church of Rome has never repudiated, apologised for, or repented of, down to the present day. There stands the huge blot and there stands the huge fact side by side, that she has never made any attempt to wipe away. Never has she repented of her treatment of the Waldensians of Italy and never has she repented of the wholesale murders carried out by the Spanish Inquisition. She has never repented of the massacre of the Huguenots of France, nor has she repented the burning of the English reformers.

we should make a note of that fact and let it sink down into our minds. Rome never changes. Rome will never admit that she has made mistakes. She burned our English Reformers 450 years ago. She tried hard to stamp out by violence the Protestantism which she could not prevent spreading by arguments. If Rome had only the power, I am not sure that she would not attempt to play the whole game over again.

WHY THEY WERE BURNED

I pass on to a point which I hold to be one of cardinal importance in the present day. The point I refer to is the special reason why our reformers were burned. The principle reason why they were burned was because they refused one of the peculiar doctrines of the Romish church. On that doctrine, in almost every case, hinged their life or death. If they admitted it, they might live, if they refused it, they must die.

The question was the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine in the Lord's supper - the Communion. Did they, or did they not, believe that the body and blood of Christ were really, that is corporally, literally, locally, and materially, present under the forms of bread and wine after the word of consecration were pronounced? Did they or did they not believe that they real body of Christ, which was born of the virgin Mary, was present on the so-called alter so soon as the mystical words had passed the lips of the priest? Did they or did they not? That was the simple question. If they did not believe and admit it, they were burned.

OBSCURING THE GOSPEL

Whatever men please to think or say, the Romish doctrine of the real presence, if pursued to its legitimate consequences, obscures every leading doctrine of the gospel, and damages and interferes with the whole system of Christ's truth. Grant for a moment that the Lords's Supper is a sacrifice, and not a sacrament - grant that every time the words of consecration are used the natural body and blood of Christ are present on the Communion table under the forms of bread and wine - grant that every one who eats that consecrated bread and drinks that consecrated wine does really eat and drink the natural body and blood of Christ.

Grant for a moment these things, and then see what a momentous consequences results from the premises -

You spoil the blessed doctrine of Christ's finished work when He died on the cross. A sacrifice that needs to be repeated is not a perfect and complete thing.

You spoil the priestly office of Christ. If there are priests that can offer an acceptable sacrifice to God besides Him, the great High Priest is robbed of His glory.

You spoil the Scriptural doctrine of the Christian ministry. You exalt sinful men into the position of mediators between God and man.

You give to the sacramental elements of bread and wine an honour and veneration they were never meant to receive, and produce an idolatry to be abhorred of faithful Christians.

A USELESS KIND OF RELIGION

There are two ways by which a man may lose his own soul

He may lose his soul by living and dying without any religion at all. he may live and die like a beast, prayerless, godless, graceless, faithless. This is a sure way to hell.

He may lose his soul by taking up some useless kind of religion. He may even live and die contenting himself with a false Christianity, and resting on a baseless hope.