35-31 discuss (1) in how far we may speak of
making an offering in the sacrament, and (2) what follows for the
conception of a true priesthood in the Church, viz., the
priesthood of all believers. Sections 33-39 deal, among other
things, with the abuses to which an unscriptural conception of
the Lord's Supper has led. Of special interest is section 12, in
which Luther gives a summary of all that enters into the
Sacrament of the Altar.

Knowing, as we do, that Luther developed his doctrine of the
Lord's Supper gradually[7] and under stress of much opposition
from all sides, it is interesting for us to note the stage of
that development which this treatise represents. We may,
therefore, inquire how he stood at this time on the question of
the Real Presence. This question is answered under the fourth
point of section 12. The true presence of the body and blood
cannot be more clearly admitted than is done in sections 11 and
12 of this treatise. We can safely say that there never was a
time when Luther was uncertain on this point. The point of view
from which he discusses the significance of the sacrament in the
_Sermon von dem hochwurdigen Sacrament_ (1519) has sometimes been
cited to the contrary, but even in this _Sermon_, with its
emphasis upon the spiritual body of Christ, of which even those
may be partakers whom the pope might exclude from the external
communion, he speaks of the bread and wine as being changed into
the Lord's "true, natural flesh" and into His "natural, true
blood," [8] which shows that Luther at that time, nine months
before the appearance of this _Treatise on the New Testament_,
still held even to the conception of transubstantiation. He
cannot, therefore, have had doubts about the Real Presence.

In view, however, of the rapid development of Luther's doctrinal
conceptions, we might further ask: Did Luther still retain his
belief in transubstantiation at the time when he wrote the
_Treatise on the New Testament_? At the beginning of October in
this same year, in his _Babylonian Captivity_, Luther comes out
for the first time with an attack on this Roman doctrine. He
regards it as a mere human opinion, which one may accept or not
accept, and clearly inclines to the belief that after
consecration not only the form (_Gestalt; species_), but also the
substance of bread and wine is still present.[9] In the _Sermon
von dem hochwurdigen Sacrament_ he spoke of the "shape and form
of the bread"; in the