d not anything
external or outward, by whatever name it may be called. For one
who is not a Christian may have all those other things, and they
will never make him a Christian without true faith, which alone
makes Christians. For this reason we are called Christian
believers, and on Pentecost we sing:

We beseech Thee, Holy Spirit[35],
Let true faith our portion be.

It is in this wise, and never in any other, that the Holy
Scriptures speak of the Holy Church and of Christendom.

[Sidneote: The External Church]

Beyond that, another way of speaking of Christendom has come into
use. According to this, the name Church[36] is given to an
assembly in a house or a parish, a bishopric, an archbishopric,
or the papacy, in which assembly external rites are in use, such
as chanting, reading, vestments. And primarily the name of
"spiritual estate" is given to the bishops, priests and members
of the holy orders; not on account of their faith, which they
perhaps do not have, but because they have been consecrated with
an external anointing, wear crowns, use a distinctive garb, make
special prayers and do special works, say mass, have their places
in the choir, and attend to all such external matters of worship.
But violence is done to the word "spiritual," or "Church," when
it is used for such external affairs, whereas it concerns faith
alone, which, working in the soul, makes right and true
_spirituales_ and Christians; yet this maimer of using it has
spread everywhere, to the great injury and perversion of many
souls, who think that such outward show is the spiritual and only
true estate in Christendom or the Church.

There is not one letter in the Holy Scriptures to show that such
a purely external Church has been established by God; and I
hereby challenge all those who have made this blasphemous,
damnable, heretical book, or would defend it, together with all
their followers, even if all the universities hold with them. If
they can show me that even one letter of the Scriptures speaks of
it, I am willing to recant. But I know that they cannot do it.
The Canon Law and human statutes, indeed, give the name of Church
or Christendom to such a thing, but that is not now before us.
Therefore, for the sake of brevity and a better understanding, we
shall call the two churches by different names. The first, which
is the natural, essential, real and true one, let us call a
spiritual, inner Christendom. The other, which i