[or spoken Word]. Neither was John the Baptist conceived
without the preceding word of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his
mother's womb without the voice of Mary. And Peter says,
2. Ep. 1, 21: The prophecy came not by the will of man; but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy, much
less would the Holy Ghost have moved them to speak when they
still were unholy [or profane]; for they were holy, says he,
since the Holy Ghost spake through them.

IX. Of Excommunication.

The greater excommunication, as the Pope calls it, we regard
only as a civil penalty, and it does not concern us ministers
of the Church. But the lesser, that is, the true Christian
excommunication, consists in this, that manifest and obstinate
sinners are not admitted to the Sacrament and other communion
of the Church until they amend their lives and avoid sin. And
ministers ought not to mingle secular punishments with this
ecclesiastical punishment, or excommunication.

X. Of Ordination and the Call.

If the bishops would be true bishops [would rightly discharge
their office], and would devote themselves to the Church and
the Gospel, it might be granted to them for the sake of love
and unity, but not from necessity, to ordain and confirm us
and our preachers; omitting, however, all comedies and
spectacular display [deceptions, absurdities, and appearances]
of unchristian [heathenish] parade and pomp. But because they
neither are, nor wish to be, true bishops, but worldly lords
and princes, who will neither preach, nor teach, nor baptize,
nor administer the Lord's Supper, nor perform any work or
office of the Church, and, moreover, persecute and condemn
those who discharge these functions, having been called to do
so, the Church ought not on their account to remain without
ministers [to be forsaken by or deprived of ministers].

Therefore, as the ancient examples of the Church and the
Fathers teach us, we ourselves will and ought to ordain
suitable persons to this office; and, even according to their
own laws, they have not the right to forbid or prevent us. For
their laws say that those ordained even by heretics should be
declared [truly] ordained and stay ordained [and that such
ordination must not be changed], as St. Jerome writes of the
Church at Alexandria, that at first it was governed in common
by priests and preachers, without bishops.

XI. Of the Marriage of Priest