Lutheran
pastors to be steadfast in confessing the truth, in spite of cross and
persecution, and to stand by their flocks as true shepherds. That
minister, he said, who denies or fails to confess the truth, or who
yields to a tyrant, deserts his Church. We must not only confess with
our mouths, but by deeds and actions as well. Not abandonment of the
flock, but suffering is the best way to win the victory over a tyrant.
Flacius also earnestly warned the people against yielding to the princes
and acknowledging, hearing, and following their own ministers if they
advocated and introduced the Interim. Moreover, he encouraged both
pastors and laymen to resist the tyranny of princes demanding the
reinstitution of the Roman ceremonies. "A government," said he in his
_Admonition,_ "no matter which, has not the authority to forbid pastor
to preach the pure doctrine." When the government persecutes the truth,
we must not yield, no matter what the consequences may be. Christians
will sacrifice everything to a tyrannical prince, but not "the truth,
not the consolation of divine grace, nor the hope of eternal life."
(Frank 4, 68. 117.)

139. Doctrinal Position of Anti-Adiaphorists.

The theological position occupied by the opponents of the Adiaphorists
may be summarized as follows: Ceremonies which God has neither commanded
nor prohibited are adiaphora (_res mediae, Mitteldinge_) and _ceteris
paribus_ (other things being equal), may be observed or omitted, adopted
or rejected. However, under circumstances testing one's faith they may
become a matter of principle and conscience. Such is the case wherever
and whenever they are demanded as necessary, or when their introduction
involves a denial of the truth, an admission of error, an infringement
of Christian liberty, an encouragement of errorists and of the enemies
of the Church, a disheartening of the confessors of the truth, or an
offense to Christians, especially the weak. Such conditions, they
maintained, prevailed during the time of the Interim, when both Pope and
Emperor plainly declared it to be their object to reestablish the Romish
religion in Lutheran churches; when the adoption of the Interim and the
reinstitution of the papal ceremonies were universally regarded, by
Catholics as well as Protestants, as the beginning of just such a
reestablishment of the Papacy; when the timid Wittenberg and Leipzig
theologians, instead of boldly confessing the Gospel and trusting to God