Ad omnes Germaniae ecclesias reformatas, piorum, qui sub Zvingliani et Calviniani nominis invidia, vim & iniuriam patiuntur, apologia

have arisen, or been recalled post-liminium a Roman legal term for the right of recovery of what has been lost; here used to mean 'resurrected' by ill-disposed men, nor have any new errors been scattered, which our teachers (may there be no envy in the saying) did not first refute in public writings. No one has opposed more vehemently—and still opposes—the Anabaptists, Mennonites, Davidians, Libertines, Servetians, Anti-trinitarians, new Ebionites, and similar plagues, than the ministers of the Churches that agree with our confession. Not without reason, therefore, do we wonder what motive moves those who hold us as suspects, as if we were patrons of the most harmful dogmas; but we rightfully complain about the iniquity of those who condemn the unheard-of so confidently, and strive that we might be condemned and proscribed by the public authority of Princes and Churches.

Status of the controversy concerning the words of the Supper.

Furthermore, so that we may not dissemble, we admit that we have a controversy with them concerning the meaning of the words of Christ, which he used here in the institution of his Supper, saying about the bread, THIS IS MY BODY, and about the cup or wine, THIS IS MY BLOOD. In these, the adversaries urge the τὸ ῥητὸν literal meaning or the letter, and contend that the bread and wine are truly, really, corporally, essentially, and substantially the very Body and Blood of Christ, and they exclude every Trope or Figure. We, however, say that these are Sacramental locutions, the property of which is that signs are called by the names of the things signified; thus, the bread