_The Smalcald Articles.
                      Articles of Christian Doctrine
               which were to have been presented on our part
           to the Council, if any had been assembled at Mantua
               or elsewhere, indicating what we could accept
                      or yield, and what we could not._
                         by Dr. Martin Luther, 1537
                   Translated by F. Bente and  W. H. T. Dau
                                Published in:
                  _Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books
                        of the Ev. Lutheran Church_.
        (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), pp. 453-529.
 
        THE THIRD PART OF THE ARTICLES.
         
        V. Of Baptism. 
         
        Baptism is nothing else than the Word of God in the water,
        commanded by His institution, or, as Paul says, a washing in
        the Word; as also Augustine says: Let the Word come to the
        element, and it becomes a Sacrament. And for this reason we do
        not hold with Thomas and the monastic preachers [or
        Dominicans] who forget the Word (God's institution) and say
        that God has imparted to the water a spiritual power, which
        through the water washes away sin. Nor [do we agree] with
        Scotus and the Barefooted monks [Minorites or Franciscan
        monks], who teach that, by the assistance of the divine will,
        Baptism washes away sins, and that this ablution occurs only
        through the will of God, and by no means through the Word or
        water. Of the baptism of children we hold that children ought
        to be baptized. For they belong to the promised redemption
        made through Christ, and the Church should administer it
        [Baptism and the announcement of that promise] to them. 
         
        
 
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