_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.
         
        XII. Of the Church. 
         
        We do not concede to them that they are the Church, and [in
        truth] they are not [the Church]; nor will we listen to those
        things which, under the name of Church, they enjoin or forbid.
        For, thank God, [to-day] a child seven years old knows what
        the Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear
        the voice of their Shepherd. For the children pray thus: I
        believe in one holy [catholic or] Christian Church. This
        holiness does not consist in albs, tonsures, long gowns, and
        other of their ceremonies devised by them beyond Holy
        Scripture, but in the Word of God and true faith. 
         
        
 
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