In it he makes the essence of the sacrament forgiveness, and the vehicle of this forgiveness the word of God apprehended by {74} faith, _not_ the actual participation in the sacred bread and wine.

Had he always been true to this conception he would have left no place for sacrament or priest at all.

But in later years he grew more conservative, until, under slightly different names, almost the old medieval ideas of church and religion were again established, and, as Milton later expressed it, "New presbyter was but old priest writ large." [1] In Latin _penitentia_ means both penance and repentance.
[2] _Cf_.

Matthew, xxvi, 28.
SECTION 2.

THE REVOLUTION [Sidenote: Germany] Although the Germans had arrived, by the end of the fifteenth century, at a high degree of national self-consciousness, they had not, like the French and English, succeeded in forming a corresponding political unity.