In addition to these scriptures now touched upon, others occur here which concern and explain the matter contained in the fourth commandment. For according to the order one meets:
4) "A faithful admonition to all Christians to beware of sedition and outrage." On what occasion Luther wrote this, one cannot say for sure. Some assume that the strange things Carlstadt did in Wittenberg and the unrest he stirred up among the rabble gave him cause to do so, of which, however, he himself reports nothing explicitly, but only remembers that it had come to his attention that the papist clergy were worried about a riot and therefore wished that they would let such things serve to improve them; To the people, however, he presents with much emphasis the sinfulness of a rebellion and exhorts them not to be a physical, but a spiritual, and not a spiritual, rebellion.
to use the spiritual sword, which is the word of God, against the pope, to recognize his sins and to implore God for help, so that one can see from this how Luther's mind was removed from all turmoil and all indignation. In this very writing there is the strange passage in which he asks that one should not call himself a "Lutheran" after him, but a Christian after Christ, and consider that this is biased and that the doctrine he presents is not, and that he himself, as he says, "is a poor stinking maggot sack. Luther demanded the same in the scripture, "to take the sacrament from both forms", which clearly shows us that he had a pure heart in the work of reformation and did not look at himself and his honor, but at that which is of the Lord Jesus and requires the true salvation of men. The aforementioned writing was initially published under the title: "A faithful admonition of Martin Luther to all Christians to beware of sedition and outrage, at Wittenberg 1522" in quarto. Olearius has in the directory of the "Autograph. Luth." p. 14, three editions, all of which came out in quarto at Wittenberg in 1522; but whether this writing first came to light in that year, I cannot say with certainty. In von der Hardt's "Autograph. Luth.", tom. II, p. 85, there is a Wittenberg edition of 1521 in quarto and I also have one in hand which is at least one of the first. On the title is only Wittenberg and the year of printing is neither indicated on the same, nor at the end. It has been translated into the Lower Saxon language, which translation can be found with its title in von der Hardt's "Autograph. Luth. ", tom. I, p. 154, and was published in quarto at Wittenberg in 1523. It has also been incorporated into the Jena (Th. II, p. 46), Wittenberg (Th. II, p. 1), Altenburg (Th. II, p. 79) and Leipzig (Th. XVIII, p. 288) collections. It should also be noted that this writing is included in the "Consilia theolog. Witteberg.", part. Ill, p. 78. Therefore, it is also found in the present part, and the copy to be printed is
held against a Wittenberg edition of 1522.
[The Erlangen edition, vol. 22, 43-59, also cites only seven editions from 1522 and has not been able to locate those from 1521. D. Red.]
5) "Luther's Answer to the Protestants at Goslar on their Letter of Apology," May 31, 1529, which was prompted by Luther's hearing that those who had recognized and accepted the Protestant doctrine at Goslar had expressed disobedience, rebellion, and sacrilege against the authorities, and since they had therefore apologized to him in a letter, he answers here and exhorts them to patience in all adversity. Such an answer has been printed here from the Leipzig parts. It is found in the Supplement, p. 60, and is reported to have been taken from Heineccius' "Nachricht vom Zustande der Kirchen zu Goslar," p. 20. [Cf. Erl. ed. 54, 78, 79.]
6) The writing "Von weltlicher Obrigkeit, wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei". The occasion of this was that after the blessed. Luther had published the German translation of the New Testament in 1522, orders were issued in most of the Mark and Bavaria to deliver it to the authorities, at the end of which he wrote the tract and showed in it how far one has to obey the authorities. It consists of three parts. In the first, he proves that worldly authority is an order of God, but reminds us that if all people were righteous Christians and believers, there would be no need for a prince, a king, a sword, or law, and therefore the worldly sword and law would have nothing to do with those who truly belong to Christ, as they would do far more of themselves than all rights and teachings would demand of them, as he further and beautifully explains in the following. In the other part, he examines how far the power of secular authorities extends, and teaches that secular rulers may well give their subjects laws concerning body and goods and outward appearance, but they cannot rule over consciences and souls, which belongs to God alone. In the treatise
In this matter, he touches on the very thing that prompted this treatise, and explains himself about it in the following way: "that I give an example: in most of Bavaria and in the Mark and other places, the tyrants have issued a commandment that one should hand over the New Testaments back and forth in the offices. Here their subjects shall do so, not one leaf, not one letter shall they hand over for the loss of their salvation. For whoever does so delivers Christ into the hands of Herod, for they act as Christ-killers, like Herod; but this they shall suffer, whether it be by running through their houses and taking by force, whether it be books or goods. Iniquity shall not be resisted, but suffered; but it shall not be approved, nor served, nor followed, nor obeyed with a footstep or with a finger." He then goes on to say that no external force should be used against heresies; that the bishops are concerned with nothing less than the word of God and the salvation of the souls of men, and that they have no power or authority, but are servants and no higher than other Christians. In the third part, he gives princes and rulers a very beautiful, necessary and salutary instruction on how they should begin and what they should observe if they also want to be true Christians and one day attain salvation. The content of this writing is presented by Seckendorf in "Histor. Lutheranismi44 , libr. I, § 127, p. 211, more extensively. It cannot be denied that some harsh expressions occur here, and Luther, when he tells the truth to princes and great lords, sometimes shows some vehemence, that even the papists have started a clamor about it and have wanted to accuse him as if he had taken too much liberty and had dealt with the rulers in such a way that he had made himself liable to the crime of insulting the majesty and had grossly sinned against the authorities. How badly the papists are speaking of this tract and therefore take occasion for all kinds of slander against Luther, can be seen from Joh. Cochläus' "Commentar, de actis et scriptis Lutheri", p. 62, from Antonius Varillasius' "Histoire des heres. 44, lib. VI, p. 5, further from Ludwig Maimburg's "Histoire
du Lutheranisme," lib. I, sect. 52, and some other writings; but they do not treat Luther honestly. They only read the harsh expressions together and want to prove from them sometimes a haughty, sometimes a hostile mind against the authorities; but the matter itself, which he presented, is left untouched, since they should have primarily attacked and refuted it, if they had been able to do so. This accusation obviously does him an injustice, and it cannot be proven from this writing. Even if he sometimes writes harshly, this was necessary in view of the time in which he wrote such a work and the circumstances in which he stood, and one may not therefore blame Luther, especially since he softened many things that sound somewhat harsh to the ears in what follows and always had the difference between godless and pious rulers in mind. Here, one has to look not only at the words, but also at the matter, and there Luther certainly showed that his insight into the great ruin of the magistracy was not small, and freely presented such truths that no pope has yet been able to refute. The treatise itself appeared for the first time in a letter to Duke John of Saxony under the inscription: "Von weltlicher Obrigkeit, wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei. To John, Duke of Saxony. D. Martin Luther 1523" in quarto at Wittenberg; see von der Hardt's ,,Auto- grapha Lutheri", tom. I, p. 151. It was reissued there in 1524 in Quart. I find this edition in Olearius' Verzeichniß der "Autograph. Lutheri," p. 22, excellent. This writing was also brought into the Jenaischen (Thl. II, p. 193), Wittenbergischen (Thl. VI, p. 569), Altenburgischen (Thl. II, p. 258) and Leipzigischen Theile (Thl. XVIII, p. 385), which then also happened in this new collection, namely in the present part in such a way that one made use of the edition mentioned immediately before and thereafter improved the copy to be printed.
[The Erlanger Ausgabe, vol. 22, 59-105, gives six editions from 1523 and one from 1524].