Primum reprehendit illos acriter, qui nunc rumorem de peste seminarent; mox civibus fugam dissuasit, quia ipsi essent alligati, i. e. grown citizens. Impiissimum dixit esse, si suos ita relinquerent, cum constet, olim ita plures fame et siti quam peste periisse. Hortatur igitur ad ferendam Dei Patris castigationem. (First he severely chastised those who were now spreading these rumors of the pestilence; then he immediately talked the citizens out of fleeing, because they were grown citizens. He said that it would be quite ungodly for them to leave their own people in this way, because it was a fact that in earlier times more people had died of hunger and thirst than from the plague. He therefore exhorted them to willingly bear the discipline of God the Father). For if we do not like to suffer the child punishment, cum pesti
omnium plagarum sit minima (since the plague is still the least of all plagues), how will we then bear bellum et famem (war and famine) ? Pestis tantum est purgatio in mundo sine omni crudelitate externa, in qua et pii homines suaviter obdormiscunt brevi momento. (The pestilence is merely a purification in the world without all external cruelty, in which even the pious people gently fall asleep in a short moment). Do not let the cry of the pestilence frighten you, do not love the devil so much that you want to flee, although the pestilence comes in your house, bed, cradle and table. We have the defiance against it, Christus ascendit (is ascended), Rom. 8, 31. Cum illum habeamus mediatorem et doctrinam vitae, cur adeo pavemus, plus quam sub papatu, ubi in
tenebris animosiores fuimus? (Because we have him as mediator and the doctrine of life, why are we so much more afraid of it now than even under the papacy, since we were much more awake in the darkness?) What is it more, if the devil shoots some with poison? he has a reed for it. Vos, qui migraturi estis, adhortor, utrempubli- cam procuretis publicis ministris, medicis, chirurgis, barbitonsoribus et ministris curantibus aegrotos pauperes in hospitali ex eleemosyna viventes, alios ad talia ministeria aptos compellite ad ea, aut ex urbe ejicite. Deinde dico vobis omnibus, qui fugitis et vestros relinquitis (To you who wish to depart, I exhort that you provide the city with public servants, physicians, surgeons, barbers and attendants for the poor who live in the hospital from the public welfare, and employ them and others who are capable of such offices, or expel them from the city. Then I say to all of you who flee and leave your own behind that I will not abandon the poor in their time of need, but will have your wood brought in and burned in the square, and will also distribute and measure out to the poor your supply of grain, beer and everything else that can be enjoyed; be warned of this. It is not a matter of fleeing, but of doing what Christ says, Matth. 25, 35: Esurivi etc.. Scitis, me in peste nunquam fugisse, sed cum tota domo et familia perdurasse.' (I have been hungry and you have not fed me etc. You know well that I have never fled in pestilence, but have endured with my whole house and family). I am probably as noble as you, could have fled with a clear conscience, maxime Principis Electoris mandato (especially by order of the Elector). Not so. Whoever is attached to wife, brothers, children, sister, neighbor, stay and help and comfort in common danger; we owe each other a death. So now I am your parish priest and gap-filler, I am bound to the preaching chair, a hundred pestilences shall not make me flee from it; but I will be ready to visit the sick with my priests. Let us die over it in this work of love; good for us, so the hour shall be better for us.
than a thousand years of life. E contra si mala vestra fugitis (Again, if you flee from your evils), it will come to you that you would rather have died a thousand times. Ergo alacres sitis, nolite pavescere et fugere. (Therefore be valiant and put out of your mind the thoughts of horror and flight). Try in the Lord that you may only endure the hour, it must have died, et in tam perniciosissimo saeculo, in tam desperata malitia hominum rusticorum, nobilium, nullus deberet sibi vitam optare (and in this so very dangerous time, with the so desperate wickedness of both, peasants and nobility, no one should want to wish for life). The pestilence is such a good purgatio (purification) in the world that I almost do not know against "asking them, because otherwise no one can nor will punish. Yes, I do ask that God come with the pestilence and punish, and sweep the peasants, ut rustici videant, cui suos thaleros per fas et nefas corraserint, ut omnes ad poenitentiam ducantur (so that the peasants may see to whom they have piled up their thalers with right and wrong, so that they may all be led to repentance). Therefore, we who have now grown up, let us not be angry with God, lest He strike us with a greater punishment, but let us bear with one another in the face of the wrath when it comes. If we die now, we must not fear it for many years. Rather, when would God come so that it would be convenient for us and we would not be afraid of death? When he comes, we do not want to, and yet, when he wants, we must. Therefore, let us die when he wills, but not desire to live as long as we will. Nolo tamen alicui hic causa esse tentandi Deum, ne temere sine justa causa et officio sese quisquam periculo ingerat; qui vero alligati sunt, debent secundum caritatis legem et ex officio suo periculum summum derelinquere. Nam jucundissimum est in officio mori a Deo injuncto et praecepto. Ego bis expertus sum in peste, cum fugere potuissem, etsi diabolo grassante immitteretur, tamen nihil posse contra Dei voluntatem in piis. Custoditus sum cum omni familia mea, et tamen officium meum feci praedicando, quamvis licuisset fugere, nunquam vitavi Ecclesiam. O utinam non ma-
2032 D- 64.316.; 54,53. kk. Transcript of a sermon that d. citizens because of d. plague etc. W. X, 2351-2353. 2033
jores tentationes haberem quam pestis pavores. Studiosi advenae, a parentibus suis studiorum causa missi, qui non sunt alligati politiae et oeconomiae, (But I do not want to be a cause for anyone here to tempt God, nor that anyone should presumptuously plunge into danger without proper cause and office; but those who have grown up must, according to the law of love and by virtue of their office, put off even the greatest danger. For it is quite glorious to die in the fulfillment of a duty imposed and commanded by God. I have already experienced it twice in the pestilence, when I could have fled, that it could not do anything to the pious against God's will, even if it attacked them at the instigation of the devil. I have been saved from it with my whole family, although I have done my ministry with preaching, and although I could have fled, I have never avoided the church. Oh that I had no greater
than the horrors of pestilence! The foreign students, who are sent here by their parents for the sake of study and have not grown to the city and house, may flee, we cannot bar the gate for them. But those who have grown up have a different opinion. Do you think that such should apply, in happiness, salvation and health and peace want to use all the freedoms and benefits of the city, and then, if it is bad, flee from his neighbors, who have often served him in many things. Studiosos tamen hortor et rogo, cum nulla adhuc nobiscum pestis sit, Dei gratia, ne fugiant, ne intempestiva sua fuga hanc nostram Universitatem sine causa dissipent. (But I admonish and ask the students, since the pestilence is not yet here, not to flee, so that they do not unnecessarily split apart our university with their untimely flight).