To the Christian nobility of the German nation, on the improvement of the Christian state.

With the letter to L. Nic. von Amsdorf. June 20, 1520.

Letter.

JESUS.

To the respectable and worthy gentleman, Mr. Nicolaus von Amsdorf, licentiate of the Holy Scriptures and canon of Wittenberg. Script Licentiate and Canon of Wittenberg; my special favorable friend.

Grace and peace of God before, Respectable, Worthy, Dear Lord and Friend!

1 The time of silence has passed and the time to speak has come, as Ecclesiastes (the preacher) says, Cap. 3, 7. I have, in accordance with our intentions, brought together several pieces concerning the improvement of the Christian state to be presented to the Christian nobility of the German nation; whether God wanted to help His church through the laity; since the clergy, to whom it was more fitting, has become completely heedless. Send all this to your dignity, to judge it and, where it is necessary, to improve it. I am well aware that it will not remain unrepresented to me, as I measure myself too highly that I, a despised, humble man, may address such high and great authorities in such excellent and great matters, as if there were no one else in the world but Doctor Luther, who would take care of the Christian state and give advice to such highly intelligent people.

2) I will leave my apology pending, I will deny it to anyone who wishes; I may still owe my God and the world a foolishness, which I have decided to pay for honestly, if I can.

to become a court jester one day. If I don't succeed, I still have an advantage; no one may buy me a cap or give me a comb. But the one who ties the other's bells is the one who counts. I must fulfill the proverb: What the world has to create, there must be a monk, and one should paint him to it. Many times a fool has spoken wisely, and many times wise people have been grossly deceived, as Paul says, 1 Cor. 3:18: "Whoever wants to be wise must become a fool.

3rd Also, because I am not only a fool, but also a sworn doctor of the Holy Scriptures, I am glad that the opportunity is given to me to do enough for my oath in just the same foolish way. I ask you to excuse me to the moderately understanding, because I do not know how to deserve the favor and grace of the superlatively understanding, which I have so often sought with such great effort, but now no longer want to have or respect. God help us not to seek our own honor, but His alone, Amen. At Wittenberg in the Augustinian Monastery, on the evening of St. John the Baptist, in the 1S20th year. Year. D. Martinus Luther.

JESUS.

The Most Sublime, Most Great Imperial Majesty and Christian Nobility of the German Nation,

1. grace and strength from God before. Most Sublime, Most Gracious Gentlemen! It is not out of pure pride nor sacrilege that I, a poor man, have dared to speak before your high dignities. The distress and affliction that oppresses all the nations of Christendom, first of all Germany, has not only moved me, but everyone, to cry out many times and to ask for help, has also now forced me to cry out and to call out, if God would give someone the spirit to reach out his hand to the wretched nation. Something has often been done through conciliation, but it has been prevented by some people's lift and has become worse and worse; which deceitfulness and wickedness I now, God help me, intend to illuminate, so that they may be recognized and henceforth no longer be so obstructive and harmful. God has given us a young noble blood as our head, so that many hearts may be awakened to great good hope; in addition, it is fitting to do our part and to make use of the time and grace.

(2) The first thing to be done in this matter is to be careful and not to do anything with the confidence of great power or reason, even if the power of all the world is ours; for God does not like and will not suffer a good work to be begun with the confidence of his own power and reason. He pushes it to the ground, there is no help for it, as it is written in the 33rd Psalm, v. 16: "No king shall stand by his great power, and no lord by the greatness of his might." And for this reason, I fear, it has come to pass that the noble princes, Emperor Frederick the First and the others, and many more German emperors, have been so miserably trampled underfoot and oppressed by the popes, before whom the world feared. They may have relied on their power more than on God, therefore they had to fall. And what has in our times the blood drunkard Julius the

Secondly, I am afraid that France, Germany and Venice have relied on themselves. The children of Benjamin defeated two and forty thousand Israelites because they relied on their strength. Judges. 20, 21. ff.

3. so that we do not succeed with this noble blood of Carolus, we must be sure that we are not dealing with men in this matter, but with the princes of hell, Eph. 6, 12, who may fill the world with war and bloodshed, but they cannot be overcome with it. One must attack the matter with a renunciation of physical force in humble trust in God and seek help from God with earnest prayer, and not look anything else in the eye but the misery and distress of wretched Christianity, regardless of what evil people have earned. If this is not the case, the game may well begin with a great pretense; but when one enters, the evil spirits will cause such a confusion that the whole world will be covered in blood, and yet nothing will be accomplished. Therefore, let us act with the fear of God and wisely. The greater the power, the greater the misfortune, if we do not act in the fear and humility of God. If the popes and Romans may have confused the kings with the help of the devil, they may still do so if we continue with our power and art without God's help.

The Romanists have drawn three walls around themselves with great agility, so that they have protected themselves until now, so that no one could reform them, by which the whole of Christendom has fallen horribly. First, when they were attacked with secular power, they said that secular power had no right over them, but that spiritual power was superior to secular power. Secondly, when they were punished with the holy Scriptures, they said that it was not for anyone to interpret the Scriptures, because

the pope. Thirdly, if they were threatened with a concilium, they said that no one should call a concilium except the pope.

(5) So they have secretly stolen three rods from us, that they may be unpunished, and have placed themselves in the secure fortification of these three walls to do all wickedness and malice; as we now see. And even if they had to make a concilium, they have made it weak beforehand by first binding the princes with oaths to let them remain as they are; in addition, they give the pope full power over all order of the concilium, so that it is immediately valid that there are many conciliums or no conciliums, without them only deceiving us with larvae and mirror fencing. They fear so terribly the skin of a right free concilium, and have made kings and princes timid with it, that they believe it would be against God, if one did not obey them in all such mischievous cunning deceptions (spookeries, mirages).

Now God help us and give us one of the trumpets, so that the walls of Jericho were overturned, Jos. 6:20, so that we also blow down these straw and paper walls and release the Christian rod to punish sins, to bring the devil's cunning and deceit to light, so that we may amend ourselves through punishment and regain his grace. We want to attack the first wall at the first.

[The first wall.]

It has been found that the pope, bishops, priests, and monks are called the spiritual class; princes, lords, artisans, and peasants are called the secular class, which is a fine comment and glitter. But no one should be shy about it. And this for the reason that all Christians are truly of a spiritual class, and there is no difference among them except for the sake of the office, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:12 ff. that we are all one body, but each member has its own work to do, so that it may serve the other. This makes all of us to have one baptism, one gospel, one faith and to be equal Christians, Eph. 4, 5, because

Baptism, gospel and faith alone make spiritual and Christian people.

(8) But the fact that the pope or bishop falls, makes plates, ordains, consecrates, and dresses other than laymen, may make a glorifier and an idol of the oil, but it never makes a Christian or a spiritual man. Accordingly, we are all ordained priests through baptism; as St. Peter, 1 Peter 2:9, says: "You are a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom," and Revelation 5:10: "You have made us priests and kings by your blood." For if there were not in us a higher consecration than the pope or bishop gives, a priest would never be made by the consecration of the pope and bishop, nor would he be able to celebrate mass, preach, or absolve. Therefore, the bishop's consecration is no different than if he, in place of and in person of the whole assembly, took one of the multitude, all of whom have equal authority, and commanded him to exercise the same authority for the others; just as if ten brothers, children of kings, equal heirs, chose one to govern the inheritance for them; they would all be kings and of equal authority, and yet one would be commanded to govern.

(9) And that I may say it still more clearly, if a company of devout Christian laymen were caught and set in a desert place, and had not with them an ordained priest of a bishop, and were all there of a thing, and chose one of them, whether he were legitimate or not, and commanded him to baptize, to celebrate mass, to absolve, and to preach, he would truly be a priest, as if all the bishops and popes had ordained him. Hence it is that in time of need any one can baptize and absolve, which would not be possible if we were not all priests. Such great grace and power of baptism and of the Christian state they have almost put down and made unknown to us by spiritual law. In this way, in ancient times, Christians elected their bishops and priests from among the multitude, who were then confirmed by other bishops without all the pomp that now reigns. Thus St. Augustine, Ambrose, Cyprian became bishops.

(10) Because the temporal power is now

is baptized the same with us, has the same faith and gospel, we must let them be priests and bishops and count their office as an office that belongs to and is useful for the Christian community. For that which is baptized may boast that it has already been ordained priest, bishop, and pope, although it is not fitting for each one to exercise such an office. For if we are all priests alike, no one must distinguish himself, nor submit to do what we all have equal authority to do, without our consent and election. For what is common, no one may take for himself without the will and command of the congregation. And if it should happen that someone should be elected to such an office and be deposed through his abuse, he would be the same as before. Therefore a priest should be no different in Christendom than a magistrate; because he is in the office, he goes before, but when he is deposed, he is a peasant or citizen, like the others: so truly a priest is never a priest when he is deposed. But now they have invented characteres indelebiles (i.e. indelible characteristics*), and talk that a deposed priest is nevertheless something else than a bad layman; yes, they dream that a priest may never become anything but a priest or a layman. These are all man-made speeches and laws.

11 Therefore it follows that laymen, priests, princes, bishops, and, as they say, ecclesiastics and seculars, have no other difference in substance, but of office or work, and not of estate; for they are all of spiritual estate, truly priests, bishops, and popes, but not of the same work; even as among priests and monks every one has not the same work. And this is St. Paul, Rom. 12, 4. ff. and 1 Cor. 12, 12. ff., and Peter, 1 Petr. 2, 9. as I said above, that we are all one body of the Head JEsu Christ, each one the member of the other.

Christ does not have two or two kinds of bodies, one worldly, the other spiritual. He is one head and has one body.

(12) Just as those who are now called spiritual, or priests, bishops, or popes, are no more worthy to be separated from other Christians than to act upon the word of God and the sacraments, which is their work and office: so the temporal authorities have the sword and the rod in their hand to punish the wicked with, and to protect the pious. A shoemaker, a blacksmith, a farmer, every one of them has his office and work, and yet they are all ordained priests and bishops; and every one with his office or work is to be useful and of service to the other, so that many works are all directed into one church, to promote body and soul, just as the limbs of the body all serve one another.

(13) Now behold, how Christianly this is set and said, that temporal authority is not over the clergy, neither shall it punish them. This is as much as to say, The hand shall do nothing, though the eye suffer great distress. Is it not unnatural, not to mention unchristian, that one member should not help another, should not ward off his ruin? Yes, the nobler the member is, the more the others should help him. Therefore I say: because worldly authority is ordered by God to punish the wicked and to protect the pious, its office should be allowed to go freely, unhindered by the whole body of Christianity, no one considered to be the pope, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or whatever it is. For if this were enough to prevent the secular power from being inferior to the Christian offices, than the preacher's and confessor's office or the spiritual estate, then one should also prevent the tailors, cobblers, stonemasons, carpenters, cooks, waiters, farmers and all temporal craftsmen from making shoes, clothes, houses, food, drink or giving interest to the pope, bishops, priests, monks. But if these laymen are allowed to do their work unhindered, what do the Roman scribes do with their laws? that they withdraw from the work of secular Christian power, that they may only be free to be evil and fulfill what St. Peter has commanded.

2. ep. 2, 1.: "False masters will arise among you and deal with you with false invented words" to sell you in the sack.

(14) Therefore temporal, Christian authority should exercise its office freely without hindrance, regardless of whether it is a pope, bishop, or priest whom it affects; whoever is guilty, let him suffer; what spiritual law has said against this is purely fictitious Roman presumption. For St. Paul says to all Christians, Rom. 13, 1. 4.: "Every soul" - I think also of the priest - "should be subject to the authorities, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. It serves God with it for the punishment of the wicked and for the praise of the pious." Also St. Peter, 1 Ep. 2, 13: "Be subject to all human orders for the sake of God", who wants it that way. He also proclaimed that such people would come who would despise the worldly authorities, 2 Ep. 2, 10, as was done by spiritual law.

(15) So I think this first paper wall is down, because worldly rule has become a member of the Christian body. And although it has a bodily work, it is still of a spiritual state; therefore its work should go freely, unhindered in all limbs of the whole body, punish and drive, where the guilt deserves it or necessity requires it, regardless of pope, bishops, priests, they can punish or banish, as they wish. Hence it is that the guilty priests, before they are handed over to the secular law, are first deprived of their priestly dignities; this would not be right, however, if the secular sword did not have power over them beforehand out of divine order.

(16) It is also too much to exalt so highly in the spiritual right the freedom, body and goods of the clergy, just as if the laity were not also as spiritually good Christians as they, or as if they did not belong to the church. Why is your body, life, goods and honor so free and not mine, since we are equal Christians, have the same baptism, faith, spirit and all things? If a priest is slain, a country lies in interdict (i.e. denial of sacraments and worship); why not also if a peasant is slain? Where does such a great difference come from among

the same Christians? From human laws and poems alone.

17 Neither must it be a good spirit that hath invented such extracts (exceptions), and hath made sin free, blameless. For if we are guilty of contending against the evil spirit, his works and words, and of driving him out as we are able, as Christ and his apostles gave us; how then would we come to hold our peace and be silent, where the pope or his own would utter devilish words or works? Should we, for the sake of men, abandon divine commandments and truth, to whom we swore in baptism to stand by with life and limb? truly, we would be guilty of all souls who would be forsaken and deceived by this.

Therefore the chief devil himself must have said this, which is in the spiritual law: *) "If the pope were so perniciously evil that he immediately led the souls to the devil with great heaps, one could still not abolish him.

" On this cursed, diabolical foundation they build Rome and think that one should rather let all the world go to the devil than resist their superstition. If it were enough that one is above the other, so that he is not to be punished, no Christian would have to punish the other, since Christ says that everyone should consider himself the lowest and least, Matth. 18, 4, Luc. 9, 48.

Where there is sin, there is already no remedy against punishment, as St. Gregory also writes that we are all equal, but guilt makes one subject to another. Now we see how they deal with Christianity, taking away its freedom without any proof from Scripture with their own iniquity, which God and the apostles have subjected to the secular sword, so that it is to be feared that it is the end of Christ's game or his next forerunner.

[The other wall.]

The other wall is even looser and more inept, that they alone want to be masters of the Scriptures, even though they have learned nothing in them all their lives, presuming to be the only authorities, and with impertinent words, they make believe that the pope may not err in believing that he is evil or pious; they may not indicate a single letter of it. That is why there are so many heretical and unchristian, even unnatural laws in the spiritual law, which we do not need to talk about now. For since they think that the Holy Spirit will not let them be as unlearned and wicked as they can, they are bold to set what they will. And if this were the case, what would be the need or use of the Holy Scriptures? Let us burn them and be content with the unlearned gentlemen of Rome, whom the Holy Spirit holds, who may hold nothing but pious hearts. If I had not read it, it would have been unbelievable to me that the devil should use such clumsy things at Rome and gain followers.

21 But lest we fight against them with words, let us bring the Scriptures. St. Paul says, 1 Corinthians 14:30: "If a better thing is revealed to any man, though he sit and listen to another in the sight of God, he shall not be able to hear it.

If anyone says anything, the first one who speaks must be silent and give way. What good would this commandment be if it were only to be believed by the one who speaks or sits on top? Also Christ says, John 6:45, that all Christians should be taught by God, Isaiah 54:13, so it may ever happen that the Pope and his followers are wicked and are not true Christians, nor are they taught by God to have right understanding; again, if a lowly man has right understanding, why should he not be followed? Has not the pope erred many times? Who would help Christianity if the pope were mistaken, unless someone else were believed more than he, who had the Scriptures for himself?

(22) Therefore it is a fable freely invented, neither may they bring up any letter to prove that it is the pope's alone to interpret the Scriptures, or to confirm their interpretation; they have taken the power from them themselves. And even if they pretend that the authority was given to St. Peter, since the keys were given to him, it is obvious enough that the keys were not given to St. Peter alone, but to the whole church, Matth. 16, 19. 18, 18. In addition, the keys are not ordered to doctrine or rule, but only to bind or loose sin, Joh. 20, 22. 23. and it is a vain invention what they ascribe to them from the keys. But that Christ says to Peter, Luc. 22, 32: "I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail," may not apply to the pope; since several of the popes have been without faith, as they themselves must confess; so Christ did not pray for Peter alone, but also for all apostles and Christians, as he says, Joh. 17:9, 20: "Father, I pray for them which thou hast given me; and not for them only, but for all them also which believe on me through their word." Is this not spoken clearly enough?

Think for yourself, they must confess that there are devout Christians among us who have the right faith, spirit, mind, word and opinion of Christ; why should one reject the same words and mind and follow the pope who has neither faith nor spirit? Would that the

denies the whole faith and the Christian Church. Item, it is not only the pope who is right, if the article is right: I believe a holy Christian church; or must therefore pray: I believe in the pope at Rome; and thus draw the Christian church entirely into one man, which would be nothing but diabolical and infernal error. Moreover, we are all priests, as said above, who all have one faith, one gospel, one sacrament; how then should we not have power to taste and judge what is right or wrong in the faith? Where is the word of Paul, 1 Cor. 2, 15: "A spiritual man judges all things and is judged by no one"; and 2 Cor. 4, 13: "We all have one spirit of faith"; how should we not feel, as well as an unbelieving priest, what is right or wrong in faith?

From all these and many other sayings we should become courageous and free and not let the spirit of freedom, as Paul calls it, 2 Cor. 3, 17, be deterred by the fabricated words of the popes, but rather judge everything they do or do not do according to our faithful understanding of the Scriptures and force them to follow the better and not their own understanding. Abraham had to listen to his Sarah, Gen. 21, 12, who was harder subjected to him than we are on earth; Baalam's donkey was also wiser than the prophet himself. If God spoke through an ass against a prophet, Ex 22,28, why should he not still be able to speak through a pious man against the pope? Item, St. Paul punishes St. Peter as an erring man, Gal. 2, 11. ff., therefore it behooves every Christian to take on the faith, to understand and defend it and to condemn all error.

[The third wall.]

The third wall falls from itself where these first two fall. For where the pope acts contrary to the Scriptures, we owe it to the Scriptures to assist him, to punish him and to compel him according to the word of Christ, Matth.

18:15: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him between you and him alone; if he does not hear you, take one or two more to yourself; if he does not hear them, tell the community. If he does not hear the congregation, consider him a heathen." Here each member is commanded to take care of the other; how much more shall we do this where one general ruling member acts wickedly, who by his actions gives much harm and trouble to the others. If I am to accuse him before the congregation, I must bring them together. They also have no reason in Scripture that the pope alone is entitled to appoint or confirm a council, but only their own laws, which apply no further, unless they are harmful to Christianity and God's laws. Now, where the pope is criminal, such laws already cease, because it is harmful to Christianity not to punish him by a concilium. Thus we read Apost. 15, 6. that the apostle did not appoint a council to St. Peter, but to all the apostles and the elders. If this had been due to St. Peter alone, it would not have been a Christian concilium, but a heretical conciliabulum. Also the most famous Concilium of Nicaea was neither appointed nor confirmed by the bishop of Rome, but the emperor Constantine, and after him many other emperors, did the same, which were the most Christian concilia. But if the pope alone had the power, they would all have been heretical. Even if I look at the conciliarities that the pope has made, I find nothing special that is aligned in it.

Therefore, when necessity demands it, and the pope is angry with Christendom, let him who can do it first, as a faithful member of the whole body, that there may be a right free concilium. Which no one can do so well as the secular sword; especially since they are now also fellow Christians, fellow priests, fellow spiritual, fellow powerful in all things, and should let their office and work, which they have from God over everyone, go freely where it is necessary and useful to go. Wouldn't that be an unnatural presumption, if a fire went out in a city and everyone should stand still, let burn for and for what there is

may burn, only because they do not have the mayor's power or the fire may be lit at the mayor's house? Is not every citizen here obliged to move and call the others? How much more should this happen in the spiritual city of Christ, if a fire of displeasure arises, be it at the pope's regiment or wherever it wants. The same thing happens when the enemies attack a city; he deserves honor and thanks who first overthrows the others. Why then should he not deserve honor who scouts the infernal enemies and awakens and calls the Christians?

(27) But that they should boast of their power, which it is not meet to oppose, is nothing spoken. No one in Christendom has the power to do harm or to forbid harm. There is no power in the churches except for correction; therefore, if the pope wanted to use his power to make a free concilium, so that the correction of the churches would be prevented, we should not look at him and his power; and if he would banish and thunder, we should despise this as a foolish man's plan and banish and drive him again in God's trust, as we are able. For such his presumptuous power is nothing, neither hath he it, and is soon put down with a saying of the Scripture. For Paul, 2 Cor. 10:8, says: "God hath given us power not to destroy, but to amend Christendom." Who wants to jump over this saying? It is the power of the devil and the end of Christ that hinders that which serves the improvement of Christianity; therefore it is not to be followed at all, but to be resisted with body, goods and all that we are able. And if a miraculous sign should happen for the pope against the worldly power, or if someone should suffer a plague, as it has happened several times in praise of God, this should not be regarded otherwise than as having happened through the devil for the sake of our faith in God. As Christ proclaimed, Matth. 24, 23: "False Christians and false prophets will come in my name, performing signs and wonders to deceive even the elect", and St. Paul says, 2 Thess. 2, 9. 10. that

the end Christ will be powerful through Satan in false miraculous signs.

Therefore let us hold fast to this: Christian power is not able to do anything against Christ, as St. Paul says, 2 Cor. 13:8: "We are not able to do anything against Christ, but for Christ. But if it does anything against Christ, it is the power of the end Christ and the devil, and it should rain miracles and plagues and be closed. Miracles and plagues do not prove anything, especially in this last worst time, of which false miracles are proclaimed in all Scripture, 2 Thess. 2, 9. 10. Therefore we must hold to the words of God with firm faith, and the devil will cease his miracles.

(29) Hereby, I hope, the false lying terror, by which the Romans have long made us timid and stupid in our consciences, shall come down. And that they are subject to the sword with us all, not having power to interpret the Scriptures by mere force, without art, and having no power to resist a concilium, or according to their will to seize,*) bind and take away its liberty; and where they do so, that they are truly of the end-Christ and of the devil's fellowship, having nothing of Christ but the name.

[To be dealt with in the Concilia.]

(30) Now let us see the things which ought to be fairly done in the churches, and with which popes, cardinals, bishops, and all scholars ought to deal fairly day and night, if they love Christ and his church. But if they do not do this, let the mob and the secular sword do it, regardless of their banishment or thundering. For one unrighteous ban is better than ten righteous absolutions, and one unrighteous absolution worse than ten righteous banishments. Therefore let us awake, dear Germans, and fear God more than men, Apost. 5, 29, lest we become partakers of all the poor souls that are so miserably lost to the shameful, diabolical rule of the Romans, and that the devil increases more and more every day, thus

it would otherwise be possible that such infernal regiment would become worse; which I cannot comprehend nor believe.

(31) First of all, it is a dreadful and frightening sight to see that the supreme in Christendom, who calls himself Vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter, is so worldly and splendid that no king, no emperor can attain and equal him in this, and since he lets himself be called the most holy and spiritual, he is a more worldly being than the world itself is. He wears a threefold crown, where the highest kings wear only one crown. If this is like poor Christ and St. Peter, it is a new likeness. People complain that it is heretical to speak against it, but they also do not want to hear how unchristian and ungodly such a being is. But I think that if he were to pray with tears before God, he would have to take off such crowns, because our God does not like hope. Now his ministry should be nothing else than to weep and pray daily for Christianity and to present an example of all humility.

32) Be it as it may, such splendor is annoying, and the pope, for the sake of his soul's blessedness, is obliged to discard it; therefore, St. Paul says, 1 Thess. 5:23: "Abstain from all things that are annoying;" and Rom. 12:17: "We are to present good not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men. It would be enough for the pope to have a common bishop's crown; with art and holiness he should be greater than others, and leave the crown of court to the end-Christ, as his ancestors did some hundred years ago. They say that he is a lord of the world. This is a lie. For Christ, of whom he boasts of being governor and administrator, said before Pilate: "My kingdom is not of this world," John 18:36. No governor can ever rule further than his lord. Nor is he a governor of the exalted Christ, but of the crucified Christ, as Paul says, 1 Cor. 2:2: "I have desired to know nothing among you but Christ, and him only as crucified." And Phil. 2, 7: So you should consider yourselves as you see in Christ, "who emptied himself and gave a servant's gift to the Lord".

taken to himself." Item 1 Cor. 1, 23: "We preach Christ crucified." Now they make the pope a governor of the exalted Christ in heaven, and some have let the devil rule over them so strongly that they think the pope is over the angels in heaven and has to command them; which are actually the right works of the right end-Christ.

(33) Secondly, what is the use of the people in Christendom who are called cardinals? I will tell you this: Welsh and Germany have many rich monasteries, monasteries, fiefdoms and parishes; they have not known how to bring them to Rome better than by making cardinals and giving them the bishoprics, monasteries, prelatures as their own, *) and thus driving worship to the ground. That is why we now see that Welsh land is almost desolate, monasteries destroyed, bishoprics consumed, prelatures and all churches' interest drawn to Rome, cities ruined, land and people spoiled, since neither worship nor preaching is going on anymore. Why? The Cardinals must have the goods. No Turk could have so spoiled Welsh land and put down church services.

34 Now that Welschland has departed, they are coming to Germany, and they are lifting up neatly; but let us see to it that Germany soon becomes like the Welsh. We already have several cardinals. What the Romans seek in it, the drunken Germans shall not understand until they have no more bishopric, monastery, parish, fief, penny or penny. The end Christ must raise the treasures of the earth, as it is proclaimed, Dan. 11, 8. 39. 43. Therefore, one foams at the top of the bishoprics, monasteries and fiefdoms; and because they are not yet allowed to completely waste everything, as they have done to the Welsh, they need such holy agility in the meantime that they combine ten or twenty prelatures and tear a yearly piece from each one, so that it becomes one sum.

*I.e. one appointed German bishops (so e.g. the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Salzburg etc.) as cardinals and gave them as Beneficium for their new so-called office those rich monasteries, from whose incomes they had to send however a part to Rome. Those monasteries were then no longer filled with priests, vicars etc., but simply leased or otherwise administered.

D. Red.

The provosts of Würzburg give a thousand florins, those of Bamberg also something, Mainz, Trier and theirs more: so one would like to collect a thousand florins or ten, so that a cardinal may hold himself equal to a rich king in Rome.

When we have won this, let us make thirty or forty cardinals in one day, and give to one of them the monastery hill of Bamberg*) and the bishopric of Wuerzburg, with several rich parishes attached, until churches and cities are desolate; and then say that we are Christ's vicars and shepherds of Christ's sheep; the mad, full Germans must suffer well. But I advise that the cardinals be made fewer, or let them feed the pope from his goods. There would be enough of twelve of them, and each would have a yearly income of a thousand florins. How do we Germans come to suffer such robbery and drudgery of our goods from the pope? If the kingdom of France has taken the liberty, why do we Germans allow ourselves to be fooled and fooled? Everything would be more bearable if they were to count out our property alone, devastate the churches with it, and deprive Christ's sheep of their pious shepherds, and lay down the service and word of God. And even if there were no cardinal, the church would still not sink; they do nothing that serves Christianity, only money and quarrels about the bishoprics and prelatures. Any robber could do the same.

Thirdly, if the court of the pope were left with the hundredth part and divided into nine and ninety parts, it would still be great enough to answer in matters of faith. But now there is such a worm and ulcer in Rome, and everything boasts of being papal, that there has not been such a being in Babylonia. There are more than three thousand Pabst's scribes alone; who wants to count the other officials, so many that they can hardly be counted, who all wait for the pen and fiefs of German lands like a wolf for sheep. I am aware that Germany is now far more in need of

Rome gives more to the pope than it did to the emperors a long time ago. Yes, some think that annually more than three times a hundred thousand florins come from Germany to Rome, truly in vain and for nothing, for which we gain nothing but ridicule and shame. And we are still astonished that princes, nobility, cities, monasteries, country and people are becoming poor; we should be astonished that we still have something to eat.

(37) While we are getting into the right game here, let us keep quiet a little and let us see how the Germans are not such gross fools that they neither know nor understand the Roman practices. I do not complain here that in Rome God's commandment and Christian law are despised; for it is not so well in Christendom now, especially in Rome, that we should complain of such high things. Nor do I complain that natural or worldly law and reason are worthless; everything lies deeper in the ground. I complain that they do not keep their own invented spiritual law, which is in itself a loud tyranny, avarice and temporal splendor, more than a right. Let us see this.

38 In the past, German emperors and princes agreed to pay the pope the annuities on all fiefs of the German nation, that is, half of the interest of the first year on each fief. The grant was made so that the pope could collect a treasure through such large sums of money to fight against the Turks and infidels, to protect Christendom; so that it would not be too difficult for the nobility to fight alone, but that the priesthood would also do something to help. The popes have used such good simple-minded devotion of the German nation to collect such money for more than a hundred years so far, and now they have made a due and obligatory interest and contribution out of it, and not only have they not collected anything, but they have also donated it.

*A levy which, since the time of Pope John XXII (1318), all clergymen who received an ecclesiastical office (which was called a fief, because the goods from which the person concerned had to draw his income were not his property, but were, as it were, only lent to him) had to pay from the income of the first year to the papal treasury. D. Red.

many estates and offices at Rome, which thereby annually, as from a hereditary interest, to pay.

39. If one now pretends to quarrel against the Turks, they send out messages to collect money, often also indulgences sent out, just with the same color, to quarrel against the Turks; thinking that the mad Germans should remain dead fools, always giving money, doing enough for their unspeakable avarice, although we see publicly that neither annals nor indulgences, nor anything else comes to a penny against the Turks, but all at once in the sack that is out of the bottom; lying and deceiving, setting up and making alliances with us, of which they do not intend to keep a hair's breadth. This is what the holy name of Christ and St. Peter must have done.

40. Here now the German nation, bishops and princes should also consider themselves Christian men and protect the people, whom they are commanded to govern and protect in bodily and spiritual goods, from such ravening wolves, who pose as shepherds and governors under sheep's clothing; And because the annals are so shamefully misused, they do not keep what is bound, do not let their land and people be so miserably oppressed and ruined without any right, but keep the annals out by an imperial or common law or abolish them again. For since they do not keep what is bound, they have no right to the annals; so the bishops and princes are obligated to punish such thievery and robbery or to defend them as the law demands. In this, they must support and strengthen the pope, who may be too weak for such mischief alone, or, if he wanted to protect and handle it, he must defend and resist it as a wolf and tyrant, for he has no power. He has no power to do or defend evil. Even if one ever wanted to gather such a treasure against the Turks, we should become witty one day and realize that the German nation could protect it better than the pope, since the German nation itself has enough people to fight with, if money is available. It is with the annotations, as it has been with other many Roman precepts.

41. item, after which has been divided the

The year between the pope and the ruling bishops and foundations, that the pope has six months in the year, one to confer on the others the fiefs that expire in his month;*) so that almost all fiefs are drawn into Rome, especially the very best benefices and dignities.**And those who once fall to Rome in this way never come out again, whether they henceforth never fall in the pope's month; so that the endowments are much too short, and it is a real robbery, which has undertaken not to take anything out. Therefore, it is almost ripe and high time to completely abolish the pope's month and to tear out again everything that has come to Rome through it. For princes and nobility should be threatened that the stolen goods be returned, the thieves punished and those who abuse their leave (permission, authority) deprived of leave. If, on the other day of his election, the pope makes rules and laws in his office, thereby depriving our monasteries and benefices, since he has no right to do so, it shall apply much more if, on the other day of his coronation, the Emperor Carolus makes rules and laws to ensure that no more fiefs and benefices come to Rome through the whole of Germany by the pope's month, and that what has come in is set free again and redeemed from the Roman robber, for which he has the right by virtue of his sword.

(42) Now the Roman avarice and the Roman robber baron did not like to expect that all the fiefs would come in one by one through the pontifical months, but hastened according to his insatiable appetite to tear them all in the shortest possible time, and he has been waiting for the anniversaries and

In the first months such a finding was devised that the fiefs and benefices are still attached (i.e. held) to Rome in three ways.

43 First, if he who has a free benefice dies in Rome or on the way, it must remain eternally the property of the Roman, robbery chair, I should say, and yet do not want to be called robbers; if such robbery no one has ever heard nor read.

44 Secondly, if he has a fief or comes over, who is the servant of the pope or cardinals,*) or if he has a fief before and then becomes the servant of a pope or cardinal. Now, who can count the pope's and the cardinals' servants, if the pope, when he only rides, has around him three or four thousand horsemen, in spite of all emperors and kings. For Christ and St. Peter walked on foot, so that their governors would have all the more to splendor and flaunt. Now avarice has further ingenious and creates that also outside many have the name papal servants, as in Rome; that only in all places the mere mischievous little word "Pabst's servants" brings all fiefs to the Roman chair and staples them forever. Aren't those morose, devilish words? Let us see to it that Mainz, Magdeburg, Halberstadt come to Rome in a fine way and that the cardinalate is paid enough. After that, we want to make all German bishops cardinals, so that nothing remains outside.

45 Thirdly, where a quarrel has begun in Rome about a fief, which, I think, is almost the most common and greatest way to bring the benefices to Rome. For where there is no quarrel here, one finds innumerable boys at Rome, who dig quarrels out of the earth and attack benefices wherever they want; since many a pious priest must lose his benefice or buy off the quarrel for a time with a sum of money; such a fief, arrested with quarrel right or wrong, must also be eternally the property of the Roman see.

*I.e. when someone receives from the pope a title or dignity by which he is counted among the pope's household officials. For example, many German bishops have the title: Hausprälat Sr. Heiligkeit, or: Thronassistent des apostol. etc. and thus belong to the servants, i.e. to the house officials of the pope.

D. Red.

be. It would be no wonder that God rained down sulfur and hellish fire from heaven and sank Rome into the abyss, as he did Sodoma and Gomorrah in the past, Gen. 19:24. What is the purpose of a pope in Christendom, if his power is not needed for anything else than such wickedness, and he protects and handles it? O noble princes and lords, how long will you leave your land and people open and free to such ravening wolves?

Since this practice was not enough, and the time was too long for avarice to drag all the bishoprics into it, my dear avarice has invented so much that the bishoprics are out by name and the land is in Rome. And that therefore no bishop may be confirmed, unless he buys the pallium *) with a large sum of money and commits himself with gruesome oaths to an own servant to the pope. Therefore, no bishop may act against the pope. The Romans also sought this with the oath, and thus the richest bishoprics came into debt and ruin. Mainz, I hear, gives twenty thousand florins; that is more Romans than I think. They may have set it in the ecclesiastical right before, to give the pallium for free, to reduce the pope's servants, to reduce strife, to leave the monasteries and bishops their freedom: But this would not bear money; therefore the leaf is turned back and all power is taken from the bishops and foundations, they sit like numbers, have neither office, power nor work, but all things are ruled by the head boys at Rome, also almost the office of the sexton and bell ringer in all churches; all disputes are drawn to Rome, everyone does what he wants by the pope's power.

What happened in this year? The bishop of Strasbourg wanted to govern his monastery properly and to reform the church service, and he put forward a number of divine and Christian articles that would serve this purpose. But my dear pope

*) The pallium (mantle) is a garment that belongs to the jnsignia of an archbishop. However, it no longer has the form of a mantle, but consists only of a piece of richly versed cloth that covers the chest and is hung over the neck. With its bestowal, the bishop in question is only permitted to exercise his rights by Pabst's grace. D. Red.

and the Holy Roman See pushes to the ground and condemns such holy spiritual order completely with each other by request of the priesthood. That is called feeding Christ's sheep, strengthening priests against their own bishop and protecting their disobedience in divine laws. Such public dishonor of God, I hope, will not be done by the end Christian. There you have the pope, as you wanted. Why this? If a church were to be reformed, it would be dangerous to tear it down, and perhaps Rome would have to do the same; rather, no priest should be allowed to remain at one with the other, and princes and kings should be divided, as they have been until now, and the world should be filled with Christian blood, so that Christians do not unite and cause trouble for the Holy Roman See by reforming it.

(48) Hitherto we have understood how they deal with the benefices, which are forfeited and loosed. Now the tender avarice is not satisfied enough; therefore he has shown his prudence also in the fiefs that are still possessed by their administrators, so that they must also be released, even if they are not already released; and that in many ways.

First, he lurks where there are fat prebendaries *) or bishoprics, possessed by an old or sick person, or also with a fictitious inefficiency; to him the Holy See gives a coadjutor, that is, a collaborator, without his will and thanks, too good to the coadjutor, because he is the pope's servant or gives money for it, or has otherwise earned it with a Roman favorable service. Then it must be the free choice of the Chapter,**) or the right of the one who has

**) The cathedral chapter (which, like the collegiate chapter, consists of 12, 24 or 48 or even 96 members, like that of St. Peter in Rome), and

The first is to lend sinecures, and everything only to the Roman Empire.

50) Secondly, a little word Commenden, that is, when the pope orders a cardinal, or otherwise his one, to keep a rich, fat monastery or church;*) as if I were to keep a hundred florins for you. This does not mean to give or lend the monastery, nor to destroy it, nor to refuse service; but to keep it alone; not to preserve or build it, but to expel the person, to take the goods and interest, and to put in it some apostate, lost monk, who takes five or six florins a year and sits in the church during the day, selling signs and images to the pilgrims, so that neither singing nor reading is done there anymore. For if this meant destroying monasteries and aborting worship, one would have to call the pope a destroyer of Christianity and abortor of worship. For he truly does it mightily. That would be harsh language for Rome; therefore it must be called a command or order to keep the monastery. The pope can make four or more of these monasteries commends in one year, since one has more than six thousand florins in income. Thus they increase the worship in Rome and maintain the monasteries; this is also learned in German lands.

Thirdly, there are some fiefs, which they call incompatibilia (i.e. incompatible), which according to the order of ecclesiastical law cannot be kept with each other, as there are two parishes, two bishoprics and the like. Here, the Holy Roman See and the avarice turn from the ecclesiastical law in such a way that it makes for it glosses called unio et incorporatio (i.e. union and incorporation), that is, that it has many incompatibilia living in each other, so that one member of the other is not able to keep the other.

and thus be considered as one benefice; then they are never incompatibilia and the sacred spiritual right is helped that it no longer binds, because only with those who do not buy such glosses from the pope and his Datarius*). Unio is also of this kind, that is, union, that he couples such fiefs together much as a bundle of wood, for the sake of which coupling they are all held for one fief. Thus one can find a curtisan (courtier) at Rome who has 22 parishes, 7 provostries and 44 benefices for himself alone; all of which helps such a masterly gloss, and holds that it is not contrary to law. Now what cardinals and other prelates have, consider each one for himself. In this way, the Germans are to be cleared of the bag and the tickle is to be driven away.

One of the glosses is administratio (i.e. administration), that is, that one has abbeys or dignities in addition to his bishopric and owns all property, without having the name, but only administrator. For it is enough in Rome that the words change and not the deed; just as if I taught that the whore hostess should be called burgomaster and yet remain as pious as she is. Such a Roman regime was proclaimed by St. Peter when he says, 2 Epist. 2, 3: "False masters will come, who will act in avarice with fictitious words over you" to make their profit.

(53) The good Roman avarice has also devised the custom that benefices and fiefs are sold and lent for such a benefit that the seller or handler retains the right and claim to them, so that if the owner dies, the fief dies freely again to the one who sold, lent or left it before; so that they have made hereditary estates**) out of the benefices that no one can come to them anymore, except the one to whom the seller wants to sell it, or his right to it is terminated at his death. In addition

*Dataria is the papal authority that grants privileges, issues the confirmation of bishops and abbots, dispenses with marriage impediments, and collects the fees for them, thus a kind of chamber of accounts.

D. Red.

**) I.e. such goods which are no longer attached to the office and the place, but to the person. D. Red.

There are many who give a fief to another only with the title that he will not receive a penny. It has also become old that one gives a fief to another with the reservation of some sums of annual interest; which was simony in former times. And there are many more of them, which are not to be counted, and so they deal with the benefices much more shamefully than the Gentiles under the cross with Christ's garments, Matth. 27, 35.

But all that has been said so far is almost old and common in Rome. There is one more thing that avarice has devised, which I hope will be the last thing he strangles. The pope has a noble little fist, which is called pectoralis reservatio, that is, his mind's reservation, et proprius motus, and his own will of force. This is how it happens: if someone in Rome obtains a fief that is signed (sealed) and attributed to him in a fair way, as is the custom there, then someone who brings money or has otherwise earned it, there is nothing to be said of, and desires the same fief from the pope, he gives it to him and takes it from the other. If it is then said that he is unjust, then the most holy father must excuse himself that he is not so publicly punished by force against justice, and says: "In his heart and mind he has reserved the same fief for himself and his full authority, although he has never thought of it nor heard of it before in his life. And now he has found a little bell, so that he can lie in his own person, deceive and fool everyone, and all this unashamedly and publicly; and still wants to be the head of Christianity, lets himself be ruled by the evil spirit with public lies.

(55) Now this willfulness and lying reservation of the pope makes Rome such a being that no one can speak of it. There is buying, selling, exchanging, swapping, hissing, lying, cheating, robbing, stealing, showing off, fornication, lechery, in all kinds of contempt of God, that it is not possible for the end-Christ to rule more blasphemously. It is nothing with Venice, Antorf (Antwerp), Alkair (Cairo, at that time the center of the trade between the Orient and Occident) against this fair and merchant trade to Rome; without that there nevertheless sense

and right is kept; here it goes as the devil himself wants. And from the sea now flows into all the world the same virtue. Should not such people fear the Reformation and a free concilium, and rather all kings and princes hang together, lest through their unity a concilium be formed? Who would suffer that such a conceit of his should come to light?

56 Finally, the pope has set up his own merchant house for all these noble trades, that is, Datarius' house in Rome. All those who trade in this way for fiefs and benefices must come to this house; they must buy such fiefs and dealings from it and obtain the power to carry out such principal dealings. It was still gracious in Rome in the past, when one had to buy the right or suppress it with money; but now it has become so exquisite that no one allows it to be overreached, it must be bought with sums of money beforehand. Is this not a whorehouse above all the whorehouses that someone would like to conceive, I do not know what whorehouses are called.

If you have money in this house, you can get all these things; and not only these, but all kinds of usury are justified here for money, as: stolen, stolen goods. Here the vows are annulled; here the monks are given freedom to leave the order; here the marital status of the priests is for sale; here the children of whores may be married; here all dishonor and disgrace come to dignity; here all evil censure and malice is knighted and made noble. Here the conjugal estate must suffer itself, which in forbidden degree or otherwise has a defect. Oh, what an estimation and drudgery reigns there, that it has an appearance that all spiritual laws are set only for this reason, so that only many money snares would have to be solved, who should be a Christian. Yes, here the devil becomes a saint and a god as well. What heaven and earth cannot do, this house can. They are called compositiones (i.e. orders), admittedly compositiones, yes confusiones (disorders). Oh how bad a treasure is the customs around the Rhine compared to this holy house.

(58) Let no one think that I say too much; it is all public, that they themselves must confess to Rome that it is more abominable and more than anyone could say. I have not yet, nor do I want to stir the right bright basic soup of the personal vices; I speak only of mean running things and still cannot attain them with words. Bishops, priesthood and before that the doctors of the universities, who are paid for it, should have written and shouted in unison according to their duty. Yes, turn the page and you will find it.

59 There is also the valete back there, which I also have to give. Since the immeasurable avarice has not yet had enough of all these treasures, since three mighty kings have been content with them, he is now beginning to transfer and sell his goods to the Fugger at Augsburg, so that the bishopric and fiefs can now be lent, exchanged, bought and the dear handling of spiritual goods has just come to the right place, and now spiritual and worldly goods have become one handling. Now I would like to hear such a high reason, which would like to think about what could happen from now on through the Roman avarice, which has not happened; unless the Fugger transfers or sells his two and now some trade to someone. I think it has come to an end. For what they have stolen in all countries with indulgences, bulls, letters of confession, butter letters, and other confessionalibus (i.e., things that have to do with confession), what they still steal and create, I consider as patchwork and as if one were to throw a devil into hell. Not that they bear little, for a mighty king could well sustain himself from them; but that he has no equal to the above-mentioned rivers of treasure. I am still silent about the time where such indulgences came from; another time I will ask about it, because Campoflore and Belvedere (the castles of shame and pleasure of the popes) and several other places know something about it.

60 Because such a diabolical regime is not only a public robbery, deception and tyranny of the infernal gates, but also the Christianity in body and soul.

If we want to fight against the Turks, let us start here, where they are most fierce. If we want to fight against the Turks, then let us start here, where they are the most angry. If we justly execute the thieves and behead the robbers, why should we let the Roman avarice go free, who is the greatest thief and robber that has come or may come on earth? and all this in Christ's and St. Peter's holy name. Who can last suffer it or keep silent? Almost everything he has has been stolen and robbed, which is proven by all histories. The pope has never bought such large estates that he can raise from his offices ten hundred thousand ducats without the above-mentioned treasure pits and his land. Christ and St. Peter did not bequeath it to him, nor did anyone give it to him or lend it to him, nor did he inherit it or gain it. Tell me, where did he get it? From this you can see what they are looking for and what they mean when they send out legates to collect money against the Turk.

[Rath D. M. L. von Besserung christliches Standes.]

61 Although I am now too small to present pieces for the improvement of such an abominable being, I still want to sing out the fool's play and say as much as my mind can, what would and should happen by secular power or general concilium.

62) First, that every prince, nobleman, and city in their subjects forbid to give the annals to Rome, and that they even stop them. For the pope has broken the pact and made a robbery out of the annals to the detriment and shame of the common German nation; he gives them to his friends, sells them for a lot of money and establishes offices on them; therefore he has lost the right to do so and deserves punishment. Thus the secular power is obliged to protect the innocent and defend against injustice, as St. Paul, Rom. 13, 4, teaches and St. Peter, 1 Ep. 2, 14, and also the spiritual law 16, qu. 7. de filiis. Hence it has come that one says to the

To the pope and his: Tu ora, you shall pray; to the emperor and his: Tu protege, you shall protect; to the common man: Tu labora, you shall work. Not so that each one should not pray, protect, work, for everything is prayed, protected, worked, who practices his work; but that each one is assigned his work.

On the other hand, because the pope with his Roman practices, commendations, adjuncts/) reservation (reservation, see § 54.), Gratiis exspectativis,**) pontifical month, incorporation (Einverleibung), union (union, see § 51.), pension, palliis,f) chancery rules and similar bureaucracy, seizes all German monasteries without force or law and transfers them to Rome to foreigners.), pension, palliis,f) rules of chancery and suchlike bureaucracy, seizes all German monasteries without force and right and gives and sells them to strangers in Rome, who do nothing in German lands for them, so that he deprives the ordinaries ††) of their right, makes of the bishops only ciphers and oil idols, and thus acts against his own spiritual right, nature and reason, so that it has finally come about that the benefices and fiefdoms are sold only to gross unlearned asses and boys at Rome through pure avarice; pious learned people enjoy nothing of their merits and art, so that the poor people of the German nation must lack and perish good learned prelates. Therefore, the Christian nobility should stand against him as against a common enemy and destroyer of Christianity, for the sake of the poor souls' salvation, who must perish through such tyranny, and should set, enjoin and decree that henceforth no more fiefs be drawn to Rome, that no more be obtained in it in any way, but that they be taken back from the tyrannical power, kept outside, and that the ordinaries be restored to their right and office to decree such fiefs as best they are able in the German nation. And where

If a Curtisan were to come out and receive a serious order to desist or to jump into the Rhine and the nearest water and to lead the Roman ban with seal and letters to the cold bath, they would realize in Rome that the Germans were not always mad and full, but had also once become Christians, as they no longer intend to suffer the mockery and disgrace of the holy name of Christ, under which such evil and ruin of soul happens, and respect God and God's honor more than the power of men.

64 Thirdly, that an imperial law go forth that no episcopal mantle, nor confirmation of any dignity, be henceforth brought from Rome; but that the order of the most holy and famous Council of Nicaea be re-established, wherein it is provided that one bishop be confirmed by the others-two next, or by the archbishop. If the pope wants to tear up such and all conciliar statutes, what is the use of having conciliar statutes? or who has given him the power to despise and tear up conciliar statutes in this way? So much the more do we abolish all bishops, archbishops, primates,*) make them vain parish lords, that the pope alone is over them, as he is now, and leaves the bishops, archbishops, primates no proper power nor office, snatches everything to himself, and leaves them only the name and the empty title; so far also that by his exemption**) also the monasteries, ubles and prelates are withdrawn from the ordinary power of the bishops, and thus no order remains in Christendom. From this must follow, as has been done, remission of punishment and freedom to do evil in all the world, that I truly fear that the pope may be called hominem peccati (i.e. the

**The popes arrogate to themselves the right to remove (eximere) any individual or entire body from the spiritual power and supervision of their ordinary pastors and bishops (ordinaries) and to place it directly under their power; this right is called exemption and can of course only be acquired by payment of a one-time or annual sum. D. Red.

Who can be blamed that there is no discipline, no punishment, no regiment, no order in Christendom, but the pope? who, by such his own presumptuous power, shuts out the hand of all prelates, takes the rod, and opens the hand of all subjects, and gives or sells liberty?

(65) But lest he complain that he is deprived of his authority, it should be decreed that if the primates or archbishops do not want to settle a matter, or if a dispute arises among them, then the same should be brought before the pope, and not any small matter, as happened in ancient times and the highly famous Concilium of Nicaea has established. But what can be done without the pope, that his holiness may not be burdened with such small matters, but may wait for their prayer and study and concern for all Christendom, as he boasts; as the apostles did, Apost. 6, 2. 4. and said: "It is not right for us to leave the word of God and serve the table: we want to hang on to preaching and prayer", and to ordain others over the work. But now Rome is nothing but contempt of the gospel and prayer, and table service, that is, temporal good, and rhymes with the apostles' and the pope's regiment, as Christ and Lucifer, heaven and hell, night and day; and yet is called Christ's vicar and the apostles' successor.

66 Fourthly, that it be ordained that no temporal matter be brought to Rome, but that they all be left to the temporal power, as they themselves set in their spiritual rights, and yet do not keep them. For the office of the pope is to be the most learned in the Scriptures, and truly, not by name, the most holy, to govern the matters concerning the faith and holy life of Christians, to hold the primates and archbishops to it, and to act and take care with them within, as St. Paul, 1 Cor. 6, 7, teaches, and to punish severely that they deal with worldly matters. For it brings unbearable harm to all countries that such things are handled in Rome, where great costs are incurred, and these judges do not know the customs, rights, and

The customs of the countries, that they several times force and pull the things according to their rights and opinions (i.e. opinions), so that the parties must be wronged. At the same time, the dreadful oppression of the officials should be forbidden in all monasteries, *) so that they take no more than the cause of faith and good morals; what concerns money, property and body or honor, leave to the secular judges. Therefore, the secular authority shall not permit the banishment and activity, where it does not concern faith or good life. Spiritual authority should govern spiritual good, as reason teaches; but spiritual good is not money nor bodily things, but faith and good works.

However, it would be desirable that matters concerning fiefs or benefices be heard before bishops, archbishops. Primates. Therefore, where it would be desirable to separate the quarrels and wars, that the primate in Germania hold a common consistory with adjutoribus (i.e. assessors), chancellors, which, as in Rome, govern signaturas gratiae et justitiae (i.e. the issuance of benefits and rights). (i.e., the issuance of favors and rights), to whom matters in German lands would be properly brought and brought by appeal, who would not have to be paid, as in Rome, with random gifts and offerings, by which they would be accustomed to sell right and wrong, as they now have to do in Rome because the pope does not give them any pay; let them fatten themselves with gifts; For there is no one in Rome who cares what is right or wrong, but what is money or not money; but these should be paid from the annuities or otherwise devise a way, as those who are more knowledgeable and better experienced in these matters, such as I am, are able to do. I only want to have inspired and given cause for concern to those who are able and inclined to help the German nation to become Christians and free again after the wretched, pagan and unchristian regime of the pope.

68. fifth that no reservation

and that no fief be held in Rome any longer, if the owner dies, if there is a dispute about it, or if it is a cardinal's or pope's servant. And that it be strictly forbidden and enforced that no Curtisan start a quarrel on any fief, to cite the pious priests, to tribute them and to drive them to contentiren (i.e. to satisfy, to pay). And if a ban or spiritual constraint were to come from Rome, that one should despise it, as if a thief were to banish someone for not wanting to let him steal; Indeed, they should be severely punished for abusing the ban and the divine name so blasphemously in order to strengthen their robbery, and for wanting to drive us with false, fabricated evil to suffer and praise such blasphemy of the divine name and abuse of Christian authority, and to become partakers of their mischievousness before God, if we owe it to God to defend ourselves against it, as St. Paul, Rom. Paul, Rom. 1, 32, punishes them: "They are worthy of death, not only for doing this, but also for agreeing and allowing to do this. But first the lying reservatio pectoralis (i.e. the secret reservation made in the heart) is offensive, by which Christianity is so blasphemously and publicly put to shame and ridicule that its ruler acts with public lies and impudently deceives and fools everyone about the cursed good.

69. Sixthly, that also the casus reservati, the reserved cases, *) are abolished, so that not only much money is wasted by the people, but many poor consciences are entangled and confused by the furious tyrant, to the unbearable harm of their faith in God; especially the ridiculous, childish cases that they blow out with the bull Coena Domini, which are not worthy to be called daily sin, let alone such great cases that the pope does not indulge with any indulgence: as there are, if someone prevented a pilgrim to Rome, or brought the Turks to war, or ver-

*The pope has reserved the absolution of certain sins for himself, so that the faithful, in order to be absolved of them, must turn to Rome; about the number of such reserved cases one is not quite agreed in the Roman church itself. D. Red.

forged the pope's letters.*) They are fooling us with such crude, foolish, unconventional pieces; Sodoma and Gomorrah and all the sins that happen and may happen against God's commandment are not casus reservati, but what God has never commanded and they themselves have devised must be casus reservati, only that no one may be prevented from bringing money to Rome, that they may live safely in pleasure before the Turk and keep the world in their tyranny with their loose useless bulls and letters.

(70) If there should be such a knowledge among all priests, or such a public order, that no secret, unindicted sin is a reserved case, and every priest has the power to absolve all kinds of sins, as they are always called, where they are secret; also neither abbot, bishop nor pope has the power to reserve one of them to him. And if they did so, it would be of no use or consequence; they would also be punished, as they fall into God's judgment without a command and entangle and burden the poor, unintelligent consciences without a cause. But if they are public sins, especially against God's commandment, then they must have a basic casus reservatos. But also not too much; also not by its own power without cause. For Christ did not put tyrants, but shepherds in his church, as St. Peter says, 1 Ep. 5, 2. 3.

71. The seventh, that the Roman see remove the offices, the worms and ulcers of Rome less, so that the pope's servants may be fed by the pope's own goods, and not let his court surpass all kings' courts in pomp and cost; Considering that such a being has not only never served the cause of the Christian faith, but has also prevented them from study and prayer, so that they themselves know almost nothing more to say about the faith; which they have proved quite grossly in this last Roman Council, in which they have, among many

The people of the world, in their childish, frivolous articles, have also said that the soul of man is immortal,*) and that a priest must say his prayers once a month if he does not want to lose his fiefdom. What should people say about Christianity and the faith, who, hardened and blinded by great avarice, wealth and worldly splendor, now first of all say that the soul is immortal? This is no small disgrace to all Christianity, which treats the faith shamefully in Rome. If they had less goods and splendor, they would study and pray better, so that they would become worthy and capable of doing the things of faith, as they were before, when they presumed to be bishops and not kings of kings.

(72) To the end that the grave and abominable oaths, which the bishops are forced to take to the pope without any right, be abrogated, so that they, like the servants, be imprisoned; as the incompetent, unlearned chapter sets Significasti**) by their own power and great ignorance. If it is not enough that they weigh down our goods, bodies and souls with many of their foolish laws, thereby weakening the faith and corrupting Christianity, they also take captive the people, their

2) This is the 5th Lateran Conciliar of 1512, in the execution of which Leo X, in his Constitution ^ostoliei ro^iminis (8spt. 1. V., tit. III. 6.8.), says: "With the approval of this holy Conciliar, we condemn and reject all those who maintain that the rational soul is mortal, and who doubt this: since it (the soul) is not only in itself and essentially the form of the body, but also immortal.... To this end we also command all professors of philosophy at the universities, in their lectures in the philosophical principles and conclusions, e.g., of the mortality of the soul, of the unity and eternity of the world, and the like, also to make known with "evil diligence the truth of the Christian religion, and to seek to dissolve those philosophical proofs, since everything can be dissolved." D. Red.

The German emperors had it in the past (a right), and in France and some kingdoms it is still held by the kings. They have had great war and strife with the emperors over this, until they have taken it with insolent violence and kept it until now, just as if the Germans had to be fools of the pope and the Roman see before all Christians on earth, doing and suffering what no one else suffers or wants to do. Since this is all violence and robbery to the detriment of episcopal authority and to the harm of poor souls, the Emperor and his nobility are obliged to prevent and punish such tyranny.

73. Ninth, that the pope have no power over the emperor without anointing and crowning him on the altar, as a bishop crowns a king; and that the diabolical hope be not permitted henceforth that the emperor kiss the pope's feet, or sit at his feet, or, as they say, hold his stirrup and the bridle of his mule when he sits up to ride; much less pay homage to the pope and swear loyal allegiance, as the popes impudently undertake to demand, as if they had a right to do so. It is the chapter Solitae **) therein papal authority

**The chapter which begins with the word Solitae (in the Decretals of Gregory, Book 1, Tit. 33, Cap. 6) is a decision of the Pope Jnnocens III against the Emperor Alexius III of Constantinople from the year 1198 and is headed: "The secular rule is not above the priesthood, but below it and must obey it; or so: A bishop should not be subject to the princes, but be above them. This decision is applicable many times (sst multnm aUeMdile)." It is too large to print in its entirety, but we will take a few passages from it: "Your Imperial Highness is surprised that in our letter we do nothing but punish you.... But if you had been more attentive to the person of the speaker and those addressed, as well as to the meaning of the language itself, there would have been no reason for it.... That the apostle Peter writes: 'Be subject to the king as to the ruler' etc., is not to be understood as if the king or the emperor had received the power of the sword over good and evil, but only over those who, using the sword, are subject to his jurisdiction, as the truth itself says: 'He who takes the sword shall perish by the sword'. But the prerogatives of the priesthood you would have had

The words of God are not worth a penny, and all who base themselves on them or fear them, because it does nothing else, because the holy words of God compel and force their right mind to their own dreams, as I have indicated in the Latin.

The devil has devised such exuberant, arrogant, and overreaching behavior on the part of the pope, in order to introduce the end-Christ in time and to elevate the pope above God, as many have already done. It is not proper for the pope to exalt himself above temporal power, but only in spiritual offices, such as preaching and absolving. In other matters, he is to be under it, as St. Paul, Rom. 13, 1, and 1 Petr. 3, 13. 14. teach, as I said above. He is not a statue.

Holder of Christ in heaven, but Christ alone, walking on earth. For Christ in heaven, in the ruling form, needs no governor, but sits, sees, does, knows, and is able to do all things. But he needs him in the ministering form, when he walked on earth, with laboring, preaching, suffering, and dying. So they turn it around, take away Christ's heavenly ruling form and give it to the pope; let the serving form perish completely. He should almost be the Antichrist, whom the Scriptures call Antichrist; yet all his nature, work and intentions go against Christ, only to destroy and annihilate Christ's nature and work.

It is also ridiculous and childish that the pope, for such a deluded, perverse reason, boasts in his Decretal Pastoralis that he is a proper heir to the empire, if it stands alone.) Who gave it to him? Did Christ do it when he said Luc. 22, 25. 26.: "The princes of the Gentiles are lords, but you shall not be so"? Did St. Peter bequeath it to him? It grieves me that we have to read and teach such impudent, crude, insane lies in the spiritual law and consider them Christian doctrine, when they are actually devilish lies. Of what kind is the outrageous lie de donatione Constantini (i.e. of the donation of the Papal States to the popes, which the Emperor Constantine is supposed to have made). It must have been a special plague from God that so many sensible people allowed themselves to be persuaded to accept such lies, when they are so completely coarse and unconventional that it seems to me that a drunken peasant should be able to lie more breezily and skillfully. How should an emperor rule: preach, pray.

Which office is most properly the priest's, and Christ imposed it with such great seriousness that he also forbade "they should not carry skirts or money with them," Match. 10:10, since he who must rule a single house can hardly wait for such offices; and the pope wants to rule the empire and remain pope. The boys have thought it up, who would like to be lords over the world under the name of the pope, and to rebuild the destroyed Roman Empire through the pope and the name of Christ, as it was before.

The tenth, that the pope abstain, pull his hand out of the soup, refrain from any title to the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. He has as much right to it as I do, but he still wants to be lord of the fief. It is a robbery and violence, as are almost all his other possessions; therefore the emperor should not allow him such a fief, and if it had happened, he should no longer grant it; but show him the bibles and prayer books for letting secular lords rule land and people, especially those whom no one has given him; and he should preach and pray. This opinion should also be held about Bononia (Bologna), Imola, Vincenz, Ravenna and everything that the pope has taken by force in the Anconitan Mark, Romandiola and other countries of the world and owns unjustly, against all the commandments of Christ and St. Paul. For thus says St. Paul, 2 Tim. 2, 4: "No one wraps himself in worldly business who should wait for divine knighthood." Now the pope is to be the head and the first in this knighthood, and gets more involved in worldly business than any emperor or king; ever, then, he should be helped out and made to wait on his knighthood. Even Christ, of whom he prides himself as governor, never wanted to have anything to do with worldly government, so much so that he said to one who wanted a judgment from him about his brother, Luc. 12, 14: "Who made me a judge for you? But the pope leads without being called, subdues all things like a god, until he himself no longer knows what Christ is, whose governor he is.

In the meantime, the kissing of the pope's feet should no longer be done. It is an unchristian, even end-christian example that a poor sinful man allows his feet to be kissed by one who is a hundred times better than he. If it is done in honor of power, why does not the pope do it in honor of holiness? Hold them against each other, Christ and the pope. Christ washed his disciples' feet and dried them, and the disciples never washed them for him. The pope, as higher than Christ, turns this around and lets it be a great grace to kiss his feet; who, however, should refuse this with all his might, if someone wanted it from him, like St. Paul and Barnabas, who did not want to be honored as God by those at Lystra, but said: "We are equal to men as you", Apost. 14, 14. ff. But our flatterers have brought it so high and made us an idol, that no one is so afraid of God, no one honors him with such gestures, as the pope. They can suffer that, but not at all, if the pope's praise would be broken off by a hair's breadth. If they were Christians and preferred God's honor to their own, the pope would never be happy when he realized that God's honor was despised and his own was exalted; nor would anyone honor him until he realized that God's honor was again exalted and greater than his honor.

78) [To the same great annoying hope is also this ugly piece, that the pope does not allow him to ride or drive, but, even if he is strong and healthy, lets himself be carried by men, as an idol, with unheard-of splendor. Dear, how does such a Luciferian court rhyme with Christ, who walked on foot and all his apostles? Where has there been a worldly king who has ever ridden so worldly and splendidly as he who wants to be the head of all those who disdain worldly splendor and should flee, that is, the Christians? Not that we should almost be moved by him, but that we should fear God's wrath, if we flatter such hopefulness, and

*) §§ 78 and 79 are not in the 1520 edition.

do not let us notice our annoyance. It is enough that the pope thus rages and fools; but it is too much if we approve and indulge in it.

79. For what Christian heart may or should see with pleasure that the pope, when he wants to be communicated to, sits quietly as a grace-junior and has the sacrament handed to him by a kneeling, bent cardinal with a golden reed? Just as if the holy Sacrament were not worthy of a pope, a poor stinking sinner, to stand up and do honor to his God, when all other Christians, who are much holier than the most holy father, the pope, receive it with all reverence. What wonder would it be that God would afflict us all, that we would suffer such dishonor from God and praise him in our prelates, and that we would make ourselves partakers of his damned hope by our silence or flattery? It is the same when he carries the sacrament in the procession. He must be carried, but the Sacrament stands before him like a jug of wine on the table. In short, Christ is not valid in Rome, the Pope is valid all together; and yet we want to urge and urge ourselves to approve, praise and honor such end-christian censure against God and all Christian doctrine. May God now help a free council to teach the Pope, as he is also a man, and no more than God, as he dares to be].

The twelfth is that pilgrimages to Rome be stopped, or that no one be allowed to go on a pilgrimage of his own pride or devotion, unless he is first recognized by his parish priest, city lord, or sovereign as having sufficient and honest cause. I do not say that pilgrimages are evil, but that they are bad at this time; for they see no good example in Rome, but vain vexation, and as they themselves have made a proverb: The nearer Rome, the angrier Christians; they bring with them contempt of God and God's commandments. It is said that he who goes to Rome the first time looks for a scoundrel; the second time he finds him; the third time he brings him out with him. But they have now become so skillful that they arrange the three journeys at once, and have truly given us such

Little piece brought from Rome. It would be better rom never seen nor recognized.

(81) And even though this is not the case, there is still a more excellent one, namely, that simple men are deceived by it into a false delusion and ignorance of divine commandments. For they think that such a thing is a deliciously good work, which is not true. It is a little good work, more often an evil, seductive work; for God has not commanded it. But he commanded that a man should take care of his wife and children, and that he should do what is proper in marriage, serving and helping his neighbor. Now it happens that a man wanders to Rome, spends fifty, a hundred, more or less florins, which no one has commanded him to do, and leaves his wife and child or even his neighbor at home to suffer hardship; and yet the foolish man thinks that he wants to adorn such disobedience and contempt of divine commandments with his own self-willed voluptuousness, when it is a pure presumption or the devil's seduction. The popes with their false, fictitious, foolish golden years have helped to arouse the people, tore them away from God's commandments and drew them to their own seductive pretensions, and caused the very thing that they should have forbidden. But it carried money and strengthened false power, therefore it had to go away, be it against God or the salvation of the souls.

To eradicate such false, seductive faith of simple-minded Christians and to establish a right understanding of good works, all pilgrimages should be stopped; for there is no good in it, no commandment, no obedience, but innumerable causes of sins and contempt for God's commandments. That is why so many beggars come, who, through such a rampage, do innumerable trifles, begging without need, learning and living it. Here comes free life and more misery? which I do not want to count now. Whoever now wants to walk or vow to walk should first inform his parish priest or overlord of the cause; if it were found that he did so for the sake of a good work, that same vow and work would only be trampled underfoot by the parish priest or overlord as a devilish ghost, and

He told him to invest the money and the work that belonged to the pilgrimage in God's commandment and a thousand times better works, that is, in his own or his next poor. If, however, he does it out of presumption to see land and cities, he may be allowed to have his way. But if he has vowed in sickness to forbid these vows, promise and lift up God's commandments against them, that he may henceforth be content with the vow made in baptism to keep God's commandments. But this time, in order to satisfy his conscience, he may be allowed to make his foolish vow. No one wants to walk the right common road of divine commandments; everyone makes new ways and vows for himself, as if he had accomplished all of God's commandments.

After this we come to the great heap, who vow much and yet keep little. Do not be angry, dear sirs, I truly mean it well, it is the bitter and sweet truth, and is that no more monasteries for beggars should be built. Help God, there are already far too many of them; indeed, if God would, they would all be heaped up in two or three places! It has done no good, nor does it ever do any good to go astray in the country. Therefore, my advice is to put ten of them, or however many are needed, in one pile and make one of them, which, sufficiently provided for, should not beg. Oh, it is rather to be considered here what the common heap needs for salvation, than what St. Franciscus, Dominic, Augustine or any other man has set, especially because it is not advisable in their opinion. And that they should not be above preaching and confessing, unless they were called and requested to do so by bishops, parishes, congregations or authorities. Such preaching and confession has given rise to nothing more than vain hatred and envy between priests and monks, great annoyance and hindrance of the common people, so that it has become worthy and well deserved to cease, because it may well be dispensed with. It is not without merit that the Holy Roman See has not increased such an army in vain, lest the priesthood and bishopric, displeased with its tyranny, should one day become too strong for it.

and began a reformation that would not be conducive to his holiness.

84. At the same time, all sorts of sects and differences of one order should be abolished, which sometimes arose for very little reason and remain even less, fighting against each other with unspeakable hatred and envy; Nevertheless, the Christian faith, which exists without any such difference, perishes on both sides, and a good Christian life is valued and sought only according to the outward laws, works and ways, from which nothing more than gluttony and the ruin of souls follow and are found; as everyone sees before his eyes. The pope should also be forbidden to establish and confirm more such orders, and should be ordered to abolish some and to force them into fewer numbers. Since the faith of Christ, which alone is the main good and exists without any (any) orders, suffers not a little danger that people are easily seduced by so many and various works and ways to live more on such works and ways than to pay attention to faith. And if there are not wise prelates in monasteries, who preach and practice more the faith than the law of the order, it is not possible that the order should not be harmful and seductive to simple souls who pay attention to works alone.

85. But now, in our times, the prelates who had faith and established the orders have fallen almost in all places, just as in the days of old among the children of Israel, when the fathers had departed, who had recognized God's works and miracles, as soon as their children, out of ignorance of divine works and faith, began to establish idolatry and their own human works: So also now, unfortunately, such orders have become ignorant of divine works and faith, only in their own rules, laws and ways miserably toil, labor and work and yet never come to the right understanding of a spiritual good life, as the apostle, 2 Tim. 3, 5. 7. proclaimed, saying, "They have a semblance of a spiritual life," and yet there is nothing behind it; "always and always they learn.

and yet they do not come to know what a truly spiritual life is. Thus it would be better that no monastery were there where there was no spiritual prelate who understood the Christian faith. For he may not rule without harm and ruin; and so much more, as much as he seems more holy and of a good life in his outward works.

I think it would be a necessary order, especially in our perilous times, that monasteries and convents should again be ordered in the way they were in the beginning with the apostles and for a long time afterwards, when they were all free for anyone to remain in them as long as he desired. For what else were monasteries and convents but Christian schools, where scripture and discipline were taught in a Christian manner and people were raised to rule and preach; as we read that St. Agnes went to the school, and still see in some women's convents, as in Quedlinburg and the like. Truly, all monasteries and convents should also be so free that they served God with free will and not forced services. But after that, they took vows and made an eternal prison out of them, so that they were considered more than baptismal vows. But what fruit has come from this, we see, hear, read and experience more and more every day.

I am well aware that my advice is highly regarded; I will not inquire about it now. I advise what seems good to me; reject whoever wants it. I see how the vows are kept, especially chastity, which becomes so common in such monasteries and yet is not commanded by Christ, but is given to almost few, as he himself and St. Paul say, Col. 2, 20. I would like to be of help to everyone and not let Christian souls be caught by man's own invented way and law.

Fourteenth, we also see how the priesthood has fallen, and how many a poor priest, overloaded with wife and child, weighs down his conscience, since no one is willing to help them, even though they could almost be helped. If the pope and bishops let what goes here go, spoil what spoils, then I want to help them.

I, I save my conscience and open my mouth freely, it displeases pope, bishops, or whom it wills, and say thus: that after Christ's and the apostles' appointment every city shall have a parish priest or bishop, as Paul clearly writes, Titus 1, 6.And the same priest shall not be obliged to live without a legitimate wife, but may have one, as St. Paul writes, 1 Tim. 3, 2. and Tit. 1, 6. and says: "Let a bishop be a man who is blameless and only has a legitimate wife, whose children are obedient and chaste" etc. For a bishop and a parish priest is one thing in St. Paul, as St. Jerome also proves. But the bishops who are now, the Scripture knows nothing of, but are set by Christian common order, that one rule over many parish rulers.

So we learn clearly from the apostle that it should be so in Christendom that every city should choose a learned, pious citizen from the congregation, give him the priesthood and feed him from the congregation, leaving him free to become married or not, who would have more priests or deacons beside him, also married, or as they wished, who would help govern the congregation and the church with preaching and sacraments; as it still remained in the Greek church. Afterwards, when there was so much persecution and strife against the heretics, there were many holy fathers who voluntarily withdrew from the marital state, so that they might study all the better and be ready for death and strife at any hour. Now the Roman See, out of its own iniquity, fell into it and made a common commandment out of it, forbidding the priesthood to be legitimate; the devil told them to do so, as St. Paul, 1 Tim. 4:3, proclaims: "Teachers will come who will teach the doctrine of the devil and forbid to be legitimate" etc. This, alas, has caused so much misery that it is impossible to tell, and has given the Greek church cause to separate, and has increased endless discord, sin, shame and trouble, as does everything that the devil starts and does.

90 What do we want to do here? I

The king advised that it be made free again and that each man be free to marry or not to marry. But there must be a different regiment and order of the estates and the whole ecclesiastical right must go to the ground and not many fiefs come to Rome. I fear that avarice has been a cause of wretched, unchaste chastity; from this followed that everyone wanted to become a priest, and everyone had his child studied for it, not thinking to live chastely, which could well be done without the priesthood, but to feed on temporal food without work and effort, against the commandment of God, Genesis 3:19: "You shall eat your bread by the sweat of your face," have painted it a color, as if their work should keep his prayers and monks. I leave standing here popes, bishops, monasteries, priests and monks whom God has not appointed. If they have laid burdens on them themselves, they also bear them. I will speak of the priesthood that God has appointed, which must govern a congregation with preaching and sacraments, dwell with them and keep house in time; they should be given freedom to marry by a Christian concilium, to avoid danger and sin. For since God Himself has not joined them, no one should or may join them, even if it were an angel from heaven, let alone a pope; and what is set against this in spiritual law is nothing but fables and tales.

I do not want to advise, nor do I want to prevent those who do not yet have wives from marrying or remaining without a wife; I place this on a common Christian order and on everyone's better sense. But to the wretched heap I will not give my faithful counsel, nor will I withhold consolation from those who are now assaulted with wife and child, who sit in shame and heavy consciences, that they are called priests' whores, and the children priests' children, and I declare this free for my court right.

(92) Many a pious priest can be found to whom no one else can give any blame except that he is infirm and has become disgraced with a wife; yet both of them are so minded in the depths of their hearts that they would gladly always remain with each other in true marital fidelity, if only they would do so with a good conscience, even if they had to bear the disgrace publicly; the two of them are certainly conjugal before God. And here I say that if they are so minded and thus come into a life that they only save their conscience freshly, he takes her as a wife, keeps her and otherwise lives honestly with her, like a married man, regardless of whether the pope wants this or not, whether it is against spiritual or carnal laws. It is more important for your soul's salvation than for the tyrannical, own powerful, unlawful laws, which are not necessary for salvation, nor commanded by God; and you should do as the children of Israel did, Ex. 11, 2, 12, 35, 36, who stole their deserved wages from the Egyptians, or as a servant steals his deserved wages from his malicious master; so also steal your wife and child from the priest.

Whoever has the faith to dare such a thing, let him only follow me freshly; I will not deceive him. If I do not have authority as a pope, I do have authority as a Christian to help and counsel my neighbor from his sins and dangers. And this not without reason and cause.

(94) First, any priest cannot lack a wife, not only for infirmity, but also for housekeeping. If he keeps a wife, and the priest permits him to do so, he may not have her as a wife; what is that but a husband and wife together?

of the alone and yet forbid, they should not fall; even as straw and fire together and forbid, it should neither smoke nor burn.

95. Secondly, that the pope does not have the power to command such things, as little as he has the power to forbid eating, drinking and the natural exit or feistiness; therefore, no one is guilty of keeping it, and the pope is guilty of all the sins that are committed against it, of all the souls that are lost because of it, of all the consciences that are confused and tortured because of it, so that he would have been worthy long ago who would have driven him out of the world, as many wretched souls he has strangled with the devilish rope. However, I hope that God has been more merciful to many of them at their end than the Pope was to them during their life. Nothing good has ever come out of the papacy and its laws, and never will.

96 Third, even if the law of the pope is against it, if a marital relationship is started against the law of the pope, his law is already over and no longer valid. For God's commandment, which commanded that man and wife should not be separated, Matth. 19, 6, goes far beyond the laws of the pope, and God's commandment must not be torn apart for the sake of the papal commandment and remain. Although many foolish lawyers with the pope have invented impediments (i.e. impediments to marriage) and thereby prevented, divided, and confused the marital status, God's commandment has completely disappeared. What can I say, there are not two lines in the whole of Pabst's spiritual laws that would instruct a pious Christian, and unfortunately so many erroneous and dangerous laws that it would not be better to make a red heap of them.

97 But if you say that it is annoying and that the pope must first dispense with it, I say that whatever annoyance there is in it is the fault of the Roman See, which has established such a law without right and against God. In the sight of God and the Holy Scriptures there is no offense. Also, where the pope can dispense for money in his money-addicted tyrannical laws, every Christian can also dispense in the same for the sake of God and the salvation of souls. For Christ has set us free from all human laws,

before where they are against God and the salvation of the soul, as Gal. 5, 1. and 1 Cor. 8, 9. 10. St. Paul teaches.

98. fifteenth, that I forget not the poor monasteries. The evil spirit, which has now confused and made all estates unbearable through human laws, has also possessed some abbots, abbesses and prelates, so that they preside over their brothers and sisters in such a way that they only soon go to hell and lead a miserable life here as well; as all devil martyrs do. Namely, they have reserved for them in confession all or some mortal sins that are secret, so that no brother should absolve the other in banishment and obedience. Now in all places one does not always find angels, but also flesh and blood, which rather suffer all banishment and penance, before they would confess their secret sin to the prelates and certain confessors, then go to the sacrament with such a conscience, by which they become irregulars *), and of much more sorrow. O blind shepherds! O mad prelates! O ravening wolves! Here I say: if the sin is public or known, then it is fair that the prelate alone punishes it, and this alone and no others he may reserve for him and take off (exclude); of the secret ones he has no power, even if they were the worst sins that one finds or can find. And if the prelate removes them, he is a tyrant, he has no right, he reaches into God's judgment.

(99) So I advise the same children, brothers and sisters: If the superiors will not allow you to confess your secret sins to whom you wish, take them yourself and confess them to your brother or sister to whom you wish; let yourself be absolved and comforted, go and do what you want and should; only firmly believe that you are absolved, then there is no need. And the ban,

Irregularity, or what they threaten more, do not be distressed nor misled; they do not apply further than to public or confessed sins; if someone does not want to confess them, it does not concern you. What do you intend to do, you blind prelate, to prevent secret sins by your condemnation? Let go of what you cannot receive publicly, that God's judgment and grace may also have to do with yours. He did not put them entirely in your hands, so that he left them entirely out of his. Yes, you have the lesser part under you. Let your statute be your statute and do not lift them up to heaven in God's judgment.

The sixteenth is that it would also be necessary that the annual feast days, funerals, and soul masses be completely stopped or ever reduced; therefore, that we publicly see before our eyes that nothing more than a mockery has become of them, so that God is highly angered, and are only directed toward money, eating, and drinking. What pleasure would God have if the wretched vigils and masses were so wretchedly performed, nor read, nor prayed; and even if they were prayed, they were not performed for God's sake out of free love, but for the sake of money and obligatory debt. Now it is not possible for God to be pleased with a work or to obtain something from Him that is not done in free love. Thus, it is ever Christian that we do away with everything or do less, which we see coming into an abuse and enraging God more than reconciling Him. It would be preferable to me, indeed more pleasing to God, and much better, that a monastery, church or convent take all their annual masses and vigils in one place and hold a proper vigil and mass one day with heartfelt earnestness, devotion and faith for all their benefactors, than that they hold a special one for each of them every year without such devotion and faith. O dear Christians, God does not care about much, but about praying well, yes, he condemns the long and many prayers, Matth. 6, 7, 23, 14, and says that they will only earn more torment with it. But the miser, who cannot trust God, creates such a creature, worrying that he will die of hunger. 101. to the seventeenth, one would also have to

to do away with some penalties or punishments of spiritual law, especially the jnterdict, which undoubtedly was devised by the evil spirit. Is this not a devilish work, that one wants to amend a sin with many and greater sins? It is ever a greater sin to silence or put down God's word and service, than if one had slain twenty popes at once, let alone a priest, or kept spiritual goods. It is also one of the tender virtues that are learned in spiritual law; for spiritual law is also called spiritual because it comes from the Spirit; not from the Holy Spirit, but from the evil spirit.

The ban should not be used sooner than the Scriptures instruct it to be used, that is, against those who do not believe correctly or live in public sins, not for temporal good. But now it is the other way round; everyone believes and lives as he pleases, even those who most abuse and disgrace other people with banishments, and all banishments are now only for temporal good. Which we also have no one to thank for the holy spiritual injustice; of which I said further earlier in the sermon.

The other punishments and penalties: suspension, irregularity, aggravation (increase, increase of guilt and punishment), reaggravation, deposition, lightning, thunder, malediction, condemnation, and what are more, should be buried ten cubits deep in the earth, so that their name and memory would no longer be on earth. The evil spirit, which has been loosed by spiritual law, has brought such a terrible plague and sorrow into the heavenly kingdom of holy Christianity, and has caused no more than ruin of soul and hindrance thereby, so that the word of Christ, Matth. 23, 13. may well be understood by him: "Woe to you scribes, you" have taken the authority to teach and "shut up the kingdom of heaven from men, you do not go in, and you hinder those who go in.

The eighteenth, that all feasts be abolished and only Sunday kept. If, however, Our Lady's and the great saints' feasts were ever to be kept, they would all be moved to Sunday, or only in the morning at the

Mass is held, after which the whole day would be a day of work. Cause, as now the abuse goes with drinking, gambling, idleness and all kinds of sin, so we anger God more on the holy days, than on the others. And we are quite the opposite, in that holy days are not holy, workdays are holy, and not only is no service done to God or His saints, but great dishonor is done with the many holy days. Although some foolish prelates think that if they made St. Ottilien, St. Barbarians, and each one a festival according to his blind devotion, he had done a good work; if he did much better, where he made a workday out of a holy day in honor of a saint.

In addition, the common man suffers two bodily damages above this spiritual damage: that he is neglected in his work, eaten up more than usual, and even his body is weakened and made clumsy, as we see every day, and yet no one thinks to improve it. And here one should not consider whether the pope has instituted the feasts or should have a dispensation or leave. What is contrary to God and harmful to man's body and soul, not only has any congregation, council or authority the power to do away with and prevent, without the knowledge and will of the pope or bishop; yes, it is also the duty of the soul to prevent it, even if the pope and bishops do not want it, who should be the first to prevent it. And before that, the church consecrations should be completely eradicated, since they have become nothing more than real tabernacles, fairs and playgrounds, only for the increase of God's dishonor and the souls' unhappiness. It does not help that one wants to pretend that it had a good beginning and was a good work. Yet God blows out His own law, which He had given from heaven, since it was turned into an abuse, and still daily turns back what He has set, breaks what He has made, for the sake of this wrong abuse; as it is written of Him in the 18th Psalm, v. 27: "You turn aside with the perverse."

106. to the nineteenth, that the degrees or members would be changed, in which the conjugal state is forbidden; as there are godfather-

The fourth and third degrees,*) that where the pope at Rome may dispense for money and sell shamefully, that there also every priest may dispense for free and for the salvation of souls. Yes, God would that everything that has to be bought in Rome and the money trick, the spiritual law, be loosed, that every priest would do the same without money and let it go; as there are indulgences, letters of indulgence, letters of butter, letters of mass, and what more of the confessionalia (confessionals) or confessionals are in Rome, where the poor people are deceived with and robbed of money. For if the pope has the power to sell his money and spiritual net, law I should say, for money, a priest certainly has much more power to tear them up and trample them underfoot for God's sake. But if he has no power to do so, then the pope has no power to sell them through his shameful fair.

(107) To this also belongs that the fasts should be left free to everyone and that all kinds of food should be made free, as the gospel says, Matth. 15, 11. For they themselves at Rome mock the fasts, let us eat oil at home, since they did not grease their shoes with it; then they sell us freedom, butter and all kinds of food, as the holy apostle says, 1 Cor. 10, 25. ff. that we have all this freedom beforehand from the gospel. But with their spiritual right they have caught us and stolen us, so that we have to buy it again with money; they have made such stupid, timid consciences with it that it is no longer good to preach about the same freedom, so that the common people almost resent it and consider it a greater sin to eat butter than to lie, swear, or even commit unchastity. It is man's work, what man has set; put it where you will, and nothing good will ever come of it.

108. to the twentieth, that the wild ca-

*The papal canon law (Osor. 6r. II., oaussa 35, Hu. 4.) gives as a reason for prohibiting marriage up to the 6th degree of consanguinity, "that just as the human race comes to an end in 6 ages of the world, so does the consanguinity come to an end in as many degrees" (ut sieut sox astativus muiuli Zsnsratio st kominis status culture, ita propiu^uitas Asusris tot Zrakibus tsrruiuarstur).

The bishops would destroy the churches and field churches to the ground; as there are, where the new pilgrimages go, Welsnacht, Sternberg, Trier, the Grimthal and now Regensburg, and the number of many more. O, how heavy, miserable account will the bishops have to give, who allow such devil's specter and receive enjoyment from it? They should be the first to deny it; they think it is a divine, holy thing, they do not see that the devil drives it, to strengthen avarice, to establish false imaginary faiths, to weaken parish churches, to increase tabernacles and fornication, to lose money and work uselessly and only to lead the poor people around by the nose. If they had read the Scriptures as well as the damned spiritual law, they would have known how to handle things.

It does not help that miraculous signs are performed. For the evil spirit can perform miracles, as Christ proclaimed to us, Matth. 24, 24. If they were serious about it and forbade such beings, the miracles would soon cease. Or, if it were from God, it would not be hindered by their prohibition, Acts 5, 39. 5, 39. And if there were no other sign that such a thing was not from God, that would be enough for people to run raging, without reason, like cattle, which is not possible from God. God has not commanded any of this, there is no obedience, no merit; therefore one should reach in freshly and defend the people. For that which is not commanded, and is more than God's commandment, is surely the devil himself. This is also a disadvantage for the parish churches, because they are less honored. Summa Summarum, these are signs of a great unbelief among the people. For if they believed rightly, they would have all things in their own churches, where they are commanded to go.

But what shall I say? Every man thinks only of how to arrange and maintain such a pilgrimage in his own circle, not caring at all how the people rightly believe and live. The rulers are like the people, one blind man leads another. Yes, where the pilgrimages do not want to start, they raise the saints: not in honor of the saints, who are honored enough without their elevation.

but to run and to raise money. So the pope and the bishops help: here it rains indulgences, there is enough money; but what God has commanded, no one is careful about, no one follows, no one has money. Oh, that we are so blind, and not only let the devil in his ghosts have his will, but also strengthen and increase it! I wish the dear saints were left in peace and the poor people unharmed. What spirit has given the pope power to raise the saints? Who tells him whether they are holy or not? Otherwise, are there not enough sins on earth, one must also tempt God, fall into his judgment and set up the dear saints as money idols? Therefore, I advise to let the saints elevate themselves, yes, God alone should elevate them, and let everyone stay in his parish, where he finds more than in all the churches, even if they were all one church. Here you will find baptism, sacrament, preaching and your neighbor; which are greater things than all the saints in heaven. For they have all been sanctified by the Word of God and Sacrament.

111. Because we despise such great things, God is just in His wrathful judgment, that He should punish the devil, who leads us to and fro, arranges pilgrimages, raises chapels and churches, erects saints' exaltations, and more foolish works, so that we may go from right faith into new, false misbeliefs; just as he did in ancient times to the people of Israel, whom he seduced from the temple at Jerusalem countless times, yet in God's name and in the good appearance of holiness, against which all the prophets preached and were martyred. But now nobody preaches against it, perhaps bishops, pope, priests and monks should torture him too. In the same way, Anthony of Florence and others must now be sanctified and elevated, so that their sanctity may serve for glory and money, which otherwise would have served only for God's glory and good example.

(112) And though the exaltation of saints might have been good in time past, yet now it is no longer good; even as many other things were good in time past, and yet are now vexatious and injurious, such as these: Holidays,

Church treasures and ornaments. For it is obvious that through the elevation of saints, not God's honor nor the betterment of Christians is sought, but money and fame, that one church wants to be and have something special before the other and would be sorry for it, that another would have the same, and that their advantage would be common; so even spiritual goods have been decreed for the abuse and gain of temporal goods in these worst last times, that everything that is God Himself must serve avarice. Even so, such advantage serves only two purposes, sect and hope, that one church is unequal to the other, despising and exalting one another; yet all divine goods are to be common and equal to all, serving only for unity. The pope, who would be sorry if all Christians were equal and one, is also in favor of this.

Here it belongs, that one should disown or despise, or ever make common of all church liberty, bulls, and what the pope sells to Rome on his shingle. For if he sells or gives indulgences, privileges, indulgences, graces, privileges, faculties to Wittenberg, Halle, Venice and before to his Rome, why does he not give it to all churches in common? Does he not owe it to all Christians to do for free and for the sake of God all that he can, even to shed his blood for them? So tell me, why does he give or sell to this church and not to the other? or must the cursed money in his holiness eyes make such a great difference among Christians who all have the same baptism, word, faith, Christ, God and all things? Eph. 4, 4. 5. Do they want to make us blind with eyes to see and foolish with pure reason, so that we should worship such avarice, evil and mirror-fighting? He is a shepherd; yes, where you have money, and no further: and yet they are not ashamed to lead us to and fro with their bulls. They only care about the cursed money and nothing else.

114 Therefore I advise that, if such foolish work is not done, every pious Christian man should open his eyes and let himself be familiarized with the Roman bulls, seals, and

Do not be distracted by the glitter, stay at home in his church and let his baptism, gospel, faith, Christ and God, who is the same in all places, be the best for him and let the pope remain a blind guide for the blind, Matth. 15, 4. Neither angel nor pope can give thee so much as God gives thee in thy parish; yea, he deceiveth thee from the divine gifts which thou hast in vain unto his gifts which thou must buy, and giveth thee lead for gold, hide for flesh, cord for the bag, wax for honey, word for goods, letters for the spirit; as thou seest before thine eyes, and yet wilt not know it. If thou shouldest go to heaven on his parchment and wax, the chariot shall soon break, and thou shalt fall into hell, not in the name of God.

Let it be but a certain rule unto thee: What you must buy from the pope is not good, nor from God. For what is of God is not only given freely, but all the world is punished and condemned because it did not want to receive it freely; as there is the gospel and divine works. We have deserved such deception for God's sake, that we have despised His holy word, the grace of baptism, as St. Paul says, 2 Thess. 2, 11. 12.: "God will send a strong delusion to all those who have not received the truth for their salvation, so that they may believe and follow the lie" and deception, as they are worthy.

116 Twenty-first. It is one of the greatest necessities that all begging should be stopped in all Christendom, that no one among the Christians should ever go begging; it would also be easy to make an order about it, if we had the courage and earnestness to do so, namely, that every city should feed its poor people and not admit any foreign beggar, they could be called whatever they wanted, they would be brothers of the Wall or begging orders. Any city could feed its own people, and even if it were too small, the people of the surrounding villages would be asked to contribute. Otherwise, they would have to feed so many peasants and bad boys under the name of begging; so one could also know which ones were truly poor or not.

117: So there should be a decomposer or

A guardian, who would knead all the poor and tell the council or priest what they needed, or how this could best be arranged. In my opinion, there is not so much fraud and deceit in any trade as in begging, all of which could easily be driven away. The common people are also harmed by such free general begging. I have considered that the five or six mendicant orders come to one place each year more than six or seven times, plus the common beggars, embassies, and friars, that the calculation has been found, how a city is estimated at sixty times a year, without what is due to the secular authorities, and the Roman see robs with its goods, and they consume uselessly; that it is one of God's greatest wonders to me, how we may remain and be nourished.

118 But that some think that the poor are not well provided for in this way, and that not so large stone houses and monasteries are built, nor so abundantly, I almost believe. But it is not necessary. He who wants to be poor should not be rich; but if he wants to be rich, let him take hold of the plow with his hand and dig it out of the ground himself. It is enough that the poor be provided for, lest they die of hunger or freeze to death. It is not fitting that one should be idle at another's work, be rich, and live at another's ease, as is now the wicked abuse; for St. Paul says, 2 Thess. 3:10, "He that worketh not shall not eat." No one is ordained by God to live on other people's goods, but only the preaching and ruling priests, as St. Paul 1 Cor. 9, 14, for their spiritual work; as also Christ says to the apostles, Luc. 10, 7: "Every worker is worthy of his reward."

119) Twenty-secondly, it is also to be feared that the many masses offered in monasteries and convents are not only of little use, but arouse great wrath of God; therefore it would be useful not to offer more of them, but to do away with the many offered: since they are seen to be held only as sacrifices and good works when they are offered, they are not to be offered, and they are not to be offered.

Sacraments, like baptism and penance, which are not useful for others, but only for those who receive them. But now it has come to pass that masses are said for the living and the dead, and all things are founded thereon; wherefore also so much is instituted of them, and such a thing has become of them, as we see.

120 But this is perhaps still too fresh and unheard of, especially for those who fear that their craft and nourishment will be laid down for them by such masses; I must spare further mention of it until a proper understanding arises again as to what and for what the mass is good. Unfortunately, for many years now, it has become a craft of temporal nourishment that I would henceforth advise to become a shepherd or other workman rather than a priest or monk, because he would know well beforehand what keeping mass is.

But I am not speaking here of the old foundations and cathedrals, which were undoubtedly founded so that, since not every child of the nobility should be a hereditary owner and ruler according to German customs, they might be provided for in the same foundations and freely serve God there, study and become and make scholars. I am talking about the new foundations, which are founded only on prayer and the celebration of masses, by which example the old ones are also burdened with the same prayers and masses, so that they are of no use or even of little use; although it is also by God's grace that they finally, as they are worthy, come to the leaven, that is, to the chorale singers' and organs' clamor and lazy, cold mass, so that only the temporal endowed interest is obtained and consumed. Oh, such things should be seen and described by pope, bishops, doctors; they are the ones who do it the most: always let go along what only brings money, always one blind man leads the other. This is what avarice and spiritual right do.

But it should no longer be the case that a person has more than one cathedral (canonry) and prebend and is content with a moderate status, so that another person may have something in addition to him; so that the excuse of those who have

say: they must have more than one for the preservation of their honest standing. One would like to measure honesty so high that a whole country would not be enough for its preservation. Thus avarice and secret distrust of God run quite safely along beside it, so that it is often taken for necessity of the honest state, which is pure avarice and distrust.

The twenty-third, the brotherhoods, item indulgences, letters of indulgence, letters of butter, letters of mass, dispensation, and what is equal to the thing, only all drowned and killed, there is nothing good. If the pope can dispense with you in butter dishes, mass letters, etc., he should also be able to let the parish priest do so, whom he has no power to take away. I am also talking about the brotherhoods in which indulgences, mass and good works are distributed. Dear one, in baptism you began a brotherhood with Christ, all the angels, saints and Christians on earth; keep this and do it enough, and you will have enough brotherhoods. Let the others shine as they will, so they are equal to the pennies against the florins. But if there were such a one, which gave money together to feed poor people or to help someone else, it would be good and would have its indulgence and merit in heaven. But now it has become collations *) and drunkenness.

Before that, one should chase out of German lands the papal messages with their faculties, which they sell to us for great money, which is nothing but fraud; as they take money and make unjust good, dissolve the oaths, vows and covenants; tear apart with it and teach tearing apart faithfulness and faith, pledged among themselves; speak that the pope has power. That is, they speak the evil spirit, and sell us such devilish doctrine, taking money for it, that they teach us sins and lead us to hell.

If there were no other evil trick that proved that the pope is the right end-Christ, this piece would be enough.

to prove it. Do you hear it, Pope, not the most holy, but the most sinful, that God is destroying your chair from heaven and lowering it into the abyss of hell! Who has given you authority to exalt yourself above your God, to break and dissolve that which He has commanded, and to teach the Christians, especially the German nation, who are of a noble nature, who are praised as constant and faithful in all histories, to be unstable, perjured, traitors, evil-doers, unfaithful? God has commanded that one should keep an oath and be faithful even to one's enemies, and you refuse to break such a commandment, in your heretical, end-Christian decrees you say that you have his power, and through your throat and pen the evil Satan lies as he has never lied before, forcing and urging the Scriptures according to your will. Oh Christ, my Lord, look down, let your last day come and destroy the devil's nest in Rome. Here sits the man of whom Paul said, 2 Thess. 2, 3. 4: "who should rise above you and sit in your church, presenting himself as a god: the man of sin and the son of perdition." What is papal power but to teach and increase sin and wickedness, to lead souls to damnation under your name and appearance?

The children of Israel, Jos. 9, 19, 20, had to keep the oath they had taken to the Gabeonites, their enemies, unknowingly and deceitfully. And the king of Zedekiah, 2 Kings 23:4, 5, 6, 7, 24, 20, had to be miserably lost with all the people, because he broke his oath to the king of Babylon. And in our country, a hundred years ago, the noble king of Poland and Hungary, Vladislaus, was unfortunately slain by the Turk, together with so many noble people, because he allowed himself to be seduced by a papal message and a cardinal, and tore up the blessed and useful treaty and oath he had made with the Turk. The pious Emperor Siegmund had no more luck after the Concilium of Constance (or Costnitz), in which he let the boys break the escort given to John Huss and Jerome, and all the misery between Bohemia and us resulted from it. And in our times, help God, what Christian blood has been shed over the oath and covenant, which

which Pope Julius made between the Emperor Maximilian and King Louis of France and tore up again? How I would like to tell it all, what misery the popes have caused with such devilish presumption, to tear oaths and vows between great lords, to make it a disgrace, and to take money for it. I hope that the last day is at the door. It cannot and may not get any worse than the Roman See is doing. He suppresses God's commandment; he exalts his commandment above it. If this is not the end-Christ, let another say who he may be. But of it another time more and better.

To the twenty-fourth, it is high time that we also take up the Bohemians' cause seriously and with truth, to unite them with us and us with them, so that the atrocious blasphemies, hatred and envy on both sides may cease. I will, in my foolishness, submit to the first my discretion with the reservation of any better mind.

First, we must truly confess the truth and allow our justification to admit something to the Bohemians, namely that John Huss and Jerome of Prague were burned at Costnitz against papal, Christian, imperial escort and oath, thus going against God's commandment and causing the Bohemians great bitterness. And even though they should have been perfect, suffered such grave injustice and disobedience to God from ours, they were not guilty of approving of it and confessing it as right; indeed, even today they should give up life and limb before confessing that it was right to break the imperial, papal, and Christian oaths and act contrary to them. Therefore, although it is the impatience of the Bohemians, it is more the fault of the pope and his people for all the misery, all the error, and all the ruin of souls that has occurred since the same council.

129 I do not want to judge Johannis Huss's article here, nor defend his error, although my mind has not yet found anything erroneous in him, and I may happily believe that those have neither judged nor honestly condemned anything good, who by their faithless dealings have transgressed Christian guidance and God's commandment.

have undoubtedly been possessed by the evil spirit more than by the Holy Spirit. No one will doubt that the Holy Spirit does not act against God's commandment; so no one is so ignorant that escort and faithful breaking is against God's commandment, even if it was promised to the devil himself, let alone to a heretic. It is also obvious that Johannes Huss and the Bohemians were promised such an escort and did not keep it, but burned to death over it. I do not want to make a saint or martyr out of Johannes Huss, as some Bohemians do, even though I confess that he was wronged and that his book and teachings were unjustly condemned. For God's judgments are secret and terrible, which no one but He Himself alone should reveal and express.

I only want to say that he is a heretic, however evil he may be, so they burned him unjustly and against God; and should not urge the Bohemians to approve this, or we will never come to unity. We must be united by public truth and not by obstinacy. It does not help that at that time they argued that a heretic should not be escorted; that is just as much as saying that one should not keep God's commandment, so that one may keep God's commandment. The devil has made them mad and foolish, so that they have not seen what they have said or done. God commanded to keep the commandment, and one should keep it, even if the world should perish, let alone get rid of a heretic. Thus one should overcome the heretics with writings, not with fire, as the ancient fathers did. If it were an art to overcome heretics with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth; we would no longer be allowed to study, but whoever overcame another by force would have him burned.

131 Secondly, that emperors and princes send in some pious, understanding bishops and scholars, by no means a cardinal, nor papal embassy, nor heresiarch; for this people is more than too much unlearned in Christian matters, and also seeks not the salvation of souls, but, as all the pope's hypocrites do, their own power, benefit and honor. They have also been the heads of the

of this affliction at Costnitz. That the same skilful people should inquire among the Bohemians how their faith stood, whether it would be possible to bring all their sects into one. In this case, for the sake of souls, the pope should for a time relinquish his authority and, according to the statute of the most Christian Council of Nicaea, allow the Bohemians to choose an archbishop of Prague from among themselves, whom the bishop of Olomouc in Moravia, or the bishop of Gran in Hungary, or the bishop of Gniezno in Poland, or the bishop of Magdeburg in Germany shall confirm; it is enough if he is confirmed by one or two of them, as happened in the times of St. Cyprian. And the pope has none of these to resist; but if he refuses, he acts as a wolf and tyrant, and no one shall follow him and drive back his banishment with a re-banishment.

However, if one wants to do this in honor of St. Peter's chair with the knowledge of the pope, I will let it happen, insofar as the Bohemians do not give a farthing for it, and the pope does not bind them a hair's breadth, subjecting them to his tyrannies with oaths and alliance, as he does to all other bishops against God and right. If he will not let him be satisfied with the honor that his conscience asks for, let him have a good year with his own rights, laws and tyrannies, and let enough be done with the election, and let the blood of all souls that remain in danger cry out over his neck. For no one shall grant injustice, and enough is the honor offered to tyranny. If it may not be otherwise, the election and approval of the common people can still be considered equal to a tyrannical confirmation; but I hope it will not be necessary. In the end, some Romans or pious bishops and scholars will notice and resist papal tyranny.

Neither will I advise that they be forced to do away with both forms of the sacrament, since they are not unchristian or heretical, but let them remain where they wish, in the same way. But that the new bishop be careful that no disagreement arises over such a manner, but that he instruct them amicably that neither is error,

Just as there should be no discord if the priests dress and dress differently than the laity; likewise, if they do not want to receive Roman spiritual laws, they should not be urged to do so; but first of all, they should see that they walk rightly in the faith and divine Scripture. For Christian faith and standing may well exist without the intolerable laws of the pope; indeed, it may not well exist unless there are fewer or none of the Roman laws. We became free in baptism and are subject only to divine words; why should a man take us captive to his words? As St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 7:23, Gal. 5:1: "You have become free; do not become servants of men," that is, of those who rule by the laws of men.

If I knew that the Pickarten (Bohemian or Moravian brethren) had no error in the sacrament of the altar, because they believed that there is truly bread and wine naturally, but under it truly the flesh and blood of Christ, I would not reject them, but let them come under the bishop at Prague. For it is not an article of faith that bread and wine are essential and natural in the sacrament, which is a delusion of St. Thomas and the pope; but this is an article of faith that in the natural bread and wine is truly natural flesh and blood of Christ. So one should tolerate both sides' delusion until they become one, because there is no danger in believing that bread is there or not. For we have to suffer many ways and orders that are without harm to faith. But where they believed otherwise, I would rather have them outside, but they teach the truth.

What more error and discord would be found in Bohemia, one should tolerate, until the archbishop would be seated again, and in time would bring the group together again in united doctrine. It will certainly not be gathered again by force, nor by defiance, nor by haste; there must be time and gentleness here. Christ had to deal with his disciples and bear their unbelief until they believed in his resurrection. If only another

proper bishop and regiment inside without Roman tyrannies, I hoped it should sheer better.

The temporal goods that have been given to the church should not be strictly demanded again, but because we are Christians and each owes it to the other to help, we have the power to give and leave them before God and the world for the sake of unity. For Christ says, Matth. 18, 20: "Where two are one with one another on earth, there am I in the midst of them." If God would have us do this on both sides, and with brotherly humility one would reach out to the other, and not rely on our own power or right to strengthen us. Love is more and more necessary than the papacy of Rome, which may be without love, and love without the papacy. I want to have done my part here; if the pope or his own prevent it, they will give account for it, that they have sought more their own than their neighbor's against the love of God. The pope should lose his papacy, all his goods and honor, if he would save a soul with it. Now he would let the world perish before he would let a hair of his presumptuous power break off; and still he wants to be the holiest. Hereby I am excused.

137 Twenty-fifth, the universities are in need of a good, strong reformation; I must say it, it displeases whom it pleases. After all, everything that the papacy has instituted and ordained is directed only toward increasing sin and error. What are the universities, where they have not been ordained otherwise, because, as the 2nd Book of Maccabeorum Cap. 4, 12. says: Gymnasia Epheborum et Graecae gloriae, where a free life is led, little of the holy scripture and Christian faith is taught and only the blind pagan master Aristotle rules, even further than Christ? Now here would be my advice that the books Aristotelis, Physicorum, Metaphysicae de Anima, Ethicorum, *) which so far held the best.

S) These are the most important philosophical writings of Aristotle (which he is supposed to have written in 400 or according to others in 747). The first writing, Physica (i.e. the sensual), deals with the things (of the

would be quite unlike all others who boast of natural things, yet nothing may be taught therein, either of natural or spiritual things; for which no one has yet understood his opinion, and have been burdened with useless labor, study, and expense of so much noble time and souls in vain. I may say that a potter has more skill in natural things than is written in the books. It grieves me in my heart that the damned, arrogant, mischievous pagan has deceived and fooled so many of the best Christians with his false words. God has thus afflicted us with him because of our sin.

138. yet the wretched man teaches in his best book, de Anima (i.e. of the soul), that the soul is mortal with the body. (Of the soul), that the soul is mortal with the body; although many have wanted to save him with forgiven words, as if we did not have the holy Scriptures, in which we are abundantly taught of all things, of which Aristotle never felt the slightest odor; nevertheless, the dead pagan has overcome and prevented and almost suppressed the books of the living God; so that, when I consider such misery, I cannot think otherwise that the evil spirit has brought in the study.

139) Similarly, the book Ethicorum, worse than any other book, is directly opposed to the grace of God and Christian virtues, which is also counted among the best of them. O only far with such books from all Christians! Let no one accuse me of talking too much or of rejecting what I do not know. Dear friend, I know well what I speak, Aristotle is as well known to me as to you and your like; I have also read and heard him with more understanding than St. Thomas or Scotus, of whom I boast without hope.

Being), insofar as they are sensually perceived by us and make themselves known in the appearance. The second writing, Metaphysica (τά μετά τά φνσικά i.e., the Bü.

and, where it is necessary, can well prove it. I do not respect that for so many hundred years so much high understanding has worked itself into it. Such objections never challenge me, as they may well have done; since it is on the day that probably more errors have remained in the world and universities for several hundred years.

I would like Aristotle's books of Logica, Rhetorica, Poetica to be kept or to be put into another short form, to be read usefully, to train young people to speak and preach well; but the commentaries and sects would have to be removed, and just as Cicero's Rhetorica without commentary and sects, so also Aristotle's Logica would have to be read monotonously without such great commentaries. But now one teaches neither speaking nor preaching from it, and it has become entirely a disputation and mud-slinging. In addition, one would now have the languages Latin, Greek and Hebrew, the mathematicas disciplinas (mathematical sciences), histories, which I command would be well given to those who understand, and to oneself, if one were earnestly striving for a reformation; and indeed, much is at stake. For here the Christian youth and our noble people, in whom Christianity remains, are to be taught and prepared. Therefore I respect that no more papal or imperial work should be done than a good reformation of the universities; again, no more devilish evil than unreformed universities.

I let the physicians reform their faculties, the jurists and theologians I take for myself, and say first of all that it would be good if the spiritual law from the first letter to the last were eradicated to the ground, especially the Decretals. There is enough left for us in the Bible, how we should conduct ourselves in all things; so such study only hinders the holy Scriptures, even that several parts taste of vain avarice and hopefulness. And even if there were much good in it, it should still perish because the pope has caught all spiritual rights in his heart, so that from now on there is only useless study and deceit in it. Today spiritual law is not that in the books,

but what is in the will of the pope and his flatterers. If you have established a matter in spiritual law in the very best way, the pope has a scrinium pectoris (i.e. a decision kept secret in the shrine of the heart) about it, and all law and the whole world must be guided by it. Now the same scrinium is often governed by a knave and the devil himself, and he lets himself be praised that the Holy Spirit governs it. This is how one deals with the poor people of Christ, setting them many rights and keeping none, forcing others to keep them or to redeem them with money.

Since the pope and his own have abrogated all spiritual law and do not respect it, and since they hold only their own will over all the world, we should follow them and reject the books. Why should we study them in vain? In this way we can also never learn the will of the pope, which has now become spiritual law. Let it fall in the name of God, which has risen in the name of the devil, and let there be no more Doctor Decretorum (i.e. teachers of papal canon law) on earth, but only Doctores scrinii papalis (teachers of the papal heart cry), that is, the pope's hypocrites. It is said that there is no fine secular government except with the Turk, who has neither spiritual nor secular law, but only his Alkoran; so we must confess that there is no more shameful government than with us, by spiritual and secular law, that no state is any longer in accordance with natural reason, let alone the Holy Scriptures.

The secular law, help God! how it too has become a wilderness! Although it is much better, more artificial, more honest than the spiritual, in which there is nothing good above the name, it has also become much too much. Indeed, reasonable rulers besides the holy Scriptures would be right enough, as St. Paul, 1 Cor. 6:1, says: "Is there no one among you who may judge his neighbor's cause, so that you must quarrel before heathen courts?" It seems to me that the law of the land and the customs of the land are preferred to the imperial common laws, and that the imperial laws are used only for emergencies. And God would have it that, as every country has its

has its own kind and gifts, thus would also be governed with its own short rights, as they have been governed before such rights were invented, and still without them many countries are governed. The extensive and remotely sought rights are only a burden to the people and more of a hindrance than an advancement of things. But I hope that this matter has already been better considered and regarded by others than I am able to put forward.

My dear theologians have sat down from their toil and work, let the Bible rest well and read Sententiae (i.e. sayings of church fathers and conciliae). I think that the Sententiae should be the beginning of the young theologians, and the Biblia should remain for the doctors; so it is the other way round, the Biblia is the first, which leads with the baccalaureate, and Sententiae are the last, which remain with the doctorate forever; in addition, with such a sacred duty that the Bible may well be read by one who is not a priest, but Sententiae must be read by a priest, and a married man (i.e. a layman) could well be a doctor. i.e. a layman) could be a doctor in the Bible, as I see, but not at all in Sententiae. What happiness should befall us if we act so wrongly and put the Bible, the holy Word of God, in such a way? In addition, the pope gives with many strict words to read and use his laws in the schools and courts; but the gospel is little thought of. Thus it is done that the gospel lies idly in the dust under the bench in schools and courts, so that the pope's harmful laws alone may rule.

(145) If we have the name and title of teacher of the Scriptures, we should indeed be compelled to teach the Scriptures by name and no other. Although the arrogant, pompous title is too much for a man to boast about and crown himself a teacher of the Scriptures, it would be tolerable if the work confirmed the name. Now, however, when sententiae alone prevail, one finds more pagan and human conceits than holy, certain teaching of Scripture in the theologians. How shall we do to him now? I know no other advice here, but a humble prayer to God, that the same Docto-

I give you a doctor of theology, a doctor of art, a doctor of medicine, a doctor of law. The pope, emperor and universities may make the sentences; but be sure, no one will make you a doctor of the Holy Scriptures, but only the Holy Spirit from heaven, as Christ says, John 6:45: "They must all be taught by God Himself. Now the Holy Spirit does not ask about red or brown berets, or what the garb is; nor whether one is young or old, layman or priest, monk or secular, virgin or married; yes, he spoke in time past through an ass against the prophet who rode on it, Deut. 22, 28. If God wanted us to be worthy of such doctors, they would be laymen or priests, married or virgins, even though the Holy Spirit is forced into the pope, bishops and doctors, yet there is no sign or appearance that he is with them.

The theological books should also be few, and the best should be read. For many books do not make one learned, nor does much reading; but to read well and often, as little as there is, makes one learned in the Scriptures and devout. Yes, all the holy fathers' writings should only be read for a while, so that we can enter the Scriptures; so we only read them, so that we remain in them and never enter the Scriptures; so that we are like those who look at the signposts and yet never walk the path. The dear fathers wanted to lead us into the Scriptures with their writing, so we lead ourselves out with it; but the Scriptures alone are our vineyard, in which we should all practice and work.

Above all, in the high and low schools, the noblest and most common lesson should be the Holy Scriptures and the Gospel for the young boys. And would God that every city also had a school for maidens, in which the maidens heard the Gospel for an hour each day, in German or Latin. Truly, schools, monasteries for men and women, began ages ago entirely out of a laudable Christian opinion, as we read of St. Agnes and other saints; there were holy virgins and martyrs,

and was quite well in Christendom; but now there is no more of it than praying and singing. Should not every Christian man by his ninth or tenth year know the whole holy gospel, since his name and life are written in it? A spinner and seamstress teaches her daughter the same craft when she is young, but now even the great learned prelates and bishops themselves do not know the gospel.

O how unequally we deal with the fine young band, which we are commanded to govern and instruct? And a heavy account must be given for not presenting the word of God to them; happens to them, as Jeremiah says, Klagl. Cap. 2, 11. 12.: "My eyes are weary with weeping, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured out upon the earth because of the destruction of the daughters of my people, when the young and the little children were corrupted in all the streets of the whole city. They said to their mothers: Where is bread and wine? And they pined away as the wounded in the streets of the city, and gave up the ghost in the bosom of their mothers." We do not see this miserable misery, how even now the young people in the midst of Christianity pine away and miserably spoil infirmity half of the gospel, which should always be practiced and practiced with them.

149 We should also, if the high schools were diligent in the holy scriptures, not send everyone there, as happens now, since one only asks for the quantity, and everyone wants to have a doctor; but only the most skilled, well educated in the small schools beforehand, about which a prince or council of the city should take care and not allow to be sent, but well-skilled. But where the holy scripture does not rule, I certainly advise no one to send his child. Everything that is not driven by God's word without ceasing must perish; therefore we also see what kind of people are and will be in the high schools; it is no one's fault but the pope's, bishops' and prelates', who are entrusted with such benefits for the young people. For the high schools should educate vain people highly versed in the Scriptures, who would become bishops and prelates.

and become pastors, standing at the head against heretics and devils and all the world. But where can you find that? I am very worried that the high schools are great gates of hell, if they do not diligently practice the holy scripture and drive it into the young people.

150. *) [Twenty-sixth, I know well that the Roman crowd will claim and puff up how the pope took the Holy Roman Empire from the Greek emperor and brought it to the Germans, for which honor and good deed he is supposed to have earned and obtained the Germans' respect, gratitude and all good things. For this reason, they may refuse to reform them by throwing all kinds of plans to the wind and letting nothing be considered but such Roman imperial gifts. For this reason they have hitherto persecuted and oppressed many a noble emperor so wantonly and wantonly that it is a pity to say, and with the same agility they have made themselves overlords of all temporal power and authority against the holy gospel; therefore I must also speak of this.

151 There is no doubt that the real Roman Empire, of which the writings of the prophets, Deut. 24, 1 and Daniel Cap. 2, v. 44, have proclaimed, has long since been destroyed and has come to an end, as Balaam, 4 Mos. 24, 24, clearly proclaimed when he said: "The Romans will come and destroy the Jews, and after that they will also perish. And this has happened through the Getas, especially since the Turkish empire began a thousand years ago, and in time Asia and Africa fell away, then Francia, Hispania, and finally Venice arose, and nothing of the former power remained in Rome.

Since the pope did not want to force the Greeks and the emperor of Constantinople, who was hereditary Roman emperor, according to his will, he devised such a plot to deprive him of the same empire and name, and to turn it over to the Germans, who were at that time belligerent and rich in good cries, so that they would bring the power of the Roman empire under their control, and from their hands, they would be able to take over the Roman empire.

*) § 150-162 is not in the 1520 edition.

to fiefdom. And this is what happened. It was taken from the emperor at Constantinople, and the name and title of the emperor were ascribed to us Germans, who thus became servants of the pope, and now there is another Roman empire that the pope has built on the Germans. For that, the first, has long since perished, as I said.

So now the Roman See had its will of courage: Rome taken, the German emperor driven out and with oaths obliged not to dwell inside Rome. We shall be Roman emperor and yet not have Rome in our possession; in addition, we shall always cling to and weave in the will of the pope and his people, so that we have the name and they have the land and cities. For they have always misused our simplicity for their arrogance and tyranny and call us mad Germans who let themselves be fooled and fooled as they please.

Now then, it is a small thing for God the Lord to toss kingdoms and principalities to and fro; he is so mild about them that he sometimes gives a kingdom to a wicked man and takes it away from a pious man; sometimes through the treachery of wicked unfaithful men, sometimes through heirs; as we read in the kingdom of Persia, Greece and almost all kingdoms. And Daniel, cap. 2, 21. and Cap. 4, 14., say, "He dwelleth in heaven, who ruleth over all things, and he alone is he that shifteth, tosseth, and maketh kingdoms." Therefore, just as no one can consider it great that a kingdom should be given to him, especially if he is a Christian, so we Germans should not rejoice that a new Roman kingdom has been given to us. For it is a bad gift in his sight, which he gives to the most unqualified ones many times over; as Daniel, Cap. 4, 37, says: "All that dwell on the earth are as nothing in his sight, and he hath power in all the kingdoms of men to give them to whom he will."

(155) Although the pope has violently and unjustly stolen the Roman Empire, or the name of the Roman Empire, from the right emperor and turned it over to us Germans, it is certain that God used the pope's malice to give the German nation such an empire and, after the fall of the first Roman Empire, another one that now stands,

to set up. And although we did not give the popes' malice a cause in this, nor did we understand their false request and opinion, we have nevertheless paid for such an empire, unfortunately all too dear, with countless bloodshed, with suppression of our freedom, with addition and robbery of all our goods, especially of the churches and benefices, with toleration of unspeakable deceit and disgrace. We have the name of the empire; but the pope has our goods, honor, body, life, soul and everything we have. This is how one should deceive the Germans, and deceive them with deception. This is what the popes sought, that they would have liked to be emperors; and since they were not able to send this, they nevertheless placed themselves above the emperors.

Because the kingdom has been given to us through God's providence and the request of evil men, through no fault of our own, I will not advise you to let it go, but to rule honestly in the fear of God as long as it pleases Him. For, as it has been said, he does not care where a kingdom comes from, but he still wants to rule it. If the popes have taken it from others dishonestly, we have not won it dishonestly. It was given to us by malicious men out of God's will, which we regard more than the false opinion of the popes, which they had in being emperors themselves and more than emperors, and in mocking us only by name.

157 The king of Babylon had also taken his kingdom with robbery and violence; nevertheless God wanted to have ruled it through the holy princes Daniel, Anania, Asaria, Misael, Dan. 2, 48. 49. 2, 48, 49. Much more he wants the Christian German princes to have ruled this kingdom, that the pope stole it or robbed it or started it anew; it is all God's order, which happened sooner than we knew about it.

For this reason, the pope and his people cannot boast that they have done great good to the German nation by granting this Roman Empire. First of all, they have not done us any good in it, but have misused our simplicity to strengthen their arrogance against the right Roman Emperor at Constantinople.

To whom the pope has taken such against God and right, of which he had no power.

Secondly, that the pope has thereby sought to appropriate the empire not to us, but to himself, to subject to him all our power, freedom, goods, body and soul, and through us, where God would not have resisted, all the world; as he himself clearly recounted in his decrees and attempted with many a wicked trick on many German emperors. Thus, we Germans have been taught pretty German: since we thought we would become lords, we have become servants of the most cunning tyrants; we have the name, title and coat of arms of the empire, but the treasure, power, right and freedom of the same has the pope; thus the pope eats the kernel, thus we play with the empty shells.

160 So help us God, who, as I have said, has given us such an empire through cunning tyrants and commanded us to rule, that we also obey the name, title and coat of arms and save our freedom, let the Romans see once what we have received from God through them. If they boast that they have given us an emperorship, let it be so, let it be so; then the pope will give Rome and everything he has from the emperorship, let our country be free of its unbearable treasures and drudgery, give back our freedom, power, property, honor, body and soul, and let there be an emperorship as befits an emperorship, so that its words and pretensions may be fulfilled.

But if he does not want to do that, what does he reflect with his false, fictitious words and lies (hauntings, mirages)? Has it not been enough to lead the noble nation around by the nose for so many hundred years without stopping? It does not follow that the pope should be above the emperor because he crowns or makes him. For the prophet Saint Samuel anointed and crowned King Saul and David by divine command, and yet was subject to them, 1 Sam. 10:1, Cap. 16:13. And the prophet Nathan anointed King Solomon, yet was not set over him, 1 Kings 1:38, 39; item, Saint Elisha had one of his servants anoint King Jehu of Israel, yet they remained obedient under him, 2 Kings 16:13.

9, 6. And it has never happened in all the world that he who consecrates or crowns the king is over him, except through the only pope.

Now he has himself crowned pope by three cardinals who are under him, and yet he is still above them. Why should he, against his own example and all the world's and Scripture's training and teaching, rise above temporal power or emperorship merely because he crowns or consecrates him? It is enough that he is above him in divine things, that is, in preaching, teaching, and administering the sacraments, in which also every bishop and priest is above every man; as St. Ambrose was in the chair over the emperor Theodosius, and the prophet Nathan over David, and Samuel over Saul. Therefore let the German emperor be emperor rightly and freely, and not suppress his power nor sword by such blind pretence of papal hypocrites, as if they, stripped (except), should rule over the sword in all things.]

163. twenty-seventh: That is enough said about the spiritual infirmities; one will and may find more of them, where these would be rightly regarded; also want to indicate the secular ones in part. First of all, there is a great need for a general commandment and approval of the German nation against the excessive abundance and costliness of clothing, which impoverishes so many nobles and rich people. God has given us, as in other countries, enough wool, hair, flax, and everything that honestly serves for proper, respectable clothing for every class, so that we would not need to waste such a great treasure on silk, velvet, gold pieces, and all foreign goods. I think that even if Pope Benedict did not rob us Germans with his unbearable drudgery, we would still have more than too much of these secret robbers, the silk and velvet merchants. Thus we see that each one wants to be equal to the other, and thus hopefulness and envy are aroused and increased among us, as we deserve; which all and much more misery would remain, if pride would let us gratefully content ourselves with the goods given by God.

164 The same would also be necessary to

The country is also home to a small specie, which is also one of the large ships in which money is transported from Germany. By the grace of God, we grow more food and drink, and as delicious and good, than any other country. I will perhaps pretend foolish and impossible things here, as if I wanted to put down the greatest trade, merchandising. But I am doing my part. If it is not improved in the community, then better yourself, who wants to do it. I do not see many good customs that have come into a country by merchandising, and God before times made his people of Israel dwell therefore from the sea and do not do much merchandising.

But the greatest misfortune of the German nation is certainly the purchase of interest. If it were not for this, many would have to leave their silk, velvet, gold pieces, specie and all kinds of splendor unpurchased. It has not lasted much more than a hundred years and has already brought poverty, misery and ruin to almost all princes, monasteries, cities, nobility and heirs. If it were to stand for another hundred years, it would not be possible for Germany to keep a penny; we would certainly have to eat each other. The devil has devised it, and the pope has hurt all the world with his confirmation.

Therefore I ask and call here: let every man look upon his own, his children's and his heirs' ruin, which does not rumble at his door, but already in his house; and let the emperor, princes, lords and cities do this, that the purchase be condemned and forbidden from now on, regardless of whether the pope and all his right or wrong is against it, whether fiefs or foundations are founded on it. It is better to have one fief in a city with a bona fide hereditary estate or interest endowed than a hundred on the purchase of interest; indeed, one fief on the purchase of interest is worse and more difficult than twenty on hereditary estates. Truly, the interest purchase must be a figure and sign that the world is sold to the devil with grave sins, that at the same time temporal and spiritual goods must break us; yet we notice nothing.

Here, too, a bridle would have to be put in the mouths of the Fuggers and similar companies. How is it possible?

That it should be divine and right, that with one man's life so great royal goods should be brought together in one heap? I do not know the calculation, but I do not understand how one with a hundred florins can acquire twenty florins a year, yes, one florin the other; and all this not from the earth or from the cattle, where the property is not in man's wit, but in God's grace. I command this to the worldly wise. I, as a theologian, have no more to punish than the evil reputation, of which St. Paul says, 1 Thess. 5, 22: "Beware of all evil reputation or appearance." I know that it would be much more godly to increase agriculture and decrease merchandising, and that those do much better who, according to the Scriptures, work the earth and seek their food from it, as it is said to us and to all in Adam, Gen. 3:17, 18, 19: "Let the earth be forsaken, if thou workest therein; it shall bear thee thistles and thorns, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread." There is still much land that is not cultivated and herded.

168 After this follows the abuse of gluttony and drunkenness, of which we Germans, as a special vice, do not have a good cry in foreign lands, which is henceforth no longer to be advised by preaching, so firmly it has broken in and taken over. The damage to goodness would be the least if the following vices did not follow: murder, adultery, stealing, dishonor to God, and all vice. The worldly sword may resist a little here, otherwise it will go as Christ says, Matth. 24, 38. 39. Luc. 17, 26. ff.: "that the last day will come like a secret rope, when they will drink and eat, free and court, build and plant, buy and sell"; as it goes now, so strongly that I truly hope that the last day is at the door, although it is least thought of.

Lastly, is it not a wretched thing that we Christians should keep among ourselves free, common women's houses; if we are all baptized to chastity? I know well what some say about it, and it has not become the custom of the people, and it is hard to dissuade them that it is better to have such a house than a conjugal one.

and virgin persons or even more honest ones to shame. But should not the worldly and Christian regiment consider how to avoid it with such a pagan way. If the people of Israel could exist without such mischief, how should the Christian people not do the same? Yes, how do many cities, markets, villages and towns stand without such houses; why should large cities not also stand?

170] With this and the other things mentioned above, I want to show how many good deeds the temporal authorities should do and what the office of all authorities should be, so that everyone may learn how terrible it is to rule and sit at the top. What is the use of a sovereign being as holy for himself as St. Peter, if he does not intend to help his subjects diligently in these matters? His authorities will condemn him, for authorities are obliged to seek the best interests of their subjects. But if the authorities thought about how to bring the young people together in marriage, the hope of marital status would almost certainly help each one and ward off the temptations.

But now it happens that everyone is drawn to piety and monasticism; among whom, I fear, the hundredth has no other cause than the desire of food and doubt to preserve himself in the conjugal life. Therefore they are wild enough beforehand and want, as they say, to rob, so it rather bubbles in, as experience proves. I find the saying to be true: Despair is what makes monks and priests; that is why it works and stands, as we see.

But I will faithfully counsel, in order to avoid many sins, which are grossly destructive, that neither boy nor girl bind themselves to chastity or spiritual life before thirty years. It is also a special grace, as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 7, 7. 8. 9. Therefore, whom God does not particularly urge, let his becoming spiritual and vowing be pending. Yes, I say further: If you trust God so little that you cannot support yourself in the marital state, and only want to become spiritual because of this mistrust, then I ask you for your own sake.

own soul, you do not want to become spiritual, but rather become a farmer or whatever you like. For where there must be simple trust in God to obtain temporal nourishment, there must certainly be tenfold trust to remain in the spiritual state. If you do not trust God to feed you temporally, how will you trust Him to sustain you spiritually? Oh, unbelief and distrust corrupt all things, lead us into all misery, as we see in all states.

173 There would be much to say about the wretched creature. The youth has no one to care for them. Everybody goes as he goes, and the authorities are as much use to them as if they were nothing; but that should be the noblest concern of the pope, bishops, lords and conciliatory authorities. They want to rule far and wide and yet be useful to no one. Oh, how seldom a wild beast will be a lord and overlord in heaven for the sake of these things, even though God Himself built a hundred churches and raised all the dead. That is enough for this time.

For what is to be done to the temporal power and the nobility, I have said enough in my opinion in the booklet of good works. For they also live and rule, so that it would be better. But there is no equality of worldly and spiritual abuses, as I have indicated there]. I am also well aware that I have sung highly, given many things that are considered impossible, attacked many pieces too harshly. But how shall I do to him? I am obliged to say it. If I could, I would also

Several interpretations of this can be read in:

I. Part, 1. B. Mos., 21. cap., § 292-304.

II. part, 1. B. Mos., 41. cap., § 45-53, of the regents and the sovereign state; as well as there § 214-237, of the sovereign state and regiment.

III. part, 2. B. Mos., 18. cap., § 32-62, from the authority and worldly regiment, as also from the qualities of the regents.

III. part, 5. B. Mos., 1. cap., § 11-21, of appointment and installation of the authorities.

III. part, 5. b. Mos., 17. cap., § 1-29, of the authority.

III. part, interpretation of the 5th chapter of the 5th book of Moses, 1st chapter, § 8-59, of the arrangement of the worldly regiment and the properties necessary for it.

so do. I would rather the world be angry with me than God; they will never be able to take more than my life. I have so far offered peace to my adversaries many times; but, as I see, God has forced me through them to open my mouth wider and wider and has given them enough, because they are idle to talk, bark, shout and write. Well, I know another little song about Rome and about them. Jucket sie das Ohr, ich will es ihnen auch singen und die Noten auf's Höchst stimmen. Do you understand me well, dear Rome, what I mean?

175 I have also asked many times for my letter to be recognized and interrogated, but all this has been of no avail. Although I also know, if my cause is right, that it must be condemned on earth and justified only by Christ in heaven. For this is the whole of Scripture, that the cause of Christians and Christianity must be judged by God alone; no human being has ever been justified on earth, but the adversary has always been too great and strong. It is also my greatest concern and fear that my cause may remain undamned, by which I certainly recognize that it is not yet pleasing to God. Therefore, let only the fresh go forth, be it pope, bishops, priests, monks or scholars; they are the right people who shall pursue the truth as they have always done. God grant us all a Christian mind and especially the Christian nobility of the German nation a right spiritual courage to do the best for the poor church, amen. At Wittenberg in the year 1520.

IV. Theil, Ausleg. der 22 ersten Ps., 20. Ps., § 1-62, ein allgemein. u. öffentl. Gebet für d. Obrigk.

IV. Theil, Ausleg. der 25 ersten Ps., 4. Ps., § 3-16, eine Vermahn, an die Großen dieser Welt.

IV. Theil, Ausleg. der 25 ersten Ps., 20. Ps., von der Obrigkeit.

V. Theil, Ausleg. des 101. Ps., vom Verhalten weltlicher Regenten.

XI. Theil, 2. sermon on the other Sunday, after Easter, by the teachers and the authorities.

XIII> Part, Sermon on the 22nd of Sunday, n. Trin., § 1-9, of the secular regiment.

The same sermon, § 10 ff, from the spiritual regiment.

Xlllb- part, 1. sermon on 23. sunday, n. Trin., from the spiritual and worldly. The first part of the sermon.

b. Whether one should judge and adjudicate according to Mosaic or imperial law.

Duke Johann Friedrich's letter to D. M. Luther concerning this controversial question.

Dear Doctor! Your letter was sent to me today by Magister Spalatin, which I read with pleasure, and I thank you for it and for the fact that you, who are otherwise burdened with much trouble, have taken so much trouble to respond to the request that I have made of you through Magister Veit, and that you have shown me your thorough understanding with divine words, with the offer that I may again compare it with in graces and otherwise, that I will do it with great pleasure.

2nd And it is even my gracious request that you should not have any complaint about the fact that you wrote to the chancellor earlier for this reason, because necessity almost forced me to apply further. For Magister Wolfgang stands almost firm and will hardly let himself be led by the courts of men; he has also brought it about that M. Gn. Lord and Father is so harsh on it when the Chancellor or I are against it that His Grace wants to consider us as opponents of the divine word.

I hope to God, however, that I will partially turn His Grace around with this letter of yours. I understand that the Magister will be traveling to you shortly, for which reason I have not informed him of your letter, so that he may run the horns of the Mosaic judgment past you. Although it is not my place to judge, I am concerned that there is more flesh than spirit; but when you stab him, you will find it well.

4 For the sake of the re-purchasable interest, we have to take great pains to ensure that five or four per hundred are given. Is

But when it is obtained, and that it is to be given by those to whom it is done too well, then it is a trouble, then one runs to and fro, then this and that preacher must be set before and help that they may give nothing. Almost all of us have to come to the pulpit about this. Ostrich cries out that he who gives it sins more than he who takes it; the authorities must sin when they command it for the preservation of peace and justice, and the cries are everywhere.

Therefore you could not have done anything better for me than that you have reported me so thoroughly. I tried hard to see if I could have sent Strauss to you and to Philip in Wittenberg, so that he would have received with divine scripture that which he defied so hard. But it did not happen, he talked his way out with embellished words.

I also received a document from him today in which he wrote a great deal about redemption. I would also have been of a mind to send it to you. But since I know that you are burdened with much writing, I wanted to spare yours. However, I have given it to Magister Veit so that he may bring it to you one day.

(7) There are, alas, too many enthusiasts, God be praised, and they cause us a great deal of trouble up here. But I do not think that it would be better if you had once taken yourselves out of the way and gone from one city to another in the principality and seen, as Paul did, with what preachers the cities of the believers were filled with.

The people of Thuringia would have been provided with them. 1 Tim. 5, 2. Tit. 1, 6. 10. I believe that you would not want to do a more Christian work here in Thuringia. Whichever preachers would not be suitable, you would have to remove with the help of the authorities. However, according to Paul's saying in 1 Cor. 11:19, "false prophets must be, that the good may be proved.

(8) I have not wished to keep all this from you, in your gracious opinion, and I do not want you to take my clumsy letter in bad taste and understand it better than I wrote it. I hereby place myself in your and the other Christians' prayers. Date in haste, Weimar, on St. John's Day, the Baptist, in the 24th year.

Concerns of D. Martin Luther, whether one should judge or judge according to Moses or imperial law.

Grace and peace in Christ. Most Reverend Prince, Most Gracious Lord. Magister Veit has left me several pieces to write to His Grace.

First, whether one should judge and pass judgment according to the law of Moses or according to the imperial laws, because there are some who insist that imperial laws are unchristian. To this I have answered before and still say: Where imperial rights set something that would be against God, of which I know nothing, one should certainly not abide by them. But since such worldly rights are external things, like food and drink, clothing, house and yard, they are of no concern to Christians, who are governed by God's Spirit according to the gospel.

(2) Now that imperial laws, and not Moses', have been adopted and are in use in the world, it is not fitting that we should create a sect and discord here, and adopt Mosiah's laws and abandon imperial laws, as little as sects and discord are to be created for the sake of food and drink; since faith and love can well remain with and under imperial laws. Yes, we are obliged to keep imperial rights and not Mosis for the cause: for love compels us to make ourselves like those with whom we are, because it can be done without danger to faith. Now we are with those who hold imperial rights and not Mosi's rights.

(3) If emperors and princes were to unite and accept Mosiah's law,

We should also follow them: otherwise we should not make our own nor special law and offend the others with it, but keep the saying, 1 Cor. 9, 20: "With the Gentiles I was heathen, with the Jews I was Jewish." Peter also wants this, 1 Epist. 2, 13.: "Be subject to all human order." Item: "Honor the king." And Paul, Rom. 13, 1: "Let every soul be subject to the authorities" etc. Now if false preachers or Moshi's drivers become emperors and take possession of the world, let them then choose and keep Moshi's or Eli's or Adam's law; we are obliged to keep the laws which our authorities and neighbors keep.

(4) As to the other, whether a prince should suffer the usurious purchase of interest, I answer: It would be fine that, according to the old world custom, the tenth of all goods should be given annually to the authorities; that would be the most divine interest that could be; for with it the interest men would not be burdened. If God gave much or little good, the tithe would also be according to that, yes, it would still be desirable and to suffer that, all other burdens removed, one would take the fifth or sixth, as Joseph did in Egypt; but now such orderly being is not in the world, I must despair of this and say, it would be highly necessary that one would justify the purchase of interest in all countries, but to do away with it completely is also not right, because it could well become right. But that E. F. G. should protect or defend the people against this usurious interest.

I do not advise it, because it is not from a prince in the law, it is a general plague, accepted by all, therefore it should be suffered, and the interest people should be held to it, that they suffer it and do not block themselves, nor do their own, but make themselves even with others, even with harm, as love demands, until God gives the princes, that they change this in unity; however, let the consciences be burdened of those who take unjust interest. This is what I mean by interest, which does not exceed four or five per hundred, which is not usurious in amount, but is certain and not in danger, as it should be; But where there are more than five to the hundred, then every ruler and authority should do to bring it up to the fifth or fourth, and to some extent slacken the principal sum, after (according to) they have gone long, and the same with kindness, that therewith a beginning may be made to bring the whole purchase of interest right and into its cheap danger in time.

The third thing is that I have already said about the fief of the priest and the common chest in Eisenach, because this fief is due to the canons, they should be allowed to do with it as they wish, and the castellans have no part or right in it, as it is given to them by the owner, because one should not sacrifice it at all.

from the robbery. These are the pieces given by Magister Veit.

For the sake of the enthusiasts with the preaching, I hope it should now be well advised to the matter in Orlamünde, because D. Carlstadt has handed over the parish, that a righteous man be appointed there with us. But the Satan of Allstädt, although he has offered to come to us, has not and nevertheless threatens high in his corner. In my opinion, he is not yet fledged nor in time, I would like him to bring out something, he still has a lot to do before I should do so. But if E. F. G. likes it, she would like to see to it that he has to come here and answer for himself; for see, so that he can reprove and condemn our doctrine, or if he is such an intrepid hero, prove his spirit under Duke George or in some other place. It is not good that he needs our shadow, our victory and all our advantages, won by us without their help, against us; sitting on our dung and barking at us is a bad spirit; he goes once, as I have done, and dares it outside this principality before other princes, let us see where his spirit is. But I leave all this to E. F. G.'s good pleasure, which may be commended to him by God in His mercy. At Wittenberg, on the Saturday after the new Saint Benno's martyrdom day. 1524.

Martinus Luther, D.

The first is the first of the two, and the second is the first of the two, and the third is the third of the two, and the third is the third of the two.

Dr. Martin Luther's concerns.

Every judge is bound to judge according to the laws of the land wherein we dwell; for since we are subject to the Gentiles, we are also subject to their laws and sword; and this may be done in good conscience.

Thus St. Peter says in his first epistle, Cap. 2, 13: "Be subject to all human creatures," that is, to all human order.

ness. For the law of Moses is of no concern to us. The gospel does not teach anything about rights, but teaches only the spirit, 1 Cor. 3, 6.

Philip Melanchthon's first concern.

Because papal law has come into contempt, many people seek new laws, rights, and ceremonies, and again circumcise themselves. For this reason, one should actually

All who believe that the laws of Moses must be kept out of necessity, that they are in ungodly error; as it says in Acts 15:9, "That no new burden should be laid upon the Gentiles. 15:9, "That no new burden be laid upon the Gentiles." And the whole of St. Paul's epistle to the Galatians, Cap. 2, 4: "If ye circumcise yourselves, ye are fallen from grace." That one should use the sword and the law of the Gentiles is proven by St. John the Baptist, Luc. 3, 14, when he gave this rule to the Roman soldiers: "Do no violence or injustice to anyone, and be content with your soldiers. So he leaves to the Gentiles pay and office. Likewise, St. Paul to the Romans, Cap. 13, 24, calls the authorities "God's servants and God's order. Item: he calls Timothy, 1. Ep. 2, 1. 2., "to pray for the Gentile officers". Now robbery is neither God's service nor order; therefore one should not pray for robbery, that it may last or stand. Moreover, the saints were officials, as the centurion in the Gospel, Matth. 8, 5; item, Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles, Cap. 10, 1; Joseph among the Egyptians, Gen. 41, 41; Naaman among the Syrians, 2 Kings. 5:1; Daniel of Babylon, Dan. 6:2. Therefore, it is to be taken into account that those who want to urge us to judge according to the laws of Moses are in godless error.

Philipp Melanchthon's second. Concerns.

1. the gospel is a preaching of the righteousness of the spirit or eternal life, Joh. 17, 63. and Jer. 31, 34.

2. neither does the gospel require anything other than what the Holy Spirit brings, as love, chastity etc.

The other things are all free, as clothes, food, housekeeping, government, all of which St. Paul to the Colossians, Cap. 2, 8, calls "the element of this world," or worldly statutes. And St. Peter, 1 Ep. 2, 8, "human creature," that is, human order, established by men, as office and authority.

4. and just when is free to eat pork

to eat and not to eat; therefore it is also free to judge or not to judge according to the Law of Moses.

(5) Yes, all those who bind the conscience to the laws of Moses do evil against evangelical freedom.

6. Christ, our dear Lord, has commanded the civil order of human reason; for St. Paul speaks to the Philippians, Cap. 3, 20: "Our citizenship is in heaven." As if he wanted to speak: It will yet come to pass that they will make a human government and police out of the gospel, as we now see happening at Mulhouse, and Carlstadt teaching; but they do not see what the gospel is. Moreover, Christ did not want to be a judge between the brethren, Luc. 12, 13. 14.

(7) Whether anyone would say, "It would still be much better to judge according to divine rather than human laws. For the word of God makes man's conscience certain, which the word of man cannot, Ps. 84, 13. Ps. 119, 105. To this I give this answer: No one is forced by the word of God to keep the law of Moses. Therefore, those who bind the consciences of men with the law of Moses and force them to keep it do wrong. So also by the word of God the authority of the Gentiles is confirmed, as, to the Romans, Cap. 13, 1. 1 Tim. 2, 2. Luc. 3, 15. Apost. 15. and 1 Petr. 2, 3.

8 Yes, one should use the sword for peace, as St. Paul indicates. Therefore we should keep the present laws, rights and orders. For innovations cause indignation and turmoil.

(9) Now if anyone insists on keeping one part of the law of Moses, he will demand all the laws of Moses, Jac 2:10, and it will follow that all the statutes of Moses must be kept. Now just think what would come of it, if we would accept the year of jubilee or the year of jubilee and other alternation of goods and inheritance. Deut. 25, 10. ff.

10 Apost. 15. The twelve messengers call it tempting God by pressing on the Law of Moses.

360 E. 22:43-46. admonition to all Christians to beware of sedition etc. W. X, 406-409. 361

3. the duty of subjects to the authorities.

a. In general.