JEsu".
To all Christians who read or hear this letter, may God give grace and peace, Amen.
1. By the grace of God, the blessed light of Christian truth, previously suppressed by the pope and his followers, has risen again in these years, so that its manifold, harmful and shameful seduction, all kinds of misconduct and tyranny have been publicly exposed and put to shame, that it is to be expected that there will be an uproar, and that priests, monks, bishops and the entire clergy will be slain and driven out, unless they themselves bring about a serious, noticeable improvement. For the common man, having suffered damage to his property, body, and soul in the course of his movement and displeasure, being too highly tempted and being overly and most unfaithfully afflicted by them, may never suffer this again, nor will he want to, and has good reason to strike with flails and butts, as the Karsthan threatens.
2. Although I do not dislike to hear that the clergy are in such fear and anxiety, whether they would thereby strike at themselves and stifle their raging tyranny, and would God that such terror and fear were even greater: methinks I am certain of it, and am also without all concern of a future uprising or insurrection, especially that which will penetrate and overtake the whole multitude, for the reason that I may not yet doubt that God will keep His word and "much sooner let heaven and earth pass away, before one single tittle or
He himself says Matth. 5, 18. and Cap. 24, 35.
3 Therefore I let threaten and frighten whoever is willing and able, so that the scripture may be fulfilled that says about such spiritual evildoers, Ps. 36, 2: "Their wickedness has been revealed, so that they become enemies," Item Ps. 14, 5: "They are afraid when there is no fear. Proverbs 28:1: "The wicked flee, though no one hunts them." And Deut. 26, 36: "Even a rustling leaf shall frighten them." And Deut. 28, 65. 66. 67.: "God will give you a frightened heart, that your life will weave before you. In the morning thou shalt say, Would to God I had survived the evening; in the evening thou shalt say, Would to God I had survived the morning." Such terror and fear the Scripture gives to all God's enemies for the beginning of their condemnation. Therefore it is fair and pleases me well that such plague should begin in the papists who persecute and condemn divine truth. It shall bite even better.
4 And that I say more: If I had ten bodies, and would acquire so much grace from God that he would chastise them with this fox-tail of bodily death or rebellion, I would gladly offer them all for the wretched heap out of my heart. Ah, Lord God! It is not such a mild punishment at the door; an unspeakable seriousness and wrath, of which there is no end, has already begun over them. The heavens are iron; the earth is brass; no pleading will help: the wrath, as St. Paul says of the Jews, 2 Thess. 2, 8, has finally come upon them. It
is not to cause an uproar before God. Would God that, since the heap cannot be helped, we would pluck out some and save them from the horrible maw and throat.
(5) The Scriptures give the pope and his people many other ends than bodily death and rebellion. Daniel, Cap. 8, 25, says: "He shall be crushed without hand," that is, not with the sword and bodily force. And St. Paul, 2 Thess. 2, 8., says of him thus, "Our Lord Jesus shall slay him with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy him by the shining of his future." The painters also paint Christ on the rainbow, that a rod and a sword come out of his mouth, which is taken from Isaiah, Cap. 11:4, where he says: "He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the spirit of his lips he will slay the wicked." But that the painters paint a flowering rod is not right. It should be a rod or staff, and both rod and sword should go over one side alone, over the damned. Item Psalm 10:15: "Contrite the arm of the wicked, and try his wickedness; and his wickedness shall be no more."
(6) From these sayings we learn that the end-Christian reign of the pope will be destroyed with him, namely, that by the word of Christ, which is the Spirit, the rod and the sword of his mouth, his deceitfulness, fraudulence, mischievousness, tyranny, and seduction will be exposed and put to shame before all the world. For the lie and seduction will be destroyed only when it is revealed and recognized. As soon as the lie is recognized, it no longer needs a blow, falls and disappears from itself with all its shame. This is what Psalm 10:15 means: "Search only his wickedness, and his wickedness is already gone. There is no need for more than searching and recognizing.
7. now the pope's being with its foundations, monasteries, high schools, laws and doctrines is a vain lie; brought on by vain lies, it has also deceived, seduced, oppressed the world in body, goods and soul, not otherwise than with appearance and good form.
corrupted. Therefore it needs no more, but only to recognize and reveal, then it falls with pope, priests, monks in all shame and disgrace. For there is no man so foolish as to follow and not to afflict the public lies and falsehood. When such a revelation of the papacy's falsehood has happened, and the spirit of Christ's mouth has gone forth, that the pope with his lies no longer counts for anything and is completely despised, then the last day will come and strike, and, as Paul says, 2 Thess. 2, 8, Christ will completely destroy the pope by his future. This is the most important thing, that the pope and his followers, who are obdurate, will not believe this, but will laugh at it, so that they may fulfill the saying of Paul, 1 Thess. 5, 3: Cum dixerint: pax! "If they be sure, and say, There is yet no need; their destruction shall quickly come unto them." Now lest the papists amend themselves, and seek mercy, let them not believe this, saying, Yea, the last day is yet far off: till in a moment, before they know it, they are in the bottom of the infernal fire over a heap.
8. as I have said, because I am sure from these sayings that by man's hand or rebellion the papacy and spiritual state will not be destroyed, but its wickedness is so terrible that no punishment is sufficient for it, but only the divine wrath itself without any means; I have never yet been moved to defend those who threaten with hand and lash; I know well that they will not come to it; although some would be touched, it will not be a general touching. More priests may have been slain before without any fuss and indignation, since they were still afraid of their banishment and the wrath of God had not yet been incurred; but now that it has been incurred and they are no longer afraid of it, they shall fear in vain, just as they have made us fear in vain with their false banishment, and have had a good, hopeful will in our fear.
9. although the hand will not come to it and I do not need to resist it, I also have to make the hearts one.
364 D- 22,48-so. Admonition to all Christians to beware of sedition etc. W. x. m-m. 365
teach a little. And for the first, I now leave the secular authorities and nobility in line, who should do this out of the duty of their ordinary authority, every prince and lord in his country. For what is done by ordinary authority is not to be considered sedition. But now they let it all go, one hinders the other: some help and justify the cause of the end of Christ. God will find them and give them according to whether they have used their power and authority to save or destroy their subjects in body, goods and soul. But the common man is to quiet his mind and to say that he refrain from the desires and words that lead to rebellion, and do nothing about the matter without the command of the authorities or the assistance of the authorities. He shall be moved to do this:
(10) First, that, as has been said, it will not come to pass, and all that is said and thought of it is vain words and thoughts. For, as we have heard, God Himself will and will be the punisher here, and they are not at all worthy of such light punishment. We also see how the rulers and lords are so divided and do not even think about it, as if they wanted to help things. All of which is decreed and sent by God, so that he alone may punish them and pour out his wrath upon them. Although princes and lords, as has been said, are not excused by this; they should do their part and defend themselves with the sword they carry, as much as they can, if they could prevent and alleviate God's wrath in part; just as Moses, 2 Mos. 32, 28, had three thousand of the people slain, so that God's wrath might be turned away from the people. As the Scripture also says of Elijah, 1 Kings 18:40, and Phinehas, Numbers 25:11. Not that the priests should now be put to death, which is unnecessary, but only that they should be forbidden by word and restrained by force from doing what they do about and against the gospel. One can do more than enough to them with words and letters, so that neither cutting nor stabbing is necessary.
11) Secondly, even if it were possible that there would be a riot and God would graciously punish them, the way is not a riot.
The rebellion is of no use, nor does it ever bring about the improvement that one seeks with it. For rebellion has no reason, and generally goes more over the innocent than over the guilty. Therefore no sedition is right, no matter how right it may be; and more harm than good always follows from it, so that the saying is fulfilled: "Out of evil comes trouble. Therefore the authorities and the sword are appointed to punish the wicked and to protect the pious, so that sedition is prevented, as St. Paul says, Rom. 13, 4, and 1 Petr. 2, 13, 14, but when Lord Omnes (everyone) looks, he can neither meet nor keep such distinction of the wicked and the pious, strikes into the heap as it hits, and cannot proceed without great grievous injustice.
Therefore pay attention to the authorities. As long as they do not attack and command, be silent with hand, mouth and heart, and do not take on anything. But if you can persuade the authorities to attack and command, you may do so. If they will not, neither shalt thou. But if you continue, you are already unjust and much worse than the other party. I keep and will always keep it with the part that suffers rebellion, as unjust cause it always has, and against the part that makes rebellion, as just cause it always has, so that rebellion cannot go without innocent blood or harm.
Thirdly, rebellion is forbidden by God, since He says through Moses, Deut. 16, 20: Quod justum est, juste exequaris: "What is right, you shall execute with justice." Item Deut. 32, 35: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." Hence comes the true saying, "He who retaliates is unjust." Item: "No one can be his own judge." Now sedition is nothing else than judging and avenging oneself. God cannot suffer that; therefore it is not possible that sedition should not always make the matter much worse, because it is against God, and God is not with it."
Fourteenthly, in this matter, the rebellion is a particularly sure intervention of the devil. For since he sees the bright light of truth, which exposes his idols, pope and papists, in all the world, and he cannot meet it in any way, the shines are
He is so blinded that he can no longer lie, blaspheme and pretend the most foolish things; so completely that he also forgets to use appearance, color and glitter, as he used to do before, as the liars, Pabst, Eck, Emser and their like show in their bulls and writings; he goes on and wants to cause turmoil by those who boast of the gospel, so that he hopes to revile our doctrine as if it were of the devil and not of God; as some are already glorifying in the pulpit from the game he started with the priests at Erfurt.
(15) But he shall not succeed, whether God wills it or not. We must suffer the reproach of him; but he shall also suffer something in return, which shall pay him abundantly. Those who read and understand my teaching correctly do not make a fuss; they did not learn it from me. But that some do this and boast of our name, what can we do about it? How much do the papists do under the name of Christ, which Christ not only forbade, but also destroyed? Shall we keep our choir so pure that even St. Peter does not stumble among us, since among the papists there are all Judas and Judas' pieces, and yet do not want to have their doctrine assigned to the devil? But, as I say, the devil seeks as much cause to revile this doctrine as he can. If he could do something worse, he would do it. He has become dull; he has to hold out, whether God wills it, because he makes such lame, loose, lazy suggestions. It will not and shall not prosper him to rebellion, as he would like.
(16) Therefore I beseech those who would boast of the Christian name to observe, as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:3, "that we give not cause to the adversaries to blaspheme our doctrine. For we see how skillful the papists are, that they leave the beam in their eyes, and search and scrape with all their diligence, whether they may find a little stick in our eyes. We are not to come upon them, that they have almost nothing good with them, but where our one is not vain spirit and angel, then all our thing shall be wrong; there they rejoice, there they leap, there they sing, as if they had won altogether. Therefore we should beware of the cause of their
Blasphemy, of which they are full, full, full, not for their own sake; for they must blaspheme and "let their mouths be full," Matt. 12:34, even if they do it with lies, as we see they do; but for the sake of the holy gospel, that we may guard its reproach and "shut their mouths," as St. Peter teaches. Peter teaches, that they may not defile us with any truth as much as we are able, 1 Petr. 3, 16. For whatever evil they may say of us, they draw on the doctrine as soon as; and so the holy word of God must bear our reproach, of which we have all the glory. But they want to have their doctrine undefiled, whether they work vain shame, the noble, tender, justified people.
017 But sayest thou, What then shall we do, if the authorities will not begin? Shall we wait any longer, and strengthen their will? Answer: No, you shall do nothing to them. You shall do three things. The first: You shall recognize your sin, which God's strict justice has afflicted with such an end-christian regiment, as St. Paul, 2 Thess. 2, 11. 12., proclaims: "God will send them erroneous doctrine and regiment, because they have not received the love of the truth, that they might be saved. It is vain our fault, all that the pope has done with his own to our goods, body and soul. Therefore you must first confess and put away sin before you will be free from punishment and scourge; otherwise you will kick against the spear, and the stone you throw at heaven will fall on your head.
18 The other: You shall humbly pray against the papal regime, as the 10th Psalm does and teaches, v. 12 ff. and says: "Arise, Lord God, and lift up your hand; do not forget your poor. Why doth the wicked blaspheme thee, O Lord God, and say, Thou inquirest not? Thou seest and knowest his trouble and his fury, that thou mayest deliver them into thy hands. The poor is left unto thee, and thou shalt help the fatherless. Contrite the arm of the wicked, seek out his wickedness, and his wickedness shall be no more" etc.
19. the third: That you let your mouth-
We must be firm in the mouth of the Spirit of Christ, of whom St. Paul says above, 2 Thess. 2:8: "Our Lord Jesus will kill him with the spirit of his mouth. This is what we do, if we confidently continue as we have begun, to spread the pope's and the papists' deception and fraud among the people with speeches and letters, until he is exposed to the whole world, recognized and disgraced. For with words he must first be killed; the mouth of Christ must do it; so that he will be torn from the hearts of men and his lies will be recognized and despised. But when he is out of the heart, that his thing is no more, he is already destroyed. With this he can be better advised than with a hundred riots. We will not break him by force, but rather strengthen him, as has happened to many so far. But with the light of truth, if we hold him against Christ and his teaching against the gospel, he falls and is destroyed without all effort and work. See what I have done; have I not broken off more from the pope, bishops, priests and monks with my mouth alone, without all swordplay, than all emperors and kings and princes have broken off with all their power? Why is that? Because Daniel, Cap. 8, 25, says: "This king shall be destroyed without hand." And St. Paul, 2 Thess. 2, 8. "He shall be destroyed with the mouth of Christ." Now I and every one that speaketh Christ's word may freely boast that his mouth is Christ's mouth. I am ever sure that my word is not mine, but Christ's; so must my mouth also be that of which it speaks.
20 Therefore, you must not desire a physical upheaval. Christ himself has already begun one with his mouth, which will be too difficult for the pope; let us follow it and continue. It is not our work that is going on in the world now. It is not possible that one man alone should start and continue such a being. It has come so far without my concern and counsel; it shall go forth without my counsel, and the gates of hell shall not hinder it. It is another man who drives the little wheel; the papists do not see him and blame it on us.
But it shall become almost real. The devil has been afraid of these years for a long time and has smelled the roast from afar, has also let many prophecies go out against it, some of which point to me, so that I often wonder at his great mischievousness. He would often have liked to kill me. Now he would like to see a physical upheaval so that this spiritual upheaval would be disgraced and prevented. But it will not and shall not help him, whether God wills. "He must be destroyed without hand and only with the mouth", nothing helps before.
21. Behold, therefore, and help to propagate the holy gospel; teach, speak, write, and preach how the laws of men are nothing; forbid and counsel that no man become a priest, a monk, or a nun, and that he that is in go out; give no more money for bulls, candles, bells, tables, churches; but say that a Christian life stand in faith and love; and let us do this for two more years, and you will see where pope, bishops, cardinals, priests, monks, nuns, bells, towers, masses, vigils, robes, caps, plates, rules, statutes and all the worms and vermin of papal rule remain; they will disappear like smoke.
(22) But if we do not teach this, and do not bring such truth to the people, that such a thing may be taken from their hearts, then the pope will remain with us, even if we begin a thousand rebellions against him. Behold, what has been the effect of this single year alone, that we have written and written such truth! How the ceiling has become too short and narrow for the papists! The stationers complain that they must die of hunger. What will become, where such a mouth of Christ will thresh with his spirit for two more years? The devil would like to prevent such a game with physical turmoil. But let us be wise, thank God for His holy word and offer our mouths freshly to this blessed uproar.
23) The ignorance of the papists has been revealed, their glibness has been revealed, their false lying in their laws and orders has been revealed, their false tyranny of the ban has been revealed. In short, everything has been uncovered with which they have-
The world has been enchanted, frightened and seduced by it since the beginning of time. One sees that it was a vain jugglery. There is nothing left with them that one fears, without only a small auxiliary of worldly power. But since the pretense is gone, and they have to protect themselves with pure force, it is not possible that it will last long. Even what remains in the mouth of Christ "will destroy his future," as St. Paul says, 2 Thess. 2, 8. Therefore, let us stop fresh, let us press in the word honestly, let us cast out the laws of men; so Christ kills the papacy through us. It already sings: Eli, Eli; it is struck. It will soon be called: expiravit (i.e. it gave up its spirit).
(24) But here in this activity I must again admonish some who make a great apostasy and detraction from the holy gospel. There are some who, when they have read a leaf or two, or heard a sermon, wipe out rips of raps, and do nothing more than run over and deny others with their nature, as if they were not evangelical; notwithstanding that sometimes there are simple, simple-minded people who learned the truth when it was told them. I have not taught this to anyone, and St. Paul has harshly forbidden it. They do it only because they want to know something new and be well regarded as Lutherans. But they misuse the holy gospel for the sake of their own will. In this way you will never drive the gospel into their hearts; you will rather scare them off and have to give a hard answer that you have thus driven them away from the truth.
(25) Not so, you fool, hear and be told: First, I ask that my name be kept silent and that they not be called Lutheran, but Christians. What is Luther? If the doctrine is not mine, then I am crucified for no one. Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 3, 4, 5, did not want Christians to call themselves Pauline or Peter, but Christians. How could I, poor, stinking maggot sack, be called the children of Christ by my unholy name? Not so, dear friends; let us eradicate the partisan names and call Christians, whose doctrine we have. The papists have a cheap partisan name, because they do not
who are pleased with Christ's teaching and name, also want to be papal; so let them be papal who is their master. I am not and will not be a master. I have with the church the one common doctrine of Christ, who alone is our Master, Matt. 23:8.
26 Secondly: If you want to Christianize the gospel, you must pay attention to the people you talk to. These are of two kinds. First, there are some who are obdurate, who will not listen, and who seduce and poison others with their lying mouths, such as the pope, Eck, Emser, some of our bishops, priests and monks. With them you shall do nothing, but keep the saying of Christ, Matth. 7, 6: "You shall not give the holy things to the dogs, nor cast pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot, and the dogs turn and tear you. Let them remain dogs and swine; it is lost after all. Item, Sirach, cap. 32, 6. "Where there is not one that heareth thee, thou shalt not pour out thy word." But when you see these liars pouring their lies and poison into other people, you can confidently push them over the head and fight against them; just as Paul pushed Eliman, Acts 13, 11. 13, 10. 11. with harsh and sharp words, and Christ called the Pharisees viper-breeders, Matth. 23, 33. You should not do this for their sake, because they do not hear; but for the sake of those who poison them. Thus St. Paul instructed Titus, Titus 1:10, 11, to severely punish such useless talkers and seducers of souls.
27 Secondly, there are some who have not heard this before and would like to learn it if it were told to them, or are too weak to grasp it easily. These are not to be overpowered or taken by surprise, but to be instructed kindly and gently, and to be shown the reason and cause. But if they cannot grasp it immediately, be patient with them for a while. Of this Paul says, Rom. 14, 1: "You should accept the weak in faith." Item, St. Peter, 1 Ep. 3, 16: "You should always be ready to answer anyone who asks you for the reason and cause of your hope, with meekness and fear." Then you see that with meekness and fear of God we are to take care of the
give direction to our faith, if anyone desires or needs it.
28. If you only want to show your great art in front of these people and go on for so short a time and pretend that they do not pray, fast and measure properly, and want to eat meat, eggs, this and that on Fridays, and do not saw the cause and reason with meekness and fear; Such a simple heart cannot regard you otherwise than that you are a proud, insolent, impudent man, as is also true, and thinks that one should not pray, do nothing good, measure is nothing, and the like. Of which error and offense you are the cause and guilty. Hence it comes that they judge evil and speak of the holy gospel and think that you have been taught monstrous things. What does such insult to your neighbor and hindrance to the gospel help you? You have cooled your will. So they say, "I will continue in my faith," and turn their hearts to the right truth.
29 If, however, with fear and meekness, as St. Peter teaches, you show cause and say thus: "Dear man, fasting, eating eggs, meat, fish is such a thing, since there is no salvation in it; it may be done and omitted well and badly, but faith alone makes one blessed, etc. So also, the mass would be good, if it were kept right etc. With the way they would come, listen and learn at last, that you can. But now you are so insolent that you exalt yourself that you know something they do not know; you act like the Pharisee in the Gospel, Luc. 18, 11, and let it be the cause of your arrogance that they do not also know the same thing you know: you fall into the judgment of St. Paul, Rom. 14, 11. Pauli, Rom. 14, 15: Jam non secundum caritatem ambulas (i.e.: You do not walk according to love), you despise your neighbor, whom you should serve with fear and meekness.
30 Remember a similitude. If your brother were dangerously bound by his enemy with a rope around his neck, and you were angry with the rope and the enemy, you would run and break the rope with great earnestness.
or stab at it with a knife; you should strangle or stab your brother and do more harm than the rope and the enemy. But if you want to help him, you must do this: You can punish or beat the enemy hard enough, but you must handle the rope gently and with fear until you bring it from his neck so that you do not strangle your brother.
(31) Therefore, the liars, the obdurate tyrants, you may well attack severely and set free against their doctrine and work, because they do not want to listen; but the simple, who are dangerously bound by them with ropes of such doctrine, you must treat much differently; with fear and sedan chair you must dissolve the doctrine of men, tell the reason and cause, and thus also set them free in time. Thus did St. Paul, since he did not want to circumcise Titus in spite of all the Jews, Gal. 2:3, and yet circumcised Timothy. See, so you must treat the dogs and swine differently from men, the wolves and lions differently from the weak sheep. To the wolves you cannot be too hard; to the weak sheep you cannot be too soft. We do not have to treat ourselves differently now than if we lived among the heathen, because we live among the papists; indeed, they are sevenfold heathens. Therefore we should, as St. Peter teaches, 1 Ep. 2:12, "lead a good course among the Gentiles, so that they may not accuse us of evil with truth," as they would like. They like to hear you boast about this doctrine and be annoying to the weak of heart, so that they may decry the whole doctrine as annoying and harmful, because otherwise they would have to deny it and confess that it is true.
May God grant us all to live as we teach, and to put words into practice. There are many of us who say, "Lord, Lord," and praise the doctrine, but the deeds and consequences do not follow. Let this be enough of a reminder this time to beware of rebellion and anger, lest by ourselves the holy Word of God be profaned, amen.