Martinus Luther.
Grace and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Careful, wise, dear sirs! Even though I was banished for three years and put on guard, I should have kept silent, if I had shunned the commandments of men more than God; just as many in the German lands, both great and small, still follow my speaking and writing about the same matter and shed much blood over it. But because God has opened my mouth and allowed me to speak so strongly, and because my cause, without my counsel and action, has received so much support from God, I have been able to do so.
and spreads them out, as much as they rage more, and presents himself as if he laughed and mocked their raving, as the 2nd Psalm v. 4. says. By this alone may he know who is not hardened, that this thing must be God's own. Because the kind of divine word and work happens here, which always increases the most, if one pursues it to the highest and wants to dampen it.
(2) Therefore I will speak, as Isaiah says, and not be silent, because I live, until Christ's righteousness break forth like a brightness, and his saving grace be kindled like a lamp. And now I beseech you all,
My dear sirs and friends, accept this writing and admonition of mine kindly and take it to heart. For even if I am as I am, I can nevertheless boast before God with a clear conscience that I do not seek what is mine in it, which I would much rather keep quiet about; but rather mean it from the heart faithfully with you and the whole German country, where God has ordained me, believe it or not, whoever wants to. And I want to freely and confidently promise and announce to your love that if you obey me in this, you will undoubtedly not obey me, but Christ; and whoever does not obey me does not despise me, but Christ, Luc. 20, 16. For I know well and am certain what and where I speak or teach; so everyone will feel it himself, if he wants to see my teaching correctly.
3 First of all, we are now experiencing in Germany through and through how the schools are being allowed to decay everywhere. The high schools are becoming weak, monasteries are declining, and "such grass will become dry and the flower will fall away," as Isaiah says, Cap. 40, 7. 8. "because the Spirit of God is blowing in through His word" and seems so hot on it through the gospel; because now through the word of God it becomes known how such a nature is unchristian and only directed at the belly. Yes, because the carnal crowd sees that they should no longer or may no longer cast their sons, daughters and friends into convents and monasteries, and expel them from their homes and estates, and put them on foreign estates, no one wants to let children learn or study. Yes, they say, what should they learn if they are not to become priests, monks and nuns? Let them learn so much more that they may feed themselves.
(4) What devotion and mind such people have is sufficiently shown by their own confession. For if they had not sought only the belly and temporal nourishment for their children in monasteries and foundations, or in the spiritual state, and if their earnestness had been to seek the salvation and blessedness of their children, they would not thus throw up their hands and fall down, and say, If the spiritual state be nothing, we will also leave learning in abeyance, and do nothing for it; but they would not be so serious.
Who therefore say, If it be true, as the gospel teacheth, that such a state is dangerous to our children; alas! Rather, teach us another way that is pleasing to God and blessed to our children, for we would like to provide for our dear children not only the belly, but also the soul. This is what true Christian, faithful parents will say about such things.
(5) But that the devil should thus set himself to the task, and give such a thing to the carnal hearts of the world, to leave the children and the young people in this way, is no wonder. And who can blame him? He is a prince and god of the world," John 14:30, "that he should be pleased to have his nests, the monasteries and spiritual groups, destroyed by the gospel, in which he mostly corrupts the young people, in whom he is very much, indeed completely, concerned; how is it possible, how should he admit or encourage this, that young people should be educated properly? Yes, he would be a fool to let this happen in his kingdom and to help to establish it, so that it would have to fall to the ground very quickly; as would happen if he lost the sweet little bit, the dear youth, and had to suffer that it would be preserved with his costs and goods for the service of God.
(6) Therefore he did almost wisely at the time when the Christians brought up their children in a Christian way and had them taught. The young people wanted to run away from him and set up an evil in his kingdom; then he went and spread out his net, set up such monasteries, schools, and estates that it was not possible for a boy to run away from him without a special miracle of God. But now that he sees that these ropes are betrayed by God's word, he goes to the other side and does not want to learn anything. He does rightly and wisely to preserve his kingdom, so that the young people remain with him. When he has it, it will grow up under him and remain his; who wants to take something from him? He will then keep the world with peace. For if there should be any harm done to him, it must be done by the young people, who grow up in the knowledge of God and spread the word of God and teach others.
(7) No one, no one believes what a harmful, devilish thing this is; and yet it goes on so quietly that no one notices it and wants to have done the damage before one can advise, defend and help. People are afraid of Turks and wars and floods, because they understand what harm and good are; but what the devil has in mind here, no one sees, no one fears, and they go in quietly. If, however, it would be fair here to give a hundred guilders to fight against the Turks, even if they were on our backs, even if only one boy could be raised to become a true Christian man, because a true Christian man is better and more useful than all the men on earth.
8 Therefore, I ask you all, my dear lords and friends, for God's sake and for the sake of the poor youth, not to regard this matter so lightly, as many do who do not see what the prince of the world is thinking. For it is a serious and great matter, since Christ and the whole world are concerned that we help and advise the young people. Thus we and all are helped and advised. And think that such silent, secret, treacherous temptations of the devil will be resisted with great Christian earnestness. Dear sirs, do we have to spend so much every year on cans, roads, bridges, dams and countless other such things, so that a city may have temporal peace and peace; why should we not also spend so much on the needy poor youth, so that one or two skilful men may be appointed as schoolmasters?
9 Every citizen shall also let himself be moved: If he has had to lose so much money and property in indulgences, masses, vigils, endowments, wills, anniversaries, mendicant monks, brotherhoods, pilgrimages, and what is more, and is now, by God's grace, rid of such robbery and giving, God, in gratitude and honor, would henceforth give him a portion for schooling the poor children, which is so heartily well invested, that he would have had to give ten times as much in vain to the aforementioned robbers and still
And yet recognize that where this is resisted, weighed down, blocked, and torn, there is certainly the devil, who was not so blocked when it was given to monasteries and masses, and was even driven there in heaps. For he feels that this work is not his. So let this be the first cause, all dear lords and friends, which should move you, that we resist the devil in this as the most harmful secret enemy.
The other is that, as St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 6:1, we "do not receive the grace of God in vain" and do not miss the blessed time. For God Almighty has indeed graciously afflicted us Germans now and raised up a golden year. We now have the finest, most learned young journeymen and men, adorned with languages and all arts, who could so well be of use where they were needed to teach the young people. Is it not obvious that a boy can now be trained in three years, that in his fifteenth or eighteenth year he can do more than all the high schools and monasteries have been able to do? Yes, what has one learned in high schools and monasteries so far, but to become only donkeys, blocks and blocks? One has learned twenty, forty years, and has still known neither Latin nor German. I am silent about the shameful, blasphemous life in which the noble youth is so miserably corrupted.
(11) True, before I would that high schools and monasteries should remain as they have been, that no other way of teaching and living should be used for the youth, I would rather that no boy should ever learn nothing and be dumb. . For it is my earnest opinion, request and desire that these donkey stables and devil schools either sink into the abyss or be transformed into Christian schools. But now that God has blessed us so abundantly and given us so many such people to teach and educate the young people, it is necessary that we do not throw God's grace to the wind and do not let him knock in vain. He stands at the door; well
us, if we open to him. He greets us, blessed is he who answers him. If we let him pass by, who will fetch him again?
(12) Let us look at our former misery and the darkness in which we have been. I think that Germany has never heard so much of God's word as now; nothing is ever found of it in history. If we let it go on like this without thanks and honor, it is to be feared that we will suffer even more terrible darkness and plague. Dear Germans, buy, because (as long as) the market is at the door, gather, because it seems and is good weather, use God's grace and word, because it is there. For you should know that God's word and grace is a driving downpour that does not return where it once was. He has been with the Jews, but gone is gone, they now have nothing. Paul brought him into Greece; gone is gone also, now they have the Turk. Roman and Latin country has him also had; hin is hin, they have now the pope. And you Germans must not think that you will have him forever; for ingratitude and contempt will not let him remain. Therefore grab and hold who can grab and hold; lazy hands must have an evil year.
The third is probably the highest of all, namely God's commandment, who through Moses so often commands and demands that parents should teach their children, that the 78th Psalm, v. 4. f., also says: "How has He so highly commanded our fathers to make known to the children, and to teach the children's children. And this is also indicated by the fourth commandment of God, where He so highly commands obedience of parents to their children, that even disobedient children are to be put to death by judgment, Deut. 21:21. And why do we old people live differently, except that we wait for the young people, teach them and bring them up? It is not possible that the foolish people should teach and keep themselves; therefore God has commanded us, who are old and experienced, what is good for them, and will demand a heavy account from us for them. Therefore also Moses commands, Deut. 32, 7. and says: "Ask your father, he will tell you, the old ones will show you."
14. although it is sin and shame.
that it has come to this with us, that we should first of all provoke and be provoked to raise our children and young people and consider their best; but the same should drive us nature itself and also the examples of the heathen show us manifold. There is no unreasonable animal that does not wait for its young and teach them what is their due; without the ostrich, since God says, Job 39:17, "that it is as hard on its young as if they were not its own, and leaves its eggs on the ground. And what does it help that otherwise we would have and do everything and would be like vain saints, if we let that go, for which we live most of all, namely to care for the young people? I also consider that among the outward sins, the world is not so highly burdened before God and deserves such a terrible punishment as this one, which we do to the children, that we do not draw them.
When I was young, they had a saying in school: Non minus est negligere scholarem, quam corrumpere virginem, "It is no less to neglect a pupil than to weaken a virgin. This was said in order to frighten the schoolmasters, because at that time no sin was known that was more serious than defiling virgins. But, dear Lord God, how much less is it to defile virgins or women, which may be atoned for as a sin recognized in the flesh, compared to this, when noble souls are abandoned and defiled, since such a sin is also not respected nor recognized and never atoned for? O woe to the world forever and ever. Every day children are born and grow among us, and unfortunately there is no one to take care of the poor young people and govern them, so they let it go as it goes. The monasteries and convents should do it; they are just those of whom Christ says, Matth. 18, 6. 7.: "Woe to the world because of the aversions; whoever offends one of these boys who believe in me, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung on his neck and to be lowered into the sea, where it is deepest. They are only children's victims and corrupters.
(16) Yea, saith thou, all these things are told unto parents: what is that to the rulers of the council and to the authorities? That is right; but how, if the parents do not do this? who?
shall it then do? Shall it therefore be omitted and the children neglected? Where will the authorities and the council excuse themselves that they should not do so? There are many reasons why parents do not do it:
(17) For the time being, some of them are not so sincere and honest that they would do it even if they could; but, like ostriches, they also harden themselves against their young and leave it at that, that they have thrown off their eggs and have begotten children; that is all they do. Well, these children shall nevertheless live among us and with us in the common city. How then will reason and especially Christian love suffer that they grow up badly and are poison and filth to the other children, so that a whole city finally perishes; as it happened to Sodom and Gomorrah and Gaba and many other cities.
18) On the other hand, most parents are unfortunately unskilled and do not know how to educate and teach children, because they themselves have learned nothing without taking care of the belly, and special people are needed to teach and educate children well and properly.
19 Thirdly, even if the parents were skilled and would like to do it themselves, they have neither time nor space for it before other business and households, so that necessity forces them to keep common tutors for the children, unless each one wanted to keep one for himself. But that would be too difficult for the common man, and many a fine boy would again be missed for the sake of poverty. In addition, many parents die and leave orphans behind them; and how they are cared for by guardians, whether experience would be too little for us, should show us that "God calls Himself the father of orphans," Ps. 68:6, as of those who are otherwise abandoned by everyone. There are also some who do not have children; they do not take care of anything because of that.
20 Therefore, it is the duty of the city council and the authorities to have the greatest care and diligence for the young people. For since the entire city's property, honor, life and limb are entrusted to their faithful care, they would do the following
not honest before God and the world, if they did not seek the prosperity and improvement of the city with all their might day and night. Now, the prosperity of a city does not lie solely in the collection of great treasures, solid walls, beautiful houses, and plenty of guns and armor; indeed, where there is much of this and mad fools come upon it, so much is all the worse and all the greater harm to the same city; but this is the best and most abundant prosperity, salvation and strength of a city, that it has many fine, learned, sensible, honorable, well-mannered citizens, who are then able to collect, hold and rightly use treasures and all goods.
Twenty-one: How did the city of Rome do, which had its boys educated in such a way that within fifteen, eighteen, and twenty years they knew Latin and Greek and all the liberal arts, as they are called, and then they went off to war and regiment. Witty, sensible and excellent people with all kinds of art and experience were sent out, so that if all the bishops and all the priests and monks in the German lands were gathered together in one heap, they would not find as much as could be found in a Roman warrior. That's why they did their thing; they found people who were capable and skilled in all kinds of things. Thus necessity has always forced and preserved it in all the world, even among the heathen, that one must have disciplinarians and schoolmasters, if one otherwise wanted to make something honest out of a people. Therefore the word disciplinarian in St. Paul, Gal. 3, 24, is taken from the common use of human life, when he says: "The law has been our disciplinarian.
(22) Since a city should and must have people, and since the greatest affliction, scarcity and complaint everywhere is that it lacks people, it is not necessary to wait until they grow by themselves; nor will they be hewn from stone or carved from wood; God will not do miracles as long as they can be obtained from other goods of His. Therefore, we must do it and spend effort and expense on it, educating and making it ourselves. For we know that it is the fault of all the cities that there are so few skilled people without the authority of God.
Who let the young people grow up like wood in the forest and did not see how they were taught and cultivated? That is why it has grown so untidily that it is not capable of building anything, but only a useless hedge and only for fireworks.
It must remain a secular regiment. Should we then allow vain gags and gags to rule, if we can improve it; it is a wild, unreasonable presumption. Let sows and wolves be made masters just as much, and let them tear at those who do not want to think as they are ruled by men. So it is also an inhuman wickedness, if one does not think further, because thus: We want to rule now, what is it to us, how it will go for those who come after us? Not over men, but over swine and dogs should such people rule, who seek no more than their benefit and honor in the regiment. Even if the greatest effort is made to bring forth fine, learned, skilful people to govern, it would still be enough trouble and worry to ensure that everything goes well. How, then, is it to go on if one does nothing at all?
(24) Yea, sayest thou again, though we should and must have schools, what profit is it to us to learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, and other liberal arts? Could we learn the Bible and God's Word in German, which is sufficient for our salvation? Answer: Yes, unfortunately I know well that we Germans must always be and remain beasts and mad animals; as the surrounding countries call us and we well deserve. But I wonder why we do not say for once: What is the use of silk, wine, spices and foreign goods, when we ourselves have wine, grain, wool, flax, wood and stones in German lands, not only in abundance for food, but also in choice for honor and adornment? The arts and languages, which are without harm to us, even greater ornament, benefit, honor and piety, both to understand the Holy Scriptures and to lead secular rulers, we want to despise: and the foreign goods, which are neither necessary nor useful to us, to toil us to the ridge, we want to
not entrathen. Aren't they called cheap German fools and beasts?
(25) If there were no other benefit in the languages, we should nevertheless be pleased and inflamed by the fact that it is such a noble, fine gift of God, so that God now so richly favors and graces us Germans, almost over all countries. One does not see much that the devil would have allowed them to arise through the high schools and monasteries; indeed, they have always raged against them to the utmost and still do. For the devil well smelled the frying pan, where the languages would come out, his kingdom would gain a hole, which he could not easily plug up again. Because he is not able to prevent them from coming out, he thinks to keep them so narrow that they will perish and decay on their own. A dear guest has not come to his house with them, so he wants to feed him so that he will not stay long. This evil trick of the devil is seen by very few of us, dear sirs.
Therefore, dear Germans, let us open our eyes here, give thanks to God for the noble treasure, and hold fast to it, so that it will not be snatched away from us again, and the devil will not atone for his willfulness. For we cannot deny that, although the gospel came and comes daily through the Holy Spirit alone, it nevertheless came through the means of languages, and has also increased thereby, and must also be retained thereby. For as soon as God wanted the gospel to come into all the world through the apostles, he gave tongues to it. And before that, through the Romans, he had spread the Greek and Latin languages so far into all lands, so that his gospel would soon bear fruit far and wide. He has done the same now. No one knew why God caused the languages to come forth, until it was first seen that it was for the sake of the gospel, which he then wanted to reveal and thereby expose and destroy the reign of the end Christ. That is why he gave Greece to the Turk, so that the Greeks, driven out and scattered, would bring out the Greek language and become a beginning to learn other languages as well.
(27) As dear as the gospel is to us, we are burdened with the languages. For God did not have His Scriptures written in the two languages alone for nothing, the Old Testament in the Hebrew, the New in the Greek; which God has not despised, but has chosen as His Word above all others, we too should honor them above all others. For St. Paul boasts that it is a special honor and advantage of the Hebrew language, that God's word is given in it, when he said, Rom. 3, 1. 2: "What is the advantage or benefit of circumcision? Almost much. In the first place, they are commanded by the word of God." King David also praises this, Ps. 147, 19: "He proclaims his word to Jacob, and his commandments and his statutes to Israel. He has not done so to any nation, nor revealed his judgments to them." Hence the Hebrew language is also called holy. And St. Paul, Rom. 1, 2, calls it "the holy Scriptures," no doubt for the sake of the holy word of God that is written in it. So the Greek language may well be called holy, because it was chosen above others for the New Testament to be written in it, and because it flowed out of it, as from a well, into other languages through interpretation, and also sanctified them.
028 And let it be told us, that we shall not well receive the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this knife of the Spirit is put; they are the shrine in which this jewel is carried; they are the vessel in which this drink is fasted; they are the nets in which this food is laid; and, as the gospel itself shows, they are the baskets in which this bread and fish and crumbs are kept. Indeed, if we are so foolish as to abandon the languages, since God is before us, we will not only lose the gospel, but will also finally come to the point where we will not be able to speak or write either Latin or German properly. Let us take as proof and warning the miserable, horrible example in the high schools and monasteries, where they have not only forgotten the Gospel, but have also corrupted the Latin and German languages, so that the wretched people have become sheer beasts, unable to speak or write either German or Latin properly.
can speak or write, and have almost lost natural reason as well.
29-. For this reason the apostles themselves considered it necessary that they put the New Testament into the Greek language and bound it, no doubt to keep it safe and secure for us there, as in a holy ark. For they have seen all that was to come, and now is come to pass, where it alone would be put into the minds, how many a wild, desolate disorder and mixture, so many different senses, conceits, and doctrines, would arise in Christendom; which in no way could be resisted, nor the simple protected, unless the New Testament were certainly put into writing and language. Therefore it is certain that where the languages do not remain, the gospel must finally perish.
(30) This has also been proven, and experience still shows it. For as soon as the languages ceased after the time of the apostles, the gospel and the faith and all Christianity declined more and more, until it sank completely under the pope; and since that time the languages have fallen, not much has been seen in particular in Christianity, but many terrible abominations have happened through ignorance of the languages. So again, because the languages have now come forth, they bring with them such light and do such great things that all the world is astonished, and must confess that we have the gospel as pure and clear almost as the apostles had it, and has come completely into its first purity, and much purer than it was in the time of St. Jerome or St. Augustine. And summa, the Holy Spirit is not a fool, nor does he deal with frivolous, unnecessary things; he has considered languages so useful and necessary in Christianity that he has often brought them with him from heaven. This alone should move us sufficiently to seek them with diligence and honor and not to despise them, because he himself is now raising them up again on earth.
(31) Yes, you say, many fathers have been saved and have taught without languages. That is true. But how do you account for the fact that they were so often absent from the Scriptures?
How often is St. Augustine absent from the Psalter and other interpretations, as well as Hilarius, and all those who have interpreted the Scriptures without languages? And whether they have spoken rightly, have they not been sure of the things, whether they stand rightly in the place where they interpret them? So that I may show an example: It is rightly said that Christ is the Son of God. But how mockingly it sounds in the ears of the adversaries, since they took the reason (the proof) from the 110th Psalm, v. 3: Tecum principium in die virtutis tuae (i.e. "With thee is the beginning in the day of thy power" according to the Vulgate); although nothing is written there in the Hebrew language about the Godhead. But if one protects the faith with uncertain reasons and false sayings, is it not a disgrace and mockery of the Christians among the opponents who know the language? and only become more stiff-necked in error and take our faith with good appearances for a human dream.
32What then is the fault that our faith is thus put to shame? Namely, that we do not know the languages; and there is no help here, because we know the languages. Was not St. Jerome compelled to interpret the Psalter anew from the Hebrew for the sake of it, that where the Jews dealt with us from our Psalter, they mocked us, that it did not stand thus in the Hebrew, as ours did? Now the interpretation of all the ancient fathers, who have dealt with the Scriptures without languages, although they teach nothing wrong, is such that they almost often use uncertain, uneven and untimely language, and grope like a blind man against the wall, that they very often lack the right text and make a nose of it according to their devotion; like the verse, indicated above, Tecum principium etc., that St. Augustine himself must confess, as he writes de doctrina christiana, that a Christian teacher who is to interpret the Scriptures must have the Greek and Hebrew languages in addition to Latin; otherwise it is impossible that he will not stumble at every turn; indeed, there is still need and work, whether one already knows the languages well.
33 Therefore, it is much different
A simple preacher of the faith and an interpreter of the Scriptures, or, as St. Paul calls it, a prophet. A simple preacher, it is true, has so many bright sayings and texts through interpretation that he can understand Christ, teach and live holy and preach to others. But to interpret the Scriptures and to act before them and to contend against the erroneous interpreters of the Scriptures, he is too inferior; this cannot be done without languages. Now it is necessary to have such prophets in Christendom, who can expound and interpret the Scriptures, and who are also fit for controversy; and there is not enough of holy living and right teaching. Therefore, languages are absolutely necessary in Christianity, just as prophets or interpreters are; although it is not necessary that every Christian or preacher be such a prophet, as St. Paul says, I Cor. 12:8, 9, Eph. 4:11.
(34) Hence it is that since the time of the apostles the Scriptures have remained so obscure, and nowhere have certain consistent interpretations been written about them. For even the holy fathers, as I have said, were often mistaken, and because they were ignorant of languages, they are seldom one; he who leads thus, he who leads thus. St. Bernard was a man of great spirit, so that I could almost put him above all teachers who are famous, both old and new; but see how he so often plays with the Scriptures, even though spiritually, and leads them out of the right sense. For this reason the Sophists also said that the Scriptures were dark; they thought that God's Word was so dark and spoke so strangely. But they do not see that all lack is due to the languages; otherwise nothing lighter would ever be spoken than God's word, where we understand the languages. A Turk must speak darkly to me, which a Turkish child of seven years can hear, because I do not know the language.
For this reason, it has been a great practice to learn to read the Scriptures by interpreting the fathers and reading many books and glosses. One should have gone to the languages for it. For the dear fathers, because they were without languages, they sometimes worked on a saying with many words and yet only barely managed to understand it.
and half guessed, half missed. So you run after him with much effort, and in the meantime you could advise him yourself much better through the languages than the one you follow. For as the sun is against the shadow, so is language against all the fathers' words.
(36) Since it is proper for Christians to practice the Scriptures as their own unique book, and it is a sin and a shame that we do not know our own book, nor the language and word of our God; it is even more of a sin and a shame that we do not learn languages, especially as God now offers and gives us people and books and all kinds of things that serve this purpose and, as it were, tempt us to do so, and would like to have his book open. Oh, how happy the dear fathers should have been if they could have come to the holy scriptures and learned the languages as we could. How did they barely obtain the fragments with so much effort and diligence, when we could obtain all the bread with half the work, or even without any work at all. Oh, how their diligence disgraces our laziness; yes, how severely God will also avenge such our indolence and ingratitude.
37 Therefore, St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 14:29, wants Christianity to be the judge of all doctrine, for which it is especially necessary to know the languages. For the preacher or teacher may read the Bible through and through as he pleases, hit or miss, if there is no one there to judge whether he is doing right or not. If one is to judge, then there must be the art of languages, otherwise it is lost. Therefore, even though the faith and the gospel may be preached by bad preachers without languages, it still goes lazily and weakly, and one finally grows tired and weary of it and falls to the ground. But where there are languages, it is fresh and strong, and the Scriptures are driven through, and faith is always found anew through other and other words and works, so that the 104th Psalm, v. 18, compares such study in the Scriptures to a hunt and says: "God opens the thick woods for the deer", and Ps. 1, 3, "to a tree that is always green and always has fresh water".
38 Neither shall we be deceived, that some boast of the Spirit, and hold the Scriptures in low esteem. Some also, like the Waldensian brothers, do not regard languages as useful. But dear friend, spirit to, spirit to, I have also been in the spirit and have also seen the spirit, if it is ever to boast of my own flesh, perhaps more than the same will see in the year to come, how nearly they also boast. My spirit has also proven itself to be something, even though its spirit is completely silent in the corner and does not do much more than cast out its glory. But I know that well, how almost the spirit does everything alone. I would have been too far away from all the bushes if the languages had not helped me and made me sure and certain of the Scriptures. I could have been pious and preach in silence; but I would have let the pope and the sophists with the whole end-christian regiment be what they are. The devil does not respect my spirit as much as my language and pen in the Scriptures. For my spirit takes nothing from him but me alone; but the holy scriptures and sayings make the world too narrow for him and do him harm in his kingdom.
(39) I cannot praise the Waldensian brethren at all for despising the languages. For even though they teach rightly, they often lack the right text and remain unequipped and unskilled to fight for the faith against error. In addition, their way of speaking is so obscure and drawn in their own way, apart from the scriptural way, that I fear it is not or will not remain true: For it is quite dangerous to speak of God's things otherwise, or in other words, than God Himself uses. Finally, they may live and teach holy by themselves; but because they remain without languages, they will have to lack what all others lack, namely, that they may not act the Scriptures certainly and thoroughly, nor be useful to other peoples. But because they could do this and do not want to do it, they may see how it is to be answered for before God.
40 Now, let this be said of the usefulness and necessity of languages and Christian schools for the spiritual being and to the
Salvation of the soul. Now let us also consider the body, and let us say whether there is no soul, nor heaven, nor hell, and let us consider only the temporal government after the world, whether it does not need much more good schools and learned people than the spiritual? For until now the sophists have taken so little notice of it and have directed the schools so completely toward the spiritual state that it has been a disgrace if a scholar has become married and has had to hear it said, "Behold, he is becoming worldly and does not want to become spiritual; just as if only their spiritual state were pleasing to God, and the worldly one, as they call it, is even of the devil and unchristian. But because in the sight of God they themselves become the devil's own, and only this poor rabble, as happened to the people of Israel in the Babylonian captivity, remained in the land and in the right estate, and the best and the chiefs were led to the devil to Babylon with plates and caps.
Now it is not necessary here to say how the worldly government is a divine order and status, of which I have otherwise said so much that I hope no one doubts it; but it is necessary to act how one can get fine skilled people into it. And here the heathen offer us a great defiance and disgrace, who in former times, especially the Romans and Greeks, did not know anything at all whether such a position was pleasing to God or not, and yet had the young boys and maidens learned and brought up with such earnestness and diligence that they were sent for it; that I must be ashamed of our Christians when I think of it, and especially of our Germans, who are so completely sticks and animals and may say: Yes, what are the schools for, if one is not to become spiritual? We know, or should know, how necessary and useful it is, and so pleasing to God, when a prince, lord, councilman, or whatever is to govern, is taught and skilled to lead the same state in a Christian way.
(42) Now if, as I have said, there were no soul, and there were no need of schools and languages for the sake of the Scriptures and God, this cause alone would be sufficient to establish the very best schools, both for boys and girls, in all places.
To build up places where the world, even to preserve its worldly status outwardly, requires fine, skillful men and women; so that the men can well govern the land and the people, and the women can well educate and preserve the house, children and servants. Now such men must come from boys, and such women must come from maidens; therefore it is necessary to teach and raise boys and maidens properly. Now I have said above that the common man does nothing here, cannot do it, does not want to do it, does not know it. Princes and lords should do it; but they have to ride on the sleigh, drink and run in the mummery, and are burdened with high, noticeable business of the cellar, "the kitchen and the chamber. And though some would gladly do it, they must shun others, lest they be thought fools or heretics. Therefore, dear councilors, it will remain in your hands alone: you also have the space and authority to do it, better than princes and lords.
043 Yea, saith he, let every man teach his own sons and daughters, or let them be disciplined. Answer: Yes, you can see how they are taught and disciplined. And if the discipline is carried to the utmost and works out well, it does not come further than that there is a little enforced and honorable conduct; otherwise they remain just wooden blocks, who neither know about this nor that, and can neither advise nor help anyone. But where they were taught and told in schools or otherwise, where there were learned and disciplined masters and mistresses who taught languages and other arts and histories, they would hear the history and sayings of all the world, how this city, this empire, this prince, this man, this woman had fared, and so in a short time they could, as it were, grasp before themselves the essence, life, advice and suggestions, successes and failures of the whole world from the beginning as in a mirror; From this they would then be able to direct their minds and run the course of the world with the fear of God, and from the same histories they would become wise and intelligent about what to seek and what to avoid in this outer life, and they would also be able to advise and govern others according to this. The discipline, however, which one can do at home without such a
The school that we attend wants to make us wise through our own experience. Before that happens, we are dead a hundred times over and have spent our lives doing everything thoughtlessly, because a lot of time is needed for our own experience.
(44) Because the young people have to lick and jump, or ever have to create something, since they have pleasure inside and cannot be resisted in it, nor would it be good that everything be resisted; why then should such schools not be prepared for them and such art presented? since everything is now prepared by God's grace so that the children can learn with pleasure and play, be it languages or other arts or histories. And is now no longer hell and purgatory our school, since we are martyred inside over the casualibus (cases of conscience) and temporalibus (temporal rights and fees), since we have learned nothing but vainly nothing through so much prodding, trembling, fear and sorrow. If one takes so much time and trouble to teach children to play cards, sing and dance, why does one not also take so much time to teach them to read and other arts, because they are young and idle, skilful and funny? I speak for myself; if I had children and could, they would have to listen to me not only the languages and histories, but also sing and learn music with all the mathematics. For what is all this but mere child's play, in which the Greeks educated their children of old? thereby they became wonderfully skilful people, capable of all sorts of things afterwards. Yes, how sorry I am now that I have not read more poets and histories and that no one has taught me them. I had to read the devil's filth, the philosophers and sophists, at great expense, work and damage, so that I have enough to sweep up.
45 Thus you say: Yes, who can thus spare his children, and bring them all up as junks? they must wait in the house of labor etc. Answer: It is not my opinion that such schools should be set up as they have been until now, when a boy learned twenty or thirty years over Donat and Alexander and yet learned nothing. It is a different world now, and things are different. My opinion is that the boys of the day should be taught
Let them go to such school for an hour or two, and nevertheless spend the rest of their time at home, learning trades and whatever they are wanted for, so that both go hand in hand while the people are young and can wait. Otherwise, they would spend ten times as much time shooting at cows, playing ball, running and roughhousing.
A girl can have so much time on her hands that she goes to school for an hour a day and still does her business at home; she sleeps away and gambles away more time. The only thing missing is that one does not have the desire nor the seriousness to pull the young people, nor to help the world and advise with fine people. The devil would much rather have coarse blocks and useless people, so that people do not fare so well on earth.
(47) But those who are the most skilful among them, whom it is hoped will become teachers, preachers, and other ecclesiastical offices, are to be left there the more and longer, or to be entirely appointed there; as we read of the holy martyrs, who brought up St. Agnes and Agatha and Lucia and the like; whence also the monasteries and convents have come, but are now entirely turned to another damnable custom. And this is also necessary, because the number of the clergy is almost diminishing; so they are also more or less unfit to teach and govern, because they can do nothing without taking care of the belly, which they alone have been taught. So we must have people who will give us God's word and sacraments and who will be caretakers of souls among the people. But where will we get them, if the schools are allowed to dissolve and other more Christian ones are not established? because the schools, which have been kept until now, even if they did not dissolve, may give nothing but vain losers, harmful seducers.
(48) Therefore it is of great necessity, not only for the sake of the young people, but also for the sake of both our estates, ecclesiastical and secular, that we should do this in earnest and in time, so that, if we have neglected to do it, we may not have to leave it afterwards, even if we would gladly do it, and in vain charge the newcomer with
Let it bite eternally. For God offers Himself abundantly and offers His hand and gives what belongs to it. If we despise it, then we already have our judgment with the people of Israel, since Isaiah says, Cap. 65, 2: "I have offered my hand all day long to the unbelieving people who resist me. And Proverbs 1:26: "I have offered my hand, and no man will look upon it; ye have all despised my counsel: therefore will I laugh at you also in your destruction, and mock you, when your calamity cometh upon you. "etc. Let us beware. See for example what great diligence King Solomon did in this, how he took care of the young people, that among his royal business he also made a book for the young people called Proverbiorum (Proverbs)! And Christ himself, how he draws the young children to himself! How diligently he commands them to us, and also praises the angels who wait for them, Matth. 18, 2. ff., that he shows us how great a service it is, where one draws the young people well; again, how horribly he is angry, if one lets them get angry and corrupt!
Therefore, dear sirs, let the work concern you, which God demands so highly of you, which your ministry owes, which is so necessary for the youth and which neither the world nor the spirit can do without. Unfortunately, we have been rotten and corrupted in darkness long enough; we have been German beasts for too long. Let us also use our reason once, so that God will notice the gratitude of his goods, and other countries will see that we are also people who could either learn something useful from them, or teach them, so that the world will also be improved through us. I have done my part; I would like to have advised and helped the German country. Whether some will despise me for it and want to throw such faithful advice to the wind and know better, I must let that happen. I know that others could have done better, but because they are silent, I will do it as best I can. It is better to speak of it, however clumsily, than to keep silent about it. And I hope that God will awaken some of you,
that my faithful advice does not fall into ashes, and we will not look at the one who speaks it, but at the thing itself, and let it be moved.
50 Finally, all those who love and desire that such schools and languages be established and maintained in the German lands should consider that no effort and expense be spared to provide good libraries and bookhouses, especially in the large cities that are well able to do so. For if the gospel and all the arts are to remain, they must be written and bound in books and scriptures, as the prophets and apostles themselves did when I said above. And not only that those who are to preside over us spiritually and temporally may read and study, but also that the good books may be kept and not lost, together with the art and languages which we now have by the grace of God. St. Paul was also diligent in this, since he commands Timothy, 1 Ep. 4, 13, "to stop reading"; and also commands, 2 Ep. 4, 13, "to bring with him the parchment left at Troas.
(51) Yes, all the kingdoms that were special, and before them the Israelite people, among whom Moses began this work at first, were careful to keep the Book of the Law in the ark of God, and put it in the hands of the Levites, so that whoever needed a copy of it could get one from them; so that he also commanded the king to take a copy of the book from the Levites. That it may be seen how God has appointed the Levitical priesthood, among other duties, to take care of the books and to maintain them. After that Joshua, then Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, and so on, many more kings and prophets multiplied and improved these books. Hence came the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, which otherwise would never have been brought together or remained, if God had not commanded such diligence.
52 According to the example, the monasteries and convents of old have also created libraries, although with few good books. And what
It has done harm that at that time one did not take care to provide books and good librairs, since one had books and people enough for it, one has become well aware afterwards that, unfortunately, with the time all art and languages have fallen away and instead of righteous books the mad, useless, harmful monastic books Catholicon, Florista, Graecista, Labyrinthus secure and such ass crap has been introduced by the devil, Instead of righteous books, the devil has introduced the mad, useless, harmful monastic books Catholicon, Florista, Graecista, Labyrinthus, Dormi secure, and such ass crap, so that the Latin language has fallen to the ground and nowhere remains a competent school, nor doctrine, nor way to study. And as we have experienced and seen, that with so much effort and labor the languages and arts, yet quite imperfectly, have been brought forth again from some scraps and pieces of old books from the dust and worms, and are still daily searching and working on them; just as one digs in the ashes of a destroyed city for the treasures and gems.
53. Therefore, we were justified and God paid our ingratitude quite well, that we did not consider His good deeds and created supplies, when it was time and could well have done so, so that we would have kept good books and learned people; we let it go as if it did not concern us; He did so again and instead of the Holy Scriptures and good books, He let Aristotle come with countless harmful books, which only led us further and further away from the Bible; in addition the devil's larvae, the monks and the ghosts of the high schools, which we have endowed with inhuman goods, and many doctors, predicators, magistrates, priests and monks, that is, great, coarse, fat asses, adorned with red and brown berets, like the sow with a golden chain and pearls, who taught us nothing good, but only made us more and more blind and foolish, and in return ate up all our possessions and collected only the filth and dung of their obscene, poisonous books, filling all the monasteries, indeed all the corners; since it is horrible to think of.
54. has it not been a miserable pity up to now that a boy has had to study twenty years or longer, only that he has learned so much evil latin that he would like to
To become a priest and read masses? And whoever got there was blessed: blessed was the mother who carried such a child. And yet he remained a poor unlearned man all his life, who was neither good for gurgling nor for laying eggs. We have had such teachers and masters everywhere, who themselves have not known anything and have not been able to teach anything good or right; indeed, they have not known how one should learn and teach. What is the fault? There were no other books than such great monks' and sophists' books. What else should become of them but vain great students and teachers, as the books were which they taught? A jackdaw does not raise a dove, and a fool does not make a wise man. This is the reward of ingratitude, that one has not applied diligence to libra-ries, but has let the good books perish and kept the useless ones.
But my advice is not to gather all kinds of books in heaps without distinction and to think of nothing more than the quantity and heap of books. I wanted to have the choice among them, that it was not necessary to collect all lawyers' commentaries, all theologians' sententias and all philosophers' quaestiones (questions) and all monks' sermons. Yes, I wanted to expel such crap completely and supply my library with righteous books and consult learned people about them.
(56) First, the Scriptures should be in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and German, and whether or not they are in other languages. Then the best commentators and the elders, both Greek, Hebrew and Latin, where I could find them. Then such books, which serve to learn the languages, as the poets and orators (orators), not considered whether they were pagans or Christians, Greek or Latin. For from such one must learn the grammar. After that should be the books of the liberal arts and otherwise of all other arts. Lastly, there should be books on law and medicine, although here, too, a good choice is needed among the commentaries.
57. but with the most distinguished should be
The chronicles and histories, whatever languages one might have; for these are wondrously useful to recognize and govern the course of the world, even to see God's wonders and work. Oh how many fine stories and sayings one should have now, which happened and occurred in German lands, of which we now know none at all. That is why no one has been there to describe them; or, even if they had already been described, no one has kept the books; that is why nothing is known of us Germans in other countries, and we must be called to all the world the German beasts, who can do nothing more than get, eat and drink. But the Greek and Latin, even the Hebrew, have described their things so precisely and diligently that wherever a woman or child did or said something special, the whole world had to read and know it; meanwhile we Germans are still Germans and want to remain Germans.
Since God has now so graciously provided us with all abundance, both of art and of learned men and books, it is time that we reap and cut the best that we can and gather treasures, so that we may keep something for the future from these golden years and not miss this rich harvest. For it is a matter of concern, and is already beginning again, that new and different books are always being made, so that in the end, through the work of the devil, the good books, which are now produced by printing, will again be suppressed and the loose, hopeless books of useless and tol
len things again tear down and fill all corners. For with this the devil certainly goes about that one must again carry and torture oneself with vain Catholica, florists, modernists and the damned monk and sophist crap, as before; and always learn, and yet never learn anything.
(59) Therefore I beseech you, my lords, let this faithfulness and diligence of mine bear fruit with you. Even if there were some who thought me too small to live by my advice, or despised me as the damned of tyrants, they would still see that I do not seek my own happiness and salvation, but only that of the whole German country. And even if I were a fool and did something good, it should never seem a disgrace to a wise man to follow me. And even if I were a Turk and a pagan, if it is clear that it is not I who can benefit from this, but the Christians, they should not despise my service. In the past, a fool was better advised than a whole council of wise men. Moses had to be taught by Jethro, 2 Mos. 18, 17. ff. I hereby entrust you all to the grace of God, who may soften and inflame your hearts, so that they may take care of the poor, miserable, abandoned youth with earnestness, and through divine help advise and help them to a blessed and Christian government of the German land, in body and soul, with all abundance and overflow, to praise and honor God the Father through Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen. [Date Wittenberg, Anno 1524.]
Further interpretations of this commandment can be read in:
I. Part, 1. B. Mos., 12. Cap., § 96-125, of the obedience of Abraham.
I. Part, 1. B. Mos., 22. Cap., § 118-125, of obedience and killing of the flesh.
Part I, Genesis 24, § 255-259, on the obedience of children and subjects, especially servants.
XIIIa & b. Part, Serm. on the 1st of Sunday, n. Epiph., § 17 ff., of Christ's obedience to his parents.