Of the best and abandonment of the property and of the resistance to the authorities and the pope.
Held at Wittenberg in April 1539.
1 The Lord, in teaching that all things should be sold and forsaken, permitted or rather commanded that all things should be rightfully sought and possessed.
2. for you can sell or leave only what you have rightfully acquired and possess.
For otherwise it would have had to be said: Everything must be given back and restituted as robbed, stolen, unjust goods.
(4) It is also evident from the other table of the holy commandments, that therein it is commanded to seek all things by lawful ways, by the commandment, Thou shalt not steal.
5 This means that what you have should be yours and not someone else's; or, as Paul exhorts, "Let every man labor and work with his hands, that he may have something to give to the needy," Eph. 4:28.
6 Paul himself earned his living with his hands and possessed what he had earned as his own, Apost. 20, 33. 34.
(7) So also by forbidding adultery he compels every man to have his own wife, as he says, "Let every man have his own wife," 1 Cor. 7:2.
8 Now it is certain that Christ did not come to abolish the binding force of the commandments of the second tablet of the law, but rather to give the commandments of the first tablet of the law.
but rather to confirm them, Matth. 5, 17.
9. yes, he also confirmed the authority and the rights of the state everywhere, even before Pilate, where he said: "It is given to you from above", Joh. 19, 11.
(10) Therefore, it is quite heretical for the monks to pretend that one cannot keep Christ's gospel without abrogating the second tablet of the law through a celibate life and voluntary poverty.
(11) It is also not only hypocrisy but a blatant lie that they pretend to sell and abandon everything.
(12) For they must live on what they have either received from others or acquired themselves, as experience teaches.
(13) But when they eat, drink, clothe themselves, dwell in houses, etc., they do not sell and abandon all that they have, but possess and consume all.
(14) But this is a glorious glamor, to live idly and securely on other people's goods, and to spend on poverty and the abandonment of all things what in ordinary life is the possession and enjoyment of all things.
That would be a fine abandonment, to leave one's own property, which is nevertheless only small and uncertain, and to possess foreign goods instead, which are quite certain and are given to one in abundance.
16. But Christ said that one must sell and abandon all one's own goods, how much more, then, without a doubt, all foreign and common goods.
(17) Therefore, if they wanted to sell and leave everything according to the monk's understanding, they would have to go completely out into the world.
(18) Yes, they would have to go to such a place where people do not eat and drink, where they do not dress, where they do not live in houses, so as to leave everything in truth.
19 For life, or what you live, eat, drink, as well as clothing, housing, time, in short, everything you really need, becomes your property through use.
20. but if it is not your property, you are already a thief or robber, who
The first step is to swallow someone else's property and take it as one's own.
21 Christ is speaking here of selling and forsaking all things in relation to the first tablet of the ten commandments, that is, in relation to the public confession of faith.
(22) For if the duties of the first table and the purchase of the precious pearl of the kingdom of heaven are at stake, the field must be sold for their sake, and all must be forsaken and put into the redoubt.
(23) For then that which you rightly have and possess according to the second table must be joyfully forsaken for the sake of the first table, that is, for the sake of eternal life.
24 Except in matters of the first tablet and the public confession, everything in the world can be acquired, preserved, administered and defended.
25 For we are also obligated to follow the second tablet of the law, that is, we must cherish, protect, and nourish our bodies and lives according to divine and human law.
(26) Therefore, if anyone does not take care of his temporal life and his relatives, except in cases where the first table or confession of faith does not permit it, he denies the faith and is worse than a pagan; for Christ said, "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder," Matt. 19:6.
(27) That is, he who thus forsakes his kinsmen and sells all that he has, sins not only against the second tablet, but also against the first.
(28) So also whoever, on the contrary, when the cause of God requires it, does not say to himself, to his relatives and to all that he has, I do not know you, transgresses not only the law of the first tablet, but also that of the second.
(29) For if the first tablet reclaims something he has from God, and he does not give it up, he keeps it unlawfully and against God; but in the other case he possesses it lawfully, because the second tablet so prescribes.
(30) Except in matters of public confession, a Christian is a citizen of this country.
The world, who must do and suffer what his civic duties demand of him, as commanded by the second tablet.
(31) Now if a thief or robber wanted to do violence to you or steal from you because you are a Christian, you must resist the evil here, otherwise you are not a pious citizen of this world.
32 For just as the temporal authorities, whose member and subject you are, resist you in such a case, so they also command you, who are bound to obey, by virtue of the second tablet to resist.
(33) Therefore, if a murderer attacks you in the street and wants to kill you because you are a Christian, you must resist him even if it costs him his life.
34 For you know that the authorities have commanded that you defend their citizens and resist a murderer; in such a case you obey the demands of both the first and second tablets.
(35) Nor is it necessary to turn away from this if he wants to refer to Christ, that is, to the first tablet, in his violence; for it is obvious that he does not want to do violence to you for the sake of Christ, but for the sake of your possessions and goods.
But if the worldly authorities themselves, whether they are completely pagan or unchristian, persecute you for the sake of Christ, then you must leave everything, sell it and lose it.
(37) For the temporal authorities are not to be regarded as murderers or thieves when they rob you of your body, wife, child, possessions and goods; rather, they are to protect all these against thieves and murderers.
38 Therefore the authorities, whether they be pagan or unchristian, are not against us, but according to the second tablet for us and with us.
39 In sum, the authorities, be they what they may, command at all times and everywhere to preserve peace among their subjects, whatever religion they may be of.
(40) Therefore, no one, whoever he may be, is allowed to break this peace for his own person and to take an arbitrary revenge.
but the authorities must be called upon.
By the way, godless authorities always want to appear as if they were doing what they do and command for the sake of the first table of commandments or for the sake of religion.
If they will not be told better, then the teaching of Christ will take place: Go, sell, leave, lose, give away everything you have, even your own life.
For apart from the kingdom of this world, there is no other over us in this world to which we can appeal or which can protect us, but the eternal kingdom of God.
(44) Therefore, if an authority forbids evil, we must obey, not suffering evil, but resisting it, by virtue of the second tablet.
(45) But if the authorities do evil to their own subjects for the sake of the first table or for the sake of religion, for they cannot have any other cause, they must not be opposed.
46 For we have no other higher authority in the world whose commandment entitled and obliged us to oppose the evil of that authority.
(47) As little as we have another second tablet of the divine commandments by virtue of which we are permitted to act contrary to the present second tablet.
For the second table of the commandments, and therefore also the authority, belong to this temporal life that is given to us and ordained by God.
Therefore, it is not our place, indeed, it is expressly forbidden, to violate the authorities and state orders decreed by God on our own authority.
50 Rather, one must leave room for their anger and not defend oneself against them arbitrarily.
It is obvious, however, that the pope cannot imagine an authority, neither in the spiritual, nor in the secular, nor in the domestic regiment.
For God has established a threefold regiment in the world against the devil, namely the home regiment, the state regiment and the church regiment.
(53) That the pope is not an authority in church government is evident because he condemns and tramples on the gospel through his blasphemies contained in the so-called spiritual law.
The fact that he is not a secular authority is evident from the fact that he wants civil rights to be subject to his arbitrariness just as the gospel is.
The fact that he cannot be an authority in the domestic regime can be seen from the fact that he forbids marriage not only to priests, but also to others at his discretion.
56. but he is that monster of which Daniel speaks, that it rises up against all that is God, even against the God of all gods, Dan. 12, 1.
57. which Paul, following the speech of Daniel, calls the abominable of God, the man of sin and the child of perdition, 2 Thess. 2, 3.
Our Germans call such a monster a Bärwolf, which the Greeks, if they had known it, would have called άρχτόλυχο".
(59) Such a beast is a wolf by nature, but because it is possessed by the devil, it tears and breaks everything and mocks all hunting bullets and weapons.
60. to catch it and make it harmless, everything must run from villages and patches, which are adult males, although it can escape even then.
(61) Nor is a judgment of the court or a decree of the council to be awaited here first, but only the present need and the threatening disaster are to be considered.
62. and if someone should be injured by this monster in the attempt to kill it, his conscience is free from the reproach of persecution, yes, it must still repent him that he did not kill it.
63 Nor must one turn away from the fact that a judge or a farmer in the village should demand that such an animal be left alone, or even defend it.
For the judge and the peasant are obliged to know the nature of this monster and therefore to pursue it even more than its real pursuers.
(65) And if the judge and the peasants were killed by the pursuers in the commotion that arose, they were not wronged in any way.
In the same way, when the pope starts a war, he must be resisted as a raging and possessed monster, as the true bear-wolf.
67 For he is neither a bishop, nor a heretic, nor a sovereign, nor a tyrant, but that all-destroying wild beast of which Daniel writes.
68. nor should one be disturbed by the fact that he has princes, kings, or probably even emperors, whom he charmed with the beautiful title of "church," fighting for him.
For whoever fights under a robber, whoever he may be, must take upon himself the danger of this fight along with eternal damnation.
It is of no use for kings, princes, and even emperors to set themselves up as the patrons of the Church, for they are above all obliged to know what the Church is.)
It is impossible that the popes could have given laws that could have been beneficial to the Church and to every believer.
For they have been men for the time being, and still are, who are quite ignorant of the Holy Scriptures and have never cared for them, as their decrees and letters amply prove.
(73) It will never be possible to learn from the entire papal law and from all its letters what the Church, the faith, the Word and the commandment of God are.
From this we see that the popes were completely blinded by ambition, pride, greed and arrogance, as they always wallowed in these vices, as St. Peter predicted, 2 Ep. 2, 1 ff.
But a judge who is blinded by honor and greed or other bad passions cannot judge differently than the blind man by color.
Now even the legal scholars confess that the decrees of the popes stink quite ugly of ambition and greed; it cannot be otherwise, for they know nothing of God.
They also confess that a mere canonist is a real ass, which is true in the full sense of the word.
No papal decree can be found which does not, from the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, arrogate to itself an unrestricted power over the Church and thus over all things, with the most monstrous blasphemies.
In the second place, it is impossible (that the pope can make laws obligatory for the church) because in matters of faith and morals, beyond the Scriptures, nothing can be established and taught that is necessary for salvation.
But what the emperor or any other prince decrees with regard to this life does not belong to faith, but is only necessary for this temporal life.
Thirdly, it is also impossible because the popes do not have the least right to give ecclesiastical or civil or domestic laws.
For Christ, as is known, commanded through his apostles to be obedient to the authorities, which he also confirmed to Pilate by his own example.
Now, while all the early churches, bishops and faithful observed this, it was only the pope who dared to trample it underfoot.
This beast, this bear wolf, does not consider that he was not appointed by God as a king, nor as a leader of all states.
And yet he murders, robs and rages in foreign kingdoms, states and families like a bear wolf.
86 For example, he took it upon himself to depose kings, to absolve subjects from the oath of obedience and fidelity contrary to the express pronouncement of the divine word, Romans 13, and to confuse everything among themselves.
He took it upon himself to subjugate the Holy Scriptures to himself, to interpret them according to his own liking, and to exterminate the church itself altogether.
88. he also took upon himself to deprive the parents of their paternal power by allowing the children to marry as they wished against the will of their parents.
He allowed them to leave their parents and go to a monastery, even though they are obliged to serve not only their neighbor, but especially their parents until death.
In the same way, he allowed the betrothed, both bride and bridegroom, by his own right, though with the greatest injustice, to break their engagement in case they went to the monastery.
Summa, there is no divine or human order to be found that this cruel monster has not devastated and disrupted.
[We beseech thee, O Lord JEsu Christe, thou Son of God, our Beatificator and High Priest, for thy tender mercies' sake, that thou wouldst soon appear in thy glory, deliver us, and cut off this noxious beast, Amen].