Martinus Luther.
Oh, what shall I do, and how shall I write against or about these wretched people of Münster? one must grasp it on the wall that the devil lives there in the flesh, and certainly one devil sits on top of the other, like toads. But we should recognize and praise God's great grace and mercy in this, that, since we cannot deny how Germany deserves a sharp rod through so much innocent bloodshed and blasphemy, nevertheless the patient Father of all mercy does not yet want to allow the devil the right crack, but warns us fatherly, and exhorts us to repentance, through such crude devil's play to Münster. For there is no doubt in my mind that where God would have imposed it, the high, sharp, thousand-favored spirit would not have done it so foolishly and rudely; but now, prevented by divine power, he must play the game, not according to his evil will, but as far as it is imposed on him.
(2) For any spirit that would do harm in the faith will not begin by taking wives or husbands, knowing full well that the world cannot be deceived by it, because the work is public and known to everyone.
is that there must be either marriage or fornication where a man and a woman are with each other; and if it should happen, as it did with the Turk and at Münster, that no marriage is kept up, then damage is done to the heathen or to your worldly government. But the kingdom of Christ must be attacked by other means. So also, whichever spirit wants to deceive the world, he must not reach for royal honors and sword, and want to choke and devour the people. For that is too coarse, and everyone notices that he wants to exalt himself, and to press everyone; but this belongs to it: to put on a gray skirt, to see sourly, to fast, to hang one's head, not to take money, not to eat meat, to regard wives as poison, to hold worldly rule condemnably, to throw away the sword and to leave rule etc., and so henceforth to stoop masterly after the crown, sword and keys, until one steals them away.
3 That is what it would like to do; it can also deceive wise, spiritual people; it would be a beautiful devil, and would have finer feathers than neither peacock nor pheasant. But to reach so brazenly for the crown, and take not only a wife in marriage, but as much as lust and folly wills, ah, that is either a
*The text to which Luther wrote this preface is entitled: "Auff die Newe zeittung von Münster D. Martini Luther Vorrhede. Wittemberg. Äl.v.XXXV." 4 leaves, without indication of the printer. The writing itself is found in the Wittenberg edition (1551), vol. II, pp. 385p to 389p; followed by Luther's preface p. 389d; the preface alone: in the Jena edition (1568), vol. VI, p. 316b; in the Altenburg edition, vol. VI, p. 477; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXII, appendix, p. 114; and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 336.
young ABC-devil or Schutteuflein, who cannot yet spell properly, or, if it is the right, learned devil, then the gracious God has certainly bound him with such strong chains, that he can not make it more nimble nor more subtle nor must to threaten and warn us all, that we should fear his punishment, before he gives the same learned devil air and space to attack us not with the ABC, but with the right heavy text. For if he does this, if he has to be a grammatical devil, what can he do if he could be a reasonable, wise, learned, legal, theological devil!
Therefore, there is no great need for this spirit, and I do not think that all the citizens of Münster are pleased with such nobility, who are now silent, and have to shirk, and secretly sigh to God from the bottom of their hearts and cry out: Oh save, save, save! Is there no one who wants to save, just as in the Munchian uprising many innocent people had to join in and remain silent, who would much rather have been saved, and would gladly have seen the salvation. And if God wanted that the wretched devil in the whole world would not have to be smarter nor more subtle than he is at Münster, provided that the dear Christ would keep us Christians in his knowledge, then (whether God wills it) few people would let such coarse spirit, or the subtle spirit coarse pieces move.
5 However, when God is angry and takes away His word, no error is so gross that the devil passes through it. For Mahomet's beginning was also gross enough; but because God's word was not there, such a shameful empire still came out of it, as we see. If the coiner had also been lucky, and God had been ungracious to us, it would have been just as much a Turkish empire as Mahomet's; and in sum, there is no spark so small when God is angry and wants to let the devil blow into it, it can become a fire that consumes the world and no man can extinguish. The best way to defend ourselves is with the sword of the spirit, to defend ourselves with the word of God; for the devil is a spirit, and does not ask for armor, horse or man. But it is not to be said to our lords, bishops and princes that they let preach, and first tear the hearts from the devil by God's word, but
They want to strangle everything, take the body from the devil and leave the hearts to him. They will succeed, just like the Jews, who wanted to destroy Christ with strangulation.
6 Although I gladly believe these new newspapers to be true, I am much more moved by the obscene writings they have sent out to Münster, in which they paint themselves more clearly, even more shamefully, than any new newspaper can do. First of all, contrary to the faith, they teach clumsily about the birth of Christ; as if Christ should not come from Mary's seed (as they call it), and yet be David's seed. But they do not interpret it clearly as they mean it, and here the devil has a hot porridge in his mouth, and speaks mum; perhaps he would like to say something nasty, but he kicks out so far that Mary seed or flesh could not redeem us.
(7) But spi and mum, devil, what you can, the little word "born" overturns all this. For all the world in all languages is called born, since flesh and blood comes through the female body as a child, and is called nothing born, except what is brought to the world grown by the mother's body and blood.
Now the Scriptures everywhere call Christ born of Mary his mother and her firstborn son, and Isaiah: "A child is born to us. And Gabriel: "That is born in thee" etc. And again, "Behold, thou shalt conceive" etc. Dearly beloved, to be with child is not to be a tube through which water passes, as Manichaeus also blasphemed Christ, but to be taken from the mother's flesh and blood, to be nourished, to be grown, and then to be brought into the world after the manner of a woman's womb.
(9) After this, that they condemn baptism, which was given before, and make it a heathen thing, is gross enough; for they look upon baptism as a work of man, and not a divine ordinance. If then all that the ungodly have and give is nothing, I wonder why they do not consider the gold, silver and other goods of Münster, taken from the ungodly, to be nothing, and make other gold and silver, when baptism is as much God's work and business as silver and gold; and so God's baptism is nothing.
If the wicked have the right gold and silver, why can they not also have the right baptism, gospel and sacrament? Item, if the wicked swears, he has and abuses the right name of God, if it is not the right name of God, then he does not swear unjustly. If a murderer robs, murders and steals, he has the right commandment of God, against which he acts; if it is not the right commandment of God, he does not do wrong. So here also: If the previous baptism was nothing, they did not do wrong by being baptized; why then do they curse such baptism as blasphemy, if it is nothing? as they say.
(10) But there the devil is a master, to take hold of worldly things, and to break up the former marriage, and call it fornication. Now tell me: because they themselves boast about the previous marriage
If they are vain fornicators, they must all be vain fornicators; but if they are fornicators, why do they inherit and possess the goods of the city and ancestors? They should leave the goods, which they themselves call whore goods, and consider themselves no heirs, and seek or acquire other goods of their own in their new marriage, which would not be whore goods, but marital honest goods. It is bad for such holy people that they feed on whores' goods, and in addition take the poor whores and boys (their ancestors) so murderously and shamefully.
Your dodder kingdom or rat kingdom is so grossly inflammatory that it is not necessary to speak of it, and indeed I have already spoken of it here too much and without need, and others have already moved it enough, so I will leave it alone this time.