From the campaign of the Protestants against Duke Henry of Brunswick.
1435: The well-founded, consistent, substantial, truthful, divine, Christian, prince- and noble-loving duplicate of the noble, highborn prince and lord, Henry the Younger, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, against the Elector of Saxony. Nov. 2, 1540.
This writing is found in Hortleder, "Von den Ursachen des deutschen Krieges", Vol. I, Book IV, Cap. 16, p. 460. It is part of the dispute writings exchanged in the years 1539 and 1540 between the Elector of Saxony and Duke Henry the Younger of Brunswick. In it (Z10) the duke had used the words: "to the Saxon (whom Martinus Luther, his dear devotee, calls Hans Worst)". This was the reason for Luther to give the next writing the title: "Wider Hans Wurst".
Our friendly services, and what we can do more dear and good, always before, highborn princes, friendly dear lords, homes, cousins, brothers and cousins! We have received from some of our lords and friends, who mean us with honor and good, and are experienced in the opposite trades and practices, a print, which the Elector of Saxony has publicly sent out to your L. and against us. And whether it might be considered unnecessary
that we should engage in further exchange with the Saxon, about which we have done everything and have recently written out for the emergency salvation of our honors against the landgrave, in which all and every of the Saxon's supposed, unstable, void suits against us have been firmly answered and rejected on good and solid grounds:
2. Nevertheless, since we have to do with the Saxon, his and his people's, against us and our deputies, unlawful conduct in particular; which he had to reject with long, rambling, unprofessional, rambling, extended writing, not without special effort (although it was all in vain), also brought some history on the track, which the landgrave should not have been bold enough to write: Nevertheless, we have tried to do what we can with the Saxon; firstly, to justify our rumors and suspicions, and secondly, that it should not be taken for granted (in which suspicion he holds himself) that we could not have a good, consistent, substantial and truthful answer to his slander.
3. so that we may not be annoying to E. L. and the reader with the length: so we are determined to give only that which is convenient, and on which the matter rests most, to the hand.
and to let the unofficial, unnecessary superfluousness, with which the Saxon elongated his letter, go.
(4) Where the Saxon has raised a matter that the Landgrave has put forward in his more recent print, we will refer to and draw on our consistent and well-founded answer given to the Landgrave on the grounds of such matters, in which they have been rejected with all due necessity. However, we do not want the Elector to have admitted or conceded the least, however improper, that he has set up and brought forward against us.
But that he reviles us against all respectability and fairness, against right and truth: we say now in general that he of Saxony charges us with all and every one of the same impositions and unlawful parables through no fault of his own, and that he will never be able to make them true with reason and continuance during the days of his life upon us, and that these same impositions, parables, do not belong to us, but to him of Saxony, which he alone has with heaps upon him.
(6) That the Saxon does not want to believe that we were finished with our previous writing on the time of the specific date is of little concern, which your beloved also (without doubt) did not consider other than founded, true and constant, and still consider and consider it so. Let him who is from Saxony be at liberty to imagine what he will, so it remains and is nevertheless true that our previous answer, completed on the time of the specific date, is true, well-founded and lasting.
(7) But that he of Saxony wants to conclude against us that we urged him to his pressure: thus he does us violence, and shall find what we imposed on him and the landgrave (as that they are not inclined to peace, tranquility and unity), that such was not done by us outside reason and truth. For we have heard from the secret writings of the Landgrave of Saxony, which have been exchanged with us, that his servants and representatives, by his command and order, have reproached us and our servants on the imperial free imperial roads, at the time we were riding in the imperial majesty's advance orders and the Christian Nuremberg alliance business, and that they want to lay their hands on us and ours with unlawful, peace-breaking violence, outrages and practices: We have not unreasonably reproached ourselves for such unlawful, peace-breaking violence and actions, especially because he is insatiated with such things, such order and provision, as we have done to and from Nuremberg, after the Christian covenant was established, and since we have come from the
We had to complain about everything against the law, the golden bulla, the imperial order, and the highly frowned upon proclaimed land peace to our allies, also to your loved ones and others, which was nevertheless done by us without abuse, and only for our necessity, so that we might have a treaty for this from the Elector and his. For what we have had to provide for ourselves from such many sought-after, careless, tremendous tributes to Saxony, that E. L. and every reasonable person cannot easily understand and accept.
(8) And there is no doubt in your mind that at the same time the Landgrave violently threw down our secretary, against God, honor and right, on the imperial free imperial road, took his letters, credentials and register from him, opened them, read them out, and thus showed his favor to him; that he was not satisfied with this, but rather sent his untruthful and defamatory letter against us to E. L. and others everywhere. L. and others his untruthful, fabricated and defamatory writing everywhere, so that we have been highly caused and urged to send out a counter-report to E. L. and others for the salvation of our honor, and to show how wickedly we and ours have been treated.
9 Since not only violence has been inflicted on us, but we have also been attacked for it in honor, rumor, and reputation with no small (though untruthful) injury, we have ever been permitted to complain of such violence and to answer for our honor, and we have not been obligated to remain silent about it. And although we would have left it at such our responsibilities and let it remain, they both, the Saxon and the Landgrave, with heaped many injuries and invectives, which do not concern the present disputation at all, in and to E. L., have been sent out. They attacked us to such an extent that we could not have remained silent about it without violating our honor, which we would much rather have left, wherever it could have been, than to have been allowed to answer for ourselves in public pressure against E. L. not only, but also against men.
(10) And this is what we set forth in our former constant writing: that we had a misgiving to engage in such a manner with our friends in writing; which by the one of Saxony wants to be interpreted to another opinion here. And with this it is not only justified that we should not have used any resistance to save body, property, or honor, but
It follows from this that we have given the Saxon (whom Martinus Luther, his dear devotee, calls Hans Wurst) no cause for his writings and imprints, much less urged him to do so, and that he and his supposed brother, the landgrave, are not at all inclined to peace, tranquility, and unity.
(11) How the counterpart also moved, provoked and enticed us to further letters, you have sufficiently heard from the preface of our previous answer. Nevertheless, one may be bold to write of oneself that we should have urged ourselves out of special desire and will to the counterparts. Although we complain first of all against the Roman imperial and royal majesty of all and every invectives, injuries and troubles, that we do not doubt that their majesty will know how to take due notice of them: We are not a little surprised that Saxony refers us to a due legal request, when reason and truth is that the opposite party of Saxony cannot suffer or endure any judge, as can be clearly seen from his previous letter, in which he wishes him a convenient judge. However, we do not confess to any blasphemy that we may have used against Saxony, and it is true that he and his supposed brother from Münster, the Landgrave, have been and still are the beginners and originators of all these errors, writings and dealings.
12. And although Gebentheil would like to say that they could have used them for their responsibility and indication of our evil reason, the undeniable truth is that we have not overcome these stories at all, nor are we at all equal to our cases, that ever against us in altero genere delicti, of which we neither confess nor have overcome any, could not be presumed or assumed, nor that the opponents of such things could have used and helped themselves against us without invective, injuria and blasphemy, that 2) we are justified in doing so. If we had thought that the Saxon in his writings, which he calls "the secret ones", would have put down our complaint about his and his people's unruly behavior, as he may nevertheless boast, and that we should do him good in his principality, then he should certainly consider it that we have not committed such an act of his and his people's against us.
1) "Münsterischer" is rendered by "wiedertäuserisch" in Luther's answer.
2) "deß" put by us instead of: "that". See § 16 at the end.
sere Bundsverwandten nor others wanted to have reached.
(13) That now further and initially the drunkard of Saxony collects many causes why he and his are to be reproached for us and ours, we must consider and try whether they are also so substantial and fathomable or not?
14 We assume it to be known that the Saxon confesses how he has especially executed his interpreters and servants on us and ours. And it would ever be bad for a prince to deny that which he himself has acted, ordered, and approved in truth, although he would like to twist it again in another place of his most recent writing and interpret and interpret it in a different opinion, as he also did in his previous printed letter; drawn to this and to our previous writings.
The first reason is: that every authority may order its servants to watch out for harmful, dangerous and obnoxious people (which the Saxon declares immediately below), who are malicious and suspected of intentional evil, in their lands and territories, and to show due restraint against them; as we ourselves shall have confessed etc., which we have confessed no further than what is right, and to the extent that we have written about it, etc., cannot take place against us at all. For it is the undeniable truth that we have never committed any outrage, maltreatment or harm in the principality of Saxony; that we have never sought or intended to do harm even with our emergency riding through. Therefore, we cannot consider it a proper measure when the authorities (as in this case) execute and order their servants to harmless people, especially that they should insult, rape and throw down the innocent. Whether it may be considered an outrage and violence that someone travels through another principality without harm and with less number of horses (than we have done) and for his need, even if he does not ask for an escort, we want in E. L. and male impartiality to be considered as an outrage and violence. L. and male impartial concern; we do not believe and do not consider it so at all.
16 That the opposite is also often based on the fact that, according to custom, we were obliged to seek the escort of the empire etc. may also not exist. For it often happens that one travels through another's principality, and yet does not request escort from the sovereign. As we would then be able to indicate which of our
We have never heard that it would have been embarrassing and punishable for the person who did not request it. And yet we have never heard that it would have been embarrassing and punitive for the one who did not seek it. And because it has been sought by some, but not sought by others, but has remained omitted, it may not be considered a permanent habit. Varia enim rerum observantia non dicitur consuetudo. If we, according to his own confession, without all his and his father's blessed contradiction, have ridden through his principality without escort for many years, and he, also his father, have let us ride through and pass through amicably: how could it have been proper for him to refuse the passage now? We want to be justified in this.
17) But that we should have driven the little wheel to war and Christian bloodshed 1) against his father, him and others, and for this reason have posted it by his authority against Dresden etc., in this he does us violence and injustice, and will never be able to prove it on us.
(18) And to more credit of his evil conduct he says: that we have used ourselves for foreign seduction, for contempt and diminishment of his and his brother, and for weakening of his supremacy and justice. Now it may be that we have been led by Duke George's blessed wrath 2) at some time. However, we do not confess that we used such misguidance to annoy him and to break off his supremacy and justice, and would have had to do with the blessed Duke George and not with us, who would have let us accompany the end through his own. But we have never heard that the Saxon, who was well aware of all this, ever took care of it. Now, after the death of Duke George the Blessed, he brings it up for the first time, and wants to have this done with us, which cannot concern us at all, and in a secret of his writing he does not deny that the leadership of this end is due to Duke George the Blessed, with these words: "So E. L. would not, unreasonably, have had us accompany him. L. should not, unreasonably, have asked us in common princely authority, with our cousin, as well as his love, for a guiding penetration etc.
The fact that we were not obliged to apply to him for escort is sufficiently understood for the reasons given above. In addition, our failure to request escort did not harm him.
1) What is meant is "shedding of Christian blood. The same expression is repeated in § 28.
2) "Grimma" ? This becomes probable because Grimma is located at the Mulde river, which is mentioned § 21.
His vaunted supremacy and justice can give birth, as every good mind must understand. With what good honors, fugues and justice, and in harmony with the peace of the land, could he have decreed such his evil order on us and ours?
20 But that he of Saxony boasts how he could have accomplished his project, if his soldiers had been too weak or had lacked manpower, and thus gives the impression that it was not his and his soldiers' opinion to damage us and ours, who will believe him? Because, as he confesses, his routers have been decreed and executed on us, and in this and previous of his writings, more than in one place, he writes and pretends how we should break the peace of the land and have no security; as such can be clearly seen in a letter, which he and the landgrave all sent to our cousins and brothers, Duke Ludwigen in Bavaria, and yet he could well have known that we would do him or his subjects no harm with our riding through. But he meant that we would post again with a few horses through his principality (as we would have done then, where we would not have been aware of his peace-breaking decree on the way back), then he wanted to receive us in a righteous way, which he might well have accomplished, if such a plan had been advised to him. But since such an attack did not go his way, and his people saw that we had strengthened ourselves, they thought that if they attacked us, they would not gain much from it, and so they left without attacking us. Who will say otherwise than out of pure timidity? which we attribute to them princely and with public truth. Who will believe otherwise than that it was by the decree of such rogues that we and ours were to be beaten, raped, thrown down and captured? For he himself says: one should act, act and act in such a way against those who ride through another principality without escort.
It would also be a very childish thing to order and command routers on someone, where they saw the same or the same, to ride again from there. And argue nothing, that the opposition 3) so many people sat on both sides of the hollow, that his could have had it twice better. For who knows what it
3) "the counterpart" - in the area.
Whether they could have been up and following so soon? and whether they would not have had to be safe from their neighbors, Duke George's blessed subjects?
(22) That we have been assigned by the blessed Duke George a number of noblemen and others, who were to penetrate us everywhere, we confess, and in no way deny. However, the fact that we have thereby acted contrary to the law, the imperial majesty's peace, the golden bulla and all other constitutions of the realm in an unlawful, violent and obstructive manner will be much different due to the above-mentioned causes of ours, and especially since we have acted contrary to the law, the golden bulla, the imperial majesty's peace, the golden bulla and all other constitutions of the realm against the hostile expectation of Saxony. Majesty. The Imperial Majesty's land peace and the Empire's constitution are noted, so we can and should make use of the nobility and rulers assigned to us for salvation and permitted and allowed resistance.
23 It would have been quite foolish of us, however, if we had heard the Saxon's hostile expectation that we would have taken the assigned routers from ourselves and given ourselves into the hands of the enemy; he will hardly persuade us otherwise, and therefore, for the reasons mentioned and others reported, it may be considered neither sacrilege nor violence that we have used these routers for defensive protection. Therefore, we still have good reason, cause and good grace to write against Saxony in such a way, to invoke the described and international rights, the golden bulla and the land peace against him.
24 We have certainly not ridden through his authority, nor have we been obliged to take escort from him. Why we should have ridden around his principality, since it was not our opportunity at that time, and he, by virtue of the land peace and all rights, would certainly have been obliged to let us pass through his territory, we cannot think of. We have so far held our own (without glory) in warlike exercises in such a way that he may not call us a warrior out of a disgruntled spirit, and we have done more manly things that he may not remember.
We have not provided ourselves with any escort in Dresden, but since we have been on the way in the return journey several miles long from Dresden, and have come to know that the touched peace-breaking order on us and ours is decreed by the Elector, then we have provided ourselves first of all with the assigned ones, deputies of the nobility, and others, that we with and by assistance and guidance of the same without
We want to get through without damage, harm and hindrance, as we have gotten through (praise God!) without the opinion and favor of Saxony.
26 And after this it is sufficiently denied that in the territory of Saxony we did not take comfort in any security and did not consider ourselves capable of it, and that even our despondent conscience should have convinced us of this. We have also heard that we did not do it out of sacrilege and to disturb his authorities, but that our and ours' unavoidable need required it. So he has not read the supposed Aesopian similitudo (although he is Aesopus, tamen corpore et non ingenio) correctly, because otherwise he would have put aAuum (little lamb) for the ass.
27) That we come unchanged with the work through the territory of Saxony, we may be grateful to Duke George, and to the honest, pious, brave of the nobility, which S. L. assigned to us, and to ourselves, and not to Saxony. But since his proposals did not go his way, he puts up this pretended appearance: that he alone let us show that he could have repaid us for our pride etc. But who will believe such a thing in such a serious hostile deal? And where we want to use the Aesopian fables, we would be reminded of the fox hitting the tree and not getting anything out of it, saying: he did not want anything out of it without that etc. And if someone strikes or throws at someone and misses, then he pretends that he wanted to frighten him. For who in our principality has reproached him or wanted to reproach him? Nor do we remember or report any pride that we used against him in this. Whether it may also be said with certainty: Where one deliberately reproaches someone, whether already the same is not challenged with the work of letting him ride unchanged? that we put in E. L. and male judgment.
28 In this place the one from Saxony puts it to us: that we shall bear an excessive thirst for Christian bloodshed, 1) so that we have now been pregnant for a long time. And in other places: that we shall have sung and killed Doctor Dellinghausen. And that we want to hang the house of Saxony on each other. That we shall promise and pledge much, and yet keep nothing, neither letter nor seal. And also reproaches us before the Imperial Court of Appeal for the citation issued by Goslar, and his, and the Landgrave's, and Hansen Koch's, the villain's, an-
1) Compare § 17.
marriage and incitement. The same also applies: that we shall gladly usurp the archbishoprics and monasteries of Bremen and Verden, and that we shall scrape and flay our priests and monks, and that we shall not be spared special favors from the imperial majesty.
29 Since we have answered all these points in our consistent and truthful reply to the Landgrave in a superfluous and sufficient manner, we do not wish to give any further special reply to them in this responsibility of ours, but instead have referred briefly to our most recent writing to the Landgrave, but say in general that the Saxon is doing us an injustice and wrong with all and every one of these and such things.
(30) That the Saxon wants to make his servant, called Zedwitz, very pious, that he did nothing dishonest, nor unwise, and interprets and interprets the word "spy out" in two senses, that such should not have been attributed to him, we leave to its unworthiness. But since the truth is that the said Zedwitz, by order of Saxony (as Saxony himself confesses), spied on us and ours in such a wicked, peace-breaking, wanton and violent decree: We need no further proof, and, considering that neither the Saxon nor he has been our public renouncer, and has not kept their honor for us and ours, we know him to be no better than an exploratorem or spy, even if he has been our servant, who does not reveal our secret to the enemies by virtue of the law of chivalry, nor related to us with feudal duties or special services. In our opinion, no honorable person will consider and recognize him as anything other than a spy.
However, the word "spy out" is used not only in the two opinions mentioned, but also in other cases when someone is ordered to investigate and explore something. Inferred from the § Filius familias.
32 And when he here jibes at us: whether we have posed ourselves as a loyal servant, and yet have secretly done and practiced evil, etc. we want to have pointed out to the Saxon the answer we recently gave to the landgrave. And it does not matter that many excellent warriors would have to be taken for villains, where those who have to pay attention to the enemy's intentions and plots in "war campaigns" are ordered and dispatched. For in military campaigns, the disavowal and diffidationes are done beforehand, but
In our case neither war exercise nor some public refusal has been, therefore it may not be relevant, elevate or facilitate the opposite.
(33) The Saxon thinks that we should be obliged to prove that the others of the nobility have received such an order from him that they should injure us and ours in honor, body and goods, etc., but we do not think so, although it may nevertheless be shown and proved in case of need. For since it is obvious that the Saxon has decreed the same from the nobility to us, as he then confesses, and we are not of the custom (without fame) that it could have been assumed against us, especially in Duke Georgen's blessed memory, that we would have wanted to do some harm to the Saxon or his own: So it should not and cannot be held, assumed and considered otherwise than that their intention was to harm us and ours, also from all the indications which we have reported here above, as long as he and his do not settle it, as is right, as they will never be able to do.
(34) We are not inclined to maliciously impose honest things on honest fellows of the nobility, but rather to praise, extol and extol; otherwise no one will be able to say impartially of us. We have also never been favored by any noble desecrator during the days of our life, and (without glory) we have shown more grace and good to those of the nobility, and honored them, than he ever did or will do his days, which he diligently intends to make entirely his own. But how he would like to bring us into disfavor with the nobility is easy to sense from this, who, as lovers of honor, will undoubtedly not let themselves be moved against us by this. For since nobility consists primarily in good virtues, the honorable, no less than we, will reproach Saxony and his, that they, unprotected of their honors, are thus hostile, malicious, and peace-breaking to us and ours.
35 How joyfully and manfully his own have presented themselves, that they have waited in hostility against us and yet are not allowed to attack, does not require much discussion; therefore, what he of Saxony puts forward to account for the despondency of his own, and to test their supposed manliness, is completely unworthy of an answer. For if we are to have no security in his principality (as he gives to understand in many places of his previous and present writings, and especially in the letter to our cousin and brother, Duke Ludwigen in Bavaria, and yet we are not confessing), and if he also, for the sake of causes
(as he cannot be ingenuous, nor ingenuous) hath decreed upon us his rovers and servants: who can, will, or may say otherwise, but that it hath had the opinion to offend, injure, cast down, and damage us and ours, as being incapable of any safety?
36 We have also heard here above that there is nothing to argue that he could have mustered so much horse and foot in a hurry that our famous joy would have been the less to worry about. For we have not confessed to Saxony. So it is also uncertain whether it could have been done easily and conveniently by him or his own. He would certainly not have refrained from doing so if he had known that we would have supplied and strengthened ourselves with more horses. But according to the scout's report, they did not suspect that we would come so strongly under their eyes, which then prevented his and his people's real advance.
37 But that he reproaches us with the battle of Lüneburg and the siege of the city of Lodena in Welschland, that the yellow spurs should have gone badly for us there etc., we say (without glory) that in the two war exercises mentioned, battle and siege, we behaved no differently than befits, befits and befits well an honest, honest warlord: All and every honorable person of the nobility, who have been there and above, will know how to give us good testimony, as among others Matthias von Velthem, Christoph von Quitzau and Lüdeck Hane, and ask us to make this true with hand and mouth, as it may be granted to us.
38 And it is a dubious thing, as he further pretends: that we wanted to devour him and his relatives completely on the way back etc. And we wonder where he from Saxony might get such words. But how wickedly he wanted to deprive us of life and limb when we were first posted from Hispania, with whom we had nothing to do, he may ask his brother, the landgrave, who reported this to us, and he will be told.
It was not at all our place to start the trade with his ordered riders, because we did not ride in the opinion that we wanted to cause harm or damage, but wanted to ride through without male complaint and injury, which we did. But his people, as indicated, were prepared for us and ours, and yet they did not dare to do so because of their timidity.
40 That the one from Saxony does not want to believe that his own have been confessed to the peace-breaking reenactment etc. is of little importance, because we have not invented it at all. And it is not against each other that the Saxons boasted of this, and yet were mistaken in their timidity, because they boasted of hostile anticipation and malicious reenactment. But that these did not come into the work, one blamed the other, and thus branched out in it.
41. that he again remembers the Lüneburg battle, that we should not have expected the blessing in it etc., we say that he will never again be able to testify and teach us this, and many more honest of the nobility will be able to give us good evidence that we have not proven and held ourselves differently (without glory) than a warlord deserves, that even after the battle was lost everywhere, we still stood on the battlefield and proved ourselves as a warlord should prove himself, and those who stood next to us on the battlefield confessed it and will be able to give a good report and honest testimony of it at any time: how can he then pretend that we do not expect the blessing in touched battle? That we also answered for this in the negotiation of the three Electors against the one from Lüneburg (whose manhood he now praises very much) seriously and with truth, our honorable necessity required it, and we were highly urged to do so, as we now also answer for it, and intend to answer for it at all times, and also trust what we have said and written against it to be constant and true, so that he may not interpret our serious and truthful responsibility before the three Electors to the worst and most evil (but falsely).
It is strange to hear that he wants to prove our timidity by the fact that we have not attacked, justified, or taken notice of his interpreters. For even if this may be due according to the usual usage in the referral, neither we nor the others have wanted to knowingly justify, make quarrels and displeasure or seek and start his servants issued by Saxony in his territory, even though the co-referral of Duke George blessed (as we then indicated with continuance) was admitted, especially since we intended to ride through it to no one's harm, damage or injury, as we also did. But because it is in his territory, in which he does not want to confess to Duke George blessed of any co-conduct now, we have not been able to do so.
rvesen, and his own were there to attack us and ours, and this did not happen, nor was the seduction murdered, two things follow from this: first, that they refrained from it because of timidity; second, that the seduction of the end duke George was also granted.
(43) That we, out of a quarrelsome mind, should pretend that we rode in Duke George's blessed company, and should ourselves know otherwise, does the Saxon do us great violence and injustice. For the fact that we have written this is not due to any envious, quarrelsome naughtiness, but for a good reason.
44 However, it is strange to hear that he is to be entitled to the authority of the Bishop of Meissen's territory, Wurzen, etc. Majesty's own writings, that the bishop in question is a prince of the empire and not at all subject to that of Saxony, who also led, held, and still leads and holds an imperial estate. However, what authority he was and still is subject to use against the same is up to the Imperial Majesty, others and us. Majesty, others and we are not unaware, confident that the Imperial Majesty will duly take care of it. Majesty will and shall take due and sufficient notice of this.
45 Although he of Saxony also makes himself think, although we have drawn on the old counselors of Duke George, that none of them would confess, and whether they would do it, could be convinced with thousands and thousands: we leave an empty plea. However, that we should have reported such old counselors of Herzogen Georgen by name, we consider to have been unnecessary at this time, and that they are otherwise known. And that he of Saxony does not want to believe: where Duke Georg seliger knew that he was authorized to escort, that his beloved seliger could not have been supported otherwise than by clear, bright and constant counter-report etc., is little mistaken for us, because his belief or non-belief does nothing to the matter. But who, on the other hand, would not believe, where Duke Georg seliger had not had to lead the opposition, that the one from Saxony would not have contradicted the lead of us and ours against S. L. at that time, or would not have accepted it?
46 Also that we should know that the administration of touched ends should belong to Saxony alone, thereby he does us violence and injustice, and are completely unconvinced by him. In the same way, we also do not allow ourselves to be persuaded that we, like his cousin Duke Georgen
etc. that he would have had to do with Duke George the Blessed, and not with us; we refer to this, as stated above, and to our previous, true, constant writing.
47 That it should also be against each other that we said: the escort would have come to Duke George, blessed be the end; and then that it was brought between the princes of Saxony, that one might have escorted through the other's part: we do not confess. For where I may escort through the other's part without distinction, and the other the same in my part in turn, who would understand or interpret it otherwise than for a co- escort? where it already does not or should not happen all together. And for this primary reason, as E. L. can judge (in such a way and thus we want to have understood that we said above about the escort), we have not been obliged to request the Saxon also for escort to the same place.
48 Thus the supposed saying: Where one seeks and makes many ways in a country, there is none good etc., cannot hold here; and therefore it does not matter much to us what may have been said about it between both sides, which we cannot confess to the opposite, for the sake of all told causes and indications. Nor does this mean that the objections of the authorities, which have nevertheless remained between the two parties up to now without such observance or attitude, would go down as a result.
49 And for the same reason, we let remain a futile and unintelligible pretense, even if it is due to the misguided escort. And if we had not confessed to it, the Saxon would not have been justified in his hostile anticipation of us and ours, as we have already indicated and will probably be indicated in the future.
50 We do not confess that the misdirection should have happened in such an opinion, as the opposing party suggests; and since we have mentioned such things before in the secret writings, also against the Saxon, Duke George the Blessed was still alive, knew such things well, but never contradicted them.
51 However, that Duke George of Saxony was willing to grant him a pardon for the sake of waiting, we refer to our previous letter, which is and will remain the truth.
52. that we have done harm or want to do harm, and have forfeited the peace, we do not admit to the Saxon at all; therefore, we do not confess to the Saxon.
In this way, his equation of peace-breaking and harmful people may not exist at all, and the penalty of the land peace against the Saxon is still in effect.
(53) If, however, from the thoughtful, unavoidable and untrustworthy answer given by our advisers, our repugnant disposition (as we do not confess) could be understood, would it follow that the Saxon should have been unsafe in our territory? But we do not believe that. As he nevertheless rode through a place of our principality, and nevertheless was safe. And it would be the same, if I did not have love or favor for someone, that therefore it would necessarily follow, if I met him in my territory, that I would persecute, persecute, beat, see or kill him. But this is not necessary or inevitable.
Now we have not refused nor denied the passport, passage and security to Saxony, that we refer to our previous constant writing, and in its place it will follow further; and it is just as little rhyming, as Saxony argues: we have a repugnant disposition and have borne no love or favor to him, because of which he was not obliged to grant us passage, and that we should be justly unsafe in his territory 1). For how could he have considered us to be his open and knowing enemy, since we have never done him any harm, either inside or outside his principality, have not fallen out with him, have not fought, have not warred, and have not renounced him? For this reason, the proposed correlation does not take place in the case at hand; we have rightly, in all reasonableness and fairness, drawn the line.
It would also not be in accordance with the evangelical, divine truth if we were to be repugnant to someone in our mind, so that it should be permissible to beat, see, injure and kill them. For the same teaches us that we should love not only friends, but also enemies and those who are repugnant, and not persecute or persecute them. And therefore 2) the examples given of the kings of the nations of Edom, and also of the Amorites, who refused the children of Israel passport and passage, do nothing against us, which are also unequal and not similar to our case. For he that is not of Saxony the chosen people of Israel, neither is he in the things of the Lord (as he is the-
1) "Area" put by us instead of "mind". Cf. §59.
2) "accordingly" put by us instead of: "nevertheless".
We did not oppose him, as Edom did to the children of Israel, saying that he should not pass through, otherwise we would meet him with force and an armed hand. Neither did we go out against him, as Edom did, with armed hand and host, nor, as Sihon did, did we fight with him.
It is customary in law and customary usage among Christians that one shall not offend, injure, fight against, or wage war against another, without prior warning and refusal, unless by command or order of the superior, and if he does so without warning or refusal, the violator shall be considered and held to be a proditorem. Since the Saxon, without some prior warning, lets us and ours wait in a hostile manner (as touched), with what honor or fugue can he or can he excuse himself?
(57) But that he against it with a palliative manner pleads that we had previously declared ourselves to be his adversaries, and thereby committed sacrilege against his authority, (2c) may with reason and rightly not exist at all. For if we had declared ourselves to be his enemy and adversary, we would have to have indicated to him that we wanted to be his and his people's enemy and adversary, by beating, capturing, burning and taking. That we not only did not do this, but that neither we nor ours were willing to oppose him, to hold out against him, or to meet him, to hold out against him, to do him harm, to expose him and to injure him, is obvious, reason and the clear truth, which the Saxon cannot oppose on any grounds or in any way. For what reasonable person would conclude from the fact that our councilors wrote that they wanted to have his request submitted to the royal majesty, that we thereby declared ourselves to be his enemy and adversary, who would have wanted to harm him and his people?
58 And because the Saxon himself hears that he cannot confirm his intention by our counsel's answer, he says: "We have refused him a passport and have ridden unlawfully through his principality. But we did not confess this to him, and it is rejected here above, and will be further rejected in its place. For he cannot truly say that we were on our feet, as Edom was, and that we wanted to prevent him from passing through, or even that we were willing to rise up. And whether
It should already be considered a sacrilege (as we are not confessed) that we rode through his territory, harmlessly male, without his escort: was it therefore due to him that he could have attacked and injured us, who had not been harmful to him and his own, without safeguarding his honor? From this, it is now already clear what is further attached to it: that it is not necessary for the feuding prince to defend himself against the feeder in turn. For we have not been land-damagers, nor commanders, and that he and his would have had to be unsafe in our principality, therefore we would not have had to assume any safety against him either etc. And after that, the Saxon also sufficiently states that he was after us and ours, and also that his opinion and order was to disclose and injure us and ours, although he has vehemently denied and contradicted it here above. But we assume that he alleges: Quod tibi non vis fieri, what each one wants to have done, that he in turn does the same to the other, etc., because accordingly we say that we did not reproach the Saxon in a hostile manner, and let him ride a good path through our principality, safely and unhindered. Therefore, it would also have been due to him that he would not have held us and ours hostile in his territory, and that he should have allowed us and ours to pass through his principality unhindered and safely.
(59) That we first forfeited the friendship of Saxony, refused escort and passport, and that therefore, out of the quality of correlation, passport and security would again have been forbidden to us in his authority, we have not confessed, and has been denied all ready, that it does not require more and further responsibility. Therefore, even if we had ridden by his authority, it would not have been contrary to his supposed, null and unauthorized tacit prohibition, nor to the Holy Roman Empire's attracted, unstable and unprotected use and the peace of the land. However, to assume (yet not against the law at all, which point we will shortly refer to the answer, concerning the place, the patrol and justification) that he would be allowed to ride and hold in his jurisdiction at any time, according to his opportunity and liking, and that such would have no penalty or presumption of some danger: in this case, it would not be very tolerable for the Saxon, considered that he would have to ride and hold for special reasons.
He has appointed and made out his guards and servants (as he himself confessed) for us and ours, who are to wait for us and ours and keep us hostile, as they have held out to us in this way.
60 But it is quite strange and strange to hear that he pretends that, while he would have held and waited for us and the enemies, as we justifiably accuse him, he nevertheless does not forfeit the penalty of the land peace (because nothing criminal has taken place).
61 For the truce speaks not only of deeds and actions, but also of being subject to act; where this opinion is written: If anyone acted contrary to the content of the truce, or would be subject to act, that the same or these shall, by deed of right, together with other penalties, fall under Imperial Majesty's and Holy Roman Empire's attention. Majesty and the Holy Roman Empire. And then also in this way, the Golden Bull allows that those who are hostilely awaiting, hateful, attacking and insulting are subject to fall into penalties that are incorporated therein. And in another place: that the will, like the work, is to be tormented with harshness. From this it seems more than clear that the imperial majesty and the empire's order and constitution speak not only of things that are actually carried out, but also of unsuccessful actions. Thus the law punishes no less one who goes to kill someone with weapons than one who has already killed someone. Lex enim non minus eum punit, qui occidendi hominis gratia cum telo ambulavit, quam qui occidit. And even though Speculator says (as the opposing argument is also made) that by a common custom all punishment, so that the doing or oonatu8 should be punished like the done deed, is averted: so such (as Bartolus says) is to be understood from the usage, which is in Italia, where all maltreatment is punished according to the statutes, special made statutes and city laws. Thus we see in daily experience that the enemies in the German nation, even if they have not attacked, are punished no less than if they had attacked and done harm.
62 Moreover, there are no signs of penitence or remorse for the Elector, who stood in actu exteriori, in an external effect, through his dispatched judges and servants, thereby also his opinion and mind is sufficiently explained. Non enim verbis solum, sed et factis animi voluntas declaratur.... Everything rightly drawn. Also Reuter to decree.
should not be done in such a form. Moreover, it is neither right nor allowed, who does not want to interpret it to the worst for the Saxon? Thus it is not yet proven that we have ever been overcome by evil, that the rule: Qui semel malus etc., once evil etc., may not hold against us. He of Saxony has sufficiently revealed his mind, will and opinion by his outward action, and declared by that, that he has spied us out by his servant Zedwitz, ordered and executed his guards and servants on us and ours, let out at night from his court camp at Torgau with spear 1) and main armor, admonished his subjects to be up and to follow at the sound of the bell. And therefore, once he has opened his mind by an outward act, it is to be firmly assumed and taken for granted that he will not change his once wicked, wanton, unlawful and peace-breaking will, which also his subjects would have carried out, if we had not been more afraid of resistance. Semel enim declarata voluntas non praesumitur mutata; rightly drawn.
63 The Saxon seal may also not support the Saxon. For we are not in such a case here, where one threatens to strike the other, and yet does not press with his hand; but since the opposite party has waited in hostility against us and ours, and on the free imperial road, with force and armed hand, has subjected us and ours to capture, to throw down, to expose, to injure and to execute, and has also pressed on, where we have not become stronger in riding, so that he might have carried out his declared will, which is then justly to be punished as well as the work carried out. Thus we also do not admit that we are subject to Saxon rights, and are not here in Saxon rights, but in the peace of the country and the empire's provision and order, so that the unfounded drawing from the Sachsenspiegel that he alone forfeits thirty shilling pfennigs, which he could have given us through a lawyer, would not be necessary at all. He will also slowly be able to confirm his supposed intention, for the sake of the ban, through the faded Sachsenspiegels against Magdeburg. Jurisconsultus autem non tam eum teneri putat, qui percussit, quam qui manum ad percutiendum elevavit. What is also attached to this point, is allready answered, so we leave it at that.
1) "Spieß" put by us instead of: "Speis".
We have not agreed with the Saxons that one should escort the other through his territory, if he is requested by the other. But it is true that we, by virtue of the peace of the land, have not granted anyone the right to attack, wage war against, rob, see, overrun and besiege etc. Now he of Saxony may not invoke any of these and such pieces, which we have broken against him, against us with continuance and reason. Thus, too, the security of the land peace has never been denied or refused to him, as we have said above, and will follow still further in its place. Therefore, it cannot stand against us: He who does not keep the truce is not arrested again in the same matter; and he who has violated it in the same case appeals to the law in vain, etc. because we have never promised or promised anything to him for the sake of peace, which is not a little disconcerting to us. The fact that he wants to decide and discuss the bodily accompaniment by saying: He who does not do what he is supposed to do etc., and just as the legal scholars are supposed to use such a saying, does not do anything to our business, for the above-mentioned reason, as every reasonable person should not understand carelessly.
He owes it to us, however, that he further enjoins us to strive for strife and discontent in the realm, and that all our thoughts, races and postures go toward this end. If he were also as peaceful as he boasts, he would show better obedience to Imperial Majesty. If he were also as peaceful as he boasts, he would have rendered better obedience to His Majesty than he has hitherto, and would not have dared to make our subjects disobedient to us, and to incite and incite other residents against us. Since we (as indicated) have kept the peace against Saxony and have not broken it, how can Saxony have liberas aedes or good liberty against us? But we assume, according to his own confession, that his father and he have let us ride and pass through their territories for a long time without danger and without any contradiction. For the less he has now had the power to resist us, and the more we have the glimpses to resist him in his evil declared intentions. But that we should have passed through his territory in evil ungodly practices, and against him, he does us violence and injustice. Here above we have answered that each one should overrule the other, because he wants to be overruled by him, so there is no need for further answer to the following, quod
2) In the old edition: "to raise" and "to transgress".
quisque juris in alium statuerit etc., for it is precisely out of this equity that it was not proper for the Saxon to expect hostility against us and ours. What the Saxon claims, as has been heard, that during the life of his cousin and father 1) some should have taken upon themselves the electoral glory and dignity of the same, and to bring it to themselves etc., that will err us little or nothing at all. For we have never desired his electoral dignities, neither stood for them, nor practiced them. But why we write to Duke Henry the Younger, we have not to indicate to the Saxon.
66. although already now duke Heinrichen the Lauen, 2) our presentation blessed, his lands and people were handed out by emperor Friederichen to others: so we have ourselves nevertheless against imperial majesty the time of our government in such obedience (without glory) held and still hold. Majesty during the time of our reign in such obedience (without glory), the like of which no less our blessed ancestors, who followed Duke Henry the Fair, held, and still hold, that neither they nor we have ever been accused of any disobedience by Her Majesty (as the opposite), and also that we have kept the white steed, from the present Imperial Majesty, in the name of the Holy Roman Empire. Majesty. Majesty, we have again added an ear to the white steed, which we have managed to keep by the help of the Almighty, also with the permission of Imperial Majesty. Majesty, we dare to keep it.
67 If the Saxon also desires to live in disobedience, as he has done so far, and we are ordered by Imperial Majesty to help punish the disobedience, then we would and could unabashedly submit to Her Majesty. Maj. to help punish the disobedience, we would know and could fearlessly submit to Her Majesty to help him tear his diamond wreath, which was initially Brunswick's, and again to bring one foot to the little horse, so that he should keep the other part. In this, nothing should make us of Saxony's manhood mistaken, nor disgusting; and may our blessed ancestor, Duke Henry the Lauen, be a good example to him that such a thing will not happen to him because of his disobedience. But we do not think of our children in any other way than to obey and follow the Imperial Majesty. We do not intend to raise and urge our children to obey and follow Imperial Majesty in any other way than to do what they are obliged to do, which (God willing) will bring them more encouragement than hindrance. Whether the thoughts of Saxony or ours are more ungodly or not, we will let the knower of all hearts judge, and comfort ourselves that through his omnipotence we will be more favored than not.
1) Thus changed by us. In the old edition: "Was der von Sachsen, bei Leben seines Vetters und Vaters, wie gehört: dass" etc.
2) That is, Henry the Lion (Lewen).
We hope that this will be more than helped, and that the horse on our side will be more supplemented, rather than made more stubby. That we must remember his parents with truth, however, is due to him, as we reported above, which we also want to have written to other princes of this name and tribe, our grandparents, for no diminution.
68 Although the Saxon does not want to believe that we rode on Imperial Majesty's business, we do not care much about it. Majesty's business, it is of little concern to us, for we can and may prove this without complaint in case of necessity. But if the imperial majesty does not want to give his practices room and place, and we and others want to be tolerated by him and his said alleged brother of violence, arrogance and outrage, then we must be an arrogant commander and the one who wants to cause unpleasantness. But in this way he has not persuaded His Imperial Majesty at all. Majesty, who would still give us such an honest command, which we received from her Majesty, if we had not already received it from her Majesty. So far is it from this that Her Majesty should revoke the order given.
69) That the Saxon states: that our actions are not in accordance with it, that the imperial majesty would like to trust us with her special dealings, well reported, and that we are also not authorized by some many sovereigns and princes to do something good and useful, and concludes: he would have had good excuse and ignorance, where once the cap would have been removed from our noses etc. Majesty in her business and actions, that it was done out of good intentions and consideration. Thus we have received (without glory) this trust from Her Majesty, which the Saxon will lack for the rest of his life, that Her Majesty may well trust us with something more and greater; and thus the Saxon should shamefully not instigate [as] if they were to trust their affairs and dealings thoughtlessly, imprudently, and not well reported.
70 Thus there is also little in what he of Saxony says against us on account of other sovereigns and princes. For they undoubtedly do not recognize us as anything other than an honest prince, and will not say anything dishonest about us; they also consider that he will not say much about us with this dress.
3) Stocking - hull; hence "stockier" more like a hull.
What good excuse could he have had if the cap had been removed from our noses by his own? But he also wanted to know whether we would allow and tolerate his own. And from this E. L. senses once again in what opinion he has thus let us be reproached in a hostile manner by his own.
71 The Saxon may also not excuse himself with any ignorance, for it is due to the fact that he had Doctor Mathiasen Helden 1) our and other meetings,-and that these were on account of Roman Imperial Majesty. Majesty, has had Zedwitz investigate, reconnoiter and spy out. From this, his argumentation not only falls to the ground: that everyone has a cheap ignorance of what is really going on, but it also appears that he gave us such a panegyric, with its hostile anticipation, in honor of Roman imperial and royal majesty; therefore, it is completely unconcealed by us that ignorance may not excuse him. For thus the rights, not we, speak and say of it. '
Thus, also the credence and credible writing of the embassies are not given and delivered to the country through which they ride, but to which they are sent, according to their commanded trade. Therefore, such allegation and suit rhyme little or nothing here. Nor is it a constant custom or usage that Roman Imperial and Royal Majesty's embassies should always arrive or arrive at the authorities through whose country they wish to pass, but it is at the discretion and pleasure of each individual.
That it [the request for escort] should have been necessary for us, who should have little trust etc., is not worthy of any further answer than we have already given. We have never been overcome by any evil, nor have we done any harm to Saxony or his people, so that he may not bear the proverb: the mouse in the pocket etc. And indeed, such a serious matter does not want to be addressed with such and such a saying, but it requires much more.
74) That we rode through an authority's principality, greeted the same for escort, but rode away with an unexpected answer, our answer, recently given to the landgrave, is answered, and the same authority is well with us.
1) Doctor Matthias Held was the chancellor of the emperor.
peaceful. But the Elector of Saxony dares to sprinkle his poison under it and to sow weeds between them. But he will certainly not do anything with it, even if he would like to do it again; and that is one of the fruits of his vaunted gospel and Christian spirit. But who will or can say otherwise than that they are angry accusations that very badly adorn such evangelical, Christian, and innocent people (as the one from Saxony seems to be)!
The Roman and Greek usage that the legates carried verbena so that they would not offend anyone does nothing to the matter for the above-mentioned reason, and thus the supposedly futile and impermanent illusion falls to the ground.
The following is how the Saxon sets his letter about the escort request and our council's answer, and does it very well for his sake; however, it still does not accomplish anything, even if he once again falsifies and perverts things on our side so much. Now we are not disloyal that he has asked us for escort, and that he has received an answer from our advisors, to the extent that these two writings are insinuated and inscribed. Only in this place: And safe, creeping 2) and light-hearted etc., is written in the letter that went out to us: In escort to Braunschweig, safe and sound etc., but that he meant his request kindly and well toward us, and bore no displeasure or ill will toward us, that may be believed by whoever wants to, but not by us. Otherwise, he would not have placed the ungodly day's work in the city and principality of Brunswick, unintentionally and wantonly, without greeting us and by his own authority. This alone is reason enough why we should not have let him ride into our city and principality, which we nevertheless did not grant him.
We do not know of any practices that we have carried out against his father, the blessed one, or against himself. But we do know that we have always been good friends with his father, blessed, and that if his beloved were alive, she would by no means accuse us of what he of Saxony is accusing us of now.
78 And it is quite strange to hear that the Saxon argues: we did not write to him again ourselves, but had him answered by our advisors; therefore, we must have carried a special annoyance, envy and hatred to him. If we do not know how to
2) "fehelich" (vhelich) -- certainly, without driving. See St. Louis edition, vol. X V, 1790.
1262- Cap. 19. Wars of the Protestants and the Emperor. W. xvn, 1580-1533. 1263
remember that we ever had much special writing with him before. Nor is the answer given to our advisors in itself contrary. For even though they have already written that they have received the letter from Saxony concerning our absence and that we would have it sent to the royal majesty, it cannot be concluded from this that we must necessarily have been native when his letter arrived. And our councillors themselves could have considered it that we, according to necessity, had to let his request reach the royal majesty, as their letter clearly states.
79. And even if we had deprived the Saxon of the actus humanitatis or signs of friendship (as we cannot confess for the indicated reason), and that therefore it could be assumed that we were his adversary: But such a presumption could not extend so far that we would have wanted to persecute, disclose or rape him in our principality, and therefore would have allowed him to wait against us and ours in his territory in such a hostile manner; but only he would want to repel or reject us as his adversary, as the legal scholars write about it, and here it is referred to by the Saxon for a bad reason.
80 And if the Saxon should once again reject our given answer to our counsel's reply, it may still never be enforced with consistency and truth that we refused him passport and security, neither with strong nor curved words.
For if the Saxon had asked that we should accept him as an escort and allow him to pass through, and an answer had been given to the effect that his request should be submitted to His Royal Majesty, 2c, such answer would not be a different, foreign thing, but would go straight to his request and question, namely that we would escort or not escort, as we found such in royal majesty's counsel, and thereby neither passport nor security was denied or held up to the Saxon, as he then certainly uses himself in his going and riding of our principality without some obstacle and injury.
But that the royal majesty should not have had the right or the justification to ensure that neither passport nor escort would have been granted to him: we hardly believe that, and there would be much to speak of it.
83 If, however, the Saxon was so interested in our bodily acceptance and the matter could not have suffered any delay, as he was
at this place in effectu: why then did he not greet us for the favor of the Malstatt, and indicate beforehand in time enough that we could have obtained and received an answer from the royal majesty before he rode in? Even if he had not arrived on Oculi, he would still have arrived in time enough on Lätare or Judica. How can he of Saxony pretend that it is a pure reason that we denied him passport and security? He was not allowed to be in Brunswick on the Sunday of Oculi, and would have arrived in time enough after that. But we say above all that we did not hold up his passport and security by our counsel's answer. But one must truly be equal to such people, who want to stay in our principality and city, without any welcome, without our thanks, to our contempt and not to little disadvantage.
84. For it is the public truth that the Saxons, the Hessians, and the Lüneburgers are the ones who have made our subjects in Brunswick disobedient, who have moved, provoked, still move, and provoke us to all disobedience against us; who, at their instigation (as the people of Brunswick openly confess), have also taken over our courts, liberty, bailiwick and authority in and before the city, closed both of our monastery churches, Sanctorum Blasii and Cyriaci, and completely and utterly abolished reading, singing and the divine offices, as well as the Christian, praiseworthy, long-established ceremonies. If we were to do the same, and in the principality of Saxony, without his thanks or prior greeting, also in Erfurt (which city does not concern or belong to him), what great favor would it do him? Now we have nevertheless kept it for his benefit. But he will not come again, otherwise we would hardly be able to overlook it for the next time, and in our opinion, no impartial person would be able to blame him.
85 However, that the Saxon has given the royal majesty the right to the royal family. Majesty. That may well be, but it is also of little concern. For according to this, he, unexpectedly of such the royal majesty's answer, nevertheless departed. Maj. answer, nevertheless departed: what did we have to hold him to, or not? And it would have been an unnecessary thing to ask the King's Majesty further about it. Majesty further, although it did not go unnoticed by Her Majesty.
86 Much stranger, however, is to be heard from the Saxon that he wants to prove by crossed out and canceled words that our opinion with our advice was answer, to give him passport and
To refuse certainty. For, if it were to be found with the original (but to the detriment of the truth nothing had been written) that instead of the words, namely: "Remain unconducted", these words had been written, as namely: "Be done conducive to knowledge" etc., then nevertheless the Saxon's wrong, evil and false opinion could not only not be concluded from this, but rather the absurdity. For otherwise there would have been no need for the cancellation, where the same words should be of such interpretation (as Gegentheil reports). Whether we have already attributed to Saxony what we would receive in reply, that such should remain undisclosed to him, it is nevertheless true that such has not been accepted by him, but has gone away about it; what then have we contracted or traded with him that could rhyme with this, that is allegiated out of lack of understanding: If no time is determined for a transaction, that such a transaction nevertheless comprehends in itself such a time within which the action may be completed? What is therefore introduced on it: that our answer is a mere deduction of passport and escort etc., may and can by no means exist.
We have also not spoken of his supposed religion in the place where we wrote: he means that his pretense is the gospel etc., to which we refer. Because of this, he did not need the adorned grand dressing of his doctrine and confession, which he made at Augsburg, does not rhyme here at all. But that his supposed religion was so well-founded and enduring that it could not be overturned before the Imperial Majesty. We know better (praise God!) that his supposed religion was so established that it could not have been overthrown before the imperial majesty, as the Saxon boasts, and that such a boast of his is a null and mere pretense. And (like that Grammaticus) the hulking people intempestively and quite inconsistently, as a dust, blow their supposed religion masculinely under their eyes.
It should not be so strange to him that we wrote: If our counsel's answer should be understood as a refusal to be escorted, then this must be understood as a physical escort. For as can be seen from his letter, which he sent to us, he never intended any other than a physical escort, and thus it is not admitted that he was capable of passport and security in the journey to Brunswick. And to suggest (yet to the truth nothing has been admitted) that he might have been capable of security, when in fact he is not: we would nevertheless not have had unreasonable misgivings that, we should have let the Saxon in
Such things should also bring us much harm, scorn and ridicule. And for this reason, in the form of the above-mentioned matters, it was necessary to appeal to the royal majesty; therefore, he has not yet persuaded us that we should be silent for the time being with this righteous interpretation of ours.
Although the Saxon would have liked to disgrace us with the Roman Imperial and Royal Majesty, as if we should disparage their Majesty with the estates of the empire, he also falsifies and perverts this. For if we have already sent his request for escort to Her Majesty, according to the opportunity of the matter and to our necessity, do we want to give to understand that one does not have the power to grant passport and security to the other without the prior knowledge of Her Majesty? But we do not admit this at all. However, such dealings and things could take place that without Her Majesty's knowledge and follow up, no one would be able to promote them. Without her Majesty's foreknowledge and indulgence, no one would want to promote them by guiding them or by other means. If the Saxon wants to be promoted in his riding and doing, he would have to lead a life and trade according to it. We have not put a day (as he did to us) in his principality, nor have we induced his subjects to disobey us, as he and others have induced ours to disobey us, nor have we induced them to disobey us.
It is also worth little praise how he and others come together in God's matters. We did not feel this on the day held at Brunswick, since they did it so roughly that the preachers or clamantes in the pulpits had enough to pass by, and yet still could not pass by. What mischief has been done by us in the empire, or how have we used the high chiefs and accepted orders against the Nuremberg peace and standstill?
91 Does this mean that we have caused strife by petitioning the King's Majesty for the Saxon's escort? But everyone will be more justified in attributing discord and unrest to him who has thrown off the common Christian church and our true religion, who takes away from others what is theirs by force and de facto, and practices and carries on other practices that are contrary to all obedience; and who, in such matters, puts others in their principality on a day-to-day basis, unwelcome and unappreciated. For this reason, the answer given by our councillors cannot and should not be held otherwise than contrary to the common welfare of the realm.
92. besides, it is also certain to deny that
our accepted order of kais. Majesty. Nuremberg peace and standstill is repugnant. But what does the Saxon want to enjoy such a standstill, which he has committed and never kept?
For the sake of passport and security, we have, according to the land peace, once sufficiently declared that, in our opinion, we were not obliged to make any new and special declaration against him. But where we could have known, as we now understand, that he was afraid, that we could not nor should not have presumed against the Saxon at that time, and he would have made this known to us, we wanted to have opened our mind and opinion to him, in which this was due. If we had given a weak escort to such a stately Elector, who was traveling with such a huge group of travelers, that would have been a disgrace and an offence. If we had had to spend a lot of time on this, against the one who, to our disadvantage and defiance, had set aside days in our principality without our permission, this would not have been advisable or useful to us. But that our councilors' answer should have been a refusal of all security and passport has not yet been proven by the Saxon. According to this, however, he may not stand by the rule: He who does not do what he is supposed to do etc., and that written by the custodians through the legal scholars, also rhymes little or nothing at all with our case, as we then set forth such clearly and for good reason in our previous substantial writing; so he also brings forth some sophistry, de qualitate et substantia, so that he likewise accomplishes nothing. For whichever prince or sovereign applies to others for escort, he seeks more deference, pomp and other things (as experience gives such things), than a secure and vehicle 1) pass, which without such pomp should be open to everyone freely and unhindered. But to suppose (yet, contrary to truth, not at all) that the quality or manner of living conduct cannot be without the substance, as (as he says) passport and security: yet it is undeniably true that the substance, as passport and security, may exist and be granted without the quality touched; so that the substance, or passport and security, does not necessarily exist in the living conduct (thus that the passport and security could not be without such manner). Just as no theft (which is the substance) can be without fraud (which is the quality). For this reason, I do not want to follow where I have described the quality, in which the sub-
1) See § 76.
The first thing I did was to deny that the substance could still be granted and given, that I had therefore cut off the substance. But again it would be true, where I cut off the substance, that I thereby also denied the qualities, manner and form, through and without which the substance could not remain, ut remoto subjecto removeretur et qualitas. Therefore, since passport and security could be granted without living acceptance, it could not necessarily be concluded from this that I would not have wanted to grant passport, passage, and security, if I denied living acceptance. We want to be justified in this. That we have granted the passport to the Saxon has been indicated here above, which should be respected even more, because what is to be understood from the answer given by our advisors, which cannot or should not be considered anything other than righteous.
It is also found among the jurists, if one sets two or more things, and the other gives a simpler, or indiscriminate answer to them, then it is understood that he has not answered to each, but only to that which is primarily acted upon: Responsio enim solum ad id refertur, in quo principalis quaestio est.... Since he of Saxony primarily sought that we should accept him bodily, our councilors' answer should and should not be understood as anything more than bodily acceptance; thus, the supposed exemplars raised against us may not exist.
95 What we replied to Dellinghausen and Ditterich's Schnellen can be found in our most recent reply, which we gave to the landgrave, and to which we also directed the Saxon. But which part, we or Goslar, has damaged, violated and infringed upon the other against the law, the order of the kingdom, 2) and the highly frowned upon, proclaimed land peace, is now out of the imperial and imperial custody. The people of Goslar have been recognized, declared and denounced for their wanton, wicked, unlawful, practiced breach of the peace against us and ours; and if they were not already in custody, they would be brought to custody once again for the wicked, unlawful incitement and defilement of Saxony and Hesse. Thus, such people know how to hit and temper them.
96 What the Saxon, for the sake of custom, has done with the bodily acceptance in the empire
2) "Reichsordnung" put by us instead of: "Rechtsordnung". Compare § 131, § 133 etc.
The fact that the man is supposed to be, disputes further with himself, does not require a further answer. For as he disputes here above, about the request for escort for the same reason, everything has been sufficiently answered and rejected, so we will leave it at that.
97 And although we may well know that the Lutheran princes, rulers, and estates in the empire are not few, we have nothing to do with the greater part of them for our person other than in love, property, and friendship, who will also, due to our complete oversight, not complain about us in the least that the Saxon would have been left with this unnecessary suit.
98 We would have liked to hear what loose, unpeaceful, ungodly and dishonest dealings we have engaged in, which might have displeased His Majesty. Majesty's displeasure, as he would have liked to embitter and move Her Majesty against us in this way. But we are in no doubt that Her Majesty has never recognized our dealings as anything other than peaceful, divine and honest dealings, and still does.
We are not at all mistaken as to whether it would have been advisable for him to rely on the security of the land peace or not. However, we are not convinced by him that we have broken the same peace in the same way or in another form. And what does he want to do with the citation issued by the Imperial Chamber Court? The irrefutable truth is that at the time of the day held at Brunswick, the citation, or even the articles of purgation, were not even on the way, much less that the citation had gone out, so that he, considering such articles, would not have had to trust us for the peace of the land. We did not order the Saxon to perform his duties in our principality and city, nor did we send him a messenger; therefore, if he had not wanted to trust us on the land peace or otherwise, he could have placed his duties with other authorities, since they would have liked to have him. If he also did not have much comfort to rely on our bodily attendance, what is he to complain against us if we had refused him bodily attendance?
(100) That we should boast in words alone that we have so far not omitted anything in our principality that would be conducive to the good handling of the land peace, and that we have knowingly harbored and committed other princes, lords, and cities' land-damaging and peace-breaking people, and have suborned them to land-breaking hands.
etc., we do not admit him in any way.
101 And since the Saxon does not know how to prove his claim, he refers to deceased people, as in the past Duke Hansen blessed of Jülich. But we do not doubt that if S. L. were alive, she would not confess this to Saxony at all. Duke Wilhelm, our uncle and son, also knows us to be innocent in all respects. Thus, no one else will be able to speak the truth about us, and we would like to hear who they are, whom we have thus knowingly put forward against the will of Jülich: then he should also receive a further answer. If he means doubt, he is doing us a public disgrace and injustice. For although we may have asked him for a session before he became an enemy, it is quite certainly true that when he later became an enemy, we forbade him our principality, which he was not allowed to touch. But all in all, it is this that disturbs him, that we are on good terms with our grandfather and son, the Duke of Jülich.
102 As for Kohlhase 1) known or not, we are little mistaken. For we have never had to do with him, neither seen him nor known him, nor given him any slander. We write, speak and say this with truth. With this we also answer: that we drag other mothers' children to their own and other people's ruin, and give them to misdeeds, and that foreign land-damagers should plant others to harm in our land etc. For he of Saxony will not be able to prove such a thing for ever, nor to denounce some of those whom we have thus accused. And if our obnoxious eights of Goslar (as they must do) want to confess the truth, they may not say otherwise than that we ever and ever, not against a few of their enemies, whom we also often without effort may not arrive, let them have half of the law, which they often thank against us. What can we do about the fact that Kohlhase was an enemy of Saxony, and that others also get enemies from time to time? Kohlhasen might have been justified in not having made some enmity against von Sachsen, as we have heard.
After that, the Saxon tells a story that is said to have happened to a virgin who was lost under the appearance of death. So that he then inspires us,
1) About Hans Kohlhase see in this volume Col. 305 f.
and makes beside it a lot of great affect and pity. Now he must either have dreamed such things or been informed of them by others. But whether it is proper for him, who wants to be a wise prince before others, to deal with such fables and fairy tales, which he should abstain from, is a matter for E. L. and men to judge quite lightly. And even though we recognize ourselves as sinners, he does us violence and injustice with such accusations, since he should judge for himself and pull the beam out of his and his brother's eyes first. For if we wanted to speak of such things, we would know and could well indicate with reason and truth how he himself, his brother, and his own led and still lead a life.
Because they are suspicious that no one is allowed to write the truth to them, we must nevertheless report something about this for the long haul. And it should have been a great sorrow to the Saxon's heart, with all respectability and fairness, that his brother, the landgrave (which has never been heard by any prince of the empire, and is not customary among Christians, and is quite frightening), has taken the second wife, and thus at the same time two wives, and thereby forfeited the penalty of double marriage, no doubt not with little pain of his first married, honest, praiseworthy princess. But according to this, he of Saxony, besides E. L., the Elector of Brandenburg and Duke Henry of Saxony, not only did not want to send the landgrave for this, as a friend of the noble, honest princes by blood, but also that his scribes, of his university in Wittenberg, helped to negotiate such things (as we have been credibly reported), which he tolerated and watched until this hour. Who can conclude or say otherwise than that it must not have happened without his secret counsel, foreknowledge and will?
We are not a little surprised how the useless and futile talk may benefit the Saxon, that he did not have to trust us for the peace of the land; he may perhaps like to hear himself washed. For if this were so, why did he take his passage through our principality, without our bodily acceptance, when we suggested it here above? He would probably have refrained from doing so, if he (as he often reports) should not have trusted us!
106. but that we meant the one from Saxony with it: who is outside in matters of disobedience of the Christian church etc. which makes him not little
We are in no way in denial if he once again condemns and shakes us to such an extent. For all Christian believers, good-hearted and impartial people must confess that we have not done anything against the divine and revealed truth. And there is nothing at all in it that he boasts of a true Christian church, and leads some scriptures, or a place from the holy apostle St. Paul. For this is the nature, habit and characteristic of all haereticorum and obstinate people, as St. Cyprian the Martyr speaks of it in a Christian way: who, like apes, although they are not men, nevertheless design the human form and shape: so also do the haeretici and obstinate, apostate, ungodly men, and they appropriate to them the shape of the common church, and attribute to them authority, power and truth, and yet they are not in the church. They worship, and yet they are betrayed by God. They promise life, and yet they are dead. They call upon God, and are blasphemers. They administer and manage the sacerdotium or priesthood, but are not consecrated. They place sacrifices before the altar, and yet they are sacrilegious or church robbers. But one should not immediately accept what is praised and preached under the name of Christ, but what is done in the power of Christ. Whether we are doing him an injustice by doing this, we want to put that in the hands of every true believer in Christ, and in the judgment of our Savior Jesus Christ himself. And because he does not want to be in the obedience of the Christian church, against the Symbolum apostolicum, as he is accustomed to pray daily, or ought to pray: I believe in the common holy church etc., and ask the almighty God for it: so he may be and remain in disobedience of the devilish church forever. For that he should have made true and proven with his supposed confession and the same apology before the imperial majesty, princes, rulers and estates that he is in the true church of God and Christ, is not admitted at all, and can never be brought and proven from it.
(107) But the fact that the constant, godly, Christian confutation, well-founded in holy, bright Scripture, and the refutation of such a godless confession of the opposite part has not been put at the disposal of the opposite part, is not due to the opinion (as Saxon interprets it) that one is ashamed of the same Christian, well-founded and substantial confutation (for why one should be ashamed of a Christian confutation, which is in all things godly).
We may not consider what use it might have been for those who were so often reminded, admonished, and yet nevertheless blinded and obdurate to persist and remain in their error, that can be assumed by every kind-hearted, Christian, and understanding person. Christian and understanding person can well accept this.
(108) We have not indicated the days of our life to any God-fearing priest, nor are we willing to do so yet. But that we do not patronize or fall in with the obstinate heretics and schismatics, the Lord warns us sufficiently through Moses and the examples in Korah, Dathan and Abiram, that we should not make ourselves partakers of their sins.
109 His belief or non-belief, which we may subject ourselves to against the rich Lutherans, misleads us little. But little would he sin who would execute and carry out the worthy and due punishment against the heretics and apostates of our true Christian faith; and if such punishment would be imposed by the imperial majesty (as would be divinely and legally done), then the Saxon would not be able to refuse such a punishment to a lesser person than we are, if he once again puffed himself up so much.
110 Now the Saxon should not complain even if he were accused of disobedience to the imperial majesty. For it is the clear and undeniable truth (he defies whatever he wants) that he has not obeyed the imperial majesty in any way; therefore we would not have imputed anything to him, even if we had already attributed it to him.
The fact that we are not to know anything about conscience does nothing against us, because we have not done any damnable and ungodly deeds.
For the sake of the conservatorship over the archbishoprics and monasteries of Bremen and Verden, we have answered the landgrave, as well as for the sake of our clergy, whom we are to scour and scrape, to which we also want the Saxon to remit. But we do not confess that we would have liked to devour the touched ores and monasteries. Moreover, it is only a fable that our clergymen are supposed to issue from us, which the Saxon objects here. But again, it is credible and true that he and others made division on both archbishoprics and monasteries of Bremen and Verden before that time. However, they have not yet been able to enforce the claims. The imperial majesty is
We are thoroughly and well aware of our intentions, and that they cannot be directed in any other way than to obedience and all that is good, therefore Her Majesty will not do otherwise. The Saxon is thus vainly endeavoring to move Her Majesty against us. Nor do we confess that we have broken Imperial Majesty's escort. Nor do we confess that we have broken the Imperial Majesty's escort, and (as we have heard) we are not obliged to escort physically, nor have we refused the Saxon passport and security. How can and may he then say that our evil conscience causes him to mistrust? since he does us violence and injustice. But the knower of all hearts knows how our conscience is disposed, and that we are wronged; moreover, it is shown above that the supposed outward signs cannot bear witness to the Saxon.
Although he of Saxony has taken a route through the Margrave's land, he has not been able to come to and from our city of Brunswick in any other way than through our territory, in which he has ridden not a small, but a good, considerable way, and farther than we in his territory, and the ends also, since we are entitled to the transfers.
But that we should have pressed the burden on E. L., the Margrave, is too much for us; for who has granted him the right to perform daily services in our principality and city of Brunswick, out of his own violence, iniquity and will of courage? He could have given daylight to others in their lands, who would have liked it, and not to us in our principality, because we might have received little pleasure from it. But that he thinks he was not obliged to trust us is not very misleading, because we were much less obliged to let him accept it in body, so it does not require much further dispute; so he has been answered here above according to necessity, that the passport could not have been forbidden to us either with or without escort 1) in his territory.
The city of Braunschweig is irrevocably located in our principality without any means. Mayor, council and inhabitants of the same have sworn to our ancestors and to us, as holders of the House of Wolfenbüttel, and to no one else, ever and ever, with upraised fingers to God and the saints, to be faithful, gracious and submissive. On what grounds could he of Saxony, without our permission and previous greeting, lay a day in our principality? And do not dispute us, that our cousins
1) "Escort" put by us instead of: "Equality".
of Lüneburg shall not confess such to us, because they are of the contrary and speak in their own benefit. But we want to give them an answer in a special print for necessity, from which it shall be quite clear that the Saxon does not want to report or be reported of the things, and that he has given unfounded things.
The Saxon says quite wrongly that we wrote that the request for escort should mean an evil conscience: this has not been dreamed of anywhere, nor is it to be found in our answer. For it is only for the sake of the attracted procession that it is written, even under a doubt that perhaps his evil conscience might have tempted him.
It is quite unnecessary to answer the Saxon to the extensive, unprofessional and clumsy disputation, which he makes with himself about our mind, heart and conscience, how it should have stood at the time we rode through his territory; because from all our answers given so far, it appears that he did not hit it with his interpretation, interpretation and explanation of our mind, and the Bulla speaks of a different conduct than in this case. Related to this. It has also been indicated above that the end is due to Duke George blessed.
118. But according to this, the Saxon, out of a self-thirsty spirit, knowingly put us unwelcome in our principality and city, and without our hindrance certainly rode through our principality, and found on him that we were not willing to offend him and his own, and nevertheless let us wait in a hostile way in a lawful, blessed Duke George's, conduct: His conscience must convince him that he has committed an outrage and acted unjustly against us and ours, and if the Saxon had rightly seen the golden bulla, he would probably have refrained from attacking us so often that we did not ask him to escort us. For the same expressly states that one should not expect anyone to be hostile, whether he has requested escort or not. That is where we are going.
(119) That we could never deny that the Saxon wanted to retaliate against us for the refused escort, we do not confess at all; for (as we have reported here above) he alone lacked and failed in his attempts and that we became stronger, and his will is well explained by the outward act; of which we have heard all ready. The
His could not have dared and tried it with us and ours with any benefit, advantage, comfort and disadvantage, although they were executed for it, as the Saxon confesses, and we have already given sufficient notice, so that it cannot be considered or assumed that he could have done it, and yet his mind was not capable of doing it. quod sine dispendio facere quis non potuit. He who cannot do a thing with ease, without harm, and usefully (as in this case), is not held or considered to have been able to do it, as the lawyers and jurists say of it. About which we are still in such a case, where one is willing to do a thing, but yet cannot accomplish it: Ubi quis voluit, sed non potuit. For this reason, we have still complained, and still do complain, not unreasonably, on the grounds of expectation, and the word "in opinion" has already been sufficiently proven from the legal grounds, and our opinion is also taxed by the golden bulla that we have set forth above about the will and the works, that the will is to be punished no less than the works with severity.
120 Passport and security have not been denied to the Saxon, but allowed. But we have not been obliged to accept him in the flesh, neither by divine rights described to the peoples, nor by the golden bull, nor by the peace of the land, nor by custom; to this we have given the Saxon a good, steady, substantial and well-founded answer. And that the golden bulla should bind us to the conduct other than in electoral matters of a Roman emperor, we do not admit at all. On the golden bulla drawn, the one of Saxony, as he wants to be a prince, should know better. Therefore, what he dares to introduce on the touched and superior foundation may not exist at all, and falls completely to the ground. For where the praesupposita are false (as in this disputation), the conclusion or introduction is certainly also false and groundless.
121 We have not disclosed, violated, or overcharged any chieftain or prince of the realm, nor anyone else, without first taking precautions, as is rightly and customarily required, that the Saxon has ever had to do such a thing against us. And that the Saxon, with long and many words, has reported and examined an accusation that we are supposed to have made against him, and has more than once apologized and made himself very pious, saying that he did not think it out for himself.
We: who would not know that it would be a public reason, could easily accept it because of his preoccupation and careful excuse, as it is still least proven (as we write with reason of truth), if he preoccupies one more and excuses himself of the same invention. Draw us to it on the eye-witness. How would it be possible to dig such trenches in such a short time?
We and ours are not very afraid of the inquisition, we are not very afraid of it, where it should be carried out immediately; but that he says: it has reached him credibly and confidentially, he has not escaped us at all, as he meant to talk himself out of it; but say that he had dreamt about it. We also do not admit at all that the answer given to our advisors is a dream or is to be understood as such; for the sake of brevity.
Even if the Saxon took a detour through the Mark, he could not have come to and from the city of Brunswick without our principality. Therefore, the emphasis of his move should not have remained where we would ever have been willing to offend him and his people. We would like to hear whether someone came under his eyes who dared to refuse him the passport? And whether he would also have been ordered to be revenged on? As [neither] such nor any other has appeared. What kind of will could we have had from him and his?
We do not believe that he went against Brunswick in the cause of God. For what are his affairs other than a pure disobedience of the church, and thus against God and God's word!
The Saxon has not been set any traps, nor have we ever intended to do so. But the fact that his father, the blessed, gladly served us with friendly will etc. is not without our having stood in good friendship with the blessed, for which we thank him. However, we know of no benefit or advantage that we have received from him or his father blessed; thus we have not promised his father blessed anything that we have not pursued, or that would not have been due to us. We do not confess that we have proven evil practices to him and his father, and yet we would like to hear what kind of practices and treachery these would have been.
126) Now, what is attracted to the pagan kings and nations for the third time does not need any further answer, because it is the opinion of the people of the world.
It has not been that we do not want to grant him the passage by our counsel's answer and want to meet him deceitfully, that his request has affected life, limb, possessions, or other things; of which we have been heard many times. As then also the bright and clear truth is that in our counsels given righteous and due answer nothing dark, especially that to the detriment of the honor or also body of Saxony, is turned forward. For the words are ever bright, reasonable, undisguised and clear: that his request should be brought to the royal majesty. Therein no violation of his rumor can ever exist. From this it follows that such an answer by our advisors may not or should not be understood as a dangerous, evil deception or scheme, which the Saxon is obliged to prove, but has not yet proven, and never will be able to prove. And it is for us, and not the opposite, to make the interpretation. For if we do not pretend anything obscure (as indicated), we would not have contracted with the Saxon with our counsel's answer, so that he would be allowed to interpret our counsel's answer according to his liking and understanding, which also did not proceed from the opinion to deceive him or his own, and has been without any harm to the opposite, and as it was put, so and not differently it was also meant.
For this reason nothing does against us that is drawn from the Psalms: "Their mouth is smoother than butter, and they have war in mind" etc. Item: "They keep in heaps and lie in wait" etc., for it is far from us that our counsel's answer should be deceitful, dangerous and deceitful, and that we should lie in wait for him etc. But what figure the one from Saxony and his brother with mild, smooth and smeared words pretend to be the gospel and word of God, peace, tranquility and unity, and yet are the very cause of all strife, disruption and discord in both eternal and temporal things, especially in the realm of the German nation, who seek for strife, unrest and disunity, that is in the open day.
The holy apostle Paul uses the sayings of the Gentiles more than once. Not that he would be of their doctrine, life, and faith, but that he would the better overcome, correct, and punish them by their own scripture and doctrine. How then the repugnant cannot be convinced and overcome better than by their own confession and writings, even though the sayings we have heard are not Luther's but David's, the holy prophet. Because
Because such a translation of other form, than for better remembrance, punishment and overcoming of Saxony, has not been used by us, and also the sayings are of St. David, and not of Luther, what have we been able to confess to his interpretation, writing and teaching by this? Whether Martin Luther and with him his books are condemned, and we have some of them in our hands (which we do not have), and from them, which is his error, and from which we are to beware, the better learned, as then in the same way the knowledge of a law that has been abolished is not unhelpful, etc., that would therefore not be so very pedagogical, and with it nothing is accepted nor approved. Nevertheless scripta Ori- genis, ratione bonae sententiae, aclprobata feruntur, qui post mortem fuit condemnatus. And from this it cannot be concluded that we therefore do not have learned people in our principality, of whom the opposite is true much before others.It is better for him that he has none of them (whom he considers scholars) than one with him; for the harm he has done to Christianity, which he intends to deprive of faith and all good in such a form, is openly evident, and it is neither believable nor probable that he could know much about God's word (as he nevertheless boasts). For where would he have learned it? Even if he were so well versed in the Scriptures, he would not have turned away from the common holy church, the apostles and the old fathers' salutary teachings.
It has not yet been proven to us that we should take the benefits of the clergy, as we have given a sufficient answer to this above, and we will leave it at that. But that he created the monasteries and church estates for the betterment of Christianity, by which he wanted to embellish his sacrilege and church robbery, we do not admit at all. And if he wanted to do much good in Christendom, he would have to take it from his own and not deprive others of theirs. He should also maintain other pastors, preachers and church servants than his own (who do no good).
We still have no doubt that Doctor Matthias Helde 1) will know how to give the opposing party a good and correct answer to their alleged complaints against us, whether they are afraid of them or not; other people may also be a little frightened of him. We would like to know, however, what we have done unfairly.
1) See 8 71.
What causes could this not have been obtained against us in any place (where we were culpable)? if we had acted wrongfully and were culpable, we could not have confessed for all the above reasons.
We have informed the Saxon of our grievances, which we have borne because of his hostile remonstrances, without injury to him. But as he met us thereupon, so he also found an answer from us again; and this was done with secret writings, so that he would not have to complain if he had been paid again by us with the same coin. But since we have noted that our complaining and lamenting has gained little respect, and that he persists in his once-conceived will, and that of Hesse has thrown down our secretaries, and both have attacked us with shameful writings about it: We have not been unreasonably induced to complain of such acts against our blood relatives (who have been offered before us for interrogation) and others, which he has not wanted to accept, but rather has attacked us in honor, judgment and courage, for which we should not have remained silent for the salvation of our honor and the relinquishment of the unfathomable conditions imposed on us, that we are not the cause of such writings, as we indicated in the beginning, to which we refer. And if we have already accused the opposing party of having acted ingloriously against honor, law, the peace of the land, the golden bulla, and the imperial order, as our salvific necessity could not have required otherwise, for the prevention of all their disgrace and calumny, and so that such a deed might be hated and duly punished, and then such their committed breach of the peace might be revealed, and in the light of day: what penance would we have fallen into for this? if we were allowed to do so, propter publicae salutis custodiam, so that such misdeeds would not go unpunished and be made an evil example of by others.
(132) Truly, it is not worthy of an answer what he of Saxony, for the sake of his messenger on horseback, shows us in this place to be a disgrace, and to be a disgrace to us, as we are supposed to have taught him in our writing, of which he, according to his custom, makes a long and unhelpful chatter, which is not worth a hazelnut, and would have refrained from it with good honor. It is certainly true that he sent a messenger on horseback to us with his other writing against Wolfenbüttel.
But that we should have man and horse restrained, he does us violence and injustice. We have not committed ourselves to a certain number of writings against Saxony, that the last writing should have been due to him; no order has been established between the two of us, and it is not unheard of or new among princes, but is commonly held, when one writes to the other, that he answers it again with his own messenger (where he may have the opportunity). Now that we have finished our writing, under which the messenger of the drink waited and was happy, why should we not have sent him our answer again? If the messenger had also indicated that he had no order to accept our answer, we would not have burdened him with it, but would nevertheless have sent him our answer with our own messenger. We would also like to know who forbade him from coming to his horse? If someone is called restrained, where one makes him good and happy, which is in everyone's favor, then there would certainly have to be a lot of restraints at this time, for which no impartial person will consider it. How princely and unpardonable is such a thing to be held, which has happened to the messenger for the sake of honor, and not against his will or indication? And the honor is not only of the one to whom it happens, but much more of the one who proves it; so the assumption made to the contrary does not matter. And indeed, if he had known nothing but this, he might well have left it alone. For this reason, it cannot be said that we do not grant his messenger a free departure.
We by no means admit that our counsel has caused the answer that it would have been proper for the Saxon, against the law, the golden bulla, the imperial order, and the highly frowned-upon proclaimed land peace, to hold us and ours hostile, to put up body, honor, possessions, and goods. For if we had refused bodily acceptance, it would nevertheless not have been proper for him to take such forbidden measures against us. For we would not be obliged to accompany bodily. But he was obliged to let us ride through his territory safely and unhindered, as we granted him a safe pass in our jurisdiction, even though he was not worthy of it. From this it appears that what here de jure re- torquationis contrariorum correlationis (so that the opposing party tortures itself not a little) against us has not taken place.
is attracted, and has also been moved up here.
134 And since the Saxon cannot prove the counter-shock of his favor from the land peace, he does not want to argue about it. However, he says that the land peace is the basis for the fact that no one is to proceed with sacrilege or violence, nor is he to do so. And here he confesses, and must confess, that by virtue of the peace of the land, both the act and the work are criminal, which he denies in his supposed confutation of the words "in opinion" above. Now neither sacrilege nor violence has been practiced by us, we have not refused the Saxon any security or passport. And we have not been obligated to accept him as an escort; so that passport and security, previously in Duke Georgen's blessed memory, could not have been forbidden again for his unrighteous legal reasons.
Let the request of Saxony's escort have been made and created as it wishes, it is nevertheless a public offence that we, through the answer given by our advisors, have denied him all passport and security, as answered above in the reason; and he will not settle it with the introduced inconsistent comparison, which he drew from the § item ait. For even if we were to hold (but not to the detriment of the truth) that we refused the Saxon bodily acceptance, he would not have been refused or denied passport and security, since this substance can be without the bodily conveyance, as we have further deduced above in its place.
On the other hand, it has been sufficiently demonstrated by us that we are not necessarily obligated to escort physically, and in the case that we would be obligated to escort physically, we are not bound by a certain time; but he who would request escort would be obligated to notify us of such in due time, so that we may be prepared according to necessity. Therefore the equation, drawn from the suggested §, does not rhyme at all. Thus: since the arbitrator makes a commandment to the party to pay the parties within, that he draw up two things, namely to make payment, and to make the same between the parties etc. For the likeness holds in itself commandment, and a certain time. But in this case there is neither a commandment nor a certain time. Therefore, the rule of law in the above-mentioned supposed inconsistent equation cannot be applied to our case. And also that I am obliged to pay by the arbitrator's command,
Therefore, I would be ex posteriori inora penitent from the following delay. But in our case, we are not required to secure a passport, only that we let everyone ride and wander through our country unharmed. But he is assured of such security beforehand, by virtue of the peace of the land, and is informed that we are not obligated to give him further and new assurance.
Nam eum, qui certioratus est, amplius certiorari non oportet. Rightly drawn. Therefore, if he had security in our country, he must be self-confessed; what need is there of much dispute? Above we have indicated that his request consists primarily of bodily acceptance on the border, and to be brought in, as his inscribed letter clearly states. Namely: to be accepted escorted, and to be escorted further; as we can see from the original, which was sent to us. Therefore, our counsel's answer must be understood to this and not to the other, as we have said above. Rightly drawn.
137 By saying that it is not proper for a Christian to be revengeful, the Saxon would like to conclude that we should regard him, but not ourselves, as Christians, so that he would do us wrong. But when we said that a Christian should not be revengeful, we did not want to consider or respect him as a Christian. For how could we consider him a Christian who has thrown himself off the common holy church and the Christian orders and statutes? but because he would be under the delusion that he wanted to be and was a good Christian (which we do not confess), and would accept and understand the saying: Mihi vindictam, et ego retribuam, in such a way without doubt, as he was attracted by us, that in his own opinion it would not have been proper for him to be so revengeful against us. And such vengefulness of Saxony has appeared against us, before and before we exchanged some writing with each other. What revengefulness can he accuse us of (which we confess to none) and say that we must first roll the beam out of our eyes? But that his reproach was a revengefulness has been sufficiently shown by us.
However, we do not admit that the von Lüneburgs should be entitled to the city of Brunswick, since we, our descendants and nearer tribe, are still alive. And since the von Lüneburg has issued a pressure against us (which cannot be borne by him at all), the same shall also be answered in a special way, from which the counterplay can then be clarified.
and the Saxon knows nothing about the opportunity of the matters. But the one from Lüneburg has neither guarantee, possession nor justice. And it is true that the people of Brunswick are our sworn, sworn and obeyed subjects, who are always and forever guided by no one other than the owners of the Wolfenbüttel part. What can the presumed consent of Lüneburg (who has none) do to the matter?
139 We have not been able to hear any consistent answer from our subjects of Brunswick in this hour as to why it would have been proper for them to take Saxony and others into our city and principality without our knowledge and approval, even though we had spoken to them about it and would have liked to denounce them to the Imperial Majesty if they could. Majesty if they had been able to do so. This responsibility, then, would be that the Saxon and Hessian would have ordered the others into the city, which they could not well have refused him. When they then did such responsibility against us. But how such a response might be borne by Brunswick, which has pledged and sworn to us and is located in our principality without means: everyone must understand that it will not read at all. If the Saxon knows nothing about the righteousness of Brunswick, how does he come to spend the day in our city of Brunswick without our greeting, when he surely knows that the people of Brunswick are our pledged, sworn and sworn enemies?
140. Our ancestors have never allowed those of Brunswick to enter into alliances with other cities, and especially against their sovereigns, as owners of the Wolfenbüttel part; It would also be contrary to their duty, oath, kinship and homage, and against honor, right, respectability and equity, as they have not remained seated unchallenged for this reason, and are still being discussed by us for this reason; which would indeed be a small honor for them, and they could not support it in this and other things. And from this it should by no means be inferred that the Saxon could have put a day's work in our city and principality with joints on their yielding. In sum, it was pure defiance, sacrilege and courage, no one can say otherwise.
141 And at the time of our Lord Father's blessed, praiseworthy memory, since the ancestors of Saxony, his father and cousins, and Bishop Ernst also have in it without His Lordship's greeting and preface.
The Saxons wanted to make a day of it, but when they were ready in Halberstadt, they were forced to move back again. Therefore, the Saxons should not be surprised. And since the Saxons know little about the treaty between our father and our city of Brunswick after the end of the feud, and it takes little or nothing from us, we do not want to lose a vain word about it.
Thus it is that our forefathers, including us, complained against the people of Brunswick about profane and secular matters, and we complain about them no less at this time, as the people of Brunswick are aware of the alliances they have made with the protesters behind and against us. However, we cannot confess that this understanding should be beneficial to the Word of God and the inhabitants of Brunswick, because it would mean that they would be thrown away from the common holy church and the Christian orders. And even if it were so (yet it has not been), it is not due to the Saxons, nor to those of Brunswick, to place day in our city and principality. But it is indeed a fine thing that one wants to teach the people under such a pretense to keep neither oath nor duty, which is to be heard exceedingly quite frightening. We, or no one else who is of a Christian mind, will never be able to approve it, and may and should consider that their things and dealings are the things of God's word, because the opposite has thrown himself off the common church and the Christian orders, and is an obstinate man.
Thus it is not to diminish those of Nuremberg that we call our Christian alliance the Nuremberg alliance. They will certainly not understand it in this way. How should we mean it other than from the place where it was established? Since we have been waiting for us and ours in Erfurt, when we were not in agreement with the Saxons, what did it matter to the Saxons, if the city is ever not theirs? With those of Erfurt nothing has been done by us against the Christian Nuremberg alliance, as it was also heard from us here before. However, even if it is hidden from Saxony, it is of little concern to us. And it is enough for us that the people of Erfurt will not recognize this as anything other than honorable, divine, right and just; he may boast and rejoice as he pleases that we have done wrong. The
of Erfurt, that the famous inheritance treaties do not extend to it, as the one of Saxony wants to have it. However, by these and other means, he seeks and intends, against honor, God, justice and all equity, to bring the praiseworthy city of Erfurt and its inhabitants entirely under his control and make it his own. We hope, however, that the people of Erfurt have built well before this, and should still build, so that they may remain seated before him.
He should also respect our justice against our city of Brunswick no less than his supposed justice against Erfurt, because Erfurt is not that of Saxony. But it is undeniably true that Brunswick is ours, and mayor, council and commoners owe us, as their sovereign, an oath, a pledge, and, like their sovereign, to travel and other ways, follow and owe to follow. But all this is lacking for the Saxons at Erfurt. The famous hereditary treaties will never give the Saxon such an inheritance of Erfurt.
From all of this, E. L. and every reasonable person may consider, understand and judge for themselves, without any doubt, that the Saxon has no right and no other reason to wait in hostility against us and ours on the imperial free imperial road, in the due course of Duke George's blessed consecration, in his declared and reasonable opinion, will and mind, to see, to strike, to damage, to kill and to murder us and ours. And that this was done against honor, law and the golden bulla, the imperial order, the imperial, highly frowned-upon proclaimed truce and all honorable and fairness of him, without all protection of his honor, and that he fell into the penalty and punishment of the proclaimed truce.
And that we have not refused or refused to grant security to Saxony, but that we have granted it, conceded it and allowed it. And that we do not owe him and his family to accept him in the flesh; that it was not proper for us to lay days for him in our city and principality of Brunswick, and that it was not proper for us to meet him there without all our greetings, foreknowledge and will. That we have also complained about all and any of the points and articles mentioned, with all due respect and fairness, and have not been beginners in the matter.
147 Therefore, what he of Saxony has set against it in his prints, that all of this may not be justified, nor may it be honorable and fair; that we have also pursued the Saxon, neither secretly nor publicly; and that not we, but he and his brother, the landgrave, have unjustifiably placed us on an equal footing with the Saxon.
We have not allowed him to do anything other than to save our honor and glory in the most urgent and permissible way.
Now we would also like to know who ever thought of his errors and border and other problems that he has with his neighbors, so that he could now make such a long jabber about them. We talk and dispute about the peace of the land, for the sake of the security and insecurity of the roads; so he distorts this, and says of his neighborly border and other afflictions, and takes the cause in hand, that he may touch the Cardinal, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz, etc., our lord's uncle, brother-in-law and godfather. Is this not an inconsistent and impertinent suit? Who else has brought about the disputation of the ban order at Hall in the first place than he? If he is so competent in his cause, it will be necessary for him to appear before the Imperial Court of Appeal; there he should prosecute and argue the case. But he is afraid of the leaches, must not come into the light before righteous and reasonable people (but we do not want to offend anyone else by this), therefore he seeks excuses, recuses; he should refrain from doing so.
The fact that we are not close to the Dukes of Lüneburg, our cousins, the cities of Goslar and Brunswick, appears to be due to the fact that the people of Goslar are being put on guard because of their violent, unlawful, unpeaceful actions, deeds and rapes, which they attributed to us and ours.
150 And since he of Saxony (as he states himself) wants to be so agreeable, fair and blameless, does he not know how, by his own power, against God, honor and right, he took from our Lord and friend, the German Master and his beloved Order, the eleven or twelve houses, worth several hundred thousand guilders, in Weimar, Plauen, Aldendorf, Reichenbach, Adorf and other towns of his principality? and still withholds them from S. L. and the Order to this day, not without a particularly noticeable great burden? And how he, through Christoph von Taubenheim, and others, violently, wantonly and wantonly pushes, pushes, composes, and also lets some take their own money in several thousand florins per fors 2) from the houses? And although on the one hand
1) "Compter" - Compture.
2) Meant is: pku-kores - by force.
a treaty is established, sealed and agreed upon, it is nevertheless the undeniable truth that the Saxon never lived up to it or complied with it. How this is praiseworthy for the Saxon, who wants to be blameless and tolerable, can only be judged by men, that [it] would be different, if his boast was equal to his deeds and works. Otherwise, he would either have returned such houses to the Order with reimbursement of all benefits and interests, or have made other arrangements with them, as he is obliged and obligated to do by law and in all fairness.
151 And even if he seems to drag the matter into the Nuremberg peace (as his answers will certainly end there), it is more than certain that he will not give in to depriving anyone of his taken property or to take it away. We keep silent about what has happened to him since the Frankfurt agreement. We could tell him even more, where we would not think of omitting it for the sake of length.
How unreasonable Saxony's accusation is that we should interfere in other people's affairs etc. is evident from the fact that we did not think of his justice in the first place, because of the burgh of Magdeburg, but he initially invoked it against us and urged us to answer. We refer to his and the landgrave's entire writings. But that we answered in our constant rebuttal that the Saxon may not prove that the Burggrafthum is an old dignitary fief and feudum dignitatis, which comes from the Holy Empire in fief, and was ever lent in fief to the old Elector of Saxony of the previous dynasty (of which this Saxon is a foreign appointee and insititius), he caused himself, and thus nothing was written by us against the truth.
153 For against this, the alleged erroneous investment of Emperor Sigismund, which was done by mistake, may or may not contest anything at all. For although these words are found in such an enfeoffment, namely: As those who belonged to it before, shall belong to it and may belong to it, and are fiefs of us and the empire; which words the Saxon completely and fully omits to put in: Emperor Sigismund has not thereby confessed this badly, but to a previous one. Since the Saxon has not proved, nor does it appear, that the burgh and county of Magdeburg and Halle were ever lent by the previous emperors to the Electors of Saxony, or to anyone else, or that they were
of the Electorate, but the contradiction that it did not happen, and was not so, from two of Emperor Carl's letters of fealty, evidently and with truth: so it follows that the above-mentioned supposed feoffment, having happened by mistake, is erroneous and void. Licet enim illa verba: As those of old age: id est, prout, et secundum; alias non faciant condi- tionenl, Sed intelligantur caussaliter, quando illud, ad quod fit relatio, non apparet; tamen secus est, quando factum, ad quod relatio fit, apparet; sed non ut relatum est. Ut in casu praesenti sunt actus investiturarum, de quibus extant aliquae scripturae, maximae duae, Caroli Quarti Imperatoris, quae solum de ducatu Saxoniae, item de dignitate Principis Electoris, et de Palatinatu ac officio Archi- mareschalatus etc. mentionem faciunt, et quod primum Rudolphus, deinde Wenceslaus, de his fuerint investiti, commemorant. De Burg- graviatu vero et Graveding in Magdeburg et Halle, quod ad ducatum et dignitatem commodi pertineant, et quod veteres illi duces Saxoniae prioris familiae de his sint, vel fuerint investiti, nihil penitus cavetur. Et ideo consequens est, dictam investituram fuisse et esse erroneam et nullam.
154 If Emperor Sigismund had also been informed or reported that Carolus IV, If Emperor Sigismund had been informed or reported that Carolus IV, at the time he invested Duke Rudolph of Saxony of the old dynasty with the Duchy of Saxony, not only did not invest him with such a burgh and earldom, but also had someone other than Burchardrdnrn, Burggravium Magdeburgensem (as such a counterpart also indicates), sign such an investiture or enfeoffment as a witness:"It would not have been Emperor Sigismund's will and opinion to invest Duke Frederick with a thing that had not been granted in the Empire.
The opposite can be referred to in the chronicles. We know of none, however, that would have put forward the opposite, nor could we prove anything, especially to the detriment of the third party. Chronica enim, praesertim in causis magnis et magni praejudicii, et maxime in tertii praejudicium, non probant And where the chronicles should be believed, there are Magdeburg and Saxon chronicles that clearly say that the Burggraviate of Magdeburg was given and delivered to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg by Emperor Otten many hundred years ago. From this, your beloved and manly to see, with what unkindness he took possession of the Burggraviate of Magdeburg.
We are not allowed to make him doubt his supposed righteousness. If he had not initiated this dispute against us himself, without causing it, we could well have refrained from it: nevertheless, he may pretend that we came to such a dispute out of envy and hatred, of which he, and not we (as indicated), was a beginner, and everyone will now be able to judge quite easily whether we have a right reason for such things or not; we will leave it at that for this time.
Out of such anger, the Saxon cannot refrain, but has to tell our dear Lord, the Cardinal, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz, Elector etc., that his Lordship would like to act against the sworn, certified and sealed promise, and would like to lead the matter into a new justification, and would not spare ours. What might induce him to bring up such things in this dispute, we cannot think. For if he wants to say that we caused him to do so, and that we caused him to publicly disclose his recusation and other things, he is doing us a great disservice. But since it is publicly true that the Imperial Majesty, as a dominus feudi, without any permission or request from the Archbishop of Magdeburg, has undertaken and accepted such matters, even to discuss them with the Imperial Court of Appeal (as the Archbishop of Magdeburg), he is doing us a great disservice. If the bishop of Magdeburg is ordered to discuss these matters with the Imperial Court of Appeal (as the feudal lord and as Her Imperial Majesty might well have done), he is not a little repugnant to H.L. with such a requirement, as is the case with Imperial Majesty's writings, where the same are mentioned. Majesty's writings, where they come to light, will finely indicate.
The Saxon seems to refer to us with Emperor Sigismund's letters that we have done injustice to his ancestors, that they bought and acquired the Electorate more with money than with manpower, and yet he also indicates that they must give and pay twenty thousand florins to the Margrave of Brandenburg, from which our charges are proven enough. That it may have a blind name, however, as: for costs and debt, does us little err. Quia plus valet quod agitur, quam quod simulate concipitur.
Now, however, we have shown above that this concession and loan happened by mistake, and presumably that it was made on Duke Friederich's report and postulation. As this then gives to understand that Duke Friederich, Landgrave of Thuringia, soon thereafter obtained confirmation from Emperor Sigismund of such alleged enfeoffment, on his narration and statements. Thereby we Emperor
Sigismund ever did not speak or want to speak close to us. From this E. L. and masculine have to understand what he may also prove and confirm against us with his erronea investitura.
But if one is aware of the reason why Emperor Sigismund enfeoffed his ancestor of Saxony with the Duchy of Saxony, one would not be able to conclude and infer clumsily that the Saxon should not be able to enjoy such enfeoffment and the Duchy of Saxony due to repugnant causes and actions. And there would also be little lack of things, that his alleged (though also untruthful) report with extension of money would have done much to bring about the enfeoffment, and more than the alleged manhood.
160 And although the Saxon might be astonished at this, and might act somewhat strangely, we are not talking about something that is not similar to the truth. For one does not find much of great manhood in the history books, which ever proved this dynasty of Dukes of Saxony or Landgraves of Thuringia with Roman emperors and kings. However, with this we do not want to have talked about anyone of this family outside of Saxony. The things are also not so old that one could not have a good science.
161 What the Saxons, Engneans and Westphalians etc. ever complain about and still complain about because of such enfeoffment is not known. And according to the chronicles, the Saxon would be the least entitled to it, which his ancestors obtained on their supposed and wrongful narration, as has been said above. Therefore, we do not blame his ancestors for having obtained the touched principality more with money than otherwise, and first of all we do not punish Emperor Sigismund for any untruth. But since there is not much in this dispute, we will leave it at that for this time.
How it can be very praiseworthy to get a thing more with money than manhood, especially to those who want to be male warlords, we cannot even consider. And why we should deny that one of our ancestors, as Duke Henry the Lion, was deprived of his lands and people, we do not know. But let him see that such a thing does not happen to him. For if such a thing happened to our ancestor, Duke Henry, a much more powerful man, because of his disobedience, then such a thing is also in store for the Saxon who wants to live in disobedience to the imperial majesty. Majesty.
What does he of Saxony want to boast much of his old heredity, if he cannot or will not prove that his ancestors were princes or even of lesser rank at the time when our ancestors were dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg. We can and know also to prove our origin from many hundred years ago, before the deposition of Duke Henry the Lion, up to us, in a constant lasting lineage and blood, and to show, under it no establishment at all, as he is found of the Duchy of Saxony; but we write this without male diminution and without glory.
164 That even in the Imperial Majesty's mandates, edicts and decrees the Gospel of Christ our Savior should be touched as ungodly. The fact that the Gospel of Christ, our Savior, should have been touched upon as ungodly in the Imperial Majesty's mandates, edicts and decrees, he publicly does injustice and violence to Her Majesty, and speaks it out of imprudence. If he could also call upon His Imperial Majesty, His Majesty of GOtt. Majesty, his God-given authority, he would also do so. But we accept his publicly known disobedience, which he will never be able to excuse before God and the whole world for eternity: that one should obey God more than men. For the Imperial. For the Imperial Majesty has never commanded anyone to obey God and his saving word in his imperial mandates. For the Imperial Majesty has never commanded anything to be held against God and His saving Word in their imperial mandates, but that which is divine, honest, right and Christian, and which has been held, respected, and is still held and respected for this purpose by the common Christian church. And the religion supposed by Saxony is not so proven that it would have good reason to stand against it in the least. We would also like to hear who persuaded him that his supposed religion should thus be proven, and which impartial person would have applauded him for it? For it is not enough that he and his followers say such things, but it is also necessary that they be recognized, approved and accepted for this by the common Christian church according to the order that has been kept up to now. But it will hardly come to that with its supposed religion, because it is contrary to God and His word.
Now the Saxon is not only disobedient in the edicts, mandates and decrees of the Imperial Majesty, but also in the imperial orders, the Nuremberg Peace Treaty, the Frankfurt Agreement, and in total in all the acts that he himself has accepted up to now. Now the Saxon is disobedient not only in the edicts, mandates and decrees of the Imperial Majesty, but also in the imperial decrees, the Nuremberg Peace Treaty, the Frankfurt Agreement, and in sum, in all the acts he himself has accepted up to now, none of which he has lived by or complied with. All his evil and unlawful acts testify to this.
1) "meant" put by us instead of: "meant".
and matters at the Imperial Court of Appeal. We would like to hear in which matters (however he may regard them) he has rendered some obedience to the Imperial Majesty. Majesty? Therefore, since he already has to hear that he is a disobedient person to the Emperor. Therefore, if he must hear that he is disobedient to the imperial majesty, it does not happen to him unkindly, but right before God and the world.
That others and we obey the Imperial Majesty's mandates and decrees we acknowledge ourselves before God and the whole world. That others and we obey the imperial majesty's mandates and decrees, we acknowledge ourselves guilty before God and the whole world; but that we should do it with words alone, and not with works, we do not admit to the Saxon. If we now had some enjoyment on account of such obedience, that would not be unreasonable for us as an obedient person. And even though Imperial Majesty And although Your Majesty has appointed us as conservators of the two archbishoprics and monasteries of Bremen and Verden, we have not enjoyed the same for a single penny in this hour, nor do we desire to enjoy it. From the same mind speaks the Saxon, that the fathers did not know our old true Christian faith, and that the Christian chants and ceremonies of the clergy should not belong to it: if we then remain for ourselves with our true Christian faith, let others do so, protect, protect and handle, as we (God willing) do not want to be found otherwise, how could we therefore be found by Imperial Majesty's decrees and mandates? How can we therefore not do justice to Your Majesty's decrees and mandates? Imperial and Royal Majesty has never been refused anything by other obedient princes and by us, which might have benefited Her Majesty and the realm; only because of this, and still, the lack has appeared in the opposite part. The Saxon cannot deny this with a clear conscience. The Saxon is so heartily sorry that in matters of debt he should not show himself more submissive than others and us (whom he calls sham and pleasure-waiters) toward the Imperial Majesty. Why does he not do so, and where is his great obedience?
From all this it is to be understood: first, that the Imperial Majesty does not mislead at all in matters of faith. And secondly, that the Saxon owes obedience to her Majesty in this matter. And thus understand rightly, as an Orthodox, that the Imperial Majesty is a bailiff of the Church. This cannot be against God, His order and the Scriptures. For St. Augustine says that it is the duty of secular Christian kings to see to it that in their time the mother, their church, remains calm and unperturbed, from which they were born spiritually. And so the kings in the protection of the
mig, they may be excommunicated and banished. From this, the Saxon may well hear what the Imperial Majesty's office and office are. Majesty's office and office, and what her Majesty's conduct in such matters is due and entitled to.
168 He of Saxony conducts a futile and boring disputation on account of the comparison that befits Christians, and thinks that we do not understand what a Christian comparison is. And truly, that we should understand it on his opinion, we do not at all. He says, whether he and others have not often talked, disputed and acted about the settlement at many imperial congresses held and elsewhere, or not? And whether, at the Imperial Diet held in Augsburg, the disputation was not brought so close together that a settlement was reached on several of the disputed articles, and whether the restitution and removal of the ecclesiastical estates was the main point of disagreement with the opposing party? And although this is undeniably true, the opposing parties have not wanted to act on such a settlement granted at that time, recently at Hagenau, on the other unsettled articles and points, as E. L., especially the Count Palatine (who was present), is well aware. How can he of Saxony say that no Christian settlement was ever reached with him and others? at the same time the papal legate was present. And how can the imperial diets and other trades convince us of the contrary? But the fact that the matters were shifted to a Christian concilium is not at all the fault of Her Majesty, but of her opponents, and especially of Saxony, who do not want to accept an amicable settlement (as also happened recently at Hagenau). And since common conciliation has been announced, they have fought, disputed and protested against it in various ways, all for no significant reason.
169 Thus, such a statement cannot support the opposing party in any way, and for the sake of comparison, it always appears that the defect has been with the opponents up to the present day. Let the common man hear this, and give no credence at all to the deceiver of Christian blood; and what we have now written occurred long before the Frankfurt Agreement, which the Imperial Majesty never granted. Majesty has never approved or accepted. With what reason and substance does the Saxon say that the matter remained pending before the Imperial Majesty? What reason does the Saxon say that the matter remained pending before the Imperial Majesty and that we should have publicly failed to act?
How conducive the agreement at Frankfurt could have been to Christian comparison,
In which such persons (as they are to be qualified) have been determined who have not been and never will be, we want to have the beautiful Christian glorious Dialogum, which came out of the Nuremberg peace and such unapproved agreement, state and testify about it. And although it is nothing less than that the settlement does not exist with him alone, he nevertheless wants to have it to his liking and according to his good opportunity. Therefore there must not be much dispute.
We have said, and still say it blatantly, that the von Sachsen's trade is not about God's word, but about self-interest and vain doctrine. For how can or may he let the Word of God be applied to him, who is repugnant to God and His Church; and who, under a mere pretense of the Gospel, fovors the goods of the clergy and the churches; and to draw into religion all his unrighteous, worldly and temporal things, and to exercise the same under them; even the Imperial Majesty, who is his representative from God, is not to be trusted. How can he be bold enough to disdain and disobey His Majesty, His God-given authority?
172 A strange argument is also the one that the Saxon pretends: a Christian farewell was given to his father blessed and others at Augsburg. From this he wants to implicitly introduce that it was not for his own benefit and honor, as he himself subsequently explains. But this does not necessarily want to conclude at all. Thus it is also contrary to the truth that his supposed confession remains unrebutted. And it would have been very necessary for him to have the Augsburg Agreement inscribed in his writing, since I do not know the same, which the imperial majesty has confirmed with a good timely council. Majesty, with good timely advice from all obedient princes, princes and estates, decided and had given, which one is completely unafraid of. For it is honest, fair, divine and just, and foreign that the Imperial Majesty himself should ever have any doubts about it. The Emperor's Majesty himself has ever had some difficulty about it, as the Saxon would like to make the simple-minded believe.
If the Saxon could have had nothing more or further than the Dessau plot, he could have kept quiet about it with good honor. For nothing secret or concealed was done there, and it was reported to his blessed father himself. Thus we know nothing in it that would be against God's honor, right and justice, or that should or should be considered so.
174 If the Imperial Majesty had been advised to do so, which would have been honest, divine and fair, how wrong would it have been? Majesty would have been advised, how wrong would it have been? And must therefore those who advise such things be seducers and
To be favorable? We don't believe that at all. And why should he not have let us pass through his territory? And although afterwards, after several years, the imperial majesty had made a peace and a standstill at Nuremberg, we do not believe it. And although after some years the Imperial Majesty, on the impetuous insistence of Saxony and others, established a peace and standstill with him and others at Nuremberg and Regensburg; and although he was also graciously written to from Seville 1), it can nevertheless not be concluded from this that the farewell given at Augsburg was in the mind or opinion of the Imperial Majesty. Majesty's mind or opinion. He understands the state of peace and the Regensburg mandates correctly, as they are explained by the Dialogum, above, so that he will be able to satisfy the Imperial Majesty's mind. Majesty's mind.
Let him of Saxony boast of his cousin, Duke Frederick, Elector of Saxony, wisdom, reason and understanding, and [how] far he has had grace before us with the high chiefs etc. that we will insist on him ourselves. Even if he makes the matter as dangerous as he wants for his own sake, it is nevertheless well known that if the two archbishoprics and monasteries of Magdeburg and Halberstadt had not existed, and if they could have been provided with bishops according to his will and suggestions, after the death of Bishop Ernst blessed, he would not have conceived such anger, displeasure, and fierceness that he would have allowed such cruel error to arise in his authority, to which he himself (as we have reported) was nevertheless not so much attached. What does the Saxon want to excuse his vain honor, court and selfishness with? Does it also mean the glory and honor of God's word sought? We cannot know how great even the Saxon can always make the above concern. God will undoubtedly not recognize it otherwise, and every person who understands these things and is impartial will not be able to consider it otherwise than we do.
We believe that the answers we gave the landgrave in the previous and the present, as well as the most recent, sufficiently express the self-interest he seeks. And where we have pointed it to the church and other goods, we have not invented it maliciously, but truly, to which he can never give a consistent answer, he can boast whatever he wants.
177 It may well be that we advise his father blessed, and him, with faithfulness (as we were at the same time in good friendship with his father blessed), to safely either restitute or sequester the spiritual goods.
1) In the old text "Savilian"; meaning Seville.
let. That we have also received an answer. However, we do not know whether this opinion, as reported by the Saxon, was the same. However, we want the Augsburg Act to state that the opposite party neither wants to restitute nor to have the goods sequestered. What is the need for all this fuss? And even if (yet without prejudice to the truth) such was the answer, it nevertheless has such conditions and appendices that Gegentheil well knew that the sequestration could not or would not be accepted in such a burdensome form. For without this, the restitution or sequestration would have been refused no less than for all other reasons. For the comparison of the several articles did not extend as far as the annexes made should have done. So we found his father blessed and inclined neither to make restitution nor to concede sequestration without thought, and thus also not to concede sequestration: so there was no need at all to give further notice to his father and to burden us with futile trouble.
How miserable the taken spiritual and ecclesiastical goods were, by which he wanted to make people believe that he was not concerned about the goods, we have shown here above in a place from which the contradiction is clear. Thus also his doctrine and ceremonies, and not ours, are seductive, unchristian and ungodly. And the opinion (as we have already indicated) of his father, blessed or his, was not to grant the sequestration of the taken goods or to permit it with his will. Therefore, our judgment is still right in all respects, that it was not for God's word, but for his own benefit and vain honor.
He wants to prove with the rightful conquest of the goods of the Hildesheim monastery (which is indeed quite strange to hear) that we should ask neither for God nor conscience. But he does this to us against our hopes. For Your Lordship knows to remember in what way the Imperial Majesty, our most gracious Lord, has given us the right to ask questions. Majesty, our most gracious Lord, out of the gracious imperial mind. Our most gracious lord, out of his gracious imperial mind, at the imperial diet held at Worms, took the disputes between the bishop and chapter of the church at Hildesheim, Duke Henry the Younger of Lüneburg and his followers on the one hand, and our cousin, the blessed Duke Erichen, and ourselves on the other, into action and interrogation, and since the goods of his imperial majesty are in the hands of the enemies, he has taken the matter to court. Majesty's estates arose from the repugnants, since at that time Her Imperial Majesty, with counsel, knowledge, and knowledge, had the right to take possession of them. Maj. with the advice, knowledge and will of ecclesiastical and secular princes, rulers and
In this decree, both parties were commanded to live by it, subject to the penalty of privatization and the abolition of all fiefdoms and regalia, and also to avoid the imperial and imperial ban. But when the opposing parties persisted in their rape and mistreatment, they were condemned for disobedience by their Imperial Majesty. Maj., declared and denounced them, and the Imperial Majesty ordered them to live in the imperial ban. Majesty. King Christian in Denmark, our blessed cousin, Duke Erich, and us to execution. Thus what our cousin blessed and we did therein, that such by order of the imperial maj. Maj. and in accordance with the advice of the princes, princes and estates of the Holy Roman Empire.
180 Now the Saxon first of all comes forth quite unseasonably, and wants to punish Imperial Majesty and the entire empire. Maj. and the entire empire, and in his opinion would be as much as if the imperial majesty and other estates were also to be of no faith. May therefore the Imperial Maj. Majesty and others no less than us, since he is doing violence and injustice to her Majesty, others and us. And because not only the bishop, but also the chapter with unanimous counsel delinquent and mistreated, who (as Baldus says) represent ecclesiam, the church has for the sake of such delicti ever been attacked by imperial majesty as the dornino. Maj., as the dornino feudi, of the fiefs and regalia may be privatized and deprived, and the church shall receive and bear the damage justly. This is how the ecclesiastical laws regulate it; the opponent will not have studied it much, as he does not think much of it, otherwise he would not have spilled the beans.
181 From this it now appears that we are the rightful owner of the Hildesheim properties, not against our conscience. And what does it matter, if we were already the owner of such goods against our conscience, when it is not at all? Would we therefore be of a different faith than has hitherto been used, held and accepted in the common church? We do not consider that. If we were more interested in the goods in question than in our true Christian faith, so that we should not be a just owner of these goods, if we wanted to be of a different faith (than is not the case), we could well have taken the path used by the opposite. But the almighty God will protect us from this. Therefore, the Saxon does not know what he wants to say to the simple-minded people. For this reason, more answers are not necessary.
182. whether we have wanted to cozy up to the canons of Hildesheim, so that we can take advantage of their defeat.
We put this in everyone's mind. For the Saxon reproached us for the insecurity of our roads (although without reason); on the other hand, we reminded him (according to his own letters) of the canons that he should report himself for his own sake and first roll the beam out of his eyes before he would have wanted to punish us for something that he did with no retribution. But that two strangers of nobility should have been implicated, we do not know, because he does not report them, who they were, and we never heard that anyone of him would have been punished for such a thing.
183 We wrote that one should ask the people of Erfurt and other surrounding neighbors how safe its roads are, so that one would not hear much praise about it; we still say this, and quite unconfirmed, and if it should come to the attention of its surrounding neighbors, then it will be found and experienced quite well.
184 We have not arrived at the original of the cabbage hare, which he is supposed to have done, so we also do not know what kind of original it is; what do we have to insist on it? But we would have suffered if the Saxon had told us what kind of original it was, then we would have answered him with the right answer. But we say that we never knew Kohlhasen, nor did we know anything about his nature, just as at this time the Saxon and others would like to accuse us of being the ordering and instigating party in the burning of murders that occur at this time (just as some of their godless clamantes have publicly accused us and others of this on the preaching stand), yet they accuse us and the others rashly. And as for us, the Saxons and Hessians shall have the murderers who are arrested for this severely punished, tortured and miserably torn apart, so that they may confess much to us and say that we bought them with money. Now if these two also, and others, would pour out such things on us and ours, or would do so, we say that they will cause us (also our stewards, servants and relatives, whom they shall likewise assault) no little reproach and shame with such evil impositions.
185 Although the Saxon does not confess that his understanding is inflammatory, we say again that we have not added anything to him contrary to the truth. This can be seen from this and the other answer we give the landgrave, which is quite abundant and superfluous.
For, to take, to disobey, to drive wantonness, to rape, to be no man's right, to urge, to scrape, to throb, to assemble servants, to exhort, to put money on hand, to arouse dissension and discord in the faith and among the members of the kingdom, and to join together contrary to obedience and right, cannot be respected or held otherwise than to stand after indignation, war, and dissension.
But that others should have urged him on to such unchristian, unlawful alliances, he certainly does them, including us, violence and injustice. And indeed, it rhymes well: He of Saxony exerts force and violence, and no one wants to tolerate such from him; that is why he is forced into ungodly, unlawful and unjust alliances or conspiracies.
Of course, he knows a lot about the name of our rhyme, which we have had so far and still have at our court, and what it is supposed to mean, and no doubt he will not have slept much until he learns this. But he has not met it nevertheless. Nevertheless, he is allowed to make such a big, unprofessional gossip about it that we have been afraid for the sake of fame and our own benefit, and have posted one country up and the other down. It amazes us how such clumsy appeals can be good for the people. So we are not aware of any ominous words. What daily signs are there, then, that our intentions are to be seditious?
That no one has been offended by him and others since the unseemly, unjust and unchristian alliances or conspiracies of Saxony, we have not yet received a full report. The matters with the German Master, the Bishop of Meissen and Merseburg, the Chapter of Minden, and those we have with Goslar and Brunswick, and that before, and still, against the Archbishops and Bishops of Mainz, Würzburg, and other ecclesiastical abbots and prelates, and all others pending at the Imperial Court of Appeal, testify to the fact that we have not yet received a full report. The contradiction is evidenced by the pending proceedings at the Imperial Court of Appeals. The fact that he did not continue to provoke war, feud, and outrage, and that he did not attack, is not due to a peaceful mind, but only to the fact that one had to take care of the counter-defense. But we would like to hear who has ever given him cause for violent actions and others, and without any doubt he will not be able to denounce anyone. What daily signs are there, then, that should convince us of his evil? His covenants and conspiracies may not, nor should they be
be considered or regarded as erected for protection and salvation, as we have all readily indicated'.
It will never happen (God willing!) that we have ever hidden ourselves against God's word. But how we should have hidden ourselves, we would gladly hear; for he should get a good answer to that. We do not agree that we should also be inclined to do evil and ruin the kingdom.
The Saxon has thrown off the order of the common Christian church and has no religion. However, what he does must belong to religion, just as such things are always part of true religion, which is not the case with the Saxon. This is proven by daily experience. How divine, honest and unverifiable is his conspiracy? And how could it not be meant in such a way to discord? We cannot know what great troubles and worries the Saxon has faced or been confronted with in the past, so that it would have required the many consultations that have been held, other than to reveal them.
We have not engaged in any practices. Thus our plots and intentions have not been other than honest, which we are not at all afraid to present, when in the same way the opposing party will also present its devious, dangerous practices and plots. And if the Saxon were not afraid of his conspiracy, he would not say: where it should be useful and good, one would reject it. Doctor Helden would also have been shown the same. And then we did not doubt at all that it would turn out well that the Saxon's actions and practices had been and still are conducive to the vain will to anger, rebellion and disruption of the common German nation's welfare.
With reason and truth, the Saxon may not say that we have shown any evil deeds and that we have been brave in the kingdom. But that he puts us in this place with drawn equanimity belongs to him. For is it not true that he and others of his ilk have taken and are still taking from the people what is theirs? And if they are condemned for this, or if they are put on guard, they say: they give cause for indignation, they want to arouse war in the empire. An example of this is the letter from Minden, which righteously struck at someone's neck and said that where they wanted to oppose it, strife and rebellion would result. He and his peers, however, should not take away what is theirs, so that such and such a thing would happen.
other things may well remain. Whether such a thing may now be called that one wants to save and protect oneself according to divine, natural and worldly rights, we place in E. L. and male concern. But that we and our covenant relatives would like to damage him and his covenant relatives in body, property, honor, land and people, against God, for the sake of his saving word, without cause, we cannot compare ourselves with each other for this.
193 The Dessau parting has not been directed in any way to the outspreading of the holy gospel with the sword. However, we are not obliged to give room to heresy, ungodly, seditious and unchristian doctrine, and also to violent and unjust deeds. On this opinion our Christian covenant is directed and set. To what extent have we ourselves become entangled or trapped in these repugnant speeches? First and foremost, however, it must be considered that Saxony's supposed religion and doctrine are contrary to God's word, and that his intention is based on force, so that he intends to carry out his supposed religion (regardless of whether he has not been much challenged for it); and that he is a single person. Thus, even if his supposed religion (which is not at all) were righteous, it would still not at all befit him to defend it with the sword. As we have a fine example in Petro, that one should not use the sword even in these matters that require God's vengeance, as Theophylactus, archiepi- scopus Bulgariae, understands and interprets it, which the opposite does not justify at all, but suggests a tacit, unexpressed distinction or difference that cannot take place in his person. But on our side are the imperial and royal majors, the heads and the authorities themselves. What will he say to this? For he must ever confess that, on account of the authorities, especially in such a divine, Christian and good cause, the handling of the church and God's word, and of him and his followers as individual persons, is not at all due to us. For this reason, we would not be and are not to be considered rebels. That our Christian alliance should be offensive, however, may have slipped the mind of the Saxon, who would have liked to hear his explanation, then he would certainly have taken and received a good answer, and this with truth, even if it would not have pleased him.
194 The Bishop of Meissen and the city of Mulhouse are not subjects in the
We do not confess, however, that the article of the covenant referred to should exclude those who are not entitled to a single pledge, as is not the opinion at all. However, we do not concede at all that the article of the alliance referred to should exclude those who are not entitled to promise one alone, as the opinion is not at all. Thus, Orfurt is also not subject to Saxony. And what great justice he and others can boast of in Mulhouse is well known. You will soon learn another. The people of Mulhouse are well aware of who induced them into the Christian alliance, and if we had done so, we would not and could not deny it to the Saxons or to anyone else, for we would have done right and well. But what we have offered against the people of Mulhouse, we shall (if God wills) not lack anything; and even though they only gave their pledge after the Frankfurt agreement, they were in the alliance before that. Thus the Frankfurt agreement is neither approved nor accepted. But that he took several houses from the German Master after the same time, he will never deny. What we also encounter from his allies is neither hidden nor forgotten. With what consistency can the Saxon say that we have acted contrary to our alliance and imperial majesty? or how could we not be an obedient or peaceful prince?
What may it say of those who have joined them in their alliance after the Diet of Augsburg? so it is publicly, knowingly and notoriously that we have neither this nor any other thing fabricated, that the Saxon says whatever he wants of repugnant evidence with the potentates. Nor do we say that those who (as touched) come into his conspiracy after the Diet of Augsburg are not of his supposed, new and unproven religion, but that they would never have become their religion if the practice had remained.
The Saxon should not throw it so far, and therefore scold us very much that we wrote: that his and his like's matters must be religious matters, could not suffer proper justice etc. For we have done him and his kind no injustice with it, that we refer to the laudable Imperial Court of Appeal, there of the opposite and his kind action nothing else than unlawful protestationes and recusationes. How do they submit
to the ordinary court of law? So we find him and his like every day, when they have to deal with someone, they search and try with great distress and fear how they could give the things a semblance of their supposed religion; no matter how it rhymes or how it wants to, it must be religious matters. We would have much to deduce from the examples that we also encounter, if it were not for the fact that it would be obvious and denounceable everywhere.
197 And neither the Nuremberg Peace Treaty nor any other act can support them in their unlawful actions. For this reason, we want to refer to the beautiful, honest and Christian dialogue that has arisen from the Nuremberg Peace Tribunal, the Imperial Mandate of Regensburg, and the protesting letter against the Imperial Chamber Court. The court has also referred to and drawn up a short report on the matter. And what is it that the opposing party expressed in the negotiations of the Peace of Nuremberg? The Imperial Majesty did not grant any of them in particular, nor did she herself ever adhere to them. For this reason, it rhymes very badly: quod exceptio confirmet regulam; and the supposed lists could not support the opposite for the indicated reasons. And it is also falsely attributed to the laudable chamber court that the Nuremberg peace was not kept there for him and his peers.
198 And whether it may be that the people of Goslar and some others do not support themselves in making religious matters out of their secular affairs. Nam una hirundo non facit vsr. Also, before their alleged conspiracy, these matters were pending at the Court of Appeal. Otherwise, the von Goslar would not have refrained from dragging such matters into the religion, as E. L. and males here well understand, how gladly the von Sachsen wanted to drag them into his supposed conspiracy and religion, since he writes: he and others will not refrain from providing assistance to the von Goslar against us. However, the Saxon will not be able to press upon us that we should burden and harass the people of Goslar in terms of supply and removal, woods, and other ways, and will be publicly referred to us by the imperial decree against the people of Goslar. This is how far he and others have pushed the Goslars against us, and that they have been denounced and declared to be in contempt. With what justification and honor he and others may now settle them, against the imperial majesty and the empire's attention, and in no supposed religious matter, that we only give to consider. But it is good that we
of the good will of Saxony. For we want to know how to hold ourselves against this. And even though he would like to move E. L. and other princes, princes and estates of Goslar against us, we do not doubt that E. L. and others will not allow themselves to be incited against us for such a reason.
Whether his actions are not protestationes and recusationes at the Imperial Court of Appeal. Chamber Court, we will let the same things testify themselves. And whether he hopes for help from his conspiratorial relatives or not, everyone can easily understand. And thus we see no other way than that the Saxon is not concerned with the word of God, but with vain honor and his own benefit.
200 We may not think of the way in which he of Saxony would have to make an effort with his conspiratorial relatives for the sake of electoral matters. Therefore he will not make himself beautiful with it. But for the Cardinal and Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg etc., for the sake of our friendly dear Lord's uncle, brother-in-law and godfather, it is certain that he does not like proper law, for otherwise he would not be able to call upon the Imperial Majesty or her Majesty's Commissaries. Maj. or her Majesty's Commissars, the Court of Appeal, to recusiren. But what is the use of arguing much about the fact that he and his peers may not suffer ordinary law, if the Hagenauian farewell brings such a thing to us quite brightly, clearly and obviously, to which we draw ourselves for the sake of brevity.
201 In which cases the Imperial Court of Appeal has so far proceeded and is still proceeding against the conspirators. Kammergericht has hitherto proceeded against the conspirators, and still continues to do so, which find by the Imperial Majesty. Majesty. Majesty's act or command. And that it is true, we refer to the above-mentioned Christian and divine, honest Dialogum, which declares it according to all necessity, and so thoroughly and constantly that the Saxon cannot reject it with the least. Therefore, it is a clear reason that the Court of Appeal could not be a judge in such matters. The opposing party would like it to be so, but it cannot and should not be brought there for any reason nor with any respectability.
No impartial, reasonable and honorable person can conclude that even such persons, who are fit, unsuspicious, qualified, honest and truthful for the Court of Appeals, would like to or should be recused with some substantial reason and cause. May nevertheless say: that they are thus suspicious, that the natural elements are reasonably frightened of their suspicion.
would like. That is truly rough chip hewn. What he also says: as not the most impassable 1) part of princes, princes and estates should have granted the affected peace without it not being relevant or easing the widow's remedy for indicated reasons; so it is also such a ' mere, empty and void pretense that it is not worthy of any answer.
203 And that Imperial Majesty has not been disobeyed by the Court of Appeal. Majesty has not been disobeyed by the Court of Appeal has already been heard. Therefore, there is no need to say anything more for the Court of Appeal, and the Court of Appeal will therefore, without any doubt, know how to give a good answer in the appropriate places.
204 But what does the Saxon want to say so much about the legal provision: what is decreed by the main points, that it should also be understood by those who are attached to it, or who are justly made of it, if the imperial mandate is able to clarify that all violations, if they happen because of faith, are to be complained about in the law, and to be prosecuted with penalties of the land peace. And even if the protesters' affairs flow from the fact that they have fallen into the churches and taken their pensions, interest, dues and other goods by force, such offences are therefore not ecclesiastical, but by virtue of the law, purely temporal and sacrilegious.
He cannot protect himself with our covenant, because the words are as follows: In religion, and what by right should adhere to and follow it etc. That the opposite sacrilegia, however, by right can neither adhere to nor follow religion, and that they may not be included in the state of peace, we have already reported. And the words of our Christian defensive alliance are set by reason of the counterpart: under what appearance of religion, or that it should adhere to or succeed religion, anyone of them would be grieved that one would want to set oneself defensively against it, not because that such things must be adherent or succeeding to religion. Thus it has still been described by us with consistency: that counterpart things are profane, temporal, and not matters of religion. For the sake of brevity, we refer to the Dialogum. And from this it further emerges that Gegentheil cannot suffer proper law, and that we said without falsehood: that he must let the emperor remain emperor etc. And also: that he should not have the imperial majesty for a judge or that he should not have the emperor for a judge. Majesty for no judge or suffer etc. What he also boasts of here in opposition to this and
1) "most impassable" - worst.
which are vain and empty words etc. But he is very repugnant to us with these words: that I should render servile, selfish and glory-seeking obedience to the imperial majesty. Majesty etc., very repugnant. He also does violence and injustice to the holy popes, because they have not let God's word be God's word etc. And if the contradiction is found in their statutes, let us refrain from disputing, as it is not necessary.
The Saxon is justified in considering our previous letter. We have said that the kingdom is not so free that he and the one from Hesse would not therefore be obligated to keep their duty and oaths. Whether he has now kept his duty and oaths, we have heard all ready, and he may know best where he wants to know otherwise; but that he has made the Emperor's Majesty his judge and suzerain. Majesty to be his judge and overlord, as his actions testify, and His Imperial Majesty himself is more aware of this. Majesty himself is more and better aware of this, so that there is no need for our request, for his daily disobedient dealings complain of him even to the Imperial Majesty. Majesty. We are in no doubt that the Imperial Majesty has never found us otherwise than truthful, sincere and honest (without glory), and that we should not find ourselves otherwise (God willing).
Our dealings are (without glory) just, honest and honest, and not at all violent; we have also acted or assumed nothing dishonest on account of Imperial Majesty. Majesty, we have not acted or assumed to act dishonestly. No one has acted contrary to law or freedom on the part of the Imperial Majesty. It is most gracious to Her Majesty that they administer justice, and let what is right be done to each person, administer what is good, and punish what is wrong, as Her Majesty has done so far, and will do for this (beyond all doubt).
Chamber judges and assessors are not unfit, inconvenient and suspicious judges because they are not of the presumed, ungodly and unproven religion and faith of Saxony, so that Saxony has the right to recuse them with some reason. For the fact that the Saxon has thrown off our true, old, Christian faith, judges and assessors are not obliged to praise and approve his practiced sacrilegia and unrighteous abuse, contrary to hitherto praiseworthy, legal, and just statutes, orders, and constitutions. It rhymes very badly, where someone mistreats, that he, because of his mistreatment, wants to recuse the judge, who is set to punish the bad and to handle the good, as suspicious. So also it does not want
The court has decided that the judge and assessor of Saxony should be allowed to recuse himself and to dismiss him as suspicious, because he has committed an outrage, misconduct and sin. Moreover, he cannot prove that anything has been done against him, contrary to the rights and imperial majesty. Majesty, has ever been spoken against him by judges and assessors. Do we then pretend unjustly that the Saxon has no power to recuse the Court of Appeal? We do not believe so, and no reasonable and impartial person will consider it so.
We have not yet heard any honest and divine reason why the pope, the cardinals and bishops could not or should not be judges of the other's supposed and ungodly religion.
Neither chamberlains nor assessors have been appointed or decreed by us, nor have we been commanded to order and appoint them. What is he blaming us for? But that they should be of the old, proven, divine and Christian religion, that is divine and right. For why should the restless, apostate and haereticos be ordered to do so? If Caspar von Seidewitz is one of these, he has nothing to complain about because of the non-admission with fugues. For this reason (as we have heard), however, the Saxon may not recuse the Court of Appeal, also in consideration of the fact that the sacrilegia, plundering of churches and other acts of breach of the peace cannot or may not be understood as matters of religion. We speak this out of no hatred, but considerately, and out of righteous divine zeal. We have now spoken so much on the matter that the following argumentation a minori ad majus is not worthy of an answer.
211 Not only the Court of Appeal, but also the Imperial Majesty itself. Majesty himself, he of Saxony cannot suffer for any judge. His prints testify to this more than in one place. We would like to know or hear, however, what judges or assessors held? whether they do not represent the Imperial Majesty. Majesty? If now the Saxon, with his supposed, unlawful recusation, gives to understand that he does not want to suffer chamber judges and assessors to be judges: who can conclude otherwise than that he does not represent the Imperial Majesty and the same chamber court? Who can conclude otherwise than that he does not want to let the Imperial Majesty and the same chamber court be his chief judge and court? No one knows what it is. Therefore, this has been argued by us in a good, consistent, and not evil way. But it is wrong not to appoint judges and assessors of Saxony, who are of his unproven religion and unchristian mind,
who approve of all his dealings; but His Imperial Majesty will know how to keep the charge. Majesty will know how to keep to the fee.
How we now refrain from praising the Court of Appeal, after the citation of the articles of purgation has gone out, he has well heard. We are (without glory) not such a one, who for the sake of our own things should rebuke the good and praise the evil. But that we should praise the Doctor in kais. Majest. But that we should have thrown down the doctor in the Imperial Majesty's escort, that we should have died, and that we should have committed other things, we do not confess to him.
Further, since he supposedly disputes and talks about the election matter, he boasts how he honestly performed his duty and oaths to the empire, which we do not even admit to the Saxon.
214 However, that the Saxon sought and still seeks these ways, so that the common status and council of the empire, as well as the traditional freedom and justice, may be preserved, we cannot understand, but we do not admit it at all. For, since by virtue of the golden bull the election, which takes place through the plurality, is to be considered and valued as if it had been unanimously carried out by all of them, by no one in disagreement: so it is not unacceptable to conclude from this that the Saxon refuses the Roman royal majesty her title for no good reason, and does not want to grant it. But what he means and seeks by this, since it is obvious to many, we consider it unnecessary to disclose further. Nevertheless, he wants to be regarded as one who alone means and seeks the welfare of the kingdom. And the golden bull is not so clear for him as he claims; as we have heard.
215 It is not just as loud and clear as the one from Saxony boasts of his blessed cousin, Duke Frederick, that the latter preferred to grant the imperial majesty such sovereignty. Majesty such sovereignty, which is said to have been in his hands. And what argues, therefore, that we are not pleasing and favorable to the Imperial Majesty? Majesty pleasant and faithful services? And that for this reason we should have yielded to him, to practice all disobedience and willfulness blamelessly, we do not think at all. And we would have suffered that he would have expressed what shameful and dishonest words we should have let ourselves hear against him in Augsburg on account of such things. We do not know how to humble ourselves in such a way that we should have him admonished that he should not consent to or grant the election of the Roman king. We have replied to the Landgrave, and we refer to this.
216. with the tightened erected ver
The treaties with Cadau and Vienna prove that the Saxon here claims to be in bad faith. For in the Cadau treaty it is stated to me that he has obtained, under the form of electoral matters, that he and his brother have been granted the fiefs and regalia, and that also the treaty between him and Jülich is to be confirmed and confirmed by the Imperial Majesty. Majesty to confirm and ratify it. This does not mean his own benefit, but only the welfare of the empire! And there is also his intended supposed reform of the Golden Bull. He may or may not bring about these treaties, and they will be of little benefit to him. But that we should cause such, he does us violence.
217 He may boast of noble reasons, contradiction, and of his cousin, Duke Frederick blessed, in this matter, whatever he wants: so far we have heard little boasting or praise from others. On the other hand, he will probably hear a good answer, if it would come to interrogation. But in such a matter, as in all his others, he cannot suffer or find a judge who wants to be convenient for him, yet his matters must be so good and justified that justice must be left to him.
218 It is also nothing less frightening to hear from him that he means and intends to make him favor, applause, adherence, outside the empire, with foreign potentates, against imperial and royal majesty and the empire of electoral matters. However, it is not only imprudence, but also unfaithfully meant and sought, completely and utterly inappropriate to his oath, duty, and vaunted obedience.
219 That we encounter repugnance from him and others of his kind for the sake of our obedience (without glory) and that we are hostile to his evil things, we are little alarmed and also little mistaken. But what happened to us the other day at the imperial court on account of our dealings (as we do not dislike any other, without glory, than those that are honest and true). We are not very concerned about what should have happened to us recently at the imperial court because of our dealings (as we do without any fame other than that which is honest and true). We are completely unaware of this. For (without glory, praise to God!) we know ourselves to be free and innocent of all evil and dishonest things that might draw us into some suspicion among the high chiefs. Majesty will not believe him and his like until Her Majesty (as is praiseworthy) has better ascertained the truth, and has also heard us out on it; that we, on the other hand, have to thank Her Majesty in submission, and are also to be highly praised in Her Majesty. The Landgrave has not given up his false
We have received a good, consistent answer from the Saxons that he has little to rely on the landgrave's false statements.
His fame, as he held himself against the imperial and royal majesty, would not be necessary, for, well aware of their majesty, his disobedient actions clearly show it. What evil sign should it be? and why should the people sigh from the spirit of God? if we already stand in trust with the high heads; which is only exceedingly very annoying and embarrassing to them. What trouble have we ever caused in the kingdom? But he who has made the kingdom restless and divided in itself, and still makes it so, is he and his brother, before whom the people groan from the Spirit of God.
221) What we now again say to the Saxon on the things that he calls foreign and yet has caused himself, and pertinent and rhymed for our defense and protection, truly, without cunning, glory, grace, favor, benefit, and obtaining great favor, from urgent causes and right (without glory) zeal of God's word, justice and imperial majesty. Majesty. We have nevertheless (although they themselves know it to be true) not to behave in such a way that the Saxon may be better reminded of his mischief, and whether he wants to do worthy fruit of repentance. And since we have already stipulated in the beginning, where we would refrain from answering something as unnecessary in the Saxon's writing, that we thereby did not want to concede or confess anything to the Saxon, there is no need here to make further stipulations, and we reserve the right, no less than the opposite, to also make further replies in case of need. However, that he should have been aware of a further responsibility, which he was to do in response to our new letter (of which he had received a report and a copy), would have frightened us into omitting our constant and truthful answer. But it is quite a childish thing that he thinks to make us loathsome with dread. Now he himself publicly reveals his mind, for we have never seen or received his nearer writing, the time it is dated, and long after that, nor have we begun to have this constant and true answer of ours made less time ago. But it is good that we understand his mind from it; and it should not be throbbing, but be in the work, where further responsibility is needed, that he should receive the same at any time abundantly and superfluously from us.
But that we have placed the decision of our previous letter in the judgment of the righteous God, who is the agent of all good peace and unity, we have done this out of a Christian mind and a pure good conscience (without glory). For that we should blaspheme God, and have begun an unchristian blasphemy, and an unpeaceful rebuke, in this the Saxon does us a little too much, and is much otherwise from our constant and truthful answer. Thus, what he alleges against us out of God's commandment, and what he continues to fence with it, cannot and may not win any support against us. But, as we have shown above from Cyprian, the Saxon boasts of God, of his word, and yet strives against it, and thinks nothing of it, so that we have little doubt that he will receive just and unworthy, 1) due punishment for defiling God's name and word.
If and when we do not behave according to our needs, we have no doubt that the authorities will not notice us otherwise than according to our needs, and that they will prove and show themselves friendly to us. We are at all times willing to earn E. L.'s kindness and goodwill. Date Wolfenbüttel, Tuesday after Ornnium Sanctoium. [Nov. 2], Anno 1540 ste.
By the Grace of God, Henry the Younger, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg etc.
To the Highborn Princes, Lord Ludwigen, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Archduke of the Holy Roman Empire, Duke of Bavaria; and Lord.Joachim, Margrave of Brandenburg, Arch Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Empire, of Stettin, Pomerania, the Cassubians and the Wends, also in Silesia, the Dukes of Crossen, the Burgraves of Nuremberg, and the Princes of Rügen, both Electors, our friendly dear lords, grandparents, cousins, brothers, sisters-in-law and cousins in common and, especially.
1436. Luther's above duplicate of Duke Henry of Brunswick, under the title "Wider Hans Wurst. Completed March 25, 1541; issued around April 1, 1541.
What led Luther to the title of this writing is already indicated in the introduction to the previous writing. In the scripture itself Luther refutes the manifold
1) Should probably mean "worthy".
1312 Erl. (2.) 2", 21 f. Section 1: Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436. W. XVII, 164S f. 1313
Braunschweiger's invective against the Elector, the Landgrave, and against Luther, especially in what concerns religion; therefore, it is of the greatest importance. The latter accuses the Elector and the Landgrave of pretending the gospel and being the cause of all disruption in the German nation. The Elector deprives Christendom of faith and all welfare through his scholars; because he does not know the word of God, he has separated himself from the common holy church; his ecclesiastics teach nothing good; he cannot regard him as a Christian; his religion is a supposed religion, which is not recognized by the common Christian church and is contrary to God and his word; the Elector owes obedience to the Emperor in matters of faith; he was a deceiver of Christianity; he was not concerned with God's word, but with self-interest and vain honor; he was not very attached to his error; he was Lutheran only for the sake of church goods; he was stirring up indignation; he had withdrawn from the order of the Christian church and had no religion; his teaching was contrary to the word of God; he had shaken off the true old Christian faith. In contrast, Luther shows in this scripture the difference between the true old and the false new church in doctrine and life. This main subject, which is dealt with in our writing in U 18-89, was already brought into a compilation published by Peter Seitz at Wittenberg in 1543 as a separate writing, under the title: "Von rechter und falscher Kirchen, Wo bey jgliche zu erkennen sey," then printed in the Wittenberg edition '(1554), vol. VII, pp. 533 b to 565. (Cf. our introduction to Luther's writing "Von den Concilien und Kirchen," St. Louis edition, vol. XVI, 2144.)-We have several clues as to the time of writing. On February 8, 1541, Jonas wrote to Laug in Erfurt (6o<I. dotb. V 399, k. 2126): "The Brunswick tyrant has written together an exceedingly poisonous book and has already published it against our most noble prince, and the Brunswick tyrant will be righteously combed." Therefore, Luther must have announced his intention to write against it already at that time. On February 13, he is at work, for under this date he writes to the Elector Joachim of Brandenburg (De Wette, Vol. VI, p. 281): "The Mordbrenner of Wolfenbüttel has let go out a blasphemous book against my most gracious lord, ... on which I write a short and gentle booklet of our cause." On March 25, Eber wrote to Melanchthon (Oorp. Lek. IV, 140): "The Herr Doctor has finished his pamphlet, but it will be printed as soon as the Prince's answer arrives." Already on April 4, Melanchthon reported to Luther (6orp. Lei. IV, 149): "Your writing against Duke Heinrich (Ll626iitiuiu) is read here exceedingly eagerly."
The first edition is entitled: "Wider Hans Worst. D. Mart. Luther. Wittemberg. M.D. Xbl." At the end: "Printed at Wittemberg by Haus Lufft. M. D. Xbl." 16 sheets in 4. In the same year, three other printings appeared; one at Marburg and two at Lotther in Magdeburg. Likewise, a Latin translation of the above-mentioned piece "von der Kirche" under the title: ^ntitkesis voras st kalsas eeelesiae, autoi-6 D. M. I-utbero, perVntonium Eorviuurn latinitats clouatu. M. D. XU 8oli Oeo Aloria. 4 sheets in 8. In the "Gesammtausgabe": in the Wittenberg (1559), vol. XII, p. 310; in the Jena (1568), vol. VII, p. 406 b; in the Altenburg, vol. VII, p. 443; in the Leipzig, vol.XXI,
p. 374; in the Erlanger (I.), vol. 26, p. I and in its second edition, vol. 26, p. 21. In addition, an exact reprint of the first edition, arranged by Knaake, in the "Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts", issue no. 28. Halle 1880.
1 He of Brunswick in Wolfenbüttel has now once again sent out a blasphemy letter, in which he has undertaken to rub my most gracious lord, the Elector of Saxony, in his honor, and has also twice touched and lured me. First, when he writes: I have called my most gracious lord Hans Worst; after that he attacks the whole main matter of faith, which I must confess to the most distinguished teachers at this time. He curses, blasphemes, blares, tears, shouts and spits in such a way that if such words were heard verbally from him, everyone would run towards him with chains and bars, as if he were possessed with a legion of devils (like the one in the Gospel [Marc. 5, 9]), so that he would have to be bound and caught. Although I do not consider the foul-mouthed man worthy of a letter in reply, since he is not alone, I will give our people something to talk about.
2. To speak for myself, I am very glad that books of this kind are written against me; for it is not only gentle in my heart, but also in the hollow of my knees and heels, when I realize that through me, a poor, miserable human being, God the Lord makes both the infernal and worldly princes so bitter and senseless that they want to tear themselves apart and burst with malice; and I meanwhile sit under the shadow of faith and Father-Our, and laugh at the devil and his scales in their great wrath, whining and tearing, so that they nevertheless accomplish nothing without daily making their cause worse, and my (that is, God's) cause better and better. And if they could suffer or understand it, I would have thought of them for it, and would have asked them to write such books against me without ceasing, to make such turmoil and strife, along with all the devils in hell. How better could I afflict them, for it makes me young and fresh, strong and cheerful.
3 For all such books, if there be as many thousands of them, as the one at Wolfenbüttel hath lies and iniquity in him, and all days
And even if so many things were written, they are easily justified by one little word, that is: Devil, you deny! As the haughty beggar, Doctor Luther, proudly and peevishly sings in his little song: "One little word can fell him. Therefore, because the devil is so angry in his Heinzen at Wolfenbüttel, and seeks the lies so precisely, that he also wants to knight me with the word "Haus Worst", I do not intend to answer his damned captive Heinzen much, as he is not considered worthy of me to think of him, but will let him 1) seek his honor as he can. For he shall search a thousand years before he will find a little hair of it. I will first say a little about Hans Worst.
4. How much the devil loves to lie from the bottom of all his powers, he shows here also by the fact that he tries to lie so exactly through his Heinzen at Wolfenbüttel, since I truly meant, and would not have provided myself, that the arrogant spirit should try to lie for such a ridiculous, childish reason, if he has other reasons; because it must be, as one says: He who loves to laugh, tickles himself; so also, he who loves to lie, must also lie when he tells the truth, as Chrysippus says. For you angry little spirit know well, your obsessed Heinz also, along with your poets and writers, that this word "Hans Worst" is not mine, nor invented by me, but used by other people against the coarse dolts, who want to be clever, but speak and do the thing unrhymed and clumsily. So I have often used it, especially and mostly in preaching. And I do not remember in my conscience that I have ever meant one person in particular, neither enemy nor friend, but as things happened, so I have used it. For I should not be afraid to confess where I was aware of which person I had meant; even if it were your Heinz von Wolfenbüttel himself with all his followers, I would rightly defend it before all of you by the grace of God.
1) Thus the Jena edition; in the Erlangen: "the same".
5 Now follow this, because you and your Heinz lie so brazenly, and seek out lies so carefully, that even through your whole book in greater things there will be nothing but vain lies, as our Lord says Luc. 16:10: "He who is unfaithful in small things is also unfaithful in great things. Whoever cannot abstain from small, unnecessary lies, how can he abstain from all other, great lies? Yes, because your Heinz and you are such coarse dolts that you think such lazy, lame jokes should do me harm in these matters, or bring you happiness, so you are both the right Hans Worst, dolts, gags and bullies; and herewith I want to answer you both, that you are both, father and son, desperate, dishonorable, lying villains, since you say, I have called my most gracious lord Hans Worst. No one is allowed to answer to such verbal art. Some think that you consider M. G. H. to be Hans Worst because he is strong, fat and full of body from God's gifts (to whom you are enemies). But what you think, put it in the break, 2) and hang it on your neck, and make a speech about it, 3) and eat, you coarse asses and swine.
6 Let this be said of Hans Worst. But what more is said in his blasphemy book about the escort and peace of the land etc. does not concern me now, and both have been answered before by M. G. Herr and Landgrave. Lord and the Landgrave, that Hans Worst of Wolfenbüttel will seek and save his honor in vain, as all reasonable people testify, and the writings prove mightily, that henceforth no one can set against him a writing that is defamatory (as they speak); and if the writing were so long that it reached out to the world, it could still touch nothing of his honor. What is nothing cannot be touched; that Heinz of Wolfenbüttel might wish that he could remain with these honors, that he might remain and be called Hans Worst; for I do not do it in his honor either, that I call him Hans Worst, but out of pure grace and mercy, which he is not worthy of.
7 Third, as he is now skinning over himself.
2) Leggings.
3) Jelly.
1316 Erl. (S.) 26, 24-26. sec. 1. campaign against.Brunswick. No. 1436, W. XVII, 1648-1651. 1317
and attacks the main thing, and M. G. H.. heretic, apostate, rebellious, monster, Nabal, Cain, and the like blasphemes without measure, in which I and all of me must be understood: I answer again, as above, that I would wish nothing better for my person to the obsessed Hans Worst (not to his or other people's destruction, but so that nothing would help me or the cause), than that he would have to write such books with his own without interruption, and I meanwhile sit quietly and happily and watch how in vain the devil with his Hansen, Heinzen, Würsten and Caldaunen fear, torture, and trample and trample, so that nothing but a laughter cause with us, and with yours the thing only trouble. Yes, I would that such books also had to be spoken orally, then the people would run up with chains and rods (as said above), and out of compassion, as the possessed, bind and catch them; or where the people did not call, perhaps oxen and pigs would finally trample them to death with horns and feet by God's command.
For all such blasphemous words, because they are poor, naked, mere blasphemous words, blasphemed without reason and cause, and not even a single article is reported, they are made to hiss or shout themselves to death, and meanwhile they answer with a small, light word: Devil, you deny! Hans Worst, how you deny! O Heinz Wolfenbüttel, what an impudent liar you are! you spout much and name nothing, blaspheme and prove nothing. Art can also be a fearful whore in the street, where she balances an honest virgin, sows, whores and bubbles, since she knows neither reason nor cause of all things, but only the contradiction, makes herself hostile, and the virgin dear and valuable to the people; and such a fearful whore should not be angry to speak such a book, as Hans Worst has written here from Wolfenbüttel.
But if the devil and his Hans Worst could write or say: For such and such a cause the Elector is a heretic, an apostate etc., then he would not be a Hans Morst, and one could then answer the matter. But this is not only Hans Worst and his father, but also the
Pabst, too high and impossible for all the world and all the devils; they have now tried for twenty years, and the longer the further they have failed. This is the answer to the wretched Heinzen and Hansen Worst in this play, who can do nothing more than, like the wicked whores, spout mere words of abuse; for where they could do something more, they would sometimes mix it in, and not just shout vain, vain blasphemies.
(10) But in general we answer all devils, papists and their followers, about what we have now done, namely, that they lie brazenly in such books and speeches, as is proper for devils and devil's servants, which the Holy Spirit has long since answered for all of us, Proverbs 26:2: "As a bird leads and a swallow flees, so an undeserved curse does not strike. Here Solomon teaches that we should not pay attention to blasphemous words or curses that come to us undeservedly and without reason or cause, because they pass by and do not affect anything. All histories and examples prove this. Where are the blasphemies of Arii and all heretics against the church? Where are the blasphemers of this time, Emser, Ecke, Rotzleffel, Wetzel? Their books have perished and come to nothing, "but God's word abides forever" [Is. 40:8].
(11) The Lord Himself gives us even more glorious judgment and comfort in this, Matt. 5:11: "Blessed are ye, when men shall blaspheme you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you for my sake, and shall lie: be ye glad and rejoice: for great is your reward in heaven. Again, without doubt: Be afraid and mourn, you liars and blasphemers against Christ and His, your damnation is great in hell. Here we have the right judgment and commandment, that we should be glad when we are blasphemed for Christ's sake, and should confidently say that they lie. Now all the devils, together with all the world, cannot say anything else, except that we are not so shamefully heretical and blasphemed for the sake of murder, adultery, or other bad deeds; there is none of this in Heinzen's book, and despite that they call it that, but for the sake of the gospel. For they themselves confessed at the Diet of Augsburg that our confession could not be overthrown by the Holy Scriptures. And
of their princes have said of their theologians: How finely our theologians defend us! they confess that their cause is founded in Scripture, ours not in Scripture. As it is true, and still today they condemn us, that we will not accept the Conciliarities, Fathers and Decrees of their Church above and apart from the Scriptures.
(12) Well, there stands our reason and defiance, and are not (like Hans Worst's) living, mere words; the Bible and God's word, and their own testimony stand with us. With them stands something else than God's word, namely the word of men, which we do not want to have, are also forbidden by Christ himself and the apostles, Matth. 15, 9: "They serve me in vain with the doctrine of men"; Gal. 1, 8: "Whoever preaches another gospel, even if it were an angel from heaven, let him be accursed. These are not (I say) our mere, naked blasphemous words, like the devil at Wolfenbüttel, like Schmid's, Rotzleffel's and their like. From this one can see the signs of who and where the true holy church is, namely, that it should and must be shamefully lied to, innocently blasphemed, horribly reviled and spat upon by the devil's mouths and the nonsensical Heinzen. It is said: Improperium Christi portantes, nothing else will come of it, if we want to be true Christians otherwise.
13 St. Paul says to us [Phil. 1, 28. ff]: "Do not be frightened by the adversaries, which is a sign of condemnation to them, but of salvation to you; and the same of God. For unto you it is given to do for Christ's sake, that ye should not only believe on him, but also suffer for his sake; and have the same warfare, which ye have seen in me, and now hear of me." Now if we are to be blasphemed, someone must do it, and St. Peter or St. John will not do it, nor any Christian, nor any sensible pagan. Of course, such insane, possessed Heinzen Wolfenbüttel, Schmid, Rotzleffel, Ecke, Münzer, Wiedertäufer, Pabst, Cardinal, Teufel und seine Mutter, and other devil-mouths in the Pabstthum must do it. Such a beautiful office and work belongs to such saints in the most holy church of the pope.
(14) Let blasphemy books come, and blasphemy rain and snow; here it is that we should rejoice, as the most sure sign that we are the blessed true church. Again, that Christ and St. Paul judge our blasphemers, and call them liars and damned enemies of God; what more do we want? How could they do us greater honor, give us greater joy, and give us greater comfort, than to blaspheme us without any cause, for Christ's sake alone, out of devilish and murderous hatred (as Christ judges here), as the insolent, damned liars, strengthening our faith and making us sure of our blessedness, condemning and cursing themselves. Therefore I have said above that it is not only easy to answer their blasphemous books, but also comforting to hear that they blaspheme us. And the more bitterly and vehemently they blaspheme, the better they do it, not with them, but with us. For with them they do it in such a way that they could not do it worse; they drive themselves into God's judgment, and want to be condemned by him as thieves and murderers of his sheepfold, that is, his church (as now said), which I do not yet grant them for my person, for they are too much use to me with their blasphemy.
15 Since the book of Heinzen Worst is either made by all devils and papists, or pleasing to all (which is the same, Rom. 1, 32, facjens et consentiens), so exceedingly poisonous, bitter and evil, I consider it the finest book that devils and papists have made in many years. For Christ, as the Lord of blessings and curses, is able to turn the curse of Balaam [Deut. 22] into a blessing; as Ps. 109:28: "If they curse, you bless"; and Matt. 5:11: "Be glad when people curse you." Therefore, to speak the truth, Hans Worst, with all his devils and papists, could not have done greater honor to M. G. H. Churfürsten zu Sachsen and us before God in this piece, since he calls us heretics, apostates etc., because with such blasphemy and cursing he gives our Lord Christ cause to bless and comfort us, but again to curse and condemn them as liars, thieves and murderers against God and His holy Church, so that where Heinz speaks, the
1320 Erl. (2.) 26, 28-30. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436, W. XVII, 1654-1656. 1321
Let the prince be a heretic, nothing else is valid before Christ, but this much: You Heinz are a damned liar and villain with your papacy.
16 They wanted to have that. Now understand what is said in Ps. 37:15: "The sword of the wicked shall enter into their own heart." Heinzen's book of blasphemy is thought by them to be a sharp sword against the prince and us, which should devour us in a moment; but according to the right mind of Christ (as now said) this is the opinion: his book of blasphemy is a sharp sword, which goes through the heart of Heinzen and his devils and papists, but does not touch a hair of our head; though he does not feel it now, like a fool, he shall feel it soon after. If you now want to have a gloss on any blasphemous word in Heinzen's book, then write with it: Here Hans Worst stabs himself and all papists through their own hearts before God, and blesses, and thereby honors the Elector of Saxony and the holy Christian Church to the highest degree. And the merciful God protect my Lord (indeed all sensible people), that they never do nor speak anything that pleases Heinzen and his companions, or that they think well, because even that, since he called M. G. H. a drunkard and a dabbler, is not good enough for him. a drunkard and Nabal, he does not do this because he is hostile to vice, but rather because he is angry with the person and creature of God, and he is sorry that he does not find vice in him as much as he would like, so that he could atone for his diabolical hatred with blasphemy and scolding, because he would like to turn the splinter into a beam and his beams into splinters. This is evident from the fact that where he cannot find vices, he seeks them and takes the Christian and princely virtues before him, blasphemes them and would like to turn them into vices with lies against his own conscience, but cannot. This is the way of the children of the devil, who is therefore called Diabolus, calumniator, that is, devil or blasphemer.
(17) For the devil, their God and Father, is not angry with men because they have sin and vice, but with the creatures of God and with God Himself, and delights in disgracing, blaspheming, accusing and condemning them, as he was disgraced. Therefore, where he
If he cannot bring them to sin or find sin in them, he is bitterly sorry, distorts him that they are pious, leads them on and attacks goodness and virtue, defiles and blasphemes, and would gladly make it sin, which is not sin, as Scripture says of him everywhere. If he finds a sin, he laughs into his fist and is fond of it; he tries to make it great and horrible, so that one might say that Heinzen's book is a real copy and form, taken from the devil's office. Pious people, where they find sin in someone, are sorry for the people, are hostile to sin, would rather it had not happened; these are God's children, who punish public evil out of compassion, or where they do not want to hear and become devils, they let them go, and condemn them to hell, or give them to the devil.
Of the church. 1)
18) However, so that we do not spend all our time with Heinz's devilish filth, but also present something useful and better to the reader, not for Heinz's sake, or those who set him up; for [they] are suo judicio condemnati, aures habent, et non audiunt [Ps. 135, 17.), let us take the matter 2) itself before us, namely, why the papists call us heretics through their Heinzen. And this is that they pretend that we have fallen from the holy church and have established another, new church. To this is to be answered: Because they boast that they are the church, they are obliged to prove it. If they prove it with some reason (do not ask for much reason), we will give ourselves up, come and say: Peccavimus, miserere nostri. But if they cannot prove it, they must confess (they do it gladly or unwillingly) that they are not the church, and we may not be heretics, that we fall from the void church; indeed, since there is no remedy, we must take the
1) This superscription is in the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
2) Here begins the piece mentioned in the introduction: "Of the old right church. The opening words are: "The thing for which the papists call us heretics is this"; just as here, in the further course of the writing everything personal against Duke Heinrich is omitted, and he is only referred to by "H. M.", that is Heinz Mordbrenner.
Church of Christ, and it be the church of the devil, or again. Therefore, the point is to prove which is the right church.
(19) As long as the proof is not there, it is in vain for one part to boast of the church, and the other part to call heretics; one part must be false and wrong. For there are two churches from the world to the end, which St. Augustine calls Cain and Abel. And the Lord Christ tells us not to accept the false church, and Himself distinguishes two churches, one right and one wrong, Matth. 7, 15: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing" etc. Where there are prophets, there are churches in which they teach. If the prophets are false, the churches that believe and follow the prophets are also false. Now we have never yet been able to get the papists to prove why they are the right church, but they stand on the saying of Matt. 18:17, that one must hear the church or be lost; although Christ does not say there who, where or what the church is, but where it is, there it must be heard. This we also confess and say; but we ask, where and who is the church of Christ? non de nomine, not of the name, but of the essence we ask.
(20) As if I asked a drunkard, a half-asleep man, or a fool, 'Tell me, my dear, who or where is the church,' and he answered me ten times no other way, but thus, 'One should hear the church. How can I hear the Church if I do not know who and where it is? Yes, they say, we papists remained in the old church from the time of the apostles; therefore we are the right ones, coming from the old church and remaining until then; but you have fallen from us and have become a new church against us. Answer: But how, if I prove that we have remained with the right old church, even that we are the right old church; but you have fallen away from us, that is, have become apostates from the old church, and have established a new church against the old church? Let us hear that.
21 First of all, no one can deny that we, as well as the papists, come from Holy Baptism, and Christians from Holy Communion.
are called the same. Now baptism is not a new thing, nor invented by us at this time, but it is the same old baptism that Christ instituted, in which the apostles and first church and all Christians afterward have been baptized until now. If we now have the same baptism of the 1) first old (and, as it says in the Symbola, catholicae, that is, of the whole Christian) church, and are baptized in the same, then we certainly belong to the same old and whole Christian church, which is the same with us, and we are the same with it, coming from the same baptism, and there is no difference because of baptism. But baptism is the first and foremost sacrament, without which all the others are nothing, as they must confess. Therefore, the papists cannot truthfully accuse or heresy us of another or new church, because we are children of the old baptism, as well as the apostles themselves and all of Christendom, Eph. 4:5: "one baptism.
22. secondly, no one will deny that we have the holy sacrament of the altar, the same and the same as Christ himself instituted it, and the apostles afterwards and all Christendom used it; so that we eat and drink with the old and all Christendom from one table, and received with them the same one old sacrament, and have made nothing new or different in it, because we are with them one church, or, as St. Paul 1 Cor. 17. Paul 1 Cor. 10, 17, we are one body, one bread, eating of one bread and drinking of one cup. Therefore the papists cannot call us heretics or new church, they must first call Christ, the apostles and the whole Christianity heretics; as they do in truth, because we are one church with the old church, in one sacrament.
23) Thirdly, no one can deny that we have the right old keys, and do not need them other than to bind and loose the sin that has been done against God's commandment, as Christ instituted [Matth. 16, 19. Joh. 20, 23.], the apostles and all of Christendom have used until now; have
1) "Baptism of the" put by us instead of: "Baptism, the" in all editions. The reading "the" could exist, if one so changed: "baptism, the first, old fTaufe], and, as i'm Symbola stehet" etc., with deletion of the brackets.
1324 Erl. (p.) 28,32-34. sec. I. Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436 W. XVII, 1659-1661. 1325
So we have the same key and the same custom as the old church, which is why we are the same old church, or ever were in it. For we make no new keys, make no new laws, neither do we exclude kings and lords from and into their worldly dominions, but only sinners from and into the kingdom of heaven, just as the old church did by the command of the Lord; but that the papists again falsely lie to us, yea, heresy and lust the old church, apostles, and Christ himself in us.
(24) Fourth, no one can deny that we have the preaching ministry and the Word of God pure and abundant, and that we teach and practice it diligently, without any addition of new, individual, human teaching, just as Christ commanded, and the apostles and all Christendom did. We do not invent anything new, but keep and remain with the old Word of God, as the old church had it; therefore we are the true old church with it, as one church, which teaches and believes the same Word of God. Therefore the papists blaspheme Christ Himself, the apostles and the whole of Christendom, when they call us new men and heretics. For they find nothing in us but the old things of the old church, that we are like it and one church with it.
(25) Fifthly, no one can deny that we hold the apostles' symbol, the old faith of the old church, in all things the same with it, believing, singing, confessing, adding nothing new to it, so that we belong to the old church and are one with it. Therefore, this piece does not allow us to be truthfully scolded by the papists as heretics or new church, because whoever believes and holds the same with the old church is of the old church.
26. sixth, no one can deny that we have the same prayer with the old church, the same Lord's Prayer, not a new or different one, singing the same psalms, praising and thanking God with one mouth and heart, just as Christ taught, the apostles and the old church themselves used, and commanded us to do according to the example. And the papists cannot heresy us for this, nor reproach the new church; they must first reproach Christ Himself, along with His dear old church etc.
27. to the seventh, no one can deny.
that we teach and hold with the old church that one should honor the temporal rulers and not curse them, nor force them to kiss the pope's feet. Nor did we invent such things anew, but St. Peter, 2 Peter 2:10, curses those who invent such things anew and would do so in the future; and St. Paul, Romans 13:1 ff, stands with us and all of old Christianity, that in this we may not be or be called new things, as the papists blaspheme God Himself in us, but are and belong to the old, holy, apostolic church, as the right children and members of it. For we have always been taught to be most faithfully obedient to our sovereignty, be it emperor or prince, and we ourselves have also done so and prayed heartily for them.
(28) Eighthly, no one can deny that we praise and extol the marriage state as a divine, blessed and pleasing creature and order, for the fruit of the womb and against carnal immorality. And we have not invented it anew from ourselves, nor have we invented the custom of it anew from ourselves, much less forbidden it as new teachers, but just as God created it from the beginning, confirmed it to Christ, honored and taught it to the apostles and the old church, we have remained in the same old rule and God's order, and thus are similar to the old church, indeed are true members of it; so that one sees here how the papists once again falsely impose innovation on us.
29. ninth, no one can deny that we have the same suffering (as St. Peter says [1 Ep 5:9.We are persecuted in all places, strangled, drowned, hanged, and subjected to all plagues for the word's sake, and we are like the old church, and in this we are more than like it, so that we may well say, "We are the old, true church," or we are its fellows and equal companions in suffering; for we do not invent these things anew, but feel them. Yes, we are (like the same old church) equal to the Lord Christ Himself on the cross. There stand before the cross Annas and Caiphas, together with the priests, blaspheming the Lord for having crucified him; just as the pope, cardinals, and monks condemn us, condemn us, condemn us, and condemn us.
have dammed, murdered and shed our blood, and still blaspheme us. There stand the men of war, that is, the secular rulers in part, and also blaspheme us; in addition, the rogue, the left avenger, Heinz Wolfenbüttel, together with his own, whom God has already condemned and sentenced to hell, must also do his blaspheming, so that this piece is abundantly seen on us as an old sign of the old church.
(30) For the tenth, no one can deny that we do not again shed blood, murder, execute, and avenge ourselves, as we often might have done and still do; but as Christ, the apostles, and the ancient church did, we forbear, admonish, and pray for them, even publicly in the church, in the litanies and sermons, of all things, as Christ our Lord did and taught, the ancient church also so; that in this also we all keep to the old nature of the ancient church.
31 Since the papists know that we are like the old church in all such things and more, and may truly be called the old church (for such things are not new, nor invented by us), it is a wonder why they may so brazenly lie to us and condemn us as having fallen from the church and brought about a new church; so that they may find nothing new in us that was not kept in the old and true church in the apostles' time. That I truly consider this to be the time, of which Dan. 7, 9. says: The old man, Antiquus dierum, sat down after the little horn had sounded and the judgment was held. For the former, old church shines forth again (like the sun after the clouds, behind which the same sun was, but not bright), and the blasphemous horn will go down and everything will come to an end, as it stands there, and the work is shown; of which it is not time to speak here.
But someone would like to say: There is still one thing lacking, namely fasting, because you heretics do not fast (they say). Oh Lord God! If there is a piece of the old church in us, it is, alas! the fasting. If there is one thing about the papists of the new church, it is that they do not fast and live in fasting, even on fast days, rather than on feast days. Yes, we do not fast alone, but suffer (with
St. Paul [1 Cor. 4, 11.]) Hunger, which we see daily in our poor parish priests, their wives and children, and in other poor people, whose eyes are filled with hunger, who have hardly enough bread and water, and in addition have no means of their own. The peasant and the burgher do not give, the nobility takes, that ours are few who have something, and yet cannot help all. The monasteries and convents should serve. So the others are stingy, and Lazarus must die of hunger. The papists laugh at this, but in this way they prove that we are the old church, which suffers the mockery of the devil's children.
(33) Hereby we have proved that we are the true ancient church, with the whole holy Christian church, one body and one congregation of saints. Prove now also, ye Papists, that ye are the true old Church, or that ye are the same. But this you cannot do; but I will prove that you are the new, false church, which is always apostate from the old right church, the devil's whore and school.
34.1) First, you do not stay with the first, old baptism. For you have again invented many other baptisms, and teach that the first baptism is afterwards lost through sin; that one must be satisfied by one's own work, especially by monasticism, so that one becomes as pure as if one came out of the baptism of Christ; hence you have made the world full of churches and monasteries. And this piece, the satisfactio, satisfaction, is the beginning and origin, door and entrance to all abominations in the papacy, just as in the church baptism is the beginning and entrance to all graces and forgiveness of sins. For where there is no baptism, sacrament, key and all help nothing. If there had not been the remission of sins, indulgences, pilgrimages, brotherhoods, masses, purgatory, monasteries, foundations, and the greater part of all abominations would not have been invented, and the papacy would not have become so thick and fat. That is why they called it a baptism in their church, which performed many baptisms, sacraments and forgiveness of sins, and even high holiness. This is their own righteousness,
1) Here, in the piece shown above at § 18, is the heading: "Of the new false church, what, where and who it is, and how one should recognize it."
1328 Erl. (2.) 26,36-39. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436. w. XVII, 1664-166." 1329
The sanctity of work, of which we have written much. Who commanded you, or where is it written? Where do you find in the old church that you may invent such new baptism and holiness? Who here is heretic, apostate and new church?
35 Secondly, ye have sent indulgences into all the world, as a baptism, yea, as a flood of sins, to wash away sins; that there is not a corner in the world where your indulgences are not sold, or given, all the world full of seals and letters. Who commanded you? or where is it written? Where do you find it in the old church that you may establish such new baptism and washing away of sins? Who is the heretical new church here? Is it not you, the whore church of the devil?
36 Thirdly, you have put holy water and salt not only in all the churches, but also in all the corners, as a washing away (or baptism) of sins, and also taught great sorcery in it, as distinguished. 3. aquam sale, prove. Who told you to do it? Where is it written? Where do you find it in the old church or institution of the apostles? Who is the new, apostate church here?
(37) Fourth, you have made pilgrimages to earn indulgences or remission of sins, which, because it is done without a sacred office, by your own merit, is also a new and different baptism or washing away of sins. Who commanded you? Where is it written? Where do you find it in the old church that you should establish such a new forgiveness or baptism? Who is the new, apostate church here?
(38) Fifth, you have formed brotherhoods without number, so much so that you have made all the world full of seals and letters, all for indulgence and remission of sins and for merit, which alone is the ministry of holy baptism and sacrament. Who commanded you? Where is it written? Where do you find it in the old church, that you may establish such new forgiveness or merit? And who can tell how many new ways you have invented to forgive sin for money or for your own merit? Who is here the new church, with new doctrines and sacraments, of which neither Christ, apostles, Scripture, nor the old church knew anything 1)?
1) In the old editions: "ichtes".
39. sixth, who will tell all the abominable innovations which you have invented in the reverend holy sacrament of the body and blood of Christ? Who has commanded you? Where is it written? Where do you find it in the ancient church? First, that you may take and rob this sacrament from the whole church, and leave only the one form, and appropriate the whole to the priests alone? Secondly, that the same one form should not teach and increase the faith, but be turned into a work of obedience of the church. Thirdly, not to use the whole Sacrament (where it is otherwise a Sacrament) in remembrance of Christ, to preach of Him publicly, and to thank Him for His suffering, but to sell it as a sacrificial offering and the own merit of one bad boy to another, and to give it to the souls in purgatory, and for all temporal need, like a heathen idolatry, yes, like a shameful grempelmarkt, 2) in the most abominable and blasphemous way, so that Christ's memory (for which he founded it after all) has been distorted and eradicated. And if you were otherwise as pure a church as the apostle himself, and much purer still, yet this few abominable, horrible pieces, which you have invented anew out of the devil's counsel, make you a new, apostate, heretical church, yes, the devil's archwhore, and a hellish school. For this play is so desperately, gratuitously evil that no tongue can speak it out in this life, no heart can comprehend it, until the last day appears.
40. read, gather, pick up all the evil that the devil can devise against us with all of you, and lie a thousand times as much, yet it will not be a small splinter against this beam, on which not one, but undoubtedly all the devils and all the worst of boys in six hundred years have carpentered. This is one of the right pieces, which Christ calls an abomination in the holy place [Matt. 24:15]. Therefore not only shall we flee from you, and must flee, as from the greatest wrath of God, but heaven and earth is terrified and shuns such a pit of murder; for this piece not only does not allow a church to remain, but makes the
2) "Grempel" ----- junk goods.
The devil's worst stink chamber that is on earth. The Turk, the Tatar, and the Jew are nowhere such an evil pit of murder as the papal church in this matter, for they alone deny Christ and turn their backs on him; but these take him for their own, spit upon him, mock him, blaspheme him, defile him, and martyr him, and play a much more horrible passion with him than was done to him bodily by the Jews. Yea, go ye therefore, praise the holy church from which we have fallen! May the devil remain with you in such a church, and all those who want to be Heinzen. God protect us for this, as he has graciously torn us out, for which praise and thanks be to him forever.
41. Seventhly, who has commanded you to make this news, that you have forged new keys, even two false lock picks, so that you neither forgive nor retain sin, as the old keys do with us and in the whole of the old church, but cause new sin and murder, where there are none else, in your new, apostate, murderous church, so that with infallible, innumerable laws you may see and bind, terrify and kill the Christian consciences, in food, drink, clothing, places, days and such like outward things, which Christ freely commanded, Col. 2:16, and kept the ancient church thus without all sin and driving, and deposed kings and princes, as if ye were God himself? Who is here apostate and new church? Let the devil remain with you in this blasphemous, murderous, sinful, corrupt play! He also remains with you; we have come back to the old church, praise and thanks to God.
42. eighth, who commanded you to preach differently from the old churches and against Christ's command? Matth. 28, 20: "Go and teach them what I have commanded you," does not mean what you think is right and good. Joh. 14, 26.: . "The Holy Spirit will teach you and remind you of all that I have told you." But you have filled all the churches and schools with your filth, that is, with the doctrines of men and lies, and have spitted your cakes so full that (as Isaiah says [Cap. 28:8]) there is no room left; and you still want the church to be praised. And this piece is next to the corner mass also of the worst abominations one, whose damage and
The plague is not to be reasoned nor counted, so that you build a new church for the devil, and serve him with it, that it has become vain soul murder, and the right child-eater Moloch, who does not let the souls (like that Moloch) of the children become blessed, whether they were burned bodily, but again, lets the body live a little time, and the soul burns eternally. I cannot think much in horror of the misery of the innumerable false, idolatrous, murderous teachings in the papacy, that is, in your new beautiful church.
43) Ninthly, who commanded you to make this sacrilegious innovation in the church, which is a spiritual kingdom, that you should set up a bodily head, and call it the most holy? when there can be no other head but a spiritual one, which is Christ. This is the third, worst abomination in your most holy, even most infernal new church; for the old church knows nothing about it, has remained with its head, just as we do. But that it is the devil's own business, and should come for the sake of sins, it knows, and has clearly proclaimed it in 2 Thess. 2:3, 4: "The man of sins and the child of perdition shall sit down in the temple of God, and present himself as if he were God." For he also lets himself be called earthly God by you. So also Daniel said [Cap. 11, 37.], he would despise the old church and [the] GO.tt of his fathers, and establish another, new God and new churches (which help him to strengthen his new God). Who then has a new, apostate church? Is it the old ones and us, who stayed with the old right head, and flee and avoid the new devil's head? Or is it those who worship the new devil's head, kiss his feet, let themselves be blessed by his two fingers, lift his teachings above the word of God, and do not honor the old right head with a bow of the knee, nor do they ever remember him, and do not respect his blessing, which he acquired for us with his whole body and blood? But this abomination is too dreadfully dreadful, that little speaking of it does no good, and yet no angels' tongues are sufficient to speak of it rightly. What God's own mouth calls an abomination must be a greater abomination than all tongues can speak.
1332 Erl. (S.) 26, 41-43. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick.'No. 1436. w. XVII, 1669-1672. 1333
44. tenth, who has ordered you to establish this new idolatry? That you establish saints' services, canonize saints, set feast days and holidays to honor them, as if they were God Himself, that one has relied and put off on their merit, more than on Christ Himself, and on all His blood and merit; whom you have set before us as a judge, whom we must propitiate and obtain grace through His mother's and all the saints' merit and intercession, together with our saints' service. That your church has been nothing else in this respect than the churches of the heathen, who worshipped Jovem, Junonem, Venerem, Dianam and other deceased people, and as the Romans built a pantheon in their city Rome, so you have also built a Pautheon in the church, which is the church of all devils. You will not find this in the Apostles' Scriptures, nor in the young church hereafter, which in former times did not want to suffer even the images of the saints, and much blood was shed over them; let them not worship or call upon the saints, which is due to God alone.
45. eleventh, who commanded you to make this innovation, that you condemn, blaspheme and condemn the married state as impure and unfit for God's service? Did you get this from the apostles or from the first, ancient church? Yes, indeed, for St. Paul says in 1 Tim. 4:1 ff. that you would come in the future who would separate yourselves from the faith and the old church and go astray, as a true devil's harlot, who would receive such teaching from the devil and preach against the married state, and yet live in false hypocrisy, that is, in all kinds of fornication. We see this innovation with its noble fruits, that the earth no longer wants to carry you, and God has begun to intervene with His judgment, and to consecrate such a new holy church to the hellish fire, and will not be turned away; we know this, praise God!
(46) Twelfthly, who commanded you to make such innovation as to rule and war with the temporal sword, which is most needed to shed innocent blood? Have you seen, you sharp-sighted bats, that the apostles or the ancient church conquered the world with the sword, or increased the church with war? Where do you come
You who claim to be heirs of the old church, and reproach us with the new, apostate church, which we hold with the old church and come from the same, but you come from the lost devil's whore, your new, murderous lying church?
There are many more of these new things, such as purgatory, the sanctuary, the consecration of the churches, and the whole dirt and filthy valley of the boil, and otherwise innumerable books full of vain new things, which the old church knew nothing about, nor the apostles. For who can tell all the amount of this sand or dirt, yes poison and devil lies? Let it be enough this time to prove how shamefully the papists lie through their heinies when they chide us the new, apostate, heretical church; but such her lost 1) sword goes through her own heart, and she is found to have left the old church and her old bridegroom, as an archdevil whore, to have become apostate, and not only heretical (for the word is too low and too honest for such a disgraceful woman), but the most unchristian and God-rejecting, even exalting herself above God (as her bridegroom in heaven also wants to do), the last and most shameful bride of the devil. But we, because we shun and flee all such devilry and novelty, and keep ourselves again to the old church, the virgins and pure bride of Christ, are certainly the true old church, without all whoredom and novelty, which remained until us, and we come from it, yes, are again born anew from it, like the Galatians of St. Paul [Gal. 4:19]. For we have also been stuck in the butt of the infernal whore, the Pope's new church, with all seriousness, which we are sorry to have spent so much time and effort in the hole shamefully. But praise and thanks to God, who has delivered us from the red blasphemous whore!
(48) If such novelties in the papacy were or could be bad novelties, they could still be suffered for the sake of peace, just as one wears or suffers his new robe. But now this devilish poison and infernal murder clings to it, so that it must be called the commandment of the church, holy worship, good living, spiritual being, in which grace
1) "verlipt" - poisoned.
and life (if you keep it), or wrath and death (if you do not keep it); that is, making truth out of lies, God out of devils, heaven out of hell, and again. Therefore the church of the pope is full of lies, devils, idolatry, hell, murder and all misfortune, so that it teems, and here it is time to hear the voice of the angel, Revelation 18:4, 5: "Come out of Babylon, my people, lest you be made partakers of her sins, lest you receive some of her plague, for her sins reach to heaven" etc.
In times past, when painters painted the Last Judgment, they depicted hell as a great dragon's head with a very wide mouth, in the midst of which were the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, emperors, kings, princes, all kinds of men and women, but no young children. I truly do not know how one should or could paint or describe Pabst's church more finely, more briefly and more clearly. For it is certainly the mouth of hell, which first of all devours the pope himself and all the world in the abyss of hell through the devil's mouth, that is, through its devilish preaching and teaching. It must not have been invented by a silly man, perhaps from Isa. 5:14, where he says: "Hell hath opened wide her soul, and opened her mouth without measure, that both her glories and her rabble, both her rich and her happy, may go down." But if plumps or Scherzeus is so advised, then it is a very well advised image to present to the simple man the papal church, to beware of it, and to flee from it, which has devoured everything, except the young baptized children; of which more hereafter.
(50) Here they will and may say, Why then do you shamefully reproach us as a new, apostate church, since we also have baptism, sacrament, keys, symbolon, and gospel, as well as the old church from which we came, and you yourself have confessed above that we come from the old church as well as you? I answer: It is true, I confess that the church in which you sit comes from the old church, as well as we, and has the same baptism, sacraments, keys and text of the Bible and the Gospel; I will praise you even more highly, and confess that we come from the church among you.
(not from you) have received everything; what more do you want? Are we not pious enough? Will you not leave us henceforth unheretical? We know not to take you for Turks nor Jews (as said above), who are outside the church, but we say, you do not remain with it, and become the runaway, apostate, Hurian church (as the prophets use to call it), which does not remain in the church, from which it was born and brought up, run away from the same church, and from the right man or bridegroom (as Hosea [Cap. 1, 3.] says of the people of Israel) to the devil Baal, Moloch, Astaroth. Do you not understand this? I will tell you.
(51) All of you are certainly baptized in the right baptism of the old church, as we are, especially in infancy; and what so baptized lives and dies until the seventh or eighth year, before it understands the whore church of the pope, has certainly been saved, and will be saved; of this we have no doubt. But when it grows up, and hears, believes and follows your false preaching of your devilish newness, then it becomes a devil's whore with you, and falls away from its baptism and bridegroom, as happened to me with others, builds and trusts in his works, as you whoremongers preach in your whore houses and devil's churches; Forasmuch as it is baptized to trust and build in his one dear Bridegroom and Lord JESUS CHRIST, who gave himself for us. And be as if a pious man were to take up a poor, young, beggarly, bondwoman for a bride-to-be, and be betrothed to her, and keep her chaste until she becomes manly; Then she would turn her eyes, look at other companions whom she liked very much, let herself be persuaded, become ardent for them, leave her heart-loving, faithful bridegroom, who redeemed her, fed her, educated her, clothed her, adorned her and kept her beautiful, and let everyone make her a whore. This whore, who was previously a pure virgin and dear bride, is a renegade, runaway marriage whore, a house whore, a bed whore, a key whore, who is a wife in the house, has keys, beds, kitchens, cellars and everything in her command, so evil, in contrast to the common free whores, push whores, 1) field whores, country whores,
1) "Pusch" - bush, copse.
1336 Erl. (S.) 26, 45-47. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436, W. XVII, 1674-1677, 1337.
Whores, are almost sacred, because this one is the right arch-whore and actually a devil-whore.
Hosea speaks of such a harlot, and the prophet Ezekiel speaks much more crudely and almost too crudely. 23, 3. ff. You may read this if you want to know what kind of whore your church is. For such a whore I mean when I call you an apostate whore who has gone astray, who were baptized true Christians in childhood, who lived on the dear Lord for several years, like the old church; Afterwards, when you have grown up and come to your senses (as I myself have done with all others), you see and hear the beautiful ceremonies of the papal church, and the enjoyment, honor and power that shine within, yes, the splendid holiness and great worship and preached kingdom of heaven, you forget your Christian faith, baptism and sacrament, become diligent pupils of the lenae, the arch-whore, and young harlots (as the comedies say), until you make old whores young harlots again, and so henceforth increase the church of the pope, even of the devil, and make many of the true virgins of Christ, born of baptism, also arch-whores. Let this, I say, be spoken in German, that you and everyone may understand what we mean. For even if you consider such novelty among yourselves a joke, which you neither have nor respect, it is nevertheless terrible, abominable, idolatry, murder, hell and all misfortune in the sight of God, which God does not like, that He therefore wants to condemn the arch-whore eternally.
53 St. Peter also knows about this when he speaks of you, such new prophets and churches, 2 Petr. 2, 18. 19.: "They speak splendid words, since there is nothing behind them, and provoke those to worldly lust through lewd living, who were rightly escaped and now have to walk in error, promising them freedom, forgiveness and indulgence, if they themselves are servants of damnation. Item [v. 20-22]: "They had escaped the filth of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior JEsu Christ, and are again entangled in the same and overcome, so the last is worse with them than the first was. It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and turn back from it.
the holy commandment given to them. The true proverb [Proverbs 26:11] has happened to them: "The dog has spit, and fries again; the sow has been washed in the flood, and is rolling in the dung again. That is what you are; that is what I was like; you have described your new, apostate, lost church in German enough, and painted it clearly enough before your eyes.
For we confess not only that ye are come with us out of the true church, and are washed with us in baptism, and are washed in the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as St. Peter saith. Peter says here, but say that you are also in the church and remain; yes, that you sit and reign inside, as St. Paul 2 Thess. 2, 4. knows that the accursed end-Christ will sit in the temple of God (not in the cowshed) etc. But you are no longer of the church or members of the church, but in such a holy church of God you set up such a new, apostate church of the devil's whorehouse, and innumerable fornication and idolatry or newness, by which you deceive the baptized and redeemed souls with you, and swallow them up through the infernal maw into the abyss of hell, with innumerable heaps, with terrible sorrow and heartache of all those who see and recognize such with spiritual eyes.
55. But it is God, who by his wonderful almighty power, under so many abominations and devil's fornication, still keeps the young children among you through baptism, and some old ones, but very few, who at the end of their lives have again kept to Christ, of whom I have known many myself; so that the right old church with its baptism and God's word remains among you, and your God, the devil, through so much new idolatry, with all your devilish fornication, has not been able to destroy it completely. Just as 1) in the time of Elijah [1 Kings 19:18], when everything (although all of God's people, that is, the holy church, praised God who brought them out of Egypt) was full and vain Baal, idolatry and fornication in the whole land, that God had not kept one altar, yet
1) In the original edition, there is still an inappropriate "er" here.
Seven thousand men were left of all the many that lurked, because the greatest and best were among them, and went to the devil, and all died in the wilderness under Moses, without the two, Joshua and Caleb. God's work is called consummans et abbrevians, that He preserves a few by grace, when the whole multitude perishes in wrath, of which St. Paul abundantly speaks in Romans 11.
Daniel 12:1 prophesied long before that there would be a time of wrath under the end of Christ, and such tribulation as has never been on earth. And St. Paul 2 Thess. 2, 11, who takes his prophecy from Daniel there, also says that God will be angry and let strong errors come, because one has not accepted the truth with love for salvation. Dear, let us look at our, that is, Christianity's, histories. Under Constantia, the son of Constantine, the wrath of God was so great that the Arian heretics held all the churches in the world except two, and yet at that time the bishops, even the Arians themselves, were learned, pious, honorable, diligent people before the world. What then should be under the papacy, since no bishop can still exercise his office, live epicurally and acidly ? it must be the devil; that is why the papist Heinzen and Heinzian papists understand much less what church or God is, neither a cow nor a sow understands; it is a high, deep, hidden thing the church, that no one may know it nor see it, but must grasp and believe only in baptism, sacrament and word. The doctrine of men, ceremonies, plates, long skirts, bishop's hats and all the papal trappings only lead far away into hell, let it not be said that the church should show it; for the church also includes naked children, men, women, peasants, citizens, who nevertheless wear neither plates, bishop's hats nor chasubles.
57. 1) Here the papists may wish, indeed they want by force, that such new articles of their new church be held or tolerated alongside the old articles of the old church; if not, then they want us heretics and dead. For the pope is such a rough ass that he can neither
1) Here, the above-mentioned piece has the superscription: "Difference of right and wrong churches."
wants to learn to distinguish between God's word and man's teaching, but keeps both the same. They prove this by the fact that they have often made a comparison or contract with us, as if they wanted to yield something, we should also yield something, and thus both come together (although the same has never been their intention, and they only meant to tear us down and separate us). Nevertheless, one sees in it so much how they have set themselves above God, as the end-christian blasphemers, thinking that the doctrine should be right as long as they want it to be; when they no longer want it, it should no longer be right. For they want to have the power to give some of it or not; and whether they give it or not, we are to accept it, daring us such blasphemous unchastity, impudent, without all pretense, quite evidently, so that they give themselves up, that they no longer have a nimble devil riding them, as they did some hundred years ago, but the palpable fool, coarse devil, who can no longer adorn himself with malice.
For because they offer to yield and desire the same from us, they testify that the word of God and the doctrine of men are equally valid to them. Rather, to yield to God's word or to change it, does not stand with God Himself, for He cannot deny or change Himself [2 Tim. 2:13], and His word remains eternal [Isa. 40:8]. But whoever should change it or let it lapse, must have a higher power than God Himself has; for He would not have changed Mosiah's law, if He had not promised to change it beforehand by His word. No one would dare to do this, except the end-Christ, as Daniel 11:36 and St. Paul say [2 Thess. 2:4], who exalts himself above God, namely the papacy. What should one do with such people, yes, with such coarse hens and great asses, who think that God's word is a reed that the wind weaves to and fro [Matth. 11, 7], that they are mighty; or (that they rather think) it is a penny that must be counted according to their damned sin, according to which they lift or lay it on the lines. Thus they finely understand what the church is, even by referring to it, that they highly despise God and His word, set themselves above God, and do not consider His church to be theirs.
can. And the coarse felt, the rascal and the fool, the donkey of all donkeys in Wolfenbüttel, cries out his donkey cry, judges and heresies, so that he can never learn, if he studies a hundred years, and hears his masters in the whole papacy, what is church or heretic, what is a Christian or apostate, the intellect is too high for them. But what murder is, he could well teach his masters, even the pope himself.
(59) The holy Christian church (I am speaking now of ours, for there is no reason, sight or hearing, in the pabstles, or in the heinies, blocks and stones) is not a reed or a penny. No, she does not waver or give way, like the devil's whore, the papal church, which, like an adulteress, thinks she does not have to stand firm with her husband, but may well waver, give way, allow, as the whoremonger would have it; but she is (says St. Paul [1 Tim. 3, 15.)) "a pillar and foundation of the truth". It stands firm (he says), is a foundation and firm ground, not a false ground or a ground of lies, but a ground of truth, do not lie or be unfaithful, do not deal in lies. But what wavers or doubts cannot be truth. And what would be the use or need of a church of God in the world, if it would waver and be uncertain in its words, or set something new every day, now giving this, now taking that? Yes, what would be the use of such a God, who would teach us to waver and doubt? As the papists teach in their theology, one must doubt grace, of which enough is otherwise written. For where otherwise the papists would have won in all things, they are lost in this main point, since they teach that one must doubt God's grace, if we are not first worthy enough through our own satisfaction or merit and intercession of the saints. There are their books, letters and seals, monasteries, foundation, and also still their present plates and masses.
(60) But because they teach this, that they stand on their works and doubts, as they cannot do otherwise, it is certain that they must be the church of the devil. For there are and can be no more ways than these two: one that relies on God's grace; the other that builds on our merit and works.
The first is the way of the ancient church and of all patriarchs, prophets and apostles, as the Scriptures testify; the other is the way of the pope and his church; no one can deny this, not even the henchmen and all the devils themselves. There is (as often said) testimony, books, bulls, seals, letters, monasteries, that one can prove it to all the world.
61 And there stands St. Peter. Apost. 4, 12: "There is no other name given whereby we may be saved, but Jesus Christ. On the other hand, Pope Heinz of Rome says: "Not so, but there are many other names by which men must be saved, especially my name, and after that all whom I will. St. Franciscus, Dominic, and all my own works, which bear me money, lay kings and emperors at my feet; here is holiness and blessedness; Christ is no longer necessary nor useful etc.
62 But that we return to our matter: that the church of Christ does not lie nor deceive, they themselves must confess without their thanks; where else would they remain? They themselves must say that it is a rock, Matth. 16,18., against which the gates of the shells cannot prevail, or, as St. Paul glosses it [1 Tim. 3, 15.], a pillar and foundation of the truth. This (I say) we do not thank them for confessing. So also the infant faith says that it is a holy Christian church; and St. Paul 1 Cor. 3:17: "The temple of God is holy, which is ye: but whosoever destroyeth the temple of God, him will God destroy." Therefore the holy church cannot and may not suffer lies or false teaching, but must teach only holy, truthful, that is, only God's word; and where it teaches a lie, it is already idolatrous and the devil's church of harlotry. What did it help the kings of Israel to boast that they served the God of Israel, who had brought them out of Egypt? By this they called and meant the true God of their fathers, and also kept the whole Law of Moses; but because they also honored the calves or Baal, or ever established their own worship out of human devotion, in honor of the true God, all was lost. For against it stood God's prohibition: "Thou shalt have no other god beside me. And Moses in the 5th book, cap. 4 and 12, had harshly forbidden them to do anything new or different, nothing of their own.
And said, What I command thee, that shalt thou do: thou shalt not do any thing of it, neither shalt thou add unto it." Item: "Thou shalt not turn aside from it to the left or to the right," that is, neither make it better nor worse, neither let up nor change it. Therefore we read in the prophets everywhere how they punish the kings, priests and people, because they always invent new ways, and do not remain on the way and certain course.
For what is apart from the word of God, "which alone is the way," as He says [John 14:6], "I am the way, the truth and the life," let it be as good and as beautiful as it can be, it is surely error, lies and death, for it is without God's word, that is, without way, truth and life. And what would we gain from the Word, if we could find our own way without it? For the word alone is the light of our feet and the light of our paths, which shines in the dark place of this world, as St. Peter [2 Pet. 1, 19.) says. He that keepeth not the same always and diligently in his eyes, where can he go but into darkness, if the light therefore be in the darkness, that we may judge ourselves by it in the darkness.
(64) Now let us look at the new things one by one that have arisen in the new church of the pope, and we will find that they are all without the Word of God, that is, without way, truth and life, invented solely out of human devotion or discretion, or the pope's malice. Therefore, as the church of the pope is full of indulgences, its own merit, brotherhoods, saintly service, monasticism, masses, satisfaction, and such things as are mentioned above, as worship, it is full of error, lies, idolatry, unbelief, murder, and summa, the church of all devils. For they cannot say that such things are taught by the Word of God. But since they must confess that the holy Christian church must be holy, and a foundation of truth, without error and lies, quia ecclesia, uou pot68t 6rrar6, they must at the same time confess that they are not nor can be such a holy church, because they are full of such abominable errors, lies and idolatry, but are the right gone, apostate, shameful whore of the devil, whom they follow and serve in such abominable lies.
(65) But if a good-hearted man (as it is called) should say, "What harm is there in keeping God's word, and in keeping all these things, or some of them, even though they are bad? I answer: They may be called good-hearted people, but they are misguided and seductive people; for you hear that it is not possible to teach something else beside God's word, to serve another beside God, to kindle another beside the light set by God in darkness. It is certainly a falsehood and error, even if it were some of it, for the Church should not and cannot teach lies or error, not even in some of it. If it teaches a lie, then it is completely wrong, as Christ says Luke 11:35: "See to it that there is no light in the darkness. If therefore thy body be all light, that it have 1) no part of darkness, it shall be all light," that is, there must be all light and no part of darkness. The church must teach only God's word or truth, and neither error nor lies. And how could it be otherwise? because God's mouth is the mouth of the Church. And again: God cannot lie, so neither can the church.
It is true, to speak after life, that the holy church is not without sin, as she confesses in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses"; and 1 John 1:8: "If we say that we have no sin, we lie, and make God a liar," who calls us all sinners, Rom. 3- 23, Psalm 14:3 and 51:7. But the doctrine need not be sin, nor penal, and does not belong to the Lord's Prayer, where we say, "Forgive us our trespasses"; for it is not our doing, but God's own word, who cannot sin nor do wrong. For a preacher does not have to pray the Lord's Prayer, nor to seek forgiveness of sins when he has preached (if he is a true preacher), but must say and boast with Jeremiah [Jer. 17:16]: "Lord, you know that what has gone out of my mouth is right and pleasing to you"; yes, with St. Paul, all the apostles and prophets defiantly say: Haec dixit Dominus, that God Himself has said. Et iterulli: I am an apostle and prophet JEsu
1) Original: "it".
1344 Erl. (2.) 26,54-56. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436 W. XVII, 1685-1688. 1345
Christ has been in this sermon. Here it is not necessary, nor good, to ask forgiveness of sin, as if it were unjustly taught; for it is God's word, and not mine, which God should not nor cannot forgive me, but confirm, praise, crown, and say: You have taught rightly, for I have spoken through you, and the word is mine. He who cannot boast of his preaching, let him stop preaching, for he is certainly lying and blaspheming God.
(67) If the word be sin or unrighteous, by what would or could life be judged? Surely one blind man would lead another, and both would fall into the pit [Matt. 15:14]. If the lead or angle iron should be wrong or crooked, what would or could the master work according to it? One bend would make another, without end and measure. So here, too, life can be sinful and unjust, indeed, it is unfortunately all too unjust; but the teaching must be absolutely right and certainly without any sin. Therefore nothing must be preached in the church, but only the certain, pure and unified word of God. Where this is lacking, it is no longer the church, but the devil's school. Just as a pious wife (as the prophets always use such an example) must hear nothing more than her husband's word in the house and at bedtime; if she hears another's word that does not belong in her husband's bed, she is certainly a whore.
68 All this has been said to the effect that the church must teach God's word alone, and be certain of it, because it is called the foundation and pillar of truth, and built on the rock, holy and blameless; that is, as it is rightly and well said: the church cannot err, for God's word, which teaches it, cannot err. But what is taught otherwise, or there is doubt as to whether it is God's word, cannot be the church's teaching, but must be the devil's teaching, lies and idolatry, because the devil cannot say (because he is a liar and the father of lies): This is what God says, but, as Christ says in John 8:44, ex proprüs, from and out of himself, he must speak, that is, lie. So also all his children must speak out of themselves without God's word, that is, lie.
Now behold, my dear friend, what a strange thing this is. We, who certainly teach God's word, are so weak, and so stupid with great humility, that we do not like to boast that we are God's church, witnesses, servants, preachers, and that God speaks through us, when we certainly are, because we certainly have and teach His word. Such stupidity comes from the fact that we sincerely believe that God's word is such a glorious, majestic thing that we consider ourselves all too unworthy that such a great thing should be spoken and done through us, who still live in the flesh and blood. But our adversary, the devil, the papists, the mobs and all the world, who are joyful and fearless, may boldly say before great holiness: Here is God, we are God's church, servants, prophets and apostles; just as all false prophets have done at all times, so that Heinz Worst may also boast of being a Christian prince. But humility and fear in God's word has always been the right sign of the true holy church, thirst and iniquity in human devotion the right sign of the devils, as one must also notice in the Pabst's filth.
This is said of the doctrine, which must be pure and unadulterated, that is, the dear, blessed, holy, and only Word of God, without any addition. But the life, which is to be daily directed, purified and sanctified according to the teaching, is not yet completely pure or holy, because this maggot sack, flesh and blood, is alive. But because he is in the work of cleansing or sanctification, and continually allows himself to be healed by the Samaritan, and does not further corrupt himself more and more into uncleanness, it is graciously granted to him for the sake of the word, by which he allows himself to be healed and cleansed, and is forgiven, and must be called pure; for by this the holy Christian church does not become a whore nor unholy, because it holds fast to the word (which is its sanctuary) and remains pure and holy, "You are pure" (says Christ Joh. 15, 3.), not for your sake, but "because of the word which I have spoken unto you."
71 For the holiness of the word and the purity of the doctrine is so powerful and certain that even if Judas, Caiphas, Pilate, Pabst, Heinze and the devil himself preached the same thing, he would not be able to do it.
or rightly baptized (without addition, pure and right), yet would receive the right pure word, the right holy baptism; as then there must always be hypocrites and counterfeit Christians in the church, and a Judas among the apostles. Again, the impurity of doctrine, which is not or without the Word of God, is such a poisonous evil thing, that even if St. Peter, even an angel from heaven, preaches it, it is still cursed, Gal. 1:8. Therefore, false teachers and Anabaptists or false sacrament ministers cannot be nor remain in the church, as 1) Psalm 1:5. For they do not only against life, which the church must suffer, especially where it is secret, but also against the doctrine, which must publicly shine and appear to guide life. This has been taught from the beginning, as St. John [1 Ep. 2, 19] says: "Of us they are, but not from us"; and: In ecclesia sunt, sed non de ecclesia; item: numero, sed non merito, and the like. From this one has this difference: It is not all Christians who pretend to be Christians. But when it comes to disagreeing about doctrine, they separate from one another and find out who the right Christians are, namely, those who have God's word, pure and fine.
This is what is said this time about the right church, of which there is much to be said. If they want to hear further who they are, then they may let their Heinzen continue to write about the matter, because they know no one better: for he is an excellent man, skilled in the holy scriptures, nimble and agile, like a cow on the nut tree, or a sow on the harp, who can well lead such great things, as you can think? Yes, if lying, blaspheming and cursing are to apply. They are not worthy to have a better one; it is cattle and stable, said the devil, and drove a fly into his mother's butt. If now the papists will or can prove that they are the right, holy church, and have not taught or have not taught any of the new whore church's articles and fiefs, or our articles are not articles of the right, old church, as we have not invented or invented them, then we must confess that we are not the right, old church.
1) Erlanger "er".
are heretics and apostates. If they do not prove this, then they must also confess that they are the true devil-whore church, which has departed from Christ their Lord and has allowed the devil to disgrace them with new and different teachings. This, I think, should be certain, even if Jews and pagans, or what still has human reason, should judge between us.
If they are not the church, but the devil's whore, who has not remained in Christ, then it has been decided thoroughly and violently that they should not have the church goods inside, much less arouse this quarrel (so that they may trouble the emperor and the kingdom until now), so that they should be reinstated with us and the goods restituted. For that is just as if the devils desired from the angels that they should be restored to heaven, when they know and confess that they did not remain God's angels, but have become God's enemies who belong in the hellish fire. Or, that I speak of men, it is just as if a thief or murderer wanted to reclaim the money and property that he had stolen and robbed, but was taken from him, and now lay in judgment, or was restored to the right heirs; if not, then he would threaten to become a Heinz murderer.
But because there is no judge on earth in this matter; for they have become part, as the supreme judges made themselves before, and their judgment is not valid, according to all rights, and indeed as little as our judgment, which we are the other part, is valid with them, we must let it go so, and wait for the right judge. Otherwise, if there were a judge on earth in this matter, this judgment would be found, that they (that part) would not only have no restitution to claim, but would be worthy to be chased out to the world, and would do to them as King Jehu did to the Baalites [2 Kings 10:25], and as King Josiah did to the priests of Samaria and Bethel [2 Kings 23:20]. For they are (as proven above) before God, according to the holy Scriptures, the right murder pit and devil's whore. From this it follows that they seize the churches, that is, the goods of poor Christians (as the arch-church robbers and God's thieves), keep them inside with sacrilege, persecute them to their detriment, and ruin them in body and honor for time and eternity.
1348 Erl. (2.) 26.58-60. sec. 1. campaign against
Brunswick. No. 1436. w. xvn, iKo-iggz. 1349
75. For a child of seven years, or even a coarse fool, can count and calculate this on his fingers, even though the coarse priest and his damned henchmen can understand nothing, that the laudable former emperors, princes, lords and pious people were undoubtedly not meant, nor willing, to give their goods to create, adorn and honor vain devil-whores or idolatry; much less that they wanted to educate or entertain soul murderers, church robbers, witches and murderers with it; but rather the dear churches and schools, that is, the holy Word of God, the ministry of preaching and other church services, theologians, pastors, preachers, as well as poor people, widows, orphans and the sick: to entertain, to praise and glory to God.
76. For they are not called whore's goods, murderer's goods, blasphemers, murderers of saints, nor devil's goods, but the church's goods, which are now not only bought by the spiritual devil's whores in the papal murder pit in the most disgraceful way, through malice and all kinds of vice, They are not only sold, stolen, robbed and violated in the most disgraceful manner by spiritual devil-whores in the papal murder pit, but are also squandered and squandered in the most impudent manner by physical whores and boys, much worse than it happened in Sodoma and Gomorrah, that they do not give a penny to a poor priest, disciple, or poor person as a tax; for they are not worthy to do such a small good, but for it, as the wicked Epicureans, both mock and ridicule God Himself and His Word and His Church. Yes, this is the beautiful, holy church, which may still boast of its holiness, regard the church's goods as their own, and demand restitution. But he shall not be long absent, who will give the right restitution to such desperate, mischievous scoffers and angry murderers.
But although we have no judge on earth, we want to use our own judgement and testimony against them, because we have the judgement of God, the highest judge, in his holy scripture. For Duke George, of unfortunate memory, said: he knows very well that many abuses have been broken in the church, but that a single monk from a hole should make such a reformation.
is not to be suffered. Well then, he who confesses (no doubt he is not alone) that your church is full of abuses; that is, it is not the pure, right church, for it should be holy and pure, without any addition, let alone without any abuses, as faith says, "I believe a holy Christian church."
78 At the Diet of Augsburg, all of you asked the emperor to ask the pope to stop sending indulgences to the German lands, because they were despised. Here you yourselves confess that indulgences are a despised thing, that is, an abuse and idolatry; for if you considered it right and good, as a pure divine service, you could not in good conscience despise it, nor ask for its abolition. Then your conscience testifies by your own word that your church is an idolatrous and impure house, which has served and still serves the devil, and not God, with false, void, fraudulent indulgences.
79 Thirdly, the Cardinal of Mainz said there: "What do we want to argue about, they have an article which we know and cannot deny to be right, namely the marriage state; yet we cannot accept it. And even if he of Mainz never said it, you yourselves are now so overcome that your many, who want to be the best, publicly confess it. Now tell me, do you think it is a little devil-whore who has set, founded, taught, honored and kept such a terrible article (that is, idol) in her church, that God's creatures, work, order and blessing should be condemned, cursed and considered the greatest sin: what evil could the devil, God's enemy, himself found, if he wanted to find something contrary to God? How could your church be holy in the face of such an abomination, if all of you had lived vain chaste virgins, and yet served such an idol? For God had forbidden it to you, as a doctrine of the devil, 1 Tim. 4, 1. And what fruit and holiness such idolatry and its idolatry has wrought in your church, you yourselves must lament; for there is Rome, the foundations, [the] whole spiritual estate, which testify; yea, their sin has filled heaven and earth with shame and bloodcry. Where is here your holy
The Church, which is so abominably made a harlot by the devil with such abominations?
80 And what have you yourselves done, that you now desire a concilium; now promised, now spoiled, now denied? Is your church holy, how does it fear a concilio? What may she reformirens or concilii? May she of a Concilium, how is she holy? Do you also want to reform your holiness? For us, we have never desired a concilium to reform our church. For God the Holy Spirit has long since sanctified our Church through His holy Word, and has even swept away all papal fornication and idolatry, so that we have everything (praise God!) pure and holy, the Word pure, baptism pure, the sacrament pure, the keys pure, and everything that belongs to the true Church, we have holy and pure, without all human doctrinal additions and filth. The life (as said above) does not completely follow, as we would like to see and want, about which the prophets and apostles themselves also complain; for this belongs there, where we will be like the angels [Matth. 22, 30].
But we desire a concilii, that our church may be interrogated and our doctrine may come freely to light, so that your fornication in the ministry may be recognized, condemned, and everyone who is deceived by it may be converted to the right holy church with us and together with us, and be multiplied. But you and your God, the devil, do not have the snuff, but you bats, moles, owls, night owls and night owls, who do not like the light, fight with all your might and with all your mischievousness, so that the truth is not interrogated and acted upon in the light. But God always continues, and the more you resist, the more you bring forth the light, so that in the end you will have to suffer it with all shame and harm; and what such your fugitive, pusillanimous, desperate shunning of the light can frighten us, or make you defiant, let your conscience and your own heart tell you.
82 Because, I say, you yourselves confess, and must confess, what an abominable church you have; I speak not now of life, but of doctrine, that you have so many abominable things.
If you have lies and false doctrine and do not want to let them go, then you must also confess that you are not the holy church, but the church of the devil, especially those who hold these things and force them. For they knowingly worship the devil in his lies, because they confess that they are unrighteous articles. This is what you do from the pope down to the lowest priest and monk; this is the right core, the best group, which you call your church, without any of the secular classes attached to it. For those who are sorry for this do not belong to your devil-whore church, but to ours, that is, to the old, right, holy church.
83. Further, because we have such your own testimony and judgment, you cannot call us heretics nor apostates, but must agree with us as the right church, which abandons such your known abominations and unrighteous articles; Again, you must confess yourselves as the right devil's church, because you defend, hold and force yourselves to confess known abominations and unrighteous articles, that you do not have to claim the goods of the church as a spolium, but that you owe the goods, if you still have them, as the thieves of God and robbers of the church, to leave them and to restitute and grant them to the right church. And if you still had such an impudent whore's forehead, as the prophets speak, which cannot be ashamed, you must nevertheless say in this yourselves that such a judgment is right. For even wood, stone, dirt and dung would finally cry out against you, because there can be no other than that a desperate whore cannot be a pious, chaste virgin. Therefore she shall not be a church, she shall not govern a church, she shall not have church goods; that is the sum of it.
The fact that Heinze continues to rebuke the Elector, that is, all of us rebelliously, is also equally responsible, namely, that he cuts his own cheeks and denies being a shameful liar, or rather, as said above from the 37th Psalm [v. 15], he stabs himself through his heart with his sword. Although I know that throughout his life he has never known or experienced what obedience or disobedience is, therefore he cannot know what rebellion or land is.
1352 Erl. (2.) 26.62-64. ' Sect. I. Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436, W. XVII, I6W-IK98, 1353.
peace, as his writings and his whole life show: but, even if he knew how evil it was, he is nevertheless so full of devils that he might nevertheless do it himself, and lie to others with it. But to serve God and to annoy the Heinz devil, we confess this truth, that our princes and lords have always been heartily and faithfully obedient to the emperor, as the whole empire must publicly testify. For wherever they have been summoned to imperial congresses or to the field, they have been the first to declare that you, the devil, are a gross evil to lie so shamefully against the testimony of the empire.
(85) If you think that our princes do not obey the imperial edicts, in which our churches and doctrine are condemned, we praise and thank God, who has graciously preserved us, that we are not found with you in such condemned obedience. For there stands God, who bequeaths it to us, saying [Matt. 22:21], "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's," and Ps. 115:16: "He hath given the heavens to the Lord, but the earth to the children of men." Heaven or the kingdom of heaven does not go in fief from Caesar, and God cannot be Caesar's fief, but Caesar should and must be called God's fief, and as Sirach [Cap. 17, 14. 15.] also says: "God has decreed dominions in the countries, but in Israel He Himself is the Lord." God wants to teach and rule alone and Himself in the Church; He has never given such a rule from Himself or out of His hand, as the 60th Psalm [v. 8] testifies: "God speaks in His sanctuary."
86. Therefore, you papists must fight such matters of obedience with God Himself, not with us, and make us sure and certain beforehand that we (as you do) may give to Caesar what is God's. Otherwise, we will not do it, but accept your blasphemies and lies with great joy, so that you may bear witness to us and confess that we are not taking from God what is His; Otherwise we will not do it, but accept your blasphemies and lies with great joy, so that you may bear witness to us and confess that we do not take what is God's and give it to Caesar, and so help us to boast of this truth with your poisonous lies, so that we do not live in your cursed obedience. For God has forbidden the emperor, even all angels and creatures, to live in his heavenly kingdom, that is, in the church,
are not to teach any other word, as St. Paul gives a terrible thunderclap in Gal. 1:8, saying, "If an angel from heaven teaches any other word than what you have received, let him be accursed. Now we have told above some pieces of the innumerable, new, different teachings (that is, as St. Paul calls it here, anathemata, cursing, condemnation, malediction), so that your papal, new church of harlots and devils is filled. Therefore, the emperor, nor any creature, can force us to such cursed obedience; indeed, he himself shall keep from it with us, if he does not want to be cursed and crushed by St. Paul's thunderbolt in the bottom of hell.
God has commanded the emperor enough, neither he can do more, namely the earth, that is, body and goods, there his office has an end; if he also reaches into God's kingdom, then he robs God of his own, that is sacri- legium theft of God, or as St. Paul calls it Phil. 2, 6, rapinam divinitatis, if one wants to be like God, which he cannot be; that he must want to rob, because it cannot be given to him. There is only one heir to it, who did not try to steal it (as the devil did in heaven and Adam in paradise), but it is given to him by the Father in eternity, and innate by nature. Those who incite the pious emperor Carol Hiezu, or do so under his seal, are just as pious as the serpent in paradise. The emperor should remain under God, and wait for his measured command (as well as all creatures); for God wants to speak all here, that is, in the church, alone and suffer no one else.
(88) Even as a husband or bridegroom may have many offices in the house, may call one servant emperor, another king, and may command all his goods, to the one the field, to the other the vineyard, cattle, fish, clothing, money and goods; but in the chamber or in the bride's bed, let no servant be found to be called emperor or king, for that is death (says Solomon [Proverbs 14:12]). Here the bridegroom alone belongs, and here the bride shall neither hear nor know a word without her bridegroom alone, as John the Baptist says [John 3:29]: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom.
tigam." Thus, God cannot and will not suffer anyone else in the church besides Himself; there one should hear nothing but Himself and His word, or be a harlot and not His bride.
89 From this it can be well understood what you Heinzen and Heinzlings do when you reproach us rebels for not obeying the imperial edicts with you; namely. That is what you do, you confess that we, the bride of Christ, leave the Lord Christ pure and his bridal bed pure, as the faithful, obedient Joseph, serving outside otherwise in our commanded offices; Again, that ye, as the rutting whoremongers and adulterers, that is, damned robbers of God or rebels of heaven, would break into the bridal chamber of the Lord, and make his bride a whore unto him; but he smiteth you with blindness, as the sodomites, that ye find not the door [Gen. 19:11], and instead of this he lets you find your own kind, harlots and adulterers, who obey you, and go with you to the devil. And summa, as I said, fight it out beforehand with God, that we may hear and teach something else in the church, neither God's word; item, that your overpaid new pieces are God's word, and that you are the holy church, then you shall be right, and we will gladly be obedient. What is the use of shouting the consequens so hard and leaving the antecedens? The war is not about the consequens, as you nonsensical fools cry out, but about the antecedens. Ponatur ecclesia certo, et obedientia sequetur necessario. Econtra: Non posita ecclesia, nulla sequitur obedientia; ex natura relativorum, is differently still a funk dialecticae in you.
90 Let this be said of the church this time, against the blasphemers of the papists; 1) another can do better, and I, if I live, can do more. After that, Heinz Mordbrenner continues and disgraces our lives as well, and does so in many ways: he calls my lord and the landgrave many, many words of shame, of which he proves none, as is the way of the liar. But I have confessed above, and unfortunately must confess, whether we have the pure doctrine of the divine word, and a fine doctrine.
1) Here ends the piece "Von der alten rechten Kirche" etc.
If we have a pure, holy church, as it was in the time of the apostles, in all things useful and necessary for salvation, we are neither holier nor better than Jerusalem, God's own holy city, in which so many wicked people were among them, yet the word of God was always kept pure through the prophets.
So with us there is also flesh and blood, yes, the devil among Job's children [Job 1:6]. The peasant is wild, the bourgeois stingy, the noble scratchy; we cry out and rebuke confidently by the word of God, and resist what and as much as we can, (praise God!) not without fruit; for what can be taught and heard from peasant, bourgeois, nobility, lords etc. is (praise God!) exceedingly good, and does more than one desires, some more than they are able; whether they are few is not the point. God can help a whole country for the sake of one man, as through the Naaman Syrum [2 Kings 5:1] and the like. Summa, there must be no dispute for the sake of life, for we gladly and freely confess that we are not as holy as we ought to be; only that we have such an advantage that the hypocrites cannot reproach us with a good conscience, neither before God nor the world, because they were more pious before than we are; otherwise Christ has already condemned them, saying [Luc. 6:42]: "Thou hypocrite, first take the beam out of thine eyes." But if they should take the beam out of their eyes first: But if they first take out the beam, and prove that they are more pious than we, 1we shall be safe for ever, for we have to do against them not only of the mote (concerning life), but also of the great beam (concerning doctrine), as is said above. And we do not laugh at them for doing evil to us, as they do in their church, as Solomon says, Proverbs 2:14: "They rejoice in doing evil, and are glad in their wickedness," and will defend it with fire and sword.
92. ah, what may be many words! Whom God's wrath is so great that he must desecrate and curse his God and Lord (as Isaiah Cap. 8, 21. 2) says of the Jews), he will certainly leave nothing undesecrated or uncursed that God creates, does or speaks, for such a man is certainly a fool.
2) Walch has "v. 23."; the Erlanger: "v. 14."
1356 Erl. (2.) 26, 66-69. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436, W. XVII, 1701-1703. 1357
has been. Now it is certain that the heretics must confess that we teach God's word, and our church teaches nothing else than what God has commanded. This is the truth of the day, and neither the heretics nor the devils can deny it; nevertheless, they blaspheme and curse such a church and doctrine, and call us heretics and rebels etc. Which cannot be otherwise than to heresy, blaspheme and curse God Himself (Whose such doctrine and church is). If God Himself and His holy Word must thus be defiled by such devils, what should they not do to our lives and works? If God puts Himself, His word and teachings in the disgrace of such heretics, then we may much more put our life in it, which is otherwise not completely holy.
But to answer a little for the sake of ours (because Heinz Teufel at Wolfenbüttel is not worth that a pious man should answer his impudent lies or worry about it), I will answer one or two as briefly as I can. First, when he writes: 2) This noise (caused by Luther) was caused by Duke Frederick, because he did not like that this bishop, Albrecht, had become bishop of Magdeburg etc., then I must excuse the praiseworthy, pious prince and say that not only Heinz, but also Meinz (from whom such lies probably come in more places) lie in this than the desperate evil-doers; let their own conscience be witness to that. For as much as I learned at that time, Duke Frederick helped with all diligence that the present bishop of Magdeburg would become bishop; for at that time there was no duke of Saxony, therefore Duke Frederick could have practiced to make him bishop.
94 But be that as it may, I know to say that I once heard at the Locha (for I have never heard his voice all my life, nor seen his face, except at Worms at the Imperial Diet), that the same pious Duke Friederich so praised Bishop Albrecht, and so rejoiced in him, as he would be a comforting prince to the empire, that only much would be done.
1) So the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers. Erlanger: "curse".
2) This refers to § 175 of the previous writing, Col. 1295.
has been. For since he came again from Zerbst, there an action happened between the of Lüneburg and Brunswick, after the battle, in which Heinz had seized the hare's pannier and hewed it behind him with heels (for there were not poor, defenseless cooks and messengers, who wanted to be stabbed unawares), since (I say) Duke Friederich had acted there as a vicarius of the empire, after the death of Maximilian, next to Bishop Albrecht and came home, he had such favor and hope for the bishop that he said this cheerful word: Let me molt the man, he will do it. But not long after, when he learned to recognize the herb, he said to his people, "Now no man has ever cheated me as much as the priest, because he was so angry that he had praised the priest and yet had failed.
95 And I may also say that no gentleman, not even my own most gracious lords, the Electors of Saxony, have always answered me so graciously, and have been so kind to me, as Bishop Albrecht; I truly thought he was an angel. He has the right master devil, who can clean himself up so nicely, and yet scolded us Lutheran boys underneath, and did not refrain from doing what he was able to do against this teaching. I mean, I am also shitty in my high trust in such a wicked man. Well, he is gone, he shall and must also go, my Lord Christ has remained before him; I also.
Beginning of the Lutheran Noise. 3)
Because he does not want to know who caused this Lutheran noise (as he calls it), I want to tell it publicly, not to his son, nor to himself, because he knows it much better than I do. It happened in the year 17 that a preacher monk, named Johannes Detzel, a great clamant, whom Duke Frederick had previously delivered from the sack at Insbruck, because Maximilian had sentenced him to be drowned in the Inn (you can well think, for the sake of his great virtue). And Duke Friederich had him sentenced to-
3) This heading is found in the Wittenberg edition and in the Jena edition.
1358 ed. (2.) 26,69--71. cap. 19. wars of the protestants and the emperor. W. XVII. 1703-1706. -1359
He began to blaspheme us Wittenbergers; he also freely confessed it. The same Detzel now led the indulgence around, and sold grace for money, as expensive or cheap as he could from all his strength. At that time I was a preacher here in the monastery and a young doctor, who had recently come out of the kitchen, was hot and merry in the Holy Scriptures.
97 When many people from Wittenberg ran after the indulgences to Jütterbock and Zerbst etc., and I (as my Lord Christ has redeemed me) did not know what the indulgences were, as no one did not know, I began to preach neatly that one could do something better that would be more certain, neither to release indulgences. I had also preached such a sermon here in the castle against indulgences, and earned Duke Frederick's bad grace with it, because he also loved his monastery very much. Now, in order to get to the right cause of the Lutheran din, I let everything go as it went. However, I was confronted with how Detzel had preached horrible, terrible articles, of which I will name several this time, namely:
He would have such grace and authority from the pope, if one had weakened or impregnated the holy Virgin Mary, God's mother, he could forgive it, where he put into the box what was due.
The red cross of indulgence with the Pope's coat of arms, erected in the churches, would be as powerful as the cross of Christ. If St. Peter were here now, he would not have greater grace or power, neither would he.
100 Item, he does not want to interpret in heaven with St. Peter, because he saved more souls with indulgences, neither St. Peter with his preaching.
If a man puts money in a box for a soul in purgatory, as soon as the penny falls to the ground and is paid, the soul will go to heaven.
The grace of indulgence would be the very grace by which man is reconciled to God.
(103) It would not be necessary to have repentance or sorrow or penance for sin if one bought (I should say, redeemed) indulgences or letters of indulgence, and also sold future sin. And he did a great deal of this, and was all about money.
But at that time I did not know to whom such money should be given. Then a booklet 1) went out, quite splendidly under the bishop of Magdeburg's coat of arms, in which several such articles were commanded to the quaestors to preach. Then it came out that Bishop Albrecht had hired this Detzel because he was a great clamant, for he was bishop of Mainz with such a pact that he should buy the pallium himself in Rome, for three bishops, Berthold, Jacobus and Uriel, had recently died in Mainz shortly after each other, so that it was perhaps difficult for the bishopric to buy the pallium so often and in such short succession, which, it is said, amounted to 26,000, some say 30,000 florins; For the most holy father in Rome can sell flax thread (which is otherwise worth barely six pennies) for such a price.
Then the bishop invented this little bundle, and intended to pay the pallium to the jacks (for they had advanced the money) with the common man's pouch, and sent this great pouch thresher into the countries; he also threshed it thoroughly, so that it began to fall with heaps into the boxes, to jump, to ring. But he did not forget himself. Nevertheless, the pope had kept his hand in the order that half of it should fall to the building of St. Peter's Church in Rome. So the journeymen went up with joy and great hope to beat and thresh under the bags. Such, I say, I did not know at that time.
Then I wrote a letter with the propositions to the bishop of Magdeburg, 3) admonishing and asking him to stop the Detzel, and to prevent such clumsy things from being preached, so that an unpleasantness would arise from it; this was due to him as an archbishop. I can still post the same letter, but I did not receive an answer. Similarly, I wrote to the bishop of Brandenburg, 4) as an ordinarius, in whom I had a very gracious bishop. To which he answered me: I am not taking hold of the
1) "Des Erzbischofs zu Mainz und Magdeburg summarische Instruction für die Untercommisfarien" etc. See St. Louis edition, Vol. X V, 301 ff.
2) That is: the Fugger trading house in Augsburg.
3) St. Louis edition, Vol. XV, 390 ff.
4) St. Louis edition, vol. XV, 405 ff.
1360 Erl. (2.) 26.71-73. sec. I. Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436 W. XVII, 1706-1708. 1361
He advised me to let go of it. I can well think that they both thought that the pope would be much too powerful for me, such a miserable beggar.
Thus my propositions against Detzel's articles went out, as can be seen in the printed version. The same ran through all of Germany in two weeks, for all the world complained about indulgences, especially about Detzel's article. And because all bishops and doctors kept silent, and no one wanted to tie the cat's bells (for the heretics of the Order of Preachers had put the fear of God into all the world with fire, and Detzel himself had also driven in a number of priests who had disobeyed his insolent sermon), Luther was praised as a doctor, so that someone would come and intervene. The glory was not dear to me, because (as I said) I myself did not know what the indulgence was, and the song wanted to become too high for my voice.
108. This is the first real, thorough beginning of the Lutheran fuss, which not Duke Frederick, but the Bishop of Mainz started through his bagman or bag cutter, Detzel, yes, rather through his blasphemous sermon (as heard), to steal and rob the people of their money, to buy his pallium and splendor; and yet, admonished by me, he does not want to defend himself against the butcher, but rather has stolen much more money, which he had stolen under the pretense of indulgence, and still steals and wants to steal further, neither respecting the truth nor the salvation of souls. And such an impudent priest, who knows all this well, wants to impose this on the noble deceased prince; throws and cuts such his lies into his henchmen impudently. If the blasphemers, the disgraced, the female sissies, the pusillanimous scoundrels and their whole damned mob are now disturbed or displeased by this, they may thank the bishop of Mainz, who started it by his cursed, thieving avarice and by his blasphemous butchery, which he skillfully defends. And even though Luther would not have attacked Detzel's blasphemous sermon, it was nevertheless at that time, and so predominant, that stone and wood would have had to cry out against it, if it were not so
a clean Lutheran, but a devilish, horrible noise; for they have been safe under our protection and umbrella, that is, under God's word, if they wanted to confess the truth; otherwise, the red spirits would have taught them morality.
The other beginning of this noise is the most holy father Pabst Leo with his untimely ban. Doctor Sau and all the papists helped with this, as well as some rough asses, since everyone wanted to knight me; they wrote and shouted against me, whatever could stir a pen. But I hoped that the pope would protect me, for I had so guarded and armed my disputation with scripture and papal filth that I was sure the pope would condemn the heretic and bless me; I also wrote him the resolutions with a humble script, and such my book also pleased many cardinals and bishops very much. For at that time I was better papal, neither Meinz and Heinz themselves have ever been nor may ever be, and the papal filths were clear that the quaestors could not release the souls from purgatory with indulgences. But as I was waiting for the blessing from Rome, thunder and lightning came over me; I had to be the sheep that had clouded the wolf's water; Detzel went out free, I had to let myself be eaten.
In addition, they dealt with me poor so fine papal that I was condemned to Rome probably 16 days before the citation came to me. But since Cardinal Cajetanus had come to the Imperial Diet in Augsburg, Doctor Staupitz obtained that the same good prince, Duke Friedreich, went to the Cardinal himself, and obtained that the Cardinal wanted to hear me. So I came to Augsburg to the Cardinal; he was friendly, but after many negotiations I offered to keep silent from then on, as far as my counterpart would also have to keep silent. Since I could not obtain this, I appealed from the pope to the Concilio and departed. Henceforth, the matter also came to the Imperial Diet and was often dealt with; it is not possible to write about it now, because the history is too long. However, they wrote against each other most vehemently, until it has now come to the point that they shun the light unashamedly, and even now teach many things,
that they were previously condemned to have nothing to teach, because our books did. 1)
If a noise has come out of this that hurts them, they must thank themselves. Why have they conducted the matter so unreasonably and clumsily, against all law, truth, scripture and their own filth? They have no one to blame but themselves. Let us laugh at their lamentation in our fists, and mock them to their detriment, and comfort ourselves that their hour has come. For even today they do not cease, as the blinded, stubborn, senseless fools, to act as if they wanted to perish wantonly. God's wrath has come upon them as they deserved.
For now it has come to light that indulgences are a lie of the devil, yet they do not repent, nor do they think to reform, but with the blind, mere word "church" they want to defend all their abominations. And if they had done no other evil, that alone would be indulgence enough for God to condemn them to the hellish fire and drive all men out into the world. Think, dear Christian, first of all, how the pope, cardinals, bishops and all clergymen have filled and deceived the world with false indulgences. Secondly, that they have blasphemously called it the grace of God, when it is nothing nor can be anything but remissio satisfactionis, id est, nihil. For it is now known that latiskaetio is nothing. Third, that they have sold it as a grace of God with abominable Simonei and Ischgriotherei 2) for money, so God's grace must be given for nothing. Fourth, that they have thereby shamefully stolen and taken money and goods from the whole world, and all this under God's name. Fifth, the worst of all is that they have used such blasphemous lies for terrible idolatry, because many thousands of souls who rely on it as if it were God's grace, and on it
1) That is: if our books were not there. Compare about the use of this word St. Louiser Ausgäbe,.vol. V, 1191, s 28; idiä. Col, 251, s 27; Col, 668, k 34; Col, 864, ? 157; Col, 877, 8 188. vol. VIII, 1035, 8 12; idiä. Col, 1052, tz 54 u. a. m.
2) In the original: "Shariotherei".
are lost through such murderers of souls. For he who trusts in lies and ballet is the devil's servant.
Such souls cry out eternally against the papacy, which they owe to return to God. They also owe to return all the money and goods they stole with it. They also owe GOtte to restore his honor, which they have shamefully stolen from him through indulgences. When will they do that? Yes, when will they take care of it? But if they will not do it, with what appearance do they want to be called a Christian church, and own or demand the church goods? Shall they call it a church full of indulgences, that is, full of devil's lies, idolatry, simony, jschariothery, thievery, soul murder, as it is said now? Well, if they do not want, they must. He is strong enough, who will admonish them, at least with the eternal infernal fire. However, they shall not be a church, but the school of the devil, and they shall be called that, even if all the heinies and mystics were mad and foolish about it.
114) Item, when the devil Heinz blasphemes the prince a drunkard, Nabal etc., and, as if he himself were a sober Christian, cites the scripture: "Do not be drunk with wine, from which follows a disorderly nature" etc. [Eph. 5:18, although it seems bad to me to praise my Lord, for the Heinz devil can well say: "I eat the bread and sing the song; but I cannot let the devil have it so well, I must tell him how he is lying, even if he is telling the truth. And first of all, I cannot completely excuse the fact that my most gracious lord sometimes drinks too much at table, especially with guests, which we also do not like to see, although his body is capable of a great drink before others. But Heinz will not prove this, but must lie that he is a drunkard, or that he follows disorderly conduct. Heinz, Meinz and all devils must confess (no matter how sorry they are) that the Elector has a great principality to govern, many things to do, and in addition is overwhelmed with religion and the empire, among other things, that there is little leisure nor rest left, but work upon work; as is known by day, and the whole empire. To such high, great,
1364 Erl. (2.) 26.75-77. sec. I. Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436 W. XVII 1711-1713. 1365
Many important, daily and unavoidable things, of course, no drunkard is useful nor skillful; how a child and fool can understand this, without the poisonous lying mouth of Wolfenbüttel; as God has punished him, that he can understand no truth, virtue nor honor, but is handed over to the devil to lie everything, even to do everything evil, to disturb everything good.
So also there is (Praise God!) a chaste, honest life and conduct, a truthful mouth, a gentle hand to help churches, schools, the poor; an earnest, constant, faithful heart to honor God's word, to punish the wicked, to protect the pious, to keep peace and good government; and the married state is so pure and praiseworthy that it can be a fine example to all princes, lords and everyone; a Christian, quiet woman's room, which is like a monastery (as one is wont to praise); there one hears God's word daily, goes to the sermon, prays and praises God, will not say how much the prince himself runs and writes every day. Do you hear it, devil Heinz, and Heinz Tenfel? You cannot call such a Christian, princely, honest life disorderly or drunken, if you would do it with your tongue, so that you disgrace and blaspheme God Himself and men. For except for drinking over tables, you will find nothing else but vain great gifts of God and all the virtue of a praiseworthy, Christian prince, even of a chaste, disciplined husband. The fruits bear witness to the tree. Now you have to see if there is a wart or a small bruise on a beautiful body, where you cannot turn it around as you would like to.
When you hear this, dear one, what does your heart (do you have any other heart) say to you about your sober, holy, chaste, proper 1) being that you lead? For you know that all the world knows about you, how you hold your laudable princess, not only as a full, mad felt and drunkard, but as a nonsensical, angry tyrant, who has eaten and drunk himself not full of wine, but full of devils, daily and every hour, like Judas in the Last Supper. For you also spit vainly
1) In the original: "ordlichem".
Devil out of your whole body in all your works and being, with blasphemy, cursing, lying, adultery, raging, torturing, murdering, murder-burning etc., that one finds your like in no history (as hereafter). In addition, you cannot perform your shameful fornication, even adultery, you must do it with divine name shame and dishonor, and let the poor woman, 2) as deceased, be concealed with your holy service, mass and vigils: you learned this from your journeyman at Meinz, who also had to practice his fornication and adultery under the appearance of sanctity 3). But you can well think of such virtue from yourself. Truly, you are decent people who know how to preach about drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
How like you are to the prince, in whom all virtues shine, without a splinter, the drink over tables, must make you (who are otherwise full of devils, and do not have some poor little virtue in you) a sober, holy, Christian man. Hereby I do not want to excuse the court life, which they themselves call a sow's life. Unfortunately, this court is not alone, but the whole of Germany is plagued with the vice of drunkenness; we preachers cry and preach against it, unfortunately it helps little; it is an evil old custom in German lands, as the Roman Cornelius 4) writes, has increased up to now, is still increasing. Emperors, kings, princes, and nobility should do their best to control it, and it will become even worse (no doubt as a punishment), that now also the French mores are beginning to take root in German lands, through the damned Cardinals and Heinzes, so that it is not time to talk about it now.
2) Eva von Trott (Erlanger Ausg.).-Liuäseil, tarn. I, p. 145 writes: Orotr; kekeustodc, tarn. I, toi. 79k: vrotk. -After this passage, the passage in the Latin Table Speeches would like: virZo Lva a Vrot2, mim Hua äux Lruns. Heurieus Zerrütt tres likeros in vtrZinrtate, et HntnHue post rnortern, to be understood in this way: with whom Duke Henry begot three children while she was considered a virgin, and five after her alleged death. According to this, the Conjectur in the St. Louis edition, Vol. XXII, Introduction, p. 53a. would have to be changed.
3) Cardinal Albrecht of Mainz "has his whores brought in coffins, as a sanctuary, with candles and flags to his hurhaus Btoritzburg". See St. Louis edition, vol. XIX, 1919, z 67.
4) Tacitus in the Oeruasrüa.
1366 Erl. (z.) 2S, 77-7S. Cap. 19. wars of the protestants and the emperor. W. XVII. 17IS-17I6. 1367
118 And from where does the kingdom get unrest? Not from the Elector, who is quiet and obedient, but from you (along with your devilish comrades), who cause all the misfortune in the realm with raging, blustering, murdering, and devouring your own subjects, who think of nothing else day and night but murdering and causing all misfortune: that is called calm and orderly, sober being with you. Whoever does not want to be like you in this must be called rebellious, restless, disorderly, drunk. Yes, so does your father; because God does not want to do what he wants in heaven, he closed, and God does not want to let God be God, nor does he want to do it yet: so do you, you beautiful image of your angelic (hellish) father.
I have said above about the church properties: the Elector (praise God!) has invested what is available in a completely Christian manner, and still does so, as in churches, schools, the poor, etc., and might well have more of them in such great expenses that pass over him. But Heinz, the holy obedient child of the holy church, has eaten up the bishopric of Hildesheim, would gladly add Magdeburg and Halberstadt to it, and would not give a penny to a poor person, let alone help schools and churches. But he has a delicious excuse: the churches and schools are heretical, but he is a Christian, holy man, therefore he may eat what he can; although his church itself is angry about it, and now pretends that they want to banish him. But whether it is serious or mirror fencing, I do not want to worry about that, let the boys do among themselves what they do, it is all lies and murder, what the devil does.
120. Of the landgrave, whom he chides for being two-faced, rebaptized, 1) himself also rebaptized, but with such Cardinal, weather-turning assassination words that, if it should come to proof, he could freely direct his tongue again and say that he had not decided that [it] was so, but had a suspicion; For he is an assassin, a liar, a two-faced man, and he lies, assassinates, and doubts everything he says and does; of this (I say) I will not speak much this time. The Landgrave
1) In § 11 of the previous writing, Duke Heinrich calls it "Münsterisch".
is man enough, has also learned people with him. In Hesse, I know of a landgravine who is and should be called: wife and mother in Hesse, no other may carry and nurse young landgraves; I mean the duchess, Duke Georgen of Saxony's daughter. But that you princes are partly going the wrong way, you have unfortunately brought it about with your evil example that the peasants no longer want to consider it a sin, and have made it difficult for us to maintain the marriage state as praiseworthy and honest, or even to restore it.
121. But from the beginning, no one has ever desecrated the marriage state more blasphemously than Heinz of Wolfenbüttel, the holy, sober man, who adorns and reports his shameful, unrepentant, hardened adultery, under the terrible judgment and wrath of God (namely death, which eats all men, that only God's Son had to help us from it), in addition to his worship, mass and vigils; 2) even a fool's cap, both of God and of the Christian faith, as if death, resurrection and eternal life were a joke and a smokehouse, and God would not be sufficiently defiled by the fact that His prohibition of adultery is despised, but must also be mocked as a cover of shame, so that it would be no wonder if God let a country sink because of it, like Sodom and Gomorrah; and such a blasphemer and mocker may still judge and revile other praiseworthy princes. The Turk (they say) has more than a hundred wives, yet his being is not so defiled with God's name and work as with a fool's cap, like this Heinzen.
I will let the books answer the poisonous mouth about rebaptism, in which one can read what the landgrave and the Elector have done against the mad people of Münster. If he can become and be called an Anabaptist, he can also become and be called an evil and greater one. And what shall not even the holiest man on earth become with such evil mouths, if our doctrine, which they themselves must confess to be the word of God, is heresy, disobedience, sedition, and
2) A cap that makes invisible.
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must suffer all evil names? Because they have become devils, they would also like to make everything like them devils. But in this way they make our cause (as said above) nothing worse, and their cause nothing better.
And that I also come to the end, I consider for me that Heinze Teufel has therefore undertaken to write such evil, blasphemous books of lies. He knows that he has many shameful names in all the world, and stinks like the devil's dirt, thrown in Germany: perhaps he would like that he not only stinks so awful in front of others, but also other, praiseworthy princes, whether one would like to forget his stink with it a little, or yet his stink alone would not have to silence all noses, because this year the murderers' cries even scream about him. For it will not do to shout over such clamor with quiet words, so it must tear itself apart and clamor with cursing, blaspheming, lying, raging and blustering, if it will help; but it does not help. Heinz, you cry out in vain, even if you could scent 1) and thunder like God Himself. This great innocent blood at Eimbeck, 2) and elsewhere, shed by your murderous fire, cries out to heaven so strongly that it will soon (whether God wills it) cry you and your companions into the abyss of hell.
124 But that thou wouldest wipe away the mouth, that they are wicked men and husks, which say such things of thee, too near thy honors, is well spoken in this, and givest them thine own right name. For therefore they are reproached with fire, because they were such wicked men and husks, who served their chief and murderers of the arch; and the executioner that judged them hath thereby shewed thee what thou deservedst, if thou shouldest be done thy right. Well, you must think that it is just as much to hell that you have run as it is to death; you have made it so that you want to remain the enemy of God and man, and if you could murder God, you would spare him as little as man, as your word testifies when Duke George died: "Now I would rather that God had died in heaven!
1) That is: making thunderstorms.
2) In the original: "Eimbeg".
Not all of this now, for it is too horrible to hear the same thing deleted: otherwise you have created enough eternal memory for yourself that Judas, Herod, Nero and all the world's evil-doers will almost have to be canonized against you.
For although Nero also infects Rome, he nevertheless does it obviously and dares it as a man, as it would go at last; and the other murderers put letters, show their name, warn their enemies, dare also that they come into the hands of the executioner; but this pusillanimous rogue and fugitive sissy does it all meekly. He would be better a. Women's hat, which should do nothing, because like a eunuchus, that is, a woman's hat, stand in a fool's cap with a fly's wag, and of the women guard, and of that, of which they are called women (as the coarse Germans call it). I have heard it from fine men of war, how a despondent rascal he is, no free man's deed has ever been heard from him, but what he has done, he has done secretly or treacherously in denial, or against those who are overmenged or overmaneuvered; he leaves his own kind, or a man, well satisfied. This he proves not only with his blasphemous murder, but also with this miserable murderous fire, or what more there are.
For thus all books say: he that is an assassin is despondent, and smiteth no man honestly; as the emperor Mauritius said of his assassin Phocas: Si est timidus, est homicida. A free man is ashamed to do something assassinally, or against his unequal, defenseless man; which is, however, this Heinzen highest virtue. And I think that an angry cat should chase this assassin out of the field, where he would be alone. After that, when such Thrasones have committed their murder, they cast up the rebuke, and are bold iron-eaters, with swearing and martyrdom, 4) blaspheming and profaning God and men, and is their freedoms in the mouth with shameful words. For [you] can think what a manly Achilles he must be,
3) free-spirited == courageous.
4) "martern" - curse. "GOtts Marter" was a curse of war servants at that time. - "Freidigkeit" - boldness, courage, confidence.
who can wish God (whom he considers to be nothing) dead in heaven and curse him; or, where several hundred remain in battle, because he has fled boldly, then becomes a hero and a great knight with such words: Ha, such people are often raised with a bucket full of milk; or, when he leads them up: The mother of all the soldiers has not yet died. Item: God with us, the devil fetch the others; and the like. What Christian, indeed what reason, does not hear what kind of heart there is from which such words come! Is it not true that I said above that he has eaten and drunk himself full of devils, and thus spews out devils from his hellish mouth?
Suetonius writes of Nerone that once a monstrous monster stood with him and spoke: I wanted that after my death the world would be destroyed by fire; Nero answered: Yes, I wanted it to happen, because I live. This Nero is nevertheless so bold and manly that he wants to wait with others for destruction. Our despondent woman's hat may well wish that the devil would take all the others, but he wants to keep his flight and save his life, as a bold hero who can strike God dead with words, let all men be silent. But the last hour is here, as we Christians know, in which the Pabstium with its members shall, as Daniel (Cap. 11, 36] and Paul [2 Thess. 2, 4], be the most horrible example of divine wrath, and the right final abomination, which no power on earth, not even the holy church itself, but the Lord Christ himself shall kill with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with his future; therefore also such final abomination must have the most shameful man for a servant, whom the sun has shone upon. For in such a church belong such a churchman and such a saint. And we know well (praise God!) whom Heinz serves with his burning of murderous incense, and where the money comes from. But we want to be bold and undaunted, as we know to whom they do it, that is, to the right man. Let them only start confidently and hurry to their damnation, as St. Peter says [2. Ep. 2, 1.], such murderers shall not come home to Heinzen alone, that I know for sure (for he is not worth to be bothered with), and we will see once,
That this our weeping and mourning be turned into joy, that they laugh not as they laugh now; what matter?
128 Heinz and all of them rely on the fact that the pope has condemned us, and the emperor has also issued edicts against us, so that no one can blame them or judge them, because they are obedient to the pope and the emperor, so they can do whatever they want to hurt us. This is the breach made of cobweb (as Isaiah calls it), so that they are adorned, as he who dressed himself naked with a net, so that his shame should not be seen. But the breach is now often torn by us. But because they are foolish and foolish, we want to tear it now once again; not for the sake of those who do not understand anything, do not think otherwise, that their cobweb is a golden piece, even a cuirass, armor, but to comfort ours, and (who do not know it) to teach.
It is said in German: Das Recht ist immer ein pm Mann, der Richter ist oft ein Schalk. And I remember that Duke Frederick once received a complaint from a poor woman, in which she begged that his princely grace would help her to the right justice, that the good prince was in very good spirits about the fact that the woman indicated two kinds of justice, when he knew nothing about an unjust justice; but he soon understood that it was said that the judge was a prankster. And, O Lord God, if this life were so blessed that the judge were as pious as the law, we should have no lawyers, indeed no judges, neither king nor emperor. But ask the jurists what reason they have that their books complain so much about the stinging and lowly judges, that they have to be there, help and defend what and with what they can. Yes, ask the princes and lords themselves what they do when they depose and punish their officials. After all, the office is right and pious. And why have the princes deposed some emperors in the past, since the imperial office is from God, and is called (how rightly) the Holy Roman Empire, for the sake of God, who is holy and has decreed such things, and all princes boast of their status by the grace of God, that is, holy.
(130) Yes, why is the whore's body called God's creature, if she is a wicked whore, and all pious women shun her, who is not a whore?
1372 Erl. (2.) 26,83-85. sec. 1. fcldzug gegen Braunschweig. No. 1436. W. xvn, 1721-1724. 1373
are better creatures because of the body. And all creatures are full of examples. All therefore, quod est differentia inter rem et personam, that is so much said: res illa, the right is always a pious man, but personä, the judge, is often a mischievous one. That the Heinzen now defy that pope and emperor, that is, the persons, have condemned us, and not the right, therefore we have lost, and they have won: this is such a dialectica, why boys of ten years of age are bullied in school, and is also called by their sophists a baculo ad angulum. 1) And that I speak it in German, whether the pabstles could also understand it: The woman is beautiful, therefore she is not a whore. Heinz is a prince, therefore he is not an adulterer, murderer nor murderer. Caiphas is a high priest, therefore he does not crucify Christ. Judas is an apostle, therefore he is not a traitor. Dear, what should we call such people who speak like this? Are they not mad and foolish?
131 And this is what I say about the nature of things here on earth, namely, that law and judge, res and persona, should not be one thing, but distinct and not mixed together, so that one should not see or pay attention to what the judge does, but to what the law does; as the pagan Seneca also says: Non quis, sed quid dicatur, attende. And the whole scripture bebeut to look at person. They have learned from our books that one should honor the authorities and rulers. This they take to mean that what the person Heinz does should be honored, since we alone have meant and understood the office and law, and have punished many princes and lords (as well as others) for not doing their office: so they mix it up so shamefully, and think that everything the person wants and thinks is the work of the authorities or of Amis. Just as Duke George deceived himself and many others with himself, so that he could also command what he wanted in matters of religion, and the subjects would owe it to him to keep it. That is just the opinion and rule of the Pabst.
132. but against this stand the ten commandments of god, which cast among themselves, not alone emperors.
1) Compare St. Louis edition, vol. XX, 1640. vol. IX, 86, z 152.
and kings, but also prophets, apostles and all creatures, and compel them to do what is right according to their office, and do not allow them what they desire according to their person. Dear God, is the world still so blind after such light has been so abundantly revealed through the Catechism!' What is the use of our preaching, if one does not want to or cannot learn this piece yet? If that is to be right, what the person in office wants and does, then it's all over, and only Heinzen and devils rule, and God and his commandment are badly dead and nothing. So did Albrecht, the executioner of Giebichenstein, 2) when he murdered Hans Schenitz; he wanted to be the judge himself, and the law itself, and God had to be nothing and dead.
133 And that we speak crudely of it with coarseness, so on earth is more than the imperial right (by it I want the whole court of worldly authority and what the jurists teach, understood over there). For the emperor should and must descend into the other table, into the fourth commandment, he cannot go higher (the devil leads him then). In addition, as I said, he is also completely subject to the other table, and is obligated to keep what God commands in it, as well as the least man on earth; but in the first table he has nothing at all to do (neither as an angel nor a creature), that he can do nothing else but fear and tremble before God, His name and His word, unless he should change something in this. For here God alone reigns. And even though he has no power to change the commandments in the other table, he can still govern the bodies and goods (which are subject to him), so that they are used according to the same commandments, and not contrary to them, as father and mother also have power in the house.
(134) Now when the rulers cry out that the pope and the emperor have commanded that we should obey them, this is the answer: Except for the Ten Commandments and the Gospel of God, which the pope and the emperor should obey and submit to, along with us. If they do not do this, then the saying stands, "The judge is a prankster, let him be obeyed by the devil and his henchmen; let us obey the pious man, the right man.
2) near Halle; in the original: Gebichstein.
listen. Turn as you will, so you must finally come to justice, the person will help you nothing, if the right condemns you, and if you had a hundred thousand emperors and popes for you; because whom the right condemns and condemns a rogue and murderer, the emperor and pope can not speak sromm, and would help him nothing, whether he gave him the imperial crown, because it would still be the cobwebby break, that is, the judge without justice.
Now this year, Heinze has been revealed by God's judgment and transfigured as an arch murderer and bloodhound, the like of which has never been heard under the sun, and the Pope, Emperor, and Court of Appeals cannot or will not transfigure him in this way, nothing helps him; God's judgment is above all, trampling the Pope and Emperor underfoot. But this is God's revealed judgment, that not one, but many in the original 1) confessed, and thereupon, as on the highest oath, took their death, as an eternal judgment of God, that the fearful villain and assassin, the one at Wolfenbüttel, had caused the murder fire. From this judgment and sentence, no amount of crying, tearing, whining, cursing or blaspheming, adultery or despair, emperor or pope, devil or angel will be able to save you, even if they canonize you as a saint; for there stands God's word and judgment, which says: Two or three witnesses (much more the last need of so many) should and must be believed, if one wants to believe God Himself otherwise. If one were there alone, or in one court, or if, as at Metz, one were overpowered by the executioner, then one might well have been absent, but not for long. But here are many who must be believed, as God Himself, who is called to believe, as a true judgment, and many rulers' courts, which must be considered right and courts decreed by God, that they have done right, and those have confessed right to you.
There you are imprisoned with chains of divine judgment and bonds to hell, like all devils. Now let Duke Georgen, your idol, and the one at Meinz, your holy god, be yours.
1) Confession, especially on torture. Compare St. Louis edition, vol. XIX, 1905. vol. VIII, 920 f.
If it grieves thee, come again, and take unto thee all spitters and cryers, that ye may make it good. If you cannot understand it, I will, God willing, tell it to Meinz and others with him, so that he must understand it; for he is not such a worst nor nonsensical fool as Heinze; he knows well what he should do, if he had the grace, and could do more good for the realm (which Duke Friederich also noticed2) ) than you desperate assassin, woman-hater and pusillanimous rogue have done harm. But he shall not be worth it, and I must be sorry for my faithful prayer, which I have lost so earnestly and often for the hopeless priest to convert him, like Samuel for his Saul [1 Sam. 15, 35].
137 And you shameful Heinz let yourself not only be used for such a miserable murder fire, but also to write such books, and to blaspheme such high things of churches, heretics, faith, unbelief, rebellion, obedience, since both they themselves and you also know that you are an incomprehensible fool; and we ourselves, so day and night so many years with it, still remain high. You should not write a book before, you would have heard a forz from an old sow, you should open your mouth against it and say: Thank you, you beautiful nightingale, I hear a text that is for me. Hold fast, Rüdem, that will be good to print in a book, nowhere but at Wolfenbüttel, against the scribes and the Elector. Oh how they shall hold their noses before it, and will have to confess that Heinz Potzenhut 3) has also become a scribe; yes, so you should write books that you could understand.
Lastly, I ask first of all all pious Christians and honorable hearts who read or hear this, to take it seriously that God the Lord (as heard) has condemned this prince by so many judgments and sentences as a murderer, a bloodhound, a murderer of archangels to the hellish fire, where he cannot be reviled here, that everyone should do God this service, praise and glorify such divine grace.
2) In the old editions: "gemarckt".
3) Guardian of women and that of which they are called women. Cf. Col. 1369, § 125.
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Judge, where he can, publicly and especially, feed on the earth in honor of God, where he sees Heinzen, or cover his ears, where he hears him call, as he wants to do against the devil himself. And especially you pastors and preachers, let your voice resound confidently in this, and know that we are obliged to do this, autoritate divina, and to do God a service. For one should and must praise and glorify God's judgment and work, as the Psalms teach us; for here God has revealed Himself to us, as He did to Pharaoh in Egypt, so that we may be sure that it is His judgment and work. And you preachers do this, that you tell the people, how with such judgment not only Heinz, but pope, cardinal, bishop, priests, monks and their whole body is meant by God. For Heinz is the servant of all of them in this, as he boasts of their church and obedience in his books, although we know it without that; and all those who serve him, be it the Speier, printers, nobility, and whoever he may be, are condemned in the same judgment. Here is not Pabst's nor Emperor's ban, but God's ban, as on the devil himself.
We must also cry out and praise such judgment and God's work for the sake of our need, lest God also (because we know it and want to keep silent about it) impute to us such great blood and sorrow as has been done to us by such vicious bloodhounds and murderers of assassins, Heinzian papists and papal Heinces. Remember how earnestly God has spoken in Genesis s5. B., Cap. 21,1. ff.] and wanted the dead found in the field to be demanded and cleansed from the nearest cities: where would we stay, because he himself reports to us through his public judgment and work and shows us with his fingers the abominable murderers Heinzen and their companions? The earth shall swallow us up, or the Turk devour us, if we do not point such great blood and murder away from us with an earnest, great cry of contumely to the Heinzen, to whom God points before our eyes, and tries us whether we want to cry out or make ourselves complicit with silence.
140. they have always been great bloodhounds, and have murdered many, until God reveals and condemns them rightly in their hearts.
has. For before they did it as judges, since God was silent; but now they do it as assassins, since they are not judges, but partners and enemies, now condemned to the judge under the hand of God. Thus shall God reproach His enemies, who have blasphemed and murdered without ceasing, even against their conscience.
141 Secondly, I ask our princes and lords to have less worry and trouble from now on, but to be more patient, as they now see how God Himself intervenes and hears our prayer, and wants to do justice to the papacy in a short time (as the Gospel says). For this Heinz is said to have done them the right service with this murderous fire, and they have given him the right reward. God's judgment stands there publicly, who brought the murderers, Heinz's servants, into judgment over all our care and diligence, and, as Heinz and Pabst deserved, condemned them. Praise be to God, who does not let any murder go unnoticed, and who does not let His prayer be despised. The pusillanimous hats wanted to do it secretly, so God brought it to the sun, so that they had to die. His divine grace will continue and complete the work he has begun; to him be praise and glory forever and ever, amen.
The fourth and sixtieth Psalm, which we are to preach and sing in praise and honor to God against these murderous henchmen, belongs here, for you see them painted as if David had intentionally preached about these last henchmen.
The 64th Psalm.
Hear, O God, my voice in my lamentation; guard my life from the cruel enemy. Hide me from the gathering of the wicked, from the heap of the wicked, who sharpen their tongues like a sword, who aim with their poisonous words as with arrows, that they secretly shoot the pious, suddenly they shoot at him without all shyness. They are bold with their wicked plots, and say how they will lay ropes, and speak: Who can see them? They devise mischief and keep it secret, they are crafty and have swift plots. God will shoot them suddenly, and they will be in pain. Their own tongue will cut them down,
that whoever sees it will mock it. And all men that see it shall say, God hath done this, and shall know that it is his work. The righteous shall rejoice in the Lord, and trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory in him.
Many years ago, the Heinces sought various intrigues with Duke George, and made secret practices against us, until at last they boldly and insolently, without God's shyness and fear, pushed off, and suddenly shot with the murder fire, and thought that no one should see such ropes and intrigues; when no one could see such plots. For the Heinzes thought: the emperor will do nothing to us, the court of justice much less; the pope, whom we serve, would not suffer it either: who will do anything to us? Here from earth there is no higher court over us; so God has died, cursed to death by the Heinces. Therefore, let us suddenly shoot, burn, and kill, but with murder, so that we have two advantages: they cannot blame us, nor can they sue us; even if they could sue us, the judge, the most holy father Pope, is for us, and so we are happy and safe.
But what did the deceased God, who was cursed to death by Heinzen, think? The other Psalm says [v. 4] that he laughed and mocked such assassin burners. So this Psalm says that he thought to shoot them suddenly and to cut them down by their own tongue, so that they would be mocked and disgraced before all the world. For when he saw that there was no judge, he took the office himself, and judged in many chamber courts, at Wittenberg, in the Mark, Eimbeck, Nordhausen, and now and then. When now no plaintiffs, lawyers, nor witnesses were there, he played the short one, and let a quick right go, the murder burners had to be about themselves plaintiffs, lawyers and witnesses, and speak their own word themselves. So God convicted them by their own tongues, and said [Matth. 18, 16.]: In ore duorum; et iterum: "Out of your mouth you are condemned" [Matth. 12, 37.].
For what does God ask of the pope, the emperor, the kings, the court of appeals, the jurists? If they do not want to speak, let them be silent; if they do not want to continue with their trial, let them
stay back there. He is a great Lord, who can make men of earth and stone, and men of stone and earth; he can make fools wise, and wise men fools. So he has made imperial chamber courts here in the dungeon from time to time, and has let that one sit at Speier and have the lookout; and it is the very finest that both pope, emperor and chamber court must hold such courts for imperial courts, because they are worldly princes' and lords' courts, which come from the emperor (but everything above from God) in fief. Thus Heinze is condemned and damned by the papal, imperial chamber court (of which he thought to be sure). For despite their neck, that they call such courts other than imperial, yes, divine courts! If the middle courts have done nothing, the high courts of God and the lower courts of the emperor have.
These are the miracles of God, which this psalm praises and extols, that he has suddenly shot the murderers of Heinzen and killed them by their own tongues, for the very same tongues, which before secretly contended with each other, and decided on the fire of assassination, have themselves accused, condemned and killed them, They have accused, condemned, and cast into the fire, and have revealed their captain, the chief hawk, and have declared that he deserves the same fire, and that now he cannot be called a prince in the eyes of the world with any honor, but has been pronounced an arch-assassin by God's judgment, and is to be held as such.
And that I also refrain from it, because in the Psalm it says: "They are bold and without fear", and I said before that Heinz is a pusillanimous rascal, if he or his people would use their ass-dialectica here, and pretend that the Psalm is against me, and would punish my words, because he says that they are bold. To this I still say, as before: No assassin is a man, and no man is an assassin, but he who assassinates is certainly a fugitive Heinz and a despondent woman's hat, as all histories testify. For they do not stand or meet where there is driving, or are not sure that there can be or will be no resistance. But where they are sure that one cannot defend oneself, or where they have overpowered it,
1380 Erl. (2.) 28.91-93. sec. I. Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1436 f. W. XVII. 1732-1734. 1381
They are bold, but do no good, only harm.
As if to give examples: The Scripture gives the wicked everywhere that they are bold against God, and do not fear God, for God sleeps and hides Himself, yes, He is weak in His own of all things, as if cursed to death by the saints. Then they are very bold, and chase the suffering and fleeting, dead God, for they feel no punishment, resistance nor wrath of God, as Pharaoh was bold in the Red Sea against the God of Israel, and said [Ex. 5:2], "I know of no God," and chased after him into the middle of the sea. But when God turned and looked around, they threw themselves into the shoe and into the sea, crying out, "Let us flee, God is fighting against us" [Ex. 14:25]. So I think that Meuchel Heinze would not be so bold as to blow a fence at a farmer, if he knew that a lout was standing behind the door, he would lift up his heels manfully, as if it were snowing with louts behind him. But he can curse God in heaven, because he is sure that there is no God who can or wants to defend himself, meanwhile he does not pay attention to the hour that will come.
Well, they are hardened, blinded, given over to the wrath of God, we must give room to wrath, and let God's judgment go; we also no longer want to pray for their sin (as St. John teaches us), but from them and against them, to praise and thank God, sing the Song of Judas, thus interpreted to Heinzen:
Ah, thou wicked wretch, what hast thou done? That you have murdered many pious people by fire?
Thou shalt suffer great torment in hell, Lucifer's 1) Fellow thou must be eternally, Kyrieeleison.
Oh lost papists! What have you done. That you could not live the true Christians.
This is the great disgrace that shall remain forever,
It goes through all the lands, and shall you become great, Kyrieeleison.
1) In the old editions: "Lucibers".
If I fill this song once, I will also find Meinz his quiet ones.
Let them now go and hope! Because the emperor, the pope, the court of justice have not condemned them yet, they want to be safe. Here is God's obvious judgment, that is, the pope, the emperor and all are silent. If Christ had not been judged before, nor Judas condemned with his Jews, unless Pilate, Herod and the priestly high court at Jerusalem had done so, then Christ would still be hanging on the cross, and Judas would perhaps have long since become high priest. But since no one would give Christ justice, but the judges themselves condemned him, the Father himself had to do it.
So let the preachers, when they teach the people, admonish them to fear God and not to commit murder or evil in secret. For God sees it and does not remain outside, but if one does it too roughly, and unrepentantly still wants to defend for right, then he comes certainly, and comes well. And so these menchelle murderers, along with Heinzen and Judah, may well serve as an example. For it is said: Nihil opertum, quod non reveletur. Deo sit laus et gloria in secula secu- lorum, qui facit misericordiam et judicium injuriam patientibus, Arnen.
1437 Eisenach treaty between Elector Frederick of Saxony and Landgrave Philip of Hesse on how the war regime should be maintained between them in the campaign against Duke Henry of Brunswick. Eisenach, July 13, 1542.
In Hortleder, book 4, cap. 37, p. 773; in Dumonts oorxs clixl., tom. IV, pari. II, x. 231 and in Lünig's Reichs-Archiv, part. sxeo., th. II, x. 260.
1. to know that after the most illustrious, noble, highborn princes and lords, Mr. Johann Friedrich, Duke of Saxony, Archmarshall and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen and Burgrave of Magdeburg etc., and Lord Philip, Landgrave in Hesse, Count of Katzenelnbogen, of Dietz, Zi.egenhain and Nidda etc., for the promotion of this work and undertaken move not for a small need that disagreement and discord between their Chur- and F. G., as chief people,
The same applies to the warriors, who are to be prevented from establishing and planting unity and peace; likewise, that it may be useful and good that their chur- and F. G. unite with each other in a friendly and brotherly manner, as they and their heirs may hold themselves in this undertaken emergency work for the execution of the same: therefore their chur- and F. G., for the preservation of the same, have united with each other in the following points, and have finally adopted them:
2. first of all, their chur- and F. G. have agreed in a friendly and brotherly manner that they will mean, honor and promote each other in a friendly and faithful manner, also cordially, and that they will act and do all of these matters and things, which they want to act and do against the aforementioned disciples of Brunswick, in unity, and that they will also prove and show themselves in their captaincy in such a way as in a common authority, and as the captaincy reported to both of them is responsible at the same time.
3. no one will seek honor, glory, or advantage over the other, but will stand up for one man in a friendly and faithful manner, so that what concerns one may concern and affect the other as his own business, body, honor, and fortune.
4. and after their commanders and councillors have been duly dispatched, to accept a considerable number of rurales and servants, and to bring them to each of the old sample places, by virtue of the Weimar farewell, but it is uncertain whether they will receive and obtain the compared and reported number of foreign people:
(5) Thus, their Lord and Lordship have amicably agreed upon which of them would have more rulers and servants to share with the other, and neither part would have any advantage or more rulers and servants than the other.
6. neither of them, if they will be in the same train with each other, shall order, create, command or forbid anything for themselves, but everything shall be done together and by their joint decision and agreement.
(7) If, however, matters arose in which the Supreme and Supreme Courts were not of the same opinion and had two different concerns, they shall, by virtue of the Constitution, hear the Councils of War, and which part they, the Councils of War, or the other part, shall have, the opinion shall be followed.
8. whether there would be any other misunderstanding between their chur- and F. G., which they could not get along with each other,
It should also be based on a comparison of the war councils, and therefore there should be no reluctance or displeasure between their chur- and F. Gn.
(9) If, however, it should happen in a hurry (which should not happen if it does not cause great distress) that one of the chief captains should command or forbid something without the knowledge of the other, and the other comes to know of such a prohibition, and has a misgiving or concern about it, no change should be made by him, but he should hear the other chief captain's reasons why such a command is made. If the reasons are such that the other captain allows him to accept them, he shall have his way; but if a change is to be made in it, the chief captains shall settle it amicably with each other, and in the event that the objections are repugnant, the settlement shall be made by the councils of war, as stated above.
10. If it should come to pass that from one district, be it the Oberland or the Saxon, the payment of the money of the double or single months is unequal, and if in one district more money is received than in the other, our most gracious and gracious lords, the chiefs, shall pay both their men-at-arms with the money, if any, in whichever district it may be, and shall order their penny masters and money boxes together, and in which no one shall seek an advantage before the other with his men-at-arms, but shall keep even in this, and no one shall have an advantage before the other.
If the chiefs would also advance something to the common understanding, or if they would both raise something from the money and advance it for this purpose, they shall be arrested for such money at the same time, and if they would not obtain it from that which has been captured by the enemy, as they hope to God, they shall at the same time demand, claim and advance it to the common understanding, and neither of them shall agree with the other.
(12) The same shall be done with provisions, so that no captain or his men-of-war shall have an advantage over the others in provisions or their supply, but equality shall be maintained everywhere.
13 If any of the princes' or governors' rulers have gained anything from the enemies, the split foot and what is in the way of the colonel should be divided among their sovereigns and governors at the same time, and no one should have access to it before the other.
14. in the same way with the prisoners also
that they shall be entitled to their chur- and F. G. at the same time.
15 The passports and letters of transit given to the counties, lords, nobles, and commanders shall be given by their chur- and F. G. at the same time, and sealed with both their signatures, and which are considered necessary to sign shall be done by their chur- and F. G. at the same time.
16 What is taken from the passports shall be placed in a drawer and divided after the end of the procession, and each royal and princely part shall deal with it as it pleases.
(17) The chief captains are also to make a gracious and earnest request to their field marshals, chiefs over the servants, sergeants, and all other commanders that they act and live in a friendly and sociable manner with one another and do not act differently than if they all belonged to one lord. Also, if there is discord among the people of war, let there be no noise among themselves, and let not one master's servants be divided against another, but let them be in harmony and as if they were all under one chief captain.
18 And in order that the better friendship and unity may be preserved, it is considered that the advance and retreat shall be ordered by both chief captains, so that no captain may have some advantage over the other. And if there is a change of the lead and the followers, that the equality is kept, that both lords' men are to lead and follow, which is to be understood in this way: Where two squadrons of men are to precede, one is to be taken from the Elector's regiment and the other from the Landgrave's regiment, and so they are to be changed over from one to the other. In the same way, if necessary, it should also be kept with the soldiers, also with the followers.
(19) If they lie in one camp, it shall be so kept that the tent and quarters of the two chief captains shall first be pitched together, if they lie so that they may not make two camps before cities or castles; but if they were to lie in two places, the same would want to have another provision.
20 Each man shall leave his gun with his men of war; if two derterns are fired, each gun shall lie alone. The stores will also be arranged accordingly.
21 The cavalrymen shall divide their quarters in such a way that one cavalryman shall be loosed around the other with his cavalrymen, and in such a way that the cavalrymen shall lie in camp by camp, as if they were lying on the ground.
They shall be under one lord; and when a noise is made, and they move together into the square ordered to make noise, each ensign of routers shall move there as ordered by the supreme captains or their field marshals. And the field marshals of both the princes and the chieftains shall be in charge of and command the routers on both sides at the same time. Also, of the cutters, under which prince's regiment they lie, the prince's field marshal shall be no less obedient than his supreme field captain's field marshals under whom they lie, and equality shall be maintained in this at all times. This should also be done in both lords' camps and in their names.
(22) The commanders of the footmen shall pitch their regiments side by side, or one to each place of the camp, as may be further provided. They shall also keep together in unity.
(23) If a person commits a crime in one regiment and goes to the other, he shall not be withheld from the other, but shall immediately follow. Whatever may be useful for further harmony between the two regiments shall be further considered by the commander over the servants and compared between them.
(24) But above all, under severe and serious corporal punishment, it shall be forbidden for one regiment to arouse indignation against the other, or for one regiment to presume to run down the gun and fire into the other regiment to the detriment of the other, but they shall hold themselves against each other as brothers and fellows who are under one master and of one nation.
(25) Neither shall any man make a noise, or shout, or blow, except in the presence of enemies, for loss of life.
26. all the plundering and securing shall be done by both chiefs, and if Salvaguardi is struck, it shall be done under both their coats of arms.
27) It should also be seriously considered that the salvaguars given by Mr. Bernhard of Mila, Knight, before the arrival of the churals and princes, are not held less than if they were given by their churals and princes themselves.
If cities, castles, or other enemies are to be visited, both captains shall order it at the same time, and if it is necessary for one of them to be present at such a visit, the other shall meanwhile command the camp and the troops of cavalrymen and servants.
29. but if the time may have it, we shall have the
ordered storms and battles happen with common decision.
But how the ordered battle or storms are to be ordered, the highest captains are to compare themselves with the war councils and higher offices. And since it would be more detrimental than beneficial to common understanding if all war councils were needed and required for all councils, and if it were not decided without them what should be considered in a hurry, as battles, storms and skirmishes, it is therefore intended to appoint six councils, with whose knowledge and concern such hurried actions should be carried out. And are considered good: Mr. Bernhard von Mila, knight, Lippolt von Stockheim, Herman von der Malsburk, Christoph von Steinberk, the chiefs over the regiments.
Because the field marshals, colonels over the infantry and the armorers must also be called into council of war, it shall be held outside of these cases in the field with the councils of war, as commonly decreed by the estates, by virtue of the constitution and Coburg bylaws.
(32) As far as information and writings concerning the war are concerned, the princes and rulers shall not conceal anything from each other, but shall act in a friendly and confidential manner.
If Roman imperial or royal majesty, some potentates, sovereigns or princes or communes, inside or outside the empire, send messages to the supreme captains, none of them shall be allowed or induced to enter the camp without the joint decision and agreement of the captains and councils of war, and all of them shall be heard and dealt with.
34 Let no one deny, forgive, or demand anything from that which he has conquered or won, and which is in the common understanding, and let him obtain it without the other's knowledge and will, and let him be kind and even in it; but if one should do so, he shall lose his share of the spoil.
Item 35: No action shall be conceded, nor shall anything be traded with the enemies, without the entire settlement of both captains.
Item 36: Because each chief captain will lead 300 horses at his expense, which must be maintained with food and meal, the commanders, who act with the people for the sake of fire or security, should be careful that in such action of the chief captains kitchen and cellar are fed; what
The money that the captains receive for their provisions should benefit both of them at the same time, and neither of them should have anything to gain from the other.
37) Neither the two sovereigns nor the princes are to disagree or agree with each other in any action, without a common decision and common settlement of the Christian unity, but are to stand and remain friendly with each other and for one man in all hardship and adversity, as the eternal God will send, for good fortune (for which they will faithfully ask the almighty God) or for bad fortune.
(38) Whatever danger and harm may arise in the future from this procession for the churals and princes, their churals and princes shall at the same time take care of it, and shall add to each other's bodies and goods, land, people and property, and shall remain faithful to each other, completely friendly, faithful and without danger.
39. if one or more in both or in one camp come together, so displeased with each other, let them put a stop to such displeasure until this war is over, and let one do nothing against the other in evil because of it, under the highest penalty.
40 First of all, it is necessary that the warriors on horseback and on foot be forbidden, under heavy and serious punishment, not to stir up dissension, discord and unrest, or to quarrel with each other. If one of them has a half-demand for quarrels, strife, discord, or similar things from another, he must avoid them, refrain from them, and be completely silent about them, under heavy and serious punishment.
But if such a thing happens there, and two come together, or fight, then none of them shall run to the aid of any part in the discord that has arisen; nor shall they be divided, but in both camps there shall be all common people, and for the sake of divorce, regardless of which camp the soldiers belong to, under penalty of life and limb. No lansquenets shall go from one prince's camp to the other to play in the mum's square, or even to play in the other camp, and if this is found to be the case, he shall be punished as stated above.
42. secondly, that they keep themselves equally peaceful on the playgrounds or mumming grounds.
43) Thirdly, and as men are well aware of the evil that results from excessive drinking, drinking to excess and binge drinking are forbidden under serious and severe punishment.
would. For this would keep the people all the more united and thus prevent much evil.
44) Fourthly, if a riot were to occur, then both chiefs alone, together with their guards and servants, who had been appointed to their bodies, would be up and ordered to keep peace with their bodies and goods, and thus quell the riot and quarrel, and also none of the chiefs would do anything by chance to his people, but in this, for the pacification of 1) the riot, be an equal common person. And that otherwise all the rulers and servants keep still and stand by their guns and do not move away without the decision of the chiefs, in any way, even under the highest penalty, honor and oath; and both chiefs shall promise each other by their princely honor and loyalty, as soon as a noise would arise in both parts of the camps, that they will come together alone and both want to be equally impartial peacekeepers and peace-makers, without any danger.
45. However, in the event that both governors are not present, the present one should nevertheless have the power to command in the same manner; And it will be necessary to tell the overseers and servants in the field, and to bind them in their duties and oaths, which of the chiefs, in the manner forewarned, shall give or take peace, that they shall be obliged to keep the peace, and which of them shall transgress and not obey the prohibition given, that he shall be punished both to life and limb.
Fifthly, it would greatly promote the unity of this trade if field marshals, quartermasters, watchmasters, provosts, and sheriffs were to ride out at the same time and compare themselves with each other in beating and dividing the stores, so that no advantage but equality might be felt.
(47) If one of the rulers should have an advantage with his people for half a day in camp, then the advantage should be given to the other on the next day, and the disadvantage should be alternated from day to day, and so it should be kept brotherly.
48 Sixthly, the provisions shall be kept equal, so that the provisions masters ride together and deliver the provisions to both stores at the same time, so that one part does not receive bad provisions and the other part receives good ones. That they also have all the fine provisions led to the place, and distribute them immediately at the same time, so that no part has an advantage over the other.
1) "pacification" put by us instead of: "promotion".
(49) But whatsoever victuals any man might have brought with him out of his own country, or send for, he may use for himself.
50 The same shall be done on the feeding grounds, and the villages and patches of the feeding grounds shall be divided as much as possible, like the quarters. If, however, the opportunity cannot be provided, it shall be enjoined by honor and oath that no one shall hinder or rape another on the feeding grounds, or lay hands on the other, with corporal punishment; but what is thus done improperly shall be at the discretion of the two colonels and the councillors of war, and what they find shall remain so.
(51) And the above-mentioned articles shall be sworn to and kept by the two camps, and whoever transgresses this shall be punished to life and limb according to the judgment of the councils of war.
52 Further, their Lord and Princely Graces have compared themselves to each other in a friendly and brotherly manner. Their graces have amicably and fraternally agreed with each other that if one of them is captured in such a battle (for which the Almighty God be merciful), the other shall not leave the field with the war party, or make or accept any peace or atonement, unless the other is released and set free; And if one of them should perish or perish (since the Almighty God is equally in favor), then the other shall have the wife and children and advisors of the deceased, whom the deceased prince would have appointed as administrators in his will, as well as land and people in friendly and brotherly command.
(53) The deceased's heirs shall also remain equally related in these matters of war, as well as they and their guardians and administrators, as the deceased father should have done, to help carry them out, and especially to remain in Christian union with their lands and people, and to keep the Word of God.
We, the above-mentioned, Johann Friederich, Duke of Saxony, Elector, and Burgrave of Magdeburg etc., and Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse etc., hereby declare in particular that the above-mentioned agreement and settlement has been made, agreed upon and concluded with our good knowledge, will and approval. We also agree by our princely faithfulness and true words to keep all this steadily, firmly and unbreakably, without danger. In witness whereof we have hereunto affixed our seal, and have hereunto set our hand.
2) "premeditated" put by us instead of: "for considerable".
after, Thursday on the day of Margaret [July 13] , after Christ our dear Lord's birth one thousand five hundred and in the two and fortieth year etc.
1438 Answer of Landgrave Philip of Hesse etc., given to the persons who presume to possess the Imperial Court of Appeal, to an informal, clumsy mandate, for the sake of the campaign against Duke Henry of Brunswick. Date in the field camp at Holzminden, 1) July 27, 1542.
From Hortleder, Book 7, Cap. 20, S. 1303.
We Philipp von GOttes Gnaden, Landgrave of Hesse, Count of Katzenelnbogen, submit to the well-born and highly learned persons who at this time presume to possess and decompose the Imperial Court of Appeal: After you have given us an open mandate, which date stands: Speier on the fourteenth day of the month of July, after the birth of Christ our Lord fifteen hundred and in the two and fortieth year, which is addressed to the Highborn Princes, Mr. Johann Friederich, Duke of Saxony, Archmarshall and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen and Burgrave of Magdeburg; Mr. Ernsten, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, our dear cousins, brothers, grandparents and brothers-in-law; Mayor and the city of Brunswick, also others, who adhere to the honest, laudable, common Roman Empire useful, peaceful, Christian union and present emergency against Henry, who calls himself the Disciples, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, and has gone out to us and been delivered by a court messenger:
(2) Thus we may not refrain from giving you a due, necessary and honest answer to this; not that we thereby intend to challenge the imperial lawful jurisdiction, power and authority, which the imperial majesty, our most gracious lord, has in some ways; but rather to show you your courage and abuse, which you have hitherto committed against the old, honest, holy imperial city of Goslar, also against us and our fellow relatives (without
1) "Holzminden" put by us instead of "Holzmin" here and at the end. Holzminden is in Braunschweig, four German miles west of Eimbeck.
The fact that you have abused, and are still abusing daily, the highly thought of imperial jurisdiction, power and command against the commoner of Goslar, others and us, and that you could have spared our fellow relatives and us with such weak mandates, is to be reported.
For we may say with truth that our kinsmen and we have hitherto rendered due obedience to the most august Imperial Majesty in all and every honest and just matter, and think to do so even in our pits. You also know that our kinsmen and we have always sought and desired peace and unity in the German nation with the utmost earnestness, supplication and entreaty, and have therefore lost and expended a great deal of money, from which we could make a good account; so we would also like to do so with many acts, imperial and other decrees, also imperial and royal writings, suspension of the Goslarian alleged nullity, imperial declaration, and also royal confirmation. This is to be proven and presented honestly by means of many acts, imperial and royal decrees, suspension of the Goslar alleged null and void eight, imperial declaration, royal confirmation and mandates. Inasmuch as you will also hear this in part from the above-mentioned letter sent by our friendly cousin and brother, the Elector of Saxony, and our letter, in the name of the above-mentioned of our united estates, his love and ours, which date is: Monday after Margaret [July 17], next past, and for what reasons his love and we, in the name, as above-mentioned, have been urged to this defense.
4 The fact that we have always sought and desired peace, and how highly we have exhorted and advised peace, appears from the writ of summons which the said Elector and we, also in the name of our kinsmen and ourselves, have issued against your and other persons who have sat and been at the time in the Imperial Court of Appeal. Chamber Court, which date is: November 13, Anno 38, and from many other actions, requests, petitions and exhortations, which we may present in due time with God's help. Although you should now know, after we have received so many letters and complaints, that the aforementioned younger Duke Heinrich has severely burdened the city of Goslar and Brunswick in many ways, taken from Goslar and its citizens and inhabitants their tithes, interest, woods, mines and smelting works, taken from them, to hold them for eights and to persecute them, against and against the imperial suspension, declaration, royal decree, and the royal decree. Suspension, Declaration, Royal Confir-
You have also, contrary to God, law and all equity, pursued and attacked such refusals; you have forbidden those of Brunswick access to provisions, and have done many other burdensome things, so that neither the cities nor we could stand by any longer, but have urged the aforementioned Electors and us to this undertaken defense and rescue. Thus you have sent out such a burdensome mandate to us, as obedient princes of the empire, since you should have more reasonably long ago commanded the aforementioned disciples of Brunswick and Lüneburg to abstain from the land peace and rights, as well as from the aforementioned imperial suspension, declaration, and royal decree. The court has also ordered you to comply with the aforementioned imperial suspension, declaration, royal confirmation and mandates, and not to cause such unrest.
(5) Since we are obligated by divine and all human rights to make such our required defension, also to do the same honestly and usefully for the Holy Roman Empire, and by virtue of the imperial suspension, royal declaration, and royal decree, we have the right to do so. Suspension, Declaration, Royal Confirmation and Mandates If we are to owe such a defense to the Holy Roman Empire honestly and usefully, and by virtue of the imperial suspension, declaration, royal confirmation and mandates, and other just causes, lawfully, solely for salvation, as the necessity of things has required, and thus by us no war, but only protection and emergency defense has been undertaken, then it is not due to our kinsmen and us to parry such a mandate, which is issued contrary to God and right, for such obedience would in principle be in accordance with a breach of the peace, by which the poor, displaced cities and people would have to be abandoned and in consequence eternally spoiled.
6 You also know that at the recently held imperial congresses at Regensburg and Speier, both religious states decreed, upon previous complaint, that you should be inspected and visited, and that reformation and change should take place, according to the same agreement, and the declaration and assurance that followed.
(7) Since the same granted and agreed visitation has not taken place, we will not and cannot consider you to be a court of imperial jurisdiction, nor will we give anything to your jurisdiction or prohibition, in the confidence that others will do the same.
8 And even if this were not the case, as it is in truth, your persons would still be highly suspicious in this matter, and we would not be obliged to hear them. For your persons, who have passed the null and void verdict against those of Goslar, which we believe to be contrary to law, as well as others of the same kind in the past, and especially in the last few days, about the imperial suspension, are not obliged to hear them. Suspension, the
The fact that you have spoken against the same of Goslar for the sake of expensiveness, and have thus strengthened and emboldened the opposition to its unjust actions, will not be suffered by us as judges now. In addition, we have found you to be well disposed toward the aforementioned disciples of Brunswick and Lüneburg, in that you have not accepted the supposed appeal by the imperial and royal commission for honest reasons. Commission for bona fide reasons to witnesses for future remembrance, so that you had nothing to do, which also might not have been devolved on you, accepted, thereupon let inhibition and citation go out; since you have undoubtedly read the Goslar articles of purgation, and had knowledge of how he has been notorious with many murderous, peace-breaking acts, of which and more cruel deeds we were in the process of committing him over his neck, since, in our opinion, it would have been much more your duty to promote such an imperial commission than to do so. We are notorious because, according to our reputation, it would have been much more your duty to promote such an imperial commission than to lend imperial messengers and servants, which you have denied them.
9) And even though you accuse us of being unpeaceful and unauthorized in our present actions, and that they are untimely for this time, we have by no means acknowledged this, but we have divine, natural and human rights, especially the imperial suspension and royal confirmation, and the suppression of the poor afflicted. We have also, together with our helpers, not started a war against the aforementioned disciples of Brunswick and Lüneburg, as mentioned in No. 3 above, [which] has taken away what is theirs from those of Goslar, and at the request and serious mandate of royal majesty, do not want to give it back. Majesty, but chased them away, 1) to stake all his possessions and assets on it, to deal with the Eight Judgment, and thus to pursue them further than he had done publicly. He approached them with armed hands, took their wood and donkeys, and had many of their heads beaten. Against those of Brunswick, as also reported, with arresting their mayors, secretaries, citizens and servants, seizing, torturing, beating and laying their own to rest, he did not stop, but continued for and for. If he had refrained from this, so much more peace would have been preserved in the German nation, and there would have been no need to command peace for us and our kinsmen, which we willingly wanted to keep without commandment. But that our kinsmen should sit still, watch his cruel violence with pain and allow bloodshed-
1) Maybe: "canceled"?
That would be against God, against good morals, and against all respectability and fairness.
10. But that such a defense of ours was made against the enemy of Christendom at this time, when the empire is in heavy action, is not to be explained to us, because Duke Heinrich did not want to stand still, but let himself be heard to persecute Goslar, to put Brunswick without peace, and to forbid them access, provisions and other things, especially because Goslar, as it was before, He had not been able to keep Goslar, which had been made desolate and bare of people and all necessities by prolonged mounding and rescue, but, if he had wanted to and had moved ahead of his refusal, the city would have had to surrender to his control before we could have come to its aid, and if he had not wanted it, it would not have been able to suffer such a challenge for more than a quarter of a year without being besieged, but would have had to surrender. Moreover, he attacked and declared himself an enemy, for which reason it was impossible for us to wait any longer and to watch such violence for the sake of God and honor. From this it appears who is the cause of such injustice and damage that might result from such resistance, that this should be attributed to him and not to us.
Accordingly, our relatives and we abide by the imperial suspension, declaration, royal confirmation and mandates. We therefore adhere to the imperial suspension, declaration, royal confirmation and mandates issued by their Imperial and Royal Majesties' own persons from highly important causes and right knowledge, and are not obliged to obey your person in the case against imperial and royal business and will, or to recognize you as rightful persons of the court of justice, who have compulsory jurisdiction, of which we also herewith publicly testify and protest. However, we may suffer justice for this in due places, confident that you will let us and our allies remain with due rights. If this does not happen, we hereby reserve our further need.
(12) We have many other things to tell you about our relatives and our needs, which we want to save until another time. We do not want to keep such things from you out of our necessity. Date under our secret, in our camp at Holzminden, on Thursday after Jacobi [July 27] Anno 42 etc.
The Roman King Ferdinand's insurance, the Elector Frederick of Saxony and the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, also given to their relatives for the sake of the "Brunswick" train. At Nuremberg, Aug. 24, 1542.
In Hortleder, Book IV, Cap. 47, p. 806 and in Lünig's Reichs-Archiv, x "urt. spse., Theil II, p. 265.
We Ferdinand von GOttes Gnaden, Roman King, at all times Mehrer des Reichs, in Germania, zu Ungarn, Böhmen, Dalmatien, Croatien und Slavonien etc. King, Infante in Hispania, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Steyer, Carinthia, Crain and Würtenberg etc., Count of Tyrol, confess with this open letter and make known to all men: As the Highborn Johann Friedrich, Duke of Saxony, Landgrave in Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen, Archmarshall of the Holy Roman Empire; and Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse, Count of Katzenelnbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhain and Nidda, our beloved Oheim, Chur- and Princes, these days by their sent message before us, also before the Imperial Commissars and common imperial authorities. They have previously, in their answer, given to our and the estates' commissioners, offered and granted that, for the sake of their action against the said Duke Henry, they may be prosecuted before the Holy Roman Emperor. Maj. etc., etc., our dear brother and lord, also us and the common estates of the empire, and against his, Duke Heinrich's, children and heirs before impartial commissars, they may suffer an impartial negotiation; as they have kindly and willingly offered themselves for the same negotiation against the embassies sent by the highborn, Wilhelm and Ludwigen, brothers, Palgraves of the Rhine, Dukes of Upper and Lower Bavaria, our dear cousins and princes; That they also commit themselves by their princely words to proceed with their armor against no one, nor to act, and thereupon request that they assure their loved ones and their relatives of the agreement against any violent counteraction, and to make and communicate to them the necessary written certificate thereof.
That we therefore, instead of and in the name of the Imperial Majesty and for ourselves, upon such their humble apology, request and entreaty,
1396 Erl. (2.) 26, 254, section 1: Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1439 f. W. LVII, 1752 f. 1397
In order to prevent and avoid more mischief and detrimental developments that might result from this war exercise that has begun, and especially so that the planned, highly necessary Christian work against the hereditary enemy of Christendom is not disrupted or prevented, the above-mentioned Electors of Saxony and Landgraves of Hesse, together with their relatives in unity, have granted the Roman Emperor our and the Empire's security on account of the war exercise they have carried out up to now. Maj. our security and that of the Empire. And hereby do so knowingly, by virtue of this letter, so that nothing will be done or acted on account of their hitherto practiced warfare before due interrogation, also amicable or legal discussion of the same against their L. L. and their relatives, but that they shall therefore be secured herewith; however, that their L. L. and their relatives shall continue to be held in custody by their L. L. and their relatives, and that their L. L. and their relatives shall continue to be held in custody by their L. L. and their relatives. nor their kinsmen shall continue to do or do anything offensive against anyone, shall comply with their request as it stands, shall really reimburse the same, and shall carry it out, that they also let their men of war pass without male harm as much as they can, and to the best of their diligence, also as much as they can, prevent that such men of war are not ordered against the Imperial Majesty, nor are they ordered against the Emperor. Majesty, nor be permitted to do so, without danger. With the certificate of this letter given in our and the Empire's city of Nuremberg. The 24th day of the month of August, Anno 1542, of our empire, of the Roman empire in the 12th century, and of the other empires in the 16th century.
Ferdinand 1)
Ad mandatum domini Regis proprium... Wienger, Vice Chancellor. Meissner m. p.
1440. Luther's writing to the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse from the captive Duke of Brunswick. December 1545.
The Elector feared that the Landgrave of Hesse, moved by the Emperor's and other powerful persons' support for the imprisoned Duke of Brunswick, would set him free. In order to counteract this, he had the chancellor Brück request Luther to address a writing to him and the landgrave in which he would be warned against the release of the Brunswicker. This Luther did by the present writing. At
1) Here we have deleted "M.". It probably originated from the fact that Ferdinand added a squiggle consisting of three strokes to his signature. See the facsimile of the manuscript in Neudecker's "Actenstücke" z. E.
On December 13, two quatrains had already been printed, and on December 18, the whole was completed. The Elector was not satisfied with the slow progress of the printing. Klug owned only one press), and repeatedly urged Brück to hurry. (See Brück's letters to the Elector of December 15 and 18 in Kolde's Xnalseta, pp. 419 and 421). The printed sheets were sent to the Elector individually, and he read through them. One passage, at the end of § 25, seemed questionable to him, because it might cause a conflict with the Emperor, and he had Brück ask Luther to change it. Luther, however, did not comply, but answered: "He does not want to do it, and if he should be caught, he would have to let his letters go" (Kolde 1. 6. p. 422). The first edition appeared under the title: "An Kurfürsten zu Sachsen, vnd Landgrauen zu Hessen, D. Mart. Luther from the imprisoned H. at Brunswig. Wittenberg." At the end: "Printed in the Electoral City of Wittenberg by Joseph Klug. Anno M.D.XLV." 5 quarto sheets. A second edition published by the same in 1546 has on the title the addition: "Sampt den Lxiiii. und Lxxvi Psalmen, ende hin an gesetze." (See our last note on this writing.) In addition, the Erlangen edition lists three other editions under the same title as the first edition; only one with the date 1546, but all three without indication of the printer. That the first edition listed is the original edition is certain from the fact that in it, on the sheet "v. vff dem andern Blatt", the passage indicated by Brück (Kolde 1.6. p.421) is found, but not, as Seidemann and after him Kolde assume, one of the prints without year and name. In the collections: in the Wittenberg (1559), vol. XII, p.331b; in the Jenaer (1562), vol. VIII, p. 248; 2) in the Altenburger, vol. VIII, p. 462; in the Leipziger, vol. XXI, p. 513; in the Erlanger (1st), vol. 26, p. 229 and in the second edition, vol. 26, p. 251; also in Seidemann-De Wette, vol. VI, p. 385.
To the most illustrious, noble, highborn princes and lords, Mr. Johann Friedrich, Duke of Saxony, Archmarshall and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen and Burgrave of Magdeburg, and Mr. Philips, Landgrave of Hesse, Count of Katzenelnbogen, Ziegenhain, Dietz and Nidda, my most gracious and gracious lords.
God's grace and mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, and my poor prayer and humble service. Most gracious and merciful Lord! I am often
2) Seidemann has doubted the correctness of this statement, which he found in De Wette's Nachlasse, and says: "But the scripture stands Jen. VIII, 273b ff." Only in the edition of 1558 is our writing in the place indicated by Seidemann, whereas in the editions of 1562, 1568, 1580, and 1600 it is in the location indicated by De Wette and us.
admonished and requested by many, even great people, so that I was immediately very surprised that I wanted to and should write to Your Electoral and Princely Grace to ask them to release the prisoner. Grace, admonishing and requesting that they not let go of the imprisoned H. of Brunswick again, because God Himself has once controlled his innumerable tyranny and despotism in a special and strange way, because they are concerned that if he were to be released again, the last would be worse than the first, since there is no hope that he should reform, just as little as the Cardinal of Mainz reformed, but died unpunished in his sins, and must be eternally damned; otherwise the Christian faith is right. And even if the ruler of Brunswick would act as if he wanted to repent and become more pious, he has lost both trust and faith among pious people through his previous outrageous tyranny, so that he will not be trusted from now on, nor can he be trusted, but only for this reason he might repent and improve, so that he might again come to honor, country and people; which would certainly only be false vixenish repentance, as Scripture teaches us much about this with words and examples.
2. at such a request made to me, I first thought of what it would take to write such a document, since, of course, and without a doubt, your Lord and Princely Grace, who are highly knowledgeable and well versed through much experience, know all these matters better than I and my peers. who] as the highly knowledgeable and well versed by much experience, know all occasions, especially of these matters, better than I and my peers, would be most diligent in thinking for themselves, what kind of trouble, care and discomfort would arise from such a settlement of Brunswick, would also greatly grieve many pious hearts, and thereby make their prayers for Your Electorate and Princely Grace against God more miserable and cold. Gn. would become dull and cold against God. For this victory, which comes so easily and suddenly, without a great battle and bloodshed, is certainly given by God through the heartfelt prayer of faith, who, as the 76th Psalm [v. 4, 9] sings, has terrified them from heaven, as is His way of war with Pharaoh, Sanherib, Benhadad, and also shows with words Deut. 26, 36: "I will give you a despondent heart, a rustling leaf shall terrify them."
3 But against this I have been told whether E. churf. and princ. Gn. such and much
If we were to consider the matter more ourselves, a faithful, most humble admonition would not be despicable, and it is to be expected that E. C. and F. G. would be interceded for, assailed, tempted, and requested in every way. 1) For the friendship is great, as the whole of Germany and much more comprehends. For Brunswick is one of the noble princely houses, and still today has many fine Christian noble princes, who do not want to be in a bad way, nor do they want to be blamed if they would faithfully and earnestly ask for their friend, even though he neither deserves it nor is worth it, as he, of the praiseworthy, glorious tribe, is an undeserving, unruly, wild, ill-bred branch, especially with the service of the idol at Rome, whereupon he has fallen into great blasphemy against God and other evil deeds, and is now beginning to receive his reward; Therefore, it is necessary to punish E. C. and F. G. to remain firm and strong against such strong storm winds, which have great and mighty appearance of fairness. And there are great requests from some of his relatives for him, also against God, that he may realize his sin and come back to lands and people. But I worry that they do not pray properly, so now is not the time to talk about it.
We are, praise God, also not of stony hearts or iron minds. I do not wish evil on anyone, especially no Christian should wish the wrath of God on another, not even on the Turks and Jews and on any enemy, yes, not even on the Cardinals and the Pope. Nor shall any devil curse another for God's wrath; it is too much: eternal wrath, against which everyone should earnestly pray for everyone, and is obliged to pray thus. I would have liked to see the Cardinal at Mainz blessed, but there was no hearing, and so he went away. God protect all people from such a journey, amen.
(5) Nevertheless, we must love our enemies, forgive them, and be merciful to them, so that love and grace will not be false, or that we will not be burdened with other people's sin, so that we will go to the devil together with the one we love.
1) "möchten" is an acceptable conjecture of the Jena Allsgabe, which Walch has also placed in the text. In the other editions: "must".
1400 Erl. (2.) SS, 856-258. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1440. W. xvn, 1756-1758. 1401
I wanted the prisoner of Brunswick to be king of France, his son king of England; what should harm or hinder me? But that I should advise to release him, I cannot do, he has lost confidence. Since God has taken him into his punishment, who will be so bold as to take him out, before righteous repentance and true correction take place, and trust is planted and well recognized that God is reconciled? Otherwise it would be called tempting God; that is not advisable. He has been corrupted for many years in constant evil practice and has lost his good name and trust. Therefore, do not unreasonably worry pious people, and cannot trust him, nor tempt God.
6 And here is to be remembered the history between Ahab king of Israel and Benhadad king of Syria, which is written in the first book of the kings, Cap. 20, 29. ff., that God gave king Benhadad into the hand of king Ahab with a great battle. Now Ahab also wanted to be praised, to earn honor and praise among the Syrians, as a gracious king in Israel, and said [v. 32.], "If he is still alive, he shall be my brother," and put him on the chariot with him, made a covenant with him, and let him go back into his kingdom. And there came a prophet, which said unto Ahab, v. 42, "Therefore because thou hast let that man, which was banished from me, depart from thee, thy soul shall be for his soul, and thy people for his people." And so it happened, as follows in chapter 22, v. 34. God could have found this king Benhadad among the 100,000 who were slain at that time, and had him shot with an arrow or even killed with terror, as he had richly and very well deserved; for he had previously despised and blasphemed the God of Israel, and also wanted to destroy Samaria, so that he boasted that there should not be so much earth in Samaria that each of his people could carry a handful of it. But God wanted to try King Ahab, which he wanted to do for the sake of God and His divine name. Therefore he gave into his hands the worst enemy Benhadad, who not only wanted to devour the people of Israel but also their God.
(7) So our Lord God could have hit the man of Brunswick with a spear 1) or a pike, as he was hit with terror and despondency before the battle came; for he deserved it with blasphemy and defilement of both God and man; he is now seized in this move, in the work of his hands, as Ps. 9:17 says: "The wicked is seized in the work of his hands. For he was willing, as a commissary of the old religion, and faithful servant (as his title slurs) of papal holiness, to show himself a female Benhadad against us poor Israelites and unworthy Christians (heretics I should say in Roman), so that not a handful of earth would have been left over.
8) But God has taken all of us and had mercy on us, and has given such an angry, raging Benhadad into our hands, 2) so that we may be tried for the honor of His holy name, against his blasphemers and despisers. There is nothing to fear and to beware of, lest God let the example of King Ahab happen to us, who afterwards had an arrow through his heart for more than three years, from the same king's people, whom he had let go against God out of unseasonable mercy, as the prophet had said to him before: "Therefore, because you have let go the man banished from me, your soul shall be for his soul, and your people for his people. And it is a miserable thing on earth that often a pious man must perish, not because of his own sin, but because of the sin of others, which he makes himself a part of, out of great patience and favor, and all-meek mercy; as almost happened to the pious king Jehoshaphat over this very king Ahab, 1 Kings 22:32. It may well take prayer and diligence that God will protect and govern us, otherwise it will soon be done. God protect E. C. and princes. Gn. from the arrow of Ahab, of which I am afraid, because God
1) "Gelost" - a charge of lead, a shot (Dietz). - "Kraut und Loth" is powder and lead. A double hook shot four to six Loth (Seidemann).
2) In a letter of October 26, 1545 (Burkhardt, p.480f.), the Elector himself had informed Luthern that "on October 21, Duke Heinrich of Brunswick, together with his son Carl Victor, surrendered to his and the Landgrave's grace and disgrace.
This time God has delivered us from great sorrow and peril, not without a special miracle, but has also provided peace and security from this Benhadad. If we are too comfortable and cannot recognize his mercy, nor thank him for it, we may let go of the Benhadad, so God can create enough trouble and worry through him again to pay for our ingratitude.
9 It should also be "well considered" that this time God has not only meant, struck and frightened the person of H. of Brunswick, but also the Pope and the entire body of the papacy (of which he of Brunswick has always been a willing member and military leader, and has often forced himself to do so, and has wanted to be a messenger before others). We know well, and should also have experienced sufficiently, how many devious plots and practices, secret deceptions and tricks, so often carried out against us, took place at the Diet of Worms, where the first edict against the Holy Gospel was issued. Anno 1521. which the pope and his body also still do not want to have done or suspended, although the emperor would have liked to have suspended it at Speier. Item, how they wanted to put together good and blood against us at the Imperial Diet in Augsburg, Anno 1530, how they roared, and always made covenant after covenant, leaving no stone unturned, so that they would destroy us to the ground, where God had not fed and had always broken the entrenchment. And because they could not arouse the emperor, they went to him and wrote to each other that they had to mate with the emperor as with a dead hawk. Such writings were found in Wolfenbüttel that time, and went out publicly in print. Now it seems as if they had raised the emperor for a dead falcon, because the one from Brunswick should let himself be heard in his title and write that Imperial Majesty and the Nuremberg bishop are the only ones who have the right to do so. Majesty and of the Nuremberg Confederation, and the supreme captain of the old religion.
They call the same alliance defensive, just as if they were in great danger of being attacked, when neither emperor, pope, nor anyone else was present who intended to harm them. And we have ceaselessly asked, confessed, called, and cried for peace, as they well know,
which we have never been able to obtain from them completely and finally, have had to wait for nothing else from them daily, but vain revelation, attack and destruction, where the time wanted to give it to them, and could have room for it. For not they, but we have been condemned by papal and imperial edicts of the empire until now. Nor have we poor heretics and people foolish enough for the new religion had to understand what the wise teachers of the old religion meant by the Defensionbund, namely not the Christian faith, but the lands of the Elector and Landgrave. Also, God himself, together with all the angels, had to have the snuff by force, and not smell such a roast, which was called the Defensionbund, until now, on the 21st day of October, when he had previously taken hellebore and cleansed the brain, and let it be rudely noted that the snuff had passed him by, and understood well what was called the Defensionbund.
Item 11: This year, a coin, like a show penny, has come up from the Low Countries, which proves the skill of the papists, and also grievously grieves the two lords, the Electors and the Landgraves, along with all of us. On one side are two columns, on one the emperor's crown, on the other the king's crown, between the columns a single stick or shackle with two chains, made for two persons; beware, such a shitty prophet wants to put the Elector and the Landgrave in it. The inscription reads: Ad alligandos Reges eorum in compedibus. On the other side stands a two-headed eagle, which has in its talons the two crossed swords, as they stand in the electoral coat of arms: the points stab a virgin, who lies underneath on the side, to death, and rain down vain fire on her; but the virgin is called Ad faciendam vindictam in Nationibus. So that they show what they have secretly played on us, and how they would have understood and wanted to transfigure the Defence League, if they had brought such a painting into being, regardless of the fact that such a thing was forbidden by an imperial and penal mandate. But they are the dear children who cannot sin, even if they trample on God and the Emperor; we are sinners, even if we want to risk life and limb for God and the Emperor.
1404 Erl. (s.) ss, L61-2K3, sec. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1440. w. xvn, i78i-i764. 1405
(12) How they would have liked that no footmen would have come to us, since they (among them were some eavesdroppers) forbade their subjects to be accepted. And because they thought that the servants would not be mistaken if they were deterred by the pope's name, they invented these lies about us, as if it were against the emperor. The raging bloodthirsty traitors and bloodhounds hoped to hurry us so that we would perish without any defense, people or help before we could look around. But to whom they have painted the rod and fetter, we now see, praise God! who has judged according to the saying Ps. 7:16 ff: "They have dug a pit, and have themselves fallen into it; their wickedness has come upon their head, and their iniquity has fallen upon their skull. Therefore we give thanks to the almighty and righteous God, and praise the name of the Lord, the Most High," Amen.
Item 13: When the Duke of Brunswick was suddenly and unawares dressed, and sent no letters to the enemy, and went to the field, help God, what joy, defiance, throbbing, praising, rejoicing, triumphing was there in all places: Now, now, now it is done! There, there, there they have it! and was nevertheless an excellent plea, and also publicly in churches and on the pulpits with names for the Duke of Brunswick, that God would give him happiness and victory, so that the heresy would be eradicated and destroyed. This was (as they hoped) the hour after which they had been struggling and struggling for more than 24 years. Here they wanted to prepare the porridge on which they had so anxiously cooked for so many years. So God also suddenly favors them and throws them into the pot of plenty, so that both broken pieces and porridge splash under their noses, so that they hang their heads in despair and have to pale after the murderer's color. Yes, that's how they wanted it; for they had comforted themselves for 24 years. As often as the emperor has stirred, or should have come, or an imperial diet is scheduled, so often they have become pregnant anew (as Ps. 7:15 says), and yet they have given birth to a defect, they do not stop, and cannot stop until the last day, when they will finally receive their judgment with their idol at Rome.
14 I say this because we know, and should know, that it is not about Brunswick's person and his personal worldly things, but about the whole behemoth and body of the papacy, which has attached itself to him, and he in turn to them, and under the appearance of his things have patched themselves together and rebelled against our gospel, that is, against God and his Spirit's things. If it had been his doing, it would have been the doing of them all. O wise people! O wise people! O excellent people! since every one would be worthy to be a pope, if one could have more than one pope. How could the pope himself so subtly deceive and ape our Lord Christ as these people have done under their commissary's person, even though he is the holiest, wisest and most prudent man on earth? God forgive me for speaking so grossly unreasonable about the pope, I would have spoken almost too wisely and heretically and said: Fie you, pope!
15 This community of the pope, because God has seized and captured him as his enemy and the pope's servant, will not suffer that he could be released so easily. There is too much and great blasphemy in the papacy, which we do not have to take part in, unless we first hear many other speeches, neither we nor now, so that our conscience is not weighed down with strange sins, and also be counted like Ahab before God. For when he is released, it will certainly happen that the papists will blaspheme our God anew and boast about themselves: Behold, whether God has not heard us. We have prayed for Duke Henry of Brunswick, but God has tried us with patience, and has heard us nevertheless. For although He has given Duke Heinrich into the hands of the heretics to punish us in time, they have not been able to keep him, but God has forced them to let him go. O thanks be to our dear God, who has not abandoned His Church and the old religion, and will not let the heretics have anything good!
16 And it is true that this argument moves me the most, because we know that the pope and his scales cannot be converted. Therefore, they can do nothing else, but themselves.
comfort, adorn and clean, even in their greatest accident and worst sins. They must always be right, God must always be wrong, which we (as I respect) should have experienced in these 24 years. Should we now give cause for the pope and papists to spew such blasphemy against our Lord Christ in public in churches and at home in houses, to strengthen themselves in their idolatry, blasphemy, and error, and to boast that they had received it from God through their holiness as true Christians: it would be better if no pope had ever been born, nor if he had ever been a prince of Brunswick. For such blasphemy is too great, and such hardening too hard, which we must nevertheless take upon ourselves, and afterwards the repentance would be all too heavy, and perhaps also in vain.
They have a prophecy, which I heard 40 years ago, also written in books, as the mad Brigitte, 1) Arnold, Lichteuberg, and others more, in which their idol, the devil, comforts them, that a persecution will go over the clergy, but after that it will be more glorious than it has ever been. They believe such prophecy, as they are worth nothing else, because they persecute God's word and holy scripture. Therefore they hope so anxiously that such a time will come, that they will become more glorious than they have ever been; they do not understand the devil's mockery, who strengthens and hardens their shameful, blasphemous and unrepentant teaching and life with such false comfort. For they are neither serious nor willing to leave their doctrine and improve their lives; neither does the devil want it. But they want to be sure of punishment; that is also what the devil wants, who knows that it cannot be, and thus fools them in their shameful life, and lets them live shamefully after all, and yet hopes to become more glorious than they have been. That is how we now see how they have placed such great hope in their commissar of the old religion and prayed for him. They still do not want to improve themselves by a hair's breadth, whether they grasp God's miracle, which has now reduced them, together with their hopes, prophecies and prayers, to mud.
1) Brigitta is a Swedish prince's daughter in the 14th century, whose prophecies have often been printed. - For Johannes Lichtenberger, see the St. Louis edition, Vol. XIV, 266.
that this time they will have to let go of their blasphemous boasting. And since they will not do otherwise from now on, they will be sorry.
18. But lest they blame us for being unmerciful and not compassionate, as the gospel teaches, of which we boast; although they have not yet practiced any other mercy toward us, and always want to practice it, except as Cain practiced it on his brother Habel, and Caiphas on our Lord Christ, they still want to be Christians and the holy Christian church: I say first of all of the worldly or bodily mercy, that our princes and lords exercise a great and twofold mercy on the Duke of Brunswick, that they have imprisoned him and do not release him. One is that they thereby control and ward off his tyranny, blasphemy and evil deeds, so that he must stop and desist; this is healthy and good for him. The other is that with it they save and protect pious and innocent people, so that they have peace and shelter from him, can live and feed safely, and also learn God's word. These two mercies praise Sanct Paul Rom. 13, 4. and 1 Petri 2, 14. at the secular government, and therefore call it a service of God; and also so is, where it is led, according to its right and kind. But tyrants make a devil's service out of it, as the Duke of Brunswick did. For it should be said: "for vengeance on the wicked (says St. Peter), and, for praise to the pious". St. Paul says: "Authority is God's servant, too good for you, an avenger on the one who does evil" etc.
19 Secondly, to speak of spiritual mercy. Here I will give him a faithful and precious counsel from the Scriptures, namely, that he humble himself before God with all earnestness, and repent righteously, taking people to teach him how to repent rightly. For he must indeed first quiet the bloodcry and the clamor, so that he has filled heaven and earth and awakened them above his head, with deep sighs and hot tears, and willingly give himself up to the sting, with such words or the like as are written in the prayer of King Manasseh. For his sins are many in the day, through
1408 Erl. (2.) 26, S65-26S. Sect. I. Campaign against Brunswick. No. 1440. w. XVII, 1766-1769. 1409
The author has spread the print, also presented before the emperor at Regensburg, how he has acted with Goslar, Doctor Embeck, Mordbrand etc. Such a calendar he knows best, and must confess and tell God that he deserves much and well hell. Many lie on the wheel, who have hardly done two of his daily sins. For in the sight of God, the human right de illustri persona does not apply; he respects the lowly just as highly as the great, and again etc. Here is no respect nor difference of persons.
20. That he is now caught and expelled from his principality, he shall not interpret that it is the right distemper, which he deserves, but a little fox tail, so that he is neatly and graciously admonished to repentance, and shall thus say: Dear God, because I deserve it worse, and yet you have spanked me with such a small, gracious little stick, I will gladly bear this punishment for the rest of my life, and forgive me and let me go of the principality, which I am rightfully, yes, with great mercy, deprived of by you, and have lost it rightfully; I am not fit for it, as I now well see. God, you are just, you have done me right, and much too little. For (as I said) we must deal with God out of a right heart, and obediently surrender ourselves to His punishment. If we do not do so, he notices it, as a heart-teller, to whom nothing is hidden, and no one can deceive or deceive him. And whoever dares to do so makes his cause evil, even if it were half good, as we Christians know all these things well, or should know.
21 Then he should also humble himself against all those whom he has offended, and ask forgiveness and be reconciled with them; of whom there are almost many, as unfortunately publicly aware. For Christ our Lord will not revoke his word for anyone's sake, saying Matt. 5:23: "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first and make peace with your brother. And this is certainly done by a truly repentant heart that repents in earnest. But he who does not do so has neither true repentance nor penitence, nor may he hope that God will hear his prayer or be gracious to him.
22 If the ruler of Brunswick follows this advice and does so according to God's word, God will certainly be merciful to him, and if he had gone to hell, he would have to come up again. And if it happened, he would have to be fetched and forced with all honors to return to his principality and accept it again. See the example of David, 2 Sam. 15:25, 26. When he was driven out of the kingdom by his son Absalom, and when he had to flee on foot, weeping and wracked with tears, he said to the priests who followed him with the ark of the covenant: "Return to the city with the ark, if God will have me as king, then he will surely bring me back to see it and his temple. Thus saith he: I have no breath for thee: behold, here am I, and he will do with me as he pleaseth." O what a heart this was, how deeply it humbled itself, gave itself into the sting, and accepted God's punishment with willing obedience. Thus he also broke God's heart, softened him and won him over so powerfully that Absalom had to be stabbed soon after, Ahitophel, his highest councilor, was taken by surprise, and the whole kingdom of Israel, which had fought against him, and Judah, which had fallen from him, wanted to tear themselves apart for David, and brought him back with great honor.
23 Thus King Manasseh also returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, having repented and greatly humbled himself and condemned himself [2 Chron. 33:13]. Item, the Prodigal Son in the Gospel, Luc. 15, 19. 21. no longer wanted to be called son nor to be a son, completely surrendered his inheritance and said: "Father, make me like one of your day laborers" etc. Thereby he won the heart of the father, so that he also accepted him again with joy, as it is to be read there. For we Christians know and have such a God who will not and cannot suffer arrogance. As St. Peter speaks [1 Ep. 5, 5.], "God resists the arrogant." And Christ Himself [Luc. 14:11]: "He that exalteth himself must be humbled"; and so sings His dear Mother [Luc. 1:52]: "He pusheth down them that are mighty from the throne" etc. This is his nature, and does not do otherwise. Again, he cannot suffer nor forsake humility; he lifts up the lowly. And he that is lowly shall be exalted. This is the scripture
with examples and words full and overflowing. Who would not want and love such God? But apart from Christianity or God's people, they do not teach and know anything about such God, as the Jews, the Turks, the Pope, the Cardinal; therefore, they also know nothing about true repentance and humility.
(24) If the Duke of Brunswick accepts this counsel, and follows the above example, and surrenders to God's obedience with David, and lets him do so, it will be seen that God will honor him; if it does not happen here, it will happen much more gloriously there. If it does not happen, it is certain that there is no true repentance, no trust in God. But how can we trust and release him who does not trust God nor repent? And how will he trust his soul eternally to God, who does not want to trust his temporal sovereignty and his transient life to Him? Therefore, I hope that this counsel of mine, or rather the counsel of the Holy Spirit in His holy Scriptures, should sufficiently testify to us that we are not merciless or stony-hearted toward some people, even toward our enemies, as they, the papists, are against us without any cause, as the Duke of Brunswick also was, but would like everyone to be blessed, even to live here in peace and tranquility. But to be merciful in this way, so that we should burden ourselves with other people's unrepentant sins and make ourselves partakers of them, that is not human, let alone Christian. For in doing so, I would lose God's mercy toward me through my mercy toward man. This will not do. First help yourself with repentance and faithfulness toward God for your sin, and you will find mercy in full, or think and bear your sin alone, and leave me unburdened with it, and do not make an Ahab out of me.
25 I have written this, most gracious and gracious lords, to E. C. and F. G., so that I may be found inclined and willing to serve and to please the good people who have requested such from me, as I know myself to be guilty of. As for what I thought E. C. and F. G. would mean of themselves, both this and more, that it will not be so urgent with the
Release of the imprisoned Duke of Brunswick, as perhaps the stronger intercessions would have liked. The thoughts of the hearts are not yet revealed, and God does not yet have the honor due to him in this work. 1) It is well known that Duke Heinrich was unable to make the move; it is well known that excellent armor was sent and ordered from Welshia to Germany. If it becomes known that the pope or someone else has done it, they can discuss it and continue the matter.
26 Summa, we all know that the pope and the papists want us all dead, body and soul. In turn, we want to have them all blessed with us, body and soul. Which part will be just before God is easy to judge. We have a good conscience before God; and if it were possible that they could kill us all, as they fiercely desire as mad fools, we still have the comfort and defiance beforehand that we will be martyred for the sake of God and His word. O Lord God, how blessed and high honor we would have experienced with this! For without this we are also guilty of offering our blood to the blood of our Lord Christ. But they, the pope and his papists, would have made their cause (as they hope) nothing better, but much worse.
For our God is called the Creator of heaven and earth, that is, the One who can make everything out of nothing and bring everything to nothing again, as we see His works before our eyes every day, if we had eyes. Therefore, if the pope and his scales had tidied up all of us this time by their commission, God the Creator would certainly have remained God the Creator, and would again, according to the manner of his almighty power, have been able to make a new Luther or other new heretics (as they call us) out of nothing at all, who would have given the pope much different credit. For since the devil had possessed the world with blindness and had triumphed against God, oppressing almost all God's children, God awakened Noah so that he had to drown the whole world. And in the time of Abraham, when all the world was also dark in the devil's eyes
1) From here to the end of the paragraph is the passage objected to by the Elector.
1412 Erl. (L.) 28, 270-272, sect. 1, campaign against Brunswick. No. 1440 W. XVII, 1772-1774. 1413
fels kingdom, Abraham had to become a light with his seed, drown Pharaoh the king, and slay seven great nations in Canaan.
28] When Caiphas crucified the Son of God, Christ, he did as he pleased, and the devil thought that he had put out the true light. He arose from the dead, sent the Holy Spirit, and kindled such a light that the whole world was filled with light from morning till evening. And when the devil thought to remain the beautiful God, he was revealed an ugly devil, Caiaphas with Judaism was disturbed and destroyed. Stop it, you mad fools, pope and papists! Do not blow into such fire that God has kindled! you will blow it out against yourselves, so that ashes and sparks will be thrown into your eyes. Yes, God is such a fire, who calls himself a consuming fire. You know, you are also convinced in your conscience and overcome, that you have wicked and lost things, and fight against God; you will not succeed well, as you are often and now warned and warned by your commissary.
29. lastly, I must also speak to ourselves, lest we boast or exalt ourselves as if we had gained such victory by our power and worthiness, and thereby honor ourselves and become ungrateful to God; just as Moses also taught his people Deut. 9:6.Know now that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess for thy righteousness' sake, because thou art a stiff-necked wicked people"; and Ps. 33:16, 17: "A king is not helped by his great power, neither do horses help, neither do their great multitudes save." Ps. 144, 10: "It is God who gives victory to kings," yes, not only victory, but also the kingdom or principality. Dan. 4, 22. Daniel says to Nebucadnezzar: "Until you realize that the Most High has power over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to whom He wills." So also the young king in Israel, Jonathan, Saul's son, 1 Sam. 14, 6. said: "It is not difficult for God to help by much or little." Which words Judas Maccabaeus also echoed, 1 Maccab. 3, 18. 19.: "God can give victory by a few as well as by a few.
by many, for victory comes from heaven, and is not obtained by great multitude."
30 The pagans also experienced this (as is still experienced daily), and did not know how it was, because they knew nothing of God, and called it Fortunam, unb variam fortunam belli Fortune does more than strength in battle. So we see that God has now given the Turk great fortune against the Christians and other nations, since he is as unbelieving and evil as the king of Babylon, who also defeated God's own special people for their sins. And that the Turk, and before that the Saracens, have always been and still are incumbent upon us Christians, should not surprise us, for we are filled with such abominations of the masses and unspeakable idolatries in the papacy, wanting to be Christians, and have led Christ's name with all shame, so that it would not be a miracle if it happened to us, as Moses also warned his people, Deut. 5:32, 30. 32:30: "How is it that one (enemy) shall chase a thousand, and two shall make ten thousand to flee?" Therefore, it is up to whom God the Lord will grant and give victory, and not up to who is mighty and strong. So it is said and remains that victory comes from heaven. And it is God who gives victory to kings. Again, he also takes away the courage of princes, and is terrible among the kings of the earth.
So God has also now given us victory against the papacy and its commissary, not through our strength, nor for the sake of our piety. For, alas! on our side there are secretly many papists who are heartily unfavorable to us, and have seen and still see this victory with great impatience and sorrow. There are also many who shamefully despise God's word and show themselves ungrateful enough. Avarice and usury are such thick, rich, glorious, great gods that one also hears how shepherds and lowly people, when they have a sum of money, fifty or a hundred guilders, quickly run with it into the trade, and seek and take 15, 20 florins of profit; without what is still the complaint about the craftsmen, about the workmen, about servants and neighbors, peasants and citizens, where nothing is seen but vain courage risen to the highest level; toil, estimate, translate, steal,
deceive, deceive and lie, so that it is astonishing how the earth still supports us. Yes, I say, we certainly do not deserve it, that God has given us this victory and many benefits and protection against the devil and his scales for the sake of our righteousness.
We have one advantage who do it, namely, we have God's word holy, pure and pure, through His Holy Spirit, so that in the teaching there are certainly no lies, nor counterfeits, nor idolatry. And if our life and work were as holy, pure and pure, not as the word (which is impossible), but as well and as serous as it should and could be, we would and could make hell for the devil, and the world too hot, too cold and too narrow for the Turk and the Pope, as we wished. But as God says in Isaiah 55:11: "My word that proceedeth out of My mouth shall not return without fruit, but shall bring forth the fruit for which I sent it." Therefore, there must still be among us some true, pious, holy children of God and true Christians, however few there are; otherwise God's word would have to be among us in vain, which is impossible. Therefore it must also be certain that the Holy Spirit is with us, who teaches and preserves his word purely, and endows us with right Christian faith, and adorns us with other more gifts. Such faith cannot be without fruits and good works, as Christ says John 15:5: "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Especially faith is not without prayer or Our Father, through which it is able to do all things, as the Lord says Joh. 14, 13. 20.: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye may ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." And Marc. 9, 1) 23: "All things are possible to him that believeth."
The pope and his holy, unchristian church do not and cannot have such advantage. For there is not only contempt for the word, but also persecution of it and of all who confess and teach it, as they themselves know well among themselves, and some confess much. For their idolatry and abominations are evident, that their doctrine is all things against God, unclean and full of devilish lies, therefore
1) All editions have,-. "Marc. XI" instead of: "Marc. IX".
they also cannot have a right faith. For where doctrine is impure and false, faith cannot be right or pure. Where faith is not right, there can be no good fruits or good works, they shine as they will, as the Lord says Matth. 12, 33: "Plant the tree well, and its fruits well, or plant the tree rotten, and its fruits rotten"; and Cap. 7, 17: "A good tree brings good fruits, an evil tree brings evil fruits. It is all about doctrine: if it is right, then all is right, faith, work, life, suffering, good and evil days, eating, drinking, hungering, thirsting, sleeping, waking, walking, standing etc. Where the doctrine is not right, it is in vain, all is lost and all is utterly condemned, work, life, suffering, fasting, praying, alms, caps, plates and what is more sacred to the papal church.
34 Therefore we must not fear or be afraid of their prayer, just as Elijah was not afraid of the prayer of the prophets. Baal, 1 Kings 18:27. But as he mocked them with their prayer and God, so may we also mock the prayer of the Papists with their God. For we know that their prayer is accursed, as their doctrine and faith, according to the 109th Psalm, v. 7: "Their prayer must become sin, and whom they teach must be damned." And their prayer is certainly the same, as the devil himself also mocked them: Once a drunken priest prayed his complements in bed, and in prayer he spat, and had a great bombard struck: O right, said the devil, as is prayer, so is incense! The same is all their listening 2) in the monasteries and convents. For they cannot pray, nor do they want to pray, nor do they know what prayer is, or how to pray, because they do not have the word and faith. Without the Pope of Rome, with his processions and litanies (which others imitate him in), would like to turn a nose at the kings and lords and braid a brazen beard, so that they should believe that he is very devout and holy. But not a hair will depart from his abominations and idolatries. Ah, it is his prayer of the drunken priest Completen and his incense. Yes, if it were only so good, hope, he would be
2) "Listening" - whining, shouting.
1416 Erl. (2.) 26,274-276. sect. 1. campaign against Brunswick. No. 1440 W. XVII, 1777-1780. 1417
would like to sober up and pray a better matins for such stinking complets. Enough of that now.
35 Therefore I say to our people that they should not boast about this victory, but should give glory, thanks and praise to God, who alone is and is called the true warrior, yet an almighty warrior, as Moses calls him in his hymn of praise in Exodus 15:3, who can never lack victory. Not that one should therefore slacken one's armor where one can have it, but that one should not rely on it, but trust in God alone, who wants to give victory to both, through armor where one can have it, also without armor where one cannot have it. For where one can have the armor, one should use it as one of his gifts, under which he wants to hide himself, and thus miraculously give the victory. But where one cannot have the armor, then he will provide it abundantly for his own, as he did to the holy king Ezekiel for Jerusalem against the emperor of Assyria, Sanherib. Yet Moses wrote in Exodus 13:18 that the children of Israel went out of Egypt armed or armored, though they were saved in Egypt without their armor by the Lord's way or phase, even though they were free and safe from Pharaoh in the Red Sea without their armor.
36 St. Paul also says in 1 Cor.3,6: "I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the flourishing. Without planting and watering he could give the flourishing, and without this flourishing planting and watering is in vain; but he does not want to give it, one plants then and waters. In the wilderness and in trouble, Christ the Lord made so much out of five loaves that twelve baskets full of fragments remained for the five thousand men who ate and were filled [John 6:13]. But to the farmer in the field he will not give such prosperity, nor is it necessary, but he should plow, sow, that is, use what is available and God has ordained for it, so he will give the blessing and prosperity. Otherwise it is said that God tries. He could also give the Holy Spirit without the Word and preachers, but he will not do it without the Word, or will also be called God tempted, as the faithless works saints do. So he could
He might have done the same now, and put the papists to shame with their commissars without armor, but he let the armor be his larva, and under it he took away their courage and destroyed them with terror.
37 Therefore Psalm 44:4 says: "Our fathers did not take the land by their sword, and their arm did not help them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your countenance, for you were well pleased with them" etc. How can he say that? Is it not written that Joshua went out with the people of Israel armed and arrayed, with fist and armor, and smote the nations of Canaan and won? How did not their sword and arm help them? Yes, this is what we are talking about: if God had not been with them with his face, light and good pleasure, as he says here, they would have been put to shame with their sword and arm, as happened to them in Jos. 7:3, when they were presumptuous and despised the city of Hai, saying, "Why should the whole nation go against so few people? let two or three thousand men go and destroy the city." But those of Hai fell out and put them to flight, so that a very great fear and trembling came upon all the people and upon Joshua himself, and with great difficulty they recovered. The same happened to the presumptuous Israelites in Judg. 20:21, 25, when they had first learned not to thrust upon their sword, and were smitten twice by the Benjamites of Gibeah, a city of citizens, and lost forty thousand men.
38 This is what the prophet means when he sings in the aforementioned 44th Psalm, v. 5, 6: "God, you are my King, who promised Jacob help; through you we will overthrow our enemies, and in your name we will subdue those who oppose us. For I do not rely on my bow, nor can my sword help me; but you help us from our enemies, and put to shame those who hate us." He saith not, I have neither bow nor sword. Yes, I have a bow and a sword, for it is my sword and my bow. One should and must be armed with weapons and weapons where one can have them, so that one does not tempt God. But: "I do not rely on (says he)
my bow" or on my armor. Relying and presuming, or trusting in one's own power or armor, even corrupts and is true idolatry. For trusting and presuming, or relying, belongs to God alone, so that he may be recognized and honored as a true God, that the victory is his gift, and not our power or cleverness.
39 Thus he concludes there [v. 9]: "We will praise God daily and give thanks to your name forever, Selah. That is, only God is to be honored, praised and thanked, who does and gives everything, especially victory; for he will not suffer either of them: to try and presume,' but we are to walk the middle road, neither swerving to the left nor to the right. He who does not seek armor where he can have it, he does not need that which God has given, he swerves to the left side, and wants (as they say) to move with the head, and tempts God; and is also confidently and cheaply beaten over the head. He who relies on his armor, wisdom, or strength, and misses it, swerves to the right side, and despises God, in whom alone he should trust and presume on His mere goodness and grace. But the middle way is called: "God is well pleased with those who fear Him and trust in His goodness"; thus He receives the honor and glory due Him, Ps. 147, 11. Otherwise, where it becomes presumptuous that there is no measure of praise and glory, everyone wants to have done the best, yes, everyone would like to have the honor alone, that God must be forgotten and remain behind, as if he had done nothing, or could do nothing about it, when the pagans have learned by much experience, and not without harm, to appropriate the victory to luck or their gods, and not to their wisdom and strength.
Here Psalm 76 belongs to praise and thanksgiving to God, who has graciously saved and protected us from the papists' wickedness in the beginning, and has put them to shame with their defiance and presumption. And where they will not stop (as far as we also remain in God's fear and trust), our Lord God shall herewith sound the trumpets against them. Let him blow the trumpets and put them into the drum.
If we do not repent, the pope and the devil, together with their followers, will lie in a heap in the abyss of hell. Let us all repent, fear and trust God, and we will be blessed here and there. To the same faithful, gracious God be praise and thanksgiving, honor and glory through His dear Son, with God the Holy Spirit forever and ever, amen.
E. chur- und prinstl. Gn.
subservient
Mart. Luther. 1)
1441: Duke Moritz's letter of responsibility against Duke Henry's pretence that he had been imprisoned against given orders. April 5, 1546.
This document was published in 1546 in Leipzig in quarto under the title: "Unser von GOttes Gnaden Moritzens, Herzogen zu Sachsen, Landgrafen in Thüringen und Marggrafen zu Meisten, wahrhaftiger Bericht, welchergestalt sich Herzog Heinrichs von Braunschweig und seines Sohnes, Herzog Carln Ergebung in dem nechst verschienener! 45th year. Against the untruthful people who, to our and others' displeasure, spread another self-invented, unfathomable, untrue report". After that in Hortleder 1. e. Book IV, Cap. 52, p. 1045.
1. we pay attention without need to remind anyone of the occasion of present runs, because they are so swift and dangerous in themselves that God has to ask for His mercy favorably, and this is most necessary that such runs be perceived in such a way that the external enemies are met with resistance, and the internal wars in the Holy Roman Empire, especially the German nation, are prevented as much as possible.
2) As a young prince, however, we are inclined to the greatest need of Christianity, and we want to show our proper authority.
1) This is followed in the second edition of our text, published by Joseph Klug in Wittenberg in 1546, by the 64th Psalm in the same wording, which is included in Col. 1377, and then the 76th Psalm with the short interpretation, which we have already included in our edition, Vol. IV, 694. In the Erlangen edition twice, namely here (in the second edition) and Vol. 39, p. 331. The superscription above the 64th Psalm reads: "Lament and petition to God against the old, the old serpents' religion and their patrons." The superscription over the 76th Psalm: "Praise and thanksgiving that God has heard such prayer and honored his nerve, that is, the word of Christ." Just like the mentioned edition of our Scripture, this appendix of the Psalms will also belong to the year 1546. According to this, the date given by us in the fourth volume l. c. is to be corrected.
and others who have knowledge of it.
3. And after every gathering of the people of war in such louses, since it takes place in the name of no named lord or in the name of a pretended lord, is reasonably suspicious, and then in the next five and fortieth year gathered in the land of Hadeln people of war on horseback and on foot, and first do not want to name the lord, but then appoint the King of France as their lord, the Landgrave of Hesse has written to us about such a gathering and suspicion, and reported as much as occurs to his love because of it.
4 And although such assembly suspicions were to be considered more than in one way, it has ultimately come to light that the above-mentioned warriors were entitled to Duke Henry of Brunswick, had increased to him, and had promised themselves into his service, regardless of whether Christoph von Wrisberg, as the supreme, and others had previously denied this to the highest.
Since it is not probable that in Duke Heinrich's own time he has the ability to pay such a handsome army, it is easy to assume that either Duke Heinrich would have a ruler for such a payment, or would otherwise have the intention of stirring up unrest in the German nation in other ways, which could have been detrimental not only to the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, as our friends, but also to us and others. Especially and before, because we knew that the Roman imperial majesty, our most gracious lord, Duke Heinrich offered peace, and also graciously inclined and requested to take his land with a fair measure.
6th Since we have requested help from the above-mentioned friends of ours, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, to save their beloved lands, and we are so related to their loved ones, as were our forefathers, that we have not known how to leave them in such a case, we have risen, albeit with our noticeable inconvenience, primarily due to our physical weakness, with some horsemen and servants to bring their loved ones to the same defension.
7 However, we would have liked to see that Duke Heinrich would not have aroused this unrest over the above-mentioned offer of the Roman Imperial Majesty or that he would have been rejected from it. We would have liked to see that Duke Heinrich would not have aroused this unrest, or that he would have been rejected from it, as we have therefore written to the Roman Royal Majesty, our most gracious Lord.
8 But when we came to our town of Pegau with our warband, Margrave Hans
We have written to Brandenburg asking him whether we, along with his beloved, would like to settle the matter amicably between the princes and sovereigns involved on the one hand, and Duke Henry of Brunswick on the other; whereupon, although we had all kinds of misgivings about this, we have become of this opinion, where both parties could suffer our negotiations, that we would not let anything happen to our diligence, as we then attributed to Margrave Hansen and also to the landgrave.
After this, we are not only requested by our Counts, but also by our dear brother-in-law, Duke Erich of Brunswick, and his dear mother, for such a negotiation.
But when we were on our way to Mulhouse, Duke Henry of Brunswick wrote to us and wanted to know what he should do with us. To this we replied that his country was of no concern to us; and since he did not want to suffer our negotiation, nor his reasonable instructions, we could not leave our friends and council; as can be found at the end of such letters, Duke Heinrich's with A. and ours with B. The letter was signed by the Duke of Brunswick.
After this, several more letters were sent between us and Duke Henry, in which he granted us amicable action. Thereupon we wrote to him that we wanted to send our advisors to him on Saturday, the seventeenth of October, and that he would send them a written escort. Duke Heinrich, however, did not expect this, but on the same Saturday, with part of his warband, moved close to the Landgrave's camp in order to try his salvation, thereby giving us cause to refrain from action and not to leave our friends with help and advice, as we wrote to him from Mulhouse. However, we have taken into account the dangerous courses that the Turks have taken, and that there were many good men on both sides who could have been used more cheaply against the Turks, rather than being damaged by each other in this way. That is why we wrote to Duke Henry further, ordering the Copei with C.
12 And although Duke Heinrich wrote to us again, and renewed the escort to our councilors, content of the copy under the letter D., he still did not expect anything different from them, but that on Sunday he marched close to the landgrave's camp on horseback and on foot with all his warriors, and tried his salvation with all his power; but despite this, we had our councilors ride to him and make an appointment for one day, so that we could talk to him personally.
13. but what form such decency takes in the
Landgrave, and how his beloved, and the others, were hardly able to make the amicable deal, that his beloved and the others, who have knowledge of it, can thoroughly report; so we also have good knowledge of it for our person.
14 However, we have behaved in such negotiations as befits a Christian, honest prince, and not otherwise, and have diligently reminded both parties of all circumstances, especially the above-mentioned danger of the Turk, and have faithfully and diligently advised them to the treaty.
15 We have also directed our proposals for such a treaty in such a way that friendship, peace and unity might be re-established and the aforementioned damage and harm might be prevented.
16 For Duke Heinrich and all those whom he had with him on the assembly afterwards in the monastery of Wybershausen 1) will have to confess how faithfully we reminded him of the aforementioned weak runs. That we also, as the negotiator, made these proposals, so that he, of our hope, could have come to his lands and people, also with our friends, and the others in previous friendship and agreement; as then our proposals handed over to him in writing state.
(17) But what causes him not to accept our reasonable, equal, peaceful and friendly proposals, we cannot know. We can, however, write with truth that we do not know how to oppose such proposals to our Lord Father, of blessed memory, if his loved one were still alive, or to our brother in the flesh, or also to ourselves, if their loved ones or our things, as God is for them, were so entitled, as Duke Henry's things were at that time. So we have meant these things quite faithfully and kindly to both parts. For our mind has been set on granting Duke Heinrich his reclaimed land and people, as well as our friends' former unity and friendship, as much as might have happened with peace and tranquility on all sides, and to promote this to the best of our ability.
18 We must leave it to one side that the consequence arose for us. But if someone were to interpret our faithful good opinion as a dangerous delay or otherwise, he would be doing us a public injustice, and not
1) This will be the Wiebrechtshausen Monastery in Hanover, a Benedictine nunnery in the former principality of Göttingen.
as befits an honest, upright man, in which we know not to spare anyone.
When, however, as reported above, the consequence of our well-meaning proposals and actions arose for us at the assembly in the monastery, we, in truth, did not like to hear it; and although we had previously attributed our mind to Duke Heinrich from Mühlhausen that we would not know how to leave our friends with help and advice, we nevertheless, in addition to our friendly and dear brother, Mr. August, Duke of Saxony, etc., and sent it to Duke Heinrich with our drummer on the following Tuesday, and on the same Tuesday we marched with our warband into the Landgrave's camp.
On Tuesday, Duke Henry's advisors wrote to our advisors, and our advisors wrote to them again, as can be found under the letter E. The Duke's advisors replied clearly and unequivocally that the Landgrave and the others were unable to take any further amicable action. And from the answer of our counselors it can be clearly and plainly heard that the Landgrave and the others were not capable of any further amicable action; Duke Heinrich also understood from our other custody that we were not willing to act further.
After this, we moved with the landgrave and the whole bright troop to Duke Heinrich's camp. When the troops approached each other and the hostile actions began on both sides, one of them, who calls himself Friedrich Speth, came before our troops with a drummer and asked us through the same drummer to send our advisors to him to speak with him; and Hilmar von Mönchhausen came along to speak to us about his affairs, because he, as our appointed servant, had been requested by us: We ordered some of our councilors to listen to them, to whom they reported that they would like to see the matter settled by our means proposed in the monastery, with the request that our councilors help to prevent so much Christian blood from being shed, which our councilors thus reported to us. Thereupon we, as the prince, who would have liked to help prevent all harmful developments in this case, for the above-mentioned reason, rode to the landgrave to report this to his beloved himself. However, his beloved, hearing this from us, has teased us somewhat and has himself ridden to Friedrich Spethen and Hilmar von Mönchhausen, who were waiting for an answer, and indicated that if Duke Heinrich and his son did not want to surrender to him, the Landgrave, it might be possible to
no action; they should report this to their lord, Duke Heinrich. Then they asked us to help them, so that they could get a better answer from the landgrave. So we answered them: You have heard what the landgrave has given you in reply. If Duke Heinrich is interested in talking to us, we are free to ride to him across the moat and talk to him, which they accepted to report to Duke Heinrich.
22 And when Duke Henry and we on both sides had this understanding that we should come to and from each other safely, we rode out to meet Duke Henry through the moat.
When we came together, one part wanted to start the speeches, so we finally used these words against Duke Henry: My lord, what are you about to do? For we are well aware that Speth and Mönchhausen would not have told Duke Heinrich that the landgrave desired that he and his son should surrender to his beloved. So Duke Heinrich answered us with these words: I am careful to do everything that is not dishonest to me. We further asked what he intended to do? To this he answered: I would be willing to accept the articles proposed by your beloved in the above-mentioned monastery, and to have this matter settled. To this we answered on the spot: we do not know what to do, because we noted that the landgrave would not agree to any other way than that he and his son surrender to him; he would hardly get a better direction on this day.
We have not been able to advise him otherwise, because he will be in no doubt that Wrisberg had kept him in a monastery shortly before, perhaps because of non-payment, so that he had nothing better to do with some on his departure. As Duke Heinrich and his commanders know best, whether they would be two wrinkled 1) the evening before and have resigned to each other or not. We have also seen that his servants set off at once and turned their backs on the mob; as he then complained afterwards that the Wrisberg had acted worse on him than on the landgrave; moreover, we have noted his troubled mind, even to the tears in his eyes. For he undoubtedly had all sorts of
1) "two-fold," if the reading is otherwise correct,-two-fold.
Circumstances, which we do not tell here, and especially this considered and seen before eyes, that his people and he had no victory to put off in the day.
25 But he is safer with us than we were with him, because he had a ditch between them, through which we rode to him and he did not ride to us.
When he finally let himself be heard against us that he wanted to surrender to the landgrave together with his son, we rode to the landgrave, reported this to his sweetheart, and noted so much from her that he wanted to have Duke Heinrich princely 2). In the meantime, Duke Heinrich remained safe beyond the moat, without danger, and could have ridden off to his liking, and could also have considered himself once again handsomely and well; as it was seen that he rode now and then with some of his own, who were with him at that time, and talked with them. Afterwards we sent one of our advisors to him and told him where he intended to do this, as he ultimately told us, and we left him, so he would come. Thereupon he rode over the moat with good will and approached the landgrave and us, since without this, and where it would not have been his opinion to surrender, he could have ridden safely behind him to his own.
27. But the time we talked with him beyond the moat, the landgrave pushed hard with his warband and shot hostilely; therefore we sent back in an impatience and let it be known that his beloved wanted to do it; For we considered that since Duke Heinrich and we rode together on safe approach and departure, since he should encounter some violence over this, that this would be contrary to the offer we made to each other, as reported above, for the sake of safe approach and departure. The landgrave also complied with this, and Duke Heinrich encountered no violence or danger.
When, however, as reported, Duke Heinrich, after we had left him, rode back to him with one of our advisors, whom we had sent (after first riding to the landgrave), willingly, without any coercion, hardship or danger, we met him part of the way, for the sake of respect, since he is older than we are, and rode with him to the landgrave.
29 Since Duke Heinrich, his son, the landgrave and we have come together, they, Duke Heinrich and the landgrave, have spoken against each other, as they both know to remember.
2) "have" == hold.
After which the landgrave uses this word: So Duke Heinrich and his son want to surrender to me? We, even Duke Henry, remained silent, and cannot know whether it belongs to Duke Henry or not. But the landgrave renewed the previous words for the second time and asked: whether Duke Heinrich and his son wanted to surrender to his beloved? To this Duke Heinrich said without any compulsion or need: Yes, I will surrender to you together with my son. And we could have suffered, had it finally been his mind not to surrender, that he would have indicated such to us or to the landgrave, then he would again have come safely to his own.
The landgrave then ordered some of the nobility to wait for Duke Henry, who had heard that he was complaining against us about how wickedly Wrisberg had acted against him.
32. From all this, it is only to be understood that we, at the above-mentioned request of Duke Henry the Time's servant, behaved no differently than an honest, upright prince, to whom peace is beloved and who is most opposed to detrimental further development and bloodshed in the holy realm of the German nation, and did not cause Duke Henry distress with any dangerous words, nor did we give any dangerous, captious, or malicious advice; But what has been done by us has been done quite well, also friendly, honestly and in no other opinion at all, and we could suffer, if one wanted to draw us into a dishonest suspicion, that we would have remained unchallenged on Wednesday by Duke Henry's servants, and the thing would have happened in the way it seemed to have happened during the day. But we would have pity on the honest people who would consider our sincere and princely good opinion, and therefore be humbly grateful to us.
33. At that time we also had the will, for the sake of Duke Heinrich, as an aggrieved prince, to be compassionate, and for the sake of the other, so that the matter would later gain its finality for both sides and be brought to an agreement, to engage ourselves further in action, For this reason, after the surrender, we sent our advisors to Duke Heinrich and his son in Ziegenhain and Cassel to inform him of this and of our friendly will, that he thanked us kindly and asked that we do our best to bring the matter to a good end.
34 We have not spared our diligence on this, and have written not only to the landgrave about it, but to our secretaries more than one,
After that, we sent our advisors to his beloved with diligent writing, advertising, requesting and urging; and when his beloved pushed the deal from himself to the related states, we did not refrain from dispatching our envoy against Frankfurt am Main to the same states' advisors and envoys; since we could also have had this foreknowledge that we should have been allowed to act at the same place and time, we wanted to have disposed of our own person for that reason.
35 However, we have not yet been able to obtain any other answer through such manifold . We have not yet been able to obtain any other answer through such manifold writings and sending, and all kinds of applied diligence, than that we should continue to ask for an answer, which we would not want to complain about because of the expense, also because of the personal travel, where we would be left with it.
We note, however, that our faithful good opinion is interpreted by some as captious and dangerous, and everything that we have done and advised for the best is interpreted in a completely perverse manner, regardless of the fact that we could not think of any reason why this should be attributed to us with truth. For we, praise God! are of the princely, honest tradition and mind, that for the sake of our arrival and mind such a thing is not to be presumed with us; so also for the sake of money, which we have spent locally and not received, or also for the sake of great goods and benefits, which we have not been able to obtain locally, we cannot be considered guilty of it; Still less that we should have done such a thing for the sake of our friends' favor, as our friends never sought such a thing, and if they sought it, as they are too honest to do so, we would not have noted it kindly, nor have taken them for our friends. Nor is it this opinion that we would have allowed ourselves to be moved to such a dishonest act out of some envy or hatred; for it would have been so convenient in the day that we could well have shown our hostile and serious will against him and his by honest war exercise; and even if such convenience had not been, we would nevertheless have preferred to await the accident rather than to have let ourselves in for such vile and dangerous actions.
37 Since we have received nothing but untruthful, false and fabricated, shameful and disgraceful slander from some for such our well-meaning, peaceful and diligent performances, our need is to answer for it on the grounds of truth, not because of the loose people who attribute such things to us, who would not accept such responsibility.
The people of the world are not the ones who are guilty, but honest people, before whom their untruthful, fictitious and unintelligible speeches would like to come.
First of all, however, we want to make this distinction publicly herewith, that without a doubt (the time) among 1) Duke Henry's warriors there are many more honest, truthful warriors, to whom truth is more important than fictitious speeches, who will also be undoubtedly grateful to us for our gracious diligence on their part; therefore, we do not want to have meant them in such a case with this responsibility of ours, but are graciously inclined towards them.
39. On the other hand, we can believe that Duke Heinrich and his son are grieved princes and that they might hope to press for settlement through us; And if they will not interpret the above-mentioned true report of ours in any other way to promote their settlement, as in truth it cannot be interpreted in any other way, nor can it be interpreted with any other reason, then we will gladly grant them their reclaimed land and people once again, and in addition, as much as can be done for us and with peace and tranquility on all sides, we will faithfully and diligently support them, and not complain about our personal maturing for this purpose; If, however, they do not do so and interpret the deal differently, we want to include them in our subsequent responsibility and not exempt them from it.
40. And so we say to anyone who sings to us, or says or writes about himself, that we have let ourselves in to Duke Henry for dangerous delay or capture, and not in a right, faithful, peaceful and good opinion in amicable action and conversation, or otherwise, or otherwise than to act between the two parts in kindness, peace and friendship, as befits and is well regarded by an honest prince, as such is also innate to us as a princely virtue from our honest and upright parents, forefathers and ancestors, princes of Saxony; or that our councilors fell on their knees before Duke Henry, or that we summoned Duke Henry and his son to us on trust and faith, and thereby caused their imprisonment; or that we promised Duke Henry on Wednesday to settle his matter by our means proposed in the monastery, and that he then rode with us to the landgrave; or that we otherwise acted with him or his son, by us or ours, during the day, or otherwise the time of our life, other than honestly, princely and sincerely, or that in this war exercise
1) In -the old edition of Walch: "under (the time).",
deliberately led into some grievance by our negotiation, counsel or conversation; or that any oath was ever thought of between us and him: He accuses us maliciously, falsely, untruthfully and dishonestly, not as befits and is well regarded by a noble, honest, truthful and honest man, in this no person, whatever his rank, is exempt; and we want (God willing) to answer for, defend and preserve our inherited princely honor, as far as all our ability extends, with reason and truth against these loose people and their followers princely and duly until our end.
For this we know, praise God, to write with truth, that so much honest, princely, even manly blood was felt, noted and shown among our friends and our warriors of this part of the day, that it was not necessary to give the untruthful people cause for their untruthful speeches, which we just as little wanted to do, when we were alone in the field with our warriors, but rather expected the strike.
But in order that the reason of these loose people may come to light, Achim Ryba and others who have heard this will not be able to deny that after Duke Henry's and his son's surrender, when they let themselves be heard with some angry words, the landgrave said to them: "Would they be so angry that they would take their lord again and make themselves as angry as they could.
43 They should then take Duke Henry with them, where they had bitten the fox in part as gladly as they now boast of themselves, or otherwise have allowed themselves to be heard, where they noticed that something else, as reported above, had been done with him.
44. However, we must interpret the unknowable presumption of the same loose people, who bear us such untruths, to mean that they wanted to cover their timidity and unfaithfulness, which they demonstrated to their lord that day, as he himself complained about immediately and afterwards; and that without this they were so burdened with unworthy and dishonest deeds, and with the poverty they had caused, that they hoped to continue the little wheel they had made, and would not leave it at that, even if Duke Henry's cause had been settled, where he had not surrendered, but that they wanted to continue to cause unrest in the holy realm, and to continue to try their salvation, whether they might thereby have come to some supposed honors or good fortune; but what the German nation would not have been able to do if they had been able to do this, they would not have been able to do.
could have been made of it,- that is easy to consider, and again not unnecessary, that good attention be paid to it.
And we could suffer, if the loose people wanted to speak of us, that they would tell the truth about us and about themselves at the same time, and confess what their intentions were after this meant affair against the Magdeburg and Halberstadt monasteries, and perhaps others, or what they otherwise had in mind. They would then note what the Roman imperial and royal majesty and the estates of the Holy Roman Empire would like about their intentions, or how obediently and honestly they would receive them.
46 Accordingly, our most humble and friendly request to Your Imperial and Royal Majesty, as well as to the Princes, Princes and all the estates of the Holy Roman Empire. Majesty, as well as princes, princes and all the estates of the Holy Roman Empire, our most humble and friendly request, amicable and gracious intention and desire, whether speeches, poems and writings of the same loose people in this matter have come before their Majesty, dearest, or the others, or would come in the future, that they neither want to give them the support nor the credence they deserve; Their Majesties, dear ones, and the others would not suffer them even in their lands and territories, nor house, cherish or promote them in some ways, but respect and hold them for loose, untruthful, dishonest, seditious people and mutineers, and let us seize them in due course and arrest them, so that we may obtain justice against them, and it may be revealed in a manly way what kind of people they are, and what their intentions have been, and how wickedly, falsely and untruthfully they have talked and plotted against our princely honor. For we have behaved (without writing glory) in this war exercise and otherwise the days of our life, praise God! we have behaved as an honorable, truthful prince should and should well behave, and by the grace of God, we want to behave in such a way until the end of our lives, so that it will be recognized and judged that we do not want to act in any other way than princely, honest and truthful for the sake of anything on earth, as we have been praised for by our honest parents and ancestors, and that we do not want to act in any other way than princely, honest and truthful for the sake of anything on earth than princely, honest and truthful, as we have been praised for by our honest parents and ancestors, and that we do not want to act in any other way than princely, honest and truthful for the sake of anything on earth. Majesty, Princes, Princes and Estates of the Holy Roman Empire with good honor, and that it shall not be reproved against any man. We humbly request that this be graciously done to their Majesties and to their beloved, and that it be graciously remembered and graciously noted to the others. Date in our city of Leipzig, the fifth day of the month of April, Anno 1546.
Follow the inserts.
A.
Our friendly services, and what else we can do more dear and good, before. Highborn prince, kind dear uncle! To what extent we have been violently driven from our lands and people against God, honor and right, the Holy Roman Empire's orders and land peace, without any given cause, E. L. does not need to be reminded of this, as an obvious notorious act. Now we would have hoped that our enemies would have finally acknowledged their rightful restitution and would have restituted all things to us; but they have not done so, nor do they want to do so, in view of the various actions they have taken:
Thus, for the prevention of our and our children's eternal ruin, we have been urged to undertake this our present defension for the sole purpose of reconquering the affected of our wrested lands and people, together with the costs, damage and interest suffered.
Now, however, we find out that E. L. and others should be in great arms to prevent us from such a legitimate and, by virtue of the peace of the land, permitted defension and recuperation of ours. However, since we have never caused such a thing in our lifetime, nor do we know of anything bad to do with it, nor do we desire to obtain anything other or more than our fatherland alone, together with the costs, damage and interest incurred, we cannot give credence to such a request, and for this reason we also want to ensure that E. L. will not oppose us in any way. L. will in no way allow himself to be moved against us, but will rather, as an obedient prince of the empire, be conducive and helpful to us in maintaining the peace of the empire by virtue of its convention. And although we are not in any doubt about this, we ask E. L. for a correct reply to the present, which we are kindly inclined to deserve. Date in our camp before Wolfenbüttel, on the fifth day of Octobris, Anno 45.
By the Grace of God, Henry the Younger, Lord of Brunswick and Lüneburg.
H. Z. B. U. L. D. J. my hand.
To the Highborn Prince, our kindly dear Oheimen, Lord Moritzen, Duke of Saxony, Landgrave in Thuringia and Margrave 1) of Meissen.
To S. L.'s own hands.
1) "Margraves" put by us instead of: "Burgraves".
B 1.
Reply to Duke Henry of Brannschweig etc.
Our friendly services, also what we can do dear and good, before. Highborn Prince, friendly dear uncle! Today we received a letter from E. L., dated the fifth day of this month, here at Mulhouse, in which E. L. informs us of the military exercises E. L. is engaged in at this time, and also of what E. L. has learned about our armaments, with a request attached that we send our proper reply to your servant, as to whether E. L. should provide us with such a letter or not. We have read out the contents of this letter to E. L., and do not want E. L. to be restrained from sending a letter to E. L. this very hour that E. L.'s letters reach us. We do not wish to restrain E. L. from sending a letter to E. L. this very hour, as letters from E. L. are coming to us; from this letter E. L. will hear our thoughts everywhere, and are willing to serve E. L. in a friendly manner. We are willing to serve E. L. in a friendly manner. Date Mulhouse, 12 Octobris Anno etc. 45.
Moritz, Duke of Saxony.
B 2.
The first warning letter to Duke Heinrich von Braunschweig.
Our kind services, and what we can do dear and good, before. Highborn Prince, friendly dear uncle! We are informed that at this time, the Lord has assembled a number of warriors on horseback and on foot, and that they are engaged in a war exercise.
Now we have taken it for granted that the Highborn Princes, Mr. John Frederick, Duke of Saxony, Archmarshall of the Holy Roman Empire, Elector, Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen and Burgrave of Magdeburg, and Mr. Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, Count of Katzenelnbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhain and Nidda, our friendly dear cousins, father and godfather, and the other relatives of their beloved united, would take action against the Holy Roman Emperor. Majesty, our most gracious Lord, that Her Majesty's dear ones want to deliver the Principality of Brunswick sequestered; and thereupon Imperial Maj. Maj. E. L. on penalty of Her Imperial Majesty. Majesty's 1) proclaimed land peace: that E. L. not act contrary to the agreement and capitulation mentioned in the mandate, and before an amicable or legal discussion of the matters has taken place
1) In Walch's old edition: "Majest. Kayserl."
If E. L. himself, nor others, do nothing with the deed and in bad faith, neither secretly nor publicly, in any way or manner, against the above-mentioned friends of ours and others of their lands and people, also the owners and inmates, but expect an amicable or legal settlement and discussion, E. L. would leave it at that, and would not have caused any disturbance about it, because the Imperial Majesty would undoubtedly not have failed to remedy the matter amicably or legally. Majesty would not have graciously failed to remedy the matter amicably or legally.
But because His Holiness did not heed all this, nor did he disregard the Emperor's command. Because His Majesty did not heed such a thing, even disregarding His Majesty's command, and subjected himself to such an enormous undertaking, we have been asked by the above-mentioned friends of ours for help and advice, whereupon we have also assembled a number of warriors out of consideration of all the circumstances and occasions of these matters.
However, because we wanted to promote peace and prevent further developments, we would not be unwilling to receive a written report from E. L. between here and Friday next that E. L. wanted to take advantage of our negotiations and receive reasonable instructions to exercise diligence where we alone, or in addition to others, could promote the agreement of these matters in good faith, as we then also want to make inquiries with the above-mentioned friends and not allow anything to be lost in our diligence. L. would be in refusal to grant us amicable action and reasonable consequence, E. L. has to judge. because we are related to our friends not only by blood, but also by the oath of allegiance confirmed by the Roman emperors and kings, and sworn to by our ancestors, that we cannot avoid leaving their loved ones with advice and assistance; even though we have nothing to do with them outside of this for our person, nor do we have any unpleasant business with them at present, nor do their lands concern us. And we do not want to deprive the L. of such a good opinion, to which we are inclined to friendly service without that. Date Mulhouse, 12 Octobris Anno etc. 45.
Moritz, Duke of Saxony.
To Duke Henry of Brunswick etc.
Highborn Prince, kind dear uncle! After we wrote to E. L. today that we wanted to send our advisors to E. L. today, we were inclined to comply. However, since we have heard that E. L. has had several flags of cavalry moved in front of our friendly dear cousins, fathers and godfathers, the Landgrave of Hesse 2c, camp today, we are concerned about this.
If, however, the Council is willing to do so again and could suffer, we would like, with divine grant, by means of the extension of the Council's escort, to deliver them to the Council tomorrow morning; therefore, we ask the Council to inform us of what is in her mind. This we are inclined to accuse E. L. of. Date in the camp before Northeim, the 17th month Octobris Anno etc. Moritz, Duke of Saxony etc.
To Duke Moritz of Saxony.
Our kind services, and what we can do dear and good, before. Highborn Prince, friendly uncle! We have understood E. L.'s letter that they want to send their advice to us early this morning, etc., all contents most kindly. Now E. L. must not remember any of our previous writings, so we will leave it at that, and what we once wrote of ourselves, we are inclined to keep firmly, therefore may E. L. suffer revenge well upon arrival, and we also want to have denied and extended to the same our previous given escort herewith again to the offered conversation today. That we do not want to save E. L. again for a friendly answer. Date in our camp at Calvelden, on the 18th day of Octobris Anno etc. 45.
By the Grace of God, Henry the Younger, Lord of Brunswick and Lüneburg.
H. H. Z. B. V. L. D. I. my hand.
E.
Our kind and quite willing services before. Honorable, respectable and esteemed, especially favorable and dear friends! We would have considered that it would have been almost useful for a speedy promotion of yesterday's conversation and action, where you and we would have disposed together, and thereupon would have consulted each other according to all necessity. If this is also pleasing to you, we kindly ask you to rise to the monastery where the two of our gracious lords were yesterday. We are inclined to come to you there as soon as possible, and for this purpose we will meet with you at this monastery of ours.
We have ordered that you should not be concerned about such things, and in the same way, you will order and procure war troops from the other party and from them. That we do not want to restrain you, to whom we are inclined to render friendly service. Date in the camp before Calvelden, on the 20th day of Octobris Anno etc. 45.
Alerdt von Horden, supreme commander, Ebert von der Recke, Johann Stopler, doctor, chancellor, and Achim Nybe.
To the honorable, respectable and highly respected gentlemen, Georgen Lummerstadt, the Right Doctor, Ernsten von Miltitzen and Christoph von Ebeleben, and to special dear friends.
Duke Moritz of Saxony Councils Response.
Our kind and willing services before! Honorable and esteemed, special good friends! We have read your letter to us, in which you indicate that you respect the conversation and action that took place yesterday, that we have disposed of ourselves next to you in the monastery, where both princes were together, and that you further discuss this with all necessity. Now there is no doubt, as you have partly seen for yourselves, that our Lord Duke Moritz and we made every possible effort so that this war exercise could have been tolerated and settled in goodness; where also your Lord would have wanted to accept the articles sent by our Lord yesterday. H., we have no doubt that such an amicable action would have taken place with the Landgrave of Hesse and the other co-relatives, and would have been accepted or granted; but since this has not happened, nor does it want to happen, our H. H. Duke Moritz, and also the Duke of Hesse, have now also accepted the articles sent to them, Duke Moritz, and also we, after all possible efforts, which we have made in response to your letter, have not been able to obtain any further amicable action from the Landgrave of Hesse, but rather H. F. G. has not wanted to grant any further amicable action, which we again do not know how to respond to. Date in the camp near Northeim, the 20th Octobris Anno etc. 45.
To Alerdt von Hörde, supreme commander, Ebert von der Recke, Johann Stopler, and Achim Rybe.