placed in such a way that they could also be useful to the readers)
Completed the s. of May, printed at the beginning of July 1518. **)
Translated from Latin.
If a child teaches me right, I will recant.
Dr. Andreas Bodenstein of Carlstadt, together with some respondents to be named below, will present the following 370 theses against those who, under the name and pretence of the Wittenbergers (whom they evidently intend and especially endeavor to wound with terrible wounds), seek to overturn the holy Scriptures and speak of them according to their will, and judge them either according to Aristotle's metaphysics, or dialectics, or according to another unbeliever's fiction, or according to their conceit, as if they had been given the power by God to explain the holy Scriptures according to their own liking, interpreting neither the dark Scriptures by the clear, nor the testifying law by the testifying Christ, maintain and defend this summer, if it should be demanded either by a theological circle (as they say), or by some righteous lover of truth, and, if you will, also by a trafficer and enemy, on the battlefield of disputation, especially against Dr. Eck, who is otherwise very learned, who made friends with the Wittenbergers of his own free will, but who also maintained the same afterward, without a warning because of a prior
He had the audacity to blacken the name of an excellent member of this university and to wound him in such a way that through the wounds he inflicted (notice it well, you Wittenbergers and you dear successors of theology) this entire scholarly society at Wittenberg appears as a declining one, but especially the theological faculty as shattered, yes, bloodthirsty and even shattered and saddened. Finally, this was not enough for him, but he also flattered the Roman pope and the bishops, so that some were corrupted by his flattery, to whom he did not show God's word, but rather gave the thoughts of his heart. 1) He has also antagonized other high people (praepositos) of the church against the theologians of this famous university.
1) This refers mainly to Gabriel von Eyb, bishop of Eichstädt, who was initially inclined to Luther's teaching, but was turned away by Eck. On the other hand, Eck says in his Dokonsio contra arnarnlontas Xnärono Loäsnstsin (this is the title in Wiedemann, ,,Eck", p. 490), that he was asked by the bishop to write notes (the obelisks) against Luther's theses and sent them to him, and that he did not spread them further, but that they finally came to Wittenberg.
*) In the original print only 370 theses are given, but in reality there are 379 except for an appendix of 26 sentences, so in total 405 theses, as em later print, where they are connected with Carlstadt's DotonÄo aävorsus Dckü mononmcüiaw and his Lpitomo äs impii justiücntlono, counts correctly. They are found in Latin in Löscher's Reformation Acta, Vol. II, pp. 78-104 and in part (109 theses) in a treatise published by Carlstadt (for the disputation of Bartholomäus Bernhardt pro kormatura, i. e. for the third academic degree in theology, on July 7), in Löscher, Vol. II, pp. 66-77. Of these 109 theses, an offprint appeared at Basel under the title: Oontra D. ^onnnom Lckiurn InSolästnäionsom. D. ^näroas Loäonstoin ^rcüiäiaconi ^VittendorMnÄK apoIoMticao xropositionos, pro Rovoronäo patro D. Llartino Dutimr. Lx 'WittondorAk. VII. äio monÄs 3uIH. ^nno Domini 1518. From this the text with somewhat improved Latin has flowed into the Basel collection of Luther's writings and is also found in later editions, as well as in LI. Dutüorii luoubrntionum pars uns, Lasilono in aoäibus Dotri 1520. ÄIon86 4u1io. p. 138-145. Our translation is made after Löscher, with comparison of the latter Basel edition.
**Individual sections were printed earlier; in the form reported here, however, only after July 7, 1518, as we can conclude from what was said after the 212th thesis.
592 Löscher, R.-A. II, 79 f. 30. Carlstadt's Vertheidigungssätze für die h. Schrift. W. xvm, 658-660. 593
to make up for it. Therefore, we have taken this matter (provinciam) upon ourselves in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both to defend the Holy Scriptures and to protect our good reputation.
Mr. Nicasius Claji from Herzberg, Master of Philosophy, will be a responder to become Baccalaureus of Theology, along with others.
1. the text of the Bible quoted by a church teacher is more valid and has stronger probative force than a saying of the one who quotes it,
2. since this depends on that and is inferred from it.
3. the [sentence] (praejecta) that has just been uttered contains truth to such an extent that the teacher's statement must be understood according to the text.
And the sentence (autoritas) must again be understood boldly and from it also the teacher's conclusion must be either proven or rejected.
If the readers or listeners of Augustine pay attention to this, they will see that Christ shines forth in all of Augustine's writings.
If the invalid (non authenticus) Gratian 1) had taken this into account, the Decretals would have less difficulty and they would be theologically more palatable.
If you keep the content of the first thesis and consider it well, the reading of Jerome will be more sweet.
In some volumes of the second part, however, Ambrose is understood differently than his intention and clumsily, if one does not also take the proofs (documenta) from his other parts,
9. And he does not let the power of Christ be noted at all,
10. although it is rightly considered that he is admirable in his allusions (allusionibus).
11 Our disputation field does not allow us to disputate about Cyprian, Cassianus, Gregory and Bernard.
12. the text of the Bible is preferred not only to one or more teachers of the Church, but also to the prestige of the whole Church, according to the saying of Augustine "about the baptism Wider the
1) The Camaldolese Gratian had organized around 1143 a new collection of papal canon law, which was compiled from older pieces of canon law, the newer pseudoisidoric decrees and later ones.
Donatus", book 2, cap. 3, which is transferred to the Cap. quis nesciat; dist. 9, arg. cap. Sunt quidam unb cap. Violatores XXV, qu. 1, and according to Augustine's saying in the 48th letter, which is cited in the cap. noli frater, 9. dist., and that he wrote in the 19th letter and it is taken over by Gratian into the cap. ego solis; from it (e. q. == ex quo) by Gerson de exam. doct. , 5. consideration.
13. when the church is understood as the congregation or assembly of all believers,
14. The preceding sentence has such force that the statement of a teacher, which is supported by a canonical sentence, must be believed more than a declaration of the pope. Gerson de exam. doct., 1st part, 5th consideration.
(15) I do not believe this to be true unless the Roman Pontiff is stripped of all prestige and is barren.
16 However, Gerson, since he does not mention Matthew de Methaselanis, even though he taught the same thing earlier in other terms, and whose example he also followed, seems to have kept silent about him in an unreasonable manner (turpiter).
17 But the same Gerson taught rightly (bene), but again badly concealed whom he followed in that a man who is well versed in the holy scriptures and relies on their testimony is to be believed more than a general concilium.
18 He restricts this in such a way: if the council should deviate from the evangelical testimony out of malice (this is to be noted) or out of ignorance.
19 This is nicely concluded from his sixth observation and from the first of the second part, namely, that the holy scripture can neither lead astray nor err. To this, take what Augustine says de pecc. mer, Book 1, Cap. 21 says.
(20) But a general conciliar, according to Gerson, both from malice and ignorance, can mislead and err.
(21) Yes, according to the teachers of canon law, the church mostly errs when taken in the way stated above [13th thesis], and misleads because it sometimes follows an opinion. De sen. excom. cap. A nobis II, where the text and the teachers, those who write and those who refer to others (remittentes) [testify to this].
Who dares to deny this after the theologians? as we will show below.
23. the preceding theses are true if
the teacher's statement is aided by a testimony of the holy scripture (testimonium sanctum) according to its literal meaning,
24. or the circumstances (circumstantiae) of Scripture provide and give strong evidence for the view (intellectu) of the author, so that this text cannot be contradicted. I have already quoted this from St. Augustine in the proof of the previous theses, although I originally followed M. de Methaselanis in his treatise äs slsst. opi. sol. I and other teachers after him.
25 Against Gerson, we deny that this is the literal mind, which infers from the intention and circumstances of the writer. Gerson in the same treatise, 6th consideration.
26 Neither do we admit that this is the literal sense, which is strictly logical, nor has the art of reasoning (dialectica) taught the letters.
27 But this is what we call the literal sense, which is taken according to the word or the meaning of the word; according to Augustine de utilitate credendi, cap. III, coi. Si junct., cap. VII de princi. diale.
28 "Reading" (Iegi) is to be understood in such a way that it is not only understood, but also perceived with the eyes what is written. Thus Ulpian. Casually also Joh. Crot. according to ancient scribes,
29 And these have taught better and more like Augustine than Gerson.
30 But what is inferred from the circumstances, or from the intention of the writer, is understood from the outside, that is, outside the letter, which Ulpian says and is according to the truth.
The same, it is said, takes place in relation to a mind that lies in it (subaudito) or a mind that comes to it from outside (extraneo), and to that which is derived from a conjecture (conjectura). The same Crot, according to Lur. and Augustin.
According to Augustine, truth presents itself in the highest degree when we hold (sentimus) what he holds whom we read 2c To agree is to agree with the intention. De utilitate credendi cap. V.
This type is very rare when we are dealing with very dark things. Augustine, as above.
34 We cannot know this clearly, but only believe it; the same. So the intention cannot be inferred from the letters if it is not read in the words. Augustine ad Simp. lib. I, qu. II, inductio difficilis.
But that in a theological way and according to Augustine the sense which can be taken is not the literal one, for this note Augustine's words: By what reasons, he says, can I so take the will of an absent or dead person that I could swear by it?
36 Neither does it mean an expressed thing, which is concluded from the sense of the scriptures.
(37) Behold, what a beautiful correspondence there is between the proofs of theology and those of jurisprudence. And you should know that such a way of reasoning can greatly benefit a theologian.
The foregoing serves that he should be punished or cautioned as an enemy of the Church who builds up [such things] from a dark thing, tearing down something quite true and quite known. Augustine, two letters sa Lon. 6on., Book 3, Cap. 81. I have written all this abundantly in the proofs of others and of the preceding propositions, which I have brought from ecclesiastical scholars and jurists.
(39) From all the foregoing it is concluded that one must adhere more or rather to the one who has a testimony according to the letter than to the one who has one that can be taken, or according to the sense.
40 Secondly, it is concluded that he who has a testimony according to the letter is to be preferred to him who has a testimony from the opposite sense.
Thirdly, that a ground of proof taken from the opposite sense is not something expressed, but is based on a kind of inference, and can be inferred from the circumstances.
(42) If a sense that can be taken contradicts an expressed testimony, we do not attach it to that, but to this, to someone who only ever uses it.
The reason of proof, which is taken from the opposite sense, is permissible in theology, if only the Scripture is not mastered thereby and inconsistency is avoided.
äs sorrsp. st Arstia, ssp. XIII, L.
But it is not very strong, since it is a kind of silent, external, derived (subauditus) understanding. Nevertheless, it concludes with necessity, as is evident from the Collect on the 5th Sunday after Easter: God, from whom all good things come.
45. a stronger ground of proof is that which can be read (legibile), or from the letter (literale), or is after the letter
596 Löscher, R.-A. II, 82-84. 30. Carlstadt's defense theorems for h. Scripture. W. XVIII, 662-664. 597
(aä litsram). ArZ. AuZ. äs psss. msi., lib. I, SAP. XXXV, where he attaches much to the clear evidence of things.
46 But it is nice to have an abundance of reasons, both literal and those that can be taken away.
47 For what the Scripture hides in one place, it reveals or shows in another.
48 For example, with this literal and clear passage of Ecclesiastes [V, 21]: "There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin," which apparently sets up sin in a good work,
49. This [Gen. 3, 17. 18.] is true: If you cultivate the field, "it shall bear thee thorns and thistles" according to Cassian and Bernard, notwithstanding the distinction of Ambrose, although it seems true.
50. likewise these [Jos. 16:10.], "There hath the Cananite dwelt in the midst of Ephraim, and is interest-bearing unto this day."
According to Gregory, the Cananite denotes some vices that the righteous retains while performing high deeds. [On Job, Book 3, Cap. 25.
52 The same Canaanite becomes interestable to the righteous, because they cannot subjugate him, but they urge him to the use of humility, that thereby the mind may be held low in high things.
(53) Therefore, he becomes interest-bearing because he gives interest or tax to the righteous, reminding him of his weakness and making him mindful of his dangers,
54. That he may do good works in fear and trembling and humility. Augustine says this beautifully in sontra aul. lib. IV, sap. II, col. psn. and sap. Ill, H.; äs na. st era. sap. XXVII, with other. What we have attracted and what after him Gregory says.
55) From what has just been said, it is concluded, first, that vice, that is, sin, is in the midst of Ephraim, that is, in the righteous one who bears fruit and in righteous works;
56. Secondly, since the land, which is man, is cultivated with good works, that the good works, or the righteous man himself, be as a lily among thorns, according to Bernard;
57. Third, that temptations arise which stain the center and sides of good works, or darken them with vices.
58. Because of this fault, no living person is justified before God, and even daily we ask that our guilt, that is, our sin, be forgiven us.
(59) Because of this fault, the servants of God accuse themselves of being useless servants when they have done everything,
60. Also want to be chastened with Jeremiah by God, who has mercy on those who fear him, as a father has mercy on his children.
(61) Therefore, as long as we adhere to God in faith and love in One Spirit, we do not sin, but do well.
In so far as in the same action we are assailed by repulsions, desires, darkness, and bring with them difficulties and weariness, or even excessive joy, we sin. Augustin äs x>6. nasäi. sup. II, with what we have already put on, adding what he has taught de perfect, justi.
63 Or in this way: if God creates the will and the work in us, we do not sin; but if we do our part, we lack and sin, according to the saying: whoever does good on earth sins 2c [Eccl. 7:21].
64 Therefore, the sighing Church asks that by pursuing righteousness she may abstain from guilt on the Monday after the 2nd Sunday and on the Saturday before the 4th Sunday in Lent.
(65) If she keeps herself from sin by doing righteousness, why does she ask to be free from guilt, saying, "Forgive us our trespasses?
66. to this belongs also this, Ps. 80, 5: "Lord God, how long wilt thou be angry at the prayer of thy servant?" [Vulgate.]
67 There is no contradiction to what Augustine wrote against Julian in Book 6, Cap. 5, that grace completely renews man.
To return to the 12th thesis, this already well-known saying of Augustine is countered: I would not believe the Gospel if I were not moved by the reputation of the Church. Augustin contra epistolaru lunäurusuti, sap. V.
69 Gerson responds to this, and badly, by saying that Augustine understood by "church" the first assembly of believers who saw and heard Christ, Gerson, de vita spirlt. anlnius, lest. II, vor. VII, shall II. inü. and the Wider vurauäuin.
70 Because Augustine says: I have believed the gospel, since it is preached or taught by orthodox believers.
Scotus seems to have spoken better than Gerson (in q. XIV, r^. I, soll III) of the faith that is attained by hearing,
72. Although we doubt and deny that its foundation is to be believed.
The one who says, "It must not be concluded from this that the Church has greater prestige than Christ, but if the Church did not approve, we would not have the certainty that the sayings of the New and Old Testaments were brought forward by Christ or contained in the Old Testament. Oaräina. ^lsxÄnäri. sontra I. 1.
74 Augustine says that he believed the gospel through the orthodox, which Gerson did not observe,
75. Who says in the same passage that if the reputation of the gospel is weakened, the reputation of the church is also weakened. Augustin oontra spistolLm kunäumsuti, äio., 6LP. V.
The same says against the same letter: if someone believes the gospel, he must also believe the prophetic and apostolic testimonies, because the reputation of the church recommends both Scriptures equally.
The actual meaning or the wording must always be adhered to in the sacred Scriptures. 1) Augustin äs spiritu st litsra, oap. II.
78 This is restricted or limited: unless someone can prove that the words could be understood differently than they read.
But this no one will prove by a simple denial, or by ignorance, or, what is worse, by a useless obstinacy, but by the proof of the inconsistency or the figurative speech. From the Sermon on the Mount, book 1, h and äs spiritu st litsra, oap. IV.
The thesis of the actual meaning of the words is to be extended to the fact that when the Scripture speaks of "fire", an active, warming, burning fire must be understood, not a painted one, not a dead one.
(81) When the Scripture speaks of punishments, it is not necessary to understand an alchemical one in the first degree, or one that is warm in the second degree; so it must be said of other expressions,
82. Because according to the alchemists (if they speak true) fire does not hurt the one who touches it in the first degree, but heals a sick person in the second degree.
After it has been proven that something is contained in the wording, it is also immediately proven that this something is contained in the wording according to its quality, power and effect.
1) Löscher: Would GOlt that Carlstadt had considered this six years later, when he deviated from the actual meaning of the words in the institution of Holy Communion with presumptuous audacity!
The first thing to be said is that the things designated by the words are understood therein.
84. for example, of the children who die in original sin [it is said] that they go into the eternal fire; if this is true, as it -is- quite true, it follows that they suffer the properties of fire, that is, the chastisement of fire, and eternal, if it is an eternal one,
85. Unless someone could show us a text where we would like to read that the judge will say to those on the left, "Go, you adults, into the fire, but you children shall be deprived of the sight of God for eternity. But this we do not read and see, therefore we do not depart from the letter of the gospel.
(86) If anyone should make the vain claim that they are kept in the fire but not burned, claiming a miracle, he must be rejected as a violator of the words of God.
87. 2) It is ridiculous to proceed miracles without sacred testimonies and not to prove them. ZIo. in s. surn sx injunsto äs dsrs.
Gerson says: "Every revelation is suspect, which is not confirmed by the law or the gospel. Os sxruni. äooU, 2nd part, 1st consideration, Msra s.
89 And there are no examples to be added to the words (which are foreign to the present question and do not belong to it).
90. the rules of the sacred Scripture must be universally understood and no one must be exempted from them when it speaks universally and without distinction,
91. Unless it can be proven by the testimony of this Scripture that someone or some people are not covered by this rule.
(92) An example of this rule or decree is that it will be said to those who are on the left: Go into the eternal fire.
Those who contradict the Scriptures, either by understanding them to punish some vice or by not understanding them as if they were wiser and could see better, sin mortally and are ungodly. Os Aoot. slirist, 2nd book, 7th cap.
94 And there is no need to dispute whether it is true or right, which is certain that it is written in it.
2) In Latin, the number 87 is skipped here in the counting and therefore the number is one greater than the numbers we set, until thesis IM (inol.).
600 Löscher, R.-A. II, 86.66 f. 30. Carlstadt's defense theorems for h. Scripture. W. XVIII, 667-669. 601
Rather, everyone is guilty of thinking and believing that what is written there is better and truer, even though it is darker than what we can see of ourselves.
If the reputation of God did not help the holy Scriptures, it would be sufficient for the conviction and defense of the church that the Scriptures had once been accepted and approved by it.
97. ambiguous testimonies do not resolve a question, or so: no one will explain ambiguous words with ambiguous words. Augustin äs nnim. st 6M8 oriZ. üb. I, eap. XVIII, and Us prino. äiawot.
For refutation or proof, certain testimonies are to be sought, not ambiguous ones. Augustin äs anim. st 6M8 oriK. lib. II, oap. XIV sä P6.
99. Although something concealed or hidden in Scripture is not denied, it is not necessarily affirmed either.
In the Scriptures, not only the words that can be inflected (i.e., declinatured or conjugated) are to be considered, but also the others, and everything that is written must be considered.
Although 1) several other related propositions (connexiones) could be appropriately added to the preceding ones, which could give those who are interested in theology cause and opportunity to study, and serve them more than the art of reason (logica), they are rightly followed by the examination of the propositions, which the excellent Herr Eck has not at all excellently directed against the Wittenbergers, and that in a boastful manner and with all too great arrogance. 2)
1) Instead of et si, etsi will probably be read.
2) The theses just communicated were already publicly posted in Wittenberg on May 9, 1318, the Sunday Rogate, but the following three sections, which contain 40, 51 and 18 theses, thus 109 theses in total, were not printed in their entirety until July 7, as is stated in the first printing. (Löscher, Reformation-Acta, Vol. II, W. ) Only these 109 theses are also found in the Basel collections, to which the three sentences taken from Luther's Theses on Indulgences were added when counting the theses in the complete edition of these theses, which Löscher mentions, loc. cit. p. 77, since the first section closes with 101, but the fifth section begins with 214. In order to avoid confusion, we leave the following 109 theses in the counting as it is found in Löscher and Walch, and resume the continuous counting only at the 213th (not 214th because of omission of the number 87) thesis.
To the reader. 3)
The theses of the venerable father D. Martin Luther on the power of indulgences, which he plucked from the midst of the Scriptures, Eck dared to gnaw with sophistical teeth, relying too much on the opinions of Scotus, Capreolus, Durandus, Alphonsus, Gabriel and other new teachers. But the venerable father Martin Luther, as it is called, deserves the palm of victory (aureolum), because he was the first to so astutely overthrow the abuse of indulgences, to which so many thousands of theologians have been silent for so many years.
What a knavery it is to ape the Christian people, for whom Christ died, so brazenly with these things, which are found to have no foundation at all, neither in the Gospels, nor in Paul, nor in Origen, nor in Jerome, nor in Ambrose, nor in Augustine, nor in Hilarius, nor in Cyprian, nor in other ancients. They are opinions (they say) of theologians, but of the more recent ones. After all. But opinions should remain opinions, and be nothing else than opinions, but not burdens of Christians. Let us not make the opinions of new theologians into articles of faith equal to the precepts of Christ and Paul. And let the theologians finally be ashamed of such a word, as very learned people sometimes chatter in secret to their friends: "I would speak like this in the schools, but (it must remain between us) I think differently. Likewise, "We say this in the schools, but it cannot be proved from the Scriptures. Rather, if they want to teach something, they should not immediately force the people with threats, otherwise the situation of the Christians would be a miserable one, but they should present testimonies from the sources without forced and self-invented explanations, and then they should be believed. This was not done by the Master of the Holy Palace, brother Silvester Prieras (sic!), who recently answered Martin Luther, but in such a way that he provoked theologians and non-theologians to laughter with his church according to the essence, according to the power, and according to the representation.
Now since the laymen, as the world here and there comes to their senses again, do not learn both from the books they read, and better than we do, from the books we read.
3) In the complete edition of Carlstadt's theses, this preface is missing, which can be found in the individual editions (Löscher, Ref.-Acta, vol. 2, 87.).
Theologians, but by their keen intellect, daily find fault with many things in Christianity which they believe to be otherwise, what should we do, who stand high above the rabble? (a vulgo longe lateque remotos). For the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, open your eyes, you theologians! Leave your scholastic opinions, leave the childish disputes, and go to the source of the Holy Scripture itself. Let it be believed that this is said for admonition, and certainly not written without the tears and sighs of good men who sigh over the proud obstinacy and stubborn pride of certain people. Christ is witness to this, blessed be He for ever and ever. Amen, amen.
Against the theologian D. Johann Eck
the venerable Father Doctor Martin Luther, in his disputation explaining the power of indulgences, put this forward as the first thesis:
Since our Master and Lord Jesus Christ says: Repent 2c, he wants the whole life of his believers on earth to be a constant and unceasing repentance.
Eck 1) disputes this as follows:
Since the kingdom of heaven in Christ's words seems to denote the present church and the time of the evangelical fulfillment that appeared then, it is impossible to see how repentance could express the whole life of believers.
The D. Andreas Bodenstein, Archdeacon at Wittenberg, Defence sentences for the venerable father D. Martin Luther.
The first sentence of Eck against the Wittenbergers is basically this: The contending church (for which the time of evangelical fulfillment has come, because it is the assembly of all believers, among whom there are many righteous) does not seem to need repentance.
1. Eck does not understand that the church sighs, he denies what the church confesses, and shamefully does not know the prayers that are going on in her,
2. for the Church, in the annual observance of Lent, professes to be purified (on the 1st Sunday in Lent), and, saying.
1) In the 2nd movement of the obelisks.
is afflicted in all its members (universaliter coacta): We sinners beseech thee 2c
(3) But since Eck abolishes the repentance of the church, he denies its cleansing, which it confesses, lest it be judged by the Lord.
The Church prays (on Friday 2) before) that God's people be cleansed from all sins, which are words of a penitent, Ps. 51. So also the Church prays (on Friday after the 2nd Sunday): since holy fasting cleanses us. Likewise (on Wednesday after the same Sunday): Let us abstain from harmful vices.
5. it also says (on the first Sunday in Huin.): God, who is offended by guilt and reconciled by repentance 2c And: Turn away the scourges we deserve. It is not said that we deserve, but that we deserve. Likewise, note: you are reconciled by repentance.
6 And in another collecte: Spare, O Lord, spare your people, that they, chastened with deserved punishment, may rest in your mercy.
Does not the church or God's people (not the devil's) pray to be chastened, as Jeremiah says? Let Eck judge whether this is not repentance.
8) The Church asks the same thing among the intercessions in the Collecte: God, who smites our debts with merciful rod 2c
9) See, Eck, the prayer (collectam) which the Church does, asking to be saved by God's assistance from the impending dangers of her sins (on Monday after the 3rd Sunday and on the 2nd Sunday in Lent);
10. for she asks that from the people of God the scourges of divine wrath be turned away (on the 2nd Sunday in Lent). But perhaps Eck without books 3) [i.e., according to his head] will easily answer: the Church asks to be freed from future (imminentibus) sins, not from those that are in her, but from those that are imminent (as the Scotists used to answer the Thomists, that Christ was the Redeemer of the Blessed Virgin, and not evil, because through him she was saved from original sin).
11. but in order that the evasions be enclosed with a firm fence, we set him these collecte
2) I'sria 66xts is Friday. Here and in the following time determinations, in which a day of the week is given, a wrong day is given in the old Walch edition, because wr. I. was regarded as Monday instead of Sunday 2c
3) This refers to Eck's "third" sentence in the obelisks: "without the aid of books."
604 Löscher, R.-A. II, 68-70. 30. Carlstadt's defense of the Scriptures. W. XVIII, 671-673. 605
against: We beseech thee, O Lord, purify the hearts of thy faithful, that, being purified from earthly lusts, they may not cleave to this life 2c (on Thursday after the 3rd Sunday in Lent). In addition, take another collecte of the same day, in which she asks that the holy devotion create purification.
From this prayer, taken according to the letter, we see that the Church asks that the hearts of the faithful of God be purified, of which no one dares to say that this is spoken for the sake of humility, if he is not to meet the ban (äs Loolss. äo§. oup. XXXV together with oux. XXXVI and XXXVII).
(13) Which of God's faithful does he presume to understand as the righteous, who also live by faith?
14 Secondly, it is clear from the letter that the church asks that believers, that is, the righteous, also be cleansed from earthly lust, so they have impurity that must be cleansed.
(15) I ask Eck what the church is asking for but that the righteous may be cleansed from that building by which the righteous build upon the faith of Christ wood, hay and stubble [1 Cor. 3:12],
16. Who shall not perish, but be saved by fire; of which there is a different interpretation in Augustine and Gregory.
17. build those who are in carnal inclination with regard to the temporal 2c (As Augustin says lib. suob. oux. UVII, äs ooto äuloi. [uusstion. H. 1. ä.)
18. the church asks that its holy members be purified from the earthly evil lust, so that the ever-emerging filth may be destroyed.
19. what did she fear who said to the bridegroom knocking, "I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them again?" [Hohel. 5, 3.]
The church asks what Christ promised that the heavenly Father would do, namely, that He would cleanse the branches so that they would bear fruit [John 15:2].
(21) Since we are all deficient in many things, the church prays to be cleansed from offense and guilt, and repents.
She asks that the hearts of believers be purified, because all believers still have the old life of sin, which is renewed in the inner man from day to day. (See Augustine äs psoo. nasr. lib. II, oap. 6.)
23. she asks what the apostolic commandments require, that she may be renewed in the spirit of her mind and put on the new man.
(24) It is a good penance to confess sins and infirmities and ask the physician for healing.
25. alms, fasting and prayer are remedies for venial sins (I have sufficiently proved this in the previous theses from testimonies of Augustine). -
26 Although the time of evangelical fulfillment has come for the church,
p666. oup. XU, äs psrlset. just. ^rAUnwnto ^u§. äiot. H^po. lib. IV; oontra Julian, oup. I.)
28 It is called the contending church because it is always rebellious and contested in every good work by vices and evil desire (according to what Augustin lib. IV and oontra Julian, lib. Ill, vap. II elaborates).
(29) While the righteous man contends valiantly, fatigue sets in, diminishing and tainting the giver's cheerfulness.
Blessed is he who strikes his children on a stone, not a criminal.
This is why love can grow in this life, and what is lacking in this growth is lacking through our fault.
This guilt is sin, which the holy church expiates by daily confession, not by unfruitful confession. (Augustin äs ssu. lluoobi and lüxist. I^IV.)
(33) This is the guilt of those who need footwashing.
34. the same are good and evil children of god, for whenever the righteous does good, he sins, and he is both good and evil.
Yes, no one repents before God but the righteous. (Augustin äs üäs aä; Hisron. in llsrsmium.)
(36) Note that the righteous fall seven times a day, but do not perish, because the Lord puts His hand under them; according to Cassianus, it is clear that the faithful righteous fall.
(37) To these righteous ones the Lord puts his hand under; and therefore he does not impute sins to them, because they recognize their sins, beat their breast 1) and remit their guilt to the guilty.
38. the biting people, who, under the name of
1) Latin: temur hip.
1) reproach the word "imputes" as an unseemly or improper one, mock the Scriptures and bark at the Doctors of the Church, but why? because they do not want to learn and understand that they want to speak rightly.
(39) Those who want to be incorporated into the church repent, and those who are truly incorporated into it repent.
But let Eck also not seek a remedy from the apostolic Scriptures, by which the church is praised as "holy, without spot or blemish" [Eph. 5:27], lest, where this passage is poorly understood, he also tear up and destroy the other passages of Scripture, as Faustus did the law of Moses. For what Augustin says against Julian in the 4th book, Cap. 3, does not contradict what Augustine says against Julian.
Second thesis of the venerable Father Doctor Martin Luther from the words of the Gospel.
The word "penance" cannot and may not be understood from the Sacrament of Penance, that is, from the confession and satisfaction practiced by the priest's office.
Eck 2) disputes this as follows:
Christ and all Christians have taught that inner repentance is great, since God 3) looks at the heart and the will. This is shown by the widow, who put only two mites into God's box, and paid more than all, as Christ testifies. For the will is in the soul, like a king in his kingdom.
The D. Andreas Bodenstein, Archidiaconus at Wittenberg, Defence Sentence for the Venerable Father D. Martin Luther.
(1) But since Eck, in the second sentence against us, has made inner repentance great, because he says that the will is the king of his actions, he shows that he either does not know the Scriptures or evidently contradicts them.
(2) For our will is not king and lord of the works which God hath ordained to be of the will: except it were lawful to will with the valiant hero Eck.
1) By M. and A. are to be understood Martin Luther and Andreas Carlstadt. The meaning of this thesis is: Allegedly the opponents blame M. and A., but in fact they mock the holy scripture with their blame.
2) In the 1st obelisk.
3) In the obelisks: Christ.
(Augustine, 107th Epistle.) The promise of security is contrary to the testimonies of the prophets and apostles. (Augustine, 107th Epistle.)
3) Eck also shows that he does not know that repentance is a gift of God, which God works in us.
4 I think that D. Eck is sufficiently refuted by this scripture, which is written in Jeremiah [Jer. 31, 18]: "Convert me, O Lord, and I will be converted; for you, O Lord, are my God. When I was converted, 4) I repented, and after I was wrought, I smote myself on the hip. "2c He read this passage and saw how he was put to shame, according to Jerome's interpretation. Of Ambrose and some others we are silent, not without good cause.
5 You have stirred up and confused the land: restore to it the right repentance, because it is stirred up. God moves the will and repentance occurs.
6. learn also from this Jeremiah, who teaches that the Lord brings about our conversion, that the Lord gives repentance; he acknowledges the prayer which he knows: give us due weeping for the evil we have done. (On the Saturday before the 4th Sunday [in Lent]).
7) But since the letter does not say: You have given, but: You have converted 2c, and it is to be feared that he who 5) was inclined to call the M., whom he did not understand, a heretic, would also slander this, so read the apostle [2 Tim. 2, 25.]: "whether God would give them repentance in time to come and they would sober up from the devil's snare." Be careful, he says: "give"; read Augustine (äs üä. uä kst. sap. XXXI).
8. the will is master and king of its actions, of all its actions, namely the evil ones.
9. when the will reigns in the soul, the devil laughs and rejoices because a prey is prepared for him.
God loves in us what he himself has made, but what he himself has not made he hates. Ambrose (äs vo. om. Äsn. lib. I, sap. II) proves this in the prayer, 6) which is read before others: Let yourself be guided, let yourself be sanctified 2c (also on the Saturday before the 4th Sunday in Lent). And on Easter: God, who through the only begotten 2c,
11. by the saying [Matth. 15, 13.]: "All plants, which my heavenly Father has not planted, will be cut out", and it serves well for the cause.
4) In the Vulgate: "because after you converted me." The following 7th thesis comes back from these words.
5) Instead of Husrn, which is written in Latin, Hui would be read. The old edition of Walch makes the remark: "In Latin it is confus.
6) We read ooUssta with eraser, not eolIsstain as the Basel edition has.
608 Löscher, R.-A. II, 72 f. 30. Carlstadt's Vertheidigungssätze für die h. Schrift. W. XVIII, 675-677. 609
12 His mercy, of course, is above all his works, not our changing will; if he is not governed by the unchanging will, then the more eager he is to act, the more he approaches ungodliness, remember that, Eck.
Note the benefits and dangers of governing the will and governing the soul.
14. To speak generally, God is the Lord and King in our souls.
15. everything of ours that God has not made ours is evil and sin (according to Augustine and others whose testimonies we have cited in the earlier theses).
(16) Israel, thou hast brought evil upon thyself: for thy salvation is with me alone. [From us comes calamity, from God comes help and good and salvation. If a salutary repentance is from us, that is, from our will, it must be false, for from us comes misfortune.
(17) "All our righteousness," that is, that which is of our will, "is like the garment of an unclean woman. [The Thomists say of this saying that it is spoken of the righteousness of the sacramental law 1) and cannot be understood of any other written law.
But consider how glorious is the work that the will does when it reigns in the soul.
(19) If with God the Lord is our righteousness, but with us is the shame of our countenance, that is, if we have shame, but God works righteousness, what shall we say of repentance when it comes from our will?
20. but Eck may understand to base his prayer on his righteousness (prosternere), and not on the mercy of God; and to have his righteousness, not that of God.
21. Jeremiah [9, 24.] says: "God practices mercy on earth", and another prophet says: You are my mercy. [Dan. 9, 9.]
22. this Eck, if he is not mad, cannot understand otherwise than from the mercy with which God is merciful, but from the mercy by which we become merciful by effect of God; God is our mercy and is so called,
23. According to this word of David, Make me alive according to thy great mercy, and I will keep the testimonies of thy mouth.
24. the works of mercy, and those alone, God crowns out of mercy and compassion, for
1) This probably refers to the penances imposed in the Roman sacrament of penance.
Judgment comes upon him without mercy who does not show mercy.
By these testimonies, a stony heart could be softened and every faculty of the ineffective free will could be laid low, because the works of God are not in our power. The Lord also loosens the bound, not the free will. The Lord raises up the brokenhearted, not free will.
(26) If good works were in our power, we would foolishly ask that they be given to us.
(27) Everything that belongs to the spiritual life, we implore by this short word: Thy will be done, that is, make us do, make us take upon ourselves the works according to [thy] will (according to the Collecte: Be it done, we beseech thee 2c on the Saturday before the 4th Sunday, and the Collecte: I beseech thee, do, on the 5th Sunday after Easter).
The church asks that it be given or bestowed upon her that she may seek God, and that she may seek the joys of the promise and soon find what she seeks. (On the 1st Sunday in Lent and on the Saturday before the 4th Sunday.) She asks that she be enlightened so that she can see what needs to be done (what Eck can see exactly without prayer) (on Wednesday after the 1st Sunday). Likewise, she asks (on the Thursday after the first Sunday) that it be given to her to recognize what she confesses and to love the heavenly gift with which she frequently deals (which Eck can love from natural forces, without the help of prayer) (and on the Saturday before the same first Sunday she uses the daily prayer), and also asks that God may awaken our actions by His providence, and again promote them by His help. (Since Eck has grace, he does not need new help, unless he confesses that he needs it). Likewise, the church asks that help be given to it so that it may be mindful of prayer and fasting (on Thursday after the 2nd Sunday; likewise on Tuesday after the 3rd Sunday it asks that the gift of abstinence be given to it. Likewise, on Monday after the 4th Sunday, she asks that she may also do what she has asked. The church asks for many gifts at the same time in the collection on Thursday after the 4th Sunday and on Saturday, and in many others. See the rich Collect on the 4th Sunday after the Octave of Easter, which begins: God, who is the heart of the faithful, and on the following 5th Sunday the Church says that all good things come from God, so nothing comes from us; also the Collect on the Wednesday after the above-mentioned 2nd Sunday), with many other Collects.
(29) What I have said from the testimonies of Ezekiel and other trustworthy men, that God makes us do something, I will show to the corner in his prayers, so that he will not stray again in the future time.
30. you have the prayer in the fast, on Friday after the first Sunday: which you make devout to you. Beautifully it asks in the Collecte on Tuesday after the second Sunday, that we may accomplish by God's action what we have known by His providing. And in another it literally says: and make that we always cling to his commandments, on the third Sunday. Likewise, on the Wednesday after the fourth Sunday and on the Sunday in the Octave after Easter: who hast made to be celebrated. And in the Collecte on the weekdays it says: you have given a celebration (fecisti), give (fac) joy.
31 But that thou mayest have an example of the repentance which is now spoken of, observe that on the Saturday before the fourth Sunday in Lent thou prayest: Give us due weeping for the evil we have done 2c What is this but: make us weep, give us the weeping that atones for sins?
There are countless other examples from which you should learn that God does what He has commanded us to do, and that nothing else pleases Him than what He Himself has given, and that He does not promote any actions other than those He Himself has given; His actions He promotes, His actions He supports; His works, not ours, He crowns. This is proved by the Collecte on the fourth Sunday after Easter week, and by the Collecte which is read at Easter and on the first among the Easter feasts, in the words: To him who has, it will be given that he may have the fullness, 2c
We must finally come to weakness, to nothingness, by saying with the Church: God, who sees how we are without all strength (virtuts), protect us, inwardly and outwardly, on the second Sunday in Lent. Far be it from God to see falsely, and from the Church to lie that we are without all strength.
34 By this prayer hope is taken away from man, and that very well, because cursed is he who puts his hope in a man [Jer. 17:5]. Eck is a man, so he must not put hope in himself or in his will that he may repent.
35 And again, very well, so that you may not say, I have brought about this fortune for myself, but rather you may say to the Lord,
your God, who Himself gives you the strength to carry out this ability.
Consequently, we are nothing in the knowledge of God, but in His divine mercy we are something. Bernard.
(37) If we put all our effort into it without having the love of God, we are nothing.
38) But if we seek the divine powers and help from above, even as the hungry poor and having nothing, begging, the Lord will be grieved for us, according to the saying: I am poor and a beggar 2c
(39) So let us get on with it: I and we have done; let our own and our own pass away; let us by the Spirit of God mortify our own, that God may do His own in us.
40 Where the "not I" is, there is an I that is all the more blissful. Augustin de conti. Where there is not something and nothing, there is something that is all the more blissful, according to the words: "He lifts up the lowly" [Luc. 1, 52].
42. as long as the I, the we, our things, the own and the my, the our, the something pleases man, so long on the other hand is that in man, what displeases God, according to the proof of Ambrosius (äs voo. om. Äsn. lib. I, sax. II.).
But our I makes the wicked servants, but in the righteous it has strong remnants of the old man. Also the challenge comes in a wonderful way unnoticed, which takes away from us the I, the you, the we, the you. [It becomes 1) not I, not you, and evil you have done.
But then, when God will reign and be all in all [Col. 3, 11.], the I and everything of one's own will become small (according to the proof of Augustin against Julianus, 4th book, Cap. 3.).
45. Let us in humility and truth remove the I and We, and then God will make us blessed.
There is no man who speaks the truth unless God speaks in him. (Augustine, Ps. 108.)
No one has anything of his own but lies and sin. (Augustin on John Truct. V, a. with other testimonies that we have cited).
1) Here, in order to have a meaning, we had to allow ourselves this insertion. Walch already complains about the darkness of this speech, which one can probably guess, but not actually hit.
612 Löscher, R.-A. II, 75 f. 30. Carlstadt's defense of the Scriptures. W. XVIII, 680-682. 613
(48) He that doeth that which is evil in him doeth that which is evil in God: he is a liar, and a rebel, and dealeth against himself.
From the foregoing it is concluded that a good work must not be attributed to the human will, but simply to the divine will.
50. a good deed, as they say, insofar as it concerns its whole essence, that is, wholly, is attributed to GOtte.
But those who, like Capreolus and Scotus, attribute to the will the essence (substantiam) of the act, but the manner or the lesser essence (minorem entitatem) GOtte, they assign to themselves the greater, but the lesser, that I do not say, the yeast, GOtte. From the foregoing it is concluded to overturn what we read in Scotus, namely: that the will is the principal cause, so far as it concerns the principal cause of being (principalitatem entita- tis) in a good work; it is otherwise, so far as it concerns the principal cause of it being meritorious (principalitatem esse meritorii). Scotus, I. D. and his followers and Capreolus, II. I). XXVII.
It is also concluded Against those who tear Augustine, that I do not say, corrupt, by interpreting his saying: the grace itself is increased, so that it, increased, deserves to be perfect, in that the will accompanies as a handmaid, does not lead, does not precede, and who speak that the will is a handmaid, insofar as it concerns merit, which Augustine did not think of.
The venerable father D. Martin Luther.
1) Therefore, by these words "perfect forgiveness of all chastisements," the pope does not mean that all chastisements are forgiven in general, but means only the chastisements that he himself has inflicted.
Eck 2) disputes this as follows:
Rather, the opposite. For if he either understands it in such a way that the punishments of the canons are only added frequently to the punishments imposed by God, then in the penitential canons there would be a snare and no salvation; or if he wants to understand them [the canons] as explanatory, as they are in truth, which he does not observe, then he [the pope] already remits some punishments by remitting the punishments of the canons.
1) Luther's 20th thesis. Cf. Luther's 5th thesis.
2) In the 2nd obelisk.
The D. Andreas Bodenstein, Archidiaconus at Wittenberg, Defence Sentence for the Venerable Father D. Martin Luther.
(After two of Eck's errors have been laid down, let us consider the boastful speech (plausum) of the third thesis, in which he begins: "The thesis is obviously erroneous. For if he wants the punishments of the canons to be added only by accumulation to the punishments imposed by God, then in the canons there would already be a snare and no salvation.")
Since Eck believes that in the Canons there is not a snare, but salvation, and writes this in a hidden way, he judges and does not understand Paul, who says: The letter kills; likewise the law is an office of death,
2. or he attributes more to people than GOtte.
3 He also needs Augustine as a teacher.
4. and he does not have this mind [of Paul], which Capricornus, Scotus, Alphonsus and Gabriel cannot give him.
5) But since the error which is based on ink, or on the letters made with it, 3) a help other than that of proof and exposition, namely salvation itself, is overthrown and condemned by Paul's judgment, 4) it is to be feared that Eck has heresy in his heart (pulmone).
6. it is not enough to preach God's word or to understand it by reading, but it must also be applauded.
7. those who understand divine things, even the evangelical law, without grace, by hearing or reading, become worse.
8. the knowledge of sin without grace is harmful, because it makes us know what we cannot avoid. (Ambrose on Jacobus and on a blissful life, Cap. 4.).
9. a mere (nudus-without proof) speech is useful for remembrance (monendum), but ineffective for persuasion.
(10) Even the holy law, which shows what one should and should not do, and free will with it, are not sufficient to do works for salvation.
11 If Eck thinks that salvation is based on the Scriptures, Christ punishes him in the person of the Jews, saying, "Search the Scriptures, for you think you have eternal life in them. "2c
3) I.e. to the canons.
4) In Latin: Valsstino jnäwio - by the judgment passed in Palestina. This is in any case the result of the passage 2 Cor. 3, 6 mentioned in the previous 1st thesis. Therefore we believe that instead of Vuwstino kauUno is to be read.
[Joh. 5, 39.]; 1) and the apostle stands against him, saying that grace is testified by the law, but not given.
Yes, if the blamed error could exist, then a large part of the Bible would be wrong.
13. even Paul would be justly convicted of having been nonsensical, since, as a defender of grace, he said, "If by the law righteousness comes, Christ died in vain." [Gal. 2:21.]
(14) If Eck spoke of salvation differently than we do, his statement that he made against the Wittenbergers proves and is unable to prove anything, and he fights against the fire with a waxen sting.
15 But if he spoke of salvation according to the way of the Scriptures, he contradicts the apostolic testimonies.
16 From the foregoing it is concluded that if the canons are to bind the consciences, they only increase the transgressions and show the commandment of the Church, and do not extend further.
But since D. Eck says that the Wittenbergers do not pay attention to the truth (veritatem), namely that the canons explain the punishments imposed by God, his vaunted truth will disappear if it is not seasoned with understanding (sale), especially if it is not written with an f [feritas = crudeness].
18 But he [Carlstadt] asks that Eck in his sentence (which begins: The thesis is obviously erroneous 2c) speak about the same and more clearly. For what kind of dispute is this, if the parties are not opposed to each other? if he did not want to say that the canons increase and explain the punishments; but we do not concern ourselves with small and trivial things, nor do we bother with sophistries.
In haste. Wittenberg, July 7, in the year of the Lord 1518.
We will save the remaining sentences of Eck for another disputation. This one, in defense of the Holy Scriptures and the simple Wit...
1) Walch's comment: Here Löscher notes that Carlstadt fell too much on the other side in the heat of the contradiction; which would be true if he denied that the way to salvation could be attained through knowledge of the Scriptures. But he does not mean this, but the Jewish prejudice, since the Jews and the works saints thought that the letter of the law sanctified them by hearing or reading, by imaginary doing: since the law is spiritual, and demands more than the sinful man achieves.
We have not allowed the adversary to pass by untouched, but we will have to continue to fight against him.
213.2 ) We defend free will in such a way that we do not deny the grace by which it becomes free.
We praise the virtues of men in such a way that the Scriptures remain inviolate.
The philosophers may not be angry with the theologians when they call their wisdom a real foolishness, since divine wisdom is also considered foolishness by them; but what is completely foolish before God is considered completely wise by the world.
Let no one boast, and since he must boast in the Lord, let him not boast in any man.
217 Let him glory in his weakness and his need, that the power of Christ may be made more complete.
He who does virtuous works for the sake of honor seeks his own glory and praise.
He who seeks honor seeks what is his, but the love of God, without which no true virtue can exist, does not seek its own.
Aristotle's moral teaching is full of pomp and its own glory, and therefore it subtracts more from the teaching of the true virtues than it serves to learn them.
The moral teachings of Aristotle must be read in no other way than to attack them in the places where they teach about morals.
222. If the judgment were to take place before a human judgment seat, we would rightly boast of the praise of men.
If we were to be judged by our own examination, we would rightly delight in our own praise.
224. But now that I am to be brought not before your judgment, nor before mine, but before God's, it is foolishness and folly for me to boast and seek honor in your testimony or mine.
According to Aristotle, we can judge and have justice about our justice and the circumstances (circumstantiis) that accompany it.
According to the truth we do not follow our judgment, since it says [1 Cor. 4:3 ff]: "Neither do I judge myself. I am conscious of nothing, but in this I am not justified;
2) Cf. the note after the 100th thesis.
616 Löscher, R.-A. II, 89-91. 30. Carlstadt's defense of the Scriptures. W. LVIII, 684-687. 617
But it is the Lord who judges me. How do these judgments agree? What the apostle calls something rejected, Aristotle calls something accepted.
It is very true that no man knows what is in man but the spirit of man that is in him,
228. But this judgment is not one already approved by God; approved is only the judgment that knows our sins and infirmities, not the one that does not know them.
The heart of man is corrupt and inscrutable to itself, and also largely does not know about what is present (praesentia).
According to Aristotle, a person can boast of his virtuous works, which he has procured for himself.
According to the truth, one must not boast of works, that is, one must not look at and seek the glory of works.
232 In the Lord we must boast with fear, not because we are great through His gift, but because He has done it.
According to Aristotle, man is free to seek his own, namely honor and praise.
According to the truth, it is a sin to seek the praise of men. Whoever claims the opposite, touches Christ's word.
Aristotelian virtue seeks its own; but the virtue of Christ, and the true virtue, does not seek its own, and does not rob what is another's.
But since to please oneself, to seek one's honor, is pride, it follows that all Aristotelian virtue is courting truth.
237. he who pleases himself does not please GOtte.
We must love each other only in kind. Thus Ambrose.
True virtue is more complete in weakness and makes man think less of himself and boast in nothing that is his, [but] in the weakness of free will (as said) and in the incapacity of man.
240 Grace gives strength to true virtue. If we pay attention to the apostle, it becomes clear what our efforts achieve.
The one who tries to fight against the vices out of natural effort only adorns the life of this time in an unfruitful way.
We do not attain true virtue through natural effort.
It is quite wrong that God gives either grace or glory according to our effort.
244. Without the service of the true God, even what appears to be virtue is sin. Ambrose.
From the foregoing is concluded the dangers that threaten the Christians from the mores of Aristotle.
Since the testimonies of Aristotle and Christ are in conflict with each other, and since opposites are not explained but destroyed by opposites, let the preachers see what account they will give to those who explain the law of Christ by the morals of Aristotle, that I do not say, overthrow it.
It is obvious that Aristotle's virtues are a subtraction from Christ and that the science of some who say that Aristotle's moral teaching serves theology is false.
248 It is also obvious the falsity of the idea that an action, which is completely moral according to all its circumstances (circumstantionatus) as far as morality is concerned (in genere moris), is made perfect by God out of distant goodness, that is, by the grace that makes it pleasant.
249 I cannot absolve those from Pelagian! I cannot absolve those from Pelagian error who make grace the handmaiden of the will, which they say is given according to merit (de congruo).
When Peter said to his Lord, "You shall not wash my feet," he deserved honor according to Aristotle, but dishonor or rebuke according to the truth.
When Peter said to the Lord, who foretold his future sufferings, "This shall not happen to you, Lord," he may have been pious and without offense, according to Aristotle,
252. According to the truth, he was not pious, but worthy to hear from Christ: Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me.
The piety that Aristotle achieves, which understands only what is man's and not God's, is not piety, indeed it is reprehensible.
254 Those have taught rightly who have written that free will is the origin of one's own works 1) if they understood it rightly.
According to Aristotle, it is great that I am judged by men; according to truth, it is little to me that I am judged by you, nor do I judge myself. Notice, how great a difference!
When a man's walk is guided by the Lord, the Lord delights in his way. Accordingly, the Church prays thus: God, you who let the light of truth shine on the erring, so that they may come to the right path.
1) Slloi-llill oxsrnill i.e. works that are directed from the own.
may, bestow what you command 2c On the 3rd Sunday after Easter week.
God causes us to will without us, but if we will rightly, we will be driven and guided.
258 In order to exercise our intellect, not conclusively, we hold that if we insist on the Holy Scriptures (without the sayings of the Doctors of the Church), free will cooperates only as an instrument, and so God works with us, if we will, like a craftsman with a saw, but in such a way that nature remains unharmed and comes into consideration (eisque ponderatis).
259. this also seems to have been taught by the apostle, since he wrote [1 Cor. 15:10.], "not I, but God's grace which is with me."
For the connective (conjunctio) "with" connects in an accessory and less principal way 1) (accessorie et minus principaliter), as the jurists Paul and Gajus say, and quite correctly.
261. Here also the word of Christ serves, since he says [Matth. 10, 20.]: "It is not you who speak, but it is your Father's Spirit who speaks through you."
262] The word of the apostle also agrees with this [Rom. 8, 14]: "Whom the Spirit of God impels, they are the children of God"; he says: "impels".
If Augustine did not believe that the children who depart in original sin are tormented with eternal fire, then the scholastics have not understood him (who are defended), who say that he has said too much (excessive).
If Augustine had the opposite opinion, the scholastics understood him in the sense, but they claim badly that he did not speak well (male).
However much some try to protect themselves with the opinion of Augustine (which they try to bring out in such a way that they would like to say that those who die in original sin are not tormented), Augustine contradicts them according to the letter, since he says that they should be punished with the torment of eternal fire.
266 Our sentence is based on the words of the sentence which the most righteous judge will pronounce against those who will stand on the left, namely: Go into the eternal fire.
He immediately added: which is prepared for the devil and his angels, so that the,
1) That is, by the preposition "with" is added that which is added as a secondary matter.
Which [of these] distinguish the eternal fire, would be convicted of the opposite and those would be refuted who attribute to it an alchemical fire, 2) which is warm in the first or second degree.
And in another place he says that in the extreme darkness there is eternal pain, incurable disease, indissoluble bonds, fiery tears 2c and other things that are effective, from which we infer, according to the letter, a perceptible punishment (poenam 86Q8U8).
Those may teach us, if they can, that the unbelieving children will have a different fire than the adults.
270 But, because they cannot teach this from the Holy Scripture, they send the unbelieving children into an alchemical fire (which does not hurt the one it touches).
Nor do I believe that they can show a scripture in which it says that the judge will say to those on the left: You adults, go into a perceptible punishment, but you children, into the punishment which brings you harm (poenam damni). 3)
272 We also do not believe that the opponents can take their opinion "from" the circumstances of Scripture, and we know that the apostle Peter teaches that natural reason neither [rightly] concludes nor interprets Scripture. See below the special thesis 4) on this.
Accordingly, since we honor the holy Scriptures, we know with Augustine of no means between those whom the eternal fire will torment and those in whom God will be all in all. lib. V, better, however, from the cause to be said, we know nothing of a third place.
Nor will we presumptuously bark at the letters, even though they may seem harsh to us.
Although the children have had no actual sin from such an act, they have nevertheless received the condemnation of original sin through their fleshly birth. Augustin äs üätz acl, Cap. 27.
Augustine brands those who teach otherwise with the stain of heresy, saying: "If you know that someone holds doctrines contrary to these, flee him like a plague and reject him as a heretic. 1)6 üäs aä?6t., Cap. 44.
2) Cf. above the 80th-82nd thesis.
3) According to the 85th thesis it is meant that the children shall be deprived of seeing God for eternity.
4) Thesis 304.
620 Löscher, R.-A. II, S3-S5. 30 Carlstadt's defense of the Scriptures. W. XVIII, 689-691. 621
Therefore, what we read about the damned without distinction must remain true: Their fire will not go out and their worm will not die.
The opponents may wipe away the stain of heresy, if they can, and defend this inconsistency, namely, that they make the unbelievers equal to the holy souls of the believers, as far as the penalty of privationis (as they call it) is concerned.
For before the suffering of the Lord, all the souls of the saints were kept in hell under the guilt of Adam, which brought with it the deprivation (sub debito privationis Adam). Augustin äs sool. äo§. Cap. 78, with addition of the following chapter.
The next [thesis] is probably according to the scholastics, because the perpetual and the eternal do not change the species (speciem). Therefore, the deprivation of seeing [God] was not different in kind before the suffering [of Christ] for the patriarchs and for a small unbelieving child.
But it happens 1) and shall remain true, even if no one among the philosophers should think so, that the natural (animalia) and corruptible bodies of the unbelievers will rise and burn in eternal fire; although it is wonderful that the corruptible, which is used by a thing that can be destroyed (corruptivo), is never destroyed.
The punishment, which the scholastics call damni2 ), is in hell. This principle (maxima) is read by Augustin in the book which has the title: äs tripl. dadit.
But since some take offense at attaching it to Augustine, and I (then) speak without evidence (nudus), I present it disputationally, lest I be condemned as a heretic, although the scholastics are often without evidence and unarmed, and yet do not want to be considered heretics or sacrilegious people.
But it will be upheld by this saying [Prov. 30:89]: "Do not give me poverty, lest I deny and blaspheme your name. Likewise [Ps. 6:6]: Who shall be to thee in hell?"
The punishment of being deprived of grace and divine vision is, according to the church scholars, a sensitive punishment, that is, one that torments and pains;
286. and so great that in comparison with it all torments and kinds of punishments are gladly chosen.
1) fit, not sit.
2), Cf. thesis 271.
Dignities, so that one would like to have the grace and the sight. This is evident from the righteous in this life, and this matter will be dealt with more conveniently elsewhere.
Since without free will neither evil nor good nor happy is lived, we do not know by what kind of spirit a certain weak enemy of the Wittenbergs is led or driven, who has boasted that he will show the light of glory on a glass. 3)
God does not look at our works when He either pours grace or bestows bliss, that is, His kingdom,
289. According to the saying [Eph. 2:9], "Not of our works, lest any man should boast," and according to the saying, In vain shalt thou save them, and according to the likeness of Christ, Give to the last as much as to the first.
All who are written in the book of life will be justified and will be blessed, according to the words of Jeremiah [31:3]: "I have always loved you, therefore I have drawn you to myself out of pure goodness;
291. According to Ambrosius: Otherwise the providence would be uncertain, the council variable, the will ineffective,
292. and according to the testimony of the apostle [Rom. 8, 29. 30.]: "Whom he hath before ordained he hath also ordained; whom he hath ordained he hath also called; and whom he hath called he hath also justified" 2c, 4) and according to the saying: Thou hast guided me according to thy will, and accepted me with honor;
293. Likewise, according to the teaching of Christ (Matt. 13:12), "To him that hath shall be given, that he may have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that he hath."
Therefore, works can be defended according to grace and disposition, but disposition cannot be defended according to works.
295. But it is true that some are so ordained that they are commanded to the prayer of the saints.
However, since this judgment of God is hidden (and is signified by the depth of the cross, from which everything springs and grows), we must always entrust ourselves to the prayers of the saints,
297. Not as if they could confer grace or blessedness on us, but use themselves insofar as God gives them.
3) Löscher notes: Wundersame Geschichte von Eck.
4) We have inserted this passage here after the Vulgate, because we consider the reading of the Latin: ut prasäkstinarst 6te. a misprint, instead of: tzt xrasätzstinavit tzte.
For the saints cannot confer, give, grant, or distribute salvation either for the body or for the soul (mentis). Augustine, Psalm 35, g.
This is what the Church teaches us to pray: Grant, O Lord, salvation to your people in soul and body. On Monday in the Passion; on Friday after the 4th Sunday in Lent; äs 8. oruos in sonnn.
And in the great litany it is not prayed like this: Saint Sebastian, protect us from pestilence, but like this: protect us from bloodshed and pestilence, [dear] Lord!
The intercessions of the saints for us are granted by God. This is what the Church confesses when she prays: Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that thy saints may not cease to pray continually for us. According to the Cap. Odtinsri 23, Hu. 4.
To return to the foregoing, we do not believe that Augustine wrote: If thou art not chosen, make thyself chosen. Against the common error.
But like this: If you are not drawn, pray that you may be drawn.
The one who understands and interprets sacred theology through the liberal arts makes a noise (sonat) and speaks like Balaam's ass without knowing what he is saying.
If one asserts that the understanding of sacred Scripture depends on the liberal arts and is taken from them - only grammar may be accepted - this is a miserable error that must be remedied at once.
306 Show us the teacher of the church who, through dialectics, has extracted the essence from Scripture, and show that he had power to do so. The Cap. Uslatum of the 33rd Dist. is not opposed to this.
If this saying [1Tim. 2, 4.]: "God wills that all men be saved, that is, that they should be saved; or, those who are saved, of them He wills that they be saved," is taken "only according to the understanding of Augustine," then it is badly and contrary to the opinion of Damascenus (as the scholastics and their defender [Eck] cite him) set up, that this is true in relation to the preceding, not to the following will.
For if the works of those who are to be saved are considered, we have the subsequent will; but if God considers his [man's] created nature, it will be the previous will, according to the scholastics.
309. although gOd does not know the future works
The scholastics have conceived the bundle of such a twofold will.
Thus, the testimony of Damascenus is badly and ignorantly intertwined with the mind of Augustine, because they do not fit together, but they have put forward different, but not opposing things.
Although Damascenus, in the passage cited, at first sight assumes a twofold understanding of the saying, it is incomprehensibly cited anew for the explanation or decision of a doubtful question, because certain, not ambiguous testimonies must be cited.
312 The preceding proposition is greatly strengthened by the fact that one of the two views not only disagrees with the scholastic explanation, but is contrary to it.
313 Since the free will is led captive under sin and suffers the dominion of sin, it is forced to suffer temptations, to consent to them and to sin always,
314. According to the saying: He did not want the blessing, and he will stay away from it. Likewise: A wind that passes by and does not return. Likewise [Jer. 11:11], "I will bring a calamity upon them, which they shall not escape." "Lead my soul out of my troubles," prays the one who has recognized this.
(315) Nor is it contrary to the fact that every sin is voluntary; although the free will is coerced or forced when it is in distress, such distresses are voluntary.
316] Those who are the brazen opponents of the Wittenbergs, our excluders [from the church], have not yet understood this in Scripture, nor have they rightly regarded it in Augustine.
The common good (bona vulgaria), although under a new word: the works of natural piety, are quite obvious sins among the theologians. This is clear from what was said before about St. Peter.
We confess that wicked sinners can understand God, but also sin all the more grievously.
The made-up and painted virtues of the unbelievers are sins, but they are not crimes without distinction.
320. if the free will has not been made free by Christ, it is not, a middle thing (inäikksrsns - neither good nor evil), and is not able to turn back to grace, nor to turn [to it].
321. if the human being through free will
624 Löscher, R.-A. II, 96-S8. 30. Carlstadt's theorems of defense for the h. Scriptures. W. xvm, 624-696. 625
how can the truth of the righteous man stand [Rom. 7:19]: "The good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, that I do"?
The works that are done according to divine grace are done according to mercy, for they are taken for one and the same with mercy (cum misericordia identificantur).
He [Eck] desires to be taught: Since, if we have done everything without love, we have done nothing, how can we fulfill the commandments imperfectly without love? Since to do imperfectly is in any case to do something, where is Christ's saying: Without me you can do nothing?
This is certainly a very ludicrous, truly old wives' question, which has a wound in the bosom. Why does he not make us blessed through the word? Did he not create everything through the word? since it is quite true that God makes us blessed through his word without our merit.
325. 1) God does not change the eternal punishment into another, temporal one, since He wants this repentance to be a perpetual one, that is, to be done throughout life, 2) through judgment on the sin committed 3) and through the judgment of damnation [which we pronounce on ourselves].
326 Man should do nothing for the remission of sins, but only truly repent; if he does this, there is nothing God wants to punish,
327. Unless my brother [Tetzel] was appointed by God to be a prophet to improve Ezekiel and the other prophets.
328. God says through Ezekiel [18, 21. 22.]: "If the wicked repents from all his sins that he has committed, all his transgressions that he has committed shall not be remembered."
If God, when repentance is done, does not want to remember the sins, let the same good brother or his teacher [Conrad Wimpina] instruct us: if God does remit the eternal punishment, but beats the sins with temporal punishment, does that not mean remembering the sins? Most likely.
330. and Isaiah says [43, 25.]: "I, I redeem your transgression for my own sake (he does not say: for the sake of money) and remember your sins.
1) This is where the theses against Tetzel begin.
2) Here, in order to make sense, voluit must be inserted from Luther's first indulgence thesis 6886.
3) In the Latin of the scholastics, adnriWnm means sin. Cf. lnsil. 1Ü68aurus 6rucütioui8 86Üo1asti6U6, 8. V. admitto.
not"; but you shall be mindful of them. Remember them through confession, remember them by solving them through almsgiving; give alms, and all will be clean.
331 Jerome says, "'For my sake: because I am merciful and patient and of great compassion, not for the sound of money, for if I should need anything, I would not tell you 2c And 'for my sake,' that you may know: not for your merit, but for my goodness."
Let us learn what true repentance is from the prophet Ezekiel and the exceedingly glorious martyr Cyprian, our superiors and teachers, who say: If he repents of all his sins and keeps all the commandments of God and does justice and righteousness, he shall live.
As Augustine and Ambrose teach, he who truly repents is displeased with himself, he has everything against him, he accuses himself, he is a witness against himself, he oppresses and tortures himself, and he cannot find a place to flee to. This is a sign of a good mind, to feel the wound of sin; he who does not feel it has an incurable disease.
Whoever repents in this way, and always confronts, judges, and condemns his sin, will go blissfully into the Fatherland, nor will he suffer future torment in purgatory after death, even though he should sin when he dies;
335. If only he blots out sin by his repentance, confidently saying [Ps. 51:4, 5], "Wash me well from my iniquity, for I know my iniquity." O Lord, because thou art merciful, and I useless man in my repentance perceive that I am unfit, that is, sinful, and judge sin itself, judge me not, but wash me only.
336 If thou wash me not, I will have no part with thee, who hast said, Repent, and sin no more.
337 Although, according to the testimonies of holy Scripture, nothing can be found in a truly penitent man that should be bought by the sound of pennies, yet I conclude nothing about indulgences, nor do I approve of them as they are preached. But I am bound to disapprove of it because they love and lay hold on the fat spoils of men, not the souls of men, and know that the last day will come in eight years, 4) and teach that of which Christ said it was not due to the apostles.
4) Löscher's note: We know nothing of this opinion of Tetzel from other sources.
(338) I doubt whether the Church will avenge offenses and disobedience or rebellion after the guilt of the transgression has been discharged, or whether it will leave it in abeyance until the transgressor has redeemed himself by money or good works according to a decree of the Church.
339 I also doubt whether the church, after the guilt of the offenses is remitted, can still demand punishments; arg. I. 8i unus § 8i pactum kk. ckc pac. with addition of cap. I. ckc uo. ope.; now the canons imitate the judgment of the laws.
340 I believe that this is in accordance with the truth that every priest (no prelate is excepted) is obliged to remit both guilt and punishment to his subordinate who asks him to be forgiven.
If he does not do so, I consider that the subject is also bound by the commandment of a disciple of the Lord. Hereby, however, I do not want to say anything about the indulgence against the Catholic prelates.
342 But a prelate sins who does not forgive.
343 In order to refute new, because (quoniam) unlearned, theses of a conscience [Tetzel], we want to treat the subsequent theses in defense of the Wittenbergers, in addition to those which we wrote in the beginning, by which, as can be seen, this new teaching is already broken and destroyed.
344 We do not deny that the Roman Pontiff can give new laws, can also dispense and interpret them definitively (plene).
345. But where the Lord or his apostles have evidently made a provision, the pope must not give a new law, but rather confirm it to the life and blood'. It is a clear (rotundus) text, namely 8unt Huiclam, XXV, HU. I, and no stronger gloss than this will be applied. It does not contradict what is touched upon in the Glossa and thereafter in other [writings.
346. "Up to" ['s life] in this text is not taken exclusively (exclusive), but, as one says, inclusively [inclusive].
347 If the Roman pope should strive to destroy what the apostles and prophets have taught, he would be convicted that he does not pass judgment, but rather errs. Thus says the pope Urban in the decree cap. 8unt HuiUam, from which the gossipy brother can see whether he has flattered the Roman pope, whose predecessor said the opposite.
348 A heretic is anyone who understands the Scriptures differently than the sense of the Holy Spirit allows.
Calls. XXIV, Hu. Ill: Haeresis after Jerome.
349 A heretic is one who, for the sake of temporal advantage, such as money or vain honor, (or to defend his error and his supremacy) imposes new opinions, especially those that are unlike the holy Bible. Augustin ckc uti. trc. cap. I; XXIV, Hu. Ill, llacrcticus.
But the simple-minded people, who believed such preachers, are deceived by a kind of conceit of the truth.
351. He who believes falsehood is a heretic. Augustin, Huacstionurn cvanA. sccuückum Muttd. cap. XI.
He is a heretic and is outside the church in his heart, even if he seems to be in it physically, who believes false things (much more, who sows them) with regard to any part of the doctrine that belongs to the building up of the faith. The church has many such people. Augustine himself.
353 Those heretics who defend their false opinion in such a way that they arouse the crowd (intentam faciant), the church expels and expels them. Augustine, as above.
Augustine does not speak of the doctrines of the scholastics and of human fiefdoms, but of the canonical, that is, the biblical doctrines.
We consider false prophets those who take the words of Scripture differently than the Holy Spirit has spoken them (insonuit). XXXVII, vc vino according to Jerome.
356 Although there are many words in the holy Scriptures which can be drawn to the meaning which anyone brings as a preconceived opinion according to his own liking, yet the law of God must not be read or taught according to the ability or understanding of one's own cleverness. XXXVII <1. lkclaturn after the Roman pope Cicero.
Because the Wittenbergers have set themselves to take from the Scriptures themselves the right understanding of the truth, and indeed very well, according to the prophetic, apostolic and papal provisions, not to seek a foreign (extraneum) sense, those spread for the sake of it that they are heretics, although they themselves interpret the Scriptures according to their spirit and with the help of Aristotle.
Whoever speaks what the holy church fathers have spoken and not recanted cannot be accused of presumption. According to Innocent, whom Philip Decius calls a father of truth.
359. this is a very good saying of a
628 Löscher, R.-A. II, 100 ff. 30. Carlstadt's defense of the Scriptures. W. XVIII, 699-701. 629
Roman pope and our armor and steel armor, for unjustly is he accused of heresy who is not presumptuous.
360 Although the money hunters and very industrious merchants of works boast that they have won the victory against us, they affirm this as well as other false things they write and accomplish many paltry things in canon law.
For, to go into torture or perhaps a death by force, not by right, or into the maw (sense) of the enemy, nature has an abhorrence of that, human reason flees; this is rightly and praiseworthily refused. Cllo. pastoral!8 äs rs. juckioio.
A summons is also not binding if what should have preceded it (praemissis) has been neglected or disregarded. According to the above: Ols. pastoralls.
Therefore the prince is praiseworthy who takes care that the lamb is not delivered to the ravening wolf, or that it does not enter the lion's jaws; to this, we say, every Christian is also obligated.
He is not a heretic whom his enemy accuses of being a heretic, but he who, according to the law, commits or permits the crime of heresy.
366 There is no doubt that the property of heretics is forfeited according to the law itself or in fact (sint confiscata). But the confiscation itself may not be carried out, nor come into force, until the judgment on the proven crime has been rendered. Cap. Cum 866unckuiu 16A68 cks llasr. VI.
There is also no doubt that heretics are subject to the curse and in the ban; but from the words of the text this is wrongly concluded (male).
(368) However much a person may be banished by the law itself or in fact by the canon [the so-called spiritual law], he may not be publicly shunned unless the judgment pronouncing it has been rendered, and the piece [in question] is cited, from which it may be seen and heard that he has been guilty of the penalties of the canon or the law, or from which the causes may be stated and said why 2c
369. and there is still today an extravagant of Martin V, which in the Council of Constance
has been published: That also those, which are all-known (notorii) in the ban, must not be avoided with necessity before the publication or announcement.
370 The foregoing is qualified: if they are not under ban for the murder of an ecclesiastical person. This exception extends the previous rule.
371 All canonical laws that say that a person is punished by the law itself or by the act with confiscation of his goods, or with any other punishment, require nothing other than the judge's declaration of the crime committed.
But before the declaratory judgment the punishment does not come into force by the fact that the crime has been committed or the punishment earned, but it is suspended (stat in suspenso).
The first two words of the first sentence of the second sentence of the second sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the third sentence of the fourth sentence of the third sentence of the fourth sentence of the fourth sentence of the fourth sentence of the fourth sentence.
Until the declaration about him is pronounced, the remarkable effect remains that he need not be avoided in worship and communion, nor in other things as one under ban. This is further extended: even by those who know that such a one is under ban, he need not be avoided with necessity.
He therefore unjustly accuses good Christians of heresy in a crude and ignorant manner, and the patrons of these heretics (who in truth are not heretics, nor, if they were, which is far from it, have they been declared to be) he pricks and violently presses them, and attaches to them (to whom the race of heretics has always been odious) the suspicion, yes, the stain of dishonor, if they should not make amends within a year. 1) He does this so that, lacking the holy scriptures, he may deceive people either by trifling fright or by flattery.
376 The judges (inquisitores) of heretical wickedness can also be bad and malicious people, and be charged with the crime of heresy, for we certainly read that bad inquisitors have given rise to a new decree in the Clementines.
377 When an inquisitor of heretical malice is about to institute judicial proceedings against a heresy, he must begin the transaction, which concerns the Catholic faith, not with cerebrosa and unlawful little bundles, but with legal testimonies, love
1) Cf. the 47th and 48th theses of Tetzel's second disputation.
and hatred, and make a decision according to the Holy Scriptures and the constitutionibus, but disputing about faith according to the law of God.
378 We reserve other things for another disputation, or rather for the publication of the books (because such a difficult trade cannot be settled with short and defenseless theses).
What is connected and related is judged like what it is connected and related to.
[Carlstadt) reserves the right to increase or decrease and to do other things that are necessary for this dispute, also to improve; saying, not to violate the holy or canonical Scriptures or the church of the faithful, but to avert the errors that creep up through the curse of the first Adam: Lord, do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorance.
And he testifies (protestatur) in addition, as it is the theological right, custom and usage, he does not want to hold differently than the holy scripture and the catholic church teaches; likewise, that he will also be obedient to their decree. Furthermore, he condemns as suspicious those who have not drawn from the holy Bible, nor from the teachings of the holy fathers declared as a guide (irrigati sunt), but make themselves teachers and interpreters of the holy Scripture in such a way that the Scripture must suffer pitifully many constraints (angustias), and those who are guided by hatred or love, and rejects the condemned judgment from himself; With regard to all this, in total and individually, he protests, submitting himself and all that is his to the protection, the umbrella and the defense of the apostolic see. 2c
Given at Wittenberg, to exercise the mind, May 9, in the year of our Lord 1518.
Since we have published the members 1) or rather our theses in such a way, but not without consideration, that some seem to contain the same opinion, it has seemed good to us to add the following sentences to the decision (epilogos), so that our intention or the number of theses does not lack a [proper] division.
1) In Latin oonänlia - rings, as the slaves wear them. Instead of this, Löscher wants to have read eorollai-ia - inferential sentences. But the original reading probably wants to stand.
380. God gives everyone who receives Him the power to become His child.
God immediately and undoubtedly enters what is His, if there is someone who wants to receive it.
382 Augustin has (if his book does not have a typing error, as we believe) written all too freely: he necessarily gives what is his.
383. God's grace will not depart from anyone if the will obeys the good admonition.
God calls a man according to how he is sent to the calling and how he agrees with it (congruit).
God does not work our salvation without our will.
386 He who created you without you does not justify you without you.
From these true propositions testifying to divine grace, yet contrary to what is contained therein, the following are usually concluded, by which they hold the ax to grace.
387 Thus it is in our ability to receive Christ, the God.
It follows that man can make himself capable (disponere) of becoming God's child.
So it can be the will itself that can receive what God can give.
For this reason, a general help is inferred, which does not distinguish the good, but which supports the will so that it can grasp the gifts of God.
391 Therefore, the being of destiny and the congruentia with the divine calling is from the human being.
392 And therefore the will is required that he comes with previous action.
Therefore, the act of the will precedes the justification of God.
394. These [seven sentences] are false and cannot be taken from the sense of the preceding seven.
395. in the first [the 380th thesis] lies this [sentence]: No one receives Christ unless he is drawn by the Father, and this: Not you have chosen me 2c
396 In the second of these: You were once far away and have become near in the blood of Christ;
397. and the [Rom. 9, 31.]: Israel, in that she was after the law of righteousness, did not obtain the law of righteousness.
398 Yes, this too: Man cannot preserve the bestowed grace out of his own strength.
399. In the fourth: I put my hand out-
632 Löscher, R.-A. II, 104. 30. Carlstadt's Theorems of Defense for the Holy Scriptures. W. XVIII, 703 f. 633
stretched all day to a people who do not believe. Along with this: I appeared publicly to those who did not ask for me.
In the fifth is this saying: He will have mercy on whom he will and will destroy whom he will.
401 In the sixth of these: Without me you can do nothing. And this saying: The Lord will give his goodness, and the land will give its fruit.
402. it 1) does not happen without the will, that is, not outside (extra) [of the will].
1) This is said with reference from thesis 386.
It does not happen without the will, because God makes the will and works the will.
The works of man, which are done without grace, are sins, lies, vanity.
Something else is working according to man, something else, according to God.
Here you have, sincere reader, 405 theses; read them, be inclined to me and prosper.
Printed in Wittenberg by Johannes Grünenberg. In the year of salvation 1518.