Luther's letter to the Franciscans at Jüterbock. *)
May 15, 1519.
Newly translated from the Latin.
In this letter, Luther explains and defends himself on eight points which the Lector of the Franciscans at Jüterbock, Bernhard Dappen, considered erroneous and because of which he had written to the Bishop of Brandenburg, Hieronymus Scultetus, on May 5, 1519, and the day before to his vicar, Jakob Gropper.
To the venerable Fathers and Brothers of the Convent of Jüterbock, Minorite Order.
Jesus.
1. salvation and peace. Venerable Fathers! Two notes have come to my hand, one of which, sent by the entire Convention to the most reverend Bishop, our gracious Lord of Brandenburg, contains my name
disgracefully defiled and with quite impudent sacrilege wants to prove, some articles, which are nevertheless true beyond dispute, would be erroneous. I was indeed not a little surprised that you, who are emblazoned with the title of observance, pretend to be helpers and saviors of the people, and are zealous for the unstitched skirt 2),
2) This expression occurs several times in Dappen's two letters.
*) This letter is found in Aurifaber's collection of letters, vol. I, 169; in Löscher's Reformations - Acta, vol. Ill, p. 116; in the Latin Wittenberg edition, 3?om. I, col. 238; in the Jena edition, lom. I, col. 212; Lrl. opp. var. arA., vol. II, 466; De Wette I, 264. Our translation is based on the Erlangen edition.
You have so completely forgotten the gospel that you have not first remembered a brother between yourselves and him alone (as it says in the gospel), and have rather wanted to slander another's name, and, what is even more shameful, to put yourselves up as judges in someone else's matter. Does your order and observance bring with it such pride and courage?
But so that I do not repay evil with evil, I leave you the choice: either revoke this sacrilege and give me back my honest name; or I let this note of yours be published by the print, and attach a refutation of your gross ignorance, which will bring bad honor to your order. You, who, by virtue of your rule, despise studies and do not want to know anything about science, but only take in the rabble with your dreams and empty fantasies, should keep quiet and let others study. My doctrine has been diligently pursued for three years at our university, examined and judged by disputing, reading, teaching, preaching, writing, before the most perceptive and diligent men, and yet has not yet been found reprehensible; and it should now be condemned as heretical after the proving furnace of your little order by one or two snoring brothers, who have perhaps once seen a magister, but never met one? Just see to it that you are not invented as heretics and as such, as you have accused me and mine. It shall not be difficult for me (with God's help) to defend my statements against you; in the meantime, however, I will spare you and your order until I hear what you are going to do.
I pass over in silence what your Lector Bernhard, 1) a very rude head, washes over the tear of the unstitched skirt in front of the bishop's vicar 2) as if the church had to perish for its sake,
1) Bernhard Dappen, Lector of the Franciscans at Jüterbock.
2) Jacob Gropper, episcopal vicar of the bishop staying in the distance. Weim. The bishop of Brandenburg, Hieronymus Scultetus, had traveled to Frankfurt a. M. for the election of the German emperor.
if Thomas or Bonaventure were rejected. Who then upheld the church before Thomas and all the monks came into the world? Afterwards the lovely man confesses that he had only a private quarrel, in which one is wont to speak freely and confidentially and to assert what one would not preach publicly; and nevertheless the slanderer now turns this very quarrel into an accusation, and imposes on us what the laity ask: where then in the Gospel is there anything about confession and fasting? Behold this venomous reproducer! Why does he not put other questions of the laity or even old women's intercessions on me? But, as I have said, consider either peace or war, as you will. But, so that I may do something else, I will recently indicate here the reason for what has been negotiated with your lector.
(4) First, you state that it was said that God commanded man impossible things. Answer: Why then does Paul say in Romans 8 that it was impossible not only for us, but also for the law, that righteousness should be fulfilled? for this reason Christ had to suffer and die. Read St. Augustine on perfect righteousness, and you will find that you teach a divisive and pernicious error when you deny that impossible things are commanded of man; or say, if they are possible, why is grace necessary? Or do you mock and ridicule the benefits of divine mercy? Why then do you pray: Thy will be done, if you can accomplish God's will through your powers? I am ashamed of your so gross sacrilege that you call this most Christian doctrine a heretical and harmful error.
(5) Secondly, you call it an error that God demands the highest perfection and the whole gospel from every Christian. Here I ask your exceeding cleverness, first of all, to whom is the gospel given, to stones or to wood? If it is given to men, why should they not be required to keep God's commandment, since Christ says that not one iota shall perish? I am very sorry that
you who quarrel over the unused skirt (inconsutilistas et tunicastros) are so foolish that you say that people are not guilty of keeping the will and commandments of God, and only now should it be doubted and disputed whether one must obey God when He commands? O, to frenzy! Of course, we all owe to fulfill the whole Gospel and all the commandments, but because we cannot, therefore we are sinners and run to the throne of God's mercy. This is the opinion of St. Augustine in the whole eighth part. But you draw people from mercy to judgment, because you do not allow them to recognize themselves as sinners and guilty of keeping God's commandments.
6th Thirdly [let it be said], that there are no counsels, but all things pertaining to the gospel are commandments. This your envy and malice have lied about. For they said thus: The commandments are above the counsels, and: the commandments are more than the counsels, because the counsels are to be regarded only as means, by which the fulfillment of the commandments is made easier. As, for example, a virgin, or a widow, or a single person can much more easily keep the commandment: do not let yourself be lusted after, than a married person who gives the lusts some space and room.
7) Fourthly, that the Canons teach pleasure, avarice, and pride, and are contrary to the Holy Scriptures. This your Leviathan has added and twisted. For envy accepts nothing in the right sense. They said that the canons and decrees sometimes smelled or tasted of pride and avarice, that is, that those who made them sometimes sought their own more than love. This is what you call teaching arrogance. But I ask you: can not a proud and stingy man preach the truth and yet, in doing so, reek of pride or be greedy? Just as, if you had spoken the truth in this note, your words would reek of brotherly envy and ass-like ignorance. Furthermore, it is because the canons often misuse the scriptural passages and impute to them a different mind than they have in their place.
8 And what wonder? Have you taken the unused skirt and the unity of the church in a different sense here too? But for your foolish opinion, without which the unity of the church will probably remain, read once the C. translato de constitutione lib. 1. and see whether the pope there rightly says that the priesthood of Christ was transferred to Peter, because the apostle speaks to the Ebräer of the priesthood of Aaron, which came to Christ.
You read nothing, much less understand anything, and yet you want to pass judgment on the doctrine. This also happens in the doctrine of free will, which, according to St. Augustine's testimony, is nothing. For it can only do evil, but never good, except by the grace of God. Consequently, he is not free in himself, but is subject to the service of sin, as Augustine lib. Π. contra Julianum teaches. But, I beseech you, restrain your iniquity, and let your tawdry dreams depart. You understand less than nothing in Christian doctrine. Leave your sermons for yourselves, and let us read the holy fathers.
(10) Fifthly, that a layman, who has the prestige of Scripture for himself, is to be believed more than the pope, than a concilium, and even than the church itself. This is also taught by the jurists, as Panormitanus C. Significasti, and it is such a general truth that Augustine records this in many places as a rule to read the scribes according to it. Such an abominable heretic has never stood up to deny this, except for these new heretics, the arch-abominable Observantists of Jüterbock, who with their whore's foreheads declare the most sacred teachings of the Church Fathers, which they have never read, to be harmful, to be unfit, and as such to be flatly contrary to the Catholic faith. Is this not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
11) Sixthly, what Thomas 1) is supposed to have said, I do not know; but this I can well see, that your wickedness again betrays itself. For since he in general has not
1) In any case, Thomas Müntzer. Weimar edition, vol. II, 621.
1368 D- L. ii, 469-471. 54. letter to d. Franciscans at Jüterbock. W. xvm, 1677-1679. 1369
You are so bold as to accuse him of this, for which you would then be justified and right if he had named one in particular. But now you are slanderers and blasphemers, because you read nothing and understand nothing, and that to which you refer, you take entirely according to your brain and say it boldly. When will you give him and us satisfaction for such a great slander?
(12) Seventhly, you betray yourselves again, since you accuse Magister Franciscus 1) as if he had taught that one should make an envelope for the flax [on the distaff] 2) from the confession slips, and as if he had forbidden good works, confession and fasting; do not be ashamed to confess that he himself has denied it to you. But you, who blaspheme with fine heat, blame him for things of which you are not aware, which he himself does not admit, and which you have only heard from the stories of others. O of the intolerable and most harmful sacrilege! Why did you not wait until you knew it? Why do you not keep your poisonous mouths in check, and why do you not believe him, since he publicly denies it, more than the stories of others? Is this your love? Have you learned this from your religious rule? What would you do if we, too, publicly accused you of the great and terrible abominations which are generally carried about by you? This is a new custom, that you accuse a brother because of what he denies, of which he is not even convicted, according to mere hearsay, from his own suspicion and from free judgment.
(13) If the laity ask about fasting or confession according to the gospel, they are right to do so, and you are to answer them. For you must teach the gospel
1) M. Franz Günther, preacher at St. Nicolai in Jüterbock. Weim. Vol. II, 621.
2) This information is found in the letter to the bishop of Brandenburg.
But if you cannot answer, stop belittling those who are able to answer.
Finally, that the Lector has now said that 3) the pope is not Christ's governor alone, Peter is not the prince among the apostles with full authority, and that there are no cases of reservation from divine right, that is rightly spoken; but as I see, you do not know what divine or human right is, and are bold judges in both rights. According to divine law (as St. Jerome explains in many places) all apostles are equal to each other; all bishops are equal to each other. Yes, Jerome adds that a presbyter and a bishop are equal according to divine law. What do you want to do here? Do you want to burn Jerome? or should he also cut your unstitched skirt? Only read his epistle to Evagrius and his interpretation of the epistle to Titus and the Ephesians, and you will see your negligence and your crime. Accordingly, the pope alone is a governor of Christ according to human law, as is also written in Rome in the Lateran church, which is the mother of all.
Finally, I await your answer the sooner the better, so that I may know whether you will bend your necks or argue against the truth with your necks erect. I will treat you well, as you have no reason to doubt, and I will present your wondrous wisdom to all. Fare well. May the Lord give you right understanding and good will, amen. If you want to be my friends, I will be very grateful; if not, do what you do. I will not abandon my honest name and God's word. You may certainly believe that. Wittenberg on Sunday Jubilate Anno 1519.
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.
3) The lector here is the companion of the Augustinian prior Conrad Held from Wittenberg. Who he had been is unknown. In Dappen's letter to Gropper he is described as leetor saerae ttieoIoZine and artiurn naaAister.