[Second part: Propositions, which are presented simply so that one may discuss them and investigate the truth].
September 1521.
Translated from Latin.
Whether one may make a perpetual vow.
1. evangelical freedom is divine right and divine gift.
It consists in not being bound by necessity to any work, place, thing, or person,
3. but to keep free the use of all such things as may occur.
4. it also cannot make one of these things its own, cannot renounce others.
5. but it must be at the service of all without choice in general and without distinction (sese praestare),
6 Since she knows that one has to stick to the word of grace with necessity only.
What the prophet also asks of the Lord in Psalm [27:4] and praises Christ in the Magdalene.
Therefore, no creature has a right to this freedom,
9. and it is not in their power to change anything about it, or to decree anything else about it.
*The following is missing in the Latin, but can be found in the above-mentioned German single edition (we believe that it is not from Luther himself, nor is the translation found in this single edition, because the translation of some sentences is very moderate, others downright wrong, e.g. Theses 98 and 113. Luther had nothing to do with this German edition):
Summa Summarum, the extract.
A Christian should do all his works by faith. Therefore, a person must place no trust or hope in any work, but only in God's mercy, who alone wants to make him righteous and blessed. If a person starts a life, a work, or a vow in the belief that he will be justified and saved through it, he is mistaken and deprives God of His honor and power, and thus makes an idol out of his works. Whoever has thus begun something, whatever it may be, is guilty of putting away such a work or vow. If he finds that he has done wrong, he may lay down the false ungodly opinion and keep the work. But if he finds himself wronged, he may lay down both. It is better here a small scorn, than the eternal shame before God and all his saints.
Probation with writing is coming soon. Patience.
**This disputation forms, as the last lines of the previous one testify, a part of it and is found in all Latin editions listed in No. 172 immediately after the previous disputation. The date of the Jena edition: 1522, is, as Walch has already noted in his introduction, erroneous. Only Walch has this disputation in German. We have newly translated it according to the Jena edition.
(10) There is also no doubt, according to Paul's saying, that God requires the same in everything, before everything and from everyone.
(11) So that it is equally impossible for one to know Him [God] rightly if one does anything in any other way,
12. as it is impossible for him to deny himself or to recant his word.
13 It follows that the vows must be such that they do not conflict with this freedom.
14 But they are not of such a nature if they are not free vows, which can be kept or abandoned.
(15) For it is known that the vows are by their nature bound to certain oerters, persons, things and works.
(16) For to vow virginity is nothing else than to bind oneself to a work and a person.
(17) Therefore, it cannot be pledged in such a way that freedom should not remain to leave it [virginity].
18 Otherwise, against freedom, one attaches necessity to what is not necessary.
19 And it does not help them here that according to the apostle's teaching the virgin state is better than the married state.
20 And the question is not what is good or better, but what must happen and what must not happen.
21 The married state is good, the virgin state is better, but the freedom of faith is the best.
22 Marriage is not necessary, nor is virginity necessary, but freedom is necessary.
(23) How, then, one must not corrupt the good for the sake of the better, nor the better for the sake of the best,
24 Much less should one do violence to what is necessary for the sake of what is not necessary.
(25) Likewise, do not set aside the best for the sake of the better, nor the better for the sake of the good.
26 Thus Paul kept the law freely and did not keep it as circumstances brought.
27. furthermore, we have all met in the
Baptism by the noblest vow to this freedom.
(28) Therefore, we must not nullify or diminish this vow by another vow, or put other vows on top of it.
Otherwise, one vow would be against the other, and the building against its foundation.
So the spiritual vows are in direct conflict with baptism and the holy gospel.
St. Bernard and other saints who were monks kept their vows freely.
32 But if they had claimed that they should not be allowed to go, they would certainly have been lacking as people.
(33) And if the same people, when making vows, had excluded this power to refrain from them, they would have sinned in this.
34 For they could do nothing against freedom, but only for freedom.
(35) Yes, it follows that none of them kept their vows.
(36) For they kept the vow, not because it was a vow, but because it was pleasing to them, freely.
37. For driven by the spirit of God, they lived under vow without vow.
(38) Because this is called keeping a vow only when you keep it because it is a vow.
39 And otherwise, if it were not a vow, you would not keep it.
40. just as the law is not a law, as Paul teaches, if you keep it freely.
41 Therefore it follows that even your vow is not a vow if you keep it freely.
(42) For you do not keep the law because it is a law, but because without the law what the law prescribes is pleasing to you.
So your work is not a work if you do it with complete freedom.
44 For you do it not because it is a necessary work, but because it pleases you to do it.
Accordingly, this freedom of vow in the vow has preserved those saints.
1494 v- a. iv, 355 f. XI. Luther's writings on the monastic vows" etc. W. xix, 2045-2048. 1495
(46) Having fallen into pious error, they have made their vows, because this is just as much as if they had made no vow.
Only that they came to a certain use of their minds on the occasion of the vow.
48. God has tolerated this foolishness in His elect, as well as many other things.
At the same time, the love that covers everything has also covered its imperfection,
50 By which they voluntarily made themselves servants to their brethren with the apostle.
(51) That we may be instructed that according to Paul's teaching, Heb. 11, we should not follow works, but the faith of the fathers.
52. for he wills that the examples of the saints be weak and powerless, that the word of God alone may be a power to him who believes in it,
(53) And through them [the examples of the saints] he may also send powerful errors to the unbelievers and the despisers of his word.
54) Just as one does not have to draw a conclusion from the miraculous works as one speaks 1),
55. and not all of them were allowed to jump into the fire, because three boys were preserved in the fiery furnace in Babylon.
56 Thus, even if we admit that the saints miraculously used the custom of making vows in a proper way,
(57) It would be detrimental to their example to make their custom a common rule of life.
58. Therefore, in the sight of God and through your baptism, you remain free to pledge or not to pledge.
59. and God is not changeable, as we men are, that He should revoke the freedom once given.
(60) Nor does he turn back when you try to get him to recant by a foolish vow.
1) Irakers in eonssynsnliain - to make a precedence case out of something.
(61) So it is just as certain that he will not recognize your vow as a serious vow,
62. when it is certain that he will want your baptismal vow of freedom to be a serious and unabated vow.
But as a higher law is an unchangeable rule and guide of all subordinate laws,
The baptismal vow is also an immovable rule of all subsequent vows.
65. the freedom of this does not give way to the captivity of those [vows], but the captivity of those gives way to the freedom of this [baptismal vows].
That this is God's will, He has made known especially in the vows of poverty and obedience.
67. for he not only raised St. Bernard and many others to be superiors over others,
68. but also made great and glorious in this office of theirs by strange wondrous works.
Now the vow of poverty and obedience is no less valid than the vow of chastity.
(70) And what you can do and say to one of them, you must do and say to all and sundry.
But it is not possible that the position of a superior can exist at the same time as poverty and obedience,
(72) Since such a [superior] has both to command [temporal] property and, what is more, the obedience of others is submissive to him.
Therefore, Bernard and all those who were set over others were absolved from those vows by God Himself.
And it has been clearly shown that those vows before God were not permanent vows.
This, too, does nothing to the matter, that here they are cunningly quibbling with various kinds of poverty and obedience,
(76) Since it is evident that the vow of poverty is the outward use of wealth. [Since it is obvious that the vow of poverty is the outward use of wealth.
For spiritual poverty we have all pledged in baptism.
It is also obvious that a superior in monasteries has the external use of the goods.
79 Much less will they deceive us by saying that a superior does not administer his own goods but common goods,
80 For in this he is not distinguished from a person in authority and from any steward.
(81) It is also evident that this is the quality of the vow, that it prescribes such a way of life as the subordinates lead.
Otherwise, without breaking the vow, all would be such superiors, and no one would want to be a subordinate.
Therefore, either the saints could not be superiors, or their vow was a free and temporary vow.
This also does not help them, that they say that a superior enters a more perfect state.
For the divine right, as the vows are [divine right], must not be violated for the sake of any good.
86. Paul's saying stands firm: One should not do evil, so that good may come from it [Rom. 3:8].
87 Thus it is not said that a superior is under the obedience of the bishops and the superiors.
This obedience is not different from the obedience of all lay people.
89. and their vow vows only the obedience which their rule prescribes for those who are subject to the order's vow.
90. but of which they are absolved when they become either bishops or cardinals.
91. And they must not, after being relieved of their vows, place themselves under the obedience of the superiors, even if it were better.
For this is opposed by the divine right of the vow, which may not be violated even for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
93. if they do not want to say something here.
The spiritual vows made one person completely submissive to another in such a way,
94. that a superior has the right to release him from it if necessary.
95 I would like to claim that this is quite true almost in the full sense of the word.
96. furthermore, if a case arises, and the superior will not release [him], as he is guilty, that he nevertheless be free.
(97) Or if this is not so, we have already shown that the vows of poverty and obedience are not perpetual vows.
Therefore it follows that also, as something of the same kind, 1) their vow of chastity is a free vow lasting for a time.
That monasteries are nothing else than schools for the education of Christian youth.
It is very beneficial to train them physically for a while under discipline.
101 Therefore, because according to the testimonies of the Word, of faith, of baptism, of the works of God, this vow is nothing:
So now, with all confidence, you must also free your conscience from yourself.
For if we, as fools or unbelievers, make a vow against our own freedom:
Thus he is faithful and good, holding fast to freedom and not accepting our foolishness.
105. No different than if you had wished for something frightfully evil under his name,
What he does not hear according to his goodness and has compassion on your foolishness.
The true nature of godliness also seems to be opposed to perpetual vows.
(108) For it is certain that faith in Christ can be lost in one who lives under a vow.
109 But if faith falls, then all the
1) Latin congsuium. Because the dictionaries at our disposal do not offer this word, we had to guess. Walch had: "accustomed vow".
1498 L. V. L. IV, 358-360. XI. Luther's writings on monastic vows etc. W. XIL, 2050-2053. 1499
good works and good vows a godless idolatry.
If, therefore, a vow binds without faith, then, which is impossible, man must be forced into idolatry.
Therefore, just as a good work, so also a vow must be abandoned with necessity as long as it lacks faith,
And so no one can ever vow a vow so little as a good work per se.
This necessarily presupposes the condition of present and persistent faith as a basis.
If this is not done, one makes a vain, ungodly and damnable vow.
115] Furthermore, this is something else that Paul commands of husbands and servants, who are to remain in their duties.
116. evangelical freedom does not abolish people's goods, serfdom and obligations.
117 Otherwise he would also have had to cancel the monetary and goods debts.
But he makes the consciences free from the spiritual bonds of ungodly opinions.
119. A husband is a man's husband and not God's, just as a servant is a man's servant.
(120) On the other hand, those who make a vow do not bind and surrender themselves to a man, but to God.
(121) Yet he himself makes them free in this very matter and commands that they be free.
They build up in themselves what God has torn down and tear down what God builds.
(123) As when a master, out of kindness, set his servant free,
And the servant, who should accept this freedom, would give himself to him in bondage by a new foolishness.
It is an important and strong reason, even against the perpetual vows, that they come from men.
For what the Scriptures of God neither command nor instruct, one must absolutely flee.
But she does not even give a single example of this need to make vows, let alone advise to do so.
Therefore, just as it is dangerous to take a monastic vow, the safest thing is for those who have entered to resign.
He who does not follow the light of Scripture necessarily walks in darkness.
130. and "he that loveth to put himself in danger," as the wise man [Sir. 3:27] saith, "perisheth within."
There is also no doubt that God wants that to happen in vain, which has no reason in His Scripture.
132. for it was not in vain that Abraham pointed out Moses and the prophets to the brethren of the rich feast,
(133) And counted him worthy of no other counsel to teach his living brethren, but by these.
The Scripture also clearly commands everywhere that one should not deviate to the right or to the left.
So that you can easily believe that even according to the commandment of God, those perpetual vows of men are in vain.
136. 1) That is, let no one teach that they are necessarily perpetual and not free.
137 The Law of Moses allows many vows that prefigure the baptismal vow (figuralia),
(138) But all vows are made to last only for a time, and no letter of them applies to the vow of chastity,
139 Because the celibate state (castitas) was forbidden to this people and could neither be commanded nor praised in the law.
So that the words of the law cannot refer to our vows at all.
In short, free vows are not reprehensible, 2) they can be kept both for a time and permanently.
1) This thesis is merged with the previous one in the Erlangen edition, therefore it counts only 140 theses.
2) Vota livera sunt non äarnnata. We have erased the comma that comes after kunt in the editions.