with Luther's epistle to the Counts of Mansfeld, in which he emphatically fights against the monastic vows.*)
March 2, 1524.
To the noble and well-born gentlemen, Mr. Günther, Ernst, 1) Hoyer, Gebhard and Albrecht, Grasen zu Mansfeld, Lords zu Schrappel und Heldrungen, my gracious lords.
1. grace and peace in Christ our Lord, amen. This story, in E. G. lands, has enabled me, gracious sirs, to write this letter to you. G. lands proved by GOD, enabled me to write this letter to E. G., as to whom I, as my
1) The comma after "Ernst" is missing in De Wette and in Erlanger.
I owe it to my bodily sovereigns, even according to human law, to wish them the best before others, to humbly admonish God that they perceive God's word and works with fear, and because he so constantly stops and knocks, also willingly open up and not, like other unbelievers, throw his signs and wonders to the wind, lest he, tempted too high and too long, be found too serious.
(2) Now this is what the gospel and all the prophets teach us, that ungodly men
*This missive "appeared together with the story under the title: "Ein Geschicht, wie GOtt einer ehrbarn Klosteriungfrauen ausgeholfen hat, mit einem Sendbrief M, Luthers an die Grafen zu Manßfeld. Wittemberg. 1524." In the Erlangen edition, four individual editions are listed, all belonging to the year 1524. In the collections: in the Wittenberg (1553), vol. VI, p. 248; in the Jena (1585), vol. II, p. 356; in the Altenburg, vol. II, p. 516; in the Leipzig, vol. XIX, p, 319; in the Erlangen, vol. 29, p. 102; the Sendbrief alone in De Wette, vol. II, p. 495. We give the text according to the Jena edition.
never want to take for God's word that which is God's word, but that which is God's word, and that which they think is God's word, will always not be judged by God's word, but their own conceit will judge God's word, and say, Behold, this is God's word. They do the same with God's works: What God does, the devil must have done, as the Jews said of Christ Himself: "He casts out devils in Beelzebub's name" [Luc. 11, 15], again, what they do, that must be God's work. This is the quarrel between God and the world from the beginning and will remain so, as the 28th Psalm v. 5.1 ) says: "They do not recognize God's work, and do not notice the work of his hands, therefore you will break them, and not build them."
3 So it is also with the miraculous signs of God. Since Christ cast out devils. He raised the dead and performed such great and many miracles, yet they were of no account to the Pharisees, who began to say: Lord, we would like to see a miraculous sign from heaven. The miracles that God did were not miracles to them. But what they claimed and agreed to be miracles, they were supposed to be miracles. Our Lord God suffers all this from them until his time. So do not doubt that the unbelievers, when they hear about this Florentina, that she is so miraculously delivered by God from the devil's jaws, some of them, who consider the nun's state good, will say: The devil helped her out. The others, who do not give much importance to God or the devil, will say: "Look, is it a miracle that a nun has run away from the convent? This is how it must be.
(4) If a ruffian spirit were to make a pilgrimage and perform signs, as Paul says: "The man of sin arises through false signs and wonders," 2 Thess. 2:9, or if the devil were to be tortured with holy water and pretended to suffer great fear in it, as happened recently this year in one place, this would have to be a miracle of God.
1) The Erlangen edition asked here reprinted from the old edition of Walch's "V. 3.
be. But we, who now know the gospel and have recognized the truth by the grace of God, should not and must not let such signs, which are done to confirm the gospel and promote it, go by. What does it matter if those who do not know the gospel and do not want to know it, and reckon nunnery to be Christian, do not consider it a sign, or even a sign of the devil? Let them go; they are blind and leaders of the blind. 2) God will find them.
God has done more of the same signs these three years, which should be described in due time. But because this shows God in E. G. lands, G. should take it to heart as a special admonition from G. God. For it is evident not only from this Florentine story, but also from many other testimonies, what a devilish thing nunnery and monasticism are, where people want to bring people to God by means of vain activity, coercion, sticks and blocks, even though God so often testifies in Scripture that He does not want to have any forced service, and that no one should be, but does it with pleasure and love. Help God, is there nothing to say to us? Do we not have sense or ears? I say it again: God does not want forced service. I say it for the third time. I say it a hundred thousand times: God does not want forced service.
(6) What are you doing, princes and lords, driving people to God without their will and thanksgiving? It is not your office nor your power to do so. You shall drive to outward piety. Let vows be vows, let commandments be commandments, nor will they be kept, except willingly and with pleasure. And if we all become foolish and foolish, he will not be otherwise for our driving and forcing. He will not be of a different mind because of our goings-on and compulsions. He says: "No one comes to me, my Father draws him" [Joh. 6, 44]. Is this not clear enough, dear Lord God? The Father must draw, so will a man drift. What God does not subject Himself to, the poor worm wants to subject itself to, by means of a
2) So the Jenaer. Wittenbergers: blind leaders.
1678 Erl. SS, 105-108. XI. Luther's writings on monastic vows 2c. W. XIX, 2098-2100. 1679
to do to others who are unwilling, which he himself cannot do. If you do not want to be pressed to our gospel, why do you press us to yours?
(7) Therefore, my dear gentlemen, I will let this Florentina's story go out, so that all the world may see what monasticism is, and the devil's deeds come to light, and I will also humbly ask God, because God Himself demands and encourages such things, that God, who have many such prisoners in their lands, would least of all desist from driving and stopping, if they did not want to help release them; but let each one answer his own conscience here, and do not refuse whether someone wants to leave or stay in the monastery, so that God will not be tempted. It is not to be done for the sake of the vile, shameful air of the flesh, which is not allowed in monasteries, who otherwise does not want to be pious, be it alone or by himself. It is for the sake of necessity that a man was not created for chastity, but to multiply, Genesis 1:28, which work is not with us, neither to betroth nor to hinder. There are some princes and lords angry about this matter, and it is no wonder. If they knew what I know, they might not know how to praise and honor me enough for it, and do more for it than I do. God wanted to soften E. G. with His mercy to follow this divine work and to give a good example to all the world to redeem the poor prisoners, amen. At Wittenberg on the Wednesday after Oculi, 1524.
E. G.
menial servant
Martinus Luther, Doctor.
Instruction of the honorable and virtuous virgin Florentina of Obernweimar, 1) how she came out of the convent, by God's help.
I, Florentina von Obernweimar, wish all devout Christians and lovers of the Evan-.
1) The spelling of this name varies; here in the superscription and right at the beginning: "Obernweimar", but later in the text "Oberweimar". Likewise in the Wittenberg edition, only that first "obern Weymar", later "Oberweymar" is written.
gelii God's grace, mercy with humble request to hear this my teaching and apology with a Christian heart. For God knows that after God Almighty had so seemingly helped me out of this prison by His grace and mercy, it was my firm resolution not to open such an unjust burden shown to me to anyone. However, because it is credible that Catharina von Watzdorf, the abbess of the monastery, is carrying me to the people in writing and orally with many words of shame, as if I had acted against honor, which she will never bring up with truth, because I, praise God, have never acted against honor, the need to praise and honor God, and also to save my honor and good name, urges me to omit this writing. For although I am guilty of suffering disgrace and dishonor, I am also guilty of not approving it or confirming it by silence, because it is unjust, and of making myself a party to other people's sins, and I want to speak the truth before God and all the world.
Beginning.
I am of my age in the sixth year of my parents, the spiritual state for the time for good and blessed considered, by request and incentive of my Muhme, the Domina in Eisleben, given to the convent of virgins there, called Neuenhelfte, where I was educated until eleven years.
Since I reached eleven years, I was blessed in ignorant youth by showing the dominatrix, without any questioning, and if I asked as much, I had no mind.
4. But when I was fourteen years old, and my mind and ability began to feel and recognize, I found that spiritual status was contrary to all my ability and nature, and thus that it would be impossible for me to keep my soul's bliss, which I complained to one of my mothers from Obernweimar; she reported it to the Domina and my mother's sister, by the grace of God, through whom my intentions reached the Domina, who had her sister report them to me through her: I would like to turn away from the sense, I should and must be a nun, if not with good, I should with evil, she wants to put me differently, and deal with me in such a way that I should gladly remain; I would now be blessed, and God had promised and sworn eternal purity through the offering of the ring, I could not revoke that, nor could any pope or bishop absolve me of it.
5th I answered, Why they would not have me.
could have come to my senses, so that I could have recognized what I should or should not do? I had no answer, because I would have been old enough, I should and had to. Because I did not know any instruction or reason of the Scriptures at that time, so that I could have protected myself and met their pretensions, nor any comfort, help or advice in my friendship, which could not do otherwise than what the Domina would like, in which I also had to sit far away, I had to give myself, although quite unwillingly, but not without special doom of God, under their power, regiment and Babylonian prison 2c.
6. but in my trial year I should have been asked, together with others of my sodalibus, about expulsions of the rule, so often the selected, and have admitted a deliberation, speaking: Ecce Lex, sub qua militare vis; si potes servare, ingredere: Si non potes, liber discede, which did not happen once, but on the evening of my prosession the Domina said to me in front of the whole assembly in the Chapter: I should be presented with the difficulty of the Rule, and asked whether I would be willing to keep it and remain constant, but it would not be necessary (for I had already committed myself wholeheartedly 1) to remain in the consecration); that they would let me and others keep a trial year, let it only be that we learn the way of the Ordera ), and let them try us, whether we are fit for the Order. And even if I had asked a lot, I would not have been able to say anything different, because what they liked to hear would not have helped me.
a) "Yes, religious wise men learned." I meant to teach Christ's way to the young people. It may well be 2) an Unordens way.
7 Thus I have stood in repugnance to my accepted spirituality. I give every devout Christian and lover of evangelical truth the measure of the trouble that arises daily in my conscience from this; but nevertheless, in all my tribulation, misery and trouble, I have stood in complete trust and hope in God (for He does not want the death of the sinner, but 2c. [Ezek. 18, 23.]), that He would ever see a time when He would give me, an orphan abandoned to Him alone, the comfort of salvation 2c.
8) When the healing time of divine consolation, in which the gospel, which had been hidden for a long time, came to light, the Word of God became clear.
1) In the old editions: "volhertig".
2) So the Wittenberg; "probably" is missing in the Jena.
The writings of the right shepherds, which Christ now and in these perilous times chased his sheep, which had been missed, starved and languished by the hirelings, into the jaws of the wolf, have also appeared to me, as a famished, hungry sheep, which had long been waiting to be put out to pasture, 3) which clearly gave me that my supposed spiritual life, as I also found in my conscience for a long time, would, if not changed according to the recognized truth, be a stubborn way to hell; because I can recognize nothing evangelical, nothing spiritual, much less Christian, in it.
(9) Because I realized that I would not receive comfort from the Domina, as a persecutor of evangelical truth, but rather punishment (for which I was horrified, like a human being), I wrote to the highly learned Doctor Martin Luther, made my feelings known to him, and requested comfort, help, and advice from him. Which, against Christian love, by some of my peers, who knew this secretly with me, came before my superiors, by which I was severely imprisoned, although one (knows well what [it] applies) also wants to show for a cause that I have warned one of the monastery's servants, against whom one (of my oversight) might have undertaken something difficult, out of Christian love, as I recognized myself obliged to do, to guard against his harm; However, such a burdensome imprisonment was not carried out against me for any other reason, except for the fact that I wrote to Doctor Martino.
10th In the prison I sat four weeks without all mercy, in great cold, [which] as one knows, has been before and after all the saints, not coming into any room.
I was forced to confess what I had done in the past three years against the rule and spiritual orders, whether secretly or openly, alone or by myself, and to submit this to the Domina by my handwriting. 4) I was forced to confess what I had done in the past three years against the rule and spiritual orders, whether secretly or openly, alone or by myself.
12) After the four weeks had passed, I had to proclaim my known transgressions in the chapter in front of the whole assembly; then the Dominab ) put me under a ban, I would have to sit locked in my cell, but kneel under the Horis canonicis in front of the choir, until the collecte I would prosterniren to the earth, the like.
3) i.e. and how it is designed.
4) "or" is missing in the Erlanger.
1682 Erl. 29, llv-iiL. XI. Luther's writings on monastic vows 2c. W. LIX, 2103-2105. 1683
As often as the collection went in and out of the choir, they all had to go over me; I was in there for three days.
b) Such a jesusbel is to be given the right to govern young maidens, if one does not otherwise know a devil. This means to comfort with a gentle spirit those who are in a hurry to fall, Gal. 6, 1. This is the sanctity of the monastery.
13 After that she put me, as they call it, in the small ban, there I had to go with her to choir, but as often as the collection went in or out of the choir, I had to prosternir myself, as above, and let them go over me, sitting under food with a little straw wreath on the ground in front of the prioress; I kept the penance for three days.
Fourteenth, however, I had to choose five persons to be my guarantors, and I had to promise and swear not to do anything more, neither with words, works, nor writings, to work myself out of the clergy; which I did, giving them as good words as I could, but neither my heart nor mind was in it. Then she released me to repentance, but in such a way that I had a person assigned to me, who had to take care of me day and night, walking, standing, sitting and sleeping with me. The Domina also told me in the chapter that I should now keep myself humble under the feet of all my fellow sisters, like a prisoner who would neither be trusted nor believed.
15. should seven Wednesdays and seven Fridays at once of ten people let me disciplinirenc ). 1)
c) Then the devil is already cast out with another devil.
After that, it came hard to my mind to write to my dear cousin Caspar von Watzdorf, as a famous lover of evangelical truth, to whom I assumed much good, to complain to him about my present distress; which I did and ordered to be delivered to him by one of our monastery's servants, to whom I also wrote a note; which, however, came treacherously before the Domina. How shameful, disgraceful, blasphemous and scornful I have said about her and others, is not to be spoken or written in front of pious people 2c.
(17) I was pierced by them and by other four persons, so that none of them could beat them.
(18) Then she put me back into the dungeon, and had my legs put in iron heroes 2). So
1) i.e. to chastise.
2) Heroes -- Footcuffs.
I sat close one day and night; then she let me from the heroes, but in the dungeon I had to remain eight days; but for the sake of Nativitatis Christi 3) I was released, so that I had to go with to choir and Reffenter 4), stand there for them all to mock at the schoolchildren, locked in the cell over day, with nobody no word speak, no step go. d) The person who was assigned to me had to walk by my side. I was to spend the rest of my life in such a prison. 2c.
d) When will it be said that they have been reminded of Christian faith and love? Yes, Jesus is here, God and Christ are dead.
19) But God, to whom all things are possible, out of His divine wisdom, against which this world's wisdom is foolishness, sent that one day after dinner, when I went to my cell, the person who was supposed to lock me left the cell open, and I thus escaped by means of divine apparent help, still by the light of the sun safely at one stroke, 5) when many persons of my fellow sisters had been in their cells and on the sleeping house.
020 But that she shall interpret unto me, that I have delivered, or made a remission of some things, she shall not teach me with truth.
(21) But I am not untruthful, that for the sake of Dionysius6 ) I have been willing to look for ways to get out of the monastery through the advice and help of my friendship, but I have not been able to have the grace of God at this time. This time I took six guilders and two silver rings from her, which I hereby want to make known to God and all the world. But all of which she will get back when she has appointed me and visited me in my cell. About this she will not be able to accuse me with truth, and thus I am caused by her untruthful,e ) unfounded, unreasonable imposition to let this writing go out for the salvation of my honor; would also have the right to report other things that are the truth. But because my Christ bequeaths it to me, I will first of all refrain from the same commandment and spare the name in this, out of 2) Christian love. May Almighty God grant her enlightenment and grace. Please
3) i.e. birth of Christ.
4) Reffenter---refectorium, dining room.
5) That will probably mean about an hour before sunset.
6) Dionysius is the 9th of October.
7) So the Erlanger. In the Wittenberg and the Jena: also.
1684 Erl. SS, IIS f. 318 f. 176. How God helped out a convent virgin. W. XIX, 2I0S-2I07. 1685
in high humility, every believer in Christ wanted to take my innocence to heart.
e) Does Jesus, my bridegroom, also teach such holy jesus so rudely and insolently in the spiritual monastery?
22 But in order to mark all things, when I left the monastery, I took with me a bad skirt and a hood, as well as several veils, so that I could cover myself, but they kept my clothes, the better ones, which they took from me.
Martinus Luther, Doctor.
Behold, dear man, what a poisonous, wicked, bitter, false, lying people the nuns are, where they are most holy, and the tender brides of Christ. Woe to you always and forever, lords and princes, parents and friends, who push your children, friends or neighbors into such murder pits of body and soul, or let them stay inside, if you could do better. God grant you his mercy, amen.