1. the Pabst is in itself a hideous, ugly, horrible image, and the longer one looks at it, the more horrible it looks. But nothing is so exceedingly terrible about it than that God Himself has made and revealed such a miracle and monstrous image. For if a man had thus invented, carved or painted it, one would probably despise it or laugh at it. But because the high divine majesty itself has created and depicted it, the whole world should be shocked and tremble at it, as from it one can well realize what he has in mind and has in mind. Everyone is frightened when a ghost or devil appears or causes a riot in a corner, which is child's play compared to this abomination, in which God Himself appears publicly and shows Himself so cruel.
2 There must be a great serious anger against the papacy, there can be no doubt about that. And this is also true of the papists themselves, and it comes to pass. For since Sodom had long sinned grievously and angered God, and now that she was to perish and it was time for her to repent and mend her ways, she first became angry and so sure that she defied God and laughed him to scorn: that very morning she was swallowed up in the abyss.
(3) Thus do the lords of the papacy also now, after they have hitherto lived in all courage against God and the world, as the right epicureans; for as much as the ass believes, so much do the spiritual lords also believe, and have their mockery and laughter at the gospel and Christian faith. When the time comes, and they are admonished to repentance by such horrible signs, they become seven times angrier, and are so sure and so fearful that they almost do not know what they want to start for courage, as if there were no wrath, indeed, there were no wrath. They are found in the Latin Wittenberg edition (1551), Dona. II, toi. 392 ff, under the title: DupusoIIi lutorprotutio Philippi Melantonis, and
German in the edition of "Melanchthons verbesserte Deutung des Pabstels" published by Nickel Schirlentz in Wittenberg in 1535. We have not considered it necessary to add them, especially because this writing is not by Luther, but by Melanchthon.
God over them, let such and such cruel signs pass by as if they were dreams or shadows.
4 Such certainty and defiance (I say) is a mighty sign of an unspeakable wrath, which will come suddenly upon such epicurian swine and asses. Then they will cry out and tremble; but God will also let it pass, and will not hear, as he says Proverbs 1: "You have despised all my warning, so I will also laugh again when you perish."
I see that the devil must be a great powerful spirit that can possess human hearts with such power that they not only live evil (which must be an ABC devil), but must also knowingly strive against God. For what power do you think this must be, since a man can say and confess: This is God's word, I know it; but even though it is God's word, I still do not want to suffer it, hear it or see it, but shall be condemned and called heresy, and whoever wants to be obedient to God in his word, and does not stand by me and obey against God and his word, I will kill him or drive him away. I would never have committed such a sin when I began to experience this thing in the world; nor have I experienced it, and I must hear that God's word (well recognized) is called heresy and condemned. This may be called the right dragon's head, which peeks out at the butt of the pope, and spews such shameful dung and filth.
(6) But praise God, he is dead, as well as the devil, and shall not come to life, nor reign, as they hope, if the devil were still so mighty. For it is said, I believe in God Almighty; and he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. If the devil is great, he is not almighty, that will not be lacking. Anno 1535.
Interpretation of the monk calf at Freiberg, Martin Luther's.
Anno 1523.
1. the prophetic interpretation of this monastic valley I will leave to the spirit, for I am not a prophet; without it being certain, according to the common interpretation, in all miraculous signs, that
thereby a large accident and change in the future God to understand gives, which may also certainly provide Germany. But which ones they are, and how it will happen, is for the prophets to say. My wish and hope is that the last day will be; for many signs have fallen on each other so far, and all the world is in a great wave that cannot go away without great change; in addition, the evangelical light has gone out so brightly, which has always been followed by great change for the sake of the unbelievers.
2. I only want to be certain, 1) and only indicate why God has taken a monk's calf for such signs, and desecrates the holy robe so perversely and horribly, when he could just as well have indicated such future misfortune by a miracle without monk's robes; In addition, he has also created a priest calf in Landsberg, and this year he only wants to perform spiritual, holy miraculous signs; so that he will ever let it be known that he pays special attention to the spiritual state, and has something in mind for them.
(3) In the same way he did before, that he let Daniel 8. signify the great king Alexander by a goat, so that he showed, about the prophetic interpretation of the future fall, what kind of people the Greeks would be, namely lecherous and rash people, like the goats are, who climb high with their reason and measure all kinds of things. So he has also indicated here in the monk's calf about the prophetic interpretation, what kind of people the monks are, and perhaps also that such an accident will come over the world because of the clergy's iniquity, who by their carnal teaching have destroyed the faith and made the world into veal. Another gives the prophetic interpretation, I will interpret my monk calf, my state to service; the Pfaff.enkalb finds also well his interpreter.
(4) I prefer this interpretation so much the more that I know how it will only harden those who are concerned about it, because they despise everything I say and consider it heresy; therefore, they should not believe me in this either, but be more and more offended and hardened by it, lest they come to right knowledge.
1) i.e., to set as a target, to aim at.
and amend their unbelieving lives. As it was said in Isaiah, Cap. 6:10, "harden the heart of this people, and blind their eyes, and make their ears dull, that they may not hear, nor see, nor know, that they may be converted and saved."
(5) Just as Balaam, because he disobeyed God's words, had to be punished by his donkey at the end, and yet did not turn back [Deut. 22:28, 30], so our spiritual fathers, after they had blocked their ears like vipers before the bright truth of the Gospel, should now also see who they are before God and what is thought of them in heaven by the calf and cow before their eyes as in a mirror. Nevertheless, they should shut their eyes tightly so that they do not see anything, otherwise they might convert and escape God's terrible judgment. For neither words nor signs move the hardened Pharaoh.
6) In the first place and to the sum of this sign, let it not be a reproach to you that God has put on a calf the spiritual garment, the holy robe. By this he meant, without a doubt, that it must soon be revealed how all monasticism and nunnery is nothing but a false lying pretense and outward glitter of a spiritual divine life. For we poor people have hitherto thought that the Holy Spirit was under the robe, and that such a garment covered nothing but a vain spirit. So God indicates here that it only covers a calf. As if he should say, it is a shawl. For what a calf means, teaches us all too well the golden calf Aaron, which was thrown up in the desert by the people of Israel for a god, 2 Mos. 32, 4. and Ps. 106, 20.: "They changed their glory into an image of a calf that eats grass." And the calves of Jeroboam at Bethel and Dan, 1 Kings 12:29, against which the prophets cry so vehemently.
7th So you see this monk calf also, that the robe is the whole spiritual being with all their worship, which they respect greatly with praying, masses, singing, fasting etc. But to whom do they do such worship? who is honored with it? to whom does it hang? On the calf. For the robe adorns and dresses the calf, just as
you see. What then is the calf? It is their false idol in their lying heart. How does it work? They have an opinion and conscience that they serve the right true God with their spiritual nature, and want to earn heaven with their works, and also base their worship on human works only, not on faith.
Now there is no God in heaven and earth who can be honored with this, unless it is the devil or an idol. For the right true God cannot be served in any other way than in spirit and truth, Joh. 4, 23. 24. that is, in faith and superhuman works, which the spirit of Christ does in us. Joh. 6, 29. 33. Is. 55, 3. Therefore such false ministers could not do their worship under the name of God to anyone else but their own false conceit, which pretends to them that God is served with it; the same conceit is the lies and the idol in their heart, just as the Jews were also in their idolatries. Behold, this is the calf and the false carnal opinion of the spiritual being, to which they cling, and which they adorn with their beautiful glitter and smooth robes.
(9) So the calf eats only grass. For such saints have nothing of future goods, but fatten themselves here on earth, as we see that the best goods, the most pleasure, the highest honor, the greatest power are with the clergy. Such grass must eat such calf. And so it is also true of them that they change their glory 1) into the image of a calf eating grass. For Christ is our glory, of which we ought to glory and rejoice: so they set up in his stead another glory in their hearts, that they may leave themselves, and glory in their own works and merit: there the calf standeth in Christ's stead, and taketh Christ's name.
10) The other thing, that the robe is torn and torn at the back and legs and front, means that there is no unity in such spirituality and worship, although nothing higher is required in Scripture, except that Christians should be like-minded.
1) In the editions "holiness". But it will probably read "glory", according to Ps. 106, 20.
as Ps. 68, 7: "God makes those of the same mind dwell in the house", 1) and Psalm 133, 1: "Oh how fine and lovely it is when brothers dwell with one another". But these unchristian, unspiritual spirits have so many different senses and ways, as colors. The barefooted think their rule is the best, the preachers in turn think their rule is the best; the Augustinians out there, the Carthusians out there: none think that is good which thinks the other is good. So the robe is torn at the buttocks of the calf, and at the legs, though they are all one in this, that they adorn the same calf, that is, the same unbelief and opinion, to attain heaven by works.
(11) And especially it is to be noted that the hindmost means the end, and the legs mean those on which the calo (that is, such false opinion) insists. For there have never been so many sects, orders, differences and names of the clergy, as now a time ago, after it has come to an end, and their excesses fall away and must cease. And the legs are the insolent brothers and teachers, Magistri nostri eximii, and their scholars back and forth in the orders, who maintain such spiritual beings with their writing, preaching, reading and teaching among them and in the world, and yet none is one with the other: so many heads, so diverse opinions are there.
In the third place, the calf has the appearance of a preacher; it stretches its hind legs as if it were standing, and stretches out its right paw as a preacher stretches out his right hand, and thrusts out his left hand, and raises its head, and has its tongue in its mouth, and everything is shaped as if it were standing and preaching. Therefore, as the Pabst's donkey paints the Pabst's ministry; so this monk calf actually paints the apostles and disciples of the Pabst, so that all the world may see what preachers and teachers they have heard and still hear. For what should a donkey's head have cheaper for apostles than a calf's head? Carnal government also has carnal teachers. Therefore it has not yet been seen, that it interprets those, since Christ says Matth. 23, 24: "Woe to you scribes,
1) According to the Vulgate.
you blinded blind leaders." And Isa. 56:10: "All their watchmen are blind and know nothing."
(13) There is much more to be said about the calf of the monks and teachers than that the ear on the robe signifies the unmistakable tyranny of confession, so that they torture the world and lead it to the devil. The tongue in the mouth, that their teaching is nothing but tongue, that is, vain babble. The two warts in the plate on the head should have been horns. But horns mean the preaching of the gospel, which preaches from the cross, and destroys the old man, Micah 4:13: "I will make thy horns of iron, and thou shalt destroy many people" etc.
014 But this calf hath no horns, but the mark and the appearance thereof: for they have the name of preaching the gospel, but they have caught it, and constrained it unto their doctrine of men. And the warts are in the plate; for what pleases the plate must be called the gospel; and the gospel must not go out of this plate, but rhyme and fit itself to their plate-sanctification, especially concerning their head, the pope.
(15) The fact that the robe is wound so tightly around their necks shows their stiff-necked, obstinate mind in their monasticism and holy nature, that their consciences are so deeply bound and entangled in it that they cannot come out by any power of the very brightest truth. And the fact that the robe is completely open on the back and in the front means that they are only spiritual before the world, which they must leave behind them; but before God and against the future life, they are in truth mere bellies and only vain gluttons, and what more sins are done through and in the belly before God, of which I remain silent.
(16) That the lower mouth is like the mouth of a man, and the upper mouth with the nose like the mouth of a calf, signifies that their preaching teaches something of the works of divine law; but it all smells calfish, and is turned to their own righteousness and godliness. For the two lips of the mouth signify the two sermons; the lowest of the law sermon; the uppermost of the gospel or promise of God. But an-
Instead of the gospel and divine promise, they preach the calf's mouth, that is, aureolas, 1) and great merit in heaven for their own works, which they do without faith with great difficulty.
In the end, the calf is smooth everywhere, contrary to the nature of calves; that means the pretty, fine, delicate glitter and hypocrisy, so that until now they have pleased and deceived everyone, that we have taken them for holy spiritual fathers, the soul murderers and devil's forerunners. All this has now come to light, the calf is out of the cow, they can no longer hide in the world, one now knows who they are.
(18) This interpretation I give to everyone to judge; for even if the interpretation does not rhyme, it is nevertheless sufficiently established in itself and in the Scriptures above that the monastic state is of the kind as has been said. Since then the calf is just right, let everyone see what he despises if he despises my interpretation. It is enough for us
1) i. e. gold florins.
This calf said that God is hostile to monasticism. Where he would favor it, he would put on the robe of an honest image. So such a miracle may not mean one man or person, but a vain whole multitude, a regiment of many persons; as all miracles and visions are in the Scriptures. Dan. 8.
(19) Beware, monks and nuns, you are truly in earnest and do not let God's admonition be a joke to you. Become other monks and nuns, or leave monasteries and habit behind, and become Christians again, before time hastens you and after that you cannot, if you would like to, which you do not want now, because you could well.
(20) And especially I humbly beg you, dear lords of nobility, to help your friends and children out of the dreadful, dangerous state. Remember that they too are human beings, just like you, and are as hard bound to the natural order as all others, and it is not possible that such a large number should be chaste or willing virgins. I will do my part, and have warned you all.