114. piece of a sermon by Luther on indulgences, held on the 10th Sunday after Trinity. *)
[July 27] Anno 1516. **)
Translated from Latin.
Of indulgences: Although they are the merit of Christ and his saints themselves 1) and therefore to be received with all reverence, they have become the most shameful service of avarice. For who seeks through it the salvation of souls and not rather the money in the stock exchanges? This is clearly evident in the way it is administered: for nowhere do the commissaries and their servants preach anything other than that they extol indulgences and incite the people to give. Here no one is heard to instruct the people what the indulgence is, when it bestows something, when it ceases, but only how much they should give, and of course leave the people in this ignorance unenlightened (suspensum), so that they believe they will be immediately blessed if only they have obtained this indulgence. For there is no such grace conferred, at least in itself, by which anyone can become righteous or more righteous [than before], but only the remission of penance and of the satisfaction imposed; if this has been abated, it does not follow that he who dies in this way will immediately go to heaven. But the foolish people, and indeed the greater part of them, who are thus deceived, believe that by the complete remission all sin is taken away in such a way that they can immediately fly to heaven, and that they can immediately go to heaven.
1) Eraser: Luther still speaks this in scholastic error, but with a sincere heart.
sins [further] with impunity and is overcome by an all the more evil conscience.
But it must be noted that grace is twofold, namely, that by which [punishment is remitted, and that by which [grace' is infused, or an outward and an inward [grace]. Remission is the remission of temporal punishment, which a man would have had to suffer here, since it was imposed on him by the priest, or the rest of which he would have had to endure in purgatory, as seven years used to be interpreted .for One Sin. But by this [remission] the evil desire and the sickness of the soul is by no means diminished, nor is love or any inward virtue increased; and all this must happen before one can enter the kingdom of God, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God [1 Cor. 15:50] and nothing impure will enter it [Eph. 5:5]. Nobody knows how long this will take place in purgatory. Nor does the pope have it in his power to solve this in any way by the power of the keys, but only by the intercession of the whole church. There it still remains doubtful for how much;' whether God will accept this for the whole? He [the pope] can certainly release the soul from purgatory, with respect to the penance that he has imposed or could have imposed, as his bull reads: "insofar as the keys of the holy mother, the Church, extend, and from
*This sermon is first found "mitgetheilt from a good manuscript" in Löscher, Reformations-Acta, vol. I, p. 729; from it printed with all errors in the Erlanger Ausgabe, opp. var. ar^., vol. I, p. 165; with improved text in the Weimarsche Ausgabe, vol. I, p. 65. According to the latter we have translated.
**) Eraser: This sermon is attached to the interpretation of the first commandment.
the penances imposed we mercifully redeem". Therefore, it is too sacrilegious to preach that by this indulgence the souls would be delivered from purgatory, since it is inconsistent to say this, and since they do not explain how they want it to be understood. Otherwise the pope would be cruel if he did not grant to the poor souls for free what he can grant for the money necessary for a church. 1) The infusion [of grace] is the inward enlightenment of the mind and kindling of the will; this is a constant outflow (emanatio) into the soul, just as the rays of the sun [constantly go out], and does not cease for the sake of perfect forgiveness. This is necessary for the eradication of evil desire until it is completely eradicated. Then, however, it is perfect, when man sighs to God in the utmost weariness of this life and is finally freed from this body through the desire for God. This has certainly only been experienced by a few who are completely absolved through indulgence; indeed, full forgiveness is only given to those who have repented and confessed in the right way (digne).
Corollary.
Since. no man can be certain in regard to himself, much less in regard to others, that he has repented and confessed perfectly and in a right way, it is sacrilegious to assert that the one who has obtained the indulgence will immediately fly to heaven, or that the soul will be torn out of purgatory: I mean, if anyone would denounce (depute) a torn soul, of which I have no other doubt that it will be torn out, namely [such souls] who have repented in a right way and have deserved such tearing out, as the words of St. Augustine read. But who are such people or not such people, God knows. For others must suffer purgatory because they have not deserved to be helped, namely, because they have not made themselves worthy, since they have not repented in the right way and have been caught in the wrong way.
1) Löscher: Here, the cry of Tetzel is alluded to, that the money is necessary for the building of the church in the Vatican.
were in the love of temporal things. However this may be, because I do not understand this matter sufficiently: 2) It is undoubtedly uncertain whether God remits the imperfect repentance by indulgence, because they loved God imperfectly and clung to the creatures with too great an inclination (affectu) and thus, in addition to the sins which they committed and redeemed through repentance, confession and complete remission, are still impure because of such earthly inclination with which they departed. And this could not in any case be remitted by plenary indulgence, since it was not yet gone and, not yet 4) redeemed by repentance, always remained; and indeed it remains in the soul separated [from the body] and cannot be remitted even in purgatory, if it does not first displease [the soul] by repentance and change of mind (resipiscentiam). Who, then, grieves over having feared dying, and ceases to fear death, that is, to be rebellious against God's will? Are they not, 5) who themselves say that indulgences benefit those who have repented and confessed, but not others?
But you will say, "Perfect repentance in itself takes away all punishment, so indulgences are not necessary, because a perfectly repentant person immediately goes to heaven." I answer, "I confess my ignorance." A perfect penitent. A perfect penitent goes to heaven (evolat) without the indulgence, but an imperfect penitent does not go with the indulgence either, because God does not demand anything from a perfect penitent, neither for the sins of the deed nor for the original sin, that is, the tinder and origin. So what is the use of indulgences? Is it only to atone for the original sins? In what way then are the souls redeemed (redimuntur), who are forgiven for original sins, but with whom the original sin or the sinful condition (habituale) remains? For those who are forgiven original sin are also forgiven original sin, but not vice versa. Original sin is what I call the tinder that is generated by our ab-.
2) Löscher: A sincere confession.
3) namely in purgatory.
4) Before deletns must be added nonäum.
5) Before well we seem to be missing ixÄ.
The sins that are left over from the origin [of sinful men] have not yet been healed and put to death by grace, as the apostle says in Romans 6 and 8. Will those [souls] who deserve to repent of this tinder in a right way in purgatory or in death obtain this through indulgences? They do not consider this difficulty, so that henceforth no one is concerned about the mortification of tinder and root sin, but they only see to it that the sins of the deed are cut off by repentance, confession, atonement, and the like. By the way, they soon relapse and eat again what they have eaten, because they do not pay attention to the disease and the root of sin, just as those who cut off the leaves of a spring or the leaves of a tree, but leave the veins of the spring and the root alive, not caring to implore with constant groaning the grace that destroys this body of sin and kills the members of sin. Or [will the souls] perhaps [obtain it] through what they call "through the way of salvation," that this salvation may not only confer upon them the forgiveness of the sins of sin, but also obtain repentance and penance over the tinder and the remnants of love for the earthly, [bring them] to the grace of the most perfect love for God, and confer sighing for God? For example: If a dying (mortuus) man dies unwillingly and does not wish to be dissolved with such great desire that he would be exceedingly glad to obey the will of God, at least according to his reason, even though his feeling resists it, as in the case of Christ and all martyrs: here it is evident that he dies in a sin, not in a mortal sin, but still almost; therefore he has not repented of it in life. Will he then receive the grace of repentance from God in purgatory through the help of the Church, so that he would like to have died? For even nature cannot free him from it, nor the fire of the place of purification (purgatorii) without grace. But because he dies in sin, since he does not love what God wants with all his heart, but does it unwillingly, his will is not in the law of the Lord; thus.
Although he fulfills his commandment with his work, he does not do it with his heart.
But let us put it together as much as we can. All the works and merits of Christ and the Church are in the hands of the pope, and he can bestow everything that is good in the Church through Christ in three ways: first, as a pardon; second, as a help; third, as a vow or sacrifice of praise, just as Christ with his works both glorified God and took away our sins and earned grace. For satisfaction, he applies the indulgence, which he grants to the living. The meaning and intention of this is that if you had sinned and repentantly sought to make amends for your sins, you would come to the pope and say: "Holy Father, I ask that your holiness may ordain the works and prayers of the church for my sins. Then he will say, "Let it be done as you ask," and then all who say Mass, pray, fast, work, or whatever they do, GOtte will perform a pleasing [work] for you, and so the burden (labor) of penance and satisfaction will be removed from you. This is that plenary indulgence. But this is not enough for you, because by it you do not have grace inwardly, nor do you advance by it, but you remain in the same grace in which you were when you asked for it. Therefore, you must now see to it that you increase and do not snore idly, as if you were already holy and pure. For now you must stop with the crucifixion of the members and the mortification of the sources (principiorum) of sins, that is, of the evil lusts, which as they were the authors of the sins for which indulgences were given, so also [will be the cause] of the relapse [into sins] when you become certain. For help (suffragium) he [the Pabst] applies the indulgence, which he grants to the dead. There it is already no longer a real indulgence, because there the pope already has nothing to redeem or remit, but he can only intercede that God will remit and redeem, whether from the sins of the deed, or from the root of sin (radicali), which has not yet been killed in life.
is healed and cured. That this is done by this infusion of grace is not doubtful, because even then they cannot earn anything in any way. I do not see why he can grant this [the grace of infusion] to the living, even though the Church generally intercedes helpfully for all before God. But this extends further (amplius est), that this is bestowed in particular by the pope or any man. For he himself says that the departed become partakers, which, as he elsewhere sufficiently explains, he thoroughly understands "from the way of help". But one must not immediately boldly assert that he liberates a named soul who buys this indulgence, because one does not know whether it is worthy before God, or another who deserves it better. Therefore, the pope seems to do more with the indulgence for the deceased than for the living, because he also grants them the grace of confiscation, but only grants forgiveness to the living. The souls in purgatory relate to the later (posterior) grace or to the increase and supplement of grace, which is glory, as ssich^ a godless [relates] to the first grace or justification. For both cannot merit the same, but are capable of receiving it; he who has the first hot, though he is out of life, as this, who is in life, though he has not yet the first. Nevertheless, I still have doubts, since the Pope only intervenes and intercedes for the souls, not as one who has the power, but as a mediator: why is it certain that the soul will be freed, since the decision (arbitrium) is with GOtte, how much, in which way, when, where, for which people he wants to hear his church? Who is sure that God also grants (accepts) as he is asked? if not from this comes his certainty],
that God does not reject the prayer of His Church, in which Christ prays with her, as He said [Matth. 7, 7. 21, 22.]: "Ask, and you shall receive," and again [Marc. 11, 24.]: "Whatever you ask in your prayer, only believe that you will receive it, and it will be given to you." Since this is certain, it is very useful that this indulgence should be given and resolved, however much avarice and greed for gain there may be in it, which one fears. For perhaps that is why God wants to have mercy on the deceased with all the more abundant mercy, because He sees that it is despised by the living, and now many more people enter Purgatory than before, because Christians now behave much more sluggishly than before. Therefore, because many enter and few make an effort on their part, since our ancestors (praecedentes) and those who are left now have both been and still are sluggish, the pope comes to their aid at least in this way. To the vow or acts of gratitude (gratiarum actiones) he [the pope] turns it [the indulgence] in the praises of God because of the benefits that have been shown to him and the elect.
Conclusion.
Therefore, we must be careful that indulgences, that is, satisfactions, do not become a cause of security and laziness for us and a detriment to the inward grace. Rather, we are to be diligent that the disease of nature may be completely healed, and that we may thirst to come to God out of love for Him and out of hatred for this life and out of disgust for ourselves, that is, [that we pursue] the unceasingly healing grace and its branches.