how they should behave if the papal clergy did not want to absolve them until they had delivered his books forbidden by them. *)
Mid-February 1521.
A lesson of confessional children about the forbidden books Doctor Martin Luther.
JEsus.
I, Martin Luther, wish all Christians who come across this booklet grace and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord.
It has come before me how some confessors are not content that the poor people are misled by public prohibition on account of my books, but also fall into God's judgment and presume to search the consciences, that they have no power, so that it is not more due to them, than to give the absolution that is desired by them. For this reason, Christian faithfulness drives me to give advice and instruction, so that I do my part and no one owes anything to help his soul. If anyone despises this, let him know that I will be excused from him before God; so that God may command, amen.
2. to the first. If my teaching is from God, as I am not otherwise aware, it must be considered that it is condemned by the greater part, especially by the spiritual prelates, whom we call the scholars. As it happened to all the prophets and apostles and Christ himself, as it is written in Daniel, Cap. 13 [Hist. of Susanna, v. 5]: Wickedness comes from the
Elders, 1) who are considered to govern the people. For this reason I do not give this exhortation to everyone. For I will not urge nor invite anyone to my books, but only those who have a conscience as if my teaching were right, and yet allow the multitude and height of the opponents to offend and move them to do against their good and weak conscience.
3. secondly. If now the confessor inquires whether he has or is reading my little books, and thus provokes his stupidity, he shall answer him with humble words thus: Dear Lord, I pray, do not chase me into the ropes and peril; I have not come to confession, that you should trick me, but solve me. For since in this matter many more learned and greater 2) people on both sides are striving, and nothing has yet been finally decided, I and you yourselves are also too small to set the verdict in one place.
4 Thirdly. Continue to say, if necessary: Dear Lord, you are a confessor and not a cane-master; it is my duty to confess what my conscience drives me to; it is not your duty to inquire into my secrecy, you may well inquire how many pennies I have in my purse. If I keep silent about something I know, then
1) Wittenberger: Obersten. In the Bible: judges.
2) Wittenberger: large.
*Eight individual editions of this writing are known from the year 1521 alone. Seven of them were published in Wittenberg, all without indication of the printer; the eighth is in Low German. In the collective editions: in the Wittenberg (1553), vol. VI, p. 420V; in the Jena (1564), vol. I, p. 397V; in the Altenburg, vol. I, p. 613; in the Leipzig, vol. XVII, p. 563; in the Erlangen, vol. 24, p. 202 and in Lomler, vol. I, p. 260. The time determination given by us (Köstlin, "Martin Luther", vol. I, p. 426, puts it in the first half of February) results from the following: On February 3, 1521, Luther wrote to Spalatin (Walch, old edition, vol. XXI, 746, § 3, where the letter is dated from the Sunday Quadragesimä instead of Sexagesimä, cf. Burkhardt, p. 37) that he wanted to publish articles for the consolation of the confessors; on February 17, he sent him a finished copy (Walch, 1. c., 748, § 6), and in the next writing in this volume, Luther wrote to Franz von Sickingen on June 1 that he had sent out gentle instruction to the confessors during this next Lent. Lent began in 1521 with February 12. In the old edition of Walch this writing is found twice; once here and also vol. XV, p. 2285. We will omit it in the 15th volume. We reproduce the text according to the Jena edition.
What is it to you? Give me my absolution, which you owe me, and afterwards, if you quarrel with Luther, the pope, or anyone else you like, do not make a quarrel, a disputation, and a journey out of the holy sacrament of confession. This business does not belong in the confession, I will answer where and when it is time to answer from these things.
The fourth. Similarly, I also ask the confessors to abstain and not to reach into God's judgment, to whom alone secrets of the heart are reserved, as Psalm 7:10 says: "He is an inquirer of the kidneys and of the hearts." And they should thank God that they would be above such driving of inquiring, if they are not guilty of more than hearing and absolving. There is no need to force anyone to open his conscience, and, as they say, no one should be forced to believe, but only called. If someone is to come, God will move him by his 1) calling; if he does not move him, what will 2) you do with your activity? Thus St. Paul taught that in such cases one should not ask questions for the sake of stupid consciences, so that one does not confuse and deceive them, 1 Cor. 8, 9. ff. and Rom. 14, 1. ff.
Fifthly. If the confessor did not want to let go and held up the bull, he should say thus: Dear father, the bull is not respected by many pious people, so you know how the pope's judgments tend to waver; today he sets something, tomorrow he destroys it again, therefore I do not want to be driven by you on such a sand and wavering that today I confess something, tomorrow I deny it, and thus let myself be beaten one way and the other; I am not obliged to follow you on such a wavering and uncertain course; give me my absolution, which is certain to me, and let the matter also become certain beforehand and then drive me on it.
7) The sixth. Where he would not yet desist, I would leave him 3) his absolution, and go from him before him, than from him who is
1) Thus set by us. Jenaer: through a; Wittenberger: through your; Erlanger: through your.
2) Wittenberger: make.
3) "him" is missing in the Jena.
4) Lucifer presumes to fall into God's judgment and to search the secrecy of the heart about his status and office, which he does not have the power to do and should not worry about. Where man does not absolve, God absolves. At the same time, as if someone desired baptism and the sacrament of the altar from the priest 5) and he did not want to give it, his faith and desire would have received enough of it. So, even if the confessor did not want to absolve, he should be happy and sure of absolution, because he confessed and desired and sought it. In such a case, the confessor must be regarded as a robber and thief who takes from us and withholds from us what is ours, and we can happily boast that we are absolved before God, and that we have received the sacrament without any hesitation.
8. seventh. But where there are courageous and strong consciences that understand and may confess the truth, there is no need for my counsel; they will know for themselves how they should conduct themselves. However, I will also say my opinion with the rest of my diligence. If they freely confess to the cane master or driver in the confession that they have or do not have the forbidden books, and he does not want to absolve them, because they promise never to have and read such books, he shall say: Dear Lord, absolve me on my way, I do not want to leave the books, because I sinned against my conscience. Now ye shall not drive me against my conscience, as ye yourselves know, or ought to know. Rom. 14, 1.
9 Eighth. If he does not want to and drives with the bull, then the saying of St. Peter, Apost. 5, 29: "One must be obedient to God more than to men. And if all the world were to hold with the pope and [the] bull, because it so clearly condemns the gospel and faith, it should not be obeyed, indeed, it should be burned and destroyed, in view of the example of Christ, whom all the world also persecuted, but for that reason he was not wrong. Thus Luther's teaching has not yet been overcome, that it is wrong, and so far it has only been attacked by force.
4) Jenaer: "with the".
5) Wittenberger: please.
6) In the old editions: withholds.
(10) The ninth. If he does not want to absolve, he shall leave it and give an account on the last day of his denied office and deprived of the sacrament to which he owed it. And the same confessor shall no longer worry about absolution, and upon such confession made and absolution sought, he shall freely go to the sacrament. He is certainly absolved before God and must patiently and cheerfully suffer the robbery of his absolution as he would have to suffer a physical robbery. The sacraments may be taken from us, denied and forbidden; but the power and grace of the sacraments must be left to us unbound and accepted. God has not placed our salvation and grace in their power and will, but in our faith, as he says: "Only believe that you will receive what you ask for, and you will surely have it. [Matth. 21, 22. Marc. 11, 24.]
11) The tenth. If the priest also refuses the sacrament of the altar as one who is not absolved, one should 2) humbly ask that he give it. For one must always act with humility against the devil and his works, and yet keep a defiant faith. And if this does not help, then let the sacrament, altar, priest and church go. For the divine word, condemned in the bull, is more than all things, which the soul cannot do without, but may well do without the sacrament; so the right bishop Christ himself will feed you, spiritually, with the same sacrament. Do not let it be strange to you if you do not go to the sacrament the same year. It is not your fault, you would like to, and you are prevented and deprived of your own. And the commandment of the church shall not offend thee, because they drive thee thereby, contrary to God's word and thy conscience: against which no commandment can be made, nor stand, if it be already made, as they all teach themselves.
Twelfth, the eleventh. Therefore beware, and let no thing so great be on earth, though it be angels from heaven, as to drive you against your conscience from the doctrine which you know and respect to be divine. St. Paul says Gal. 1, 8: "If an angel from heaven
1) Thus the Wittenberg edition. Jenaer: deprived.
2) i.e. again.
said otherwise than the gospel, he should be banished." You are not the first, nor will you be alone, nor the last to be persecuted for the sake of God's word. Christ says [Matth. 5, 10.], "Blessed are you where you are persecuted for righteousness' sake." Item [Matth. 24, 9.]: "You must be hated by all men for my sake." Item [John 16:2]: "The time will come when those who persecute you will think they are doing God a service." Such sayings we must grasp and strengthen ourselves with, yes, thank, praise and ask God that we may become worthy to suffer for the sake of His word. Remember that it is proclaimed how in the times of the Antichrist no one is allowed to preach, and all will be respected as exiles who speak or hear God's word. This is going on now and has gone on for longer than a hundred years.
Thirteenth, the twelfth. But if one were to insist on some prelates' outgoing notes, in which all kinds of books of vice and letters of shame are forbidden, one should be most humbly obedient to them. For he who recognizes and believes in God's word will never be pleased with blasphemy books and letters of shame; and in the eyes of the emperor, such evil-doers have forfeited their heads, along with all who read, hear and keep them. Therefore I also ask, because no good conscience can be had in this, that everyone should beware and flee from such books as from deadly poison.
14 But no one shall and may draw or count my little books. For this is called a book of shame or famos Libell, as it is also interpreted by imperial law itself, in which someone's name is particularly reviled 4) in his honor, and the writer does not show his name, does not want to stand in judgment, fears the light, yet wants to have done harm in the darkness, bites secretly like a poisoned 5) snake, as Solomon says [Proverbs 23:32, Ecclesiastes 10:11].
(15) Now I have publicly displayed my name in all my books, and have acted freely in the day, have offered myself rightly, and am still offering myself, and although [I] have the Pope's
3) Erlanger: zeihen.
4) In the old editions: gefchmecht.
5) d. i. toxic.
He never touched his person, nor that of any prelate, nor that of any uncle, nor described anyone's especially secret vices, but public, common infirmities, as a preacher should do, and as all the prophets have done. If these were called books of shame, then no more vices would have to be punished among the people, and the gospel and all Scripture would also be called a book of vices, in which so many and severe punishments of vices are written. Now it is true, unfortunately, that many books of vice go astray without name and title, and they should be cursed and forbidden, for they are not only contrary to Christian love, but also contrary to natural laws.
16 To the thirteenth. And in the end I ask all prelates and confessors to let themselves be found, as I have said, and, according to the holy Gospel, not to storm the people with violence, but to rule kindly and gently and to
They must not be driven or tortured by their consciences, which is the devil's work, so that they do not have cause to ask and inquire again where they got the power and where the secret confession came from, because this would cause a disturbance that would be too difficult for them. For although such confession is the most salutary thing, one knows well how the fur is on one's sleeves. Therefore it is necessary that such a salutary thing should not be destroyed by outrage, storm, violence of the rulers. Let the example be moved; how many things would have remained, where the pope and his would have acted without storm and outrage with me, and how they may never bring back again what they have lost! So that I want to have warned everyone and to have asked for storm, violence. There is storm coming to its end; beware and be wise. God give us all his grace. Amen.