End of September or beginning of October 1530.
This is, of course, one of the greatest plagues that has come upon the ungrateful world through the wrath of God, that the cruel abuse and misunderstanding of the dear key has taken over so enormously in Christendom that in almost no place in the world has the right custom and understanding remained, and yet these are such gross and tangible abuses that a child should almost notice them if it had learned to talk and count, so deeply have all the clergy and scholars slept and snored,
Indeed, they have been blind as a bat. Therefore, with God's help and grace, I want to denounce some of these abuses and, as Christ says, help to gather such abominations from His kingdom, so that our descendants may see how things were in Christendom, and henceforth know how to guard against such misery, and learn to recognize and use the keys correctly. For this knowledge is of great importance to prevent and avoid countless abominations.
*) This disputation is found in Latin in the Thesensammlungen of 1538 and 1558. Then in the Latin Gesammtausgabe"-. in the Wittenberg, lom. I, toi. 373; in the Jena one (1579), lom. I, toi. 490 and in the Erlangen, opp. var. urs., vol. IV, p. 343. We have translated according to the Jena edition.
**This writing appeared first with Hans Luft in Wittenberg under the title: "Von dm Schlüsseln" around the indicated time (because of the time determination compare the introduction) and already on 20 October a reprint without indication of the place and printer. In the collective editions it is found: in the Wittenberg (1554), vol. VII, p. 418 b; in the Jena (1566), vol. V, p. 217 b; in the Altenburg, vol. V, p. 350; in the Leipzig, vol. XX, p. 266 and in the Erlangen, vol. 31, p. 126. We have followed the text of the Erlangen edition, which reproduces the above-mentioned original print, comparing the Wittenberg and Jena editions, which, by the way, offer few and minor deviations.
The first abuse.
2) There they have taken the noble and dear saying of Christ, when he speaks to Petro, Matth. 16, 19. and 18, 18.: "What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" etc. From this saying they have taken the word "bind" and interpreted and drawn it to mean 1) as much as to command and forbid, or to make law and commandment over Christendom; and therefore they give authority to the pope and 2) boast that he has power to bind the souls and consciences of Christians with laws, so that one must be obedient to him in it, with loss of blessedness and eternal damnation; Again, he that is obedient to him in this shall be saved, have all the sayings of Scripture concerning obedience and disobedience been drawn here, and all the world has been frightened and overpolled with such impudent interpretations of the word of Christ, until at last it has been driven into a fox-horn and has had to suffer vain doctrines of men. Well then, let us see such interpretations and put them before the judgment seat of Christ, that is, before his own word, and hold them against each other.
(3) First of all, dear man, tell me, is it well and right to take a word from one of Christ's sayings and, out of our own will, give it a gloss and a meaning that we like, regardless of whether it rhymes with the text and the saying or not? Should we not do so much honor to Christ and his word that with all fidelity and diligence we take the whole saying from word to word before us and hold it up against each other, so that we can see whether the saying also wants to suffer that I meant a little word to be understood in such and such a way? For if they had looked at the text with slumbering and half-awake eyes, the bright clear light would have struck them in such a way that they would have had to open their eyes and become brave, and thus see that "bind" here would not suffer such a gloss that it should be called law. But since they did not do this, but only heard the word bind as in a dream, they also talk about it like a sleepy drunkard; when
1) Jenaer: sott.
2) "and" is missing in the Erlanger.
You ask him if he wants to go home, and he answers: Me too! means, one brings him one.
4 For, let us hear, in what school does one learn such Latin or German that to bind is to command or to lay down the law? What mother teaches her child to speak in this way? Where then does our key interpreters get this gloss that to bind means to command? How can one say otherwise here than that it comes from one's own wanton poem or from a drunken dream? That is so much to say that they counterfeit God's word and truth with their lies and thus deceive the Christians and serve the devil. But I suppose it is a school where one learns that to bind means to command, and it is a new red-white language that speaks in this way. But how can we be sure that here in the saying of Christ it is also spoken in this way, that to bind means to command, and that Christ's opinion is certain? One must prove it with clear Scripture that it is to be understood as certain. For since this saying is the foundation and main stone on which the entire papacy is based, it must be proved with certainty that to bind can mean nothing else than to lay down the law.
5 If this is not made certain, then everyone must grasp what the papacy stands on, along with its almighty power, namely on an uncertain foundation, standing and walking in darkness and not in light, and cannot even know where it stands or walks, yes, it stands on vain lies, that is certain. For he that teacheth things uncertainly, and leadeth men to believe them, doth lie and deceive as well as he that speaketh a lie manifestly; and in addition, to teach uncertainly is more grievous and yearly a lie than to lie manifestly, especially in such great matters as pertain to eternal life and death. But with what and when do they want to make their lies certain? When the devil goes to heaven. However, the papacy stands on vain lies with its binding keys, I should say, 3) blind keys.
6th On the other hand, it is certain that in the above-mentioned saying Christ speaks of the
3) We have omitted the brackets around the words: "I should say".
906 Erl. si, 129-131. V. Luther's writings on the ransom and binding key. W. xix, 1124-1127. 907
Binding, where sin is bound or retained, just as he also speaks of loosing, where sin is loosed or forgiven; that binding here must mean binding sin, and loosing must mean loosing sin. For there he teaches how our brother, if he sins, is to be admonished, punished, sued, and, if he will not listen, held as a heathen, etc. as we shall hear further on. Now this is also certain, that "binding sin" cannot be so much as commanding or laying down the law, as the papists interpret. For command and law are not sin itself, but sin is something done against the law and commandment; there is no doubt about that, and everyone must confess it. Therefore it will not suffer that one word, as binding, should be called both commanding and keeping sin. One must be false and wrong. The law binds no sin, but commands to avoid future sin and to do good, and is naturally before sins that are not yet; but the key binds past sin, done against the law, and is of necessity, both according to the law and according to sin. So that the pabst's binding and Christ's binding are directly opposed to each other, and neither can be reconciled with the other in the saying. One must be false and lie, that is not lacking.
(7) Third, Christ's binding is intended to save the sinner from sin, and seeks by his binding nothing else than that the sinner's conscience may become free and free from sin. For this reason he punishes and binds the sinner, so that he should leave sin, atone for it and avoid it; and such binding may well be called a salvation of the conscience and help from sins. But the pope's binding is directed to see the innocent consciences and does not want them to be free, but bound, and seeks nothing else than how the consciences are tricked and deprived of their freedom; so that such binding may well be called a prison and cause of sins, as St. Paul says Rom. 7:11, that all laws give cause to sin. So, I think, there is a strong, great, powerful difference between Christ's and the pabst's bindings, that they may not be the same, nor in the same sentence at the same time.
be understood. Christ's binding deals with sins and sinners and causes them to be pious and without sin; the Pope's binding deals with saints and righteous people and causes them to sin and become sinners. For his laws go over all pious innocent Christians; but Christ's key alone goes over the sinners among the Christians; so even his rhymes with Christ's key.
(8) Fourthly, the keys of heaven and eternal life serve and help Christ, for he himself calls them the keys of the kingdom of heaven, namely, that they shut up heaven to the hardened sinner, but open heaven to the penitent sinner. Therefore in the keys of Christ must be hidden his blood, death, and resurrection, so that he has opened heaven to us, and thus through the keys he communicates to poor sinners what he has acquired through his blood. And the office of the keys is a high, divine office, which helps souls from sin and death to grace and life, and gives them righteousness without all merit of works, only through the forgiveness of sins. What, on the other hand, do the keys of the pope do? They command and make outward laws. Dear, what do they help against sin, death and hell? How do they bring a soul to grace and life? How do they open heaven to poor sinners? Yes, behind them! We know very well that even the works of the ten commandments of God do not make one blessed or pious, but only the grace of Christ, through the forgiveness of sins, makes one pious and blessed; how then should the outward laws and papal works, invented by men, which are a complete waste compared to the works of the ten commandments?
(9) Fifth, the keys of Christ require no work, but only faith. For the binding key is nothing else, nor can it be anything else, but a divine prophecy, that it may bring hell upon the hardened sinner. And the loosening key is nothing else, can also be nothing else, but a divine promise, so that it promises the kingdom of heaven to the humble sinner. Now everyone knows that divine prophecy and the promise of
Promises cannot be fulfilled by any works, but must be grasped by faith alone, without any works. For prophecy and promise are not commandments, nor do they tell us what we should do to God, but rather they show us what God wants to do to us, thus teaching us God's work and not our own. On the other hand, the keys of the pope teach us our own work, what we should do, because his binding gives us laws, according to which we should do as we have heard. Do not the keys of Christ and the keys of the pope agree with each other? The former teach the work of God and not the work of man: the latter teach the work of man and not the work of God. Why then does the pope call his keys the keys of heaven, since they help neither to heaven, nor to faith, nor to Christianity, but only to external earthly purposes; they should be called earthly keys, even if they were so good.
(10) Sixth, the epistle Heb. 13:9 says that the outward earthly laws and practices are of no use. A heart must be strengthened by grace, and not by food, which is of no use to those who want to serve God with it; as St. Paul also condemns and condemns such teachings and laws everywhere, and Christ himself says Luc. 17, 20. f.: "The kingdom of God does not come with outward gifts, but is within you"; how can he be so foolish as to give keys to it, so that one should bind his kingdom with outward gifts? Shall at the same time condemn out of his kingdom all outward giving, and yet shall give keys unto it, and command to reign therein with outward giving. For he calls them keys of heaven, which serve the kingdom of God, to which no outward work or law helps, as Christ says. Again, the keys of the Pabst can do nothing else but bind, that is, as they say, command external human works. What is this but to say that the pope's keys are indeed keys to heaven, but they do and can do nothing else, neither that alone, which is not at all useful to heaven, nor does it help to Christianity, but rather is condemned by Christ himself and his apostles, forbidden, and expelled from its
Realm is banished; these may be strange heavenly keys to me.
(11) But such wickedness all comes from denying Christ and wanting to be saved by their own works, so that Christ died in vain (as Paul says) and we are holy in our own righteousness above and apart from grace; therefore the pope must bind us with laws, which if we keep and obey, we go to heaven; if not, we go to hell. So they testify here with their own mouths that they are apostate Christians and deny Christ and his death, and that they exalt themselves above Christ himself. For since their key can do nothing but bind, that is, establish the law, and yet is supposed to be a key to heaven, it is self-evident that they want to go to heaven by law and work, rather than by their key's office. This is what the true Antichrist means, who builds our salvation on our work through his keys, and not on God's grace. And this is the dear fruit of this high art, that binding hot law gives, namely, that Christ is denied with it, and the arch-abomination, our own righteousness, is established and preserved with it.
(12) But we want to advise the matter here, and also serve the papists with a gloss, which shall be this: Just as Christ and the pope have two different keys, so there are also two different kingdoms of heaven, since these two keys belong to them. The one kingdom of heaven is eternal life, for which the keys of Christ help us poor sinners through the forgiveness of sins, which Christ acquired for us through his death and not through our work. This is God's Kingdom of Heaven. The other kingdom of heaven is up in the air, where the devils reign, as St. Paul says; to this the keys of the pope help all his saints who keep his bonds and laws. For such a heaven belongs to such saints, and such a heaven is earned by the laws and works of men. So on both parts are the keys of heaven, but with a great difference, as has been said; therefore also the pope roars in all bulls like a lion, that one should not put oneself in danger of the salvation of the soul, by disobeying his keys, and here is hell.
910 Erl. 31, 133-iZs. V. Luther's writings on the ransom and binding key. W. xix, 1130-1132. 911
very hot. But he who is obedient to his keys is in the bosom of the holy church and blessed, not being allowed either Christ or his keys.
(13) The seventh, that is, if Christ had no longer wanted to give us the keys, for he might well have kept the power to make outward laws and commandments; Christianity might well have advised it. For there are worldly authorities, father, mother, master, wife, friends, old people, etc., who can provide us with laws, discipline, manners, and customs outwardly enough, and there is no need for Christ to give keys to these. For what can the pope's key, with its binding or law-making, accomplish that reason cannot conceive, grasp, and also accomplish, as well as his keys? If Christ with his keys should not give the church anything higher or better than he has given to all the world through reason, our faith and the church itself would not stand on the rock of the divine word, but on human reason. Ah, there it would stand! And certainly the Pabst's church stands thus. For just as his key is a fictitious human gloss, so is the church that he binds with it. Like and like gladly meet.
(14) Eighthly, Christianity has also been harmed by such Pabst's keys: not only the great chief harm and destruction, that Christ's grace is thereby denied and blasphemed, and vain own righteousness is thereby established; but also that it is overwhelmed and overwhelmed with daily, new, innumerable, and infallible laws, and the consciences are grieved and confounded to the utmost, so that under the sun no wretched nation, even for this part, has been, nor can be. Now it is well known that Christ did not give his keys to harm or destroy, nor to burden or oppress his church, but that they should be useful and beneficial to it. Nor should the keys be called the keys of the church or of heaven, but the keys of the pope, for the pope and his family have thereby obtained all power over body and soul, over good and honor; the church has nothing but both bodily and spiritual power.
The result was spiritual damage, and he came under such angry tyrants of the souls.
(15) All this they cannot deny; it is evident in the day by their bulls, books, scriptures, and works, that they have never taught the good faith by the keys, but have kept silence, and with this saying have neither praised nor taught Christ's blood and God's grace, but have only puffed up the Pope's power, how he might bind, and how one must be obedient to him in his laws. This they have blasphemed, brewed and practiced without ceasing, until they have exalted his power, not only over all Christians, but also over all secular emperors, kings and princes in the whole world; then also under the earth over the dead in purgatory; finally also in heaven over the angels, in the most insolent way, and since they could not go any further, they made the pope a god on earth, who would be a mixed god and man, and not a pure man; of which we will say more another time, and give the screamers to cry out. For such infernal and diabolical abominations shall not (if God wills) be covered up as they now hope and think.
(16) Thus we have seen how faithfully the pious people have dealt with Christianity, that they have made the office of the keys into the office of the law, and the words that speak of God's work and grace point to our own work and merit. Natural reason, however blind and without faith it is, must admit that grace and justice are not one and the same, and the same sentence cannot speak of grace and justice at the same time, nor be understood. But whoever would do so, the world would consider him a wicked or foolish man. Now these people do this, not in worldly matters, since it is unpleasant, but here in the word of God and Christ, and do it so that it must be an article of faith; whoever does not believe it must be a heretic, eternally condemned in soul and burned in body for time. How should the screamers rage and howl, if they could seize us in such a cursed, hellish, blasphemous lie, as we have now seized it here!
17. to the ninth, but let's put the same,
If to bind is to mean to lay down the law, then to loose is to mean to abolish the law and to do away with it; for there are two equal powers in relation to each other, both given by Christ in the same sentence, and both keys are of equal magnitude. Now if the pope or his church has power to bind, that is, to make laws; he must also have power to abolish laws; for if the binding is to be pointed to the law, the loosening must also be pointed to it. Well then, the pope may abolish the Ten Commandments of God, the Gospels, and all the Scriptures, and release and loosen all the world from them. If he cannot do this, he cannot bind or give law, for he must be able to do one as well as the other. If he cannot loose and abolish any letter of the holy scriptures, he cannot give any letter of the law.
(18) And indeed he has done it, by which he has cut off and denied Christ (as said above), but has established his law and his work. There are also many who teach that he is over the holy Scriptures, may interpret and change them as he pleases; as he has also done, and boasts of his holy spiritual right, that the holy Scriptures have this from him, that they are called holy Scriptures, and are valid among the Christians, because if he had not confirmed them, they would not be valid, nor would they be holy Scriptures. But let the devil bless him, and I hope that such a blasphemer's mouth is now a little stuffed, even though there are still some who murmur and cackle. For it is said:
Verbum Domini manet in æternum, Jes.
40, 8. And Christ Match. 5, 18: "Not one jot nor one tittle of the law shall pass away; all things must pass away"; and again Joh. 10, 35: "The scripture cannot be broken"; and Luc. 21, 33: "Heaven and earth pass away, but my words do not pass away." This is the man who put a peg in front of the pope, that he should not be able to remove or loose some letter or tittle in the Scriptures; therefore he should not bind or command some letter over the Christians.
19) Yes, you may say, he may solve his own law; this is true, but it is not enough, because the solution key would not be with it.
like the binding key. But just as he can bind, since God has not yet bound anyone, and everything is freely unbound, so he must also be able to loosen, since God has not yet loosened anyone, and everything is bound, otherwise the two powers would not be equal. That would be a bad loosening for me, where I alone could loosen what I had bound; but what another had bound, that I could not loosen: what then should the loosening key do for me? So loosening would be nothing else than that I cease and stop with my binding: so I could not loosen a soul that the devil had bound; that would be a futile loosening key. But Christ says here, "that what the loosening key loosens on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven"; so he gives the power to loosen even that which another has bound, namely, even God himself in heaven. And so do Christ's keys; for they loose on earth what is bound before God in heaven, as the words stand dry and testify: "What you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Both binding and loosing must be the word of God, as we shall hear.
20 And in short, the pope must be able to loose God's commandment and word, which no man, as a man, has bound; or must also not be able to bind, since God has not bound; or will certainly not have the right keys. Then one must lie down: either God, or the Pope, namely, that the Pope annul and loose God's word, or God forbid him, that he also cannot bind, but all his laws must fall. For the two powers are equal and given with each other; whoever does not have one, has none. Now where is the binding law or binding key? It has been taken to water, and one must conclude that they are falsifiers of Scripture, all who say that to bind is to make law, and that Christ has herewith given authority to the pope and bishops to make laws: for he cannot detach a letter from the law (as is proved above); therefore he cannot bind either.
21 To the tenth, here let us first of all hear the right art that follows from this binding. Because to bind is to make law, so surely band must be called a law, ge-
914 Eri. si, 138-140. V. Luther's Writings on the Loosening and Binding Key. W. xix, 1135-1137. 915
The word "bound" must mean a devout Christian who allows himself to be bound with such a bond, that is, who keeps the pope's bond and law and is obedient. Now hold the languages against each other. Christ calls him bound who is banished as a disobedient man, and his sins are retained and not forgiven, as he said in Matt. 22:13. He calls one bound hands and feet, and cast out into darkness. But he calls him loose who is free from his sins and has them forgiven. On the other hand, the pope says, "He who is bound is obedient to my binding, and shall be saved. Loose is he who is free from all God's commandments, and yet must be disobedient and damned. Where now? Christ says: to be bound is to be damned. Pabst says: to be bound is to be blessed; and both speak of the same saying and word in the Gospel. Is it not a tender, blessed thing when one knows how to interpret the Scriptures so finely that they must say "No" when they say "Yes," and speak and strive against themselves? Thanks must be given to our dear Junkers, 1) who have so masterfully interpreted the binding for us.
(22) And since we have just come to the conclusion that the pope should abolish his own law, I must ask: Dear one, when has the pope ever abolished his own law, so that he has plagued Christendom so miserably? When has the loosening key ever been in use and at work? He has always done binding, and the binding key has been in use and practice so that it glistens, but the loosening key has lain idle, rusty and corrupt. Why does the pope have two keys in his coat of arms, when he never needs one of them? One should go as well in the custom as the other. For Christ has given them both to be used and to help his Christians, so it is well known that the pope and his followers do not want to have their law or custom abolished or dissolved for a short time, but continue to press on with binding and increase their law daily. Why is that?
23. egg, dear, so the release key should be in
1) In the old editions: Junkherrn.
If we were to come into use and abolish the bonds or laws in part, that might become a beginning and an evil rupture, to abolish the other laws all together, a strong reformation would go over the ecclesiastical tyrants. Therefore it is better that one always bind and never loose, and yet draw two keys to smear the people's mouths, but keep them alone above the binding key; the loosening key would cause too great a misfortune, taking away both power, honor and property with just as great a heap as the binding key carries it. We can see this before our eyes now, how firmly and hard they hold on, that they do not want to loosen or let go of anything, since they know that they have bound unjustly and against God; they cannot find the loosening key. Rather (they say), if we give way and remit in one piece, we must give way in more pieces; this is not to be done to us. Devil, this is a wise counsel and wise suggestion of such great lords and scholars, which (as can be assumed) will help them splendidly; they truly do not have the key. But what will Christ say to the fact that you have eternally deprived his Christians of the key to the solution? Ah, what Christ! Christ! These are Lutheran antics. Well then, if you do not find the solution key, I will search for it with this little book, and so find that you shall keep neither the binding key nor the solution key, what does it matter? For I hear you say that they are both bound to each other; if we get one, we have them both; if you can bind, we can loose.
24 Yes, they say, the pope also needs the ransom key when he dispenses or permits and slackens his bonds and laws, I would have almost said, sold for money. What should one say? Does that mean loosening, when one sells the bonds of the binding key for money? Why doesn't he also loose for the sake of God, or for the sake of the souls' need? Ah, these are vain Lutheran theidings, Nitül ad propositum, does not serve here. Further, why is the loosening key not as great as the binding key and does not loosen as far, far and wide as the binding key binds? For the binding key goes over the whole of Christendom, never lets anything be loosed through the whole bunch, always binds away, and keeps
But the loosening key helps one or two out of such bonds, but also not out of the free power of his ransom office, but out of the intercession, means and power of the great God Mammon, without whom his ransom office would be dead and nothing at all. Why does the pope have two keys of the same size in his coat of arms, if he does not want to have them of the same size, nor does he want them to suffer? He should let only the binding key fill the field, and let the ransom key be barely a poppy seed, yes, he should have Mammon in its place, and a devil's head with it. So the poor little key must not need his office, but help the binding key to increase money and force, whether the binding key alone would do too little.
The other abuse.
(25) Then they take the dear keys before them, and if they have tortured the text or the words in the saying of Christ with their interpretation, they now torture the keys themselves even worse, which are given to us through the words, and lift up and do it with the keys in such a way that one is sometimes called clavis errans, that is, an erroneous or erring key. As when the pope binds or banishes someone who is not bound before God, or loosens someone who is not loosed before God, the key errs and does not accomplish anything, because it is missing and does not apply properly. And especially the loosening key has to have the driving, that it is missing. For the binding key, especially the one that makes the laws, never errs, nor can it err; for the Holy Spirit governs the pope in the binding key so strongly that he cannot err. But he does not know the solution key, so he lets the pope alone tame it, perhaps because Christ gave us the solution key without the knowledge and will of the Holy Spirit. This irritates the Holy Spirit and does not want to guide him as surely as the binding key. Believe that, or you are a heretic.
26 For all this is so certain that even the binding key, if it does not make laws (as said above), but if it banishes, still cannot err, because there they have a saying (eight I) from St. Gregory, Sententiae nostrae, etiam injustae, metuendae sunt,
That is, if we banish anyone unjustly, they should fear our banishment. You can well reckon that if one must fear the unjust and the wrongful banishment, then he has not failed. Otherwise, why should one be afraid of an unjust ban, when it does not apply, but has failed? For you must think that the pope is so great in heaven that God himself must be afraid of him; and when the pope wrongfully banishes someone, God trembles with all the heavenly host before such papal lightning and thunder on earth, and must condemn the banished person and confirm and execute the wrongful banishment, and thus let go of his divine truth, and become a knave for the sake of the pope, so that the binding key may not be missing. I would rather curse now than write about this abomination, if I could do so; but afterwards we will look at the sentence of Gregory.
27 Well, God greet you here, dear sirs, I would have something to talk to you about, if it would not annoy you. 1) You say that you have a false key: Dear, tell us, what have you sold us in indulgences so far in German lands, yes, in all the world? for this you have taken immense money from us; was it the false key or the key to the meeting? I would like to know. - Have you not read in the bull: Whoever repents of his sin and confesses, has indulgence for sure; we give indulgence; but whether it will be for you, we leave it to you, because we cannot know whether you have repented and confessed rightly, therefore we are also not sure whether the key has hit or missed; it may well be missing and mistaken. - How? but the money you took for it, surely you ordered to keep it, and not to the missing key? - How else? You fool, who would order the wrong key! order money? - Wouldn't it be better to order the souls, which live eternally and can't come back, to the meeting key and the money, which you can get again every hour, to the missing key? - Dear, this is Lutheran talk, we are acting papal now.
1) In the dialog that now follows, we have inserted dashes to distinguish the persons speaking.
918 Erl. si, "2-144. V. Luther's Writings from the Loosening and Binding Key. W. xix, 1140-1142. 919
28. Thank you, and may God reward you for the good comforting instruction! For now I realize that the key to indulgences is not based on God's word, but on my repentance and confession. For if I repent and confess correctly, the key to indulgences helps me; if not, everything is lost, both indulgences and the money I gave for them. But how can I be sure that I have repented and confessed correctly, so that the key to failure becomes a key to success, and God is satisfied with me? - Dear, I will let you take care of that, I cannot know. - Is it then also right, and is it not called stolen, the money, which you take from me for such uncertain goods? for you now have my money, give me indulgence for it, and yet say that it is not certain whether I have it, and I feel just after the purchase, as before the purchase, for I have now just as much as before, namely uncertain indulgence, that is, no indulgence. - How can it be stolen? You gave it to me willingly, and [the money] is now ordered to the key, who cannot be mistaken. - That's right! 1)
29. Further, what do you give us yearly in confession, so that you have conquered the world and have found out that [it] has cost us body and soul, goods and honor without ceasing? - What should we give? - Absolution. - Are you sure of it? If you have repented, and if it is so in heaven, as we absolve, you are certainly absolved; if not, you are not absolved, for the key may be missing. So I hear once again that the key is on my repentance and worthiness before God. And I can become such a fine smith with my repentance, that I can make for our Lord God from his keys both a false key and a key with which to strike. For if I repent, I will make his key a key to hit; if I do not repent, I will make it a key to miss. That is, if I repent, God is truthful; if I do not repent, God is lying. Everything is still fine. But how do I know that my repentance and worthiness are enough before God? Shall I gaze up to heaven and wait until I learn and know for certain that I am a man?
1) These words: "Dem recht" mean as much as: "Wohl geredet" in the next paragraph; of course ironically.
that my repentance will be sufficient? when will something come of it? - I will let you take care of that. - Well said; the penny of confession, which is worth the world's goods, have you nevertheless given it away, and given me a worry and doubt for it? - Let me take care of it.
(30) Further, what more liberties do ye sell us in the letters of butter, and others, than that a man may take his near friend in marriage, and the like? - If the key is not lacking, then you have with God and honor what you buy, but if it is not pleasing before God, nor causes enough, then the key errs and you have it not with right. - But how do I know that [it is] pleasing in the sight of God, and that my cause is sufficient for Him? - I will let you take care of it. - But where have those gone who built on such an uncertain purchase, and so died on it? - I will let them take care of it.
31 Further, if pope, bishops, provosts, officials put someone under ban, even without God's word and command, does such a ban hold? - Oh, there is no doubt about it, for here goes the binding key, which cannot be missing or mistaken, as you have heard. - But how can you know that it is not missing here? - Let me take care of it. - So I hear that when it comes to your power, property and honor, there are all the keys, and none of them can go astray or be missing; but when it comes to helping and advising our souls, you have nothing but all the wrong keys. - Rath baß, you have hit that.
32 Further, if the pope curses kings and princes to the ninth generation (as they say), does such a curse certainly apply and last? since God curses only to the fourth generation in Exodus 20:5, and yet curses no one? - Awe yes, it certainly holds, because that is what the binding key does, which cannot be missing. - How do you know that God confirms such a curse? - Let me take care of that.
33: Further, if the pope blesses such princes and kings in turn, do the keys also apply in the same way? - Where the princes are worthy of blessing in the sight of God, they certainly are, but where they are not, they are missing, for here the key of release is involved, which may well be missing. - But how do I know whether the princes of the
are worthy of blessing before God? - I will let them take care of that.
34. further, the bull of cursing, which is issued annually in Rome on the green Thursday, does it also hit everything that it curses? - If the bull does not hit, which is the noblest work of the binding key? then you hear that the binding key cannot be missing, the Holy Spirit leads it. - How can I be sure that the Holy Spirit will guide him? - Let me take care of that.
35 Further, what do you do in purgatory when you draw souls out through indulgences? Is it certain? - If God in Heaven considers such extracting to be right, then it is certain. -But how do I know 1) that God considers it right? - I'll let you worry about that. - Where is then the great money, which you have stolen and robbed, I wanted to say, gained with the purgatory through such a false key? - Let me take care of it: the key will probably keep it. - Right.
36 Further, if the pope commands the angels to lead the souls of the pilgrims (who die on the journey to Rome in the golden year) to heaven, is it also certain, because Christ alone gives the keys on earth, and the angels are not on earth? - If it is a matter that God calls the angels, what the pope gives, then it is certain. - But how do I know that God calls the angels such? - I will let you take care of that.
(37) Further, when you consecrate priests, ordain bishops, crown popes, anoint emperors and kings, consecrate monks and nuns, consecrate bells and churches, salt and water, and the like, is it also certain?- What may you ask so much? do you not hear? all that the binding key accomplishes is certain; but what the loosening key accomplishes is uncertain. Therefore, what the binding key does in the pieces mentioned above is certain, but what the loosening key does may be missing and is uncertain. - But how do I know that all this is so? - What is of the binding key, let me take care of; what is of the loosening key, I will let you take care of.
38 Dear, has the opinion, why do you not wait with your wrong key?
1) Thus the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers. Erlanger: me.
until you become certain that repentance for sin is sufficient before God, so that you do not have to act so lacking and uncertainly with indulgences and absolution? likewise, why do you not wait so long with the butter letters and all other things until you become certain of everything? one should not act so vainly in the wind with God's command and handle it so carelessly, it is a great sin. - Yes, dear journeyman, if we were to wait so long, we would never get a penny, nor honor, nor power, and the keys would have long since rusted away, and we would be poorer and more wretched than the apostles, prophets, and Christ Himself were. So we do not use the keys in vain or lightly, for they bring us full, important, heavy bags and boxes enough; the apostles handled them lightly and were unable to raise anything with them.
39) One more thing, for God's sake, tell me, where did you get the wrong key? since all of Scripture knows nothing about it, but only has certain keys? - God is silent and does not tell us whether your repentance is right or whether the causes are sufficient to solve and dispense; so we cannot guess either. If now the keys are not to rust, we must therefore act in doubt; if it hits, it hits; if it misses, it misses; as one plays the blind cow 2). - What can I say? So you play the blind cow with our souls, body and goods, and molt in darkness, which I did not know before. Now I realize that you share brotherly with us, you keep the key to our box, money and goods, and leave us the false key to heaven. As far as you are concerned, you have the key; as far as we are concerned, you have the wrong key. - I'll let you take care of that. - Can you say nothing more about things, because: I'll let you take care of it? - Should I not be able to say more? I say to it also: As far as the binding key and meeting key are concerned, there you shall
2) In the Jena and Erlangen editions, "Blindenkue" is here, but in H 70 of this writing, as in the Wittenberg, also here: blinden kue.
922 Erl. 31, 146-148. V. Luther's Writings from the Ransom and Binding Key. W. XIL, 1145-1147. 923
let me take care of it; isn't it enough? - O more than enough, and too much, alas, you are highly learned doctors and experienced people, I must testify. Truly, now I realize why the keys are silver and are carried in red silk, and that Christ wanted to make you masters on earth with the keys, and to make Christianity a captive, miserable handmaid, and did not give the keys at all for the sake of Christianity, but only for your sake. - Of course, how can it be otherwise?
How do you like these people, my dear brother? I mean yes, that is, playing with God's word, as the rogues do, and playing with dear Christianity and the poor souls, as if they were old hands of cards, which God Himself has so dearly purchased through His dear Son's blood and death. Well, the wickedness surpasses all complaining, cursing and anger. If I or one of ours had said and taught that the Pope's key was uncertain and would be missing, help God, what a clamor there would have been, heaven and earth would have collapsed, we would have been heretized first of all, there would have been lightning and thunder with banishment, cursing and condemnation, as if we wanted to weaken the power of the church. For they never liked it when people said that the pope can err and be wrong in matters of faith. But these are all matters of faith. Now they say it themselves, teach and freely confess that absolution in confession is questionable, and where repentance before God is not sufficient, it is nothing; yet they can never indicate which repentance and when it is sufficient, and thus put the poor, miserable consciences out of doubt, so that they may not know how they are, what they have or do not have; nevertheless, they take all their money and goods for such uncertain words and works.
41 It follows that the pope, as long as he had the false key, has never absolved any man in his entire papacy, and has had neither key nor key custom, but, as much as was in him, filled hell with the false key and uncertain absolution. For uncertain absolution is just as much as no absolution; indeed, it is
just as much as lies and deceit. That is, the church of Christ reigns and the sheep of Christ are fed. So also with indulgences; because they are 1) uncertain and based on the repentance of men, the pope, as long as indulgences existed, never gave a day or an hour of indulgence, and his bulls and golden years must have been the greatest robbery and deception that has come on earth. For uncertain indulgences are no indulgences; indeed, they are deception and fraud. But it must be uncertain, because the new one on which it stands is uncertain: for who will say that his repentance is sufficient before God? Yes, what repentance can be sufficient before God? Because not our repentance, but Christ himself must be our repentance and satisfaction before God with his suffering.
42. So also with the dispensation, butter letters and the like, because they are based on the causes, whether these are sufficient before God or not, and yet no man can know the same, so the pope has never given a right butter letter in his lifetime, nor some certain dispensation, because uncertain dispensation is no dispensation, yes, it is vain lies and deception; God is certain and true, does not want to have to do with any uncertain thing, everything must be certain what he does and what is to be valid before him, as Jacobus, 1, 6. 7, says: "Let no one waver or doubt; but if anyone waver or doubt, let him not think that he will receive anything from God." But what do these false keys teach other than to waver, doubt and be uncertain? That is, they teach to despair, to deny Christ and to be condemned. For "he that believeth not is damned" [Marc. 16, 16.] and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" [Rom. 14, 23.]. Now they may not believe here, because the key with its power stands on our uncertain repentance, on our uncertain doings and things, for who can believe on his own work, repentance or things? No one, except the one who is unbelieving and denies Christ, since our works are not God's word.
43 Now go to Rome, get indulgences
1) In the old editions "it", because here "Ablah" is of the neuter gender; but a fluctuation in gender takes place. Immediately following the word is masculine gender.
and butter letters, give money and be dispensed with, be ordained or become a bishop, go on pilgrimage, call on saints, redeem purgatory, confess to such priests, etc., then you will come to know that you do not know what you do, have or are before God, yes, you are deceived and lied to, and serves both parts right. Why do we despise God's word and are so ungrateful to our Lord Christ? It is true that in front of the people they want to believe that what they solve and dispense is certainly a thing and a vain key, in spite of those who say otherwise! But they say to themselves: the key may be missing. That is why they do it: if people believe that it is certain, they get the right key to the whole world's box. But if they know that it is uncertain, false, and a lie, it serves to fill the devil's hell with the souls of Christians, and to make Christ's kingdom desolate; for for what else should he have given them the keys?
Now see what fruit the doctrine of the false key has produced. First of all, God must be its liar. For God has firmly and surely promised through Christ [Matth. 18, 18]: "What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"; these are clear, bright, dry words, which suffer no clavem errantem, false conclusions! He speaks, it shall be certain and not lack: What they bind and loose, shall be bound and loose. But what does Master Pabst say to this? I truly do not know (he says), I want to loose on earth, but whether it will be loose in heaven, I will let you take care of it; he punishes God straight into his mouth. God says, it must be loose in heaven, if it is loose on earth; the pope says, it must not be loose in heaven, if it is loose on earth; the key may well be missing.
(45) What else is this said, but as if he said to God: God, you liar, you say that it should certainly be free, what we solve, and do not see that we also still have clavem errantem, the false conclusion! For since we do not know nor believe that the one we solve is certainly loose, you should not know it either, much less know it so freely and certainly.
say, 1) and thus make the people so safe and early. For what would you know that we should not know? What may you promise the people that we do not promise? If the redeemed is pious and worthy, he is loosed by our loosing; if he is not pious, though we loosen him, he is not loosed. But because we do not know whether he is righteous, both the key and the release are uncertain; for the key and its power are not based on your word, but on our knowledge whether the man is righteous or not. But since this knowledge is eternally uncertain, our solution must also remain eternally uncertain, and you must be lying if you say so arrogantly that what we solve should certainly be free.
(46) They do the same honor to our Lord Christ with the same, as he has not acquired more with his blood than false keys and uncertain loosening, and has led his dear bride, Christianity, on a monkey's tail, as a deceiver or a cheat, (2) gives her uncertain keys, means to bind and loosen her, since she must be uncertain whether it is bound or loosened, because she cannot see or know the hearts of men, as the pope says. But for the binding key to be certain, so that they could see Christianity through its lies and abominations, God must be true and let such tyranny and evil be strengthened by His name and word, and must hear that God is doing this. Thus, on both sides, through both keys, he must be most abominably defiled and blasphemed; there he must be a liar in the loosening key, here he must be a knave in the binding key: thus shall God be taught to speak.
47 From this it is easy to see that these people do not consider the keys to be a divine endowment, work, order or office, but like the Turks and pagans they consider it to be a human order or office, as if it were in their power, like a worldly authority. For they do not base it on the word of God, but on the work and cause of men.
1) So the Wittenbergers. Jenaer and Erlanger: to say.
2) Written in the Wittenberg and the Jena: Blastücker. It is a word synonymous with "deceiver". In the first editions of the New Testament 2 Cor. 4, 2. "and do not deal in mischievousness" is rendered: "vnd wandeln nicht ynn blasztuckerey".
If the people are pious, the key releases, if they are not pious, it does not release; according to this, the people are, according to this, the key also applies and creates, and otherwise not. Likewise, the binding key does not stand on God's word, but on Pabst's good pleasure. When they are ready, he must lay down the law, and also bind, God granting, whether against God's word or not, and must also be called bound; for there it is written: Sic volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas. 1) God must approve; where is he going, the poor man?
(48) Even if they thought it was God's ordinance or ministry, it would be impossible for them to make a false key out of it. For God's ordinances are certain and cannot fail, as little as His word can lie and deceive, just as baptism and sacrament and the ministry of preaching are also God's ordinances, do not err and do not fail, and it is not to be suffered that one would make two baptisms, one hit baptism and one miss baptism, or two gospels, one hit gospel and one miss gospel, or two sacraments, one miss sacrament and one hit sacrament.Sacraments, a miss sacrament and a hit sacrament; for it is all true what God speaks and does. Otherwise, one would also have to say that God would be a two-fold God, a hit God and a miss God, and all His creatures would have to become twofold. So also, where they held the binding key for God's order, they would never be able to say or teach that it was right or to be kept, if they set law or banish wrong with it. For the key does not guard such things, but they themselves under the appearance of the key and under the name of God, so that they cover their tyranny and evil with blasphemous abuse.
49 Secondly, the fruit of such teaching is that it disturbs Christianity and the faith. For where a Christian hears and is told that the keys may err and be lacking, it is not possible for him to be certain and believe what the key promises him. For what one is to believe, one must be certain or ever be certain that it is God's Word and the
1) A saying of tyrants: "This is how I will, this is how I command; instead of a reasonable reason, my will shall prevail."
Let there be no doubt about the truth; otherwise there remains nothing but an uncertain delusion and fickle faith, yes, a real unbelief, that cannot be lacking. Since the pope and his followers freely confess and boast that their keys may err and be missing, everything and everything in the papacy must be thoroughly uncertain about what they do. For he does not know whether he binds or loosens rightly; so his subjects must also be uncertain whether they are loose or bound, whether they live or do rightly or wrongly, that is, they must be fickle believers, yes, vain unbelievers, unchristians, Turks and heathens. So one blind man leads another, and both fall into the pit.
(50) What kind of church is the Pabst's church? It is an uncertain church of inconstancy or a church of doubt, yes, a false church of lies, which floats in doubt and unbelief without God's word, for he teaches it to doubt and to be uncertain with his false keys. If it is a church of doubt, it is not the church of faith, for it stands on a certain rock, even against the gates of hell, Matth. 16, 18. If it is not the church of faith, it is not the Christian church, but must be an unchristian, antichristian, faithless church, which disturbs and corrupts the true holy Christian church. So they testify here with their own mouths that the Pope must be the right end-Christ, who sits in the temple of God and is a corrupter and sin-master, as St. Paul says 2 Thess. 2, 3. Dear God, one should not make the keys uncertain and unstable. Preach with all your might that they certainly tell 2) God's word, which is to be believed without any doubt; yet it is hard enough for a wretched conscience to believe: what should it do, then, if you first make it uncertain what it is to believe, and thereby strengthen and confirm its doubt and despair?
(51) The third fruit, that it is the work of men and their own righteousness, contrary to the righteousness of Christ, which is given to us by grace through faith. Hereby they can be mightily convinced of the abomination. For with their uncertain fallacies they do not only make God's word too false, they also make it false.
2) In the Jena edition: gewiß gewiß.
But also refer people from such a word of God to their own works and merits, and say: If thou art penitent and pious, and hast right things, the keys will help thee, and not otherwise. What else is this said but this: You must earn grace and become worthy of it by your own works before God, after which the keys will also help you? Tell me, how could a Christian be put deeper into his works and more vehemently provoked to his merit and driven further from God's grace and Christ's blood than with such teaching? Teachings to this effect make of God a false judge, who should and must look at the persons and our work, and sell His grace, and not give it out of mercy. Shall I first earn grace before God by my deeds, what devil shall the keys be to me, if they cannot give me grace, but I must first have earned grace before God? If I have the grace beforehand, then I look neither at the keys nor at the pope. For "if God is for us, who will be against us?" [Rom. 8, 31.]
52 From this you must understand that the pope's keys are not keys, but the sleeves or the bowls of the keys, or, as he shows by deed and carries them in his coat of arms, they are truly painted, empty keys, which fill the eyes, but give nothing to the soul, for you hear here that they themselves confess that the keys do not give grace, nor is there any grace from God in them, but man must first, without the keys, acquire grace through himself. If, then, the keys are so empty that they do not bring grace but demand it, they need not be true keys, for the true keys are full of grace and bring and give grace (as we shall hear) even to the unworthy and undeserving, yes, only to the unworthy and undeserving. Because their keys are so insane and empty, you can see how purely and finely they have cut off, denied and condemned the Lord Christ with them, and give the keys to the unworthy and undeserving.
1) "the" is missing in the Jena.
2) Delusion - vain, void, empty, as in delusion grain - empty ear.
LnthrrS Works. Vol. HX,
Nothing more to them than the grace of the pope or, as they speak, the grace of the church, that the sinner is reconciled with the pope or the church. But God's grace he must earn himself without the keys. It is fine the other way around, that Christ should have given his keys to obtain the grace of man, but God's grace must be obtained by ourselves without the keys and without Christ. These may be abominable abominations, if Christ has certainly given the keys, so that only God's grace can be obtained through them. He has provided other ways and means for people and churches to obtain grace.
(53) Over all this they have a higher power, that they are so powerful with keys; if they want it, it must be a false key; again, if they want it, it must be a key to hit. I will tell you a fine example of this. Now at the Imperial Diet the Pope's legate, Cardinal Campegius, let himself be heard. The pope might want to dispense or permit both forms of the sacrament and priestly marriage, but that he should permit monks and nuns to marry, he cannot do; the key would have to be missing and mistaken. Now the pope has often done it, and it must not be called a false key nor error, as is known, and whoever would have called it error would have been condemned to the lowest hell; but because a cardinal, his legate, calls such an error, it is an article of faith. So they deal with us poor Christians, today yes, tomorrow no; today error key, tomorrow hit key; and yet both are vain articles of faith, are the same thing: the Germans must believe it. But where have those gone whom the pope let come out of the monasteries for marriage, because they believed it was right, and the Cardinal now says it is wrong? What does the 3) pope and cardinal ask about it? is enough that people believe it is right if they want to, and in turn must also believe it is wrong if they want to.
54 Come, we know almost well that
3) "the" is in the old editions, missing in the Erlanger.
930 Erl. si, 154-15". V. Luther's writings on the ransom and binding key. W. xix. 1155-1157. 931
the whales do not consider us Germans to be human beings, but vain shells or schemes, so proud and sure that they think that if a lazy bombard were to kidnap a cardinal, a new article of faith would be born for the Germans. We do this ourselves, and it is our fault that we are such muzzlers and let ourselves be simulated and fooled in this way. But I hope that they will now have felt us moles a little, and that the nonsensical Balaam will also have to listen to his ass for once. Do they not want to dispense and allow them to leave it; the wretched devil asks them for it in my place; he puts in his dispensation and hangs it on his neck; I want to do and leave what I know is God's word, and not first of all ask his enemies and blasphemers, the mules of Rome, whether they want to allow it, but follow the proverb and say: Leave, come after. For they shall not set their chair over God's word to me, and teach him what he shall call us; that I will well refuse them for my person, if God will.
55 And summa, we do not want to suffer the word "false key" in Christianity; the wretched devil has brought it up from hell to disturb the faith, gospel and God's kingdom. No pious, Christian heart can stand it either. There should be certain vain keys in the Christian church, and no one should dispute or ask whether the key is wrong or missing. For that is the same as asking whether God's word may lie or be missing. Rather, one should diligently inquire about it and carefully note whether it is the key or not. If it is the key, then be sure that there is neither lack nor error, but a true meeting and certainly God's business. Just as I should not ask whether the gospel is right or wrong, for the gospel is right and cannot be wrong. But it is necessary to ask and see whether it is the gospel or not. If it is the gospel, it is no longer a question of whether it is right, but a matter of firm faith and living by it.
56. I once heard of a wise man who said: Clavis non errat, sed Papa errat. The key is not missing (he said),
but the pope is probably missing. And that is also rightly said. Just as I may say that the gospel does not err, but the preacher or pastor does err when he teaches his dreams under the appearance of the gospel. In the same way, the key does not err, but the pope errs when he is acting with arrogance and conceit under the name and appearance of the key. They turn this around and say: Clavis errat, Papa non errat, the key is missing, the pope is not missing, and before they want to let a man be missing, they would rather say that God is missing in his word and work. On this the Pabst's mules, his Curtisans, have a main slogan: Non est praesumendum, quod tantae Celsitudinis Apex erret, it is not to be assumed that such high majesty is mistaken. This is a true Turkish saying, who also say of their empire: "It is not to be assumed that God will let such a great people err and be condemned. Yes, rely on it and do not bake. One should also consider that such high majesty is not God, but man; but a man sins, lacks, denies and trusts, as the Scripture says.
But tell me, dear mules, if it is not to be assumed that such high majesty is wrong, why is it to be assumed that the keys and the divine majesty are wrong? Or is the key and God not as high as the pope? The keys are not men, but God's word and work, over all men. Therefore, God did not want to command any man to govern His Christian Church, but kept it for and to Himself, and commanded that nothing but His word should be taught. For he knows that if we teach without his word from ourselves, it is vain error, falsehood, lies and sin, so that we alone may be his instruments and give him our tongues, that he himself and only through us may speak and rule, so it is said. On the other hand, these mules teach that the pope should rule and not God, and that one should believe the pope and not the keys. Because the pope cannot err, one believes him. But because the keys of God err, he cannot be believed. So one should believe the christian
The Lord has said that he will teach and govern the church, so that it will become a devil's kingdom full of lies, unbelief and all abominations; this belongs to hominibus peccati et filiis perditionis, who corrupt the whole world with sins.
The third abuse.
So far we have heard how they have divided the keys in two ways: once they made binding keys and loosening keys out of them, to make laws with them and to give up laws or to allow them, the other time they made error keys and hit keys out of them. Not enough, they have divided the third time into Clavem Potestatis et Scientiae, that is, one key is called the key of power, and the other is called the key of knowledge. And these are the right two keys that the pope holds, which he also means seriously. So it goes, where one once comes out of the track, there is no end nor cessation of the misleading, and must always have one lie seven others to the lid, and yet does not help.
The key of power means that the pope has power in heaven and earth to command and forbid as and what he wills; he can install and depose emperors, kings, princes, he can rule and govern all authorities, he can command the angels in heaven, he can set purgatory free. And what can one say much? They argued about it for a long time, whether the pope was a man or God, but finally decided that he was God's governor on earth and an earthly god, a person fused from God and man, mixtus deus et homo; that is what the key of power does.
Therefore, the terrible decrees in the ecclesiastical law roar and thunder that God has given St. Peter Jura simul coelestis et terreni Imperii, as Nicolaus III writes, that is, the pope is emperor in heaven and on earth, that Christ has given St. Peter. And again, C. Pastoralis, the pope boasts that there is no doubt that if the empire is emperorless, he is the right emperor, and in C. Solitae he speaks that the pope is above the emperor as far as the sun is above the moon. And of the ghastly and ghastly thunderbolts
1) Wittenberger: "and the", probably a misprint.
are much more in the spiritual right, that probably in the revelation, Cap. 10, 1. ff, John writes: The angel of the clouds roared like a lion, and seven thunders answered him. They have done the same to this day, deposed and installed many emperors and kings, cursed and expelled princes, and made themselves lords over all lords, kings over all kings, by virtue of this key of power.
61 The key of knowledge is that the pope has power over all rights, both spiritual and temporal, over all doctrine, both of God and of men, over all affairs and things, over all questions and errors. And summa, he is judge over all that can be spoken and thought in heaven and earth by this key, just as he is lord over all that can be done in heaven and earth by the key of power. And this is and is rightly called the pope with his threefold crown, an emperor in heaven, an emperor on earth, an emperor under the earth. If God had something more, he would also be an emperor above, and would have to wear four crowns. What he now calls to be done and to live by the key of power, that has been done and lived in all the kingdoms on earth; but what he does not want to have done nor lived, that has not been done nor lived. So also, what he wants to have taught, preached, judged, acted, that must be called taught, preached, judged, acted; what he does not want to have taught, preached, judged, acted, that is not taught, preached, judged, acted, God grant, be it God's word or worldly law, it must be heresy, because he is Lord over all authority and doctrine, over all kingdoms and law in heaven and on earth. Dear, who would not want such an emperorship, if it could be given to him?
Therefore he roars again in his spiritual right, that Judicantium throni etc., all emperors and kings chairs, which judge there, must learn the right from him and receive to fief, and, Cuncta: the whole Christendom by the whole world knows that one cannot teach the pope nor judge, but allzumal .they must let themselves judge from him. Item, that also the Holy Scripture and God's Word must receive fiefdom from him, that is, robur
934 Erl. Sl, 158-160. V. Luther's writings from the loosening and binding key. W. XIX, 1160-1162. 935
et auctoritatem accipere, as his words read, and the sum of it is, neither God nor man may say to the pope: What are you doing? or, Why are you doing this? but he may do and teach what he wants, unpunished, unhindered and unmastered. There is much of this abominable roaring in his spiritual laws and cops, and these are all the highest articles of the Christian faith, that you would rather deny God himself than this one, and many pious people have been burned and strangled over it.
63 Well, now you have thoroughly what Christ meant by the saying to Peter: "What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven," namely, Peter, if you trample underfoot emperors and kings, it shall be right; if you dissolve my word, it shall be dissolved: you shall be God, I will never be God. Is it not a fine interpretation? But it is not necessary to fight much against it, it would make too big a book, since such an interpretation of this saying is known to almost everyone, even to those who are attached to the pope, that it is false and a lie. For Christ did not give St. Peter authority to rule either in heaven or on earth, but separates his kingdom from the worldly kingdom and confesses before Pilate [John 18:36] that his kingdom is not of this world, but it is a kingdom of truth. And again to his disciples [Luc. 22, 25. 26.] "Worldly rulers rule and have authority over them. But ye shall not do so." With these and such bright sayings, Christ reproves the worldly rule to Petro and his disciples and admonishes them to their office and service, to which he has called them, and to let worldly rulers wait for theirs.
64 Although this shameful abuse and misunderstanding is not as horrible as the previous two, nor has it done such murderous harm to the soul, for where God's Word remains, a Christian may still remain and be saved, his bishop or pastor may become a worldly lord.
1) "a" is missing in the Erlanger, but is in the old editions.
or not, since secular rule does not harm his faith, could also still well suffer that pope and bishops would be and remain lords, because they express and shun the episcopal office, if they alone help the spiritual office through others drive and promote: but such misunderstanding has done great bodily harm, because the pope and his have thereby caused much war, blood, murder and misery among emperors, kings, princes, countries and people. As it must be, whoever is a liar must also become a murderer, as the devil, his father, also is; that, of course, by this interpretation the pope has long since fallen from St. Peter's inheritance, and may no longer be St. Peter's descendant, but the emperor's, or rather the devil's.
65. Christ has given his keys to the church to the kingdom of heaven, and not to the earthly kingdom, as he says: "It shall be loose in heaven." But what does the worldly kingdom help a Christian to heaven? Yes, if it could help to heaven, Christ should not have come from heaven. There have been such fine kingdoms before and after, both armed with force and seized with rights. Even so he himself might have become a temporal king, if it were useful or necessary for heaven. But since he did not do this, it is good to reckon that he did not give his keys to the temporal power, and the pope and his own falsely and wickedly interpret the fine saying of Christ to temporal power, and yet they do not repent or atone for it, they go on stubbornly until they fail.
66 But I must not leave it undisclosed that they include Clavem Scientiae, the key of knowledge, with the keys given to St. Peter and the apostles, Matth. 16 and 18. And although some teachers also do this, it is still not right, and one should not take up the teachers' word so carelessly and base oneself on it without certain testimonies of Scripture. For from this misunderstanding has almost come the grievous abomination of the fallacy, that they have thought that the key cannot bind nor loose, because one actually knows how things stand before God, which is impossible. Even,
as if Christ had commanded them with the key of knowledge that they should neither bind nor loose anything, for they knew beforehand how man was before God. But they themselves did not keep such a commandment, but bound and loosed it like the blind, and after that they talked themselves out of it with a false key, as if it was not their fault that they were wrong and lacking. Now it does not rhyme well that they believe that one must know and yet may bind without knowledge on an uncertain level. So one lie must always give birth to another and betray each other.
67 But we say that the key of knowledge does not belong to the keys that we are now dealing with from Matth. 16 and 18. It is completely a different key. The two keys are called the binding key and the loosening key, according to the words of Christ, "what you bind, what you loose" etc. But of the key of knowledge he speaks Luc. 11, 52. to the Pharisees thus: "Woe to you scribes, you have the key of knowledge; you do not enter, and resist those who want to enter." Here Christ does not give the key, but says that they have it, and must be old keys before Christ opened heaven: therefore he also calls it the "key of knowledge," or to knowledge, that it should serve for knowledge. And to this he says, "that they themselves cannot enter in. Into what? To knowledge, because they have the key to it; and they resist those who would enter to knowledge.
(68) From this I understand that Christ here speaks neither of binding nor loosing, but of preaching and teaching; and this key is nothing else than the teaching key, that is, the teaching office, the preaching office, the pastorate, by which people are to be led to knowledge, so that they may learn and know how they are to serve God and be saved. This is the knowledge he calls here, which many a devout heart would like to know and would like to enter into and gain; but it is prevented and seduced by those from whom it should learn and gain, as those who have the
1) Erlanger: "from".
They had the key and the office. So did the Pharisees; if they wanted to bring people to the knowledge of Christ and of the truth, they would go to them, forbid them, teach against them, and this had to be heresy, so that they prevented many who would have liked to know the truth. As it has always happened, the most pious, who would have liked to know the truth, are most often deceived. For those who despise the truth and are reprobate,2) the devil cannot deceive, they are already his.
69 Therefore St. Matthew Cap. 23. calls their hindering and hindering a key, which they misuse to shut heaven, and says: "Woe to you, Christian scholars and Pharisees, you hypocrites, who shut the kingdom of heaven in the sight of men; you do not enter, and those who want to enter, you do not let enter. Now the Pharisees did not have St. Peter's key, that is certain; so Christ here also does not speak of binding and loosing, but he speaks of pious people who would like to go to heaven, and they are resisted by force, injustice, lies and deceit. Therefore it is said of the common preaching ministry, which is to open heaven to all the people and proclaim it. But the keys of St. Peter are only for some, namely for sinners, therefore we should not mix the keys together like the industrious sleepy theologians do, but distinguish well and finely, so we can stay in the pure and certain truth and avoid all misunderstanding.
It is true that one must know and be certain who and what one is to bind and loose. For God's order is not to play the blind man's game, as we will hear later. But the knowledge of which they call the key, namely, that one should know how man stands before God, that is nothing, and makes the key a false key. Therefore, we do not want to have such a knowledge key, nor do we want to suffer from it, as little as we want to suffer from the error key, and we should keep both of them in Christianity.
2) Thus the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers. Erlanger: Ruchlosen. If the latter reading is the original one, the word would have to be written in lower case. The verb "ruchlosen" would then have to be taken in the meaning of "verruchlosen".
938 Eri. 31, 1S3-165. V. Luther's Writings on the Loosening and Binding Key. W. XIX, 1165-1167. 939
not be holy. Therefore, we do not want to suffer the key of authority or the key of rulership, nor should we suffer it in Christianity, just as we do not want to suffer the key of binding, which establishes laws, and the key of loosening, which dispenses and sells vacations for money. We want to have and keep the common doctrinal key, and then for those who sin, the right binding and loosening key.
The fourth abuse.
71 The old and right understanding of this saying, which has remained from the time of the apostles and has hardly remained at all, must now be used, so that they may not leave anything untreated and untreated in this saying. They have made six keys and have interpreted the words as they wished. Now they take the right keys and the right mind also before them and proceed with them, as we shall see. But the right mind and the right keys are not to make laws or to sell vacations, nor to bind wrongly or to loose wrongly, nor to seek violence or to know secret things, but only to bind sin and to loose sin, that is, to banish and to absolve, or to put under ban and to take out of ban, for this is what Christ speaks of, and there he gives the keys. But we also see enough banishing and absolving in these people; but how do they deal with it?
First of all, the "right sins" that are to be punished with anathema, for which the keys are also given, so that they can be bound and loosed, they pay no attention to them, take very little care of them, and even let the keys lie here and rust away. For if they wanted to use the keys. Dear, how many popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, princes, lords, nobles, citizens and peasants would be free from the ban and binding key? There is such a free, impudent, unpunished life everywhere, especially among the clergy, where all kinds of shameful vices reign like a flood of sin, with avarice, robbery, stealing, splendor, fornication, etc., that even God and the world can no longer bear them. I will yet be silent of the abominable sin, that they all take and despise the name of Christ.
But his words are so high that the clergy cannot read them or teach them, and the others cannot hear or learn what the true capital sins are that should be bound, punished and banished with the key. But how can they bind, because they are worse and more guilty than all the others?
73 Therefore their rule is that they confidently practice the binding key with the law, and the loosening key with the remission of sins, unfortunately too much, as if they should say with the deed: Christ has given us power by the keys, that we should bind other people in all the world and plague them with laws, but to us he has given power, that we may live free, unpunished and unashamed, in the most shameful way, and have freely remitted all kinds of sin. As St. Peter, 2 Petr. 2, 14, says of them: Incessabiles delicto, "Their sin is no defense." So then binding and loosing may rhyme well with each other and their new mind with the old mind 1) Agreement that binding belongs there to trick other people with laws; but loosing belongs here to them, that they may live free without restraint.
74 This may be called the saying of Christ: What you bind, let it be bound, that is, all the world; and what you loose, let it be loosed, that is, we clergy. This understanding would be delicious and very useful and comforting for the Christian church. For according to the first mind they would improve the church by their holy laws, according to the other mind they would improve it with their beautiful life. This would mean that the church was helped both by words and works, both by doctrine and example. The devil meant this by their binding, and he also did it.
(75) Secondly, instead of the right sin, they practice the keys of vain imaginary false sins, and so they deceive with the command and word of God, like the jesters or the lottery boys. For their binding and loosening
1) Thus the Jenaers. The Wittenbergers and the Erlangeners: Stand.
The only sins are those that go against the laws of the church, and those that concern the penny and the plates, which must be called the capital sins. Murder, adultery, blasphemy and the whole sodomy is nothing, but to touch, hinder or neglect the church's avarice and splendor, there flashes and thunders the binding key. Again, who leaves them the avarice and splendor, there the loosening key laughs and shines. Now we have heard above that they have no power to make laws over Christendom; therefore there can be no real sin where they are not kept. For let no man consent by deed to the laws of the ecclesiastics, as if they were right and to be kept, lest he be guilty of their iniquity and unrighteous violence.
If there are no sins here, then both binding and loosing must be a mere jugglery and monkey play, so that the keys of God are desecrated, and the Christians are grieved without any cause, yes, even deceived, so that they must fear, since there is no fear, as the 14th Psalm v. 5. 1) says, and serve God in vain, as Christ Matth. 15, 9. says, yes, are forced to false and harmful worship, from faith and God's command to their invented false laws and works; for this ban or binding strengthens and maintains that binding, since they make laws with it. But a Christian knows and should also know that both such binding and loosing is a cobweb, and should avoid it and despise it, even condemn it as a blasphemy, and say from Psalm 109:28: "If they curse, you bless; if they banish, you loosen; if they anger, you laugh. For as their laws are, so is their ban. As the law and the ban are, so is their church. As the church, so is also their God, everything and everything is vain jugglery, but under the name of the holy GOttes-Schlüfsel. The name of God must be their jugglery to seduce the dear Christianity, to corrupt both Sacrament and faith, and to deny Christ, and to forget God. O of the sorrowful abomination!
1) Here the Erlangen edition of Walch's old edition reprinted Ps. 14, 9, although the psalm has only seven verses.
Thirdly, they make it still worse, binding and banishing, also persecuting, murdering and burning the holy people of Christ, since they know that there is no sin, but only right and truth, namely, they knowingly banish the gospel, because they confess that both forms of the sacrament are right, marriage and food are free, and the teaching of the gospel is the truth; but because they themselves have not taught such things, it must be heresy, since the binding key goes right, both over body and soul. Again, whoever whistles and howls with them, helps to handle such blasphemy, banishment, binding and murder, not only becomes free from all sins and heresy, but is the dearest child and the greatest saint, must become bishop and cardinal, canon and prelate. This means to use the key correctly, and to bind the right sins, and to loose the right penitents, namely, to loose Barabbam, and to crucify the Son of God. For the Jews also knew well that Barabbas was a public murderer, and Christ a holy man; nor must Barabbas be loosed as a holy man, and Christ die as a murderer. So let sin be sought, found, and made, that the binding key may work, and not rust, but punish and condemn pious Christians here and there. And so one should find virtue and good works, so that the loosening key also has to do, reward and crown the murderers, seducers, blasphemers and heretics, both here and there, that is a praiseworthy custom of the keys.
You see from all this that the pope has never bound or loosed any man in these matters, neither banished nor unbanned, but everything has been vain mirror fencing and blind shielding, and it is found that no one has so few of the keys as he who boasts the most of the keys, carries them everywhere in his coat of arms and paints them on the walls. And how can he also have the keys, if he does not have the Word of God, nor can he suffer it? Truly, where God's word is not, the keys do not remain; they want to be with God's word and in the church, or do not want to be keys. That is why Christ, together with the pope, has finely divided Himself into the keys.
942 Erl. 31, 167-1SS. V. Luther's writings on the ransom and binding key. W. XIX. 1170-1172. 943
the right keys, and leaves to the pope the painted keys, which he may put in his coat of arms or on the wall; in the church of Christ they have neither field nor room.
79 But what do you say to the saying of Gregory above: Our ban is to be feared, even if it were unjust? This is what I say: The saying is Gregory's or his mother's, so the devil has spoken it; I may still happily look at the doctor, who wanted to teach that I should be afraid of injustice and lies, even if it were an angel from heaven, and may take his terrible ban called and lead enhindern, and wipe the noses on it, where Adam's children sit on. What then shall also such shameful blasphemy, which may impudently command us Christians, publicly fear injustice and known lies and worship for a God? If St. Gregory had said such things, meant such things, and had not atoned for them, he would be in the abyss of hell. But I do not want to condemn Gregory.
80. but this is ever a great plague, so that the Roman mules and the sophists in high schools and monasteries have plagued us, that they have always made the sayings of the dear fathers articles of faith and do not hear St. Paul, 1 Thess. 5, 21.Nor do they think that the more holy the dear fathers were, the more they had to suffer and wait for temptations of evil thoughts and secret wiles from the devil without ceasing, which some of them sometimes had to bring out with their tongues and pens, as we see that Job speaks against God in his temptation. They have been men as well as we, have also had to pray: Forgive us our trespasses, and lead us not into temptation etc. What evil has come from this saying, I do not blame Gregory so much as the mules and sophists, who like swine eat everything without distinction that they find in the dear fathers, and eat the filth and the evil rather than the good, or where something is pure and holy in it; only that they may feed the belly well.
81. that is from the key abuse
now in the worst possible way, otherwise, where I would have wanted to be angry and take revenge, it should have sounded differently. Whoever now wants to be a Christian, let him think that he thinks nothing of all the keys of the pope, and let him stay with these two right keys of Christ and his church, which do not make laws and sell them again for money, as the first two keys of the pope do; Nor are they uncertain when they miss or hit with their binding and loosening, as the other two, the miss key and hit key, do; nor do they have to do with worldly rule nor secret knowledge, as the third two keys do; nor do they deal with fictitious sins and virtues, as the last two do. Let these keys, every eighth, sixth, fourth, twelfth, or however many they want to make out of them, always be put away and let the pope bear them in his coat of arms, for they disturb the faith in Christ, take away all comfort and counsel of our conscience, and set our own righteousness of works against God, and teach us to forget and deny Christ, as we have heard. For our soul must truly be sure of this, that it may rely and be comforted 1) against sin and eternal death. Therefore, the keys must be vain judgments of God's word, or they are not the right keys.
82. Then think that the keys or forgiveness of sins do not stand on our newness or worthiness, as they teach and practice, for that is quite Pelagian, Turkish, pagan, Jewish, Anabaptist, enthusiastic and end-Christian, but again that our repentance, work, heart and what we are should rely on them with all confidence as on God's word, and in case of loss of body and soul not doubt what the keys tell you, heart and all that we are, should rely on the keys and confidently trust in them as in God's word, and in case of loss of body and soul, should not doubt what the keys tell you and give you, as surely as if God Himself spoke it, as He surely speaks it Himself; for it is his command and his word, and not the word or command of man. But if you doubt, you punish God by lying, pervert His order, and build His keys on your repentance and worthiness. Repent you shall (that
1) Thus the Wittenberg and the Jena editions. Erlanger: should.
is true), but that therefore the forgiveness of sins should become certain and confirm the work of the key, that is, forsake the faith and deny Christ. He will not forgive and give you sin for your sake, but for his own sake, out of pure grace, through the key.
Let us now speak a little of the keys, for the right reason and according to the truth. Christ says: "What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Notice here that he certainly, certainly promised that what we bind and loose on earth shall be bound and loosed, here is no false key. He does not say: What I bind and loose in heaven, you shall also bind and loose on earth, as the teachers of the wrong key fool. When would we know what God binds 1) or loosens in heaven? Nevermore, and the keys would be in vain and of no use. Neither saith he, Ye shall know what I bind and loose in heaven: who would or could know it? But thus saith he, If ye bind and loose on earth, I will bind and loose with them in heaven; if ye do the work of the keys, I will do it also; yea, if ye do it, it shall be done, and there is no need that I should do it after you. What you bind and loose (I say), I will neither bind nor loose, but it shall be bound and loose without my binding and loosing; it shall be one work mine and yours, not two; one key mine and yours, not two; if you do your work, mine is already done; if you bind and loose, I have already bound and loosed.
He commits and binds himself to our work, yes, he commands us his own work; why then should we make it uncertain, or turn back, and pretend that he must bind and loose in heaven before? Just as if his binding and loosening in heaven were different from our binding and loosening on earth, or as if he had different keys up in heaven than these on earth, when he clearly and plainly says that they are the keys of heaven and not of earth.
1) Erlanger: bind.
Earth keys. My keys (says he) you shall have and no other, and shall have them here on earth. He cannot have other keys above and apart from these keys of heaven, which are not to lock in heaven, but above or apart from heaven; what would they lock there? If they are the keys of heaven, they are not two keys, but one key that closes here on earth and above in heaven, one binding and loosing here on earth and above in heaven.
But such thoughts of two keys come from the fact that one does not consider God's word to be God's word, but because it is spoken by men, one looks at it as if it were man's words, and thinks that God is high above and far, far, far away from such a word that is on earth, and then looks up to heaven and writes other keys. And Christ speaks here clearly that he wants to give the keys to Petro, Matth. 16, 19. He does not say that he has two different keys: but the same keys that he himself has and has no others, he gives them to Petro, as if he should say: Why are you looking up to heaven for my keys? Do you not hear that I have given them to Petro? They are the keys of heaven (it is true), but they are not in heaven. I have left them down on earth, you shall not look for them in heaven nor anywhere else, but you shall find them in Peter's mouth, where I have put them. Peter's mouth is my mouth, and his tongue is my key bag, his office is my office, his binding is my binding, his loosening is my loosening, his keys are my keys, I have no others, nor do I know of any others: what they bind is bound, what they loose is loosed, not otherwise, as if there were no binder or loosener in heaven or on earth. If there are more or other keys, whether in heaven, on earth, or in hell, they are none of my business. I know nothing about them; whatever they bind or loose, I do not inquire. Therefore, do not turn to them, and do not let them make a mistake. I only look at what my Peter binds and loosens; I hold to that, you also hold to that, then you are already bound to me.
and loose. For Peter binds and looseth in heaven, and no man else. Behold, this is rightly thought and spoken of the keys.
Now we have what the keys are, namely an office, power or command, given by God to Christianity through Christ, to retain and forgive men's sins. For thus says Christ Matth. 9, 6: "That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins", he said to the sick of the palsy: "Arise" etc. And soon after, "The people praised God, who has given such power to men." Do not let the Pharisaic gossip mislead you here, so that some may fool themselves, how a man can forgive sin, when he cannot give grace, nor the Holy Spirit? Stick to the words of Christ and be sure that God has no other way to forgive sin than by the verbal word, which He has commanded us men to do. Where you do not seek forgiveness in the word, you will be gazing in vain toward heaven for grace, or (as they say) for inward forgiveness.
(87) But if you say, as the fools and sophists do, that they hear many of the keys of binding and loosing, yet they do not turn to them, and remain unbound and undone; therefore there must be something else than the word and the keys: the spirit, spirit, spirit must do. But do you think that he is not bound who does not believe the binding key? He shall know in his time that because of his unbelief the binding has not been in vain, nor has it been lacking. So also, whoever does not believe that he is free and his sin is forgiven, he will also learn in time how certainly his sins have now been forgiven, and he did not want to believe it. St. Paul says Rom. 3, 3: "Because of our unbelief God will not be lacking. So we do not speak now of who believes or does not believe the keys, knowing almost well that few believe, but we speak of what the keys do and give. He who does not accept it has nothing, of course; the key is therefore not lacking. Many do not believe the gospel, but the gospel is lacking and therefore does not lie. A king gives you a castle; if you take it
the king has not lied nor erred, but you have deceived yourself, and it is your fault; the king has certainly given it.
(88) Yes, you say, here you yourself teach the wrong key, for not everything is done that the keys create, because some do not believe nor accept it. Well, dear one, if this is to be called missing, then God is missing with all his words and works. For few believe it or accept it, which he speaks and does against all without ceasing. That is, the tongues are perverted and gone out of speech. For this is not called mistaken or erring, if I do or speak a thing, and another despiseth it, or refraineth from it. But the Pabst's false key is so learned, understood and held that he himself, the key, may err in it, even though a man would gladly believe and accept it, for it is a conditionalis clavis, a fickle key, which does not point us to God's word, but to our repentance, does not speak freely: I certainly redeem you, that you should believe, but so he says: If you are repentant and pious, I redeem you, if not, I am lacking, that is CIavis errans, and can neither base himself on it nor say: I know for certain that I have redeemed you before God, you believe or do not believe, as St. Peter's key can say, but must therefore say: I redeem you on earth, but truly do not know whether you are free before God because of it. For they did not teach faith in the keys, as can be seen in all the indulgence books, where repentance and confession and pennies are demanded and nothing at all is reported about faith.
It is also easy to notice, for they do not repent and punish such uncertain delusions, neither in themselves nor in others, but go along safely, as if such doubts were no sin at all, and think: If I have hit, I have hit; if I have missed, I have missed, it is the same; thus they have neither conscience nor care about such unbelief, although it is a terrible sin of unbelief on both sides, both of him who binds or loosens, and of him who is bound or loosed. For it is God's command and word, which the one speaks and the other hears; both are guilty, for the sake of their souls' salvation, of believing this as surely and firmly as all others.
Article of faith. For he that bindeth and looseth, but believeth not, but doubteth whether he hath done it, bound or loosed, or thinketh so lightly, Oh, it is done, it is done; he blasphemeth God, denieth Christ, treadeth under foot the keys, and is worse than a heathen, a Turk, or a Jew. Likewise also he who is bound or loosed, where he does not believe, doubts or despises: for one should and must believe God's words with all earnestness and confidence. Let him who does not believe leave the keys in peace, otherwise he would rather be in hell with Judas and Herod, for God wants to be unashamed by our unbelief. It is truly not everyone's cup of tea to need the keys.
90 Again, whoever believes, 'or ever would like to believe, that the keys are certain, let him rejoice and use them confidently. You cannot do greater honor to God in His keys than by believing them. Therefore, we teach our people: Whoever is bound or loosed by the key, let him believe such binding and loosing so surely that he would rather die ten times than doubt it. It is God's word and judgment, to which no greater dishonor can happen than if one does not believe it. Which is just as much as saying: God, you deny, it is not true what you say, I do not believe it, and therefore God must be his liar. Likewise, he who binds or loosens, or is guilty of the same abomination, must also be certain. But where has such a thing ever been taught or heard in the papacy? Yes, if it had been taught, the false keys and their companions would never have arisen, if these two keys had remained alone and pure. How many are the bishops and officials who need these keys? They do not believe that the word of God is what the keys judge, so they are used to it, like an old worldly custom. But if they thought that it was God's judgment, which they themselves had to believe first for the sake of their souls' salvation, they would not treat it so lightly, but with trembling and fear. But where would they take officers? Where would the Consistorio remain? A wild reformation would arise here, and must and should be.
91. but they have the advantage that, being obdurate and blinded, they do not see what the keys are, nor do they esteem them more highly than when they carry money; otherwise they would rather take a nail for a pocket than the world full of God's keys to heaven; that, of course, the keys are nowhere in greater dishonor than with those who have them or boast of having them. Notice from this example: No Christian may touch a consecrated cup, regardless of the fact that he has been baptized and acquired, consecrated and sanctified by Christ's blood; no, Christ's blood is nothing compared to a consecrated cup. A corporal 1) may not wash a Christian woman, or even a nun, who is supposed to be Christ's special bride, regardless of the fact that flies, who are unconsecrated, may otherwise touch her; such great holiness is present here. But the keys, the true sanctuary, which are one of the noblest, holiest jewels, of God, of Christ and of the church, sanctified with Christ's blood, and which still daily distribute Christ's blood, these may not only be touched, but also most shamefully abused by the most frivolous, loose boys one could find. And to such they also give the keys, as a sign of how precious and holy they hold the keys, so that they may be lords on earth.
92. How then shall one do, if he will use the key aright, that it may be sure in the sight of God? There you have Matth. 18, 15. a certain text, where Christ himself grasps the key ministry so that you cannot fail if you follow it; but if you do not follow it, but take a new way of your own, then know also against it that you fail and do not hold the right keys. But this is the text: "If your brother sins against you, go and punish him between you and him alone. If he obeys you, you have won your brother. If he will not obey thee, take unto thee another, or two, that all things may stand in the mouth of two or three witnesses. If he will not obey them, tell the congregation. If he does not obey the community, consider him a pagan and a tax collector. There you have a
1) Corporal, a white linen cloth for covering the hosts.
certain measures and ways put into God's word that you will not lack, and you can use the keys divinely and well without fear and worry; for this is followed by the text of the 1) keys: "What you bind on earth" etc.
But if you do not keep these measures and ways, you will be uncertain, and your heart will not be able to say, "I know that I am not lacking," but it will bite you and say, "You are bound and loosed without God's word; God did not tell you to do this, but it is your own will; therefore you did not have the keys, but you dreamed of keys. From this your conscience will judge you further and say: You have blasphemed God's name, desecrated the keys, and in addition have done violence and injustice to your neighbor, frightened his conscience with lies, led him astray and to the wrong understanding of the keys, and spiritually killed him. Where will you stay? Yes, it is not the custom now (you say) to bishop's and pabst's courts. So I hear well, but it is the custom to Christ's court and should be to bishop's courts also, or should not Christians be bishops. A bishop is not God, so his court is not God's word; if they can do better, because God's Son has ordered it here, let them do it; so let us, called God's Son, draw in the pipe and be silent, but if they cannot do better, put away the abuse and bring it back to the right custom, Christ will not change his word for the sake of bishops' courts and abuses.
You hear here that there must be certain public sins of certain known persons, where one brother sees the other sinning; in addition such sins, which are previously punished fraternally and finally publicly convinced before the congregation, therefore the bulls and letters of excommunication, in which it is thus stated: Excommunicamus ipso facto, lata sententia, trina amen monitione praemissa. Item, De plenitudine potestatis, 2) that is called a shit ban in German; I call it the devil's ban.
1) "den" is missing in the Erlanger.
2) To "German: Wir bannen hiedurch, nachdem das UrHeil gefäll-werden, doch eine dreifache Ermahnung vorhergegangen. Likewise: From the fullness of violence.
and not God's ban, when people are banished with an outrageous deed before they are publicly convinced before the congregation, against Christ's order. Similarly, all the bans that the officials and ecclesiastical magistrates use as a joke, where people are banished with a note before a congregation over ten, twenty, thirty miles away, when they have never been punished, accused, or convinced in that congregation and before the parish priest, but instead a bat comes out of an official's corner, without witnesses and without God's command. You must not be afraid of such bastards. If a bishop or official wants to banish someone, he must go or send him to the congregation and to the parish priest, where he is to be banished, and do to him as is right, according to these words of Christ.
95 And I say all this because the congregation that is to keep such a one must know and be certain how he deserves the ban and has come to it, as the text of Christ gives, otherwise it might be deceived and accept a lying ban, and thereby do injustice to its neighbor. This would be blaspheming the keys and desecrating God, as well as desecrating love toward one's neighbor, which is not to be suffered by a Christian community, for it also belongs to it, if someone is to be banished from it, says Christ here, and is not guilty of believing the official's notes or the bishop's letters, yes, it is guilty of not believing them, for people are not to be believed in matters of God. So a Christian community is not the official's servant, nor the bishop's cane master, so that he may say to her: There, Greta, 3) there, Hans, keep this one or that one in the ban. Awe yes, be welcome to us, dear official. In worldly authority, such a thing would have an opinion; but here, since it concerns souls, the community should also be with judge and wife. St. Paul was an apostle, nor did he want to put under ban the one who had taken his stepmother, he also wanted the church to be present, 1 Cor. 5, 1. 4. And since the church did not do so, he also left the ban.
3) Erlanger (as in Walch's old edition): Crete.
and was satisfied that he was otherwise punished before the community.
96 How? If a person confesses his sin publicly or secretly, he is not convinced and could confess falsely; the keys would be missing? Answer. Christ says Matth. 12, 37: "Out of your mouth you will be justified, out of your mouth you will be condemned. Therefore, he who confesses and does so out of humility is to be believed and forgiven; but if he does so out of defiance with lies, he is to be believed again and spoken to: Be it done to you as you say. For though he confesses a false sin, yet this is a twofold sin, that he lie and deceive; therefore it is right for him, and the key is not lacking. Just as David's sword is not missing when he killed the young man who boasted before him that he had stabbed Saul, and yet he was lying, 2 Sam. 1:16. For David said, "Your blood is on your head, your mouth has spoken against you, so that you say you stabbed the king. And all the law testifies that one's own confession against oneself is the best rebuke.
97 And that we also come to the end, we now have these two keys by Christ's command. The binding key is the power or office to punish the sinner (who does not want to repent) with a public sentence to eternal death by separation from Christianity. And if such a judgment goes, it is just as much as if Christ himself judged, and if he remains so, he is certainly eternally damned. The key of redemption is the power or office to absolve the sinner who confesses and converts from sin, and to promise eternal life again, and is also as much as Christ himself judged. And if he believes this and remains so, he is certainly eternally blessed. For the binding key does the work of the law and is useful and good to the sinner, so that it serves him, reveals his sin to him, admonishes him to fear God, frightens and moves him to repentance and not to destruction. The ransom key drives the work of the Gospel, entices to grace and mercy, comforts and promises life and blessedness through forgiveness of sin. And summa, they are executores, executors and drivers of the gospel, which
ches badly there preaches these two pieces, "repentance and forgiveness of sin", Luc. 24, 47.
98) And both of these keys are necessary pieces in Christianity, for which one can never fully 1) thank God. For no man can comfort a terrified, sinful conscience in its sins; it still has trouble that the ransom key can do so: it is such a great sickness for a stupid, weak conscience that faith in the key's verdict must be driven quite violently by preachers, pastors and other Christians. Of which faith no word has ever been heard in the papacy. Again, among the Christians there are some rough, impudent hearts and wild people, so that the pious could have neither peace nor rest from such false Christians, where the binding key with its rod would not be there and vain grace and security would be felt. So it is still a trouble how sharp and great such punishment and judgment is. So the iron and hard binding key is a great comfort, protection, wall and fortress against the wicked for the pious Christians, and yet also a healing medicine for the wicked themselves, useful and pious, even though it is terrible and annoying for the flesh. For this reason, we should hold the dear keys both precious and valuable from the bottom of our hearts, as our two unspeakable treasures and gems for our souls.
For the dear man, the faithful bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ, well saw that his dear Christians would fall and sin from time to time, being infirm, and in addition challenged by the devil, the flesh, and the world in many ways and without ceasing. Against this he has set this remedy, the binding key, so that we do not remain too secure in sins, presumptuous, crude and wicked; the loosening key, so that we also do not have to despair in sins and thus keep ourselves on the middle road, between presumption and despondency, in right humility and confidence, so that we are abundantly provided for on all sides. For he that sinneth not (but who sinneth not?), or wherein he sinneth not, hath the common gospel;
1) Wittenberger: wol.
But whoever sins, he also has the keys over the gospel.
(100) He also wanted to use the keys to violently resist the future Novatians, who taught that no mortal sin could be forgiven on earth after baptism. But here we see that Christ does not give the keys to the Gentiles nor to the unbaptized, but to his disciples and the baptized; which would be quite in vain if the sins of the baptized were not to be forgiven thereby. Also says of the same Matth. 18, 15: "If your brother sins." But a brother is a baptized Christian, nor does he speak "if he sins". Neither does he speak if he sins once, but badly "if he sins", does not set measure, number or time to the key, yes, he interprets them himself without all measure, number and time and says: "All that you bind and loose", does not say, some, but "all". There the office of the key is spread over all quantity, size, length and shape of the sins, how they also may have a name, because who says "all", he takes nothing out.
(101) But the same word "all" is not to be interpreted as the pope does, that the keys are to bind and loose all things that are in heaven and on earth, and thereby to appropriate an almighty power to us, but it is to be applied to sin alone, and no further, as is now said. For we must understand the words of Christ secundum materiam subjectam, that is, we must see what Christ is talking about in this or that place, and keep the words according to that, and not go on to other things with them, since Christ does not speak of anything. It is as if someone wanted to teach all things in one place, or to rhyme one word with all kinds of things, as the pagans do, who bring almost all the sayings of Scripture to the sacrament, which nevertheless speak nothing of the sacrament. Since we see clearly that Christ does not speak here of the power in heaven or on earth, but of the sins of our brethren, how they are to be corrected, his words can neither be extended nor interpreted further than to such sin, and the word "all" as well as the words "binding and loosing" must be kept badly with and on the same sins.
102. for Christ wants with it cordially and
have greatly comforted us poor sinners, and have not given the pope power over the angels in heaven, nor over the emperors on earth. And this is the consolation, that all, even all sin (none excepted) shall be subject to Petro or the key, that they shall be bound and loosed when he binds and loosens them, even though all the devils, all the world, all the angels, all the thoughts and despairs of our heart, all the sights of death and all the evil signs resist, so that a stupid heart may boldly rely on it and against its own evil conscience, in time of need, thus say: Well, my sins, however many and great they are, are all absolved from me by the key; then I rely on and will know no more of any sin; all gone, all forgiven, all forgotten. He who promises me, "All that you loose shall be loosed," does not deny me, that I know. If my repentance is not enough, fine word is enough. If I am not worthy enough, his keys are worthy enough. He is faithful and true; my sins shall not make him a liar unto me.
Behold, such faith should be practiced and taught apart from the keys, for the keys require faith in our hearts, and without faith you cannot use them. But if you believe in their judgment, they bring you back to the innocence of your baptism, you are born again and become a true, new saint, because God's word is holy, the keys are holy; they must also sanctify everything that believes in them. And it is an unrighteous, blasphemous thing that one should have repented and worked so hard on the keys alone, when one should have separated the keys and our work as far as heaven and earth from each other. For even reason, when it looks at the text, must confess that the keys do not deal with any work, do not mean or command anything, but rather forebode and promise; for foreboding and promising are not areas. The binding key wants one to believe its promise and thereby fear God. Whoever believes him has done enough for the key with such faith, before and without all works. He does not require any other work, after which such faith will do good works.
Thus, the solution key wants one to believe in its comfort and promise and thereby grow fond of God and have a happy, secure, peaceful heart. He who believes him has had enough of this key with such faith, before and without all works. He requires no other work, after which such faith will do good works.
104 And with special diligence one should see to it that, according to the example and words of Christ, one does not teach and practice one key without the other, but that both are put together as Christ puts them together here. Under the papacy the binding key was so cruelly and tyrannically practiced, and the loosening key with its power so completely concealed, that everyone had to be hostile to the keys and could not come to any righteous repentance. For their teaching was this: that a man should consider his sin and gather it together, so as to make a repentance through the fear of hell, and thus earn grace by works before the keys, and yet it was impossible to consider all sin. To this end, they taught only the scales, the common, gross sins to consider, but the strong, right abominations and devils' heads and poisonous spiritual dragon tails, namely unbelief, grumbling against God, hatred of God, doubting, blasphemy, contempt of God and the like, they did not know, let alone teach new ones about them. Therefore their repentance was a mere sham and lasted barely half the week of torture, for there was neither thorough repentance nor understanding. But instead of such abominations they taught the deceitful sins, which were contrary to their lying laws. What good could there be in such repentance?
(105) And just as nothing thorough was taught about sins, so also nothing was taught about Christ, our mediator, nothing about the consolation of the keys, nothing about faith, but only about the infallible but futile torture of repentance, confession, atonement and our work. And Christ had to be called a cruel judge, whom we had to reconcile with our repentance, confession and atonement, with the intercession of his mother and all the saints, with all the priests' masses, with all the monks' and nuns' merit, and yet we were not helped;
Nevertheless, an unsure conscience, a stupid heart, a loud despair and the beginning of hell remained. Is it not so? who can deny it? are not the cops and books there? Still, since I was punished in such a way, I deserved so much that Pope Leo condemned me by his mules as a heretic, because such their harmful, blasphemous abominations had to be called vain articles of faith.
But Christ teaches here that a sinful conscience should also have the comfort of the other key before it, and not only the fear of the one key, so that repentance may also be begun out of desire and love. For without desire and love for righteousness, to repent only out of fear of punishment, as they taught, is to become secretly hostile to God, to blaspheme, to increase sin, and nothing but Judas' repentance. But who can repent with pleasure and love unless he has before him certain consolation and promise of grace, not drawn from his own thoughts (for that does not hold and is not valid), but offered and presented by a sure word of God? The same consolation then mixes and soothes the terror of the binding key, so that our heart can endure and remain. This then is a righteous repentance, which does not curse God nor is secretly hostile, but loves and praises Him, and therefore flows from a joyful fear and trembling, Ps. 2:11. This then pleases God and is also lasting, makes a different, new man and gives right hatred against sin, which never again does the remembrance of sin and fear of hell and the penitential repentance. This piece (I say), to teach from both keys, should be well done and reestablished. Many think they know it too well and yet do not understand it; so the papists do not respect it. And whether they hear it or read it, they may not understand it, for their hearts are set on other thoughts, and they have Mosiah's covering before their eyes.
This is enough of the keys this time, whether God will grant grace that the ban may be restored and the doctrine of repentance and keys may be known again. May the Father of all wisdom and comfort help us through His Holy Spirit in Christ our Lord, to whom be praise and thanksgiving forever and ever, amen.