to the Augustinians at Wittenberg. *)
Written in November 1521, issued in January 1522.
I, Martin Luther, wish the Augustinians of Wittenberg, my dear brothers, the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It has been made known to me verbally and in writing, dear brethren, that you are the first of all who have begun to abolish the abuse of the masses in their collection. And although it has pleased me greatly as a work in which I feel that the word of Christ is at work in you and that you have not received it in vain, I am also very concerned, out of Christian love that does not neglect anything, that you have not all begun such a great thing with equal constancy and a good conscience, I will remain silent, as the bishops and Baal's monkeys daily frighten the consciences of the weak in faith, now with papal bulls, now with indulgences, now with brotherhood; one sows the married priests, the other does this miracle, the other that miracle, and each does the most terrible thing he can.
(2) But what shall happen, if ye shall suffer all the scorn, reproach, vice, and dishonor of all men in the whole world, even of the pious, prudent, holy, and wise, and shall be accounted blasphemers, because ye alone, and your so little, have undertaken to change all spiritual and human order, against all men's reason? For it is a very great thing to resist such a long custom, and all men's sense, their
I know that if you are built on the rock, no tempest of the waters and waves can harm you. I know well, if you are built on the rock, that no tempest of waters and winds can harm you. But if you stand on the sand, a heavy great fall will meet you [Matt. 7:24, 27].
I feel with myself every day how very difficult it is to get rid of long-lasting consciences and 1) to be imprisoned by human statutes. Oh how with much great effort and labor, even through well-founded holy scripture, I have hardly been able to justify my own conscience, that I alone have been allowed to stand up against the pope, to consider him the antichrist, the bishops his apostles, the high schools his whorehouses. How often has my heart wriggled, punished me, and reproached me, you one strong argument: You alone are wise? should the others all err, and have erred so long a time? how, if you err, and lead so many people into error, who would all be eternally damned? Until such time that Christ has fortified and confirmed me with his one certain word, that my heart no longer wriggles, but rebels against these arguments of the papists as a stony shore against the waves, and laughs at their raging and storming.
1) Jenaer: protracted. Latin: consmontiam lonZo U8ß] vexatam.
*This writing is written by Luther himself, both in Latin and German. The Latin letter bears the date: "November 1, 1521"; the German letter: "November 25, 1521". In Latin, it appeared under the title: vs adroKsnäa missa privata, Alartini Dutüsri s[Montta first in January 1522 at Wittenberg, then again in February and April of the same year without indication of the place; finally, there is an edition without indication of place and time. German under the title: "Vom Mißbrauch der Messen. Martinus Luther," in two editions at Wittenberg in 1522, without indication of the printer, and in 1523 there with the brothers Melchior and Michael Lotther. In the collections Latin: in the Wittenberg, Dom. II, toi. 244; in the Jena one (1566), Dom. II, col. 441; and in the Erlangen, opp. var. ars, Vol. VI, p. 115. German in the Wittenberg (1554), Vol. VII, p. 283p; in the Jena (1585), Vol. II, p. 7; m the Altenburg, Vol. II, p. 21; in the Leipzig, Vol. XVIII, p. 140 and in the Erlangen, Vol. 28, p. 28. The German text is found in De Wette, vol. II, p. 106 and (as a duplicate) in the Erlanger, vol. 53, p. 92. We give the text according to the Jena edition, comparing the Wittenberg and Latin scripts.
4 And therefore, having felt and considered this in myself, I have written this letter to you for the comfort and strength of the weak, who cannot bear such storms and violence of adversity and of desponding consciences. For we must act with such conscience, faith and trust, that we not only regard the judgments of the whole world as scatter and chaff, but that we are skilled in death against the devil and all his power to fight even against the judgment of God, and with Jacob overcome God by such strong faith [Gen. 32:28]. The weak in faith can despise the mockery and scorn of the world and act as if they did not hear it; but who can or can keep himself from the devil and the serious judgment of God, so that he does not feel it?
The world cannot do more than call us heretics and unbelievers; it cannot make us heretics. Our consciences will make us sinners before God in many ways and condemn us eternally, unless they are well guarded and protected with the holy, strong and true word of God, that is, built on the one rock. And he who does this is sure of things, and cannot fail nor waver, nor be deceived. We seek and desire such a certain unconcealed fortress.
(6) Therefore I will make a booklet of the mass, which will be useful to anyone who wants it. For I see that my books, which I wrote before, do not move enough, so that the bishops strive against it, so that as often as the word of truth is denied, lifted up and repeated, so often do the paper-pushers condemn and suppress it. We should also ask the Lord to send workers into His harvest [Matth. 9, 38] and His angels to take away the aversions [Matth. 13, 41], which are now very many from the kingdom of God. Now there is this great one; if we could take it away, we would not have taken one away, because it is the foundation and head of all the others. May the Lord Jesus strengthen and keep your minds and hearts in an awful state.
right, unconfessed faith and divine love, amen. From my desert, on the day of Catharine 1) [November 25] 1521.
Protestation D. M. L.
I publicly declare that I will neither hear nor see the foolish, senseless people who will cry out and say that I write and teach against the doctrine and order of the church, against the sentences of the fathers, against old proven legends, and the long custom, practice and habit of the church. Likewise, I despise all the doctrines of men and the essays of the Parisian Sodoma, which are nothing else, as Peter says [2 Ep. 2, 11], but "sects of corruption". If only the moonstruck would not ride them for one hour, they would realize themselves, because they do all their things without the word of God, that they are not attached to divine, but only to human sayings.
(2) It is contrary to human reason, let alone to divine Scripture, to base and build an article of faith on human dreams. For the holy sacraments and articles of faith should and will be founded and proved by divine Scripture alone, as Moses in the 5th book redundantly testifies. Why do they think that they want to turn me away from the divine word with their own dreams, that is, human law and doctrine? As if they do not know that the saints have often sinned in their lives and erred in writing. Nor are they so foolish as to take their words and deeds as a certain, untrustworthy rule of faith. In addition, their own right, even though it is not a right, makes such human sayings suspect, since it says: "Whoever is once found wrong is always considered and believed to be wrong.
(3) Who then makes us sure that the fathers did not err, because they often erred, as you yourself confess, if their reputation is enough and should not be judged according to divine Scripture?
1) This time and place is in the Wittenberg edition. The Latin letter is dated November 1, 1521; in the German Jena edition, instead: 1522.
and be judged? They have also interpreted the Scriptures, you say. How could they have erred both in their interpretation and in their life and writing? With the way you make all ours human, and from men gods, and the word of men you make equal to the word of God.
(4) Therefore, let the foolish sophists, the unlearned bishops, monks and priests, the pope with all his Gomorrahs know that we are not baptized in the name of Augustine, Bernard, Gregory, Peter or Paul, nor in the name of the Parisians, but in the name of Jesus Christ. This alone, and nothing but the Crucified, and no other, we recognize for our Master. Paul does not want us to believe him or an angel [Gal. 1, 8.12.], unless Christ lives and speaks in him. We know well what the Fathers, the Decreta, the custom and the people's delusion hold and conclude; what may we say to the championship of Paris that they write and say: "Such an article is annoying; it is against the Faculty of Paris, it is against their set articles, and other such things, which only the women, 1) children and coarse blocks can boast of.
(5) We do not say, St. Bernard lived and wrote like this; we only say, According to the Scriptures he should have lived and written. We do not ask how the saints lived and wrote, who were all preserved by this prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses," as the 32nd Psalm, v. 6, says, "For this shall every saint pray in due time." Lest we think it true and just that they are forgiven by their prayer as error and sin, as the papists do when, as the 62nd Psalm, v. 4, says, they lean on the hanging and crushed wall, when God alone is to be clung to, as the same Psalm so often indicates.
6 I have said: One does not ask how the saints lived and wrote, but how the Scriptures indicate that we should live. The question is not of that which is ge-
1) In the editions wrong: "the female children". Latin: pueri st eüemiuati.
2) but of how it should be done. The saints have erred in their writing and sinned in their lives. The writing cannot err, and he who believes it cannot sin in his life. We accept the saints well, whose praise is not from men, but from God; not whom the pope raises, but whom God raises, whose oxen and birds 3) they are, killed and prepared for the wedding of Christ His Son [Matth. 22, 4. 8.], that is, whose life and last the divine Scripture praises, as the patriarchs, prophets and apostles; to whom alone, and to no other, can we believe, adhere and thus be preserved.
The first part.
How faithfully the pope acts and interprets the holy scripture is shown by the beginning of his decree, where he speaks from Hebr. 7, 12: "Where the priesthood is changed, the law is also changed. With this he wants to prove that Christ, when he ascended to heaven, changed his priesthood to St. Peter, and St. Peter to the pope 4). Because he is a priest, to whom the law belongs, he has the power to make laws and statutes. Truly a noble beginning, and a right reason for his priesthood and his laws. As the reason is, so are these priests; as the priest, so is the law; one worthy of the other.
How can God disgrace His Caiphas and Balaam with their own dreams so soon, that they themselves in their beginning, 5) however, as Caiphas, ignorantly opened to the whole world what the devil wanted to work in the world through the pope and his laws. How shamefully Satan
2) The Erlangen edition, which, as it states, took its text from the Wittenberg collection, reads "written" here and lists "happened" as a variant of Walch, while the latter is found in both the Wittenberg and Jena editions.
3) So in all German editions. In Latin altiUa, which Luther translated as "fattened cattle". This was also understood as "fattened poultry"; therefore this translation is possible.
4) i. e. transferred. Latin: transtulerit. 7
5) i.e. in the beginning or entrance (xrooemio) of the Decretals.
betrayed himself against his will, that he had spoken the truth through the pope in this beginning, namely, that he wanted to change Christ's priesthood along with his law, as he did and even eradicated it, so that now the pope, and not Christ, is no longer priest, that the pope's, not Christ's, laws no longer guide and lead us, and the abomination stands in the holy place [Matth. 24, 15]; and reigns over us in Christ's stead, before Christ, the King of truth, the idol of lies and all error, and this abomination has superfluously fulfilled and accomplished what he promised in this beginning.
(9) First of all, let us speak of the priesthood, and let every true Christian know that in the New Testament there is no outward, visible priest, such as the devil has exalted and raised up through the lies of men. We have only one priest, Christ, who sacrificed Himself for us and all of us with Him [1 Pet 2:24]. Peter speaks of this, 1 Petr. 3, 18.: Christ died once for our sins, a righteous man for the unrighteous, so that he might offer us, dead in the flesh and alive in the Spirit, to God. And Heb. 10:14: "With One Sacrifice He hath perfected and made perfect forever them that are sanctified."
(10) This is a spiritual priesthood common to all Christians, by which we are all priests with Christ, that is, we are children of Christ, the highest priest. We are not allowed to have any other priest or mediator than Christ. Every priest, Hebr. 5, 1, is taken up to pray for the people and to preach. So every Christian may pray through himself in Christ and come before God, Rom. 5, 2. As Isaiah Cap. 65, 24. proclaimed: "Before they cry out, I will hear; and while they are still asking, I will hear them." So also every Christian himself is instructed and taught by God, Isa. 54, 13: "And I will give all your children to be taught by God." And Jerem. 31, 34.: "Not one man shall teach or instruct another, saying: Know the Lord. They shall all know me, from the youngest even to the oldest."
And Isa. 11, 9: "The earth is filled with the knowledge of God, as with the waters of the sea. Hence Christ speaks John 6:45: "It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught of God."
By these testimonies of Scripture, the external priesthood in the New Testament is pushed to the ground, for it makes prayer, access before God, and teaching, "all of which 1) is proper and due to a priest," common to all men. What is the use of a priest if there is no need of a mediator and preacher? Shall we set and have priests without their works and office? Christ alone, and no one else, is the mediator and teacher of all Christians [4 Tim. 2:5, 7]. And they themselves are taught by God, and can therefore themselves mediate and teach those who are not yet priests, that is, Christians. 2) The priesthood, therefore, is the priesthood of all Christians. So it follows that the priesthood in the New Testament is at the same time in all Christians, in the spirit alone, without all person and larvae, as Paul says Gal. 3, 28. "In Christ JEsu there is no Jew, no Gentile, no man, no woman, no master, no servant, but in Christ you are all one thing."
Now let us go on and gather the impudent testimonies of the Gomorrahs that they have established and fortified the priesthood in the New Testament, so that we may shut the impudent mouths of the rude blocks. The first is Peter, 1 Peter 2:1-4: "Put away all guile, deceit, and envy, and speak evil of no man; and desire, as the children that are now born, the reasonable, unadulterated milk, that by the same ye may grow unto your salvation: if ye have tasted otherwise how sweet is the Lord. Go to the living stone, rejected by men, but chosen and honored by God. And build yourselves upon him as living stones, that ye may become holy priests, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God through
1) Thus set by us. In the editions: "as". We assume that it should be "alls". Latin: 66rts - certainly.
<1ot68 . , . suut.
JEsum Christum." And soon after, v. 9: "You are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, purchased with great price, that you may proclaim the power of Him who called you from darkness to His marvelous light."
The other is Revelation 5:10: "You have made us kings and priests to our God, and [we] will reign on earth."
The third, Revelation 20:6: "In whom the other death shall have no power, but they shall be the priests of God and of His Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."
(12) And though this book be not of such note as to serve for a controversy, yet I have held up to the contrary some testimonies from it, which shall certainly be understood of all Christian men, that they are all kings and priests. For all Christian men admit that all the same words cannot speak of visible kings; so neither may they speak and be understood of visible priests. And this little word "priest" is not thought of with a single letter in the whole New Testament, except in these oerterns.
13. and before I say more, I will defy the idols and finery of this world, the pope with his priests. You noble priests, show us a dot or a line in all the gospels and epistles of the apostles, that you are or should be called priests before other Christians, and that your priesthood is different from the common priesthood of all Christians. Where are you, will you not show us? Do you not hear, you deaf painted priests? I will give you some advice: Go to Paris, they will show you their masterly and artificial sentiment in the place of the Scriptures, and they will say: This article is heretical, dishonest to the priestly estate, and this masterly sentiment is an article of faith to you. Where do you priests of idols come from? Why did you steal our common name and take it for yourselves? Are you not thieves and robbers and blasphemers of the church of Christ, who claim the holy common name, which you have taken and stolen by force from the other Christians, as your own,
Pleasant air and avarice so shamefully abused? Where do you idols come from? Show us by the testimony of the Scriptures that you are and are called priests. You may be intolerable burdens of the world, but you are not priests. Do you realize what you have deserved, you robbers and glorifiers?
Here I remember the worthy priest of God, Baal, 1) who has written against me in German, a coarse, unlearned ass, so completely insolent to lie, so evil and poisonous to blaspheme, that he is nowhere better than that he writes for the pope and his clergy. He did not want me to defy the holy papist priesthood in this way, and writes in his booklet that the previous words of Peter [1 Pet. 2, 5. 9.] are to be understood of two kinds of priesthood: first, of the spiritual priesthood, which is common to all Christians; second, of the external priesthood, [by which] 2) only the smeared and scorched, that is, the consecrated, are called priests. For this reason, the smeared and chastised priesthood is well founded in the holy Scriptures, he says.
15 Here I ask: To what did St. Peter say these words? Did he not say them to all Christians, commanding that they should desire a sensible, clean, pure milk, and grow and increase in it for their salvation? [1 Pet. 2, 2.] To grow and increase in grace, does it not belong to all Christians? And after that, shall not all Christians build themselves up on Christ to a holy priesthood? For this purpose he separates the holy priesthood from that which is not holy, as we see before our eyes that the papal priesthood is commonly not holy, but knaves. Since the words of Peter are spoken to all Christians, and he wants the priesthood to be understood therein, it follows that the holy, pious women and children are also priests who have been circumcised and smeared. For the words of Peter are common to all Christians; they are understood of what priesthood thou wilt; the same make them common to all Christians.
1) Emser.
2) In Latin: yuo.
mean. O a worthy patron of the horned and oiled idols!
This is the first storm against the imaginary papist priesthood. How strong and powerful it is, judge every pious Christian. Here lies down all the splendor and pomp of the papal mass. For if the priesthood is nothing, as is now clearly shown, its law is also nothing. For priesthood and law change altogether. 1) If the priesthood and the law are nothing, then the sacrifices and works that are to be performed by the priest according to the law will be much less something. From this it follows that the pope's laws are vain deceit and lies; the papal priesthood is nothing but a shell and an outward appearance; the papists' mass, which they call a sacrifice, is idolatry and a shameful abuse of the holy sacrament.
(17) In all this no one may doubt, for it is proven that this priesthood is nowhere found in Scripture; therefore it is the devil's addition. For no one changes, adds to or subtracts from a man's testament, as Paul says [Gal. 3:15], much less should one add to or add to God's testament. But now it is publicly proven that this priesthood and the mass is an addition to God's word and testament. Therefore, I conclude with good, solid reason and conscience that the keeping of the mass as a sacrifice, and smeared priests, as is the custom now, is nothing else than blaspheming and denying Christ, abrogating and taking away his priesthood and all his laws.
(18) Therefore, all the Scriptures in which the Holy Spirit is revealed say that one should not add to the word of God, nor should one add to it, as Proverbs 30:5, 6: "Every word of God is a fiery shield to those who hope in him. Thou shalt not do anything unto his words, lest thou be punished, and be found a liar." . And Deut. 4:2: "To the word that I say unto you, do nothing, neither take anything from it"; and 1 Pet. 4:11: "If any man speak, let him speak as it were the word of God" etc. And what is the use of it all.
1) i.e. together, at the same time.
what the prophets, Christ and the apostles say against the law and teaching of men? It is obvious that John, 8, 47, says: "He who is of God hears the word of God," and John 3, 31: "He who is of the earth speaks of the earth."
19. Now I know that when the weak consciences read or hear this, and yet see so many great monasteries and churches, in which countless masses are held every day, that they will hardly believe that so many people should be damned, and [the mass priests] fill the world with so many sins every day, because the whole world certainly believes that with the masses, as with a good work, everyone can and may be helped, and that through the merit of the mass the world has been preserved until now, because it seems incredible to them that God should have left the world for so long.
But how does one do it? It is certain and decided by the holy Scriptures which one alone is to be believed, even if all the angels taught otherwise and heaven and earth were to come to ruin; so it is decided by God Himself that the Messianic priesthood is not instituted by God. Do you not want to believe God more than the world? Is God not greater than the world? Is it not written and proclaimed that the last days will be a dangerous time, a time of wrath, that the world will also be filled with error and the elect will be deceived [Luc. 21, 11. Matth. 24, 21. 24.] and that God Himself says Luc. 18, 8, "He will hardly find faith on earth"? Do you think that these are frivolous words, and that they agree with our cursed security, in which we live without all fear of God, as if it did not concern us? and thus fulfill the prophecy of Christ and the apostles before we know and realize it, just as the Jews fulfilled the Scriptures and crucified Christ before they recognized it.
(21) Therefore, we should strengthen our conscience and firmly and steadfastly adhere to the words of God, which tell and teach us that the sacrilege of the Mass is nothing before God, so that in this final persecution of the Church of God, the like of which has never been nor will ever be.
The people of the world will recognize the unfathomable wrath and patience that belong to and are due to the divine majesty alone. It is ever inconceivable that God, through the whole world, should have tolerated and suffered for so long the cruel abuse of the most holy sacrament of His blood and flesh. This is the patience that His Divine Majesty has saved and kept until this our last time. It is also incomprehensible the cruel wrath of God that every day so many souls are eternally corrupted and damned. He has also saved this wrath for the last days, in anticipation of the eternal wrath of his soon future judgment.
Oh, we poor, miserable and last human beings, we still live so securely that we want to reconcile God with wicked idolatry and lies and outward appearances and earn heaven for others with us. It is frightening that I 1) say, O God, I am lying; but they 2) are unfortunately all too true. It is ever an irrefutable decision that in the New Testament there can be no external priests, who are with plates and separated from the laity; those who are translated are all without Scripture and calling of God, that is, nothing else but from the devil. No one accepts the honor by himself, but he who is called by God, like Aaron, Hebr. 5, 4.
Therefore, I faithfully advise all priests to repent from the beginning, to stop celebrating mass and to become laymen again, or to learn to use the mass properly, so that they may escape the cruel wrath of God as soon as possible. Therefore, let the mad sophists and papists choose whichever one they want. Let them prove their priesthood with the Scriptures, or confess that they are nothing but devil's larvae and damned idols. For what does not have its arrival from the Scriptures is certainly from the devil himself. All the works of God, especially those that belong to salvation, are properly set forth and indicated in Scripture, so that no one can excuse himself.
24. but that they say, "Everything that the
1) In the editions erroneously: that I say it. Latin: qnae loouor.
2) d. y. these things.
Church orders and sets, is ordered and set by God, which spirit has the church; therefore, the missals cannot be of the devil", is said in vain, without reason. Who wants to show us this church, which is hidden in the spirit and believed alone? when we pray: "I believe a holy Christian church" etc. Now, however, the bishops and doctores have instituted the Mass priests. And even if they had been holy, who will make us sure that they have not erred in this? Since it is now publicly known that they have erred and done wrong against the faith, how can our conscience be sure that the church has done so?
25 But this compels and makes us certain that a devout Christian knows that the church neither ordains nor sets anything apart from the word of God; and whichever does so is no church, for by name, as Christ says, John 10:4, 5: "My sheep hear my voice; they hear not the voice of strangers; they flee from them; for they know not the voice of strangers." It is not God's word therefore that the Church says it, but that God's word is said, therefore the Church becomes. The Church does not make the Word, but it becomes from the Word. A sure sign by which we know where the Church is is the Word of God, as Paul writes in 1 Cor. 14:24, 25: "As when an unbeliever falls down on his face and confesses that God is truly with them, 3) because he hears them prophesying."
(26) Not the church, but the word of God moves him, by which he is overcome and judged, and the secrets of his heart are opened, as Paul says there. For he does not say, "He falls down and confesses that they prophesy, because God is truly with them." For how could he know this? So also we, how can we know where the Church is, if we do not hear her prophecies and the testimony of the Spirit? It is certain that the church and those in whom God truly dwells prophesy, but it is uncertain where the church fei, which can prophesy, it prophesies.
3) So right in the Jena edition. Wittenberg and Erlangen: rhm.
because. Therefore, what is ordered without God's word is not ordered by the church, but by the synagogue of the devil under the title and name of the church. That is enough of the first storm.
The other, which is equally strong and powerful, is taken from the New Testament, as it says of the priest and his office. Paul, Rom. 12, 1: "I beseech you by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a holy, living sacrifice, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable worship." Here no one can deny that he is describing the priestly office, which is nothing other than a reasonable sacrifice; not unreasonable cows or calves, as in the Law, but offering oneself to God. This should be common to all Christians, therefore all Christians must be priests. But what do you want to say to this, you wretched priest?
(28) From this saying of Paul we have not only what the new priesthood is, but also what its office and sacrifice should be, namely, that they should kill themselves and offer God for a holy sacrifice. With this word Paul explained and interpreted all the sacrifices of the law. So Christ, the high priest, 1) first sacrificed himself, and by his new priesthood fulfilled the priesthood of the law and all his office, and became an example to all his children and priests, that they might follow in his steps. Peter also agrees with this, 1 Peter 2:5: "Let yourselves be built up as living stones into a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
29. is this not understood by all Christians? are not all Christians, as living stones, built on Christ? and so built on him, that they are priests, who do not sacrifice unreasonable animals, but sacrifice themselves according to the example of Christ, spiritual sacrifices, when they kill the works of the flesh in the spirit, Rom. 8, 13. what will our poor, miserable idols and larvae say here? does Peter also here make two kinds of sacrifices, as the lying mouth gives him two kinds of priests.
1) Wittenberg edition: highest priests.
We are all commanded to offer these 2) sacrifices, they are what they will, therefore the priesthood 3) is laid upon us all; therefore it is also clear that we are all priests.
30. over this is still hastening sacrifice also common to all, of which Ps. 51, 19.: "A broken spirit, that is a sacrifice before God." And Ps. 50, 14.: "Offer 4) to God a sacrifice of praise, which will honor me." And Ps. 4, 6. "Offer a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in God." And Heb. 13, 15.: "Through Him we shall offer an offering of praise to God always, that is, the fruit of lips that praise His name." And Hos. 14, 3.: "Take away all wickedness, and set before thee that which is good (that is, cease from punishing us, and take hold of the good that thou givest us), and we will offer unto thee the calves of our lips." And Ps. 116:16, 17: "Thou hast broken my bands; therefore will I offer unto thee a sacrifice of praise." These offices, as everyone can see, are not offices of the oiled and chorused priesthood. Nor can anyone lie and speak so brazenly that it belongs spiritually to everyone, but bodily to the scorified alone. It belongs and is due to all those who live under the cross, who daily choke and kill themselves, the lust and covetousness of their Adam. So that this sacrifice of praise may be as the smoke and odor of the former sacrifice.
So much is found in Scripture about the new priesthood under Christ, and about his sacrifice and ministry. Where are you now, you poor papists? Call upon your God; he may not be at home or asleep; he is a God, he will hear you [1 Kings 18:27]. Tell us, you priests of Baal, where is it written that the mass is a sacrifice? or where did Christ teach that one should offer blessed bread and wine to God? Do you not hear? Christ has sacrificed one 5) himself, he will not be sacrificed by anyone else; he wants his sacrifice to be sacrificed
2) "these" put by us according to the Latin. In the editions: "dis".
3) Thus the Wittenberg edition. Jenaer: Priesterthum. Latin: otkdnra saWräotuls. ,
4) Thus set by us according to the Latin. In the editions: Sacrifices.
5) d. i. once.
How are you so bold as to make a sacrifice out of the remembrance? How then are you so bold as to make a sacrifice out of the memory? shall you be so foolish out of your own head, without all Scripture? for if you make a sacrifice out of the memory of his sacrifice, and offer him another, why do you not make another birth out of the memory of his birth, that he may thus be born again?
32 So also, if you remember the resurrection, dear one, make it a new resurrection, and wake him up one more time. And if you remember the blind who have received their sight, let him still give sight to the blind. So negate all the works of Christ when you remember them. But I fear, yes, I know sadly, that your sacrifice is to sacrifice Christ again, as Heb. 6:6 proclaims: "They crucify again to themselves the Son of God, and have a mockery of it." So that your sacrifice is nothing else but crucifying Christ again.
But with this other storm, one thing has happened: 1) The papal mass, with all its splendor and worship, has been pushed to the ground. A devout Christian shall never in any way consider as a sacrifice that which he truly knows is not and cannot be a sacrifice before God and in Scripture; and that which is called a sacrifice by God in Scripture he alone, and nothing else, shall call a sacrifice. How can a more cruel thurst and audacity be conceived, than that you say this is a sacrifice and service, which God does not call a sacrifice nor a service? what is this but making a God according to our own convenience and ordering and setting divine things according to our own reason? Is this not ordering and establishing laws, customs, priesthood and worship by our own authority, without God's command, and demanding of God that he confirm it and thus let us teach him how and with what he is to be served and worshipped?
(34) About this foolishness of the people of Israel, all the prophets cry out in unison that they have worshipped God according to their pleasure. Therefore God says that they have made an idol out of him, when he has seriously misunderstood everything.
1) but one - once again.
that they should not make Him an image or likeness [Exodus 20:4], that is, that they should keep Him, not as they thought good, but as He had commanded them, and do nothing at all but what He had set and ordained for them. And in short, it is a more terrible and cruel abuse than anyone can think of or pronounce; for it is nothing else than denying God Himself and His first, highest and noblest 2) commandment. Therefore, let the papists show us from the Scriptures the cause of their sacrifice, or let them actually know that they do worse idolatry with their masses than the Jews and pagans do or have ever done.
The Scriptures, which know nothing of the present mass, cannot deceive us, but our reason and habit can deceive us. For this reason, however, all pious Christians should be careful not to sacrifice anything to God with their masses, but to enjoy and use the mass as God has instituted it in the Holy Scriptures. We are attached to certain Scriptures, therefore we cannot err or sin in not considering or using the Mass as a sacrifice. The papists cannot do right or well, because in such great divine and necessary things for salvation they leave the certain unconfessed Scripture and follow their uncertain, deceitful discretion, not only without, but against all Scripture and divine commandments. O brother, flee and leave the pope's damned priesthood.
Thirdly, we want to overthrow the priesthood of the priest with the ministry that Christ gave and commanded the apostles. For a priest shall preach, as Malachi 4) 2, 7. is written: "The lips of the priest shall speak nothing else, but God's law and art; for he is an angel of the Lord of hosts," that he shall mediate between God and man, make a sacrifice to God for man, and deliver man from
2) Thus the Wittenbergers. Jenaer: noble.
3) d. i. in turn.
4) In the editions: Zacharie am andern", both in the Latin and in the German. Correct only in the Erlangen edition, which reprinted this improvement from Walch. Otherwise, Walch's incorrect biblical citations are also reproduced in this manuscript, the number of which amounts to twenty-six.
Teach and instruct God. Here the papists think that they have won that it is their duty alone to teach the foreigners, as Pope Pelagius lets himself be heard saying in the decree: "He who is supreme has authority to command, and the foreigners should and must be obedient. To this they draw the words of Christ [Luc. 10, 16.]: "He that heareth you heareth me; he that despiseth you despiseth me."
(37) Behold, as they have invented their own priesthood and sacrifice, unknown and strange to true Christians; so they have invented and instituted a new unchristian ministry of preaching. And that it may be known and made manifest to all, I will prove from the first 1) with irrefutable Scripture, that the one, true, true ministry of preaching, like the priesthood and sacrifice, is common to all Christians. St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:6: "Who hath made us skillful ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit." These words St. Paul spoke to all Christians, that he might make of them all ministers of the Spirit. A minister of the Spirit preaches grace, forgiveness of sin, just as a minister of the letter preaches the words of the law. This belongs to Mosi, that to Christ. And Peter speaks to all Christians, "that you may proclaim the power of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" [1 Pet 2:9]. Since all Christians are called out of darkness, each one is obliged to proclaim the power of Him who called him.
38 We allow that many of them should not preach at the same time, though they have all authority to do so. For while Paul was speaking, Barnabas was silent, Acts 14:12. 14:12. Should not Barnabas therefore have had power to preach? For all things are to be done honestly and according to an order, 1 Cor. 14, 40. But this does not abolish the fellowship of the office to preach; indeed, it confirms it. For if all men would not preach, and one alone had authority to speak, what need would there be to keep order and command? And for this very reason, that they all have authority and power to preach, it is necessary to keep an order.
1) from first - first (primnrn).
(39) Therefore let us consider Paul, because in that place he strikes down with great thunderbolts the pope's lies of preaching authority and power. Thus Paul says [1 Cor. 14:27, 28, 29, 30]: "If any man speak with tongues, let two do it, or three at the utmost, and one after another, and let one interpret. He that is not an interpreter, let him keep silence in the church before the people, and let him pray before God by himself. But let two prophets or three speak, and let the others judge. But if it be revealed unto one of them that hear, let the first hold his peace. Let them all prophesy, that they may all learn, and that they may all be instructed," says Paul. What will you idols and larvae of the pope say against this? Paul says that they may all prophesy, and orderly one by one. So that the sitter and hearer, if anything be revealed unto him, may appear, and the first that preacheth shall hold his peace, and give way unto him; and all that preach or read shall let the hearers judge, and be subject unto them. Where are you now, Pelagius, with your hopeful, insolent blasphemous mouth, since you may say with puffed-up chubby cheeks in your carnal right: Where there is authority, namely the spiritual, there is authority to command; with the others obedience remains necessary.
40 The devil himself has said this through your mouth against Christ, who speaks in Paul. Christ, by divine authority, has subjected you and all that is yours to all; he has given authority and power to all to judge, to read and to preach: and you, by your own sacrilegious authority, may subjugate everything to yourself, and exalt yourself above all like Lucifer, ascribing to yourself alone the right to speak and judge, falsely against God and the Scriptures. Out, you wicked one! All Christians have good reason to read and preach from the holy scriptures, if you should burst.
41. follow now that they have not drawn the words of Christ [Luc. 10, 16.], "He that heareth you heareth me," etc., with less infidelity to their court, splendor, and violence,
2) In the old editions: "dis". Already Walch had here correctly "dich". Latin: is et tua.
For the prophet: "You shall not touch my anointed ones" [Ps. 105, 15]. The prophet speaks of the anointed ones of God when he says: "my anointed ones", whom God has sanctified and anointed in the heart with his divine grace through the Holy Spirit. The papists draw it on those whom the pope and the bishops alone smear with oils on the outermost part of the four fingers. O wickedness of all wickedness against the divine Scripture! The anointed of God are all pious, true Christians - but the pope calls the anointed of God who serve the devil and the world most diligently with avarice and pride - so that all Christians, that is, those who teach about Christ, should be heard; this the pope only points out to his apostles, who teach nothing but the devil. And whoever despises this devil must have despised Christ.
42) See now how they have set up their own ministry of corruption 1) under the title and name of the common Christian ministry; just as they have introduced a false priesthood and sacrifice and error under the title and name of the true right sacrifice and priesthood. And just as they have robbed the church of its right office of the Word of God with their stolen and robbed office, they have also completely suppressed and extinguished the right, true priesthood and sacrifice with their fictitious, lying priesthood and sacrifice.
43. let us add one more thing, Joh. 6, 45: "They will all be taught by God" [Is. 54, 13]. If they are all taught by God, then not only the scorched and smeared are taught by God; indeed, no one is less taught by God than the lost, scorched idols. If then all Christians are taught by God, they certainly all have the Spirit and the Word of God. Therefore, not only a layman, but also the pope is subject to him who is taught by God, for he would not be subject to the spirit and word of God. Whoever is taught by God, the angels, yes, must and should be subject to him,
1) Thus the Jenaer correctly. Latin: xerckitionis. Wittenberg and Erlangen: forgiveness.
all creatures in heaven and earth give way and believe. For not a man, but God Himself, who teaches him, is yielded or resisted. The mad, foolish idols of the pope may still boast that the pope is over the concilium and a lord of the whole world. What else is this said, but: the pope is over him who is taught by God? [But if he is over him who is taught by God, what is that but] 2) that he is over God Himself? that the prophecy of Paul might be fulfilled: "A man of sins and a child of corruption is against God, and is exalted above all that is called and honored by God" [2 Thess. 2:3, 4].
44 But when the papists reproach us with the saying of Paul 1 Cor. 14:34, 35: "Let the women keep silence in the church. It is not fitting for a woman to preach." A woman is not permitted to preach, but she is to be submissive and obedient; from this it follows that preaching cannot be common to all Christians, namely not to women. To this I reply that mutes and those who are otherwise incapacitated or unskilled are not allowed to preach. For though everyone has authority to preach, yet no one is to be required to do so, nor should anyone refrain from doing so unless he is qualified to do so in front of others; the others should also yield to him and give way to him, so that proper honor, discipline and order may be maintained. For this is how Paul instructs Timothy, that he commands those to preach the word of God who are qualified to do so and who can teach and instruct others [1 Tim. 3, 2. ff. Tit. 1, 9.]. For to the spirit belongs whoever wants to preach, 3) a good voice, a good utterance, a good memory and other natural gifts. He who does not have these, is justified in remaining silent and letting another speak. So Paul forbids women to preach in the church, where there are men who are qualified to speak, so that honor and discipline may be kept; for a man has much more to do than a woman.
2) Here there seems to us to be a gap in the German text, which we have added in the bracketed words from the Latin.
3) Meaning: For the one who wants to preach, besides having the Spirit, a good voice etc. is required.
talk is suitable and due and is also more skillful for this purpose.
45 And Paul did not forbid this from his own head, but he refers to the law, which says: the women shall be subject. From this Paul was sure that the Spirit himself would not oppose him, that he would now exalt the women, whom he had subjected to the men before, above the men, but rather, being mindful of his previous appointment, he would awaken the men to preach, since there is no lack of men.
46 Otherwise, how could Paul alone contradict the Holy Spirit who promised in Joel [Cap. 3:1]: "And your daughters shall prophesy"! And Apost. 21, 8. 9. "Philip had four daughters, virgins, all of whom were prophetesses." "And Miriam, Moses' sister, was also a prophetess" [Ex. 15:20.] And Hulda, the prophetess, gave counsel to the pious King Josiah [2 Kings 22:15], and Deborah to Duke Barak [Judges 4:6]. and lastly, the song of Mary the Virgin is praised throughout the world [Luc. 1:48], and Paul himself, 1 Cor. 11:5, 6, teaches women to pray and prophesy with their heads covered. Therefore order, discipline and honor demand that women keep silent when men are speaking. But if no man preaches, it would be necessary for the women to preach.
Therefore, we firmly conclude, based on the Holy Scriptures, that there is no more than one (1) ministry to preach the Word of God, common to all Christians, that each one may speak, preach and judge, and the others are all obligated to listen. Since the Scriptures know of no other office of the Word of God, we ask the idols of the pope from whom and whence they have this office, which is theirs alone and not common to all? Come forth, ye tender Papists, ye noble priests of Baal, and show us one little point in the Scriptures of your office and priesthood! You will perhaps bring forth the pompous, unchristian decree Pelagii: "Where there is authority, there is also power to command."
1) "One" is missing in the Wittenberg and Erlanger. Latin: uuuiQ.
(48) Go and question the blasphemers of Paris and Louvain, and we will put down your ministry and priesthood and its sacrifice for the third time, and say freely, surely, certainly, by divine authority and scripture, because you rule without the word of God, that you are priests of the devil, and that your ministry and priesthood is brought into the world by the devil, that he has suppressed and extinguished the one, wholesome ministry of the Spirit and the word of God. For this reason you have condemned the article of Hus, namely, that it is not proper to teach Christ and to hear Him from everyone, but that the whole world alone must hear and learn the devil from you lost blasphemers. Come then, that you teach the poor people nothing else than what your office and you are worthy of. You have extinguished and condemned the gospel; you preach Aristotle and your lies, and in all your books and writings there is nothing but the devil himself.
49 We say this of you freely, without fear or doubt, because you show us where your ministry of priesthood is founded in the Scriptures. But when will it come to pass? We have well indicated by Scripture that everything that is not Christ's words is the devil's lies, as Christ says John 8:44: "When he lies, he speaks from his own mouth." Is this not clear enough that the truth must be spoken by God alone, and whoever speaks from Him or out of Himself, that the same one is lying and lying? The pope with all his followers speaks everything by his own authority, without any scripture; therefore, as his priesthood is, so is his sacrifice. His priests, his laws, his works are nothing but lies of the devil. Therefore, if any Christian man looks at the great, innumerable multitude of monks and priests with their masses, sacrifices, laws, teachings and all their works, he will see nothing else but the devil's own people and servants, an unbelieving people of corruption, who are eternally subjected to the wrath of God [2 Petr. 2:4].
50. i think it is with these three
2) d. i. reserved (reservatura).
Causes sufficiently indicated to every devout Christian that this papist priesthood and mass offering is certainly the work of the devil, so that he has led the world into error and deceived it. From this everyone can see that nothing Christian is done by them, and that they have invented and fabricated the mass solely for their avarice and honor, for dishonor and dishonor to the holy testament of Christ. For this reason, nothing in this world is to be so much shunned and despised as these beautiful, seeming, spiritual larvae, masses, worship, faith and spirituality; and would be much better to be an executioner and murderer than a priest or monk.
51) We will now look at the 1) high priests, who are now allowed to call themselves princes, namely the bishops, so that we may see and recognize the whole body of the devil, with all its members. But I will here negate one thing 2) my reason, which is to be kept unbroken by every Christian: That everything that happens outside the Scriptures, especially in the things that belong to God, comes from the devil. As God proves in Nadab and Abihu, since he did not want that strange fire should be sacrificed, how seriously he condemned 3) that 4) in divine things was held differently than he himself would have ordered. "I am sanctified (saith he [Deut. 10:3]) in them that draw nigh unto me." How much more will he condemn and be enraged if one not only negates something without scripture, but also erases his commandment and institution! Thus, when the unbelieving Ahaz had the brazen altar made into a seiger 5) and placed the altar Damasci in God's temple [2 Kings 16, 11-15. 20, 11. Isa. 38, 8. 2 Chron. 28, 23. 24.].
The same is done with our crowned bishops, of whom we have the honor of being the bishops of the world.
tUUL A6NU8.
2) d. i. in turn.
3) "how seriously he" put by us according to the Latin instead of "so seriously" in the editions.
4) In all German editions: "Daß man" etc. The word "man" is too much, so we have deleted it. Latin: in redus kucris ulinä Zeri.
6) d. i. Sun pointer.
God knows nothing. Yes, there is no people on earth that can be more opposed to God than these idols and bishops. They are not only without divine appointment, but they are also raised up against God and set up to rule. This I will clearly prove and bring to light to those who believe the Scriptures. For the idols who deny the Scriptures believe only the decretions, and you cannot tell them to believe, but you tell vain lies, so that all their minds and hearts are changed.
Difference of Christian and Papal Bishops.
53 Paul says to his disciple Tito [Cap. 1, 5. 6. 7.]: "For this reason I have left you in Crete, that you may accomplish what I have left you, and appoint elders in every city, as I have instructed you, so that one may be blameless, a wife's husband, having faithful children, who cannot be accused of unchastity. For a bishop shall be blameless, as a minister of God" etc. Whoever believes that the Spirit of Christ speaks and orders here in Paul, recognizes that this is a divine appointment and order, that in every city there are many bishops, or at least one. It is also evident that Paul considers the elders and bishops to be one thing, since he says: "Therefore elders are to be ordered and appointed in all cities [to be blameless, therefore], 6) that "a bishop should be blameless.
54) He does not call the elders the idols that have been polished and oiled, but honest' pious citizens in a city, of good life and reputation; they are to become bishops, and many of them in every city, as the Greek text clearly states, and Phil. 1, 1: "Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with their bishops and deacons" etc. Philippi was a large city and had many bishops, whom Paul greets here. Likewise Apost. 20, 28. sends Paul to the several
6) This addition is made by us according to the Latin, because we assume that these words were omitted by a printing error, caused by the recurrence of "to be blameless".
City of Ephesus, and called the elders of the assembly to him, and among other things he says to them, "Have respect to yourselves and to the people, over whom the Holy Spirit has set you bishops, that you may feed his sheep, which he purchased with his blood." Now Ephesus was a city, and Paul called the elders in its assembly bishops, and that the Holy Spirit had appointed many of them.
55. What can you poor people say to these three heavenly thunderbolts? I beg you, Christian man, for God's sake, let the golden crowns and pearls, isles, red hats and coats, gold, silver, precious stones, donkeys, horses and court servants, with all the honor, adornment and splendor of the popes, cardinals and bishops of the Lost People, move you nothing at all, and believe Paulo in the Holy Spirit; these are not bishops, but idols, docks, 1) larvae and wonders of God's wrath. You have heard that Paul's bishops are honest and married men, in one city, as much as it needs to provide for the people. These are words not of the Church, not of the Conciliar, not of the Fathers, nor of the Gomorrahs of Paris and Lions, but of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus Christ, yes, of the Divine Majesty.
(56) If all the angels and the whole world preached against it, what should move you? Should you not respect and hold their words against the divine high majesty, as if a goose were whistling at you? But since no one but unbelieving, unchristian, unlearned apes and larvae of men strive against them, the most useless 2) people on earth, who are hardly worthy to bear the bishop's larvae; why then would you fear them, or be afraid of them, and not rather respect and hold them for a stain and defilement of the whole world (as Peter calls them [2 Pet. 2, 13.]) with all their laws, lies, pomp, customs and habits?
Come near, you monstrous abominations of the world, and show us the reason why you let yourselves be called bishops. The Holy Spirit has introduced many bishops into one city.
1) i. e. dolls.
2) So dre Jenaer correctly after the Latin inntiUssirnnrn. Wittenberg and Erlangen: useless.
Your one is over many cities, and a certain pope wants to be bishop over all the cities of the world. By whose command or authority? From the devil himself, who through you opposes the Holy Spirit and his appointment. What do you blasphemers have that you can say?
(58) Therefore, we firmly and irrefutably resolve that you are not bishops by name or by deed, according to the Holy Scriptures and the institution of the Holy Spirit, but destroyers and oppressors of bishops and of the Holy Scriptures which teach us to make bishops. You are bishops by appointment of the devil and his apostle, the pope, and therefore you are called a creature of the pope and not of the Holy Spirit. As is the Creator, so is the creature. Are you not frightened yet, because you hear that you are bishops, not only without the will of God, but also against his divine command and appointment, that is, that none of you would even consider what is proper and due to a bishop? You seek no more than honor and good, as you would have good life and good days, and fatten yourselves to the slaughter of God's eternal judgment.
59 Therefore show us from the Scriptures the testimony of your bishopric. But because you cannot do it, we speak and recognize by God and the Holy Spirit that you are puppets of the world, who have taken the title and name of bishops by force, and have cut off the true bishops, giving Christ in his last thirst and his church vinegar and gall. That we hold and believe these things of you, the Holy Spirit compels us, who in Paulo orders and establishes the bishops. Nothing in this world is more unequal to an episcopal state than your worldly state, princely life and nature.
60) And lest it be thought that Paul alone describes and depicts the bishops as birds of a feather, let us look at Peter, 1 Pet 5:1 ff: "I, a fellow elder and witness of Christ, being aware of all tribulation and future glory with you, exhort the elders among you: Feed
the flock of Christ's sheep, which are among you, without restraint, voluntarily, not for money, not as lords of the inheritance, but be ye the pattern of the flock, that, when the arch-shepherd cometh, ye may receive the incorruptible crown." Behold, among a flock of sheep there shall be many elders and bishops, even as Paul hath ordained, who shall not rule, but serve the sheep. They are servants of another inheritance, namely Christ, and not lords. But the pope with his dear faithful and devout will be a lord of the goods, the body and the souls of all men; use them more mightily than any tyrant or heathen of his goods: and this they call feeding the sheep of Christ.
61 Lastly, when the apostles quarreled about the authorities, Christ said, Luc. 22:25, 26: "The temporal princes rule over them, and those who have authority are called gracious lords; but you are not so." Here I place every Christian man between Christ and the pope as a judge. Christ has spoken and decreed that the bishops (who now have more honor, property and authority, and also exercise and need it against everyone, than secular kings and princes) shall not be so. Thus the pope has commanded and appointed, they shall be so. Hold here the words of the prince of Christ and his vicar, 1) the pope, against each other, and you will see and recognize who is Christ and who is antichrist, who are the right bishops and who are the larvae of the bishops. Woe to us miserable people that we have to live, even miserably perish, in this last time of wrath among the larvae, idols, coarse, unlearned blocks and ravening wolves [Matth. 7, 15.] without bishops and priests.
Therefore, by God and the Holy Spirit, we say and recognize that Christian bishops are honest and legitimate, aged, brave, 2) men, learned in the word of truth, many in one city, who are chosen by the nearest surrounding bishops, or by their people, as there may be,
1) Latin: viesrii. Jenaer: Antichrists.
2) "brave" only in the Jena edition. The Latin word so rendered is: Inwos - belonging to the lay state.
who we now call parish priests and their caplains, deacons, if they did not abuse the masses to please their chief idols, would have to keep silent about the gospel, corrupt it in false vowed chastity, and no episcopal office would be left to them to do.
This is a divine judgment, and the Holy Spirit's way of appointing bishops, as were St. Spiridion, Augustine, Ambrose. But those who have many cities among them, do nothing more than to carry a pearl stone at times, consecrate wood and stones with water and smoke, baptize bells, because they have raised themselves against divine appointment and Scripture: they are the devil's mockery, God's enemies, with their prince and creator, the pope, to be destroyed very soon by the future of our Savior, amen. Since all this is confirmed and proven by divine Scripture and the Word of God, a pious heart with a good conscience, free from all fear, must despise this whole Babylonian multitude with all its splendor and power.
64 Now there is still a part of the devil's company, the great innumerable multitude of monks, who want to be neither priests nor laymen: a new sea miracle of all pieces of deception, put together, made and invented by the devil himself. And in that they are priests, they are also met, since we have said of the priesthood, of its sacrifice and office. But in that they are monks, they need a book of their own with their foolish, ungodly and impossible vows, which have never been kept by anyone. Therefore, so that it does not become too long, I will save it for its time. 4) It is now enough that we know that a Christian people is undivided, without all sects and persons, in which there shall be no layman, no cleric, no monk, no nun, no distinction at all, all conjugal or chaste, as it pleases each one.
(65) There is also no distinction in himself between the bishops, elders, and priests, and the laity, nothing at all of others.
3) Erlanger: "and" instead of "with".
4) The book that Luther promises here is his "Urtheil von den geistlichen und Klostergelübden," which already appeared at the end of February 1522. No. 174 in this volume.
Christians, because he has another office, which he is commanded to preach the word of God and to administer the sacraments, just as a mayor or a judge is nothing separate from the other citizens, except that he is commanded to govern the city. They have also introduced such sects among the Christian people, dividing them into clerics and laymen, that some of them are profaned and some of them are not profaned; the profaned are part monks, part priests; the monks among them are themselves scrupulous with clothing and food: the same who have invented this have divided and cut up the unity of the Christian people.
These are the very ones who have destroyed the church and the word of God, and with the cunning of the old dragon have torn the minds and spirits of Christians away from unity in Christ, as Paul says in 2 Cor. 11:3. Therefore the name "bishop or priest" is not a name of a sect, but a name of the office. Priest is as much as an elder, bishop as much as an overseer. From this the godless people have made estates and dignities. Paul calls them otherwise Austheiler, servants of Christ, servants of God and Pröbste.
67. That is enough for this time of their ungodly priesthood, sacrifice and service, from which every pious man is sufficiently instructed, so that when he recognizes and sees that he is the priest of the devil and of his apostle, the pope, that he soon renounces it and applies himself diligently, so that he becomes the priest of Christ and of his holy church, or again a layman, and respects nothing at all the fictitious character, the greased and oiled fingers, the shorn head and the Pharisaic clothes of the wretched priests. For all these are not God's, but the devil's priests. Therefore, what they have vowed, they have not vowed to God, but to the devil, to whom no vow is to be kept; for you would dislocate and break the vow of the living God. Let them boast of their long spears and short swords, 1) and that their fathers by inspiration of the Holy
1) This is due to Emser. Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XVIII, 1270 ff.
If the Holy Spirit has instituted such pomp, honor, and splendor, we will boast of nothing but the Holy Scriptures, knowing that the Holy Spirit Himself cannot oppose or contradict Him, for He is a God not of strife, but of peace and unity [2 Cor. 13:11].
68 But because we have clearly shown that all their things are contrary to the holy divine Scriptures, we will not believe before that their pomp, glory and splendor are of the Holy Spirit, until they teach us that the Holy Spirit is contrary to Himself, or have revoked His Scriptures. Then they prove that their thing is of the Holy Spirit, as we have proved by the Scriptures that our thing is of the Holy Spirit. We despise Pabst's bulls and men's dreams, but we honor the holy Scriptures. If they despise the same, let them go and worship their water bulls. "He that is not with me," saith Christ [Luc. 11:23], "is against me." We say: Everything that is not with the Scriptures is against the Scriptures. The priesthood with its sacrifice and office, its bishopric, are not with Scripture, as indicated above, therefore it is necessary that they be contrary to Scripture, and thus contrary to God. But what is contrary to God, the devil does.
69 Look, how the devil, with such great cunning, under the appearance and name of priesthood and sacrifice, has so finely brought such abominations, ungodly statuses and sacrifices into the world! Since the Christian church has nothing better and nobler than priests, preachers and the mass, he wanted to do harm under their pretense, and did it also through the wrath of God. For his priesthood carried money. And when the mass was proclaimed for a sacrifice, he easily drew money and goods to himself from all over the world, and through wealth he drove avarice, honor, pride, unchastity, all mischievousness and wickedness, as we now see before our eyes, into them, to such an extent that the right true priesthood is completely extinguished, and the whole world does not know the truth.
2) Thus the Jena edition. Latin: adolito saeeräotio. Wittenberg and Erlangen: closed.
knows more than about the mass priests and their sacrifice, so that all people are deceived, because they do not know and hope otherwise than to obtain forgiveness of sin and eternal life through the one way with their money. So that he has obtained his desire and will, and with his godless priesthood has done so much that even many holy men have not only not understood this error, but have also confirmed it with words and works.
70 Thus the true mass and the true priesthood have fallen, have been completely extinguished, because instead of the faith, external works have been preached, which even a sinner and a knave can do. The fruit and power of the true, true sacrifice has been concealed and eradicated, so that people do not want to suffer or bear the cross, as tribulation, anguish, pain and everything that distresses us, and want to live in good peace and quiet, not in worry and work, but in idleness; and so the glory and honor of the true priestly office has gone out, and in its place an idol of human doctrine and laws has been set up. That therefore the prophecy of Paul is fulfilled, which describes, 1) 2 Tim. 3, 1. ff.: "You should know that in the last days a dangerous time will come. People will love themselves, be stingy, hopeful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, careless of God's service, never accepting anyone, not keeping a covenant, blasphemers, unchaste, unmerciful, neglectful of good, traitors, self-willed, puffed-up, blind, loving pleasure more than God, and have an appearance [as] if they were believing Christians, but they have denied His power. And beware of them, for among them are those who run into houses, and women weighed down with sins, lead them captive, and follow after divers lusts and pleasures; learning continually, they can never come to the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted 2) Most [Ex. 7:11], so these resist the
2) "Mambres" m the Vulgate and in all editions of our Scriptures, but in the Greek New Testament and in Luther's translation of the Bible: Jambres.
Truth. They are people who have a crazy mind, incapable of faith. But they will henceforth create nothing. For their foolishness, like this, will be revealed to all the world."
The other part, from the words of the Mass, proves and indicates that the Mass is not a sacrifice.
In the first part, I have overthrown the devil's godless, unchristian priesthood with strong writing, and also proved that the mass may not be called a sacrifice, and I have shut the mouth of the devil so that they can say or raise nothing against it, except their own dreams, habit, human wrongdoing and violence, all of which, as everyone knows, is of no value in divine things and the fortification of faith. I have also comforted and instructed the weak and sick consciences, so that they know and recognize that in the New Testament there is no sacrifice but the sacrifice of the cross and praise, as the Scripture says [Hebr. 10, 10. 13, 16. Rom. 12, 1.], so that no one may have cause to doubt that the mass is not a sacrifice.
(72) Now in the other part, after the controversy, I will prove and indicate the same without controversy with peaceful teaching, (3) and will build neatly on the foundation laid, dealing with the mass; not with our own words, as the devil's priests do with their own mass, but with divine words, so that Christ himself instituted it. Therefore, let us consider the first institution of the Mass and the words of the institutioner.
The first one is Matth. 26, 26. 27..:
"And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave to his disciples, saying, Take ye, and eat; this is my body. And took the cup, and gave thanks, saying, Drink ye all of it; this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many, for the remission of sins."
On the other hand, Marc. 14, 22. 23...:
"As they were eating, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, Take-.
3) Erlanger: to show.
go and eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them; and they all drank of it, saying, This is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many."
Third, Luc. 22:19, 20..:
He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise the cup after supper, saying, This is the cup of the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you."
The fourth is 1 Cor. 11, 23. 24. 25...:
"I have received from the Lord that which I have given you. For the Lord Jesus, in the night when he was taken captive, he took bread, thanked God, broke it, and said, Take and eat; this is my body, which is given for you. And this do in remembrance of me. Likewise the cup when he had eaten, saying, This is the cup of the new testament in my blood. This do, as often as ye drink it, in my remembrance."
Here you see that Paul and Lucas agree almost word for word. And I beseech every one that reads this booklet to believe, and to think assuredly, that these four, when they spake and wrote these words, were neither drunken nor foolish, but full of the Holy Ghost have they written the truth of history; that every one also may safely believe these words without any wavering, cleave firmly to them, and freely trust that they will stand against all power of the devil.
(74) After this, I would also like you to believe that Christ, although he spoke, did, and instituted all these things at night, under and after supper, was not drunk or insane, as other men are, but that he instituted 1) nothing but divine power and wisdom. And although it seems ridiculous to desire such things, the wrath and anger of the papists compels me to do so,
1) Thus the Wittenberg. In the Jena edition erroneously: "he". According to the Latin it reads: "but that the power and wisdom of God has appointed all that he has appointed."
and the miserable, senseless foolishness of the ravening wolves of Paris, Lion and other high schools, who are all so blind and obdurate that they despise Christ, His apostles, evangelists and all the Scriptures, and take nothing to heart, and want us to be senseless with the senseless, forsaking God's words and works, and praising with them men's words and works, and clinging to them, crying out and shouting: The Fathers, Fathers, Fathers, the Church, Church, Church, Concilia, Concilia, Concilia, Decreta, Decreta, Decreta,Universitates, Universitates, Universitates! , Universitates,
With this foam and water bull they may demand that all heavenly and divine truth and thunderbolts of the Holy Spirit give way to them, and if they do not give way, they will burn and condemn everything from hour to hour.
(75) What else do they show by such wrath, iniquity, and violence, but that Christ and his apostles were drunk or foolish in their words and works, who said lesser things than men? And let it be more certain to build and rely on the fathers, conciliarities, schools, and spiritual laws, which do err and have often erred, as they themselves confess, than on Christ. Although they do not wholeheartedly defend the fathers and conciliar schools, but only that they confirm their nature and actions, so that the world is deceived in body and soul, which they have taken from the fathers and conciliar schools, which they have not understood correctly, and extinguish and destroy the truth.
In the meantime, we will firmly adhere to the divine words with good faith that it will displease the pope or bishops, their harlots and knaves, and we will see whether these divine words indicated above allow the mass to be called a sacrifice.
First of all, we do not ask anything about the unspiritual clergy, which the foolish people have invented and imagined to the whole world, that the words of dedication have been kept secretly, and no one but the priests and not before, they have kept measurements, want to act, speak and know, which should have been reasonably known and revealed to all men, because faith,
The consolation and blessedness of all people, as I will show, is contained in the same words. As they have also so seriously and strictly commanded, whoever omits the little word enim or aeterni, 1) would be committing a great grave mortal sin, I mean, a centner grave. Not that I am pleased with any man's courage to change the form of the sacrament, but that I am grieved by such sacrilege and boldness, that the boys are allowed to make necessary articles of faith in things that are not commanded, and since there can be no danger or sin, to make sin out of their own head; they only frighten and corrupt the weak and sick consciences, so that they extinguish the spirit of Christian freedom and awaken the imprisoned spirit of fear in us.
78 For no sin, whether it be adultery or death, is so grievously and highly esteemed and held than that if one had omitted the little word enim, and have not perceived that the Holy Ghost hath diligently ordained that no evangelist should agree with another in the same words, which ought and ought to have agreed more, or else they had sinned, more than we, in the form of the Sacrament.
79] So they have also committed an indelible sin if someone touched the sacrament otherwise than with the oiled fingers or sanders than with the] tongue. 2) they have not considered the body and flesh of man to be a good creature of God, or they are senseless and foolish.
80) Such a sin is also one: if one had safely swallowed a drop of water, he would have been unworthy of the sacrament on that day. O senseless foolishness! It is not right, they say, for a man to take something into his mouth before he takes the body of Christ. A good cause! Then no mist or lust would have to enter a Christian's mouth, unless
1) Here the Latin edition adds: "which are not contained in the Gospels". They are only in the Canon (of the Mass).
2) This is how it should read according to the Latin.
before the body of Christ was taken inside. Thus it is necessary to forbid the priests to take no breath until after the mass; for Christ and his disciples took mass after supper; and it commonly happens that when a man has eaten moderately, his mouth, head, and breath are purer and more skilful than when he is quite sober, when he is weighed down with sleep and is insensible.
We despise such arbitrary spirituality, which men have invented and fabricated without Christ's word and command; not that one does not want to do it or should not do it, but that one wants to make sin out of it, which consciences have seen and are frightened by, that we cannot and will not suffer. Let him who will, yet freely, willingly, and without restraint, know that he cannot sin in that, if he forbear, in which Christ and the apostles did not sin. But by this alone one sins, which is contrary to Christ's word and institution; which the larvae regard as a divine service, namely, that they so cruelly abuse the mass, and make of it a sacrifice and work, that they may condemn and suppress the faith and its right custom: that it may be fulfilled what is said of the ungodly, "They fear, where there is no fear" [Ps. 53:6], and thus have sin and hell, where there is grace and all blessedness in him, 3) by the right judgment of God. Make righteousness and blessedness, since sin and utter condemnation is. So God is wicked to the wicked etc., Ps. 18, 27.
For this reason I have written about it for so long that I wanted to show that it is no wonder that they are allowed to make a sacrifice out of the mass, who are driven by such foolish, godless dreams that they turn everything around and do nothing right in this sacrament. So that their custom and habit is not only suspect, but also to be shunned by everyone. What good should they do at and in the mass, since they are eliminating the faith and the memory of Christ, and are setting up a sacrifice and a work for it?
83 Now we want to read the words of the saint.
3) Latin: udi sustitia st "alns libsrnma sst.
We want to see what they teach us and indicate what we should think of the Mass.
[1) And it would be superfluous enough for Christ's and the apostles' works and examples, since we believe that all Christ's works were done for our learning. As He Himself also says [John 13:15], "I have given you an example, even as I have done unto you, that ye also should do likewise." And hath seen in this place before the wolves that are to come, saying, "Do ye that ye may remember me" [1 Cor. 11:24.]. What shall they do? That I do now with you. But what does he do? Does he give bread and wine in a gilded cup or gilded chalices, in ornament and adornment, as we do now? No, he takes bread and wine, and with the word that he speaks, he makes it his body and blood, and gives it to his disciples to eat.
(84) Now if any man would follow this simple way, and leave without all that men have devised and added unto it, thou shalt not call him a heretic, but thou shalt call Christ himself a heretic. He shall not reproach thee with the Pabst's word, nor with the Gomorrah's, nor with the Fathers', but with Christ's own word 2): "Do ye remember me." And if thou hear it, and canst not shew that they do otherwise than Christ, thou shalt be held with Paris a gross ass or blasphemer. Let it be that the Greeks or Bohemians use this bad, simple-minded way and do what Christ says here: "Do it", and that on the other side in Rome the unlearned, godless waterbulls sit on delicious golden and royal chairs, the pope, cardinals, bishops, monks and priests, with their schools, Paris and Louvain, together with their beloved sisters Sodoma and Gomorrah: when they see that small, poor, and despised multitude doing so, [it may be that] 3) they will be very angry, wrinkle their noses
1) The bracketed words are inserted by us after the Latin, according to the following subsections.
2) Jenaer: "his own word". Wittenberg and Erlanger: Christ word itself. Latin:
'ipsius Okristi.
3) According to the Latin the Construction can be completed approximately in this way.
They curl their mouths, stretch out their hands and speak: The heretics do not hold the manner and form of the Roman church; neither do they believe the articles of faith which the holy faculty of Paris has made with their sisters; and they like well what they do, because there is so much of unlearned larvae and asses' heads, though they have not one word of Scripture, and all their doings must be right, as if they could not err.
What will you do here? Will you follow the great, delicious multitude in their wickedness against God's law, and leave the smaller one in the good, seeing here God's word and work, and there nothing but men's dreams and their power? Therefore you must be sure that Christ sees with his eyes where his word is acted upon and lived; And if there were not more than two of them, turning away from those where his word is not, if there were also as many popes, cardinals and bishops as there are stars in the sky and leaves in the forest, clothed in vanity of gold, pearls and precious stones, riding on vanity of mouths and asses, should you not justly consider all these idols and larvae as vanity of dirt and dung, for the sake of the word of God, the supreme divine majesty of Christ? Why then, having Christ with thee, and acting according to his word, dost thou fear the effeminate, frivolous priests? Does not John say of him, "He is greater that is in us, than he that is in the world?" [1 John 4:4.]
Therefore let the wolves and the larvae condemn thy doings, and set up the sacrifices of which they know nothing; let them bring forth the fathers, conciliation, and long custom of all men; be satisfied only with thy one Christ with his little company, of which thou knowest assuredly that he offered not bread and wine in his last supper. He will not condemn you because they condemned you. He will crown you for following him and not them. You have the word and work of Christ, hold that against all devils. What do they have? Pearls, infeln, red hats, beschorne heads, gold rings and large broad seals, with which they prove all their actions, on it now hangs the christian-.
faith. If they lost that, they would have as much bishop's character in all of them as the miller's donkey.
Therefore, every pious Christian man should take the example of Christ to heart and consider it certain that it is not fitting or proper for an angel, much less for a human bull or a human bull, to make something out of the sacrament of God that Christ himself did not make. And even if it were possible, it would not be advisable for a Christian man to depart from the example of Christ and start something new in such great things without an example. Why did Christ come before us with his words and works and preach to us, if we are allowed to start and do something without his word and work? Why then did he come into the world, if it is not enough to follow him in what he taught us?
(88) We do not condemn the sacrament being performed with chasein and other ceremonies, but that it is thought to be necessary and must be so, and make conscience of it, since all things which Christ has not instituted are free, arbitrary, and unnecessary, and therefore harmless. But to make a sacrifice of it is not to make a ceremony, but to change the nature and manner of the sacrament altogether. This 1) is not only without example, but contrary to the word and example of Christ, so that it cannot excuse Christian freedom. For it is the highest damnable idolatry and blasphemy.
89 Secondly, it is evident to everyone that the words of Christ are true, so that Christ promises and pledges, "This is my body, which is given for you. This is the cup, a new testament in my blood, which is poured out for you. Nor can Paris, all error a mother and origin, say otherwise than that these are words of promise, including in themselves the pledge of the promise, the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine. The body of Christ and the shedding of His blood are promised for the forgiveness of sins, which is the New Testament.
1) Wittenberg "the". Latin: üoo.
(90) To the promise belongs faith, that I may believe that I shall receive what is promised me, and a pledge of the promise, so that promise and faith are linked together. Where there is no promise, there is no faith, and where there is no faith, the promise is nothing. And as God promises to us for nothing, without our merit or work, for otherwise it would not be a promise but a reward and recompense, the promise is received and accepted through faith alone, without any works. Otherwise our works would merit the promise. Therefore one does enough to the promise by faith, and enough is done to faith by the promise. For works make one forget the promise and pay no attention to it. And again, the promise does not require works, it is sufficient for faith.
(91) Therefore we shall find or see nothing in these words but the promise of Christ and the faith of man, and not a jot or tittle is shown therein of the sacrifice. For sacrifice and promise are further apart than going out and coming down. A sacrifice is a work that we offer and give to God from ours, but the promise is God's word, which gives man God's grace and mercy; that it is not only erroneous, but also incomprehensible to human reason, to make a human sacrifice out of God's promise, and a work of a poor creature out of the word of divine majesty, when there is no likeness between the word of God and our work; I am silent that they should be one thing.
Since Christ commanded us to do this in his memory, he wanted nothing else from us, but that we practice our faith daily with the promise and the pledge, for which reason he also instituted this sacrament and gave it to us. For the soul of man, when this gracious promise is often and much considered, is ever more and more fattened by faith. Do you see how blind and wrong the papists are, that they make a man's work out of the promise and promise of God, so that they themselves show that they do not even know what the Sacrament of the Altar is, or what it is?
Christ has done and thus indicated? They offer a work, Christ demands faith. They give goods, Christ promises the people. What could be more foolishly thought up or invented?
93. If a prince gave you his property and gave you as a pledge a written will of his last will and testament, and did this out of his kindness and goodness for the sake of your arm, and asked nothing of you except that you accept the will with thanksgiving and joy, and that you would love him, and that you would go and offer the will to him again, so that you would increase his goods and not your own, and that you would have honor as a giver, and that he would be ashamed to take anything from you, a poor beggar: Would you not say that he was mad and foolish, and heard nothing at all; or, if he understood, that he mocked and ridiculed the prince out of pride and malice? So also the clergy of the papists is against the divine majesty, in that they consider the mass a sacrifice and make God rich with his own promise. O abomination above all abominations!
94. thirdly, the words are thus: "He took the bread, gave thanks to God, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. He did not say, "He took the bread and lifted it up before God," indicating that he offered it to God and did not give it to men. The larvae will not be so senseless and ignorant of language that they may say: Giving to the disciples means as much as offering to God. Much less can "take" mean as much as sacrifice, since he says: "He has taken", which indicates that he has taken bread to himself to use. For since he wanted to give the bread and give it to the disciples, he had to take it in his hands, because he could not break it and give it with his feet. So also in the fact that he gave bread and wine or gave thanks, no sacrifice is indicated, otherwise he would also have offered the five barley loaves and two fish, which he took in his hand, gave or gave thanks, and gave them to the disciples, since he kept just this form and manner, without saying: this is my body, that is, he did not change the loaves into his body. So also giving and thanksgiving is a sign and
Testimony that something is received and given by God, not that we offered or gave something to God.
95. He who sacrifices prays and asks God to accept his sacrifice from him with grace etc. But he who gives thanks does not pray that it may be acceptable, but rejoices that something has been given to him and that he has received it. That you may see how all words strive against the fact that the mass is a sacrifice, given to God, and show that it is a grace and gift of God, given to men, which they should take and receive from God, giving thanks, praising and giving to Him, not asking that God accept it.
Here you can see that the manner and form in which the mass is now celebrated does not correspond at all to the Gospel. All three evangelists, and Paul with them, agree that Christ took the bread, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and do not say whether he himself ate or drank it. Since breaking the bread and giving it to the disciples is nothing else than dividing it into many parts and distributing the parts to the disciples, no mass, if it is to be otherwise according to Christ's institution and example, must be held unless the sacrament is broken and distributed by the priest among many. If, however, any other mass is held, it is not a Christian mass, but is completely contrary to Christ's order and institution.
What will you poor Mass-keepers say to this? Should not this place of Scripture alone move all of you to slacken your observance of Mass, since no one everywhere follows Christ and his institution, except those who bring the Sacrament to the sick, or who publicly report the people and do not take it themselves? These follow Christ best. For they take it in their hands and break it and give it to others, whose ministers they are; just as Christ, the other ministers, does not take the sacrament himself, but gives it to others. But the ministers divide the sacrament into three parts, one to the living, the other to those in purgatory, the third to the saints in heaven, and are not so wise as to know that no saint needs neither faith, sacrament, nor promise, but they do.
who possess and have obtained their pledges and the promised inheritance, and pretend to divide the sacrament, yet keep all three parts themselves; robbing the heap and giving none of it.
Now hold them against each other, the antichrists and Christ. The latter breaks bread and gives it to everyone. They break it and give it to no one, keeping it only; they alone have invented a pretense of breaking. Where then is the word of Christ, "This doeth" etc.? Why do they do otherwise and against Christ? Therefore he is safest who does not say a papal mass at all (for there is neither an exemplification nor an institution of Christ), but when he has given and distributed the bread, takes it from another, just as no one baptizes and 1) absolves himself, but is baptized and absolved by another.
Now that this is clear and evident, we must not give any credence to those who speak of Paris' knowledge: It is against the Doctors of the Holy Scriptures, and too close to the Holy Faculty, shameful and dishonest to them. The words of the Gospel stand firm there: "He has broken and given to the disciples; this does" etc. He 2) does not say: He kept it and took it himself; that does. If this custom of the sacrament had been kept, it would never have become a sacrifice, just as it is not called a sacrifice when the priest gives the sacrament to the sick or to others who ask for it.
(100) But since they kept and took the sacraments themselves for the breaking and distribution, 3) and called the minister a priest, the sacrifice was invented so that the holy priest might have something to do on the altar and not stand idle. But if any man would report himself, let him not take it alone, but break it, and give it to others also, that he may do something according to the example and institution of Christ. These are words that neither lie nor deceive.
1) "and" is missing in the Jena.
2) "He" i.e. the evangelist.
3) The meaning is: The papists did not break and distribute bread and wine, but kept and took them themselves. Latin: But after one has begun to change the breaking and distributing into what it is now.
The words of the Bible can also make our conscience secure if you adhere to them, believe and follow them, even though the whole world speaks and holds against them.
101. fourth. And he said, "Receive." Christ not only showed by his work and example that the meat was not a sacrifice but God's gift, but he also confirmed it by his word when he told them to take it. Why did he not say: Sacrifice it? "To take" here does not mean to offer or give a foreign good to another; it means to take his own good, which is given to him, and to use and enjoy it. In saying, "Take," he makes owner of the gifts he has given and broken. Therefore, the word "Take" does not mean that something is sacrificed, but it indicates that the gift comes from God to those who take it.
What can be said against this? Do Sodoma and Gomorrah still accuse us of presuming the understanding of Scripture alone? Come and show us another, and subdue this one. It is not enough that you say, It is vexatious. We know well that Christ and his word will be vexed.
103. fifth. "Eat and drink." This is all we are to do with the sacrament. For this reason he breaks it, gives it, and tells us to eat and drink, and afterward to remember him and proclaim his death. 4) We are to eat and drink, and afterward to proclaim his death. Likewise, Paul knew no other work in this sacrament but eating and drinking, since he repeats the words of Christ [1 Cor. 11:26]: "As often as ye eat the bread, and drink of the cup, ye shall proclaim the death of the Lord, until he come." Here Paul gives us nothing to sacrifice or do, but to take, eat, and drink. But what we eat and drink we do not offer; we keep it for ourselves and take it to ourselves. Nor are we ashamed, against these clear, irrefutable words, to make a sacrifice of that which we eat and drink.
104. the nature and manner of the burnt offering in particular is to give it to god and not to leave anything for man; if
4) Wittenberg and Erlanger: he's.
But otherwise it was a common or sin offering, so they left a part of it to God and a part to men. [Why then do we eat and drink all the bread and wine and leave nothing to God? And since it is supposed to be the highest and best sacrifice, why do we not leave it to God? Where is the sacrifice here? It is not enough to talk and say: Christ is sacrificed by us under bread and wine. Let us take Christ among bread and wine, if nothing is to be taken from the Lord's sacrifice.
It is not the same to sacrifice to God and to be taken to us. The Levites of the people of Israel took their sacrifices, but they ate nothing of that which was to be offered to God. Thus, when we offer our bodies and praise to God, Rom. 12:1, we give and command it to God completely and keep nothing for ourselves, so that it may be a truly spiritual sacrifice in kind and nature. Therefore the sacrifice of the pope is an unheard-of abomination, just as he with all his servants, laws and nature is unheard-of and unjustified in Scripture. We eat it cooked and offer it to God cooked, that is, if we offer it, we do not eat it; if we eat it, we do not offer it. So because we do both, we do neither. Who ever heard such a foolish thing? It is all straight against each other, one overthrows the other, or decide of necessity that this sacrament can be no sacrifice nor may. Be angry, you of Louvain and Paris, and disprove us.
106. to the sixth. "This is my body, this is the cup of my blood." Here Christ gives us a pledge and a sign of His promise, as God has always done in His promise. To Abraham he gave circumcision as a sign of the promised son [Gen. 17:10]. And when he promised Noah that he would be God's seed and not destroy the world with water, he gave him the rainbow in the clouds as a sign [Gen. 9:11, 12, 13, 14].
1) Wittenberg and Erlanger: Child. Latin: 86Mini 8UO.
Promises with signs, so that Isaiah asked King Ahaz for a sign from God, when he promised him that he would deliver the people from the power of the king of Syria and Samaria [Is. 7, 11].
(107) It is also customary among men to confirm covenants, vows and pledges not only with words and letters but also with sigils and witnesses. If one promises something to someone, then one gives him the hand on it; if one pledges oneself, then one hangs a seal on it, so that the promise and the pledge are held steadily and firmly. So also here, that we may be sure of this promise of Christ and actually rely on it without any doubt, he has given us the noblest and most precious seal and pledge, his true body and blood, under bread and wine, just the same, so that he has acquired that this precious treasure full of grace is given and promised to us, and has laid down his life, so that we may take and receive the promised grace.
How can we make a sacrifice and our own work out of the pledge and seal of God, which is given to us? Who among men is so foolish as to offer the seal on a letter, in which something is promised to him, to the promisee? He takes it to himself and keeps it, waiting with certain confidence that he will receive what is promised to him. So we hold that God is obligated to us for the sake of the immeasurable pledge, and we certainly hope with great joy of our hearts that He will keep what He has promised us and confirmed with such a precious pledge and seal. And you godless rabble, the Pope's followers, want to teach us to sacrifice and give away these exuberant gifts and pleasures?
(109) Whom will it not greatly grieve and hurt in his heart that the cruel murderers of souls should darken this unspeakable love of God and weaken our heart's certainty, and drive away such confidence, and provoke the wrath of God for love, and works for faith, and make us afraid and uncertain in all our doings? For because they are a
If we make sacrifices out of the Mass, will we not be uncertain whether our sacrifice is pleasing to God or not? There is no one among all the Mass-keepers who could say: I am certain that my taking the Mass is pleasing and comfortable to God, and they all go there in such an uncertain delusion, and always offer Christ, and do not know what their turn is, because they abandon the promise of the true God and are led back and forth with their uncertain sacrifices and works.
(110) He who sacrifices wants to make atonement for God, but he who wants to make atonement for God considers him to be wrathful and ungracious. And he who does so does not look to him for grace or mercy, but fears his judgment and sentence. But he who is to go to the Sacrament fruitfully must believe and fully believe that he has a gracious, kind God, and that God loves him most, that he has freely given him his highest and most precious treasure. And nothing is more and more opposed to and against the practice and fruit of the Sacrament than precisely the papist doctrine and these harmful consciences that God is angry and to be reconciled with this sacrifice. Who, if he were not so kind and merciful, would not have poured out and given us such a rich treasure and such a precious gift. Take note of how the sacrificers have led us into great danger with their sacrifice, that we have turned our good, which makes us alive and blessed, into that which kills and condemns us, have turned certain into uncertain, have turned faith into doubt, and in short have turned divine love and grace into anger and hatred, have turned the Father into an enemy, have mixed heaven with hell, the highest with the lowest.
If you know that this sacrament is a promise and not a sacrifice, you are not uncertain and do not think of anger. You are ever certain that God is true and cannot lie, who keeps what He promises and pledges [Deut. 23:19], and as He promises and shows Himself merciful and gracious [Ex. 20:6], so you will have Him and find Him, if you believe Him to be so. And if thou perceive that he promise thee nothing but mercy.
you will see with a happy, light conscience that He does not require anything of you to sacrifice or give to Him, but that He sweetly and kindly entices and tempts you to accept what He gives you. But when you want to sacrifice, you have a burdened conscience from need, which thinks that God demands much from you that you should sacrifice, and for great sorrow you see nothing good that you receive. So it happens that where there should be nothing but sweetness of heart toward God, there is nothing but fear, anxiety, fear and all misery. And this is what the furious devil wanted through the ungodly sacrifice.
112. to the seventh. "Which is given for you, which is poured out for you for remission of sins". Here is indicated the pledged grace, remission of sins. O a sweet and powerful promise, which no sacrifice can suffer. For this reason the body and blood are given, so that we, if our sins are forgiven, may be saved. These are the precious gifts and goods which are given to you in this sacrament. How can an angry, ungracious God do this, and not rather a kind, careful Father? What could he have promised greater than forgiveness of sins, which is nothing else than grace, peace, life, inheritance, 1) eternal glory and blessedness in God? And you, godless pope, see in this sacrament another God, who is to be reconciled!
Do you not yet see that all who offer this sacrament, as often as they offer it, are practicing idolatry? for they do not have a true God in the sacrament, but make and invent for themselves an idol of their heart, who is angry and to be reconciled, but who cannot be, nor may be, in this sacrament. He is also truly angry with you, as you believe, because you have no faith in the Sacrament, that is, in the promise of Christ, and are truly a Gentile and a Jew, a Christian by name and title alone, and a priest by name and title alone; without being much heavier than a Christian.
1) Erlanger: Heirs.
2) For the sake of understanding we have inserted this word after the Latin: et tantuin rssnrs saosraos.
sin against the promised goods in this sacrament, and by your sacrifice make God more bitter and angry; otherwise, in unbelief, you are certainly like the Gentiles and Jews altogether.
(114) And that he may take this delusion out of thy heart, he hath himself signified in his words wherewith he is to be reconciled, saying, Which is given for you, which is shed for you. Therefore, cease your damnable and harmful propitiation; it is no more than one thing alone for God to propitiate, and none more. The majesty is much higher than to be reconciled with all men's blood on earth and all angels' merit. The body of Christ is given, his blood is poured out, and with it God is reconciled; for for you it is given and poured out, as he says, "for you," that he may turn away from us the wrath of God, which we have earned with our sins. And when the wrath is gone, the sins are forgiven. Therefore, he says, it shall be given and poured out for the remission of sins. And if the body had not been given, nor the blood shed, the wrath of God would remain upon us, and [we] would retain our sin.
Here you see clearly how no work of atonement, nor sacrifice of reconciliation, is useful; only the faith of the body given and the blood shed reconciles. Not that faith reconciles in itself, but it grasps and attains the reconciliation that Christ has made for us. Much less can your foolish work or sacrifice, which is done without Christ and without faith, obtain anything from God, except great wrath and disgrace. It is firmly stated that "the body is given for you"; you cannot give or sacrifice anything for the forgiveness of sin, but it is given to you free of charge. But to Christ this gift of God in us is not given in vain. For he gave his body and life for it and for our sake, that we might love him, and be thankful with joy to divine mercy, that he has given to us unworthy and undeserving such an unspeakable treasure of his goods. Therefore, in this sacrament, the priests should give thanks to God.
neither sacrifice nor give, but believe alone, and take from God.
It follows that I cannot say mass for anyone else. And what do I care that all papists hold and do otherwise? They will never eradicate the faith. So we also know that in the Gospel and the Epistles it is proclaimed that the clergy shall deceive the whole world with their error. The words of divine majesty will not deceive us nor deceive us even in the midst of death; they demand nothing more of us than faith, because they are pure, clean and gracious promises.
117. But each one must have his own faith in the promise, that he may believe in his heart that it will happen to him as God has promised and promised, which cannot happen for anyone else. I cannot believe for you, so you cannot believe for me. Therefore, I cannot make you a partaker of God's promise; your own faith must do it, as it is written: "He who does not believe will be condemned. But the shameful sacristans, who set up fraternities and say mass for the living and the dead for the sake of money, do nothing but deceive the foolish people and go to hell with them, robbing them of money and goods with their lies.
From this the secretly hidden reasons 1) of the whole world are revealed. Everyone is well aware of what the bishoprics, cathedrals, monasteries, churches and the whole kingdom of the clergy is founded and built upon, namely, upon the keeping of masses, that is, upon the worst idolatry on earth, upon shameful lies, upon the perverse ungodly abuse of the sacrament, and upon a worse unbelief than that of the heathen. Therefore it came to pass, by the righteous judgment of God, that all their money and goods are used for nothing but vain hope, fornication and gluttony, that they walk idly, have good days, and are of no use to anyone, neither to God nor to the world, and are obedient only to the Roman idol, as he is worthy of it, and is
1) d. i. Fundamentals (kuoäaineQta).
that cheap his reward, who invented this godless priesthood.
But there is one thing that comforts them, on which they also rely, that they think it is not possible that they should all err, and that Luther alone should be right; just as Zedekiah struck the one prophet of God, Micheam, and thought it not possible that all the other prophets should lie, and that this one alone should have the mind of God [1 Kings 22:24]. Truly, it is a delicious cause taken from the greatness and multitude, against the clear loud word of God. What should please the liars, who are built on vain lies, but lies? To whom should they be more cheaply hostile than to the word of God, which disgraces them and their lies?
120. for the eighth. A "new testament." Behold, Christ himself calls the mass a "testament"; how then can it be a sacrifice? If the lions, Paris, and the devil's kingdom at Rome were so wise with one another that they could reason with one another, then I would discuss with them the nature of a sacrifice and a testament, if they would finally hear the distinction between a testament and a sacrifice. But because they fortify their unfounded pretensions with the quantity of caps and plates alone, ignoring clear reason and divine word, I will let them go and let the asses of their braying wait, and show to pious Christians our testament founded in the Scriptures.
There is this difference between a will and a promise. A testament is made by one who wants to die, but a promise is made by one who wants to live longer. Thus 1) the epistle to the Hebrews [Cap. 9, 16. 17.] says: "Where there is a testament, he who made it must die: for by death the testament becomes strong; before, while he lives, it is not yet strong." But since God calls His promise in Scripture now and then a testament, He intends by it that He would die, and again that He calls it a promise, that He would live.
1) Wittenberger instead of "So" "Dermuß". Latin: 8io.
and thus give to understand with the one word, 2) that he would become man, die, and yet live eternally, which is not to be spoken of now.
A will is nothing else but a last will and testament of the one who dies, how the heirs should deal with his goods and live after his death. And I will make it brief now, because I have written about it in the epistle to the Galatians.
(123) Four things belong to a true and perfect will: the testator, the oral or written promise, the inheritance, and the heirs; as is clear in this will. The decider is Christ, who wants to die. The promise are the words, so that bread and wine will be given. The inheritance that Christ has given us in his will is forgiveness of sin. The heirs are all believers in Christ, namely, the holy chosen children of God. Therefore Paul also calls the Christian faith the "faith of the elect" (Tit. 1, 1). 3)
From this, notice the deception of the priests themselves, who have made a sacrifice out of the will. God provides and gives us, so they sacrifice. This is done in no other way than that they punish God by calling it a testament or consider it nonsensical. For he who makes a sacrifice of it cannot consider it a testament, since it is impossible for a sacrifice to be a testament, for this we give, this we take; this comes from us to God, this comes from God to us, this happens through us, this happens to us. And what need is there for me to tell all the differences between what we take and what we give, since unreasoning animals notice and grasp them?
Nor does it help the papists and sophists to seek evasion and to speak: It may well be a testament if it is held against us; but if it is held against God, it is a sacrifice. It is one God and one Church, between which alone the testament mediates from above.
2) Jenaer: given.
is correct, because according to the context here as well as according to the Vulgate it should be: üäem e/eotE/n.
ment, and from below up the sacrifice. Yes, I confess that it is a sacrifice against their God, the Papist God, who is an idol of their heart; but against ours, the right true God, it can be nothing but a testament.
(126) Secondly, they do not consider Christ to be a decisor, because they do not recognize or accept the testament. For they do not want to take anything from God, but only to give and sacrifice to Him, so that they do not consider Him to be a lenient giver of His goods, but an insatiable master of the rod, who demands foreign goods and works from us.
Third, they deny the inheritance, for they do not seek forgiveness of sin in vain, which Christ purchased for us with His body and blood, but they want to obtain and acquire their own new forgiveness of sin with their sacrifice and works. These saints must work so that they do not receive the grace and mercy of God in vain. Above all this, everyone wants to prepare himself with much prayer, confession and other works and make himself worthy of such a sacrament, so that they appear completely pure and nothing remains to be forgiven, thus mocking the blood of Christ, which was shed for the forgiveness of sin.
All this comes from the fact that they know of no sin except the evil will and intention to sin; all other lust and covetousness of the heart are natural powers or imperfections in them, which must not be allowed to Christ. Thus it happens that the papists become completely clean from an assumed and imagined repentance and no longer need the testament of the forgiveness of sins, and thus go pure, where no one should go, except those who need the forgiveness of sins.
129 Fourth, they also deny the heirs. For the heirs alone are those who believe the will. But the mass apostles make their own heirs, who rely on their own sacrifices and works, namely, such troubled and frightened consciences that they not only do not believe, but also do not know whether they should believe. For they know not that it is a promise and a testament.
which alone requires faith, and think that it is a sacrifice made by works. So you see that the papists are completely blinded and do not know what the sacrament is, what fruit, benefit and piety it brings, or how it should be used.
[Refutation of the things claimed for the victim. ] 1)
130. You will find their art and wisdom of the Sacrament in all their books, sermons and hymns, and in all writings where they deal with it. They call it words of giving and not words of the testament. And here they take great pains and labor to make it believable that no more bread shall remain, and be destroyed, that the body of Christ may take its place. But that the people should be told and preached of the faith and testament, no man remembereth. And there is nothing so vexatious and heretical as to despise their foolish, poisonous faces, and to investigate the faith and the testament. 2)
131) There is a singing of the feast of the body of Christ, which is patched together from many parts of the Scriptures, in which the Scriptures are so forced and pulled by the hair, that even the worst enemy of God must have made it, because it would be dreams of a poor foolish man. Melchizedek is remembered, who sacrificed bread and wine [Gen. 14, 18], the little lamb, which the people sacrificed early [Deut. 28, 4], the bread of Elijah [1 Kings 19, 6], the bread of heaven of the fathers [Ex. 16, 15], Isaac, who was to be sacrificed [Gen. 22, 2], and I know not what is not remembered: all these must have been figures of the sacrament. And it is a wonder that he did not also put Balaam's donkey and David's mule, which could not have meant less than the sacrificial offering.
1) This superscription is found only in the Latin editions.
2) i.e. asks about the faith and the will. Latin: huasras.
3) In the old editions: Gesange. Latin: Historia.
rough donkey the previous stories and figures have meant. 1)
In addition, the pope comes in the lection at matins with great splendor, so that everyone thinks that he would proclaim nothing but the rich treasure of faith and testament, but falls from the beginning on Aristotle's art, of bread, of its whiteness and roundness, 2) of the destruction of bread, and after that, if that has happened and the poor people are still hungry, yes, have heard only chaff and straw for the word of God, then the holy father gives rich and mild indulgence. The pious man may still say in his preface that he would like to weep when he contemplates such gracious kindness of divine majesty.
Now see if Aristotle is to be despised, who after his death makes the pope so learned, pious and holy that he also weeps with holiness. O woe is me, poor man, that I must see and hear that through the unspeakable wrath of God such insults and mockery of the devil should be preached to the poor miserable Christians for serious wholesome doctrine. Who is crying here? Who are those who set themselves up as a wall for the people of Israel against God in these days of wrath? [Ezek. 22, 30.]
(134) And that I may conclude, let all Christians, especially the priests, beware lest they ever make a sacrifice out of the testament. The Old Testament, which was given by the angels, cannot be called a sacrifice, because it is a word of the law, which was not sacrificed, but confirmed by the sacrifices of unreasonable animals. The angels gave the law, the people received it, not sacrificed it. Much less can the New Testament, instituted by Christ Himself, be a sacrifice, because it is a word of promise and grace, which was not sacrificed.
1) This last sentence, according to the Latin, reads, "Since they could not have meant less appropriately what this ass and mule wanted to be meant by the aforementioned stories."
2) Wittenberger and Erlanger: from his way, and rühmet from etc. But the reading of the Jenaer given by us will be correct. The Latin offers here: äs assiäsntivus st sudjssto. The sudjsstum is the bread; the lseläsntin its whiteness and round.
ch is not sacrificed, but spent and confirmed by the sacrifice of Christ 3) on the cross.
(135) Now as he would be an ungodly [or a] 4) fool who would call the old testament, the law given and accepted, a sacrifice, so he would be much more of a fool who would call the new testament, the promise of the grace of Christ given and accepted, a sacrifice. And just as it was commanded that the law should be preached diligently to the people, so also Christ commanded the new testament to be preached publicly to everyone everywhere. For the sum of the whole gospel is contained in it, as Paul says, "As often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye shall proclaim the death of Christ."
For if you ask, "What is the gospel?" you cannot answer better than these words of the New Testament, "that Christ gave his body and shed his blood for us for the remission of sins. This alone is to be preached to Christians, imagined, and always faithfully commanded to be remembered. Thus the godless priests have made words of benediction out of it, and have hidden them so secretly that they have not wanted to let any Christian know them, no matter how holy and pious he may have been. It suited this priesthood to suppress and extinguish the word and the faith in the whole world, so that they indicated with the secret masses what they publicly act and do in the whole world.
For this reason these words, as a brief summary of the whole Gospel, should be impressed and instructed on every Christian heart, so that he may always consider them without hesitation and practice, strengthen, and maintain his faith in Christ with them, especially when he goes to the Sacrament. And this the minister indicates when he takes up the host and the chalice: there he does not remember with a single word any sacrifice, which would have to be, after all, if
3) In all editions: Christum". According to the Latin it must be "Christi", - spent - accomplished.
4) Thus set by us according to the Latin. Jenaer: a godless fool. Wittenberger and Erlanger: How now the godless would be a fool.
it would be a sacrifice. Although there would be nothing wrong with it, if none were abolished; for men have invented it, and Christ has not instituted it.
But it may well mean that, just as this pledge of Christ's promise is lifted up to provoke the people to faith, so the word is to be preached publicly to the people, so that everyone may hear the testament and see the pledge, and with both thus be enticed, awakened and strengthened to faith.
I am also surprised that these wise people do not realize that Christ instituted and performed this sacrament in an inn, not in the temple, on a table, not on an altar, since the law of Moses strictly forbade the offering of anything outside the temple, and the apostles, Acts 2:46, who kept the law everywhere else, broke bread in the houses, not in the temple. Therefore, Christ also wanted to make sure that his holy gift would not be a sacrifice.
But I think that the abolition caused them to make a sacrifice out of it. But where are the hosts given for the people, which are not taken away? What is the difference between a priest and a layman, in that they received the sacrament without the priest giving the bread and giving it to the people? If the sick and the other people, when they go to the Sacrament, do not offer anything, why do the foolish priests make a sacrifice of it, since they take nothing more than the laity? God has kept the poor simple-minded people, but those who have made themselves priests and raised themselves above others, he has given in 2) a wrong sense [Rom. 1, 28.], so that they might lose the common Christian faith.
Let this be said enough of these salutary words, which (I hope) do enough for any pious Christian to consider the mass without any doubt as a testament that is certainly not fraudulent, and not as a sacrifice.
1) Jenaer: the. Latin: äouuiu suum.
2) So the Jenaer correctly after the Latin. Wittenberger and Erlanger: "one".
Now let us respond to their imaginary talk, so that they make the mass a sacrifice, although such talk, because we have been assured by the words of God, should be more cheaply despised than refuted. But we owe it to all to serve the poor weak consciences, so that they may be comforted, firm and steadfast in faith everywhere, not faltering nor wavering.
From the Canon or the Still Mass. 3)
143) And first of all, they reproach us with the still mass, which they call the Canon, in which it is written: "These gifts, holy and undefiled sacrifices"; and then, "a holy sacrifice, a pure sacrifice, 4) and undefiled sacrifice" etc. But such reproach is, as is their nature, that they can call no more than fathers, fathers, spiritual law, spiritual law, church, church, as often as they want to draw and lead us from the Word of God to human doctrine and word. But if the word of God is thrust under their noses, they cry out with plugged ears: "You do not understand correctly, one must believe the interpretation of the fathers," and so they destroy the word of God with the name of the fathers. That is why we also speak and almost cry out gospel, gospel, Christ, Christ. Why should we not insist on Christ and his gospel as firmly as they insist on the fathers and spiritual law and refer to them?
Now that they reproach us with their canon, let us cry out after their manner: You do not understand the Canon; it must be interpreted. Who then will decide our quarrels and quarrels here? If they say: The words of the Canon are clear and evident, and are not to be glossed over, we also say: The words of the Gospel are clear and evident, and are not to be glossed over. And all that they boast, speak, and say of their human doctrines and laws, let us much more boast, speak, and say of the gospel of Christ our God, until we have both-
3) This superscription is in Latin and as a marginal gloss in the old German editions.
4) The words: "a pure sacrifice" are missing in the Wittenberg and Erlanger.
We must stand still with boasting and shouting; then we will also retain the victory. For they themselves must confess that all creatures in heaven and earth, and everything that is not the gospel, must yield to the gospel. Which they cannot appropriate or give to their spiritual rights and fathers, so that everything that is not fathers' and spiritual right must also yield to them. Therefore we have already won and say that the canon, because it is human word and work, must give way to the gospel and give way to the Holy Spirit.
145 And although I wanted to help the canon, as I did before, I do not want to honor him now, but the gospel, that I give him faith without any doubt, and will, as the lawyers say, interpret his dark words against him and not help him at all. I will also say further, as the parable in the Gospel reads [Luc. 14, 8. 9.]: Because the Canon is invited to the wedding and has seated himself at the top, he should now rise with shame and give place to Christ his Lord and sit at the bottom, as he should have done from the beginning. And why should I hold the canon in such high esteem, since it is indicated above that the ministers of the mass do not fool in one place in the mass? Therefore, it is not surprising that the canon is foolish in several places.
146. Who also does not notice that he is composed by a chatterer who has not had the spirit of God 1)? What are so many superfluous words good for, namely, the gifts, the offerings, the sacrifices, the pure sacrifice, the holy sacrifice, the immaculate sacrifice, etc., in which, and in other things more, he can be justly punished? Although the priests have exalted it above all articles of faith, and hold it higher than the gospel, which also in their eyes is a mockery of the canon: so that they do as is their way and manner, that they exalt themselves, blowing up human doctrine and laws, despising the divine word, diligently keeping that which is lowly, since there is nothing in it, and that in which man's salvation and blessedness stand,
1) So correctly after the Latin. Jenaer: gchat; Wittenberger and Erlanger: hat.
slacken. Therefore, I reject and condemn the Canon in this place as an enemy of the Gospel. And if they would say: The church could not have erred, we do not hear, because the missals are not the church.
147 Secondly, they reproach us with the holy fathers who used this canon and considered the mass a sacrifice, such as Gregory, Bernard, Bonaventure, and others. To this I answer that nothing is more annual than the works and lives of the saints, which are not founded in Scripture, since it is evident that the righteous falls seven times, and the saints sin in many ways [Proverbs 24:16]. Who will make us sure that this is not sin, which they have practiced and done without Scripture? In this I praise St. Anthony, who faithfully advised and commanded that no one should subject himself to any work that is not founded in Scripture. Yes, it is also safer to consider that a sin of the saints, which they did without Scripture, than to consider it a good example. Nor do you anger any saint by thinking that their work, which is uncertain and unfounded in Scripture, is sin. For they acknowledge themselves to be sinners. But you anger God and the saints when you fall by their example and break their necks.
In the same way, Christ wants us to follow His certain true words, not the works of men. Thus we have from the 4th Psalm, v. 4, "that God makes His saints strange," and Ps. 68, 36: "He is strange in His saints," often makes them fall and err for a long time. Moses and Aaron sinned, David and Solomon fell, likewise St. Peter also after the sending of the Holy Spirit, when he lived Jewishly before the Gentiles for the sake of the Jews [Gal. 2, 14]. And how long does he let them live in sins before he converts them and makes them pious? Do they not all sing at the same time, Ps. 119, 67: "Before I was struck down, I sinned"? Item [Ps. 116, 11.]: "I have said in my transgression, all men are liars." David sinned in the midst of his calamity, believing the flatterer Ziba against Mephibosheth [2 Sam. 16:3]. Lot
sinned with his daughters in his greatest distress [Gen 19:33, 34, 35]. In addition, who recognizes the sins, of which the saints themselves say, Ps. 19, 13: "Which is he that recognizes sin? Cleanse me from my secret sins." The least part of sins is recognized, even by the saints.
There are two reasons why sins do not harm the saints, and yet strangle the wicked. The first is that the saints have faith in Christ, in which they are wholly immersed, by which (though they do many things ignorantly, which are damnable to the wicked) they are always raised up again and preserved. Yes, they fall into no evil, as Solomon says [Proverbs 19:23]. It is unbelievable to those who have not experienced it, how powerful and strong faith is, especially in sins. Because the wicked do not have this faith, they sin, even if they do all the works of all the saints.
(150) The other reason that the saints are so understanding by faith that they cling to God's mercy alone is that they do not regard their works at all; indeed, they confess from the bottom of their hearts that they are vain works and sins. This confession and humility does not let them perish in their sins, ignorance and error, for God cannot abandon such humble ones, much less have mercy on those who recognize themselves. So was St. Bernard, when he said in his agony, "I have lost my time, for I have lived damnably." So was Augustine, when he said, "Woe to all men's lives, however sacred they may be, if they should be judged without mercy!"
151 Do we not see in Augustine many errors that he recants? all of which would have been damning to him if he had not been preserved by his faith. They are in part contrary to faith, but confession and the fear of God have made them harmless to him. Whoever followed them, followed to his own destruction. As happens to many of them who follow the sayings of the fathers without modesty, as if they were divine truth. From this it is evident that the saints at times
err, even in faith, that is, they are not yet perfect, and because of the increasing faith they have begun, they do not perish. But they perish who accept their error as truth and follow it as an example. That it will not help at all whether someone has followed some saint outside the Scriptures.
If the saints did not err in faith and truth, why did Peter teach us to increase in the faith and knowledge of Christ? [And Paul taught to increase in Christ, lest we, like little children, be tossed about and led about with all manner of wind of doctrines [Eph. 4:12, 13, 14]. But as much as we lack faith, so much is error and unbelief in us, according to which also the saints sometimes live and do, out of necessity and want of this life.
Although these works are harmless to them, they are harmful and corrupting examples to the wicked, who rely on their works and sacrifices, because they want to learn in the saints only the works and not the faith, even though the epistle to the Hebrews on the thirteenth, v. 7, says that we should look at the lives of the saints, but so that we follow their faith. But our papists say: Bernard did thus, therefore one should do thus; Augustine did thus, therefore one should do thus. These are the unclean beasts, which do not chew the cud, nor have cloven hoofs, perceive only the works, and fall upon them most surely.
The same has happened to them with the sacrifice of the mass, and undoubtedly still happens to many devout Christians, that they keep the mass in a simple faith of their heart, and think that it is a sacrifice. But because they do not rely on the sacrifice, indeed, they think that everything they do is sin, and cling only to the pure mercy of God, they are kept from perishing in this error. If now the sacrificers follow them without this faith, exalt their sacrifice and sell it safely, they deserve to have this error imputed to them, and in that they follow the saints, perish eternally. For God looks at, investigates, and judges the
Hustling and kidding [Ps. 7, 10], that is, inward covetousness. Hence God forbears and forgives one error which He condemns in another, because they have unequal hearts in faith and humility.
But that the saints have been as I have said, is shown by the deed of Bernhardt, when he said to his fainthearted brother, Brother, go and say mass on my faith, and when he did so, he was helped. You see that this holy man did and acted everything in faith, which does not allow anyone to perish in his error, however great it may be. I know, however, that this will displease the papists and annoy them; I will not ask anything about it, if I could only serve the poor consciences, which they torture so miserably, in a useful and fruitful way.
Since we have now recognized the error, it is not proper for us to continue to err and consider the mass a sacrifice, for it would be a sin against the whole faith and our own conscience. Here no faith, no confession could excuse. You cannot speak: I want to err Christianly. Christian error is caused by ignorance; which 1) the apostle Rom. 14, 1. commands us to suffer and tolerate in their weakness, so that we are not to despise or condemn those who do not yet know or recognize the error (if they live by the mercy of God), until they recognize the error. But this is what one should do, expose the error to everyone and consider it no longer true, so that the sins of the wicked will not be increased and no sorrow will be given to the weak consciences.
157 . Christ speaks of such error of the saints and their dangerous example in Matth. 24, 24: "They will perform signs and wonders, so that even if it were possible, they will lead the elect into error. Here it is not Christ's opinion that His elect should not err, for what great peril would that be if there were no
1) namely, such people who have such errors.
Chosen One should stand in Fahr? But this is his opinion when we pray in the Lord's Prayer: "And lead us not into temptation" [Matth. 6, 13.], not that we should not be challenged, but that when the temptation comes, we should remain steadfast in faith and not let it get the upper hand. So it is here also. The elect shall not be led astray; not that they shall not err, yea, the peril shall be so great that they shall err with the ungodly; but they shall not continue nor abide therein, though they shall hardly escape with toil and labour.
This is what Christ means, they will lead into error, if it could happen, "the elect", that is, the saints, who will err with the ungodly, who 2) deceive them, that one will respect, they will remain in error, perish. As we can see in Gregory, Bernard, Bonaventure, Francisco, Dominic with their clusters, who highly honored the pope, because they did not recognize him with his regiment, took it for granted that all his doings, being and actions were divine and Christian, as ordered by God, when his state, with the whole parliament and all its laws and decrees, is publicly against the gospel. Nor have they themselves drawn the gospel to the pope and his kingdom without noticeable and great error. Is it not unchristian to believe that "the rock", Matth. 16, 18, is the pope? Is it not unchristian that "the sea" is supposed to be the people, over which Peter and the Pope are supposed to walk, that is, to rule? [Is it not unchristian that this little word "pasture" [Joh. 21, 15-17.] should mean the honor, authority and power of the pope? And although there are many such errors of the saints, they have not recognized them, and have hung on in a bad, simple, Christian faith, for which reason God has forgiven them.
159. those who know and recognize error, and still adhere to it, as if it were not error, follow the fathers, but they will not come to them.
2) Jenaer: so.
That they may follow as an article of faith that which the fathers last left, and for which they obtained grace, and persevere in it to their end.
160 Third, they reproach us with the great number of examples that many spirits have also appeared to holy men 1) and have asked that they be helped with masses and thus redeemed. Here I may freely say that it is certainly the devil's business, whatever spirits are around, rumbling, crying, complaining, or seeking help, that he thereby takes away and alienates us Christians from the holy sacrament and wants to use it for his evil, mockery and ridicule. For he saw that through this one sacrament the word of God and the faith were fruitfully planted, grew and increased, so that his cursed dark kingdom was destroyed and laid waste: therefore he also used all his cunning and trickery to destroy and extinguish this powerful sacrament, and he has ended it and brought it so far that the mass is most often kept for the dead, which, after all, is only appointed and given to the living Christians for comfort, because the mass priests have become rich and have brought all the goods of the whole world to themselves. They have brought to themselves all the goods of the whole world.
(161) Therefore I will prove that the spirits which go about saying that they shall be saved or damned are not the souls of men. First, that there is no example of them in the holy Scriptures; and everything that happens outside the Scriptures, whether it be angels or men, is and should be suspect. For God wants "His word alone to be our light, shining for us in this dark world", as Peter says [2 Petr. 1, 19.], and as the 119th Psalm v. 105. says: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my steps." And Christ John 8:12: "I am the light of the world." Now where the lamp and this light do not shine, who will follow? He will certainly walk in darkness, as Christ says, "He that followeth me walketh not in darkness." So that he shows without a doubt: To whom Christ does not go before, he walks in darkness.
1) Thus set by us according to the Latin. In the editions: holy men.
162 So it is that St. Gregory writes before others that the dead have appeared and have requested help. Who will make us certain that he and his own are not deceived? 2) And that it is not safe to believe him is clear from the sayings that are now indicated and also from the fact that Christ says [Matth. 24, 24]: that the elect shall be deceived and deceived, and that Paul warns us so faithfully against the strong and powerful errors [2 Thess. 2, 3, 11].
Therefore, it is much safer to think nothing of purgatory than to believe St. Gregory in it. For here is a great journey, there is no journey; he may well be deceived, as Christ says. For this he does and says everything without Scripture. For God does no sign without his divine word. For the first he speaks, after that he does signs, and, as Marcus says: "He fortifies his word with following", not with preceding, "signs" [Marc. 16, 20.]. And the prophet Amos says: "God will not do anything, for He has revealed it before to His servants the prophets" [Amos 3, 7]. The epistle to the Hebrews, Cap. 2, 4, says: "God has testified with signs, wonders, various powers and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit," but always let His salvific divine word go beforehand. For miraculous signs are divine confirmation and testimony of divine word, just as a seal of a letter is confirmation. Therefore, by and from the Scriptures, you must be certain that the signs, which occur without the Word, are the devil's signs, so that God may challenge your faith.
Since you are sure and certain that nothing but what God demands should be believed, why do you not despise these poltergeists, let whoever will? Because you may not think anything of them without all sin and danger to your soul, and you must not fear that you will anger God, who wants you to believe and trust in His words alone. Why then would you believe them and put yourself in such danger without need and cause? And this is also a good reason, why they are to be considered as the devil's ghosts, so that one can
2) "be" is missing in the Erlanger.
you do not have to believe them, since God does not work such things that are not proper to believe; it belongs to frivolous and deceitful spirits. God's works are serious works, which (if they are proclaimed to you through His word and servants) you must believe. If God would not let Christ be born, suffer, or rise again, unless it had been proclaimed and written many times before through the prophets.
It is also public that Gregorius was deceived by the soul of his conductor, whom he banished for the sake of three florins, which were found among the letters after his death, with great (though futile) fright and fear of the brothers, and buried as a damned man with the florins, and then redeemed from purgatory with a thirtieth 1). Who does not see here that the devil deceived this holy man with such a childish error? Which was not condemnable to him for the sake of his faith and humility, namely, that the mischievous devil lied and fabricated that he had to suffer torment in purgatory for the sake of three florins and be delivered from it with thirty masses, so that the signs and wonders would continue, so that the elect would be deceived and seduced, and the effect of error would become strong, for the punishment of the unbelievers [2 Thess. 2, 9-12].
166 Who would believe that this conductor had done something against God, who perhaps had left the three guilders under the letters? For if he had wanted to steal, he could have stolen much more and hidden it elsewhere. And even if he had done this for his own benefit, he would not have acted more than against human law. Gregory is a holy man, but in many places too superstitious, has here taken a cause to frighten the consciences, to affirm human doctrine and institution, which the devil helps very gladly, soon and quickly, as Paul says 2 Tim. 3, 13. For he knows well that by this the faith of the people will be destroyed.
1) The Trigesimä, thirty masses for the dead. Cf. Tischreden, cap. 27, § 120. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 908.
and the works are exalted and praised.
Thus it is certainly the devil's game with St. Severin, who after his death said that he would have to suffer infallible chastisement, not because he had sinned against God's commandment or man's law, but because, in order to prevent various transactions, he had spoken the seven tides in the morning all at once, one after the other, and each not at the proper appointed time. It is a shame that the devil should deceive and seduce the church of Christ with such foolish childish works, and yet thereby spend his pretensions on the saints of God with such earnestness, and have brought it so far that even the papists may say: the church cannot err. As if Christ were lying when he said: "The elect" (who alone are the church) "shall be deceived" [Matth. 24, 24]. Or as if the church were not a church for this reason, whether it erred or sinned, when Christ cleanses it daily from its sin and error, like the branches of the vine; or as if the faithful and the saints never erred. O you? obstinate, foolish blind men! That is why this mischievous devil, by this fencing of mirrors, wanted to do nothing else than to suppress the works of love, which are commanded by God, and so that they would be despised, and human commandments and laws would be highly respected, feared and kept.
For St. Severinus should not have anticipated with his prayer alone, because of the various businesses, 3) he might have even let it go, since in that he served the people, he was obedient to God's commandment, since Paul instructed the servants that they should serve the worldly authorities from the heart and be obedient [Eph. 6, 5. Col. 3, 22]. To God's commandments all angels shall give way, how much more man's law! Yes, I also consider that those sin much more before God who pray to God the seven tides without heartfelt desire and lust, than those who slacken it. They are vain gleamers, who pretend to pray
2) In the old editions: "im".
3) i.e., to perform prayers earlier than was commanded.
1138 Erl. 28, 101-103. IX. Luther's Writings Against the Mass. W. xix, isso-isss. 1139
and talk to God, they do nothing less; they only tempt God and mock Him. And this is what the devil wanted with St. Severino, that he made such innumerable mockeries and blasphemies of God, as well as false, frightened evil consciences in the whole world, which he then did and accomplished. For in their priesthood they do not consider any sin so great as when the priests slacken the appointed prayer, which in truth is hardly a greater sin than this laborious and fictitious worship, which takes place with howling and shouting in all churches and monasteries, so that the sin may be as the priesthood is.
O we wretched Christians, that without knowledge of the Spirit we take hold of the legends and examples of the saints, and fall upon the doctrines of men and the wandering spirits, putting God's word behind, and despising the counsel of the Holy Spirit, who speaks in Paul, saying, "Test all things, and whatsoever is good, that keep" [1 Thess. 5:21]. And Peter says: "If anyone speaks, let him speak it as the word of God. If anyone has an office, let him do it from the ability that God gives" [1 Pet. 4:11]. He does not want anything to be said among Christians, because we certainly consider it to be God's word. Nothing is to be done or acted upon unless it is certain that God works it and that it comes from Him. And this 1) is what Paul wants Rom. 12, 7: "If anyone has prophecy, let it be like faith." So, that all men's words are judged according to faith; and Rom. 15, 18. "He must not speak anything except what Christ works in him". And we, the poor, leave the word of God and follow our own discretion, order, set, command, forbid, do and leave what pleases us, and then say: "The church has done this, which cannot err and is governed by the Holy Spirit, and thus fill the whole world, under the name of the church, with strong error and vain lies. Would God that I had the time and the will to purify the legends and examples, or that another of a higher spirit would submit to them; they are full of lies and deceit.
1) Thus the Jenaers correctly after the Latin. Wittenberg and Erlangen: there.
Therefore, since we are Christians, we should henceforth actually know the devil's thoughts and believe that the poltergeists are vain devils and not human souls, who therefore stand and talk as if they could be redeemed, so that they might make a mockery and game out of the holy sacrament and testament of God, extinguish the faith, and establish and strengthen the shameful junk market with the mass (which has now gained the upper hand in the whole world). Try this and show this faith, and you will see that the same spirits will immediately desist from their scandal and foolishness.
171. And if all these things move thee not, that thou shouldest believe nothing, except it be founded in the scriptures, yet be moved, that it may reprove and condemn the scriptures. In the 5th book of Deuteronomy 18:9, 10, 11, 12, Moses says? "Israel, when thou comest into the land which God shall give thee, see that thou learn not the abominations of the people that are now therein; that there be not found among you any that offereth his son or his daughter by fire, or any diviner, or day-diviner, or spirit-goose, or witch, or conjurer, or that asketh of diviners, or that worketh sorcery, or that asketh of the dead: For all this is an abomination in the sight of God, and your God will cut them all off for such wickedness. "etc. This divine commandment we, like the Jews, have despised and rejected, when we hear that it is an abomination in the sight of God to ask anything of the dead; as if God were not among us, who could not or would not tell us and teach us all the things that we should and must know; 2) and still have no satisfaction in His words. Therefore, what wonder is it that he forsakes us, and that we fall into error, who forsake his commandment?
Therefore, behold, it cannot be good spirits who want to tell us about the life and nature of the dead. A good spirit is obedient to God in His commandment, who does not want us to know how things are with the dead. That is why the Holy Spirit himself keeps this commandment of God so strictly.
2) In Latin: äoeers - to teach.
that no example of dead people is found in all of Scripture; indeed, it refuses to believe the same spirits. For the fact that Samuel, 1 Sam. 28, 11. 12., was awakened by a soothsayer or sorceress, was certainly the devil's ghost; not only because the scripture there indicates that it was done by a woman who was full of devils (just as if one should believe that the souls of the saints, who are in the hand of God [Weish. 3, 1.] and in the bosom of Abraham [Luc. 16, 23.] were under the power of the devil and evil men), but also because Saul and the woman publicly did against this divine commandment, investigated and asked by the 1) dead. Against this the Holy Spirit cannot do, nor let his saints do, nor help or want to help those who do against it.
But that the Scripture does not express whether it was Samuel in truth or not, even that it calls him Samuel, is because the Scripture puts the words as Saul had them in his heart, who did not know otherwise than that it was Samuel, and the Spirit 2) masterfully speaks all the words of Samuel and adds more to them. But the Holy Spirit is telling us to be warned and prepared with this commandment, which he has set and described beforehand, so that we may know what is happening against it, so that it may not be done by a good spirit or by children of a good spirit. For the same is introduced in 2 Sam. 1, 2. Saul's servant, 3) who came to David and said that he had slain Saul, which he pretended so apparently that David believed him, and he ordered him to be slain, that he had slain the anointed of God [2 Sam. 1, 15.]. The Scripture does not say whether he lies or says right, but it wants us to understand this lie of his from the place 1 Sam. 31, 4. (where it describes the death of Saul before as it happened); and whoever does not look for it in the place, certainly believes that this servant says right. So also in this colored resurrection Sa-.
1) "den" is missing in the Jena.
2) i.e. the spirit that has appeared.
3) Thus set by us after the Latin: inclueit. In the editions: one.
The Scriptures remind us of the true commandment of God, described in Deut. 18, 10. 11.
174 Which commandment Isaiah denies on the 8th, v. 19. 20. and says: "If they would say to you: Let us inquire of the soothsayers and sorcerers, who are swift in their sorceries, answer, Shall not a people inquire of their God? [Shall one ask) 4) for the living to the dead? But according to his law and testimony. If they will not so, they shall never pass over the morning light." Here you see clearly that one should neither inquire nor learn anything, but only from his God, in his law and testimony, and whoever does otherwise will not have the morning light. And he condemns the living who want to inquire and learn something from the dead, and speaks "to the dead", that is, in the Hebrew way, which says: I inquire of God, I inquire of the dead; that is, in our language, I inquire of God, I inquire of the dead. Thus it is nothing else, "to ask the living of the dead", as if the best asked of the least, as if a man would take counsel of a wood.
The people of God ask counsel from one higher and better, that is, from their God; not that each one should wait for a special answer from heaven, but in his law, in the Scriptures, he should ask counsel from God his Lord, and Christ himself affirms it, as he says in Luc. 16, 29. Says how Abraham talked with the rich man, and would not suffer anyone to be sent from the dead to the living to instruct them; but he instructed them in the Scriptures, saying, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear the same." This agrees finely with Isaiah, who instructs us to the "law and testimony" [Is. 8, 20.], by which he has sufficiently proven that it is not of God, nor from God, when the dead appear to the living, and that we should be satisfied with the Scriptures.
176. therefore we should with good ver-
4) That Luther wanted this to be understood in this way is immediately shown by his following execution.
These three witnesses of the scripture hold up to the poltergeists. To the first Moses, who says: "You shall not ask anything of the dead" [Deut. 18, 12]. The other, Isaiah: "Thou shalt rather ask of the law and testimony, than of the dead" [Isa. 8, 20]. The third, Abraham and Christ: "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear the same" [Luc. 16, 29.], and let us not be moved by the great multitude of vigils, masses, or funerals, churches and altars, which are all founded and erected on the speech and answer of these poltergeists. For you see here that it is all based on the lies of the devil and the false signs and wonders of Christ and the apostles, which Christ proclaimed before [Matth. 24, 24. 25.], so that they may fill the world with cruel idolatry, which cries out to heaven and makes God's last judgment come with great unmistakable wrath.
177 Since it is sufficiently evident from all this that the mass has been made a sacrifice against the gospel, against faith, and against charity by the devil's deception of the whole world, and has now been overthrown with good reason, we, who want to be Christians, should help to put an end to such masses and not consider that some pious people can use them in Christian error because of their sin. And we should work diligently to restore the way and form that Christ instituted, so that on Sunday alone a single mass is held, as is done on Easter Day. And to this shall come those who thirst and hunger for the food, that is, all devout, believing in Christ, slain 1) and frightened consciences, who from the heart desire to become devout and healthy. From this shall be excluded all who lead a carnal life. And one should publicly proclaim the death of Christ through the word and remember it, pray in the church and give thanks, as it is easy to arrange from the stories and epistles of the apostles.
1) slain - smashed (aMstas).
The third part, of the Pabst's priests, laws and sacrifices.
178. Although it has been sufficiently proven above that the damned and abominable priesthood of the papists came into the world through the devil, thereby destroying and eradicating our Christian priesthood; as the pope, a supreme priest of this priesthood, 2) promised in his entrance to the decree that he would take the priesthood of Christ from him and place it on himself and transfer it: we will know it even better when we see and hear that he has also taken away the laws of Christ and has ordered and made new laws that are proper and due to his diabolical priesthood. Therefore let us see anew how the laws have been taken away and how others have been established, and perhaps the holy foundations of the faith of the Sodomites and Gomorrahs of Louvain and Paris will come to light.
Every priesthood has its own law to govern it, and every priesthood is distinguished by its own laws from the laws of another priesthood, so that the apostle rightly said: "If the priesthood is changed, its law must also be abolished" (Heb. 7:12). For there can be no priesthood without law, likewise no law without priests. Namely such a law, so that our consciences are instructed how to behave towards God. For the worldly laws govern people in temporal goods. So also every priesthood has its own sacrifice, work and priests, which are described and indicated in its law, in which one does well or badly, right or wrong, according to the same law, thereby becoming a sinner or a saint. And among the priests one is the chief; which also all things were among the Gentiles in the priesthood of Vestae, Jovis, Bacchi, Apollinis etc.
180] It is the same now under the pope's rule. Every bishopric has its bishop as the chief among its priests; item, its law and custom, its punishment and sin, which they are called
2) Wittenberger and Erlanger: Priest is,
Statuta Synodalia, different from another diocese. And the same bishops prove this with the 45th Psalm, v. 10: "The kings have stood at your right hand in a garment of gold, clothed with a covenant". This spiritual covenant work, which Peter calls "many gifts of the graces of the Holy Spirit" [1 Pet. 4, 10.], these larvae draw on their temporal, external distinctions] (varietati), 1) which men have invented and devised, as they then use to act the Scriptures. For this the saying Jer. 2, 28. rhymed better: "O Judah, you had as many idols as cities." This is also the case under the pope's entire rule. The pope is called, and he is truly the highest and greatest bishop, when he stands on the tower of Babylon, where he also sits and reigns, and the holiest on earth, a true apostle of his Lord, according to whose will he lives and floats, the devil in hell.
Now, among all 2) there are no more than two priesthoods instituted by God; one externally in the Old Testament, which is called the Levitical, wherein Aaron was the highest priest. Its law is the books of Moses, its sacrifice the unreasonable animals and bodily things; its sins and righteousness were external in holy garments, food, drink, days, places, vessels, persons, which could not give grace nor life to the soul. The other is a Christian, spiritual priesthood, wherein Christ alone is blessed and alive, eternally the supreme priest; therefore also his whole priesthood and all that is therein is eternal, holy and alive.
182. his law is faith, that is, a living spiritual flame, so that hearts may be kindled, born again and converted by the Holy Spirit, that they may desire, want, do and be no different from what the law of Moses demands and gives in words. Jer. 31, 33. says: "I will put my law within their souls and write it on their hearts" etc. And Paul, 2 Cor. 3, 3: "You are an epistle of Christ, prepared by our ministry, which we have written with the spirit of life.
1) In the editions: "on their lateral, external distinction, which" etc.
2) "e. Priesthoods.
God, not with ink, in your hearts of flesh, not in tablets of stone". Of this Paul says Rom. 3, 27. "a law of faith", and Rom. 8, 2. "a law of the living Spirit", and 2 Cor. 4, 13. "the preachers of faith ministers of the Spirit". For the living word of Christ, when preached, gives the Spirit, who with the living fire writes the law of God into our hearts, when Cornelio happened, Apost. 10, 44.; and Gal. 3, 2. "Have ye received the Spirit from works, or from the preaching of faith?" Therefore the gospel is called a "word of life," John 6:68.
183) So also his sacrifice is a living sacrifice; his body on the cross once, and our bodies sacrificed every day, a living, holy sacrifice, which is a reasonable service of God. His work and righteousness are the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5, 22, faith, willing chastity, goodness, willing service to neighbor etc. His sins are unbelief, unchastity, wrath, glorification, idolatry, imaginary spirituality, and the like, all of which are not colored works, but are good or evil in themselves from the heart, living fruits or living sins. So the law of Christ is not doctrine but life, not word but essence, not sign but fullness itself. But the gospel is a word, through which the same life and essence, the fulfillment, comes into our heart and mind.
Into this holy, glorious, joyful, grace-filled priesthood the devil's sow, the pope, has fallen with his trunk, which he has not only defiled, but completely destroyed, suppressed, and erected another, his own, gathered from all pagan priesthoods, as a basic soup of all abominations. First of all, he divides the priestly people of Christ into clerics and laymen. He calls the clerics his clergy, among whom he wants to be the highest priest and prince, whom he makes spiritual only by adorning them, smearing them with oil on their fingers, and calling them to wear long robes, and pretends that he imprints an indelible mark on their souls; which is nothing else than the mark of the beast in Revelation, so that he who is the pope's priest, the priest's priest, the priest's priest, the priest's priest, and the priest's priest's priest.
is not called a Christian 1) (for the Christian name stinks before the Most High Father), but he is called the corrupted, smeared, marked, and well-dressed cleric; which is held high and well with him. And this institution is called the holy order 2) or the holy consecration, one of the seven sacraments, much holier and better than baptism itself.
185) His law is the spiritual law, in which he orders, sets, and seriously gives food, drink, clothes, persons, churches, altars, chalices, corporals, books, incense, wax, flags, consecrated water, reading, singing, fasting, prebends, interest (and who can even tell the devil of Roman holiness) in case of mortal sin and eternal damnation. And before that, the chastity of its clergy belongs to its law. That hell itself is not such a chaos as the law of this priesthood.
186. His sins are when one transgresses the things that are set forth, which is esteemed and punished greater and more than all sin against God's commandment. His good works are that one keeps and spends the same devil's commandments with diligence. There one praises the obedience of the church and calls it a queen of all virtues, without which the other virtues are nothing at all. His sacrifice is the holy sacrament of the body of Christ and the money of the laity. Behold, the noble, dear priesthood! I will be silent about the pernicious, ungodly and supreme idolatry, which would break the heart of a pious Christian. Has there ever been such a foolish, childish and foolish priesthood among the heathen? Yet this abomination has abolished and taken away the holy, honest priesthood of Christ, and has put himself in his holy place under his name. O dear Lord Jesus, you have all too truly called them false Christians; they are truly false Christians.
187 With the damned priesthood he takes away and destroys our Christian priesthood. For no one knows sheerly of
1) i.e. a Christian.
2) i.e. ordination (oräinatio).
no priesthood, without the pope. As soon as someone hears someone called a priest, he hears one who has been bribed, smeared and with long clothes. So he has also cut off the living law of Christ, which is the Spirit of God, which is not given except by the word of the gospel. Because the pope alone has preached his spiritual law, it is impossible that the Spirit of God can or may be given through it. And that is even more, one does not respect the spirit, so one does not know it, and think that it is enough for salvation that one is obedient to the pope and the Roman cops and church.
Therefore it is impossible for the gospel and spiritual law to rule at the same time. The former hinders and drives out the Spirit, the latter brings the Spirit with it; the latter entangles, the latter redeems consciences; the former teaches us nothing but childish, foolish, ridiculous works, so that they destroy and extinguish faith, but the latter teaches faith. How many are Christians, when they hear the law of Christ called, who hear the faith and the Spirit dwelling in our hearts? But how many are they who, through obedience, understand something else than being subject to the pope, which is repugnant and contrary to God? The priesthood of Christ with its law lies dead and is despised, blasphemed and condemned by the cursed two-faced Jews of Rome. Likewise, when one speaks of sacrifice, no one hears that it is the crucifixion of Christ and our old Adam, or the praise of God; everyone understands by it the mass and the laity's money.
Enough has been said above about the sacrifice of the mass, but that the money and goods of the laity are not a sacrifice to God is known even to swine and asses. Therefore, he does not allow anger, envy, hatred, pride, unchastity, robbery, and especially in Rome nothing is respected or punished: yes, the greatest and gravest sins, such as unbelief, self-love, gluttony, hatred of justice, despair, he sanctifies through the obedience of the church and rewards them as Christian good works. O woe is me! I will
with the innumerable greatness and quantity of cursed, malicious and blasphemous trades and stories. No one thinks that proper Christian works are to serve one's neighbor, to counsel and help even one's enemies, and to do them all good; but to establish fairs, to build churches, to eat neither milk nor meat, and, as I have said, to keep his laws.
So you see that Christ's priesthood can stand less with the pope's priesthood than death with life, and heaven with hell. Verily, verily, the pope is a governor of Christ; he has cast Christ out and expelled him, and set himself up in his place as a lord, and has set up for the priesthood of the spirit a childish and sastfast priesthood.
191. It is also not enough for him 1) that this abomination at Rome has suppressed and eradicated Christ, the gospel, the faith and its entire priesthood; He reaches even further into the Old Testament and into Aaron's priesthood, eradicates and obliterates also the law of Moses, and sets up in its place new reasons and articles of faith, with the advice and help of the despised, insolent whores of Louvain, Paris and Cologne, together with their dear sisters, who are the fountains and springs of all error and heresies on earth. But so that everyone may hear this, let us go through the ten commandments and see how the pope deals with them, and let us begin with the least commandment.
Moses says: "Thou shalt not have lust nor covetousness" [Ex 20:17, Deut 5:21], and Paul denies this in Rom 7:7. Therefore evil lust and covetousness is a sin, as Moses and the divine law have decreed. Against this, the Sodoma and Gomorrah of Paris and Louvain, with their Lord the Pope, have set a new foundation and article of faith, which reads thus: Evil desire and lust is not a sin, but an infirmity and weakness, and when the flesh rages against the Spirit, this is no sin.
1) So the Jenaers correctly after the Latin, namely "this abomination". Wittenbergers and Erlangers: them.
Sin. Therefore, according to the new ten commandments of the pope, it is proper to have evil desire and lust without sin.
193 And Moses lied with God, as did all who hold with him, saying, "Thou shalt not have evil desire and lust." But if Moses is rejected, Christ is also rejected, because those (who have such lust, [whom] the Pabst vindicates and absolves from sins2) ) have no need of His grace. That is, I mean, to release Barabbam and crucify Christ [Matth. 27, 26].
On the other hand, Moses says: "You shall not bear false witness" [Ex 20:16], so that he has forbidden all lies. But what does the pope set and order against this? He violently tears up all vows, pledges, peace, oaths and covenants made without papal authority and confirmation, especially if they are too close to his spiritual bellies, their liberty, interest and pensions, and fornication. So also the will and pleasure of the pope is sufficient that nothing is kept that is promised and pledged, for the supreme and perfect power of the prince of this world sits in his heart and devises vain young devils. Thus the commandment of God is extinguished, and everyone may surely lie and deceive, only that he has the Pope's power and leave to do so.
And the Parisians help the cause by writing and saying that it is not commanded to love the enemies and to do them good, and if you have promised or promised something to them, you must not keep it, you may safely, freely, and without sin deny it and give false testimony to it. For keeping faith is a work of love, which one does not owe to one's enemies. And if Moses demanded such in his ten commandments, send him to the dean of Paris, who decided that it was a council. And if Moses would not depart, that he should write an angry letter against him, and send him without cause as
2) In the old editions: "hours." In the Jena one the marginal gloss: perhaps sins. This assumption is correct, because according to the Latin it says: "which have that holy desire, which is defended by the decalogue of the pope and gifted with freedom." But in the decalogue of the pope it says (§ 231): "but know that [it] is not sin."
the apostles are said to have done, condemn. For what the Holy Faculty of Paris does is as much as an article and foundation of the faith.
The third commandment of Moses is: "Thou shalt not steal" [Ex 20:15], so that all unrighteous goods are forbidden. Against this the pope says in his commandment: You may well keep unlawful goods, if you give me a part, I will give you of it 2) letter and seal. As he has given such a bull to the Cardinal of Mainz, which is now proclaimed and announced in Halle. Here you see that God Himself, Who is all things, does not want to let anyone go, that he takes or keeps foreign goods. Nor may the pope, with an insolent brow, bark back at God in his face and say that he should keep it: Keep it, but give me and my Cardinal [at Mainz] a part of it. And for this new reason and article of faith, the people of Paris once again faithfully help with their advice of brotherly love; because it is not necessary to love the enemy, I may with good conscience steal his property and keep it, for it is a work of love not to harm the enemy and to give him back his stolen property. For if love is not commanded, neither is any work of love commanded. Behold, these are the Christian reasons and articles of the theologians of Paris.
The fourth commandment of Moses is: "Thou shalt not commit adultery" [Exodus 20:14], in which all unchastity is forbidden. But how the most holy father also eradicates this commandment would be too long to tell. But in no other place is the devil, through the pope, so furious and nonsensical as with chastity and unchastity. First of all, even though he does not, in his own words, forbid chastity or teach fornication, yet he makes all his priests, by his infallible and pernicious law of chastity (of which the world is full everywhere), fornicate, because the grace of chastity is a strange one,
1) The meaning is: If he [Moses] will not be satisfied, he [the deacon] will write an angry letter Against him and condemn him without giving the reasons, as the apostles [in the Apostles' Council] are said to have done.
2) "deß" is missing in the Wittenberg and Erlanger.
is a high and precious gift, given to few people. What else does he do, then, when he makes a dent in the marriage of those who could not, nor should not, be chaste, but to say in effect, "Go and fornicate"? Which they also do, and he lets it go without punishment.
198. O who can sufficiently signify this fury of the devil with his godless cursed law, which corrupts so many souls? He does not teach fornication, but he makes it much worse by forcing the priests to do impossible things with his law, and allowing them to fornicate without punishment, so that he has increased fornication and fornication, and fulfilled the bet with it. And I think that if he had commanded fornication, he should not have increased and made so much great unchastity.
In some cases, which he has invented, he separates the spouses and reunites others, but in such a way that one has no power to demand the conjugal duty. He also recognizes that some do not have to give or pay the required marital duty, but they should suffer that the other takes his duty himself. This is nothing else than to trick the consciences with adultery, where there is none. So when he gives them in multitude, he makes one break his marriage, and teaches in addition, for comfort, that he should not demand it from the heart, nor pay it. O what a furious madness is this, that one should give husband and wife naked together, and command that they should suffer their duty, not demand nor give. With such impossible laws the devil delights and delights in corrupting souls. What else does this law teach but: go, break your marriage, but with unwillingness?
The devil could not find a cover here, because this sin is too gross and obvious that it could not be commanded with any pretense; therefore he turned to the other side and made it much more common and free with his prohibition. For he knew for certain that it would not be possible for such a common commanded chastity to endure among everyone, and therefore, since he was not allowed to command it for the sake of public disgrace, he undertook to spend it with an impossible law.
But what do those of Paris do with their counsel who are enemies to their enemies? Perhaps because it is only a work of love (which fulfills the law, as Paul says) not to sleep with one's enemy's wife, daughter, or maidservant, one may commit adultery, unchastity, but not with one's enemy's wife or daughter.
The fifth commandment of Moses is, "Thou shalt not strike to death" [Ex 20:13]. This commandment, because it demands above all others the love of one's neighbor, the Pabst with his Gomorrahs has for a but mockery and ridicule. For although all wrath is forbidden therein, the pope also calls his bishops and priests to war and shed blood, and boasts that the secular sword is in his hand and power. And whom he calls to war, he promises heaven from the mouth up. And in short, the pope is the murderer-bishop, who, as often as he wants, he confidently calls to strangle and murder. Here he not only releases Barabbam, but he commands them to be Barabbas, and to those who transgress this commandment of God, he promises heaven as obedient children. But to love one's enemies, to suffer injustice, to offer one's cheeks to another, and to give one's coat for a skirt [Matt. 5:39, 40, 44] is the highest wickedness in this fountain of righteousness, and cannot be done in any way.
His decree says: "The rights allow violence to be driven away by force; thus he makes people live and remain in vain envy and hatred, which is forbidden by God in the highest commandment, and eradicates the cross of Christ in the whole world. I will not mention the great wars that the popes have waged with Neapolis, Venice, the French and the Germans. Yes, with whom did the senseless beasts not war?
The Parisians are a little more subtle here than the pope, although they also tear up this commandment of love. They do not say that it is wrong to love enemies, to do them good, to pray for them, to thank our offenders and to give them the other cheek, and to lend and give freely, but there are counsels with them, which are all counted by Christ among his commandments, Matt. 5.
For there he opens his mouth and teaches them; he does not give them counsel, and he pollutes his speech: "He who hears these things and does not do them is like the man who builds on the sand" [Matth. 7, 26]. And in the middle of the same sermon he says: "Those who do not do these things are no better than sinners and tax collectors" [Matth. 5, 46, 47].
O Paris, thou insolent blasphemer, how mayest thou thus with insolent mouth revile, blaspheme, and reproach the Lord of all creatures, Christ? Therefore, according to the rule of Paris and the foundation of the faith, nothing less is proper to do against this commandment than the pope does. 1) Since not killing, not cursing, are works of love, we may safely destroy and kill our enemies in body, honor and goods. And there is no difference between your Pabst and the Parisians, because the Pabst calls it and gives it, and the Parisians write that it is not wrong, it may well happen. Therefore the reason of the Parisian faith is that one may well do without sin against the last six commandments, if you consider the opinion of the devil who speaks through them.
The sixth commandment of Moses (Exodus 20:12) says: "You shall honor your father and mother. And although this commandment, like all the others, is kept by no one, and everyone freely transgresses it, young people in Christendom are too free and self-willed, and are miserably neglected. For no one takes care of them, nor is there any respect or diligence that they be properly instructed and educated in Christianity; and especially in the high schools and in the common trades, they are left to their own devices, without any discipline, to live in unchastity, gluttony, drunkenness and courting, thus falling into all the vices of impurity, so that there is no hope of a future reformation. The pope and the bishops wait in their court and seek nothing but their honor and benefit, when they alone should care for, watch over and look after the most necessary things in Christendom. But Paul proclaimed it before,
1) Sense: According to the Paris rule, one may (licet) do as much against this commandment 'as the pope does against it.
since he says: "In the last days they will disobey their parents" [2 Tim. 3:2].
The pope with his Gomorrahs has a peculiar way of transgressing this commandment of God. And that you understand me: I do not dispute the lewd and evil life in Rome or in other high schools, where no commandment of God is kept, as the common people do, that everyone sins for himself and transgresses the commandments of God in his person; Therefore I do not want to quarrel with them; one must tolerate and suffer their evil life, which harms them alone, like the life and nature of the people, because it is a sin against good morals, which no one can praise, but is shameful and dishonest before everyone; therefore there is still hope of repentance and correction here.
But I challenge them, and therefore I quarrel with them, because they are ravening wolves in the place of the shepherds [Matth. 7, 15], breaking and tearing apart with their teachings and perverse laws not only the least commandments, which 1) Christ calls the least in the kingdom of heaven [Matth. 5, 19], but also the greatest even with one another. Thus they deceive and corrupt the people. This is not a sin against good morals, but against faith. This sin is praised and preached by them as a Christian truth and the basis of faith. And where this is brought to the people and accepted, there is no hope of repentance and improvement. Yes, that is even more, those who follow and keep this error are promised eternal life, and those who do not follow, they demand penance and punishment. The people do not commit this cruel sin; indeed, they must tolerate and suffer this sin from their bishops, high schools and pastors, which is innumerably greater than any adultery or death. For this reason, there is no need to be silent here, nor should anyone be patient.
208. For since they speak and write that evil desire is not a sin in the ninth and tenth commandments, they make themselves equal [as] if they taught and preached both commandments.
1) i.e. and such people Christ calls the least in the kingdom of heaven.
They allow evil desires and thus break the commandments of God.
209) In the eighth commandment, when they teach lying and deceiving, they invent and say that it is neither lying nor deceiving, but that it is to be obedient to the pope and the church, and thereby also to God Himself, and they want it to be respected and held by everyone as a truth and reason for faith, whether it is spent with works or not.
In the seventh commandment they teach according to their appearance that one should not steal, and boast of God's commandment, but in truth they teach to steal by allowing unlawful goods to be possessed and kept.
In the sixth, they praise and extol nothing so highly as chastity, in words alone, not from the heart. For with their infallible and unnecessary law and invented cases, they give cause for greater and more shameful unchastity than any flesh could or would do with its ardor 2) and evil desire.
In the fifth commandment they cry aloud that one should not strike to death, so that everyone thinks it is from the heart. But in that they teach and preach that one may well be angry with the enemy, war, take revenge on him, break the peace, do him no good, 3) and one may also not pray for the persecutors, nor thank them, nor praise those who reproach us, nor give, nor lend in vain, so they preach and teach in truth transgressing this commandment of God. And in that they write and preach that loving the enemy is a counsel, not a commandment, they not only completely transgress the whole law of God, but they publicly deny it and preach the contradiction, for Paul says: "The fulfillment of the law is love" [Rom. 13:10].
For this reason Paul said of them, "that they would preach and teach vain lies in a glittering manner" [1 Tim. 4:2], and in another place: "They will present themselves outwardly as if they led a godly life, but they will deny the power of it" [2 Tim. 3:5]. And
2) Fervor here in the meaning of rutting.
3) Latin: dsustaoers. Wittenberg and Erlangen "gnug thun".
Christ: "False prophets and false Christians 1) will come in my name, and ravening wolves, though in sheep's clothing" [Matth. 7, 15. 24, 5.]. They boast about how they teach the commandments of God, and want it to be considered an article and reason of faith, when they teach nothing but transgression of the same commandments. Therefore, as is due to every Christian, I am at odds with them on account of doctrine, not only on account of their life and nature. For as Demodocus says of their Aristotle, "The Milesians are not fools, but they act like fools;" so we may also say, "The Parisians and Papists are not Ebionites, Montanans, Pelagians, Turks, and antichrists, but they do what they all do.
Nor can any heretics be compared to the Parisians and Papists, for there have never been heretics who have suppressed, condemned and denied the whole Gospel, the whole Law of Moses, the whole faith and Christ, as the Parisians and Papists do, but under the appearance and name of Christ. Therefore it has been proclaimed that all the heretics' abominations and fundamental soups shall finally come together in one heap under the Antichrist. And that the holy Faculty of Theology in Paris with their dear sisters Odolla and Olibama, 2) are pits of this last abomination and fundamental soup, they themselves have proven and indicated with their writings and bulls.
Therefore, let us see how the pope plays and delights with his followers in this fourth commandment. In words he says: one should be obedient to parents, but in himself he teaches and preaches: one should not be obedient to parents, in that he makes the obedience of the pope and the church repugnant and elevates it above the obedience, not only of parents, but also of kings and princes, yes, above and against God's obedience itself. How surely and unashamedly he teaches and preaches! How much great reward in heaven he promises, 3) if someone, out of obedience to the pope, also obeys his
1) Christian-Christ. In Latin xssnäoeliristos.
2) This refers to Cologne and Lions.
3) The words: "how much.... he promises" are missing in the Erlanger.
Parents strangled! I let alone who disobeyed or did them dishonor. Did he not incite [the son of] Emperor Henry the Fourth 4) against his biological father in such a way that he, as an obedient child of the Roman Church and of the holy governor of God, shamefully took away his kingdom and life? How often has the most holy father made subjects fall away from their own kings and lords and become rebellious, teaching them nothing less than obedience! So this reason of faith, quite similar to the Parisian Articles, is accepted: that he does the highest service who is disobedient and rebellious to his parents, but by command, by force and by obedience of the Roman boy, bishop, I would say.
Then he says: "The spiritual father is much higher and more than the physical father, but the damned boy should be a spiritual father, so that he should teach everyone to obey their parents and to recognize the commandments of God, unless the parents have said something against divine commandments. Thus he teaches that the children's obedience must give way to his wanton presumption, according to his desire and pleasure.
216. These cruel pernicious abominations hear the insolent whore houses, the high schools, sit and keep silent, hear, accept and follow with humility and ordinary honor and reverence, 5) as obedient children of the church, the words of their whore host, and let him with his painted, mocking spell, as often as it pleases and pleases him, the parents obedience, kings and princes, They also tear apart all divine and human peace, covenants and vows, since every Christian (if he had a lousy neck) should resist him with the drive of his life, because we see the poor, mean, incomprehensible people, frightened by their childish, shameful bulls, doing and leaving everything that only the damned Roman mischievousness can devise through the devil.
4) In all German editions wrong: "Has he not thus incited Emperor Henry the Fourth against his natural father" etc. We have changed according to the Latin.
5) In the old editions "Erbietung". Latin: rsvsrsntia.
Here it belongs that he has set laws and ropes for the consciences, forbids secret marriage, and yet, when it has happened, confirms it against the will of the parents, and thus teaches the children to disobey their parents and to marry against their will. If he now left the parents' authority and hearing untouched and commanded the children to be obedient to their parents, then his foolish, foolish law of secret marriage would not be allowed at all, indeed, it would no longer be one, for fear of the parents, and would never have been one. For the children would have known well that their parents would not suffer that they were secretly engaged. Nevertheless the pope clothes and adorns this disobedience not only, as has been said, with the obedience of the Roman bishop, but also with the fact that he makes marriage a sacrament, and makes it free, 1) which he nevertheless ties up and holds captive with innumerable cords. Thus the pope teaches the commandment of God outwardly with words, but in himself he teaches it to be trampled underfoot in his laws.
Therefore let the parents know that they have the power and the right to break the secret betrothal of their children. And the children shall know that they owe obedience in this and everything that is not against God, and that their secret betrothal is nothing, unless they obtain it from their parents afterwards with humble supplication and petition. And they should put the pope, the worst enemy of God, with his laws behind the door. Tell me one thing, why did not the children of Israel betroth each other secretly? Where does this title of spiritual law come from, but from the devil?
219 The same is to be done with the children who become monks or nuns, that the parents have the power to demand them out of the monasteries if they need it, or have gone in against their will, regardless of the gilding, that they have taken the vow sider 2) publicly, or that they have been blessed, smeared, circumcised, or ordained priests.
1) In Latin: "he wants marriage to be a sacrament and free."
2) d. i. meanwhile (interlm).
are consecrated. It is nothing before God that has happened through the disobedience of parents, just as it is nothing when a married monk becomes a monk or nun without the will of another.
And just as here it is not valid if one says: I entered a holy order for the service of God, so it is not valid either, as the pope denies, when he defends the disobedience of the children with the clergy against God's commandment, when he says: The service of God is more than the obedience of the parents. The clergy in orders is not a service of God, but is made up for a service of God. The right service is to be obedient to the commandments of God. Otherwise, all people would have to become monks, because one kind of worship is commanded to all people at the same time. For there is no difference in the right worship, but in the glittering worship, which men have invented, which owes more to the commandment of God, that is, to the right true worship, than the coarse asses' heads must confess to lions and Paris themselves.
Let this be said of the other table of Moses. Now let us speak of the first, that is, of the three first commandments. And I do not know whether to be silent or to speak, so I cannot even express in words the abomination of the papists in these three commandments. It has all been an abomination up to now, so that they alone have acted and taught against God's law, but in these three they condemn not only the law, but everything that can and may be done or thought against God's grace, faith and gospel (except the outward appearance), that they teach and do. What more should they do, who not only teach the contradiction, but also condemn, burn, malign, blaspheme and persecute the commandments of God, than the worst heresy and highest blasphemy? and yet all this under the name of Christ, to the glory of God, and out of fervent love of faith and worship.
222 And that we begin at the noblest ground of their faith, which is thus:
3) The meaning is: when he defends the disobedience that the children have committed with their vows (reliZiones) against God's command. >
A man can keep and fulfill God's commandments by his natural powers, if he does what is in him. From this it follows, first of all, that we do not need God's grace on our account, because we can do the works in our own strength, as they impudently write in their books. But for God's sake we have need of it, for He is not pleased that we do the works of the commandments, but wants them done by grace. From this it follows that God has closed heaven to mankind with great injustice and has prepared hell, not because of sin, nor because of the broken commandments, but because of God's willful imposition.
Now this is the first honor of God, which the Parisians and all papists show him, that God is unjust and unjustly condemns man and closes heaven out of his own free will, without his fault. And that they hold this from the heart is shown by their own doctrines, which have now been announced, how holy and Christian they are. How can you be heartily pleased with him who demands from you unnecessary, superfluous and impossible things, without any cause, but of your own will? as they say and preach about God. So we must also be baptized, not that it is necessary to overcome sins by it, since we can overcome sins by natural powers and fulfill God's commandments; but God's desire and will of courage to drive people around demand this without any need.
So we must believe that Christ was crucified because of this desire and will, not because we needed it. In short, everything that Christ is and has been given to us in him has been done (if you look at us and our natural powers) unnecessarily, in vain and for nothing; but if you look at God's work, it has been necessary.
225 Can you of Paris also deny that you write and preach such things? are not your books present, and especially the now last condemnation, wherein you have set and written this precious foundation? how then can you also deny that these things are all
follow from this? You clearly state: Christ is not necessary to us on our account, therefore you publicly consider him not to be a Jesus, that is, a beatifier of men; but you consider him to be a satisfier of the supererogation of the unrighteous God. Nor has he redeemed us from our sins (because we have none, if our free will does as much as is in him), but through the sins and commandments he has redeemed us from the excesses which 1) weigh men down most heavily. Behold, this is the heap of the holy faculty of Paris on one side.
On the other hand, it has such a reason for its faith: Man, if he does as much as is in him, can certainly earn the grace of God; not according to dignities, but that it is thus convenient (de congruo). You holy faculties, do you not teach us thus? By this you teach us that we can do enough of 2) ourselves, even to the unjust substitution of God, that the poor Christ has none but this blasphemous honor, that he is not called and called Jesus, or a beatific of men, but a satisfier of the unjust substitution of God, for we can now obtain the grace of God ourselves without a mediator, and so Christ is only left and unnecessary, even against God.
I am concerned that no one believes that such cruel unchristian doctrine is read and preached in the high schools. But I refer to their books, which are available, to their own consciences, and to those who have read their books, you will see an abomination above all men's reason. And as thou seest, so they deny Christ, in that they exalt our natural powers so high. What does it help them that they confess Christ with their mouths, which they regard as unnecessary?
You see that Peter preached about none other than the poisonous soup of the papists, 2 Petr. 2, 1. 2: "Among you there will be false teachers, who will bring in corrupt sects, and will destroy the people of the world.
1) In the editions wrong: which". But the relative refers to "Uebersatz. Latin: exaetione ... in Noniine" kuevients.
2) Latin: exnokis. Jenaer: for.
deny the Lord who bought them, by whom the way of truth will be blasphemed". What are the corrupt sects but the art and doctrine of the high schools, which they have taken for articles of faith? What are the lying teachers other than the doctors of the Holy Scriptures, the swine, even the thorns and thistles in the vineyard of God? Well, he who denies Christ denies God. For to say that the divine counsel and good pleasure, so that God sent Christ and made him a Savior, is unnecessary and superfluous fei, is to say nothing else, but that God Himself is unnecessary and superfluous, just as much as if one said, "There is no God. See, then, where the first three commandments remain: You shall worship one God, you shall sanctify His name, you shall keep the Sabbath? The high schools speak and teach that you shall say: God is to be worshipped, but you shall be your own god. Thou shalt say, His name shall be hallowed, but thou shalt lift up thy name unto thyself. Thou shalt say: One shall celebrate and keep God quiet, but work thou all thyself and let not God work in thee.
I cannot explain and interpret the commandments here, but this is the conclusion: Because man is born and conceived in sins and is a child of wrath, he can do nothing but sin, and daily fall more and more into God's wrath, until he hears and believes that Christ is his Savior and died for him, that He might redeem him from his sins. Through this hearing, the Spirit of God enters his heart and is infused with God's grace and love, so that he loves God, praises and sanctifies His name, celebrates and keeps still, and lets God be in him.
work their own work. Thus no one can fulfill these three commandments without Christ, whom they regard as unnecessary and left over, because they say that natural reason may and can avoid sin without Christ's help; they raise up and set up in Christ's place free will, in God's place an idol of their own heart, a sect of corruption, thus denying Christ and the whole New Testament, and dissolving the first three commandments.
230 Oh, would God that a rough sow from Paris would come forth and bite the nut and show the cause of her damnation, so that I could reveal more clearly and further her seductive, devilish art and show everyone what unchristian, cursed abomination would be hidden under the Christian name and title of the holy scripture doctors in the high schools. Now I can do it. Because of the shortness of the book and the time, I cannot go further; otherwise I would say something about the dispensing of vows, in which the pope is quite powerful. But I will do so when I write about the vows of the monks, that I deliver the wretched youth from impure chastity and vows.
Now let us compare the ten commandments of God and of the pope, so that we may see how he has changed and perverted nothing but the law under the name of the divine law, as he has also changed the priesthood under the name of the Christian priesthood and established his own law for God's law, his own priesthood for Christ's priesthood 1) and thus placed the abomination in the holy place.
1) "sein eigen Priesterthum" is missing in the Erlangen edition.
The ten commandments
God.
I. You shall not have foreign gods.
II. You shall not take God's name in vain.
III You shall keep the Sabbath.
of the Pabst.
I. Say: One should not have foreign gods, but have them.
Say: One should not take God's name in vain, but do so.
Say: You should celebrate the Sabbath, but do not celebrate it.
IV. You shall honor your father and mother.
V. You shall not strike to death.
VI Thou shalt not be unchaste.
VII Thou shalt not steal.
VIII. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
IX. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
X. You shall not covet your neighbor's thing.
Say: You should honor your father and mother, but do not do it; if you disobey 1) them, beat them to death.
V. Say: One should not strike to death, but do it.
VI Say: One should not be unchaste, but you force them to be.
VII Say: One should not steal, but steal all the same.
VIII Say: One should not lie, but deny all the same.
IX. Say: Do not covet it, but say that it is not a sin.
X. Say: One should not desire anything, but know that [it] is not a sin.
1) In the old editions "bis" instead of "sei". Erlanger: "until in disobedience". So there the word "jn" is not resolved with "them" but with "in".
The priesthood
Christi.
I. Christ is the supreme priest.
II. His law: grace and life.
III The sacrifice: a living body.
IV. Good works: serving the neighbor.
V. The sin: slackening this.
VI. punishment: eternal death.
VII. reward: eternal life.
VlII Servants: the preachers of the Word of God.
IX. The custom: to carry the cross with joy.
From this you see that I have not spoken unjustly of the papist priesthood and its laws. And if this is not enough, then I will prove them with their own books to be such knaves and husks as I have now accused them. Therefore you should also know that the Pope is the real, true, last Antichrist, of whom the whole Scripture says: "Whom the Lord Jesus has now begun to kill with the spirit of his mouth, and will very soon, with the illumination of his future, which we are waiting for, destroy and strangle" [2 Thess. 2:8].
of the Pabst.
I. Pabst: chief priest.
II. his law: the spiritual law.
III. sacrifice: the sacrament on the altar and money.
IV. Good works: to be outwardly pious with singing, fasting and praying.
V. The sin: slackening this.
VI. punishment: the invented ban.
VII. reward: peace and good of this world.
VIII. Servant: herald of the bulls.
IX. The custom: evil gewisien.
Spiritual interpretation of the synagogue.
Now we want to walk through a spiritual interpretation, keeping the synagogue and the church together. In the synagogue was the holy, right priesthood of Aaron, appointed by God [Ex. 28, 1], then the priesthood of Bethaven of the golden calves, established by King Jeroboam [1 Kings 12, 31, 32], plus the priests on the mountains [2 Chron. 11, 15], and the vengeful 2) priesthood of Baal, by the king
2) notorious - famous (inmAne).
Ahab [1 Kings 16:31 ff], and finally the blasphemous priesthood of the idol Moloch [1 Kings 11:7, 2 Kings 23:10]. Among all these, none is punished so lightly as the priesthood on the mountains, and none so swiftly and so much as Baal and Moloch. There were also many other idolatries, such as Baalpeor, Astarte, the queen of Sidonia, and the idols of the Ammonites and Moabites; but they were not so mean and long-lasting.
So we say that all true believers in Christ are true priests in the Christian assembly, as the Levitical priests were in the synagogue. The bishops with their trumpets are the priests of BethAven. The ancient monks and hermits are mountain apostles. Baalites, however, these are the new monks and mendicant orders. Moloch, these are the high schools, which the book of the Maccabees calls boy play and Greek splendor [2 Macc. 4, 12. f.].
And as at that time their great multitude filled the land, that in the days of Elijah there were not found among such a great and innumerable people more than seven thousand that did not worship the idol Baal [1 Kings 19:18], so now also the multitude of ungodly men has filled and taken over the whole world, so that now also there are not found more true priests than at that time true prophets. But they protected 1) themselves with the crowd and said: The people of God do not err, as it is now said: The church does not err, or, as Jeremiah writes of them on 18, v. 18: "The law shall not perish with the priests, neither shall counsel be broken to the wise, nor the word of God to the prophet." And just as some true Levitical priests, prophets and wise men erred and were deceived with them, so also Christ said before that in His Church some devout Christians would be deceived by this multitude of the ungodly.
Therefore, let us continue to look at their names, species and nature. And first of all of the mountain monkeys, which are based on the sacred pa-.
1) In the German editions erroneously: "schützen" and "sprechen". Latin: arAUtzkant, äwsnlss.
The Samaritan woman says to Christ [John 4:20]: "Our fathers worshipped God on this mountain Garizim. etc. And Amos [Cap. 5, 5.] punishes Galgala, 2) that they were circumcised on the mountain Galgala, and others had other places, as now and churches and chapels are built and erected in honor of the saints who should have dwelt there, as in St. Wolfgang, in St. Galle and Meinrat, and others much more. This would not be such an evil work if it were not an evil example of superstition through abuse, and if it did not arouse trust in the works against faith (which at the same time sanctifies all places and persons everywhere).
Therefore, the first monks and hermits, who have followed the holy fathers in outward works and have forgotten the faith, build only on the outward life and being, sacrifice themselves to God and think that they serve God more fully than other Christians, although they are much worse because they live without faith. But those are to suffer who follow the faith of the fathers. In the beginning there were the disciples St. Benedicti, Augustini, Antonii. In the past, services on some mountains did not displease God, such as the great altar in Gideon, 1 Kings 3:4, on which Solomon sacrificed, and the one where Samuel lived and anointed Saul [1 Sam. 10:1], because they lived in faith and did everything in it, and did not only follow the work of the fathers, as the following monks did and still do. And they are vain hypocrites in God's commandments, for such services are righteousness in divine law, obtained by their own works without faith.
But the priesthood of BethEl cannot be used at all, it was always against the true Levitical priests. So also the papist priests, who came from human law, are not only against the faith and the Christian priesthood, but also against God's law and His Levitical priesthood, even though they are
2) d. i. Gilgal.
have the name and title that they alone are the church and the people of God. For their place is called BethEl, that is, a house of God [Gen. 28:19], and Hosea was so bold that he changed the name and called it BethAven, that is, a house of wickedness, or of trouble (that is, of ungodly righteousness, which tortures the conscience), but he had to die because of it. Just as now, if someone changed the name of the papists (who want to be the church of God) and said: They are the synagogue of the devil, as they really are, he would have to be a heretic, he would have to be burned, because he would have blasphemed the church of BethEl, like Hosea.
239 The name Hieroboam is appropriate for this, which in German means so much as a chief,' a lord, a doctor and teacher of the people, who has power to teach the people. For thus says the pope: Where there is authority, there is power and authority to command, and he raises himself above all men, and makes of himself a teacher and master, that is, a hieroboam of the whole world. The golden calves are his invented teachings, the holy spiritual law, in which he promises no less truth of the Christian faith than Hieroboam, who also pretended that the true God would be honored in the golden calves. It is obvious that in the Scriptures by the idols human teachings are understood, as also the golden calf of Aaron indicates [2 Mos. 32, 4]. For Moses writes, it is designed with a stylus, that is, from the writings of the bishops and clergy become godless doctrines. But that he made two calves, and set one at Dan at midnight, and the other at BethEl at noon, means that the pope assumes the rule, both of the heavenly and earthly kingdoms, as he writes of himself, misses not only to rule the consciences before God, but also to judge all kingdoms and all things, to judge and to live with them according to his pleasure; at midnight over the temporal, at noon over the spiritual goods splendidly.
240. Dan is as much as a judge. And this is the spiritual law in the place where it is puffed up, so that all the judges of the world are
shall recover judgment from the throne of Rome. But BethEl is in the place where he sits in the temple of God, and is exalted against and above God. The temple of God is the conscience, in which he sets his idol, ruling mightily. Therefore, worshippers of the calves 1) at BethAven are nothing else than the shorn and smeared priests in long garments, who serve God according to the spiritual law of the Holy of Holies day and night. This is the Hieroboam, of whom the Scripture so often says that he made the people of Israel sin, for he extinguished faith and exalted works, which is the greatest sin.
But the priesthood of Baal, the devout, even the godless people and, as Elijah speaks to Ahab, who are "sold to do wrong" [1 Kings 21:20], are the clergy, who with their three vows think to make themselves God's own bride and to have the closest status to God. For Ahab is called the father's brother in German. They do not want to be called anything else, because worthy fathers and brothers, that is Ahabites in Hebrew. His wife, Isabella or Jezabel, is in German a "Beiwohnung," as if the spirit were saying, "Klösterlinge, dass die Fäter und Brüder wohnen beieinander in Einem Hause.
Baal is the name of an idol, and is called a husband, and their doctrine is nothing else, but that they entangle themselves eternally against God, as against a man his wife, 2) with their vow of obedience, which God never commanded. And in this they are far different from the first monks and hermits, who voluntarily followed the Fathers' example without any vows. But these marry themselves eternally to God, over and against the faith. And this worship was in Samaria. This is no different from the fact that their rule is bound to outward place, clothing, food and drink, as we now see publicly in [the] orders. Samaria is so much as an observance, strict
1) "of the calves" is in the Latin, but absent in the Wittenberg and Erlanger.
2) In all editions: "like a man against his wife". In Latin: siaut uxor viro odstringitur. After that we have changed.
Attitude etc. Also such 1) priests stabbed themselves with awls and knives [1 Kings 18:28]. Now, when they torment themselves daily with new statutes, they "learn more and more, and never come to the knowledge of the truth" [2 Tim. 3, 7].
Ahab thought that he was doing a service and favor to the true and right God, which can be inferred from the prophet Hosea [Cap. 2, 16, 17], where God promises: "She will no longer call me Baalim, but Baali", that is, she will not call me men, but my husband, that is, she will honor and worship me with a single faith, not with various works. So do these monks; they do not see that with their vows they are serving themselves and not God, since God can be served by faith alone, not by our chosen works. What he has not commanded and is chosen by us is already condemned in Deut. 12, v. 8: "You shall not do what seems right to you." It is superfluously enough commanded what we are to do, that nothing is needed of our own chosen works, yes, they are always contrary to the divine commandments for the sake of their appearance, as Baal is contrary to the true God.
The last idol is Moloch. This comes from Malach, which is so much, he ruled or governed, and the bishop's servant, whom Peter cut off the ear, is called Malchus, a royal servant [Joh. 18, 10.]. This service is described by Moses [3 Mos. 20, 2. ff.] and Jeremiah [Jerem. 7, 31.] "that they burned their children", and thought that they were doing God a great service by not sparing their children, like Abraham, when they did such things without faith in an ungodly nature. And that is why the 106th Psalm v. 37 says: "They have sacrificed their children to the devil, not to God." For everything that is done, which he does not give, is not done to him, but to the devil, who gives such things, however holy they may seem. Now these are the high schools, in which the greatest and best part of our youth is equally educated.
1) Wittenberg and Erlangen: all.
2) Latin: nittil. Wittenberg and Erlangen: not.
like a burnt offering, so that they may be taught there and become completely holy. Everyone thinks that there is no place under heaven where the youth can be better instructed, so that the monks also go there. He who has not been to the high school can do nothing, but he who has been there and studied can do everything. For it is believed that in high schools one learns all divine and human arts. Therefore, everyone thinks that no one can send his son there better than to do God a great service by sacrificing their children to make them skilled preachers, priests and ministers of God, 3) who are of need to God and man.
Therefore Moloch belongs, that is, a king, because this people makes great lords, doctores and magistros, who are skilled to govern other people, as we see before our eyes that no one can become a preacher or pastor, unless he is a master, doctor, or has at least been in high school. The donkey must be crowned first, and then he goes and rules. And the parents do not see, or do not respect, that the youth is nowhere 4) more corrupted and seduced, since no one resists them. For that they fall into fornication, gluttony, and other public wickedness, is the least corruption.
But that they are taught with false, pagan art and with godless, human doctrine, that is the fire of Moloch, which no one can sufficiently mourn, by which in high schools the most pious and skillful boys perish miserably. 5) The children who are taught the most, the best, and the best, in the high schools perish miserably. So great is the wrath of God upon this valley of Tafet and Hinnan, 6) that those who learn most and best and live chastely perish worse than those who learn nothing and live in fornication. For these learn nothing that can be unlearned, they know well that they do wrong; but those scoop up the poison that they nim-
3) In the editions: "and make into ministers of God." We have transposed the word "to" according to the Latin: Hui toti kaut peeuiium i>ei.
4) "nirgend" is missing in the Wittenberg and Erlanger. Latin: Nie xessirue.
5) "enough" is missing from Erlanger.
6) i.e. Tophet and Hinnom, Jer. 7, 31.
They are more and more able to get rid of the idea that they consider evil to be good, and they teach this to their students as well. All of which 1) is due to the fact that the sun of the gospel is darkened and blinded by the teachings of men.
247. out of this pit of murder come the locusts, Revelation 9:1, 2, 3.From the beginning of the world, the devil could not have devised anything more powerful than the high schools to suppress the faith and the Gospel in all the world, and such evil must now arise at the end of the world, so that the world, burdened with God's wrath because of its sins, which have taken over, would have inclined toward hell and its damnation. For the poor people must not hear anything without what their Molochites have learned in the high schools 4), namely, blasphemy, as indicated above in the Pope's ten commandments. One must also not accept other preachers or pastors.
Jeremiah calls this valley Gehinnan [Jer. 7, 31], therefore Christ took Gehennan [Matth. 5, 22]. But what it means I do not know. Ge means a valley, Hinnan may mean many things. But since I do not know how to indicate it, I will omit it. But it seems to me that it comes from the word Jhana, which means to devour and torture, as the mighty lords and usurers devour, torture and suck the people. So that Gehinnan is as much as the Schinder Thal, who, where they should feed the people as shepherds and preachers with the living Word of God, they devour, corrupt, and flay the poor people in body, soul, and goods with their poisonous godless teachings. And such shepherds give us the high schools, the synagogues of corruption.
249. Therefore you see that the church is completely in the meaning with the synagogue.
1) Wittenberger and Erlanger: "the". The meaning is: The guilt of all this, is to be blamed on the fact that u. s. w.
2) In the editions: "would have to". Latin: nee eonvenikdat tioe raulum 8iirA6r6, nisi in tine mundi.
3) So correctly after the Latin in the Jena. Wittenberg and Erlangen: Verderbniß.
4) Jenaer: learned. Latin: aidieeriiiit.
and how few there are of you who are preserved from this error and destruction, because not only the best are to be deceived, but also the elect. Oh we wretched people, that in these last times, among so many Baalites, Bethelites, and Molochites, who all seem to be spiritual and Christian, yet have swallowed up the whole world, 5) and want to be the Christian church alone, we thus live and laugh safely and freely, do not weep bloody tears that the children of our people are so cruelly murdered.
Finally, if all this does not move anyone, I humbly ask, from the bottom of my heart, all priests for the sake of their salvation, that they do not say mass unwillingly out of the duty of their endowment, or otherwise for the sake of money. God would have me receive so much. Therefore, let each one examine himself, if he feels so skilled that he would not say mass if he were not bound to it by service or endowment, or if he were moved to it by the presence, 6) or by other causes, outside of a right faith, let him not say mass for the rest of his life, and let him ask nothing of human statutes or endowments. It is much better to despise human foundations and statutes, in which 7) one cannot sin, than to offend against this holy sacrament of divine majesty. Nor is the world burdened with greater sins, even if it were not used for any sacrifice, than with the unworthy celebration of mass by the priests and the sacramental celebration by the laity, which is all too common throughout the world.
251 But this is the desire of a true believer, that he should go to it, that he may
5) verschlunden - devour (äevoi-antidus). Wittenberger and Erlanger: "verschlungen".
6) "Presence" here seems to be a monetary gift offered for saying Mass, while otherwise it is a payment for being present at the hearings. (Cf. De Wette, vol. II, p. 431.) Here the Latin is prae86ntia6; soon after, at the end of s 252, the word Iiierum is used for it.
7) Thus by us instead of: "in which", which the editions offer. For it is evident from the context that the words "in which" stand instead of "wherein"; namely, in the despising of human foundation and statute.
heartily desire and seek grace, mercy and forgiveness of his sin, that he 1) hunger and thirst after godliness. For this delicious food of the Lord demands, satisfies and fills a hungry and empty soul. But the rich and those who are full, who go to it for the sake of 2) profit, honor or favor, it does not satisfy, leaves them empty and gives them with Judah to the devil to eternal death.
252 Not that I would confirm the masses, but because custom has broken down, and the doctrine of men and statutes have prevailed so much that it is not possible to make a common Christian change in this holy testament, let us do so much that we may walk in a righteous faith and sin less, whether we may be saved at last with the erring elect. I see her going much with vexation, horrified, hardened and contemptuous consciences, who neither desire nor seek anything more than that the mass be kept, and pay what they owe, or that they may have presence and not be put to shame. O of the cruel frightful presumption!
Conclusion of the book.
And that I should come to you again, my Wittenbergers, God would that this Pharisaic anger 3) should grow and increase among you, and that the Papist crowd should say: Behold, in Wittenberg there is no more worship, there is no more mass, there is no organ, and they have all become heretics and nonsensical. Would to God that I should hear the angry Rapsaces 4) and blasphemers crying and barking: Is not this "Ezekiel, who took away the mountains and altars of God, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, Before this altar ye shall worship"? [2 Kings 18:4, 22] And again, that ye were they which with Isaiah laughed their lord Sennacherib to scorn, that he spake Syriac or Jewish [Isa. 36:11, 13]. That the masses should fall, and the crying, and the
1) In the old editions: jnen.
2) "willen" is missing in the Erlanger.
3) i.e. the annoyance that the Pharisees take.
4) Rabshakeh 2 Kings 18:17.
When the roaring in the churches stops, the papists will be astonished. But that love (which serves the neighbor) and the living sacrifice of our body is destroyed by unchastity, hatred, anger, fornication, etc., they laugh at that, as faith and wisdom are appropriate and due to the papists.
You also have a Bethaven with you, All Saints' Church, which Duke Frederick inherited from his ancestors and, deceived by the papists, excellently enhanced and elevated. Oh, how many poor people could have been fed from it in Saxony, all of whom he could have made friends of the unjust Mammon, so that they would have taken him, if need be, into the eternal huts! That from this example it is to be feared that the money and goods of princes are seldom worthy to be used for Christian things, just as they are seldom won in any other way than Nimrod won his goods and money [Gen. 10:8]. But one thing you may well boast by the grace of God, that the prince is neither a tyrant nor a fool, who hears the truth gladly and can suffer it, and judges no one freely, who is not less to fear the wicked than to love the pious. Since you are gifted and talented in this, you can carry out the work you have begun even better than those who are called to it by God through this opportunity, and God has given you His hands.
I have often heard a prophecy in these lands when I was a child: Emperor Frederick would redeem the holy grave. And as the nature of prophecies is that they are fulfilled before they are understood, so they look elsewhere all the time, because the words before the world read. So it seems to me that this prophecy has been fulfilled in this prince of ours, Duke Frederick of Saxony. For what can we understand for another holy grave, since the holy scripture, in which the truth of Christ, killed by the papists, is buried, which the beadles, 6) that is, the mendicants, have buried?
5) So the Jena edition correctly after the Latin. Wittenberg and Erlangen: den.
6) In the old editions: "Böttel." This word otherwise stands for court messenger, but here for henchmen, war servants. Latin: militidus.
How did the saracens and heretics guard and keep them, so that no disciple of Christ would come and steal them? For after the tomb where the Lord lay, which the Saracens have, God asks as much as after all the cows of Switzerland.
Now no one can deny that the living truth of the Gospel has come forth among you under Duke Frederick, Elector of Saxony; how? if I boasted that I had been an angel, or Magdalene at the tomb? And although he is not an emperor now, this is enough to fulfill the prophecy that he is elected emperor in Frankfurt in unison with the princes, and was also truly emperor if he had wanted to be. It is equal before God as long as one is emperor, if he has only been emperor.
257 And although some will think that I am playing a game of jugglery, I will continue to play and wonder how it is that God has wanted to awaken his word in this despised place of the world and that it is a miracle that has not happened to any country that I respect, that the cities and villages around Wittenberg, even the citizens, have Hebrew names like the cities and towns around Jerusalem. Where did Ephrata, Hebron, Resen, 1) Panneck, Globock, Zidon, Jesse, Dammatz, Dibon and many such come from? And Wittenberg itself, that is, Weißenberg, what is it but the mountain Libanus. Libanus means white. That's enough of a game.
This is a serious matter, that it is given to us before others to see the pure and first face of the gospel. Forasmuch then as ye
1) So in Latin and in the Wittenberg. Jenaer: Reffen.
2) If you are zealous for the spirits, you should spread this out and let others see it, but only that you see to it that you walk and conduct yourselves with diligence, and that one reaches out to the other without quarreling and strife. If any of you be weak in faith, let him eat herbs, and judge not him that eateth flesh. And again, if any man be strong in faith, let him not despise him that eateth not flesh [Rom. 14:2, 3, 21].
259 But if your neighbors, friends, or enemies are displeased that you are doing new things, and will, according to their human reason and wisdom, interpret them evil to you, know that unless you are a spectacle to God, angels, and men, you are not yet true Christians. Who wants to shut everyone's mouth? or who wants to show everyone in particular his own cause of all things? For it is a proverb: He who builds in the street has many masters. In every game there are more spectators than players. They are the words of men, and remain leaves; they are the judgments of men, 3) and remain bubbles of water. Follow your consciences in God, regardless of the person and the guises of men. For this purpose I have sent this letter to comfort and strengthen you, so that I may also be a co-worker and partaker of your spirit in Christ. And if I have not done this in vain and in vain, I thank God, who increases and sustains you in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and praise forever and ever, amen.
2) In Latin: spiritnurn aeinnlatores - spiritnurners, which may refer to Hebr. 1, 14: "Are they not all at once ministering spirits" etc.
3) Wrong in the Wittenberg and Erlangen: Menschengedichte. Latin: üominum juäieia. The meaning of this sentence is: Do not turn to the void judgment of men.
b. On the abolition of the papal masses and ceremonies, especially the private or angular mass.