1. the godless nature of the world.
2. the insatiability and overindulgence of the human heart.
3. the world cannot bear good days.
4. useless people.
5. 6. ingratitude of the world for the gospel.
7. human misery.
8. people kind with food.
9. what people are.
10. why God created the world.
11. where good and evil come from.
The world does not understand God's word.
Why the pagans wrote such a beautiful thing about death.
14. D. M. Luther's thoughts of the world while he was still in the cap.
15. glittering handsome rathgeber.
God always wants to reform the world.
The world is unruly and cannot be governed.
18. what the world is.
19. three degrees of people.
20. the ingratitude of the peasants.
21. the will of the world.
22. world do not believe that everything that is good comes from God.
23. God is more learned and wiser than we and the whole world.
24. 25. Of ingratitude.
26. inconstancy of human heart.
The gospel exposes the wickedness of men.
28. safety and security of the people.
The world's ingratitude against God's faithful servants.
The world must have serious and swift rulers.
31. of human reason.
The meanest challenge in the world.
The world's highest wisdom.
34. temporal peace.
35. great ingratitude of the world.
36. world becomes the longer the angrier.
37. sin goes before punishment.
38. world cannot be without sin, but therefore it is not to be praised nor suffered.
The world's speeches and essence.
(40) How people forget their blessedness for the sake of temporal goods.
41) As the world was before the flood.
The world does not want Christ as God.
43 The world's likeness.
44. world seeks immortality from its pride.
45. world always decreases the longer.
46. from young people.
47. common state of the best.
48. how to grow old.
49 Of the body of man.
Man cannot comprehend God's gifts.
The world's judgment of the ministers of the gospel.
The shape of the world and the church.
The world grows weary of God's work.
The world does not like the godly.
The world begrudges the Christians their food and would like to have all goods alone.
The world, especially Germany, certain punishment.
57. 58. What to consider in official duties.
59. the world's folly.
The world has become more and more angry after the gospel has come to day.
61. what the world is.
62. Nothing happens to the world in gratitude.
63. imitate what it is.
64. no punishment helps in the world.
The world does not respect God's gifts and works.
The world does not do anything for free.
How the world rewards and rewards good deeds.
How grateful the world is for God's benefits.
The world soon forgets God's benefits and despises His word.
The world is full of hypocrites and blasphemers: how many there are.
The world cannot be reformed.
The world does not want and cannot stand the pure word of God.
73. world remains world.
The world, especially our ingratitude, will help the papacy up again.
The world is getting worse the longer it goes on.
Of the ingratitude of the people.
The world's presumption and security, and of epicurs.
The world's impiety and ingratitude.
79. canons are vain epicurers.
80th Des Epicurismi Regiment.
81. a different from the epicurismo.
82 Of epicurean people.
83. 84. Which pave the way to epicurismo.
85. security of the world.
The people's safety and diligence in errors.
87. the Epicurer thoughts.
The world's goods and treasures.
The world's stinginess.
90. stinginess is a sign of death: money and goods should not be relied upon.
91. the parish priests and preachers avarice.
92: The virtues of Mammon.
93: Pabst's stinginess.
94. Avarice prevents God's blessing.
The first is that the monasteries and ecclesiastical estates should be seized by princes and lords.
96. avarice disrupts and devastates the country and its people.
97. from a stingy farmer.
98. admonition and warning against stinginess.
99. that the princes and lords become stingy and take to themselves all commerce and food.
100. of miserly men who wantonly make a fool of themselves.
The first is a book about the history of the world.
102. of the nobility's avarice.
103. Avarice takes away God's blessings.
104 On the Avarice of the Thuringian Peasants.
105. Christians should not be stingy.
106. of the avarice of the people, especially when the gospel is taught.
107. No one lets him suffice.
(108) Avarice corrupts and hinders God's blessings.
109 From the stinginess.
110: Of those who are attached to the world's wealth.
111. of trafficking and usury:
112. legitimate profit.
113. from usurers.
114. one question: whether a poor person may borrow money?
115 D. M. L. Sermon against usury.
116. from avarice N. N.
117 From unfair trade.
The people do not use their goods with joy because of avarice.
Wealth makes people hopeful and stingy.
120. Temporal goods are the least of the gifts.
121. the buyer of a thing shall bear the damage and stand the risk.
122. final speeches on usury, discussed at Wittenberg.
123) From one who is willing to lend money usurpingly.
One question: whether one can in good conscience deny money, and D. M. L.'s answer to this. M. L. Answer to this.
125. from borrowing.
126. from playing.
127. from binge drinking.
The world always wants something new, soon gets tired of one thing.
1. the godless nature of the world.
(Cordatus No. 54, and No. 68 to: "eject".)
The world does not want to have God as God, nor the devil as the devil. Therefore, it is forced to have its governors, the pope and the authorities. - If it were not for God's forgiveness of sins, I would gladly (after all that I am by nature) throw God out through the window; for the world does not respect God at all. As the Psalm also says: Dixit Impius in corde suo, non est Deus. Ps. 14, 1. On the other hand, God is wealth and pleasure to the world, so that it drives its pride and hope and misuses all creatures and gifts of God. Some years ago, a beautiful play and picture was played and seen in Autors 1), where Antorf was finely painted and paraded around the city as a spectacle on a chariot, and this title or name was written above the city: Antorf a queen of the world. And on one side of the city stood Neptunus, a god of the sea, who brought and gave her great treasures. On the other side Mercurius, the merchants' god, offered her many gifts and goods. This let me be quite a conterfei and kind of the world, in which nothing else is, but contempt of God, pride and court.
The monks used to boast much about the contempt of the world, and helped themselves with the saying of St. Paul to the Romans in the 12th chapter, v. 2, where he says: "Do not put yourselves in the likeness of this world. For this reason, they did not want to attack money as if it were against God,
1) d. i. Antwerp.
The use of wealth, money and goods: since St. Paul and the whole of the Holy Scriptures only describe the abuse, the evil lusts, desires and movements of the heart, such as ambition, fornication, revenge, which the world indulges in and is even flooded with.
2. the insatiability of the human heart, and yet it soon tires of a thing.
D. Martin said: "He who is now a prince would like to be a king or an emperor. A man who loves a virgin is always thinking how he would like to get her in marriage, and in his eyes none is more beautiful than she. When he has gotten her, he soon tires of her and thinks that another is much more beautiful, whom he could have gotten. So a poor man thinks: If I had a hundred thalers, I would be the richest of all; but when he gets her, he wants to have even more. The heart does not remain constant on a thing, the pagans have also had ab experientia, and said: Virtutem praesentem odimus, sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi. And said Anno 1542 D. Luther then said: When Lucas Cranach, the older painter, had taken his wife and the wedding had taken place, he would always have wanted to be the closest to the bride. He had a good friend who stopped him for a while and said: "Dear, don't do that; before half a year has passed, you will have enough, and there will be no maid in the house; you will prefer her to your wife. And it is so. For praesentia odimus,
absentia amamus. Of it also Ovidius says: Quod licet, ingratum est, quod non licet, acrius urit. This is imbecillitas nostrae naturae, quod caro praesens bonum non agnoscere potest, sed solus Spiritus agnoscit. So then the devil also comes to it, and throws in the way odia, suspiciones and evil concupiscentias on both sides; hence then comes the running away in matrimony. Therefore a wife is soon taken, but to love her always is donum Dei, and one may well thank our Lord God for it. Therefore, if anyone wants to take a wife, let him be serious, ask God for a pious wife, and say: Dear Lord God, if it is your divine will that I should live without a wife, help me; if not, provide me with a pious husband or wife, with whom I will spend my life, whom I love, and she me again. For copula carnalis does not do it, it must be there, ut conveniant mores et ingenium.
The world cannot bear good days. (Cordatus No. 693 and No. 696.)
The world can bear nothing less than happiness. It cannot use good days, it has too weak legs, it becomes arrogant through happiness and despairs in misfortune. Christ alone was able to bear both. Whatever you may do to heal the world is in vain, it is baptism and Chresem [bisem] lost. So God says in Hosea, Cap. 6, [5.], he has planed them. They face nowand as two thousand years ago, because now God's word falls in similar times. Nowadays we have the same argument with the seventh chapter of John, where they said [v. 48]: "Does any ruler or Pharisee believe in him?" So nowadays the bishops and princes of the Lutheran doctrine, Isa. 2. believe, it agrees with the counsels of our time.
The nature of the opponents of the Word of God is not human, but diabolical. A man does as much as a man can do, but a man possessed by the devil is moved by truly diabolical enmity, and this becomes of such a kind as that between the serpent and the woman, Gen. 3:15. In short, the first table has devils against it, but the second has men against it.
4. useless people.
In the garden Luther said: "If the useless people all had to die, we would have to become useless, because the devil must have useless servants. Therefore, let them live, because God grants them life. He said this about useless courtiers and other people.
5. ingratitude of the world for the gospel.
1) The thanksgiving that the world gives for the teaching of the gospel is the same as that which it gave to Christ, namely the cross.
6. a different.
When someone complained about the great ingratitude of the people, D. M. Luther said. M. Luther: This year is a year of ingratitude, but the future and the following will be a year of vengeance. There is no end to it, God must also punish against His will, nature and kind, we will overtake it, Is. 1.
7. human misery.
(Contained in Cap. 48, § 38.)
8. people kind with food.
We have all tyrannical animals kind at us with food: the wolf eats sheep, we also; the fox chickens, geese, we also; hawks and vultures eat birds, we also; pikes eat fish, we also. With the oxen, horses, cows we also eat grass; with the pigs we eat dung and dirt, but inside everything becomes dirt.
9. what people are.
We are a wicked traveling possession: we want to believe that God will certainly be merciful to us because He has given us His Son, otherwise it is all over and in vain with us.
10. why God created the world.
God might have left the world uncreated, but He created it so that He might give His
1) Cf. cap. 2, § 14.
Honor and power berveisete. One shall not ask our Lord God, quare hoc facis? Why are you doing this? We should do what we are commanded to do, and after that we should not ask: Quare? Why? We must come to the conclusion that our Lord God is more pious than we are.
11. where good and evil come from.
What is good is from God, what is evil is from the devil. Man needs good and courage against God, more than for His praise, therefore "a man's friends are his greatest enemies", Matth. 10, 36.
12. the world.
The world does not understand what God's word means, nor do they all want to be evangelical. Now it is said, multi vocati, sed pauci electi: "Many are called, but few are chosen", Matth. 20, 16.
Why the pagans so beautifully written thing of death.
I am often surprised, said D. M. Luther, what moved the pagans to write such beautiful things about death, because it is so cruel, horrible and ugly? But when I think of the world, it does not surprise me at all, because they have had to see among themselves many bad things from their authorities, which have hurt them, have been able to punish them with nothing else but death.
If the pagans held death in such low esteem, yes, so honestly and highly: how much more should we Christians do so! For the poor people knew less than nothing of eternal life; but we know it, nor do we fear, and are so sore afraid, when we are told of death. Well, these are our sins, and we must confess that we live worse than the heathen; therefore we are not wronged. For the greater the sin, the more cruel is death. This is seen in people who have acted against God's commandment and are to die, or that they are told about the last day, how they tremble and rage, even though they are fresh and healthy. We are such herbs.
14 Doctor Martin Luther's thoughts of the world while he was still in the cap.
Since I was in the cap and first began to write, I would not have thought that in the world the devil plagued people so violently. I thought we had the devil only in the monasteries. And it is also possible, because the monks have taken over the world, that the devils have gone into the nobility and peasants; quia multum peccant in rempublicam, they spoil the country and the people, do great harm.
15. glittering handsome rathgeber.
(Contained in Cap. 66, § 58.)
God always wants to reform the world. (Lauterbach, Nov. 20, 1538, p. 175.)
Then he spoke of the great foolish folly of men, that we poor people want to judge from God's word, which we should obey, as if the tile wanted to teach the potter how to make it and how many fingers he should use. So we want to set ourselves against God, the wretched creature against the Creator. It says (Matth. 17, 5.): "This (Christ) you shall hear"; and Ps. 45, 11.: "Hear, daughter, look upon it, and incline your ears; forget your people, and your father's house." Yes, if Adam had not fallen, still we would have judged ourselves by the Word alone; and now in such fall and darkness will we despise it. That is why the papal church is the most foolish, which is founded only on the outward discipline of reason, without God's word, with the outward childish antics, to which our salvation should be bound. If only there had been such things, which concern good manners and law.
The world is unruly, and does not govern itself.
(Lauterbach, Nov. 20, 1538, p. 176.)
The world is not governed by laws and rules, but irregularly [anomalo], like the irregular verb Sum, es, est, eram, fui. There is no regular sequence. Fero, tuli. There are defectives. This has no praeteritum, supina etc., like the booklet
"Bellum grammaticale" indicates where the noun and the verb are the two generals; the noun has the pronoun, the verb has the adverbium, the participium goes to both; the preposition and interjection serve both. So it goes also in the world, where cannot be governed with laws. For one must let Sum, es, est remain and not make Sum, sus, sut out of it, because it is an idiosyncratic verb in grammar.
18. what is world.
(Contained in Cap. 4, 61, para. 1.)
19. three degrees of people.
People are of three kinds. The first are the great multitude who live safely without conscience, do not recognize their corrupt nature and kind, do not feel God's wrath against sin, do not ask anything about it. The other group is those who are terrified by the law, feel God's wrath and flee from it, fight and struggle with despair; like Saul. The third group is those who recognize their sin and God's wrath, and feel that they were conceived and born in sin, and therefore must be eternally damned and lost. But when they hear the preaching of the Gospel, that God forgives sin by grace, for the sake of Christ, who was sufficient for us to the Father, they accept it and believe it, and thus become righteous and blessed in the sight of God. Then they prove their faith with all kinds of good works, as fruits that God has commanded. The other two groups go there.
20. the ingratitude of the peasants.
(Cordatus No. 700.)
When I said: The farmers are not worthy of such an abundance of goods and the fruits of the earth; I thank our Lord God more for one tree and shrub than they do for all their fields and forests, Philip said: "Doctor, take out some farmers, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac. I answer that these were not only farmers and husbandmen, but also theologians; for the Scripture says [Gen. 24:63] that Isaac went into his field to signify the gifts of God and the creatures that are perceived in the field.
21. the will of the world.
The world wants to have night owls, that is, gangs and superstitious; birds fly to them, that is, the world marvels at them, accepts them with great honor, gives them money and good enough.
22. world do not believe that everything that is good comes from God, and his creature and
order.
(Cordatus No. 290.)
That marriage is a marriage, the hand is a hand, and goods are goods, all men understand and believe well. But to believe that marriage is God's order, that hands are God's creation, that the food I eat is given to me by God, and that everything else is created for my benefit, that is not man's work, but God's work in man.
God is more learned and wiser than the whole world.
(Cordatus No. 690. 691.)
Erasmus, Oekolampad, Zwingli, Carlstadt want to measure everything according to their wisdom and thus become disgraces; but I thank [God] that I know and believe that God knows more than I do. He can do something higher than I can understand, because He can make visible things out of invisible things, because everything that He is doing now through the power of the Gospel makes visible things out of invisible things. Who would have expected this outcome ten years ago? But the flesh is very godless.
God forgives our sins for free, but also adds punishment [ultionem] and threats: "If you do not believe, you will die" [John 8:24]. Before believing this and accepting it for nothing, we torture ourselves to death, preferring to go to St. James in a whole suit of armor [kurus] 1). Summa, for the world
1) In all editions "Küriß", i.e. armor, armor, which gives a very appropriate sense, namely that the pilgrimage to Compostella is made a torturous one "by" walking there in full armor. For the word, compare Luther's Werke, Wittv. Ausg., Bd. 7, Fol, 148 a: "a reisigen Kürisser", which means there without doubt a harnischten Reitersmann. According to Dr. Wrampelmeyer, Kuruß should stand for drorus,
belongs not truth and life, but lies and murder; the former is dealt with by the pope, the latter by the Turk.
24. ingratitude.
When young chickens were roasted on the table, Doct. Martin Luther to M. Nicolao Hausmann: There you see the treasures and desire of the farmers, which they do not recognize that they come from God and are given, do not thank him for it.
25. a different.
In the pestilence here no farmer wanted to bring in wood, eggs, butter, cheese, grain etc., so we had to suffer two for one plague, as pestilence and hunger; but if they had it outside, we had to pick it up from them.
26. inconstancy of human heart.
Man's heart is like mercury, which is now here, soon elsewhere: today one thing, tomorrow another. Therefore it is a poor thing and vanity, as Ecclesiastes, the preacher of Solomon, says, that a man desires uncertain things and longs for them, and that he does not know how they will turn out; on the other hand, he despises those things that are certain and that are ready for him.
As Duke Frederick reigned, we both disliked him and his meekness and gentleness, that he led a peaceful, calm and collected regiment and court, and hoped for another, better one who would come to the regiment after him. Well, we said, if we had Duke Hansen, it would be fine. Now that we had him, after Duke Frederick's death, we wanted the current Duke, John Frederick, Elector; he will do it, we said, but for more than three years, he certainly won't be any good for us either.
Therefore what God gives us we do not want; for this reason Christ also did not want to reign on earth, but gave it to the devil.
also ekurus, ekur, Kur written, thus "schaarenweise". That here not this meaning, but "in full armor to St. Jakob wallen", has, is clear from Walch, -old edition, Bo. VIII, p. 1624. interpretation of the letter to Gal. cap. 1, § 93. cf. also cap. 45, § 44 in the last paragraph: "Kürissen".
to whom he says, "You govern. But God is a different man and has a different nature, manner and mind. I, he says, am God who does not change. I stand firm over my promises and urges.
Christians should thank God for what is present; and as it is certain, so it is good, and God provides and gives it out of His infinite mercy, and sing the 117th Psalm: "Praise the Lord, all nations; praise Him, all peoples, for His grace and truth are over us forever."
The gospel exposes the wickedness of men.
Just as the cold becomes greater and swifter in winter when the days lengthen and the sun comes closer to us, for it makes the cold denser and compresses it: so also the wickedness of men becomes greater, that is, more apparent, and breaks forth greatly when the gospel is preached; for the Holy Spirit punishes the world for sin, which the world cannot nor will suffer.
28. safety and security of the people.
It is a wonder that people are so sure and hopeful, since we have so many innumerable examples and arguments among us, which should justly admonish us and drive us to fear and humility. For first, we do not have a certain hour of death, we do not know when we will die. Secondly, the grain and wine by which we eat and are nourished are not in our hands; moreover, neither the sun nor the air by which we live, neither day nor sleep, is in our power or authority, but all is in God's hand. I will keep silent about spiritual things, such as our own, peculiar and public sins, so that we may be oppressed, challenged and afflicted. And yet we have hearts harder than steel, stone, and adamant, which regard not these things, but ask nothing of them.
The world's ingratitude against God's faithful servants.
It must be a great spirit, serve the people in body and soul and yet suffer extreme danger and the highest ingratitude over it.
Therefore Christ says to Petro, Joh. 21, 15.: "Simon Johanna, do you love me?" and repeats it three times one after the other; after that he said v. 16.: "Feed my sheep". As if to say, "If you want to be a true pastor and shepherd, it must be love that makes you love me; otherwise it is impossible. For who can suffer ingratitude? who can lose his goods and health, and then put himself in the greatest danger? Therefore he says, "It is necessary that you love me. The pope and Turk have smelled us very well and have done her, the world, justice, for she also wants it. She cannot stand righteous, pious, faithful servants of God, yes, she murders them, therefore she must have such companions, nourish them, and moreover hold them in great honor and be cursed and seduced by them.
The world must have serious and swift rulers.
The world cannot do without such heads, by whom it must be ruled, even N. N. with his tyranny is like a morsel for the world. Therefore God speaks through the prophet Samuel to the people of Israel, who asked for a king, he wanted to give them a king. "But this was to be his right: Their sons he would take for his chariots and horsemen, their daughters for his cooks; item, their best fields, gardens, vineyards and oil gardens he would take and give to his chamberlains and servants." 1 Sam. 8, 11. ff. Luther then said: "When Prince Frederick returned home from the election day in Cologne, since Emperor Carl had been elected Roman Emperor, His Electoral Grace had elected his most distinguished councilors. Gn. had asked their most distinguished councilor, Mr. Fabian von Feilitzsch, how he liked these new newspapers, that they had elected the King of Hispania as emperor? the same wise man had answered: The ravens must have a vulture.
31. human reason.
Human reason either despairs or is presumptuous. If it despairs, it dies sine crux et lux. But if it is presumptuous, it also goes away and is deceived.
The meanest challenge in the world.
(Lauterbach, April II, 1838, p. 61.)
The highest challenge in the world is that no one is faithful to his profession, but everyone would like to go idle. I am now exhausted, 1) have many worries and am plagued with many affairs. Others walk idly and do not want to do anything: and I think that if we did not have to do it, we would not do it either. I can see where the pope came from, because the lazy, idle lords and princes also shat on him.
The world's highest wisdom.
(Contained in Cap. 21, § 1, subsections 6 and 7.)
34. temporal peace.
(Contained in Cap. 15, § 17.)
35. a different.
(Contained in Cap. I, § 18.)
36. world becomes the longer the angrier.
I hold it to be so, that the greater and brighter the light of the gospel is, the more evil the world is: so Christ in his day made evil worse, and St. Paul did not make many more devout Christians.
37. sin goes before punishment.
Since the Jews were to be beaten, captured and conquered by the Romans, and the land devastated and desolated, they had to crucify God's Son first: so do we, despising God's word, whether we carry it in our mouths or not, and boasting of the gospel, drive out the pastors and faithful pious servants of God and Christians. We still build bastions, ramparts and great mighty fortresses, but we do not build ourselves.
Jerusalem was also firm, the king of Babylon lay a whole year before it, still it had to go, there helped nothing for it. God also says through Jeremiah: "If you kill all the Chaldeans and leave only three alive, let those three fall in the window and kill you.
1) Cf. Cap. 26, § 46; Cap. 48, § 26.
38. world can not be without sin, but therefore it is not to be praised nor
to suffer.
Alexander Alesius Scotus wrote from Frankfurt on the Oder that D. Christoph von der Straßen, 1) a jurist, would be a godless man and great epicure, approved of bad fornication, public whore houses and other fornications, which would be forbidden. Item, would have decreed over the table that if someone spoke of something different, but of fornication and whores, then he should give a guilder as a penalty. Then M. Luther was moved and angry and said, "He brought this with him from Italy, even though he had despised his parents from childhood. For I once had him up in my room, where his father could not persuade him to have and hear a preceptor, whom he, the father, wanted to assign to him.
Yes, it is true, as that knave says: The world is and cannot be without sin; but that one would therefore conclude and infer from this: The world is not without sin, therefore sin should be permitted and approved etc., this does not follow. Just as it does not sound: The church is not without offense, therefore one should let offense go, permit and approve it. It is another to commit fornication and other evil by deed and work, and another by or by right. How we must suffer our unfaithful workers, wicked servants, wicked neighbors; but to approve, to praise, and to say that it is fair and right, that is too much. It should come to this, as with the Lacedæmonians, who allowed stealing and let it go, but so that someone would handle it artificially, masterfully, and steal. I do not believe that the Lacedemonians approved of thievery, but wanted to arouse the fathers of the house to greater diligence and to stimulate them to pay more attention to their thing. If it were right to commit fornication and thievery, the comedians would have allowed it, too, and would not have insisted so much that young journeymen would marry.
1) The name is inserted after Förstemann.
The world's speeches and essence.
(Lauterbach, Jan. 15, 1538, p. 10.)
Then it was said of the disloyalty of a courtier of the bishop of Mainz, who had fallen away from the gospel to the papacy and said with great certainty: "I will put Christ behind the door for a while, until I become rich, then I will bring him in again. Similarly, a certain atheist (xxxxx) said: If you want to be deathly timid, you will never get rich. Such remarkable, exceedingly ungodly sayings deserve the greatest punishment. If one could end this, that he could put God behind the door and pull him out again, if he wanted to, then man would have acted well; then God would be their prisoner. These are the words of the Epicureans and the last times, which challenge God's great plague and the Last Judgment.
(40) How people forget their blessedness for the sake of temporal goods.
Doctor Luther was asked at Eisleben in 1546 over the table: How is it that people in the world are so stingy and stingy, and everyone wants to be rich, even often with his soul's damage? There was also an example of a nobleman who said: "In the old days, when I was young, it would not go with me: if I had to clothe my wife and child, I had no money; I did not know how it would work. But when I began to put the sea-oak on my back, I became rich and came into money and property. If I had not done that, I would have remained poor for the rest of my life; it was all the sea creature's fault.
Then D. Luther started and said to D. Jonah: "Doctor, don't you know what Astche von Kram 2), the knight, said to me in Wittenberg, that someone had once said to him: "My dear, if you want to become rich, powerful and great, you must drill a hole in a tree, put your soul in it, and drive a stake in front of it so that it stays inside. When you have become rich, then go and take the peg from the tree.
2) Assa von Kram; cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, vol. X, col. 488.
met your soul out of it again. Then Doctor Jonas said: How, if someone would come in the meantime, and take away the sea-oak from the tree? Then Doctor Luther said, "I'll let him take care of that, I wouldn't dare.
To this the doctor said of usurers that one spoke now in Saxony:
Who says that usury is a sin. The hefft no money, dat gläube fri.
But I, D. L., say against it:
Who saws, that usury no sin si. Die hefft kein GOtt, dat gläub nur fri.
Then said D. Luther said, "I would like to prevent avarice and usury and even eradicate them, but I am not able to do so; but this I would like to prevent, so that avarice and usury do not become rife. In the same way, I would gladly control stealing, adultery and fornication, so that they would not be used, and so that such sins and vices would not become rampant and rule. For we preachers must oppose sins and punish them severely, otherwise we must hear the curse that is written in Isaiah Cap. 5, 20: Vae vobis, qui malum dicitis bonum. I must do like my cousin Fabian Kaufmann, who went for a walk in Speck0 and wanted to sleep inside: now he comes to a place where there was a whole nest full of snakes lying in a heap. When the snakes came to him, he drew his sword and struck under them, cutting off the head of one and the tail of the other, thus destroying the nest. So I cannot prevent a snake from entering my garden, but if I come across it, I slay it and pin it to a fence; therefore I can prevent it from making a nest inside. 2) Neither can I hinder the vices, that they should not be, but that they should not rule and reign in me, and be changed into morals, and even become prevalent. Rom. 6, 12. For the pagan Seneca says: Deest remedii locus, ubi ea, quae vitia fuerunt, in mores abeunt.
1) A copse near Wittenberg, cf. Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. X, col. 686.
2) Cf. Appendix § 19; also Walch, old edition, Vol. XIV, 395, § 2.
41. world before the flood, as it was. (Cordatus No. 1407.)
The world before the flood was very learned because of its long experience, but also the godlessness was very great, therefore it also came to ruin. But now we have to die soon and we are not allowed to come to a greater knowledge than is necessary to feed the belly.
The world does not want Christ as God.
The world does not want the corporeal God, who is born, lives, is crucified, much less the one who reproves sins; to him they cry: Death, death. On the other hand, it seeks and worships the incorporeal God with great effort and honors him with great cost.
43 The world's likeness.
It reminds me of the world as of a dilapidated house: David and the prophets are rafters, Christ is the pillar in the middle of the house, which holds it all.
44. world seeks immortality from its pride.
D. M. Luther spoke of the world's hope. Because all people feel and recognize, even see, that they must die and pass away, everyone seeks immortality here on earth, so that he may be remembered forever. At one time, great kings, princes and lords sought it by erecting great marble pillars and very high pyramids, buildings and pillars, arranged in squares, and always the higher the more pointed, so that they thought they would become immortal, as they do now with great churches, magnificent, splendid houses and buildings. Warriors chase and strive for great honors and praise with victories and glorious victories. Scholars seek an eternal name by writing books, as we see now in our time. But they do not look to the eternal, imperishable honor and eternity of God. Alas, we are poor people.
45. world always decreases the longer.
(Lauterbach, Jan. 2, 1538, p. 2.)
Dear God, how has the world declined from the time when the imperial rights were given to the people?
Since a maiden of twelve years of age was marriageable and a boy of fourteen years of age was considered manable. Now they are much too weak in such years. The world and people's strength is always going down, it is running out.
46. tongue people.
(Here 7 lines are omitted because composed of Cap. 3, ß 90 and Cap. 48, § 38.)
(The following at Cordatus No. 1274.)
Weeds grow soon, so the girls grow faster than the boys.
47. common state of the best.
To be and live in a public state, which God has appointed, is the most secure, because Christ also lived and walked in a public state among people. And warn His own, when He says Matth. 24, 26: "If they say, Behold, He is in the wilderness; go not out; or, In chambers; believe it not." And in such corners they have led the most shameful boyish life. Among people in public, one must be civil and honest, and shy away from God and man.
48. how to grow old.
If you want to grow old, grow old soon, keep your collar warm, don't fill your bowels too visibly.
Don't get too close to the Grethen, So you'll slowly turn gray.
49. man's body.
(Cordatus No. 1137 and No. 719.)
The human body is a shameful sack of lye, through which nothing else flows but evil sweat, urine, saliva and more rivers than it has limbs. I experience this on my leg, which I recently opened again by rubbing, and as if from paradise, four rivers began to burst out.
When he took his little Martin, he said: "Oh, that God can put such fine black eyes into a piece of meat from a stinking sack. It reminds me just now, as if I took
1) puts fine eyes into it; and to make nose, mouth, hands and feet out of a piece of flesh in the womb is also an art.
50. man cannot comprehend God's gifts.
(Cordatus No. 416.)
The very great gifts and goods of God cannot be grasped by the human heart, therefore the shepherds Luc. 2, are dismayed; so also we are often dismayed when God opposes us in the most friendly way.
The world's judgment of the ministers of the gospel.
To restore and comfort a despondent and afflicted conscience is much more than having many kingdoms. But the world does not respect it, even despises it; it calls us rebels, disturbers of peace and blasphemers, who pervert and change the doctrine. Verily it will prophesy itself, though we see it with great sorrow of heart. So the Jews also say of Christ, John 11:48: "If we let him go, the Romans will come and take away our land and our people" etc. But when they had killed Christ, they did not come? Yes, I mean, they came and made a mess of them. So the despisers and enemies of the word will destroy the peace and turn Germany around, so that it will go over and over and lie in ashes, when we are now carried away. So they want to have it.
The shape of the world and the churches.
(Contained in Cap. 20, § 18.)
The world grows weary of God's works.
(Contained in Cap. 9, § 2, end of first paragraph.)
The world does not like the godly.
(Contained in Cap. 60, § 7.)
1) Perhaps from Plunze, blood sausage. (Wrampelmeyer.)
The world begrudges the Christians their food and would like to have all the goods for themselves.
Doctor Luther once said: "If a poor man had a good field or meadow, those of the nobility would soon begrudge it to him, seeking to overtake him. So did the centauri of the king of Gerar, Abimelech's court, do to Isaac the pious patriarch: for when they saw that Isaac had gotten a hundredfold fruit of the field which the king had let him, they came quickly, and stirred up the king against him, that he took Isaac's field again. Gen. 26: For they thought: The field bears much, therefore it must be ours: it is a fruitful land, we are nearer to it than he. Why did we rent it to Isaac? We would rather have it ourselves. They think that if they get the land back, they will soon become rich. He had a hen that laid a golden egg for him every day, and he thought, "There will be a great treasure in that hen, and she will have a golden ovary. So he thought he would get rich all at once, and strangled the hen, and took out the stick, and found nothing. Sic et nostri Principes jam nihil aliud agunt, quam ut fiant maledicti a Deo. They also push Isaac out to the land, but they do not know that Benedictio Dei is with him, and that they find maledicti.
The world, especially Germany, certain punishment.
(Lauterbach, Sept. 15, 1538, p. 131.)
On the 13th Sunday after Trinity, September 15, he gave a very serious exhortation to prayer against the future plagues of Germany from the Turks, the Pope and the mobs, which we caused by our impenitence. Therefore the punishment must come. God turn the evil! For the whole world is nothing else but an inverted decalogue, vain contempt [of God], vain blasphemy, vain disobedience, fornication, courtiers, thieves, is almost ripe for the slaughter: so the devil does not celebrate through the Turk, the Pabst and the Rotten.
57. what to consider in official capacity.
If I did not let myself get angry from the bottom of my heart for the sake of the man who died for me, the world would not be able to give me enough money to write a book or to interpret something in the Bible. I want to have my work unrewarded by the world, it is too small and poor for that: I have never asked my lord in Saxony for a penny, because I have lived here.
58. a different.
(Cordatus No. 1266.)
All wickedness has now come together in one heap. This is seen in lending, because many, provoked by the gospel, would like to lend, but there is no one to give back. It is like borrowing to him, like finding. I have been much deceived by such boys. It is to lend and to give back.
59. the world's folly.
(Cordatus No. 1278.)
Great is the folly of men who value gems not according to their goodness [a virtute], but according to their estimation. A turquoise for three hundred guilders, which has no proven value. Therefore, Claus Fool answered the prince who asked him, since he bought a gemstone, how much he valued it: As much as a rich fool may respect and pay for it.
The world became more and more angry after the gospel came to light again and was preached.
(Cordatus No. 1123.)
It is a wonderful thing and full of awe that the world has become worse and worse as often as the gospel has had to be preached again. All spiritual freedom of Christ they draw on carnal lust. Therefore, the kingdom of the devil and the pope is the best for the world in outward things, because the world wants to be ruled with laws, with superstition, with lies, with tyranny, and through the doctrine of grace it only gets worse, because it does not believe that there is another, future life after this one. The
proved the one who, when he was dying, threw away his will written on paper, on which only these words were read: I have robbed when I could, you also rob when you can. [Dum potui, rapui; rapiatis, quando potestis.]
61. what the world is.
(The first paragraph in Cordatus No. 1419. The following in Cordatus No. 1454 and No. 1621).
1) The world is an assembly of people who receive all the benefits of God with ingratitude. He who has not come to know the world, let him go to a monastery. 2)
The world did not sit faith, love, the cross. It does not grasp faith, therefore it does not practice love, through which faith is active. It also cannot want to suffer the cross, through which faith is practiced and increased.
Since faith is trust in God, who is merciful in His essence, it is frightening that the world despises it and thinks that faith is only an opinion of God, who is angry and demands only justice. And, just as the world does not want faith, it also does not want that with which faith, love and the cross have to do [objecta], namely God, the neighbor, the adversary. Because it considers God an enemy, it looks at no one but itself, and considers the friend an adversary. Therefore, the world cannot understand the first commandment of God and the commandment of the neighbor, but inevitably hates God and what is His, the Word and His saints. It loves itself and its own in all things, it seeks the devil and the honor of the flesh and its peace.
Nothing happens to thank the world.
(Cordatus No. 1352.)
One can never do right to the world nor preach. When the Pabstacy is preached, the conscience is violated; but when you preach Christ, you cause offense.
1) Regarding the first paragraph, cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol: XI, 894, § 25.
2) There he will come to know the ingratitude of the world.
by the flesh and the papacy; but if you preach the flesh, you offend Christ. The world remains the world, and if Christ cannot help it, we will leave it at that. But who is it that believes this? It is not that they want to believe, but that they see.
63. imitate what it is.
(Cordatus No. 1353.)
Imitation is a devilish and human thing, therefore it is simply harmful or at least useless. Thus, heretics imitate the word of God, hypocrites imitate the works of faith, idolaters imitate ceremonies, tyrants and reckless people imitate war, fools imitate the government, clumsy people imitate the crafts, asses imitate the arts. Therefore, when God sets up his word, works, arts etc. in the world, he also makes monkeys, and the [great multitude follows the monkeys. But it is God alone who sustains the remaining examples [prototypias]. Thus is the world from the beginning.
64. no punishment helps in the world.
The world is not improved by any punishment, it does not change, it balks and barks against it. As the farmers say when the Elbe has run out and drowned and ruined everything in the field: "If you have drowned my grain, you have not drowned my thalers. Well, God can lend you a good pittance, but after that he comes and demands a serious reckoning, so that you keep neither skin nor hair. For such prideful presumption has never gone unpunished.
The world does not respect God's gifts and works.
(Here 21 lines are omitted because contained in Cap. 2, § 49.)
(Cordatus No. 434.)
If God did not give His blessings to the earth for only one year, how great would be the lamentation among the people! But now, since He gives everything abundantly, they are very ungrateful.
3) The year 1531 was very fruitful.
The world does not do anything for free.
The world is so selfish that it does nothing for nothing, but wants to have everything rewarded. As this fable indicates, D. Martinus said: One rented his donkey to another and walked beside him; but he sat on it, because the sun shone so hot and stung him, he asked the master [of the donkey], he wanted to sit on it, and also let him walk a little in the shade, but he would not and said: He had rented him the donkey to ride, and not the shade of it, the same he should pay him specially, because he wanted to have it. This fable is a conterfection and a picture of the bet, which does nothing in vain, and does not want to give or grant the shadow.
How the world rewards and rewards good deeds.
(Lauterbach, Apr. 5, 1538, p. 57.)
Philip told an excellent story of ingratitude in the chariot. A farmer was walking around and being tired, he rested beside a cave. In it a snake was hidden and enclosed, calling him and asking him to free it. If it would be freed, it wanted to give him the best reward and thanks on earth. When the stone was rolled away and the snake was freed, it wanted to kill the farmer, saying that this was the way of the world against its benefactors. But since he expected a greater reward, he appealed to a court of law; the animal which first met them was to decide the matter. There a horse was brought, old and worn out, which should be killed. It answered: "I'm doing fine. Now that I've pulled my heart out, they want to flay me and beat me to death. Then an old dog, which had been driven away, complained about its master in the same way. He demanded a third judge. They met a little fox, who said, because he was clever, "I must see how the liberation happened. And to him were given all the fowls [of the farmer] price, if he were delivered [from the serpent]. The fox went into the cave with the snake and immediately jumped back. The farmer put the stone in front of it again, but when the little fox came by night to fetch the chickens, it was killed by the
wife and the servant were killed. Luther answered: This is a picture of the world. Whoever is helped from the gallows brings one up. If I had no example, it would be Christ, who delivered the whole world from hell, and he is crucified by his people. 1)
How grateful the world is for God's benefits.
(Lauterbach, Aug. 2, 1538, p. 106.)
After that, they told about the people's blasphemies and grumbling because it rained in the harvest and they had been punished with drought before. He replied: "So God must be thanked, and if God had not spared the world because of a few believers, it would have long perished. It must also have hurt the pious King Solomon very much when he wanted to rest in his old age and handed over the government to his sons, that they loved gifts and gold more than justice.
The world soon forgets God's benefits and despises His word.
(Lauterbach, Aug. 27, 1538, p. 122.)
On August 27, Luther lamented the future misfortune of Germany because of the contempt for God and the Word, and because of the wickedness that follows from it. For as soon as people begin to fall away from God, which is the origin of all hope, as Jesus laments in Sirach Cap. 10, all sins go by force, as we, unfortunately, see today that the race has become so insolent in a short time, provoking the wrath of God. This is what happened to the inhabitants of Sodom, who, while Abraham, the hero who freed them from four kings, was still alive, forgot about God's benefits and even despised Abraham, who taught them. Then religion, worldly rule and good manners also perished and the plague soon followed; although the Jews belittle the sins of the Sodomites, namely that they had killed a very benevolent girl, who gave alms, in an outrageous way. But the
1) Cf. Phädrus, lüd. IV, cad. 16. - The same fable is told by Mathesius, St. Louis edition, p. 164 f.
The holy fathers have impressed this on their descendants by means of an image, so that this may be a prophetic word over all despisers. For the gospel is the girl; it promises the help of grace to all people. But, alas, the world persecutes the gospel to the utmost. That is why the plagues will follow. God help us.
The world is full of hypocrites and blasphemers, of which there are many.
i) Anno 38, the 21st of September, D. Martin said much of the world's wickedness and the same's various different pieces and pitfalls, Colax, Sycophanta, Cacoethes, which sins
and vices are almost one and the same, only that one goes on top of the other, just as one climbs higher and higher from one step to the next. Colax, I think, is called Gnatho in the Terentio, a scratcher of ears, a flatterer, a licker of plates, who speaks and does what one likes to hear and have for the sake of one's stomach; and is still a human sin, who finally thinks to do harm to others with it. But is such a hypocrite, betrayer and slanderer, who wants to earn the gray skirt. And this sin is more diabolical than human. Gnatho belongs to the comedies, Sycophanta to the tragedies. Phor-
mio in Terentio is a pious person who has almost none of the two vices. Cacoethes, a villain who knowingly and wantonly does evil.
The world cannot be reformed.
(In Kummer x. 411b. ff. [Lauterbach p. 70.])
Lament over the world because of the future. - The great misfortune threatening the world, he indicated almost with sobs, because it would be so evil and incorrigible that it could not suffer any discipline and punishment. And there is already a very great movement in the world by the revealed word. It cracks very much, hope it will break by the last day which we expect. For all vices are now taken for [good] morals, and
1) Another relation of K 70 of the 37th Cap. where the 6th November 1538 is given by Lauterbach. Cf. also Cap. 39, § 2.
do not want to be reprimanded. Therefore we pray: Thy kingdom come, deliver us from evil, though things are more polite and better now than they were twenty years ago. There are now much finer people and also much finer schools where young people are taught. We have, praise God, new universities that have accepted the Word of God. So there are many fine particular schools that are well suited. Zwickau, Torgau, Wittenberg, Deventer, Goldberg are fine particular schools, which are almost equal to universities. The growth of the schools is a fruit of the Word and they are teaching institutions of the churches. If these are promoted, then ]it shall, if God wills, stand much more courteously. And I think that the universities were first invented by the Saracens, as there is a famous school in Alkair [Cairo], which was imitated by our emperors. The monasteries are the old schools.
The world does not want and cannot stand the pure word of God.
The philosophers and scholars among the pagans have had innumerable speculations, thoughts and opinions about God, about the soul, about eternal life, but they have all been doubtful and uncertain, without God's word. Now, because God has given us His dear Word pure and unadulterated, we despise it, according to the saying: Malum, malum dicit omnis possessor: When one has a thing, no matter how good it is, one gets tired of it and does not respect it. Now when the word comes away, we will seek foolish works and deal with self-chosen devotion and superstition of human thoughts and conceit; thus we must become wise with our harm.
73. world remains world.
There was lamentation about the last terrible time, which could neither be governed by laws nor punishments. Martin said: "The world remains the world, which neither loves nor suffers justice, but is governed by God through a few heroes and excellent people. As a boy of twelve tends a hundred oxen in the pasture, so the race is also governed supernaturally.
The world, especially our ingratitude, will help the papacy out again.
D. M. Luther pleaded diligently for the course of the pure doctrine of the Gospel, and against heresy and the papacy. For if the pope were to come back into power, he would duplicate his tyranny and make it illegal. As he did after the Costnitz Conciliar, he has honestly smelled himself for the hundred years since he was deposed, and has introduced very ungodly profanation and abominations. But I am not so much afraid of the pope and the tyrant as of our ingratitude and contempt for the word that would help the pope back into the saddle. If this happens, I hope that Judgment Day will soon follow.
75. world becomes the longer the more annoying.
Claus Bildenhauer said to D. Martin that he would almost become a child again; then the doctor said: "It is the fault of the time, you and I have eaten too many Easter eggs, it is over with us. When I think of my companions who grew up with me, they are very thin and almost all gone. For now every twenty years a new world is created. Then Bildenhauer said that he remembered that four Electors had ruled in Saxony, and what a fine time it had been then, when Duke Albrecht and Ernst had ruled with each other, and both had stayed together with two wives in Torgau. Thereupon spoke D. Martinus said: "At that time there were pious people, now it is the devil that no one may trust the other. The princes are very tyrannical and use force.
Of the ingratitude of the people.
Just as the Israelites did to Mosiah, who led them out of Egypt, so do we now, who have been led out of the prison and house of service of the Antichrist in Rome. But he prayed for them. I pray that the boys will be punished.
Aristotle, the pagan, tells of several causes why one may be justly angry, one of which is ingratitude. Scipio, the noble hero of Rome, was able to
.suffer, but others it makes no sense. God's patience and wrath are both great. And just as God spoke to Moses verbally, as one good friend to another; so He also speaks to us verbally through the preachers, as Christ says Matt. 10:20: "It is not you who speak, but your Father's Spirit who speaks through you." We despise the same.
The world's presumption and certainty and Epicurians.
(Lauterbach, Jan. 1, 1538. p. 1.)
On January 1, in the year of the Lord 38, he sharply examined M. G. Karg, who had been summoned to the sacristy, because he had cursed himself in a whimsical presumption in a letter to his best friend: If Christ offered him the kingdom of heaven, he would not accept it at this hour, because he did not want to keep it with Luther in the article. Since this letter had come before the Elector through his friend, it was then handed over to D. L. with the strictest order that he should be imprisoned in the castle; but D. L. examined him beforehand in the sacristy. Then the quaestor took him and put him in prison against all the privileges of the university. After that, he was released from prison on the first of February and was imprisoned in his room by intercession. Luther's. At home the doctor sighed and said: "How great is the presumption and certainty of the world! What is only a little something dares to offend Christ and to lift its foot against Him. It will get even better, epicurism will arise with force, because the world, the despiser of the Word of God, is nothing but a preparation for epicurism before the last day, who believes neither in God nor in another life. Is it not terrible that among the people of God there are such epicurists? not only in private and hidden, but also publicly in office, in glory,
1) Interrogation of M. Georg Karg in the Sacristy in the presence of D. Jonas, D. Cruciger and Melanchthon. Cf. Luther's letter to the Elector about this matter, dated Jan. 4, 1538, in Walch, old edition XXI, 410, where Rörer is not mentioned, nor in Lauterbach.
like the Sadducees were among the Jews, ruling in religion and yet believing nothing of the future life and also teaching so. Such people are our papists today, who know the Scriptures and yet consider them a dream. The bishop of Mainz says and does what he wants. Leipzig is drowned in such avarice that they take 45 florins a year out of 100 florins under the pretense of piety. For that must be love, that one lends 100 florins. Justice is that one gives 45 guilders for it. In ten years, 100 florins carry 1000, isn't that epicurism? Leipzig is drowned deeper in the sea of avarice than the mountains of Arabia under the flood of sin, which lay only fifteen cubits under the floods, but Leipzig lies fifteen miles under the floods of avarice. So are all the others. Ah, evil times are yet to come. Our Epicureans are worse than the Cardinals of Italy, who said: We want to let others be pious, even if we ourselves do not want to.
The world's impiety and ingratitude.
God entices us with promises, both in the Law and the Gospel, so that we "may hear His word; but the world and the wicked not only do not respect it, but also despise it and persecute it. Therefore they are justly condemned, and it serves them right that they should become beggars, and also here temporally be put to shame.
(Here 15 lines are omitted because contained in Cap. 15, § 19, para. 2.)
79. canons are all epicureans.
The canons of Würzburg, Mainz and Cologne have the best days, live in idleness, feasting and damming, have everything in stock, without any worries, what their heart desires, and then go happily to heaven, where it sizzles. The bishops do not have it so good, because they are in the regiment and have to do to some extent with the trades.
80th Des Epicurismi Regiment.
(Lauterbach, Dec. 12, 1538, p. 190.)
Eck is a man of great gifts and has a good memory, but because this very
impudent man has been in Rome for some time, he has learned there many good examples of the Epicurean life, that he asks neither for the papacy nor for the Gospel. Dear God, twenty years ago I would not have thought that even now there should be Epicureans in the Christian Church, since almost all Romanists are drowned in the Epicurean life, caring neither for God nor for a good conscience. These are horrible times. I used to think that the Epicurean sect had died out long ago, but it still flourishes, because Epicurism has set its intention on this life, leads people from the eternal to the temporal. Such people were Pomponius Atticus, Scipio and other very wise people, in whom God shows the foolishness of human reason, although Cicero, in his letter to Octavius, has indicated his opinion of eternity. Nevertheless, there was a high intellect in Cicero, who concluded from reason that it was safer to surrender to the opinion that there is an eternal life after this than that everything is temporal and transitory; and it is also certainly true that it is much more certain according to reason that one should surrender to Christianity than to Epicurism. For if a man is deceived by the delusion of Epicurus, he has lost the eternal for the temporal. But if Christianity deceives him (which is impossible), he has lost only the temporal for the eternal. God protect us all from this opinion, in which the whole world now walks.
81. a different from the epicurismo.
(Kummer p. 403. [Lauterbach, p. 205.] May 26, 1541.)
After that, people complained about the epicurism of our time, where noblemen, burghers and peasants care neither about God nor about eternity. Luther answered: "Do not be surprised by this in the last times; consider how it happened in the time of Christ in the people of the Most Holy God, when besides the Pharisees there were also Sadducees in the regiment, good fellows who believed nothing.
82. of epicurean people.
D. Martin Luthern was told over tables in Eisleben that a nobleman, C. von
Seckendorf was supposed to have said in a convivium: If God would let him have his wealth and pleasure, that he might live a thousand years and do all his will, then he would gladly leave his heaven to our Lord God. Then Doctor Martin Luther said: "That was a real pig, and they are nothing but trotters.
Also D. Martinus said that D. Henning Goede, a lawyer and cathedral provost at Wittenberg, had not known much about our Lord God, for he, D. Luther, had come to him when he was sick 'lying on the ground without a bed and had only his hood covered over him; then he had asked him: What he was doing well? He answered that he was sick, and the doctor began to talk to him and said: Dear Doctor, you are a weak man, you should now also reconcile yourself with our Lord God, and it would be your best that you provide yourself with the reverend sacrament, so that you would be ready when God would command you. Then D. Henning would have answered: "Well, there is no need yet, God will not act so Swissly on me, and thus hasten me. But D. Luther said that it would have happened to him right away, as he had told him. For the next day his speech would have slipped, and he would have died soon after; so he went there, and did not know much about God. And the doctor then said that we should always be ready and prepared when God knocked and demanded of us that we be sent to take a Christian farewell from this world.
After this, Doctor Luther spoke of the great power of the devil and gave this simile: That, just as a wild horse or stallion cannot get rid of a hamster when it comes to its throat, but the small angry animal, the hamster, strangles the great horse, be it as joyful, wild or biting as it likes; item, just as the lynx kills a deer when it jumps on its head and sits between its horns, eating out its brains, or grabs it by the throat and bites it in two: So is Satan; if he possesses a man, he can be attacked by a man.
He leads man into despair and harms his body and soul; as St. Peter says of him in his first epistle, Cap. 5:8, that he "goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Therefore, one should pray daily and resist him with faith and prayer.
(This paragraph in Kummer x. 288 d. [Lauterbach, p. 74, note.))
The devil has no better way to defeat us than by leading us from the word to the spirit. I have observed this as a miracle in the Sacramentans, because they do not look at the word. They do not look at the word, but only at the things that are added to the word. They see bread and wine and water. But one should stay with the word and not concede the spirit to the people. The sacramentarians see only bread and wine and water, not the word. So they see only the raised serpent, not the word. Gen. 21. I am reminded of the devil as of a bailiff: he strangles everything he sows, but if he has a bird that pleases him, he lets it live, so that it sings what it wants. 1)
83. which pave the way to epicurismo.
Oh dear Lord God, how terrible, horrible and dangerous the future will be! Lyra's prophecy moves me very much and goes not a little to my heart, because it belongs to our time, when he writes: Detecto Antichristo, erunt homines carnales, dicentes, nullum esse Deum; that is: When now the wickedness of Antichrist is revealed, then the world will fall into great courage, so that it will think that there is no God. Then the antinomians and lawbreakers will start their work, they will remove all fear, they will make people even sure that they do not respect their sin. If sin is not respected, Christ is not respected either, because he came for the sake of sinners to make them blessed. And the strong do not need a physician, but the sick, as he himself says Matth. 9, 12. 13.
In contrast, the Sophists and Cano-
1) Cf. the relation of Cordatus Cap. 24, § 59.
nist hard on their ungodly statutes and traditions and want to weigh down the consciences with them. Dear God, the greater Your goodness is, the greater is the wickedness of the world.
(The following contained in Cap. 66, § 50; therefore omitted).
84. a different.
Anno 30, June 16, a student at Wittenberg, who had written many ungodly questions in his book, wanted to turn the Scriptures according to his head and almost cause a new epicurism, pretending that there were neither good nor evil angels, and many horrible things about the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of the dead etc. The professors punished him severely for this and denounced it to D. Martino, who said with a sigh: "Dear Lord God, what will become of this? Oh how terrible times we will have! The authorities should severely punish such epicureans, like other public offenders.
85. the world security.
In 39, February 2, St. Martin spoke a lot about the shameful, harmful security of the world, so that even the godly would be secure, not feeling nor respecting their sin, misery and hardship in which they are stuck. Therefore, it is written in church history about a pious young boy who boasted how well he was doing, without any temptation; then an old hermit said to him: "It is a gift of God, but still everyone should be plagued by his sins and feel them, or else it would be a bad sign. For everyone likes to have good days, to which no one is hostile: but if he is God-fearing, he will also have and feel his temptations of the flesh, as St. Paul complains Rom. 7, 14. ff.
The people's safety and diligence in errors.
(Contained in Cap. 1, § 13, sub. 2.)
87. the Epicurer thoughts.
(Contained in Cap. 2, § 114.)
The world's goods and treasures.
The Fuggers can, said D. Martinus, in a hurry raise a ton of gold five or six, which the emperor is not able. N. Fugger has left at 18 tons of gold. It is said that the Fuggers and Welsers once lent the emperor twelve tons of gold in the war before Padua. Augsburg is able to raise thirty tons of gold in three weeks; the emperor cannot.
And the doctor said: That a bishop of Brixen once died in Rome, who had also been a cardinal and very rich, and when he had been dead, no money had been found with him, but only a slip of paper a finger long, which was stuck in his sleeve. When Pope Julius received the same note, he soon thought it was a money note, and soon sent for the Fugger Factor in Rome, and asked him if he did not know the writing? He said: Yes, it was the debt that the Fugger and his company owed to the Cardinal, and made three times a hundred thousand florins. The pope asked, "If he could pay him such money? Fugger's servant said: "Every hour. Then the pope summoned the cardinal from France and England and asked, "Could your king also lay three tons of gold in one hour? They said, "No." Then he said, "A citizen of Augsburg can do that. And the pope Julius received the same money.
The doctor also said that the Fugger in Augsburg should have given the estimate once, and he would have given the answer: He did not know how much he had or how rich he was, so he could not give the estimate. For he had his money in the whole world, in Turkey, Greece, in Alexandria, in France, Portugal, England, in Poland and everywhere; however, he wanted to give the estimate of what he had in Augsburg.
Mr. Doctox also said that he had heard of someone who said that he had received a sheet of cards from the Emperor Maximiliano, on which few words had been written, with which he had come to the Fugger in Augsburg, who had given him thereon
He said that he had given him six thousand guilders, which he would have put in his coat and carried with him, so that his servants would not have noticed it. But the doctor said: He would have liked to believe that with the sheet of cards, because in former times small letters would have been written, and great faith would have been held. But to lead the money, so that it would not be noticed, seemed to him a little too mildly spoken.
The world's stinginess.
(Cordatus No. 1482. 1483.)
When Pommer returned from the places to which he had been called, he brought a hundred florins as a gift to the doctor, because he would have deserved them, since he had served in his [Bugenhagen's] office. He did not want to accept it, and since they argued with each other and Pommer said that many of the people would otherwise say that he was ungrateful, the doctor replied: "For their sake I will not take it, because they would judge Pommern, who is righteous, but they are the most ungrateful of all. For what do they give me, the Pomeranian and others? Nor do they want to burn themselves white.
There is such scratching and clawing under the gospel that [it] is a shame. I must preach once and touch them, for they make it too rough, so I must make it rough. For if preachers do not punish, evil customs become habits; from these laws and rights are made by evil customs. Therefore preach, whoever can, against that exceedingly ungodly mischief.
90. stinginess is a sign of death: money and goods should not be relied upon.
(Cordatus No. 1022.)
What has money, does not get away, what we see now at the richest rulers. Therefore, away with greed! And when princes have very great treasures, they rely on them completely and perish through them. Since Doctor Hennig [Göde] counted the sausages in the fire wall, he soon died, and if I took care of building, malting, cooking, I would soon die.
91. the parish priests and preachers avarice.
(Cordatus No. 1090.)
My dear priests also begin to be stingy, always wanting to give a penny or two more than other people, since it behooves them to set a good example for the farmers by going down from such a high price. So it is a bad profit, so that they make themselves bad consciences and give bad examples. Fie on you, you miser.
92: The virtues of Mammon.
Mammon has two virtues: the first is that he makes us safe when things go well, and live without fear of God. The other is that in times of trouble, when things go badly, he teaches us to tempt God, to flee from God, and to seek a foreign god.
93: Pabst's stinginess.
(Lauterbach, Feb. 2, 1538, p. 19. The last paragraph, Aug. 4, 1538. p. 107.)
Pabst's avarice has been the greatest and most insolent, and the devil has chosen Rome for him. That is why the ancients said: Roma radix omnium malorum avaritia. [The first four letters form the word Roma.
of all evil]. 1) And I found this verse in a very old book:
Versus amor Mundi Caput est et Bestia Terrae. 2)
For it would be an abominable handling of avarice, to snatch everything to oneself without the work of hands, without preaching, without the service of the church, but only with superstition and selling of their works. Hence Peter describes their avarice in the strongest terms [2 Pet. 2:14.], "They have a heart smitten with avarice." I believe that no one can recognize the nature of avarice unless he knows Rome, for all other deceptions, frauds, avarices are nothing against the Roman superstition. Therefore, at the Diet in Worms, the
1) Some lines of this also in Cordatus No. 31).
2) If the word amor is reversed, it is called Roraa.
His Imperial Majesty wanted to abolish it, or they wanted to abolish it. There, they were waiting for my writing "To the German Nobility," which was made known to me by Doctor Wick. At that time, the course of the Gospel began very well, but the three sects, Carlstadt, Münzer and the Anabaptists, hindered it very much. Nevertheless, God promoted it and abolished it through me, without my doing. There is truly a great power of the papacy over all kings and rulers, and I have put this down in the one booklet "Against the Ban". I did not intend to write this booklet against the papacy, but against the abuse. But they were soon frightened, because their conscience accused them.
Luther was told about the tenacity of a very dirty miser who denied his fortune to his own body. He answered: He collects treasures, and does not know for whom? Let us eat and drink as we please, and thank God for His bounty. Others will eat after us.
94. stinginess prevents God's blessing.
(Lauterbach, Aug. 5, 1538, p. 110.)
On that day came his brother Jacob Luther and M. Mich. Cölius and complained a lot about Count Albrecht [of Mansfeld] that he was the ruin of his people. Luther said: "I am sorry that you have to suffer so much because of his wickedness, so that God's blessing is hindered. [For when God gives common blessings,] as with mines, and a person wants to appropriate it and take God captive, God flees with His blessings. He wants to be freely uncaptured in His gifts.
The first is that the monasteries and ecclesiastical estates should be seized by princes and lords.
Doctor Luther once said about the table that a true proverb was: "That the goods of the church are wealthy goods, and that the goods of the church do not prosper. And that is what one has from experience, that those who have drawn spiritual goods to themselves end up impoverished and become beggars.
And thereupon he said: Burkhard Hund, Elector Hansen of Saxony, would have said: We of the nobility have drawn the monastery estates under our manors; now the monastery estates have eaten and consumed our manors, so that we have neither monastery estates nor manors anymore. And Doctor Luther told a nice fable about this and said: "Once upon a time, an eagle made friends with a fox, and they agreed to live together. When the fox had made all friendship with the eagle, he had his young in our tree, where the eagle had his young eagles. But the friendship did not last long, for as soon as the eagle did not have food to bring to his young, and the fox was not with his young, the eagle flew down and took the fox's young, and led them into his nest, and let them eat the young eagles. When the fox returned, he saw that his young had been taken away, so he complained to the supreme god Jovi that he wanted to avenge Jus violati hospitii and punish this injuriam. Not long after, when the eagle again had nothing to feed his young, he saw that in a place in the field they sacrificed to Jovi. Therefore he flew there and quickly took a roast from the altar, and brought it to the young eagles in the nest, and flew away again and wanted to get more food. But a glowing coal was left on the roast; when it fell into the nest, it set the nest on fire, and when the young eagles could not fly, they burned with the nest and fell to the earth. And Doctor Luther then said: "That is what happens to those who seize spiritual goods, which are given for God's honor and for the preservation of the ministry of preaching and the service of God: they must lose their nest and young, that is, their manors and other worldly goods, and also suffer harm to body and soul.
At another time, Doctor Luther said: "That the spiritual goods have eagle feathers of a kind and nature; for where they are put with other feathers, they devour and consume them. Thus, if the spiritual goods are placed per fas et nefas among other goods
If the two are mixed together, they also consume them, so that one of them ends up with nothing at all.
There was one in Wittenberg, named Severus, who had been preceptor of the Roman king Ferdinandi's sons, who went to Doctor Luther's table. He had said about Doctor Luther's table: There had been a dog in Linz, which had been used to fetch meat from the meat banks in a basket. But when other dogs came to him and wanted to take the meat, he put down the basket and bit his way through them. If they had overpowered him, he would have fallen into the basket with his mouth first and caught a piece of meat, so that he would also get some of it. Then said D. Luther said: "This is exactly what our emperor Carl is doing now; after he has long defended the ecclesiastical goods, and now sees that every prince is seizing the monasteries and convents, he is now also seizing the bishoprics; as he recently seized the bishoprics of Utrecht and Liège, so that he might also get partem de tunica Christi.
96. avarice disrupts and devastates the country and its people.
(Lauterbach, Oct. 2 and 7, 1538, p. 140 f.)
On October 2, he lamented the very miserable confusion of the worldly regime due to the devilish avarice, which hindered all worldly justice, obligations, orders and contracts; everyone was looking to accumulate a lot of money. 1) The stingy do not esteem grain and food as highly as money, which they cannot eat. The world is still all about money, as if soul and body depended on it. God and the neighbor are despised, mammon is served. Dear, look at our times, how the very stingy noblemen, burghers and peasants trample religion underfoot, chase away the preachers by great hunger. If they do not want to build our Lord God's house, their house will fall apart again, as the prophets Haggai and Malachi have said to their despisers.
1) Here in the manuscript is probably interpung incorrectly; the punctum should be after pecuniae.
They were threatened by those who did not want to give anything for worship; therefore God would not give them anything, but they would perish through famine and war. Look at the passages of the prophets there; will it not be the same in our time? There will come terrible times, almost worse than over Sodom etc.
On October 7, I [Lauterbach] was forced to go to Grünau [Grunnaw] to fetch D. Martin home, who was tied up there by the stone of D. Jonas. Jonas, who was suffering from a severe seizure, and said to Jonas: You must be patient and already live according to the laws, for such are the cases of the world, as Terence (Adelph. IV, 8, 21.) says, "as if we played with dice"; we want to move to joys, so we come to suffering.
97. from a stingy farmer.
(Lauterbach, Oct. 23, 1538, p. 156.)
It was reported in letters that a rich farmer had recently brought his grain to the city for sale; but since no one wanted to buy it at his price, he is said to have said: I don't want to give it closer, I would rather go home and let the mice eat it. When he had done this, such a large number of mice suddenly gathered in his house that they gnawed all his grain with a great noise. When he fled from his house to his field, he also found his seeds freed and destroyed by the mice; the others were unharmed. To this Luther said: If this is true, it is a certain sign of God's punishment, but unfortunately! of the ungrateful world a sign of wrath.
98. D. M. L. Admonition and warning against avarice.
In the year 39, the Lord was very angry and vehement against the stinginess of the peasants, who throw away the grain and leave it lying around until it becomes expensive: that, praise God, he said, three peasants have hanged themselves all ready. Such fellows, who rob and toil the whole land, are worthy of such punishment. For this theurge is a wanton theurge. God
There would still have been enough, it also still grows -all days; only that the devil possessed us, to make wanton theurge, become murderers and thieves of our neighbor. For Christ will say in that day, "I was hungry, and you did not feed me," Matt. 25:42. Only do not think that you will escape punishment by selling the grain at such a high price, for you are a cause of the poor man's death and destruction: the devil will lead you away. Therefore, those who fear God and trust in Him, pray for daily bread and against these robbers, so that they may be disgraced or reformed.
That princes and lords may become stingy, and take to themselves all merchandise and food.
It is said that in some places in the papacy it was customary to paint the first letters of the three holy kings, C. M. B., which signify their names, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, over the doors of the holy three kings' eves: over these three letters C. M. B. one used to paint a cross. This should mean that the devil should have no power or authority in these places. When a stranger saw this in one place and did not know what the cross and the three letters meant, he asked one of them; the latter answered him and said: "The three letters mean the virtue of princes, counts and noblemen, because they now want to be cretzmars and alehouses, item, millers and brewers and take to themselves all trades and civil food. When the other asked what the cross written over it meant, he replied: "It means that one should beware of them. This must have been a real prankster who interpreted the letters in this way.
100. of miserly men who make mischievous theurge.
Anno 39, April 7, D. M. L. gave a written, serious admonition to D. Creuzigern, to [the] Rath, 1) therein he asked that they want-.
1) Cf. also Luther's letter of April 9 to the Elector John Frederick. Walch, old edition, vol. XXI, 414.
The poor people had to be careful that they did not go hungry. For there was such a shortage the same day that neither bread nor rolls could be had for the money; so he secretly gave the council a felt for the sake of carelessness. In the evening, one of the mayors, Lucas Cranach, came to him and excused the council, saying that the grain had been held up for them in the Mark by an arrest and grief. There spoke D. M. Luther said: "Alas, that our prince is not in the country! The nobility is very brazen and unfaithful: they buy all the grain from the peasants and lay it down, thus hindering the grain, making a wanton theurge, since God's punishment is not yet there. There belongs a prince who talks with such squires.
The first is a book about the history of the world.
(Contained in Cap. 59, A 6, para. 3.)
102. of the nobility's avarice.
The nobility has a fine and honest food, so does the peasant, because agriculture is a divine food, and the dear patriarchs also had this food, because this food comes straight down from heaven. But what do the nobles do? They scratch and scrape, proliferate, and are in a state of upheaval, and have the falbel, 2) because they want to make their children princes and lords. Some of them are so stingy that they would like to give their children an annual income of ten thousand guilders. Then the children turn out badly, and our Lord God blows into the badly won property, so that everything is pulverized and torn to pieces. Oh, that one should get rich by stealing, it does not do. "Benedictio Damini divites facit," says Solomon in his Proverbs, Cap. 10, 22. That was a wise man. And I have grown old and have also found out whether I do not have a great experience, for I was a monk up to my fourteenth year: but in
2) Perhaps the "Fallübel" in the saying used by Luther: "Was Fallübel gehe den, der es besser macht, als er kann. Wittb. Ausg. Bd. Ill, col. 463a.
In the twenty years that I have seen the world, I have seen so many miserable cases and miseries that it is exceedingly clear that you will also see how our citizens here will fare; they will not bring their usurped and ambitious goods to the third heir.
The old Margrave Joachim, Elector of Brandenburg, once said to Duke Frederick of Saxony: "How do you princes of Saxony strike such heavy coins? In our regiment alone, we have won about three tons of gold from it. Behold, this has happened in about forty years. The land was open to him, he could bring the good coin out, melt it in the crucible, and have Markian pennies struck from it, and bring the same coin back to the Electorate. But where does this good come from? It is a pitiful thing that people are so blind and do not see such things, quod quando peccant, tum sibi ipsis ruinam parant. As the Holy Scripture says in the 73rd Psalm, v. 18: "Dejicis eos, dum attolluntur." It is a hard word: "Tolluntur in altum, ut lapsu graviore ruant." Now the noblemen have thought up a new discovery and say: "May I not do what I want with what is mine? They have learned this from the Gospel. Nun? Yes, the knife is mine, so I may stick it in the neck. It is true, they are Domini suarum rerum, sed non alienarum. If I give one five florins for ten, what is that? are they not thieves and robbers?
Two of them were reported to D. Martino that they made theft with the grain, as Friedrich B., Tylo D., 1) and was asked: Whether they also had the power to hinder the grain of land on the common market? Luther answered: "It is only human malice; what would happen if God's punishment were to come? Oh, dear Lord God! If the world is so evil, I will gladly die, even of hunger, that I may get away. Then he said to the mayor, "The bailiff is a cause, who has had some grain carried away on ships. As he once said: "If the citizens would
1) According to Bindseil II, 164: Friedrich Brandt and Thilo Dene, the latter mayor of Wittenberg.
If he could not make good beer and sell it cheaply, he would make the barley expensive before they wiped their mouths. This speech of his makes me suspect him. God has blessed us wonderfully in this sandy land, more than the Thuringian soil, which is a land rich in grain.
On May 14, Friedrich B[randt] sent to D. M. Luthern and apologized for the suspicion, as if he should pour out the grain and be in the company of the envelope; indicated that D. Martin's letter had moved him very much; asked, he did not want to believe such from him. D. Martin answered and said: I have admonished and warned him, but conscientia mille testes adest, conscience is there, that will convince him, tell him: Hoc fac, et vives: do this, and you will live. If he is pious, there is no need.
103. stinginess takes away God's blessings.
(Lauterbach, Apr. 3, p. 54.)
After that, some tyrants were remembered who, out of avarice, oppressed their subjects and lost the blessing of God, mowing down everything in the purest way, as Ferdinand, Duke George and [Count] Albrecht of Mansfeld did in the mine, which they would not build on their own. It is an atrocious thing about the insatiable greed that would kill itself. As it is said of Duke George, when he had filled a spacious vault with silver and thalers, he is said to have said: Come back first, what we may not bring in here, we want to find another place. Moses did not wrongly command (Deut. 19, 10.) that the vine and the harvest should not be cut down so purely, but also left for the poor. But because avarice is insatiable, there is no end to the gathering of treasure, because such people hinder the blessing of God to themselves and others.
104 On the Avarice of the Thuringian Peasants.
(Lauterbach, May 21, 1538, p. 84.)
Erfurt used to be very productive in terms of crops, but now it is subject to the curse. It is more expensive there than in Wittenberg. I saw this a year ago
and considered, because they had small bread and black bread. Oh, no one takes care of the worldly regiment. They only collect money, and so we lose the blessing of God. They have such wine wax there that one can give a jug for three pennies; if they had only half the wine wax, they would be very rich. But since the wine was in great quantity, they could not deny it, gave the wine for the wood.
105. Christians should not be stingy.
When people complained about the great stinginess of the people, even at the time of the Gospel, that they did not want to help anyone in need, D. M. Luther said. M. Luther said: "Well, let it be that our hearts are not inclined to give, but a Christian should be mindful of his position and office and of love, so that he may be charitable and gladly give, and give to the poor who are in need, and do it with a cheerful heart, for the sake of God, who will reward it abundantly, as He promised in Luc. 6, 38: "Pray, and it shall be restored unto you"; as Solomon says, Proverbs 19, 17: "He that giveth to the poor lendeth to God by usury." Just as again the Strauesgütlein i) are, who waste and spill everything; as the wise pagan Seneca said to a waster: You have a plague and disease, which is called, Gaudens dando, have desire and joy to give and use everything there. For such a waste is also not to be praised, as one who despises rationality and gives away without distinction and need.
106. of the avarice of the people, especially when the gospel is taught.
We now learn, said D. Martinus, since people are taught righteously about God and worship, as well as about right good works, how even an abominable avarice has possessed the hearts of almost all and most of them. No one shows charity to the poor, as he should; they devise various ways and means to increase all things and goods and to make the most of them.
1) Straues from: to scatter, to disperse; hence the opinion of the word "Strauesgütlein": those who are too good, so that they waste everything, squanderers.
even in the most trivial matters. But what is spent on church servants and schools, as such things are very small, is considered great and high. Therefore, it is not only a great shame, but also a great sin at this time, that it is seen that many parishes are either completely deserted or miserably neglected and abandoned because of people's avarice.
But look at the former times, when there was no true religion and people were led to idolatry and idolatry, and trust in their own self-chosen works; there was no measure nor end to giving, there it was only cutting with all power. Everyone was willing to give, all monasteries full of monks, all monasteries full of chasubles were fed, and enough was given to them, yes, all superfluous: Churches were adorned and decorated with silver and gold in the most beautiful and abundant way, yes, they were showered. Therefore this blindness of the world is to be deplored.
107. No one lets himself be satisfied.
We are of the kind, said D. M. Luther, if we have a penny, we would like to have a florin, and if we have a florin, we would like to have a hundred etc.; if I have a candel of beer, I would like to have the barrel of beer. So the peasants do, they would like to be citizens, citizens noblemen, noblemen princes etc. That is, not to be satisfied in bodily matters, which happens much less in spiritual matters.
(108) Avarice corrupts and hinders God's blessings.
(Cordatus No. 1553.)
Grain will never again be bought as cheaply as before, for our sins deserve punishment, and usury has become too great.
109. stinginess.
(Lauterbach) Aug. 8, 1538, p. 111.)
Old wines are cramped, because wines that are three years old are no longer strong. The godless miserly ones may pack themselves away, which they keep for a long time, until they become nasty. They hinder God's blessing and man's joy, as the bishop of Würzburg, the
hewed out a cellar completely in a rock, wanted to get several hundred barrels in it without containers, but his covetousness failed him.
110. of those who are attached to the world's wealth.
A man who has surrendered to the world's riches and honor, and yet forgets his soul and God, is like a little child who holds in his hand an apple that is beautiful in shape and outward color, and thinks it has something good, but inside it is rotten and full of worms.
D. M. Luther's Table Talks on Commerce and Usury.
111. of trafficking and usury.
A civil and lawful trade is blessed by God, that one out of twenty pennies has one, but an ungodly and unrighteous profit in trade is cursed. Like Melchior Lotther, 1) book printer, who from his books, which I gave him to print, gained a great money, that one penny acquired two. It has carried in the first mighty much, so that Hans Grünenberger, the printer, said with conscience: Doctor, it carries too much, I may not have such copies; it was a God-fearing man, therefore he was also blessed by God.
(This paragraph in Cordatus No. 595.)
It would be considered a cheap rate or profit if twenty pennies gained one, which would make five florins from the hundred. But now they simply want a penny to make one or two, and a hundred florins two hundred, and such people do not become rich, at least not in goods that remain to them.
The Romans have forbidden to take twelve from the hundred, but now they may take all Leipzig markets from the hundred fifteen guilders, that does annually eight and forty guilders, is just the twenty-fifth. Fie you
1) Rebenftock I, 222a.
times! When sin is no longer considered sin, there is neither counsel nor help; but I hope God will come with the last day, as soon as the word of the gospel will cease.
112. legitimate profit.
In 42, on July 14, Dominus Jakob Prepositus, pastor of Bremen, came to Wittenberg, who had been Luther's companion and brother in the monastery, an old, pious, sincere, learned and God-fearing man, so that he might see his father, Martinum, once again. Then they talked with each other, and first of all they thought of the usury in which Flanders and the Low Countries were drowned. Thereupon spoke D. M. Luther said: "The whole world is drowned and flooded in usury, so that without any fear or hesitation people steal, rob and steal as much as anyone can; therefore those who have invented and practice it should be punished and condemned. If five or six out of a hundred were taken, we would be satisfied, if only there were a pledge that could bear it. And if such a trial were held that the principal sum should not be claimed by the one who lent it, but by the one who borrowed it, so that the redemption would be with the seller and not with the buyer, we would let it happen that six percent should be taken; for the goods have increased, so that it can be used. But the buyer, who has lent the money, shall also bear the risk if the house burns down or the field is washed away, or falls into ruin, or otherwise suffers noticeable damage, so that it cannot bear or pay the interest. And such danger of the pledge makes this contract right; not the re-purchase or the redemption. Oh, how blessed we would be if we could persuade the people to do so; but the devilish usury and turnover eat up everything, so the emperor in his fatherland gives twelve out of a hundred. Fie on you!
D. Martin Luther was asked by a pious, God-fearing man who had lent a hundred florins to someone who had asked him against it.
out of good will and good cheer, let a cellar be used: whether he would also do it with a good conscience? Then the doctor said, "It must be a pious man who wants to have a conscience about this; why would he not take one service after another?
113. from usurers.
Public usurers are to be banished, as I have now done to the nobleman Heinrich Ryder, that is, he is not to be given the sacrament. But one of them said, "How, if he repented and reformed? M. Luther answered, "That has its measure; but he must become a Zacchaeus and give back what he has robbed too much from those he has robbed, or he will not repent properly. According to the laws described, he cannot keep it with a right and good conscience, let alone according to divine laws. And whoever eats and drinks with him makes himself partaker of his sins.
114. question.
One of them asked M. Luther: If a poor man were in need of money, and had no pledge, would he also take money for his business of advertising? Then he said, "Let him live on his poverty, and feed himself with God and honor; do not sin, nor do wrong, for money is round and perishable, and soon vanishes. So we should not sell the skill of advertising and winning, for it is uncertain. But the people are to be kept to manual labor, and the rich are to be exhorted to works of mercy.
We do not reject worldly and civil commerce and food, which are just and fair, without avarice and deceit. But we see that the world is not to be reformed, is hopeful and proud, and still boasts of evil deeds and misdeeds. What a jumble is now in Leipzig, which is drowned in avarice. Summa, mundus est diaboli, Genitivi casus, et diaboli, Nominativi casus. The world is of the devil, and the people have become vain devils.
1) Cf. cap. 21, 8 4, last paragraph. In Förstemann it is called oar.
115. sermon Dollar Martin Luthers wider den Wucher.
In 39, April 13, Luther preached a very harsh and sharp sermon against the avarice of usurers, saying: "They are worthy of all disgrace and cursing and are the greatest enemies of the countries, strangling many people with their shameful avarice and usury. And very beautifully acted the saying of Solomon: "He who has mercy on the poor lends to God on usury," Proverbs 19:17.
116. from avarice N. N.
(Lauterbach, Jan. 9, 1538, p. 5.)
On the ninth of January, Melanchthon dined with Luther and said much about the cases of the world, which have various influences on the minds of men, and about M. V[itus] W[insheim], who, devoted to avarice, had a very good judgment about good and bad florins. The doctor then said: "If my husband had had such a mind, he would have become very rich. Philip answered, "That is impossible, for a mind that is intent on the common good cannot pursue self-interest.
117. unfair trade.
(Cordatus No. 1316.)
It is an unequal trade if one has it in his will [to set the price as he wants], the other is in need; for the latter respects the goods according to his liking.
118. stinginess does not let people use their goods with joy.
(Contained in Cap. 3, § 14.)
Wealth makes people hopeful and stingy.
Where there is great good, there are also all kinds of sins; for good makes courage, courage makes war, and war brings poverty, poverty brings humility. Therefore the rich will also have to give a great account; for to whom much is commanded, he must calculate much. Wealth, understanding, beauty are fine and beautiful gifts of God, but we misuse them very badly. However, great intellect and a skilful
A head full of sense is also an evil thing if it turns out badly; for it is said: Qui velit ingenio cedere, nullus erit. No one wants to depart from his mind and head; he wants to be right. It is much better for a man to be a little beautiful under his face, for a disease may come and take it away; but the ingenium, the mind and head, cannot soon be changed. It is written Gen. 3, 5: "You will be like God"; yes, I also mean, we are gods. This disease is innate in us from Adam: You will be like God.
120. goods the least gifts.
Wealth is the least thing on earth and the smallest gift that God has given to a man. What is it against God's word? Yes, what is it against bodily gifts, as beauty, health? and against the gifts of the mind, as understanding, art, wisdom? We still strive so diligently for them, and let no work, toil, or danger hinder us or prevent us. One strives day and night to accomplish much and great good, and has no rest; yet materialis, formalis, efficiens et finalis causa, nor is there anything good in it. Therefore, our Lord God commonly gives wealth to gross asses, to whom he does not grant anything else.
The buyer of a thing shall bear the damage and stand the risk.
If I sell my field to someone, take a hundred guilders and give five of them; if the Elbe comes and washes it all away, the buyer shall bear the damage, not I. Just as if I sell a horse to someone and hand it over to him; if it dies soon afterwards, the damage is the buyer's, not mine, the seller's. The risk of the goods and the property is his who buys it, he must keep it. Res enim transit cum periculo; qui emit, is eam curet. For the seller no longer owns the goods or has them under his control, but he who bought them from me for a hundred guilders, to him I will give five of them annually at interest, and therefore he must also bear the damage.
122 Positiones und Schlussreden vom Wucher zu Wittenberg disputiret.
D. M. Luther were brought Pofitiones and Schlussreden vom Wucher, which Ulrich Mordeisen of Leipzig was to disputiren, since he wanted to become Doctor, praesidente D. Doctore Hieronymo Schurff. Then he said: If I wanted to argue, then I wanted to use the argument, namely: Everything that God has permitted - and forbidden, that is good; God, however, has forbidden usury; Ergo, therefore etc. Then one said: Usury is against nature and natural law, why then did God forbear and permit it? Answered D. M. Luther: "To others, as to the Gentiles, as a punishment, for they, the Jews, do not take usury one from another. Ps. 109, 11. And he said further: "The proofs are very well and precisely put together, I can see that he is poking at me with a word in them; but they please me well, if only the lawyers would also think about them, but no one wants to open their mouths.
I have often asked D. Hieronymum often asked him to write a book against usury, and he was willing to do so; but where is it? If they also instructed the princes and lords in this way, as they write and teach about it in the school, and said: Most gracious lord, you have the cry, therefore stop it E. F. G., or I will recite my service to you. But this is not de pane lucrando, there is nothing in the kitchen. Then one said: Every man has his infirmity and sin; if one should do that, then one would also often have to show him other vitia, deficiencies and vices. Answered D. Martin: Ei, this is a lame argument and quite unequal, because adultery is not in my hand nor power and do not have, therefore I replace it again and restituire. But with money and property it is another thing, because I have the same in the box.
123) From one who is willing to lend money usurpingly.
A great, rich prince and lord, since he was about to die and his soul was on the tip of his tongue, was persuaded by his friends and advisors to make a will that one hundred thousand florins, which he had with him, should be put into trade in Leipzig.
This is a beautiful penance, said D. M. Luther. M. Luther; if some were left to die in this way, without sacrament and consolation, the others would be offended by it. So now, unfortunately, it has come to this, that one says: O! good works, my piety does not make me blessed, therefore I will be stingy, proliferate, and do what pleases me and is good for me etc., and if I am to die, then I will have absolution pronounced. Yes, dear companion, St. Augustine says: God has promised you that he will be merciful to you, but do you also know that he will be merciful to you if you have not wanted his mercy out of spite, in your fresh, young and healthy days? Oh how I would like to preach now, if I were strong.
Then one said: It would be too hard and unkind, if one should not have the power nor the right to demand the main sum, which he has lent, again according to his opportunity. Likewise, if the pledge would perish from water, fire etc., that the damage should be the buyer's, not the seller's? Answer: Well, with this one has glossed over the usury and disguised to put the money on interest. If you have money, and a pious poor man comes to you and asks you for it, then lend and help him according to your ability; this is the right of a Christian. One of them said, "Yes, they don't give you anything back? Answer: You have to wait. Therefore a Christian must have the three things: 1. he must give, 2. he must lend, and 3. he must suffer: but the none, or ever so little, is more to be done in the world.
124. question.
(Cordatus No. 970-974.)
With a clear conscience, he who has set aside a few guilders can say that he has no money to spend when someone asks him to lend.
Speaking of lending, John [l. Ep. 3, 17.] speaks of the needy brother, and Christ speaks [Luc. 6, 30.] of him that asketh, that is, of the needy, not of an idle man, not of prodigals, who are commonly the greatest beggars, because none of these is helped by lending.
In this city no one is needy except the students. Poverty is great in the city, laziness even greater. You can't get them to work with money, they all prefer to beg.
I will not take my wife and children's bread and give it to those who are not helped by it. But one who is truly poor must be helped from the heart.
Therefore, the passages that speak of alms are not to be interpreted in relation to the idle, for example this [Luc. 3:11]: "He who has two coats, let him give one to him who has none. But by the one coat the Scripture means all the clothing of which the truly needy man has need according to his condition and need, as it calls bread all food.
The devil tries to make us monks again through almsgiving and to give godless idlers the opportunity to indulge and eat. They all wanted to get rich with me before, there was no end to the begging.
125. borrow.
If you lend, you will not get it back. If they give it back to you, it will not happen so soon, and so well and good. But if it does, you lose a good friend.
126. from the game.
Cards and dice games are the meanest now, because this world has invented many and various games, it has, truly, well solved. When I was a boy, all games were forbidden, so that the card makers, pipers and minstrels were not allowed to go to the sacrament, and had to confess from playing, dancing and other spectacles and shows, if they had practiced it or watched it and had been there. Now it goes in high pregnancy, and one defends it for exercise of the mind etc.
Alas, said D. M. Luther, the world is full of usurers! I would be content to take five, six or even seven of the hundred, because the goods have increased, with a pledge; but so that it can bear such interest, and that the buyer does not have the power to demand the main sum again. Since
But if no pledge is put up, but only money is badly lent at interest, and one has to demand the principal sum for a certain time, then it is not right. For money is a barren commodity; it does not bear and raise money again, since it is sown in the same way as grain is sown; I cannot sell it by my skill. Therefore the present dealings with money are unjust and against God, which destroy and drain the land and the people.
One of them said, "Why don't princes and lords punish such unlawful and unchristian trades and usury? M. Luther answered: What! Kings, princes, and lords have other things to do, they have to panketiren, prangen, hagen etc., cannot wait for it: therefore it goes and stands also, as long as it can, it must break and a great unpredictable change must follow. But I hope that the last day will soon put an end to it.
127. from boozing.
I recently, said D. M. Luther, preached a hard and sharp sermon at court against drinking; but it does not help. Taubenheim and Minkwitz say: It could not be otherwise at court, because the musica and all knightly and string playing would have fallen, only with boozing would now be the worship at courts. And indeed our most gracious lord and prince is a great strong lord, can well stand a good drink, his need makes a
If he were a drunkard, his lady would not have it good. But when I come to the prince again, I will do no more than ask him to command his subjects and courtiers everywhere, with serious punishment, that they should get drunk. Perhaps, if it were commanded, they would do the contrary; quia nitimur in vetitum, what is forbidden, against it one gladly does.
The world always wants new things, soon gets tired of one thing.
(Cordatus No. 961. 962.)
The ingratitude and vanity of the world cannot be expressed [in words]. Before the New Testament was translated, everyone wanted it to be translated. When it was translated, they loved it for four weeks and wanted the Old Testament to be translated. This also lasted four weeks and the Psalter also four weeks. The book of Jesus Sirach, 1) which now causes much trouble, will also last four weeks after it is translated, and after that the people will desire something new until they fall into error.
The book of Jesus Sirach is entirely about the house, so the "Ecclesiastes" is about the world regiment. It is house law and city law.
1) The book Jesus Sirach was finished in 1533, therefore in this year these words will be spoken. (Wrampelmeyer.)