1. where the ban of the church come from, and against whom it is to be used.
2. what the ban is.
3 From Consistoriis.
4. Admonition by D. M. Luther to N. N. zu Wittenberg.
5. Luther's admonition against excommunication.
6. another from the spell.
7. the ban is twofold.
8. cause that the ban has now fallen.
9. the authority of the ban.
Do not despise the church's ban.
11. secret and invisible spell.
How to escape from the secret spell.
The church is built up by the gospel, although there are many hypocrites among them.
14. letter of D. Luther from the ban.
15. the origin of the church keys.
16 The effect and finite cause of the ban, and how it should apply.
17. from the absolution.
18. self-imposed ban.
19. the ban shall be put on again.
1. where the ban of the church come from, and against whom it is to be used.
(Cordatus No. 1630. 1631. No. 1569. .No. 1249.)
Power, wealth and prestige are with the wicked, but we have the wretched Christ Sheflemini [i.e. Sit at my right hand, Ps. 110.], whom we have before [i.e. in advance], after whom they do not ask. May they have the treasures that are on this earth, we have the heavenly [treasures], the word, the sacraments, the ministry [am Worte] [ministerium], of which we know that they have no part, as Ambrose put the emperor under ban, who as victor had cruelly violated children and virgins. When he [Ambrose] was called out of the church by the enemies, he offered them his neck and said: Here I stand, here I will die, standing like a pillar, a fine courage.
In short, the world puts weight only on present things, but faith has the certainty of things to come. When something unpleasant happens to the world, it says: I would not have meant that; but faith: I knew that the cross was due to faith.
1) Theodosius, in his anger in 390, for the sake of a riot, gave up the city of Thessalonica and 7000 of its inhabitants to the blind rage and the sword of his soldiers. Guerrcke, Kirchengeschichte, 7th ed.
would follow. The world is the glutton [the rich man], but Christ is Lazarus.
I have put H[ans] M[etsch] under ban because of his fornication and do not want him to participate in our sacrament. He has not taken part in it since I have forbidden him to do so, nor shall he do so if he does not repent.
Isn't he a wretch who bought a house in Wittenberg for 30 guilders and wants to sell it for 400? Or would it not be more than enough if he sold it for 150? We have to put the ban back in place 2c.
2. what the ban is.
(Cordatus No. 264 and No. 265.)
Our dealings with the pope and the whole papist order are nothing else than banishing. But to banish is in fact and truth nothing else than to convict and declare with the word of Christ that the pope and all those who confess him, yes, also all other ungodly people, are such people who are not obedient to the word of the Lord Christ, as when we preach: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved, Marc. 16, 16. If we now, not for the sake of example, but compelled and forced by this text, publicly] say: "The pope together with his crowd does not believe this; therefore he will not be saved, that is, he will be condemned:
What is this different than putting under ban, that is, executing what the word indicates? For the ban is the execution of the word of God and His Christ.
3. from consistoriis.
(The first paragraph in Lauterbach, Nov. 16, 1538, p. 168.)
Then there was much talk about the need to maintain the consistories in order to ward off the wickedness of the people through the ban. D. Brück said: "The noblemen fear for themselves that you will attack [the] peasants and then you will attack them. Luther answered: "If you lawyers only keep your moral laws, only punish honestly, [so] we also want to handle our ceremonial laws and hand over some to Satan according to the flesh, whoever they may be, peasants or noblemen, with the right ban, not the fictitious and void ban of the pope.
A godless citizen was also remembered at that time, who had publicly confessed before the council that he had not gone to the sacrament in fifteen years. 1) Then said D. Martin said: "When he has been admonished once and twice, I will publicly proclaim him on the preaching stand as a banished person and indicate that he should be considered a dog. But if anyone then wants to deal with him and have anything to do with him, let him do it on his conscience; if he dies in this way, he shall be buried on the shingle, like a dog, and, thus banished, we will make him subject to the rights and laws of the authorities.
4. letter of admonition from D. L. to N. N. at Wittenberg.
After the bailiff [Hans Metsch] 2) had despised God, His word and servant, and also the authorities, with his courtly conduct, and had subjected himself to and undertaken many things against them, and had also been fraternally admonished by D. Martin for this reason, he once again sent two captains, MM. N. and N., to him, Anno 1538, Nov. 16, with this note, which the man of God wrote with his own hand, with such words:
1) Cf. Cap. 19, 815; Cap. 21, 818; Cap. 1, § 93.
2) Bindseil I, 27.
To tell the bailiff.
First, that Mr. Fröschel's absolution should be nothing, because he has not recognized himself correctly. Secondly, that he has received the sacrament in his sins and has atoned for them, that is to be borne by him, not by me. Third, if he wants to be a Christian, he must first be reconciled with us preachers, pastors, and also with the council and city, as Christ says: "If you go to the altar and offer your gift," 2c., Matth. 5, 23, 24. Or if he does not want to do this humbly, then I am satisfied in the place of the pastor that he will be saved elsewhere, because I do not want to bear his wickedness, nor be condemned because of his sins. This is the other admonition, according to the command of Christ, Matth. 18, 15. ff.
(From here to end of § at Lauterbach, Oct. 17.
1538, S. 153.)
When Hans Metsch was admonished by Luther for the second time that he should repent, he apologized and answered that he was innocent, that he had no hatred against anyone. But the doctor ordered us deacons before and after that not to admit him to communion and baptism. In the same week he also punished a nobleman, Heinrich Ryder, a great usurer, to his face, and forbade his pastor to admit him to the Lord's Supper, because he dared to take thirty florins a year from the hundred. And so great is the wickedness of the nobles that they dare to boast, without making a conscience, that one had carpentered forty-three children a year; another, should he not take forty florins a year out of a hundred?
5. admonition of the excommunication, so the dear man of God, D. M. Luther, did publicly at Wittenberg after the sermon, on
Sunday Invocavit in the fast 1539.
There has been a cry among you that many have made themselves useless, that the ban should be reestablished. Now it is true that I have spoken of the ban, not that one should re-institute tyranny, as the officials do, but of the ban, of which Christ teaches Matth. 18, 15. ff. that one first admonishes one in particular, and then again by two persons 2c.
We would like to establish such a ban, not that a chaplain or preacher alone should or could do it; all of you must help yourselves, as St. Paul says: With your congregation and with my spirit, that is, with the whole multitude. You must with us, and we with you, that the Lord's Prayer may be said against him who is separated and banished from all Christendom. Again, if he converts, that one prays publicly over him in the church, and accepts again. This is not to be done by a person of the parish priest or captain.
How? should I, as a parish priest, also watch the bakers baking, and butchers slaughtering, the tailors and millers stealing 2c.? This belongs to the regents. For the sacrament is set for the consolation of sinners who recognize and confess their sins from the heart, have remorse and sorrow over them, would like to have a merciful God and be rid of sin. But if someone is a manifest sinner, whom neither the ruler nor the council punishes; as if some persons publicly scold each other in the street, fornicate, and live in public discord; to such the sacrament shall not be administered, for they have first reconciled themselves with their neighbor; if not, then the sorrowful devil shall give you the sacrament.
What may I do to be guilty of other people's sins, if I have enough of my own? I have lived evil through my youth, and for fifteen years I have angered God with my monasticism and mass-keeping, and have mocked, crowned and crucified my Lord Christ with my unholy works! Now, if I knowingly let you go to the Sacrament, I take your sin upon myself and make myself partaker of it. How could I be condemned for your sake? It would be much better if I were a shepherd.
I say this not because I want to rule over you and exercise tyranny; I cannot and will not do it. But ask thine own heart, whether thou wouldst go to the Sacrament rightly, because thou livest openly in sins and discord. Ask yourself whether you would not give cause to banish yourself; then you will have to confess it, if you want to speak the truth otherwise and not against your conscience.
For how can I save my soul for your sake?
be condemned for your sake? Life and limb we dare with you, property and honor, wife and child, house and farm may go, as you see, that we remain faithful with you in death; and it is also right. But that I should set aside my own soul for your sins, and go with you into hell; what would you give me for that? We cannot do that.
Therefore it is said: 'When we know that you are a manifest sinner, you hurry, you are stingy, you are usurious, you live in discord 2c. Just as here the N. [bailiff] did not get along well with the council and the congregation, and nevertheless went to the sacrament, and remained in discord over it; if I had known, he would have had to stay away from me, if he had not reconciled himself first. So everyone who is unreconciled should stay away from it. For how could I condemn my soul, as I said before? Yes, it concerns not only me, but all of you, that we do not share in the sins of others; a whole city should be punished for such a one.
I don't know any other way, we punish adultery, murder 2c. If this were not the case, we would pray an Our Father with the whole church against such people, and all those who love God and His Word would have to help banish them, for the banishment is for the whole church, not only for the pastor, the captain or the preacher.
So I wanted to have begun the banishment, want to do it also, if God wills, at present: when I have first admonished him, then I send two persons to him, as two caplains or others. After that, I will take him before me to the sacristy, or otherwise in the presence of the chaplains, two of the councillors and lords of the castle, and two honest men from the community. If he then does not reform, but continues to live in public sins according to his stiff-necked head, I shall publicly announce it to the church, thus: Dear friends, I announce to you how N. is admonished, first by me, then by the chaplains; thirdly, by the council and caste lords, and those of the congregation, and he will not desist. Therefore my friendly request to you is: help to counsel, kneel down, help to pray against him, and hand him over to the devil 2c.
Then you should see what would happen: people would not live so publicly in shame, for this would be a severe ban; not like the pope's ban on money, such would be useful to the church. And this would happen where people did not want to convert, and the council or authorities did not want to be diligent in their office and command. But if he mends his ways, he can be absolved again. These are the keys of the church, that sinners may be bound and dissolved. I do not say that one should practice tyranny with it.
In addition, it is not secret that a citizen's son here, the old S., 1) fell into a public murder, as you all know, and nevertheless went to the sacrament 2) and led a bride to church; I have no favor for that. Now it is said that the matter has been agreed upon by the friends and the authorities; I do not know that, but the council and friendship that it concerns must give letters and seals over it. As long as this does not happen, he shall not stand before me for baptism, choir and sacrament until he shows the council's seal that the matter has been settled before a council. We want to do this because it is a public act, so the reconciliation must also be public; otherwise it is no good. If he brings word from the council and asks for forgiveness of sins, he should kneel publicly before the altar, and the priest should say that he is absolved, because the whole church is offended. This is the ban that not we, but the whole church has; for one must not joke thus, and thus bear hatred and envy, especially murder; that is not fit in any way.
Moses commanded that if a dead body was recovered between two cities, the city to which the body was nearest must accept it, wash itself, protest to heaven and earth, and testify that it was innocent of it. There shall be neither insult nor joke here; therefore do not blame me, who is commanded to the church regiment, in such. If the guilt is obvious, then the reconciliation should also be obvious.
1) Schubarts. (Bindseil I, 32.)
2) Cf. Cap. 19, § 10.
I would like to do that, but it is not yet time. However, a council could still finely prevent us from doing it; unless there is public hatred and envy against each other, we would keep the ban, but you must help us 2c. This the man of God publicly denounced in the church at Wittenberg on the preaching stand with great earnestness and said on the day and year as indicated above.
6. a different from the spell.
(Lauterbach, Feb. 25, 1538, p. 41.)
The Elector had returned with other princes and the rumor was that the Elector had ceded the title and the regalia [prerogatives of a prince] to the Bishop [of Halle] and received 60,000 florins and Dahme 3) as compensation. When Luther heard this, he was very sad, but he thought better of it, saying: "If the thing happened in such a way that the Elector respected those regalia so little for the sake of money, and neglected the consciences of the dear people in Halle in such a way, then this would be a great annoyance and a disgrace for the whole house of Saxony. So I would not have been surprised why the fathers ran into the monasteries when they saw that the world was so unstable. If it is done, let it be done, and I shall be sorry from the bottom of my heart, but I do not want to despair and leave the world like the monks. We must get up. The Lord will preserve his own in the midst of trouble. We must not flee into the desert. Even if those regalia are of little use, they are nevertheless to be highly valued out of deference and for the sake of respectability, for my most gracious Lord can gain greatly with the regalia. The Electorate of Saxony is very poor and brings little benefit, and if Meissen did not maintain the duke, he would not be able to maintain himself in the Electorate with forty horses. That is why the princes are given tribute, interest and levies to keep over the regalia for nothing. My lord has great regalia at Halle, the high courts, he can give them the
3) A town in the province of Brandenburg, ceded by Saxony to Prussia in 1815.
If he should let himself be pushed away with money, then he would lose honor and all glimpses of glory. I say this even though I am not a lawyer. - Luther was so moved by these rumors that he did not want to go to Brück's wedding that evening. In the evening, he heard differently from D. Jonas and Spalatin: this opinion was brought to the Elector by the bishop, but the Elector had prayed with prayers against God and with supplications that he would not enter into a disadvantageous union, so that nothing was decided in it. Then Luther became cheerful again and hoped for the best. Then O. Jonas told of the sincerity of the Elector, who had very diligently heard the word of God in Zerbst, and had said: The ban was necessary in the church because of the exceedingly great vices of intoxication, drunkenness 2c., and then he had added: If only there were people who would let themselves be banned. But we will have to suffer it and shall suffer it [namely, that we let ourselves be banished], if we want to be Christians otherwise, or something else will follow. Truly, a pious saying of the prince against the wickedness of the world!
7. ban is two things.
The ban, like the church, is of two kinds. One is worldly or external and visible, which the church uses against those who lie in public sin and shame, according to Christ's command Matth. 18, 15. ff. And this one must be kept in the church above all things, for there is not a bad little thing about the ban, as one who strictly excludes and separates from the kingdom of Christ, keeps sin without hope of forgiveness, unless one repents. Therefore Christ wills that a sinner be admonished and warned beforehand, not only by private and individual persons who are not in public office, once or twice, but also by those who are in the public, preaching office, before this severe sentence of excommunication is passed, and publicized and opened.
Now there are many who accuse the church servants, pastors and preachers, as if the ban had fallen through their negligence. Many complain about the authorities, as if they opposed them and did not want to shape them,
that one should need the ban. However, Christ's command clearly states that the sinner should be especially and secretly admonished and warned before those in the public ministry deliver the sentence. Nevertheless, such a sentence should not be pronounced publicly beforehand, unless the churchwarden has first given a serious and Christian admonition. If the sinner disregards this admonition and continues in sin, does not want to stop or desist from sinning, he shall be publicly condemned.
8. cause that the ban has now fallen.
In our time, nothing prevents the ban from being enforced, except that no one does in this matter what a Christian is entitled to do. You have a neighbor whose life and conduct are well known and known to you, but your priest is either unaware of it or not so well aware of it, for how can he know what each person's life is like? Therefore, if you see that your neighbor is becoming rich through unrighteous dealings or trade; if you see that he is committing fornication or adultery, or that he is managing and governing his servants in an industrious and careless manner, you should admonish him seriously and give him a Christian warning, so that he may be aware of his blessedness and avoid trouble. And how holy a work you have done, if you win him over in this way!
But dear, who does it? For, first of all, truth is a hostile thing: he who tells the truth is hated. Therefore you would rather keep your neighbor's friendship and favor, especially if he is rich and powerful, than to anger him and make him your enemy. Likewise, if the other, third, or fourth neighbor does the same, the first admonition brings the other and third to naught, by which the neighbor could have been brought back on the right path, if only you would do with admonition what you owe and are obligated to do.
Secondly, it is also because the ban has fallen: because we are almost all subject to such vices and are afflicted with them, we fear when we take the stick out of our neighbor's eyes.
We want to be reproached and told about the beam that stands out in our eyes.
This is the right and foremost reason that the ban has fallen almost everywhere, because of the fact that the true Christians are few everywhere, and even a small group of few in number. For if we all, as would be right and just, indeed should be, loved right godliness and the word of God from the heart, we would esteem the command of the Lord Christ greater and more precious than all the goods of this temporal life. For this commandment, to admonish and warn the brother who sins, is as necessary as that, Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal 2c.; for if thou neglect this admonition, either for fear or for some other cause, it is not thy neighbor's body and goods that are in danger, but his soul's salvation. And if a pastor knows that sin is openly wicked in the city and country, he is obliged not to admit such people to the sacrament of the true body and blood of Jesus Christ, unless they first repent, that is, stop sinning, and show and prove by true confession and righteous fruits that they are enemies of sin and condemn it; but a Christian and serious admonition must precede it.
9. the authority of the ban.
The authorities who, in this play, do not do what is required of them by the ban. And does not punish public offences seriously, as it is guilty of, sins at all. And where she also hinders the church's censure and punishment, and does not want to permit or allow the ban, as Christ has instituted and commanded it, she promotes, fosters, and thus helps to cause offences; so she becomes the servant of God's servant of the wicked devil in hell.
Do not despise the church's ban.
Beware, I say, that you do not by any means despise the church's banishment, which has been duly and lawfully done and issued, for it brings with it a certain judgment of God's wrath and eternal damnation, as Chri
stus says Matth. 18, 18: "Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Therefore the tyranny of the pope is to be cursed all the more, who has abused the ban, even if a poor man has not been able to pay immediately on a certain and certain day, yes, even if one has not kept his statutes, as if one had not fasted, had not confessed 2c.
But against us he now needs a ban, so that we publicly confess the salvific teaching of the gospel. But first, the Lord Christ comforts us when He says Matth. 5, 11: "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you because of Me, and speak all kinds of evil against you. And again John 16:2: "They shall put you under a ban." Secondly, it is certain that the pope's ban is not the ban of the Lord Christ: because it is not done according to Christ's appointment, nor is it done, therefore it is not valid in heaven. But nevertheless it brings certain harm and ruin to the one who abuses this command of the church, for it is such a sin that God's name is blasphemed.
11. secret and invisible spell.
But just as this outward and visible excommunication and ban applies only to and is to be used against those who live in public sins and are convicted of them, so there is another, secret and invisible ban, which is not of men, nor is it done by men, so that it can be seen, but is God's own, and is done by Him alone. For God does not judge by works alone, as we men do, but looks at the heart, and judges the hypocrites, whom the church cannot judge nor punish, according to the common saying: De occultis non judicat Ecclesia: The church does not judge what is secret and hidden.
However, not all of them are so greatly burdened with public ailments that they can be publicly accused and charged with some abuse and misdeeds, as is right. For although there are many misers, fornicators, adulterers 2c.
But they are so careful with it, they do it so secretly, that it cannot be brought to their attention, nor can it be proved as it should be.
Therefore they are in the church among the Christian congregation, hear the sermon and God's word, also need the sacraments with the other righteous Christians, and are de facto, in fact, banished by God, because they live in sins against their conscience, and do not amend themselves, according to the saying of St. Paul, 1 Cor. 6, 9. 10: "The fornicators, drunkards and adulterers... will not inherit God's kingdom."
But God's judgment will not remain outside forever, nor will it be far from them, so that it will not affect them. Men deceive them, but they cannot deceive God, Gal. 6, 7. On the last day He will "send His angels to gather up all the reproaches and throw them into the furnace of fire", Matth. 13, 41.
How to escape from the secret spell.
Whoever wants to be free and free of this secret spell of God should beware of sins and repent, that is, improve his life from the heart, always live in the fear of God, pray diligently, and believe that his sins are remitted and forgiven by grace for Christ's sake. This is the only way that one can escape from this secret spell of God.
But if you continue in sins, and rejoice in them as a privilege and freedom, and want to comfort yourself and help yourself so that you may sin the more surely and freely with others, you will do nothing but deceive yourself, and provoke and cause a harder and more serious judgment against you. For although the outward ban is equal to the secret and hidden ban as far as the end and the effect or effect is concerned (for God keeps watch over it in heaven and confirms it), yet the outward and public ban should be the more preferable to us because it is like a medicine by which we are called to repentance. But the secret and hidden ban, because it is not felt for a while and (as they say) for a period of time, strengthens and increases security.
The church is built up by the gospel, although there are many hypocrites among them.
The church, if it is righteously holy, is established and built up by the gospel, as also Isaiah says Cap. 35:8: "And there shall be a way and a high place called holy, wherein no unclean person shall pass." What kind of way is that? you might say. Just the one of which the Son of God preaches John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth and the life"; item Cap. 8:51: "He who believes in me will never see death." For the ungodly also need the sacraments, and thus cover up their ungodly nature with hypocrisy, as if it were pure piety and holiness. For not all who are baptized remain in the faith, and yet are truly baptized. But righteous faith in Christ cannot remain hidden or secret, it breaks out and proves itself with righteous good works, which God has commanded and ordered. Therefore, Christ is the way that the wicked do not go, and that alone makes the holy Christian church.
14 Of ban D. M. Luther writes to a good friend thus.
(This § is Walch, old edition, Vol. XXI, 1505, No. 106, §3, the last part of his Latin letter to Ant. Lauterbach, April 2, 1543, and again in the German transcription vol. XIX, 1254,'s 3 and § 4, which was here).
15. the church key Heredity.
Christ has given the church two keys: one to bind, the other to loose, which the pope, as the true antichrist, has made into lock picks and shamefully abused, as has been experienced. But now, because God has again given us His word pure by grace, we are to use them rightly, and not throw them into corners and let them rust, as has happened until now; but make them passable again, so that they can close and open, bind and loose. Bind the reprobate, the impenitent, who lie in public sins, both against the first and the second table of the ten commandments of God: give others trouble, either with false doctrine, or evil living. And since they
If they are admonished once and for all, and do not want to be at their best, despising all admonition, then heaven shall be closed to them, and they shall be considered pagans, as Christ earnestly commands: give them to the devil, whose own they are ready for, only that one declares it publicly, so that one can beware of them. Until such time as they recognize and confess that they have grievously angered God and displeased the church, seek forgiveness of sin; then they are to be absolved and accepted again, as St. Paul teaches with his example at Corinth.
These are the two keys that Christ commanded and entrusted to His dear bride, the church, when He said to His disciples (in whose place are now all righteous, pious, faithful pastors and preachers and church servants), "Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven," Matth. 18:18 and Joh. 20:23.
Affirm such an earnest command with a hard oath, that what is thus bound and loosed here on earth shall surely be yes in heaven. But first set the binding key, and then the loosing key: for if any man be loosed, he must first be bound. Whoever does not feel that he is bound by the devil in his sins, does not recognize nor confess them, even does not want to have done wrong, thinks that he is free and free; to him one cannot give the loosening key, but must let him remain bound and command God's judgment, consider him a heathen and an unbeliever and let him go in his arrogance and pride: the church cannot prevent him from this, although it should punish it and warn the others against it.
The authorities have the sword from God and the command to forbid, ward off and punish public false teaching and agitation, both what is done publicly against the first and the other table, so that outward discipline, peace and unity are preserved, God's name is not reviled, nor the congregation angered, nor disrupted and seduced. The preachers and church ministers, however, are only to wield the sword in their mouths, and according to Christ's command, not only teach and comfort, but also punish and frighten, and thus bind and loose, according to God's will.
The sins of the people. Those who sin and remain stiff-necked in their sins and do not want to amend, are not to be released, but are to keep heaven closed: but those who recognize their sin, confess it and ask for forgiveness, no matter how great gross sinners they are, are to be released, heaven is to be unlocked, and they are to be accepted again as members of the church, and are to be treated kindly with them, with comforting and other works of love. But the impenitent, the proud, the arrogant, and the unrighteous and arrogant of the world are to be punished, and not to suffer, for these are really the virtues of the devil.
16 The effect and finite cause of the ban, and how it should apply.
When someone asked whether the ban, because it had fallen in the papacy, should be reinstated, and why it should be done, D. Martin said. Martin: God still wants today and forever that the ban should apply and continue in the church, where it is rightly dealt with to punish the wicked and to keep them in fear, but not to make them truly pious or wicked. For the command that Christ gave to the apostles and all the ministers of the church is not abolished or dead, even if it has not been used for a while or has been misused (as in the papacy); but it still stands firm and must irrevocably remain so, since he says John 20:23: "Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins ye remit, and whose sins ye retain, they are retained." And Matth. 18, 15. 16. 17.: "If your brother sins against you, go and punish him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have won your brother. If he hear thee not, take thee another, or two. ... If he does not hear them, tell the congregation. If he does not hear the church, consider him a Gentile and a tax collector." Item v. 18: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And St. Paul, 1 Cor. 5:11, 13, says: "If any man be called a brother, and be a fornicator, or a covetous man, or an idolater, or a blasphemer, or a trun-
You shall not eat with a bandit or a robber. ... Put out of yourselves him that is evil." And John, 2 Epistle, v. 10, 11: "If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not at home, neither salute him: for he that saluteth him maketh himself partaker of his evil works."
These and such sayings are the unchangeable will, decree and opinion of God, the supreme Majesty: we have no power to change them, or to relax them or to rescind them; but we have a serious command to keep to them with all faithful diligence, regardless of the reputation and power of some people. And even if the ban has been shamefully abused in the papacy and has become a real cane-mastery, we should not let it fall, but use it rightly, as Christ commanded, for the betterment and edification of the church, and not to use it for desolation and tyranny, as the pope has done.
17. from the absolution.
(Cordatus No. 1703. 1704.)
Est (veritas) non mundum sed non (mendacium) Non claves [veritas] sed "usus earum" [mendacium] "veriatur".
In German:
The yes (the truth) does not rule the world, but the no (the lie) does.
It is not the keys that "change" but "their custom". 1)
The service of the word must continue, even if the listeners are not worthy of it. The gospel is the general absolution, but with the church servant is the private absolution.
18. self-imposed ban.
We must not banish our usurers, drunkards, taciturns, whoremongers, blasphemers and scoffers; they banish themselves, and are ready to do so up to their ears;
1) Meaning: Where truth reigns, the "keys of the kingdom of heaven", the binding and loosening keys, which stand on God's word, cannot be missing. But where falsehood reigns, God's immutable truth is turned into a "false conclusion", as the Pope has done. Cf. Luther's writing on the keys, Walch, old edition, vol. XIX, 1121, especially Col. 1150, § 48.
They despise the word of God, do not come to church, do not listen to sermons, do not go to the sacrament. Well then, if they do not want to be Christians, they are still pagans, who asks for that? If they take away the goods and income of the parish priests and take everything for themselves, the parish priest shall not absolve them, nor give them the sacraments, nor shall they come or stand at any baptism, nor at any honest wedding, nor at any funeral; they shall thus keep themselves like heathens among us, which they also do gladly. And if they want to die, no priest, no chaplain shall come to them; and if they have died, the executioner shall drag them into the drudgery pit out of the city, 2) there no disciple, no chaplain shall come to them: because they want to be heathens, we also want to keep them as heathens.
19. ban should be put back.
We must re-establish the ban, although we have not yet done it by force, so that when we see a usurer, adulterer 2c., we say to him: Do you hear the cry that you are such or such, therefore do not go to the sacrament, abstain from baptism, do not bring a bride into the church. Summa, forbid him everything that is of the church. But I fear in our part, our parish priests will be too bold, and reach into the bodily things, after the property, like the pope; if he excommunicated someone and put him under ban, and he did not comply, he said: "Well, we must also forbid him the market 2c., so that he does not buy or sell. That is the devil, if one wants to reach too far.
To the ban belong fine courageous, joyful and understanding pastors, in spiritual things well experienced and practiced. We have many of them who have courage and heart in physical things, but that alone does not do it.
One of them asked, "Does an exile want to go to church and listen to the sermon? Answer: Yes, he should not be forbidden to do so, because in sermons they learn where they are lacking. 3)
2) Cf. Cap. 19, § 15; Cap. 1, § 93.
3) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, vol. X, Col. 1678, para. 1.