1. from the Cardinal of Salzburg.
2. from another Cardinal in Germany.
3. from other bishops.
4. how far one may tolerate the bishops.
5 The little word bishop, where it comes from and what it means.
6. the bishops' negligence.
7. from the bishop of Brandenburg.
8. ordination of bishops in the papacy.
1. from the Cardinal of Salzburg.
Magister Philippe praised against Doctor Martin Luthern the high intellect and quick head of the Cardinal and Bishop of Salzburg, Matthieu Langen, and said: He had been with him in Augsburg for six hours in 1530, had talked with him about religion; then he had finally said to him: My Domine Philippe, we clergy have never been good. Item, he would also have said: We know well that your teaching is right; 1) but do you not know, on the other hand, that no one has ever been able to gain anything from the priests? you will not be the first either. This Cardinal had been the son of an outreuter from Augsburg, and his father had been of a good, old, noble family there, but. Poverty half became a servant. He was the first Cardinal in Germany, and was known through the promotion of his sisters to the Emperor Maximiliani Court, and then sent to the Pope in Rome in a legation, which then happened; he was made Coadjutor of the Bishopric of Salzburg.
2. from another bishop in the German country.
M. Luthern was told that the same bishop had dismissed a schoolmaster and cantor who had been called from Wittenberg in his towns to serve as a schoolmaster: now he had given them ten guilders and let them jump. There spoke D. M. Luther: "The bishops do as their kind does: they are bloodhounds, and their feet hasten to shed blood. He has a mind like Cain, he
1) Cf. cap. 27, § 54. § 137.
will not rest until he has slain Abel. If they start a war, they will lose. We have told and preached it to them enough; now we must prepare and arm ourselves with prayer against them.
(This paragraph in Cordatus No. 1337.)
Oh dear God, how you are so patient and let yourself be trampled underfoot, but he has suffered such things from his creature from the beginning. But you can pay them in your time.
This bishop once saw that in his town one of the people had run in a crowd to the preaching of the Gospel, and with weeping eyes he said: "Oh, we shepherds should do that, how our sheep go astray! Well, I cannot do it differently. When this was reported to M. M. L., he said: "Will Christ be satisfied with this? He will see. He prefers the cardinal's and bishop's hats to divine truth. He fears that he might lose it and be deposed from the bishopric, he does not believe that God can depose the mighty and exalt the lowly, as they sing every day in the Magnificat. But they do not believe, they are the most pusillanimous people: length cannot stand with them, they have too evil a conscience, they are not at one with themselves, they are mad in their ways: for in the Augsburg Act of Anno 1530 they did not think with a single word of the noblest article of the primacy of the Pope and Vicariate of St. Peter, which was the main article of the whole papacy.
D. M. Luther once said about tables: It would be a German proverb: At a fox one does not break a game; that is, one would like to
You may pursue a fox as far and as wide as you can. This is not allowed with hares, deer and other wild animals. So," he said, "one may also harm an evil, godless and wicked man, preach against him, teach him and write against him. And he remembered a great spiritual lord, a bishop, 1) and said: "If God grants me life for only half a year, then I will dance with the same bride over hill and dale. If God wanted the lawyers to come into my play, I would also ruffle them up honestly and teach them what Subjectum Juris is called. The law is a beautiful bride when she stays in her bed; but when she crosses over to another bed and wants to rule the theologians in the church, she is a great whore. That is why the law should take off its beret before theology.
Of this and other bishops, M. Luther said at another time: "I have not read such a frightening and thorough example of hardening as in them. They far surpass the Jews, Pharaohs, and others; indeed, they are the closest to the devil: my heart in my body often trembles and shakes when I think of them.
At Worms, at the Imperial Diet, I prophesied to them that they would one day like to accept the truth they had recognized, but they would not be able to do so because they now condemned it out of great malice. Unfortunately, I have experienced this prophecy: they themselves confess that our doctrine is the truth and want it to be so. But the obdurate people fear the belly, and cannot give a good example to other nations, nor let their monasticism and regiment be separated and dissolved. But now I prophesy to them that they shall perish and be destroyed; but I will not see it, and I pray God to take me away with grace first.
And said further, This bishop is not a frater ignorantiae, sed frater malitiae: what he doeth, he doeth not through ignorance, but through malice. He is a great
1) Of the Bishop of Mainz. Cf. the letter of Nov. 6.
1542, Walch, old edition, vol. XIX, 2401, no. XXXV. I
Epicurer, docile, ductilis, he lets himself be led, listens well to what is said, acts kindly and meekly, but does what he desires; can send himself /a kindly and judge in the people, as the Italians can all give good words from a false heart.
(This paragraph in Lauterbach, July 1, 1538, p. 95.)
In these days Luther was very distressed about the great malice of the bishop [of Mainz] and said with a sigh: Dear Lord JEsu Christe, save my life, and strengthen me, that I may cut a plate for the priests. For it is not a bad one, but the most mocking one. All other princes are, with respect to him and judging by him, simple peasants. This is a right one who dares to boast that not many attacks have been returned to him, as if he himself were in league with Satan. In the Hans Schantzen case, he so won over the lawyers that no one wanted to take up the case against him. These fearful people are afraid to exercise their profession and do not want to imitate the example of Papinianus. Therefore, it must be told to the Junker all the same, because he can very well overhear. When I wrote him a very sharp letter, he was able to overhear everything with a good pretense, except for this argument, which I reproached him with, that he had deprived the poor puke Elsa of her penny and stopped at 80,000 florins, and granted the 300 florins annual interest by grace, not by right. That has hit him badly that this is published. But that whore died very godly by reproach of the Gospel, according to Christ's saying: "The tax collectors and whores may rather enter the kingdom of heaven than you" (Matth. 21, 31.).
(This paragraph in Lauterbach, 18 Dec. 1538, p. 193.)
The Bishop of Mainz is a very fearful man, but cruel and tyrannical he is vicious. Brave heroes do everything openly. David, Julius Caesar and others have not had anyone stabbed, but have gone honestly under eyes. But the tyrants are mostly very feminine.
After M. Luther had cried out to this bishop quite harshly and swiftly in a matter of
He attacked him with scornful, peevish, flowery, hard, pointed words; then he confessed that he was wrong in matters of religion, in which he also wanted to give himself to D. Luther. Luther, but in other worldly matters he would not yield to him. Then D. Luther said: I must better wake him up. Oh dear Lord God, one should not joke with you, nor abuse your name! It is enough that we have sinned, we should repent of it and be sorry. These people do not need to have a conscience. They act like that country servant who once came to me, and I admonished him that he would renounce his evil life and evil ways. Then he answered me: "Yes, dear doctor, if I thought that way, I would never go to war again. So do the cardinals and bishops. And he said: "For this bishop I have prayed until now, categorically, affirmatively, positively, from the bottom of my heart, that God would convert him. I have also tried by writing whether I could call and bring him to repentance; but I would have kept such words inside. Now I pray for him hypothetice et despera- bunde, differently than I have despaired of him. For he gives the best words from an evil heart. He is a wicked, evil man and a hypocrite: he deceives and cheats everyone: he scents all money like a thief: he will frighten and sadden many people when he dies, to whom he is guilty.
A princess said to D. M. Luther: "Is there also hope for this bishop, that he might be converted? And she said, "She wanted to bring this new newspaper to Mr. Luther soon, so that he would recognize himself. Then said D. Luther said, "I do not believe it, although it would give me great joy if he were won over and repented. But there is no hope. I believe it of Pilato, Herod, Diocletiano, who have sinned publicly. Then the princess said: God be almighty and merciful, who would have also accepted Judas back into grace, if he had repented. M. Luther answered: Yes, he would also accept Satan again, if he could say from his heart: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But to him, unfortunately, there is no hope, because he fights...
against the known truth. A few days ago, he had thirteen Christians, who had taken the sacrament under both forms, miserably killed by hunger.
It is true that God is almighty and merciful, he can do more than we can think of, but he does not want to do more than he has decided. As St. Paul says to Romans 8, v. 30: "Those whom he has ordained he has also chosen and called." When he says, "I will do nothing; let it be done, and be content. As in the books of Samuel, God said to Samuel, "Why do you complain of Saul, whom I have rejected?" 1 Sam. 16, 1. Therefore, I can have no hope in this bishop. I command it to God, whom I will let rule it.
And said D. M. Luther: This bishop has often written to me in a friendly manner, and has smeared his mouth in such a way that I have advised him in writing to take a wife. 1) In the meantime, however, he deceived us with good words and only mocked us until the Diet of Augsburg, where I first got to know him. But he still wanted to be our friend, except for the N. N. matter, in which he wanted to choose me as negotiator and arbitrator.
(A paragraph in Lauterbach, March 4, 1538, p. 46, is torn out of the middle of the relevant section and is therefore not included by us, but in Appendix No. I under No. 103).
About this bishop Luther said on another occasion: "I want to leave the testimony behind me that he is the greatest rogue who ever came on earth, except for Neronem and Caligulam; otherwise he is above them all. He only lacks luck, otherwise he is cunning enough. He has sought me out in such a strange way that if our Lord God had not protected me in a special way, he would have caught me. In 1525 he sent me twenty gold florins through a doctor and had them given to my daughter, but I did not want it. For I have kept the name, praise God, that I do not take money. And with money this bishop has taken all the lawyers, so that they say, "This is a gentleman who means well. There he sits, laughing in his fist. There was a priest in one place,
1) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 678 ff.
who preached the gospel. Now he gave him a damask and sent him money so that he would keep quiet and revoke. After that he said, "The Lutherans are such bad boys, they do everything for the sake of money. But because I have stayed with God's word, he could not win me over. For besides, he vexes everyone else.
3. from other bishops.
In the year two and forty, M. Luther said: "The bishop of Wuerzburg lets himself be seen as if he were almost with us, because he suffers that the choir students take nuns in marriage. 2c. He also advised a canon who secretly had a married wife that the secret marriage was also to be approved, even if they had not been held publicly nor gone to church and street with each other, if only pious God-fearing witnesses had been present.
The bishop of Cameris confuted and refuted the Pope's primacy, saying: the holy, Christian, universal Church does not stand on a single person or the Roman Church. So he proved it: for the Church could remain on a single person, as in the time of Christ on Mary and the thief on the cross. The apostles would have fallen, therefore their successors, and those who take their place, could also fall; therefore the church does not stand on a certain place, and proper succession. If anyone said this to our tyrants, he would have to die," said D. M. Luther.
The bishops of Rome are the poorest of all, are only lords by name and title, and must walk; but if they have a horse, they must obtain it from another office. For the pope has innumerable table companions, who must buy the privilege with many thousand ducats, so that they may then have exspectations on bishoprics and cathedrals in German and other countries, so that a table companion must buy an exspectancy for three thousand ducats. Thus the pope's kingdom is only a devastation and tearing apart of the domestic, secular and church government or religion, and much more harmful than any tyranny, which alone leads and breaks in by force, but the pope tears apart all divine ordinances with a loud voice.
Deceit and lies. The bishops in Italy, France, England, Hispania are usually the court advisors of the kings, for the reason that they are poor. But in Germany, because the bishops are rich and powerful and have a great prestige besides, they rule alone.
M. Antonius Lauterbach showed M. M. Luther a letter from the Bishop of Meissen to the preacher in N., in which he accused him and complained that he was only making the people more wanton with his sermons, did not frighten them, they went there in safety, and were not afraid, only sweeping works of the flesh, not of the spirit. Then said D. M. Luther said: "That misfortune should befall the boys! What can they blame us for, as if we preached works of the flesh, since we always teach against them most vehemently and constantly? Only that they cannot see this because of great hatred and envy: they have innumerable plots and practices against us; they make great efforts, like Martha, and cause them much trouble without need, in vain; but we have mentioned the best part, and always insist on one opinion, namely, that God is Wonderful and Counsel, and that Christ lives and reigns. But they, because they have wicked causes, make endless plans and counsels, and never get on the right path.
The papal bishops do nothing that their office requires," said D. M. Luther. This is our consolation, that they are not the righteous church, which needs them for the sake of the ministry of preaching, baptism and sacrament. Therefore they are not true bishops, because they are not such bishops as St. Paul defines and describes a bishop, Titus 1:9, namely, "he that holdeth fast the word which is sure, and is able to teach, that he may be mighty to exhort by sound doctrine, and to punish them that speak evil. For the church is in need of the teaching, first, of the law, of what we owe and ought to do. Secondly, of justification and sanctification, how we are justified and sanctified before God, namely, as much as the Holy Spirit works in us,
1) Probably not to Joh. Cellarius at Bautzen (Bindseil III, 296), but to Caspar Zeuner, as also Seidemann (at De Wette VI, 704) assumes. Cf. Cap. 27, § 159.
for he alone must always be the master. Third, prayer and thanksgiving, so that we may grow and increase daily in right faith, confession and good works. The antinomians and lawbreakers despise all this and have only a pretense of it. That is why Satan, as God's monkey, has invented much outward sanctification: because he sees that God does such things, he imitates them; but for the sake of an evil end, namely, either to make people mislead and dismayed, or to prefer and exalt lies and what is false to truth and what is righteous, and to accept and hold above them what is true, or to despise what is true for what is false.
D. M. Luther remembered the Bishop of Brandenburg, with whom he had stood in prayer at Dessau on an Easter day, who had gone to the Gospel of his own accord, and had spoken vehemently against the papacy, the Mass, the Canon, and the offering ex opere operato, doing works of his own self-chosen devotion, since the priest, when he picks up the host, says: God, I offer you haec Dona, haec Munera, et haec Sacrosancta, these gifts, presents, and holiest things: since he eats a piece of bread. For he says such words before the consecration, before he consecrates. Ah, God give us such bishops more, as he has given us several universities, as Wittenberg, Leipzig, Rostock, Copenhagen, Königsberg, Erfurt. 1) We hope, Mainz shall also come. There is no hope from Cologne.
After that he wished happiness and God's blessing to M. Cellario and M. Antonio Lauterbach to their bishoprics, and called them bishops; they would be right bishops and would have a greater regiment and superattendence than St. Augustine. For Hippo would not have been so great as Dresden. For if St. Augustine had been burdened with other things, as now the bishops of Shrovetide, he would not have been able to write such great books nor to preach. Unfortunately, we learn that the bishops are now so negligent and unfaithful that they do not only leave their office and do not go out of the church.
1) Stangwald also mentions Tübingen and Greifswald.
but secretly follow up and would like to prevent, even kill, those who do so.
The bishop of N. N., although he has taken a wife, is a godless pope, does not promote the gospel, seeks only his own benefit. Summa, the bishops find only poison and pestilence of the churches and police, disturbers of both regiments.
In 1539, on January 25, M. Luther had previously admonished D. Caspar Zeuner 2) that he would gladly accept the office of superintendent and the office of preacher at Freiberg, in honor of God. For although we are too weak and far too few for such a high office, God wants us to be fellow heirs and helpers, and He wants to work through us, he said. And he granted that he would write to the Bishop of Meissen, if he wanted to help in such holy work. We must nevertheless, said D. We do not want them to lose their authority and power if they only accept God's word, or at least let it have its free course.
I will work diligently to help that the monasteries and small dioceses may remain, that preachers and pastors may be chosen and taken into the cities from them and educated, and that the small schools may become common pastors, while the large dioceses will become secular. If one now wanted to let everything fall, where would one take preachers and ministers? For the common rabble and the common man will not and will not feed us, so we cannot do it ourselves and feed ourselves; therefore let us keep this means. As I now intend and intend to ask the princes, in my book of the church.
If we had one or two bishops on our side and brought them to us, as the bishop of Eichstadt was, who freely said to the emperor: "One should not hinder the course of the Gospel. We also have this hope for the bishop of Meissen, who advised at Leipzig on the day that priestly marriages should be allowed to continue, and that the sacra-
2) Compare Hiezu im Appendix No. I No. 364 den Brief des LI. Nie. Hausmann to the Bishop of Meissen.
ment under both figures. If that were to happen, we would have enough right away. For the celibacy and the celibate life of the priests is not over five hundred years that [it] has begun. At the time of Bishop Ulrich it was only introduced and started. And they probably circumvented it for a hundred years before they brought it into pregnancy. And they had soon slain the bishop of Mainz in Erfurt, because he had wanted to carry out the execution.
4. how far one may tolerate the bishops.
In 1543, on the 15th of May, on the day of our Lord's Ascension, 1) Luther had lunch with the Elector of Saxony. There it was also discussed that the bishops be allowed to remain in their authority, only that they swear to the pope and be godly persons who promote the gospel and are subject and obedient to him, as Speratus is. Then let us give and appropriate to them the righteousness and power to ordain ecclesiastics. Although Philip M. recanted: for there would be danger if they were to examine. Then said D. M. Luther said: "Our people must take the exam and then ordain them with the laying on of hands, as I am now a bishop.
5. the word bishop, where it comes from and what it means.
(The first paragraph Lauterbach, April 10, 1538, p. 59.)
On April 10 there was much and careful disputirt about the name bishop, what a great office it would be, to whom an army not of goats or pigs, not a heap of gold or silver, but the army of Christ would be commanded. And he said he could not render this name ¸ð^æïðïò clearly enough in German, and the word Ýðéó÷ïðåÀí, whereon to think, to heed, to care. Therefore the pastors would best be called curators [caretakers]. And some derive it not unskillfully: bishop by sheep, who is to be with the sheep, always and diligently looking after them
1) This date is incorrect because in 1543 May 15 fell on a Tuesday.
remember. A househusband 2) is a name of status. But it should actually be a name of activity. But, unfortunately, the glorious name has completely passed away with the papists and has been only a name of dignity, but the devil's image of a tyrant, as the word spiritual has also become nothing else. Spiritual goods were called interest. Fie on you! At the time of Jerome there were only bishops, i.e. elders and deacons, as his epistle to Evagrius indicates; I will publish it. At that time there was neither cardinal, nor primate, nor patriarch, nor metropolitan, nor archbishop, but a bishop, i.e. an elder, and a priest and a deacon. But now such a fuss has been made, so that the Church, the Bride of Christ, is completely changed and has become a Papist whore, which has only the outward appearance, without the inward Word of God.
(The following paragraph in Lauterbach, Apr. 30, 1538, p. 75.)
After that he asked Jonas, who was leaving for Zerbst, to explain the passage 1 Peter 5 to him: The elders are to pay attention voluntarily, not forced, but gladly from the heart, not as if they had to do it. Who does this? Then that he does not seek shameful gain, that he only seeks to benefit souls and consciences. By this tremendous thunderclap he puts down the whole papacy, which seeks shameful gain, seeks honor and avarice, but also all hopefuls and belly servants. These words of Peter are not merely äþÜ÷ôé÷á [teaching], but also prophetic. Peter saw in his mind the ungodliness of his followers, who would do everything by force and for the sake of gain. In short, whichever elder has this testimony in his conscience, according to this passage of Peter, may well be glad and look forward with joy to the archpastor Christ, and certainly boast and say: Here I stand and preach, called with extended divine vocation. On the other hand, the listeners should believe: Here I sit and hear God speak, not
2) A househusband is a man who is supposed to be in the house and take care of it diligently. The name, however, expresses only the former, although the performance of the activity is the main thing.
a human being. So the church would stand righteously. In short: St. Peter exhorts diligently. He was also serious, as the first letter concludes, "GOD who called you, the same will complete you, strengthen you, fortify you, establish you. Amen."
Once upon a time there was a bishop on the Rhine who put many poor people who came to him asking for alms into a house and locked it; then he set fire to it, and when the poor people cried out in a pitiful, loud voice, he said, "Dear, listen to the mice chirping and screaming. This same bishop and tyrant was then eaten by large mice. Since he could not fight off the mice, he had a stone house built for him in the middle of the Rhine, where he lived, as happened. But the mice followed him, swam through the Rhine, and ate him.
6. the bishops' negligence.
No bishop or papist priest in a hundred years has taken with seriousness to care for the poor as the schools and
churches with baptism and the preaching ministry, because they are burdened with God's hatred.
7. from the bishop of Brandenburg.
D. M. Luther said that when he had just begun to write against indulgences in 1517, he had sent a letter to the bishop of Brandenburg, asking him to defend Tetzel. He replied: "I should not start with these things; but if I did, I would gain trouble, because I would be attacking the cause of the church. Then the devil incarnate spoke out of this bishop.
8. ordination of bishops in the papacy.
If a bishop is made in the papacy, the devil soon leads into him; for he must vow to the pope at Rome to strive, rage and rage against the Lutheran doctrine, and to serve and be obedient to the pope. He swears to serve the devil, and the devil leads into him from the beginning.