1. authority is a sign of divine grace.
2. difference among parents and the authorities.
God punishes through the authorities, who are His servants.
4. authority is founded in natural and divine law.
5. authorities shall keep above their laws and orders.
6. authorities should always remove the evil and
7. authorities and jurists need forgiveness of sins in their office.
8. from where it comes that the authorities sin and do wrong.
9. ungodly princes, ungodly councilors.
10. For the authorities, one should ask.
11. how the authorities should be sent, and by the princes of Anhalt.
12. by Duke Albrecht of Saxony.
13. from King Saul's armor bearer.
14) Whether the son, as judge, may condemn the father.
15. Godless authorities can be fine world rulers.
16 Regents have enough to do that they may well lose their wit.
17. god, and not laws, receive a regiment.
18. the testimony of the preachers.
19. what kind of people belong to the government office.
20. that government is a difficult thing.
21. servants are commonly masters.
22) Why princes and lords do not take away all of their plots and practices.
23) How the ecclesiastical and secular regiment had been ordered in Emperor Maximilian's time.
24. that Pilate was a pious man of the world.
25. evil authority harms the subjects.
26. God forgives and changes the kingdoms.
27. that one should give tax and tribute to the authorities.
The love and obedience of the subjects to the authorities is the highest good and treasure.
29. that princes should refrain from drunkenness for the sake of arousal.
1. authority is a sign of divine grace.
(Contained in Cap. 2, §142.)
2. difference among parents and the authorities.
(Contained in Cap. 3, § 63.)
God punishes through the authorities, who are His servants.
(Cordatus No. 734, except for the Latin.)
The authorities are like a fishpond, but God is the sturgeon, 1) who reaches the fish into the fishpond. When a thief is ripe, he reaches it in, it must be caught. Therefore it is written [Ps. 58, 12]: "God is still judge on earth." Therefore it is necessary that the wicked either come to repentance or to punishment, 1) An outstanding thief, who, at the age of sixty, was seized in Wittenberg, answered the mayor, who asked him in prison: "As we do, so it goes.
Tu supplex ora, tu protege, tuque labora!
Id est:
Sacerdotes doceant; Magistratus defendat et protegat; agricola colat agrum; et reliqui artifices faciant, quod prodest ad conservationem societatis humanae.
4. authority is natural and divine right.
That the authority is founded in the fourth commandment can certainly be proved. Cause, obedience is necessary, so is the parents' power and authority also necessary: if then the parents' authority vanishes and the children's disobedience increases, so that they no longer want to be drawn nor to be obedient, then natural law and reason teach that children have guardians to help them draw, then the authorities must be guardians. Therefore the emperor is the guardian of all parents.
God could only by his omnipotence in another way, through another means
1) In the original "Stark"; the Hallische Handschrift, Bindseil I, 301, "Stürle"; Rebenstock I, 146 b iustruuwntuin; Aurifaber "Störer," likewise Stangwald.
2) Cf. cap. 9, §19.
He can control and prevent the disobedient children, but he needs the proper means that he has set, namely, the authorities.
Therefore, father shall remain father. If the father's authority and power are extinguished and forfeited, the authorities take his place. But since the authorities cannot or will not punish, the devil comes and punishes. Therefore the saying remains true: What father and mother cannot punish, let the executioner or the devil punish; they are our Lord God's executioners.
But here one wants to say: The father does not have the power to kill the son, therefore the authority should not have it either? Answer: The authorities are the servants of the parents, and the will of the parents is the will of God. He says and commands that disobedient children should be put to death, as there is an expressed command of God in Moses to put the disobedient son to death, even though the father does not want to.
5. authorities shall keep above their laws and orders.
Princes and rulers must keep above their mandates, orders and ordinances, otherwise they will be despised. That is why the peasants, burghers and nobles think that if a ruler does not speak himself and give verbal orders, it is not the ruler's word or mandate and command. So it is with our Lord God. When D. Pommer, I or another faithful teacher preaches, the scorners go there and despise it, saying: Our pastor has preached, they do not realize nor believe that these are Christ's words, who speaks through them himself, as he says: "Behold, I send you" 2c. "He that heareth you heareth me," Luc. 10:3, 16. Therefore, if our most gracious Lord will not keep above the visitation, it will be nothing with us.
(The following at Cordatus No. 1165-1170.)
All authorities should rightly love the Gospel and by love kiss it daily, because now everyone can act in his office with a good conscience, which none of them could do under the papacy, since they were taught by the monks that they were (at least) in a dangerous state, because the papists could not distinguish between a private and an official position.
The executioner had to 1) atone for what he would do to the condemned beforehand. The executioner had to 1) atone, to beg the condemned beforehand that he would do to him as if he sinned who sentenced a guilty person to his punishment.
Since it is the actual office of the authorities to condemn the obviously ungodly, but they asked forgiveness from the guilty because of the verdict passed, it is certainly not doubtful that every authority under the pope did not recognize their office, but their teachers did not understand what Paul says [Rom. 13, 4.]: "She does not bear the sword in vain, for she is God's servant." Therefore, her students did not know it either. GOD commands that the wrongdoers be punished, as I [command] that my disobedient son [be punished], and since these are punished, the execution of his command pleases him, as it pleases me when my son has been chastised. But if someone wanted to beat my son without my command, I would not suffer it.
The Elector Frederick did not like to punish and said: It is easy to take life, but you can not give it back, and therefore the Elector always said: Hey, he will still become pious. The emperor Frederick [Ill.] was always angry, as often as the cities asked him for jurisdiction (as they used to) every year (annuatim). This art had been taught to them by the monks, by whom, for the sake of their clemency, the lands were filled with evildoers and they ceased to exercise justice.
God, whose mercy extends over all, says after all according to His justice [Ex. 21, 17.]: "Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death", even at the altar, only the head off, and "You are a righteous judge" [Ps. 7, 12.] and the land shall be cleansed from robbers.
The lawyers with teaching, reading, deciding tear off the heads of the people, without that the executioner must probably keep peace. D. Hieronymus Schurf, a very good jurist and Christian, has not come to the point where he would have had the heart to convict someone with a good conscience.
1) In the original: The executioners had to 2c.
The preachers are of all the greatest slayers, for they admonish the authorities to be strict in their office, to punish the guilty. I have slain all the peasants in the uproar, all their blood is on my neck, but I point it to our Lord God, who has commanded me to speak such things. But the devil and the wicked who kill are not right. He who considers and knows this diligently has learned something important. Our authorities today know very well how to distinguish between a private and an official person, and they recognize the right they have, but they abuse it very much against the gospel and its servants. This shall not prosper them.
The authorities should always remove and punish evil.
D. Luther once said that Joab, King David's captain of the field, must have been a free man of war, for he set it. freely on his fist. And having only six hundred men with him, yet he meets with all the people of Israel, and smites them. For he has thought: I have good old men of war with me, who have often been in earnest before, but they are a great people, huddled together everywhere, and marching without all order; therefore he attacks them and puts them to flight, and it is too much for him. But I think that David would not have liked to have been stirred up against Absalom's son to wage war against him, but his captains persuaded him to do so and put him in armor. Therefore he commanded the captains to spare Absalom the boy. But Joab's counsel is the best, namely, with bad boys only down, because they do not become more pious, but they cause one misfortune over another forever.
Once a boy of eighteen was imprisoned for theft. Now the judge and the jury would have gladly released him from the gallows for the sake of his youth and let him go. Then he said, "Go away with me, for I am three years old; if you let me go, I will start stealing again, just as I did before.
I have left. Therefore, whoever deserves death should always be put away. And D. Luther told the old saying: A thief is nowhere better than on the gallows, a monk in the monastery, and a fish in the water. And Luther said that he had asked for some from the gallows, that they had been given life, but after a few days they had stolen again, and were hanged immediately afterwards. Therefore Joab's counsel was much better than that of King David.
7. authorities and jurists need forgiveness of sins in their office.
(Cordatus No. 1252.)
The authorities and lawyers must be strict and necessarily sin, because, since they are officials, they do either more or less in their office than they should; and the same happens to them as to the best craftsmen, who may have the skill to work, but do not have suitable tools with which to practice their art, as a carpenter who has a sharp axe loses all, or at least much, of the work applied to his art. So also the authorities, although they are good and appointed by God, do much evil if the private persons with whom the authorities have to deal are evil. It is no different for preachers when they have somehow deviated from the Word or have given in to their passions, carried away by the very great malice and ingratitude of the mob.
8) Where it comes from that the authorities sin and do wrong. 1)
(Here a paragraph is omitted because contained in Cap. 26, §30.)
(The following paragraph Cordatus No. 350.)
Ferdinand extorted immeasurable money from his own, but God gave him a blessing similar to that [which those get] who have their handful of feathers. So his money dusts from one another. Thus he is also the first king of Bohemia and the last of the Romans.
1) The beginning of this section is transferred to the previous tz, where it belongs.
9. ungodly princes, ungodly councilors.
(Lauterbach, June 28, 1538, p. 92.)
It is impossible that where there are godless kings, there should be pious counselors. For the consequence is inevitable: Where the bishop of Mainz is a liar, D. Türk must also be evil. As Solomon says Prov. 29 (v. 12): "A lord who delights in lying, his servants are all godless."
10. For the authorities, one should ask.
Authority is a necessary order and status in the world, and to be held in honor, therefore one should ask God for it, because it can be corrupted and corrupt, nam honores mutant mores nunquam in meliores: for honor changes life, makes other senses, words, deeds and works, but never or seldom better, become very soon and easily tyrants: for he who rules without laws, and wants to have his head straight, what he thinks and does, that shall be right: he is a beast, worse than an unreasonable wild animal. But a man who rules according to written and established laws is like God, who is the founder of justice.
11. how authorities shall be sent, and by the princes of Anhalt.
(The first paragraph Cordatus No. 1021.)
Today I had a very theological meal [prandium] with the brothers Herren von Anhalts, who are like virgins in manners and modesty and talked about nothing but God's word during the whole meal.
All three brothers, Prince John, Georgius, Joachim, are sincere princes, princely and Christian mind. This is what fine God-fearing parents do, who bring up their children well, and it is a work of the fourth commandment of God, who will also bless them. Ask God that they may remain steadfast in the pure doctrine and not be persuaded against it by other princes and tyrants.
2) Luther was (cf. Cap. 22, § 13) on Nov. 24, 1532 in Wörlitz, together with Melanchthon and Cruciger, with the princes Johann, Joachim and Georg von Anhalt.
They also have a fine glory. For on this hunt they caught three wild pigs and two deer, and in one year they caught fourteen hundred salmon. Prince Wolf did not take a wife, so that they might have the dominion and the land alone. The younger one spoke very well of the holy scriptures, said that Christ alone would be the eternal high priest: this title, name and honor belong neither to St. Peter nor to the Pope. He also referred to the saying of Bernhardi, where he says: "Let humility be the way to Christ, that is, to despair of Himself and of His powers, that is called humility. For they have read through all my books, Zwingels and Oecolampadii.
12. by Duke Albrecht of Saxony.
Doctor M. Luther says a lot about Duke Albrecht's princely virtues, that he was a very fine, modest, modest and sensible gentleman, that he always held his brother, Duke Ernst, the Elector, in great honor, that he always walked several steps behind and beside him, and that he leaned and stooped beside him when they talked to each other.
But that he was a great gambler happened while he was still idle, in no regiment and office. It is said that he played with a rich miller at Nuremberg, who had lost a mill with eleven gears and wheels, down to the last gear. Then the duke said: "This is how one should wedge the plow for the peasants. But fortune, as it is fickle and rolls from one to the other, had again come to [the] miller, that he had regained all his mill gears, with a large sum of money in addition. Then he is said to have said again: In this way, the spur rakes should be abundantly offered to a prince. Both are politely spoken.
13. from King Saul's armor bearer.
The question was asked, "Did King Saul's armor-bearer, who killed him by the king's command, do the right thing? M. Luther answered and said: No, because Saul was not with himself at that time, but in the highest fear and terror.
And he said further: If someone in the torture, when he is questioned, confesses with impatience and great pain that he did not do it, he does wrong and sin, because he does it against his conscience. But the judge who condemns and sentences him for such a false confession does not do wrong, as long as he has sufficient cause for the questioning and is held to account, according to the circumstances, as the law prescribes; as David's action shows, who had him killed again immediately when he brought him the message that he had stabbed Saul in the war against the Philistines and lied about it.
14. question.
Whether the son, who is a judge, may judge and condemn the father, who is accused of wrongdoing before him? Answer: He may well do so, because he is in office; but equity teaches that he should appoint another in his stead.
15. ungodly authorities can well be his world rulers.
(Contained in Cap. 27, § 152.)
16 Regents have enough to do that they may well lose their wit.
If you want the tickle to go away, said D. M. Luther, one should only give it to him. You women can see this in the saying Gen. 3, 16: "You shall bear children with fear. Now that is a thing in itself. But you will learn this from the maidservants and servants, what they do to the masters and wives in the household. But to the man God says, v. 17: "The earth shall bear thee thistles and thorns." I think this is a curse, that we must eat thistles and thorns, that is, must have toil and labor in governing. Therefore, let a young journeyman have honest 1) pleasure at the proper time; when he comes to the regiment, the tickle will probably pass him by. That 2) said the Doctor, since E[rasmus] E[bner] 3)
1) So Stangwald and Walch instead of "marital".
2) In the editions : Da.
3) Stangwald.
The mayor of Nuremberg, who had been cheerful and amusing in his youth, was remembered above the meal, and then came to great trouble and work in the government.
17. god, and not laws, receive a regiment.
A worldly regiment (said D. M. L.) is not maintained by laws and rights alone, but by the divine authority. God maintains it, because otherwise the greatest sins remain unpunished in the world. Just as in theology we punish only the smallest sins. Zwinglius and Oecolampadius, who are great sinners, pass through, and nothing is done with them. Our Lord God indicates in the laws what His will is, how evil should and must be punished, and because great princes and lords do not punish the laws, because they cannot do it, they are too weak, our Lord God will do it once. In this life the lawyers can only catch gnats and flies with their laws, but the great bumblebees and wasps tear through them as through a spider's web, and want to be unpunished. Of this also the pagans, as Cato, have said: Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas. Therefore, God must hold sway over the regiment, and they are not protected and preserved by laws and books alone, but by God.
18. preacher's testimony.
It was asked whether an authority also has the power to ask a preacher about adulterers when he has scolded them severely? Answer: No. For an individual's testimony does nothing. What I know, I can prove; what I cannot prove, I do not know.
Item: It was also asked whether the authorities would do right if a poor imprisoned thief had secretly confessed to the chaplain that he had stolen so much that he would be executed, so that they would force him, the deacon, to say what he had confessed and confessed? M. Luther answered and said: "No, as long as God is silent, the chaplain, or the one who heard his confession, should also remain silent. For
The one who confessed it to him did not confess it to a man, but to God, in whose place the priest sits, therefore he should keep it secret. And for the reason that a man's testimony alone is not valid, we do not permit a secret betrothal, for because it is a man's testimony, it cannot prove anything.
19. what kind of people belong to the government office.
The regiment does not include common, bad people, nor servants, but heroes, intelligent, wise and courageous people, who can be trusted, and who look after the common benefit and prosperity, and do not seek their own pleasure, and follow their desires. But how many are rulers and lawyers, even councilors, who think of this? They only make a handling and handicraft out of the authority. Solomon says: A man who can control his mind and break it is better than one who storms and conquers cities 2c. It is a beautiful book, has many fine sayings, Proverbia Salomonis.
I would like to wish Scipioni, the honest hero, that he were in heaven; he could rule. To be able to overcome oneself and to break and control one's mind is the highest and most praiseworthy victory. Duke Frederick, Elector of Saxony 2c., was such a prince: he could digest a lot and control himself, even though he was angry by nature; but he stuck to himself.
20. that government is a hard thing.
Doctor Martin Luther said in 1546 about tables in Eisleben: That the wise and prudent man, Frederick of Thuna, knight, had once requested leave from Elector Frederick of Saxony; then the Elector would have said: Dear Thuna, you see that governing is a difficult thing, and I need skilled people for it, I cannot do without you: although your age no longer wants you to be at court, you must nevertheless have patience. Just as I must also be patient. For if I will not do it, and neither will you, who will do it? That is why I cannot let you go.
(Here 4 lines are omitted because contained in Cap. 66, § 53.)
Item, D. Luther said on another occasion: That young rulers thought they wanted to pick up a jerk like a pebble.
21. servants are commonly masters.
One says in the proverb: That in the house (said D. M. Luther Anno 1546) is only one servant, the lord. Item: Princes do not like to be lawyers. For if they would like to be, then all heavy trades would come upon them. That is why they have their chancellors and lawyers, who must bear the burden. For everyone likes to cut the boards where they are thinnest, and one does not like to drill through thick boards. That is why our Lord God comes and casts one into a princely position, like a young journeyman in marriage: he also looks at the maiden from the outside, not knowing what will follow. So it is with the rulers, too. It seems as if it were something delicious, but when you look at it, you see what it is. I do not like to rule; it is not in my nature.
Then M. Philip said: You have Solem. Thereupon spoke D. M. Luther: "I don't ask anything about your astrology, I know my nature well, and I know it. D. Staupitz used to bend this saying in the Song of Solomon in the 8th Cap., V. 12: "My vineyard is before me": God has taken the regiment to Himself, so that not everyone may strut; He says: I will be it alone, I will be king and regent, pastor and priest, husband in the house and wife with children; in sum, I will be it all alone. And that is also right. And it is dear to me that he has taken the reign in all things to himself. For Pastor, Episcopus, Caesar, Rex, Vir et Uxor errant, but he erreth not, and if it had counseled us, we should be proud. Therefore it is said: Quem fortuna nimium fovet, stultum facit, whom fortune holds too well, it beguiles. If one is too happy, it makes a fool of him; for it is impossible that one should not be proud who is well and happy, according to his own pleasure.
Therefore God must make us pastors, priests, fathers of households, rulers, etc., so that the water may go a little into our mouths and we may learn to swim. He does not do that,
then it becomes worse. If then it happens that one says, "I wish I had not become a bishop or a preacher," 2c.; item, "I wish I were a householder," 2c.; and then we cringe behind our ears, "That's right. God cannot otherwise control our wisdom, so He gives us to rule; as He commanded St. Peter to rule the goats, as they say in fables. We must have to govern, otherwise we would not know who we are. So Moses also says: Who am I, Lord, that I should carry the children as a wet nurse carries the children? He was anxious enough about his ministry. It is our Lord God's game, so that he will drive away our pride and arrogance.
(Here 11 lines are omitted-because contained in Cap. 27, § 23.)
22) Why princes and lords do not take away all their plots and practices.
The princes do not pray nowadays when they want to start something, but only say thus: Three times three is nine; this is not missing. Item: Two times seven is fourteen; this calculation does not fall short, so it must surely come out. Thus says our Lord GOD: Who do you take me for? for a number that is not worth anything? I must sit up here in vain. Therefore he reverses the account and makes it all wrong for them.
23. how the ecclesiastical and secular regiment was ordered to emperor
Maximiliani times.
The Emperor Maximilian was a splendid hero, who had received magnificent gifts from God, and was especially a fine, polite, modest man, so that Prince Frederick of Saxony preferred him to all princes and lords whom he had seen or experienced, and said of him: "He would have been capable of infamy and seriousness. When his imperial majesty was once asked about this present world government, he smiled and said: God has well appointed both regiments: the ecclesiastical one with a drunken shitting monkey, and thus meant Pope Julium; then the secular one with a chamois hunter; because her imperial majesty had great pleasure in chamois hunting.
24. that Pilate was a pious man of the world.
Pilate has been more pious than any ruler in the kingdom, outside of those who are evangelical. And said D. M. Luther: I would now name many papist princes who could not be compared with Pilate. He kept the Roman laws and rights rigidly, so that he did not want to murder and kill innocent people who had not been convicted of any wrongdoing. So he also proposed all kinds of honorable conditions that he might release Christ. But when he was told of the emperor's disgrace, he was overawed and abandoned the emperor's rights. For he thought, "It is only a matter of one man, he is poor and despised, no one will take care of him, what harm can his death do me? It is better that one man should die than that the whole nation should be against me.
Then said 1) M. Johann Mathesius to D. M. Luthern. M. Luther: He had known two preachers who had quarreled fiercely about why Pilate had scourged Christ, and that he had said, "What is truth? For one would have pretended that Pilate did it out of compassion. But the other said, "It was done out of tyranny and contempt. Luther answered: Pilate would have been a pious man of the world, and would have scourged Christ out of a great compassion, so that he would quench the insatiable anger and rage of the Jews. And that he says to Christ, "What is truth?" he wants to give so much to understand: What do you want to argue about truth now in the evil life of the world? It does not apply, but you must think about evil plots, and about legalistic actions, so that you can get rid of them.
Luther was also asked: "What would the devil have wanted to prevent Christ's crucifixion through Pilate's wife? Then the doctor said, "That was his concern, that he thought: Well, I have strangled many prophets, and it has become the longer the worse, they are too constant; so Christ is also undaunted and undaunted to death: I would rather that
1) So Stangwald instead of: "would have.... said."
he remained alive, perhaps I could strangle or seduce him over a tentation, so I wanted to do more. He had high thoughts, because the devils are learned. And today we have to argue not against the Italian and Mainzian practices, but against the spiritual mischievousness of the devil. The Holy Spirit must displace this mischievousness, and St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, the dear angels, must protect us against the tyrants, otherwise it is lost with us.
25. evil authority harms the subjects.
Doctor Martin Luther once said: An evil authority that acts tyrannically is like a dumetum, that is, like a thorn hedge around a garden: For where one wants to climb through this hedge or fence into the garden, one pricks and scratches oneself, not that the thorn hedge wants to control and defend, that one should not steal the apples and pears from the garden, but that it is the nature and characteristic of the thorn bush that whoever attacks it must prick and injure himself on it. Thus an evil authority also pricks, wounds, torments and oppresses its subjects; not that it seeks God's honor and the church God's dearest, or wants to maintain discipline and restraint and control evil; but that this is the quality and nature of all tyrants, that they make a point of harming people and doing them harm.
26. God forgives and changes the kingdoms.
Doctor Martin Luther once said: Our Lord God should give us (Philippo Melanchthoni and him) as much wealth as any cardinal; for we have done as much in his cause as a hundred cardinals. But God says to us: Let it suffice thee that thou hast not, sufficit tibi gratia mea. If we have the man, we also have the bags. But if we have the bags without the man, it does not help us. Therefore he says: You have enough if you have me.
How does he say to the prophet Ezekiel, Cap. 29, 18. 19. 20.: Son of man, you
You know that Nabuchodonosor has made great efforts before Tyro; I have not yet given him any pay, what shall I give him? I will give him Egypt, that shall be his pay; I will clothe him in it, as in a beautiful mantle. So our Lord God plays with the great kingdoms, as a lord throws a chain around a man's neck.
27. to give tax and tribute to the authorities.
Doctor Martin Luther said that a farmer in Dobraun once said a fine word that always pleased him, namely, that he would gladly do: If he had two cows, he would willingly give one away so that he would only keep the other with peace. And it is true that if a right captain is there, that one has a Matiaschken 1), there one finds well people who give there willingly tribute, so that a land peace is preserved.
The love and obedience of the subjects to the authorities is the highest good and treasure.
Philippus Melanchthon once told Doctor Martin Luthern over the table: that in his youth he had heard that at an imperial diet some princes had praised the gifts and glories of their principality and country. And the Duke of Saxony had said that he had silver mountains in his country, and thus praised his mine, which at that time gave great yield. The Count Palatine, however, had praised his good wines, which grew for him on the Rhine River. As
1) i.e. Mathiasko, Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. Cf. Cap. 65, § 7.
When Duke Eberhard of Würtemberg was asked to say what glory he had in his country, he replied: "I am indeed a poor prince and cannot be compared to either of your beloved, but I also have a great treasure in my principality, so that even if I were to stray and be all alone in the field, I can still sleep safely in the bosom of each of my subjects. I would like to say that his subjects would love him, that he could stay with them and they would do him everything kind and good. They would do him all good and love. And his poor people also took him for the patrem patriae. When the other princes, Saxony and the Palatinate, heard this, they themselves confessed that this was the noblest treasure and good.
29. that princes should refrain from drunkenness for the sake of arousal.
Doctor Martin Luther was once a guest of Duke Ernst of Lüneburg and Duke Wilhelm of Meklenburg. Duke Ernst, as a Christian, godly and wise prince, complained about the drunken and intemperate life of the courts, since they are drunk day and night, and yet all wanted to be good Christians, and did not control the vice of drunkenness: Doctor Luther said: "Princes and lords should do something about this. Duke Ernst of Lüneburg answered: "Yes, Doctor, we will do that, otherwise it would have been a long time coming; Principum intemperantiam esse causam intemperantiae populi. For when the abbot lays out dice, the whole convent plays. Manant exempla regen- tum in vulgus.