1. Divine profession of teachers is their greatest comfort.
2. God wants diligence and faithfulness in every man's profession, for he who is negligent in small things is also negligent in the greatest.
3. a rhyme by Luther.
4. v. Luther's interpretation on the saying Ps. 45:10: In your adornment therefore go 2c.
5. that one should not miss opportunity.
6. one should not trust too much.
7. no one shall abuse his profession.
8. that one should not easily believe and trust everyone.
1. Divine profession of teachers is their greatest comfort.
If those who are in the teaching office do not have joy and comfort from remembering the one who called and sent them, then they have had enough trouble. Our Lord God had to ask Moses six times. And he also led me into it: if I had known it before, it would have taken effort for him to bring me into it. Well, since I have now begun it, I will also lead it out with him. I did not want to take the whole world, that I should start it now, for the sake of the extremely heavy worry and fear. Again, when I look at the one who called me to it, I would not have started it either: I do not want to have any other God now. Others who have lived before me have attacked and punished the pope's evil and annoying life: but I have attacked his teaching, 1) and rushed into monasticism and the mass, on which two pillars the whole pontificate stands. I should never have foreseen myself that these two pillars would collapse; for it was as much as if one had attacked God and the creature.
This is the devil's way with us, that no one is satisfied with it: as God has willed it with him, so he does not like it. Aliena sem- per nobis plus placent: what is of another, pleases us always better. As also the pagans have said of it: Fertilior seges est vicinis semper in hortis, vicinumque pecus grandius
1) Cf. cap. 27, § 95.
over. So do we poor people in our profession and status: nemo est sua sorte contentus; optat ephippia bos piger, optat arare caballus. 2) The more we have, the more we want to have.
2. God wants diligence and faithfulness in every man's profession: for he who is negligent in little things is negligent also in the greatest.
Doctor Luther said in 1540 that if a noble woman had hired a maid, she would have thrown a broom in her way; if she had left it lying around, she would have given her leave, for she who leaves a broom lying around does not pick up a barrel. And this is also the case in all regiments: whoever is in a regiment should not despise anything small. The Romans also learned that no small enemy should be despised. For when they had defeated Hannibal and thought that they were now safe, the bellum Carthaginense began all the more. Therefore, children should be taught in good time to be diligent even in the smallest things, otherwise such rascals will come to nothing.
(This paragraph in Kummer, 2. Theil, p. 405b [Lauterbach p. 205 f.] July 1543.)
D. M. Luther wrote with his own hand on his wall by the furnace [Luke 16:10.], "He who is faithful in the least is faithful also in the greatest; he who is unfaithful in the least is unjust also in the greatest."
2) Cf. cap. 45, § 29.
3) So put by us, instead of: "Therefore, one should get used to being diligent in time, even in the least" 2c.
Cause is:
On the lobes dogs learn to eat leather.
So also:
He who is diligent in the least is diligent in the greatest.
He who does not respect the penny will not be master of a guilder.
If you miss an hour, you miss a day.
He who disdains the small will not enjoy the great.
He who spurns the head, the chicken will not.
Jesus Sirach [Cap. 19, 1.):
"He who does not hold a little to rath always corrupts away."
Sprüchw. 18, s9.):
"He that is lax in his doings is a brother to him that corrupteth himself."
Sera parsimonia in fundo, saving is harbored for too long when there is nothing left.
Parsimonia magnum vectigal, the savings penny is richer than the interest penny.
The one who disrespects the letters will never learn anything great.
He who will not feed himself with a hundred guilders will not feed himself with a thousand.
Fronte capillata post est occasio calva. [The opportunity must be grasped in front, because behind it is bare).
3. D. M. Luther's Rhyme.
1) He who knows, let him be silent. He who is well, let him stay. He who has, let him keep. Misfortune comes soon.
4. D. M. Luther's interpretation of the saying Ps. 45, 10: "In your adornment go the daughters of kings."
(The first paragraph of this § is shortened from the sermon on 15 Sonnt, according to Trm., Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. XIII, 2361 f., N17, 18 and 19, therefore omitted. Perhaps also the following paragraph, which we have left, is only a remodeling of §19.
1) These rhymes in Mathesius, St. Louis edition, p. 224 in a slightly different version.
Item, at another time D. M. Luther said: Serving God right means that everyone remains in his profession, no matter how small it may be, and first listens to God's word in the church, then to the authority, rule, or parents' word, and follows the same. This is called serving God rightly.
5. that one should not miss Occafiones or opportunity.
Doctor M. Luther once said about tables: It would be the devil in the people that they do not let them say what is to be said to them. They do not want to hear the truth when it is told to them; then, if they would like to hear the truth, there is no one to tell it to them. That is why they say: Fronte capillata post haec occasio calva.
Our Lord God has made this clear in the whole of nature. A farmer shall sow his barley and oats around Easter: if he lets it wait until Michaelmas, it has been harvested too long. When the apples are ripe, they should be broken off: if they are delayed for a long time, they will be gone. Procrastinatio est properantiae contrarium vitium. Just as my servant the wolf does, when four or five fall on the flock, he will not move the yarns, but says, O I will wait until more come; so they fly away again, and he keeps nothing. Therefore Occasio is a great thing, and Terentius also said rightly: In tempore ad eam veni, quod est omnium primum. The young boys in school do not understand this, they are seniles et imperatoriae voces8. Julius Caesar has been a man who has understood Occasionem. Pompey was not such a man. Neither was Hannibal. One cannot say what Occasio is, therefore one does not understand it. In German, you can't talk it out with any word, because the word opportunity est magis alligatum loco et personis, quam tempori? Occasio is supposed to have plus temporis. The Latins also do not have a word that they could use to talk it out. For the word tempus is too general. I consider that the etymology is a cadendo, as one speaks, a coincidence. The
The Greeks also have only one word, which is called Tempus, and one would like to pronounce it thus and lay: Use of the hour, and what the hour brings with it.
It is a strange thing, rem tam praeclaram, et quae est rerum omnium prima; Item, negligere Tempus, that one should not be able to speak such. And very few understand, especially the youth. No boy or young journeyman understands it. Therefore a father and a preceptor belong to it, they should hold it with the rod, so that they do not miss it, otherwise it is lost. Summi imperatores have not understood it; or even if they have understood it, they have neglected it. There is many a young journeyman who has a scholarship at six or seven years, there he should study, has his Praeceptores and other encouragement; but he thinks: Oh, you still have time enough, and will come to it well. No, journeyman, fronte capillata etc. is the name. What Hansel doesn't learn, Hans won't learn either. The Occasio greets you and gives you her hair; as if she should say: See, there you have me, take hold of me. O, thinkest thou that she will come again. Come on, she says, if you don't want to, grab my butt.
Bonaventure is a poor sophist, nor does he say: Qui negligit occasionem, negligitur ab ipsa; for it means: Take hold because it is time. Nunc, nunc, because the nunc is there. The Germans have beautiful proverbs about this, and say: If one beats a piglet, he should hold out the sack. Item: If our Lord God greets one, he should thank him. This is a very fair saying, that our Lord God sends the occasion. Item, they say: God gives the gland to idle hands. But it is donum Dei, who shall understand it.
Our Emperor Carl did not understand the occasion when he captured the King of France before Pavia in 1525. After that, when he had Pope Clement in his hands and captured the city of Rome. In 1527, and in 1529, he almost had the Turk in his clutches before Vienna. There was Occasio; but Emperor Carl would not thank God when he greeted him; what good fortune should he give him? It was enough that a monarch should have the three most powerful heads in
and let it come from them in such a disgraceful way. That is why it is called: post haec occasio calva. Young people do not believe now that they have good occasions to study.
6. one should not trust too much.
Dominus Phil. Melanchthon once recited over Luther's table this fable from the verse: Crede parum, tua serva, et quae periere relinque; and said: Someone had caught a small bird, and the bird would have liked to be free, and said to him: O dear one, let me go, I will show you such a delicious precious stone, which is worth many thousand guilders. No," said the little bird, "you shall go with me and see the precious stone. The man let the little bird go, and the little bird flew up a tree, sat on it, and gave him the precious stone: Crede parum, tua serva, et quae periere relinque: he left him the beautiful precious stone. As if the little bird should say: Since you had me, you should not have believed me. Tua serva, that is what you have, keep it. Et quae periere relinque: if you have lost it, you must have patience.
7. no one shall abuse his profession.
Doctor M. Luther said in 1546 that no office is so small that it is worthy of execution. And then he told this story: Once, a cow in a village had badly bumped and damaged another farmer's cow. When the farmer's wife came running to him and wanted to complain, she said: "Mr. Schuttes, a strange cow has hurt and wounded mine, I ask you to help me so that the damage may be paid for: what does the cow's master owe me for the damage? The Schuttes said: Dear neighbor, he should give you an old shock 1) for the damage. Then the farmer's wife said: Yes, dear Mr. Schuttes, it was your cow. Then said the Schuttes: Was it my cow? that is another thing. And wanted to give the woman nothing for the damage.
1) I.e. sixty pennies, worth one gold.
8. that one should not easily believe and trust everyone.
Epicharmus says: Nervi atque artus sapientiae sunt, non temere credere; therein consists the right strength of true wisdom, if one is not gullible: for he who soon believes is easily deceived. Item: Let no one take another for his trusted friend unless he has first eaten a bushel of salt with him. The ancients made a fine apologue about this: that a rooster had been sitting on a tree, and a fox had said to him, as he was passing by, that he should come down from the tree, for a land peace would have been proclaimed, and all discord, displeasure and dissension among men and animals would have been abolished and laid to rest for eternity.
so that one should mean the other recently, and one should honor and promote the other. But the rooster gave the vixen this answer: "It may be," he said, "that a common truce has been established and everything has been stopped. But the newspapers have not yet reached me and announced it. But I will keep my word, as my ancestors of old have always kept with you foxes and your kind. And said D. M. Luther said: "The holy scripture says that one should not believe all spirits; for if the rooster had believed the fox, he would have lost his life.
D. M. Luther also gave up a riddle and said: What is this: It is too narrow for one, just for two, too far for three? Answer: Secrecy; for if three know something secret, a hundred know it.