You shall not steal.
2) We have heard that the fifth commandment: "Thou shalt not kill" forbids the harm (offensionem) of the neighbor to his own person, but the sixth: "Thou shalt not commit adultery", not to harm him in the person who is joined to him and One flesh with him, and both in deed and me in heart, both in thought (affectu) and deed (effectu), so that it is quite evident that the spiritual sense of these prohibitions is the commandment that we should be meek and chaste, inwardly and outwardly, wholly without all bitterness of anger and without the pleasant sensation (dulcedine).
2) Löscher: "The following was preached by Luther on the third day of Christmas lb'or. III. xativ, the 27th of Decembers 1516 preached." The Exordium Hiezu is found in the St. Louis edition, vol. X, 198 and (duplicate) vol. XII, 1800, in both places with the wrong time designation: "Am zweiten Weihnachtstage." The text is that of the third day of Christmas. (Weim. ed. I, 115.)
the evil desire. These two things cannot be had without the love of the spirit, because they are fruits of the spirit, 1 Cor. 43, 1. ff. and Gal. 5, 44. Therefore the love of the law is fulfillment [Rom. 43, 40.]. For it is gentle and does no harm to anyone, but benefits all and desires to be of service to all. It is also chaste and holy; therefore it defiles no one.
Now follows the prohibition that one should not harm one's neighbor's goods, which likewise cannot happen without love, at least in the spirit. Therefore, it should be noted that this commandment is understood in two ways:
First, according to the letter and the wording. Thus, only the work of stealing itself is forbidden here, for it says, "Thou shalt not steal." It does not say: You shall not teach [theft], you shall not instruct [it], you shall not desire [it], but you shall not do it. This is how the Jews understood it, and they are h offährtig ge-
in their own righteousness, as if they were not guilty of any transgression. Therefore, when Christ Himself stated the right understanding of this commandment in Luc. 16, 9. 13. and said: "You cannot serve God together with mammon", and: "Make friends with the unrighteous mammon", the Pharisees, who were stingy, heard all this and ridiculed Him, and He said to them [V. 15.), "It is you who justify yourselves before men, but GOD knows your hearts; for what is high among men is an abomination in the sight of GOD." See how He requires hearts in justification, which comes from His commandments. Finally it follows how the law is spiritual, since he says: "The law and the prophets prophesy until John; and from that time the kingdom of God is preached through the gospel, and everyone enters it by force. But it is easier for heaven and earth to perish than for one tittle to fall from the law." Behold, "doing violence" is necessary in God's commandments, for not only shall not the bowl of words perish, but not one tittle shall perish 2c.
Secondly, according to the spirit and the intention of the one who has it. According to this, he forbids here all desire of the heart in such a way that it is impossible for you to fulfill it unless you are spiritually poor, as it says Matth. 5, 3: "Blessed are the spiritually poor." That is why Christ's faithful are called "poor" in the Psalms, as it were, by their own name. Ps. 10, 2. [Vulg.]: "Because the wicked man is rash, the poor man must suffer." And again [Ps. 9, 10. 1: "And the LORD is the poor man's refuge," and [Ps. 9, 19.): "For he will not so wholly forget the poor man; the hope of the wretched (pauperum) shall not be lost for ever." Therefore, the spirit of this letter is poverty in spirit. Therefore, it is quite obvious that no one fulfills this law without the grace of God, since man is covetous by nature, for which the first sin is to blame.
Corollary.
It follows that the fulfillment of this law in its letter is nothing but a kind of self-deception, as it says Ps. 5:10 [Vulg.]: "Because in their mouth is not the truth.
so their heart is vain." In the Hebrew it is said: "Because in their mouth is not what is right," namely because in this commandment he teaches only the shadow and the letter of the work, "so their inside is falsehood" (insidiae), because they deceive themselves, thinking they are righteous, deceived by the appearance of works, so that they do not recognize the evil of their covetousness, therefore they do not sigh for mercy, nor confess their sin, but live along in security (stant). Therefore Paul says against them Rom. 2, 21: "You preach that one should not steal, and you steal", namely through desire, even if not in works.
The jurists, however, do not interpret this commandment as extending so far, but remain within the limits of theft; but before God all that is called doing, with which the will has to create, even if the work should not follow. For God tests the kidneys and hearts, Ps. 7, 10. Therefore, we must go over the whole area (latitudinem) of the works that lust has in its wake. But oh, dear GOD, how far does this extend! For who has not heard the many complaints about avarice and its various kinds?
The first work now according to the wording of the text is the theft itself. This is again divided into five types, namely simple theft, theft from the church, embezzlement of funds, driving away livestock, and theft of human beings, which the lawyers deal with. For this commandment they do according to the letter exceedingly abundantly and carefully in all its kinds, as their own speech testifies that the legal faculty has to do with the acquisition of bread: Take away mine and thine, then no more right is necessary; and indeed this desire [of other people's property] gives these people an infinite amount of trouble. Now theft is the appropriation of another's property against the will and without the knowledge of its master. If this is done with the goods of private persons, it is simple theft; if it is done with sacred things, it is sacrilege; if it is done with public property, it is peculatus; if it is done by taking livestock and other animals, it is abigeatus; if people are taken away, it is plagiatus. As is well known, the laws of today punish
In ancient times, however, the law did not make theft punishable by death, as we read in Exodus 22:1,4, but for a sheep four were given back, and for an ox five, but only if the stolen animal had been sold or killed; but if it was found with him still intact, only two times as much was given back; but if he could not give this back, he was sold. This law would certainly be good even now; for it is too severe, not to say unjust, that one should take life for the sake of good, and the soul for that which is for subsistence. "Is not the body better than raiment, and the life more than meat?" [Matth. 6, 25.] Hence also the Proverbs Cap. 6, 30. ff., which follow the law of Moses [Vulg.], say, "It is not a grievous fault if a man steal," and this is true if it be theft alone. Hence it follows what kind of theft he means, since he says, "For he steals to satisfy his soul, because he hungers. And if he be apprehended, he restituteth it sevenfold, and layeth up all the goods of his house, and can make himself free: but he that is an adulterer, because his heart is poor, shall bring his life to destruction." But adultery is nowadays punished quite mildly, which is certainly quite unreasonable; theft is punished immensely severely; this should be much more mitigated than that of adultery, especially for theft that occurs because of bodily lack and poverty.
Furthermore, the theft of the church is punished even more cruelly than all, namely with the wheel, while a sacred thing and a secular one are the same, as far as the value and the use are concerned; but because the reverence for the sacred is put out of sight, such a severe punishment is applied. But here, too, there is a superstitious severity among the superiors, who thunder and curse against nothing so much as against those who steal their wretched things (recularum), their income, their possessions, namely gold and silver. Here they have a hundred times as many eyes as [the hundred-eyed] Argus, and are more watchful than the most watchful. But that meanwhile so many thousands of souls are neglected, that
they pollute the whole church by profanation, adultery, and other shameful fornications, besides the pool of their insatiable avarice, with their simony, and intrigues, and innumerable frauds: this no one punishes, but rather those are held in honor who do such things. Or do they perhaps punish the lesser things so severely for the sake of it, because it is not for them to punish such serious things, but it is for God to punish them most severely? And I believe that it is certainly true that the harsher they apply the same in lesser things, the harsher punishment God reserves for Himself in the exceedingly severe things. How much safer they would be if they spared the thieves and the church robbers, as they wanted God to spare them. But if they spared them, then they would certainly be forced by poverty to lead a better life. Therefore, they do not spare, so that God will not spare them. But let them go, they are blind. For the other three types of theft, I refer you to the jurists who deal with civil law.
The second work is highway robbery, which is a much more serious crime than theft, because it does not happen because the lord [of the estate] knows nothing about it, but in his presence, and with obvious violence robs foreign property. But these are rather to be called robbers (raptores) than murderers (latrones), because latrocinium includes murder in itself. This sin, however, is now an adornment and a title of honor among nobles, and is sometimes punished in those who cannot defend themselves or offer resistance. Merchants know this sin well enough and know how serious it is, namely those who have already had to suffer from it.
The third work is usury, of which the Roman censor Cato said: The small (privati) thieves must spend their lives in prison and fetters, but the great (publici) thieves go in gold and purple. Therefore a usurer is called a blood hedgehog of the people, and he is described by this simile: As a worm in an apple or a soot destroys the whole inside, so a usurer devours the fortune of a city.
in many strange and secret ways. The Jews suffer from this vice so much that they think they are allowed to do it, even that they are commanded to do it in the law, where it says Deut. 23:19 ff: "Thou shalt not usury in thy brother, neither with money, nor with food, nor with anything that is usurious, but in a stranger; but unto thy brother thou shalt lend all that he hath need of, without usury." At that time, the Jews were allowed to do this for the sake of their hardness, so that they would be all the more willing to refrain from usury against the Jews, since they could practice it very freely against the Gentiles. But the Christians are considerably worse than the Jews, because they also usurp their brethren; and this evil is so common that in the 15th Psalm [v. 5] it is also cited as a rare praise of the righteous, that he does not give his money to usury. Now when many abstain from it, they do so out of fear, not from the heart, for avarice is an exceedingly deep corruption.
The fourth work is deception in trade. It is written in 1 Thess. 4, 6: "Let no man defraud his brother in trade, for the Lord is the avenger of them all. But this extends so far that it cannot be shown now in the individual pieces, for how could I remember all the individual dealings and trades, how one does too much in them, remains in the right middle, or does too little?
Therefore, the rule of love, which the Lord gives in Matthew 7:12, should be observed by all in general: "Whatever you want people to do to you, do it to them. Therefore it is necessary that each one, in everything he does, first see how he would like it to be done to him if he were in another's place, and act in such a way, and then he will be safe. This is called the law of nature; indeed, it is the law of love. For it is love that looks at what is in the other's place, and first considers what he would like to be done to him, so that he may do the same to his neighbor. For this reason the Lord added this to his speech: "This is the law and the prophets," for the law and the prophets are fulfilled by love alone. Therefore, when sman says that] it is a law of nature, the healthy and uncorrupted nature will
which is the same as love. But he who does not observe this rule easily commits fraud before he realizes it, because in all business there is a danger that fidelity will be violated if it is not kept with all power (vi aliqua) and with diligence alone.
But how many scams there are nowadays! Every house and every alley is full of them, and everyone complains about it. For even the peasants, who are otherwise simple-minded, are very skilled in cheating. And indeed, this one commandment alone sufficiently shows what the world is, that it is nothing but one robbing another of his goods. And, what is still more to be deplored, deception has become so common that people do not even feel conscience about it, even think that they have done something good when one has deceived and cheated the other. But woe to the world!
So now go through all the individual transactions in their work (officia artium) and count the frauds, since new ones are invented every day, so that it is something very dangerous to have dealings with people: they turn the light into darkness and the darkness into light. Yes, it has come to the point that all sellers demand more and the buyers offer less than the thing is actually worth, namely because no one believes the other's word, since it is the custom for one to deceive the other.
But what is said of the works of this commandment and of its spiritual meaning, namely that poverty of spirit is its true intention, so that the insatiable beast may be killed, the cursed hunger for gold, avarice, the love of money and greed for money, the root of all evil, as the apostle says [1 Tim. 6, 10.], which today has laid innumerable snares and is making more and more of them, is not to be understood from poverty in fact, but according to the disposition to it (affectu). For even beggars and monks can be very rich in their covetousness and inward avarice, and before God the greatest thieves, envying those who have something and coveting their goods. And the apostle calls [Col. 3, 5.] this vice idolatry, as also the 78th Psalm [v. 58. Ps. 106, 36.] says that they worship idols.
(sculptilibus) Canaan served, that is, the pennies. For Canaan is called a merchant and a trader; now how could we believe that by his idols (sculptilia,) something other than gold and silver, which is melted, coined and minted together, is represented?
Finally, that the worshippers of gold are also the servants of it, is also shown by the 76th Psalm [v. 6. Vulg.], where it says: "And all the men of wealth found nothing in their hands." He does not say: riches of men, but "men of riches," so that you understand that the men are possessed [of riches] (possessos viros) who possess riches (possidentes divitias); those serve, this one is served; therefore those are servants, this one the master. 1)
Since this vice is exceedingly well known to all, I will now briefly summarize the matter in conclusion. This commandment is fulfilled if you not only abstain from the work, yes, it is also not enough that you do not desire with your heart, but it [is necessary that you also] bear it quite indifferently if someone takes away what is yours. For it is of no use if you do not desire other people's good, but love yours in an ungodly way. Just as in the fifth commandment a man can be a murderer in himself, even if he kills no one else, or is angry with no one, and in the sixth commandment he can be an adulterer with his own wife, as has been said, so also in his own goods he can be a thief and a miser, by loving his own too much. But who should not believe that a man who kills himself will not also kill another, or at least not grant him life? and whoever abuses his own wife to unchastity, who should not assume of him that he will also defile another, at least in his evil lust, since he is completely raging with unchastity? In the same way, who will believe that he who loves his own too much does not also desire other people's good? Therefore, a man should behave quite indifferently with regard to any goods.
1) This paragraph is missing in the old translation; perhaps because of the difficulty. For also otherwise difficult passages are omitted.
(neuter esse): he shall not grieve when they are lost, he shall not rejoice when he obtains them, according to the words of the 62nd Psalm [v. 11. Vulg.]: "Rely not on injustice, nor set your desire on robbery; if riches come to you, do not set your heart on them." But this the corrupt nature cannot do, but must fetch it from Christ, who became poor for us.
Yes, a man should not stop at this stage either, but also see to it that he is much more willing to share his goods with others than to covet other people's goods; for this brings about love, which alone fulfills the law, that he not only keep completely away from his neighbor's goods, but also becomes his neighbor by sharing his goods if he can. For there is no doubt that everyone would like people to act in this way toward him, namely, to share with him, and that no one should desire what is his own, but should grant him everything with a sincere heart. And in this commandment, which is given for such intricate dealings, no better rule can be given than that each one, in all that he has to do with his neighbor, should first of all keep in mind this word of Christ, which is the spiritual interpretation of all commandments [Matth. 7:12], "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them"; and the saying of Tobias [Tob. 4:16], "Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you." For anyone who considers this will easily be able to see what and how he should do in any case that may arise in connection with this all-encompassing commandment. For if thou grant thyself riches, but not thy neighbor, then thou hast already no love, but evil desire, and hast sinned against this commandment. For you are a thief before God, because you have taken from your neighbor what you owe him, namely, that you grant him his goods.
From this it is evident how many people have an abhorrence of thieves and theft, who are themselves much greater thieves, since without grace there can be no one whose heart is not defiled by avarice. But those thieves the emperor hangs, these however the creator of all things will spoil. Therefore, this commandment is not only a prohibition, but also a commandment.
The commandment is exceedingly strong, namely, that man should be charitable, willing to give and generous toward his neighbor; but he cannot be like this if he is not completely pure in spirit from theft. Therefore, this prohibition is stronger than if it were in the form of a commandment, since someone could be generous, namely, when he begins to fulfill this commandment (ut in statu incipientium), but not yet without covetousness (for other people's goods); therefore, he does not yet fulfill this law perfectly. A perfect fulfiller of the commandment must be generous out of a pure heart. 1)
2) The question is also raised whether gamblers are thieves and must return what they have won. That gamblers sin through covetousness and greed (at least those who gamble for the sake of gain), and are therefore thieves before God and covet other people's goods, is quite obvious. For no one plays with another because he wants to give him what is his (for he could do that even without playing), nor so that he might lose what is his, nor to seek the other's benefit as if it were his own, and therefore the play is always contrary to love and proceeds in evil covetousness, for he seeks his own with the other's harm, or at least what is the other's, not as his own. But still he is not held to restitution, because he does not steal from men, nor does he take other people's goods against the will of the master, who rather gave his consent to this by the agreement that they wanted to play (per pactum ludi). For both put their own at risk with knowledge and will, therefore the losing party loses with knowledge and will. For it is a quite just law that he who loves danger perishes in it, if they do not play fraudulently. But the best punishment would be, if it could happen that both of them
1) The foregoing was preached by Luther on the Day of the Innocent Infants (December 28) 1516. To this belongs the Exordium, which is found in our edition, Vol. XII, 1804. However, we do not know at which point Luther began with it, since Löscher does not indicate it. (Wein,. Ausg., Vol. I, 504.)
2) Löscher: "Luther preached the following on the Feast of the Circumcision [1 January] in 1517. The Exordium belonging to it is found in Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 1276.
because this would be the right of the game, since each of them gives free rein to his lust against his neighbor at his own risk; or at least that the treasury (fiscus principalis) would deprive both of their profit, because by gambling they act against the commandment [of the prince] and the spiritual law of the church. But it is obvious that it is not necessary to return such things, because there would be no other cause for it than that such profit is obtained with sin and against the law. But if all such things were to be restored that are obtained with sins, then also the whores would have to give back their profit, yes, everything would have to be restored by the merchants and traders that is sold or bought with lies, false deception (whereby, by the way, deception against one's neighbor and false statements [dolo] regarding the thing in question must be excluded) and evil desire. This would be quite inconsistent, because in these things no wrong has been done to the neighbor, but GOD has been offended and the law transgressed. Therefore, he owes restitution, not of what he has brought to himself, but that he let go of his evil will, which he let run its course there; this happens through repentance and penance.
The same is to be said of priests and religious who either do not perform their prayers, or do not perform their satisfactions, or possess more benefices than one; they are not guilty of restitution, but that they repent of the abuse, for the pope has the power to bestow these goods; but you who obtain them or force your way into them, only beware. In times past, people fled from the priestly office and had to be dragged into it, therefore they were loved by the people; but now they rush into it, while the people would like to keep them out of it, therefore they are hated. But this avarice grows nowadays in a frightening way when taking sinecures. But if benefices are obtained without fraud, there is no need for restitution, although it does not seem quite possible that anyone can impose himself without fraud, especially on the office of pastoral care (curarum).
1324 L. ex. "M- XII, ISO-IW. The 10 Commandments preached to the people at Wittenb. W. Ill, IWI-I9.W. 1325
because the pope and the people will be deceived if he is not such a man as such an office requires. But who would dare to say that about himself? And yet one is not ashamed to ask for such an office for himself.
Finally, the contract of redemption now also serves avarice, to the great detriment of the whole world, since interest (census) is only bought for the sake that the profit may increase and the property (substantia) be secure without work and danger, not so that they can serve God all the more undisturbed or escape necessity, while one can see that the Pope's intention was and still is not that they should be idle; for Genesis 3, 19. 3, 19. labor and sorrow are laid upon all men: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread," and Job 5, 7. it is said [Vulg.], "Man is born to labor, as the bird is born to fly." Therefore let us indicate some causes on account of which interest may justly be purchased. Namely, first, if they are old people, children and sick people,
Secondly, those who are occupied with other work [by which they can acquire nothing], namely, those who serve God, as religious, priests and prelates, who have to do with study and the word of God; then also those who serve the commonwealth and foreign need, as princes, councilors, the rulers in cities and villages. Otherwise, when God returns to each one according to his work, what will the idlers receive who misuse their money only for profit, profit only for idleness, idleness only for pleasure, pleasure only for sin? So those are not safe who serve only themselves with the purchased interest; not as if buying interest were so evil, but because it is sin that one serves avarice in it and seeks nothing but secure wealth.
The eighth commandment follows.
1) Added by us.