Of Preachers and Preaching leave to none other. When we leave to God his name, his kingdom, and will, then will he also give unto us our daily bread, remit our sins, and deliver us from the devil and all evil.
Only his honor he will have to himself.
It were but reasonable I should in my old age have some rest and peace, but now those that should be with and for me, fall upon me. I have plague enough with my adversaries, therefore my brethren should not vex me. But who is able to resist? They are fresh, lusty, young people, and have lived in idleness; I am now aged, and have had much labor and pains. Nothing causes Osiander's pride more than his idle life; for he preaches but twice a week, yet has a yearly stipend of four hundred gilders.
God in wonderful wise led us out of the darkness of the sophists, and cast me into the game, now more than twenty years since. It went weakly forward at the first, when Ibegan to write against the gross errors of indulgences. At that time Doctor Jerome withstood me, and said: What will you do, they will not endure it? but, said I, what if they must endure it?
Soon after him came Sylvester Prierio into the list; he thundered and lightened against me with his syllogisms, saying: Whosoever makes doubt of any one sentence or act of the Romish church, is a heretic: Martin Luther doubts thereof; ergo, he is a heretic. Then it went on, for the pope makes a three-fold distinction of the church. First a substantial, i.e. the body of the church. Secondly, a significant church, i.e., the cardinals. Thirdly, an operative and powerful church; i.e., the pope himself. No mention is made of a council, for the pope will be the powerful church above the Holy Scripture and councils.
Our auditors, for the most part, are epicurean; they measure our preaching as they think good, and will have easy days.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were Christ's enemies, yet they heard him willingly; the Pharisees, to the end they might lay hold on him; the Sadducees, that they might flout and deride him. The Pharisees are our friars; the Sadducees, our gentry, citizens, and country folk; our gentlemen give us the hearing, and believe us, yet will do what seems good to them; that is, they remain epicureans.
A preacher should be a logician and a rhetorician, that is, he must be able to teach, and to admonish; when he preaches touching an article, he must, first, distinguish it. Secondly, he must define, describe, and show what it is. Thirdly, he must produce sentences out of the Scriptures, therewith to prove and strengthen it. Fourthly, he must, with examples, explain
Of Preachers and Preaching and declare it. Fifthly, he must adorn it with similitudes; and, lastly, he must admonish and rouse up the lazy, earnestly reprove all the disobedient, all false doctrine, and the authors thereof; yet, not out of malice and envy, but only to God's honor, and the profit and saving health of the people.
"Their priests do teach for hire." Some there be who abuse this sentence, wresting it against good and godly teachers and preachers, as if it were not right for them to take the wages ordained for the ministers of the church, on which they must live. They produce the sentence where Christ says: "Freely ye have received, freely give." They allege also the example of St Paul, who maintained himself by work of his hands, to the end that he might not be burthensome to the church.
These accusations proceed out of hatred to the function of preaching, to which Satan is a deadly enemy. These ungodly people, by filling the ears of the simple with such speeches, not only occasion the preachers to be condemned, but also the function of preaching to be suspected; whereas they ought, with all diligence, to endeavor that the ministers, for the Word's sake, might again be restored to their honest dignity.
It is true, as Christ says: "Freely ye have received, freely give;" for he will have the chief end of preaching to be directed to God's honor only, and the people's salvation; but it follows not that it is against God for the church to maintain her ministers, who truly serve her in the Word, though it were against God and all Christianity, if the ministers of the church should omit the final cause, for which the office of preaching is instituted, and should look and have regard only to their wages, or aim at lucre and gain, and not uprightly, purely, and truly proceed in the office of teaching.
Like as the ministers of the church, by God's command, are in duty bound to seek and promote God's honor, and the saving health and salvation of the people, with true and upright doctrine, even so the church and congregation have command from God to maintain their ministers, and honorable nourish and cherish them; for Christ says: "Every laborer is worthy of his hire." Now if he be worthy, then no man ought to cast it in his teeth that he takes wages. St Paul more clearly expresses himself: "The Lord hath also commanded, that they which preach the gospel, should live of the gospel." He puts on the office of the law, and says: "Do ye not know, that they which do minister about holy things, live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar, are partakers with the altar." Moreover he makes use of a very fine similitude, saying: "Who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof?" But especially mark the comparison which he gives in his epistle to the Corinthians: "If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things?" Indeed, every
Christian, but especially the officers of the church, ministers, and preachers, should so carry themselves that they fall not into suspicion of being greedy and covetous: yet they must not Of Preachers and Preaching so conceive it, as if it were wrong to receive of the church and assembly, that which is needful for the maintenance of the body.
Therefore no man should take umbrage that godly rulers provide for the churches, by honestly maintaining her true ministers; nay, we should bewail that the majority of princes and rulers neglect the true and pure religion, and provide not for our children and posterity, so that, through such meanness, there will be either none, or most unlearned ministers.
Scripture requires humble hearts, that hold God's Word in honor, love, and worth, and that pray continually: "Lord, teach me thy ways and statutes." But the Holy Ghost resists the proud, and will not dwell with them. And although some for a time diligently study in Holy Scripture, and teach and preach Christ uprightly, yet, as soon as they become proud,
God excludes them out of the church. Therefore, every proud spirit is a heretic, not in act and deed, yet before God.
But it is a hard matter for one who has some particular gift and quality above another, not to be haughty, proud, and presumptuous, and not to condemn others; therefore God suffers them that have great gifts to fall many times into heavy tribulations, to the end that they may learn, when God draws away his hand, that then they are of no value. St Paul was constrained to bear on his body the sting or thorn of the flesh, to prevent him from haughtiness. And if Philip Melancthon were not now and then plagued in such sort as he is, he would have strange conceits.
I learn by preaching to know what the world, the flesh, the malice and wickedness of the devil is, all which could not be known before the Gospel was revealed and preached, for up to that time I thought there were no sins but incontinence and lechery.
At court these rules ought to be observed: we must cry aloud, and accuse; for neither the Gospel nor modesty belong to the court; we must be harsh, and set our faces as flints; we must, instead of Christ, who is mild and friendly, place Moses with his horns in the court.
Therefore I advise my chaplains and ministers to complain at court of their wants, miseries, poverty, and necessities; for I myself preached concerning the same before the prince elector, who is both good and godly, but his courtiers do what they please. Philip Melancthon and Justus Jonas were lately called in question at court, for the world's sake; but they made this answer: Luther is old enough, and knows how and what to preach.
Of Preachers and Preaching CCCCXXIV.
Cursed are all preachers that in the church aim at high and hard things, and, neglecting the saving health of the poor unlearned people, seek their own honor and praise, and therewith to please one or two ambitious persons.
When I preach, I sink myself deep down. I regard neither doctors nor magistrates, of whom are here in this church above forty; but I have an eye to the multitude of young people, children, and servants, of whom are more than two thousand. I preach to those, directing myself to them that have need thereof. Will not the rest hear me? The door stands open unto them; they may begone. I see that the ambition of preachers grows and increases; this will do the utmost mischief in the church, and produce great disquietness and discord; for they will needs teach high things touching matters of state, thereby aiming at praise and honor; they will please the worldly wise, and meantime neglect the simple and common multitude.
An upright, godly, and true preacher should direct his preaching to the poor, simple sort of people, like a mother that stills her child, dawdles and plays with it, presenting it with milk from her own breast, and needing neither malmsey nor muscadine for it. In such sort should also preachers carry themselves, teaching and preaching plainly, that the simple and unlearned may conceive and comprehend, and retain what they say. When they come to me, to Melancthon, to Dr. Palmer, etc., let them show their cunning, how learned they be; they shall well put to their trumps. But to sprinkle out Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in their public sermons, savors merely of show, according with neither time nor place.
In the Psalm it is said: Their voice went out into the whole world. But St Paul to the Romans gives it thus: "Their sound went out into all the earth," which is all one. Many sentences are in the Bible, wherein St Paul observed the translation of the Seventy Interpreters, for he condemned them not; and whereas he was preacher to the Greeks, therefore he was constrained to preach as they understood.
In such sort did he use that sentence, 1 Cor. xv.: "Death is swallowed up in victory," whereas in the Hebrew, it is "in the end;" ye `tis all one. St Paul was very rich and flowing in words; one of his words contains three of Cicero's orations, or the whole of Isaiah and Jeremiah. O! he was an excellent preacher; he is not in vain named vas electum. Our Lord
God said: I will give a preacher to the world that shall be precious. There was never any that understood the Old Testament so well as St Paul, except John the Baptist, and John the Divine. St Peter excels also. St Matthew and the rest well describe the histories, which are very necessary; but as to the things and words of the Old Testament, they never mention what is couched therein.
Of Preachers and Preaching St Paul translated much out of Hebrew into Greek, which none besides were able to do; in handling one chapter, he often expounds four, five, or six. Oh, he dearly loved Moses and Isaiah, for they, together with king David, were the chief prophets. The words and things of St Paul are taken out of Moses and the Prophets.
Young divines ought to study Hebrew, to the end that they may be able to compare Greek and Hebrew words together, and discern their properties, nature and strength.
Of the Antichrist OF THE ANTICHRIST CCCCXXVI.
Antichrist is the pope and the Turk together; a beast full of life must have a body and soul; the spirit or soul of antichrist is the pope, his flesh or body the Turk. The latter wastes and assails and persecutes God's church corporally; the former spiritually and corporally too, with hanging, burning, murdering, etc. But, as in the apostle's time, the church had the victory over the Jews and Romans, so now will she keep the field firm and solid against the hypocrisy and idolatry of the pope, and the tyranny and devastations of the Turk and her other enemies.
"And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished: for that is determined shall be done.
Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all."
This prophecy, as all the teachers agree, points directly at the antichrist, under the name of Antiochus; for antichrist will regard neither God nor the love of women—that is, the state of matrimony. These two, antichrist condemns on earth—God, that is religion, and mankind.
He will not regard women, that is, he will condemn temporal and house government, laws, jurisdiction, emperors and kings: for through women children are born, and brought up, to the perpetuation of mankind and replenishing of the world; where women are not regarded, of necessity temporal and house government is also condemned, and laws, and ordinances, and rulers.
Daniel was an exceeding high and excellent prophet, whom Christ loved, and touching whom he said; Whoso readeth, let him understand. He spoke of that antichrist persecutor as clearly as if he had been an eyewitness thereof. Read the 11th chapter throughout. It applies to the time when the emperor Caligula and other tyrants ruled; it distinctly says: "He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain;" that is, at Rome, in Italy. The Turk rules also between two seas, at Constantinople, but that is not the holy mountain. He does not honor or advance the worship of Maosim, nor does he prohibit matrimony. Therefore Daniel points directly at the pope, who does both, with great fierceness. The prophet says further: "He shall also be forsaken of his king." It is come to that pass already, for we see kings and princes leave him. As to the forms of religion under the pope and Turk, there is no difference but in a few ceremonies; the Turk observes the Mosaical, the pope the Christian ceremonies - both sophisticate and falsify them; for as the Of the Antichrist Turk corrupts the Mosaic bathings and washings, so the pope corrupts the sacrament of baptism and of the Lord's supper.
The kingdom of antichrist is described also in the revelation of John, where it is said:
"And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them." This might seem prophesied of the Turk, and not of the pope, but we must, on investigation, understand it of the pope's abominations and tyranny in temporal respects. It is further said in the Apocalypse: "It shall be for a time, and times, and half a time." Here is the question: what is a time? If time be understood a year, the passage signifies three years and a half, and hits
Antiochus, who for such a period persecuted the people of Israel, but at length died in his own filth and corruption. In like manner will the pope also be destroyed; for he began his kingdom, not through power or the divine authority, but through superstition and a forced interpretation of some passages of Scripture. Popedom is built on a foundation which will bring about its fall. Daniel prophesies thus: "And through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; but he shall be broken without hand." This refers specially to the pope, for all other tyrants and monarchs fall by temporal power and strength. However, it may hit both pope and Turk. Both begin to reign almost at one time, under the emperor Phocas, who murdered his own master, the emperor Maurice, with his empress and young princes, well nigh nine hundred years since. The pope began to govern the church spiritually at the same time that Mohammed founded his power; the pope's temporal kingdom stood scarce three hundred years, for he plagued and harassed kings and emperors. I cannot well define or comprehend this prophecy: "A time, times, and half a time." I do not know whether it refers to the Turk, who began to rule when Constantinople was taken, in the year 1453, eighty-five years ago. If I calculate a time to be the age of Christ (thirty years) this expression would mean one hundred and five years, and the Turk would still have twenty-five years swing to come. Well, God knows how it stands, and how he will deliver those that are his.
Let us not vex ourselves with seeking over knowledge. Let us repent and pray.
Seeing the pope is antichrist,1 I believe him to be a devil incarnate. Like as Christ is true and natural God and man, so is antichrist a living devil. It is true, too, what they say of the pope, that he is a terrestrial god,—for he is neither a real god nor a real man, but of the two natures mingled together.
He names himself an earthly God, as though, the only true and Almighty God were not on earth! Truly, the pope's kingdom is a horrible outrage against the power of God and against mankind; an abomination of desolation, which stands in the holy place. `Tis a monstrous blasphemy for a human creature to presume, now Christ is come, to exalt himself in the church above God. If it had been done amongst the Gentiles, before the coming of 1 The identity of antichrist with the pope had already been asserted by John Huss,mispelling—it should be
John Hus. in his De Anatomia Antichristi.
Of the Antichrist Christ, it would not have been so great a wonder. But though Daniel, Christ himself, and his apostles, Paul and Peter, have given us warning of that poisoned beast and pestilence, yet we Christians have been, and still are, so doltish and mad, s to adore and worship all his idols, and to believe that he is lord over the universal world, as heir to St Peter; whereas, neither Christ nor St Peter left any succession upon earth.
The pope is the last blaze in the lamp, which will go out, and ere long be extinguished, the last instrument of the devil, that thunders and lightens with sword and bull, making war through the power and strength of others, as Daniel says: "He is powerful, but not by his own strength." It has been affirmed that the pope has more power in one finger, than all the princes in Germany; but the spirit of God's mouth has seized upon that shameless strumpet, and startled many hearts, so that they regard him no more; a thing no emperor, with sword and power, had been able to accomplish;' the devil scorns these weapons: but when he is struck with God's Word, then the pope is turned to a poppy and a forthy flower.
The word Papa, Pope, comes, as I think, of the word Abba, repeated twice, meaning father of fathers. Of old the bishops were called Papa; Jerome, writing to Augustine, who was bishop of Hippo, calls him Holy Pope; and in the legend of St Cyprian, martyr, we read that the judge asked him: Art thou the Cyprian whom the Christians call their pope? It seems to me to have been a term applied to all the bishops. Children call their athers papa; the bishops were the spiritual papas of the people.
Who, thirty years ago, would have dared to say of the pope what we now say of him?
None then ventured to express himself respecting him in other terms than those of veneration and supplication.
Whence comes it that the popes pretend `tis they who form the church, when, all the while, they are bitter enemies of the church, and have no knowledge, certainly no comprehension, of the Holy Gospel? Pope, cardinals, bishops, not a soul of them has read the Bible;
`tis a book unknown to them. They are a pack of guzzling, stuffing wretches, rich, wallowing in wealth and laziness, resting secure in their power, and never, for a moment, thinking of accomplishing God's will. The Sadducees were infinitely more pious than the papists, from whose holiness God preserve us. May he preserve us, too, from security, which engenders ingratitude, contempt of God, blasphemy, and the persecution of divine things.
Some one, speaking of the signs and marvels which are to herald the coming of antichrist, when he shall present himself previous to the last judgment, said he was to be armed with a breath of fire, which would overthrow all who might seek to oppose him. Dr. Luther obOf the Antichrist served; These are parables, but they agree in a measure with the prophecies of Daniel; for the throne of the pope is a throne of flame, and fire is his arm, as the scimeter is the Turk's.
Antichrist attacks with fire, and shall be punished with fire. The villain is now full of fear, crouching behind his mountains, and submitting to things against which heretofore he would have hurled his lightning and his thunder.
On the 8th August, came a letter from Bucer, relating that the council of Vienna was over, that the cardinals had returned home, and that the gospel had been eagerly received at Piacenza and Bologna. The pope, enraged at this result, had sent for a German, named
Corfentius, to whom he transmitted a safe conduct; but, despite this, when Corfentius reached Rome, he was seized and thrown into the Tiber. Dr. Luther observed: Such is the good faith of the Italian papists! Happy the man who puts no trust in them. If the men of God, who preach the gospel in Italy, remain firm, there will be much bloodshed. See what snares are laid for us here in Germany; there's not a single hour wherein we can regard ourselves as safe. Had not God watched over us, we must long since have succumbed.
Some one asked how happened it St James had been at Compostella. Dr. Martin replied:
Just as it happens, that the papists reckon up sixteen apostles, while Jesus Christ had but twelve. In many places, the papists boast of having some of the milk of the Virgin Mary, and of the hay in which Christ lay in the cradle. A Franciscan boasted he had some of this hay in a wallet he carried with him. A roguish fellow took out the hay, and put some charcoal in its place. When the monk came to show the people his hay, he found only the wood.
However, he was at no loss: "My brethren," said he, "I brought out the wrong wallet with me, and so cannot show you the hay; but here is some of the wood that St Lawrence was grilled upon."
Kings and princes coin money only out of metals, but the pope coins money out of every thing—indulgences, ceremonies, dispensations, pardons; `tis all fish comes to his net. `Tis only baptism escapes him, for children came into the world without clothes to be stolen, or teeth to be drawn.
A gentleman being at the point of death, a monk from the next convent came to see what he could pick up, and said to the gentleman: Sir, will you give so and so to our monastery? The dying man, unable to speak, replied by a nod of the head, whereupon the monk, turning to the gentleman's son, said: You see, your father makes us this bequest. The son
Of the Antichrist said to the father: Sir, is it your pleasure that I kick this monk down stairs? The dying man nodded as before, and the son forthwith drove the monk out of doors.
A professor at Wittenberg, named Vitus Ammerbach having advanced the proposition that, some head or other being necessary for the Church, the pope might as well be that head as another, Luther said: Greece was never under the authority of the pope, nor Judea, nor Scythia, yet in all these countries were Christians of great piety. `Tis great presumption in Ammerbach to propound these fallacies.
Some one observed: The papists flatter themselves our doctrines will not last long, but will come to nothing, like those of Arius, which, say they, endured but for forty years. Dr.
Luther replied: The sect of Arius maintained itself for nearly sixty years; but s it was based on hertical principles, it ended in confusion and destruction, whereas our opponents are compelled, despite themselves, to admit that we have right on our side. Our light so shines in the eyes of all men, that none can deny it.
They once showed here, at Wittenberg, the drawers of St Joseph and the breeches of St Francis. The bishop of Mayence boasted he had a gleam of the flame of Moses bush. At Compostella they exhibit the standard of the victory that Jesus Christ gained over death and the devil. The crown of thorns is shown in several places.
When Wolsey, who was the son of a butcher, was made cardinal, a merry fellow said:
"Please God he come to be pope, for then we shall have meat on fast days. St Peter, because he was a fisherman, prohibited meat, in order to raise the price of fish; this butcher's son will do the same for fish."
The cuckoo takes the eggs out of the linnet's nest, and puts her own in their place. When the young cuckoos grow big, they eat the linnet. The cuckoo, too, has a great antipathy towards the nightingale. The pope is a cuckoo; he robs the church of her true eggs, and substitutes in their place his greedy cardinals, who devour the mother that has nourished them.
The pope, too, cannot abide that nightingale, the preaching and singing of the true doctrine.
Of the Antichrist CCCCXLI.
They show, at Rome, the head of St John the Baptist, though `tis well known that the Saracens opened his tomb, and burned his remains to ashes. These impostures of the papists cannot be too seriously reprehended.
The papists, for the most part, are mere gross blockheads. One of their priests I knew, baptized with this form of words: Ego te baptiste in nomine Christe. Another in singing, used to say, elema, instead of clama, and when corrected, only bawled all the louder, elema, elema. Another said, elicere, instead of dicere. At Bamberg, they exhibit, once a year, a book, which they say contains the history of the emperor Henry and his wife Cunegonde, who made, on their marriage-day, a vow of virginity. Birkheimer, when he passed through Bamberg, asked to see this book, and when it was brought to him, found that it was only a copy of Cicero's Topics. In one convent, the brethren read munsimus, instead of sumpsimus.
A young brother, just fresh from study, correcting this error, the rest said to him: "Mind thy own business; we have always read munsimus, and we are not going to change our reading for thee."
Two jesters held a disputation before the pope, who was at dinner, the one maintaining, the other denying, the immortality of the soul. The pope said, that he was advocated the immortality of the soul adduced excellent reasons, but that, for his own part, he should side with the man who denied its immortality, seeing that it was a convenient doctrine, holding out a very desirable prospect, and `tis to such wretches as these the government of the church is to be confided.
Albert, bishop of Mayence, had a physician attached to his person, who, being a protestant, did not enjoy the prelate's favor. The man seeing this, and being an avaricious, ambitious, world-seeker, denied his God, and turned back to popery, saying to his associates: I'll put
Jesus Christ by for awhile, till I've made my fortune, and then bring him out again. This horrible blasphemy met with its just reward; for next day the miserable hypocrite was found dead in his bed, his tongue hanging from his mouth, his face black as a coal, and his neck twisted half round. I was myself an ocular witness of this merited chastisement of impiety.
Philip Melancthon, on the authority of a person who had filled an important post at the court of Clement VII., mentioned that every day, after the pope had dined or supped, his cup-bearer and cooks were imprisoned for two hours, and then, if no symptoms of poison
Of the Antichrist manifested themselves in their master, were released. "What a miserable life" observed Luther; "'tis exactly what Moses has described in Deuteronomy: "And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear, day and night, and shall have none assurance of thy life. In the morning, thou shalt say: would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say: would God it were morning!"
Mary, the humble virgin of Nazareth, strikes these potentates and popes fiercely, when she sings: "I will put down the mighty from their seats." Doubtless she had a sweet and sounding voice.
The pope and his crew are mere worshippers of idols, and servants of the devil, with all their doings and living; for he regards not at all God's Word, nay, condemns and persecutes it, and directs all his juggling to the drawing us away from the true faith in Christ. He pretends great holiness, under color of the outward service of God, for he has instituted orders with hoods, with shavings, fasting, eating of fish, saying mass, and such like: but in the groundwork, `tis altogether the doctrine of the devil; and the cause why the pope so stiffly holds such devilish doctrine is, that which the Gospel relates, Matt. iv. The devil has shown him the kingdoms of the world, and made promise to him as he did to Christ. This makes him condemn and scorn our sermons and God's service, by which we are beggars, and endure much, while for his doctrine he gets money and wealth, honor and power, and is so great a monarch, that he can bring emperors under his girdle.
I cannot imagine how there should be peace between us and the papists, for neither will yield to the other; `tis an everlasting war, like that between the woman's seed and the old serpent. When temporal kings are weary of warring, they make a truce, more or less enduring, but in our case, there can be no such cessations; for we cannot depart from the Gospel, nor will they desist from their idolatry and blaspheming; the devil will not suffer his feet to be chopped off, nor will Christ have the preaching of his Word hindered; therefore I cannot see how any peace or truce may be between Christ and Belial.
After the persecution of the church ceased, the popes aimed at the government, out of covetousness and ambition. The first was Hildebrand, or rather Hellbrand; they affrighted the people with their excommunication, which was so fearful a thing, that it descended upon the children, nay, fell upon servants. On the other hand, the pope seeking the goodwill of the people, granted and sold the remission of sins, were they never so heavy. Had one ravished the Virgin Mary, or crucified Christ anew, the pope would, for money, have pardoned him.
This power and domination of the pope's, God has brought to confusion and destruction Of the Antichrist by my pen; for God, out of nothing, can make all things, and of the least means produce the greatest results.
Popedom must needs be brought to the stake, and pay for all. The pope shall be devoured by the friars, his creatures. The great and innumerable multitude of monks and friars, said
Cardinal Campeggio, produces great evil; for they shake that fair monarchy of popedom, so carefully erected; and he said right; the Rat King is being paid home by his rats. By divinity he cannot be defended, for `tis no argument of his anonists and shaven crew, that his rule has long been a custom. How should the pope be able to judge, who has no skill or experience in matters of temporal government. How foolishly decides he touching matrimonial causes.
He has forbidden his greased retinue to enter into the state of matrimony, though he commands it to be held and observed as a sacrament. If matrimony be a sacrament, it cannot be for the heathen; for the unbelieving Gentiles have nothing to do with them.
`Tis a mere fable to say that Constantine the Emperor gave to the pope so much property and people as he boasts of. This I read, that Constantine gave much alms to the poor, commanding the bishops to distribute them, by which means they grew to be great lords. But he gave them neither countries nor cities; wherefore the world wonders whence the popes derived such dominions. In former times the popes were not lords over emperors and kings, but were instituted or ordained by the emperors.
The world remains the world it was thousands of years ago; that is, the spouse of the devil. The world says now, as the Pharisees said to their servants, whom they had sent to take Christ prisoner: "Are ye also deceived? have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? This people that knoweth not the law are accursed." Even so says the world now: Do the great ones and bishops believe in the Lutheran doctrine?
The pope denies not the sacrament, but he has stolen from the laity the one part or kind thereof; neither does he teach the true use of it. The pope rejects not the bible, but he persecutes and kills upright, good, and godly teachers, as the Jews persecuted and slew the prophets that truly expounded and taught the Scriptures. The pope will permit the substance and essence of the sacrament and Bible to remain; but he will compel and force us to use them according to his will and pleasure, and will constrain us to believe the fictitious transubstantiation, and the real presence, corporaliter. The pope does nothing else than pervert and abuse all that God has ordained and commanded.
Of the Antichrist CCCCLIII.
The chief cause that I fell out with the pope was this: the pope boasted that he was the head of the church, and condemned all that would not be under his power and authority; for he said, although Christ be the Head of the church, yet, notwithstanding, there must be a corporal head of the church upon earth. With this I could have been content, had he but taught the Gospel pure and clear, and not introduced human inventions and lies in its stead.
Further, he took upon him power, rule, and authority over the Christian church, and over the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God; no man must presume to expound the Scriptures, but only he, and according to his ridiculous conceits; so that he made himself lord over the church, proclaiming her at the same time a powerful mother, and empress over the Scriptures, to which we must yield and be obedient; this was not to be endured. They who, against God's Word, boast of the church's authority, are mere idiots. The pope attributes more power to the church, which is begotten and born, than to the Word, which has begotten, conceived, and borne the church.
We, through God's grace, are not heretics, but schismatics, causing, indeed, separation and division, wherein we are not to blame, but our adversaries, who gave occasion thereto, because they remain not by God's Word alone, which we have, hear, and follow.
When our Lord God intends to plague and punish one, he leaves him in blindness, so that he regards not God's Word, but condemns the same, as the papists now do. They know that our doctrine is God's Word, but they will not allow of this syllogism and conclusion:
When God speaks, we must hear him; now God speaks through the doctrine of the Gospel; therefore we must hear him. But the papists, against their own consciences, say, No; we must hear the church.
It is very strange: they admit both propositions, but will not allow the consequences, or permit the conclusions to be right. They urge some decree or other of the Council of Constance, and say, though Christ speak, who is the truth itself, yet an ancient custom must be preferred, and observed for law. Thus do they answer, when they seek to wrest and perver the truth.
If this sin of antichrist be not a sin against the Holy Ghost, then I do not know how to define and distinguish sins. They sin herein willfully against the revealed truth of God's
Word, in a most stubborn and stiff-necked manner. I pray, who would not, in this case, resist these devillish and shameless lying lips? I marvel not John Huss died so joyfully, seeing he heard of such abominable impieties and wickedness of the papists. I pray, how holds the pope concerning the church? He preserves her, but only in an external lustre, pomp, and succession. But we judge her according to her essence, as she is in herself, in her own substance, that is, according to God's Word and sacraments. The pope is reserved for God's
Of the Antichrist judgment, therefore only by God's judgment he shall be destroyed. Henry VIII, king of England, is now also an enemy to the pope's person, but not to his essence and substance; he would only kill the body of the pope, but suffer his soul, that is, his false doctrine to live; the pope can well endure such an enemy; he hopes within the space of twenty years to recover his rule and government again. But I fall upon the pope's soul, his doctrine, with God's
Word, not regarding his body, that is, his wicked person and life. I not only pluck out his feathers, as the king of England and prince George of Saxony do, but I set the knife to his throat; and cut his windpipe asunder. We put the goose on the spit; did we but pluck her, the feathers would soon grow again. Therefore is Satan so bitter an enemy unto us, because we cut the pope's throat, as does also the king of Denmark, who aims at the essency of popery.
`Tis wonderful how, in this our time, the majesty of the pope is fallen. Heretofore, all monarchs, emperors, kings, and princes feared the pope's power, who held them all at his nod; none durst so much as mutter a word against him. This great god is now fallen; his own creatures, the friars and monks, are his enemies, who, if they still continue with him, do so for the sake of gain; otherwise they would oppose him more fiercely than we do.
The pope's crown is named gegnum mundi, the kingdom of the world. I have heard it credibly reported at Rome, that thiscrown is worth more than all the princedoms of Germany.
God placed popedom in Italy not without cause, for the Italians can make out many things to be real and true, which in truth are not so: they have crafty and subtle brains.
If the pope were the head of the Christian church, then the church were a monster with two heads, seeing that St Paul says that Christ is her head. The pope may well be, and is, the head of the false church.
Where the linnet is, there is also the cuckoo, for he thinks his song a thousand times better than the linnet's. Even thus, the pope places himself in the church, and so that his song may be heard, overcrows the church. The cuckoo is good for something, in that its appearance gives tidings that summer is at hand; so the pope serves to show us that the last day of judgment approaches.
Of the Antichrist CCCCLIX.
There are many that think I am too fierce against popedom; on the contrary, I complain that I am, alas! too mild; I wish I could breath out lightning against pope and popedom, and that every word were a thunderbolt.
`Tis an idle dream the papists entertain of antichrist; they suppose he should be a single person, that should govern, scatter money amongst them, do miracles, carry a fiery oven about him, and kill the saints.
In popedom they make priests, not to preach and teach God's Word, but only to celebrate mass, and to gad about with the sacrament. For, when a bishop ordains a man, he says: Take unto thee power to celebrate mass, and to offer for the living and the dead. But we ordain priests according to the command of Christ and St Paul, namely to preach the pure gospel and God's Word. The papists in their ordinations make no mention of preaching and teaching God's Word, therefore their consecrating and ordaining is false and unright, for all worshipping which is not ordained of God, or erected by God's Word and command, is nothing worth, yea, mere idolatry.
Next unto my just cause the small repute and mean aspect of my person gave the blow to the pope. For when I began to preach and write, the pope scorned and condemned me; he thought: `Tis but one poor friar; what can he do against me? I have maintained and defended this doctrine in popedom, against many emperors, kings, and princes, what then shall this one man do? If he had condescended to regard me, he might easily have suppressed me in the beginning.
A German, making his confession to a priest at Rome, promised, an oath, to keep secret whatsoever the priest should impart unto him, until he reached home; whereupon the priest gave him a leg of the ass on which Christ rode into Jerusalem, very neatly bound up in silk, and said: This is the holy relic on which the Lord Christ corporally did sit, with his sacred legs touching this ass's leg. Then was the German wondrous glad, and carried the said holy relic with him into Germany. When he got to the borders, he bragged of his holy relic in the presence of four others, his comrades, when, lo! it turned out that each of them had likewise received from the same priest a leg, after promising the same secrecy. Thereupon all exclaimed, with great wonder: Lord! had that ass five legs?
Of the Antichrist CCCCLXIV.
A picture being brought to Luther, in which the pope, with Judas the traitor, were represented hanging on the purse and keys, he said: `Twill vex the pope horribly, that he, whom emperors and kings have worshipped should now be figured hanging on his false pick-locks.
It will also grieve the papists, for their consciences will be touched. The purse accords well with the cardinal's hats and their incomes, for the pope's covetousness has been so gross, that in all kingdoms he has not only raked to himself Annates, Palliummoney, etc., but has also sold for money the holy sacraments, indulgences, fraternities, Christ's blood, matrimony, etc. Therefore his purse is filled with robberies, upon which justly ought to be exclaimed, as in the Revelations; "Recompense them as they have done to you, and make it double unto them, according to their works." Therefore, seeing the pope has damned me and given me over to the devil, so will I, in requital, hang him on his own keys.
It is abominable, that in so many of the pope's decrees, there is not one single sentence of the Holy Scripture, or one article of the Catechism mentioned. The pope intending to conduct the government of his church in an external way, his teachings were blasphemous; such as that a stinking friar's hood, put upon a dead body, procured remission of sins, and was of equal value with the merits of our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus.
It is no marvel that the papists hate me so vehemently, for I have well deserved it at their hands. Christ more mildly reproved the Jews that I the papists, yet they killed him. These, therefore, think they justly persecute me, but, according to God's laws and will, they shall find their mistake. In the day of the last judgment I will denounce the pope and his tyrants, who scorn and assail the Word of God, and his sacraments. The pope destroys poor married priests, whereas by all their laws they are only to be displaced from their office. So Prince
George has banished and driven away from Oschitz ten citizens and householders, with twenty-seven children, martyrs to the Word. Their sighs will rise up to heaven against him.
The pope and his crew can in nowise endure the idea of reformation; the mere word creates more alarm at Rome, than thunderbolts from heaven, or the day of judgment. A cardinal said, the other day: Let them eat, and drink, and do what they will; but as to reforming us, we think that is a vain idea; we will not endure it. Neither will we protestants be satisfied, though they administer the sacrament in both kinds, and permit priests to marry; we will also have the doctrine of the faith pure and unfalsified, and the righteousness that justifies and saves before God, and which expels and drives away all idolatry and false worshipping; these done and banished, the foundation on which pope-dome is built falls also.
Of the Antichrist CCCCLXVIII.
We will have the holy sacrament administered in both kinds, that it shall be free for priests to marry, or to forbear, and we will in no way suffer ourselves to be bereaved of the article of justification: "That by faith only in Jesus Christ we are justified and saved before God; without any works, merits, and deserts, merely by grace and mercy." This we must keep and preserve, pure and unfalsified, if we intend to be saved. As to private mass, we cannot hinder it, but must leave it to God, to be acted by those over whom we have neither power nor command; yet, nevertheless, we will openly teach and preach against it, and show that it is abominable blasphemy and idolatry. Either we must go together by the ears, or else they, in our countries, must yield unto us in this particular; if it come to pass that herein they yield unto us, then must we be contented; for, like as the Christians dealt with the Arians, and as St Paul was constrained to carry himself towards the Jews, even so must we also leave the papists to their own consciences, and seeing they will not follow us, so we neither can nor will force them, but must let them go and commit it to God's judgment; and truly, sincerely, and diligently hold unto and maintain our doctrine, let the same vex, anger, and displease whom it will.
The papists see they have an ill cause, and, therefore, labor to maintain it with very poor arguments, that cannot endure the proof, and may be easily confuted.
They say: "The praising of anything is an invocation; the saints are to be praised, therefore they are to be invoked." I answer: No, in nowise; for every praising is not invoking; married people are to be praised, but not to be invoked; for invocation belongs only to God, and not to any creature, either in heaven or on earth; no, not to any angel. They say:
"The doctrine of the remission of sins is necessary; indulgences, pardons, and graces are remissions of sins; therefore they are necessary." No: the pope's pardons are not remissions of sins, but satisfactions for remitting the punishments; mere fables and fictions.
When I was in Rome a disputation was openly held, at which were present thirty learned doctors besides myself, against the pope's power; he boasting that with his right hand he commands the angels in heaven, and with his left draws souls out of purgatory, and that his person is mingled with the godhead. Calixtus disputed against these assertions, and showed that it was only on earth that power was given to the pope to bind and to loose. The other doctors hereupon assailed him with exceeding vehemence, and Calixtus discontinued his arguments, saying, he had only spoken by way of disputation, and that his real opinions were far otherwise.
Of the Antichrist CCCCLXXI.
For the space of many hundred years there has not been a single bishop that has shown any zeal on the subject of schools, baptism, and preaching; `twould have been too great trouble for them, such enemies were they to God. I have heard divers worthy doctors affirm, that the church has longsince stood in need of reformation; but no man was so bold as to assail popedom; for the pope had on his banner, Noli me tangere; therefore every man was silent. Dr. Staupitz said once to me: "If you meddle with popedom you will have the whole world against you;" and he added:—"yet the church is built on blood, and with blood must be sprinkled."
I would have all those who intend to preach the Gospel, diligently read the popish abominations, their decrees and books; and, above all things, thoroughly consider the horrors of the mass—on account of which idol, God might justly have drowned and destroyed the whole world—to the end their consciences may be armed and confirmed against their adversaries.
That Italian monk's book, the Conformities, wherein a comparison is drawn between Christ and St Francis, is a tissue of such horrible lies, that he who wrote it must have been possessed of a devil, not only spiritually but corporally. Christ, he says, is a figure or emblem of St Francis; and he affirms that Christ gave to St Francis the power of saving or condemning whom he pleased.
In a monastery at Luneburg, there stands to this day a great altar, whereon are represented the life and miracles of Christ; his birth, his entry into Jerusalem, his passion, death, descent into hell, resurrection, and ascension. Just by is set forth, in like manner, the birth of St Francis, his miracles, sufferings, death, and ascent into heaven, so that they esteemed the works of St Francis of equal value with those of our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus; a great and abominable blasphemy.
The pope's decretals are naught; he that drew them up was an ass. They are a book put together like a beggar's coat, patched up with all sorts of rags. There is nothing in them about the church; they all aim at temporal matters. Yet the pope says, these decretals are to have equal authority with the Gospel and the writings of the apostles.
Of the Antichrist CCCCLXXVI.
In the pope's decretals are many horrible and diabolical canons; they are a great plague and evil for the church. The shameless pope presumes to say: "Whoso believes and observes not my decrees, it were in vain for him to believe in Christ, or give credit to the four Evangelists." Is not this the language of the very devil, infusing deadly poison into the Church?
Again, he says in one of his decretals: That though he led people into hell, they ought to follow him; whereas, on the contrary, the office of a true bishop is to comfort the broken and sorrowful in heart, and to lead them to Christ. For upon this reprobate villain! must he teach consciences to despair in this sort? Whoever reads the decretals, will often find fair sentences of Scripture monstrously lugged in as confirmation; and, in other cases, when the Scripture is dead against them, that it is roundly said: the Romish Church has otherwise decided. Thus, like an infernal dog, the pope dares to subject God's Word to human creatures.
`Tis just the same with Thomas Aquinas, who, in his books, argues, pro et contra, when he cites a passage in Scripture, he goes on: Aristotle maintains the contrary; so that the Holy
Scripture must give place to Aristotle, a heathen. The world heeds not this abominable darkness, but condemns the truth, and falls into horrible errors. Therefore, let us make good use of our time, for things will not always remain as now.
In the decretals, the pope domineers and triumphs like a victor; there he is on his dunghill, in possession, thundering and lightning with these words: "We have cognizance and authority, and by divine command we judge; all others ought to be obedient unto us."
No human creature may criticize the pope; he only and alone has power to judge and criticize the whole universal world. I am persuaded, that in the pope's spiritual laws it is written above one thousand times, that the pope's actions may not be criticised by any man whatsoever.
The spiritual law of the pope is a filthy book, stinking of money. Take out of it covetousness and ambition, there remains nothing of its own proper substance, yet is has a great lustre, for all unhappiness must begin in nomine Domini. Like as all righteousness and saving health is only "in the name of the Lord, so, under the color and cover of God's name, all idolatry and superstition come. Therefore the commandment fitly says: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
Gratian, the lawyer, who collected the decretals together, endeavored with diligence to arrange them congruously, and to separate the good from the evil. The good man meant well, but the result was naught; for he proceeded thus; he rejected that which was good, to Of the Antichrist justify that which was evil, and thus undertaking the impossible, became amazed and affrighted.
The fasting of the friars is more easy to them than our eating to us. For one day of fasting there are three of feasting. Every friar for his supper has two quarts of beer, a quart of wine, and spice-cakes, or bread prepared with spice and salt, the better to relish their drink. Thus go on these poor fasting brethren; getting so pale and wan, they are like the fiery angels.
If the emperor would merit immortal praise, he would utterly root out the order of the Capuchins, and, for an everlasting remembrance of their abominations, cause their books to remain in safe custody. `Tis the worst and most poisonous sect. The Augustine and Bernardine friars are no way comparable with these confounded lice.
Francis was an Italian, born in the city of Assisi, doubtless an honest and just man. He little thought that such superstition and unbelief would proceed out of his life. There have been so many of those grey friars, that they offered to send forty thousand of their number against the Turks, and yet leave their monasteries sufficiently provided for.
The Franciscan and grey friars came up under the Emperor Frederick II., at the time St Elizabeth was canonized, in the year 1207. Francis worked his game eighteen years; two years under the emperor Philip, four years under the emperor Otho, and twelve years under the emperor Frederick II. They feign, that after his death he appeared to the pope in a dream, held a cup in his hand, and filled the same with blood that ran out of his side. Is not this, think ye, a fine and proper piece of government, that began with dreams and with lies? The pope is not God's image, but his ape. He will be both God and emperor; as pope Innocent
III., said: I will either take the crown from the Emperor Philip, or he shall take mine from me. Oh, such histories ought diligently to be written, to the end posterity may know upon what grounds popedom was erected and founded; namely, upon mere lies and fables. If I were younger, I would write a chronicle of the popes.
If the pope should seek to suppress the mendicant friars, he would find fine sport; he has made them fat, and cherished them in his bosom, and assigned them the greatest and most powerful princes for protectors. If he should attempt to abolish them, they would all combine and instigate the princes against him, for many kings and princes, and the emperor himself, have friars for confessors. The friars were the pope's columns, they carried him as Of the Antichrist the rats carry their king; I was our Lord God's quicksilver, which he threw into the fishpond; that is, which he cast among the friars.
A friar is evil every way, whether in the monastery or out of it. For as Aristotle gives an example touching fire, that burns whether it be in Ethiopia or in Germany, even so is it likewise with the friars. Nature is not changed by any circumstances of time or place.
In Italy was a particular order of friars, called Fratres Inorantiae, that is, Brethren of Ignorance, who took a solemn oath, that they would neither know, learn, nor understand anything at all, but answer all questions with Nescio. Truly, all friars are well worthy of this title, for they only read and babble out the words, but regard not their meaning. The pope and cardinals think: should these brethren study and be learned, they would master us.
Therefore, saccum per neccum, that is, hang a bag about their necks, and send them a-begging through cities, towns, and countries.
An honest matron here in Wittenberg, widow of the consul Horndorff, complained of the covetousness of the Capuchins, one of whom pressed her father, upon his death bed to bequeath something to their monastery, and got from him four hundred florins, for the use of the monastery, the friar constraining herself to make a vow, that she would mention the matter to no person. The man kept the money, which course he usually took, to the great hurt of all the children and orphans in that city. At last, by command of the magistrate, she told how the friar had acted. Many such examples have been, yet no creature dared complain.
There was no end of the robbing, filching, and stealing of those insatiable, money-diseased wretches.
When I was in the monastery at Erfurt, a preaching friar and a bare-foot friar wandered together into the country to beg for the brethren and to gather alms. These two played upon each other in their sermons. The bare-foot friar, preaching first, said: "Loving country people, and good friends! take heed of that bird the swallow, for it is white within, but upon the back it is black; it is an evil bird, always chirping, but profitable for nothing; and when angered, is altogether mad," hereby describing the preaching friars, who wear on the outside black coats, and inside white linen. Now, in the afternoon, the preaching friar came into the pulpit, and played upon the bare-foot friar: "Indeed, loving friends, I neither may nor can well defend the swallow; but the grey sparrow is far a worse and more hurtful bird than the swallow; for it bites the kine, and when it fouls into people's eyes, makes them blind, as ye may see in the book of Tobit. He robs, steals, and devours all he can get, as oats, barley, wheat, rye, apples, pears, peas, cherries, etc. Moreover, he is a lascivious bird: his greatest
Of the Antichrist art is to cry: `Scrip, scrip,'" etc. The bare-foot friar might in better colors have painted the preaching friars, for they are proud buzzards, and right epicureans; while the bare-foot friars, under color of sanctity and humility, are more proud and haughty than kings or princes, and, most of all, have imagined and devised monstrous lies.
St Bernard was the best monk that ever was, whom I love beyond all the rest put together; yet he dared to say, it were a sign of damnation if a man quitted his monastery. He had under him three thousand monks, not one of whom was damned, if his opinions be true, sed vix credo. St Bernard lived in dangerous times, under the emperors Henry IV, and V., Conrad, and Lothaire. He was a learned and able monk, but he gave evil example. The friars, especially the Minorites and Franciscans, had easy days by their hypocrisy; they touched no money, yet they were vastly rich, and lived in luxury. The evil friars life began betimes, when people, under color of piety, abandoned temporal matters. The vocation and condition of a true
Christian, such as God ordained and founded it, consists in three hierarchies - domestic, temporal, and church government.
The state of celibacy is great hypocrisy and wickedness. Augustine, though he lived in a good and acceptable time, was deceived through the exaltation of nuns. And although he gave them leave to marry, yet he said they did wrong to marry, and sinned against God.
Afterwards, when the time of wrath and blindness came, and the truth was hunted away, and lying got the upper hand, the generation of poor women was condemned, under the color of great holiness, but which, in truth, was mere hypocrisy. Christ with one sentence confutes all their arguments: God created them male and female.
The covetousness of the pope has exceeded all others, for the devil made choice of Rome as his peculiar habitation. The ancients said: Rome is a den of covetousness, a root of all wickedness. I have also read in a very old book, this verse following: - "Versus Amor, mundi caput est, et bestia terrae."
That is, when the word Amor is turned and read backward, Roma, Rome, the head of the world, a beast that devours all lands. At Rome all is raked to their hands without preaching or church service, by superstition, idolatry, and selling their good works to the poor ignorant laity for money. St Peter describes such covetousness with express and clear words, when he says: "They have a heart exercised with covetous practices." I am persuaded a man cannot know the disease of covetousness, unless he know Rome; for the deceits and jugglings in other parts are nothing in comparison with those at Rome.
Of the Antichrist CCCCXC.
The proverb says: Priests livings are catching livings; priests goods never prosper; and this we know to be true by experience, for such as have taken spiritual livings unto them are grown poor thereby and become beggars.
Saint Augustine and others distinguish thus between heretics, schismatics, and bad Christians; A schismatic is one that raises divisions and dissensions, professing the true faith of the Christian church, but not at union with her as to certain ceremonies and customs; an evil Christian is he that agrees with the church both in doctrine of faith and ceremonies, but therewithal leads an evil life, and is of wicked conversation. But an heretic is one that introduces false opinions and doctrines against the articles of the Christian faith, contrary to the true meaning of Holy Scripture, and stubbornly maintains and defends them. The papists do not call me a heretic, but a schismatic; one that prepares discords and strifes. But I say, the pope is an arch heretic, for he is an adversary to my blessed Saviour Christ; and so am I to the pope, because he makes new laws and ordinances according to his own will and pleasure, and so directly denies the everlasting priesthood of Christ.
Let us but mark the two points in his decrees, where, with exceeding pompous majesty, he exalts himself above the Holy Scriptures. He is content to leave the expounding thereof to the Fathers, but the decision of their truth he reserves for the chair of Rome. Therefore he discharges against me his lightnings and thunderings, yea, also against his own decrees; for the pope himself says: Justice must give place and yield to the truth. For that purpose he produces the example of king Hezekiah, who brake in pieces the brazen serpent, which God had commanded to be erected. But the pope deals quite contrary to his own laws and decrees; for now he will have that truth must and shall give place to his innumerable and apparent errors. And indeed it is a grievous case, that youth have not seen such errors, or comprehended them; they thing that the gospel has always been the same as now it is. If we had held
God's Word in due honor and reverence, then such abominable errors and idolatries would never have risen or crept in among us.
Through concord small things and wealth increase, as the heathen said; but dissension is dangerous and hurtful, especially in schools, professions, high arts, and their professors, wherein the one ought to reach the hand to the other, kissing and embracing. But when we bite one another, then let us take heed lest we be swallowed up together. Therefore let us pray and strive; for the word of faith, and the prayers of the just, are the most powerful weapons; moreover, God himself sends his holy angels around them that fear him. We ought valiantly to fight, for we are under a Lord of hosts, and a prince of war; therefore with one
Of the Antichrist hand we must build, and in the other hand take the sword—that is, we must both teach and resist.
It is now time to watch, for we are the mark they shoot at; our adversaries intend to make a confederacy with the Turk; they aim at us, but we must venture it, for antichrist will war and get the victory against the saints of God. We stand outwardly in the greatest danger, by reason of treachery and treason; the papists endeavor with money to corrupt our captains and officers. An ass laden with money may do anything, as Tacitus writes of us Germans; they have been taught to take money; there is neither fidelity nor truth on earth.
The papists have a fair and glittering external worship; they boast much of God's Word, of faith, of Christ, of the sacraments, of love, of hope, etc., but they utterly deny the power and virtue of all these; nay, teach that which is quite contrary thereunto. Therefore St Paul very well says: "They deny the power of godliness." He does not say they deny godliness, but they deny the power, strength, and virtue thereof, by false and superstitious doctrine.
Luther, coming from Rome, showed the prince elector of Saxony a picture he had brought with him, whereon was painted how the pope had foiled the whole world with his superstitions and idolatries. There was the little ship of the church, as they term it, almost filled with friars, monks, and priests, casting lines out of the ship to those that were in the sea; the pope, with the cardinals and bishops, sat behind, in the end of the ship, overshadowed and covered by the Holy Ghost, who was looking up towards heaven, and through whom those swimming in the sea, in great danger of their lives, were hoisted up into the ship and saved.
These and like fooleries we then believed as articles of faith. The papists—blind people—by pretending that they go through much tribulation in this world; whereas they wallow in all the glory, pleasures, and delights of the earth. But let them be assured, that ere many years the power of their abominable blasphemies, idolatries, and damnable religion, will be broken, if not destroyed.
And on the contrary, we, who for the sake of confessing God's holy Word in truth, are terrified, banished, imprisoned, and slain here on earth by that man of sin, and God's enemy, the antichrist-pope of Rome, at the last day, with unspeakable comfort, shall take possession of the fruits of our assured hopes—namely, everlasting consolation, joy, and salvation.
The pope places his cardinals in all kingdoms—peevish milk-sops, effeminate and unlearned blockheads, who lie lolling in king's courts, among the ladies and women. The pope has invaded all countries with these and his bishops. German is taken captive by popish