Respecting The Reformation Of The Christian Estate
(Part III)

 
      25. The universities also require a good, sound reformation. I must say
 this, let it vex whom it may. The fact is that whatever the papacy has ordered
 or instituted is only designed for the propagation of sin and error. What
 are the universities, as at present ordered, but, as the book of Maccabees
 says, "schools of 'Greek fashion' and 'heathenish manners" (2 Macc. iv. 12,
 13), full of dissolute living, where very little is taught of the Holy
 Scriptures of the Christian faith, and the blind heathen teacher, Aristotle,
 rules even further than Christ? Now, my advice would be that the books of
 Aristotle, the Physics, the Metaphysics, Of the Soul, Ethics, which have
 hitherto been considered the best, be altogether abolished, with all others
 that profess to treat of nature, though nothing can be learned from them,
 either of natural or of spiritual things. Besides, no one has been able to
 understand his meaning, and much time has been wasted and many noble souls
 vexed with much useless labour, study, and expense. I venture to say that any
 potter has more knowledge of natural things than is to be found in these
 books. My heart is grieved to see how many of the best Christians this
 accursed, proud, knavish heathen has fooled and led astray with his false
 words. God sent him as a plague for our sins.
 
 
      Does not the wretched man in his best book, Of the Soul, teach that the
 soul dies with the body, though many have tried to save him with vain words,
 as if we had not the Holy Scriptures to teach us fully of all things of which
 Aristotle had not the slightest perception? Yet this dead heathen has
 conquered, and has hindered and almost suppressed the books of the living
 God; so that, when I see all this misery I cannot but think that the evil
 spirit has introduced this study.
 
 
      Then there is the Ethics, which is accounted one of the best, though no
 book is more directly contrary to God's will and the Christian virtues. Oh
 that such books could be kept out of the reach of all Christians! Let no one
 object that I say too much, or speak without knowledge. My friend, I know of
 what I speak. I know Aristotle as well as you or men like you. I have read
 him with more understanding than St. Thomas or Scotus, which I may say without
 arrogance, and can prove if need be. It matters not that so many great minds
 have exercised themselves in these matters for many hundred years. Such
 objections do not affect me as they might have done once, since it is plain
 as day that many more errors have existed for many hundred years in the world
 and the universities.
 
 
      I would, however, gladly consent that Aristotle's books of Logic,
 Rhetoric, and Poetry, should be retained, or they might be usefully studied
 in a condensed form, to practise young people in speaking and preaching; but
 the notes and comments should be abolished, and, just as Cicero's Rhetoric
 is read without note or comment, Aristotle's Logic should be read without
 such long commentaries. But now neither speaking nor preaching is taught out
 of them, and they are used only for disputation and toilsomeness. Besides
 this, there are languages-Latin, Greek, and Hebrew-the mathematics, history;
 which I recommend to men of higher understanding: and other matters, which
 will come of themselves, if they seriously strive after reform. And truly it
 is an important matter, for it concerns the teaching and training of
 Christian youths and of our noble people, in whom Christianity still abides.
 Therefore I think that pope and emperor could have no better task than the
 reformation of the universities, just as there is nothing more devilishly
 mischievous than an unreformed university.
 
 
      Physicians I would have to reform their own faculty; lawyers and
 theologians I take under my charge, and say firstly that it would be right to
 abolish the canon law entirely, from beginning to end, more especially the
 decretals. We are taught quite sufficiently in the Bible how we ought to act;
 all this study only prevents the study of the Scriptures, and for the most
 part it is tainted with covetousness and pride. And even though there were
 some good in it, it should nevertheless be destroyed, for the Pope, having the
 canon law in scrinio pectoris, [34] all further study is useless and deceitful.
 At the present time the canon law is not to be found in the books, but in the
 whims of the Pope and his sycophants. You may have settled a matter in the
 best possible way according to the canon law, but the Pope has his scrinium
 pectoris, to which all law must bow in all the world. Now this scrinium is
 oftentimes directed by some knave and the devil himself, whilst it boasts that
 it is directed by the Holy Ghost. This is the way they treat Christ's poor
 people, imposing many laws and keeping none, forcing others to keep them or to
 free themselves by money.
 
 
 [34: In the shrine of his heart.]
 
 
      Therefore, since the Pope and his followers have cancelled the whole
 canon law, despising it and setting their own will above all the world, we
 should follow them and reject the books. Why should we study them to no
 purpose? We should never be able to know the Pope's caprice, which has now
 become the canon law. Let it fall then in God's name, after having risen in
 the devil's name. Let there be henceforth no doctor decretorum, but let them
 all be doctores scrinii papalis, that is, the Pope's sycophants. They say that
 there is no better temporal government than among the Turks, though they have
 no canon nor civil law, but only their Koran; we must at least own that there
 is no worse government than ours, with its canon and civil law, for no estate
 lives according to the Scriptures, or even according to natural reason.
 
 
      The civil law, too, good God! what a wilderness it is become! It is,
 indeed, much better, more skilful, and more honest than the canon law, of
 which nothing is good but the name. Still there is far too much of it. Surely
 good governors, in addition to the Holy Scriptures, would be law enough; as
 St. Paul says, "Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, no, not one
 that shall be able to judge between his brethren?" (I Cor. vi. 5). I think
 also that the common law and the usage of the country should be preferred to
 the law of the empire and that the law of the empire should only be used in
 cases of necessity. And would to God, that, as each land has its own peculiar
 character and nature, they could all be governed by their own simple laws,
 just as they were governed before the law of the empire was devised, and as
 many are governed even now! Elaborate and far-fetched laws are only burdensome
 to the people, and a hindrance rather than a help to business. But I hope that
 others have thought of this, and considered it to more purpose than I could.
 
 
 [35: Luther refers here to the "Sentences" of Petrus Lombardus, the
 so-called magister sententiarum, which formed the basis of all dogmatic
 interpretation from about the middle of the twelfth century down to the
 Reformation.]
 
 
      Our worthy theologians have saved themselves much trouble and labour by
 leaving the Bible alone and only reading the Sentences. [35] I should have
 thought that young theologians might begin by studying the Sentences, and that
 doctors should study the Bible. Now they invert this: the Bible is the first
 thing they study; this ceases with the Bachelor's degree; the Sentences are
 the last, and these they keep forever with the Doctor's degree, and this, too,
 under such sacred obligation that one that is not a priest may read the Bible,
 but a priest must read the Sentences; so that, as far as I can see, a married
 man might be a doctor in the Bible, but not in the Sentences. How should we
 prosper so long as we act so perversely, and degrade the Bible, the holy word
 of God? Besides this, the Pope orders with many stringent words that his laws
 be read and used in schools and courts; while the law of the Gospel is but
 little considered. The result is that in schools and courts the Gospel lies
 dusty underneath the benches, so that the Pope's mischievous laws may alone be
 in force.
 
 
      Since then we hold the name and title of teachers of the Holy Scriptures,
 we should verily be forced to act according to our title, and to teach the
 Holy Scriptures and nothing else. Although, indeed, it is a proud,
 presumptuous title for a man to proclaim himself teacher of the Scriptures,
 still it could be suffered, if the works confirmed the title. But as it is,
 under the rule of the Sentences, we find among theologians more human and
 heathenish fallacies than true holy knowledge of the Scriptures. What then are
 we to do? I know not, except to pray humbly to God to give us Doctors of
 Theology. Doctors of Arts, of Medicine, of Law, of the Sentences, may be made
 by popes, emperors, and the universities; but of this we may be certain: a
 Doctor of the Holy Scriptures can be made by none but the Holy Ghost, as
 Christ says, "They shall all be taught of God" (John vi. 45). Now the Holy
 Ghost does not consider red caps or brown, or any other pomp, nor whether we
 are young or old, layman or priest, monk or secular, virgin or married; nay,
 He once spoke by an ass against the prophet that rode on it. Would to God we
 were worthy of having such doctors given us, be they laymen or priests,
 married or unmarried! But now they try to force the Holy Ghost to enter into
 popes, bishops, or doctors, though there is no sign to show that He is in
 them.
 
 
      We must also lessen the number of theological books, and choose the best,
 for it is not the number of books that makes the learned man, nor much
 reading, but good books often read, however few, makes a man learned in the
 Scriptures and pious. Even the Fathers should only be read for a short time as
 an introduction to the Scriptures. As it is we read nothing else, and never
 get from them into the Scriptures, as if one should be gazing at the signposts
 and never follow the road. These good Fathers wished to lead us into the
 Scriptures by their writings, whereas we lead ourselves out by them, though
 the Scriptures are our vineyard, in which we should all work and exercise
 ourselves.
 
 
      Above all, in schools of all kinds the chief and most common lesson
 should be the Scriptures, and for young boys the Gospel; and would to God each
 town had also a girls' school, in which girls might be taught the Gospel for
 an hour daily, either in German or Latin! In truth, schools, monasteries, and
 convents were founded for this purpose, and with good Christian intentions, as
 we read concerning St. Agnes and other saints [36]; then were there holy
 virgins and martyrs; and in those times it was well with Christendom; but now
 it has been turned into nothing but praying and singing. Should not every
 Christian be expected by his ninth or tenth year to know all the holy Gospels,
 containing as they do his very name and life? A spinner or a seamstress
 teaches her daughter her trade while she is young, but now even the most
 learned prelates and bishops do not know the Gospel.
 
 
      Oh, how badly we treat all these poor young people that are entrusted to
 us for discipline and instruction! and a heavy reckoning shall we have to give
 for it that we keep them from the word of God; their fate is that described by
 Jeremiah: "Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is
 poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people,
 because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They
 say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded
 in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers'
 bosom" (Lam. ii. 11,12). We do not perceive all this misery, how the young
 folk are being pitifully corrupted in the midst of Christendom, all for want
 of the Gospel, which we should always read and study with them.
 
 
 [36: See above, pp. 301, seq.]
 
 
      However, even if the high schools studied the Scriptures diligently we
 should not send every one to them, as we do now, when nothing is considered
 but numbers, and every man wishes to have a Doctor's title; we should only
 send the aptest pupils, well prepared in the lower schools. This should be
 seen to by princes or the magistrates of the towns, and they should take care
 none but apt pupils be sent. But where the Holy Scriptures are not the rule,
 I advise no one to send his child. Everything must perish where God's word is
 not studied unceasingly; and so we see what manner of men there are now in
 the high schools, and all this is the fault of no one but of the Pope, the
 bishops, and the prelates, to whom the welfare of the young has been
 entrusted. For the high schools should only train men of good understanding
 in the Scriptures, who wish to become bishops and priests, and to stand at
 our head against heretics and the devil and all the world. But where do we
 find this? I greatly fear the high schools are nothing but great gates of
 hell, unless they diligently study the Holy Scriptures and teach them to the
 young people.
 
 
      26. I know well the Romish mob will object and loudly pretend that the
 Pope took the holy Roman empire from the Greek emperor and gave it to Germany,
 for which honour and favour he is supposed to deserve submission and thanks
 and all other kinds of returns from the Germans. For this reason they will
 perhaps assume to oppose all attempts to reform them, and will let no regard
 be paid to anything but those donations of the Roman empire. This is also the
 reason why they have so arbitrarily and proudly persecuted and oppressed many
 good emperors, so that it were pity to tell, and with the same cleverness have
 they made themselves lords of all the temporal power and authority, in
 violation of the holy Gospel; and accordingly I must speak of this matter
 also.
 
 
      There is no doubt that the true Roman empire, of which the prophets (Num.
 xxiv. 24 and Daniel ii. 44) spoke, was long ago destroyed, as Balaam clearly
 foretold, saying, "And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall
 afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever"
 (Num. xxiv. 24). [37] And this was done by the Goths, and more especially since
 the empire of the Turks was formed, about one thousand years ago, and so
 gradually Asia and Africa were lost, and subsequently France, Spain, and
 finally Venice arose, so that Rome retains no part of its former power.
 
 
 [37: Luther here follows the Vulgate, translating the above verse:
 "Es werden die Romer kommen und die Juden verstoren: und hernach werden sie
 auch untergehen."]
 
 
      Since then the Pope could not force the Greeks and the emperor at
 Constantinople, who is the hereditary Roman emperor, to obey his will, he
 invented this device to rob him of his empire and title, and to give it to the
 Germans, who were at that time strong and of good repute, in order that they
 might take the power of the Roman empire and hold it of the Pope; and this is
 what actually has happened. It was taken from the emperor at Constantinople,
 and the name and title were given to us Germans, and therewith we became
 subject to the Pope, and he has built up a new Roman empire on the Germans.
 For the other empire, the original, came to an end long ago, as was said
 above.
 
 
      Thus the Roman see has got what it wished: Rome has been taken possession
 of, and the German emperor driven out and bound by oaths not to dwell in Rome.
 He is to be Roman emperor and nevertheless not to dwell in Rhme, and,
 moreover, always to depend on the Pope and his followers, and to do their
 will. We are to have the title, and they are to have the lands and the
 cities. For they have always made our simplicity the tool of their pride and
 tyranny, and they consider us as stupid Germans, to be deceived and fooled by
 them as they choose.
 
 
      Well, for our Lord God it is a small thing to toss kingdoms and
 principalities hither and thither; He is so free with them that He will
 sometimes take a kingdom from a good man and give it to a knave, sometimes
 through the treachery of false, wicked men, sometimes by inheritance, as we
 read concerning Persia, Greece, and nearly all kingdoms; and Daniel says.
 "Wisdom and might are His; and He changes the times and the seasons, and He
 removeth kings and setteth up kings" (Dan. ii. 20, 21). Therefore no one need
 think it a grand matter if he has a kingdom given to him, especially if he be
 a Christian; and so we Germans need not be proud of having had a new Roman
 empire given us. For in His eyes it is a poor gift, that He sometimes gives to
 the least deserving, as Daniel says, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are
 reputed as nothing; and He does according to His will in the army of heaven,
 and among the inhabitants of the earth" (Dan. iv. 35).
 
 
      Now, although the Pope has violently and unjustly robbed the true emperor
 of the Roman empire, or its name, and has given it to us Germans, yet it is
 certain that God has used the Pope's wickedness to give the German nation this
 empire and to raise up a new Roman empire, that exists now, after the fall of
 the old empire. We gave the Pope no cause for this action, nor did we
 understand his false aims and schemes; but still, through the craft and
 knavery of the popes, we have, alas! all too dearly, paid the price of this
 empire with incalculable bloodshed, with the loss of our liberty, with the
 robbery of our wealth, especially of our churches and benefices, and with
 unspeakable treachery and insult. We have the empire in name, but the Pope has
 our wealth, our honour, our bodies, lives, and souls and all that we have.
 This was the way to deceive the Germans, and to deceive them by shuffling.
 What the popes wished was to become emperors; and as they could not do this,
 they put themselves above the emperors.
 
 
      Since, then, we have received this empire through God's providence and
 the schemes of evil men, without our fault, I would not advise that we should
 give it up, but that we should govern it honestly, in the fear of God, so long
 as He is pleased to let us hold it. For, as I have said, it is no matter to
 Him how a kingdom is come by, but He will have it duly governed. If the popes
 took it from others dishonestly, we at least did not come by it dishonestly.
 It was given to us through evil men, under the will of God, to whom we have
 more regard than the false intentions of the popes, who wished to be emperors
 and more than emperors and to fool and mock us with the name.
 
 
      The King of Babylon obtained his kingdom by force and robbery; yet God
 would have it governed by the holy princes Daniel, Ananias, Asarias, and
 Misael. Much more then does He require this empire to be governed by the
 Christian princes of Germany, though the Pope may have stolen, or robbed, or
 newly fashioned it. It is all God's ordering, which came to pass before we
 knew of it.
 
 
      Therefore the Pope and his followers have no reason to boast that they
 did a great kindness to the German nation in giving them this Roman empire;
 firstly, because they intended no good to us, in the matter, but only abused
 our simplicity to strengthen their own power against the Roman emperor at
 Constantinople, from whom, against God and justice, the Pope has taken what
 he had no right to.
 
 
      Secondly, the Pope sought to give the empire, not to us, but to
 himself, and to become lord over all our power, liberty, wealth, body and
 soul, and through us over all the world, if God had not prevented it, as he
 plainly says in his decretals, and has tried with many mischievous tricks in
 the case of many German emperors. Thus we Germans have been taught in plain
 German: whilst we expected to become lords, we have become the servants of
 the most crafty tyrants; we have the name, title, and arms of the empire, but
 the Pope has the treasure, authority, law, and freedom; thus, whilst the Pope
 eats the kernel, he leaves us the empty shells to play with.
 
 
      Now may God help us (who, as I have said, assigned us this kingdom
 through crafty tyrants, and charged us to govern it) to act according to our
 name, title, and arms, and to secure our freedom, and thus let the Romans see
 at last what we have received of God through them. If they boast that they
 have given us an empire, well, be it so, by all means; then let the Pope give
 up Rome, all he has of the empire, and free our country from his unbearable
 taxes and robberies, and give back to us our liberty, authority, wealth,
 honour, body, and soul, rendering to the empire those things that are the
 empire's, so as to act in accordance with his words and pretences.
 
 
      But if he will not do this, what game is he playing with all his
 falsehoods and pretences? Was it not enough to lead this great people by the
 nose for so many hundred years? Because the Pope crowns or makes the Emperor,
 it does not follow that he is above him; for the prophet, St. Samuel, anointed
 and crowned King Saul and David, at God's command, and was yet subject to
 them. And the prophet Nathan anointed King Solomon, and yet was not placed
 over him; moreover, St. Elisha let one of his servants anoint King Jehu of
 Israel, yet they obeyed him. And it has never yet happened in the whole world
 that any one was above the king because he consecrated or crowned him, except
 in the case of the Pope.
 
 
      Now he is himself crowned pope by three cardinals; yet they are subject
 to him, and he is above them. Why, then, contrary to his own example and to
 the doctrine and practice of the whole world and the Scriptures, should he
 exalt himself above the temporal authorities, and the empire, for no other
 reason than that he crowns, and consecrates the Emperor? It suffices that he
 is above him in all divine matters-that is, in preaching, teaching, and the
 ministration of the Sacrament-in which matters, however, every priest or
 bishop is above all other men, just as St. Ambrose in his chair was above the
 Emperor Theodosius, and the prophet Nathan above David, and Samuel above Saul.
 Therefore let the German emperor be a true free emperor, and let not his
 authority or his sword be overborne by these blind pretences of the Pope's
 sycophants, as if they were to be exceptions, and be above the temporal sword
 in all things.
 
 
      27. Let this be enough about the faults of the spiritual estate, though
 many more might be found, if the matter were properly considered; we must now
 consider the defects of the temporal estates. In the first place, we require
 a general law and consent of the German nation against profusion and
 extravagance in dress, which is the cause of so much poverty among the nobles
 and the people. Surely God has given to us, as to other nations, enough wool,
 fur, flax, and whatever else is required for the decent clothing of every
 class; and it cannot be necessary to spend such enormous sums for silk,
 velvet, cloth of gold, and all other kinds of outlandish stuff. I think that
 even if the Pope did not rob us Germans with his unbearable taxes, we should
 be robbed more than enough by these secret thieves, the dealers in silk and
 velvet. As it is, we see that every man wishes to be every other man's equal,
 and that this causes and increases pride and envy among us, as we deserve,
 all which would cease, with many other misfortunes, if our self-will would
 but let us be gratefully content with what God has given us.
 
 
      It is similarly necessary to diminish the use of spices, which is one of
 the ships in which our gold is sent away from Germany. God's mercy has given
 us more food, and that both precious and good, than is to be found in other
 countries. I shall probably be accused of making foolish and impossible
 suggestions, as if I wished to destroy the great business of commerce. But I
 am only doing my part; if the community does not mend matters, every man
 should do it himself. I do not see many good manners that have ever come into
 a land through commerce, and therefore God let the people of Israel dwell
 far from the sea and not carry on much trade.
 
 
      But without doubt the greatest misfortune of the Germans is buying on
 usury. But for this, many a man would have to leave unbought his silk, velvet,
 cloth of gold, spices, and all other luxuries. The system has not been in
 force for more than one hundred years, and has already brought poverty,
 misery, and destruction on almost all princes, foundations, cities, nobles,
 and heirs. If it continues for another hundred years Germany will be left
 without a farthing, and we shall be reduced to eating one another. The devil
 invented this system, and the Pope has done an injury to the whole world by
 sanctioning it.
 
 
      My request and my cry therefore is this: Let each man consider the
 destruction of himself and his family, which is no longer at the door, but
 has entered the house; and let emperors, princes, lords, and corporations
 see to the condemnation and prohibition of this kind of trade, without
 considering the opposition of the Pope and all his justice and injustice, nor
 whether livings or endowments depend upon it. Better a single fief in a city
 based on a freehold estate or honest interest, than a hundred based on usury;
 yea, a single endowment on usury is worse and more grievous than twenty based
 on freehold estate. Truly this usury is a sign and warning that the world
 has been given over to the devil for its sins, and that we are losing our
 spiritual and temporal welfare alike; yet we heed it not.
 
 
      Doubtless we should also find some bridle for the Fuggers and similar
 companies. Is it possible that in a single man's lifetime such great wealth
 should be collected together, if all were done rightly and according to God's
 will? I am not skilled in accounts, but I do not understand how it is possible
 for one hundred guilders to gain twenty in a year, or how one guilder can gain
 another, and that not out of the soil, or by cattle, seeing that possessions
 depend not on the wit of men, but on the blessing of God. I commend this to
 those that are skilled in worldly affairs. I as a theologian blame nothing but
 the evil appearance, of which St. Paul says, "Abstain from all appearance of
 evil" (I Thess. v. 22). All I know is that it were much more godly to
 encourage agriculture and lessen commerce; and that they do the best who,
 according to the Scriptures, till the ground to get their living, as we are
 all commanded in Adam: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake. . . . Thorns also
 and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. . . . In the sweat of thy face
 shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. iii. 17-19). There is still much ground that is
 not ploughed or tilled.
 
 
      Then there is the excess in eating and drinking, for which we Germans
 have an ill reputation in foreign countries, as our special vice, and which
 has become so common, and gained so much the upper hand, that sermons avail
 nothing. The loss of money caused by it is not the worst; but in its train
 come murder, adultery, theft, blasphemy, and all vices. The temporal power
 should do something to prevent it; otherwise it will come to pass, as Christ
 foretold, that the last day shall come as a thief in the night, and shall find
 them eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and
 building, buying and selling (Matt. xxiv. 38; Luke xvii. 26), just as things
 go on now, and that so strongly that I apprehend lest the day of judgment be
 at hand, even now when we least expect it.
 
 
      Lastly, is it not a terrible thing that we Christians should maintain
 public brothels, though we all vow chastity in our baptism? I well know all
 that can be said on this matter: that it is not peculiar to one nation, that
 it would be difficult to demolish it, and that it is better thus than that
 virgins, or married women, or honourable women should be dishonoured. But
 should not the spiritual and temporal powers combine to find some means of
 meeting these difficulties without any such heathen practice? If the people
 of Israel existed without this scandal, why should not a Christian nation be
 able to do so? How do so many towns and villages manage to exist without these
 houses? Why should not great cities be able to do so?
 
 
      In all, however, that I have said above, my object has been to show how
 much good temporal authority might do, and what should be the duty of all
 authorities, so that every man might learn what a terrible thing it is to
 rule and to have the chief place. What boots it though a ruler be in his own
 person as holy as St. Peter, if he be not diligent to help his subjects in
 these matters? His very authority will be his condemnation; for it is the
 duty of those in authority to seek the good of their subjects. But if those
 in authority considered how young people might be brought together in
 marriage, the prospect of marriage would help every man and protect him from
 temptations.
 
 
      But as it is every man is induced to become a priest or a monk; and of
 all these I am afraid not one in a hundred has any other motive but the wish
 of getting a livelihood and the uncertainty of maintaining a family. Therefore
 they begin by a dissolute life and sow their wild oats, (as they say), but I
 fear they rather gather in a store of wild oats. [38] I hold the proverb to be
 true, "Most men become monks and priests in desperation." That is why things
 are as we see them.
 
 
 [38: Luther uses the expression ausbuben in the sense of sich
 austoben, viz., "to storm out one's passions," and then coins the word sich
 einbuben, viz., "to storm in one's passions."]
 
 
      But in order that many sins may be prevented that are becoming too
 common, I would honestly advise that no boy or girl be allowed to take the
 vow of chastity or to enter a religious life before the age of thirty years.
 For this requires a special grace, as St. Paul says. Therefore, unless God
 specially urge any one to a religious life, he will do well to leave all vows
 and devotions alone. I say further, If a man has so little faith in God as to
 fear that he will be unable to maintain himself in the married state, and if
 this fear is the only thing that makes him become a priest, then I implore
 him, for his own soul's sake, not to become a priest, but rather to become a
 peasant, or what he will. For if simple trust in God be necessary to ensure
 temporal support, tenfold trust in God is necessary to live a religious life.
 If you do not trust to God for your worldly food, how can you trust to Him
 for your spiritual food? Alas! this unbelief and want of faith destroys all
 things, and leads us into all misery, as we see among all conditions of men.
 
 
      Much might be said concerning all this misery. Young people have no one
 to look after them, they are left to go on just as they like, and those in
 authority are of no more use to them than if they did not exist, though this
 should be the chief care of the Pope, of bishops, lords, and councils. They
 wish to rule over everything, everywhere, and yet they are of no use. Oh,
 what a rare sight, for these reasons, will a lord or ruler be in heaven,
 though he might build a hundred churches to God and raise all the dead!
 
 
      But this may suffice for the present. For of what concerns the temporal
 authority and the nobles I have, I think, said enough in my tract on Good
 Works. For their lives and governments leave room enough for improvement; but
 there is no comparison between spiritual and temporal abuses, as I have there
 shown. I daresay I have sung a lofty strain, that I have proposed many things
 that will be thought impossible, and attacked many points too sharply. But
 what was I to do? I was bound to say this: if I had the power, this is what I
 would do. I had rather incur the world's anger than God's; they cannot take
 from me more than my life. I have hitherto made many offers of peace to my
 adversaries; but, as I see, God has forced me through them to open my mouth
 wider and wider, and, because they do not keep quiet, to give them enough
 cause for speaking, barking, shouting, and writing. Well, then, I have another
 song still to sing concerning them and Rome; if they wish to hear it, I will
 sing it to them, and sing with all my might. Do you understand, my friend
 Rome, what I mean?
 
 
      I have frequently offered to submit my writings for inquiry and
 examination, but in vain, though I know, if I am in the right, I must be
 condemned upon earth and justified by Christ alone in heaven. For all the
 Scriptures teach us that the affairs of Christians and Christendom must be
 judged by God alone; they have never yet been justified by men in this
 world, but the opposition has always been too strong. My greatest care and
 fear is lest my cause be not condemned by men, by which I should know for
 certain that it does not please God. Therefore let them go freely to work,
 pope, bishop, priest, monk, or doctor; they are the true people to persecute
 the truth, as they have always done. May God grant us all a Christian
 understanding, and especially to the Christian nobility of the German nation
 true spiritual courage, to do what is best for our unhappy Church. Amen!
 
 
 At Wittenberg, in the year 1520.