Yea, it is G.o.d alone who should canonise them. And let every man stay in his own parish, where he finds more than in all the shrines of pilgrimage, even though all the shrines were one. Here we find baptism, the sacrament, preaching and our neighbor, and these are greater things than all the saints in heaven, for it is by G.o.d"s Word and sacrament that they have all been made saints. So long as we despise such great things G.o.d is just in the wrathful judgment by which He appoints the devil to lead us. .h.i.ther and thither, to establish pilgrimages, to found churches and chapels, to secure the canonisation of saints, and to do other such fool"s-works, by which we depart from true faith into new, false misbelief. This is what he did in olden times to the people of Israel, when he led them away from the temple at Jerusalem to countless other places, though he did it in the name of G.o.d and under the plausible guise of holiness, though all the prophets preached against it and were persecuted or so doing. But now no one preaches against it, perhaps or fear that pope, priests and monks would persecute him also. In this way St. Antoninus of Florence[208] and certain others must now be made saints and canonised, that their holiness, which would otherwise have served only for the glory of G.o.d and as a good example, may serve to bring in fame and money.
Although the canonising of saints may have been good in olden times, it is not good now; just as many other things were good in olden times and are now scandalous and injurious, such as feast-days, church-treasures and church-adornment. For it is evident that through the canonising of saints neither G.o.d"s glory nor the improvement of Christians is sought, but only money and glory, in that one church wants to be something more and have something more than others, and would be sorry if another had the same thing and its advantage were common property. So entirely, in these last, evil days, have spiritual goods been misused and applied to the gaining of temporal goods, that everything, even G.o.d Himself, has been forced into the service of avarice. And even these special advantages lead only to dissensions, divisions and pride, in that the churches, differing from one another, hold each other in contempt, and exalt themselves one above another, though all the gifts which G.o.d bestows are the common and equal property of all churches and should only serve the cause of unity. The pope, too, is glad or the present state of affairs; he would be sorry if all Christians were equal and were at one.
[Sidenote: Prohibition of Special Privileges]
pThis is the place to speak of the church licenses, bulls and other things which the pope sells at his laying-place in Rome. We should either abolish them or disregard them, or at least make them the common property of all churches. For if he sells or gives away licenses and privileges, indulgences, graces, advantages, faculties[209] to Wittenberg, to Halle, to Venice and, above, all to his own Rome, why does he not give these things to all churches alike?
Is he not bound to do for all Christians, gratis and for G.o.d"s sake, everything that he can, and even to shed his blood for them? Tell me, then, why he gives or sells to one church and not to another? Or must the accursed money make, in the eyes of His Holiness, so great a difference among Christians, who all have the same baptism, Word, faith, Christ, G.o.d and all things? [Eph. 4:4 f.] Are we to be blind while we have eyes to see, fools while we have our reason, that they expect us to worship such greed, knavery and humbug? He is a shepherd,--yes, so long as you have money, and no longer! And yet they are not ashamed of their knavery, leading us. .h.i.ther and yon with their bulls! Their one concern is the accursed money, and nothing else!
My advice is this: If such fool"s-work cannot be abolished, then every pious Christian man should open his eyes, and not be misled by the hypocritical Roman bulls and seals, stay at home in his own church and be content with his baptism, his Gospel, his faith, his Christ and with G.o.d, Who is everywhere the same; and let the pope remain a blind leader of the blind. Neither angel nor pope can give you as much as G.o.d gives you in your parish-church. Nay, the pope leads you away from the gifts of G.o.d, which you have without pay, to his gifts, which you must buy; and he gives you lead[210] for gold, hide for meat, the string for the purse, wax for honey, words for goods, the letter for the spirit. You see this before your very eyes, but you are unwilling to notice it. If you are to ride to heaven on his wax and parchment, your chariot will soon go to pieces, and you will fall into h.e.l.l, not in G.o.d"s name!
Let this be your fixed rule: What you must buy from the pope is neither good nor of G.o.d; for what is from G.o.d, to wit, the Gospel and the works of G.o.d, is not only given without money, but the whole world is punished and d.a.m.ned because it has not been willing to receive it as a free gift. We have deserved of G.o.d that we should be so deceived, because we have despised His holy Word and the grace of baptism, as St. Paul says: "G.o.d shall send a strong delusion upon all those who have not received the truth to their salvation, to the end that they may believe and follow after lies and knavery," [2 Thess. 2:11 f.]
which serves them right.
[Sidenote: Mendicancy to be Prohibited, and the Poor to be Cared for]
21. One of our greatest necessities is the abolition of all begging throughout Christendom. Among Christians no one ought to go begging!
It would also be easy to make a law, if only we had the courage and the serious intention, to the effect that every city should provide for its own poor, and admit no foreign beggars by whatever name they might be called, whether pilgrims or mendicant monks. Every city could support its own poor, and if it were too small, the people in the surrounding villages also should be exhorted to contribute, since in any case they have to feed so many vagabonds and knaves in the guise of mendicants. In this way, too, it could be known who were really poor and who not.
There would have to be an overseer or warden who knew all the poor and informed the city council or the priests what they needed; or some other better arrangement might be made. In my judgment there is no other business in which so much knavery and deceit are practised as in begging, and yet it could all be easily abolished. Moreover, this free and universal begging hurts the common people. I have considered that each of the five or six mendicant orders[211] visits the same place more than six or seven times every year; besides these there are the common beggars, the "stationaries"[212] and the palmers[213], so that it has been reckoned that every town is laid under tribute about sixty times a year, not counting what is given to the government in taxes, imposts and a.s.sessments, what is stolen by the Roman See with its wares, and what is uselessly consumed. Thus it seems to me one of G.o.d"s greatest miracles that we can continue to support ourselves.
To be sure, some think that in this way[214] the poor would not be so well provided for and that not so many great stone houses and monasteries would be built. This I can well believe. Nor is it necessary. He who wishes to be poor should not be rich; and if he wishes to be rich, let him put his hand to the plow and seek his riches in the earth! It is enough if the poor are decently cared for, so that they do not die of hunger or of cold. It is not fitting that one man should live in idleness on another"s labor, or be rich and live comfortably at the cost of another"s discomfort, according to the present perverted custom; for St. Paul says, "If a man will not work, neither shall he eat." [2 Thess. 3:10] G.o.d has not decreed that any man shall live from another"s goods save only the priests, who rule and preach, and these because of their spiritual labor, as Paul says in I Corinthians ix [1 Cor. 9:14], and Christ also says to the Apostles, "Every laborer is worthy of his hire." [Luke 10:7]
[Sidenote: Prohibition of Endowed Ma.s.ses]
22. It is also to be feared that the many ma.s.ses[215] which are endowed in the foundations and monasteries are not only of little use, but greatly arouse the wrath of G.o.d. It would therefore be profitable not to endow any more, but rather Ma.s.ses to abolish many that are already endowed, since we see that they are regarded only as sacrifices and good works[216], though they are really sacraments, just like baptism and penance[217], which profit only those who receive them, and no others. But now the custom has crept in, that ma.s.ses are said for the living and the dead, and all hopes are built upon them; for this reason so many of them have been founded and the present state of affairs has come about.
My proposal is perhaps too novel and daring, especially for those who fear that through the discontinuance of these ma.s.ses their trade and livelihood may be destroyed, and so I must refrain from saying more about it until we have come back to a correct understanding of what the ma.s.s is and what it is good for. These many years, alas, it has been made a trade practised for a temporal livelihood, so that I would henceforth advise a man to become a shepherd or to seek some other trade rather than become a priest or a monk, unless he first knows well what it is to celebrate ma.s.s. I am not speaking, however, of the old foundations and cathedrals, which were doubtless established in order that the children of the n.o.bility (since, according to the customs of the German nation not all of them can become heirs or rulers), might be provided for in these foundations, and there be free to serve G.o.d, to study, to become scholars and to make scholars. But I am speaking of the new foundations, which have been established only for the saying of prayers and ma.s.ses; for after their example, even the old foundations have been burdened with like prayers and ma.s.ses, so that they are of little or no profit; though it is also of G.o.d"s grace that they too come at last, as they deserve, to the dregs, i.
e., to the wailing of organs and of choral singers, and to dead, cold ma.s.ses, by which the incomes of the worldly endowments are gotten and spent. Such things pope, bishops and doctors should examine and proscribe; but now it is they who are most given to them. They let everything pa.s.s, if only it brings in money; one blind man is always leading another. This is the work of avarice and of the spiritual law.
Again, no one person should be allowed any longer to hold more than one canonry or prebend. He must be content with a modest position, that some one else may also have something. This would do away with the excuses of those who say that they must hold more than one such office to "maintain a proper station." A "proper station" might be so broadly interpreted that a whole land would not be enough to maintain it! Moreover avarice and veiled distrust of G.o.d a.s.suredly go with it, so that what is alleged to be the need of "a proper station" is often nothing else than avarice and distrust.
[Sidenote: Sodalities and Indulgences]
23. Sodalities[218], indulgences, letters of indulgence, "b.u.t.ter-letters,"[219] ma.s.s-letters[220], dispensations, and everything else of the sort, are to be drowned and destroyed. There is nothing good in them. If the pope has the power to grant you dispensation to eat b.u.t.ter and to absent yourself from ma.s.s, then he ought also be able to leave this power to the priests, from whom, indeed, he has no right to take it. I speak especially of those fraternities in which indulgences, ma.s.ses and good works are portioned out. Dear friend, in your baptism you entered into a fraternity with Christ, all the angels, saints and Christians on earth. Hold to this fraternity and live up to its demands, and you have fraternities enough. The others--let them glitter as they will--are but as counters compared with _guldens_. But if there were a fraternity which contributed money to feed the poor or to help somebody in some other way, such a one would be good, and would have its indulgence and its merit in heaven. Now, however, they have become excuses or gluttony and drunkenness[221].
Above all, we should drive out of German lands the papal legates with their "faculties,"[222] which they sell us for large sums of money, though that is sheer knavery. For example, in return for money they legalize unjust gains, dissolve oaths, vows and agreements, break and teach men to break the faith and fealty which they have pledged to one another; and they say the pope has the authority to do this. It is the evil Spirit who bids them say this. Thus they sell us a doctrine of devils, and take money or teaching us sin and leading us to h.e.l.l.
If there were no other evil wiles to prove the pope the true Antichrist, yet this one thing were enough to prove it. Hearest thou this, pope, not most holy, but most sinful? O that G.o.d from heaven would soon destroy thy throne and sink it in the abyss of h.e.l.l! Who hath given thee authority to exalt thyself above thy G.o.d, to break and to loose His commandments, and to teach Christians, especially the German nation, praised in all history for its n.o.bility, its constancy and fidelity, to be inconstant, perjurers, traitors, profligates, faithless? G.o.d hath commanded to keep oath and faith even with an enemy, and thou undertakest to loose this His commandment, and ordainest in thine heretical, antichristian decretals that thou hast His power. Thus through thy throat and through thy pen the wicked Satan doth lie as he hath never lied before. Thou dost force and wrest the Scriptures to thy fancy. O Christ, my Lord, look down, let the day of thy judgment break, and destroy the devil"s nest at Rome! Here sitteth the man of whom St. Paul hath said that he shall exalt himself above Thee, sit in Thy Church and set himself up as G.o.d [2 Thess. 2:3 f.],--the man of sin and the son of perdition! What else is the papal power than only the teaching and increasing of sin and evil, the leading of souls to d.a.m.nation under Thy name and guise?
In olden times the children of Israel had to keep the oath which they had unwittingly been deceived into giving to their enemies, the Gibeonites [Josh. 9:19 ff.], and King Zedekiah was miserably lost, with all his people, because he broke this oath to the King of Babylon [2 Kings 24:20; 25:4 ff.]. Even among us, a hundred years ago, that fine king of Hungary and Poland, Wladislav[223], was slain by the Turk, with so many n.o.ble people, because he allowed himself to be deceived by the papal legate and cardinal, and broke the good and advantageous treaty which he had sworn with the Turk. The pious Emperor Sigismund had no good fortune after the Council of Constance, when he allowed the knaves to break the safe-conduct which had been given to John Hus and Jerome[224] and all the trouble between us and the Bohemians was the consequence. Even in our own times, G.o.d help us!
how much Christian blood has been shed over the oath and alliance which Pope Julius made between the Emperor Maximilian and King Louis of France[225], and afterwards broke? How could I tell all the troubles which the popes have stirred up by the devilish presumption with which they annul oaths and vows which have been made between great princes, making a jest of these things, and taking money for it.
I have hopes that the judgment day is at the door; nothing can possibly be worse than the Roman See. He suppresses G.o.d"s commandment, he exalts his own commandment over it; if he is not Antichrist, then let some one else tell who he can be! But more of this another time, and better.
24. It is high time that we seriously and honestly consider the case of the Bohemians[224], and come into union with them so that the terrible slander, hatred and envy on both sides may cease. As befits my folly, I shall be the first to submit an opinion on this subject, with due deference to every one who may understand the case better than I.
_First_, We must honestly confess the truth, stop justifying ourselves, and grant the Bohemians that John Hus and Jerome of Prague were burned at Constance in violation of the papal, Christian, imperial safe-conduct and oath; whereby G.o.d"s commandment was sinned against and the Bohemians were given ample cause for bitterness; and although they ought to have been perfect and to have patiently endured this great injustice and disobedience of G.o.d on our part, nevertheless they were not bound to approve of it and to acknowledge that it was well done. Nay, even to-day they should give up life and limb rather than confess that it is right to violate an imperial, papal, Christian safe-conduct, and faithlessly to act contrary to it. So then, although it is the impatience of the Bohemians which is at fault, yet the pope and his followers are still more to blame for all the trouble, error and loss of souls that have followed upon that council.
I have no desire to pa.s.s judgment at this time upon John Hus"s articles or to defend his errors, though I have not yet found any errors in his writings, and I am quite prepared to believe that it was neither fair judgment nor honest condemnation which was pa.s.sed by those who, in their faithless dealing, violated a Christian safe-conduct and a commandment of G.o.d. Beyond doubt they were possessed rather by the evil spirit than by the Holy Spirit. No one will doubt that the Holy Spirit does not act contrary to the commandment of G.o.d; and no one is so ignorant as not to know that the violation of faith and of a safe-conduct is contrary to the commandment of G.o.d, even though they had been promised to the devil himself, still more when the promise was made to a mere heretic. It is also quite evident that such a promise was made to John Hus and the Bohemians and was not kept, but that he was burned in spite of it. I do not wish, however, to make John Hus a saint or a martyr, as do some of the Bohemians, though I confess that injustice was done him, and that his books and doctrines were unjustly condemned; for the judgments of G.o.d are secret and terrible, and no one save G.o.d alone should undertake to reveal or utter them. All I wish to say is this: though he were never so wicked a heretic, nevertheless he was burned unjustly and against G.o.d"s commandment, and the Bohemians should not be forced to approve of such conduct, or else we shall never come into unity. Not obstinacy but the open admission of truth must make us one.
It is useless to pretend, as was done at that time, that a safe-conduct given to a heretic need not be kept[227]. That is as much as to say that G.o.d"s commandments are not to be kept to the end that G.o.d"s commandments may be kept. The devil made them mad and foolish, so that they did not know what they were saying or doing. G.o.d has commanded that a safe-conduct shall be kept. This commandment we should keep though the world all. How much more, when it is only a question of freeing a heretic! We should vanquish heretics with books, not with burning; for so the ancient fathers did. If it were a science to vanquish the heretics with fire, then the hang-men would be the most learned doctors on earth; we should no longer need to study, but he who overcame another by force might burn him at the stake.
_Second_, The emperor and the princes should send to the Bohemians some pious and sensible bishops and scholars; but by no means a cardinal or papal legate or inquisitor, for those people are utter ignoramuses as regards things Christian; they seek not the welfare of souls, but, like all the pope"s hypocrites, only their own power, profit and glory; indeed, they were the prime movers in this miserable business at Constance. The men thus sent into Bohemia should inform themselves about the faith of the Bohemians, and whether it be possible to unite all their sects. Then the pope should, for their souls" sake, lay aside his supremacy for the time being, and, according to the decree of the most Christian Council of Nicaea[228], allow the Bohemians to choose one of their number to be Archbishop of Prague[229], and he should be confirmed by the bishop of Olmutz in Moravia, or the bishop of Gran in Hungary, or the bishop of Gnesen in Poland, or the bishop of Magdeburg in Germany[230]. It will be enough if he is confirmed by one or two of these, as was the custom in the time of St. Cyprian[231]. The pope has no right to oppose such an arrangement, and if he does oppose it, he becomes a wolf and a tyrant; no one should follow him and his ban should be met with a counter-ban.
If, however, it were desired, in honor of the See of St. Peter, to do this with the pope"s consent, I should be satisfied, provided it does not cost the Bohemians a _h.e.l.ler_ and the pope does not bind them at all nor make them subject to his tyrannies by oaths and obligations, as he does all other bishops, in despite of G.o.d and of justice. If he will not be satisfied with the honor of having his consent asked, then let them not bother any more about him[232] and his rights, laws and tyrannies; let the election suffice, and let the blood of all the souls which are endangered cry out against him, for no one should consent to injustice; it is enough to have offered tyranny an honor.
If it cannot be otherwise, then an election and approval by the common people can even now be quite as valid as a confirmation by a tyrant; but I hope this will not be necessary. Some of the Romans or the good bishops and scholars will sometime mark and oppose papal tyranny.
I would also advise against compelling them to abolish both kinds in the sacrament[233], since that is neither unchristian nor heretical, but they should be allowed to retain their own practice, if they wish.
Yet the new bishop should be careful that no discord arise because of such a practice, but should kindly instruct them that neither practice is wrong[234]; just as it ought not to cause dissension that the clergy differ from the laity in manner of life and in dress. In like manner if they were unwilling to receive the Roman canon law, they should not be forced to do so, but we should first make sure that they live in accordance with faith and with the Scriptures. For Christian faith and life can well exist without the intolerable laws of the pope, nay, they cannot well exist unless there be fewer of these Roman laws, or none at all. In baptism we have become free and have been made subject to G.o.d"s Word only; why should any man ensnare us in his words? As St. Paul says, "Ye have become free, be not servants of men," [1 Cor. 7:23; Gal. 5:1] i. e. of those who rule with man-made laws.
If I knew that the Picards[235] held no other error touching the sacrament of the altar except that they believe that the bread and wine are present in their true nature, but that the body and blood of Christ are truly present under them, then I would not condemn them, but would let them enter the obedience of the bishop of Prague. For it is not an article of faith that bread and wine are not essentially and naturally in the sacrament, but this is an opinion of St. Thomas[236]
and the pope. On the other hand, it is an article of faith that in the natural bread and wine the true natural body and blood of Christ are present[237]. And so we should tolerate the opinions of both sides until they come to an agreement, because there is no danger in believing that bread is there or is not there. For we have to endure many practices and ordinances so long as they are not harmful to faith. On the other hand, if they had a different faith[238], I would rather have them outside the Church; yet I would teach them the truth.
Whatever other errors and schisms might be discovered in Bohemia should be tolerated until the archbishop had been restored and had gradually brought all the people together again in one common doctrine. They will a.s.suredly never be united by force, nor by defiance, nor by haste; it will take time and forbearance. Had not even Christ to tarry with His disciples a long while and bear with their unbelief, until they believed His resurrection? If they but had again a regular bishop and church order, without Roman tyranny, I could hope that things would soon be better.
The restoration of the temporal goods which formerly belonged to the Church should not be too strictly demanded, but since we are Christians and each is bound to help the rest, it is in our power, for the sake of unity, to give them these things and let them keep them in the sight of G.o.d and men. For Christ says, "Where two are at one with each other on earth, there am I in the midst of them." [Matt. 18:19 f.] Would to G.o.d that on both sides we were working toward this unity, offering our hands to one another in brotherly humility, and not standing stubbornly on our powers or rights! Love is greater and more necessary than the papacy at Rome, or there can be papacy without love and love without papacy.
With this counsel I shall have done what I could. If the pope or his followers hinder it, they shall render an account for seeking their own things rather than the things of their neighbor, contrary to the love of G.o.d [Phil. 2:4]. The pope ought to give up his papacy and all his possessions and honors, if he could by that means save one soul; but now he would let the world go to destruction rather than yield a hair"s-breadth of his presumptuous authority. And yet he would be the "most holy"! Here my responsibility ends.
[Sidenote: The Universities]
[Sidenote: Aristotle]
25. The universities also need a good, thorough reformation--I must say it no matter whom it vexes--for everything which the papacy has inst.i.tuted and ordered is directed only towards the increasing of sin and error. What else are the universities, if their present condition remains unchanged, than as the book of Maccabees says, _Gymnasia Epheborum et Graecae gloriae_[239][2 Macc. 4:9, 12], in which loose living prevails, the Holy Scriptures and the Christian faith are little taught, and the blind, heathen Aristotle master Aristotle[240]
rules alone, even more than Christ. In this regard my advice would be that Aristotle"s _Physics_, _Metaphysics_, _On the Soul_, _Ethics_, which have hitherto been thought his best books, should be altogether discarded, together with all the rest of his books which boast of treating the things of nature, although nothing can be learned from them either of the things of nature or the things of the Spirit.
Moreover no one has so far understood his meaning, and many souls have been burdened with profitless labor and study, at the cost of much precious time. I venture to say that any potter has more knowledge of nature than is written in these books. It grieves me to the heart that this d.a.m.ned, conceited, rascally heathen has with his false words deluded and made fools of so many of the best Christians. G.o.d has sent him as a plague upon us for our sins.
Why, this wretched man, in his best book, _On the Soul_, teaches that the soul dies with the body, although many have tried with vain words to save his reputation. As though we had not the Holy Scriptures, in which we are abundantly instructed about all things, and of them Aristotle had not the faintest inkling! And yet this dead heathen has conquered and obstructed and almost suppressed the books of the living G.o.d, so that when I think of this miserable business I can believe nothing else than that the evil spirit has introduced the study of Aristotle. Again, his book on _Ethics_ is the worst of all books. It flatly opposes divine grace and all Christian virtues, and yet it is considered one of his best works. Away with such books! Keep them away from all Christians! Let no one accuse me of exaggeration, or of condemning what I do not understand! My dear friend, I know well whereof I speak. I know my Aristotle as well as you or the likes of you. I have lectured on him[241] and heard lectures on him, and I understand him better than do St. Thomas or Scotus[242]. This I can say without pride, and if necessary I can prove it. I care not that so many great minds have wearied themselves over him for so many hundred years. Such objections do not disturb me as once they did; for it is plain as day that other errors have remained or even more centuries in the world and in the universities.
I should be glad to see Aristotle"s books on _Logic_, _Rhetoric_ and _Poetics_ retained or used in an abridged form; as text-books for the profitable training of young people in speaking and preaching. But the commentaries and notes should be abolished, and as Cicero"s _Rhetoric_ is read without commentaries and notes, so Aristotle"s _Logic_ should be read as it is, without such a ma.s.s of comments. But now neither speaking nor preaching is learned from it, and it has become nothing but a disputing and a weariness to the flesh. Besides this there are the languages--Latin, Greek and Hebrew--the mathematical disciplines and history. But all this I give over to the specialists, and, indeed, the reform would come of itself, if we were only seriously bent upon it. In truth, much depends upon it; for it is here[243] that the Christian youth and the best of our people, with whom the future of Christendom lies, are to be educated and trained. Therefore I consider that there is no work more worthy of pope or emperor than a thorough reformation of the universities, and there is nothing worse or more worthy of the devil than unreformed universities.
[Sidenote: The Canon Law]
The medical men I leave to reform their own faculties; the jurists and theologians I take as my share, and I say, in the first place, that it were well if the canon law, from the first letter to the last, and especially the decretals, were utterly blotted out. The Bible contains more than enough directions for all our living, and so the study of the canon law only stands in the way of the study of the Holy Scriptures; moreover, it smacks for the most part of mere avarice and pride. Even though there were much in it that is good, it might as well be destroyed, for the pope has taken the whole canon law captive and imprisoned it in the "chamber of his heart,"[244] so that the study of it is henceorth a waste of time and a farce. At present the canon law is not what is in the books, but what is in the sweet will of the pope and his flatterers. Your cause may be thoroughly established in the canon law; still the pope has his _scrinium pectoris_[245], and all law and the whole world must be guided by that. Now it is ofttimes a knave, and even the devil himself, who rules this _scrinium_, and they boast that it is ruled by the Holy Spirit! Thus they deal with Christ"s unfortunate people. They give them many laws and themselves keep none of them, but others they compel either to keep them or else to buy release.
Since, then, the pope and his followers have suspended the whole canon law, and since they pay no heed to it, but regard their own wanton will as a law exalting them above all the world, we should follow their example and for our part also reject these books. Why should we waste our time studying them? We could never discover the whole arbitrary will of the pope, which has now become the canon law. The canon law has arisen in the devil"s name, let it all in the name of G.o.d, and let there be no more _doctores decretorum_[246] in the world, but only _doctores scrinii papalis_, that is, "hypocrites of the pope"! It is said that there is no better temporal rule anywhere than among the Turks, who have neither spiritual nor temporal law, but only their Koran; and we must confess that there is no more shameful rule than among us, with our spiritual and temporal law, so that there is no estate which lives according to the light of nature, still less according to Holy Scripture.
[Sidenote: Secular Law]
The temporal law,--G.o.d help us! what a wilderness it has become![247]
Though it is much better, wiser and more rational than the "spiritual law" which has nothing good about it except the name, still there is far too much of it. Surely the Holy Scriptures and good rulers would be law enough; as St. Paul says in I Corinthians vi, "Is there no one among you can judge his neighbor"s cause, that ye must go to law before heathen courts?" [1 Cor. 6:1] It seems just to me that territorial laws and territorial customs should take precedence of the general imperial laws, and the imperial laws be used only in case of necessity. Would to G.o.d that as every land has its own peculiar character, so it were ruled by its own brief laws, as the lands were ruled before these imperial laws were invented, and many lands are still ruled without them! These diffuse and far-etched laws are only a burden to the people, and hinder causes more than they help them. I hope, however, that others have given this matter more thought and attention than I am able to do.
[Sidenote: Theology]
My friends the theologians have spared themselves pains and labor; they leave the Bible in peace and read the Sentences. I should think that the Sentences[248] ought to be the first study of young students in theology and the Bible ought to be the study for the doctors. But now it is turned around; the Bible comes first, and is put aside when the bachelor"s degree is reached, and the Sentences come last. They are attached forever to the doctorate, and that with such a solemn obligation that a man who is not a priest may indeed read the Bible, but the Sentences a priest must read. A married man, I observe, could be a Doctor of the Bible, but under no circ.u.mstances a Doctor of the Sentences. What good fortune can we expect if we act so perversely and in this way put the Bible, the holy Word of G.o.d, so far to the rear?
Moreover the pope commands, with many severe words, that his laws are to be read and used in the schools and the courts, but little is said of the Gospel. Thus it is the custom that in the schools and the courts the Gospel lies idle in the dust under the bench[249], to the end that the pope"s harmful laws may rule alone.
If we are called by the t.i.tle of teachers[250] of Holy Scripture, then we ought to be compelled, in accordance with our name, to teach the Holy Scriptures and nothing else, although even this t.i.tle is too proud and boastful and no one ought to be proclaimed and crowned teacher of Holy Scripture. Yet it might be suffered, if the work justified the name; but now, under the despotism of the Sentences, we find among the theologians more of heathen and human opinion than of the holy and certain doctrine of Scripture. What, then, are we to do?
I know of no other way than humbly to pray G.o.d to give us Doctors of Theology, Pope, emperor and universities may make Doctors of Arts, of Medicine, of Laws, of the Sentences; but be a.s.sured that no one will make a Doctor of Holy Scripture, save only the Holy Ghost from heaven, as Christ says in John vi, "They must all be taught of G.o.d Himself."
[John 6:45] Now the Holy Ghost does not concern Himself about red or brown birettas[251] or other decorations, nor does He ask whether one is old or young, layman or priest, monk or secular, virgin or married; nay He spake of old by an a.s.s, against the prophet who rode upon it [Num. 22:28]. Would G.o.d that we were worthy to have such doctors given us, whether they were layman or priests, married or virgin. True, they now try to force the Holy Ghost into pope, bishops and doctors, although there is no sign or indication whatever that He is in them.