Part 9 (2/2)
[Sidenote: Abolition of Reserved Cases in the Monasteries]
15 Nor et the poor convents! The evil spirit, who by human la confuses all estates in life, and has made them unbearable, has taken possession of in certain abbots, abbesses and prelates also, and causes theovern their brethren and sisters as to send them the more speedily to hell, and make them lead a wretched life even here; for such is the lot of all the devil's martyrs That is to say, they have reserved to themselves in confession, all, or at least some, of the mortal sins which are secret, so that no brother, on his obedience and on pain of the ban, can absolve another froels everywhere, but we find also flesh and blood, which suffers all bannings and threatenings rather than confess secret sins to the prelates and the appointed confessors Thus they go to the sacraular”[179] and all sorts of other terrible things O blind shepherds! Owolves!
To this I say: If a sin is public or notorious, then it is proper that the prelate alone should punish it, and of these sins only and no others he may make exceptions, and reserve theh they were the worst sins that are or ever can be found, and if the prelate makes exceptions of these sins, he is a tyrant, for he has no such right and is interfering in the judgment of God
And so I advise these children, brethren and sisters: If your superiors are unwilling to grant you permission to confess your secret sins to whomever you wish, then take them to whatever brother or sister you will and confess theo and do whatever you wish and ought to do; only believe fir more is needed And do not allow yourself to be troubled by ban, ”irregularity,” or any of the other things they threaten; these things are valid only in the case of public or notorious sins which one is unwilling to confess; they do not affect you at all Why do you try by your threatenings, O blind prelate, to prevent secret sins? Let go what you cannot publicly prove, so that God's judgrace ive theo entirely out of His own! Nay, what you have under your rule is but the smaller part Let your statutes be statutes, but do not exalt thement-seat of God
[Sidenote: Abolition of Mortuary Masses]
16 It were also necessary to abolish all anniversary, mortuary and ”soul” masses[180], or at least to diminish their nu but a ered, and that their only purpose isand drunkenness What kind of pleasure should God have in such a ils and , and even when prayed[181], they are perfor love, but for money's sake and because they are a bounden duty Now it is not possible that any work not done out of willing love can please God or obtain anything froether Christian to abolish, or at least di into an abuse, and which angers rather than reconciles God It would please me more--nay, it would be more acceptable to God and far better--that a foundation, church or ils together, and on one day, with hearty sincerity, devotion and faith, hold a true vigil and mass for all its benefactors, rather than hold them by the thousand every year, for each benefactor a special mass, without this devotion and faith O dear Christians! God cares not for ! Nay, He conde prayers, and says in Matthew vi, they will only earn more punishment thereby [Matt 67:7; 23:14] But avarice, which cannot trust God, brings such things to pass, earing that otherwise it er!
[Sidenote: Abolition of the Interdict]
17 Certain of the penalties or punishments of the canon law should also be abolished, especially the interdict[182], which is, beyond all doubt, an invention of the evil Spirit Is it not a devil's work to try to atone for one sin with reater sins? And yet, to put God's Word and worshi+p to silence, or to do aith the twenty popes at once, and far greater than killing a priest or keeping back soht in the ”spiritual law” For one of the reasons why this law is called ”spiritual” is because it comes from the Spirit; not, however, from the Holy Spirit, but from the evil spirit
The ban[183] is to be used in no case except where the Scriptures prescribe its use, i e, against those who do not hold the true faith, or who live in open sin; it is not to be used for the sake of temporal possessions But now it is the other way around Everyone believes and lives as he pleases, most of all those who use the ban to plunder and defame other people, and all the bans are now laid only on account of temporal possessions, or which we have no one to thank but the holy ”spiritual lawlessness”[184] Of this I have previously said more in the Discourse[185]
The other punishravation, reaggravation, deposition, lightnings, thunderings, cursings, das and the rest of these devices,--should be buried ten fathoms deep in the earth, so that there should be neither name nor memory of them left on earth The evil spirit, who has been let loose by the ”spiritual law” has brought this terrible plague and do else than the destruction and hindrance of souls, so that the word of Christ may well be applied to them[186]: ”Woe unto you scribes! Ye have taken upon you the authority to teach, and ye shut up the kingdoo not in yourselves, and ye suffer not the” [Matt 23:13]
[Sidenote: Abolition of Saints'-Days]
18 All festivals[187] should be abolished, and Sunday alone retained
If it were desired, however, to retain the festivals of Our Lady and of the greater saints, they should be transferred to Sunday, or observed only by amass, after which all the rest of the day should be a working-day The reason is this: The feast-days are now abused by drinking, ga, idleness and all er God s around; the holy days are not holy and the working days are holy, and not only is no service done to God and His saints by the reat dishonor There are, indeed, soood work if they make a festival in honor of St Ottilia or St Barbara or sos of their blind devotion; but they would be doing a far better work if they honored the saint by turning a saint's-day into a working day
Over and above the spiritual injury, the common man receives two lects his work and he spends more than at other times; nay, he also weakens his body and unfits it for work We see this every day, yet no one thinks to ht not to consider whether or not the pope has instituted the feasts, and whether weis opposed to God, and harmful to overnht to abolish it and put a stop to it, without the will or knowledge of pope or bishop, but they are bound on their souls' salvation to prevent it, even against the will of pope and bishop, though these ought to be theht utterly to abolish the consecration days[190], since they have beco places[191], and serve only to the increase of God's dishonor and to the da had a good beginning and being a good work is of no avail Did not God Hiiven from heaven, when it was perverted and abused? And does He not still daily overturn what He has appointed and destroy what He has made, because of such perversion and abuse? As it is written of Him in Psalm xviii, ”With the perverted Thou wilt show Thyself perverse” [Ps 18:27]
[Sidenote: Extension of Right of Dispensation]
19 The grades or degrees within which ed, as, for instance, the sponsorshi+ps and the third and fourth degrees; and if the pope can grant dispensation in these matters or money and for the sake of his shaive the saratis and or the salvation of souls Yea, would to God that all the things which we must buy at Rome to free ourselves froences, letters of indulgence, ”butter-letters,”[193]
”mass-letters,”[194] and all the rest of the _confessionalia_[195] and knaveries for sale at Rome, hich the poor folk are deceived and robbed of their money; would to God, I say, that any priest could, without pays! For if the pope has the authority to sell his snares for money and his spiritual nets (I should say laws)[196], surely any priest has much more authority to rend his nets and for God's sake to tread theht, neither has the pope the right to sell them at his shameful fair[196]
This is the place to say too that the fasts should be matters of liberty, and all sorts of food made free, as the Gospel h at the fasts, rease their shoes, and afterwards selling us liberty to eat butter and all sorts of other things; yet the holy Apostle says that in all these things we already have liberty through the Gospel [1 Cor 10:25 ff] But they have caught us with their canon law and stolen our rights from us, so that we may have to buy them back with money Thus they have er easy to preach about this liberty because the coreater sin to eat butter than to lie, to swear, or even to live unchastely Nevertheless, what men have decreed, that is the work of ood ever coes]
20 The forest chapels and rustic churches[199] must be utterly destroyed,--those, naes have been directed,--Wilsnack[200], Sternberg[201], Trier[202], the Grioodly number of others Oh, what a terrible and heavy account will the bishops have to render, who permit this devilish deceit and receive its profits![205]
They should be the first to forbid it, and yet they think it a divine and holy thing, and do not see that it is the devil's doing, to strengthen avarice, to create a false, feigned faith, to weaken the parish churches, to multiply taverns and harlotry, to waste money and labor, and to lead the poor folk by the nose If they had only read the Scriptures to as good purpose as they have read their damnable canon law, they would knoell how to deal with this matter
That s, for the evil spirit can do miracles, as Christ has told us in Matthew xxiv [Matt 24:24] If they took the , the miracles would quickly co were of God their prohibition would not hinder it [Acts 5:39] And if there were no other evidence that it is not of God, this would be enough,--that people run to these places in excited crowds, as though they had lost their reason, like herds of cattle; for this cannot possibly be of God Moreover, God has co of all this; there is neither obedience nor merit in it; the bishops, therefore, should boldly step in and keep the folk away For what is not commanded--and is concerned for self rather than for the commands of God--that is surely the devil himself Then, too, the parish churches receive injury, because they are held in sreat unbelief a the people; if they truly believed, they would have all that they need in their own churches, for to theo
[Sidenote: Canonisations to be Prohibited]
But what shall I say? Every one[206] plans only how he e in his diocese and is not at all concerned to have the people believe and live aright; the rulers are like the people; one blind es are not successful, they begin to canonise saints[207], not in honor of the saints--for they are sufficiently honored without canonisation--but in order to drads and bring in ences; there is always h for that But for what God has cos; there is no money or theive the devil his oay in his tricks, but we even strengthen him in his wantonness and increase his pranks I would that the dear saints were let in peace, and the poor folk not led astray! What spirit has given the pope the authority to canonise the saints? Who tells him whether they are saints or not? Are there not already sins enough on earth, that we too ment and set up the dear saints as lures for money?
Therefore I advise that the saints be left to canonise themselves