Part 11 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Theological Textbooks]

The nuical books must also be lessened, and a selection made of the best of the that s, however little of them, often read, that make men learned in the Scriptures, and s of all the holy fathers should be read only for a tih them we may be led to the Holy Scriptures As it is, however, we read them only to be absorbed in them and never con-posts and never travel the road The dear fathers wished, by their writings, to lead us to the Scriptures, but we so use theh the Scriptures alone are our vineyard in which we ought all to work and toil

[Sidenote: Schools]

Above all, the foreher and the lower schools, should be the Holy Scriptures, and for the young boys the Gospel And would to God that every town had a girls' school also, in which the girls were taught the Gospel for an hour each day either in German or Latin Indeed the schools, o with that end in view, and it was a praiseworthy and Christian purpose, as we learn frones[252] and other of the saints That was the tiins and martyrs, and then it ith Christendoing Ought not every Christian at his ninth or tenth year to know the entire holy Gospel from which he derives his name[254] and his life? A spinner or a seahter the trade in her early years; but now even the great, learned prelates and bishops themselves do not know the Gospel

O how unjustly we deal with these poor young people who are coive a terrible accounting or our neglect to set the Word of God before them They are as Jereroeary eeping, round, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, or the youth and the children perish in all the streets of the whole city; they said to their mothers, Where is bread and wine? and they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city and gave up the ghost in their mothers' bosom” [Lam 2:11 ff] This pitiful evil we do not see,--how even now the young folk in the uish and perish iving the

[Sidenote: Restriction of Number of Students]

Moreover, if the universities were diligent in the study of Holy Scripture, we should not send everybody there, as we do when all we ask is nuree; but we should send only the best qualified students, who have previously been well trained in the lower schools A prince or city council ought to see to this, and permit only the well qualified to be sent But where the Holy Scriptures do not rule, there I advise no one to send his son Everyone not unceasingly busy with the Word of God must become corrupt; that is why the people who are in the universities and who are trained there are the kind of people they are For this no one is to blaed with the training of the youth For the universities ought to turn out only men who are experts in the Holy Scriptures, who can becoainst heretics, the devil and all the world But where do you find this true? I greatly fear that the universities are wide gates of hell, if they do not diligently teach the Holy Scriptures and impress them on the youth

[Sidenote: The Pope and the Holy Roman Empire]

26[255] I know full well that the Roreat boasts about how the pope took the Holy Roman Empire from the Greek Emperor[256] and bestowed it on the Germans, for which honor and benevolence he is said to have justly deserved and obtained fros For this reason they will, perhaps, undertake to throw to the winds all attempts to refor but the bestowal of the Roman Empire For this cause they have heretofore persecuted and oppressed antly that it is pity to tell of it, and with the same adroitness they have made themselves overlords of all the temporal powers and authorities, contrary to the Holy Gospel Of this too I must therefore speak

There is no doubt that the true Ros of the prophets foretold in Numbers xxiv [Nu since been overthrown and brought to an end, as Balaam clearly prophesied in Numbers xxiv, when he said: ”The Romans shall come and overthrow the Jews; and afterwards they also shall be destroyed” That was brought to pass by the Goths[257], but especially when the Turkish Eo[258]; then in time Asia and Africa fell away, and finally Venice arose, and there re of its former power

Nohen the pope could not subdue to his arrogant will the Greeks and the emperor at Constantinople, as hereditary Roht himself of this device, viz, to rob him of his empire and his title and turn it over to the Gerood repute, so as to bring the power of the Roive it away as a fief So too it turned out It was taken away from the eiven to us Germans Thereby we became the servants of the pope, and there is now a second Roman Empire, which the pope has built upon the Ger since fallen, as I have said

So then the Roman See has its will It has taken possession of Rome, driven out the German Emperor and bound him with oaths not to dwell at Rome He is to be Roman Emperor, and yet he is not to have possession of Rome, and besides he is at all times to be dependent upon the caprice of the pope and his followers, so that we have the name and they have the land and cities They have always abused our siance and tyranny, and they call us mad Germans, who let ourselves be

Ah well! For God the Lord it is a s to toss eenerous with thedoood man, sometimes by the treachery of wicked, faithless dodos dwelleth in heaven, and it is He alone Who changeth kingdoms, tosseth them to and fro, and maketh them” [Dan 2:21; 4:14]

Since, therefore, no one can think it a great thing to have a kingdoiven him, especially if he is a Christian, we Germans too cannot be puffed up because a new Ro gift, which He often gives to the most unworthy, as Daniel iv says: ”All ell upon the earth are in His eyes as nothing, and He has power in all the kingdoive theh the pope unjustly and by violence robbed the true eave it to us Germans, it is certain, nevertheless, that in this ive such an empire to the German nation, and after the all of the first Roman Empire, to set up another, which still exists

And although we gave no occasion to this wickedness of the popes, and did not understand their false aih this papal trickery and roguery, we have already paid too dearly for our empire, with incalculable bloodshed, with the suppression of our liberty, with the risk and robbery of all our goods, especially the goods of the churches and canonries, and with the suffering of unspeakable deception and insult We have the name of the empire, but the pope has our wealth, honor, body, life, soul and all that is ours So we Germans are to be cheated in the trade[259]

What the popes sought was to be ee that, they at least succeeded in setting themselves over the eiven us without our fault, by the providence of God and the plotting of evil ive it up, but rather that we rule it wisely and in the fear of God, so long as it shall please Him For, as has been said, it matters not to Him where an eh the popes took it dishonestly froiven us by the will of God through evil-ard for God's will than for the treacherous purpose of the popes, who, in bestowing it, wished to be emperors themselves, and more than e of Babylon also seized his empire by robbery and force; yet it was God's will that it should be ruled by the holy princes, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael [Dan 3:30; 5:29]; much more then is it His will that this eardless whether the pope stole it, or got it by robbery, or , which came to pass before we knew of it

Therefore the pope and his followers reat favor to the German nation by the bestowal of this Roood, but were rather taking advantage of our sithen theainst the Roman Emperor at Constantinople, from who which he had no right to do _Second_, because the pope's intention was not to give us the e all our power, our freedom, wealth, body and soul into subjection to himself and use us (if God had not prevented) to subdue all the world He clearly says so himself in his decretals, and he has attempted it, by many evil wiles, with a number of the Gerht our Gerht to be lords, we became slaves of the nia of the empire, but the pope has its treasures, its authority, its law and its liberty So the pope gobbles the kernel, and we play with the empty hulls

Now may God, Who by the wiles of tyrants has tossed this e of it, help us to live up to the nania, to rescue our liberty, and to show the Roh them, have received from God! They boast that they have bestowed on us an eive us Root from the e and robbing, and give us back our liberty, authority, wealth, honor, body and soul; let the empire be what an empire should be, and let his words and pretensions be fulfilled!

If he will not do that, then why all this shaler's tricks? Is he not satisfied with having so rudely led this noble nation by the nose these ? It does not follow that the pope must be above an emperor because he makes or crowns him The prophet Sas Saul and David, and yet he was their subject; and the prophet Nathan anointed King Solomon, but was not set over him on that account [1 Sam 16:1; 16:13]; Elisha too had one of his servants anoint Jehu King of Israel [1 Kings 1:38 f], and yet they res 9:1 ff]

Except in the case of the pope, it has never happened in all the world's history that he who consecrated or crowned the king was over the king He lets himself be crowned pope by three cardinals, who are under him, and he is nevertheless their superior Why then should he, contrary to the example which he hi of all the world and of the Scriptures, exalt himself above temporal authorities, or the empire, sih that he should be the e, teaching and ads, indeed, any bishop or priest is over every other man, as St Ambrose in his See was over the emperor Theodosius[260], and the prophet Nathan over David, and Samuel over Saul Therefore, let the German Emperor be really and truly emperor, and let not his authority or his sword be put down by this blind pretension of papal hypocrites, as though they were to be excepted from his dos]

[Sidenote: Econoh has now been said about the failings of the clergy, though more of them can and will be found if these are properly considered

We would say sos of the temporal estate

[Sidenote: Luxury in Dress]

1 There is great need of a general law and decree of the Gerance and excess in dress, by which so iven to us, as to other lands, enough wool, hair, lax and every thing else which properly serves or the seemly and honorable dress of every rank, so that we do not need to spend and waste such enorolden ornan wares I believe that even if the pope had not robbed us Germans with his intolerable exactions, we should still have our hands more than full with these domestic robbers, the silk and velvet merchants[262] In the matter of clothes, as we see, everybody wants to be equal to everybody else, and pride and envy are aroused and increased a us, as we deserve All this and much more misery would be avoided if our curiosity would only let us be thankful, and be satisfied with the goods which God has given us