Produced by Michael McDermott, from scans obtained from
the Internet Archive
WORKS OF MARTIN LUTHER
WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES
VOLUME I
PHILADELPHIA
A. J. HOLMAN COMPANY
1915
Copyright, 1915, by A. J. HOLMAN COMPANY
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
LUTHER'S PREFACES (C. M. Jacobs)
DISPUTATION ON INDULGENCES (1517)
Introduction (C. H. Jacobs)
Translation (C. M, Jacobs)
TREATISE ON BAPTISM (1519)
Introduction (H. E. Jacobs)
Translation (C. M. Jacobs)
DISCUSSION OF CONFESSION (1520)
Introduction (H. E. Jacobs)
Translation (C. M. Jacobs)
THE FOURTEEN OF CONSOLATION (1520)
Introduction (A. T. W. Steinhaeuser)
Translation (A. T. W. Steinhaeuser)
TREATISE ON GOOD WORKS (1520)
Introduction (A. T. W. Steinhaeuser)
Translation (A. T. W. Steinhaeuser)
TREATISE ON THE NEW TESTAMENT (1520)
Introduction (J. L. Neve)
Translation (J. J. Schindel)
THE PAPACY AT ROME (1520)
Introduction (T. E. Schmauk)
Translation (A. Steimle)
INDEX (W. A. Lambert)
INTRODUCTION
No historical study of current issues--politics or social science
or theology--can far proceed without bringing the student face to
face with the principles asserted by the Reformation of the
Sixteenth Century and its great leader, Martin Luther. He has had
many critics and many champions, but neither his critics nor his
champions feel that the last word concerning him has been spoken,
for scarcely a year passes that does not witness the publication
of a new biography.
Had Luther been nothing more than a man of his own time and his
own nation the task of estimating him would long since have been
completed. A few exhaustive treatises would have answered all
demands. But the Catalogue of the British Museum, published in
1894, contains over two hundred folio pages, averaging about
thirty-five titles to the page, of books and pamphlets written
either by or about him, that have been gathered into this single
collection, in a land foreign to the sphere of his labors, and
this list has been greatly augmented since 1894. Above all other
historical characters that have appeared since the first years of
Christianity, he is a man of the present day no less than of the
day in which he lived.
But Luther can be properly known and estimated only when he is
allowed to speak for himself. He should be seen not through the
eyes of others, but through our own. In order to judge the man
we must know all sides of the man, and read the heaviest as well
as the lightest of his works, the more scientific and theological
as well as the more practical and popular, his informal letters
as well as his formal treatises. We must take account of the time
of each writing and the circumstances under which it was
composed, of the adversaries against whom he was contending, and
of the progress which he made in his opinions as time went on.
The great fund of primary sources which the historical methods of
the last generation have made available should also be laid under
contribution to shed light upon his statements and his attitude
toward the various questions involved in his life-struggles.
As long as a writer can be read only in the language or languages
in which he wrote, this necessary closer contact with his
personality can be enjoyed only by a very limited circle of
advanced scholars. But many of these will be grateful for a
translation into their vernacular for more rapid reading, from
which they may turn to the standard text when a question of more
minute criticism is at stake. Even advanced students appreciate
accurately rendered and scholarly annotated translations, by
which the range of the leaders of human thought, with whom it is
possible for them to be occupied, may be greatly enlarged. Such
series of translations as those comprised in the well-edited
Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Libraries of the Fathers have
served a most excellent purpose.
In the series introduced by this volume the attempt is made to
render a similar service with respect to Luther. This is no
ambitious project to reproduce in English all that he wrote or
that fell from his lips in the lecture-room or in the pulpit. The
plan has been to furnish within the space of ten volumes a
selection of such treatises as are either of most permanent
value, or supply the best means for obtaining a true view of his
many-sided literary activity and the sources of his abiding
influence. The aim is not to popularize the writer, but to make
the English, as far as possible, a faithful reproduction of the
German or Latin. The work has been done by a small group of
scholarly Lutheran pastors, residing near each other, and jointly
preparing the copy for the printer. The first draft of each
translation was thoroughly discussed and revised in a joint
conference of the translators before final approval.
Representative scholars, who have given more or less special
study to Luther, have been called in to prepare some of the
introductions. While the part contributed by each individual is
credited at the proper place, it must yet be added that my former
colleague, the late Rev. Prof. Adolph Spaeth, D. D., LL. D.
(died June 25, 1910), was actively engaged as the Chairman of the
Committee that organized the work, determined the plan, and, with
the undersigned, made the first selection of the material to be
included.
The other members of the Committee are the Rev. T. E. Schmauk,
D. D., LL. D., the Rev. L. D. Reed, D. D., the Rev. W. A. Lambert,
J. J. Schindel, A. Steimle, A. T. W. Steinhaeuser, and C. M.
Jacobs, D. D.; upon the five last named the burden of preparing
the translations and notes has rested.
Their work has been laborious and difficult. Luther's complaints
concerning the seriousness of his task in attempting to teach the
patriarch Job to speak idiomatic German might doubtless have
found an echo in the experience of this corps of scholars in
forcing Luther into idiomatic English. We are confident, however,
that, as in Luther's case, so also here, the general verdict of
readers will be that they have been eminently successful. It
should also be known that it has been purely a labor of love,
performed in the midst of the exacting duties of large
pastorates, and to serve the Church, to whose ministry they have
consecrated their lives.
The approaching jubilee of the Reformation in 1917 will call
renewed attention to the author of these treatises. These
volumes have been prepared with especial reference to the
discussions which, we have every reason to believe, will then
occur.
Henry Eyster Jacobs.
Luther Theological Seminary,
Mt. Airy, Philadelphia.
TRANSLATORS' NOTE
The languages from which the following translations have been
made are the Latin and the German,--the Latin of the German
Universities, the German of the people, and both distinctively
Luther's. In the Latin there is added to the imperfection of the
form, when measured by classical standards, the difficulty of
expressing in an old language the new thoughts of the
Reformation. German was regarded even by Gibbon, two hundred and
fifty years later, as a barbarous idiom. Luther, especially in
his earlier writings, struggled to give form to a language and to
express the highest thoughts in it. Where Luther thus struggled
with two languages, it is evident that they have no easy task who
attempt to reproduce the two in a third.
Modern Germans find it convenient to read Luther's German in a
modernized text, sometimes rather hastily and uncritically
constructed, and altogether unsafe as a basis for translation.
Where the Germans have had to modify, a translator meets double
difficulties. It may be puzzling for him to know Luther's exact
meaning; it is even more puzzling to find the exact English
equivalent.
In order to overcome these difficulties, in part at least, and
present a translation both accurate and readable, the present
group of translators have not simply distributed the work among
themselves, but have together revised each translation as it was
made. The original translator, at a meeting of the group, has
submitted his work to the rest for criticism and correction,
amounting at times to retranslation. No doubtful point, whether
in sense or in sound, has been passed by unchallenged.
Even with such care, the translation is not perfect. In places a
variant reading is possible, a variant interpretation plausible.
We can only claim that an honest effort has been made to be both
accurate and clear, and submit the result of our labors to a fair
and scholarly criticism. Critics can hardly be more severe than
we have been to one another. If they find errors, it may be that
we have seen them, and preferred the seeming error to the
suggested correction; if not, we can accept criticism from others
as gracefully as from each other.
The sources from which our translations have been made are the
best texts available in each case. In general, these are found in
the _Weimar Edition (D. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische
Gesammtausgabe._ Weimar. Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1883 ff.),
so far as this is completed. A more complete and fairly
satisfactory edition is that known as the _Erlangen Edition_, in
which the German and Latin works are published in separate
series, 1826 ff. The text of the _Berlin Edition_ (Luthers Werke,
herausgegeben von Pfarrer D. Dr. Buchwald, etc., Berlin, C. A.
Schwetschke und Sohn, third edition, 1905, ten volumes) is
modernized, and where it has been used it has been carefully
compared with the more critical texts. The two editions of
Walch--the original, published 1740-1753, in twenty-four volumes,
at Halle, and the modern edition, known as the St. Louis, Mo.,
edition, 1880 ff.--are entirely German, and somewhat modernized.
For our purpose they could be used only as helps in the
interpretation, and not as standard texts for translation. A very
convenient and satisfactory critical text of selected treatises
is to be found in Otto Clemen, _Luthers Werke in Auswahl_, Bonn,
4 vols., of which two volumes appeared in 1912.
WORKS OF MARTIN LUTHER
SELECTIONS FROM LUTHER'S PREFACES TO HIS WORKS 1539 and 1545
I
LUTHER'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST PART OF HIS GERMAN WORKS[1]
EDITION OF 1539
I would gladly have seen all my books forgotten and destroyed; if
only for the reason that I am afraid of the example.[2] For I see
what benefit it has brought to the churches, that men have begun
to collect many books and great libraries, outside and alongside
of the Holy Scriptures; and have begun especially to scramble
together, without any distinction, all sorts of "Fathers,"
"Councils," and "Doctors." Not only has good time been wasted,
and the study of the Scriptures neglected; but the pure
understanding of the divine Word is lost, until at last the Bible
has come to lie forgotten in the dust under the bench.
Although it is both useful and necessary that the writings of
some of the Fathers and the decrees of some of the Councils
should be preserved as witnesses and records, nevertheless, I
think, _est modus in rebus_,[3] and it is no pity that the books of
many of the Fathers and Councils have, by God's grace, been lost.
If they had all remained, one could scarce go in or out for
books, and we should still have nothing better than we find in
the Holy Scriptures.
Then, too, it was our intention and our hope, when we began to
put the Bible into German, that there would be less writing, and
more studying and reading of the Scriptures. For all other
writings should point to the Scriptures, as John pointed to
Christ; when he said, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
[John 3:30] In this way every one may drink for himself from the
fresh spring, as all the Fathers have had to do when they wished
to produce anything worth while. Neither Fathers nor Councils nor
we ourselves will do so well, even when our very best is done, as
the Holy Scriptures have done; that is to say, we shall never do
so well as God Himself. Even though for our salvation we need to
have the Holy Spirit and faith and divine language and divine
works, nevertheless we must let the Prophets and Apostles sit at
the desk, while we sit at their feet and listen to what they say.
It is not for us to say what they must hear.
Since, however, I cannot prevent it, and, without my wish, they
are now bent on collecting and printing my books--small honor to
me--I shall have to let them put their energy and labor on the
venture. I comfort myself with the thought that my books will yet
be forgotten in the dust, especially when, by God's grace, I have
written something good. _Non ero melior patribus meis_.[4][1
Kings 19:4] The other kind will be more likely to endure. For
when the Bible can be left lying under the bench, and when it is
true of the Fathers and Councils that the better they were, the
more completely they have been forgotten; there is good hope
that, when the curiosity of this age has been satisfied, my books
too will not long remain; the more so, since it has begun to rain
and snow books and "Doctors," of which many are already forgotten
and gone to dust, so that one no longer remembers even their
names. They themselves had hoped, to be sure, that they would
always be in the market, and play schoolmaster to the churches.
Well, then, let it go, in God's Name. I only ask in all kindness
that the man who wishes at this time to have my books will by no
means let them be a hindrance to his own study of the Scriptures,
but read them as I read the orders and the ordures of the pope[5]
and the books of the sophists. I look now and then to see what
they have done, or learn from them the history and thought of
their time, but I do not study them, or feel myself bound to
conform to them. I do not treat the Fathers and the Councils very
differently. In this I follow the example of St. Augustine, who
is one of the first, and almost the only one of them to subject
himself to the Holy Scriptures alone, uninfluenced by the books
of all the Fathers and the Saints. This brought him into a hard
fray with St. Jerome, who cast up to him the writings of his
predecessors; but he did not care for that. If this example of
St. Augustine had been followed, the pope would not have become
Antichrist, the countless vermin, the swarming, parasitic mass of
books would not have come into the Church, and the Bible would
have kept its place in the pulpit.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Text as given in the Berlin Edition of the Buchwald and
others, Vol. I pp. ix ff.
[2] I. e. The example set by preserving and collecting them.
[3] "There is moderation in all things."
[4] "I shall not be better than my fathers." Cf. 1 Kings
19:4
[5] _Des Pabats Drecet and Drecketal_. Luther makes a pun on
_decreta_ and _decretalia_--the official names for the
decrees of the Pope.
II
DR. MARTIN LUTHER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER[1]
EDITION OF 1545
Above all things I beseech the Christian reader and beg him for
the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to read my earliest books very
circumspectly and with much pity, knowing that before now I too
was a monk, and one of the right frantic and raving papists. When
I took up this matter against Indulgences, I was so full and
drunken, yea, so besotted in papal doctrine that, out of my great
zeal, I would have been ready to do murder--at least, I would
have been glad to see and help that murder should be done--on all
who would not be obedient and subject to the pope, even to his
smallest word.
Such a Saul was I at that time; and I meant it right earnestly;
and there are still many such today. In a word, I was not such a
frozen and ice-cold[2] champion of the papacy as Eck and others
of his kind have been and still are. They defend the Roman See
more for the sake of the shameful belly, which is their god, than
because they are really attached to its cause. Indeed I am wholly
of the opinion that like latter-day Epicureans,[3] they only
laugh at the pope. But I verily espoused this cause in deepest
earnest and in all fidelity; the more so because I shrank from
the Last Day with great anxiety and fear and terror, and yet from
the depths of my heart desired to be saved.
Therefore, Christian reader, thou wilt find in my earliest books
and writings how many points of faith I then, with all humility,
yielded and conceded to the pope, which since then I have held
and condemned for the most horrible blasphemy and abomination,
and which I would have to be so held and so condemned forever.
Amen.
Thou wilt therefore ascribe this my error, or as my opponents
venomously call it, this inconsistency of mine,[4] to the time,
and to my ignorance and inexperience. At the beginning I was
quite alone and without any helpers, and moreover, to tell the
truth, unskilled in all these things, and far too unlearned to
discuss such high and weighty matters. For it was without any
intention, purpose, or will of mine that I fell, quite
unexpectedly, into this wrangling and contention. This I take
God, the Searcher of hearts, to witness.
I tell these things to the end that, if thou shalt read my books,
thou mayest know and remember that I am one of those who, as St.
Augustine says of himself, have grown by writing and by teaching
others, and not one of those who, starting with nothing, have in
a trice become the most exalted and most learned doctors. We
find, alas! many of these self-grown doctors; who in truth are
nothing, do nothing and accomplish nothing, are moreover untried
and inexperienced, and yet, after a single took at the
Scriptures, think themselves able wholly to exhaust its spirit.
Farewell, dear reader, in the Lord. Pray that the Word may be
further spread abroad, and may be strong against the miserable
devil. For he is mighty and wicked, and just now is raving
everywhere and raging cruelly, like one who well knows and feels
that his time is short, and that the kingdom of his Vicar, the
Antichrist in Rome,[5] is sore beset. But may the God of all
grace and mercy strengthen and complete in us the work He has
begun, to His honor and to the comfort of His little flock. Amen.
FOOTNOTES
[1] From the Preface to the Complete Works (1545). Text
according to the Berlin Edition of the Buchwald and others,
Vol. I, pp. xi ff.
[2] Evidently a play on the Latin _frigidus_, often used in
the sense of "trivial" or "silly"; so Luther refers to the
"_frigida decreta Paperum_" in his Propositions for the
Leipzipg Disputation (1519).
[3] i. e. Frivolous mockers at holy things.
[4] See Prefatory Note to the _Fourteen of Consolation_,
below, p.109.
[5] Long before this Luther had repeatedly expressed the
conviction that the Pope was the Antichrist foretold in 2
Thess. 2:3 f., and Rev. 13 and 17.
THE DISPUTATION OF DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER
ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF INDULGENCES
(THE NINETY-FIVE THESES)
1517
TOGETHER WITH THREE LETTERS EXPLANATORY OF THE THESES
INTRODUCTION
"A Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" [1] is
the full title of the document commonly called "The Ninety-five
Theses." The form of the document was determined by the academic
practice of the Middle Ages. In all the Mediæval Universities the
"disputation" was a well-established institution. It was a
debate, conducted according to accepted rules, on any subject
which the chief disputant might elect, and no student's education
was thought to be complete until he had shown his ability to
defend himself in discussions of this kind. It was customary to
set forth the subject which was to be discussed, in a series of
"theses," which were statements of opinion tentatively advanced
as the basis of argument. The author, or some other person he
might designate, announced himself ready to defend these
statements against all comers, and invited all who might wish to
debate with him to a part in the discussion. Such an academic
document, one out of many hundreds, exhaling the atmosphere of
the Mediæval University, is the Disputation, which by its
historical importance has earned the name "The XCV Theses."
The Theses were published on the Eve of All Saints (Oct 31),
1517. They were not intended for any other public than that of
the University,[2] and Luther did not even have them printed at
first, though copies were forwarded to the Archbishop of Mainz,
and to Luther's own diocesan, the Bishop of Brandenburg. The
manner of their publication too was academic. They were simply
posted on the door of the Church of All Saints--called the
"Castle-church," to distinguish it from its neighbor, the
"Town-church"--not because more people would see them there than
elsewhere, but because that church-door was the customary place
for posting such announcements, the predecessor of the
"black-board" in the modern German University. It was not night,
but mid-day[3] when the Theses were nailed up, and the Eve of All
Saints was chosen, not that the crowds who would frequent the
next day's festival might read them, for they were written in
Latin, but because it was the customary day for the posting of
theses. Moreover, the Feast of All Saints was the time when the
precious relics, which earned the man who "adored" them, long
years of indulgence,[4] were exhibited to worshipers, and the
approach of this high feast-day put the thought of indulgences
uppermost in the minds of everybody in Wittenberg, including the
author of the Theses.[5]
But neither the Theses nor the results which followed them could
be confined to Wittenberg. Contrary to Luther's expectation and
to his great surprise,[6] they circulated all through Germany
with a rapidity that was startling. Within two months, before the
end of 1517, three editions of the Latin text had been printed,
one at Wittenberg, one at Nürnberg, and one as far away as Basel,
and copies of the Theses had been sent to Rome. Numerous
editions, both Latin and German, quickly followed. Luther's
contemporaries saw in the publication of the Theses "the
beginning of the Reformation," [7] and the judgment of modern
times has confirmed their verdict, but the Protestant of to-day,
and especially the Protestant layman, is almost certain to be
surprised, possibly deeply disappointed, at their contents. They
are not "a trumpet-blast of reform"; that title must be reserved
for the great works of 1520.[8] The word "faith," destined to
become the watchword of the Reformation, does not once occur in
them; the validity of the Sacrament of Penance is not disputed;
the right of the pope to forgive sins, especially in "reserved
cases," is not denied; even the virtue of indulgences is
admitted, within limits, and the question at issue is simply
"What is that virtue?"
To read the Theses, therefore, with a fair degree of
comprehension we must know something of the time that produced
them, and we must bear two facts continually in mind. We must
remember that at this time Luther was a devoted son of the Church
and servant of the pope, perhaps not quite the "right frantic and
raving papist" [9] he afterwards called himself, but as yet
entirely without suspicion of the extent to which he had inwardly
diverged from the teachings of Roman theology. We must also
remember that the Theses were no attempt at a searching
examination of the whole structure and content of Roman teaching,
but were directed against what Luther conceived to be merely
abuses which had sprung up around a single group of doctrines
centering in the Sacrament of Penance. He sincerely thought that
the teaching of the Theses was in full agreement with the best
traditions of the Church,[10] and his surprise that they should
have caused so much excitement is undoubtedly genuine and not
feigned. He shows himself both hurt and astonished that he
should be assailed as a heretic and schismatic, and "called by
six hundred other names of ignominy." [11] On the other hand, we
are compelled to admit that from the outset Luther's opponents
had grasped far more completely than he himself the true
significance of his "purely academic protest."
2. Penance and Indulgence.--The purpose of the disputation which
Luther proposed to hold was to clear up the subject of the virtue
of "indulgences," and the indulgences were the most striking and
characteristic feature of the religious life of the Church in the
last three Centuries of the Middle Ages.[12] We meet them
everywhere--indulgences for the adoration of relics, indulgences
for worship at certain shrines, indulgences for pilgrimages here
or there, indulgences for contributions to this or that special
object of charity. Luther roundly charges the indulgence-vendors
with teaching the people that the indulgences as a means to the
remission of sins. What are these indulgences?
Their history is connected, on the one hand, with the history of
the Sacrament of Penance, on the other with the history of the
development of papal power. The Sacrament of Penance developed
out of the administration of Church discipline. In the earliest
days of the Church, the Christian who fell into sin was punished
by exclusion from the communion of the Church. This
excommunication was not, however, permanent, and the sinner could
be restored to the privileges of Church-fellowship after he had
confessed his sin, professed penitence, and performed certain
penitential acts, chief among which were alms-giving, fasting and
prayer, and, somewhat later, pilgrimage. These acts of penitence
came to have the name of "satisfactions," and were a condition
precedent to the reception of absolution. They varied in
duration and severity, according to the enormity of the offence,
end for the guidance of those who administered the discipline of
the Church, sets of rules were formulated by which the
"satisfactions" or "penances" were imposed. These codes are the
"Penitential Canons." [13] The first step in the development of
the indulgences may be found in the practice which gradually
arose, of remitting some part of the enjoined "penances" on
consideration of the performance of certain acts which could be
regarded as meritorious.
The indulgences received a new form, however, and became a part
of the regular Church administration, when the popes discovered
the possibilities which lay in this institution for the
advancement of their own power and the furtherance of their own
interests. This discovery seems to date from the time of the
Crusades. The crusading-indulgences, granted at first only to
those who actually went to the Holy War, subsequently to those
also who contributed to the expense of the expedition, were
virtually the acceptance of this work as a substitute for any
penance which the Church might otherwise require. As zeal for the
Crusades began to wane, the indulgences were used more and more
freely to stimulate lagging interest; their number was greatly
increased, and those who purchased the indulgences with money far
outnumbered those who actually took the Cross. Failing in their
purpose as an incentive to enlistment in the crusading armies,
they showed their value as a source of income, and from the
beginning of the XIV. Century the sale of indulgences became a
regular business.
About the same time a new kind of indulgence arose to take the
place of the now somewhat antiquated crusading-indulgence. This
was the Jubilee-indulgence, and had its origin in the Jubilee of
1300. By the Bull _Antiquorum Habet Fide_, Boniface VIII. granted
to all who would visit the shrines of the Apostles in Rome during
the year 1300 and during each succeeding centennial year, a
plenary indulgence.[14] Little by little it became the custom to
increase the number of these Jubilee-indulgences. Once in a
hundred years was not often enough for Christians to have a
chance for plenary forgiveness, and at last, unwilling to deprive
of the privileges of the Jubilee those who were kept away from
Rome, the popes came to grant the same plenary indulgence to all
who would make certain contributions to the papal treasury.[15]
Meanwhile the Sacrament of Penance had become an integral part of
the Roman sacramental system, and had replaced the earlier
penitential discipline as the means by which the Church granted
Christians forgiveness for sins committed after baptism. The
scholastic theologians had busied themselves with the theory of
this Sacrament. They distinguished between its "material," its
"form" and its "effect." The "form" of the Sacrament was the
absolution: its "effect," the forgiveness of sins; Its
"material," three acts of the penitent: "confession,"
"contrition," and "satisfaction." "Confession" must be by word of
mouth, and must include all the sins which the sinner could
remember to have committed; "contrition" must be sincere sorrow
of the heart, and must include the purpose henceforth to avoid
sin; "satisfaction" must be made by works prescribed by the
priest who heard confession. In the administration of the
Sacrament, however, the absolution preceded "satisfaction"
instead of following it, as it had done in the discipline of the
early Church.[16] To justify this apparent inconsistency, the
Doctors further distinguished between the "guilt" and the
"penalty" of sin.[17] Sins were classified as "mortal" and
"venial." [18] Mortal sins for which the offender had not received
absolution were punished eternally, while venial sins were those
which merited only some smaller penalty; but when a mortal sin
was confessed and absolution granted, the guilt of the sin was
done away, and with it the eternal penalty. And yet the
absolution did not open the gate of heaven, though it closed the
door of hell; the eternal penalty was not to be exacted, but
there was a temporal penalty to be paid. The "satisfaction" was
the temporal penalty, and if satisfaction was in arrears at
death, the arrearage must be paid in purgatory, a place of
punishment for mortal sins confessed and repented, but
"unsatisfied," and for venial sins, which were not serious enough
to bring eternal condemnation. The penalties of purgatory were
"temporal," viz., they stopped somewhere this side of eternity,
and their duration could be measured in days and years, though
the number of the years might mount high into the thousands and
tens of thousands.
It was at this point that the practice of indulgences united with
the theory of the Sacrament of Penance. The indulgences had to do
with the "satisfaction." [19] They might be "partial," remitting
only a portion of the penalties, measured by days or years of
purgatory; or they might be "plenary," remitting all penalties
due in this world or the next. _In theory_, however, no
indulgence could remit the guilt or the eternal penalty of
sin,[20] and the purchaser of an indulgence was not only expected
to confess and be absolved, but he was also supposed to be _corde
contritus_, i. e., "truly penitent." [21] A rigid insistence on
the fulfilment of these conditions would have greatly restricted
the value of the indulgences as a means of gain, for the right to
hear confession and grant absolution belonged to the
parish-priests. Consequently, it became the custom to endow the
indulgence-vendors with extraordinary powers. They were given the
authority to hear confession and grant absolution wherever they
might be, and to absolve even from the sins which were normally
"reserved" for the absolution of the higher Church authorities.
The demand for contrition was somewhat more difficult to meet.
But here too there was a way out. Complete contrition included
love to God as its motive, and the truly contrite man was not
always easy to find; but some of the scholastic Doctors had
discovered a substitute for contrition in what they called
"attrition." viz., incomplete contrition, which might have fear
for a motive, and which the Sacrament of Penance could transform
into contrition. When, therefore, a man was afraid of hell or of
purgatory, he could make his confession to the indulgence-seller
or his agent, receive from him the absolution which gave his
imperfect repentance the value of true contrition, released him
from the guilt of sin, and changed its eternal penalty to a
temporal penalty; then he could purchase the plenary indulgence,
which remitted the temporal penalty, and so in one transaction,
in which all the demands of the Church were formally met, he
could become sure of heaven. Thus the indulgence robbed the
Sacrament of Penance of its ethical content.
Furthermore, indulgences were made available for souls already in
purgatory. This kind of indulgence seems to have been granted for
the first time in 1476. It had long been been that the prayers of
the living availed to shorten the pains of the departed, and the
institution of masses for the dead was of long standing; but it
was not without some difficulty that the Popes succeeded in
establishing their claim to power over purgatory. Their power
over the souls of the living was not disputed. The "Power of the
Keys" had been given to Peter and transmitted to his successors;
the "Treasury of the Church," [22] i. e., the merits of Christ and
of the Saints, was believed to be at their disposal, and it was
this treasury which they employed in the granting of
indulgences;[23] but it seemed reasonable to suppose that their
jurisdiction ended with death. Accordingly, Pope Sixtus IV, in
1477, declared that the power of the Pope over purgatory, while
genuine, was exercised only _per modum sufiragii_, "by way of
intercession." [24] The distinction was thought dogmatically
important, but to the layman, who looked more to results than to
methods, the difference between intercession and jurisdiction was
trifling. To him the important thing was that the Pope, whether
by jurisdiction or intercession, was able to release the soul of
a departed Christian from the penalties of purgatory. It is
needless to say that these indulgences for the dead were eagerly
purchased. In filial love and natural affection the indulgence
vendor had powerful allies.
3. The Indulgence of 1515.--The XCV Theses were called forth by
the preaching of the "Jubilee Indulgence" [25] of 1510, which was
not placed on sale in central Germany until 1515. The financial
needs of the papacy were never greater than in the last years of
the XV. and the first years of the XVI. Century, and they were
further increased by the resolve of Julius II. to erect a new
church of St. Peter, which should surpass in magnificence all the
churches of the world. The indulgence of 1510 was an
extraordinary financial measure, the proceeds of which were to
pay for the erection of the new Basilica, but when Julius died in
1513, the church was not completed, and the money had not been
raised. The double task was bequeathed to his successor, Leo X.
On the 31st of March, 1515, Leo proclaimed a plenary indulgence
for the Archbishops of Magdeburg and Mainz, and appointed
Albrecht, of Brandenburg, who was the incumbent of both sees and
of the bishopric of Halberstadt as well, Commissioner for the
sale of this indulgence. By a secret agreement, of which Luther
was, of course, entirely ignorant, one-half of the proceeds was
to be paid to the Fuggers of Ausburg on account of money advanced
to the Archbishop for the payment of the fees to Rome, and of the
sums demanded in consideration of a dispensation allowing him to
occupy three sees at the same time; the other half of the
proceeds was to go to the papal treasury to be applied to the
building of the new church. The period during which the
indulgence was to be on sale was eight years.
The actual work of organizing the "indulgence-campaign" was put
into the hands of John Tetzel, whose large experience in the
selling of indulgences fitted him excellently for the post of
Sub-commissioner. The indulgence-sellers acted under the
commission of the Archbishop and the directions of Tetzel, who
took personal charge of the enterprise. The preachers went from
city to city, and during the time that they were preaching the
indulgence in any given place, all other preaching was required
to cease.[26] They held out the usual inducements to prospective
buyers. The plenary nature of the indulgence was made especially
prominent, and the people were eloquently exhorted that the
purchase of indulgence-letters was better than all good works,
that they were an insurance against the pains of hell and of
purgatory, that they availed for all satisfactions, even in the
case of the most heinous sins that could be conceived.[27]
"Confessional letters" [28] were one of the forms of this
indulgence. They gave their possessor permission to choose his
own confessor, and entitled him to plenary remission once in his
life, to absolution from sins normally reserved, etc. The
indulgences for the dead were zealously proclaimed, and the duty
of purchasing for departed souls release from the pains of
purgatory was most urgently enjoined. So great was the power of
the indulgence to alleviate the pains of purgatory, that the
souls of the departed were said to pass into heaven the instant
that the coins of the indulgence-buyer jinked in the
money-box.[29]
4. Luther's Protest--The Theses were Luther's protest against the
manner in which this indulgence was preached, and against the Use
conception of the efficacy of indulgences which the people
obtained from such preaching. They were not his first protest,
however. In a sermon, preached July 37th, 1516,[30] he had issued
a warning against the false idea that a man who had bought an
indulgence was sure of salvation, and had declared the assertion
that souls could be bought out of purgatory to be "a piece of
temerity." His warnings were repeated in other sermons, preached
October 31st, 1516, and February 14th, 1517.[31] The burden of
these warnings is always the same: the indulgences lead men
astray; they incite to fear of God's penalties and not to fear of
sin; they encourage false hopes of salvation, and make light of
the true condition of forgiveness, vis., sincere and genuine
repentance.
These warnings are repeated in the Theses. The preaching of
indulgences has concealed the true nature of repentance; the
first thing to consider is what "our Lord and Master Jesus Christ
means," when He says, "Repent." [32] Without denying the pope's
right to the power of the keys, Luther wishes to come into the
clear about the extent of the pope's jurisdiction, which does not
reach as far as purgatory. He believes that the pope has the
right to remit "penalties," but these penalties are of the same
sort as those which were imposed in the early Church as a
condition precedent to the absolution; they are ecclesiastical
penalties merely, and do not extend beyond the grave; the true
penalty of sin is hatred of self, which continues until entrance
into the kingdom of heaven.[33]
The Theses are formulated with continual reference to the
statements of the indulgence-preachers, and of the Instruction to
the Commissaries issued under the name of the Archbishop of
Mainz. [34] For this reason there is little logical sequence in
the arrangement of the Theses, and none of the attempts to
discover a plan or scheme underlying them has been
successful.[35] In a general way it may be said that for the
positive views of Luther on the subjects discussed, Theses 30-37
and 41-51 are the most vital, while Theses 92-95 are sufficient
evidence of the motive which led Luther to make his protest.
5. Conclusion--The editors of this Translation present herewith a
new translation of the Theses, together with three letters, which
will help the reader to understand the mind of Luther at the time
of their composition and his motive in preparing them. The first
of these letters is that which was sent, with a copy of the
Theses, to Albrecht of Mainz. The second and third are addressed
respectively to Staupitz and Leo X., and were written to
accompany the "Resolutions," [36] an exhaustive explanation and
defense of the Theses, published in 1518, after the controversy
had become bitter.
6. Literature--(a) _Sources_. The source material for history of
indulgences is naturally widely scattered. The most convenient
collection is found in Koehler, _Dokumente zum Ablassstreit_,
Tübingen, 1900. For the indulgences against which Luther
protested, see, beside the Editions of Luther's Works, Kapp,
_Schauplatz des Tetselischen Ablass-Krams_, Leipzig, 1720;
_Sammlung einiger zum päbstlichen Ablass gehörigen Schriften_,
Leipzig, 1721; _Kleine Nachlese zur Erläuterung der
Reformationsgeschicte_, Leipzig, 1730 and 1733; also Loescher,
_Vollständige Reformationsacta_, I, Leipzig, 1720
(b) _Secondary Works_. Beside the general works in Church History
and History of Doctrine, see the Lives of Luther, in German
especially those of Köstlin-Kawerau, Kolde, Berger and Hausrath;
in English those of Beard, Jacobs, Lindsay, Smith and McGiffert;
also Boehmer, _Luther im Lichte der neueren Forschung_, ad ed.,
Leipzig, 1910.
On the indulgences in their relation to the Sacrament of Penance,
H, C. Lea, History of Confession and Indulgence, especially Vol.
III, Philadelphia, 1896; Brieger, _Das Wesen des Ablasses am
Ausgang des Mittelalters_, Leizig, 1897, and Article
_Indulgenzen_ in PRE.3 IX, pp. 76 ff. (Eng. in Schaff-Herzog v.,
pp. 485-88); Gottlob, _Kreuzablass und Almosenablass_, Stuttgart,
1906 (especially valuable for the origin of indulgences).
On the indulgences and the XCV Theses, Koestlin, _Luther's
Theologie_, Leipzig, 1883 (Eng. Trans, by Hay, The Theology of
Luther, Philadelphia, 1897); Bratke, _Luther's XCV Thesen und
ihre dogmengeschictlichen Voraussetzungen_, Göttingen, 1884;
Dieckboff, _Der Ablassstreit dogmengeschichtlich dargestellt_,
Gotha, 1886; Lindsay, _History of the Reformation_, I, New York,
1906; Tschackert, _Entstehung der lutherischen und reformierten
Kirchenlehre_, Göttingen, 1910.
On the financial aspects of the indulgence-traffic, Schulte, _Die
Fugger in Rom_, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1904.
CHARLES M. JACOBS.
Allentown, PA.
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Disputato pro declaratione virutis indulgentiarum_.
[2] Luther says, _Apud nostros et propter nostros editae aunt_.
_Weimar Ed_., I. 528. On the whole subject see Letters to Staupitz
and the Pope, below.
[3] Cf. _Weimar Ed._, I, 229.
[4] The Church of All Saints at Wittenberg was the repository of
the great collection of relics which Frederick the Wise had
gathered. A catalogue of the collection, with illustrations by
Lucas Cranach, was published in 1509. The collection contained
5005 sacred objects, including a bit of the crown of thorns and
some of the Virgin Mother's milk. Adoration of these relics on
All Saints' Day (Nov. 1st) was rewarded with indulgence for more
than 500,000 years. So, Vol Bezold, _Die deutsche Reformation_
(1890), p. 100; see also Barge, _Karlstadt_, I, 39ff.
[5] Luther had preached a sermon warning against the danger of
indulgences on the Eve of All Saints (1516). See below.
[6] See below, Letter to Leo X.
[7] _Weimar Ed._, I, 230.
[8] The Address to the Christian Nobility and the Babylonian
Captivity of the Church.
[9] Introduction to the Complete Works (1545); above p.10.
[10] See Letter to Staupitz, below.
[11] See Letter to Leo X, below.
[12] Cf. Gottlob, _Kreuzablass und Almosenblass_, p. I.
[13] See Theses 5, 8, 85.
[14] _Non solam plenam et largiorem, imo plenissimam omnium
suorum concedemus et concedimus veniam peccatorum_. Mirbt,
_Quellen_, 2d ed., No. 243.
[15] This custom of putting the Jubilee-indulgences on sale seems
to date from the year 1390. Cf. Lea, _Hist. of Conf. and
Indulg._, III, 206.
No mention is here made of the indulgences attached to adoration
of the relics, etc. On the development of this form of indulgence
see Lea, _Hist. of Conf. and Indulg._, III, 131-194, 234-195, and
Gottlog, _Kreuzablass und Almosenablass_, pp. 195-254.
[16] See Thesis 12.
[17] See Theses 4-6, Note 2.
[18] For Luther's opinion of this distinction, see the Discourse
Concerning Confession elsewhere in the present volume.
[19] "Not even the poorest part of the penance which is called
'satisfaction,' but the remission of the poorest part of
penance." Letter to Staupitz, below.
[20] There is ample proof that in practice the indulgences were
preached as sufficient to secure the purchaser the entire
remission of sin, and the form _a culpa et poena_ was officially
employed in many cases (Cf. Brieger, _Das Wesen des Abiases am
Ausgang des M A._ and PRE3 IX. 83 ff., and Lea, _History of
Confession_, etc., III, 54 ff.). "It is difficult to withstand
the conclution that even in theory indulgences had been declared
to be efficacious for the removal of the guilt of sin in the
presence of God," Lindsay, _History of the Reformation_, I, 226.
[21] It is the basis of this theory that Roman Catholic writers on
indulgences declare them to be "extra-sacramental," i. e., outside
the Sacrament of Penance. So, e.g., Kent, in The Catholic
Encyclopedia, Art. _Indulgence_.
[22] See Theses 56-58.
[23] The doctrine of the "Treasury of the Church" grew up as a
result of the indulgences. It was an attempt to answer the
question, How can a "satisfaction," which God demands, be waived?
The answer is, By the application of merits earned by Christ and
by the Saints who did more than God requires. These merits form
the Treasury of the Church. Cf. Seeberg, PRE3 XV, 417; Lea,
_Hist. of Confession_, etc., III, 14-28.
[24] See Theses 26.
[25] i. e. A plenary indulgence similar to those granted for
pilgrimage to Rome in Jubilee-years. See above, p.18.
[26] See Theses 53-55.
[27] See Thesis 75.
[28] See Thesis 35.
[29] See Thesis 27.
[30] _Weimar Ed._, I, 63 ff.; _Erl. Ed._, I, 101 ff.
[31] _Weimar Ed._, I, 94 ff,; _Erl. Ed._, I, 171 ff., 177 ff.
[32] See Thesis 1.
[33] See Thesis 4.
[34] See Letter to Archbishop, below. The text of this
Instruction in Kapp, Sammlung, etc. (1721), pp. 117-206.
Tschackert has surmised that even the number of the Theses was
determined by the number of the paragraphs in this Instruction.
There were 94 of these paragraphs, and of the Theses 94 + 1.
_Enstehung d. luth. u. ref. Kirchenlehre_ (1910), p. 16, note 1.
[35] The following, based on an unpublished manuscript of Th.
Brieger, is an interesting analysis of the contents and subject
matter of the Theses. For the sake of brevity the minor
subdivisions are omitted:
Introduction. The ideas fundamentally involved in the concept
of _poenitentia_ (Th. 1-7).
I. Indulgences for souls in purgatory (Th. 8-29).
1. Canonical Penalties and the pains of purgatory (Th. 8-19).
2. The relation of the Pope to purgatory (Th. 8-19).
II. Indulgences for the living (Th. 30-80).
1. The content and nature of the preaching of indulgences
(Th. 30-55).
2. The treasury of the Church (Th. 56-66).
3. The duty of the regular church-authorities on the
matter (Th. 67-80).
Conclusion (Th. 81-95).
1. The objections of the laity of the indulgence-traffic
(Th. 81-91).
2. The evil motive of the traffic in indulgences, with
special references to the statements of Th. 1-4 (Th.
91-95). H. Hermelink in Krüger's _Handbuch der
Kirchengeschicte_ (1911), III, 66.
[36] _Weimar Ed._, I, pp. 525 ff.
I
LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP ALBRECHT OF MAINZ
OCTOBER 31, 1517
To the Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious Lord,
Albrecht of Magdeburg and Mainz, Archbishop and Primate of the
Church, Margrave of Brandenburg, etc., his own lord and pastor in
Christ, worthy of reverence and fear, and most gracious.
JESUS[1]
The grace of God be with you in all its fulness and power! Spare
me. Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious Prince,
that I, the dregs of humanity, have so much boldness that I have
dared to think of a letter to the height of your Sublimity. The
Lord Jesus is my witness that, conscious of my smallness and
baseness, I have long deferred what I am now shameless enough to
do,--moved thereto most of all by the duty of fidelity which I
acknowledge that I owe to your most Reverend Fatherhood in
Christ. Meanwhile, therefore, may your Highness deign to cast an
eye upon one speck of dust, and for the sake of your pontifical
clemency to heed my prayer.
Papal indulgences for the building of St. Peter's are circulating
under your most distinguished name, and as regards them, I do not
bring accusation against the outcries of the preachers, which I
have not heard, so much as I grieve over the wholly false
impressions which the people have conceived from them; to
wit,--the unhappy souls believe that if they have purchased
letters of indulgence they are sure of their salvation;[2] again,
that so soon as they cast their contributions into the money-box,
souls fly out of purgatory;[3] furthermore, that these graces
[i. e., the graces conferred in the indulgences] are so great that
there is no sin too great to be absolved, even, as they
say--though the thing is impossible--if one had violated the
Mother of God;[4] again, that a man is free, through these
indulgences, from all penalty and guilt.[5]
O God, most good! Thus souls committed to your care, good Father,
are taught to their death, and the strict account, which you must
render for all such, grows and increases. For this reason I have
no longer been able to keep quiet about this matter, for it is by
no gift of a bishop that man becomes sure of salvation, since he
gains this certainty not even by the "inpoured grace" [6] of God,
but the Apostle bids us always "work out our own salvation in
fear and trembling," [Phil. 2:12] and Peter says, "the righteous
scarcely shall be saved." [1 Pet. 4:18, Matt] Finally, so narrow
is the way that leads to life, that the Lord, through the
prophets Amos and Zechariah, calls those who shall be saved
"brands plucked from the burning," [Amos 4:11, Zech. 3:2] and
everywhere declares the difficulty of salvation.
Why, then, do the preachers of pardons, by these false fables and
promises, make the people careless and fearless? Whereas
indulgences confer on us no good gift, either for salvation or
for sanctity, but only take away the external penalty, which it
was formerly the custom to impose according to the canons.[7]
Finally, works of piety and love are infinitely better than
indulgences,[8] and yet these are not preached with such ceremony
or such zeal; nay, for the sake of preaching the indulgences they
are kept quiet, though it is the first and the sole duty of all
bishops that the people should learn the Gospel and the love of
Christ, for Christ never taught that indulgences should be
preached. How great then is the horror, how great the peril of a
bishop, if he permits the Gospel to be kept quiet, and nothing
but the noise of indulgences to be spread among his people![9]
Will not Christ say to them, "straining at a gnat and swallowing
a camel"? [Matt. 23:34][10]
In addition to this, Most Reverend Father in the Lord, it is said
in the Instruction to the Commissaries[11] which is issued under
your name, Most Reverend Father (doubtless without your knowledge
and consent), that one of the chief graces of indulgence is that
inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to God, and
all the penalties of purgatory are destroyed.[12] Again, it is
said that contrition is not necessary in those who purchase souls
[out of purgatory] or buy _confessionalia_.[13]
But what can I do, good Primate and Most Illustrious Prince,
except pray your Most Reverend Fatherhood by the Lord Jesus
Christ that you would deign to look [on this matter] with the eye
of fatherly care, and do away entirely with that treatise[14] and
impose upon the preachers of pardons another form of preaching;
lest, perchance, one may some time arise, who will publish
writings in which he will confute both them and that treatise, to
the shame of your Most Illustrious Sublimity. I shrink very much
from thinking that this will be done, and yet I fear that it will
come to pass, unless there is some speedy remedy.
These faithful offices of my insignificance I beg that your Most
Illustrious Grace may deign to accept in the spirit of a Prince
and a Bishop, i. e., with the greatest clemency, as I offer them
out of a faithful heart, altogether devoted to you, Most Reverend
Father, since I too am a part of your flock.
May the Lord Jesus have your Most Reverend Fatherhood eternally
in His keeping. Amen.
From Wittenberg on the Vigil of All Saints, MDXVII.
If it please the Most Reverend Father he may see these my
Disputations, and learn how doubtful a thing is the opinion of
indulgences which those men spread as though it were most
certain.
To the Most Reverend Father,
Brother Martin Luther.
FOOTNOTES
[1] In the original editions the word Jesus appears at the head
of the works, and the present editors have retained the use,
which was apparently an act of obedience to the command,
"Whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus" (Col. 3:17).
[2] See Theses 18-24, 32, 52.
[3] See Thesis 27.
[4] See Thesis 75.
[5] See Theses 5, 6, 20, 21.
[6] _Gratia infusa_, meaning the working of God upon the hearts of
men, by means of which their lives become pleasing to God. Cf.
Loors' Dogmengeschicte, 4th ed., pp. 562 ff.
[7] See Thesis 5.
[8] See Theses 41-47.
[9] See Theses 52-55.
[10] See Thesis 80.
[11] See above, Introduction, p. 22 f.
[12] See Theses 21, 33.
[13] See Thesis 55, and Introduction, p.22.
[15] viz., The Instruction to the Commissaries.
II
DISPUTATION OF DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF
INDULGENCES
OCTOBER 31, 1517
Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light,
the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under
the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of
Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same
at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to
be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said _Poenitentiam
agite_,[1] willed that the whole life of believers should be
repentance. [Matt. 4:17]
2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance,
i. e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the
priests.
3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no
inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers
mortifications of the flesh.
4. The penalty[2] [of sin], therefore, continues so long as
hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance,
and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any
penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own
authority or by that of the Canons.[3]
6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it
has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's remission;
though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases reserved to
his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases were
despised, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.
7. God remits guilt to no one whom He does not, at the same time,
humble in all things and bring into subjection to His vicar, the
priest.
8. The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and,
according to them, nothing should be imposed on the dying.
9. Therefore the Holy Spirit in the pope is kind to us, because
in his decrees he always makes exception of the article of death
and of necessity.[4]
10. Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priests who, in
the case of the dying, reserve canonical penances for purgatory.
11. This changing of the canonical penalty to the penalty of
purgatory is quite evidently one of the tares that were sown
while the bishops slept. [Matt. 13:25]
13. In former times the canonical penalties were imposed not
after, but before absolution, as tests of true contrition.
13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties; they are
already dead to canonical rules, and have a right to be released
from them.
14. The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect
love, of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and
the smaller the love, the greater is the fear.
15. This fear and horror is sufficient of itself alone (to say
nothing of other things) to constitute the penalty of purgatory,
since it is very near to the horror of despair.
16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ as do despair,
almost-despair, and the assurance of safety.
17. With souls in purgatory it seems necessary that horror would
grow less and love increase.
18. It seems unproved, either by reason or Scripture, that they
are outside the state of merit, that is to say, of increasing
love.
19. Again, it seems unproved that they, or at least that all of
them, are certain or assured of their own blessedness, though we
may be quite certain of it.
20. Therefore by "full remission of all penalties" the pope means
not actually "of all," but only of those imposed by himself.
21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who
say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every
penalty, and saved;
22. Whereas he remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which,
according to the canons, they would have had to pay in this life.
23. If it is at all possible to grant to any one the remission of
all penalties whatsoever, it is certain that this remission can
be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to the very fewest.
24. It must needs be, therefore, that the greater part of the
people are deceived by that indiscriminate and high-sounding
promise of release from penalty.
25. The power which the pope has, in a general way, over
purgatory, is just like the power which any bishop or curate has,
in a special way, within his own diocese or parish.
36. The pope does well when he grants remission to souls [in
purgatory], not by the power of the keys (which he does not
possess),[5] but by way of intercession.
27. They preach man[6] who say that so soon as the penny jingles
into the money-box, the soul flies out [of purgatory]. [7]
28. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the money-box,
gain and avarice can be increased, but the result of the
intercession of the Church is in the power of God alone.
29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be
bought out of it, as in the legend of Sts. Severinus and
Paschal.[8]
30. No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere; much less
that he has attained full remission.
31. Rare as is the man that is truly penitent, so rare is also
the man who truly buys indulgences, i. e., such men are most rare.
32. They will be condemned eternally, together with their
teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because
they have letters of pardon.[9]
33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the
pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is
reconciled to Him;
34. For these "graces of pardon" concern only the penalties of
sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man.[10]
35. They preach no Christian doctrine who teach that contrition
is not necessary in those who intend to buy souls out of
purgatory or to buy _confessionalia_.[11]
36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission
of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.
37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in all
the blessings of Christ and the Church; and this is granted him
by God, even without letters of pardon.
38. Nevertheless, the remission and participation [in the
blessings of the Church] which are granted by the pope are in no
way to be despised, for they are, as I have said,[12] the
declaration of divine remission.
39. It is most difficult, even for the very keenest theologians,
at one and the same time to commend to the people the abundance
of pardons and [the need of] true contrition.
40. True contrition seeks and loves penalties, but liberal
pardons only relax penalties and cause them to be hated, or at
least, furnish an occasion [for hating them].
41. Apostolic[13] pardons are to be preached with caution, lest
the people may falsely think them preferable to other good works
of love.
42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend the
buying of pardons to be compared in any way to works of mercy.
43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or
lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons;
44. Because love grows by works of love, and man becomes
better; but by pardons man does not grow better, only more free
from penalty.
45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need,
and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons, purchases
not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.
46. Christians are to be taught that unless they have more than
they need, they are bound to keep back what is necessary for
their own families, and by no means to squander it on pardons.
47. Christians are to be taught that the buying of pardons is a
matter of free will, and not of commandment.
48. Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting
pardons, needs, and therefore desires, their devout prayer for
him more than the money they bring.
49. Christians are to be taught that the pope's pardons are
useful, if they do not put their trust in them; but altogether
harmful, if through them they lose their fear of God.[14]
50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the
exactions of the pardon-preachers, he would rather that St.
Peter's church should go to ashes, than that it should be built
up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep.
51. Christians are to be taught that it would be the pope's wish,
as it is his duty, to give of his own money to very many of those
from whom certain hawkers of pardons cajole money, even though
the church of St. Peter might have to be sold.
53. The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even
though the commissary,[15] nay, even though the pope himself,
were to stake his soul upon it.
53. They are enemies of Christ and of the pope, who bid the Word
of God be altogether silent in some Churches, in order that
pardons may be preached in others.
54. Injury is done the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an
equal or a longer time is spent on pardons than on this Word.[16]
55. It must be the intention of the pope that if pardons, which
are a very small thing, are celebrated with one bell, with single
processions and ceremonies, then the Gospel, which is the very
greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a
hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies.
56. The "treasures of the Church," [17] out of which the pope
grants indulgences, are not sufficiently named or known among the
people of Christ.
57. That they are not temporal treasures is certainly evident,
for many of the vendors do not pour out such treasures so easily,
but only gather them.
58. Not are they the merits of Christ and the Saints, for even
without the pope, these always work grace for the inner man, and
the cross, death, and hell for the outward man.
59. St. Lawrence said that the treasures of the Church were the
Church's poor, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in
his own time.
60. Without rashness we say that the keys of the Church, given by
Christ's merit, are that treasure;
61. For it is clear that for the remission of penalties and of
reserved cases, the power of the pope is of itself sufficient.
62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of
the glory and the grace of God.
63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the
first to be last.
64. On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is naturally
most acceptable, for it makes the last to be first.
65. Therefore the treasures of the Gospel are nets with which
they formerly were wont to fish for men of riches.
66. The treasures of the indulgences are nets with which they now
fish for the riches of men.
67. The indulgences which the preachers cry as the "greatest
graces" are known to be truly such, in so far as they promote
gain.
68. Yet they are in truth the very smallest graces compared with
the grace of God and the piety of the Cross.
69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of
apostolic pardons, with all reverence.
70. But still more are they bound to strain all their eyes and
attend with all their ears, lest these men preach their own
dreams instead of the commission of the pope.
71. He who speaks against the truth of apostolic pardons, let him
be anathema and accursed!
73. But he who guards against the lust and license of the
pardon-preachers, let him be blessed!
73. The pope justly thunders[18] against those who, by any art,
contrive the injury of the traffic in pardons.
74. But much more does he intend to thunder against those who use
the pretext of pardons to contrive the injury of holy love and
truth.
75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a
man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the
Mother of God--this is madness.[19]
76. We say, on the contrary, that the papal pardons are not able
to remove the very least of venial sins, so far as its guilt is
concerned.[20]
77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could
not bestow greater graces; this is blasphemy against St. Peter
and against the pope.
78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any
pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit, the
Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in I.
Corinthians xii.
79. To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal arms, which
is set up [by the preachers of indulgences], is of equal worth
with the Cross of Christ, is blasphemy.
80. The bishops, curates and theologians who allow such talk to
be spread among the people, will have an account to render.
81. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy matter,
even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to the pope
from slander, or even from the shrewd questionings of the laity.
82. To wit:--"Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake
of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if
he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable
money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be
most just; the latter is most trivial."
83. Again:--"Why are mortuary and anniversary masses for the dead
continued, and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of
the endowments founded on their behalf, since it is wrong to pray
for the redeemed?"
84. Again:--"What is this new piety of God and the pope, that for
money they allow a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out
of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and do not
rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own need, free
it for pure love's sake?"
85. Again:--"Why are the penitential canons,[21] long since in
actual fact and through disuse abrogated and dead, now satisfied
by the granting of indulgences, as though they were still alive
and in force?"
86. Again:--"Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day
greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one
church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the
money of poor believers?"
87. Again:--"What is it that the pope remits, and what
participation[22] does he grant to those who, by perfect
contrition, have a right to full remission and participation?"
88. Again:--"What greater blessing could come to the Church than
if the pope were to do a hundred times a day what he now does
once,[23] and bestow on every believer these remissions and
participations?"
89. "Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of souls
rather than money, why does he suspend the indulgences and
pardons granted heretofore, since these have equal efficacy?" [24]
90. To repress these arguments and scruples of the laity by force
alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to expose
the Church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies, and to
make Christians unhappy.
91. If, therefore, pardons were preached according to the spirit
and mind of the pope, all these doubts would be readily resolved;
nay, they would not exist.
92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of
Christ, "Peace, peace," and there is no peace! [Ezek. 13:10]
93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of
Christ, "Cross, cross," and there is no cross![25]
94. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in
following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and
hell;
95. And thus be confident of altering into heaven rather through
many tribulations, than through the assurance of peace. [Acts
14:22]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Matt. 4:17. Greek, _µeta??e?te_; English "repent"; German
_Bussetun_. The Latin and German versions may also be rendered, "Do
penance"; the Greek, on the other hand, can only mean "Repent."
[2] The Roman theology distinguishes between the "guilt" and the
"penalty" of sin. See Introduction, p.19.
[3] Decrees of the Church, having the force of law. The canons
referred to here and below (Cf. Theses 8, 85) are the so-called
penitential Canons. See Introduction, p.17.
[4] Commenting on this Thesis in the _Resolutions_, Luther
distinguishes between "temporal" and "eternal" necessity.
"Necessity knows no law." "Death is the necessity of necessities"
(_Weimar Ed._, I, 549; _Erl. Ed. op. var. arg._, II, 166).
[5] This is not a denial of the power of the keys, i. e., the
power to forgive and retain sin, but merely that the power of the
keys extends to purgatory.
[6] i. e., Merely human doctrine.
[7] An alleged statement of indulgence-vendors. See Letter to
Mainz and Introduction.
[8] Luther refers again to this story in the _Resolutions_
(_Weimar Ed._, I, p.586). The story is that these saints
preferred to remain longer in purgatory that they might have
greater glory in heaven. Luther adds, "Whoever will, may believe
in these stories; it is no concern of mine."
[9] Luther uses the terms "pardon" and "indulgence"
interchangeably.
[10] For meaning of the term "satisfaction," see Introduction, p.
19f.
[11] Privileges entitling their holder to choose his own
confessor and relieving him of certain satisfactions. See
Introduction, p. 22.
[12] See above, Thesis 6.
[13] i. e., "Papal."
[14] Cf. Thesis 32.
[15] The commissioner who sold the letters of indulgence.
[16] The best texts read _illi_, "on it," i. e., the Word of God.
The _Erl. Ed._ has a variant _verbis evangelics_, "the words of the
Gospel" (_op. var. arg._, I, 289).
[17] See Introduction, p. 20, note 2.
[18] i. e., Threatens with "thunder-bolt" of excommunication.
[19] See Letter to Mainz, above p. 26. For repetition and defense
of the statement against which Luther here protests, see _Disp.
I. Jo Tetzelii_, Th. 99-101; Loescher. I, 513.
[20] Cf. Thesis 6.
[21] Cf. Thesis 5 and note.
[22] Cf. Theses 36, 37.
[23] The letter of indulgence entitled its possessor to
absolution "once in life and in the article of death."
[24] During the time when the Jubilee-indulgences were preached,
other Indulgences were suspended.
[25] In a letter to Michael Dressel, 22 June, 1516, Luther had
written: "It is not that man, therefore whom no one disturbs who
has peace--which is indeed, the peace of the world--but he whom
all men and all things harass and who bears all quietly with joy.
You say with Israel: 'Peace, peace,' and there is no peace; say
rather with Christ, 'Cross, cross' and there is no cross. For the
cross ceases to be a cross as soon as you say joyfully: 'Blessed
cross, there is no tree like you'" (Preserved Smith, _Luther_, p.
32).
III
LETTER TO JOHN STAUPITZ ACCOMPANYING THE "RESOLUTIONS" TO THE XCV
THESES
1518
To his Reverend and Dear Father
JOHN STAUPITZ,
Professor of Sacred Theology, Vicar of the Augustinian Order,
Brother Martin Luther,
his pupil,
sendeth greeting.
I remember, dear Father, that once, among those pleasant and
wholesome talks of thine, with which the Lord Jesus ofttimes
gives me wondrous consolation, the word _poenitentia_[1] was
mentioned. We were moved with pity for many consciences, and for
those tormentors who teach, with rules innumerable and
unbearable, what they call a _modus confitendi_.[2] Then we heard
thee say as with a voice from heaven, that there is no true
penitence which does not begin with love of righteousness and of
God, and that this love, which others think to be the end and the
completion of penitence, is rather its beginning.
This word of thine stuck in me like a sharp arrow of the mighty,
[Ps. 120:4] and from that time forth I began to compare it with
the texts of Scripture which teach penitence. Lo, there began a
joyous game! The words frollicked with me everywhere! They
laughed and gamboled around this saying. Before that there was
scarcely a word in all the Scriptures more bitter to me than
"penitence," though I was busy making pretences to God and trying
to produce a forced, feigned love; but now there is no word which
has for me a sweeter or more pleasing sound than "penitence." For
God's commands are sweet, when we find that they are to be read
not in books alone, but in the wounds of our sweet Saviour.
After this it came about that, by the grace of the learned men
who dutifully teach us Greek and Hebrew, I learned that this word
is in Greek _metanoia_ and is derived from _meta_ and _noun_, i.
e., _post_ and _mentem_,[3] so that _poenitentia_ or _metanoia_
is a "coming to one's senses," and is a knowledge of one's own
evil, gained after punishment has been accepted and error
acknowledged; and this cannot possibly happen without a change in
our heart and our love. All this answers so aptly to the theology
of Paul, that nothing, at least in my judgment, can so aptly
illustrate St. Paul.
Then I went on and saw that _metanoia_ can be derived, though not
without violence, not only from _post_ and _mentem_, but also
from _trans_ and _mentem_, [4] so that _metanoia_ signifies a
changing[5] of the mind and heart, because it seemed to indicate
not only a change of the heart, but also a manner of changing it,
i. e., the grace of God. For that "passing over of the mind," [6]
which is true repentance, is of very frequent mention in the
Scriptures. Christ has displayed the true significance of that
old word "Passover"; and long before the Passover, [Ex. 19:11]
Abraham was a type of it, when he was called a "pilgrim," [1 Cor.
5:7] i. e., a "Hebrew," [7] that is to say, one who "passed over"
into Mesopotamia, as the Doctor of Bourgos[8] learnedly explains.
With this accords, too, the title of the Psalm [Ps. 39] in which
Jeduthun, i. e., "the pilgrim," [9] is introduced as the singer.
Depending on these things, I ventured to think those men false
teachers who ascribed so much to works of penitence that they
left us scarcely anything of penitence itself except trivial
satisfactions[10] and laborious confession, because, forsooth,
they had derived their idea from the Latin words _poenitentiam
agere_,[11] which indicate an action, rather than a change of
heart, and are in no way an equivalent for the Greek _metanoia_.
While this thought was boiling in my mind, suddenly new trumpets
of indulgences and bugles of remissions began to peal and to bray
all about us; but they were not intended to arouse us to keen
eagerness for battle. In a word, the doctrine of true penitence
was passed by, and they presumed to praise not even that poorest
part of penitence which is called "satisfaction," [12] but the
remission of that poorest part of penitence; and they praised it
so highly that such praise was never heard before. Then, too,
they taught impious and false and heretical doctrines with such
authority (I wished to say "with such assurance") that he who
even muttered anything to the contrary under his breath, would
straightway be consigned to the flames as a heretic, and
condemned to eternal malediction.
Unable to meet their rage half-way, I determined to enter a
modest dissent, and to call their teaching into question, relying
on the opinion of all the doctors and of the whole Church, that
to render satisfaction is better than to secure the remission of
satisfaction, i. e., to buy indulgences. Nor is there anybody who
ever taught otherwise. Therefore, I published my
Disputation;[13] in other words, I brought upon my head all the
curses, high, middle and low, which these lovers of money (I
should say "of souls") are able to send or to have sent upon me.
For these most courteous men, armed, as they are, with very dense
acumen, since they cannot deny what I have said, now pretend that
in my Disputation I have spoken against the power of the Supreme
Pontiff.[14]
That is the reason. Reverend Father, why I now regretfully come
out in public. For I have ever been a lover of my corner, and
prefer to look upon the beauteous passing show of the great minds
of our age, rather than to be looked upon and laughed at. But I
see that the bean must appear among the cabbages,[15] and the
black must be put with the white, for the sake of seemliness and
loveliness.
I ask, therefore, that thou wilt take this foolish work of mine
and forward it, if possible, to the most Excellent Pontiff, Leo
X, where it may plead my cause against the designs of those who
hate me. Not that I wish thee to share my danger! Nay, I wish this
to be done at my peril only. Christ will see whether what I have
said is His or my own; and without His permission there is not a
word in the Supreme Pontiff's tongue, nor is the heart of the
king in his own hand. [Ps. 138:4 (Vulgate), Prov. 21:1] He is the
Judge whose verdict I await from the Roman See.
As for those threatening friends of mine, I have no answer for
them but that word of Reuchlin's--"He who is poor fears nothing;
he has nothing to lose." Fortune I neither have nor desire; if I
have had reputation and honor, he who destroys them is always at
work; there remains only one poor body, weak and wearied with
constant hardships, and if by force or wile they do away with
that (as a service to God), they will but make me poorer by
perhaps an hour or two of life. [John 16:2] Enough for me is the
most sweet Saviour and Redeemer, my Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom I
shall always sing my song; [Ps. 104:33] if any one is unwilling
to sing with me, what is that to me? Let him howl, if he likes,
by himself.
The Lord Jesus keep thee eternally, my gracious Father!
Wittenberg, Day of the Holy Trinity, MDXVIII
FOOTNOTES
[1] "Penitence," "repentance," "penance," are all translations of
this word. See above, p.29, note 1.
[2] The _modus confitendi_, or "way of confession" is the
teaching of what sins are to be confessed to the priest and how
they are to be confessed. The subject is discussed fully by
Luther in his _Discussion of Confession_, below, pp. 81-102.
[3] Gr. _µet?_, Lat., _post_. Eng., "after"; Gr. _????_, Lat.,
_mens_, Eng., "mind."
[4] The Greek _µet?_ can also be translated by the Latin _trans_,
which, in compounds, denotes movement from one place, or thing,
or condition, to another.
[5] Lat. _transmutatio_, "the act or process of changing," not
simply "a change" (_mutatio_).
[6] _Transitus mentis_.
[7] The derivative of the term "Hebrew" is still disputed (v.
PRE3 VII, p.507). Luther conceives it to mean _transitor_, "one
who passes through tor across the land," "a pilgrim." Cf. Genesis
12:6.
[8] _Burgenesis_, i. e. Paul of Bourgos (1353-1435).
[9] Another bit of Mediæval philology.
[10] See Introduction, p. 19.
[11] Cf. Thesis 1, and foot-note.
[12] Here again, as above, we have the double sense of
_poentitentia_. Satisfaction is a part of sacramental penance.
Luther's charge is that in preaching the remission of this part
of the Sacrament the doctrine of true penitence (cf. Thesis 1) is
passed by.
[13] The Ninety-five Theses.
[14] Tetzel's reply to the Theses (_Disputatio II, Jo.
Tetzelli_), 1517. Loescher, I, pp. 517 ff.
[15] A Latin adage, _chorcorus inter olern_.
IV
LETTER TO POPE LEO X, ACCOMPANYING THE "RESOLUTIONS" TO THE XCV
THESES 1518
To the
Most Blessed Father,
LEO X.
Martin Luther,
Augustinian Friar,
wisheth everlasting welfare.
I have heard evil reports about myself, most blessed Father, by
which I know that certain friends have put my name in very bad
odor with you and yours, saying that I have attempted to belittle
the power of the keys and of the Supreme Pontiff. Therefore I am
accused of heresy, apostasy, and perfidy, and am called by six
hundred other names of ignominy. My ears shudder and my eyes are
astounded. But the one thing in which I put my confidence remains
unshaken--my clear and quiet conscience. Moreover, what I hear is
nothing new. With such like decorations I have been adorned in my
own country by those same honorable and truthful men, i. e., by
the men whose own conscience convicts them of wrong-doing, and
who are trying to put their own monstrous doings off on me, and
to glorify their own shame by bringing shame to me. But you will
deign, blessed Father, to hear the true case from me, though I am
but an uncouth child. [Jer. 2:6]
It is not long ago that the preaching of the Jubilee
indulgences[1] was begun in our country, and matters went so far
that the preachers of indulgences, thinking that the protection
of your name made anything permissible, ventured openly to teach
the most impious and heretical doctrines, which threatened to
make the power of the Church a scandal and a laughing-stock as if
the decretals _De abusionibus quaestorum_[2] did not apply to them.
Not content with spreading this poison of theirs by word of
mouth, they published tracts and scattered them among the people.
In these books--to say nothing of the insatiable and unheard of
avarice of which almost every letter in them vilely smells--they
laid down those same impious and heretical doctrines, and laid
them down in such wise that confessors were bound by their oath
to be faithful and insistent in urging them upon the people. I
speak the truth, and none of them can hide himself from the heat
thereof [Ps. 19:6]. The tracts are extant and they cannot disown
them. These teachings were so successfully carried on, and the
people, with their false hopes, were sucked so dry that, as the
Prophet says, "they plucked their flesh from off their bones";
[Mic. 3:2] but they themselves meanwhile were fed most pleasantly
on the fat of the land.
There was just one means which they used to quiet opposition, to
wit, the protection of your name, the threat of burning at the
stake, and the disgrace of the name "heretic." It is incredible
how ready they are to threaten, even, at times, when they
perceive that it is only their own mere silly opinions which are
contradicted. As though this were to quiet opposition, and not
rather to arouse schisms and seditions by sheer tyranny!
None the less, however, stories about the avarice of the priests
were bruited in the taverns, and evil was spoken of the power of
the keys and of the Supreme Pontiff, and as evidence of this, I
could cite the common talk of this whole land. I truly confess
that I was on fire with zeal for Christ, as I thought, or with
the heat of youth, if you prefer to have it so; and yet I saw
that it was not in place for me to make any decrees or to do
anything in these matters. Therefore I privately admonished some
of the prelates of the Church. By some of them I was kindly
received, to others I seemed ridiculous, to still others
something worse; for the terror of your name and the threat of
Church censures prevailed. At last, since I could do nothing
else, it seemed good that I should offer at least a gentle
resistance to them, i. e., question and discuss their teachings.
Therefore I published a set of theses, inviting only the more
learned to dispute with me if they wished; as should be evident,
even to my adversaries, from the Preface to the Disputation.[3]
Lo, this is the fire with which they complain that all the world
is now ablaze! Perhaps it is because they are indignant that I,
who by your own apostolic authority am a Master of Theology, have
the right to conduct public disputations, according to the custom
of all the Universities and of the whole Church, not only about
indulgences, but also about God's power and remission and mercy,
which are incomparably greater subjects. I am not much moved,
however, by the fact that they envy me the privilege granted me
by the power of your Holiness, since I am unwillingly compelled
to yield to them in things of far greater moment, viz., when they
mix the dreams of Aristotle with theological matters, and conduct
nonsensical disputations about the majesty of God, beyond and
against the privilege granted them.
It is a miracle to me by what fate it has come about that this
single Disputation of mine should, more than any other, of mine
or of any of the teachers, have gone out into very nearly the
whole land. It was made public at our University and for our
University only, and it was made public in such wise that I
cannot believe it has become known to all men. For it is a set of
theses, not doctrines or dogmas, and they are put, according to
custom, in an obscure and enigmatic way. Otherwise, if I had been
able to foresee what was coming, I should have taken care, for my
part, that they would be easier to understand.
Now what shall I do? I cannot recant them; and yet I see that
marvelous enmity is inflamed against me because of their
dissemination. It is unwillingly that I incur the public and
perilous and various judgment of men, especially since I am
unlearned, dull of brain, empty of scholarship; and that too in
this brilliant age of ours, which by its achievements in letters
and learning can force even Cicero into the corner, though he was
no base follower of the public light. But necessity compels me to
be the goose that squawks among the swans.
And so, to soften my enemies and to fulfil the desires of many, I
herewith send forth these trifling explanations of my
Disputation; I send them forth in order, too, that I may be more
safe under the defense of your name and the shadow of your
protection. In them all may see, who will, how purely and amply I
have sought after and cherished the power of the Church and
reverence for the keys; and, at the same rime, how unjustly and
falsely my adversaries have befouled me with so many names. For
if I had been such a one as they wish to make me out, and if I
had not, on the contrary, done everything correctly, according to
my academic privilege, the Most Illustrious Prince Frederick,
Duke of Saxony, Imperial Elector, etc., would never have
tolerated such a pest in his University, for he most dearly loves
the Catholic and Apostolic truth, nor could I have been tolerated
by the keen and learned men of our University. But what has been
done, I do because those most courteous men do not fear openly to
involve both the Prince and the University in the same disgrace
with myself.[4]
Wherefore, most blessed Father, I cast myself at the feet of your
Holiness, with all that I have and all that I am. Quicken, kill,
call, recall, approve, reprove, as you will. In your voice I
shall recognize the voice of Christ directing you and speaking in
you. If I have deserved death, I shall not refuse to die. For
the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. [Ps. 24:1] He is
blessed forever. Amen.
May He have you too forever in His keeping. Amen.
ANNO MDXVIII.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See Introduction, pp. 18, 21.
[2] i. e. The papal laws regulating the methods of collectors of
church-funds.
[3] The Ninety-five Theses.
[4] See Tetzel's _II. Disputation_, Theses 47, 48. Loescher, I, p.
522.
A TREATISE ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
1529
INTRODUCTION
This treatise is not a sermon in the ordinary acceptation of the
term. It was not preached, but, according to the Latin usage of
the word "sermo," was rather "a discourse," "a discussion," "a
disputation" concerning baptism. Even in popular usage, the term
"sermon" implies careful preparation and the orderly arrangement
of thought. Here, therefore, we have a carefully prepared
statement of Luther's opinion of the real significance of
baptism. Published in November, 1519, and shortly afterward in a
Latin translation,[1] it shows that the leading features of his
doctrine on this subject were already fixed. With it should be
read the chapter in the Large Catechism (1519), and the treatise
_Von der Wiedertaufe_ (1538).[2] The treatment is not polemical,
but objective and practical. The Anabaptist controversy was still
in the future. No objections against Infant Baptism or problems
that it suggested were pressing for attention. Nothing more is
attempted than to explain in a very plain and practical way how
every one who has been baptised should regard his baptism. It
commits to writing in an entirely impersonal way a problem of
Luther's own inner life, for the instruction of others similarly
perplexed.
He is confronted with a rite universally found in Christendom and
nowhere else, the one distinctive mark of a Christian, the seal
of a divine covenant. What it means is proclaimed by its very
external form. But it is more than a mere object-lesson
pictorially representing a great truth. With Luther, Word and
Spirit, sign and that which is signified, belong together.
Wherever the one is present, there also is the efficacy of the
other. The sign is not limited to the moment of administration,
and that which is signified is not projected far into the distant
future of adult years.
The emphatic preference here shown for immersion may surprise
those not familiar with Luther's writings. He prefers it as a
matter of choice between non-essentials. To quote only his
treatise of the next year on the Babylonian Captivity: "I wish
that those to be baptised were entirety sunken in the water; not
that I think it necessary, but that of so perfect and complete a
thing, there should be also an equally complete and perfect
sign." [3] It was a form that was granted as permissible in
current Orders approved by the Roman Church, and was continued in
succeeding Orders.[4] Even when immersion was not used, the
copious application of the water was a prominent feature of the
ceremony. No one is better qualified to speak on this subject
than Prof. Rietschel, himself formerly a Wittenberger: "The form
of baptism at Wittenberg is manifest from the picture by L.
Cranach on the altar of the Wittenberg _Pfarrkirche_, in which
Melanchthon is administering baptism. At Melanchthon's left hand
lies the completely naked child over the foot. With his right
hand he is pouring water upon the child's head, from which the
water is copiously flowing." [5]
Nor should it be forgotten that the immersion which Luther had in
mind was not that of adults, almost unknown at the time, and as
he himself says, practically unknown for about a thousand
years,[6] but that of infants. In the immersion of infants, he
finds two things: first, the sinking of the child beneath the
water, and, then, its being raised out, the one signifying death
to sin and all its consequences, and the other, the new life into
which the child is introduced. Four years later Luther introduced
into the revised Order of Baptism which he prepared, the Collect
of ancient form, but which the most diligent search of liturgical
scholars has thus far been unable to discover in any of the
prayers of the Ancient or Mediæval Church, expressing in
condensed form this thought. We quote the introduction, as freely
rendered by Cranmer in the First Prayer Book of Edward VI:
"Almighty and Everlasting God, Which, of Thy justice, didst
destroy by floods of water the whole world for sin, except eight
persons, whom of Thy mercy Thou didst save, the same time, in the
ark; and when Thou didst drown in the Red Sea wicked King Pharaoh
with all his army, yet, the same time, Thou didst lead Thy
people, the children of Israel, safely through the midst thereof;
whereby Thou didst figure the washing of Thy holy baptism, and by
the baptism of Thy well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, didst sanctify
the flood of Jordan, and all other waters, to the mystical
washing away of sin," etc.[7]
The figure is to him not that of an act, but of a process
extending throughout the entire earthly life of the one baptised.
Sin is not drowned at once, or its consequences escaped in a
moment. It is a graphic presentation in epitome of the entire
work of grace with this subject.[8] Life, therefore, in the
language of this treatise, is "a perpetual baptism." As the mark
of our Christian profession, as the sacramental oath of the
soldier of the cross, it is the solemn declaration of relentless
warfare against sin, and of life-long devotion to Christ our
Leader. As the true bride is responsive to no other love than
that of her husband, so one faithful to his baptism is dead to
all else. It is as though all else had been sunk beneath the sea.
In the distinction drawn between the sacramental sign and the
sacramental efficacy in paragraphs seven and eight, the
Protestant distinction between justification and sanctification
is involved. The one baptised, becomes in his baptism, wholly
dead to the condemning power of sin; but so far as the presence
of sin is concerned, the work of deliverance has just begun. This
is in glaring contrast with the scholastic doctrine that original
sin itself is entirely eradicated in baptism.[9] For baptism but
begins the constant struggle against sin that ends only with the
close of life. Hence the warning against making of baptism a
ground for presumption, and against relaxing the earnestness of
the struggle upon the assumption that one has been baptised. For
unless baptism be the beginning of a new life, it is without
meaning.
Nor is the error less fatal which resorts to satisfactions,
self-chosen or ecclesiastically appointed, for the forgiveness of
sin committed after baptism. For as every sin committed after
baptism is a falling away from baptism, all repentance is a
return to baptism. No forgiveness is to be found except upon the
terms of our baptism. Never changing is God's covenant. If broken
on our part, no new covenant is to be sought. We must return to
the faith of our childhood or be lost. The Mediæval Church had
devised a sacrament of penance to supplement and repair the
alleged broken down and inoperative sacrament of baptism.
Baptism, so ran the teaching, blotted out the past and put one on
a plane to make a new beginning; but, then, when he fell, there
was this new sacrament, to which resort could be taken. It was
the "second plank," wrote Jerome, "by which one could swim out of
the sea of his sins." "No," exclaimed Luther, in the Large
Catechism, "the ship of our baptism never goes down. If we fall
out of the ship, there it is, ready for our return." [10]
There are, then, no vows whatever that can be substitutes for our
baptism, or can supplement it. The baptismal vow comprehends
everything. Only one distinction is admissible. While the vow
made in baptism is universal, binding all alike to complete
obedience to God, there are particular spheres in which this
general vow is to be exercised and fulfilled. Not all Christians
have the same office at the same calling. When one answers a
divine call directing him to some specific form of Christian
service, the vow made in response to such call is only the
re-affirmation and application to a peculiar relation of the one
obligatory vow of baptism.[11]
While the divine institution and Word of God in baptism are of
prime importance, the office of faith must also be made
prominent. Faith is the third element in baptism. Faith does not
make the sacrament; but faith appropriates and applies to self
what the sacrament offers. _Non sacramentum, sed fides sacramenti
justificat_. Nor are we left in doubt as to what is here meant by
the term "faith." In paragraph fourteen it is explicitly
described. Faith, we are then taught, is nothing else than to
look away from self to the mercy of God, as He offers it in the
word of His grace, whereof baptism is the seal to every child
baptised.
Luther's purpose, in this discussion, being to guard against the
Mediæval theory of any _opus operatum_[12] efficacy in the
sacrament, he would have wandered from his subject, if he had
entered at this place into any extended discussion of the nature
of the faith that is required. A few years later (1528), the
Anabaptist reaction, which over-emphasised the subjective, and
depreciated the objective side of the sacraments, necessitated a
much fuller treatment of the peculiar office of faith with
respect to baptism. To complete the discussion, the citation of a
few sentences from his treatise, _Von der Wiedertaufe_, may,
therefore, not be without use. Insisting that, important as faith
is, the divine Word, and not faith, is the basis of baptism, he
shows how one who regards faith, on the part of the candidate for
baptism, essential to its validity, can never, if consistent,
administer baptism; since there is no case in which he can have
absolute certainty that faith is present. Or if one should have
doubts as to the validity of his baptism in infancy, because he
has no evidence that he then believed, and, for this reason,
should ask to be baptised in adult years, then if Satan should
again trouble him as to whether, even when baptised the second
time, he really had faith, he would have to be baptised a third,
and a fourth time, and so on _ad infinitum_, as long as such
doubts recurred.[13] "For it often happens that one who thinks
that he has faith, has none whatever, and that one who thinks
that he has no faith but only doubts, actually believes. We are
not told: 'He who knows that he believes,' or 'If you know that
you believe,' but: 'He that believeth shall be saved.' [14] In
other words, it is not faith in our faith that is asked, but
faith in the Word and institution of God. Again: "Tell me: Which
is the greater, the Word of God or faith? Is not the Word of God
the greater? For the Word does not depend upon faith, but it is
faith that is dependent on God's Word. Faith wavers and changes;
but the Word of God abides forever."[15] "The man who bases his
baptism on his faith, is not only uncertain, but he is a godless
and hypocritical Christian; for he puts his trust in what is not
his own, viz., in a gift which God has given him, and not alone
in the Word of God; just as another builds upon his strength,
wisdom, power, holiness, which, nevertheless, are gifts which God
has given us." [16] Even though at the time of baptism there be
no faith, the baptism, nevertheless, is valid. For if at the time
of marriage, a maiden be without love to the man whom she
marries, when, two years later, she has learned to love her
husband, there is no need of a new betrothal and a new marriage;
the covenant previously made is sufficient.[17]
In harmony with the stress laid in this treatise upon the fact
that baptism is a treasury of consolation offered to the faith of
every individual baptised, is the great emphasis which Luther, in
other places, was constrained to lay upon personal as
distinguished from vicarious faith. Neither the faith of the
sponsors, nor that of the Church, for which, according to
Augustine, the sponsors speak, avails more than simply to bring
the child to baptism, where it becomes an independent agent, with
whom God now deals directly. Thus the Large Catechism declares:
"We bring the child in the purpose and hope that it may believe,
and we pray God to grant it faith, but we do not baptise it upon
that, but solely upon the command of God." [18] Still more
explicit is a sermon on the Third Sunday after Epiphany; "The
words, Mark 16:16, Romans 1:17, and John 3:16, 18 are clear, to
the effect that every one must believe for himself, and no one
can be helped by the faith of any me else, but only by his own
faith." "It is just as in the natural life, no one can be born
for me, but I must be born myself. My mother may bring me to
birth, but it is I who am born, and no me else." "Thus no one is
saved by the faith of another, but solely by his own faith." [19]
The treatise is found in _Weimar Ed._, II, 724-737; _Erlangen
Ed._, XXI, 229-244; St. Louis Ed., X, 2113-2116; Clemen and
Leitzmann, _Luthers Werke_, I, (1912), 185-195.
HENRY E. JACOBS.
Mount Airy, Philadelphia.
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Erl. Ed., op. var. arg._, III, 394-410.
[2] _Erl. Ed._, XXVI, 256-294.
[3] _Erl. Ed., op. var. arg._, V. 66. For an exhaustive treatment
of Luther's attitude to immersion, sprinkling, and pouring, see
Krauth, _Conservative Reformation_, 519-544.
[4] For formulas, see Höfling, _Das Sacrament der Taufe_, II. 40.
[5] Riechschel, _Lehrbuch der Liturgik_, II, 67 f.
[6] "If Infant Baptism were not right, then for one thousand
years there was no baptism and no Christian Church," _Erl. Ed._,
XXVI, 287.
[7] More literally, but with no great difference, in the Lutheran
Church Book, p. 323. The Book of Common Prayer, following the II.
Prayerbook of Edward VI, has abbreviated it.
[8] _Small Catechism_: "Baptism signifies that the old Adam in us
is to be drowned and destroyed by daily sorrow and repentance,
together with all sins and evil lusts; and that again the new man
should daily come forth and rise, that shall live in the presence
of God, in righteousness and purity for ever."
[9] _Decrees of Trent_, Session V, 5: "If any one asserts that
the whole of that which has the proper nature of sin is not taken
away, but only evaded or not imputed, let him be accursed."
[10] _Book of Concord_, Eng. Trans., p. 475.
[11] Luther recurs to this subject in a subsequent treatise, the
_Confitendi Ratio_, below pp. 81 ff.
[12] i. e. The theory of the Roman Church that even without the
faith of a recipient, the blessing of the sacrament is bestowed.
[13] _Erl. Ed._, XXVI, 268.
[14] _Ibid._, 269.
[15] _Erl. Ed._, XXVI, 292.
[16] _Ibid_., 275.
[17] _Ibid_., 275.
[18] _Book of Concord_, English Translation, p. 473.
[19] _Erl. Ed._, XI, 63, 48, 2d Ed., XI, 65, 61. See discussion by
writer in _Lutheran Church Review_, XVIII, 598-657, where passages
cited may be found with full context translated, together with
other statements of Luther and those who followed him, on the
same subject.
A TREATISE ON BAPTISM
[Sidenote: Meaning of the Word]
I. Baptism [German, _die Taufe_] is called in the Greek language
_baptismos_, in Latin _mersio_, which means to plunge something
entirely into the water, so that the water closes over it. And
although in many places it is the custom no longer to thrust and
plunge children into the font of baptism, but only to pour the
baptismal water upon them out of the font, nevertheless the
former is what should be done; and it would be right, according
to the meaning of the word _Taufe_, that the child, or whoever is
baptised, should be sunk entirely into the water, and then drawn
out again; for even in the German tongue the word _Taufe_ comes
undoubtedly from the word _tief_, and means that what is baptised
is sunk deep into the water. This usage is also demanded by the
significance of baptism, for baptism signifies that the old man
and the sinful birth of flesh and blood are to be wholly drowned
by the grace of God, as we shall hear. We should, therefore, do
justice to its meaning and make baptism a true and complete sign
of the thing it signifies.
[Sidenote: The Sign]
II. Baptism is an external sign or token, which so divides us
from all men not baptised, that thereby we are known as a people
of Christ, [Heb. 2:10] our Captain, under Whose banner (i. e.,
the Holy Cross) we continually fight against sin. Therefore in
this Holy Sacrament we must have regard to three things--the
sign, the significance thereof, and the faith. The sign consists
in this, that we are thrust into the water in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; but we are not left
there, for we are drawn out again. Hence the saying, _Aus der
Taufe gehoben_.[1] The sign must, therefore, have both its parts,
the putting in and the drawing out.
[Sidenote: The Thing Signified]
III. The significance of baptism is a blessed dying unto sin and
a resurrection in the grace of God, so that the old man, which is
conceived and born in sin, is there drowned, and a new man, born
in grace, comes forth and rises. Thus St. Paul, in Titus iii,
calls baptism a "washing of regeneration," [Tit. 3:5] since in
this washing man is born again and made new. As Christ also says,
in John iii, "Except ye be born again of water and the Spirit of
grace, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." [John 3:5]
For just as a child is drawn out of its mother's womb and born,
and through this fleshly birth is a sinful man and a child of
wrath, [Eph. 2:3] so man is drawn out of baptism and spiritually
born, and through this spiritual birth is a child of grace and a
justified man. Therefore sins are drowned in baptism, and in
place of sin, righteousness comes forth.
[Sidenote: Its Incompleteness]
IV. This significance of baptism, viz., the dying or drowning of
sin, is not fulfilled completely in this life, nay, not until man
passes through bodily death also, and utterly decays to dust. The
sacrament, or sign, of baptism is quickly over, as we plainly
see. But the thing it signifies, viz., the spiritual baptism, the
drowning of sin, lasts so long as we five, and is completed only
in death. Then it is that man is completely sunk in baptism, and
that thing comes to pass which baptism signifies. Therefore this
life is nothing else than a spiritual baptism which does not
cease till death, and he who is baptised is condemned to die; as
though the priest, when he baptises, were to say, "Lo, thou art
sinful flesh; therefore I drown thee in God's Name, and in His
Name condemn thee to thy death, that with thee all thy sins may
die and be destroyed." Wherefore St. Paul says, in Romans vi,
"We are buried with Christ by baptism into death"; [Rom. 6:4] and
the sooner after baptism a man dies, the sooner is his baptism
completed; for sin never entirely ceases while this body lives,
which is so wholly conceived in sin that sin is its very nature,
as saith the Prophet, "Behold I was conceived in sin, and in
iniquity did my mother bear me"; [Ps. 51:5] and there is no help
for the sinful nature unless it dies and is destroyed with all
its sin. So, then, the life of a Christian, from baptism to the
grave, is nothing else than the beginning of a blessed death, for
at the Last Day God will make him altogether new.
[Sidenote: Its Completion]
V. In like manner the lifting up out of baptism is quickly done,
but the thing it signifies, the spiritual birth, the increase of
grace and righteousness, though it begins indeed in baptism,
lasts until death, nay, even until the Last Day. Only then will
that be finished which the lifting up out of baptism signifies.
Then shall we arise from death, from sins and from all evil, pure
in body and in soul, and then shall we live forever. Then shall
we be truly lifted up out of baptism and completely born, and we
shall put on the true baptismal garment of immortal life in
heaven. As though the sponsors when they lift the child up out of
baptism,[2] were to say, "Lo, now thy sins are drowned; we
receive thee in God's Name into an eternal life of innocence."
For so will the angels at the Last Day raise up all Christians,
all pious baptised men, and will there fulfil what baptism and
the sponsors signify; as Christ says in Matthew xxiv, "He shall
send forth His angels, and they shall gather unto Him His elect
from the four places of the winds, and from the rising to the
setting of the sun." [Matt 24:31]
VI. Baptism was presaged of old in Noah's flood, when the whole
world was drowned, save Noah with three sons and their wives,
eight souls, who were kept in the ark. That the people of the
world were drowned, signifies that in baptism sins are drowned;
but that the eight in the ark, with beasts of every sort, were
preserved, signifies that through baptism man is saved, as St.
Peter explains, [1 Pet. 3:20 f.] Now baptism is by far a greater
flood than was that of Noah. For that flood drowned men during no
more than one year, but baptism drowns all sorts of men
throughout the world, from the birth of Christ even till the Day
of Judgment. Moreover, it is a flood of grace, as that was a
flood of wrath, as is declared in Psalm xxviii, "God will make a
continual new flood." [3] [Ps. 29:10] For without doubt many more
people are baptised than were drowned in the flood.
[Sidenote: The Continuance of Sin]
VII. From this it follows that when a man comes forth out of
baptism, he is pure and without sin, wholly guiltless. But there
are many who do not rightly understand this, and think that sin
is no more present, and so they become slothful and negligent in
the killing of their sinful nature, even as some do when they
have gone to Confession. For this reason, as I said above,[4] it
should be rightly understood, and it should be known that our
flesh, so long as it lives here, is by nature wicked and sinful.
To correct this wickedness God has devised the plan of making it
altogether new, even as Jeremiah shows. The potter, when the pot
"was marred in his hand," thrust it again into the lump of clay,
and kneaded it, and afterwards made another pot, as it seemed
good to him. "So," says God, "are ye in My hands." [Jer. 18:4 f.]
In the first birth we are marred; therefore He thrusts us into
the earth again by death, and makes us over at the Last Day, that
then we may be perfect and without sin.
This plan He begins in baptism, which signifies death and the
resurrection at the Last Day, as has been said.[5] Therefore, so
far as the sign of the sacrament and its significance are
concerned, sins and the man are both already dead, and he has
risen again, and so the sacrament has taken place; but the work
of the sacrament has not yet been fully done, that is to say,
death and the resurrection at the Last Day are yet before us.
[Sidenote: Sins after Baptism]
VII. Man, therefore, is altogether pure and guiltless, but
sacramentally, which means nothing else than that he has the sign
of God, i. e., baptism, by which it is shown that his signs are
all to be dead, and that he too is to die in grace, and at the
Last Day to rise again, pure, sinless, guiltless, to everlasting
life. Because of the sacrament, then, it is true that he is
without sin and guilt; but because this is not yet completed, and
he still lives in sinful flesh, he is not without sin, and not in
all things pure, but has begun to grow into purity and innocence.
Therefore when a man comes to mature age, the natural, sinful
appetites--wrath, impurity, lust, avarice, pride, and the
like--begin to stir, whereas there would be none of these if all
sins were drowned in the sacrament and were dead. But the
sacrament only signifies that they are to be drowned through
death and the resurrection at the Last Day. [Rom. 7:18] So St.
Paul, in Romans vii, and all saints with him, lament that they
are sinners and have sin in their nature, although they were
baptised and were holy; and they so lament because the natural,
sinful appetites are always active so long as we live.
[Sidenote: Baptism a Covenant]
IX. But you ask, "How does baptism help me, if it does not
altogether blot out and put away sin?" This is the place for the
right understanding of the sacrament of baptism. The holy
sacrament of baptism helps you, because in it God allies Himself
with you, and becomes one with you in a gracious covenant of
comfort.
[Sidenote: Man's Pledge]
First of all, you give yourself up to the sacrament of baptism
and what it signifies, i. e., you desire to die, together with
your sins, and to be made new at the Last Day, as the sacrament
declares, and as has been said.[6] This God accepts at your
hands, and grants you baptism, and from that hour begins to make
you a new man, pours into you His grace and Holy Spirit, Who
begins to slay nature and sin, and to prepare you for death and
the resurrection at the Last Day.
Again, you pledge yourself to continue in this, and more and more
to slay your sin as long as you live, even until your death. This
too God accepts, and trains and tries you all your life long,
with many good works and manifold sufferings; whereby He effects
what you in baptism have desired, viz., that you may become free
from sin, may die and rise again at the Last Day, and so fulfil
your baptism. Therefore, we read and see how bitterly He has let
His saints be tortured, and how much He has let them suffer, to
the end that they might be quickly slain, might fulfil their
baptism, die and be made new. For when this does not happen, and
we suffer not and are not tried, then the evil nature overcomes a
man, so that he makes his baptism of none effect, falls into sin,
and remains the same old man as before.
[Sidenote: God's Pledge]
X. So long, now, as you keep your pledge to God, He, in turn,
gives you His grace, and pledges Himself not to count against you
the sins which remain in your nature after baptism, and not to
regard them or to condemn you because of them. He is satisfied
and well-pleased if you are constantly striving and desiring to
slay these sins and to be rid of them by your death. For this
cause, although the evil thoughts and appetites may be at work,
nay, even although you may sin and fall at times, these sins are
already done away by the power of the sacrament and covenant, if
only you rise again and enter into the covenant, as St. Paul says
in Romans viii. No one who believes in Christ is condemned by the
evil, sinful inclination of his nature, if only he does not
follow it and consent to it; [Rom. 8:1] and St. John, in his
Epistle, writes, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with God,
even Jesus Christ, Who has become the forgiveness of our sins."
[1 John 2:2 f.] All this takes place in baptism, where Christ is
given us, as we shall hear in the remainder of the treatise.
[Sidenote: The Comfort of the Covenant]
XI. Now if this covenant did not exist, and God were not so
merciful as to wink at our sins, there could be no sin so so
small but it would condemn us. For the judgment of God can endure
no sin. Therefore there is on earth no greater comfort than
baptism, for through it we come under the judgment of grace and
mercy, which does not condemn our sins, but drives them out by
many trials. There is a fine sentence of St. Augustine, which
says, "Sin is altogether forgiven in baptism; not in such wise
that it is no longer present, but in such wise that it is not
taken into account." As though he were to say, "Sin remains in
our flesh even until death, and works without ceasing; but so
long as we do not consent thereto or remain therein, it is so
overruled by our baptism that it does not condemn us and is not
harmful to us, but is daily more and more destroyed until our
death."
For this reason no one should be terrified if he feel evil lust
or love, nor should he despair even if he fall, but he should
remember his baptism, and comfort himself joyfully with it, since
God has there bound Himself to slay his sin for him, and not to
count it a cause for condemnation, if only he does not consent to
sin or remain in sin. Moreover, these wild thoughts and
appetites, and even a fall into sin, should not be regarded as an
occasion for despair, but rather as a warning from God that man
should remember his baptism and what was there spoken, that he
should call upon God's mercy, and exercise himself in striving
against sin, that he should even be desirous of death in order
that he may be rid of sin.
[Sidenote: The Office of Faith]
XII. Here, then, is the place to discuss the third thing in the
sacrament, i. e., faith, to wit, that a man should firmly believe
all this; viz., that this sacrament not only signifies death and
the resurrection at the Last Day, by which man is made new for an
everlasting, sinless life; but also that it assuredly begins and
effects this, and unites us with God, so that we have the will to
slay sin, even till the time of our death, and to fight against
it; on the other hand, that it is His will to be merciful to us,
to deal graciously with us, and not to judge us with severity,
because we are not sinless in this life until purified through
death. Thus you understand how a man becomes in baptism
guiltless, pure and sinless, and yet continues full of evil
inclinations, that he is called pure only because he has begun to
be pure, and has a sign and covenant of this purity, and is
always to become more pure. Because of this God will not count
against him the impurity which still cleaves to him, and,
therefore, he is pure rather through the gracious imputation of
God than through anything in his own nature; as the Prophet says
in Psalm xxxii, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven;
blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity."
[Ps. 52:1 f.]
This faith is of all things the most necessary, for it is the
ground of all comfort. He who has not this faith must despair in
his sins. For the sin which remains after baptism makes it
impossible for any good works to be pure before God. For this
reason we must hold boldly and fearlessly to our baptism, and
hold it up against all sins and terrors of conscience, and humbly
say, "I know full well that I have not a single work which is
pure, but I am baptised, and through my baptism God, Who cannot
lie, has bound Himself in a covenant with me, not to count my sin
against me, but to slay it and blot it out."
XIII. So, then, we understand that the innocence which is ours by
baptism is so called simply and solely because of the mercy of
God, which has begun this work in us, bears patiently with sin,
and regards us as though we were sinless, This also explains why
Christians are called in the Scriptures the children of mercy, a
people of grace, and men of God's good-will. [Eph. 5:1, 9] It is
because in baptism they have begun to become pure, [Luke 2:14]
and by God's mercy are not condemned with their sins that still
remain, until, through death and at the Last Day, they become
wholly pure, as the sign of baptism shows.
Therefore they greatly err who think that through baptism they
have become wholly pure. They go about in their unwisdom, and do
not slay their sin; they will not admit that it is sin; they
persist in it, and so they make their baptism of no effect; they
remain entangled in certain outward works, and meanwhile pride,
hatred, and other evils of their nature are disregarded and grow
worse and worse. Nay, not so! Sin and evil inclination must be
recognized as truly sin; that it does not harm us is to be
ascribed to the grace of God, Who will not count it against us if
only we strive against it in many trials, works, and sufferings,
and slay it at last in death. To them who do this not, God will
not forgive their sins, because they do not live according to
their baptism and covenant, and hinder the work which God and
their baptism have begun.
[Sidenote: Baptism and Repentance]
XIV. Of this sort are they also who think to blot out and put
away their sin by "satisfaction," [7] and even regard their
baptism lightly, as though they had no more need of it after they
had been baptised,[8] and do not know that it is in force all
through life, even until death, nay, even at the Last Day, as was
said above.[9] For this cause they think to find some other way
of blotting out sin, viz., their own works; and so they make, for
themselves and for all others, evil, terrified, uncertain
consciences, and despair in the hour of death; and they know not
how they stand with God, thinking that by sin they have lost
their baptism and that it profits them no more.
Guard yourself, by all means, against this error. For, as has
been said, if any one has fallen into sin, he should the more
remember his baptism, and how God has there made a covenant with
him to forgive all his sins, if only he has the will to fight
against them, even until death. Upon this truth, upon this
alliance with God, a man must joyfully dare to rely, and then
baptism goes again into operation and effect, his heart becomes
again peaceful and glad, not in his own work or "satisfaction,"
but in God's mercy, promised him in baptism, and to be held fast
forever. This faith a man must hold so firmly that he would cling
to it even though all creatures and all sins attacked him, since
he who lets himself be forced away from it makes God a liar in
His covenant, the sacrament of baptism.
[Sidenote: Baptism and Penance]
XV. It is this faith that the devil most attacks. If he
overthrows it, he has won the battle. For the sacrament of
penance also (of which we have already spoken)[10] has its
foundation in this sacrament, since sins are forgiven only to
those who are baptised, i. e., to those whose sins God has
promised to forgive. The sacrament of penance thus renews and
points out again the sacrament of baptism, as though the priest,
in the absolution, were to say, "Lo, God hath now forgiven thee
thy sin, as He long since hath promised thee in baptism, and as
He hath now commanded me, by the power of the keys,[11] and now
thou comest again into that which thy baptism does and is.
Believe, and thou hast it; doubt, and thou art lost." So we find
that through sin baptism is, indeed, hindered in its work, i. e.,
in the forgiveness and the slaying of sin; yet only by unbelief
in its operation is baptism brought to naught. Faith, in turn,
removes the hindrance to the operation of baptism. So much
depends on faith.
[Sidenote: Forgiveness and Sanctification]
To speak quite plainly, it is one thing to forgive sins, and
another thing to put them away or drive them out. The
forgiveness of sins is obtained by faith, even though they are
not entirely driven out; but to drive out sins is to exercise
ourselves against them, and at last it is to die; for in death
sin perishes utterly. But both the forgiveness and the driving
out of sins are the work of baptism. Thus the Apostle writes to
the Hebrews, [Heb. 12:1] who were baptised, and whose sins were
forgiven, that they shall lay aside the sin which doth beset
them. For so long as I believe that God is willing not to count
my sins against me, my baptism is in force and my sins are
forgiven, though they may still, in a great measure, remain.
After that follows the driving out of my sins through sufferings,
death, etc. This is what we confess in the article [of the
Creed], "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the forgiveness of sins,
etc." Here there is special reference to baptism, for in it the
forgiveness takes place through God's covenant with us; therefore
we must not doubt this forgiveness.
[Sidenote: Baptism and Suffering]
XVI. It follows, therefore, that baptism makes all sufferings and
especially death, profitable and helpful, since these things can
only serve baptism in the doing of its work, i. e., in the slaying
of sin. For he who would fulfil the work and purpose of his
baptism and be rid of sin, must die. It cannot be otherwise.
Sin, however, does not like to die, and for this reason it makes
death so bitter and so horrible. Such is the grace and power of
God that sin, which has brought death, is driven out again by its
own work, viz., by death.[12]
You find many people who wish to live in order that they may
become righteous, and who say that they would like to be
righteous. Now there is no shorter way or manner than through
baptism and the work of baptism, i. e., through suffering and
death, and so long as they are not willing to take this way, it
is a sign that they do not rightly intend or know how to become
righteous. Therefore God has instituted many estates in life in
which men are to learn to exercise themselves and to suffer. To
some He has commanded the estate of matrimony, to others the
estate of the clergy, to others, again, the estate of the rulers,
and to all He has commanded that they shall toil and labor to
kill the flesh and accustom it to death, because for all such as
are baptised their baptism has made the repose, the ease, the
plenty of this life a very poison, and a hindrance to its work.
For in these things no one learns to suffer, to die with
gladness, to get rid of sin, and to live in accordance with
baptism; but instead of these things there grows love of this
life and horror of eternal life, fear of death and unwillingness
to blot out sin.
[Sidenote: Baptism and Good Works]
XVII. Now behold the lives of men. Many there are who fast and
pray and go on pilgrimage and exercise themselves in such things,
thinking thereby only to heap up merit, and to sit down in the
high places of heaven. But fasting and all such exercises should
be directed toward holding down the old Adam, the sinful nature,
and accustoming it to do without all that is pleasing for this
life, and thus daily preparing it more and more for death, so
that the work and purpose of baptism may be fulfilled. And all
these exercises and toils are to be measured, not by their number
or their greatness, but by the demands of baptism; that is to
say, each man is to take upon him so much of these works as is
good and profitable for the suppressing of his sinful nature and
for fitting it for death, and is to increase or diminish them
according as he sees that sin increases or decreases. As it is,
they go their heedless way, take upon themselves this, that, and
the other task, do now this, now that, according to the
appearance or the reputation of the work, and again quickly leave
off, and thus become altogether inconstant, till in the end they
amount to nothing; nay, some of them so rack their brains over
the whole thing, and so abuse nature, that they are of no use
either to themselves or others.
All this is the fruit of that doctrine with which we have been so
possessed as to think that after repentance or baptism we are
without sin, and that our good works are to be heaped up, not for
the blotting out of sin, but for their own sake, or as a
satisfaction for sins already done. This is encouraged by those
preachers who preach unwisely the legends and works of the
blessed Saints, and make of them examples for all. The ignorant
fall eagerly upon these things, and work their own destruction
out of the examples of the Saints. God has given every saint a
special way and a special grace by which to live according to his
baptism. But baptism and its significance He has set as a common
standard for all men, so that every man is to examine himself
according to his station in life, to find what is the best way
for him to fulfil the work and purpose of his baptism, i. e., to
slay sin and to die. Then Christ's burden grows light and easy,
[Matt. 11:30] and it is not carried with worry and care, as
Solomon says of it, "The labor of the foolish wearieth every one
of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city." [Eccl.
10:15] For even as they are worried who wish to go to the city
and cannot find the way, so it is with these men; all their life
and labor is a burden to them, and yet they accomplish nothing.
[Sidenote: The Vow of Baptism and Other Vows]
XVIII. In this place, then, belongs the question whether baptism
and the vow which we there make to God, is something more or
something greater than the vows of chastity, of the priesthood,
of the clergy, since baptism is common to all Christians, and it
is thought that the clergy have taken a special and a higher vow.
I answer: From what has been said, this is an easy question to
answer. For in baptism we all make one and the same vow, viz., to
slay sin and to become holy through the work and grace of God, to
Whom we yield and offer ourselves, as clay to the potter [13] and
in this no one is better than another. But for a life in
accordance with baptism, i. e., for slaying sin, there can be no
one method and no special estate in life. Therefore I have
said[14] that each man must prove himself, that he may know in
what estate he may best slay sin and put a check upon his nature.
It is true, then, that there is no vow higher, better, or greater
than the vow of baptism. What more can we promise than to drive
out an, to die, to hate this life, and to become holy?
Over and above this vow, a man may, indeed, bind himself to some
special estate, if it seems to him to be suitable and helpful for
the completion of his baptism. It is just as though two men went
to the same city, and the one went by the foot-path, the other by
the high-way, according as each thought best. So he who binds
himself to the estate of matrimony, walks in the toils and
sufferings which belong to that estate and lays upon himself its
burdens, in order that he may grow used to pleasure and sorrow,
avoid sin, and prepare himself for death better than he could do
outside of that estate. But he who seeks more suffering, and by
much exercise would speedily prepare himself for death and soon
attain the work of baptism, let him bind himself to chastity, or
the spiritual order; for the spiritual estate,[15] if it is as it
ought to be, should be full of torment and suffering, in order
that he who belongs to it may have more exercise in the work of
his baptism than the man who is in the estate of matrimony, and
through such torment quickly grow used to welcome death with joy,
and so attain the purpose of his baptism. Now above this estate
there is another and a higher, that which rules in the spiritual
order, viz., the estate of bishop, priest, etc. And these men
should be well practised in sufferings and works, and ready at
every hour for death, not only for their own sake, but for the
sake of those who are their subjects.
Yet in all these estates the standard, of which we spoke above,
should never be forgotten, viz., that a man should so exercise
himself only to the end that sin may be driven out, and should
not be guided by the number or the greatness of works. But, alas
how we have forgotten our baptism and what it means, and what
vows we made there, and that we are to walk in its works and
attain its purpose! So, too, we have forgotten about the ways to
that goal, and about the estates, and do not know to what end
these estates were instituted, and how we are in them to keep at
the fulfilling of our baptism. They have been made a gorgeous
show, and little more remains of them than worldly display, as
Isaiah says, "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with
water." [Isa. 1:22] On this may God have mercy! Amen.
[Sidenote: The Joy of Baptism]
XIX. If, then, the holy sacrament of baptism is a thing so great,
so gracious and full of comfort, we should pay earnest heed to
thank God for it ceaselessly, joyfully, and from the heart, and
to give Him praise and honor. For I fear that by our
thanklessness we have deserved our blindness and become unworthy
to behold such grace, though the whole world was, and still is,
full of baptism and the grace of God. But we have been led astray
in our own anxious works, afterwards in indulgences and such like
false comforts, and have thought that we are not to trust God
until we are righteous and have made satisfaction for our sin, as
though we would buy His grace from Him or pay Him for it. In
truth, he who does not see in God's grace how it bears with him
as a sinner, and will make him blessed, and who looks forward
only to God's judgment, that man will never be joyful in God, and
can neither love nor praise Him. But if we hear and firmly
believe that He receives us sinners in the covenant of baptism,
spares us, and makes us pure from day to day, then our heart must
be joyful, and love and praise God. So He says in the Prophet, "I
will spare them, as a man spareth his own son." [Mal. 3:17]
Wherefore it is needful that we give thanks to the Blessed
Majesty, Who shows Himself so gracious and merciful toward us
poor condemned worms, and magnify and acknowledge His work.
[Sidenote: The Danger of False Confidence]
XX. At the same time, however, we must have a care that no false
security creeps in and says to itself: "Baptism is so gracious
and so great a thing that God will not count our sins against us,
and as soon as we turn again from sin, everything is right, by
virtue of baptism; meanwhile, therefore, I will live and do my
own will, and afterwards, or when about to die, will remember my
baptism and remind God of His covenant, and then fulfil the work
and purpose of my baptism."
Baptism is, indeed, so great a thing that if you turn again from
sins and appeal to the covenant of baptism, your sins are
forgiven. Only see to it, if you thus wickedly and wantonly sin,
presuming on God's grace, that the judgment does not lay hold
upon you and anticipate your turning back; and beware lest, even
if you then desired to believe or to trust in your baptism, your
trial be, by God's decree, so great that your faith is not able
to stand. If they scarcely remain who do do sin or who fall
because of sheer weakness, where shall your wickedness remain,
which has tempted and mocked God's grace? [1 Pet. 4:18]
Let us, therefore, walk with carefulness and fear, that with a
firm faith we may hold fast the riches of God's grace, and
joyfully give thanks to His mercy forever and ever. Amen. [Eph.
5:15]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Literally, "lifted or raised out of baptism"; in common usage
simply "baptised." Cf. "_aus der Taufe beben_," "to stand sponsor."
[2] See above, p.56, note 1.
[3] Luther habitually quoted the Vulgate and quoted from memory;
hence the many variations from the familiar test of Scripture.
[4] See above, p. 58.
[5] See above, p. 57.
[6] See above, p. 57.
[7] Good works prescribed as "penances" upon confession to the
priest.
[8] Literally, "lifted up out of it." See above, p. 57, note 1.
[9] See above, p.58.
[10] Luther here refers to his _Treatise on the Sacrament of
Penance_, which was published just before the present treatise on
baptism, in 1519. See _Weimar Ed._, II, pp. 709 ff and p. 724.
[11] The power to forgive and retain sin, belonging, according to
Roman teaching, to the priest, and normally exercised in the
sacrament of penance.
[12] Cf. _Fourteen of Consolation_, Part II, ch. II; below, pp.
146 ff.
[13] See above, p. 59.
[14] See above, p. 67.
[15] The "spiritual estate" or "spiritual order" includes all
those who have deserted the world and worldly pursuits for the
religious life. It includes monks and friars and nuns, as well as
priests, etc.
A DISCUSSION OF CONFESSION
(CONFITENDI RATIO)
1520
The _Confitendi Ratio_ is the culmination of a series of tracts
published by Luther after the memorable October 31st, 1517, and
before his final breach with Rome.[1] In them is clearly
traceable the progress that he was making in dealing with the
practical problems offered by the confessional, and which had
started the mighty conflict in which he was engaged. They open to
us an insight into his own conscientious efforts during the
period, when, as a penitent, he was himself endeavoring to meet
every requirement which the Church imposed, In order to secure
the assurance of the forgiveness of sins, as well as to present
the questions which as a father confessor and spiritual adviser
he asked those who were under his pastoral care. First of all, we
find, therefore, tables of duties and sins, reminding us of the
lists of cardinal sins and cardinal virtues in which Roman
Catholic books abound. The main effort here is to promote the
most searching self-examination and the most complete enumeration
of the details of sins, since, from the Medieval standpoint, the
completeness of the absolution is proportioned to the
exhaustiveness of the confession. Although the first of these
briefer tracts closes with its note of warning that the value of
the confession is not to be estimated by the enumeration of
details, but that it rests solely in the resort that is had to
the Grace of God and the word of His promise, the transition from
the one mode of thought to the other is very apparent.
In the _Kurze Untetweisung wie man beichten soll_ of 1519, of
which this is a Latin re-elaboration, and, therefore, intended
more for the educated man than as a popular presentation, he has
advanced so far as to warn against the attempt to make an
exhaustive enumeration of sins. He advises that the confession be
made in the most general terms, covering sins both known and
unknown. "If one would confess all mortal sins, it may be done in
the following words; 'Yea, my whole life, and all that I do, act,
speak, and think, is such as to be deadly and condemnable.' For
if one regard himself as being without mortal sin, this is of all
mortal sins the most mortal." [2] According to this maturer view,
the purpose of the most searching self-examination is to exhibit
the utter impossibility of ever fathoming the depth of corruption
that lies beneath the surface. The reader of the _Tessaradecas_
will recall Luther's statement there, that it is of God's great
mercy that man is able to see but a very small portion of the sin
within him, for were he to see it in its full extent, he would
perish at the sight. The physician need not count every pustule
on the body to diagnose the disease as small-pox. A glance is
enough to determine the case. The sins that are discovered are
the symptoms of the one radical sin that lies beneath them
all.[3] The cry is no longer "_Mea peccata, mea peccata,_" as
though these recognized sins were the exception to a life
otherwise without a flaw, but rather, overwhelmed with confusion,
the penitent finds in himself nothing but sin, except for what he
has by God's grace alone. Most clearly does Luther enforce this
in his exposition of the Fifty-first Psalm, of 1531, a treatise
we most earnestly commend to those who desire fuller information
concerning Luther's doctrine of sin, and his conception of the
value of confession and absolution. He shows that it is not by
committing a particular sin that we become sinners, but that the
sin is committed because our nature is still sinful, and that the
poisonous tree has grown from roots deeply imbedded in the soil.
We are sinners not because particular acts of sin have been
devised and carried to completion, but before the acts are
committed we are sinners; otherwise such fruits would not have
been borne. A bad tree can grow from nothing but a bad root.[4]
In his _Sermon on Confession and the Sacrament_ of 1524, he
discourages habits of morbid self-introspection, and exposes the
perplexities produced by the extractions of the confessional in
constantly sinking the probe deeper and deeper into the heart of
the already crushed and quivering penitent. He shows how one need
not look far to find enough to prompt the confession of utter
helplessness and the casting of self unreservedly upon God's
mercy. "Bring to the confession only those sins that occur to
thee, and say: I am so frail and fallen that I need consolation
and good counsel. For the confession should be brief....No one,
therefore, should be troubled, even though he have forgotten his
sins. If they be forgotten, they are none the less forgiven. For
what God considers, is not how thou hast confessed, but His Word
and how thou hast believed." [5]
In this is made prominent the radical difference between the
Roman Catholic and the Lutheran conception of confession. In the
former, it is a part of penance, the second of the three elements
of "contrition," "confession," and "satisfaction," an absolute
condition of the forgiveness of every sin. In the Roman
confessional, sins are treated atomistically. Some are forgiven,
while others are still to be forgiven. Every sin stands by
itself, and requires separate treatment. No unconfessed sin is
forgiven. To be forgiven, a sin must be known and lamented, and
confessed in all its details and circumstances to the priest,
who, as a spiritual judge, proportions the amount of the
satisfaction to be rendered by the penitent to the degree of
guilt of the offence, as judged from the facts before him. Thus
the debt has to be painfully and punctiliously worked off, sin by
sin, as in the financial world a note may be extinguished by
successive payments, dollar by dollar. Everything, therefore, is
made to depend upon the fulness and completeness of the
confession. It becomes a work, on account of which one is
forgiven. The absolution becomes simply the stamp of approval
that is placed upon the confession.
The Lutheran conception is centered upon the person of the
sinner, rather than on his sins. It is the person who is forgiven
his sins. Where the person is forgiven but one sin, all his sins
are forgiven; where the least sin is retained, all sins are
retained, and none forgiven, for "there is no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). The value of the
confession lies not in the confession itself, but in that,
through this confession, we turn to Christ and the word of His
promise.[6]
In Luther's opinion, there are three species of confession.[7]
One to God, in one's own heart, which is of absolute necessity,
and which the true believer is always making; a second to our
neighbor, when we have done him a wrong, which is also of divine
command; and, a third to a "brother," "wherein we receive from
the mouth of that brother the word of consolation sent from God."
[8] This last species, the _verbum solatii ex ore fratris_, while
not commanded in Holy Scripture, is commended because of the
great value which it has for those who fed the need of
consolation, and the instruction for which it affords the
opportunity. It is only by the individualizing of the confession
that the comfort to be derived by the individualizing of the
promise can be obtained. Hence, as the Augsburg Confession
declares (Article XI.): "Private" [i. e., personal] "confession
is retained because of the absolution."[9] Not that, without the
absolution, there is not forgiveness, but that, through it, the
one absolved rejoices all the more in the possession of that
which he possessed even before the absolution, and goes forth
from it strengthened to meet temptation because of the new
assurance that he has of God's love. This form of confession,
therefore, instead of being a condition of forgiveness, as is our
inner confession to God, is a privilege of the justified man,
who, before he has made such confession, has been forgiven, and
whose sins that lie still concealed from his knowledge are just
as truly forgiven as those over which he grieves.
The confession, therefore, being entirely voluntary and a
privilege, penitents are not to be tormented with "the ocean of
distinctions" hitherto urged, such, e.g., as those between mortal
and venial sins, whereof he says that "there is no doctor so
learned as to draw accurately the distinction";[10] and between
the inner impulses that may arise without the least consent of
the will resulting from than, and those to which the will, in
varying measure, may actually consent. On the contrary, it is not
well to look too deeply into the abyss. When Peter began to count
the waves, he was lost; when he looked away from them to Jesus,
he was saved. Thus, while "the good purpose" to amend the life
must be insisted upon as an indispensable accompaniment of every
sincere confession, tender consciences may search within for such
purpose, and be distressed because they cannot find satisfactory
evidence of its presence. How excellent then the advice of this
experienced pastor, that those thus troubled should pray for this
"purpose" which they cannot detect; for no one can actually pray
for such purpose without, in the prayer, having the very object
he is seeking.
So also he rules out of the sphere of the confession the
violation of matters of purely ecclesiastical regulation. Nothing
is to be regarded a sin except that which is a violation of one
of the Ten Commandments. To make that a sin which God's law does
not make sin, is only the next step to ecclesiastical regulations
to the level of divine commands, we lower divine commands to the
level of ecclesiastical regulations. Even Private Confession,
therefore, useful as it is, when properly understood and
practised, since it rests after all upon ecclesiastical rule, is
so little to be urged as a matter of necessity that Luther here
defends the suggestion of Gerson, that occasionally one should go
to the Lord's Supper without having made confession, in order
thereby to testify that it is in God's mercy and His promise that
we trust, rather than in the value of any particular outward
observance.
The treatment of "Reserved Cases," with which this tract ends,
shows the moderation and caution with which Luther is moving,
but, at the same time, how the new wine is working in the old
bottles, which soon must break. The principle of "the
reservation of cases" he discusses in his Address to the German
Nobility.[11] It is critical also in Augsburg Confession, Article
XXVIII, 2, 41; Apology of the Augsburg Confession, English
Translation, pp. 181, 212. The Roman Catholic dogma is officially
presented in the Decrees of Trent, Session XIV, Chapter 7,[12]
viz., "that certain more atrocious and more heinous crimes be
absolved not by all priests, but only by the highest priests."
Thus the power is centralized in the pope, and is delegated for
exercise in ordinary cases to each particular parish-priest
within the limits by which he is circumscribed, but no
farther.[13] The contrast is between delegated and reserved
rights. The Protestant principle is that all the power of the
Church is in the Word of God which it administers; that wherever
all the Word is, there also is all the power of the Church; and
hence that, according to divine tight, all pastors have equal
authority. For this reason, Luther here declares that in regard
to secret sins, i. e., those known only to God and the penitent,
no reservation whatever is to be admitted. But there is still a
distinction which he is ready to concede. It has to do with
public offences where scandal has been given. As "the more
flagrant and more heinous crimes," If public, have to do with a
wider circle than the members of a particular parish, the
reparation for the offence should be as extensive as the scandal
which it has created. In the Apology, Melanchthon claims that
such reservation should be limited to the ecclesiastical
penalties to be inflicted, but that it had not been Intended to
comprise also the guilt involved; it was a _reservatio poenae_,
but not a _reservatio culpae_.[14] Luther suggests the same here,
but with more than usual caution.
In the same spirit as in his Treatise on Baptism, he protests
against the numerous vows, the binding force of which was a
constant subject of treatment in pastoral dealing with souls. The
multiplication of vows had caused a depredation of the one
all-embracing vow of baptism. Nevertheless the pope's right to
give a dispensation he regards as limited entirely to such
matters as those concerning which God's Word has given no
command. With matters which concern only the relation of the
individual to God, the Pope's authority is of no avail.
Literature.--Chemnitz, Martin, _Examin Concilii Tridentini_, 1578
(Preuss edition), 441-456. Steitz, G. E., _Die Privatbeichte und
Privatabsolution d. luth. Kirche aus d. Quellen des XVI. Jahrh._,
1854. Pfeisterrer, G. F. _Luthers Lehre von der Beichte_, 1857.
Klieftoth, Th. _Lit. Abhandlungen, 2: Die Beichte und
Absolution_, 1856. Fischer, E., _Zur Geschichte der evangelischen
Beichte_, 2 vols., 1902-1903. Rietschel, G., _Lehrbuch der
Liturgik_, vol 2, particularly secs. 44, 45, _Luthers Affassung
der Beichte_ and _Luthers Auffassung von der Absolution_.
Koestlin, Julius, _Luther's Theology_ (English Translation),
I:357, 360, 400. See also _Smalcald Articles_, _Book of Concord_
(English Translation), 326, 899.
Henry E. Jacobs.
Mount Airy, Philadelphia.
FOOTNOTES
[1] 1. _Decem Praecepta Wittebergenai praedicata populo_, 1518,
_Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat._, I, 218. A series of sermons entering
into almost minute analyses of sins.
2. _Die zehen Gebote Gottes mit einer kurzen Auslegung ihre
Erfüllung und Uebertretung_, _Weimar Ed._, I, 247 ff; _Erl. Ed._,
XXXVI, 145-154. Reduces contents of the sermons to a few pages. A
brief handbook for use in the confessional first printed in
tabular form, giving a very condensed exposition of each
commandment, followed by a catalogue of sins prohibited and
virtues enjoined. Written a month before the publication of the
Theses, and published the next year.
3. _Instructio pro confessione peccatorum abbrevianda secundum
decalogum_. Latin form of the above, published shortly after the
original. _Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat._, XII, 229-230.
4. _Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soll_. _Weimar Ed._, II,
57 ff.; Erl. Ed., XXI, 245-253 prepared by request of Spalatin,
first in Latin, and then translated, Köstlin thinks by Spalatin,
into German. Published 1518. Contains eight introductory
propositions, followed by lists of sins against each commandment.
5. _Confitendi Ratio_, published in 1520, a re-elaboration by
Luther of the preceding German treatise. _Weimar Ed._, VI,
159-169; _Erl. Ed._, IV, 152-170; _St. Louis Ed._, XIX, 786-806.
[2] "_Ja, mein ganzes Leben, und alles, das ich thu, handel, red
und gedenk, ist also gethan, das es todlich und vordammlich
ist_." These are almost the words of the public confessional
prayer in the Kirchenbuch of the General Council of the Lutheran
Church in America: "_Also dans alle meine Natur und
Wesensträflich und verdammlich ist_."
[3] _Erl. Ed., op. var. arg._, IV, 89 aq. "_Si enim suum malum
sentiret, infernum sentiret, nam infernum in se ipso habet_." See
this volume, p. 115f.
[4] _Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat._, XIX, 1-154.
[5] _Erl. Ed._ (2d ed.), XI, 173.
[6] See the opening paragraph of this treatise.
[7] _Erl. Ed._, XI, 166, XXIX, 352-359. Cf. with this, the still
fuller treatment by Chemnitz, _Examin Concilii Tridentini_
(Preuss edition), 441-453.
[8] _Babylonian Captivity_, _Erl. Ed., op. var. arg._, V, 82.
[9] Cf. _Augsburg Confession_, Art. XXV; _Apology in Book of
Concord_, English Translation, pp. 133, 173, 185, 188, 196;
_Smalcald Articles_, 330-339; Small Catechism, 371.
[10] _Sermon vom Sacrament der Busse_, Erl. Ed., XX, 190. For
definition of "mortal and venial," see Introduction to XCV
Theses, above, p. 19.
[11] See Vol. II. of this edition.
[12] Deninger, _Enchridion Symbolorum_, soc. 782; Sceaff's
_Creeds of Christendom_.
[13] "As though the Word of God cannot forgive sins, except where
power derived from the Pope assist it." Chemnitz, _Examen
Concilii Tridentini_ (Preuss ed.), p. 456.
[14] _Apology_, p. 212; "There is a reservation of canonical
punishments; there is not a reservation of guilt before God in
those who are truly converted."
A DISCUSSION OF CONFESSION
(CONFITENDI RATIO)
1520
FIRST
[Sidenote: Need of Faith]
In this our age, the consciences of almost all have been led
astray by human doctrines into a false trust in their own
righteousness and their own works, and knowledge about faith and
trust in God has almost ceased. Therefore, for him who is about
to go to confession, it is before all things necessary that he
should not place his trust in his confession--either the
confession which he is about to make or the confession which he
has made--but that, with complete fulness of faith, he put his
trust only in the most gracious promise of God; to wit, he must
be altogether certain that He, Who has promised pardon to the man
who shall confess his sins, will most faithfully fulfil His
promise. For we are to glory, not because we confess, but because
He has promised pardon to those who do confess; that is, not
because of the worthiness or sufficiency of our confession (for
there is no such worthiness or sufficiency), but because of the
truth and certitude of His promise, as says the xxiv. Psalm: "For
Thy Name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity." [Ps. 25:35] It
does not say, "for my sake," or "for my worthiness' sake," or
"for my name's sake," but "for Thy Name's sake." So it is evident
that the work of confession is nothing else than an occasion by
which God is called to the fulfilment of His own promise, or by
which we are trained to believe that we shall without doubt
obtain the promise. It is just as if we were to say: "Not unto
us, O Lord, but unto Thy Name give glory, [Ps. 115:1] and
rejoice, not because we have blessed Thee, but because Thou hast
blessed us, as Thou sayest by Ezekiel." [Ezek. 20:44] Let this be
the manner of our confession, that he who glories may glory in
the Lord, and may not commend himself, but may glorify the grace
of God; and it shall come to pass that "confession and majesty
shall be the work of God." [1] Psalm cxi [Ps. 111:3].
SECOND
[Sidenote: God's Promises]
But God, for the glory of His grace and mercy, has promised
pardon. And this can be proved from Scripture. First from Psalm
xxxii, "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord,
and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." [Ps. 32:5] Then from
II. Samuel xii, from which this Psalm is taken. David first
said, "I have sinned against the Lord," and Nathan straightway
said, "The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die."
[2 Sam. 12:13] Again, from Jeremiah xviii, "If that nation turn
away from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to
do." [Jer. 18:8] Once more from I. John i, "If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." [1 John 1:9] The true
definition of the righteous man is found in Proverbs xviii, "The
righteous man is his own first accuser," [2] [Prov.18:17] that is
to say, he is righteous because he accuses himself. The verse
goes on to say, "His neighbor (i. e., Christ) cometh and searcheth
him," that is, He seeketh him, and suffereth him not to perish;
He will even find him and bring him back from the depths of hell.
Hence Joshua vii. also calls the confessing of sin the glorifying
of God, saying to Achan, "My son, give glory to God, and confess,
and tell me what thou hast done." [Josh. 7:19] St. Jerome
comments on this passage, "Confession of sin is praise of God."
No wonder! For he who confesses his own sins speaks truth; but
God is truth; therefore he also confesses God. Thus Manasseh,
King of Judah, says in his most beautiful Prayer,[3] which is
most excellently suited for one who goes to confession, "But
Thou, Lord, according to Thy goodness hast promised repentance
for the remission of sins, etc." [Prayer of Manasseh, 7] Truly,
"according to Thy goodness Thou hast promised," for our
confession is nothing unless the promise of God is sure, and it
is altogether of His divine goodness that He has promised
remission, which could not be obtained by any righteousness,
unless He had given the promise. Thus faith in that promise is
the first and supreme necessity for one who is about to go to
confession, lest, perchance, he may presumptuously think that by
his own diligence, his own memory, his own strength, he is
provoking God to forgive his sins. Nay, rather it is God Himself
Who, with ready forgiveness, will anticipate his confession, and
allure and provoke him, by the goodness of His sweet promise, to
accept remission and to make confession.
THIRD
[Sidenote: The Purpose of a Better Life--Its Necessity]
Before a man confesses to the priest, who is the vicar, he ought
first to confess to God, Who is the Principal. But he should
regard this matter seriously, since nothing escapes and nothing
deceives the eye of God. Wherefore he ought here, without
pretence, to ponder his purpose to lead a better life and his
hatred of sin. For there is scarcely anything which deceives more
penitents than that subtle and profound dissimulation by which
they oftentime pretend, even to themselves, a violent hatred of
sin and a purpose to lead a better life. The unhappy outcome
proves their insincerity, for after confession they quickly
return to their natural bent, and, as though relieved of the
great burden of confession, they live again at ease, careless and
unmindful of their purpose; by which one fact they can be
convicted of their sad pretending. Wherefore a man ought in this
matter to be altogether frank, and to speak of himself within
himself just as he feels himself moved to speak, just as he could
wish to speak if there were do punishment, no God, no
commandment, and just as he would speak in the ear of some
familiar friend, to whom he would not be ashamed to reveal
everything about himself. As he could wish to speak quite freely
to such a one about his faults, so let him speak to God, Who
loves us far more than we love ourselves.
For if there is any one who does not find himself seriously
inclined toward a good life, I know not whether it is safe for
him to make confession. This I do know, that it were better for
him to stay away from confession. For in this matter he need not
care for the commandment of the Church, whether it excommunicate
him or inflict some lesser punishment. It is better for him not
to listen to the Church, than, at his own peril, to come to God
with a false heart. In the latter case he sins against God, in
the former case only against the Church; if, indeed, he sin at
all in such a case by not listening to the Church, seeing that
the Church has no right to command anything in which there is
peril to the soul, and a case of this kind is always excepted
from the commandments of the Church. For whatever the Church
commands, she commands for God and for the soul's salvation,
presuming that a man is capable of receiving her commandment and
able to fulfil it. If this presumption falls, the precept does
not hold, since nothing can be decreed contrary to the
commandments of God, which bind the conscience.
[Sidenote: The purpose of a Better Life--Its Difficulty]
It is certainly to be feared that many come to confession out of
fear of the commandment of the Church, who in their hearts are
still pleased with their former evil life. If, however, a man is
entangled in these difficulties, fearing to stay away from
confession, and yet perceiving (if the truth were told) that he
lacks the disposition toward a better life, let him lay hold of
the one thing that remains, and hear the counsel of the Prophet,
"Pour out your heart before Him"; [Ps. 62:8] and let him abase
himself, and openly confess to God the whole evil of his heart,
and pray for and desire a good purpose. Who, indeed, is so proud
as to think he does not need this counsel? There is no one whose
good purpose is as great as it ought to be. Let a man, therefore,
fearlessly seek from God what he knows he cannot find in himself,
until the thought of a better life begin seriously and truly to
please him, and his own life to displease him. For the doctrines
about the forming of a good purpose, which have been handed down
to us and are everywhere taught, are not to be understood in the
sense that a man should of himself form and work out this good
purpose. Such an understanding is death and perdition; as one
says, "There is death in the pot, O man of God." [2 Kings 4:40]
And yet very many are grievously tormented by this idea, because
they are taught to strive after the impossible. But in very
despair, and pouring out his heart before God, a man should say,
"Lord God, I have not what I ought to have, and cannot do what I
ought to do. Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou
wilt." For thus St. Augustine prays in his Confessions. [4]
FIFTH
[Sidenote: The Purpose of a Better Life--Its Nature]
But what has been said about a good purpose, I wish to have
understood with caution. For a good purpose ought to be twofold.
First, a purpose with regard to open, mortal sins, such as
adultery, homicide, fornication, theft, robbery, usury, slander,
etc. The purpose to avoid these sins belongs properly to
sacramental Confession, and to confession before God it belongs
at any moment after the sins have been committed; according to
the word of Ecclesiasticus, "My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no
more, but ask pardon for thy former sins," [Ecclus. 21:1] and
again, "Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord." [Ecclus. 5:8] In
the second place, however, as regards all the sins they call
"venial" (of which more below), it is entirely vain to labor
after the forming of a good purpose, because if one rightly
considers himself, he will find such a purpose altogether
impossible, if he wishes henceforth to live in the flesh; since
(as Augustine says) this life cannot be lived without such sins
as unnecessary and thoughtless laughter, language, imaginations,
sights, sounds, etc. As regards such things it is uncertain
whether they are sins, or temptations by which merit is
increased. And yet it is marvelous how a patent is vexed and
worried in these matters by the present wordy manner of
confessing. A purpose ought to be certain, and directed toward
things which are certain and which can be shunned in common
living, like the aforesaid open, mortal sins.
SIXTH
[Sidenote: Hidden Sins--Are They to be Confessed?]
Whether the hidden sins of the heart, which are known only to God
and the man who commits them, belong to sacramental confession or
not, is more than I can say. I should prefer to say that they do
not. For the need of confessing these sins can in no way be
proved, either by reason or by Scripture, and I have often
suspected that it was all an invention of avaricious or curious
or tyrannical prelates, who took this way of bringing the people
of Christ to fear them. This is, in my opinion, laying hands on
the judgment of God and is a violation of the rights of God,
especially if men are forced to it.[5]
Here comes in that whole sea of laws and impossible questions
about "cases of sin," [6] etc., since it is impossible for a man
to know when he has in his heart committed the mortal sins of
pride, lust, or envy. Nay, how can the priest know this, when he
is set in judgment upon mortal sins alone? Can he know another's
heart who does not thoroughly know his own? Hence it comes that
many people confess many things, not knowing whether they are
sins or not; and to this they are driven by that sentence of
Gregory, "A good mind will confess guilt even where there is no
guilt." They [i. e., the priests] wish that what is offered to God
shall be offered to themselves--so immense is the arrogance of
priests and pontiffs, and so haughty the pride of the
Pharisees--and they do not see, meanwhile, that if this offering
were made to man, the whole of life would be nothing else than
confession, and that even this confession would have to be
confessed in another confession by the man who fears guilt where
there is no guilt, since even good works are not without guilt,
and Job is afraid of all his works. [Job 9:28]
SEVENTH
[Sidenote: Hidden Sins--What Hidden Sins Should be Confessed?]
Let some one else, then, explain this. I am content with this,
that not all the sins of the heart are to be confessed. But if
some are to be confessed, I say that it is only those which a man
clearly knows that he has purposed in his heart against the
commandments of God;[7] not, therefore, mere thoughts about a
virgin or a woman, nor, on the other hand, the thoughts of a
woman about a youth, nor the affections or ardor of lust, that is
to say, the inclinations of the one sex toward the other, however
unseemly, nor, I would add, even passions of this sort; for these
thoughts are frequently passions inspired by the flesh, the
world, or the devil, which the soul is compelled unwillingly to
bear, sometimes for a long while, even for a whole day, or a
week; as the apostle Paul confesses of his thorn in the flesh. [2
Cor. 12:7]
The consequence of all this is that a purpose to avoid these
things is impossible and vain and deceitful, for the inclinations
and desires of the sexes for one another do not cease so long as
occasion is given them, and the devil is not quiet, and out whole
nature is sin. But those who wish to be without sin and who
believe that man is sound and whole, erect these crosses for us
that we may not cease to confess (even to the priest) what things
soever tickle us never so little. Therefore, if these hidden
things of the heart ought to be confessed at all, only those
things should be confessed which involve full consent to the
deed; and such things happen very rarely or never to those who
wish to lead pious lives, even though they are constantly
harassed by desires and passions.
EIGHT
[Sidenote: Mortal and Venial Sins]
At this place we should also speak of that race of audacious
theologians who are born to the end that the true fear of God may
be extinguished in human hearts, and that they may smite the
whole world with false terrors. It might seem that Christ was
speaking of them when he told of "terrors from heaven." [Luke
21:11 Vulg.] These are the men who have undertaken to distinguish
for us between mortal and venial sin. When men have heard that a
certain sin is venial, they are careless and wholly leave off
fearing God, as if He counted a venial sin for naught; again, if
they have heard that the consent of the heart is a mortal sin,
and if they have failed to listen to the precepts of the Church,
or have committed some other trifling offence, there is no place
in their hearts for Christ, because of the confusion made by the
roaring sea of a troubled conscience.
Against these teachers it should be known that a man ought to
give up in despair the idea that he can ever confess all his
mortal sins, and that the doctrine which is contained in the
Decretals[8] and is current in the Church, to wit, that every
Christian should once in a year make confession of all his sins
(so the words run), is either a devilish and most murderous
doctrine, or else is sorely in need of a loose interpretation.
Not all sins, I say, either mortal or venial, are to be
confessed, but it should be known that after a man has used all
diligence in confessing, he has yet confessed only the smaller
part of his sins. How do we know this? Because the Scripture
says, "Cleanse Thou me from hidden sins, O Lord." [Ps. 19:12]
These hidden sins God alone knows. And again it says, "Create in
me a clean heart, O God." [Ps. 51:10] Even this holy prophet
confesses that his heart is unclean. And all the holy Church
prays, "Thy will be done"; [Matt. 6:10] and thus confesses that
she does not do the will of God, and is herself a sinner.
[Sidenote: Should All Mortal Sins be Confessed?]
Furthermore, we are so far from being able to know or confess all
the mortal sins that even our good works are damnable and mortal,
if God were to judge with strictness, and not to receive them
with forgiving mercy. If, therefore, all mortal sins are to be
confessed, it can be done in a brief word, by saying at once,
"Behold, all that I am, my life, all that I do and say, is such
that it is mortal and damnable"; according to what is written in
the cxliii. Psalm, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for
in Thy sight shall no flesh living be justified" [Ps. 143:2]; and
in the Epistle to the Romans, Chapter vii, "But I am carnal, sold
under sin; I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing; the
evil that I would not, that I do, etc." [Rom. 7:14, 18, 19]
But of all mortal sins, this is the most mortal, not to believe
that we are hateful in the sight of God because of damnable and
mortal sin. To such madness these theologians, with this rule of
theirs, strive zealously and perniciously to drag the consciences
of men, by teaching that venial sins are to be distinguished from
mortal sins, and that according to their own fashion. For we read
in Augustine, Cyprian, and other Fathers that those things which
are bound and loosed are not mortal sins, but criminal offences,
i. e., those acts of which men can be accused and convicted.
Therefore, by the term "all sins" in the Decretal we should
understand those things of which a man is accused, either by
others or by his own conscience. By "conscience" I mean a right
conscience, not a conscience seared and deformed by human
traditions, but a conscience which is expert in the commandments
of God, and which knows that much more is to be left solely to
the goodness of God than is to be committed to its own diligence.
But what if the devil, when a man is dying, raises the obstacle
of sins which have not been confessed, as we read in many of the
stories?[9] I answer. Let these sins go long with those of which
it is said, "Who can understand his faults?" [Ps. 19:12] and with
those others of which it is written, "Enter not into judgment
with Thy servant." [Ps. 143:2] Whatever stories have been made up
contrary to these sayings, have either been invented under some
devilish delusion, or are not rightly understood. It is enough
that thou hast had the will to confess all things, if thou hadst
known them or hadst been able. God wills that His mercy be
glorified. But how? In our righteousness? Nay, in our sins and
miseries. The Scriptures should be esteemed more highly than any
stories.
NINTH
[Sidenote: Distinction between Sins]
By thus getting down to the thing itself,[10] the penitent, of
whom I have so often spoken, does away entirely with that riot of
distinctions; to wit, whether he has committed sin by fear
humbling him to evil, or by love inflaming him to evil; what sins
he has committed against the three theological virtues of faith,
hope, and charity; what sins against the four cardinal virtues;
what sins by the five senses; what of the seven mortal sins, what
against the seven sacraments, what against the seven gifts of the
Holy Spirit, what against the eight beatitudes, what of the nine
_peccata aliena_, what against the twelve Articles of Faith, what
of the silent sins, what of the sins crying to heaven; or whether
he has sinned by or against anything else.[11] That hateful and
wearisome catalogue of distinctions is altogether useless, nay,
it is altogether harmful. Some have added to these evils a most
troublesome business of "circumstances."
By all this they have produced two results. First, the penitent
makes so much of these trifles that he is not able really to give
heed to the thing of chief importance, namely, the desire for a
better life. He is compelled to tax his memory with such a mass
of details, and so to fill his heart with the business of rightly
expressing his cares and anxieties, while seeking out forgotten
sins or a way of confessing them, that he entirely loses the
present pangs of conscience, and the whole profit and salutary
effect of confession. When he is absolved, therefore, he
rejoices not so much because he is absolved, as because he has
freed himself once for all from the wretched worry of confession;
for what he has been seeking has been not the absolution, but
rather the end of the laborious nuisance of confessing. Thus,
while we sleep secure, everything is upset again. In the second
place, such penitents weary the confessor, stealing his time, and
standing in the way of other penitents.
[Sidenote: The Commandments a Guide to Confession]
We ought, therefore, to look briefly at the Commandments of God,
in which, if they are rightly understood, all sins are, without
doubt, contained.[12] And not even all of these are to be
considered, but the last two Commandments are to be excluded
entirely from confession. Confession should be brief, and should
be a confession chiefly of those sins which cause pain at the
time of confession, and, as they say, "move to confession." For
the sacrament of confession was instituted for the quieting, not
for the disturbing, of the conscience.
For example, as regards the Commandment, "Thou shalt not commit
adultery," let the penitent quickly say in what manner he has
given place to lust, either in act or word, or by consent, just
as though he were describing himself entirely, with all his limbs
and senses, in that Commandment. Why, then, should he uselessly
bring in the five senses, the mortal sins, and the rest of that
ocean of distinctions? So in the case of the Commandment, "Thou
shalt not kill." Let him quickly say by what kind of wrath he has
sinned, whether by hatred, slander or cursing, or by the act of
murder itself. And so with the rest; as I have tried to show in
my _Preceptorium_ and my writings on the Decalogue.[13]
Let it not disturb anyone that in the Decretals on Penance and in
the IV. Book of the Sentences[14] this matter is differently
treated. For they all are full of human inventions; and no
wonder! They have taken everything they say out of a certain
apocryphal and unlearned book called _De vera et falsa
poenitentia_,[15] which is widely circulated, and ascribed, by a
lying title, to St. Augustine.
TENTH
[Sidenote: Commandments of God and of Man]
In making confession diligence should be used to distinguish with
great care between sins committed against the Commandments of God
and sins committed against the statutes of men. I say this
because of the mad opinion, which is now prevalent, that sins
which are committed against the decretals of the popes are to be
noted with wondrous care, but sins committed against God, with
little or none.
Let me give you some illustrations:
You will find priests and monks who are horrified, as at some
prodigy, if they stammer, or repeat even a syllable in the Canon
of the Mass,[16] though this may be a natural defect of the
tongue, or an accident, and is not a sin. Again, there is no
priest who does not confess that he was distracted, or failed to
read his _Preparatoria_, or other old-womanish trifles of the
kind. There was one who, even when he was at the altar
celebrating, called a priest three times and confessed that
something had happened. Indeed, I have seen these endless jests
of the devil taken by many so seriously that they almost lost
their minds. And yet the fact that they cherished hatred or envy
in their hearts, that they had cursed before or after Mass, that
they had intentionally lied or slandered, all this moved them not
at all. Whence this perversity? From the "traditions of men who
turn from the truth," [Tit. 1:14] as the Apostle says. Because we
have neglected to offer God a confession of true sins, He has
given us up to our reprobate sense, [Rom. 1:24] so that we delude
ourselves with fictitious sins and deprive ourselves of the
benefit of the sacrament,[17] and the more we seem to seek it,
the more this is true.
[Sidenote: They Tyranny of Ordinances]
Of this stuff are those who make the neglect of the canonical
hours[18] an almost irremissible sin, while they easily remit
fornication, which is against the commandments of God, or the
neglect of duty toward our neighbor. These are they who so
approve of that dream or story about St. Severinus[19] that they
think they cannot read their Hours in advance, or afterward make
them up without sin, even if they have been hindered at the
proper time by the most just cause, such as ministering to the
necessities of a neighbor, which is of six hundred times more
merit than their worthless and all but damnable prayers. So far
do they go in their failure to observe that the commandment of
God, in the service of one's neighbor, should be preferred to the
commandment of men, in the thoughtless mumbling of the words of
the Hours. To this class too belong those who think it a crime to
speak or to call a boy during the Canon of the Mass even in case
of the greatest necessity or danger. Finally, these men make the
fasting of nature one thing, and the fasting of the Church
another thing, and if one has thoughtlessly swallowed some drops
of liquid, or has taken some medicine, they exclude him utterly
from the sacrament, and make it a sin, even the very greatest
sin. I wonder whence these men have the authority to set up such
laws as these and to trouble consciences with sins of their own
invention. By these illustrations other, similar cases may be
judged.
Of the laity, one confesses that he has tasted sweets, another
that he has listened to jests, smelted perfumes, touched things
that were soft.
Let us come to greater things! The common people are persuaded
that to eat butter or eggs on fast-days is heretical; so cruelly
do the laws of men rave in the Church of God! And we
unconcernedly profit by this superstition of the people, nay, by
this tyranny of ours, caring nothing that the commandments of God
are taken in jest, so long as men tremble and turn pale at our
laws. No one calls an adulterer a heretic; fornication is a light
sin; schisms and discords, inspired, preserved and increased by
the authority and in the name of the Church, are merits; but to
eat meat on Friday is the sum of all heresies. Thus we teach the
people of Christ, and permit them to be taught! But I am
disgusted, wearied, shamed, distressed at the endless chaos of
superstitions which has been inflicted upon this most salutary
sacrament of confession by the ignorance of true theology, which
has been its own tyrant ever since the time that men have been
making its laws.
ELEVENTH
[Sidenote: Communion Without Confession]
I advise, therefore, as John Gerson[20] used to advise, that a
man shall now and then go to the altar or to the Sacrament "with
a scruple of conscience," that is, without confession, even if he
has been immoderate in drinking, talking, or sleeping, or has
done something else that is wrong, or has not prayed a single one
of the Hours. Would you know why this advice is given? Listen! It
is in order that a man may learn to trust more in the mercy of
God than in his own confession or in his own diligence. For
enough cannot be done toward shaking that accursed trust in our
own works. It should be done for this reason, too, that if a man
is assailed by some necessity, whether temptation or death, and
those hidden sins begin to appear which he has never been able to
see or to confess, then he may have, ready and prepared, a
practice of trusting in the mercy which God offers to the
unworthy; according to the word, "His heart is prepared to trust
in the Lord." [21] [Ps. 57:7] How shall a man hope, in the face of
the sudden inroads of such a great mass of sins, if he has not
learned in this life, while there was time, to hope in the Lord
against the smallest, nay, against even an imagined sin? If you
say, "What if this were despising the sacrament and tempting
God?" I answer, It will not be tempting God if it is done for the
glory of God; that is, if you do it, not because you despise
God's sacrament nor because you want to tempt Him (since you are
ready to make the fullest confession), but only in order that you
may accustom a troubled conscience to trust in God and not to
tremble at the rustling of every falling leaf. Do not doubt that
everything pleases God which is done to the end that you may have
trust in Him, since it is all His glory that we trust with our
whole heart in His mercy.
I do not wish, however, that a man should always go to the altar
without confession; but I say that it should be done sometimes,
and then only for the arousing of trust in God and the destroying
of trust in our own act of confession. For a man will hardly go
to mass without guilt, if he thinks his forgiveness sure because
he has confessed, rather than because God is merciful; nay, this
is altogether an impiety. The _summa summarum_[22] is, "Blessed
are all they that put their trust in the Lord." [Ps. 2:12] When
you hear this word, "in the Lord," know that he is unblessed who
puts his trust in anything whatsoever that is not the Lord
Himself. And such a man those "artists of confession" make; for
what has the "art of confession" done except to destroy the art
and practice of confiding, until at last we have learned to
confess a great deal, to confide not at all.
TWELFTH
[Sidenote: Reserved Cases--No Hidden Sins can be Reserved]
In the matter of reserved cases,[23] many are troubled. For my
own part, because I know that the laws of men to be subject to
mercy, and be applied with mildness rather than with severity, I
follow the custom and advice of those who think that in hidden
sins no case is to be reserved, and therefore all penitents are
to be absolved whose sins are hidden, as are the sins of the
flesh, that is to say, every form of lust, the procuring of
abortion, and the like. For it should not be presumed that any
pope would be willing, in matters of hidden sin, to set so many
snares and dangers for men's souls. But when a sin has been
public, an open reserved case, it should be left entirely to the
authorities of the Church, no matter whether they are just or
unjust. In such case, however, the confessor may so moderate the
power of the keys[24] as not to let the penitent depart without
absolution, for those sins at least which he knows to be not
reserved. Just now, to be sure, I am in doubt, and have not yet
found a place for the proper discussion of it, whether any sin
can be reserved, or ever is reserved, so far as the remission of
guilt[25] is concerned; that the penalty can be reserved is not
doubted; but of this let others judge. But even in the remission
of the penalty, neither the confessor nor the penitent should be
too much troubled by scruples. The penalty I have especially in
mind is excommunication, or any other censure of the Church--what
they call their lightnings and thunders. Since excommunication
is only penalty and not guilt, and can be laid upon the innocent
and allowed to remain upon the man who has returned to his
senses, and, furthermore, since it is sometimes necessary to put
off satisfaction, because of the length of the journey required
or because of poverty; therefore the penitent who is
excommunicated or under censure should be absolved from all his
sins, if he seeks absolution, and be dismissed to the higher
authorities to be loosed from excommunication and to make
satisfaction. Thus he should be absolved in the judgment of God
and of conscience from guilt and sins, and sent to the judgment
of the Church to be freed from the penalty. This is what is meant
when it is said that the desire to make satisfaction[26] suffices
for the absolving of a sinner.
LAST
[Sidenote: Vows]
The subject of vows should also have consideration, for it is
almost the greatest question involved in this whole matter, and
gives rise to much more confusion than does the reservation of
cases, though this, too, rules its Babylon with great tyranny. If
one would wish to speak freely on this subject, "the land would
not be able to bear all his words," [Amos 7:10] as the impious
Amaziah says of Amos.
[Sidenote: Their Abuse]
The first and best plan would be for the pontiffs and preachers
to dissuade and deter the people from their proneness to the
making of vows, to show them how the visiting of the Holy Land,
Rome, Compostella,[27] and other holy places, as well as zeal in
fastings, prayers, and works chosen by themselves, are nothing
when compared with the works commanded by God and the vows which
we have taken in baptism.[28] These vows every one can keep in
his own home by doing his duty toward his neighbors, his wife,
his children, his servants, his masters, and thereby gain
incomparably greater merit than he can find by fulfilling vows to
do works chosen by himself and not commanded by God. The foolish
opinion of the common people and the ostentation of the Bulls[29]
have brought it to pass that these vows of pilgrimages, fastings,
prayers, and other works of the kind far outweigh in importance
the works of God's Law, although we never have sufficient
strength to do these last works. For my part, I could wish that
there should not henceforth be any vows among Christian people
except those which we take in baptism, and this, indeed, seems
formerly to have been the case; and I would wish all to
understand what is required of them, namely, that they be
obedient to the commandments of God. For the vows of baptism seem
to have been altogether cheapened by the too great practice,
parade, dispensation, and redemption of these other vows. Let us
put all our strength to the task, I say, and we shall find that
we have vowed in baptism more than we are ever able to perform.
Some vows, including oaths, are made to men, others to God. Those
made to men are admitted to be binding, so far and so long as he
may desire, to whom the vow is made. Accordingly, it should be
known that, as Gerson correctly thinks, the oaths and vows
usually taken in the Universities or to worldly lords[30] ought
not to be so rigorously regarded that every violation of them
should be regarded as the breaking of a vow or an act of perjury.
It is more just not to consider vows of this kind broken unless
they are violated out of contempt and obstinate malice. It is
otherwise in things that are vowed to God.
[Sidenote: Vows Made to God]
In vows made to God, I see dispensation granted by the pontiffs,
but I shall never be persuaded that he is safe to whom such a
dispensation is granted. For such a vow is of divine law, and no
pontiff, either mediate or supreme, has any more authority in
this matter than any Christian brother, though I know that
certain of the Decretals and the Glosses on the Decretals venture
many statements about it which I do not believe.
This, however, I would readily believe, that a vow of chastity
given before puberty, neither holds nor binds, because he who
made the vow was ignorant of what he was promising, since he had
not yet felt the "thorn of the flesh." [2 Cor. 12:7] It is my
pious opinion that such a vow is counted by God as foolish and
void, and that the fathers of the monasteries should be forbidden
by a general edict of the Church to receive a man before his
twentieth, or at least his eighteenth, year, and girls before
their fifteenth or sixteenth, if we are really concerned about
the care of souls.
[Sidenote: Commutation of Vows]
It is also a great piece of boldness, in commuting or remitting
vows, to impose what they call "a better work." In the eyes of
God there is no difference in works, and He judges works not
according to their number or greatness, but according to the
disposition of the doer; moreover, "the Lord is the weigher of
spirits," [Rom. 8:27] as the Scripture says, and He often prefers
the manual labor of the poor artisan to the fasting and prayer of
the priest, of which we find an illustration in St. Anthony and
the shoemaker of Alexandria.[31] Since these things are so, who
shall be so bold and presumptuous as to commute a vow into some
"better work"? But these things will have to be spoken of
elsewhere, for here we have undertaken to speak of confession
only as it concerns the Commandments of God, for the quieting and
composing of consciences which are troubled by scruples.
[Sidenote: Abuses of Penance]
I shall add but one thing. There are many who set perilous snares
for married folk, especially in case of incest; and when any one
(for these things can happen, nay, alas! they do happen) has
defiled the sister of his wife, or his mother-in-law, or one
related to him in any degree of consanguinity, they at once
deprive him of the right to pay the debt of matrimony, and
nevertheless they suffer him not, nay, they forbid him, to desert
his wife's bed. What monstrous thing is this? What new remedy for
sin? What sort of satisfaction for sin? Does it not show how
these tyrants make laws for other men's infirmity and indulge
their own? Show me the law-giver, however penitent and chaste,
who would allow such a law to be made for himself. They put dry
wood on the fire and say, Do not burn; they put a man in a
woman's arms and forbid him to touch her or know her; and they do
this on their own authority and without the command of God. What
madness! My advice is that the confessor beware of tyrannical
decrees or laws, and confidently sentence a sinner to some other
penance, or totally abstain from punishing, leaving free to him
the right of matrimony which has been given him not by man, but
by God. For no angel in heaven, still less any man on earth, has
the power to enjoin this penance, which is the burning occasion
of continual sin. Wherefore they are not to be heeded who wish
such things to be done, and the penitent is to be freed from this
scruple and peril.
But who may recount all the tyrannies with which the troubled
consciences of penitent and confessing Christians are daily
disturbed, by means of death-bringing "constitutions" and
customs, administered by silly manikins, who only know how to
bind and place on the shoulders of men burdens grievous and heavy
to be borne, which they themselves are not willing to move with a
finger? [Matt. 23:4] So this most salutary sacrament of penance
has become nothing else than a mere tyranny of the great, then a
disease, and a means to the increase of sins. Thus in the end it
signifies one thing and works another thing for miserable
sinners, because priestlings, impious and unlearned in the law of
the Lord, administer the Church of God, which they have filled
with their laws and their dreams.
_Here follows, in the original, a paraphrase of the apocryphal
Prayer of Manasseh._
FOOTNOTES
[1] Luther quotes from the Vulgate and frequently from memory, a
fact which should always be remembered in comparing his
quotations from the text of Scripture.
[2] Vulgate, _Justus prior est accusator_.
[3] The apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh was included by Luther as
an appendix to this treatise.
[4] _Augustine Conf._, X, 29.
[5] i. e., Forced to confess hidden sins.
[6] The so-called "science of casuistry," by which the moral
value of an act is determined and the exact degree of guilt
attaching to a given sin is estinated.
[7] Cf. _Small Catechism_, "Of Confession," Ques. "What sins ought
we to confess?"
[8] The decrees of the Popes collected in the Canon Law. The
decretal here referred to is _C. Omnis Utriusque, X. de
poententiis et remissionibus_.
[9] Anecdotes illustrating the doctrines of the Church were
favorite contents of the sermons in Luther's day. Various
collections of these edifying legends are still extant. Cf. p.
224, and note.
[10] i. e., By thinking of the nature of confession.
[11] The reader of this minute classification of sins, which
could be duplicated out of almost any manual of casuistry, may
judge for himself whether Luther was correct in calling it a
"riot of distinctions."
[12] Luther steadily maintained that the Ten Commandments were a
complete guide to holy living and that every possible sin his
prohibited somewhere in the Decalogue. See, beside the various
smaller treatises (_Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soll_
(1518), _Kurze Form des zehn Gobte_ (1520), etc.), the large
Discourse on Good Works, below, pp. 184 ff.
[13] The writings mentioned are found in the _Weimar Ed._, Vol I,
pp. 250 ff, 258 ff, 398 ff. See above, p. 75, note 1.
[14] The _Sentences_ of Peter the Lombard was the standard
text-book of Medieval theology.
[15] "On True and False Penitence," now universally admitted not
to have been written by St. Augustine, but passing under his name
till after the Reformation.
[16] That part of the liturgy of the Mass in which the miraculous
transformation of the elements into the Body and Blood of Christ
is believed to take place.
[17] i. e., Of the sacrament of confession.
[18] The fixed hours of daily prayer observed in the monasteries,
afterward applied to the liturgy for these services, viz., the
Breviary. The daily reading of this breviary at the appointed
hours is required of all clergy.
[19] An Italian saint, d. 482, noted for the strictness and
severity of his ascetic practices.
[20] Professor of the University of Paris; one of the most
popular and famous of the later Scholastics. He died 1429.
[21] Vulgate, "_Cor ejus paratus est_."
[22] We would say, "the whole thing in a nutshell."
[23] i. e., Sins for which the confessor was not allowed to grant
absolution without reference to some higher Church authority, to
whose absolution they were "reserved." See Introduction, p. 79.
[24] The power to "bind and loose" (Matt. 16:19), i. e., to
forgive and to retain sins (John 20:23).
[25] The Roman Church distinguished between the "guilt" and the
"penalty" of sin. It was thought possible to forgive the former
and retain the latter. Submission to the penalty is
"satisfaction." See Introduction to XCV. Theses, p. 19.
[26] _Votum satisfactionis_. It was and is the teaching of the
Roman Church that, where the actual reception of any sacrament is
impossible, the earnest desire to receive it suffices for
salvation. The desire is known as the _votum sacramenti_.
[27] In Spain. The shrine of St. James at that place was a famous
resort for pilgrims. Cf. below, p. 191, and note.
[28] See the _Treatise on the Sacrament of Baptism_, above, pp. 68
ff.
[29] Luther doubtless refers to the decrees of the popes by which
special rewards were attached to worship at certain shrines.
[30] The oath of office and the oath of allegiance.
[31] The story is repeated by Melanchthon in the Apology of the
Augsburg Confession, Ch. XIII, Art. xxvii, 38 (_Book of Concord_,
Eng. Trans., p. 288). The "Alexander Coriarius" of text is
misleading.
THE FOURTEEN OF CONSOLATION
FOR SUCH AS LABOR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN
(TESSARADECAS CONSOLATORIA)
1520
INTRODUCTION
1. When Luther's Elector, Frederick the Wise (1486-1525),
returned to his residence at Torgau, after participating in the
election of Emperor Charles V, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the
summer of 1519, he was stricken with a serious illness, from
which there seemed little hope of his recovery Concerned for his
noble patron, and urged by Dr. George Spalatin, his friend at
court, to prepare a "spiritual consolation" for the Elector,
Luther wrote "The Fourteen of Consolation," one of his finest and
tenderest devotional writings, and, in conception and execution,
one of the most original of all his works.
Its composition falls within the months of August and September
of the year 1519. On August 29th, the Day of the Beheading of St.
John Baptist, we find him writing in Part I, chapter vi: "Does
not the example of St. John Baptist, whom we commemorate on this
day as beheaded by Herod, shame and amaze us all?" On September
22d, he sends the completed manuscript (in Latin) to Spalatin,
requesting him to make a free translation of it into German and
present it to the Elector. By the end of November Spalatin had
completed his task (one marvels at the leisureliness of this, in
view of the serious condition of the Elector; or was the
manuscript translated and administered piecemeal to the noble
patient?), and early in December he returned the original,
doubtless together with his own translation, to Luther, who had
requested its return, "in order to comfort himself therewith."
The work was, therefore, in the strictest sense, a private
writing, and not in the least intended for publication.[1] But
the importunities of those who had seen it, particularly of
Spalatin, prevailed, and on December 18th Luther writes to the
latter that "the Tessaradecas, in both Latin and German, is in
the hands of the printer." On February 8th, 1520, he sends
Spalatin a printed copy of the Latin, and six days later, one of
the German edition. The latter contained a dedicatory letter to
the Elector, which, however, by an oversight of the printer, and
owing to Luther's absence at the time, was omitted in the Latin
edition.
In 1535, fifteen years after its first appearance in print,
Luther issued his Tessaradecas in a new and final edition, adding
a brief prefatory note. He no longer holds many of his former
views, and there is much in his little book that he has outgrown
and might now correct. But with characteristic unconcern, he lets
it all stand, and even restores many passages that had been
corrupted or omitted to their original form. It is a revised
edition, with the errors, as it were, underscored. It is to be
chiefly an historical record, to show the world how far he has
progressed since its first writing (1 Tim. 4:15), a mile-post on
the road of his inner development.[2] And more than this--and
here one fancies he can see the sardonic smile on the
battle-scarred face--it is to furnish his enemies with weapons
against himself; he desires to show a favor to the hunters of
contradictions in his works, "that they may have whereon to
exercise their malice."
2. The plan of the work is in the highest degree original and
artificial. The title, _Tessaradecas consolatoria_, which we
have rendered "The Fourteen of Consolation," [3] is explained by
Luther in the dedicatory epistle to the Elector, pp. 110 ff. The
"Fourteen" were the fourteen patron saints of medieval devotion,
called the "Defenders from all evils" (_defendores_,
_auxiliatores_). Whence the cult arose is not altogether
certain. It is said to have become popular in Germany since the
vision of a Franconian shepherd, in 1446, to whom there appeared,
in the fields, the Christ-child surrounded by the fourteen
saints. The _Vierzehnheiligenkirche_ at Staffelstein, a famous
shrine for pilgrims, marks the spot. The names of the "Fourteen,"
each of whom was a defender against some particular disease or
danger, are as follows: Achatius (Acacius), Aegidius, Barbara
(cf. St. Barbara's cress), Blasius (the "defender" of those
afflicted with throat diseases), Catharine (cf. St. Catharine's
flower), Christopher (cf. St. Christopher's herb), Cyriacus,
Dionysius, Erasmus (Italian: San Elmo; cf. St. Elmo's fire),
Eustachius, George the Martyr (cf. St. George's herb), Margaret,
Pantaleon, and Vitus (cf. St. Vitus's dance). Luther's Sermons
on the First Commandment (1516) may be compared lot references to
some of these saints and to many others.
As over against these saints, Luther also invents fourteen
defenders or comforters, and arranges them in this writing in the
form of an altar tablet; but his is not a tablet such as those
found in the churches, representing the fourteen defenders, but
it is a spiritual tablet or painting, to uplift and strengthen
the pious heart of the Elector, and of all others who are weary
and heavy laden. The first division, or panel, of this figurative
altar-piece contains the images or paintings of seven evils
(_maia_); the second, those of seven blessings (_bona_). The
contemplation of the evils will comfort the weary and heavy laden
by showing them how small their evil is in comparison with the
evil that they have within themselves, namely, their sin; with
the evils they have suffered in the past, and will have to suffer
in the future; with the evils which others, their friends and
foes, suffer; and, above all, with those which Christ suffered on
the cross. Similarly, the contemplation of the blessings will
help them to forget their present sufferings; for they are as
nothing compared with the blessing within them, namely, their
faith; the blessings they enjoyed in the past, and those that
await them in the future, as well as those which arc enjoyed by
their friends and foes, and, finally, the highest blessing of
all, which is Jesus Christ, risen and glorified.
We can only conjecture as to the origin of this unique conception
of Luther's. Of course, the evils and blessings came to him from
the passage in Ecclesiasticus 11:26.[4] The order and arrangement
may follow some contemporary altar-picture of the "Fourteen
Saints." There was a famous altar-painting of the "Fourteen," by
Lucas Cranach, in St Mary's at Torgau, the residence of the
Elector. The fact is suggestive.[5]
3. The Tessaradecas was favorably received by the Elector, was
highly praised by Spalatin, who urged its publication, and must
have been dear to Luther's own heart, since he desired the return
of his manuscript for his own comfort. The little work soon
became very popular, and passed through numerous editions, both
in Latin and in German. During the first two years five Latin
editions were printed, and up to 1525 seven German editions. A
translation was published in the Netherlands in 1521, and one in
England in 1578. Erasmus commended it to Bishop Christopher of
Basle, in 1523; "I am sending your Highness Luther's book of the
fourteen pictures, which has won great approbation even from
those who oppose his doctrine at every point." Mathesius,
Luther's pupil and biographer, judged that there had never before
been such words of comfort written in the German language. The
Franciscan Lemmens speaks of "the beautiful and Catholic
thoughts" in it.
4. Our translation is made from the Latin text, as found in the
Weimar edition of Luther's works, volume vi, with continual
reference to the German text, as given in the Berlin edition. We
regret our inability to obtain a copy of the old English
translation (A right comfortable Treatise conteining sundrye
pointes of consolation for them that labour and are
laden....Englished by W. Gace. T. Vautrollier, London, 1578, sec.
ed. 1580), although the form of the title would seem to indicate
that it was made from Spalatin's translation, and not from the
original.[6]
The many Scripture quotations, all naturally from the Latin
Vulgate, and most of them freely quoted from memory, and
sometimes "targumed" and woven into the texture of the treatise,
are rendered by us, unless the sense should thereby be affected,
in the words of the Authorised Version. Important or interesting
variations are indicated in the foot-notes.
5. The Tesseradecas deserves to be more widely known and used.
Its value is more than merely that of an historical document,
representing a transition stage in Luther's reformatory views. It
gives us, besides this, a deep insight into the living piety of
the man, his great heart so full of the peace of God that passeth
all understanding. When we remember that this little work was
composed in the midst of a very "tempest" of other writings,
chiefly polemical (e.g., the savage onslaughts on Emser), it will
appear akin to the little book of Ruth, lying so peacefully
between the war-like books of Judges and First Samuel. At the
Leipzig Disputation, earlier in the same year, Luther was seen to
hold a bouquet of flowers in his hand, and to smell of it when
the battle waxed hot. The Tessaradecas is such a bunch of
flowers. Its chief glory, however, that of a devotional classic,
has been somewhat dimmed by Luther himself, who with the
carelessness of genius refused to revise his outworn views in it;
and yet, despite its relics of mediævalism, particularly by
reason of its firm evangelical foundation, its scriptural warp
and woof, its fervent piety, and its fresh and original
treatment, it is not less entitled to a high place in the
devotional and ascetic literature of the Church than the much
better known _Imitatio Christi_. In this sense it is herewith
offered anew to the English reader, with the hope that "the
diligent reading and contemplation of these 'images' may minister
some slight comfort."
6. Literature.--(1) The literary and historical introductions to
the Tessaradecas in the Weimar, Erlangen, and Berlin editions.
(2) Köstlin-Kawerau, _Martin Luther, sein Leben und seine
Schriften_. 5th ed., 1903, vol. I, pp. 280, 281. (3) H. Beck,
_Die Erbauungslit. der evang. Kirche Deutschlands_, 1883. (4) On
the fourteen Defenders see articles in Wetzer und Welte and the
Catholic Encyclopaedia, and especially the article _Nothelfer_,
by Zöckler, in PRE3, where also see further literature.
A. T. W. Steinhaeuser
Allentown, PA.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Cf. the first sentence of the Prefatory Note, p. 109 of this
volume; also the dedicatory epistle of the _Treatise on Good
Works_, p. 184.
[2] We have noted a few of the more glaring relics of mediævalism
in the footnotes; the attentive reader will discover and dispose
of others for himself.
[3] The title furnishes peculiar difficulties to the translator.
Cole has simply transliterated it, "The Consolatory Terradecad."
Spalatin paraphrased it "Ein trostlichs Buchlein," etc. The
Berlin Edition renders it, "Vierzehn Trostmittel," etc.
[4] See p. 113.
[5] Did the comment of Bernard of Clairvaux, on Romans 8:18,
perhaps contribute its quota to the general conception? "The
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the past guilt, which is forgiven (_remittitur_); with the
present grace of consolation, which is given (_immittitur_); with
the future glory, which is promised (_promittitur_)."
[6] An English translation, with some omissions that Luther
himself did not care to make is found in Henry Cole's _Select
Works of Martin Luther_, vol. II, London, 1824.
THE FOURTEEN OF CONSOLATION
(TESSARADECAS CONSOLATORIA)
1520
PREFATORY NOTE[1]
This book was written, early in my career, for that most
excellent prince, Frederick, Duke of Saxony, when he was stricken
with a dangerous illness; but many desired that it be printed.
After passing through various editions it has now become so sadly
corrupted and mutilated that many passages are missing, whose
original form I myself have clean forgot. However, I have
restored the sense of them, as well as I was able, taking care to
set down only such views as I held when the work was first
written. I did not care to revise them now, as I might well do.
For it is my purpose in this book to put forth a public record of
my progress,[2] and also to show a kindness to the
"Contradictionists," [3] that they may have whereon to exercise
their malice. For me it is enough if I please my Lord Christ and
His saints; that I am hated of the devil and his scales, [4] I
rejoice with all my heart, and give thanks to God.
DEDICATORY EPISTLE[5]
To the Most Illustrious Prince and Lord, Frederick, Duke of
Saxony, Arch-Marshal and Elector Of the Holy Roman Empire,
Landgrave of THuringia, Margrave of Meissen, his most gracious
Lord.
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus hath left us a commandment, which
concerns all Christians alike,--that we should render the duties
of humanity, or (as the Scriptures call them) the works of mercy,
[Luke 6:36] to such as are afflicted and under calamity; [Matt.
25:34 ff.] that we should visit the sick, endeavor to set free
the prisoners, and perform other like acts of kindness to our
neighbor, whereby the evils of this present time may in some
measure be lightened. And of this command our Lord Jesus Christ
hath Himself given us the brightest example, in that, out of
infinite love to the race of men. He descended out of the bosom
of the Father into our misery and prison-cell, that is, our flesh
and life so full of ills, and took upon Him the penalty of our
sins, in order that we might be saved; as He saith in Isaiah
xliii, "Thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, and wearied Me
with thine iniquities." [Isa. 43:24]
Whoever is not moved by so bright an example, and driven by the
authority of the divine command, to show forth such works of
mercy, he will deservedly hear, in the last judgment, the voice
of the angry Judge saying: "Depart from me, thou cursed, into
everlasting fire! For I was sick, and thou didst not visit Me;
but, basely ungrateful for the many blessings I bestowed on thee
and on all the world, thou wouldest not so much as lift a finger
to succor thy brethren, nay Me, Christ, thy God and Saviour, in
thy brethren." [Matt. 25:41]
Since, then, most noble Prince, I perceive that your Lordship has
been smitten with a dangerous malady, and that Christ has thus
fallen sick in you, I have counted it my duty to visit your
Lordship with a little writing of mine. For I cannot pretend to
be deaf to the voice of Christ crying to me out of your
Lordship's flesh and blood, "Behold, here am I sick." For such
ills as sickness and the like are endured, not by us Christians,
but by Christ Himself, our Lord and Saviour, in Whom we live.
Even as He plainly testifies in the Gospel, "Whatsoever ye have
done unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it
unto Me." [Matt. 25:40] And while we should visit and console all
who are afflicted with sickness, yet we owe this duty specially
to those who are of the household of faith. For Paul clearly
distinguishes between strangers and those of the household, or
those who are bound to us by intimate ties, Galatians vi. [Gal.
6:10]
But I have yet other reasons for performing this my duty. For I
consider that, as one of your Lordship's subjects, I must needs
share in your Lordship's illness, together with the remainder of
your many subjects, and suffer with you as a member with the
Head, on which all our fortunes, our safety, and our happiness
depend. For we recognize in your Lordship another Naaman [2
Kings, 5:1], by whom God is now giving deliverance to Germany, as
in times past He gave deliverance to Syria. Wherefore the whole
Roman Empire turns its eyes to your Lordship alone, and venerates
and receives you as the Father of the Fatherland, and the bright
ornament and protector of the whole Empire, but of the German
nation in particular.[6]
Nor are we bound only to console your Lordship as much as in us
lies, and to make your present sorrow our own, but much more to
pray God for your health and safety; which I trust your
Lordship's subjects are doing with all diligence and devotion.
But as for me, whom your Lordship's many and signal benefactions
have made your debtor above all others, I count it my duty to
express my gratitude by rendering you some special service. But
now, by reason of my poverty both of mind and fortune, it is not
possible for me to offer anything of value; therefore I gladly
welcomed the suggestion of Doctor George Spalatin, one of your
Lordship's court chaplains, that I should prepare a kind of
spiritual consolation and present it to your Lordship, to whom,
he said, it would be most acceptable. Being unwilling to reject
this friendly counsel, I have put together the following fourteen
chapters, after the fashion of an altar tablet, and have called
them, "The Fourteen." [7] They are to take the place of the
fourteen saints whom our superstition has invented and called,
"The Defenders against all evil." [8] But this is a tablet not of
silver, but of a spiritual sort; nor is it intended to adorn the
walls of a church, but to uplift and strengthen a pious heart. I
trust it will stand your Lordship in good stead in your present
condition. It consists of two divisions; the former containing
the images of seven evils, in the contemplation of which your
present troubles will grow light; the latter presenting the
images of seven blessings, brought together for the same purpose.
May it please your Lordship graciously to accept this little work
of mine, and to make such use of it that the diligent reading and
contemplation of these "images" may minister some small comfort.
Your Lordship's humble servant,
Martin Luther, Doctor.
PREFACE
The Apostle Paul, treating in Romans xv. of the consolations of
Christians, writes, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope." [Rom. 15:4] In these
words he plainly teaches that our consolations are to be drawn
from the Holy Scriptures. Now the Holy Scriptures administer
comfort after a twofold fashion, by presenting to our view
blessings and evils, most wholesomely intermingled; as the wise
Preacher saith, "In the day of evil be mindful of the good, and
in the day of good be mindful of the evil." [Ecclus. 11:26] For
the Holy Spirit knows that a thing has only such meaning and
value for a man as he assigns to it in his thoughts; for what he
holds common and of no value will move him but little, either to
pleasure when he obtains it, or to grief when he loses it.
Therefore He endeavors with all His might to draw us away from
thinking about things and from being moved by them; and when He
has effected this, then all things whatsoever are alike to us.
Now this drawing away is best accomplished by means of the Word,
Whereby our thoughts are turned from the thing that moves us at
the present moment to that which either is absent or does not at
the moment move us. Therefore it is true that we shall attain to
this state of mind only through the comfort of the Scriptures,
which call us, in the day of evil, to the contemplation of good
things, either present or to come, and, in the day of good, to
the contemplation of evil things.
But let us, for our better understanding of these two series of
pictures or images, divide each of them into seven parts. The
first series will treat of the evils, and we shall consider (1)
the evil within us, (2) the evil before us, (3) the evil behind
us, (4) the evil on our left hand, (5) the evil on our right
hand, (6) the evil beneath us, and (7) the evil above us.[9]
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST IMAGE
THE EVIL WITHIN US
This is most certain and true--we may believe it or not--that no
suffering in a man's experience, be it never so severe, can be
the greatest of the evils that are within him. So many more and
far greater evils are there within him than any that he feels.
And if he were to feel those evils, he would feel the pains of
hell; for he holds a hell within himself. Do you ask how this can
be? The Prophet says, "All men are liars" [Ps. 116:11] and again,
"Every man at his best state is altogether vanity." [Ps. 39:6]
But to be a liar and vanity, is to be without truth and reality;
and to be without truth and reality, is to be without God and to
be nothing; and this is to be in hell and damned. Therefore, when
God in His mercy chastens us, He reveals to us and lays upon us
only the lighter evils; for if He were to lead us to the full
knowledge of our evil, we should straightway perish. Yet even
this He has given some to taste, and of them it is written, "He
bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up." [1 Sam. 2:6] Therefore
they say well who call our bodily sufferings the monitors of the
evil within. And the Apostle, in Hebrews xii, calls them God's
fatherly chastenings, when he says, "He scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth." [Heb. 12:6] And He does this, in order by such
scourgings and lesser evils to drive out those great evils, that
we may never need to feel them; as it is written, "Foolishness is
bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall
drive it far from him." [Prov. 33:15] Do not loving parents
grieve more for their sons when they turn out thieves and
evil-doers than when they receive a wound? Nay, they themselves
beat them until the blood flows, to keep them from becoming
evil-doers.[10]
What is it, then, that prevents us from feeling this our true
evil? It is, as I have said, so ordered by God, that we may not
perish on seeing the evils hidden in the depths of our hearts.
For God keeps them hidden, and would have us discern them only by
faith, when He points them out to us by means of the evil that we
feel. Therefore, "In the day of evil be mindful of the good."
[Ecclus. 11:26] Behold, how great a good it is, not to know the
whole of our evil! Be mindful of this good, and the evil that you
feel will press you less cruelly. Again, "In the day of good be
mindful of the evil." That is to say. Whilst you do not feel your
true evil, be grateful for this respite; then will the evil that
you feel sit lightly upon you. It is clear, then, that in this
life a man's freedom from pain is always greater than his pain.
Not that his whole evil is not present with him, but he does not
think about it and is not moved by it, through the goodness of
God, Who keeps it hidden.
How furiously do those men rage against themselves, to whom their
true evil has been revealed! How they count as nothing whatever
sufferings life may bring, if only they might not feel the hell
within! Even so would every one do, who felt or truly believed in
the evil within him. Gladly would he call down all external evils
on his head, and count them mere child's play; nay, he would
never be more sorrowful than when he had no evils to bear, after
the manner of certain of the saints, such as David in Psalm vi.
[Ps. 6]
Therefore, this is our first image of consolation, that a man
should say to himself: "Not yet, O man, dost thou feel thine
evil. Rejoice and give thanks that thou dost not need to feel
it!" And so the lesser evil grows light by comparison with the
greatest evil. That is what others mean when they say, "I have
deserved far worse things, yea, hell itself"--a thing easy to
say, but horrible to contemplate.
And this evil, though never so deeply hidden, yet puts forth
fruits that are plainly enough perceived. These are the dread and
uncertainty of a trembling conscience, when faith is assailed,
and a man is not sure, or doubts, whether he have a gracious God.
And this fruit is bitter in proportion to the weakness of one's
faith. Nay, when rightly considered, this weakness alone, being
spiritual, far outweighs every weakness of the body, and renders
it, in comparison, light as a feather.
Moreover, to the evils within us belong all those tragic
experiences described by the Preacher, when he refers again and
again to "vanity and vexation of spirit." [Eccl. 1:2, 14] How
many of our plans come to naught! How oft our hopes are deceived!
How many things that are not to our liking must we see and bear!
And the very things that fall out according to our wish fall out
also against our wish! So that there is nothing perfect and
complete. Finally, all these things are so much greater, the
higher one rises in rank and station;[11] for such a one will of
necessity be driven about by far more and greater billows,
floods, and tempests, than others who labor in a like case. As it
is truly said in Psalm ciii,[12] "In the sea of this world there
are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts,"
[Ps. 104:25] that is, an infinite number of trials. And Job, for
this reason, calls the life of man a "trial." [13]
These evils do not, indeed, cease to be evils because they are
less sharply felt by us; but we have grown accustomed to them
from having them constantly with us, and through the goodness of
God our thoughts and feelings concerning them have become
blunted. That is why they move us the more deeply when we do feel
them now and then, since we have not learned through familiarity
to despise them. So true is it, therefore, that we feel scarce a
thousandth part of our evils, and also that we estimate them and
feel them or do not feel them, not as they are in themselves, but
only as they exist in our thoughts and feelings.[14]
CHAPTER II
THE SECOND IMAGE
THE FUTURE EVIL, OR THE EVIL BEFORE US
It will tend in no small degree to lighten any present evil if a
man turn his mind to the evils to come. These are so many, so
diverse, and so great, that out of them has arisen one of the
strongest emotions of the soul; namely, fear. For fear has been
defined by some as the emotion caused by coming evil. Even as the
Apostle says in Romans xi, "Be not highminded, but fear." [Rom.
11:30] This evil is all the greater because of our uncertainty in
what form and with what force it may come; so that there goes a
popular saying, "No age is proof against the itch," although this
is but a little children's disease. Even so, no man is safe from
the evils that befall any other; for what one has suffered
another may suffer also. Here belong all the tragic histories of
the ages, and all the lamentations of the world. Here belong the
more than three hundred diseases--which some have observed--with
which the human body may be vexed. And if there be so many
diseases, how great will be the number of other misfortunes that
may befall our possessions, our friends, and even our mind
itself, that target of all evils, and trysting-place of sorrow
and every ill!
And these evils increase in power and intensity as a man rises to
higher rank and dignity;[15] in which estate he must needs dread
every moment the coming of poverty, disgrace, and every
indignity, which may indeed swiftly overtake him, for they all
hang by but a slender thread, not unlike the sword which the
tyrant Dionysius suspended above the head of the guest at his
table.
And if none of these evils befall us, we should count it our
gain, and no small comfort in the evil that does befall us; so
that we should feel constrained to say with Jeremiah, "It is of
the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." [Lam. 3:22 f.] For
when none of them befall us, it is because they have been kept
from us by the right hand of the Most High that compasses us
about with such mighty power (as we see in Job) that Satan and
all evils can but gnash their teeth in helpless rage. [Job 1:10]
From this we see how sweetly we ought to love our Lord, whenever
any evil comes upon us. For our most loving Father would by that
one evil have us see how many evils threaten us and would fall on
us, if He did not Himself stand in the way, as though He said,
"Satan and the host of evils have desired to have thee, to sift
thee as wheat; [Luke:22:31] but I have marked out bounds for the
sea, and have said, Hitherto shaft thou come, and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed [Job 38:10]," as He saith in Job xxxviii.
And, granted that perchance, if God please, none of these things
will come upon you; nevertheless, that which is known as the
greatest of terrors, death, is certain to come, and nothing is
less certain than the hour of its coming. Truly, this is so
great an evil that there are many who would rather live on amid
all the above-named evils than to die once and have them ended.
With this one thing the Scriptures, which hold all others in
contempt, associate fear, saying, "Remember thy end, and thou
shalt never do amiss." [Ecclus. 7:40] Behold, how many
meditations, how many books, how many rules and remedies have
been brought together, in order, by calling to men's minds this
one evil, to keep them from sin, to render the world
contemptible, to lighten suffering, to comfort the
afflicted,--all by a comparison with this great and terrible, and
yet so inevitable, evil of death. This evil even the saints
dreaded, and Christ submitted to it with trembling and bloody
sweat. [Luke 22:44] So that the divine Mercy hath been nowhere
more concerned to comfort our little faith than in the matter of
this evil, as we shall see below.[16]
But all these things are common to all men, even as the blessings
of salvation under these evils are common to all. For
Christians, however, there is another and a particular reason for
dreading the evils to come, which easily surpasses all the evils
that have been mentioned. It is that which the Apostle portrays
in I. Corinthians x, when he says, "He that standeth, let him
take heed lest he fall." [1 Cor. 19:12] So unstable is our
footing, and so powerful our foe, armed with our own strength
(that is, the weapons of our flesh and all our evil lusts),
attended by the countless armies of the world, its delights and
pleasures on the right hand, its hardships and the plots of
wicked men on the left, and, besides all this, master himself of
the art of doing us harm, seducing us, and bringing us down to
destruction by a thousand different ways. Such is our life that
we are not safe for one moment in our good intentions. Cyprian,
who in his _De Mortalitate_[17] touches on many of these matters,
teaches that death is to be desired as a swift means of escape
from these evils. And truly, wherever there have been
high-hearted men, who brought their minds steadily to bear on
these infinite perils of hell, we find them, with contempt of
life and death (that is, all the aforesaid evils), desiring to
die, that so they might be delivered at one and the same time
from this evil of the sins in which they now are (of which we
spoke in the previous chapter), and of the sins into which they
might fall (of which we are treating now). And these are, indeed,
two most weighty reasons why we should not only desire death, but
also despise all evils, to say nothing of lightly bearing a
single evil; if the Lord grant us to be moved thereby. For it is
God's gift that we are moved thereby. For what true Christian
will not even desire to die, and much more to bear sickness,
seeing that, so long as he lives and is in health, he is in sin,
and is constantly prone to fall, yea, is falling every day, into
more sins; and is thus constantly thwarting the most loving will
of his most loving Father! To such a heat of indignation was St.
Paul moved, in Romans vii, when after complaining that he did not
the good that he would, but the evil that he would not, [Rom.
7:19] he cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver
me the body of this death? The grace of God," [18] he answers,
"through Jesus Christ."
That man loves God his Father but little, who does not prefer the
evil of dying to this evil of sinning. For God has appointed
death, that this evil might come to an end, and that death might
be the minister of life and righteousness, of which more
below.[19]
CHAPTER III
THE THIRD IMAGE
THE PAST EVIL, OR THE EVIL BEHIND US
In this image, above all others, the sweet mercy of God our
Father shines forth, able to comfort us in every distress. For
never does a man feel the hand of God more closely upon him than
when he calls to mind the years of his past life. St. Augustine
says: "If a man were set before the choice either of dying or of
living his past life over, it is certain that he would choose to
die, seeing the many perils and evils which he had so hardly
escaped." This is a very true saying, if it be rightly pondered.
Here a man may see how often he has done and suffered many
things, without any exertion or care of his own, nay, without and
against his wish; of which things he took so little thought
before they came to pass, or while they were taking place, that,
only after all was over, he found himself compelled to exclaim in
great surprise: "Whence have all these things come to me, when I
never gave them a thought, or when I thought of something very
different?" So that the proverb is true, "Man proposeth, but God
disposeth"; [Prov. 16:9] that is, God turns things about, and
brings to pass something far different from that which man
proposes. Therefore, from this consideration alone, it is
impossible for us to deny that our life and all our actions are
under the direction, not of our own prudence, but of the
wonderful power, wisdom, and goodness of God. Here we see how
often God was with us when we knew it not, and with what truth
Peter has said, "He careth for us all." [1 Peter 5:7]
Therefore, even if there were no books or tracts, yet our very
life itself, brought through so many evils and dangers, if we
will but consider it, abundantly commends to us the ever present
and most tender goodness of God, which, far above all that we
purposed or perceived, carried us as it were in its bosom. As
Moses says in Deuteronomy xxxii, "The Lord kept him as the apple
of His eye, and led him about, and bore him on His shoulders."
[Deut. 32:10 ff.][20]
Hence arose those exhortations in the Psalter: "I remember the
days of old; I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the work of
Thy hands." [Ps. 143:5] "Surely I will remember Thy wonders of
old." [Ps. 77:11] Again, "I remembered Thy judgments of old, O
Lord, and have comforted myself," [Ps. 119:52] These exhortations
and the like are intended to teach us that, if God was with us
when we thought it not, or when He seemed not to be with us, we
should not doubt that He is always with us, even when He appears
to be far from us. For He Who, in so many necessities, has
sustained us without our aid, will not forsake us in our smaller
need, even though He seem to be forsaking us. As He saith in
Isaiah, "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great
mercies will I gather thee." [Isa. 54:7]
Moreover, who had the care of us so many a night, while we slept?
Who cared for us when we were at work, or at play, or engaged in
all those countless things wherein we had no care for ourselves?
Indeed, how much of our time is there in which we have the care
of ourselves? Even the miser, careful as he is to gain riches,
must perforce put by his care in the midst of all his getting and
gaining. And so we see that, whether we will or no, all our care
falls back on God alone, and we are scarcely ever left to care
for ourselves. Still, God does now and again leave us to care for
ourselves, in order to bring home to us His goodness, and to
teach us how great the difference between His care and ours.
Hence, He suffers us now and then to be assailed by some slight
malady or other ill, dissembling His care for us (for He never
ceases to care), and yet at the same time preventing the many
evils that threaten us on every side from bursting in upon us all
together. Hereby He tries us as His well-beloved children, to see
whether we will not trust His care, which extends through all our
past life, and learn how vain and powerless a thing is any care
of ours. How little, indeed, do we or can we do for ourselves,
throughout our life, when we are not able to stop a small pain in
one of our limbs, even for the shortest space of time?[21]
Why, then, are we so anxious in the matter of a single danger or
evil, and do not rather leave our care to Him? For our whole
life bears witness to the many evils from which He has delivered
us, without our doing. To know this, is indeed to know the works
of God, to meditate on His works, [Ps. 143:5, 119:52] and by the
remembrance of them to comfort ourselves in our adversities. But
they that know this not come under that other word in Psalm
xxvii, "Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the
operations of His hand, He shall destroy them, and not build them
up." [Ps. 28:5] For those men are ungrateful toward God for all
His care over them during their whole life, who will not, for one
small moment, commit their care to Him.
CHAPTER IV
THE FOURTH IMAGE
THE INFERNAL EVIL, OR THE EVIL BENEATH US
Hitherto we have seen, in all the evils that we endure, naught
but the goodness of God, which is so great and so near that of
all the countless evils with which we are surrounded in this
life, and in which we are shut up as in a prison, but a very few
are permitted to approach us, and these never for long together.
So that, when we are oppressed by any present evil, it is only to
remind us of some great gain with which God is honoring us, in
that He does not suffer us to be overwhelmed by the multitude of
evils with which we are surrounded. For what wonder that a man,
at whom an infinite number of blows is aimed, should be touched
by one now and then! Nay, it is a mercy not to be struck by all;
it is a miracle to be struck by but a few.
The first, then, of the evils beneath us is death, and the other
is hell.
If we will but consider the deaths, so diverse and so terrible,
with which other sinners are punished, we shall soon see how
great a gain is ours in that we suffer far less than we have
deserved. How many men are hanged, strangled, drowned or
beheaded, who perchance committed less sins than we! And their
death and misery are held up to us by Christ as in a mirror, in
which we may behold what we have deserved. For it is said in Luke
xiii, when they told Him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices, that He replied: "Suppose ye that
these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because
they suffered these things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon
whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they
were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you.
Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." [Luke
13:1 ff.] For we need not expect that we, who have committed the
same or even graver sins, shall escape with a lighter punishment.
Nor will the justice and truth of God, which hath decreed to
render to every man according to his deeds, be turned for our
sake into injustice and a lie, unless we hasten to make
satisfaction by at least bearing our trifling evil with
patience.[22]
And how many thousands are there in hell and everlasting
damnation, who have not committed the thousandth part of our
sins! How many virgins, youths, and those whom we call innocents,
are there! How many monks, priests, and married pairs! These
seemed all their life long to be serving God, and, it may be for
a single lapse, are now being punished for ever. For, it may not
be denied, the justice of God is the same in the case of every
sin, whatever it may be, and hates and punishes all sin alike, it
matters not in whom it is found. Do we not then see here the
inestimable mercy of God, Who hath not condemned us, though we
have so many times deserved condemnation? Pray, what are all the
sufferings life can bring, compared to eternal punishment, which
they indeed justly endure on account of one sin, while we go free
and unpunished for our many sins, which God hath covered! [Ps.
32:1] That we take no thought of these benefits of God, or but
lightly esteem them, that is ingratitude, and the hardening of
our unbelieving heart.
Moreover, we must include here the many infidels, Gentiles, Jews,
and infants, who, if to them had been granted the advantages that
we enjoy, would not now be in hell, but rather in heaven, and who
would have sinned far less than we. For this mirror also does
Christ set before us, when He says in Matthew xi: "Woe unto thee,
Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works,
which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say
unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the
day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the
mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in
Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I say unto you.
That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day
of judgment, than for thee." [Matt. 11:21 ff.] We see, therefore,
what praise and love we owe to our good Lord, in any evil
whatsoever of this life; for it is but a tiny drop of the evils
which we have deserved, and which Job compares to the sea, and to
the sand by the seashore. [Job 6:3]
CHAPTER V
THE FIFTH IMAGE
THE EVIL ON OUR LEFT HAND
Here we must set before our eyes the whole multitude of our
adversaries and wicked men, and consider, first, how many evils
they would have inflicted on our bodies, our property, our good
name, and on our souls, but could not, being prevented by the
providence of God. Indeed, the higher one's station and the wider
one's sway,[23] the more is he exposed to the intrigues,
slanders, plots, and stratagems of his enemies. In all this we
may mark and feel the very present hand of God, and need not
wonder if we be touched now and then by one of these evils.
Again, let us consider the evils which these men themselves
endure; not that we may exult over them, but that we may feel
pity for them. For they, too, are exposed to all these same
evils, in common with ourselves; as may be seen in the preceding
times. Only, they are in a worse plight than we, because they
stand outside our fellowship,[24] both as to body and soul. For
the evil that we endure is as nothing compared to their evil
estate; for they are in sin and unbelief, under the wrath of God,
and under the dominion of the devil, wretched slaves to
ungodliness and sin, so that, if the whole world were to heap
curses on their heads, it could wish them no worse things. If we
rightly consider this, we shall see how much more highly favored
we are of God, in that we may bear our slight bodily ill in
faith, in the kingdom of Christ, and in the service of God; and,
indeed, are scarce able to feel it, being so rich in those high
blessings. Nay, this wretchedness of theirs must so sorely
trouble a pious Christian heart as to make its own troubles seem
delights beside them. Thus St. Paul exhorts in Philippians ii,
"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, took upon Him the
form of a servant, etc." [Phil. 2:4 ff.] That is to say, Out of
fervent love He took our form upon Himself, bearing Himself
amidst our evils as though they were His own, and so completely
forgetting Himself and all His goods, and humbling Himself, that
He was found in all things to be made in the likeness of men,
counting nothing human foreign to Himself, and wholly giving
Himself over to our evils.
Animated with this love, and moved by this example, the saints
are wont to pray for wicked men, even their enemies, [Luke 6:27
f.] and to do all things for them after the example of Christ;
and forgetting their own injuries and rights, to take thought
only how they may rescue them from their evils, with which they
are far more cruelly tormented than with any evils of the body.
Even as St. Peter writes of Lot, that he "dwelt among them who
from day to day vexed the just soul with unjust works." [2 Peter
2:8]
You see, then, how deep an abyss of evils is here discovered, and
how great an opportunity for showing mercy and compassion, as
well as for overlooking our own trifling ills, if the love of God
dwell in us; since that which God permits us to suffer is as
nothing to that which those others endure. But the reason why
these things affect us so little is, because the eye of our heart
is not clear enough to see how great is the squalor and
wretchedness of a man lying in sin; that is, separated from God,
and in the possession of the devil. For who is there so hard of
heart that he must not sicken at the spectacle of those miserable
forms lying at our church doors and in our streets, their faces
disputed, and all their members hideously consumed with
putrifying sores; so that the mind is horror-struck at the
thought and the senses recoil from the sight! And what does God
intend, through these lamentable specimens of our flesh and
brotherhood, but to open the eyes of our mind, that we may see in
how much more dreadful a guise the soul of the sinner shows forth
its disease and decay, even though he himself go in purple and
gold, and tie among lilies and roses, as a very child of
paradise! Yet how many sinners are there to one of those wretched
creatures? When these evils on the part of our neighbors, so
great both in number and degree, are disregarded by us, it
follows that our one evil, be it never so trifling, will appear
as the sole evil, and the greatest of all.
But even in respect of bodily evils, the wicked are of necessity
in a worse plight than we. For what sweet and pure joy can be
theirs, so long as their conscience can find no peace? Or can
there be a more terrible evil than the unrest of a gnawing
conscience? Isaiah says, "The wicked are like the troubled sea,
when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is
no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." [Isaiah 57:20 f.] This
also, in Deuteronomy xxviii, applies to them: "The Lord shall
give thee a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of
mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou
shalt fear day and night, and shalt 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! for the fear
of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of
thine eyes which thou shalt see." [Deut. 28:65 ff.] In a word, if
one regarded all the evils of the wicked in the right spirit,
whether they be those of his friends or his foes, he would not
only seem to be suffering nothing at all, but he would also, with
Moses and the Apostle Paul, [Ex. 32:32, Rom. 9:3] be filled with
an hearty desire to die for them, if it might be, and to be
blotted out of the book of life, as it is written in Romans ix,
that thereby they might be set free. With such zeal and burning
was Christ's heart kindled, when He died for us and descended
into bell, leaving us an example that we also should be so
regardful of the evils of others, and forgetful of our own, nay,
rather covetous of evils of our own.
CHAPTER VI
THE SIXTH IMAGE
THE EVIL ON OUR RIGHT HAND
On out right hand are our friends, in the contemplation of whose
evils out own will grow light, as St. Peter teaches, I. Peter v,
"Resist the devil, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the
world." [1 Pet. 5:9] Thus also does the Church entreat in her
prayers, that provoked by the example of the saints, we may
imitate the virtue of their sufferings; and thus she sings,
What torments all the Saints endured,
That they might win the martyr's palm!
From such words and hymns of the Church we learn that the feasts
of the saints, their memorials, churches, altars, names, and
images, are observed and multiplied to the end that we should be
moved by their example to bear the same evils which they also
bore. And unless this be the manner of our observance, it is
impossible that the worship of saints should be free from
superstition. Even as there are many who observe all these things
in order to escape the evil which the saints teach us should be
borne, and thus to become unlike those whose feasts they keep for
the sake of becoming like them.
But the finest treatment of this portion of our consolation is
given by the Apostle, when he says, in Hebrews xii: "Ye have not
yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have
forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, demise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without
chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards,
and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much
rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For
they verily for a few days chastened us after their good
pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of
His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." [Heb. 12:4 ff.] Who must not be terrified at these
words of Paul, in which he plainly states that they who are
without the chastisement of God are not the sons of God! Again,
what greater strengthening and what better comfort can there be
than to hear that they who are chastened are beloved of the Lord,
that they are sons of God, that they have part in the communion
of saints, that they are not alone in their sufferings! So
forceful an exhortation must make chastisement a thing to be
loved.
Nor is there here any room for the excuse that some have lighter,
others heavier, evils to bear. For to every one is given his
temptation according to measure, and never beyond his strength.
As it is written in Psalm lxxix, "Thou shalt feed us with the
bread of tears, and give us for our drink tears in
measure";[25] [Ps. 80:5] and as Paul says, "God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may
be able to bear it." [1 Cor. 10:13] Where there is, therefore, a
greater evil, there is also more of divine help, and an easier
way to escape; so that the unequal distribution of sufferings
appears to be greater than it actually is. Does not the example
of St. John Baptist, whom we commemorate on this day[26] as
beheaded by Herod, shame and amaze us all!--that so great a man,
than whom there was none greater born of woman, [Matt. 11:11] the
special friend of the Bridegroom, [John 3:29] the forerunner of
Christ, and more than all the prophets, [Matt. 11:9] should have
been put to death, not indeed after a public trial, nor on a
feigned charge (as it was with Christ), nor yet for the sake of
the people; but in a dungeon, and for the sake of a dancing-girl,
daughter of an adulteress! [Matt. 14:3-11] This one Saint's
ignominious death, and his life so vilely and shamelessly given
over into the hands of his sworn and adulterous enemy, must make
ail our evil light. Where was God then, that He could look on
such things? Where was Christ, Who, hearing of it, was
altogether silent? He perished as if unknown to God, and men,
and every creature. Compared with such a death, what sufferings
have we to boast of; nay, what sufferings of which we must not
even be ashamed? And where shall we appear, if we are unwilling
to endure any suffering, when such a man endured so shameful a
death, and so undeserved, and his body, after death, was given up
to the insults of his enemies! [1 Pet. 4:18] "Behold," He saith
in Jeremiah, "behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the
cup have assuredly drunken: and art thou he that shall altogether
go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt
surely drink of it." [Jer. 49:12]
Therefore, that hermit, who was used to fall ill every year, did
well to weep and lament, when for one whole year he found himself
in sound health, because, he said, God had forsaken him and
withdrawn His grace from him. So necessary and so salutary is
the Lord's chastening for all Christians.
We see, then, that all our sufferings are as nothing, when we
consider the nails, dungeons, irons, faggots, wild beasts, and
all the endless tortures of the saints; nay, when we ponder the
afflictions of men now living, who endure in this life the most
grievous persecutions of the devil. For there is no lack of men
who are suffering more sharp and bitter pains than we, in soul as
well as in body.
But now some will say, "This is my complaint, that my suffering
cannot be compared with the sufferings of the saints; because I
am a sinner, and not worthy to be compared with them. They,
indeed, suffered because of their innocence, but I suffer because
of my sins. It is no wonder, then, that they so blithely bore
all." That is a very stupid saying. If you suffer because of your
sins, then you ought to rejoice that your sins are being purged
away. And, besides, were not the saints, too, sinners? But do you
fear that you are like Herod, and the thief on Christ's left
hand? You are not, if you have patience. For what was it that
distinguished the thief on the left hand from him on the right
but the patience of the one and the impatience of the other? If
you are a sinner, well; the thief, too, was a sinner; but by his
patience he merited the glorious reward of righteousness and
holiness. Go, and do thou likewise. [Luke 10:37] For you can
suffer nothing except it be either on account of your sins or on
account of your righteousness; and both kinds of suffering
sanctify and save, if you will but love them. And so there is no
excuse left. In short, just as soon as you have confessed that
you are suffering on account of your sins, you are righteous and
holy, even as the thief on the right hand. For the confession of
sins, because it is the truth,[27] justifies and sanctifies, and
so, in the very moment of this confession, you are suffering no
longer on account of your sins, but on account of your innocence.
For the righteous man always suffers innocently. But you are made
righteous by the confession of your merited sufferings and of
your sins. And so your sufferings may truly and worthily be
compared with the sufferings of the saints, even as your
confession may truly and worthily be compared with the confession
of the saints. For one is the truth of all, one the confession of
all sins, one the suffering of all evils, and one the true
communion of saints in all and through all.[28]
CHAPTER VII
THE SEVENTH IMAGE
THE SUPERNAL EVIL, OR THE EVIL ABOVE US
Finally, let us lift up our hearts, and ascend with the Bride
into the mountain of myrrh. [Song of Sol. 4:6] This is Jesus
Christ the Crucified, Head of all saints, and Prince of all
sufferers; of Whom many have written many things, and all all
things, as it is meet.[29] His memory is commended to the Bride,
when it is said, "Set Me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal
upon thine arm." [Song of Sol. 8:6] The blood of this Lamb,
signed upon the threshold, wards off the destroying angel. [Ex.
12:7, 13] By Him is the Bride praised, because "the hair of her
head is as the king's purple"; [Song of Sol. 7:5] that is, her
meditation glows red with the remembrance of the Passion of
Christ. This is that tree which Moses was commanded to cast into
the waters of Marah (that is, the bitterness of suffering), and
they were made sweet. [Ex. 15:23 ff.] There is nothing that this
Passion cannot sweeten, not even death itself; as the Bride
saith, "His lips are lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh."
[Song of So. 5:13] What resemblance is there between lips and
lilies, since lips are red and lilies white? But she says this in
a mystery, signifying that the words of Christ are most fair and
pure, and that there is in them naught of blood-red bitterness or
guile; nevertheless, in them He drops precious and chosen myrrh,
that is, the bitterness of death. These most pure lips and sweet
have power to make the bitterest death sweet and fair and bright
and dear,--death that, like precious myrrh, removes at once all
of sin's corruption.
How does this come to pass? When, forsooth, you hear that Jesus
Christ, God's Son, hath, by His most holy touch, consecrated and
hallowed all sufferings, even death itself, hath blessed the
curse, glorified shame, and enriched poverty, so that death has
been made a door to life, curse a fount of blessing, and shame
the mother of glory: how can you then be so hard and ungrateful
as not to long for and to love all manner of sufferings, now that
they have been touched by Christ's most pure and holy flesh and
blood, and made unto you holy, harmless, wholesome, blessed, and
full of joy?
For if Christ, by the touch of His most innocent flesh, has
hallowed all waters unto baptism, yea, and every creature
besides; how much more has He, by the same contact of His most
innocent flesh and blood, hallowed every form of death, all
suffering and loss, every curse and shame, unto the baptism of
the Spirit, or the baptism of blood![30] Even as He saith of this
same baptism of His Passion, in Luke xii, "I have a baptism to be
baptised with; and how am I straitened until it be
accomplished!" [Luke 12:50] Behold, how He is straitened, how He
pants and thirsts, to sanctify suffering and death, and make them
things to be loved! For He sees how we stand in fear of
suffering. He marks how we tremble and shrink from death. And so,
like a godly pastor or faithful physician, He hastens to set
bounds to this our evil, and is impatient to die and by His
contact to commend suffering and death unto us. So that the death
of a Christian is henceforth to be regarded as the brazen serpent
of Moses, [Num. 21:8] which indeed hath in all things the
appearance of a serpent, yet is quite without life, without
motion, without venom, without sting. Even so the righteous seem,
in the sight of the unwise, to die; but they are in peace. We
resemble them that die, nor is the outward appearance of our
dying unlike that of others; but the thing itself is different,
because for us death is dead. In like manner all our sufferings
are like the sufferings of other men; but it is only in the
appearance. In reality our sufferings are the beginning of our
freedom from suffering, as our death is the beginning of our
life. This is that which Christ saith in John viii, "If a man
keep my saying he shall never see death." [John 8:51] How shall
he not see it? Because when he dies, he begins to live, and so
he cannot see death for the life that he sees. For here the night
shines as the day; [Ps. 139:12] since the life that breaks upon
him is brighter far than departing death. These things are
assured to all who believe in Christ, to the unbelieving they are
not.
Therefore, if you kiss, caress, and embrace, as most sweet
relics,[31] consecrated by His touch, the robe of Christ, the
vessels, waterpots, and what things soever He touched and used;
why will you not the rather caress, embrace, and kiss the pains
and evils of this world, disgrace and death, which He not only
hallowed by His touch, but sprinkled and blessed with His most
holy blood, yea, embraced with willing heart, and great
constraining love?[32] The more, since in these there are for you
far greater merits, rewards, and blessings than in those relics;
for in them there is offered to you the victory over death, and
hell, and all sins, but in those relics nothing at all. O could
we but see the heart of Christ, when, hanging on the Cross, He
was so eager to slay death, and hold it up to our contempt! With
what grace and ardor He embraced death and pain for us timid
ones, who shrink from them! How willingly He first drinks this
cup for us sick ones, that we may not dread to drink it after
Him! For we see that naught of evil befell Him, but only good, in
His resurrection. Could we see this, then doubtless that
precious myrrh, dropping from Christ's lips, and commended by His
words, would grow most sweet and pleasant unto us, even as the
beauty and fragrance of lilies. Thus saith also St. Peter, I.
Peter iv, "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind." [1 Pet. 4:1] And St.
Paul, Hebrews xii, "Consider Him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
minds." [Heb. 12:3]
If we have learned, in the foregoing images, beneath us and above
us, to bear our evils with patience, surely in this last, lifted
above and out of ourselves, caught up unto Christ, and made
superior to all evils, we ought not only to bear with them, but
to love them, desire them, and seek them out. Whoever is yet far
from this state of mind, for him the Passion of Christ has little
value; as it is with those who use the sign and arms of
Christ[33] to ward off evils and death, that so they may neither
suffer pain nor endure death, which is altogether contrary to the
cross and death of Christ. Hence, in this image, whatever evils
we may have to bear must be swallowed up and consumed, so that
they shall not only cause us no pain, but even delight us; if
indeed this image find its way into our heart, and fix itself in
the inmost affections of our mind.
PART II
The second part also consists of seven images, answering to the
first; the first representing the internal blessing, the second
the future blessing, the third the past blessing, the fourth the
infernal blessing, the fifth the blessing on the left hand, the
sixth the blessing on the right hand, and the seventh the
supernal blessing.
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST IMAGE
THE BLESSING WITHIN US
Who can recount only those blessings which every one hath in his
own person? How great are, first, the gifts and endowments of the
body; such as beauty, strength, health, and the lively play of
the senses! To these there comes, in the case of the male, a
greater nobility of sex, that fits him for the doing of many
things both in public and in private life, and for many splendid
achievements, to which woman is a stranger. And if, by the grace
of God, you enjoy these excellent gifts for ten, twenty, or
thirty years, and in all this time endure suffering for a few
days now and then, what great matter is that? There is a proverb
among knaves, _Es ist umb ein bose stund zuthun_, and, _Ein gutt
stund ist eyner posen werdt_.[34] What shall be said of us, who
have seen so many good hours, yet are not willing to endure evil
for a single hour! We see, therefore, how many blessings God
showers upon us, and how few evils barely touch us. This is true
at least of the most of us.
But not content with these blessings, our gracious God adds to
them riches and an abundance of all things; if not in the case of
all, certainly in the case of many, and of those especially who
are too frail to bear the evil. For as I said before,[35] when He
grants fewer bodily gifts and possessions, He gives greater
mental gifts; so that all things may be equal, and He the just
Judge of all. For a cheerful mind is a greater comfort than much
riches. Moreover, to some He grants offspring, and, as men say,
the highest pleasure, influence, rank, honor, fame, glory, favor,
and the like. And if these be enjoyed for a long or even for a
short season, they will soon teach men how they ought to conduct
themselves under some small evil.
But more excellent than all these are the blessings of the mind;
such as reason, knowledge, judgment, eloquence, prudence. And,
here again, God tempers the justice of His dealing, so that when
He bestows more of these gifts on some men. He does not therefore
prefer them to others, since on these again He confers greater
peace and cheerfulness of mind. In all these things we should
gratefully mark the bountiful hand of God, and take comfort in
our infirmity. For we should feel no surprise if among so many
and great blessings there be some intermingling of bitterness;
since even for epicures no meat is savory without salt, nor
scarce any dish palatable that has not a certain bitter savor,
either native or produced by seasoning. So intolerable is a
continual and unrelieved sweetness, that it has been truly said,
"Every pleasure too long continued begets disgust"; and again,
"Pleasure itself turns at length to loathing." That is to say,
this life is incapable of enjoying only good things without a
tempering of evil, because of the too great abundance of good
things, has arisen also this proverb, "It needs sturdy bones to
bear good days"; which proverb I have often pondered and much
admired for its excellent true sense, namely, that the wishes of
men are contrary to one another; they seek none but good days,
and, when these arrive, are less able to bear them than evil
days.
What, then, would God have us here lay to heart but this, that
the cross is held in honor even among the enemies of the cross!
For all things must needs be tempered and sanctified with the
relics of the cross, lest they decay; even as the meat must be
seasoned with salt, that it may not breed worms. And why will we
not gladly accept this tempering which God sends, and which, if
He did not send it, our own life, weakened with pleasures and
blessings, would of itself demand? Hence we see with what truth
the Book of Wisdom says of God, "He[36] reacheth from end to end
mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly." [Wid. 8:1] And if we
examine these blessings, the truth of Moses' words, in
Deuteronomy xxxii, will become plain, "He bore him on His
shoulders, He led him about, and kept him as the apple of His
eye." [Deut. 32:10] With these words we may stop the mouths of
those ungrateful praters who hold that there is in this life more
of evil than of good. For there is no lack of good things and
endless sweet blessings, but they are lacking who ate of the same
mind with him who said, "The earth is full of the mercy of the
Lord" [Ps. 33:5]; and again, "The earth is full of His
praise" [Hab. 3:3]; and in Psalm ciii, "The earth is full of Thy
riches" [Ps. 104:24]; "Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy
work," [Ps. 92:4] Hence we sing every day in the Mass; [37]
"Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory." [Isa. 6:3] Why do we
sing this? Because there are many blessings for which God may be
praised, but it is done only by those who see the fulness of
them. Even as we said concerning the evils of the first
image,[38] that a man's evils are only so great as he in his
thoughts acknowledges them to be, so it is also with the
blessings. Though they crowd upon us from every side, yet they
are only so great as we acknowledge them to be. For all things
that God made are very good, [Gen. 1:31] but they are not
acknowledged as very good by all. Such were they of whom it is
said in Psalm lxxvii,[39] "They despised the pleasant land." [Ps.
106:24]
The most beautiful and instructive example of this image is
furnished by Job, who when he had lost all said. "Shall we
receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"
[Job 2:10] Truly, that is a golden saying, and a mighty comfort
in temptation. For Job not only suffered, but was tempted to
impatience by his wife, who said to him, "Dost thou still retain
thine integrity? curse God, and die." [Job 2:9] As who should
say, "It is plain that he is not God who is thus forsaking thee.
Why, then, dost thou trust in him, and not rather, renouncing
him, and thus cursing him, acknowledge thyself a mortal man, for
whom naught remains after this life?" These things and the like
are suggested to each one of us by his wife (i. e., his carnal
mind[40]) in time of temptation; for the carnal mind[40] savoreth
not the things that be of God. [Matt. 16:13]
But these are all bodily blessings, and common to all men. A
Christian has other and far better blessings within, namely,
faith in Christ; of which it is said in Psalm xliv, "The king's
daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought
gold." [Ps. 45:14 f.] For, as we said concerning the evil of the
first image,[41] that no evil in a man can be so great as to be
the worst of the evils within him; so too the greatest of the
blessings which are in the Christian, he himself is unable to
see. Could he perceive it, he would forthwith be in heaven; since
the kingdom of heaven, as Christ says, is within us. [Luke 17:21]
For to have faith is to have the Word and truth of God; and to
have the Word of God is to have God Himself, the Maker of all. If
these blessings, in all their fulness, were discovered to the
soul, straightway it would be released from the body, for the
exceeding abundance of sweet pleasure. Wherefore, of a truth, all
the other blessings which we have mentioned are but as the
monitors of those blessings which we have within, and which God
would by than commend unto us. For this life of ours could not
endure to have than revealed, but God mercifully keeps them
hidden, until they have reached their full measure. Even so
loving parents give their children foolish little toys, in order
thereby to lead them on to look for better things.
Nevertheless, these blessings show themselves at times, and break
out of doors, when the happy conscience rejoices in its trust to
Godward, is fain to speak of Him, hears His Word with pleasure,
and is quick to serve Him, to do good and suffer evil. All these
are the evidence of that infinite and incomparable blessing
hidden within, which sends forth such little drops and tiny
rills. Still, it is sometimes more fully revealed to
contemplative souls, who then are rapt away thereby, and know not
where they are; as is confessed by St. Augustine and his
mother,[42] and by many others.