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TOPIC: Luther, Martin - Table Talks (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 20. Of The Antichrist
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OF THE ANTICHRIST
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CCCCXXVI.
Antichrist is the pope and the Turk together; a beast full of life must have
a body and soul; the spirit or soul of antichrist is the pope, his flesh or
body the Turk. The latter wastes and assails and persecutes God's church
corporally; the former spiritually and corporally too, with hanging,
burning, murdering, etc. But, as in the apostle's time, the church had the
victory over the Jews and Romans, so now will she keep the field firm and
solid against the hypocrisy and idolatry of the pope, and the tyranny and
devastations of the Turk and her other enemies.
CCCCXXVII.
"And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt
himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous
things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation be
accomplished: for that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard
the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, for he
shall magnify himself above all."
This prophecy, as all the teachers agree, points directly at the
antichrist, under the name of Antiochus; for antichrist will regard neither
God nor the love of women - that is, the state of matrimony. These two,
antichrist condemns on earth - God, that is religion, and mankind. He will
not regard women, that is, he will condemn temporal and house government,
laws, jurisdiction, emperors and kings: for through women children are born,
and brought up, to the perpetuation of mankind and replenishing of the
world; where women are not regarded, of necessity temporal and house
government is also condemned, and laws, and ordinances, and rulers.
Daniel was an exceeding high and excellent prophet, whom Christ loved,
and touching whom he said; Whoso readeth, let him understand. He spoke of
that antichrist persecutor as clearly as if he had been an eyewitness
thereof. Read the 11th chapter throughout. It applies to the time when the
emperor Caligula and other tyrants ruled; it distinctly says: "He shall
plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy
mountain;" that is, at Rome, in Italy. The Turk rules also between two seas,
at Constantinople, but that is not the holy mountain. He does not honor or
advance the worship of Maosim, nor does he prohibit matrimony. Therefore
Daniel points directly at the pope, who does both, with great fierceness.
The prophet says further: "He shall also be forsaken of his king." It is
come to that pass already, for we see kings and princes leave him. As to the
forms of religion under the pope and Turk, there is no difference but in a
few ceremonies; the Turk observes the Mosaical, the pope the Christian
ceremonies - both sophisticate and falsify them; for as the Turk corrupts
the Mosaic bathings and washings, so the pope corrupts the sacrament of
baptism and of the Lord's supper.
The kingdom of antichrist is described also in the revelation of John,
where it is said: "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and
to overcome them." This might seem prophesied of the Turk, and not of the
pope, but we must, on investigation, understand it of the pope's
abominations and tyranny in temporal respects. It is further said in the
Apocalypse: "It shall be for a time, and times, and half a time." Here is
the question: what is a time? If time be understood a year, the passage
signifies three years and a half, and hits Antiochus, who for such a period
persecuted the people of Israel, but at length died in his own filth and
corruption. In like manner will the pope also be destroyed; for he began his
kingdom, not through power or the divine authority, but through superstition
and a forced interpretation of some passages of Scripture. Popedom is built
on a foundation which will bring about its fall. Daniel prophesies thus:
"And through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; but he
shall be broken without hand." This refers specially to the pope, for all
other tyrants and monarchs fall by temporal power and strength. However, it
may hit both pope and Turk. Both begin to reign almost at one time, under
the emperor Phocas, who murdered his own master, the emperor Maurice, with
his empress and young princes, well nigh nine hundred years since. The pope
began to govern the church spiritually at the same time that Mohammed
founded his power; the pope's temporal kingdom stood scarce three hundred
years, for he plagued and harassed kings and emperors. I cannot well define
or comprehend this prophecy: "A time, times, and half a time." I do not know
whether it refers to the Turk, who began to rule when Constantinople was
taken, in the year 1453, eighty-five years ago. If I calculate a time to be
the age of Christ (thirty years) this expression would mean one hundred and
five years, and the Turk would still have twenty-five years swing to come.
Well, God knows how it stands, and how he will deliver those that are his.
Let us not vex ourselves with seeking over knowledge. Let us repent and
pray.
Seeing the pope is antichrist,[2] I believe him to be a devil
incarnate. Like as Christ is true and natural God and man, so is antichrist
a living devil. It is true, too, what they say of the pope, that he is a
terrestrial god, - for he is neither a real god nor a real man, but of the
two natures mingled together.
He names himself an earthly God, as though,the only true and Almighty
God were not on earth! Truly, the pope's kingdom is a horrible outrage
against the power of God and against mankind; an abomination of desolation,
which stands in the holy place. `Tis a monstrous blasphemy for a human
creature to presume, now Christ is come, to exalt himself in the church
above God. If it had been done amongst the Gentiles, before the coming of
Christ, it would not have been so great a wonder. But though Daniel, Christ
himself, and his apostles, Paul and Peter, have given us warning of that
poisoned beast and pestilence, yet we Christians have been, and still are,
so doltish and mad, s to adore and worship all his idols, and to believe
that he is lord over the universal world, as heir to St Peter; whereas,
neither Christ nor St Peter left any succession upon earth.
The pope is the last blaze in the lamp, which will go out, and ere long
be extinguished, the last instrument of the devil, that thunders and
lightens with sword and bull, making war through the power and strength of
others, as Daniel says: "He is powerful, but not by his own strength." It
has been affirmed that the pope has more power in one finger, than all the
princes in Germany; but the spirit of God's mouth has seized upon that
shameless strumpet, and startled many hearts, so that they regard him no
more; a thing no emperor, with sword and power, had been able to
accomplish;' the devil scorns these weapons: but when he is struck with
God's Word, then the pope is turned to a poppy and a forthy flower.
CCCCXXVIII.
The word Papa, Pope, comes, as I think, of the word Abba, repeated
twice, meaning father of fathers. Of old the bishops were called Papa;
Jerome, writing to Augustine, who was bishop of Hippo, calls him Holy Pope;
and in the legend of St Cyprian, martyr, we read that the judge asked him:
Art thou the Cyprian whom the Christians call their pope? It seems to me to
have been a term applied to all the bishops. Children call their athers
papa; the bishops were the spiritual papas of the people.
Who, thirty years ago, would have dared to say of the pope what we now
say of him? None then ventured to express himself respecting him in other
terms than those of veneration and supplication.
CCCCXXIX.
Whence comes it that the popes pretend `tis they who form the church,
when, all the while, they are bitter enemies of the church, and have no
knowledge, certainly no comprehension, of the Holy Gospel? Pope, cardinals,
bishops, not a soul of them has read the Bible; `tis a book unknown to them.
They are a pack of guzzling, stuffing wretches, rich, wallowing in wealth
and laziness, resting secure in their power, and never, for a moment,
thinking of accomplishing God's will. The Sadducees were infinitely more
pious than the papists, from whose holiness God preserve us. May he preserve
us, too, from security, which engenders ingratitude, contempt of God,
blasphemy, and the persecution of divine things.
CCCCXXX.
Some one, speaking of the signs and marvels which are to herald the
coming of antichrist, when he shall present himself previous to the last
judgment, said he was to be armed with a breath of fire, which would
overthrow all who might seek to oppose him. Dr. Luther observed; These are
parables, but they agree in a measure with the prophecies of Daniel; for the
throne of the pope is a throne of flame, and fire is his arm, as the
scimeter is the Turk's. Antichrist attacks with fire, and shall be punished
with fire. The villain is now full of fear, crouching behind his mountains,
and submitting to things against which heretofore he would have hurled his
lightning and his thunder.
CCCCXXXI.
On the 8th August, came a letter from Bucer, relating that the council
of Vienna was over, that the cardinals had returned home, and that the
gospel had been eagerly received at Piacenza and Bologna. The pope, enraged
at this result, had sent for a German, named Corfentius, to whom he
transmitted a safe conduct; but, despite this, when Corfentius reached Rome,
he was seized and thrown into the Tiber. Dr. Luther observed: Such is the
good faith of the Italian papists! Happy the man who puts no trust in them.
If the men of God, who preach the gospel in Italy, remain firm, there will
be much bloodshed. See what snares are laid for us here in Germany; there's
not a single hour wherein we can regard ourselves as safe. Had not God
watched over us, we must long since have succumbed.
CCCCXXXII.
Some one asked how happened it St James had been at Compostella. Dr.
Martin replied: Just as it happens, that the papists reckon up sixteen
apostles, while Jesus Christ had but twelve. In many places, the papists
boast of having some of the milk of the Virgin Mary, and of the hay in which
Christ lay in the cradle. A Franciscan boasted he had some of this hay in a
wallet he carried with him. A roguish fellow took out the hay, and put some
charcoal in its place. When the monk came to show the people his hay, he
found only the wood. However, he was at no loss: "My brethren," said he, "I
brought out the wrong wallet with me, and so cannot show you the hay; but
here is some of the wood that St Lawrence was grilled upon."
CCCCXXXIII.
Kings and princes coin money only out of metals, but the pope coins
money out of every thing - indulgences, ceremonies, dispensations, pardons;
`tis all fish comes to his net. `Tis only baptism escapes him, for children
came into the world without clothes to be stolen, or teeth to be drawn.
CCCCXXXI.
A gentleman being at the point of death, a monk from the next convent
came to see what he could pick up, and said to the gentleman: Sir, will you
give so and so to our monastery? The dying man, unable to speak, replied by
a nod of the head, whereupon the monk, turning to the gentleman's son, said:
You see, your father makes us this bequest. The son said to the father: Sir,
is it your pleasure that I kick this monk down stairs? The dying man nodded
as before, and the son forthwith drove the monk out of doors.
CCCCXXXVI.
A professor at Wittenberg, named Vitus Ammerbach having advanced the
proposition that, some head or other being necessary for the Church, the
pope might as well be that head as another, Luther said: Greece was never
under the authority of the pope, nor Judea, nor Scythia, yet in all these
countries were Christians of great piety. `Tis great presumption in
Ammerbach to propound these fallacies.
CCCCXXXVII.
Some one observed: The papists flatter themselves our doctrines will
not last long, but will come to nothing, like those of Arius, which, say
they, endured but for forty years. Dr. Luther replied: The sect of Arius
maintained itself for nearly sixty years; but s it was based on hertical
principles, it ended in confusion and destruction, whereas our opponents are
compelled, despite themselves, to admit that we have right on our side. Our
light so shines in the eyes of all men, that none can deny it.
CCCCXXXVIII.
They once showed here, at Wittenberg, the drawers of St Joseph and the
breeches of St Francis. The bishop of Mayence boasted he had a gleam of the
flame of Moses bush. At Compostella they exhibit the standard of the victory
that Jesus Christ gained over death and the devil. The crown of thorns is
shown in several places.
CCCCXXXIX.
When Wolsey, who was the son of a butcher, was made cardinal, a merry
fellow said: "Please God he come to be pope, for then we shall have meat on
fast days. St Peter, because he was a fisherman, prohibited meat, in order
to raise the price of fish; this butcher's son will do the same for fish."
CCCCXL.
The cuckoo takes the eggs out of the linnet's nest, and puts her own in
their place. When the young cuckoos grow big, they eat the linnet. The
cuckoo, too, has a great antipathy towards the nightingale. The pope is a
cuckoo; he robs the church of her true eggs, and substitutes in their place
his greedy cardinals, who devour the mother that has nourished them. The
pope, too, cannot abide that nightingale, the preaching and singing of the
true doctrine.
CCCCXLI.
They show, at Rome, the head of St John the Baptist, though `tis well
known that the Saracens opened his tomb, and burned his remains to ashes.
These impostures of the papists cannot be too seriously reprehended.
CCCCXLII.
The papists, for the most part, are mere gross blockheads. One of their
priests I knew, baptized with this form of words: Ego te baptiste in nomine
Christe. Another in singing, used to say, elema, instead of clama, and when
corrected, only bawled all the louder, elema, elema. Another said, elicere,
instead of dicere. At Bamberg, they exhibit, once a year, a book, which they
say contains the history of the emperor Henry and his wife Cunegonde, who
made, on their marriage-day, a vow of virginity. Birkheimer, when he passed
through Bamberg, asked to see this book, and when it was brought to him,
found that it was only a copy of Cicero's Topics. In one convent, the
brethren read munsimus, instead of sumpsimus. A young brother, just fresh
from study, correcting this error, the rest said to him: "Mind thy own
business; we have always read munsimus, and we are not going to change our
reading for thee."
CCCCXLIII.
Two jesters held a disputation before the pope, who was at dinner, the
one maintaining, the other denying, the immortality of the soul. The pope
said, that he was advocated the immortality of the soul adduced excellent
reasons, but that, for his own part, he should side with the man who denied
its immortality, seeing that it was a convenient doctrine, holding out a
very desirable prospect, and `tis to such wretches as these the government
of the church is to be confided.
CCCCXLIV.
Albert, bishop of Mayence, had a physician attached to his person, who,
being a protestant, did not enjoy the prelate's favor. The man seeing this,
and being an avaricious, ambitious, world-seeker, denied his God, and turned
back to popery, saying to his associates: I'll put Jesus Christ by for
awhile, till I've made my fortune, and then bring him out again. This
horrible blasphemy met with its just reward; for next day the miserable
hypocrite was found dead in his bed, his tongue hanging from his mouth, his
face black as a coal, and his neck twisted half round. I was myself an
ocular witness of this merited chastisement of impiety.
CCCCXLV.
Philip Melancthon, on the authority of a person who had filled an
important post at the court of Clement VII., mentioned that every day, after
the pope had dined or supped, his cup-bearer and cooks were imprisoned for
two hours, and then, if no symptoms of poison manifested themselves in their
master, were released. "What a miserable life" observed Luther; "'tis
exactly what Moses has described in Deuteronomy: "And thy life shall hang in
doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear, day and night, and shall 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!"
CCCCXLVI.
Mary, the humble virgin of Nazareth, strikes these potentates and popes
fiercely, when she sings: "I will put down the mighty from their seats."
Doubtless she had a sweet and sounding voice.
The pope and his crew are mere worshippers of idols, and servants of
the devil, with all their doings and living; for he regards not at all God's
Word, nay, condemns and persecutes it, and directs all his juggling to the
drawing us away from the true faith in Christ. He pretends great holiness,
under color of the outward service of God, for he has instituted orders with
hoods, with shavings, fasting, eating of fish, saying mass, and such like:
but in the groundwork, `tis altogether the doctrine of the devil; and the
cause why the pope so stiffly holds such devilish doctrine is, that which
the Gospel relates, Matt. iv. The devil has shown him the kingdoms of the
world, and made promise to him as he did to Christ. This makes him condemn
and scorn our sermons and God's service, by which we are beggars, and endure
much, while for his doctrine he gets money and wealth, honor and power, and
is so great a monarch, that he can bring emperors under his girdle.
CCCCXLVII.
I cannot imagine how there should be peace between us and the papists,
for neither will yield to the other; `tis an everlasting war, like that
between the woman's seed and the old serpent. When temporal kings are weary
of warring, they make a truce, more or less enduring, but in our case, there
can be no such cessations; for we cannot depart from the Gospel, nor will
they desist from their idolatry and blaspheming; the devil will not suffer
his feet to be chopped off, nor will Christ have the preaching of his Word
hindered; therefore I cannot see how any peace or truce may be between
Christ and Belial.
CCCCXLVIII.
After the persecution of the church ceased, the popes aimed at the
government, out of covetousness and ambition. The first was Hildebrand, or
rather Hellbrand; they affrighted the people with their excommunication,
which was so fearful a thing, that it descended upon the children, nay, fell
upon servants. On the other hand, the pope seeking the goodwill of the
people, granted and sold the remission of sins, were they never so heavy.
Had one ravished the Virgin Mary, or crucified Christ anew, the pope would,
for money, have pardoned him. This power and domination of the pope's, God
has brought to confusion and destruction by my pen; for God, out of nothing,
can make all things, and of the least means produce the greatest results.
CCCCXLIX.
Popedom must needs be brought to the stake, and pay for all. The pope
shall be devoured by the friars, his creatures. The great and innumerable
multitude of monks and friars, said Cardinal Campeggio, produces great evil;
for they shake that fair monarchy of popedom, so carefully erected; and he
said right; the Rat King is being paid home by his rats. By divinity he
cannot be defended, for `tis no argument of his anonists and shaven crew,
that his rule has long been a custom. How should the pope be able to judge,
who has no skill or experience in matters of temporal government. How
foolishly decides he touching matrimonial causes. He has forbidden his
greased retinue to enter into the state of matrimony, though he commands it
to be held and observed as a sacrament. If matrimony be a sacrament, it
cannot be for the heathen; for the unbelieving Gentiles have nothing to do
with them.
CCCCL.
`Tis a mere fable to say that Constantine the Emperor gave to the pope
so much property and people as he boasts of. This I read, that Constantine
gave much alms to the poor, commanding the bishops to distribute them, by
which means they grew to be great lords. But he gave them neither countries
nor cities; wherefore the world wonders whence the popes derived such
dominions. In former times the popes were not lords over emperors and kings,
but were instituted or ordained by the emperors.
CCCCLI.
The world remains the world it was thousands of years ago; that is, the
spouse of the devil. The world says now, as the Pharisees said to their
servants, whom they had sent to take Christ prisoner: "Are ye also deceived?
have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? This people that
knoweth not the law are accursed." Even so says the world now: Do the great
ones and bishops believe in the Lutheran doctrine?
CCCCLII.
The pope denies not the sacrament, but he has stolen from the laity the
one part or kind thereof; neither does he teach the true use of it. The pope
rejects not the bible, but he persecutes and kills upright, good, and godly
teachers, as the Jews persecuted and slew the prophets that truly expounded
and taught the Scriptures. The pope will permit the substance and essence of
the sacrament and Bible to remain; but he will compel and force us to use
them according to his will and pleasure, and will constrain us to believe
the fictitious transubstantiation, and the real presence, corporaliter. The
pope does nothing else than pervert and abuse all that God has ordained and
commanded.
CCCCLIII.
The chief cause that I fell out with the pope was this: the pope
boasted that he was the head of the church, and condemned all that would not
be under his power and authority; for he said, although Christ be the Head
of the church, yet, notwithstanding, there must be a corporal head of the
church upon earth. With this I could have been content, had he but taught
the Gospel pure and clear, and not introduced human inventions and lies in
its stead. Further, he took upon him power, rule, and authority over the
Christian church, and over the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God; no man must
presume to expound the Scriptures, but only he, and according to his
ridiculous conceits; so that he made himself lord over the church,
proclaiming her at the same time a powerful mother, and empress over the
Scriptures, to which we must yield and be obedient; this was not to be
endured. They who, against God's Word, boast of the church's authority, are
mere idiots. The pope attributes more power to the church, which is begotten
and born, than to the Word, which has begotten, conceived, and borne the
church.
We, through God's grace, are not heretics, but schismatics, causing,
indeed, separation and division, wherein we are not to blame, but our
adversaries, who gave occasion thereto, because they remain not by God's
Word alone, which we have, hear, and follow.
CCCCLIV.
When our Lord God intends to plague and punish one, he leaves him in
blindness, so that he regards not God's Word, but condemns the same, as the
papists now do. They know that our doctrine is God's Word, but they will not
allow of this syllogism and conclusion: When God speaks, we must hear him;
now God speaks through the doctrine of the Gospel; therefore we must hear
him. But the papists, against their own consciences, say, No; we must hear
the church.
It is very strange: they admit both propositions, but will not allow
the consequences, or permit the conclusions to be right. They urge some
decree or other of the Council of Constance, and say, though Christ speak,
who is the truth itself, yet an ancient custom must be preferred, and
observed for law. Thus do they answer, when they seek to wrest and perver
the truth.
If this sin of antichrist be not a sin against the Holy Ghost, then I
do not know how to define and distinguish sins. They sin herein willfully
against the revealed truth of God's Word, in a most stubborn and
stiff-necked manner. I pray, who would not, in this case, resist these
devillish and shameless lying lips? I marvel not John Huss died so joyfully,
seeing he heard of such abominable impieties and wickedness of the papists.
I pray, how holds the pope concerning the church? He preserves her, but only
in an external lustre, pomp, and succession. But we judge her according to
her essence, as she is in herself, in her own substance, that is, according
to God's Word and sacraments. The pope is reserved for God's judgment,
therefore only by God's judgment he shall be destroyed. Henry VIII, king of
England, is now also an enemy to the pope's person, but not to his essence
and substance; he would only kill the body of the pope, but suffer his soul,
that is, his false doctrine to live; the pope can well endure such an enemy;
he hopes within the space of twenty years to recover his rule and government
again. But I fall upon the pope's soul, his doctrine, with God's Word, not
regarding his body, that is, his wicked person and life. I not only pluck
out his feathers, as the king of England and prince George of Saxony do, but
I set the knife to his throat; and cut his windpipe asunder. We put the
goose on the spit; did we but pluck her, the feathers would soon grow again.
Therefore is Satan so bitter an enemy unto us, because we cut the pope's
throat, as does also the king of Denmark, who aims at the essency of popery.
CCCCLV.
`Tis wonderful how, in this our time, the majesty of the pope is
fallen. Heretofore, all monarchs, emperors, kings, and princes feared the
pope's power, who held them all at his nod; none durst so much as mutter a
word against him. This great god is now fallen; his own creatures, the
friars and monks, are his enemies, who, if they still continue with him, do
so for the sake of gain; otherwise they would oppose him more fiercely than
we do.
CCCCLVI.
The pope's crown is named gegnum mundi, the kingdom of the world. I
have heard it credibly reported at Rome, that thiscrown is worth more than
all the princedoms of Germany. God placed popedom in Italy not without
cause, for the Italians can make out many things to be real and true, which
in truth are not so: they have crafty and subtle brains.
CCCCLVII.
If the pope were the head of the Christian church, then the church were
a monster with two heads, seeing that St Paul says that Christ is her head.
The pope may well be, and is, the head of the false church.
CCCCLVIII.
Where the linnet is, there is also the cuckoo, for he thinks his song a
thousand times better than the linnet's. Even thus, the pope places himself
in the church, and so that his song may be heard, overcrows the church. The
cuckoo is good for something, in that its appearance gives tidings that
summer is at hand; so the pope serves to show us that the last day of
judgment approaches.
CCCCLIX.
There are many that think I am too fierce against popedom; on the
contrary, I complain that I am, alas! too mild; I wish I could breath out
lightning against pope and popedom, and that every word were a thunderbolt.
CCCCLX.
`Tis an idle dream the papists entertain of antichrist; they suppose he
should be a single person, that should govern, scatter money amongst them,
do miracles, carry a fiery oven about him, and kill the saints.
CCCCLXI.
In popedom they make priests, not to preach and teach God's Word, but
only to celebrate mass, and to gad about with the sacrament. For, when a
bishop ordains a man, he says: Take unto thee power to celebrate mass, and
to offer for the living and the dead. But we ordain priests according to the
command of Christ and St Paul, namely to preach the pure gospel and God's
Word. The papists in their ordinations make no mention of preaching and
teaching God's Word, therefore their consecrating and ordaining is false and
unright, for all worshipping which is not ordained of God, or erected by
God's Word and command, is nothing worth, yea, mere idolatry.
CCCCLXII.
Next unto my just cause the small repute and mean aspect of my person
gave the blow to the pope. For when I began to preach and write, the pope
scorned and condemned me; he thought: `Tis but one poor friar; what can he
do against me? I have maintained and defended this doctrine in popedom,
against many emperors, kings, and princes, what then shall this one man do?
If he had condescended to regard me, he might easily have suppressed me in
the beginning.
CCCCLXIII.
A German, making his confession to a priest at Rome, promised, an oath,
to keep secret whatsoever the priest should impart unto him, until he
reached home; whereupon the priest gave him a leg of the ass on which Christ
rode into Jerusalem, very neatly bound up in silk, and said: This is the
holy relic on which the Lord Christ corporally did sit, with his sacred legs
touching this ass's leg. Then was the German wondrous glad, and carried the
said holy relic with him into Germany. When he got to the borders, he
bragged of his holy relic in the presence of four others, his comrades,
when, lo! it turned out that each of them had likewise received from the
same priest a leg, after promising the same secrecy. Thereupon all
exclaimed, with great wonder: Lord! had that ass five legs?
CCCCLXIV.
A picture being brought to Luther, in which the pope, with Judas the
traitor, were represented hanging on the purse and keys, he said: `Twill vex
the pope horribly, that he, whom emperors and kings have worshipped should
now be figured hanging on his false pick-locks. It will also grieve the
papists, for their consciences will be touched. The purse accords well with
the cardinal's hats and their incomes, for the pope's covetousness has been
so gross, that in all kingdoms he has not only raked to himself Annates,
Palliummoney, etc., but has also sold for money the holy sacraments,
indulgences, fraternities, Christ's blood, matrimony, etc. Therefore his
purse is filled with robberies, upon which justly ought to be exclaimed, as
in the Revelations; "Recompense them as they have done to you, and make it
double unto them, according to their works." Therefore, seeing the pope has
damned me and given me over to the devil, so will I, in requital, hang him
on his own keys.
CCCCLXV.
It is abominable, that in so many of the pope's decrees, there is not
one single sentence of the Holy Scripture, or one article of the Catechism
mentioned. The pope intending to conduct the government of his church in an
external way, his teachings were blasphemous; such as that a stinking
friar's hood, put upon a dead body, procured remission of sins, and was of
equal value with the merits of our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus.
CCCCLXVI.
It is no marvel that the papists hate me so vehemently, for I have well
deserved it at their hands. Christ more mildly reproved the Jews that I the
papists, yet they killed him. These, therefore,think they justly persecute
me, but, according to God's laws and will, they shall find their mistake. In
the day of the last judgment I will denounce the pope and his tyrants, who
scorn and assail the Word of God, and his sacraments. The pope destroys poor
married priests, whereas by all their laws they are only to be displaced
from their office. So Prince George has banished and driven away from
Oschitz ten citizens and householders, with twenty-seven children, martyrs
to the Word. Their sighs will rise up to heaven against him.
CCCCLXVII.
The pope and his crew can in nowise endure the idea of reformation; the
mere word creates more alarm at Rome, than thunderbolts from heaven, or the
day of judgment. A cardinal said, the other day: Let them eat, and drink,
and do what they will; but as to reforming us, we think that is a vain idea;
we will not endure it. Neither will we protestants be satisfied, though they
administer the sacrament in both kinds, and permit priests to marry; we will
also have the doctrine of the faith pure and unfalsified, and the
righteousness that justifies and saves before God, and which expels and
drives away all idolatry and false worshipping; these done and banished, the
foundation on which pope-dome is built falls also.
CCCCLXVIII.
We will have the holy sacrament administered in both kinds, that it
shall be free for priests to marry, or to forbear, and we will in no way
suffer ourselves to be bereaved of the article of justification: "That by
faith only in Jesus Christ we are justified and saved before God; without
any works, merits, and deserts, merely by grace and mercy." This we must
keep and preserve, pure and unfalsified, if we intend to be saved. As to
private mass, we cannot hinder it, but must leave it to God, to be acted by
those over whom we have neither power nor command; yet, nevertheless, we
will openly teach and preach against it, and show that it is abominable
blasphemy and idolatry. Either we must go together by the ears, or else
they, in our countries, must yield unto us in this particular; if it come to
pass that herein they yield unto us, then must we be contented; for, like as
the Christians dealt with the Arians, and as St Paul was constrained to
carry himself towards the Jews, even so must we also leave the papists to
their own consciences, and seeing they will not follow us, so we neither can
nor will force them, but must let them go and commit it to God's judgment;
and truly, sincerely, and diligently hold unto and maintain our doctrine,
let the same vex, anger, and displease whom it will.
CCCCLXIX.
The papists see they have an ill cause, and, therefore, labor to
maintain it with very poor arguments, that cannot endure the proof, and may
be easily confuted.
They say: "The praising of anything is an invocation; the saints are to
be praised, therefore they are to be invoked." I answer: No, in nowise; for
every praising is not invoking; married people are to be praised, but not to
be invoked; for invocation belongs only to God, and not to any creature,
either in heaven or on earth; no, not to any angel. They say:
"The doctrine of the remission of sins is necessary; indulgences,
pardons, and graces are remissions of sins; therefore they are necessary."
No: the pope's pardons are not remissions of sins, but satisfactions for
remitting the punishments; mere fables and fictions.
CCCCLXX.
When I was in Rome a disputation was openly held, at which were present
thirty learned doctors besides myself, against the pope's power; he boasting
that with his right hand he commands the angels in heaven, and with his left
draws souls out of purgatory, and that his person is mingled with the
godhead. Calixtus disputed against these assertions, and showed that it was
only on earth that power was given to the pope to bind and to loose. The
other doctors hereupon assailed him with exceeding vehemence, and Calixtus
discontinued his arguments, saying, he had only spoken by way of
disputation, and that his real opinions were far otherwise.
CCCCLXXI.
For the space of many hundred years there has not been a single bishop
that has shown any zeal on the subject of schools, baptism, and preaching;
`twould have been too great trouble for them, such enemies were they to God.
I have heard divers worthy doctors affirm, that the church has longsince
stood in need of reformation; but no man was so bold as to assail popedom;
for the pope had on his banner, Noli me tangere; therefore every man was
silent. Dr. Staupitz said once to me: "If you meddle with popedom you will
have the whole world against you;" and he added: - "yet the church is built
on blood, and with blood must be sprinkled."
CCCCLXXII.
I would have all those who intend to preach the Gospel, diligently read
the popish abominations, their decrees and books; and, above all things,
thoroughly consider the horrors of the mass - on account of which idol, God
might justly have drowned and destroyed the whole world - to the end their
consciences may be armed and confirmed against their adversaries.
CCCCLXXIII.
That Italian monk's book, the Conformities, wherein a comparison is
drawn between Christ and St Francis, is a tissue of such horrible lies, that
he who wrote it must have been possessed of a devil, not only spiritually
but corporally. Christ, he says, is a figure or emblem of St Francis; and he
affirms that Christ gave to St Francis the power of saving or condemning
whom he pleased.
CCCCLXXIV.
In a monastery at Luneburg, there stands to this day a great altar,
whereon are represented the life and miracles of Christ; his birth, his
entry into Jerusalem, his passion, death, descent into hell, resurrection,
and ascension. Just by is set forth, in like manner, the birth of St
Francis, his miracles, sufferings, death, and ascent into heaven, so that
they esteemed the works of St Francis of equal value with those of our
blessed Saviour Christ Jesus; a great and abominable blasphemy.
CCCCLXXV.
The pope's decretals are naught; he that drew them up was an ass. They
are a book put together like a beggar's coat, patched up with all sorts of
rags. There is nothing in them about the church; they all aim at temporal
matters. Yet the pope says, these decretals are to have equal authority with
the Gospel and the writings of the apostles.
CCCCLXXVI.
In the pope's decretals are many horrible and diabolical canons; they
are a great plague and evil for the church. The shameless pope presumes to
say: "Whoso believes and observes not my decrees, it were in vain for him to
believe in Christ, or give credit to the four Evangelists." Is not this the
language of the very devil, infusing deadly poison into the Church? Again,
he says in one of his decretals: That though he led people into hell, they
ought to follow him; whereas, on the contrary, the office of a true bishop
is to comfort the broken and sorrowful in heart, and to lead them to Christ.
For upon this reprobate villain! must he teach consciences to despair in
this sort? Whoever reads the decretals, will often find fair sentences of
Scripture monstrously lugged in as confirmation; and, in other cases, when
the Scripture is dead against them, that it is roundly said: the Romish
Church has otherwise decided. Thus, like an infernal dog, the pope dares to
subject God's Word to human creatures. `Tis just the same with Thomas
Aquinas, who, in his books, argues, pro et contra, when he cites a passage
in Scripture, he goes on: Aristotle maintains the contrary; so that the Holy
Scripture must give place to Aristotle, a heathen. The world heeds not this
abominable darkness, but condemns the truth, and falls into horrible errors.
Therefore, let us make good use of our time, for things will not always
remain as now.
CCCCLXXVII.
In the decretals, the pope domineers and triumphs like a victor; there
he is on his dunghill, in possession, thundering and lightning with these
words: "We have cognizance and authority, and by divine command we judge;
all others ought to be obedient unto us." No human creature may criticize
the pope; he only and alone has power to judge and criticize the whole
universal world. I am persuaded, that in the pope's spiritual laws it is
written above one thousand times, that the pope's actions may not be
criticised by any man whatsoever.
CCCCLXXVIII.
The spiritual law of the pope is a filthy book, stinking of money. Take
out of it covetousness and ambition, there remains nothing of its own proper
substance, yet is has a great lustre, for all unhappiness must begin in
nomine Domini. Like as all righteousness and saving health is only "in the
name of the Lord, so, under the color and cover of God's name, all idolatry
and superstition come. Therefore the commandment fitly says: "Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
CCCCLXXIX.
Gratian, the lawyer, who collected the decretals together, endeavored
with diligence to arrange them congruously, and to separate the good from
the evil. The good man meant well, but the result was naught; for he
proceeded thus; he rejected that which was good, to justify that which was
evil, and thus undertaking the impossible, became amazed and affrighted.
CCCCLXXX.
The fasting of the friars is more easy to them than our eating to us.
For one day of fasting there are three of feasting. Every friar for his
supper has two quarts of beer, a quart of wine, and spice-cakes, or bread
prepared with spice and salt, the better to relish their drink. Thus go on
these poor fasting brethren; getting so pale and wan, they are like the
fiery angels.
CCCCLXXXI.
If the emperor would merit immortal praise, he would utterly root out
the order of the Capuchins, and, for an everlasting remembrance of their
abominations, cause their books to remain in safe custody. `Tis the worst
and most poisonous sect. The Augustine and Bernardine friars are no way
comparable with these confounded lice.
CCCCLXXXII.
Francis was an Italian, born in the city of Assisi, doubtless an honest
and just man. He little thought that such superstition and unbelief would
proceed out of his life. There have been so many of those grey friars, that
they offered to send forty thousand of their number against the Turks, and
yet leave their monasteries sufficiently provided for.
The Franciscan and grey friars came up under the Emperor Frederick II.,
at the time St Elizabeth was canonized, in the year 1207. Francis worked his
game eighteen years; two years under the emperor Philip, four years under
the emperor Otho, and twelve years under the emperor Frederick II. They
feign, that after his death he appeared to the pope in a dream, held a cup
in his hand, and filled the same with blood that ran out of his side. Is not
this, think ye, a fine and proper piece of government, that began with
dreams and with lies? The pope is not God's image, but his ape. He will be
both God and emperor; as pope Innocent III., said: I will either take the
crown from the Emperor Philip, or he shall take mine from me. Oh, such
histories ought diligently to be written, to the end posterity may know upon
what grounds popedom was erected and founded; namely, upon mere lies and
fables. If I were younger, I would write a chronicle of the popes.
CCCCLXXXIII.
If the pope should seek to suppress the mendicant friars, he would find
fine sport; he has made them fat, and cherished them in his bosom, and
assigned them the greatest and most powerful princes for protectors. If he
should attempt to abolish them, they would all combine and instigate the
princes against him, for many kings and princes, and the emperor himself,
have friars for confessors. The friars were the pope's columns, they carried
him as the rats carry their king; I was our Lord God's quicksilver, which he
threw into the fishpond; that is, which he cast among the friars.
A friar is evil every way, whether in the monastery or out of it. For
as Aristotle gives an example touching fire, that burns whether it be in
Ethiopia or in Germany, even so is it likewise with the friars. Nature is
not changed by any circumstances of time or place.
CCCCLXXXIV.
In Italy was a particular order of friars, called Fratres Inorantiae,
that is, Brethren of Ignorance, who took a solemn oath, that they would
neither know, learn, nor understand anything at all, but answer all
questions with Nescio. Truly, all friars are well worthy of this title, for
they only read and babble out the words, but regard not their meaning. The
pope and cardinals think: should these brethren study and be learned, they
would master us. Therefore, saccum per neccum, that is, hang a bag about
their necks, and send them a-begging through cities, towns, and countries.
CCCCLXXXV.
An honest matron here in Wittenberg, widow of the consul Horndorff,
complained of the covetousness of the Capuchins, one of whom pressed her
father, upon his death bed to bequeath something to their monastery, and got
from him four hundred florins, for the use of the monastery, the friar
constraining herself to make a vow, that she would mention the matter to no
person. The man kept the money, which course he usually took, to the great
hurt of all the children and orphans in that city. At last, by command of
the magistrate, she told how the friar had acted. Many such examples have
been, yet no creature dared complain. There was no end of the robbing,
filching, and stealing of those insatiable, money-diseased wretches.
CCCCLXXXVI.
When I was in the monastery at Erfurt, a preaching friar and a
bare-foot friar wandered together into the country to beg for the brethren
and to gather alms. These two played upon each other in their sermons. The
bare-foot friar, preaching first, said: "Loving country people, and good
friends! take heed of that bird the swallow, for it is white within, but
upon the back it is black; it is an evil bird, always chirping, but
profitable for nothing; and when angered, is altogether mad," hereby
describing the preaching friars, who wear on the outside black coats, and
inside white linen. Now, in the afternoon, the preaching friar came into the
pulpit, and played upon the bare-foot friar: "Indeed, loving friends, I
neither may nor can well defend the swallow; but the grey sparrow is far a
worse and more hurtful bird than the swallow; for it bites the kine, and
when it fouls into people's eyes, makes them blind, as ye may see in the
book of Tobit. He robs, steals, and devours all he can get, as oats, barley,
wheat, rye, apples, pears, peas, cherries, etc. Moreover, he is a lascivious
bird: his greatest art is to cry: `Scrip, scrip,'" etc. The bare-foot friar
might in better colors have painted the preaching friars, for they are proud
buzzards, and right epicureans; while the bare-foot friars, under color of
sanctity and humility, are more proud and haughty than kings or princes,
and, most of all, have imagined and devised monstrous lies.
CCCCLXXXVII.
St Bernard was the best monk that ever was, whom I love beyond all the
rest put together; yet he dared to say, it were a sign of damnation if a man
quitted his monastery. He had under him three thousand monks, not one of
whom was damned, if his opinions be true, sed vix credo. St Bernard lived in
dangerous times, under the emperors Henry IV, and V., Conrad, and Lothaire.
He was a learned and able monk, but he gave evil example. The friars,
especially the Minorites and Franciscans, had easy days by their hypocrisy;
they touched no money, yet they were vastly rich, and lived in luxury. The
evil friars life began betimes, when people, under color of piety, abandoned
temporal matters. The vocation and condition of a true Christian, such as
God ordained and founded it, consists in three hierarchies - domestic,
temporal, and church government.
CCCCLXXXVIII.
The state of celibacy is great hypocrisy and wickedness. Augustine,
though he lived in a good and acceptable time, was deceived through the
exaltation of nuns. And although he gave them leave to marry, yet he said
they did wrong to marry, and sinned against God. Afterwards, when the time
of wrath and blindness came, and the truth was hunted away, and lying got
the upper hand, the generation of poor women was condemned, under the color
of great holiness, but which, in truth, was mere hypocrisy. Christ with one
sentence confutes all their arguments: God created them male and female.
CCCCLXXXIX.
The covetousness of the pope has exceeded all others, for the devil
made choice of Rome as his peculiar habitation. The ancients said: Rome is a
den of covetousness, a root of all wickedness. I have also read in a very
old book, this verse following: -
"Versus Amor, mundi caput est, et bestia terrae."
That is, when the word Amor is turned and read backward, Roma, Rome,
the head of the world, a beast that devours all lands. At Rome all is raked
to their hands without preaching or church service, by superstition,
idolatry, and selling their good works to the poor ignorant laity for money.
St Peter describes such covetousness with express and clear words, when he
says: "They have a heart exercised with covetous practices." I am persuaded
a man cannot know the disease of covetousness, unless he know Rome; for the
deceits and jugglings in other parts are nothing in comparison with those at
Rome.
CCCCXC.
The proverb says: Priests livings are catching livings; priests goods
never prosper; and this we know to be true by experience, for such as have
taken spiritual livings unto them are grown poor thereby and become beggars.
CCCCXCI.
Saint Augustine and others distinguish thus between heretics,
schismatics, and bad Christians; A schismatic is one that raises divisions
and dissensions, professing the true faith of the Christian church, but not
at union with her as to certain ceremonies and customs; an evil Christian is
he that agrees with the church both in doctrine of faith and ceremonies, but
therewithal leads an evil life, and is of wicked conversation. But an
heretic is one that introduces false opinions and doctrines against the
articles of the Christian faith, contrary to the true meaning of Holy
Scripture, and stubbornly maintains and defends them. The papists do not
call me a heretic, but a schismatic; one that prepares discords and strifes.
But I say, the pope is an arch heretic, for he is an adversary to my blessed
Saviour Christ; and so am I to the pope, because he makes new laws and
ordinances according to his own will and pleasure, and so directly denies
the everlasting priesthood of Christ.
Let us but mark the two points in his decrees, where, with exceeding
pompous majesty, he exalts himself above the Holy Scriptures. He is content
to leave the expounding thereof to the Fathers, but the decision of their
truth he reserves for the chair of Rome. Therefore he discharges against me
his lightnings and thunderings, yea, also against his own decrees; for the
pope himself says: Justice must give place and yield to the truth. For that
purpose he produces the example of king Hezekiah, who brake in pieces the
brazen serpent, which God had commanded to be erected. But the pope deals
quite contrary to his own laws and decrees; for now he will have that truth
must and shall give place to his innumerable and apparent errors. And indeed
it is a grievous case, that youth have not seen such errors, or comprehended
them; they thing that the gospel has always been the same as now it is. If
we had held God's Word in due honor and reverence, then such abominable
errors and idolatries would never have risen or crept in among us.
CCCCXCII.
Through concord small things and wealth increase, as the heathen said;
but dissension is dangerous and hurtful, especially in schools, professions,
high arts, and their professors, wherein the one ought to reach the hand to
the other, kissing and embracing. But when we bite one another, then let us
take heed lest we be swallowed up together. Therefore let us pray and
strive; for the word of faith, and the prayers of the just, are the most
powerful weapons; moreover, God himself sends his holy angels around them
that fear him. We ought valiantly to fight, for we are under a Lord of
hosts, and a prince of war; therefore with one hand we must build, and in
the other hand take the sword - that is, we must both teach and resist.
It is now time to watch, for we are the mark they shoot at; our
adversaries intend to make a confederacy with the Turk; they aim at us, but
we must venture it, for antichrist will war and get the victory against the
saints of God. We stand outwardly in the greatest danger, by reason of
treachery and treason; the papists endeavor with money to corrupt our
captains and officers. An ass laden with money may do anything, as Tacitus
writes of us Germans; they have been taught to take money; there is neither
fidelity nor truth on earth.
CCCCXCIII.
The papists have a fair and glittering external worship; they boast
much of God's Word, of faith, of Christ, of the sacraments, of love, of
hope, etc., but they utterly deny the power and virtue of all these; nay,
teach that which is quite contrary thereunto. Therefore St Paul very well
says: "They deny the power of godliness." He does not say they deny
godliness, but they deny the power, strength, and virtue thereof, by false
and superstitious doctrine.
CCCCXCIV.
Luther, coming from Rome, showed the prince elector of Saxony a picture
he had brought with him, whereon was painted how the pope had foiled the
whole world with his superstitions and idolatries. There was the little ship
of the church, as they term it, almost filled with friars, monks, and
priests, casting lines out of the ship to those that were in the sea; the
pope, with the cardinals and bishops, sat behind, in the end of the ship,
overshadowed and covered by the Holy Ghost, who was looking up towards
heaven, and through whom those swimming in the sea, in great danger of their
lives, were hoisted up into the ship and saved.
These and like fooleries we then believed as articles of faith. The
papists - blind people - by pretending that they go through much tribulation
in this world; whereas they wallow in all the glory, pleasures, and delights
of the earth. But let them be assured, that ere many years the power of
their abominable blasphemies, idolatries, and damnable religion, will be
broken, if not destroyed.
And on the contrary, we, who for the sake of confessing God's holy Word
in truth, are terrified, banished, imprisoned, and slain here on earth by
that man of sin, and God's enemy, the antichrist-pope of Rome, at the last
day, with unspeakable comfort, shall take possession of the fruits of our
assured hopes - namely, everlasting consolation, joy, and salvation.
CCCCXCV.
The pope places his cardinals in all kingdoms - peevish milk-sops,
effeminate and unlearned blockheads, who lie lolling in king's courts, among
the ladies and women. The pope has invaded all countries with these and his
bishops. German is taken captive by popish bishops, for I can count above
forty bishopries, besides abbeys and cathedrals, which are richer than the
bishopries. Now, there are in Germany but eight and twenty principalities,
so that the popish bishops are far more rich and powerful than the princes
of the empire.
CCCCXXVI.
The devil begat darkness; darkness begat ignorance; ignorance begat
error and his brethren; error begat free-will and presumption; free-will
begat merit; merit begat forgetfulness of God; forgetfulness begat
transgression; transgression begat superstition; superstition begat
satisfaction; satisfaction begat the mass-offering; the mass-offering begat
the priest; the priest begat unbelief; unbelief begat king hypocrisy;
hypocrisy begat traffic in offerings for gain; traffic in offerings for gain
begat purgatory; purgatory begat the annual solemn vigils; the annual vigils
begat church-livings, church-livings begat avarice; avarice begat swelling
superfluity; swelling superfluity begat fulness; fulness begat rage; rage
begat license; license begat empire and domination; domination begat pomp;
pomp begat ambition; ambition begat simony; simony begat the pope and his
brethren, about the time of the Babylonish captivity.
After the Babylonish captivity, the pope begat the mystery of iniquity;
the mystery of iniquity bagat sophistical theology; sophistical theology
begat rejecting of the Holy Scripture; rejecting of the Holy Scripture begat
tyranny; tyranny begat slaughtering of the saints; slaughtering of the
saints begat condemning of God; condemning of God begat dispensation;
dispensation begat willful sin; willful sin begat abomination; abomination
begat desolation; desolation begat doubt; doubt begat searching out the
grounds of truth, and out of this, the desolator, pope, or antichrist, is
revealed.
St Paul complained and said: "The time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine;&qu