Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  The Social Evil

  5. Finally, is it not a pitiful thing that we Christians should maintain among us open and common houses of prostitution, though all of us are baptised unto chastity? I know very well what some say to this, to wit, that it is not the custom of any one people, that it is hard to break up, that it is better that there should be such houses than that married women, or maidens, or those of more honorable estate should be outraged. But should not the temporal, Christian government consider that in this heathen way the evil is not to be controlled? I the people of Israel could exist without such an abomination, why could not Christian people do as much? Nay, how do many cities, towns and villages exist without such houses? Why should not great cities also exist without them?

  In this, and in the other matters above mentioned, I have tried to point out how many good works the temporal government could do, and what should be the duty of every government, to the end that every one may learn what an awful responsibility it is to rule, and to have high station. What good would it do that an overlord were in his own life as holy as St. Peter, if he have not the purpose diligently to help his subjects in these matters? His very authority will condemn him! For it is the duty of the authorities to seek the highest good of their subjects. But if the authorities were to consider how the young people might be brought together in marriage, the hope of entering the married state would greatly help every one to endure and to resist temptation.

  Celibacy and Its Abuses

  But now every man is drawn to the priesthood or the monastic life, and among them, I fear, there is not one in a hundred who has any other reason than that he seeks a living, and doubts that he will ever be able to support himself in the estate of matrimony. Therefore they live wildly enough beforehand, and wish, as they say, to “wear out their lust,” but rather wear it in269, as experience shows. I find the proverb true, “Despair makes most of the monks and priests”270; and so things are as we see them.

  My faithful counsel is that, in order to avoid many sins which have become very common, neither boy nor maid should take the vow of chastity, or of the “spiritual life,” before the age of thirty years271. It is, as St. Paul says, a peculiar gift (1 Cor. 7). Therefore let him whom God does not constrain, put off becoming a cleric and taking the vows. Nay, I will go farther and say, If you trust God so little that you are not willing to support yourself as a married man, and wish to become a cleric only because of this distrust, then for the sake of your own soul, I beg of you not to become a cleric, but rather a farmer, or whatever else you please. For if to obtain your temporal support you must have one measure of trust in God, you must have ten measures of trust to continue in the life of a cleric. If you do not trust God to support you in the world, how will you trust him to support you in the Church? Alas, unbelief and distrust spoil everything and lead us into all misery, as we see in every estate of life!

  Much could be said of this miserable condition. The young people have no one to care for them. They all do as they please, and the government is of as much use to them as if it did not exist; and yet this should be the chief concern of pope, bishops, lords and councils. They wish to rule far and wide, and yet to help no one. O, what a rare bird will a lord and ruler be in heaven just on this account, even though he build a hundred churches or God and raise up all the dead!

  Conclusion

  [Let this suffice for this time! Of what the temporal powers and the nobility ought to do, I think I have said enough in the little book. On Good Works272. There is room for improvement in their lives and in their rule, and yet the abuses of the temporal power are not to be compared with those of the spiritual power, as I have there shown.]273

  I think too that I have pitched my song in a high key, have made many propositions which will be thought impossible and have attacked many things too sharply. But what am I to do? I am in duty bound to speak. If I were able, these are the things I should wish to do. I prefer the wrath of the world to the wrath of God; they can do no more than take my life274. Many times heretofore I have made overtures of peace to my opponents; but as I now see, God has through them compelled me to open my mouth wider and wider and give them enough to say, bark, shout and write, since they have nothing else to do. Ah well, I know another little song about Rome and about them if I their ears itch for it I will sing them that song too, and pitch the notes to the top of the scale. Understandest thou, dear Rome, what I mean?

  I have many times offered my writings for investigation and judgment, but it has been of no use. To be sure, I know that if my cause is just, it must be condemned on earth, and approved only by Christ in heaven; or all the Scriptures show that the cause of Christians and of Christendom must be judged by God alone. Such a cause has never yet been approved by men on earth, but the opposition has always been too great and strong. It is my greatest care and fear that my cause may remain uncondemned, by which I should know or certain that it was not yet pleasing to God.

  Therefore let them boldly go to work, — pope, bishop, priest, monk and scholar! They are the right people to persecute the truth, as they have ever done.

  God give us all a Christian mind, and especially to the Christian nobility of the German nation a right spiritual courage to do the best that can be done for the poor Church. Amen.

  Wittenberg, 1520.

  ENDNOTES.

  1 Unserm furnchmen nach. See Introduction, p. 57.

  2 An ironical comparison of the monks’ cowl and tonsure with the headgear of the jester.

  3 i. e., Which one turns out to be the real fool.

  4 The proverb ran, Monachus semper praesens, “a monk is always there.” See Wander, Deutsches Sprichwörterlexicon, under Mönch, No. 130.

  5 Evidently a reference to the Gravamina of the German Nation; see Gebhardt, Die Grav. der Deutschen Nation, Breslau, 1895.

  6 Councils of the Church, especially those of Constance (1414-18), and of Basel (1431-39).

  7 Charles V. was elected Emperor in 1519, when but twenty years of age. Hutten expresses his “hopes of good” from Charles in Vadiscus (Böcking, IV, 156).

  8 Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1100).

  9 Frederick II (1212-1250), grandson of Barbarossa and last of the great Hohenstaufen Emperors. He died under excommunication.

  10 Pope Julius II (1503-1513). Notorious among the popes for his unscrupulous pursuit of political power, he was continually involved in war with one and another of the European powers over the possession of territories in Italy.

  11 Luther’s recollection of the figures was faulty.

  12 The term “Romanist” is applied by Luther to the champions of the extreme form of papal supremacy. C. Vol. I, p. 343 f.

  13 i. e., The three rods for the punishment of an evil pope.

  14 Spuknisse, literally “ghosts.” The gist of the sentence is, “the Romanists have frightened the world with ghost-stories.”

  15 Olegötze— “an image anointed with holy oil to make it sacred”; in modern German, “a blockhead.”

  16 Lay-baptism in view of imminent death is a practice as old as the Christian Church. The right of the laity to administer baptism in such cases was expressly recognized by the Council of Elvira, in the year 306, and the decree of that Council became a part of the law of the Church. The right of the laity to give absolution in such cases rests on the principle that in the absence of the appointed official of the Church any Christian can do for any other Christian the things that are absolutely necessary or salvation, for “necessity knows no law.” Cf. Vol. I, p. 30, note 2.

  17 The canon law, called by Luther throughout this treatise and elsewhere, the “spiritual law,” is a general name for the decrees of councils (“canons” in the strict sense) and decisions of the popes (“decretals,” “constitutions,” etc.), promulgated by authority of the popes, and collected in the so-called Corpus juris canonici. It comprised the whole body of Church law, and embodied in legal forms the mediæval theory of papal absolutism, which accounts for the bitterness with
which Luther speaks of it, especially in this treatise. The Corpus includes the following collections of canons and decretals: The Decretum of Gratian (1142), the Liber Extra (1234), the Liber Sextus (1298), the Constitutiones Clementinae (1318 or 1317), and the two books of Extravagantes , — the Extravagantes of John XXII, and the Extravagantes communes. The last pope whose decrees are included is Sixtus IV (died 1484). See Catholic Encyclop.,IV, pp. 391 ff.

  18 Augustine, the master-theologian of the Ancient Church, bishop of Hippo in Africa from 395-430.

  19 Ambrose, bishop of Milan from 374-397, had not yet been baptised at the time of his election to the episcopate, which was forced upon him by the unanimous voice of the people of the city.

  20 Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, 247-258, is said to have consented to accept the office only when the congregation surrounded his house and besought him to yield to their entreaties.

  21 Was ausz der Tauff krochen ist.

  22 The character indelebilis, or “indelible mark,” received authoritative statement in the bull Exultate Deo (1439). Eugenius IV, summing up the Decrees of the Council of Florence, says: “Among these sacraments there are three — baptism, confirmation, and orders — which indelibly impress upon the soul a character, i. e., a certain spiritual mark which distinguishes them from the rest” (Mirbt, Quellen, 2d ed., No. 150). The Council of Trent in its XXIII. Session, July 15, 1563 (Mirbt, No. 312), defined the correct Roman teaching as follows: “Since in the sacrament of orders, as in baptism and confirmation, a character is impressed which cannot be destroyed or taken away, the Holy Synod justly condemns the opinion of those who assert that the priests of the New Testament have only temporary power, and that those once rightly ordained can again be made laymen, if they do not exercise the ministry of the Word of God.”

  23 i. e., They are all Christians, among whom there can be no essential difference.

  24 The sharp distinction which the Roman Church drew between clergy and laity found practical application in the contention that the clergy should be exempt from the jurisdiction of the civil courts, This is the so-called privilegium fori, “benefit of clergy.” It was further claimed that the government of the clergy and the administration of Church property must be entirely in the hands of the Church authorities, and that no lay rulers might either make or enforce laws which in any way affected the Church. See Lea, Studies in Church History, 169-219 and Prot. Realencyk., VI, 594.

  25 It was the contention of the Church authorities that priests charged with infraction of the laws of the state should first be tried in the ecclesiastical courts. If found guilty, they were degraded from the priesthood and handed over to the state authorities for punishment. Formula for degradation in the canon law, C. 2 in VI, de poen. (V, 9). See Prot. Realencyk., VI, 589.

  26 The interdict is the prohibition of the administration of the sacraments and of the other rites of the Church within the territory upon which the interdict is laid (Realencyk., IX, 208 f.). Its use was not uncommon in the Middle Ages, and during the time that the power of the popes was at its height it proved an effective means of bringing refractory rulers to terms. A famous instance is the interdict laid upon the Kingdom of England by Innocent III in 1208. Interdicts of more limited local extent were quite frequent. The use of the interdict as punishment for trifling infractions of church law was a subject of complaint at the diets of Worms (1521) and Nürnberg (1524). See A. Wrede, Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V., II, pp. 685 f, III, 665.

  27 The statement of which Luther here complains is found in the Decretum of Gratian, Dist. XL, c. 6, Si papa. In his Epitome (see Introduction, p. 58), Prierias had quoted this canon against Luther, as follows: “A Pontifex indubitatus (i. e., a pope who is not accused of heresy or schism) cannot lawfully be deposed or judged either by a council or by the whole world, even if he is so scandalous as to lead people with him by crowds into the possession of hell.” Luther’s comment is: “Be astonished, O heaven; shudder, O earth! Behold, O Christians, what Rome is!” (Weimar Ed., VI, 336).

  28 Gregory the Great, pope 590-604. The passage is found in Migne, LXXVI, 203; LXXVII, 34.

  29 Antichrist, the incarnation of all that is hostile to Christ and His Kingdom. His appearance is prophesied in 2 Thess. 2:3-10 (the “man of sin, sitting in the temple of God”); 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3, and Rev. 13. In the early Church the Fathers sometimes thought the prophecies fulfilled in the person of some especially pestilent heretic. Wyclif applied the term to the pope,— “the pope would seem to be not the vicar of Christ, but the vicar of Antichrist” (see Loos, Dogmengeschichte, 4th ed., p. 649). On Dec. 11, 1518, Luther wrote to Link: “You can see whether my suspicion is correct that at the Roman court the true Antichrist rules of whom St. Paul speaks”; and March 13, 1519, he wrote to Spalatin: “I am not sure but that the pope is Antichrist or his apostle.” It was the worldly pretensions of the papacy which suggested the idea both to Wyclif and to Luther. By the year 1520 Luther had come to the definite conclusion that the pope was the “man of sin, sitting in the temple of God,” and this opinion he never surrendered.

  30 See above, p. 65.

  31 According to academic usage, the holder of a Master’s degree was authorised to expound the subject named in the degree.

  32 The doctrine of papal infallibility was never officially sanctioned in the Middle Ages, but the claim of infallibility was repeatedly made by the champions of the more extreme view of papal power, e. g., Augustinus Triumphus (died 1328) in his Summa de potestate Papae. In his attack upon the XCV Theses (Dialogus de potestate Papae, Dec, 1517) Prierias had asserted, “The supreme pontiff (i. e., the pope) cannot err when giving a decision as pontiff, i. e., speaking officially (ex officio), and doing what in him lies to learn the truth”; and again, “Whoever does not rest upon the teaching of the Roman Church and the supreme pontiff as an infallible rule of faith, from which even Holy Scripture draws its vigor and authority, is a heretic” (Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., I, 348). In the Epitome he had said: “Even though the pope as an individual (singularis persona) can do wrong and hold a wrong faith, nevertheless as pope he cannot give a wrong decision” (Weimar Ed., VI, 337).

  33 Most recently in Prierias’s Epitome. See preceding note.

  34 Luther had discussed the whole subject of the power of the keys in a Latin treatise, Resolutio super propositione xiii. de potestate papae, of 1519 (Weimar Ed., II, pp. 185 ff.), and in the German treatise The Papacy at Rome (Vol. I, pp. 337-394).

  35 Pp. 66 ff.

  36 Another contention of Prierias. In 1518 (Nov. 25th) Luther had appealed his cause from the decision of the pope, which he foresaw would be adverse, to the decision of a council to be held at some future time. In the Epitome Prierias discusses this appeal, asserting, among other things, that “when there is one undisputed pontiff, it belongs to him alone to call a council,” and that “the decrees of councils neither bind nor hold (nullum ligant vel astringunt) unless they are confirmed by authority of the Roman pontiff” (Weimar Ed., VI, 335).

  37 i. e., A mere gathering of people.

  38 The Council of Nicæa, the first of the great councils of the Church, assembled in 325 for the settlement of the Arian controversy. Luther’s statement that it was called by the Emperor Constantine, and that its decisions did not derive their validity from any papal confirmation, is historically correct. On Luther’s statements about this council, see Schäffer, Luther als Kirchenhistoriker, pp. 291 ff.; Kohler, Luther und die Kg., pp. 148 ff.

  39 Luther is here referring to the earlier so-called “ecumenical” councils.

  40 i. e., A council which will not be subject to the pope. Cf. Erl. Ed., xxvi, 112.

  41 i. e., They belong to the “spiritual estate”; see above, p. 69.

  42 Der Haufe, i. e. Christians considered en masse, without regard to official position in the Church.

  43 The papal crown dates from the XI Century; the triple crown, or tiara, from the beginning of the XIV. It was intended to signify that very superiority
of the pope to the rulers of this world, of which Luther here complains. See Realencyk., X, 532, and literature there cited.

  44 A statement made by Augustinus Triumphus. See above, p. 73, note 5; and below, p. 246.

  45 The Cardinal della Rovere, afterwards Pope Julius II, held at one time the archbishopric of Avignon, the bishoprics of Bologna, Lausanne, Coutances, Viviers, Mende, Ostia and Velletri, and the abbacies of Nonantola and Grottaferrata. This is but one illustration of the scandalous pluralism practised by the cardinals. Cf. Lea, in Cambridge Mod. Hist., I, pp. 650 f.

  46 The complaint that the cardinals were provided with incomes by appointment to German benefices goes back to the Council of Constance (1415). C. Benrath, p. 87, note 17.

  47 The creation of new cardinals was a lucrative proceeding for the popes. On July 31, 1517, Leo X created thirty-one cardinals, and is said to have received from the new appointees about 300,000 ducats. Needless to say, the cardinals expected to make up the fees out of the income of their livings. See Weimar Ed., VI, 417, note I, and Pastor, Gesch. der Papste IV, I, 137. C. Hutten’s Vadiscus (Bocking IV, 188).

  48 The famous Benedictine monastery just outside the city of Bamberg.

  49 The proposal made at Constance (see above, p. 82, note 2) was more generous. It suggested a salary of three to four thousand gulden.

  50 As early as the XIV Century both England and France had enacted laws prohibiting the very practices of which Luther here complains. It should be noted, however, that these laws were enforced only occasionally, and never very strictly.