That we would no more assume that we might give to our children the livings which we hold, and in no way claim to possess what belonged to the living or the church.
That if any one considered himself injured or likely to be injured in other things by our marriage, we would submit to the reasonable judgment of the authorities, so that the marriage be not injurious or disadvantageous to anyone.
That we do not wish to be understood as encroaching upon the rights of anyone, but (as recommending) that each priest who desired to marry should lay before his lords articles to which they could have easy access.
Wise and honourable Sirs, we have wished to sign our names, but have not done so for several reasons which we. shall at the proper time make known and bring forth, for in the little book (pamphlet) there is much that will require the names. No more now than this: God’s will be done on earth as in heaven!
Given the 13th day of July, 1522.
XIV. Defence Called Archeteles, in Which Answer Is Made to an Admonition That the Most Reverend Lord
ΒΙΞΗΟΡ oF CONSTANCE (BEING PERSUADED THERETO BY THE BEHAVIOUR OF CERTAIN WANTONLY FACTIOUS PER-SONS) SENT TO THE COUNCIL OF THE GREAT MINSTER AT ZURICH CALLED THE CHAPTER.
(August 22-3, 1522)
[[Apologeticus Archeteles adpellatus, quo respondetur paraenesi a revere-]
[dissimo domino Constantiensi (quorundam procaci faction ad id persuaso) ad]
[senatum prepositure Tigurine, quem ”capitulum”’ vocant, misse. In Schuler]
[and Schulthess ed., iii. 27-76. In Egli and Finsler ed., i., 256-327. Trans-]
[lated by Mr. Henry Preble, New York City.]
[This is Zwingli’s reply to the admonition which the Bishop of Constance,]
[the diocesan of the city of Zurich, addressed to the chapter of the Great]
[Minster on May 24, 1522. Zwingli was not mentioned in it but rightly re-]
[garding himself as the chief agent in bringing in the new ideas which were con-]
[demned by the Bishop, he made this reply. His delay in doing so was probably]
[due to his absorbing occupations in other directions. The treatise was written]
[hastily, he informed Myconius, in sending him a copy (August 26, 1522).]
[There are numerous allusions to the treatise in the Zwingli correspond-]
[ence. Thus Zwingli in writing to his bosom friend, Myconius, on August]
[23 1522 (Werke, n. e. vii., 567), promises him a copy, and this promise he]
[redeemed on the 26th (ibid., 569); on April 11, 1524, he alludes to it when]
[writing to Konrad Hofmann (viii. 169), and lastly to Konrad Sam in Ulm]
[on February 12, 1527 (Schuler and Schulthess ed., viii., 28), he imparted in-]
[formation regarding it as Sam was somehow unacquainted with it. In letters]
[to Zwingli from Michael Hummelberg on August 26, 1522 (Werke, n. e. vii.,]
[574), the same on September 4 (p. 578); Melchior Macrinus, on September]
[30 (p. 588, he calls it a kalw); Sebastian Meyer, on November 11 (p. 612);]
[Johannes Zwick, on November 27 (p. 820); and Hedio on February 10, 1523]
[(viii., 22), mention is made of it. But the gem of the collection is this de-]
[licious effusion from Erasmus, written from Basel, September 8, 1522 (p. 582),]
[on receipt of Zwingli’s present of a copy:]
[“I have read some pages of your apology [Archeteles]. 1 beseech you 197]
for the sake of the glory of the Gospel, which I know you would favour and which we all who bear the name of Christ ought to favour, if you should issue anything hereafter, treat so serious a matter seriously, and bear in mind evangelical modesty and patience. Consult your learned friends before you issue anything. I fear that that apology will cause you great peril and will injure the Gospel. Even in the few pages that I have read there are many things I wanted to warn you about. I do not doubt that your prudence will take this in good part, for I have written late at night with a mind that is most solicitous for you. Farewell.”
The Rev. Dr. B. J. Kidd, in his valuable collection of Documents of the Continental Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911), characterises the Archeteles as ” rather truculent” (p.389). It was this quality probably which offended Erasmus.]
In this treatise square brackets are used to indicate either the translation of the Greek term or terms which Zwingli used or references which are more exactly given than these are by Zwingli. TC the Most Reverend Father and Lord in Christ, Hugo von Hohenlandenberg, Bishop of Constance, Greeting, Huldreich Zwingli, preacher of the church of Zurich at the Great Minster.
That I again trouble your Highness with a letter, most noble Bishop, overwhelmed as you are by such a mass of duties, I do not think will be laid up against me, for I know that I am speaking to one whose highest pleasure it is that the name of Christ be spread abroad as widely as possible; and His business, as it is not of men, so it can in nowise be undone by men. But now that for about six years I have laboured to the best of my ability with the talent entrusted to my keeping, that when the Lord came and demanded His gain, I might not slothfully bring forward with fear and shame the one idle talent wrapped in a napkin, lo! I am denounced before your Highness as a destroyer of the Lord’s fold, not its guardian or shepherd. And this thing, as was fitting, caused you to send to us at Zurich that unnecessarily magnificent delegation of three scholars,” and I rendered such account to them before the Council of my teaching, which is not mine but God’s, that every one might have been content with it, if only he weighed the case in accordance with his judgment and not his feelings. And See his letter to Erasmus Fabricius, p. 113 of this volume.
when I thought the matter had been settled in entire peacefulness, as has been the constant and only object of my effort, certain impatient fellows began to gnash their teeth, not so much because they had found anything wrong as because they had not conquered and slain their adversary and levelled everything with the ground; and they began to look for an opportunity to make a disturbance, until, having thought out a scheme for harassing me secretly and underhandedly, they made you the patron of their design, and soothed their jealousy at the risk of your good name, forgetting that a counsellor was regarded, even among the ancients, as a sacred thing, and one not to be abused of any man. For, by their continual outcries and insinuations they finally dragged you into sending to the Council of our canons, which we call the Chapter, a document of admonition that is as far removed from any learning as from any moderation. For, this I divine rather than definitely assert, led by the following reasons particularly: first that you are not capable of anything of the sort yourself, and this you may take to mean that you could not accomplish anything even if you could do this kind of thing, nay, that you could have accomplished more, if you had given utterance to your thoughts in the German language’; secondly, that you meditate nothing but what is peaceful, while this admonition is so full of violence and threats, so pregnant with them that it might bring forth if necessary, nay, has already brought forth, this pamphlet which you see dedicated to your Highness. It is called ’“‘Archeteles” on this account, because it is masculine and is going to put an end, I hope, to all controversy between those gentlemen and myself, so that after this first engagement, with a continuous document at least, they will themselves make an end of strife and contention, and it may truly be the beginning and end of the entire quarrel, for I call God to witness I have none with them, so much so that I wonder at nothing more than what reason could have driven them The Bishop of Constance was a notoriously poor latinist.
to send to a place where there was no disturbance a thing which they expected would serve as an apple (ἔριδος) of discord, to arouse disagreement and strife. For I will say freely what I think. In their whole harangue they thunder forth the word peace, like those prophets whom Jeremiah denounces for continuing to cry, when there was no need, ” Peace, peace; when there is no peace” [Jer. vi, 14]. For at Zurich, as far as the teachings of Christ are concerned, everything is as quiet as anywhere in the world, even the laymen in general are so well versed in the Gospel that they will not listen to any other teachings. And this you will see more clearly from this example. While hitherto reckless mendicant friars had spouted forth in the pulpit whatever came into their heads, the Council has forbidden them to preach anything which they had not drawn from the fountain head of the two Testaments of Holy Writ. Wherefore it appears that these gentlemen see discord where, in the words of Paul, the name of God is glorified with one mind and one mouth [Rom. xv., 6]. And yet they have been disappointed in their hope, for, having. heard the admonitory document, I only blushed with shame that men of this kidney should be turning their eyes greedily upon me in the session of the Chapter, and rejoicing at the attack upon me, but I by no means grudged them this as long as the weapons with which I was attacked were not stronger than they were. For, all that has been patched together here is so poverty-stricken in its barrenness and awkwardness that I do not know but it would have been wiser to pass it all by with contempt than to refute it, if theinjury they are doing by it to the Sacred Writings had not challenged me to come to the aid of these. For, with one or two exceptions, whenever they take the Sacred Books in their hands they twist them so that they cannot hide their pain in silence; whenever they declaim they are so clumsy that you would think they had purposely aimed at raising a laugh. I say nothing of their solecisms and ”This was in 1520.
barbarisms, for to these our ecclesiastical ears have become hardened.
Therefore, most kindly Bishop, if you see them handled here a little freely, there is no reason to wonder; for they have deserved it by their recklessness and ignorance. And the same 15 demanded by the office that I fill. I must contradict and refute them, and, like faithful Abraham, who when he heard that Lot had been captured by the enemy even slew kings to set him free, I must rescue the Sacred Writings so wickedly tortured, and 1 feel sure that by that achievement I shall restore the spoils of highest honour to our great Melchizedek [Gen. xiv., 13 ff.]. For, although this whole performance seem on the face of it to be in accordance with your orders, I am not at all willing to understand it in that sense. For I want your good name to be intact and inviolate at all points, because I am pretty strongly convinced that where there is any talk of the doctrines of Christ, you hold the soundest views, and that you bid those of your Council to settle in the most suitable way the disputes that may happen to arise at this time between the heralds of God’s word. Let them see to it how well they do it. There is a report, however, that some of them do not act in all things as you would have them, but as their own diseased minds dictate. And in this admonitory document this is clear to everybody, for mention of my name is there avoided simply for the purpose of cutting off an opportunity for an answer on my part, though meanwhile I am attacked on all sides with the most damaging suspicions and am almost buried under them. How much more fitting it would have been—I appeal to your sense of justice—if I had taught anything impious, as these gentlemen will have it, to engage with me openly and to show definitely by the authority of Scripture, where and in what I had done wrong! As it is, by filling everything with their frightful lamentations, what else are they calling into doubt and suspicion than the whole teachings of Christ which I have preached so strenuously? But they shall get
no satisfaction; for if they had ever been minded to listen to those teachings they would not have hidden themselves, like cuttle-fish, in their own inky blackness, though by the help of him whose business is at stake I have so strained and purified and cleared this blackness that their purposes are evident to all and only their names are missing. These too, if they go on, as they have begun, attacking me from under cover, I shall be obliged to make known. I would rather they should suffer me quietly to lay the food of heaven before the sheep entrusted to my charge, to fill them with it and burn them with the fire of love, than that by their tricks and insinuations they should call me away from the sweet repose of letters to defend myself. I shall not, if they like to delight their spirits with quarrels, grudge them their contending constantly if they please with whomever shall be seasonable, so that they do not assail me, at least in a spirit of altercation. The opportunity to admonish or discuss shall be theirs at all times, so that they grant that the Sacred Writings are a sacred anchor, not to put trust in which is most faithless and wicked, and so that they come squarely to try conclusions with me. Otherwise, I too shall claim the right πρὸς πρῆτα xpngrítew [to fight the devil with his own weapons] If anybody shall call this arrogant, most excellent Bishop, I beg him to think over the things that I thought over until the divine spirit made stable that which it wrought in me, to wit: When we see the race of man worried and troubled, through the course of life, as to the attainment of happiness hereafter, and this not so much from natural vigilance as from the desire for life, the breath of which God, the Creator, breathed into our nostrils from the beginning of creation. Yet no way shows itself anywhere by which that happiness can be found. For if one turns to the philosophers, there is among them so much divergence of opinion about happi-
[Plutarch, Vite Aemil., c. 23; Lysandri, c. 20. ‘The dudum of Schuler and Schulthess seems smoother than the quum]
[of Egli and Finsler.—H. P.]
ness that one is filled with disgust at them; but if to the Christians, one finds much more confusion and vagueness among some of them than among the heathen, some of them aiming to reach happiness through human tradition and the material things of this world, relying, that is, upon their own human notions, while others rely only upon the mercy and promises of God, and both struggle with tooth and nail, as the saying is, to get their own opinion accepted. Placed thus at the parting of the ways, whither shall I turn? To men? If you say, “Yes, to men,” I continue: “To those who in the old days when Christianity was still a new thing were held to be wise, or to those who just before our day showed forth folly rather than wisdom?” Here the opponent will struggle and become dumb, like the chief men of the Jews when asked by Christ, “The baptism of John, whence was it?” [Matt. xxi., 25 7.1. And if you press him very hard he will admit that one must turn to the men of old, as worthy of more authority both for their antiquity and for the holiness of their lives. And when you add: “Even among these one can find things at variance or inconsistent with the writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles. To which, therefore, do you think one ought to accede?” he will answer, unless he be a blockhead or a dumb brute, “To the things that were uttered under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.” For the things which are of human wisdom, however magnificently coloured and decked out, can deceive, but not the things that are of God. Here one needs the sinews of faith, which if any man lack, he will totter and faint and fall.
As I turned these things zealously over in my mind, I say, most excellent Bishop, and prayed to God to point out the right way to my hesitating soul, He said, “Thou fool, reflect on this: The truth of the Lord abideth forever; cling to that truth” [Ps. cxix., 90]; and “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away [Matt. xxiv., 35]; the things of man shall be done away, but the things of God are unchangeable”; and '''In
vain they worship me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men’” [Matt. xv., 9], as if God ought to follow our suggestions, or as if, when we had contrived something which at first sight seemed beautiful and good and even holy, it were straightway going to please Him. Rather ought we to strive always to depend upon Him with our whole heart, and not upon our own desires and contrivances, like sluggish slaves who will suffer many stripes if they neglect the will of their master and do their own. Therefore, putting all else aside, I came at length to have trust in nothing and in no words so much as in those which proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord. And when miserable mortals, forgetting both themselves and God, tried to palm off their own works as His, I began to look to see whether any means could be found by which one could detect whether the works of man or of God were the better, especially as I saw not a few straining every nerve to make the simpleminded accept their own utterances as divine, even though they were at variance with, or in direct opposition to, the words of God. And as I sought, it occurred to me that all things are made clear in that light which saith, “1 am the light of the world” [John viii., 12], which lighteth every man that cometh into this world; and again [I. John iv., 1], ” Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God.” And seeking for a touchstone, I find none other than the stone of offence and the rock of scandal, [I. Pet. ii, 7] upon which are broken all who, after the manner of the Pharisees, make the word of God of none effect through their tradition. Having, therefore, put these things together in this way, I began to try every doctrine by this touchstone, and if I saw that the stone reflected the same colour or rather that the doctrine could bear the briliancy of the stone, I accepted it; if not, I rejected it. And finally it came to pass that at the very beginning of the test I began to discover whether there were anything added to the real doctrine or inserted into it, and then I could not be driven by any force or any threats to put in
the human things, however they puffed themselves out and tried to appear fine, the same trust as in the divine. Nay, if any set of men taught their own notions that were not consistent, or rather were quite inconsistent, with the divine, I flung this saying of the Apostle at them, “We ought to obey God rather than men” [Acts v., 29], until those who have such an exalted opinion of their own utterances and little or none of those of Christ, got the worst possible opinion of me, and this I regard as the surest sign that the procedure is most acceptable to God and beneficial to me. For “Woe unto you,” he says, ’ when all men shall speak well of you!” [Luke vi., 26], and ” Blessed are ye when men shall hate you… and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake,” and “Your names are written in heaven” [Luke vi. 22, and X., 20].
Therefore, if envious persons ever denounce me to your Highness as disregarding or scorning human traditions, know that this comes from my having found them to be at variance with, and in opposition to, the divine teachings, and that I cannot be made to fear what man can do to me. For, though he cast out my name, I am sure that it will have honour with God; for the name of God will never be more surely glorified than if my name is held in the worst repute among men, and if he slay my body, he will establish my soul in everlasting life. To this treasure, namely, the certainty of God’s word, must our hearts be guided. For this neither time nor moths can reduce to naught, but they can titles and priesthoods and statues and gold and fine raiment and feasts and coaches and mules. Do you see what has driven me to refuting their bloodless document of admonition? This, verily, because I see that by their very speech, which, as Christ witnesseth, is the. surest messenger of the heart, their feelings with regard to divine and human things stand forth clearer than light. And since they cannot rest and will not suffer the budding knowledge of Christ to grow, I would have their words known far
and wide, that they may be the better guarded against. It is not I who condemn them, but the Lord speaking by the mouth of Ezekiel, and saying [Ezek. xiii., 3 7.1: “Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts! Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. “They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith 1t; albeit I have not spoken?” and the rest of the things that are written 1n chapter xiii. Who does not see that by these words that class of men is hit who say with their tongue, “Lord, Lord” and ”the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” [Jer. vii., 4], but in their heart look to this: Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple ” [Matt. xxiii., 16], and this: ”Whosoever shall swear by the altar it is nothing, but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it is guilty ”[ Matt. xxiii, 18]. And yet they would have themselves appear the while as champions of the divine law and name and of the Gospel. “Therefore your Highness should avoid both their advice and their conversation, unless you desire to expose yourself to the greatest derision. I will not say here how roughly they handled a few days ago certain pious men and true heralds’ of Christ, though you had not ordered such harshnes. But this is not generally known, and the belief is current that everything is done by your authority and command, which may sometime cast a great stain upon you, even without your knowing it. For this matter should not be carried on upon a basis of power, but upon that of the sanction of the Sacred Writings. For the more authoritatively
[Allusion to the treatment accorded to George Brunner and Sebastian]
[Hofmeister. See Finsler’s note ad loco.]
you exercise your power, the more will you render yourself odious to all men. For we ought to take the Holy Scriptures as our guide and master; if any one uses them aright he should be unharmed, even though our little doctors be ever so much displeased. Otherwise calamity will fall upon us sometime, for the knowledge of the Sacred Writings is to-day upon the lips not only of the ecclesiastics but of almost the entire community. Therefore nothing ought to be done which savours of authority rather than of reason and the divine purpose; for nothing more would be accomplished than Paul accomplished by kicking against the pricks. For the study of the Gospel (to say nothing meanwhile of the majesty of God) is too vast a thing to be put to sleep or to death by the persecution of one or two individuals, and if it were kept under for a time by the wickedness of certain men, it would yet burst forth into a fiercer flame. You should therefore be wary and wise, and pray the Lord to guide your path, and, to make an end finally, you should take it in good part if something be taken from you to be added to Christ. For thus you will make the house of Hohenlandenberg most illustrious and your own soul most acceptable to God. The Most High God grant this! Amen. I beg you for the sake of Christ to examine from top to bottom this whole matter which is under discussion here. For it could not longer be hidden, and ought not to be, that certain persons were arming with your power their own hostility to Christ and his teachings. I have watched for a long time to see if some one from all the diocese would not challenge them into the arena and put a stop to their walking with heads thus high in air, and now that no one has appeared, I have come forward myself. May it be εὐκαιρῶς, to victory, and to the glory of Christ, and may He preserve your Highness long in prosperity! For I, too, wish you well. Zurich, August 22nd, in the year 1522.
Yours devotedly, Huldreich Zwingli
preacher at the Great Minster of the Church of Zurich.
Admonition Sent to the Chapter of the Great Minster
by the Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Constance
Hugo, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Bishop of Constance, to our sincerely beloved in Christ, the venerable and honourable Provost and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of the Great Minster of Saints Felix and Regula at Zurich in our diocese, greeting and sincere affection in the Lord.
I. We have for some time, dearly beloved, heard reports that there are, almost all through Germany, people who cry out day and night that the people of Christ have been wrongfully oppressed until now by the heads of the Church with hard and burdensome regulations, observances, and ceremonials, in consequence of which such persons are trying with all their might to cast off and do away with ceremonials, and
II. in this golden age (for that is what they call it) in which the Gospel is at last beginning to shed its light upon mankind, to lead back the mass of the people to III. the freedom of the Gospel. But when they strive to pull up out of the field of the Lord what human ordinances they
IV. call tares and cockles, we see, alas, the wheat also being rooted up before our eyes. For have not hateful contentions arisen from this, and is not the whole business carried on with recriminations, after the pattern of silly women? Is not every one saying:
v. 1. Iam of Paul, I of Cephas, and I of Apollos? Is not, in short, that happening which 1s apt to happen among sheep when 1n the darkness of night
v. 1. araider, a wolf, has broken into the fold? They flee, and some run unawares into the wolf’s jaws, some plunge against a wall in front of them, and some wander about in panic-stricken uncertainty. So the body of the Church is affected in these days by a sort of spirit of dizziness, and some go feeling their way in the dark, as it were, not knowing what direction to take, others move about in a circle,
some stand still waiting for the sure light of truth to shine forth out of the darkness, others know not any course to take, but yet deride and judge those who take part on either side. Others are led astray and driven to doing this by various passions, those worst of counsellors, anger,
v. 11. hatred, jealousy, ambition, and the like, so that, in their zeal to follow after individuals, the real love of peace and calm devotion to truth are abandoned or made war upon, than which wickedness what can be imagined more execrable? You can in fact see some people cling with so much
v. 111. animosity to their own undertakings or decisions that they cannot be turned about by any reasoning or pious persuasion. They would rather have everything rush to ruin and destruction with them, than turn their feet back from the path they have entered, even though it be no path. Such people are in short filled with wrath and undying hatred against all whom they see or hear of not only as in opposition to themselves but even as not agreeing with full voice and mind to their opinions. And how much damage and destruction this brings upon the Republic of Christ, any Christian can tell. For how can it be that in so many opposing and
IX. diverging opinions harmony can be restored? Peace was never sought nor found through strife.
X. ‘To what opinion meanwhile is the simple-minded people to attach itself? What shall it embrace? What approve? What shall it do? Whither turn? For
XI. it sees learned and simple, scorning all gospeltaught gentleness and love, and charging upon each other so fiercely and wounding each other so pitiably that every man seems trying to seize his neighbour who does not happen to agree with him in this matter and
XII. to cast him out of the ship of the Church as a sinner and a heretic, while
XIII. he hears on the other side tones full of injury and insult and reviling quite contrary to any Christian piety.
As each side thus attacks and pursues the other, every man finally follows the course that his inclinations lead or his passions drive him to adopt.
XIV. When a faithful minister, who has the misfortune to be a steward of the Lord at such an ill-fated time and amid such a mass of evils, sees the one and only bride of Christ smitten not in one place only but on all sides within and without, and wounded with a mortal wound, with what pain is he not wrung, with what anxieties torn, knowing not, meanwhile, what he ought to do? For if he speaks as love of the bride and the bitterness of a mother’s pain suggest, he has to fear wranglings and strife, nay the savage bites of hatred and contumely, and to expose himself to these not from one or the other party, but from both.
XV. But if he prefer to follow the advice of the prophet Amos who saith, “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time” [Amos v., 13], and, as the vision of Ezekiel has it, to mourn and groan over all the abominations that are done; or, with the royal prophet,’ to keep quiet in the wilderness while there is contention in the city: XVI. the truth of the Gospel stands in his way: “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming,.. and fleeth” [John x, 11, 12]. Since, therefore, we are of those ministers whose lot has fallen upon
XVII. these dangerous times, and we see the evils constantly increasing, and the peace disturbed, and
XVIII. offences multiplied in the fold of the Lord,
XIX. with the introduction of new errors not less dangerous than the earlier ones, and meanwhile the peace, that we have long been waiting for with great longings, cometh not, but confusion,
XX. we are forced to act by ”the zeal of the house of God” [Ps. Ixix., 9; John ii., 17], in one part of which at least David. Ps. lv., 9.
there isa watchful guardian. Led by zeal for the faith which at baptism we swore to defend, by zeal against the present schism under which our holy Mother Church is suffering so severely, we have determined to shut our eyes and delay no longer, but to toil in season and out of season, to preserve as far as possible the unity handed down by the Lord through his Apostles to us their successors, and to gather into the Church the wandering and erring sheep which, by factious perversity and heretical tampering with the faith, certain persons are separating from our mother.
XXI. Therefore we exhort you, brethren, and according to the mastery of the Lord and his Gospel we entreat you: Watch against the snares of the devil, and, both for your own salvation and for that of the Lord’s whole flock, keep guard more energetically against this deadly heresy.
XXII. For they are renewing the old-time attack upon the unity of the Church, and are bringing into play again their sacrilegious machinations with their customary wiles. Is not the party of the old-time heretics visible here? Does not the accursed plant which the Heavenly Father hath not planted show this? These are the same nostrums with which in old days they turned the simple-minded away from the real cure of their trouble, the same sophistical tricks and exhortations, that, forsooth, they might not live in harmony with their own bishops and priests, nor hold fast to the discipline of the Church in peace and faith according to the commands of the Lord, nor keep inviolate and unstained in their walk the glory of the Christian profession, which 1s founded upon obedience and harmony. The same policy, the same overturning of things, is now again in process of introduction at the hands of certain persons to the downfall of salvation, that God be no more prayed to, and that he who has denied Christ appeal no more to Him he has denied, that after the wrongdoing repentance of the sin be also taken away. They will not that satisfaction be made unto the Lord through bishops and priests, but, leaving the ministers of the Lord, they would
XXIII. raise up a new and sacrilegious custom contrary to the directions of the Gospel.
XXIV. And in order to include all the machinations of the devil for the destruction of the simple-minded, they cut off the prayers and orisons through which, if anything especially foul and monstrous has appeared in the Church, the Lord ought to be appeased in long and uninterrupted penitence, and, under a lying pretence of an insidious peace, call upon the sick and wounded
XXV. to take to heroic measures, a recklessness, to wit, that leads to destruction. Alas that this is so plainly shown by these times of ours in which there is no place for obedience and peace and quiet, and the bitterness of rebellion and strife and persecution seems to have spread over all things. Hence we warn you again, dearly beloved, not to trust wantonly to these destructive utterances, nor feed the fever of fallacy with acceptance of fallacy, nor take poison for a healing draught or death for salvation.
XXVI. Be not deceived by the authority of these people nor by the learning with which they proclaim everywhere that they have the spirit of the Lord.
XXVII. For with adulterous teaching they seek to break down the chastity of the Church and to violate the truth of the Gospel.
XXVIII. The Lord cries and says: Hearken not unto the sayings of false prophets, for the visions of their hearts deceive them. They say, but not out of the mouth of the Lord, Ye shall have peace. [See Jer. xxiii., 16, 17.]
XXIX. Peace they bring, who themselves have no peace. They promise freedom, when they are the slaves of corruption.” They, who have withdrawn from the Church, offer to raise up and bring back to the Church those who have fallen laden with many burdens. ‘They who walk in the darkness of error would restore you to the light, and
XXX. undertake to furnish the food of the Gospel to all, when they are themselves tortured by the pangs of a JT. Peter ii., 19.
fatal hunger. Let no man cause you to wander from the way of the Lord which you have learned from the cradle. Let no man drag you Christians away from the Gospel, from the teachings of the Church, and
XXXI. from the pious traditions of the ancients.
XXXII. Let no man take from the Church you who are the sons of the Church. Let those perish by themselves who wish to perish. Let those alone remain outside the Church who have withdrawn from the Church. Let those alone be without their bishops who have revolted against their bishops.
XXXIII. Accept our advice, who are compelled and are ready to make an accounting to the Lord for you, and withdraw not from the Church you have thus far believed, nor from its priests, for it is written [cf. Deut. xvii., 12]:
XXXIV. “The man who shall have puffed himself up in his pride so as not to listen to his priest or judge, whoever he shall be in those days, that man shall die.”
XXXV. We desire, nevertheless, nay urge, that the Gospel be preached and known and kept, only let it not remove any man from the fold and unity of the Church, without which
XXXVI. there can be no Gospel; Christ is one, and the - Church is one, and
XXXVII. there is one apostolic seat placed upon a rock by the voice of the Lord. Another altar besides the one altar cannot be set up, nor a new priesthood besides the one priesthood be established.
XXXVIII. ‘“Whoso gathereth not with me, scattereth.”!
XXXIX. False andimpious and sacrilegious is whatever is set up by the favour of man to the injury of the order of the Church.
XL. Reason does not dictate nor does the natural reverence we ought to feel for our forefathers counsel this sudden casting off with hostile violence of the traditions, observ-
[Luke xi., 23.]
ances, and ceremonials of the fathers. For I do not admit that those people should here be listened to, who
XLI. resist the ceremonials and ordinances of the fathers simply on the ground that they are, as they say, the inventions of man, and not from the Spirit of God, but things laid upon the Christian multitude as a burden and an oppression by dreamers and perverted spirits;
XLII. as if the same notion could not be got up in regard to the traditions of the Apostles and
XLIII. of the general councils. Let injurious clamour of this sort cease, therefore, and let unholy suspicion, such as the least of these gentry would regret in his own case, be not showered upon the good fathers who
XLIV. arecommended to usas much by their lives as by their teaching… Let the general good also invite us to retain the observance of the ceremonials of the Church at least
XLV. for the time being. For all political order would XLVI. fall to the ground, if the things which had been XLVII. agreed upon by general consent, or
XLVIII. atleast acceded to, could be found fault with, Or
XLIX. called to the test of a new standard at every man’s own sweet will. For where has there ever been an opinion so unanimously accepted that no objection could be made to it by people influenced by devotion or ignorance or mere contrary-mindedness and the itching to get up something new? It is, therefore, fair, and has been sanctioned by law and custom, that every decision affecting a body of people should rest
L. upon the voice of the majority in matters at least which are not
LI. at variance with the divine law, asin the present case. If, on the other hand, it were free to any and everybody to obstruct the course of things, nothing more would be accomplished than if
LII. there should be kept up between the masters of
a ship a bitter and continuous quarrel, one wishing to make sail, another to shorten sail, one striving to tack to port, the other to starboard. For when the decision of the majority has been reached, is it not wiser to help carry it out or at least not persistently to oppose it, and so
LIII. to reach some sort of a harbour, than, in the uncertain hope of a better harbour, to throw everything into confusion and evident mutiny? Finally, what is more likely, that
LIV. one person should be deceived, or the whole community? What is more probable, that the consciences of a few should be at fault, or of all? Granted that their counsels seem to them, or even perhaps
LV. are, sounder
LVI. counsels; yet of what advantage to the general body, of which they are but a small part, is this obstinate LVII. attempt to drag it elsewhere, when it is moving in the opposite course without risk of losing its soul? To what does it give birth but strife and offences and confusion? Granted even that the whole body was wrong in establishing or accepting a ceremonial system thus far maintained, and that, as is the portion of human ignorance and frailty, some things have become mixed with the Christian religion which are not altogether in harmony with the Gospel and Holy Scripture, yet the Christian piety which we ought to show in all our dealings with all men demands that, with a view to their instruction, we. LVIII. make some allowance for those who err with good intentions, at least if their error be not excessive, rather than expose everything to such manifest uproar and rebellion. It was no doubt in this sense that the dictum was made:
LIX. A universal error has the force of right. As, therefore, our beatified Pope of blessed memory, Leo X, and his most serene majesty, Charles V, Emperor of th» Romans, recently
LX. condemned new doctrines of this kind, and pro-
mulgated their condemnation in official documents,” on the ground that such doctrines were contrary to the order of the Church and contrary to the law of the Gospel and to the unity of Gospel ordinance, we appeal to you whom the Holy Spirit has appointed
LXI. torule with us the Church, which he won
LXII. by his blood—we appeal to you by that pity which all Christians feel at the thought of vile schism in the Church, his spotless bride, to see that these doctrines are put off, put aside for the time, not preached or discussed or taught, openly or in secret, also that nothing be
LXIII. altered, changed, or made different in the ceremonial of the Church, until
LXIV. those whom it concerns come together for the business of the Church, and conferring together render a decision regulated by regard for discipline and mercy, and LXV compare the Scriptures together, so that we may all walk in the house of the Lord in one mind and one step and one path, until we win the true peace in him who hath made the two one in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Finally we beg you, yourselves and through those entrusted to you, diligently to offer prayers meanwhile to the Lord, that he may LXVI. be appeased by the restitution that is due him, and may wash away the sin of the wrongs we have done to merit these things. Pray for the things that make for the peace of Jerusalem, that the Lord may ”do good in [his] good pleasure unto Zion; build… the walls of Jerusalem [Ps. li, 18]. This, Venerable and Honourable Brethren, beloved to us in Christ, is what, led
LXVII. by our fatherly affection for you, we determine to write to you at this time of confusion, begging you by the bowels of compassion of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to abide in the unity of
The Pope’s Bull against Luther, June 15, 1520, and the Emperor’s edict at Worms, May 26, 1521, against the same. These, slightly condensed, are given in the original Latin in B. J. Kidd’s Documents of the Continental Reformation (Oxford, 1911), pp. 75-79, and 87-89, respectively. Thereis a full translation of the Bull by H. E. Jacobs, in his Life of Luther (N. Y., Heroes of the Reformation), pp. 413-435.
LXVIII. Holy Mother Church and in obedience to those set over you, and not to cast away thus hastily the ceremonies of the Church introduced by our forefathers, and this we strongly hope and confidently promise ourselves from you. The Most High God deign to keep
LXIX. His Church in peace and you in safety! Amen. Given at Constance the twenty-fourth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and twenty-two.
Huldreich Zwingli’s Reply
To you I must now address my words, who two months or so ago put forth a certain document. Your names I willingly and gladly omit to mention, that they may not be in ill repute among good men, and that I may not provoke you unduly, for I have a hope that you will finally leave the asses and come over to the oxen, abandon the goats for the sheep. Not that I do not know your names or could not set them out as a laughing stock to the crowd, but I think it more profitable, for the advancement of Christ’s teaching, not to do so. Although it may give rise to suspicion of others than yourselves as authors of the document, yet I have preferred to spare your names rather than to answer the viciously wanton suspicions of certain persons. For I am going to treat you as you would by no means treat me if I treated the cause of the Gospel in your style and defended myself with weapons like yours. And I pray to God to enlighten and guide my mind so that I shall say nothing unworthy of him, and yours so that you shall take everything that I say in good part, that casting aside all strife we may come together into one body in Christ and think in harmony in the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I. In the first place, therefore, what was the need of accusing me, a Swiss professing Christ among the Swiss, of raising this disturbance, since you say that it is taking place only in Germany, and the Swiss are not reckoned
among the Germans? Yet, meanwhile, though I have been watching almost a whole month, I have been unable to discover that you have sent a like admonition to anybody anywhere in Germany. Why do ye not apply your remedy to the diseased part? Know ye not that Christ said: “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick”? [Luke v., 31]. It becomes apparent, therefore, that it is I to whom ye are singing your little song; for I fancy you have more sense than to be applying a remedy to a limb that you do not consider diseased. But in this matter I owe a certain amount of gratitude to you, because it has pleased you to give me a sort of general hint, unless perhaps you did it to cut me off from an opportunity to answer. This I rather think, however, you are offering me, in order not to be forever using the same subterfuge and exposing yourselves to ridicule. And as to the matter itself, it is not thought to be such a very unworthy deed if one complains that Christ’s poor sheep are being crushed under burdensome ordinances and observances. For that holy man Moses did the like [Exod. ii., 11] when he slew the Egyptian and freed the Israelite and finally led all the people. out of captivity. But why do I bring up such ancient matters? Christ himself was moved to compassion when he saw the multitude neglected like loose and outcast sheep that had no shepherd, so that presently he said unto his disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few,” and bade them pray the Lord of the harvest that he would straightway send harvesters [Matt. ix., 36-38]. And so Paul, who was ready to become accursed for the sake of the Israelite brethren, that they might at length loathe their burden of laws and ceremonials [Romans ix., 3]. It cannot be denied, I think, that the hodgepodge of human ordinances is so tremendous that hundreds of those Cyprian oxen were not enough to eat them up; and no wonder, since every one thinks himself at liberty to make new ones to his heart’s content, and no one objects or resists, so that now they have all but accepted this bit of tyranny, whatever
the prelate will he may,” though Christ gives warning to the contrary, saying [Matt. xv., 9]: In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” If, therefore, these things profit us nothing before God, yet meanwhile weigh upon the poor sheep to such a degree that God, pitying them, promised by the mouth of his prophet that he would take away the shepherds who fed themselves, and would visit and free the scattered sheep [Ezek. xxxiv., 10], (Here I beg of you to read the whole chapter, that you may be taught how offensive to God are those shepherds such as you would like to make him, who yet on account of the goodness of his heart cannot be made such,) what harm is there, pray, if one complains that the people of Christ are unduly kept in constant oppression? He does nothing else, surely, than what God himself hath done, and Christ, and Paul, and Moses.
II. What harm, pray, is going to happen to us if the whole rubbish-heap of ceremonials be cleared away, since God declares that he is worshipped in vain by these things? The sayings of the Lord are pure sayings, silver tried by fire and cleansed from earth, aye seven times cleansed. Are we, therefore, to mix dross with the silver again? Are we to change to dross those who have become the true metal of Israel? The house of Israel is to me become dross’ [Ezek. xxii., I8]. You should consider, therefore, whether this age of ours be not rightly called golden by them who look to setting the words of God in all their purity before hungry souls, and allowing none of the vanities of human recklessness to be mixed therewith. But they would make it an iron age who cannot suffer this, saying: Depart from us. We want not the knowledge of thy ways. We have no use for thee. Hence they cry out: Seize him, bind him, cast him into prison, lay on the cords of torture, bring on κμύφωνας, the pillory, drown, hang, burn, that verily the words of Christ may be fulfilled [John xvi., 2]: “The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” To such, therefore, the age is not golden, but
it is to those who by the fire of that trial are proved to be pure gold and bright silver and gems, and to those whose consciences, pitifully torn by the slayers of souls, are now at last brought into the quiet haven of true piety, whom the Lord feeds upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country, in fat pastures [Ezek. xxxiv., (13 and) 14], whom the Lord feeds and they shall want for nothing, whom the Lord hath led out into broad pastures and has saved because he willed it.
III. They do rightly who call us to the freedom of the Gospel, for by that alone are we saved. Hear Christ in the last chapter of Mark: ”Preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth” (after the Gospel has been preached, to wit) “and is baptised, shall be saved.” The truth hath made us free; therefore are we truly free; the Son hath made us free [John viii., 32]. How shall a slave reduce us again to slavery? We owe nothing to any man save mutual love (though the Apostle means this to be understood without derogation of the authority of kings and potentates). How do certain men, then, venture to require of us more than the talent that was entrusted to them?
IV. Here, to begin with, I wonder at the flowery and poetical elegance of your diction, when you say: What human ordinances they call tares and cockles they strive to pull up.” You were imitating the great comedy writer, I suppose, when he said, what plays he had written he hoped might please the people, or What you think such is not a real marriage.” For the whole phraseology otherwise is so lifeless and without grace that I have seldom seen so long an effusion so devoid of all charm, and were it not for this floweret which sprang up here so opportunely, no one could read the thing without nausea. But I return to the subject. ‘Tares and cockles they call human ordinances, yea, and dross and rubbish and sawdust, everything that 1s foreign to the thought of Christ, and that came forth from hypocrisy, greed, and φιλαυτίᾳ, or self-love. Here again
[Mark xvi., 15 ff.]
gratitude is due you because you allow that the Gospel teaching is the wheat. But when, alas! you see the wheat also being rooted up before your eyes, you show plainly that the parable which Christ sets forth in Matt. xiii., 37-39, and explains there, has not been very thoroughly studied by you. For you would otherwise have seen that Christ is speaking there not of different kinds of teachings but of different kinds of men, of whom some have not so cast off all shame as not to shrink from sinning openly, yet do not abstain from sinning, albeit their wrongdoing is not of a heinous character, but such as human life can scarcely be gone through without. This is an offence nevertheless to some of the weaker brethren. He bids us bear with these, “for in many things we offend all” [James iii., 2], and the mote must first be cast out of one’s own eye, that one may properly draw out the beam from one’s brother’s eye [Matt, vii., 5]. Hence Christ here bids us to look with indulgence upon certain usual and commonplace shortcomings, but he holds a different view of greater sins, as when he bids us pluck out the eye—that 1s, the seeing or watching thing, the teacher or bishop, if it offend, and cast it from us, and so with the hand and the foot [Matt. v., 29, and xviii., 9]. You will never find Christ or the Apostles speaking in such a way as to show a wish that we should suffer any pernicious teaching inconsistent with God’s word to spring up among us. For Christ himself bitterly hits the scribes and Pharisees for putting God’s commands in the background and teaching their own traditions [Matt. xv, 3]. He also cries out that they sin, saying, “Ye sin, knowing not the Scriptures,” though they knew their own traditions. And he calls them to the study of the Scriptures, saying, Search the Scriptures’ [John v., 39], and meaning evidently to turn them away from their own devices and fabrications. Paul also reminds Titus, that a bishop ought to be one holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able… to convince the gainsayers” [Tit.i.,, 9]. John bids us [I. John iv., 1] “try the spirits, whether they are of
God.” There are hundreds of passages that bid us to look out that human teachings be not accepted in the place of the teachings of God. And if it be said: ”“These people of yours have called human teachings tares and cockles. What of it, if one just turns things a little and changes the sequence somewhat, but does not vitiate the real meaning?” It fits exactly that human wisdom, tradition, knowledge, be called tares and cockles, because an enemy hath sown them among the harvest of God, while the bishops were asleep, or rather abetting. So far there is no flaw in the parallel, but there wil be one if you go on to the following—“Let both grow together,” and the rest. But, to finish this section, if you see the wheat torn up with the tares, it were yours to see toit that the wheat be not destroyed, not the tares. You ought to help those in your neighbour’s ship who are hauling in a net full of large fish, and not those who are building with wood and hay and stubble. And this especially now that ye see so large a number of the most learned men straining every nerve in this direction, so that from this consideration, if from no other, we can recognise the work as of God, because now that the light of learning and of - tongues has come into the world, exceeding few abuse it for mercenary purposes. Our Lord Hugo ought to have been urged to embrace more ardently the cause of Christ towards which he was pointing in the beginning of this drama (for I hear that utterances of his were noticed to this effect, “I desire, even at the utmost personal loss, that the teaching of the Gospel be advanced”), he ought to have been urged to sow the good seed more industriously and guard it more strenuously. This was a case for spurring on the runner if he had determined to make Christ’s glory the grander, not for throwing an evil spell upon him as he was making a good race.
v. 1. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God” [I. Corinth. xi, 16]. But whence arose the contentions? Was it not from the carnal [I. Corinth. iii., 3], who say, “1 am of Scotus,
I of Thomas, I of the Bishop of Rome”? Yet Paul [Galat. ii., 5] would not give place to them even for an hour, although the case at hand was that of circumcision only, not of sure salvation, nor of Christ, nor of judgment. Therefore terrible punishments await us, if after the light has come into the world we love the darkness rather than the light. To which, if you please, do you think we ought to give place, to those who have built their house upon the rock of Christ or to those who have built upon the sand? If on the side of one or the other we must fall, on whose side must we stand? On the side of those who stand even though they fall, and so stand, and shall stand, that no blow of evil can ever befall them, or of those who while declaring themselves fixed upon the surest foundation have already fallen, for whom the blackness of darkness is waiting, “and their damnation slumbereth not’”?[II. Pet. ii., 3]. I begofyoubyall the gods and goddesses, since the matter in dispute is whether as much ought to be attributed to the traditions of men as to the word of God, has it never occurred to you, that all men are liars, and, on the contrary, that God 1s true [John iii., 33; Rom. iii., 4], or these sayings: Iam the way, the truth, and the life” [John xiv., 6], or ” He that followeth me, shall not walk in darkness” [John viii., 12], and hundreds of others? And in occurring to you, does it not give rise to the feeling, If thou shalt embrace this truth thou canst not be deluded, but if thou embracest the truth of men, however much it disguises itself, thou canst? What reason is there, then, why thou shouldst not follow the sure and unquestionable rather than the doubtful, aye, fallacious? We must contend, no doubt, if we wish to convince the gainsayers, only let it not be done in a spirit of contention, but with the purpose of vindicating the words of God, and not with the tricks of the philosophers but with the strong arms of Scripture. Thus did Stephen upbraid the Jews, quoting from the early Scriptures, and when they resisted though they ought to have been convinced, he cried at last, ’ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost” [Acts vii., 51]. And thus did Paul often speak, especially to the Romans’ in the last chapter of Acts, where, after having tried for nearly a whole day by passages from Scripture to make them believe in Christ, he finally brought out this shaft from Isaiah [vi., 9], and hurled it at them: “(Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” But if any fault is ever to be found on account of contention, surely it ought to be found with those who have made it their effort to show forth unto the world how much they can do by contending and relying only upon the hair-splitting of the sophists and not upon those two swords, the Old and the New Testaments, except so far as their shameful ignorance compelled them, driving them, whether they would or no, to take into their hands weapons strange to them from any quarter. Yet these two swords are those which Christ bade his disciples to give their cloaks, nay sell their shirts, to acquire. These people may be called contentious, as far as I am concerned, as also those who, after the fashion, or, as you say, pattern, of silly women, spit out reproaches upon others as it were, a fine lot of αἰχμηταὶ καὶ πρόμαχοι [warriors and champions, of the truth], to be sure.
v. 1. Not to confuse the declaimers here, I will show in short compass who are the wolves and raiders and the rest of the characters named in such tragedy style. Christ is the shepherd [John x., 11]. His sheep are they who know his voice and follow him as he goeth before them. But they are thieves and robbers and not merely raiders, who by some other way than by the door, which is Christ, climb up into the fold of the sheep. Wolves are they that put on the aspect of sheep, but in their hearts think of nothing ‘To the Jews in Rome.
else than how they can seize and tear in pieces the tender sheep. Wolves, I say, are they of whom the Benjamin of the Apostles spoke when he foretold [Acts xx., 29], that after his departing would come those who would grievously afflict the flock and not spare it. Now let us see to whom those tragic ἐπιφωνήματα [appellatives], in the very beginning of the effusion can rightly be applied. When the simpleminded Christians, not perceiving that false prophets had sunken to wolves, but judging them from their aspect as sheep, put up with them, these, changing all the devotion of shepherds into the madness of wolves, began to seize upon, scatter, and destroy everything, in order to fill up the vast maw of their lusts, not satisfied to stuff their belly with the milk and wool and flesh even of the sheep which they had seized, but breaking their bones also and leaving no bit of cruelty untried. Then I confess that a good part of the sheep, marvelling when they saw themselves butchered by those in whom they had placed their refuge, fled away from such certain destruction. But this did the poor creatures no good. For those mighty Nimrods hunted and pursued them and swallowed them like so much bread. But after he who promised to remain with his own even to the fulness of time could not longer bear this ruin of his own, he called certain men after his custom, men not wise according to the flesh (for God hath made the wisdom of this world foolishness [I. Cor. iii., 19], but lowly men, to bring his name unto the kings and potentates of the earth, just as in the days of old those had done who from fishers were made Apostles. And as soon as this was heard among the people, it is wonderful how they all began to breathe freely and to give thanks, and stop their flight, feeling that a leader was come and enrolling themselves under him, abandoning meanwhile those who besides the empty name had nothing worthy of a shepherd and turning to the shepherd and bishop of their souls, they who a little while before had been as like as possible to lost sheep, according to the saying of Peter [I. Pet. ii, 25], and who now walked in that light which
lighteth every man who cometh into this world, and thus could not stray or go wrong any more. Hence it is clear that all this brew of ceremonials is of no concern to those who have already come back to wisdom, but only to those who still stumble about in the darkness of human devices, disregarding Christ and his teaching. It can not be said that these mock at their shepherds, for they worship them as gods and are as like unto them as possible. But if you fancy that those who have gone over to the side of the Gospel mock at their leaders, they are not on fire with such hatred as you complain of a little later. There 15 none who is so derisive of his neighbour as he who cannot possibly be persuaded to accept the divine sayings instead of those of men. They say: “What have I to do with Christ or with the Apostles? Customs have changed and demand an altogether different system of life. Poor clown, do you assert that our bishops with all their splendour can come down to this humble plane? They are not only wiser but have given us precepts far preferable to those of Paul or Peter or even Christ himself.” These are they, doubtless, who in their madness make a laughing stock of the simple heralds of Christ and hold them in reproach [Wisdom of Solomon (in the Apocrypha) v., 3], but God also will laugh at their own calamity [Prov. i., 26].
v. 11. Here I will first comment upon your style, when you say, “Others are led astray and driven to doing this, ” etc. What proposition, pray, do you oppose to this as a co-ordinate, or join to it? You will say, no doubt, the one that follows, “You can, in fact, see some people,” etc. But animosity (to use your word) is a passion. Therefore it is included in the previous proposition. “Then it must be noted that your word consiliatrices is put for consultrices, counsellors. For consiliare means to them what the Romans meant by consulere or consilium dare, give counsel. Hence consiliator for consultor, counsellor, which they sometimes put for senator, by the same process by which they say fornix, ein Ofen,
[There is evidently a blunder here. Could an original ”fornax” and]
an arch, fornicator, ein Ofner, an arch-frequenter, a fornicator. As to the matter itself, it is not commendable for one to do anything with bubbling over wrath or ambition, though Paul rejoices for the Gospel even if it be preached “οἵ strife or envy” [Phil i, 18]. And this you also ought to have done, provided the necessity of the situation demanded it and you had examined that passage, for there is scarcely any one who is not roused to indignation sometimes at wrong doings. Whether these feelings can be called wrath I will not now discuss, especially as even the Holy Scriptures attribute such to God [I. Kings, xi, 9]— The Lord was angry with Solomon,” and [Isaiah Ixi., 8] “For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering.” Therefore I am led rather to rejoice for the Gospel with Paul, whether it be preached in season or out of season. If any seem to be jealous of those who make the uproar, it does not seem to me to be so much jealousy as reasonable grief because they are not willing 1n any way to come back to sense. But hitherto the heralds of Christ have been thought to strive for none of the objects of ambition, the champions of human devices for all such, praise, glory, honours, wealth, office, kingdoms, and everything that is esteemed best worth while, and this in the time when modesty, that last blessing in evil days, was not yet obsolete. Now nobody strives to satisfy his ambitions thus, but every one seizes with tooth and nail everything he can lay hold of, so that Isaiah [i., 23] says truly, Thy princes are companions of thieves.” Now as to the ambition with which you can reproach our party also, that they covet glory and praise, if not bishoprics and priesthoods, you say nothing to the point, for this defect can be hidden by denial and you cannot prove that afterwards. Hence it is clear that you said this in a cavilling spirit, and yet it does not apply to these, who do not “gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles” [Matt. vii., 16]. Of those it can, however,
[“fornacator” have been changed by somebody into the more piquant]
[“fornix,” ”fornicator ”?—H. P.]
truly be said, “which creep into (rich men’s) houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins” [II. Tim. iii., 6].
v. 111. Those who through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ have escaped the pollutions of this world, according to the words of Peter [II. Peter ii., 20], and are not willing to become again entangled therein, ought not to be reckoned as obstinate but as firm in their faith, being unwiling to withdraw from the sacred commands that have been given unto them. For having tasted that the Lord is sweet and that he shall be blest who puts his hope in him [cf. Ps. xxxiv., 9], they have begun to cease to fear what man can do to them, and neither present things nor future things can separate them from the love of Christ, just as the companions of Ulysses, having eaten λώτου τὸν μελιηδέα καρπόν [the honey-sweet fruit of thelotus], would not return to their people [cf. Odyssey ix., 93 ff. For “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God” [Lukeix., 62]. Even God himself by the mouth of his servant Jeremiah encourages them not to yield, saying [ch. xv., 19], If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee.” From this I think it is sufficiently clear that they are not only guilty of no sin who cannot be turned away from the truth of the Gospel, but do well and wisely and steadfastly, if they struggle continually for it with all their might and ever keep before their eyes the watchword Endure to the end.” Let those mad men have done, therefore, who think that the divine should yield to the human.
IX. Peace Christ prayed for for his own when he had risen from the dead, the same peace which before his death he had given and left to the Apostles [cf. John xiv., 27], but not
[The Latin seems somewhat truncated here, but I think I have expressed]
[its meaning.—H. P.]
the peace of the world, which belongeth to sinners, forsooth, to those who “have made a covenant with death, and with hell are at agreement [Isaiah xxviii., 15], and who believe that the soul of man is destroyed with the body like the beasts, as all their life beareth witness. For they build like the Milesians as if they were to live forever, and enjoy their pleasures as if they were to die to-morrow, humming to themselves these words of Paul [I. Corinth. xv., 32] or of Sardanapalus (from whom I mistrust Paul borrowed it to characterise their devotion to their bellies): “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” These, I say, fear every breath of air lest the quiet of their enjoyments be disturbed in some part; they cry Peace, peace,” when ”there is no peace unto the wicked” [Isaiah xlviii, 22]. But if they fancy that they have a perfectly calm mind, they are ἄθεοι [atheists]; if they are not ἄθεοι [atheists], they are to be pitied. For believing that God hath given unto us τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον [the Gospel], as the doctrine of salvation, if they yet do not yield or defer to it, it is evident that they are beyond hope, and that they have forsaken Christ, as Demas forsook Paul [IT. Timothy iv., 10], having loved this present world.” But if they weighed more carefully the words of Christ, in which he declares that he came not to send peace upon the earth but a sword, with which fathers should be set at variance with their children, etc. [f. Matt. x., 34], and that passage of John [xvi., 33]: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”; and the passage of Isaiah [xlviii., 18], ‘O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea, “—if, I say, they had looked carefully at these things, they would be doing nothing else than trying how peace might be established between God and us, and how human things might yield to the divine, and by yielding become divine. For this is the true peace, which is had in God and not in one’s
passions which boil in constant turmoil like the waters of the Channel. That peace, nevertheless, has friendship with all men as far as in it lies, according to the teaching of Paul; this other with none who oppose our desires. Therefore, most excellent gentlemen, whoever you are, you enter upon your task in vain. For there will never be peace between those who are of Christ and those who are of the flesh. For the first, like their master, will never cease to fight, and the second will never yield, unless the illuminating spirit shall sometime enlighten them and draw them to itself. Yet meanwhile it 1s given to those followers of the Lord to live in gladness and the enjoyment of peace in Christ even if they suffer persecution. For they rejoice with the Apostles that they suffer shame for the name of Christ [Acts v., 41]. The others, as shown above from Isaiah, have no peace and no rest. I pray the Most High God to deign to look upon them with graciousness as He looked upon Peter when he denied him, that they may be turned back to him in wisdom and give glory unto God. Amen.
X. The common people, endowed with the harmlessness of the dove, will yield to the Gospel alone, and the less vitiated with the dregs of human traditions, the more capable they are of receiving the heavenly teachings, to which they flee for refuge in confidence as to a sacred anchor.
XI. When they see the learned at swords’ points with each other, they judge more clearly than the little scholars themselves which side is right according to Christ. For “he that is spiritual judgeth all things” [I. Cor. ii., 15], and they are the really spiritual, for they depend wholly upon the spirit—that is, the mind of God.
XII. Ihear no men more arrogantly reproach with the name of heretic for the slightest possible cause everybody who already has or is beginning to have sound views than men of a class to which I sincerely trust you do not belong. XIII. There is a class of men so shameless that though
[The channel between Euboea and Boeotia—because of its ebb and flow,]
[the classical simile of instability.]
they are a constant stumbling block to the unhappy people through their unblushing sins, they will not listen to any sort of warning, far less to any correction or improvement. I wish, indeed, that they would strive to be other than they are reputed to be—nay, I exhort them for Christ’s sake to strive. And when this takes place, justly grounded criticisms will cease, or if they do not cease, they will no longer disturb them. For they will learn, meanwhile, that they shall be blest of whom evil is said, and they will try to show that the slanders poured out upon them are poured out upon men most undeserving of it. But what wickedness is this, despitefully to entreat him who is appointed to be an example unto the rest, and to refuse to listen to any warning? 1 admit, as far as I am concerned, that I have often said that a fair proportion of the bishops of our time are not real but counterfeit bishops, and I do not think I ought to be blamed for it either, since Isaiah calls such “dumb dogs” [Isa. lvi., ro], and Christ calls them ”thieves and robbers’ [John x., 1]. I am speaking of those who have not entered into the sheepfold by the door. For you will find few who fill the office of bishop to the best of their ability, and do not rather conduct themselves as rulers and satraps and kings. I would that all who have spoken in these days unrestrainedly had spoken passionately rather than truly. It is the duty of all and especially of the heads of the Church to see whether their ill repute 1s deserved or undeserved. For Paul teaches that an elder convicted of sin is to be rebuked publicly [cf. I. Tim. v., 20].
XIV. Up to this point you have been telling what has happened, I think, but now you wish to make it appear dangerous for a bishop to open his mouth, and you count up the dangers to which he would be exposed—namely, that he would be spoken ill of, and would get into strife. What would you have said if he had even run the risk of stripes? Christ sent out his disciples as sheep in the midst of wolves [Matt. x., 16, and Luke x., 3], and yet he says that the shepherd goeth before his sheep [John x., 4]; and again,
that the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep, but not so the hireling. For when the wolf cometh, he leaveth the sheep, and fleeth [John x., 11 and 12].
If, therefore, the bride of Christ was so wounded within and without as you desire to make it appear, what need of this and delay? Why do you coddle the bishop in his delay, or rather why do you delay him when inclined to act quickly? There was need of haste. The bishop ought to have been roused as quickly as possible, with ” Ho there, see how your flock is perishing! Why do you tarry? You ought to be the first to run into danger.” Then if he had been inclined to delay, saying, ” My good name will suffer, I shall be reviled, I shall have to wrangle,” you should have said “ Oh, coward! dost thou not remember what Christ said?—‘Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake ” [Mark xiii., 13, and Luke xxi., 17]. As it is, since the bishop is minded to believe that there is nowhere surer or readier salvation than where Christ is preached, and ye are trying to hinder him, is not that equivalent to saying that you have so worked upon and stirred up our most kindly bishop as to make him accuse me of an abominable deed, to wit, the ravaging of the sheepfold of Christ? Now you will have it that the one and only bride of Christ is wounded. I admit that she is wounded, not with a mortal wound, but in love. That is an easy and pleasant wound, nay one so acceptable that she bears with calmness that the priest and the Levite should pass by upon the other side and not look back [Luke x., 31, etc.]. For she knows that the good Samaritan is at hand who will cleanse with wine what is foul and soothe the sore places with oil, and take her upon his beast to the shelter of the heavenly mansions. But they who do not recognise the physician shall suffer pitiable torture, not only from the pain of their wounds but from despair of a physician. For they spend all their substance upon physicians who apply the poultice of human traditions to the wound and so draw a false skin over it, but heal it not in itself nor perceive any cure. What need of more? ”Woe unto [you] that call
evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” [Isaiah v., 20].
XV. 1 could wish that you had better understood the utterances of the prophets For what you quote from Amos is diametrically opposed to your case. For Amos [ch. v., 5] is upbraiding the children of Israel because they had abandoned the Lord and made [sacrifices] unto calves and idols in Bethel and Gilgal and Beersheba, leaving off righteousness and turning judgment to wormwood, and because they feared not Him who ruleth the whole universe, whose name is the Lord. For He shall overthrow the strong and lay low the mighty, because they hate him that rebuketh, and abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Therefore, though they raised up lofty dwellings of quarried stone, yet should they never live in them, because they had robbed the poor. So also should they never gather the vintage of their cunningly planted vineyards, for He knew their sins, to wit, that being reverenced as parents by the simple-minded people, they yet showed themselves like the cruelest enemies, receiving money from the rich and crushing down the poor. Yea, and things should become so bad that the wise man would not dare to open his mouth on account of the viciousness of that time. See, I pray you, whether time has turned backward to show us this picture of evils, now that some persons practise so unblushingly all that savours of tyranny that from fear of injuries and excommunications and dreadful things no sagacious man ventures to utter a murmur. See, I say, how unfortunately you dip into hidden writings, when you use those which cry out against your own side. I do not now recall where your quotation from Ezekiel is found, but wherever it comes from, I think you have quoted it with the same judgment and appropriateness as the passage from Amos.
XVI. For what is written in Ezekiel v., 11, whence it seems that your quotation was gathered, is as thoroughly against you as anything could be. So also the passage from
the fifty-fourth Psalm.” For the prophet is there calling down the curse of discord upon the Israelites for their faithlessness, and this also fell upon them for having crucified Christ. And there was as much contention in the city of Jerusalem as there ever was in Troy or Carthage or Athens. In short, οὐδὲν πρὸς ἔπος βάλλ οὕτως [this talk of yours is not a bit to the point].
XVII. I wonder that the times now first seem dangerous to you, when the evils, in consequence of which Paul [II. Tim. 1ii., 2] reckons the times as dangerous, began to show themselves long ago and have run riot so down to our time that a large number of the most learned men have been unable to hold their peace longer after the example of the prudent man whom you cited a little while ago from Amos so inappropriately, if you will pardon my saying so. Indeed they are ready to undergo any danger rather than keep silence before such foul abominations. Who would call these present times dangerous when the sheep of the Lord are sought out and set free and fed? They are dangerous if death is an evil, but not to those to whom you would make it appear, but to those, forsooth, who are taught that the soul cannot be destroyed by these people who can destroy the body. But about these I do not think you are so very i anxious. Therefore from this fear of yours I free you by these presents. I want to warn you here, since you keep indulging in the same complaints and the same words, so that when an answer has been made to what you had said before, you are constantly running back to the same point, I want to warn you to look out lest δὲς xpdyufin θάνατος [you prove a back number].
XVIII. Offences have been multiplying for about a thousand years, especially at the hands of those who do not care a snap for the little ones of Christ, whom he wished not to have made of little account, when he said [Matt. xviii.,
[’ Fifty-fifth in the King James version.—H. P. ^Basil the Great, Epistola, 187. (Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene]
[Fathers, 2d series, vol. viii., 223; “twice cabbage is death."")]
10], “ Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones” who believe in me. But these men, disregarding the words of God, teach the little ones their own sayings, and turn to themselves the hope of those (I mean the little ones) whose only hope ought to be in Christ, stamping the grace of God as obsolete while marking with approval their own penances. They mercilessly frighten and drive to despair the feeble voice of conscience, selling that which ought to be freely given away and requiring chastity,’ which Christ left free, while they abuse their power of the keys as they call it, and at the same time teach that all their fulminations must be accepted whether rightly or wrongly hurled forth. They defend their own luxury when compared with the Gospel simplicity and condemned from time to time, and think it right to regulate even the clearly divine ordinances according to their own sweet will. The day would fail me if I tried to count up all their offences, though these ye regard not as offences, but if a vinedresser or a shepherd or a husbandman eats meat in Lent, as the sacred city of Rome ventures to do without harm, that ye call an offence.
XIX. Here you commit two sins, one against those who proclaim the Gospel to-day, in saying that they are spreading new errors; the other against yourselves, in calling those earlier things you mention dangerous errors, under whatever head you class them, unless by earlier you mean the errors with which Christians were deluged in old days, when according to Sabellius there were three Gods, according to Arius one God and one ὑπόστασις [substance], while Manichaus held that Christ pretended to have taken upon himself the nature of a man, and Marcion taught that there were two Gods, one the creator of the good, the other of the evil. Worse errors than these, I say, are sown abroad to-day now that that country bumpkin Zwingli is preaching the Gospel with such energy and risk of harm. But your words when carefully weighed do not seem to be meant to apply
[Meaning celibacy.]
to these earlier errors, but to those into the place of which the Gospel errors are stepping.
XX. Ball οὕτως πάλιν [you are throwing out the same stuff again] if you mean that schism, by which certain persons have separated from Christ and turned to men and created things, and by ‘““mother her who is our mother, the heavenly Jerusalem, the bride of Christ without spot or blemish, and by ”wandering sheep those who have strayed from Christ the true light and are wandering in the darkness of human traditions,—if you mean the ”factious perversity by which the human is contumaciously accepted as divine and Christ is abandoned for sordid gain, and that “heretical tampering with the faith” by which certain persons wantonly twist the meaning of the sacred writings to the winning of their own advantage. For he is the real heretic who interprets the sacred writings not by the light of Christ but by his own. If, I say, this is the way you understand these terms, οὕτως βάλλετε [you are at it again]. I do not use the singular for fear our most Reverend Lord of Constance should fancy that my words were directed to him, when, as a matter of fact, I desire that his authority. be intact at all points.
XXI. “‘According to the mastery of the Lord and his Gospel” you entreat (you say “according to” for ’ by” the mastery of the Gospel). What you are trying to indicate, I do not understand, for Christ forbids his disciples [Matt. xxiii., 10] to let themselves be called Masters. And in Luke [ch. xxii.] hecommanded, saying, ” He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” But why do I follow up these things again as if there were a grain of sense in the whole effusion? As to your bidding me watch against the snares of the devil, I will do so sedulously. For I know well enough that, in the words of Peter [I. Pet. v., 8], “as a roaring lion, [he] walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Iknow, too, with what weapons he should be resisted, to wit, strength and steadfastness of faith, and trusting to these, I shudder
not at the gates of hell nor at the tortures which the good are made to suffer in this world.
XXII. What do I hear? Am I playing such a damnable game? Bringing into play again sacrilegious machinations and old-time heresies? Who could refrain from upbraiding under such circumstances? Through many lines you rage and rave and riot so that for the violence of your raging you have no clear idea yourself of what you are saying. You wish to seem to be urging the unity of the Church, when your words breathe nothing but rebellion, uproar, war, destruction and whatever belongs thereto. What will happen under such circumstances if I proceed to strike back with revilings at those whom I know to be the instigators of this barbarous accusation? Will not that happen which the divine Paul predicts? [Gal. v., 15]—”But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” And ye cannot make denial, saying that those things were said with general application, for you have not sent a like threatening admonition to any others, nor are there in our whole chapter more than one or two who do not share your sentiments. Hence it is absolutely clear that you were aiming at me alone. And if you maintain with the utmost vigour that these things were written simply as an admonition to myself, what was the need of embittering so harshly a matter which really does not apply to me? You say, that I might be the more carefully on my guard. Do ye think me so stupid and senseless that I have not any perception at all? But let that passI appeal to your intelligence,—is not this whole thing, by whatever name ye call it, brandished at me? I wish, therefore, not to return like for like, but to return your own utterances in about the same brevity that you use in this section, but corrected first and renovated by the gauge of the Gospel teaching, and you can then regard them as my declaration of principles. I shall not cease to try to renew the old-time unity of the Church of Christ, setting snares for no man but often turning them to good when set, as I
will prove through yourselves as witnesses, and never intending to lend myself to any faction, much less to one of heretics. For I have never planted any other plant than that which Christ planted at the direction of his Father, which cannot be rooted up. For three years ago now (to give you an account of the preaching I have done at Zurich), I preached the entire Gospel according to Matthew, and at that time I had not even heard the name of those persons to whose faction you accuse me of belonging. I added the Acts of the Apostles to the Gospel immediately, that the Church of Zurich might see in what way and with what sponsors the Gospel was carried forth and spread abroad. Presently came the First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, which seemed to be admirably adapted to my excellent flock. For there are contained in it certain canons, as it were, of the character worthy of a Christian. Here, inasmuch as certain smatterers showed perverted opinions of the faith, I postponed the Second Epistle to Timothy until I should have expounded that to the Galatians. Then I added the other. But the before-mentioned smatterers now went to such a pitch of mad impiety that they well-nigh made the name of Paul a disgrace, throwing out these pious ejaculations, which, of course, do not offend anybody: Who was Paul, pray? Was he not a man? He was an Apostle, to be sure, but a sort of outside one only, not one of the twelve. He never talked with Christ. He did not put together any portion of the faith. I believe as muchin Thomas or Scotus’ or whom you will asin Paul.” So I also expounded both the Epistles of Peter, the standard-bearer of the Apostles, that they might see clearly whether both men spoke under the inspiration of the same spirit, and when I had finished these, I began the Epistle to the Hebrews, that they might recognise more plainly the goodness and glory of Christ. From this they will learn that Christ is
[Thomas Aquinas, doctor angelicus, born 1227 or 1225, died 1274;]
[Johannes Duns Scotus, doctor subtilis, born c. 1265; died 1308. The first]
[was a Dominican, the second a Franciscan.]
the great High Priest, and they have in fact nearly learned it already. Nor is there any ground for your accusing me in regard to certain writings. For before these came into my hands I had begun the business, nay had promised to do so about a year before. They will learn also that Christ, having been made a sacrifice once for all, has accomplished their salvation forever. This is the seed I have sown. Matthew, Luke, Paul, and Peter have watered it, and God has given it splendid increase, but this I will not trumpet forth, lest I seem to be canvassing my own glory and not Christ’s. Go now and say that this plant (to come back to your point) is not of the Father in Heaven. I have not, I say, used any false nostrums or tricks or exhortations, but in simple words and terms native to the Swiss I have drawn them to the recognition of their trouble, having learned this from Christ himself, who began his own preaching with it. I have never drawn away any one from harmony with his bishop, if he was a bishop and not a thief or robber such as Christ characterised in John x., 12. From what sources I have drawn the discipline of the Church I mentioned a little while ago. I have vigorously urged my flock to hold fast to the glory of our profession, saying, “Seeing then that we have a great ἀρχιερεώ [high priest] that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God” [Hebr. iv., 14], hold fast to that confession, and seek not honour from one another, as Christ bade the Jews not to do because it interfered with their believing in him [John, v., 44], saying, “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour which cometh from God only?” Mark these things carefully, I beg of you. I call my flock absolutely away, as far as I can, from hope in any created being to the one true God and Jesus His only begotten Son, our Lord, he that trusteth in whom shall never die. I try with all my might to make them ask forgiveness of him who desires to be freely asked even though we are sinners, saying [Matt. xi., 28], ”Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I ἀναπαύσω [wil give you rest].
This I believe so firmly that if occasion should arise I do not think I have need of any bishop or priest to make satisfaction for me. For Christ did that once, when he delivered up his body as a sacrifice for us, and washed us with the blessed bath of his blood. The whole body of the presbyters I reverence as I do the angels of God. Though I abominate them that are given up to their bellies, yet I forbear and suffer the weeds to grow up with the grain. I enjoin upon my flock to pray without ceasing but in soul and spirit, and to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, according to the saying of Christ. Nay, I bid them knock even to importunity, as the parable of the widow in Luke teaches [Luke xviii., I, etc.].
XXIII. He that gathereth not with Christ, scattereth abroad, and he that is not with the same is against him [Matt. xii., 30 and Luke xi., 23]. How can the Gospel itself now be at variance with the Gospel teaching? Do ye think that God’s state is worse than Satan’s? If he were divided against himself, his kingdom could not, stand, [Matt. xii., 25], and think ye that God’s kingdom can stand if He be at variance with Himself? He would be divided against Himself and at variance with Himself, if His Gospel were opposed to the Gospel teachings. I might proceed to hit the nail on the head here, and show just what Gospel teaching ye are fighting for so valiantly, but I prefer to show myself more modest where I rather think ye have no modesty at all.
XXIV. Do I not teach long and great penitence, when I am continually crying: ueravoeire [repent], go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor” [Matt. xix., 21], and ‘“Give alms, and all things shall be pure unto you”? [cf. Luke vi., 38. Meanwhile I forbid—I do not deny itgiving to those who own so much gold that they even load their mules with it, by the which neither mule nor rider is the better off, however. For so it would come to pass that even the swine should be forced to wear gold in their snouts, and the poor would die of hunger. Yet Christ said
that these should be like as the most faithful supporters among his followers.
XXV. What ye mean by heroic measures, I do not understand, but I know this, that Christ vigorously urges his disciples to boldness when going to meet the monsters of this world, saying [John, xiv., 1], Let not your heart be troubled,” neither be afraid. In the same passage you call insidious the peace that I desire us to enter into with God, whether it be insidious or simple and sincere. What follows presently is of the same stamp with your shrieks of lamentation in sections 23 and 24, where I promised not to set forth what sort of a Gospel you would like to champion if you might.
XXVI. I never boasted that I had the spirit of God, but I confidently hope meanwhile that He will not be absent from His own work, He whom I have so often found prospering the things He was accomplishing through me. I wish, therefore, that you would make true charges against me, and not such as some violent emotion suggests. Yet am I well aware that there is a sort of holy boasting, from which neither Christ nor Paul shrank. For Christ said, “1 am the good shepherd [John x., 11], and ”all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them ” [John x., 8. “1 am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly [John x., 10]. “1 am the light of the world” [John viii., 12], “1 and my Father are one” [John x., 30], and hundreds of other such things. Paul said, “For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles” [II. Cor. xi., 5], and “Though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool” [II. Cor. xii., 6], and “In nothing am I ὑπὲρ λίαν [behind the very chiefest] apostles” [II. Cor. xii., 11], and “I laboured more abundantly than they all” [I. Cor. xv., 10]. Therefore it might be that I have taken some credit to myself in regard to the sacred writings, but if I have ever done so, I know that I did it
[The Douay version keeps more literally to the slightly different Latin]
[in these two cases.—H. P.]
sparingly. But as I turn the whole business over carefully in my memory, I recall that it was once imputed to me as wrong that I had said that God spake by my mouth when I was setting forth His word. But that I did, that the crowd might not think that I spoke of myself and give me the credit that belonged to Christ. I even gave distinct warning that no one must make a mistake about that point. XXVII. Adulterous teachings I think are those which, made up by men given over to their own desires, are sold as divine, and I hate them worse than a serpent. Nay, this bit of a difference which I now have with you sprang from nothing else than my diligent effort to sift out the dross from the gold. I speak the truth, but refrain, I beg of you.
XXVIII. It will first be worth while here to define false prophets’ according to Christ’s understanding of them, that it may be more evident to what sort of people these words of Jeremiah properly apply [cf. Jer. xxiii., 16]. Christ says [Matt. xxiv., 24, and Mark xiii., 22]: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” But with these words he did not bring out the full force of the term, so that what goes just before must be added here. Then,’ he says, “1 any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe 1t not” [Matt. xxiv., 23, and Mark xiii., 21]. Now we are not talking here of false Christs, but of false prophets. These, Christ says, will support their false doctrine by showing signs and this shall trouble even the elect. These same men will say (for this word ”for” that follows [”for there shall arise”] shows that both apply to the false prophets)—”” Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there.” 1 show no signs, nor believe them easily when shown, even if the decision of certain blind persons had served as an introduction to them. I do not hold that Christ is ‘here” or ”there,” but wherever two or three have been gathered together in his name, there I know he is in the midst of them [Matt. xviii., 20]. In
[He so calls the monks.]
short, false prophets are they who with signs and wonders, not to say jugglers’ tricks, cast a spell even upon the elect, and exhibit Christ where they will. Enough has been said for you, I know; you do not need to have me drive everything home. We must hasten to the words of the prophet who, as representative of God, thus threatens the false prophets: ”Behold I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall” [Jer. xxiii., 15]. This is only too true, for they breathe forth not only wormwood and gall, but poison and death, some of them. There follows: “For from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.” There are no prophets in Jerusalem in these days, from whom we can suffer pollution, but from whatever quarter the world is polluted, there Jerusalem seems to be beyond a doubt. From whomsoever proceed the murder of souls and the contempt of God and men, know that such are false prophets. There follows: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord” [Jer. xxiii., 16]. Therefore, those who speak out of the mouth of the Lord are not false prophets. Again, those who speak the vision—that is, the purpose, opinion, thought, of their own heart are false prophets. Now see how many of those who are on your side (for they would all venture to declare that these things which have been got up by certain hypocrites are worthy of as much belief and trust as those that have been handed down in the writings of the Gospel and the Apostles), how many, I say, are going to be left and not pass over to the number of the false prophets. How few of these do not teach that a sort of visions should be accepted in place of the Gospel! How few, if any point comes into discussion, do not settle it according to the opinions of men, without any search of the Holy Scripture! See now the wallet hanging from your back, and you will discover how much justice there is in your accusation of those as false prophets who teach, relying
solely upon the divinely inspired books, and how greatly you will profit the Christian world, if ye conquer in your defence of hypocrites and preachers of visions. But what need of much speaking? Every time you take the sacred books into your hands, it turns out unfortunately for you. For they almost always are at variance with you, as the next following remarks will show even more clearly.
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