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1. There is great need of a general law and decree of the German nation
against the extravagance and excess in dress, by which so many nobles and
rich men are impoverished.
[261]
God has given to us, as to other lands,
enough wool, hair, flax and everything else which properly serves for the
seemly and honorable dress of every rank, so that we do not need to spend
and waste such enormous sums for silk and velvet and golden ornaments and
other foreign wares. I believe that even if the pope had not robbed us
Germans with his intolerable exactions, we should still have our hands
more than full with these domestic robbers, the silk and velvet
merchants.
[262]
In the matter of clothes, as we see, everybody wants to be
equal to everybody else, and pride and envy are aroused and increased
among us, as we deserve. All this and much more misery would be avoided if
our curiosity would only let us be thankful, and be satisfied with the
goods which God has given us.
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2. In like manner it is also necessary to restrict the
spice-traffic
[263]
which is another of the great ships in which money is
carried out of German lands. There grows among us, by God's grace, more to
eat and drink than in any other land, and just as choice and good. Perhaps
the proposals that I make may seem foolish and impossible and give the
impression that I want to suppress the greatest of all trades, that of
commerce; but I am doing what I can. If reforms are not generally
introduced, then let every one who is willing reform himself. I do not see
that many good customs have ever come to a land through commerce, and in
ancient times God make His people of Israel dwell away from the sea on
this account, and did not let them engage much in commerce.
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3. But the greatest misfortune of the German nation is certainly the
traffic in annuities.[264]
If that did not exist many a man would have to
leave unbought his silk, velvets, golden ornaments, spices and ornaments
of every sort. It has not existed much over a hundred years, and has
already brought almost all princes, cities, endowed institutions, nobles
and their heirs to poverty, misery and ruin; if it shall continue for
another hundred years Germany cannot possibly have a pfennig left and we
shall certainly have to devour one another. The devil invented the
practice, and the pope, by confirming it,
[265] has injured the whole world.
Therefore I ask and pray that everyone open his eyes to see the ruin of
himself, his children and his heirs, which not only stands before the
door, but already haunts the house, and that emperor, princes, lords and
cities do their part that this trade be condemned as speedily as possible,
and henceforth prevented, regardless whether or not the pope, with all his
law and unlaw, is opposed to it, and whether or not benefices or church
foundations are based upon it. It is better that there should be in a city
one living based on an honest freehold or revenue, than a hundred based on
an annuity; indeed a living based on an annuity is worse and more grievous
than twenty based on freeholds. In truth this traffic in rents must be a
sign and symbol that the world, for its grievous sins, has been sold to
the devil, so that both temporal and spiritual possessions must fail us,
and yet we do not notice it at all.
Here, too, we must put a bit in the mouth of the Fuggers and similar
corporations.
[266]
How is it possible that in the lifetime of a single man
such great possessions, worthy of a king, can be piled up, and yet
everything be done legally and according to God's will? I am not a
mathematician, but I do not understand how a man with a hundred gulden
can make a profit of twenty gulden in one year, nay, how with one gulden
he can make another;
[267]
and that, too, by another way than agriculture or
cattle- raising, in which increase of wealth depends not on human wits,
but on God's blessing. I commend this to the men of affairs. I am a
theologian, and find nothing to blame in it except its evil and offending
appearance, of which St. Paul says, 1 Thess. 5:22: "Avoid every appearance
or show of evil." This I know well, that it would be much more pleasing to
God if we increased agriculture and diminished commerce, and that they do
much better who, according to the Scriptures, till the soil and seek their
living from it, as was said to us and to all men in Adam, Gen. 3:17 ff.:
"Accursed be the earth when thou laborest therein, it shall bear thee
thistles and thorns, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy
bread." There is still much land lying untilled.
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4. Next comes the abuse of eating and drinking
[268]
which gives us
Germans a bad reputation in foreign lands, as though it were our special
vice. Preaching cannot stop it; it has become too common, and has got too
firmly the upper hand. The waste of money which it causes would be a small
thing, were it not followed by other sins, -- murder, adultery, stealing,
irreverence and all the vices. The temporal sword can do something to
prevent it; or else it will be as Christ says: Luke 21:34 f.: "The last
day shall come like a secret snare, when they shall be eating and
drinking, marrying and wooing, building and planting, buying and selling."
It is so much like that now that I verily believe the judgment day is at
the door, though men are thinking least of all about it.
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5. Finally is it not a pitiful thing that we Christians should
maintain among us open and common houses of prostitution, though all of us
are baptized unto chastity? I know very well what some say to this, to
wit, that it is not the custom of any one people, that it is hard to break
up, that it is better that there should be such houses than that married
women, or maidens, or those of more honorable estate should be outraged.
But should not the temporal, Christian government consider that in this
heathen way the evil is not to be controlled? If the people of Israel
could exist without such an abomination, why could not Christian people do
as much? Nay, how do many cities, towns and villages exist without such
houses? Why should not great cities exist without them?
In this, and in the other matters above mentioned, I have tried to point
out how many good works the temporal government could do, and what should be
the duty of every government, to the end that every one may learn what an
awful responsibility it is to rule, and to have high station. What good
would it do that an overlord were in his own life as holy as St. Peter, if
he have not the purpose diligently to help his subjects in these matters?
His very authority will condemn him! For it is the duty of the authorities
to seek the highest good of their subjects. But if the authorities were to
consider how the young people might be brought together in marriage, the
hope of entering the married state would greatly help every one to endure
and to resist temptation.
But now every man is drawn to the priesthood or the monastic life, and
among them, I fear, there is not one in a hundred who has any other reason
than that he seeks a living, and doubts that he will ever be able to support
himself in the estate of matrimony. Therefore they live wildly enough
beforehand, and wish, as they say, to "wear out their lust," but rather wear
it in,
[269]
as experience shows. I find the proverb true, "Despair makes most
of the monks and priests"
[270]
; and so things are as we see them.
My faithful counsel is that, in order to avoid many sins which have
become very common, neither boy nor maid should take the vow of chastity, or
of the "spiritual life," before the age of thirty years.
[271]
It is, as St.
Paul says, a peculiar gift. Therefore let him whom God does not constrain (1
Cor. 7:7), put off becoming a cleric and taking the vows. Nay, I will go
farther and say, If you trust God so little that you are not willing to
support yourself as a married man, and wish to become a cleric only because
of this distrust, then for the sake of your own soul, I beg of you not to
become a cleric, but rather a farmer, or whatever else you please. For if to
obtain your temporal support you must have one measure of trust in God, you
must have ten measures of trust to continue in the life of cleric. If you do
not trust God to support you in the world, how will you trust him to support
you in the Church? Alas, unbelief and distrust spoil everything and lead us
into all misery, as we see in every estate of life!
Much could be said of this miserable condition. The young people have no
one to care for them. They all do as they please, and the government is of
as much use to them as if it did not exist; and yet this should be the chief
concern of pope, bishops, lords and councils. They wish to rule far and
wide, and yet to help on one. O, what a rare bird will a lord and ruler be
in heaven just on this account, even though he build a hundred churches for
God and raise up all the dead!
