DISPUTATION OF DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF INDULGENCESOCTOBER 31, 1517

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.

In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.

2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests.

3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh.

4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons.

6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases were despised, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.

7. God remits guilt to no one whom He does not, at the same time, humble in all things and bring into subjection to His vicar, the priest. 8. The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and, according to them, nothing should be imposed on the dying.

9. Therefore the Holy Spirit in the pope is kind to us, because in his decrees he always makes exception of the article of death and of necessity.

10. Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priests who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penances for purgatory.

11. This changing of the canonical penalty to the penalty of purgatory is quite evidently one of the tares that were sown while the bishops slept.

12. In former times the canonical penalties were imposed not after, but before absolution, as tests of true contrition.

13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties; they are already dead to canonical rules, and have a right to be released from them.

14. The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect love, of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller the love, the greater is the fear.

15. This fear and horror is sufficient of itself alone (to say nothing of other things) to constitute the penalty of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.

16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ as do despair, almost-despair, and the assurance of safety.

17. With souls in purgatory it seems necessary that horror should grow less and love increase.

18. It seems unproved, either by reason or Scripture, that they are outside the state of merit, that is to say, of increasing love.

19. Again, it seems unproved that they, or at least that all of them, are certain or assured of their own blessedness, though we may be quite certain of it.

20. Therefore by “full remission of all penalties” the pope means not actually “of all,” but only of those imposed by himself.

21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved;

22. Whereas he remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which, according to the canons, they would have had to pay in this life. 23. If it is at all possible to grant to any one the remission of all penalties whatsoever, it is certain that this remission can be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to the very fewest.

24. It must needs be, therefore, that the greater part of the people are deceived by that indiscriminate and highsounding promise of release from penalty.

25. The power which the pope has, in a general way, over purgatory, is just like the power which any bishop or curate has, in a special way, within his own diocese or parish.

26. The pope does well when he grants remission to souls [in purgatory], not by the power of the keys (which he does not possess), but by way of intercession.

27. They preach man who say that so soon as the penny jingles into the money-box, the soul flies out [of purgatory].

28. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the money-box, gain and avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the Church is in the power of God alone.

29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be bought out of it, as in the legend of Sts. Severinus and Paschal.

30. No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere; much less that he has attained full remission.

31. Rare as is the man that is truly penitent, so rare is also the man who truly buys indulgences, i.e., such men are most rare.

32. They will be condemned eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon.

33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to Him;

34. For these “graces of pardon” concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man.

35. They preach no Christian doctrine who teach that contrition is not necessary in those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessionalia.

36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.

37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in all the blessings of Christ and the Church; and this is granted him by God, even without letters of pardon.

38. Nevertheless, the remission and participation [in the blessings of the Church] which are granted by the pope are in no way to be despised, for they are, as I have said, the declaration of divine remission.

39. It is most difficult, even for the very keenest theologians, at one and the same time to commend to the people the abundance of pardons and [the need of] true contrition.

40. True contrition seeks and loves penalties, but liberal pardons only relax penalties and cause them to be hated, or at least, furnish an occasion [for hating them].

41. Apostolic pardons are to be preached with caution, lest the people may falsely think them preferable to other good works of love.

42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend the buying of pardons to be compared in any way to works of mercy.

43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons;

44. Because love grows by works of love, and man becomes better; but by pardons man does not grow better, only more free from penalty.

45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need, and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.

46. Christians are to be taught that unless they have more than they need, they are bound to keep back what is necessary for their own families, and by no means to squander it on pardons.

47. Christians are to be taught that the buying of pardons is a matter of free will, and not of commandment.

48. Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting pardons, needs, and therefore desires, their devout prayer for him more than the money they bring.

49. Christians are to be taught that the pope's pardons are useful, if they do not put their trust in them; but altogether harmful, if through them they lose their fear of God.

50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the pardon-preachers, he would rather that St. Peter's church should go to ashes, than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep.

51. Christians are to be taught that it would be the pope's wish, as it is his duty, to give of his own money to very many of those from whom certain hawkers of pardons cajole money, even though the church of St. Peter might have to be sold.

52. The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the commissary, nay, even though the pope himself, were to stake his soul upon it.

53. They are enemies of Christ and of the pope, who bid the Word of God be altogether silent in some Churches, in order that pardons may be preached in others.

54. Injury is done the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or a longer time is spent on pardons than on this Word.

55. It must be the intention of the pope that if pardons, which are a very small thing, are celebrated with one bell, with single processions and ceremonies, then the Gospel, which is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies.

56. The “treasures of the Church,” out of which the pope grants indulgences, are not sufficiently named or known among the people of Christ.

57. That they are not temporal treasures is certainly evident, for many of the vendors do not pour out such treasures so easily, but only gather them.

58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the Saints, for even without the pope, these always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outward man.

59. St. Lawrence said that the treasures of the Church were the Church's poor, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time.

60. Without rashness we say that the keys of the Church, given by Christ's merit, are that treasure;

61. For it is clear that for the remission of penalties and of reserved cases, the power of the pope is of itself sufficient.

62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.

63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last.

64. On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is naturally most acceptable, for it makes the last to be first.

65. Therefore the treasures of the Gospel are nets with which they formerly were wont to fish for men of riches.

66. The treasures of the indulgences are nets with which they now fish for the riches of men.

67. The indulgences which the preachers cry as the “greatest graces” are known to be truly such, in so far as they promote gain.

68. Yet they are in truth the very smallest graces compared with the grace of God and the piety of the Cross.

69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of apostolic pardons, with all reverence.

70. But still more are they bound to strain all their eyes and attend with all their ears, lest these men preach their own dreams instead of the commission of the pope.

71. He who speaks against the truth of apostolic pardons, let him be anathema and accursed!

72. But he who guards against the lust and license of the pardon-preachers, let him be blessed!

73. The pope justly thunders against those who, by any art, contrive the injury of the traffic in pardons.

74. But much more does he intend to thunder against those who use the pretext of pardons to contrive the injury of holy love and truth.

75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of God — this is madness.

76. We say, on the contrary, that the papal pardons are not able to remove the very least of venial sins, so far as its guilt is concerned.

77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could not bestow greater graces; this is blasphemy against St. Peter and against the pope.

78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit, the Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in I. Corinthians xii.

79. To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal arms, which is set up [by the preachers of indulgences], is of equal worth with the Cross of Christ, is blasphemy.

80. The bishops, curates and theologians who allow such talk to be spread among the people, will have an account to render. 81. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy matter, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questionings of the laity.

82. To wit — “Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.”

83. Again — “Why are mortuary and anniversary masses for the dead continued, and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded on their behalf, since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed?”

84. Again — “What is this new piety of God and the pope, that for money they allow a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and do not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own need, free it for pure love's sake?”

85. Again — “Why are the penitential canons long since in actual fact and through disuse abrogated and dead, now satisfied by the granting of indulgences, as though they were still alive and in force?”

86. Again — “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?”

87. Again — “What is it that the pope remits, and what participation does he grant to those who, by perfect contrition, have a right to full remission and participation?”

88. Again — “What greater blessing could come to the Church than if the pope were to do a hundred times a day what he now does once, and bestow on every believer these remissions and participations?”

89. “Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of souls rather than money, why does he suspend the indulgences and pardons granted heretofore, since these have equal efficacy?”

90. To repress these arguments and scruples of the laity by force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to expose the Church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies, and to make Christians unhappy.

91. If, therefore, pardons were preached according to the spirit and mind of the pope, all these doubts would be readily resolved; nay, they would not exist.

92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace!

93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Cross, cross,” and there is no cross!

94. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hell;

95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven rather through many tribulations, than through the assurance of peace.

 

Amore et studio elucidande veritatis hec subscripta disputabuntur Wittenberge, Presidente R. P. Martino Lutther, Artium et S. Theologie Magistro eiusdemque ibidem lectore Ordinario. Quare petit, ut qui non possunt verbis presentes nobiscum disceptare agant id literis absentes. In nomine domini nostri Hiesu Christi. Amen.

 

1. Dominus et magister noster Iesus Christus dicendo 'Penitentiam agite &c.' omnem vitam fidelium penitentiam esse voluit. 2. Quod verbum de penitentia sacramentali (id est confessionis et satisfactionis, que sacerdotum ministerio celebratur) non potest intelligi.

3. Non tamen solam intendit interiorem, immo interior nulla est, nisi foris operetur varias carnis mortificationes.

4. Manet itaque pena, donec manet odium sui (id est penitentia vera intus), scilicet usque ad introitum regni celorum.

5. Papa non vult nec potest ullas penas remittere preter eas, quas arbitrio vel suo vel canonum imposuit.

6. Papa non potest remittere ullam culpam nisi declarando, et approbando remissam a deo Aut certe remittendo casus reservatos sibi, quibus contemptis culpa prorsus remaneret.

7. Nulli prorus remittit deus culpam, quin simul eum subiiciat humiliatum in omnibus sacerdoti suo vicario.

8. Canones penitentiales solum viventibus sunt impositi nihilque morituris secundum eosdem debet imponi.

9. Inde bene nobis facit spiritussanctus in papa excipiendo in suis decretis semper articulum mortis et necessitatis.

10. Indocte et male faciunt sacerdotes ii, qui morituris penitentias canonicas in purgatorium reservant.

11. Zizania illa de mutanda pena Canonica in penam purgatorii videntur certe dormientibus episcopis seminata.

12. Olim pene canonice non post, sed ante absolutionem imponebantur tanquam tentamenta vere contritionis.

13. Morituri per mortem omnia solvunt et legibus canonum mortui iam sunt, habentes iure earum relaxationem.

14. Imperfecta sanitas seu charitas morituri necessario secum fert magnum timorem, tantoque maiorem, quanto minor fuerit ipsa.

15. Hic timor et horror satis est se solo (ut alia taceam) facere penam purgatorii, cum sit proximus desperationis horrori.

16. Videntur infernus, purgaturium, celum differre, sicut desperatio, prope desperatio, securitas differunt.

17. Necessarium videtur animabus in purgatorio sicut minni horrorem ita augeri charitatem.

18. Nec probatum videtur ullis aut rationibus aut scripturis, quod sint extra statum meriti seu augende charitatis.

19. Nec hoc probatum esse videtur, quod sint de sua beatitudine certe et secure, saltem omnes, licet nos certissimi simus. 20. Igitur papa per remissionem plenariam omnium penarum non simpliciter omnium intelligit, sed a seipso tantummodo impositarum.

21. Errant itaque indulgentiarum predicatores ii, qui dicunt per pape indulgentias hominem ab omni pena solvi et salvari.

22. Quin nullam remittit animabus in purgatorio, quam in hac vita debuissent secundum Canones solvere.

23. Si remissio ulla omnium omnino penarum potest alicui dari, certum est eam non nisi perfectissimis, i.e. paucissimis, dari.

24. Falli ob id necesse est maiorem partem populi per indifferentem illam et magnificam pene solute promissionem.

25. Qualem potestatem habet papa in purgatorium generaliter, talem habet quilibet Episcopus et Curatus in sua diocesi et parochia specialiter.

1. [26] Optime facit papa, quod non potestate clavis (quam nullam habet) sed per modum suffragii dat animabus remissionem.

2. [27] Hominem predicant, qui statim ut iactus nummus in cistam tinnierit evolare dicunt animam.

3. [28] Certum est, nummo in cistam tinniente augeri questum et avariciam posse: suffragium autem ecclesie est in arbitrio dei solius.

4. [29] Quis scit, si omnes anime in purgatorio velint redimi, sicut de s. Severino et Paschali factum narratur.

5. [30] Nullus securus est de veritate sue contritionis, multominus de consecutione plenarie remissionis.

6. [31] Quam rarus est vere penitens, tam rarus est vere indulgentias redimens, i. e. rarissimus.

7. [32] Damnabuntur ineternum cum suis magistris, qui per literas veniarum securos sese credunt de sua salute.

8. [33] Cavendi sunt nimis, qui dicunt venias illas Pape donum esse illud dei inestimabile, quo reconciliatur homo deo.

9. [34] Gratie enim ille veniales tantum respiciunt penas satisfactionis sacramentalis ab homine constitutas.

10. [35] Non christiana predicant, qui docent, quod redempturis animas vel confessionalia non sit necessaria contritio.

11. [36] Quilibet christianus vere compunctus habet remissionem plenariam a pena et culpa etiam sine literis veniarum sibi debitam.

12. [37] Quilibet versus christianus, sive vivus sive mortuus, habet participationem omnium bonorum Christi et Ecclesie etiam sine literis veniarum a deo sibi datam.

13. [38] Remissio tamen et participatio Pape nullo modo est contemnenda, quia (ut dixi) est declaratio remissionis divine.

14. [39] Difficillimum est etiam doctissimis Theologis simul extollere veniarum largitatem et contritionis veritatem coram populo.

15. [40] Contritionis veritas penas querit et amat, Veniarum autem largitas relaxat et odisse facit, saltem occasione.

16. [41] Caute sunt venie apostolice predicande, ne populus false intelligat eas preferri ceteris bonis operibus charitatis.

17. [42] Docendi sunt christiani, quod Pape mens non est, redemptionem veniarum ulla ex parte comparandam esse operibus misericordie.

18. [43] Docendi sunt christiani, quod dans pauperi aut mutuans egenti melius facit quam si venias redimereet.

19. [44] Quia per opus charitatis crescit charitas et fit homo melior, sed per venias non fit melior sed tantummodo a pena liberior.

20. [45] Docendi sunt christiani, quod, qui videt egenum et neglecto eo dat pro veniis, non idulgentias Pape sed indignationem dei sibi vendicat.

21. [46] Docendi sunt christiani, quod nisi superfluis abundent necessaria tenentur domui sue retinere et nequaquam propter venias effundere.

22. [47] Docendi sunt christiani, quod redemptio veniarum est libera, non precepta.

23. [48] Docendi sunt christiani, quod Papa sicut magis eget ita magis optat in veniis dandis pro se devotam orationem quam promptam pecuniam.

24. [49] Docendi sunt christiani, quod venie Pape sunt utiles, si non in cas confidant, Sed nocentissime, si timorem dei per eas amittant.

25. [50] Docendi sunt christiani, quod si Papa nosset exactiones venialium predicatorum, mallet Basilicam s. Petri in cineres ire quam edificari cute, carne et ossibus ovium suarum.

1. [51] Docendi sunt christiani, quod Papa sicut debet ita vellet, etiam vendita (si opus sit) Basilicam s. Petri, de suis pecuniis dare illis, a quorum plurimis quidam concionatores veniarum pecuniam eliciunt.

2. [52] Vana est fiducia salutis per literas veniarum, etiam si Commissarius, immo Papa ipse suam animam pro illis impigneraret. 3. [53] Hostes Christi et Pape sunt ii, qui propter venias predicandas verbum dei in aliis ecclesiis penitus silere iubent.

4. [54] Iniuria fit verbo dei, dum in eodem sermone equale vel longius tempus impenditur veniis quam illi.

5. [55] Mens Pape necessario est, quod, si venie (quod minimum est) una campana, unis pompis et ceremoniis celebrantur, Euangelium (quod maximum est) centum campanis, centum pompis, centum ceremoniis predicetur.

6. [56] Thesauri ecclesie, unde Pape dat indulgentias, neque satis nominati sunt neque cogniti apud populum Christi.

7. [57] Temporales certe non esse patet, quod non tam facile eos profundunt, sed tantummodo colligunt multi concionatorum.

8. [58] Nec sunt merita Christi et sanctorum, quia hec semper sine Papa operantur gratiam hominis interioris et crucem, mortem infernumque exterioris.

9. [59] Thesauros ecclesie s. Laurentius dixit esse pauperes ecclesie, sed locutus est usu vocabuli suo tempore.

10. [60] Sine temeritate dicimus claves ecclesie (merito Christi donatas) esse thesaurum istum.

11. [61] Clarum est enim, quod ad remissionem penarum et casuum sola sufficit potestas Pape.

12. [62] Verus thesaurus ecclesie est sacrosanctum euangelium glorie et gratie dei.

13. [63] Hic autem est merito odiosissimus, quia ex primis facit novissimos.

14. [64] Thesaurus autem indulgentiarum merito est gratissimus, quia ex novissimis facit primos.

15. [65] Igitur thesauri Euangelici rhetia sunt, quibus olim piscabantur viros divitiarum.

16. [66] Thesauri indulgentiarum rhetia sunt, quibus nunc piscantur divitias virorum.

17. [67] Indulgentie, quas concionatores vociferantur maximas gratias, intelliguntur vere tales quoad questum promovendum.

18. [68] Sunt tamen re vera minime ad gratiam dei et crucis pietatem comparate.

19. [69] Tenentur Episcopi et Curati veniarum apostolicarum Commissarios cum omni reverentia admittere. 20. [70] Sed magis tenentur omnibus oculis intendere, omnibus auribus advertere, ne pro commissione Pape sua illi somnia predicent. 21. [71] Contra veniarum apostolicarum veritatem qui loquitur, sit ille anathema et maledictus.

22. [72] Qui vero, contra libidinem ac licentiam verborum Concionatoris veniarum curam agit, sit ille benedictus.

23. [73] Sicut Papa iuste fulminat eos, qui in fraudem negocii veniarum quacunque arte machinantur,

24. [74] Multomagnis fulminare intendit eos, qui per veniarum pretextum in fraudem sancte charitatis et veritatis machinantur,

25. [75] Opinari venias papales tantas esse, ut solvere possint hominem, etiam si quis per impossibile dei genitricem violasset, Est insanire.

1. [76] Dicimus contra, quod venie papales nec minimum venialium peccatorum tollere possint quo ad culpam.

2. [77] Quod dicitur, nec si s. Petrus modo Papa esset maiores gratias donare posset, est blasphemia in sanctum Petrum et Papam.

3. [78] Dicimus contra, quod etiam iste et quilibet papa maiores habet, scilicet Euangelium, virtutes, gratias, curationum &c. ut 1. Co. XII.

4. [79] Dicere, Crucem armis papalibus insigniter erectam cruci Christi equivalere, blasphemia est.

5. [80] Rationem reddent Episcopi, Curati et Theologi, Qui tales sermones in populum licere sinunt.

6. [81] Facit hec licentiosa veniarum predicatio, ut nec reverentiam Pape facile sit etiam doctis viris redimere a calumniis aut certe argutis questionibus laicorm.

7. [82] Scilicet. Cur Papa non evacuat purgatorium propter sanctissimam charitatem et summam animarum necessitatem ut causam omnium iustissimam, Si infinitas animas redimit propter pecuniam funestissimam ad structuram Basilice ut causam levissimam?

8. [83] Item. Cur permanent exequie et anniversaria defunctorum et non reddit aut recipi permittit beneficia pro illis instituta, cum iam sit iniuria pro redemptis orare?

9. [84] Item. Que illa nova pietas Dei et Pape, quod impio et inimico propter pecuniam concedunt animam piam et amicam dei redimere, Et tamen propter necessitatem ipsius met pie et dilecte anime non redimunt eam gratuita charitate?

10. [85] Item. Cur Canones penitentiales re ipsa et non usu iam diu in semet abrogati et mortui adhuc tamen pecuniis redimuntur per concessionem indulgentiarum tanquam vivacissimi?

11. [86] Item. Cur Papa, cuius opes hodie sunt opulentissimis Crassis crassiores, non de suis pecuniis magis quam pauperum fidelium struit unam tantummodo Basilicam sancti Petri?

12. [87] Item. Quid remittit aut participat Papa iis, qui per contritionem perfectam ius habent plenarie remissionis et participationis?

13. [88] Item. Quid adderetur ecclesie boni maioris, Si Papa, sicut semel facit, ita centies in die cuilibet fidelium has remissiones et participationes tribueret?

14. [89] Ex quo Papa salutem querit animarum per venias magis quam pecunias, Cur suspendit literas et venias iam olim concessas, cum sint eque efficaces?

15. [90] Hec scrupulosissima laicorum argumenta sola potestate compescere nec reddita ratione diluere, Est ecclesiam et Papam hostibus ridendos exponere et infelices christianos facere.

16. [91] Si ergo venie secundum spiritum et mentem Pape predicarentur, facile illa omnia solverentur, immo non essent.

17. [92] Valeant itaque omnes illi prophete, qui dicunt populo Christi 'Pax pax,' et non est pax.

18. [93] Bene agant omnes illi prophete, qui dicunt populo Christi 'Crux crux,' et non est crux.

19. [94] Exhortandi sunt Christiani, ut caput suum Christum per penas, mortes infernosque sequi studeant,

20. [95] Ac sic magis per multas tribulationes intrare celum quam per securitatem pacis confidant.

M.D.Xvii.

This introduction or prospectus is supplementary to that in the first volume on the Psalms, in that it likewise emphasizes, though from different view-points, the history and fruits, as well as the present need and future mission of the Protestant Classics of the greatest of all reformers in their relation to the development of the human race.

Let us in this introduction briefly notice the following: The progress of the movement to translate and circulate Luther's works in English, and then emphasize the need of developing an interest to read them; first, because of the relation of Luther and his writings to the public library; and secondly, because as the chief of the Teuton Protestant Church Fathers, we need to understand Luther in his relation to the Greek and Latin Church Fathers, and our true historic relations to them all.

THE PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT.

With profound gratitude to Almighty God for his rich blessing bestowed upon the publication and quick sale of the first volume, Luther's Commentary on the Psalms, a book “the mourning soul cannot well be without,” we now send forth the first volume of his Commentary on Genesis, with the confidence that those, who think with Melanchthon that “a single page of Luther contains more sound divinity than many whole volumes,” will not change their opinion by studying this volume. Having purchased all the copies of Luther on Galatians and his Notes on the Gospels by Dr. P. Anstadt, and the right to reprint them, with two other volumes about ready for the press, one by Prof. E. F. Bartholomew, D.D., and another by Dr. Bernhard Pick, our progress is encouraging, especially since the movement has taken an intersynodical character with colaborers from every branch of our polyglot communion.

LUTHER ON THE OLD TESTAMENT NEEDED FIRST.

This volume on Genesis follows the first volume on the Psalms because the volumes ought to be published first that are needed most and will do the most good. As Professor of Old Testament Exegesis I found that like “Luther on the Psalms” so “Luther on Genesis” was not accessible to the English, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish students of theology, Prof. Bugge's Norwegian translation of extracts from it being out of print. Therefore we believe this volume also will be welcomed by all Old Testament professors and students. While both these volumes will be a healthy corrective to the Old Testament critics, their contribution to the biblical knowledge and the devotional life of Protestantism cannot be exaggerated. Though first delivered to critical students they have also been extensively read in family worship. Luther began and closed his blessed ministry in the church of God not by fighting the Pope, but by expounding the Word of God. He began by explaining the whole Psalter from 1513 to 1516 (before 1517) forming volumes III and IV of the Kaiser Chronological Edition and closed his life's labors by expounding the first book of the Bible, Genesis, which composes volumes I and II of the St. Louis Walch edition. He commenced with the penitential Psalms of David and ended with Moses, the earliest writings of the Old Testament. The reason so many preachers and congregations neglect the Old Testament is because it is neglected in the seminaries. God willing a volume of Luther on the Prophetical Books will be issued and then in all three years at the seminary the students may have something of Luther on the Pentateuch, Psalms and Prophets.

LUTHER'S WORDS ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

In the recent marvelous development of public libraries it is held if it is the duty of the state to teach the child to read for the welfare of the child and of the state, it is also the duty of the state to offer the child something to read. Hence the library is being supported by taxation like the public school, and the library buildings are being erected near the high schools. It is as President Roosevelt said while west recently, our civilization rests on the church, the school and the library. The library is the child of the church and school and will in turn greatly influence both. Luther, the founder of the Protestant Church, and the founder of the Public School, is also the founder of the Protestant Library. Yea, more, nearly four hundred years ago he united the school and the library as is proved by the following:

It is noteworthy that Luther closes his “Address to the Mayors and Aldermen of all the Cities of Germany in behalf of Christian Schools,” which is considered by educators for its pioneer character and statements of principles “the most important educational treatise ever written,” by a powerful appeal in behalf of public libraries which I give in full from Luther on Education by Prof. Painter.

Luther concludes that great educational treatise thus:

In his “Table Talk” Luther continues thus:

LUTHER THE FATHER OF MODERN LIBRARIES.

The foregoing literal quotations on the library; its divine origin and its biblical and ecclesiastical development from the time of Moses; its interlingual and international importance; its satanic and anti-Christ-like dangers; its true mission and relation to the church, school, family and state; the comprehensive sample catalogue of a model library; and the words that when libraries tend to direct men's thoughts from or against the one great Book they are complete failures; these and other like thoughts of Luther, who was born only 15 years after the death of Guthenburg, his countryman, the inventor of printing; these words so warm, clear and wise of the hero of the Reformation, uttered nearly 400 years ago, prove that Luther and not Franklin was the father or founder of modern libraries of printed books and documents.

In W. T. Fletcher's “Public Libraries In America,” of the Columbian Knowledge Series, published in Boston, 1899, we read on page 10, “But when did the public library movement begin? Not even the Reformation, with its tremendous assertion of the right of man to spiritual freedom, brought about the change so designated. Franklin more than any other originated this movement.” It is strange that in all the recent and growing bibliography on the library there is little or no tendency to trace the origin of the Protestant library to the Protestant Reformation. Yet Mr. Fletcher says on p. 37, “It is a significant fact that everywhere the clergy are found foremost in advancing the library movement.” He certainly does not mean the Catholic clergy.

If you examine the libraries of our day and judge from their contents and spirit, the conclusion irresistibly comes to one that they do not know their own father or founder. Their walls often are decorated with fine pictures of illustrious men, Carnegie and other liberal donors; but in no public library, not even in districts of our country where the German and Scandinavian taxpayers are in the majority do we find a picture on their walls, “Martin Luther, the Founder of the Library Among the Protestant Teutonic Nations.” Though Carnegie should expend all his fortune on libraries alone, his donation to the library idea would be unworthy to be compared with that of Luther. Besides what Luther wrote urging the Teutonic nations accepting his teachings to erect libraries or “book houses” as he called them, and besides what he did in other ways to encourage the collection of the writings of the Germanic nations, this Teuton of the Teutons, their child and father, born, as I said, only fifteen years after the inventor of printing died, wrote a library of 113 volumes in the infancy of printing, which is still today the leading classic library of Protestantism, which has been translated and retranslated in part into every language of the globe and influenced every Protestant and many Catholic authors, and is or should be the foundation and center of every library that is not anti-Protestant. Alas! Alas! It is not so in our own Protestant land, the United States. He seems to be feared more as a leader of a sect, which he never was, than loved and honored as the hero of the Reformation and the very soul of the Protestant Teutonic literary activity and its treasures. However I am not so greatly concerned to have Luther honored as the father of the modern library by hanging his picture on their walls. There is a better way for the Protestant library to honor their father and that is to purchase his writings complete in the German, Scandinavian and English languages and then interest their German, Scandinavian and English citizens to read them. True some libraries have a dozen or more books written about Luther, his life, etc., but not a single book written by him. All the books that others have or may write about him are as nothing compared to what he himself wrote in explaining the Holy Scriptures and the fundamental principles of our modern aggressive Protestant civilization. If they are the happy possessors of a few books translated from our great Teuton church father, the books are often in such poor and antiquated English that no one can nor will read them with any comfort. Librarians and pastors and Protestant laymen, what have you up-to-date in your library from the heart and pen of the father of Protestant literature? Look now and see, and make a note of what you find and write us, and we may be of some help to you in completing your collection.

But what is the use for libraries to purchase Luther's works in German, Scandinavian or English when the people do not call for the books and read them. Therefore we have given emphasis to their cry that is going abroad in the land.

READ LUTHER! READ LUTHER!! READ LUTHER!!!

Why? Because as a true intelligent Protestant you cannot read any thing better. Millions of people have said and millions more will say next to the Bible they received more from Luther's writings than from all other books combined. And if you take the Protestant professors of our land, and for that matter of all lands, they all together would come far short of making a Luther. He was not only ahead of his times, but on many subjects he is far ahead of our age. Yes, when we keep company with Luther we feel we are behind the times, on subjects like Romanism, Protestantism, Christian schools, Christian libraries, the Christian family, the Christian state, and many Christian social problems. It is possible to go backwards as well as forwards.

How can I read Luther when I have not his books and I cannot afford to purchase them? Our cry is not Buy Luther! Buy Luther!! Buy Luther!!! But Read Luther! Read Luther!! Read Luther!!! Many buy Luther's works and do not read them. They can afford to purchase them all and as they have a beautiful book-case with glass doors, perhaps the finest piece of furniture in their homes, as the style now is (for what is a home without an up-to-date book-case?), they subscribe for all Luther's works for a show in their book-case, and we ask can you name a set of books that makes a better show in any public or private library than Luther's works, especially in a Protestant library? They are also really a far better investment than these large, thick, cheap but dear, subscription books, which are nice only while they are new and then they fade and the outside becomes as bad as the inside. When you look at the libraries of many Protestant homes, you pity them, first because of what they have not and then because of what they have.

But Luther's writings should go into the home library not for a show nor for an investment, but to be read. Perhaps there is no passage of Scripture that our homes should take to heart just now more than the advice of Father Paul to his spiritual son, Timothy: “Give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching. Neglect not the gift that is in thee.” 1 Tim. 4:13–14. Give heed that you read something, that you read the best, and give heed how you read, that the gifts in you may not be neglected. Then the right, sound exhortation and pure teaching will follow. Notice the order is first, give heed to reading. Many have never read any writings of Luther except perhaps his small catechism. They have not built very well on the foundation laid. When one thinks of the solid Christian books our German and Scandinavian parents read and what the children read now-a-days, you must sigh.

Again many say I have now more books than I can read and if I buy more I will not read them. Well, you will not lose much if you do not read many books you have, but if you would sell these and buy a few of the classic writings of Protestantism and read and read them again and again, you would be blessed, and just such a work is Luther on Genesis.

NO ONE IS TOO POOR TO BE A LUTHER READER.

I have spoken of those who can afford to buy Luther's works and do buy them, and yet they do not read them. There is another class much smaller but much better; namely, those who enjoyed the study of their catechism and the little they have read here and there in extracts from Luther and they long to read more, but do not know where to get the books or have not the money to buy them. To all such let our pastors, parochial and Sunday school teachers and all others say on every occasion possible that such works can be had in the public library. If you do not find them there make application on the little blank slips the library furnishes for the public to request the library to secure the books desired. If they do not do so at once have your neighbors repeat and repeat the same request. This is the way the latest trashy novels are introduced in public libraries, for they buy only what the public asks for. These libraries are supported as a rule by taxation and the Germans and Scandinavians are heavy taxpayers and their requests for good standard books in their own language or in English will be favorably considered. We ourselves are to blame if public libraries have not the standard classics of their Protestant father and founder.

It if therefore in harmony with historic development and with the spirit of Luther that in Chicago, June 29, 1903, an adjourned meeting of the convention, which assembled in the same city in September of the previous year, was held and effected an organization known as the

NATIONAL LUTHERAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

one aim of which as specified in its constitution, is “To aid in duplicating as far as practicable the 'Luther' literature in the British Museum Library in all the larger American Public Libraries.” (See the constitution for further details.) The public libraries of Great Britain are far ahead of the American public libraries in their Luther literature, and we as free loyal Americans cannot afford to let it continue so.

The question arises, what nations, what culture should characterize the libraries of the world? Shall the Greeks, or the Latins or the Teutons? To aid in answering this question I will add another heading

THE GREEK, LATIN AND TEUTON CHURCH FATHERS.

In the Introduction of Vol. I in the Psalms, to which the reader is referred, it was stated that the key-note of all of the “sacred books” of the East is “Salvation by Works.” And yet in the face of this Protestants are asked to believe that they are “sacred books,” when their main teachings are directly contrary to what we have been taught to esteem as most sacred, namely, our Christian faith in the grace of Christ for salvation. To Protestants they are not sacred books but the very opposite. I would far rather call the writings of Luther sacred, which teach and defend the doctrine of salvation by grace as taught by the one great Book, although it stands alone and protests against the false teachings of the so-called sacred books of the east.

However let us now look more closely at the west. Here we find that Protestants have shown commendable zeal and enterprise in translating, publishing and circulating the large libraries of the Greek and Latin church fathers. Every pastor continuously receives circulars with the almost irresistible temptation to purchase the patristic writings of both Catholic churches. This is all well, but we should not forget that the Anglo-Saxon people are neither Greeks nor Latins, but Teutons, and that our Teuton church fathers are Protestants and they also should be translated, published, circulated and read and taught. Little Wittenberg dare not fall behind Constantinople and Rome. It ought not.

True the Teutons can and do learn from the Greek and Latin church fathers, but we also believe that the children of the old Greeks and Latins can learn much from our Teuton fathers, and that they have as good reasons to welcome our classic church literature as we have theirs; and we hope the day may soon come when they will translate and read ours as faithfully and impartially as we do theirs. What a blessing that would bring to Christendom!

In some quarters however English Protestants have been in danger of appreciating the fathers of the Greeks and Latins to the extent of neglecting to give due honor to their own. Many Protestant ministers' libraries contain all classics except the Protestant classics. Let the whole world have the Greek and the Latin fathers as it has, but let Protestants awake and give the world theirs. Is it not a shame and a pity that while all the writings of the Greek and Latin fathers have been translated into many languages, yet the complete works of Luther, the first and chief of the Protestant fathers, have never been translated into any language, though his loyal disciples are numbered by the hundreds of thousands in different tongues, as the fruits of those writings? For of the 70,169,000 Lutherans in the world, 43,731,000 speak German, 7,300,000 Swedish, 3,500,000 Norwegian, 3,200,000 Danish, 3,000,000 Finnish, 1,100,000 Esthnish, 400,000 Hungarian (or 4,500,000 of the Finnish or Magyarian race), 4,000,000 English, 2,000,000 Lettish, 500,000 Slovakian, 300,000 Polish, 200,000 French, 100,000 Dutch, 100,000 Russian, 82,000 Icelandic, 50,000 Bohemian, 63,000 Wendish, 113,000 Lithuanian, 250,000 the heathen dialects of Asia and 280,000 the heathen dialects of Africa. And further as all German speaking Reformed churches use Luther's version of the Scriptures, so they welcome his writings also.

True in all these 17 or more languages some of Luther's writings have appeared. But it is distressing to learn how few they are, and how out of date and imperfect some of these are. Luther is the common property of all Protestants, and so are his writings. They would be helpful in all time to the 21,000,000 Episcopalians, the 17,000,000 Methodists, the 11,000,000 Baptists, the 9,000,000 Presbyterians, the 4,500,00 °Congregationalists, and all other Protestants; and not only to the 140,000,000 Protestants, but also to the 80,000,000 Greek Catholics and 200,000,000 Latin Catholics and to the heathen, to the infidel, to the state as well as to the church. The first thing for Protestants to do is to give all nations the Bible; and the second, to give them the best Protestant classics. We can. Will we?

No nation or race is greater than its greatest men, and those greatest men are not greater than their best writings. Hence little is of more value in literature than the honest critique by these greatest men of the best writings of the most civilized and cultured nations before their time. Therefore of the greatest interest are the following

CRITICISMS OF THE GREATEST TEUTON CHURCH FATHER ON THE GREEK AND LATIN CHURCH FATHERS.

They are taken literally from his Table Talk and read thus: I will not presume to criticise too closely the writings of the fathers, seeing they are received of the church, and have great applause, for then I should be held an apostate; but whoever reads Chrysostom, will find he digresses from the chief points, and proceeds to other matters, saying nothing, or very little, of that which pertains to the subject. When I was expounding the Epistle to the Hebrews, and turned to what Chrysostom had written upon it, I found nothing to the purpose; yet I believe that he at that time, being the chief rhetorician, had many hearers, though he taught without profit; for the chief office of a preacher is to teach uprightly, and diligently to look to the main points and foundation on which he stands, and so instruct and teach the hearers that they understand aright and may be able to say: This is well taught. When this is done, he may avail himself of rhetoric to adorn his subject and admonish the people.

Behold what great darkness is in the books of the fathers concerning faith; yet if the article of justification be darkened, it is impossible to smother the grossest errors of mankind. St. Jerome, indeed, wrote upon Matthew, upon the Epistles to the Galatians and to Titus; but, alas, very coldly. Ambrose wrote six books on Genesis, but they are very poor. Augustine wrote nothing to the purpose concerning faith; for he was first roused up and made a man by the Pelagians, in striving against them. I can find no exposition upon the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, in which anything is taught pure and right. What a happy time have we now as to the purity of the doctrine; but alas, we little esteem it.

We must read the fathers cautiously, and lay them in the gold balance, for they often stumbled and went astray, and introduced into their books many monkish things. Augustine had more work and labor to wind himself out of the writings of the fathers, than he had with the heretics. Gregory expounds the five pounds mentioned in the Gospel, which the husbandman gave to his servants to put to use, to be the five senses, which the beasts also possess. The two pounds he construes to be the reason and understanding.

The more I read the books of the fathers, the more I find myself offended; for they were but men, and, to speak the truth with all their repute and authority, undervalued the books and writings of the sacred apostles of Christ. The Papists were not ashamed to say, What are the Scriptures? We must read the holy fathers and teachers, for they drew and sucked the honey out of the Scriptures. As if God's Word were to be understood and conceived by none but themselves, whereas the heavenly Father says: “Him shall ye hear,” who in the Gospel taught most plainly in parables and similitudes.

Augustine was the ablest and purest of all the doctors, but he could not of himself bring things back to their original condition, and he often complains that the bishops, with their traditions and ordinances, trouble the church more than did the Jews with their laws.

I am persuaded that if at this time, St. Peter, in person, should preach all the articles of the Holy Scriptures, and only deny the pope's authority, power and primacy, and say that the pope is not the head of all Christendom, they would cause him to be hanged.

Jerome should not be numbered among the teachers of the church, for he was a heretic; yet I believe he was saved through faith in Christ. He speaks not of Christ, but merely carries his name in his mouth.

Again he says, Jerome may be consulted for the purpose of historical study. As to faith, and good true religion and doctrine, there is not a word about them in his writings. He writes only respecting fasts, sorts of food, virginity, etc. I have already proscribed Origin. Chrysostom possesses no authority in my estimation. Basil is but a monk, for whom I would not give the value of a hair. The Apology of Philip Melanchthon is worth all the writings of all the doctors of the church put together, not excepting those of St. Augustine.

Tertullian is a thorough Carlstad; Cyprian the martyr is a feeble theologian.

The fathers said nothing decisive during their lives, respecting justification by grace; but at their death they believed in it. This was the more prudent course for them to follow, in order neither to encourage mysticism, nor discourage good works. These worthy fathers lived better than they wrote.

Since I became, by the grace of God, capable of understanding St. Paul, I have been unable to esteem any of these doctors; they have shrunk into insignificance in my estimation.

HIS “SWAN SONG” AND HIS “IT IS FINISHED.”

We certainly will be pardoned for issuing here and at this time the Prefaces: of Veit Dietrich, who published the first of these lectures in Latin; of Basil Faber, who was the first to translate parts from Latin into German; of Dr. Walch, who issued one of the best editions of Luther's complete works; and of Dr. Cole, who was the first to translate a small part from Latin into English. The words of these four men are a stronger appeal than we can write for the extensive circulation among English Protestants of this the last and the greatest of Luther's writings.

It is as Mathesius says: “Surely the last thoughts are the best when they at the time refer to the Word of God and spring from it. The sermons and books of aged men are worthy of consideration and preservation.” Hence, Jerome Weller called this commentary Luther's Swan Song, and Morlin calls it the “Consummatum Est,” “It Is Finished,” of Luther.

A new interest will be taken in the lines of this book when it is remembered how dear they were to the Reformer himself. He frequently expresses his love for his “dear Genesis,” and had the prophetic impression that his labors in Genesis and his earthly life would terminate together. And so they did. This was the last public work of Luther's forty years of professorial, ministerial and reformatory labors. This saint of God, who was “a lion before men, but a lamb before God,” concludes his commentary thus: “This is now the dear Book of Genesis. May our Lord grant that others may do it better than I have done. I can no more; I am so weak. Pray to God for me, that he may grant me a good holy hour at death!”

A friend, one of the collectors of these comments, records these remarkable coincidences at the foot of the Commentary: “The man of God, Doctor Martin Luther, finished his Commentaries on the Book of Genesis in the year of our Lord 1545, on the 17th day of November; having commenced them in the year 1535. In his opening remarks he had said, 'This exposition I shall pore over and die over (immorabor et immoriar).' According to this prophecy concerning himself he died at Eisleben, Feb. 18th, 1546, piously and continually calling upon the Son of God.”

It is this glorious and beautiful architectural building, the world; that is, the heavens and earth with all that in them is, as the stars, the elements, the trees, the plants, and all kinds of animals, etc., created so admirably for it and wisely ordered by God in their relations to one another, that teaches us to know God as the one eternal and almighty Creator and the right Master-builder, and to understand that he created us for this life, body and soul, and gave us reason and a spirit in order that he might thereby be worshipped. And such knowledge would have remained pure and beautiful in the hearts of all men without doubt and error of any kind had human nature not fallen through disobedience into such miserable darkness and other innumerable calamities.

For what blindness and ignorance of God, his nature and will, his providence and government, there is in the hearts of all men in their corrupt and infirm nature, is evident from the doubts which stick in the hearts of everyone, concerning which Plato was right when he wisely said, “That the minds of men are so overpowered with conviction by the laws of the motion of the heavenly bodies and other testimonies of nature, that they are compelled to confess that the world had for its Creator an eternal and almighty divine Mind.” And yet we find that this knowledge and this conviction are darkened and deranged when we consider how enormous and confused all things are in the world and in this life, and when we find ourselves so often plunged into such great misery and need without help or rescue as if there were no God left to his creatures.

From such doubts all those mad-brained opinions of philosophers have arisen. Some, as the Epicureans, denied the existence of God altogether; others, as Aristotle and the Stoics, believed God was an eternal mind, yet bound and confined him to second causes; just in the same way as the poets fable that Saturn was bound by Jupiter. Thus they ascribe to him no action, but that which the general concurrence of second causes produces. Hence having their minds infatuated with this delirium, they can neither ask any good thing of God, nor expect any good thing from him, because, with them events are necessarily only consequents which responsively follow upon their natural first causes.

Therefore, while these men thus reasoned, they did not bring forth their own private and personal opinions only, but the common errors which lie concealed naturally in the minds of the whole human race. The greatest part of mankind fix their eyes upon second causes; but these never raise them so high as the great Over-ruler of all; so as to wait for the government or pressing forth of second causes from and by him, as Elijah did, when he prayed for rain in the midst of a drought, and as Isaiah did, when he drove back an army of the enemy by prayer.

When this darkness in the mind of man had followed upon the fall of our first parents, God came forth anew out of his secret habitation, and immediately made himself known again, with a distinct voice and with fresh testimonies; that the human race might not appear to be created in vain nor without a mighty purpose, nor for destruction only. The creation indeed was a great benefit and blessing from God. But much more so was his revelation of himself to the human race from the very “beginning,” by certain testimonies and evidences; delivering with a distinct voice the promise of eternal life and salvation, and making a declaration concerning a judgment to come, in which after this life he would separate the righteous from the wicked. The Law also, though known to nature at first, he renewed, and showed what was his true worship. He caused it moreover to be attended with signs, which could be wrought by no power less than infinite. He recalled the dead to life, he stopped the motions of the heavens and the course of the sun, and he even turned the sun back in his course to refute a human delirium, which pretended to suspend God by second causes as by the golden chain of Homer.

And lastly, the Son of God himself assumed human nature and lived openly with us, taught us and became a sacrifice and offering for our sins; and after having overcome death rose and lived again, and discoursed with many in an open and familiar manner; and moreover preached to a great multitude of hearers. And although these things, on account of their greatness, seem to human judgment to be mere fictions, yet they are attested and sealed by sure and certain evidences and miracles; so that they are as surely true as that it is mid-day when the sun has mounted in his course to the mid-heaven.

To these blessings we are also to add this, that God was pleased that there should be a history of the human race from the very “beginning,” and a record of all those testimonies, by which he revealed himself, committed to writing and engraven on biblical monuments, which should remain forever. Nor will God be known in any other way than by these testimonies; nor will he consider any assembly of men, who are ignorant of these testimonies, to be his Church, nor will he receive the prayer of those, who do not call upon him as the same God, who does thus make himself known by these his testimonies.

The Mohammedans and Turks call upon God as the Creator of universal nature, but they set themselves against his Son and his Son's doctrine. They say, that he who can approve such doctrine cannot be God. And as to his Son, in whom God more especially reveals himself, and concerning whom he says himself, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him,” on him they spit with infuriated madness!

And what says Plato here? Although Plato does raise his mind above the common opinions of the vulgar, and does not ascribe divinity to statues of wood and stone, but really does inquire after God with very wise reasoning; and although he defines him to be “an eternal mind” and the great Cause of all good in nature, yet he still errs very widely from the true God. But how is that, some one may say? What description of God will you find more appropriate than Plato's? I acknowledge that he thought most learnedly and wisely concerning the nature of God; but concerning his will, he hangs in doubt himself and leaves all his readers and disciples in doubt also; and to use his own expression “bestormed and shipwrecked in their reasoning.” Neither Plato nor Mohammed knew whether God heard and received the unworthy; nor how, nor why, he received them.

Plato ought however to have inquired not only how God manifested himself in the creation of things, and what traces of himself he impressed upon the face of nature, but also whether or not he had uttered any voice by any certain signs or testimonies, and how that voice was spread abroad and made known. He might have heard these things when studying mathematics in Egypt, and might easily have learned all particulars from their neighbors the Jews. But the greater part of men always despise the voice and the Church of God.

But to what purpose is all this far-fetched Introduction? It is for this end, that we may know the true Church of God is nowhere but among those, who have and who embrace the writings of the prophets and the apostles; that God is nowhere rightly called upon, but where the doctrine contained in these books truly shines forth. And here again we have to consider another singular blessing of God: That he was pleased to cause a whole connected history of all ages, from “the beginning,” to be recorded in these books, and has preserved them by his own peculiar care. Nay, the whole Mosaic Economy was ordained for this very preservation of them. For what was the whole of that Economy, but a school and library of these books?

And the fountain of all is the first book of Moses, called Genesis, which profane men may perhaps laugh at and consider that it does not differ from the “Timon” of Plato, in which also the creation of the world is described. But the godly reader knows that there is a wide difference between profane descriptions and this description given us from above. For the latter not only informs us of the beginnings and nature of created bodies, but gives us a description of God himself. And it contains also an account of the beginnings of the Church; for the sake of which all other things were created and made, all which things we must know before we can understand whence the doctrine of the church proceeded and how the knowledge of it was spread abroad in the world.

All heathen superstitions crept into the assemblies of men without any certain authors, and were afterwards accumulated by fanatical persons on various occasions. But from “the book of Genesis” we learn that the doctrine of the church was delivered to our first parents by the voice of God, and that thence the knowledge of it was preserved and spread abroad in the world by a continued series of persons and events, and not without manifest evidences and testimonies. Enoch was taken up into heaven; Noah truly preached of the Flood and was afterwards preserved in the Flood; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc., for there are many signs and evidences that they were teachers and priests, truly called of God, were most certain witnesses, that the doctrine which they embraced and preached was from heaven.

Symmachus objects against Christians, that all agree that the oldest doctrine must be the true one; but that the apostolic doctrine is a recent fiction. But Symmachus is here in a very great error; for it can be most manifestly proved that the doctrine now held by the Church is the first doctrine that was ever delivered to the world. And that is plainly shown in this “Book of Genesis,” where both the doctrine is recorded as having been delivered of God; and also the increasing nations are described, which departed from the purity of that doctrine and formed for themselves new opinions concerning God and set up idols, instead of worshipping him. Therefore, we must come to this Book for a description of the beginnings of the Church, and for testimonies of its propagation; and it is to this Book that all doctrines must be referred in order to discover their origin or antiquity.

Philosophers knew nothing of the cause of sin, of the cause of death, nor of the cause of the great calamities to which the human race are subject; nor did they know anything of the restitution of all things, nor of eternal life. They were continually inquiring, how there is so much misery in the nature of the human race, which is so exalted and excellent. How often do they exclaim against and lament man's violent and impetuous inclinations to vice! They see that his virtues are weak and that they are only faint attempts which soon vanish and end in nothing; as we see in Pausanius, who was the great general of the Greeks against Mardonius; and in Alexander; also in Themistocles and many others. Aristotle seeks for the cause of the death of the human race and of all other living creatures in their material nature; and to make good his hypotheses, he enumerates privation among the principles of natural things; that he might in some way or other make out a continual lapse of matter, decaying and perishing, in order to assume other forms.

But the Book now under consideration sets before us a far different cause of the death of the human race and of the corruptions which defile it; it shows that the cause was a turning away from God in our human nature at “the beginning;” which human nature, casting away the light and knowledge of God and of life, procured to itself a confusion in its powers and a subjection to the tyranny of the devil and of death. The greatness and enormity of these evils appeared in our first parents, in the murder of Cain and in other horrible wickednesses, seen in those first flowers of the human race, which excelled all others in purity and excellence.

Then again we have a beautiful view and proof of this in the propagation and continual renewing of the Church; where it appears that the Church is not a kingdom or body politic, belonging to this world, enclosed and guarded by armed garrisons; but a body formed of widely dispersed assemblies, though not hidden and obscure; bearing about with them the divine voice and the Word, and dispensing it in public congregations of honest men, to kings, rulers and cities; and calling and drawing many everywhere to prayer and to the true worship of God; though they are all the while derided, cast out, and driven away by tyrants and by the great part of mankind.

Melchizedek, whom the old divines supposed was Shem, the son of Noah, surpassed all the men of that time in wisdom, righteousness and age; and he preached for a long time to the people of Sodom and the neighboring places, for his dwelling was not more than eight English miles from Sodom. Therefore no doubt he had a congregation, by no means insignificant, which contained the families of Abraham, Lot and many others. For although the Church was small, yet there was always some Church existing; and that no obscure nor inconsiderable assemblage. And these little schools or congregations of hearers were protected and defended from on high. For all the neighboring cities, Sodom the chief in power, with infuriated madness despised the heavenly doctrine, and railed at and hated its preachers.

In meditating on this book of Genesis the picture Moses gives us of the Church at that time is to be continually and diligently considered. And indeed in reading these histories, the following six particulars are to be carefully borne in mind.

First, the doctrine of our primitive fathers is to be considered, and that the prophets and apostles drew many things from these fountains. For our forefathers and the prophets learned the benefits of Christ, both out of the promise given to Abraham and from other parts of those histories. How eruditely and learnedly does Paul draw up the article of righteousness by faith out of that word of Genesis, “Abraham believed in God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” And David ascribes unto Christ a priesthood like that of Melchizedek; marking particularly his office of blessing; when he blessed Abraham and promised him in the sweetest words, the favor and help of God; which was different from the office of the Levitical priesthood.

This is a most rich part of the Scripture of Genesis as the following commentary frequently points out, and as the godly reader at once perceives in this very history itself; for he knows that these histories are to be read in a far different spirit and with a widely different intent, than all profane and heathen histories. Heathen histories merely set before us examples of civil manners, and show that the events attending honest designs are for the most part good, and pleasant, and successful; but that the most fatal calamities await atrocious wickedness. And this is nearly all that we learn from profane and heathen histories. But these prophetic writings contain things of much higher moment; the doctrine of God, the divine testimonies concerning eternal things and the government of the Church.

Secondly. We must observe and consider these miracles. Not merely to feast our wondering curiosity on their singularity or novelty, but hold them fast as testimonies and evidences; intended to show what kind of doctrine and what kind of teachers God approves. All those marvelous and signal acts of God are above nature, and wrought as “seals” of the doctrine. For we are not to imagine that God was in jest, when he forewarned the antediluvian world of the Flood, and when he saved the family of Noah alone from that mighty Deluge. All these his mighty acts were testimonials of his providence and of his doctrine, which the aged Noah preached.

Thirdly. Let the government, defense and protection of the Church be diligently observed; which, although it seems to be neglected of God, yet exhibits most illustrious proofs of the presence of God and of his providence.

The Emperor Augustus ruled the world by sure and established laws; he had his armies, to whose care he entrusted the safety of his provinces, and he had also his wealth and other resources, wherewith to support his armies. Thus a political government is fortified and protected by human laws, counsels and power. But the government of the Church is far different from this.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob wander about like private men and strangers in the land without any human resources for protection; and they collect together a Church by the Word or Voice of God, and by the Holy Ghost. And though they are unceasingly exercised with various sorrows and distresses, they still find themselves delivered from all evils, protected and defended from above!

So also Jacob, when about to take his journey with all his family through the territories of his angry and embittered brother, is filled with fears and hesitations, and the difficulties seem insurmountable by all human counsel, but in the night he wrestles with the Lord and is encouraged, confirmed and protected.

And many like examples are contained in this little but momentous book of Record, which shows us that God is ever with his Church. It commands and encourages us also to seek and hope for help and defense from him. For these things were recorded and handed down to posterity that we might be encouraged by such examples and might know that God in the same manner is ever willing to protect and defend us.

Fourthly. We must bear in mind the continual succession of the Church. Men magnify the ordinary succession of all human things; the titles and honors and decorations of parents and the magnificence of houses and places. Cain, Ishmael and Esau arrogated to themselves dominion and superiority in the Church, because they had the advantage of their brethren in age. The ancient Babylonians maintained that their opinions concerning God were the most true, because that was the most ancient dwelling place of our fathers, and because it was the capital and citadel of their empire; just as bishops and colleges now on account of an ordinary succession assume to themselves this peculiar honor, that they cannot err; and that they are the habitation and the pillars of the truth.

But Paul shows us in Romans 9:6, etc., that all such judgments and opinions are refuted in Genesis, where the apostle shows in the most forcible manner that the Church is not propagated and continued by any prerogatives or privileges of birth or place, but by the calling and Word of God. The family of Jacob was the Church; because it retained the doctrine of the Word from heaven; but Esau did not retain it.

Thus the Church which fell away and declined in Palestine was restored by the calling of the great teacher Abraham, and by the renewal of the promise to him with additional evidences and testimonies, and this history shows that the Church is the care of God, and is regenerated and revived by him; as Paul says, “And he gave gifts unto men, prophets and apostles, and pastors, and teachers.”

Let us not then be moved by honors of dignity, or places, or an orderly succession, so as to be made to believe that the church is that assembly of men who oppose the Gospel and who would kill and exterminate all honest men on account of their profession of the doctrine of godliness, as Cain did.

Fifthly. We must bear in mind while reading this Book of Genesis, the lives, manners and actions of the persons recorded in it. We have before been speaking of the doctrine and government of the Church, and they who despise these will never truly value or prize this book. For such men seek in these histories as in all others, and are interested only in the various commotions and changes of states and kingdoms, and the examples and lives of the leaders of armies and the wonderful events of wars. But here they read also the conversations and lives of shepherds; which are like real pastorals, better than Virgil's Bucolica. And they here read also the marriages and quarrels of women, which they despise as altogether without interest. All such readers and proud men err, and do not understand that it is the Church which is here portrayed by Moses, which is poor and humble in external appearance and unlike mighty empires; yet, as the members of that Church lived a civil life, its history consists in domestic and political actions; according to the vocation of those members of the Church of God and the various occurrences which took place in their lives.

Thus Abraham taught his guests concerning God, and with such effect that they themselves said, that he was an angel from God; for it is indeed a great work, verily the greatest of all works to teach rightly concerning God. This same man carries on war when circumstances require it and defeats a huge army of the Chaldeans with a very small number, showing thereby that true courage is a divine motion in the soul from God. This same man is also a master of a family, is full of pure affection, and loves his wives and his children. He is also a diligent man in all his domestic affairs. He defends his fountains and his cattle. In buying he evinces peculiar care, justice and equity; things which he knows God requires in all the dealings of men with each other. And in all this tenor of domestic and political life Abraham's great aim is this, that thereby his confession and profession might be made manifest by his actions. In all the common calamities moreover which attend this life of trouble, he exercises the fear of God, patience and calling upon God in prayer; and he experiences at the hand of God many and great deliverances.

All these things in the lives of the holy patriarchs are committed to letters and recorded in this Holy Book; to the end that superstitions of every kind might be refuted. For in all ages superstitious men have imagined and sought out various ceremonies and modes of religious action, which are not consistent even with common sense, and these superstitious ceremonies they have pompously commended to the people under the title of great acts of religion. All the laws of celibacy, of particular meats and drinks, of afflicting and torturing the body, to make a feigned outside show of religion, are as ancient as the world itself. But let us oppose to all these mad inventions the domestic and political lives and conversations of the patriarchal fathers, which were full of examples of faith, full of the most honorable and kind duties toward their fellow men, and full of the tenderest affection. Nevertheless, these holy characters were not without ceremonies. There were sacrifices; there were certain explanations of the Word and will of God; there were certain holy exercises. The possession of letters and of learning also rested with these men especially. From them it is that we received theology, history and medicine. Therefore they must doubtless have been engaged in various domestic duties and exercises; that those of the less experienced ages might be instructed by them and trained to virtue.

Sixthly. Even the faults and falls of the great men, recorded in this Book must be particularly considered. They took the greatest care not to rush into anything against their consciences. But some offenses will arise in the best of men even against their wills. And sometimes offenses occur of which men are wholly ignorant and unconscious before they take place. Lot, when in the great grief of his mind he had drunk to excess, was defiled by an incestuous commerce with his own daughters.

But in these slips and falls we are to observe a distinctive difference. These holy men who feared God, as I said, were on their guard not to rush into anything against their consciences; and when they happened to fall they deplored the weakness of human nature and learned to see the value of the promise of deliverance through the Saviour, who was to come. And they at length knew that God had received them again in mere mercy, for the sake of the great Deliverer promised; and by that confidence and trust in the promised mercy they returned to God; and therefore they obtained pardon and were delivered from their sins and the punishment of them. Hence Jacob preaches and proclaims the angel, the Son of God, by whom he said he was “delivered from all evil”; namely, from sin and eternal punishment. But the wicked, as Cain, the “giants,” and the people of Sodom, defiled themselves with various sins and iniquities in an open contempt of God, and rushed into eternal destruction. Therefore the wide difference between the falls and punishments of these two characters is to be diligently observed in reading this book of Genesis.

These observations I have made by way of Introduction for the benefit of the inexperienced, that being thus forewarned they might know that the doctrine contained in these sacred histories is concerning the most momentous things, and is most copious and extensive, which indeed the following commentary will most learnedly and blessedly open up and explain. Let those therefore who read it bear in mind that the six particular admonitions which I have here mentioned; and let their aim in reading be this, that by meditating on the lives of the holy men here recorded, they may become accustomed to the fear of God and to faith in him; and to call upon him in prayer and supplication.

And as there is no old commentary of the book of Genesis existing, and as it is well known to all that this book is calculated to be of the utmost benefit and profit, thanks are due to the Reverend Doctor Luther, our teacher, both from myself and from all who fear God, for having undertaken this exposition, by doing which he has rendered a most essential service; not only to us, but to all posterity; because he has here opened up and explained the most important things; and has also so commented upon those most excellent men and lights of the Church, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, that their virtues because of this commentary shine forth with much renewed brightness.

Before this, when the people heard the names of these luminaries of the Church, they had no particular thoughts upon their spiritual excellencies or their heroism; nor did they consider them to be above the common rank of shepherds; but now, they learn to acknowledge the peculiar presence of God with them, and to render thanks unto God that they were called of him and that they so wonderfully governed and revived the Church. From these also they have borrowed eminent examples of the fear of God, of faith, of confession, of patience, and of many other holy virtues. On these they fix their eyes as on leaders and lights of the Church, and inquire of their doctrine for the confirmation of their faith. In a word they venerate them as their fathers; that is, as teachers of all who call upon Jesus Christ; and they understand also that these same patriarchs are the fathers in the flesh of those murderers, the Jews, and of others who, like the Jews of old, hold up Christ for a laughing-stock and “crucify him afresh” day by day.

Indeed, it is no small step toward godliness to know the doctrines of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; and to exalt these eminent men in our esteem.

And that this commentary might be a benefit to more, and might be handed down to posterity, as Doctor Luther had not leisure enough to commit it to writing, with the help of my friends, Caspar Cruciger and George Rorary, I collected it with the greatest diligence and speed, as we received it from the mouth of our venerable teacher Luther; and faithfully committed it to paper; and I hope our services will be acceptable to all our readers who fear the Lord.

This useful and valuable monument of divine knowledge and experience therefore I dedicate to you, most Illustrious Prince, John Ernest; which, I doubt not, you will prize more than any monuments of marble or of brass. For I know it is your desire that this noble work of Martin Luther should be preserved for the Church's sake; and I am equally assured that you love and cherish it with a pious regard, and after the example of your father; and I am also persuaded that you love the author of it; which also you do after the example of your reverend father, that most upright prince, Elector John, Duke of Saxony, whose worth we thus deservedly record; who, although he was far inferior to our most eminent leaders, whom I have before mentioned, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; yet I may justly rank him with that Pharaoh, King of Egypt, whom Joseph instructed in the true knowledge of God; and who gave a quiet dwelling to the family of Jacob. For thus your father also learned the Gospel with a holy desire that he might worship God. And he cherished and adorned the churches, and devoted all his counsels with the greatest moderation, to the common peace and tranquility of Germany.

Receive therefore, Illustrious Prince, this great work, which is now dedicated to you; that by reading these wonderful histories of the government, the perils, and the defense of the Church of God, you may learn to govern and strengthen your own exalted mind.

The reason why this commentary did not appear all at once, but in separate volumes, was because the labor of collecting and committing it to paper was very great; and we have not much idle time at our disposal, from the duties of our calling, as many dream we have; nor as those have, who only vaunt and talk of their great and numerous good works. I hope however that this my candid confession will be accepted by the reader, if I shall put into his hands a part of our labors first; though it is not a small part; and I promise that the remainder shall be added to it in a short time. For as one of old says, “A godly mind surmounts the hardest toil.”

We who are engaged in church work have not only the labor of commenting and teaching, but we have also to endure many other burdens; and that, too, with much courage and firm determination of mind.

Nor am I deterred from my purpose even by the opinions of those, who say that nothing which our adversaries advance, who reproach this kind of doctrine (which, through the goodness and mercy of God, sounds forth in our Church), ought to be published to the world. For God's will is that he should be proclaimed aloud, both by the living voice and by the writings of his Church. Hence it is said concerning the Church's living voice, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise.” And concerning her writings, “These things shall be written for the generation to come.” God's will is, that the doctrine revealed by him should be delivered faithfully and purely to posterity. And his will also is that we should inculcate it by speaking, by discoursing, by commenting, and by writing; that it might become familiarly known to us. And this continual meditation and application of the pen are of essential service to the promotion of godliness.

In a word, on what subjects can we meditate and what things can we commit to paper more useful and important than these? I approve of the labors of all, who devote themselves to the useful arts. I praise those who describe the nature and properties of plants and adorn any of the arts given us from above. But it is not more the duty of men to philosophize upon plants or upon the anatomy of the human body, than to collect with a godly intent those things which were delivered to us of God, attended with sure and certain testimonies.

And as to our adversaries, who reproach the doctrine of our Church, all such are refuted in this very book of Genesis by those sure witnesses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Since, therefore, we have such eminent men as these, as witnesses on our side; nay, as our teachers, too; let us not be moved by the calumnies and reproaches of the wicked. Reader, farewell. To God I commend you.

How one should read the books of Moses and what one should chiefly learn from them are fully set forth by our beloved and highly honored father, Doctor Luther, in many places of his writings; namely, one should first of all and above all concentrate his attention upon the very loving and comforting promises concerning our Lord and Saviour, some of which are very clear and plain in the sacred writings of Moses, as Gen. 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Also, Gen. 22:18, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Likewise Deut. 18:15, “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken.” In the second place attention should be given to the glorious and beautiful examples of faith, of love, of suffering, of patience, of prayer and other spiritual characteristics and traits in the saints, as in Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others. How God was disposed toward them, governed, protected and heard them. And thirdly, study the examples of unbelief among the ungodly and of the divine wrath and judgment, in Cain, Ishmael, Esau, in the Flood and in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. For all these are nowhere described more truly and fully than in the writings of Moses; and such examples illustrate, if they are rightly studied, how the entire Old Testament is to be used with profit; namely, that we learn to trust and believe in God from the examples of the saints set before us, how God received them, ruled and led them and wonderfully protected them. But from the examples of the wrath and judgment of God learn to fear him.

Such passages are not only here and there in all the books of Moses, but in his first book he treats also the following important themes: Whence all creatures, especially man, have their origin; also what sin and death are and how man may be delivered from them and become truly pious, which every man seeks and desires; for these are the most important subjects of all the sacred Scriptures. Likewise, how the Church originated and grew, often came in need and danger, and was wonderfully preserved by God.

The foregoing one should know, if he would read Moses, and especially his first book, Genesis. But so much is in these sound and useful lessons and explanations of Genesis by our honored father, Doctor Martin Luther, of blessed memory, that I will give a short account of it. And first it is true that this dear and great man, our beloved father and prophet, Doctor Martin Luther, served the Church to his last days in many and various labors. In his exposition of the prophetical and apostolical writings, he has most faithfully explained, enforced and defended the doctrines concerning the forgiveness of sins, righteousness before God, and eternal salvation. However his expositions of his “beloved Genesis,” as he delighted to call it, are a key or paragon to all his other writings and books, and a very rich treasure in which an excellent theology is gathered and formulated, as every diligent reader will find for himself. For what is now and then treated in many writings of Doctor Luther, flow together here in one work, which might rightly be called Dr. Luther's Theology. Further you find here for the first time many useful reports of all kinds of spiritual and theological discussions, as they spring up continuously, and especially critical and special instruction almost on every article of Christian doctrine, of God, of the three Persons in the divine Essence, of the creation, of sin, of faith and the forgiveness of sin; of the Law and the Gospel, and how both doctrines are to be distinguished from one another, which have never been treated better and more fully than in this book. Also, of the true Church, of the papacy of Rome, against which you will find here very powerful storms, almost on every page. Against the Jews and all their lies, dreams and phantasies; also some powerful discussions and strong refutations of their prejudices, comments, corruptions and misunderstandings. In addition also the correct exegesis or explanations of many difficult passages of the Scriptures, and strong consolation in all kinds of spiritual need and temptations, as against doubt and unbelief, the fear and the crisis of death, and the like. Also, the refutation of many false teachings and heresies both old and new. In addition some fine and useful histories illustrating the course of the Gospel in our day. Likewise prophecies concerning Germany as to its sad future because it lightly esteems the Word and is so very unthankful, some of which have already been realized and others are about to be. Finally you find at times, according to the drift and occasion of the expositions, good counsels and reports also about external and worldly affairs, to know which fully is necessary, useful and pleasant.

Therefore then, as I considered it a sin that such a treasure should remain only in the Latin language and that others, who were unacquainted with it, should be robbed of it, especially since Dr. Martin Luther was the teacher and prophet of Germany; and in order that everybody, especially the fathers of homes and the people at large, might enjoy this treasure to their profit, advancement and consolation, have I in my weak ability translated the first two parts of the Exposition into German in the plainest and most faithful manner, and dedicated the same to your high honor and to other Christians of the nobility, who have been admonished to love and further such Christian works, for a testimony and praise that your highness was disposed in a Christian and praiseworthy manner to further such useful church works, and heartily inclined to do them. May our beloved God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant that it may be helpful to many pious Christians! Herewith I commend your highness and the benevolent Christians of the worthy nobility to the care and protection of Almighty God.