The Bondage of the Will; Table Talk; Small & Large Catechisms

It is no marvel that the papists hate me so vehemently, for I have well deserved it at their hands. Christ more mildly reproved the Jews that I the papists, yet they killed him. These, therefore, think they justly persecute me, but, according to God's laws and will, they shall find their mistake. In the day of the last judgment I will denounce the pope and his tyrants, who scorn and assail the Word of God, and his sacraments. The pope destroys poor married priests, whereas by all their laws they are only to be displaced from their office. So Prince George has banished and driven away from Oschitz ten citizens and householders, with twenty-seven children, martyrs to the Word. Their sighs will rise up to heaven against him.

The pope and his crew can in nowise endure the idea of reformation; the mere word creates more alarm at Rome, than thunderbolts from heaven, or the day of judgment. A cardinal said, the other day: Let them eat, and drink, and do what they will; but as to reforming us, we think that is a vain idea; we will not endure it. Neither will we protestants be satisfied, though they administer the sacrament in both kinds, and permit priests to marry; we will also have the doctrine of the faith pure and unfalsified, and the righteousness that justifies and saves before God, and which expels and drives away all idolatry and false worshipping; these done and banished, the foundation on which pope-dome is built falls also.

We will have the holy sacrament administered in both kinds, that it shall be free for priests to marry, or to forbear, and we will in no way suffer ourselves to be bereaved of the article of justification: "That by faith only in Jesus Christ we are justified and saved before God; without any works, merits, and deserts, merely by grace and mercy." This we must keep and preserve, pure and unfalsified, if we intend to be saved. As to private mass, we cannot hinder it, but must leave it to God, to be acted by those over whom we have neither power nor command; yet, nevertheless, we will openly teach and preach against it, and show that it is abominable blasphemy and idolatry. Either we must go together by the ears, or else they, in our countries, must yield unto us in this particular; if it come to pass that herein they yield unto us, then must we be contented; for, like as the Christians dealt with the Arians, and as St Paul was constrained to carry himself towards the Jews, even so must we also leave the papists to their own consciences, and seeing they will not follow us, so we neither can nor will force them, but must let them go and commit it to God's judgment; and truly, sincerely, and diligently hold unto and maintain our doctrine, let the same vex, anger, and displease whom it will.

The papists see they have an ill cause, and, therefore, labor to maintain it with very poor arguments, that cannot endure the proof, and may be easily confuted.

They say: "The praising of anything is an invocation; the saints are to be praised, therefore they are to be invoked." I answer: No, in nowise; for every praising is not invoking; married people are to be praised, but not to be invoked; for invocation belongs only to God, and not to any creature, either in heaven or on earth; no, not to any angel. They say:

"The doctrine of the remission of sins is necessary; indulgences, pardons, and graces are remissions of sins; therefore they are necessary." No: the pope's pardons are not remissions of sins, but satisfactions for remitting the punishments; mere fables and fictions.

When I was in Rome a disputation was openly held, at which were present thirty learned doctors besides myself, against the pope's power; he boasting that with his right hand he commands the angels in heaven, and with his left draws souls out of purgatory, and that his person is mingled with the godhead. Calixtus disputed against these assertions, and showed that it was only on earth that power was given to the pope to bind and to loose. The other doctors hereupon assailed him with exceeding vehemence, and Calixtus discontinued his arguments, saying, he had only spoken by way of disputation, and that his real opinions were far otherwise.

For the space of many hundred years there has not been a single bishop that has shown any zeal on the subject of schools, baptism, and preaching; `twould have been too great trouble for them, such enemies were they to God. I have heard divers worthy doctors affirm, that the church has longsince stood in need of reformation; but no man was so bold as to assail popedom; for the pope had on his banner, Noli me tangere; therefore every man was silent. Dr. Staupitz said once to me: "If you meddle with popedom you will have the whole world against you;" and he added:—"yet the church is built on blood, and with blood must be sprinkled."

I would have all those who intend to preach the Gospel, diligently read the popish abominations, their decrees and books; and, above all things, thoroughly consider the horrors of the mass—on account of which idol, God might justly have drowned and destroyed the whole world—to the end their consciences may be armed and confirmed against their adversaries.

That Italian monk's book, the Conformities, wherein a comparison is drawn between Christ and St Francis, is a tissue of such horrible lies, that he who wrote it must have been possessed of a devil, not only spiritually but corporally. Christ, he says, is a figure or emblem of St Francis; and he affirms that Christ gave to St Francis the power of saving or condemning whom he pleased.

In a monastery at Luneburg, there stands to this day a great altar, whereon are represented the life and miracles of Christ; his birth, his entry into Jerusalem, his passion, death, descent into hell, resurrection, and ascension. Just by is set forth, in like manner, the birth of St Francis, his miracles, sufferings, death, and ascent into heaven, so that they esteemed the works of St Francis of equal value with those of our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus; a great and abominable blasphemy.

The pope's decretals are naught; he that drew them up was an ass. They are a book put together like a beggar's coat, patched up with all sorts of rags. There is nothing in them about the church; they all aim at temporal matters. Yet the pope says, these decretals are to have equal authority with the Gospel and the writings of the apostles.

In the pope's decretals are many horrible and diabolical canons; they are a great plague and evil for the church. The shameless pope presumes to say: "Whoso believes and observes not my decrees, it were in vain for him to believe in Christ, or give credit to the four Evangelists." Is not this the language of the very devil, infusing deadly poison into the Church? Again, he says in one of his decretals: That though he led people into hell, they ought to follow him; whereas, on the contrary, the office of a true bishop is to comfort the broken and sorrowful in heart, and to lead them to Christ. For upon this reprobate villain! must he teach consciences to despair in this sort? Whoever reads the decretals, will often find fair sentences of Scripture monstrously lugged in as confirmation; and, in other cases, when the Scripture is dead against them, that it is roundly said: the Romish Church has otherwise decided. Thus, like an infernal dog, the pope dares to subject God's Word to human creatures. `Tis just the same with Thomas Aquinas, who, in his books, argues, pro et contra, when he cites a passage in Scripture, he goes on: Aristotle maintains the contrary; so that the Holy Scripture must give place to Aristotle, a heathen. The world heeds not this abominable darkness, but condemns the truth, and falls into horrible errors. Therefore, let us make good use of our time, for things will not always remain as now.

In the decretals, the pope domineers and triumphs like a victor; there he is on his dunghill, in possession, thundering and lightning with these words: "We have cognizance and authority, and by divine command we judge; all others ought to be obedient unto us." No human creature may criticize the pope; he only and alone has power to judge and criticize the whole universal world. I am persuaded, that in the pope's spiritual laws it is written above one thousand times, that the pope's actions may not be criticised by any man whatsoever.

The spiritual law of the pope is a filthy book, stinking of money. Take out of it covetousness and ambition, there remains nothing of its own proper substance, yet is has a great lustre, for all unhappiness must begin in nomine Domini. Like as all righteousness and saving health is only "in the name of the Lord, so, under the color and cover of God's name, all idolatry and superstition come. Therefore the commandment fitly says: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

Gratian, the lawyer, who collected the decretals together, endeavored with diligence to arrange them congruously, and to separate the good from the evil. The good man meant well, but the result was naught; for he proceeded thus; he rejected that which was good, to justify that which was evil, and thus undertaking the impossible, became amazed and affrighted.

The fasting of the friars is more easy to them than our eating to us. For one day of fasting there are three of feasting. Every friar for his supper has two quarts of beer, a quart of wine, and spice-cakes, or bread prepared with spice and salt, the better to relish their drink. Thus go on these poor fasting brethren; getting so pale and wan, they are like the fiery angels.

If the emperor would merit immortal praise, he would utterly root out the order of the Capuchins, and, for an everlasting remembrance of their abominations, cause their books to remain in safe custody. `Tis the worst and most poisonous sect. The Augustine and Bernardine friars are no way comparable with these confounded lice.

Francis was an Italian, born in the city of Assisi, doubtless an honest and just man. He little thought that such superstition and unbelief would proceed out of his life. There have been so many of those grey friars, that they offered to send forty thousand of their number against the Turks, and yet leave their monasteries sufficiently provided for.

The Franciscan and grey friars came up under the Emperor Frederick II., at the time St Elizabeth was canonized, in the year 1207. Francis worked his game eighteen years; two years under the emperor Philip, four years under the emperor Otho, and twelve years under the emperor Frederick II. They feign, that after his death he appeared to the pope in a dream, held a cup in his hand, and filled the same with blood that ran out of his side. Is not this, think ye, a fine and proper piece of government, that began with dreams and with lies? The pope is not God's image, but his ape. He will be both God and emperor; as pope Innocent III., said: I will either take the crown from the Emperor Philip, or he shall take mine from me. Oh, such histories ought diligently to be written, to the end posterity may know upon what grounds popedom was erected and founded; namely, upon mere lies and fables. If I were younger, I would write a chronicle of the popes.

If the pope should seek to suppress the mendicant friars, he would find fine sport; he has made them fat, and cherished them in his bosom, and assigned them the greatest and most powerful princes for protectors. If he should attempt to abolish them, they would all combine and instigate the princes against him, for many kings and princes, and the emperor himself, have friars for confessors. The friars were the pope's columns, they carried him as the rats carry their king; I was our Lord God's quicksilver, which he threw into the fishpond; that is, which he cast among the friars.

A friar is evil every way, whether in the monastery or out of it. For as Aristotle gives an example touching fire, that burns whether it be in Ethiopia or in Germany, even so is it likewise with the friars. Nature is not changed by any circumstances of time or place.

In Italy was a particular order of friars, called Fratres Inorantiae, that is, Brethren of Ignorance, who took a solemn oath, that they would neither know, learn, nor understand anything at all, but answer all questions with Nescio. Truly, all friars are well worthy of this title, for they only read and babble out the words, but regard not their meaning. The pope and cardinals think: should these brethren study and be learned, they would master us. Therefore, saccum per neccum, that is, hang a bag about their necks, and send them a-begging through cities, towns, and countries.

An honest matron here in Wittenberg, widow of the consul Horndorff, complained of the covetousness of the Capuchins, one of whom pressed her father, upon his death bed to bequeath something to their monastery, and got from him four hundred florins, for the use of the monastery, the friar constraining herself to make a vow, that she would mention the matter to no person. The man kept the money, which course he usually took, to the great hurt of all the children and orphans in that city. At last, by command of the magistrate, she told how the friar had acted. Many such examples have been, yet no creature dared complain. There was no end of the robbing, filching, and stealing of those insatiable, money-diseased wretches.

When I was in the monastery at Erfurt, a preaching friar and a bare-foot friar wandered together into the country to beg for the brethren and to gather alms. These two played upon each other in their sermons. The bare-foot friar, preaching first, said: "Loving country people, and good friends! take heed of that bird the swallow, for it is white within, but upon the back it is black; it is an evil bird, always chirping, but profitable for nothing; and when angered, is altogether mad," hereby describing the preaching friars, who wear on the outside black coats, and inside white linen. Now, in the afternoon, the preaching friar came into the pulpit, and played upon the bare-foot friar: "Indeed, loving friends, I neither may nor can well defend the swallow; but the grey sparrow is far a worse and more hurtful bird than the swallow; for it bites the kine, and when it fouls into people's eyes, makes them blind, as ye may see in the book of Tobit. He robs, steals, and devours all he can get, as oats, barley, wheat, rye, apples, pears, peas, cherries, etc. Moreover, he is a lascivious bird: his greatest art is to cry: `Scrip, scrip,'" etc. The bare-foot friar might in better colors have painted the preaching friars, for they are proud buzzards, and right epicureans; while the bare-foot friars, under color of sanctity and humility, are more proud and haughty than kings or princes, and, most of all, have imagined and devised monstrous lies.

St Bernard was the best monk that ever was, whom I love beyond all the rest put together; yet he dared to say, it were a sign of damnation if a man quitted his monastery. He had under him three thousand monks, not one of whom was damned, if his opinions be true, sed vix credo. St Bernard lived in dangerous times, under the emperors Henry IV, and V., Conrad, and Lothaire. He was a learned and able monk, but he gave evil example. The friars, especially the Minorites and Franciscans, had easy days by their hypocrisy; they touched no money, yet they were vastly rich, and lived in luxury. The evil friars life began betimes, when people, under color of piety, abandoned temporal matters. The vocation and condition of a true Christian, such as God ordained and founded it, consists in three hierarchies - domestic, temporal, and church government.

The state of celibacy is great hypocrisy and wickedness. Augustine, though he lived in a good and acceptable time, was deceived through the exaltation of nuns. And although he gave them leave to marry, yet he said they did wrong to marry, and sinned against God. Afterwards, when the time of wrath and blindness came, and the truth was hunted away, and lying got the upper hand, the generation of poor women was condemned, under the color of great holiness, but which, in truth, was mere hypocrisy. Christ with one sentence confutes all their arguments: God created them male and female.

The covetousness of the pope has exceeded all others, for the devil made choice of Rome as his peculiar habitation. The ancients said: Rome is a den of covetousness, a root of all wickedness. I have also read in a very old book, this verse following: -

"Versus Amor, mundi caput est, et bestia terrae."

That is, when the word Amor is turned and read backward, Roma, Rome, the head of the world, a beast that devours all lands. At Rome all is raked to their hands without preaching or church service, by superstition, idolatry, and selling their good works to the poor ignorant laity for money. St Peter describes such covetousness with express and clear words, when he says: "They have a heart exercised with covetous practices." I am persuaded a man cannot know the disease of covetousness, unless he know Rome; for the deceits and jugglings in other parts are nothing in comparison with those at Rome.

The proverb says: Priests livings are catching livings; priests goods never prosper; and this we know to be true by experience, for such as have taken spiritual livings unto them are grown poor thereby and become beggars.

Saint Augustine and others distinguish thus between heretics, schismatics, and bad Christians; A schismatic is one that raises divisions and dissensions, professing the true faith of the Christian church, but not at union with her as to certain ceremonies and customs; an evil Christian is he that agrees with the church both in doctrine of faith and ceremonies, but therewithal leads an evil life, and is of wicked conversation. But an heretic is one that introduces false opinions and doctrines against the articles of the Christian faith, contrary to the true meaning of Holy Scripture, and stubbornly maintains and defends them. The papists do not call me a heretic, but a schismatic; one that prepares discords and strifes. But I say, the pope is an arch heretic, for he is an adversary to my blessed Saviour Christ; and so am I to the pope, because he makes new laws and ordinances according to his own will and pleasure, and so directly denies the everlasting priesthood of Christ.

Let us but mark the two points in his decrees, where, with exceeding pompous majesty, he exalts himself above the Holy Scriptures. He is content to leave the expounding thereof to the Fathers, but the decision of their truth he reserves for the chair of Rome. Therefore he discharges against me his lightnings and thunderings, yea, also against his own decrees; for the pope himself says: Justice must give place and yield to the truth. For that purpose he produces the example of king Hezekiah, who brake in pieces the brazen serpent, which God had commanded to be erected. But the pope deals quite contrary to his own laws and decrees; for now he will have that truth must and shall give place to his innumerable and apparent errors. And indeed it is a grievous case, that youth have not seen such errors, or comprehended them; they thing that the gospel has always been the same as now it is. If we had held God's Word in due honor and reverence, then such abominable errors and idolatries would never have risen or crept in among us.

Through concord small things and wealth increase, as the heathen said; but dissension is dangerous and hurtful, especially in schools, professions, high arts, and their professors, wherein the one ought to reach the hand to the other, kissing and embracing. But when we bite one another, then let us take heed lest we be swallowed up together. Therefore let us pray and strive; for the word of faith, and the prayers of the just, are the most powerful weapons; moreover, God himself sends his holy angels around them that fear him. We ought valiantly to fight, for we are under a Lord of hosts, and a prince of war; therefore with one hand we must build, and in the other hand take the sword—that is, we must both teach and resist.

It is now time to watch, for we are the mark they shoot at; our adversaries intend to make a confederacy with the Turk; they aim at us, but we must venture it, for antichrist will war and get the victory against the saints of God. We stand outwardly in the greatest danger, by reason of treachery and treason; the papists endeavor with money to corrupt our captains and officers. An ass laden with money may do anything, as Tacitus writes of us Germans; they have been taught to take money; there is neither fidelity nor truth on earth.

The papists have a fair and glittering external worship; they boast much of God's Word, of faith, of Christ, of the sacraments, of love, of hope, etc., but they utterly deny the power and virtue of all these; nay, teach that which is quite contrary thereunto. Therefore St Paul very well says: "They deny the power of godliness." He does not say they deny godliness, but they deny the power, strength, and virtue thereof, by false and superstitious doctrine.

These and like fooleries we then believed as articles of faith. The papists—blind people—by pretending that they go through much tribulation in this world; whereas they wallow in all the glory, pleasures, and delights of the earth. But let them be assured, that ere many years the power of their abominable blasphemies, idolatries, and damnable religion, will be broken, if not destroyed.

And on the contrary, we, who for the sake of confessing God's holy Word in truth, are terrified, banished, imprisoned, and slain here on earth by that man of sin, and God's enemy, the antichrist-pope of Rome, at the last day, with unspeakable comfort, shall take possession of the fruits of our assured hopes—namely, everlasting consolation, joy, and salvation.

The pope places his cardinals in all kingdoms—peevish milk-sops, effeminate and unlearned blockheads, who lie lolling in king's courts, among the ladies and women. The pope has invaded all countries with these and his bishops. German is taken captive by popish bishops, for I can count above forty bishopries, besides abbeys and cathedrals, which are richer than the bishopries. Now, there are in Germany but eight and twenty principalities, so that the popish bishops are far more rich and powerful than the princes of the empire.

The devil begat darkness; darkness begat ignorance; ignorance begat error and his brethren; error begat free-will and presumption; free-will begat merit; merit begat forgetfulness of God; forgetfulness begat transgression; transgression begat superstition; superstition begat satisfaction; satisfaction begat the mass-offering; the mass-offering begat the priest; the priest begat unbelief; unbelief begat king hypocrisy; hypocrisy begat traffic in offerings for gain; traffic in offerings for gain begat purgatory; purgatory begat the annual solemn vigils; the annual vigils begat church-livings, church-livings begat avarice; avarice begat swelling superfluity; swelling superfluity begat fulness; fulness begat rage; rage begat license; license begat empire and domination; domination begat pomp; pomp begat ambition; ambition begat simony; simony begat the pope and his brethren, about the time of the Babylonish captivity.

After the Babylonish captivity, the pope begat the mystery of iniquity; the mystery of iniquity bagat sophistical theology; sophistical theology begat rejecting of the Holy Scripture; rejecting of the Holy Scripture begat tyranny; tyranny begat slaughtering of the saints; slaughtering of the saints begat condemning of God; condemning of God begat dispensation; dispensation begat willful sin; willful sin begat abomination; abomination begat desolation; desolation begat doubt; doubt begat searching out the grounds of truth, and out of this, the desolator, pope, or antichrist, is revealed.

St Paul complained and said: "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;" and elsewhere: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come: for men shall be lovers of themselves," etc.

When first I read these sentences, I did not look towards Rome, but thought they had been spoken of the Jews and Turks.

In the Old Testament, the year Jubilee was observed every fiftieth year; the pope imitated this with the golden gate; which brought gain and money to the popes; so they afterwards changed the fiftieth year into the five and twentieth, then to the fifteenth, and then to the seventh year, so they might frequently get money.

If I had not been a doctor, Satan had made me work enough to do. It was no slight and easy matter for one to alter the whole religion of popedom, so deeply rooted. But I promised and swore in baptism, that I would hold by Christ, and his Word, that I would steadfastly believe in him, and utterly renounce the devil and all his lies. And, indeed, the oath I took in baptism is renewed in all my tribulations; without this I could not have subsisted or resisted my troubles, but they had overwhelmed and made an end of me. I would willingly have shown obedience to the pope and bishops in any reasonable particular; but they would have, short and round, that I should deny Christ, and make God a liar, and say: the Gospel is heresy.

In the New Testament, and in the Christian church, God's worship consists in the plain simple truth; no superstitions or worshipping of idols are there to be found; hence St John, in his Epistle, writes: There are three that bear witness in earth: 1. The spirit; that is, the function of preaching. 2. Water; that is, baptism. 3. Blood; that is, the supper of the Lord. But the pope and his seducing spirits condemn these witnesses, and have invented innumerable worshippings, ceremonies, and offerings; and instituted them of their own election without God's Words, so that through errors the church is excluded from her bridegroom's ordinances.

Ceremonies are only middle things, instituted for the end of policy; namely to observe rules, and that everything in the church may proceed decently and in order, as the law of nature also teaches, and as we behold in the creating of all creatures.

It is of the devil himself that the papists hold the final cause of instituting human traditions to be, that thereby God is truly worshipped and served, and that, therefore, they are necessary to salvation. `Tis most monstrous; for though such human traditions were the best and most esteemed works of Christianity, which they are not, yet to say they are necessary to salvation, or give God satisfaction for our sins, and so purchase grace, spoils all, and makes the best of works to be utterly rejected of God.

The like superstition and abomination lay in those works which they call opera supererogationis, that is, works which they had in overplus, and more then they, the friars, priests, and nuns themselves had need of, so sold them to the laity.

If we could but preserve the catechism, and set up schools for posterity, we had lived well; as for ceremonies, they might go whither they would, for they are the touch-powder, giving occasion to superstition; people thinking they are necessary to salvation and that their being omitted is sin.

The popish fasting is right murder, whereby many people have been destroyed, observing the fasts strictly, and, chiefly, by eating one sort of food, so that nature's strength thereby is wholly weakened.

For this cause Gerson was constrained at Paris to write a book of "Comfort for troubled and perplexed Consciences," to the end they might neither be discouraged nor despair. For those that fast, spoil themselves and weaken their strength. Such darkness has been in popedom, where they neither taught, nor intended to teach, the ten commandments, the creed, and the Lord's prayer.

There are two sorts of holiness, substantial and accidental; St Francis was once substantially holy by his faith in Jesus Christ, but afterwards he became infatuated with the accidental holiness of the hood, an accessory wholly foreign to holiness. Ah, God! `tis not the putting on this or that article of dress, that will give us a pass to heaven.

Luther received tidings from Denmark, that the king and the duke of Holstein had ordered a fast, to be observed three days, - as an admonition to the people to prayer and peace; whereupon he said: it is a very upright and good course; I wish all other kings and princes did the like; `tis the most external humiliation, and when we add thereunto the inward humility of the heart, `tis exceeding good.

Popedom stands upon the mass two manner of ways; first, spiritually, holding that the mass is a worshipping of God; secondly, corporally, being maintained and preserved, not by divine power, but by human and temporal princes.

The mass is the papist's rock, both spiritually and carnally; and now it is fallen in the spirit, and in due time God will also destroy it in the flesh.

The private mass, since the time of Gregory, now above eight hundred years, has deceived many saints. John Huss was taken captive by that deceitful painted stuff. I much wonder how God drew me out of this idolatry. Three years since there was here a man who certified me that in Asia no private mass was celebrated. I am assured that in Armenia, Ethiopia, India, and in the countries towards the east, there are many Christians to this day, who never heard mass.

The mass in France was not so highly esteemed as it has been in Germany; for when in the morning one had heard,ass, he cared for no more, how many soever were held, but passed by them without showing any particular regard. When the French king heard mass, he always gave a French crown to the priest, which he laid upon a book that was brought and held before him.

The canon of the mass is pieced and patched up out of many lies. The Greeks have it not. When I was in Italy, I saw that they at Milan had no such canon, and when I offered to celebrate mass there, they said to me: Nos sumus Ambrosiani. They told me that in former times they had been at debate among themselves, whether they should receive into their church the book of Ambrose, or that of Gregory, and to that end prayed God by some miracle to decide for them. At night they laid both the books in the church; in the morning found the book of Ambrose, altogether whole and unmoved, upon the high altar, but the book of Gregory was torn all in pieces, scattered up and down the church. The same they construed thus: Ambrose should remain at Milan upon the altar, Gregory be scattered through the whole world.

The ornaments and gay apparel used in popedom, in celebrating mass, and other ceremonies, were partly taken out from Moses, and partly from the heathen. For as the priests saw that the public shows and plays, held in the market places, drew away the people, who took delight therein, they were moved to institute shows and plays in the churches, so as to draw children and unlearned people to church. Such are the toys they exhibit on Easter-eve, very pleasing and acceptable, not for devotion's sake, but to delight the foolish fancy.

When I was a young friar at Erfurt, and had to go out into the villages for pudding and cheeses, I once came to a little town where I held mass. Now, when I had put on my vestments and trimmings, and approached the altar, the clerk or sexton of the church began merrily to strike upon the lute the Kirieleison, whereat I, who scarcely could forbear laughing, was constrained to direct and tune my Gloria in excelsis according to his Kirieleison.

The Jews held their offerings es opere operata; when a work was accomplished only externally, they thought that thereby sins were reconciled and satisfied, whereas all their offerings and sacrifices ought to have been signs of thanksgiving.

Even so it is likewise with the papists error of the mass, whereby the mass-priest, an unlearned ass, affects to give full satisfaction for sins.

The mass ought to be abolished, chiefly for two reasons: First, because natural understanding judges that it is a dishonest kind of trading and gain to celebrate mass for two-pence, or to sell it for three-half-pence. Secondly, because, according to the spirit, it is judged to be an abominable idolatry, making Christ to have died in vain, seeing they pretend thereby to make full satisfaction for sins with mere work. These two abuses are altogether inexcusable, yet all universities have conspired and vowed to maintain the mass. We can never agree with the papists as to this point. For if they should suffer the mass to be abolished, they must make full restitution of that which, with their lies and deceit, they have got and stolen from emperors, kings, princes, nobility, and other people.

Many Italians are well inclined to the Protestant religion, and would have been well satisfied therewith had I not touched the mass, to reject which they held to be an abominable heresy. They depend thereon so surely, that they think he who has heard mass is free from all danger, and cannot sin, whatsoever he take in hand, and that no evil can befall him; hence it comes to pass, that after hearing mass, many sins and murders are committed. When I was at Rome, there was one who had sought his enemy two whole years, to be revenged upon him, but had not been able to find him out; at last, he spied him in the church where he himself had heard mass, having just risen from before the altar; he forthwith stepped to him, stabbed him to death, and fled. My book on the abolition of the mass is written with much vehemence against the blasphemers, but it is not for those who are not entering upon the true path, who have just become born to the new life; nor should these be offended thereat; if, twenty years ago, any one had presumed to take from me the mass, he must have tugged hard, before he got it from me; for my heart hung thereon, and I adored it; now, God be praised, I am of another mind, and am fully assured, that the foundation and ground of the mass, and of popedom, is nothing but imposture, extortion, and idolatry.

Missa, the mass, comes of the Hebrew word Maosim, that is, a collecting of alms, a stipend, or a tax for the sake of priests, or other people. The mass has devoured infinite sums of money.