Invocation of the Saints
O n T ru e a nd Fal s e R elig i on the most outrageous thing of all is that the more wealth they heap up , the more they lavish upon their own pleasures ; the more unyieldingly they have resisted the government in bear ing the common burdens , the more they expect to be looked up to and to be considered lords of all .
They are adored , wor shipped , made gods of .
You will never see them forbid that being done to them which ought to be rendered unto God alone .
Such are thes e impious vows , which to these fellows , nay to us fools also , seem so fine .
They promise chastity, but are content with having promised , and are more lascivious than goats ; poverty, though the King himself has greater lack than they ; obedience , which is manifest disobedience to God and foreign to all Christian love .
Therefore they betray Christ who bind themselves by these vows .
They revolt from the law of God , for they follow their own laws , scorning and rejecting the divi ne , and they lay aside humanity towards their kin and neighbors .
For who is more cruel in commands than they, who holds on more greedily to his own than they ?
No on e can help seeing that this kind of life has been sown by the enemy, that is , Satan , like tares among th e wheat of the Lord ,
Matt .
Paul , that most watchful bishop , had zealously tried to guard against this evil , Acts 20: 29 and Col . 2 : 1 8, but we have kept a poor lookout .
Now, h owever, since God h as opened our eyes again , let us walk in the light [I John as it were .
Let us do away with these evils, but wi th sense and order, lest the last state become worse than the first [II Pet .
2 :
So much on vows , on which I have said more in my But, as far as their confutation is concerned, enough Scripture and arguments therefrom have been brought
forward here .
INV OCATION OF
TH E SAINTS
Invoking the saints h as become such a deeply rooted cus tom everywhere that I was afraid in the beginning that this subject woul d hardly get a hearing .
But my anxiety was groun dles s, for as soon as faith took root, it brought wi th it ' Hi s Aus leg en a nd Grand e der Sch lu ssreden .
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such a clear light of truth that all who saw it cast away hope in any created thing whatever .
The doctrine that the saints are not to be invoked has been for two years n ow so thoroughly examined , i n my books if not elsewhere, and has gain ed such currency that I can di s pose of the matter here in fewer words than woul d be required if it had never been discussed before .
I treated it in the "Con cl usi ons, "Arch etel es "f afterwards in the ' first, then in the "Refutation of the Canon of the Mass , "i and finally in the " where I reduced the whole discussion to the briefest dimensions and so have decided to insert that part of the work here without alteration .
"Reply to Emser, [For this extract from the "Reply to Emser see below , pp .
382 -388 ] So much I wrote in answer to Emser .
I have seen meanwhile a pamphlet by a certain great theologian§ among the French (if you take hi m at his own valuation) , but I have been prevented from readi ng it care
fully both by my occupations and by pity for the pamphlet and its author .
For the unhappy man is so ignorant of what is meant by God, by man , by faith , hope , saint, pilgrim , advo cate , mediator, everything, that if I had never before b ad faith in the saying, "No man can come to me except the Father draw him " [Jn . and that other, "Everyone that hath heard from the Father, and b ath learned , cometh unto me
" [Jn .
6 :
I should, nevertheless , n ow be forced to recognize them as most true ; since I see so great a theologian taking the Holy
Scriptures in hand like a donkey running a solemn ceremony, as the saying goes .
I call God to witness that I am sorry for his efforts , which I have not seen .
But why should I be sad ?
The ape is as proud as a peacock of his offspring .
Certain good and learned men from France had suggested that I 'S ee V ol . 1 , p . 2 86 -2 87 . tAu s leg en a nd Gritnd e der S ehlats sr eden .
(July 14, IDe conone miss ae epi chi r esi s .
(August 29, §Josse va n Cl i chtove, bi shop of Cha rtres, whose pamphl et , De v enera ti one s a nctor um , wa s publi sh ed a t Pa ri s i n 1523 .
The titl e pag e states Primus , h onorandos es se ab ecclesi a sancto s , et sedul o a nobi s orandos ,
ostendit .
Secundus, rati ones corum , qui contendunt non es se venerandos nec orandos a nobi s sa nctos , d i s sol vi t .
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same with Paul , he is as pleased with hi mself as if he were ridi ng in a triumphal chariot .
Yet meantime he is not equal to upsetting such a frivolous argument as thi s : If this is logical ,
"Paul prayed here, therefore he prays there, " thi s also is logical , Paul wrote epistles here, therefore he writes them there .
For if he shoul d send down from heaven to us epistles by which the biggest di sputes between theologians coul d be settled , he would do quite as much good as by interceding .
' But why ridicul e with many words a man who ought rather to be wept over ?
The man wh o trul y possesses and truly teaches faith will not need many words to refute such a notion ; for by faith is learned disregard of the saints i n this respect, an d by faith is learned the true "worshi p of the saints .
We "worshi p them righ tly when we all cli ng firml y to that God to whom they also in their lifeti me clung and taught others to cling .
For how could it be that while they were stil l under the weak nes s of the flesh they should arrogate n othing to themselves , and n ow when they are utterly removed from all such weak ness should have changed their mi nds , and having previously led men to the one and only God shoul d now bid them come for refuge to themselves ?
I want my friends , therefore, n ot to take it ill that I have not gratified them by reducing that pamphlet to pul p , for it was quite superfluous .
Faith , as I have said, will of itself thoroughl y eradicate the error ; though every position that he supports in his whole pamphlet will be found so completely overthrown by thes e few considerations urged i n reply to Emser, if only one will read and weigh them fai th fully, that no one wi ll want anything further .
God is such that He is sufficient unto all .
He is so kind a Father that He refuses nothing, so boun tiful that He loves to bestow Hi mself.
Whom , then , are we procuring as our advocates ?
Faith does n ot know this spurious foresight .
Hence it is perfectly plain that those who still cling to the creature do n ot lean on the on e true and holy God .
What, then , does their faith amount to ?
Woul d it not have been better to keep silent than to make such a shameless display of want of faith ?
I know the Jeromes and the Augustin es and the rest, but I know also Christ and the Apostles , and none of them ever taught any such thing .
And what is gained by violently twisting Scripture to such
O n Tru e a nd Fal s e R elig ion purp ose , or by refusing to understand the underlying alleg or ical sense when such sense is present ?
Faith leans upon one God , clings to One , trusts in One , hopes on One , flies to One for refuge , knows for certain that it will find with One everything that it needs .
May He who draweth hearts to Himself grant that we may cleave to Him alone , and may that hypocrisy which parades as piety be banished from the souls of all ! Amen .
M ERIT Since those who have mortgaged their hopes to the saints place chief reliance upon their merits , and since in the church of God hitherto the merit not of what I call saints but of most shameless whoremongers has been sold at the highest price they ventured to put upon it, the next thing is for me to speak of merit .
I have said earlier* that these four things are related :
Providence , Predestination , Free Will , and Merit .
Not that the last two are really related to the first two , but that the man who rightly un derstands the first cannot help understanding the last .
Now providence is the mother of predestination , as it were , and having spoken of it to the best of my ability in con sideri ng God , I need not repeat my words here .
I there repre sented God as providing for all things ; for all things exist through Him .
All things , therefore , are maintained and dis posed through Him .
And the reason our minds fail to reach an understandin g of this is because they are so narrow and circumscribed ; though there are not a few things the proper consideration of which enables us to fashion for ourselves a sort of image of Divine Provi dence , of which things I am going to bring forward only the principal one , namely, man himself .
He submits to the control of reason , so that all his members wait upon its nod ; and by reason I mean th e entire power by which man determines and decides to do this or that .
I am speaking of external activi ty, not of the internal govern ment or alteration of the soul .
He bids his feet walk, and they move ; his hand to grasp the plough , and it obeys .
He never moves a finger without the reason .
Yet, far stronger and surer is Divine Providence in controlling the whole uni "See p . 70.
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verse ; for— if one may compare little things with great— God is in the universe what reason i s in man .
Since, therefore , we see reason presidi ng over all our activities , whether of move ment or rest, so that we see nothing done without its command, h ow i s it that we do n ot confess that in the same way all things are so done and disposed by the providence of God that noth ing takes place without His will or command ? We are anxious ; for we fear that we shall be forced to confess that God is the author of evils also . This, however, is because we do not observe man carefully enough , for sometimes sickness and diseases come upon him , when , if they did n ot, he would di e altogether .
He burns with fever, so he refrains meanwhile from drinking too much , and presently he is restored to his former health . He suffers from gout, a thin a nd acid humor retires from the vi tal parts to the extremities ; but if this had n ot taken place the man would have died long before .
Thus , as long as certain things take place of which we know not the cause and purpose, we refuse to recognize Divine Providence in them , though it uses us , and, in fact, all things, as it will .
Nor is what is base to us base to Providence, for its baseness to us comes from the fact that the Law has been placed over us .
And the Law has been so placed because our passions overstepped all bounds .
But since God is not subject to such , He i s n ot under the L aw, but is Himself that which He demands of us through the Law.
Hence that is n ot base with Him which is base for us .
The promiscuous pairing of animals , even in our judgment, is not base, though such pairing of human beings is most base .
But what is it that absolves them but condemns us ?
The Law .
For by the divine law we are confined within the barriers of matrimony .
So nothing can be base for God which yet cannot help being base for us .
Let us , therefore , n ot be anxious and fearful , and exempt certain things from the Providence of God as n ot becoming to it .
For things that are base for us are n ot so for it ; and things which we think pernicious are on another side profitable .
And predestination , which is only another word for foreordination , is born of providence, nay is provi dence ; for even the theologians distinguish providence from wisdom , in that the former proceeds to act and to dispose, while the latter simply sees what should be done and how .
For
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you cry to them and insist, they yet measure God only by their own foot -rul e ; and recognizing that they do all things without generosity, that i s, for a return , they cannot be induced to take any other view of God .
Hence they think that God ascribes everything to merit, and that where that does n ot exist it is vain to hope for His favor .
God takes advantage of their weakness, or rather want of faith , and invites them to good works by th e hope of reward, that meantime His own may lack nothing .
But if you say to me, "Since all things are done by the providence of God , why does He n ot cause those wh o are so far astray in their knowledge of Him , and wh o accordingly do all things under compulsion and without gen erosity, to be better enlightened, that with the clear
-sighted " I answer : they may see the thing that is most to be looked at ?
"Go to Him who created them , and ask the reason of His action from Himself .
For we were n ot His counsellors [ cf. Jer .
23 : n or did we first give Him anything so that we have a legal right to demand something of Him in return .
We know that the potter has the power to make of the same clay one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor [cf . Rom . 9 : 21 ] and why shall we say to our Lord and God , "Why didst thou make me after this fashion ?
Because, therefore, no one denies that in the Holy Scriptures there are almost more utterances that attribute merit to our works than the reverse , we are not on that account to decide that after the manner of referees we are to take something from either side and give it to the other, in order that peace may be made between our merit and God
's grace, between our free will and God 's providence or predestina tion .
God is not as man .
But we ought rather to do that which we see those holy men did , as I have just said .
Knowl edge of God must be strenuously inculcated , and faith aroused .
If we are successful here, the most excellent frui t will be put forth spontaneously by the good tree [cf. Mt .
At the same time , the sluggish must be stirred up with the hope of reward and the fear of punishment, that the work of God may nowhere halt .
But if you say that thus dissension will arise between the pious and the mercenary, I answer : Nothing whatsoever of the kind .
For the pious are n ot contentious , but teach from love ;
O n True a nd Fal s e R elig i on and those who in these days , having advanced a step farther than they see generally done, leap up and scorn everyone but themselves are less pious than those who rely upon works .
Piety endures all things, does all things, and never fails , -u [ cf. I Cor .
It puts up with the feeble , there fore , has sympathy for the weaker vessel , is not carried away before smoking flax [cf. Mt . 1 2 :
But, if it were permitted to expose here the hypocrisy of certain persons who do just nothing but make a show of their own learning and who ! m am cannot endure to see anyone regarded as more learned than themselves , we should give offence , to be sure , but should safe guard the simple .
In order , therefore , not to exasperate all the wrath of this turbulent small fry , I content myself with the kind of teaching that I have given above .
Only let us at the same time note that , if we ever see ascribed to us by the very mouth of God what cannot belong to any but God , we are to recognize the grace which He shows towards us so lavishly as to ascribe to us what is His alone , and let us not boast
'or rush into contentious argument .
"For we can do nothing against the truth " [II Cor . 1 3 : and we are placed here to build up , not to destroy .
The Christian life is gui lelessness , as I have often said already .
But no soil will bring forth guilelessness more frui tfully than disregard of self .
An d disregard of self is more luxuriant the more of the dew of the knowledge of God it h as drun k in ; for the fuller one is of God , the emptier one is of oneself .
Those , therefore , who from piety , and not from puffed 's providence , devote themselves to guilelessness and nothing else .
But those who do not find this path ought to be goaded on by the law , by hope, and by fear, to doing the same thing the pious do .
This will seem to some rather indiscreet doctri ne , but I shall not care a snap for their opinion , seeing, as I do, that the Prophets , Christ, and the Apostles walked in this path .
But in order fully to meet the expectations raised by the earlier part of this treatise, which ascribed all things to providence and nothi ng to free will and merit, I have ordered that the brief remarks whi ch I made on merit in answer to Emser be incor
-up knowledge , rightly recognize and confess God porated here .
For I am too busy to do otherwise
[For this quotation from the "Reply to Emser see below
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' 388 pp .
But what are we to say of those works which have been invented according to the tradition and teaching of men ? They are shams, snares, traps to extort money .
All works are the fruit either of piety or of the flesh ; for if you are pious you devote yourself from faith to the things that faith dictates .
For whosoever hath faith , God is in him and he in God [cf. I John
"This that you ascribe to faith belongs to love And let no on e say :
; for we must consider that faith is used variously in the Holy Scriptures : first, for belief ; then , for unyielding constancy ; then , for confidence in God ; and of this last only are we to understand the statement that faith saves [cf
Mk .
But those wh o do n ot understand that faith , hope , and love are the same thing, namely, this confidence in God, will have to pass by many knotty points in Scripture unex plained . But this will be plain from the Scriptures .
"By hope were we saved , Rom . and, "To him that believeth , his faith is reckoned for righteousness , Rom . 4 : 5 .
If, then , hope saves , and faith saves, faith and hope must be the same thing .
And let no on e be troubled if sometimes hope and faith are spoken of differently ; for then faith is n ot used to mean con
fiden ce in God , but either for some sort of belief, or for unyielding constancy or genuineness .
But "God Himself is love ° and he that abideth in love , abideth in God , and God in him , I Jn .
A nd , Jn . 6 : 56 ,
"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood , abideth in me, and I in him .
That is :
Whosoever trusteth in Christ, as having suffered for us , abideth in Christ and Christ in him .
Therefore faith and love must be the same thing .
And let no one marvel , and fear that I am confounding these three virtues of the theologians .
For my part, I have learned from the Holy Scriptures that, unless any on e of these virtues is its companion virtue , it is absolutely nothing, much less a virtue .
If you have faith in regard to Christ, but do not put your hope in Him nor love Him , it amounts to nothing, James 1 .
If you say you have hope in God , and do n ot love Him , you make yourself a liar ; for if you have been so taught about God that you see you ought fairly to put your hope in Him , you cannot fail to recognize that He is the supreme good ; if you recognize that He is the
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giver have been abolished .
Meantime I forgot to speak of, or perhaps thought I had spoken of, the abolition of the law as far as it has to do with the worship of God .
We must consider, therefore, that since Christ said, Matt .
"On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets , " whatever laws are tried by them and maintain their integrity are nowhere abolished and never will be abolished .
But, when some men "Ceremonies, therefore, are by n o means to be abolished, since they are governed by the first commandment, say, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
' etc . [Deut . for ceremonies are used from love of God, " I answer that cere o monies are no proof that we love God, but the fact that we obey
Hi s will .
For He says , John 1 4 : 21 .
"He that hath my com mandments, and keepeth them , b e it is that loveth me .
It is , therefore , an indubitable sign of love of God, if we model our selves upon His precepts .
As to ceremonies , we must constantly bear in mind , "In vain do they worship me, teachi ng the doc trines and precepts of men , " Matt . 1 5 : 9 .
They say, therefore, again :
"In this way it will come to pass that we shall cherish those ceremonies which God under the old law wished per formed unto Him , even promulgating directions therefor .
I answer, that those ceremonies had been scorned and rejected out of the mouth of God even before Christ, as is clear from Isa . 1 : 1 1 -1 7; Jer . 6 : 20; Ezek . 20: 25 ; Amos 5 : 21
As, there fore , Christ said, John "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; and so shall ye be my disciples , so we all surely ought to devote ourselves to the honor of God . But
how do we honor Him if we are only disciples of Christ ?
All wh o are disciples of Christ will bear much fruit unto the Father, as also Christ did .
We must try, therefore , to be disciples of Christ .
Now, it is the part of a disciple to become like his mas ter .
If, therefore , we are Christ 's disciples , we will walk even as he walked,
" I John 2 : 6 .
Now, Christ honored the Father by doing good to all and by finally giving Himself for all .
So , surely , our ceremonies shall be none other than those that Christ used ; for by these is God glorified , that is , when we are zealously devoted to truth and guilelessness , and are more ready
to expose ourselves for the brethren than to trample upon them in our own interest .
This is to worship the Father in spiri t
O n Tru e a nd Fals e R elig i on and in truth [cf. Jn . 4 :
PRAYER It i s a most marvelous thing that even prayer h as degen erated into a matter of gain .
For since those were right who said that prayer is the uplifting of the heart to God , what , pray , more shameless could have been thought of than the prostituting of this union of the heart with God ?
Hence we cannot help seeing that the prayers we sold for a price were hypocrisy , and not a 6" s [communion] of the heart with God .
It is , therefore , necessary for me to speak of prayer also , since the devotion of the heart h as dared to sell itself as a work of merit .
Prayer h as been rightly defined by Augustine * and others as the uplifting of the heart to God .
Not that they orig i n ated the idea , but they tried to express in clearer words what everyone who was pious felt to be the case .
I shall speak , first , therefore, of adoration , that thus it may become clear whence this definition of prayer arose .
Adoration is in Hebrew the same as service , for [mm is a service of g en uflexi on "sch ah ah " or bowing down .
So also the Latins sometimes take adoration in the sense of looking up to and serving .
It is about this kind of adoration that the Hebrews are speaking in Exod .
When , therefore , we say, "Thou shalt n ot adore them , nor serve them , " namely idols , it would be better to say ,
"Thou shalt n ot serve them nor be a slave to them "
; for thus we coul d have translated the Hebrew literally, so that we should run no risk of understanding by adoration here the devotion of the heart .
Adoration is, besides , the devoting of the heart to God , that is , to the Lord who can do all things and to the Father who will .
This adoration , this devotion of the heart , was bound to the elements of this world by the Israelites according to the flesh .
For they ordered that it be done at Jerusalem , as the woman of Samaria complained to Christ, John 4 : 20
. This had arisen in this way : The Lord had commanded that three times a year all the children of Israel shoul d assemble at the temple , or tabernacle, that was at Jerusalem [Exod . 23 : 1 4 Deut . 1 6 :
*Aug usti ne Appendici s sermo 73 de v er bo M a t th . , 1 7 ! ui d est a utem orati o, ni si adscen si o anima e de terrestri bus ad ca elesti a , i nqui siti o supernorum, i nvi sibili um des ideri um ?
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This arrangement brought very much gain to the priests .
Therefore they began to bind men 's consciences to the place by their traditions, so that they shoul d come oftener to Jerusalem ; for it was n ot lawful , according to their interpretation , to appear empty -handed before God [Deut . 1 6 :
And yet the expression , "Thou shalt n ot appear before the Lord thy God empty, " does n ot according to the real meaning of the Hebrew
(to bring out this point also in passing ) have this sense , but means, "
The sense i s as if He were spurring on sloth and saying :
"Thou shalt n ot appear in vain .
"Be not reluctant to come to me, for ye shall n ot come in vain .
So in Exod . 23 : 1 5 and although (as in Deut . according to our version) the words seem to have the meaning,
"Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God empty -handed , yet if you consult the Hebrew version they have exactly the meaning that I have given .
For it would have smacked of the height of greed n ot to be allowed to appear without a gift .
I am afraid that this native meaning had always been corrupted by the priests of the Jews .
The priests, then , bound adoration , in the sense of devotion of the heart, to Jerusalem ; and this i s what our priests also, or rather those of Antichrist, have hitherto done , inviting us to pray in the temples, where we see and are seen , in order that they may conveniently inculcate the doctrine ,
" though Christ bids us [cf. Mt . 6 : 6] go into our inner chamber , "Thou shalt n ot appear before the Lord thy God empty, that the heart may freely lay its troubles before God .
Yet adoration , devotion of the heart, is free, and cannot be con fined to any one place .
Hence not even by these words of Christ, " are we to be so bound as not to be allowed to pray anywhere but in our inner chamber .
For Paul desires "Go into thy inner chamber, "that men pray in every place , provided they lift up holy hands " to God, I Tim .
It is apparent, therefore, that it is no small part of prayer to lift up holy b ands, which is nothing else than to be zealous in guileless ness .
Christ, therefore , John took adoration ( to come to the point) for the careful guarding of faith and piety towards God, when He said :
"But the hour cometh , and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship * the Father in 'Veri adoratores adorabunt .
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"Ye shall be blest by faith , wi thout works [ cf. Rom .
Adoration , then , such a way as to mean to say by contrast :
or prayer, is nothing else than a sure confidence in the mercy of God .
The consequence of this is that you come to it in every situation and appeal to it .
If, therefore, you have recourse to it on account of your neighbor, it must be from love either of your neighbor or of his goods .
If the first, your prayer will be answered , for love of your neighbor is based on love of God .
But if your prayer is inspired by eagerness to possess , you make God out impious , as if He were n ot accessible to all but were a sort of respecter of persons [cf. Deut . 1 0:
's , would He not be a respecter of persons ?
Furthermore , you make Him an accomplice of your greed ; for if He gave to another only after that other paid you , would that n ot be col For if He heard your prayer but scorned your neighbor lusi on ?
We must admit, therefore , that these mercenary prayers are an insul t to God, n ot an honoring of Him ; for what sort of honoring i s it to beseech , to importune , to com plain ?
If we are pious , the misfortun e of our neighbor hurts us, so that we run to God anxiously in his behalf ; if, on the contrary, we have n ot this love towards our neighbor, we shall pray in vain , even if we do get a thousand bushels of gold for our praying .
The Truth knoweth not the prayer that is made for the sake of gain .
Now, we pray when we cling to God in spirit, and truly cling, so that when any evil assails us we run to Him alone , and pray that He will alleviate our affliction , but only according to the petition , " [M t. 6 : 1 0] Thus all hired praying, psalms, chants , masses , vigils , fall to the ground , for what we do without love profiteth nothing, I Cor .
Now, when a price is received , the deed has pro "Thy will be done ceeded from greed , n ot from leve .
Hence , however they snarl
"We take pay only sufficient for our maintenance , that we may pray while others on account of their labors have not time , and we pray from love, " I say :
"Go ye also , therefore , sometime and till the fields, and let those who have hitherto labored hard while ye were idle refresh themselves in your snug nests .
Let us rest and labor in turn , for this is what love demands .
But now, since you do not deign even to look at a church or a psalm unless because your belly makes you, and yet at the same