3. Every man is responsible for his own faith.
public matters, how dare the senseless secular power, judge and control such a secret, spiritual, hidden matter as faith?
3. Every man is responsible for his own faith.
Furthermore, every man is responsible for his own faith, and he must see to it for himself that he believes rightly. As little as another can go to hell or heaven for me, so little can he believe or disbelieve for me; and as little as he can open or shut heaven or hell for me, so little can he drive me to faith or unbelief. Since, then, belief or unbelief is a matter of every one's conscience, and since this is no lessening of the secular power, the latter should be content, and attend to its own affairs, and permit men to believe one thing or another as they are able and willing, and constrain no one by force. For faith is a free work, to which no one can be forced.1 No, it is a divine work, done in the Spirit, certainly not a matter which outward authority should compel or create. Hence arises the well-known saying, found also in Augustine, "No one can or ought to be constrained to believe." 2
Besides, these blind, wretched folk do not see how utterly hopeless and impossible a thing they are attempting. For no matter how much they fret and fume, they cannot do more than make the people obey them by word and deed; they cannot constrain the heart, though they wear themselves out trying. For the proverb is true, "Thoughts are free." Why then would they constrain people to believe from the heart, when they see that it is impossible? In this way they compel weak consciences to lie, to deny, and to say what they do not believe in their hearts; and they load themselves down with dreadful alien sins. For all the lies and false confessions which such weak consciences utter, fall back upon the one who compels them.
It would be far better, if their subjects erred, to simply let them err, than to constrain them to lie and say what is not in their hearts; nor is it right to defend evil with what is worse.
Would you like to know why God ordains that the temporal princes must offend so frightfully? I will tell you. God has given them over to a perverse mind, and he will make an end of them, as well as of the spiritual nobles. (Rom 1:28; Jer 30:11; Amos 9:8)3 For my ungracious lords, the pope and the bishops, should be bishops and preach God's Word; but this they leave undone, and have become temporal princes, and govern with laws which concern only life and property. How thoroughly they have turned things upside down!
Inwardly they ought to be ruling souls by God's Word; hence outwardly they rule castles, cities, land, and people, and torture souls with unspeakable outrages. Similarly, the temporal lords should rule land and people outwardly; but this they do not do. All they can do is to flay and scrape, put tax on tax, tribute on tribute, let loose now a bear, now a wolf. Besides this, there is no justice, fidelity, or truth to be found among them. What they do would be beneath robbers and knaves; and their temporal rule has sunk quite as low as that of the
1 "This have I frequently done; if people from another principality came to me and asked me what attitude they should take on this point (the Lord's Supper), I have asked them whether they were convinced that God's Word and the truth demanded the use of the two kinds, and not of the one. If they then wavered, and wanted first to ask me and learn from me, I was not willing to advise them to take it in the two kinds, but dismissed them and told them to learn to become sure of the truth." Weimar Ed., xxxviii, 125. Cf. VOLKER, Toleranz u. Intoleranz im
Zeitalter der Reformation, P. 45.
2 Contra litteras Petiliani, ii, 184 (Migne, xliii, 315).
3 Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; Jer 30:11 For I am with you,' says the LORD, 'to save you;
Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, And will not let you go altogether unpunished.' Amos 9:8 "Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," Says the LORD.