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+On war against the Turk
+=======================
+
+:author: Martin Luther
+:origTitle: Vom Kriege wider die Türken
+:date: 1528
+:citation: WA 30 II, 107-148
+
+
+Luther’s preface
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Count of Katzenellenbogen, Ziegenhain and Nidda, My gracious lord.
+
+Grace and peace in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Serene, highborn
+Prince, gracious Lord.
+
+Certain persons have been begging me for the past five years to
+write about war against the Turks, and encourage our people and stir
+them up to it, and now that the Turk is actually approaching, my friends
+are compelling me to do this duty, especially since there are some
+stupid preachers among us Germans (as I am sorry to hear) who are making
+the people believe that we ought not and must not fight against the
+Turks. Some are even so crazy as to say that it is not proper for
+Christians to bear the temporal sword or to be rulers; also because our
+German people are such a wild and uncivilized folk that there are some
+who want the Turk to come and rule. All the blame for this wicked error
+among the people is laid on Luther and must be called “the fruit of my
+Gospel,” just as I must bear the blame for the rebellion, and for
+everything bad that happens anywhere in the world.
+
+My accusers know better, but God and His Word to the contrary,
+they pretend not to know better, and seek occasion to speak evil of the
+Holy Ghost and of the truth that is openly confessed, so that they may
+earn the reward of hell and never receive repentance or the forgiveness
+of their sins.
+
+Therefore it is necessary for me to write of these things for my
+own sake and the Gospel’s sake and to enter our defense; not because of
+the blasphemers, however. They are not good enough to make it worthwhile
+to say a single word of defense to them, for to them the Gospel must
+always be a stench and a savor of death unto death, as they have
+deserved by their willful blasphemy. But I must write in order that
+innocent consciences may not any longer be deceived by these
+slandermongers, and made suspicious of me or my doctrine, and may not be
+deceived into believing that we must not fight against the Turks. I have
+thought best to publish this little book under the name of your Grace,
+who are a famous and mighty prince, so that it may be the better
+received and the more diligently read. Thus, if it came to a discussion
+of a campaign against the Turks, the princes and lords would readily
+recall it. I commend your Grace to our merciful God’s grace and favor,
+that He may keep your Grace against all error and against the craft of
+the devil, and illumine and strengthen your Grace for a blessed reign.
+
+
+
+Your Grace’s devoted Martin Luther Wittenberg, October 9, 1528
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The two kingdoms
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Pope Leo the Tenth, in the bull in which he put me under the ban,
+condemned, among other statements, the following one. I had said that
+“to fight against the Turk is the same thing as resisting God, who
+visits our sin upon us with this rod.” From this article they may get
+it, who say that I prevent and dissuade from war against the Turk. I
+still confess freely that this article is mine and that I put it forth
+and defended it at the time; and if things in the world were in the same
+state now that they were in then, I would still have to put it forth and
+defend it. But it is not fair to forget how things then stood in the
+world, and what my grounds and reasons were, and still keep my words and
+apply them to another situation where those grounds and reasons do not
+exist. With this kind of art, who could not make the Gospel a pack of
+lies or pretend that it contradicted itself?
+
+This was the state of things at that time – no one had taught, no
+one had heard, and no one knew anything about temporal government,
+whence it came, what its office and work was, or how it ought to serve
+God. The most learned men (I shall not name them) held temporal
+government for a heathen, human, ungodly thing, as though it were
+perilous to salvation to be in the ranks of the rulers. Therefore, the
+priests and monks had so driven kings and princes into the corner, as to
+persuade them that, to serve God, they must undertake other works, such
+as hearing mass, saying prayers, endowing masses, etc. In a word,
+princes and lords who wanted to be pious men held their rank and office
+as of no value and did not consider it a service of God. They became
+really priests and monks, except that they did not wear tonsures and
+cowls. If they would serve God, they must go to church. All the lords
+then living would have to testify to this, for they knew it by
+experience. My gracious lord, Duke Frederick, of blessed memory, was so
+glad when I first wrote On Temporal Government, that he had the little
+book copied out and put in a special binding, and was happy that he
+could see what his position was before God.
+
+Thus the pope and the clergy were, at that time, all in all, over
+all, and through all, like God in the world, and the temporal rulers
+were in darkness, oppressed and unknown. But the pope and his crowd
+wanted to be Christians, too, and therefore pretended to make war on the
+Turk. Over those two points the discussion arose, for I was then working
+on doctrine that concerned Christians and the conscience, and had as yet
+written nothing about the temporal rulers. The papists, therefore,
+called me a flatterer of the princes, because I was dealing only with
+the spiritual class, and not with the temporal; just as they call me
+seditious, now that I have written in such glorification of temporal
+government as no teacher has done since the days of the apostles,
+except, perhaps, St. Augustine. Of this I can boast with a good
+conscience and the testimony of the world will support me.
+
+
+
+Counsels or binding commands
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Among the points of Christian doctrine, I discussed what Christ says, in
+Matthew, viz., that a Christian shall not resist evil, but endure all
+things, let the coat go and the cloak, let them be taken from him, offer
+the other cheek, etc. Of this the pope, with his universities and
+cloister-schools, had made “an advice,” not a commandment, and not a
+rule that a Christian must keep; thus they had perverted Christ’s word,
+spread false doctrine throughout the world, and deceived Christians.
+Since, therefore, they wanted to be Christians, nay, the best Christians
+in the world, and yet fight against the Turk, endure no evil, and suffer
+neither compulsion nor wrong, I opposed them with this saying of Christ
+that Christians shall not resist evil, but suffer all things and let all
+things go. Upon this I based the article that Pope Leo condemned. He did
+it the more gladly because I took the rogue’s-cloak off the Roman
+knavery.
+
+For the popes had never seriously intended to make war on the
+Turk, but used the Turkish war as a conjurer’s hat, playing around in
+it, and robbing Germany of money by means of indulgences, whenever they
+took the notion. All the world knew it, but now it is forgotten. Thus
+they condemned my article not because it prevented the Turkish war, but
+because it tore off this conjurer’s hat and blocked the path along which
+the money went to Rome. If they had seriously wished to fight against
+the Turk, the pope and the cardinals would have had enough from the
+pallia, annates, and other unmentionable sources of income, so that they
+would not have needed to practice such extortion and robbery in Germany.
+If there had been a general opinion that a serious war was at hand, I
+could have dressed my article up better and made some distinctions.
+
+It did not please me, either, that the Christians and the princes
+were driven, urged, and irritated into attacking the Turk and making war
+on him, before they amended their own ways and lived like true
+Christians. These two points, or either separately, were enough reason
+to dissuade from war. For I shall never advise a heathen or a Turk, let
+alone a Christian, to attack another or begin war. That is nothing else
+than advising bloodshed and destruction, and it brings no good fortune
+in the end, as I have written in the book On Soldiers; and it never does
+any good when one knave punishes another without first becoming good
+himself.
+
+
+
+Misuse of the Christian name
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+But what moved me most of all was this. They undertook to fight against
+the Turk under the name of Christ, and taught men and stirred them up to
+do this, as though our people were an army of Christians against the
+Turks, who were enemies of Christ; and this is straight against Christ’s
+doctrine and name. It is against His doctrine, because He says that
+Christians shall not resist evil, shall not fight or quarrel, not take
+revenge or insist on rights. It is against His name, because in such an
+army there are scarcely five Christians, and perhaps worse people in the
+eyes of God than are the Turks; and yet they would all bear the name of
+Christ. This is the greatest of all sins and one that no Turk commits,
+for Christ’s name is used for sin and shame and thus dishonored. This
+would be especially so if the pope and the bishops were in the war, for
+they would put the greatest shame and dishonor on Christ’s name, since
+they are called to fight against the devil with the Word of God and with
+prayer, and would be deserting their calling and office and fighting
+with the sword against flesh and blood. This they are not commanded, but
+forbidden to do.
+
+O how gladly would Christ receive me at the Last Judgment, if
+when summoned to the spiritual office, to preach and care for souls, I
+had left it and busied myself with fighting and with the temporal sword!
+And how should Christ come to it that He or His have anything to do with
+the sword and go to war, and kill men’s bodies, when He glories in it
+that He has come to save the world, not to kill people? For His work is
+to deal with the Gospel and by His Spirit to redeem men from sin and
+death, nay, to help them from this world to everlasting life. According
+to John 6:15, He fled and would not let Himself be made king; before
+Pilate He confessed, “My kingdom is not of this world”; and He bade
+Peter, in the garden, put up his sword, and said, “He that taketh the
+sword shall perish by the sword.”
+
+I say this not because I would teach that worldly rulers ought
+not be Christians, or that a Christian cannot bear the sword and serve
+God in temporal government. Would God they were all Christians, or that
+no one could be a prince unless he were a Christian! Things would be
+better than they now are and the Turk would not be so powerful. But what
+I would do is keep the callings and offices distinct and apart, so that
+everyone can see to what he is called, and fulfill the duties of his
+office faithfully and with the heart, in the service of God. Of this I
+have written more than enough elsewhere, especially in the books On
+Soldiers and On Temporal Government. For Paul will not suffer it that in
+the Church, where all should be Christians, one assume another’s office
+( Romans 12:4 and Corinthians 12:15), but exhorts every member to his
+own work, so that no disorder arise, but everything be done in an
+orderly way. How much less, then, is the disorder to be tolerated that
+arises when a Christian leaves his office and takes upon him a temporal
+office, or when a bishop or pastor leaves his office and takes upon him
+the office of a prince or judge; or, on the other hand, when a prince
+takes up the office of a bishop and lets his princely office go? Even
+today this shameful disorder rages and rules in the whole papacy,
+contrary to their own canons and laws.
+
+Inquire of experience how well we have succeeded hitherto with
+the Turkish war, though we have fought as Christians until we have lost
+Rhodes and almost all of Hungary and much German land besides. And that
+we may perceive clearly that God is not with us in our war against the
+Turks, He has never put so much courage or spirit into the minds of our
+princes that they have been able even once to deal seriously with the
+Turkish war. Though many of the diets, almost all of them in fact, have
+been called and held on this account, the matter will neither be settled
+nor arranged, and it seems as though God were mocking our diets and
+letting the devil hinder them and get the better of them until the Turk
+comes ravaging on at his leisure and ruins Germany without trouble and
+without resistance. Why does this happen? Because my article, which Pope
+Leo condemned, remains uncondemned and in full force. Because the
+papists reject it, arbitrarily and without Scripture, the Turk must take
+its part and prove it with the fist and with deeds. If we will not learn
+out of the Scriptures, we must learn out of the Turk’s scabbard, until
+we find in our hurt that Christians are not to make war or resist evil.
+Fools must be chased with clubs.
+
+
+
+Confusion of Christianity and politics
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+How many wars, think you, have there been against the Turk in which we
+would not have received heavy losses, if the bishops and clergy were
+there? How pitifully the fine king Lassla, with his bishops was beaten
+by the Turk at Varna. The Hungarians themselves blamed Cardinal Julian
+and killed him for it. Recently King Ludwig would perhaps have fought
+with more success, if he had not led a priests’ army or, as they call
+it, a Christian army against the Turks. If I were emperor, king, or
+prince in a campaign against the Turk, I would exhort my bishops and
+priests to stay at home and mind the duties of their office, praying,
+fasting, saying mass, preaching, and caring for the poor, as not only
+Holy Scripture, but their own canon law teaches and requires. If,
+however, they were to be disobedient to God and their own law and desire
+to go along to war, I would teach them by force to attend to their
+office and not, by their disobedience, put me and my army under God’s
+wrath and into danger. It would be less harmful to have three devils in
+the army than one disobedient, apostate bishop, who had forgotten his
+office and assumed that of another. For there can be no good fortune
+with such people around, who go against God and their own law.
+
+I have heard of fine soldiers who have thought that the king of
+France, when he was defeated and captured by the emperor before Pavia,
+had all of his bad fortune because he had the pope’s, or as they
+boastfully call them, the Church’s, people with him. For after they came
+to his camp with a great cry of Ecclesia, ecclesia! “Church, Church!”
+there was no more good fortune there. This is what the soldiers say,
+though perhaps they do not know the reason for it, viz., that is not
+right for the pope, who wants to be a Christian, and the highest and
+best Christian preacher at that, to lead a church army, or army of
+Christians. For the Church ought not strive or fight with the sword; it
+has other enemies than flesh and blood, their name is the wicked devils
+in the air; therefore it has other weapons and swords and other wars, so
+that it has enough to do, and cannot mix in the wars of the emperor or
+princes, for the Scriptures say that there shall be no good fortune
+where men are disobedient to God.
+
+Again, if I were a soldier and saw in the field a priests’
+banner, or banner of the cross, even though it were a crucifix I should
+run as though the devil were chasing me; and even if they won a victory,
+by God’s decree, I should not take any part in the booty or the
+rejoicing. Even the wicked iron-eater, Pope Julius, who was half devil,
+did not succeed, but had to call at last on the Emperor Maximilian and
+let him take charge of the game, despite the fact that Julius had more
+money, arms, and people. I think, too, that this latest pope, Clement,
+whom people held almost a god of war, succeeded well with his fighting
+until he lost Rome and all its wealth to a few ill-armed soldiers. The
+conclusion is this: Christ will teach them to understand my article,
+that Christians shall not make war, and the condemned article must take
+its revenge, for it is said of Christians and will be uncondemned and
+right and true; although they do not care and do not believe it, but
+rush on more and more, hardened and unrepentant, and go to destruction.
+To this I say Amen, Amen.
+
+It is true, indeed, that since they have temporal lordship and
+wealth, they ought to make out of it the same contributions to the
+emperor, kings, or princes that other holdings properly make, and render
+the same services that others are expected to render. Nay, these “goods
+of the Church,” as they call them, ought above all others to serve and
+help in the protection of the needy and the welfare of all classes, for
+they are given for that purpose, not in order that a bishop may forget
+his office and use them for war or battle. If the banner of Emperor
+Charles or of a prince is in the field, then let everyone run boldly and
+gladly to the banner to which his allegiance is sworn; but if the banner
+of a bishop, cardinal, or pope is there, then run the other way, and say
+“I do not know this coin; if it were a prayer book, or the Holy
+Scriptures preached in the Church, I would rally to it.”
+
+
+
+Facing two fronts
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Now before I exhort or urge to war against the Turk, hear me, for God’s
+sake, while I first teach you how to fight with a good conscience. For
+although, if I wanted to give way to the old Adam, I could keep quiet
+and look on while the Turk revenged me upon the tyrants who persecute
+the Gospel and subject me to all kinds of pain, and paid them back for
+it, nevertheless, I shall not do this, but rather serve both friends and
+enemies, so that my sun may rise on both bad and good, and my rain fall
+on the thankful and unthankful.
+
+In the first place, it is certain that the Turk has no right or
+command to begin war and to attack lands that are not his. Therefore,
+his war is nothing else than outrage and robbery, with which God is
+punishing the world, as He often does through wicked knaves, and
+sometimes through godly people. For he does not fight from necessity or
+to protect his land in peace, as the right kind of a ruler does, but
+like a pirate or highwayman, he seeks to rob and damage other lands, who
+are doing and have done nothing to him. He is God’s rod and the devil’s
+servant; there is no doubt about that.
+
+In the second place, it must be known that the man, whoever he
+is, who is going to make war against the Turk, must be sure that he has
+a commission from God and is doing right. He must not plunge in for the
+sake of revenge or have some other mad notion or reason. He must be sure
+of this, so that, win or lose, he may be in a state of salvation and in
+a godly occupation.
+
+There are two of these men, and there ought to be only two: the
+one is named Christian, the other Emperor Charles.
+
+
+
+The first front – penance and prayer
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Christian should be first, with his army. For since the Turk is the rod
+of the wrath of the Lord our God and the servant of the raging devil,
+the first thing to be done is to smite the devil, his lord, and take the
+rod out of God’s hand, so that the Turk may be found in his own strength
+only, all by himself, without the devil’s help and without God’s hand.
+This should be done by Sir Christian, that is, the pious, holy, dear
+body of Christians. They are the people who have the arms for this war
+and know what to do with them. If the Turk’s god, the devil, is not
+first beaten, there is reason to fear that the Turk will not be so easy
+to beat. Now the devil is a spirit, who cannot be beaten with armor,
+guns, horses, and men, and God’s wrath cannot be allayed by them, as it
+is written in Psalm 33:17 - 18, “The Lord hath no pleasure in the
+strength of the horse, neither delighteth he in any man’s legs; the Lord
+delighteth in them that fear him and wait for his goodness.” Christian
+weapons and power must do it.
+
+Here you ask, “Who are the Christians and where does one find
+them?” Answer: They are not many, but they are everywhere, though they
+are spread out thin and live far apart, under good and bad princes.
+Christendom must continue to the end, as the article of the Creed says,
+“I believe one holy Christian Church.” But if that is true, it must be
+possible to find them. Every pastor and preacher ought to exhort his
+people most diligently to repentance and to prayer. They ought to drive
+men to repentance by showing our great and numberless sins and our
+ingratitude, by which we have earned God’s wrath and disfavor, so that
+He justly gives us into the hands of the devil and the Turk. That this
+preaching may work the more strongly, they ought to cite examples and
+sayings out of the Scriptures, such as the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah,
+and the children of Israel, and show how cruelly and how often God
+punished the world, and its lands and peoples; and they ought to make it
+plain that it is no wonder, since we sin more heavily than they did, if
+we are punished worse than they.
+
+
+
+Instructions for penance and prayer
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Verily, this fight must be begun with repentance, and we must reform our
+lives, or we shall fight in vain; as the prophet Jeremiah says in the
+chapter, “I will speak at one time against a kingdom to pluck it up,
+destroy it, and scatter it; but if that people against which I speak
+repent, I will repent me of the evil that I thought to do it; again I
+speak of a kingdom and people to plant and build it, but if it do evil
+in my sight, and hear not my voice, I will repent me of the good that I
+had said I would do it.
+
+Therefore, speak to them of Judah and them of Jerusalem, and say,
+Behold I prepare a calamity for you and think evil against you; let each
+of you, then, turn from his evil way and make your deeds good.” This
+saying we may apply to ourselves as though it had been spoken to us, for
+God devises an evil against us because of our wickedness and certainly
+prepares the Turk against us, as He says also in Psalm 7:12, “If a man
+turn not, he hath whetted his sword and stretched his bow, and aimed it,
+and laid a deadly bolt in it.”
+
+Along with these must be cited the words and illustrations of
+Scripture in which God makes it known how well He is pleased with true
+repentance or amendment, made in faith and reliance on His Word – such
+as, in the Old Testament the examples of Kings David, Ahab, Mannasseh,
+and the like; in the New Testament of St. Peter, the malefactor, the
+publican in the Gospel, and so forth. Although I know that to the
+scholars and saints, who need no repentance, this advice of mine will be
+laughable and that they hold it for a simple and common thing which they
+have long since got beyond; nevertheless, I have not been willing to
+omit for the sake of myself and sinners like myself, who need both
+repentance and exhortation to repentance every day. In spite of it, we
+remain all too lazy and lax, and have not, with those “ninety and nine
+just persons,” got so far over the hill as they permit themselves to
+think they have.
+
+After people have been thus taught and exhorted to confess their
+sin and amend their ways, they should then be exhorted with the utmost
+diligence to prayer, and shown how such prayer pleases God, how He has
+commanded it and promised to hear it, and that no one ought to think
+lightly of his own praying, or have doubts about it, but be sure, with
+firm faith, that it will be heard; all of which has been published by us
+in many tracts. For the man who doubts, or prays at a venture, would do
+better to let it alone, because such prayer is merely a tempting of God
+and only makes things worse. Therefore, I would advise against
+processions, f112 which are a heathenish and useless practice, for they
+are pomp and show rather than prayer. It might, indeed, be of some use
+to have the people, especially the young people, sing the Litany at mass
+or vespers or in the church after the sermon, provided that everyone, at
+home, by himself, conconstantly raised to Christ at least a sigh of the
+heart for grace to lead a better life and for help against the Turk. I
+am not speaking of much long praying, but of frequent brief sighs, in
+one or two words, such as “O help us, dear God the Father; have mercy on
+us, dear Lord Jesus Christ!” or the like.
+
+Lo, this kind of preaching will strike the Christians and find
+them out, and there will be Christians who will accept it and act
+according to it; it matters not if you do not know who they are. The
+tyrants and bishops may also be exhorted to desist from their raging and
+persecution against the Word of God and not to hinder our prayer; but if
+they do not desist, we must not cease to pray, but keep on, and take the
+chance that they will have the benefit of our prayer and be preserved
+along with us, or that we shall pay for their raging and be ruined along
+with them. They are so perverse and blind that if God gave good fortune
+against the Turk, they would ascribe it to their holiness and merit and
+boast of it against us. On the other hand, if things turned out badly,
+they would ascribe it to no one but us, and lay the blame on us,
+disregarding the shameful, openly sinful, and wicked life, which they
+not only lead, but defend; for they cannot teach rightly a single point
+about the way to pray, and they are worse than the Turks. Ah, well. We
+must leave that to God’s judgment!
+
+In this exhortation to prayer, also, we must introduce sayings
+and examples from the Scriptures, in which it is shown how strong and
+mighty a man’s prayer has sometimes been; for example, Elijah’s prayer,
+which St. James praises; the prayers of Elisha and other prophets; of
+Kings David, Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jesis, Hezekiah, etc.; the story
+of how God promised Abraham that He would spare the land of Sodom and
+Gomorrah for the sake of five righteous men; for the prayer of righteous
+men can do much if it be persistent, says St. James in his Epistle. They
+are to be informed, besides, that they shall be careful not to anger God
+by not praying, and not to fall under His judgment, in Ezekiel 13:5,
+where God says, “Ye have not set yourselves against me, and opposed
+yourselves as a wall before the house of Israel, to stand against the
+battle in the day of the Lord”; and in Ezekiel 22, “I sought a man among
+them who would be a wall, and stand against me for the land, that I
+should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I poured my wrath
+upon them and consumed them with the fire of my anger and paid them as
+they deserved, saith the Lord.”
+
+
+
+Penance and prayer against Gods wrath
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+From this it is easy to see that God would have men set themselves in
+the way of his wrath and keep it off, and that He is greatly angered if
+this is not done. That is what I meant when I spoke above about taking
+the rod out of God’s hands. Let him fast who will. Let him go down on
+his knees and bow and fall to the ground, if he is in earnest; for the
+bowing and kneeling that has been practiced hitherto in the chapters and
+monasteries was not in earnest; it was, and still is, mere apery. It is
+not for nothing that I exhort pastors and preachers to impress this upon
+the people, for I see plainly that it rests entirely with the preachers
+whether the people shall amend their ways and pray, or not. Little will
+be accomplished by preaching in which men call Luther names and
+blaspheme, and let repentance and prayer alone; but where God’s Word is
+spoken, it is not without fruit. They, however, must preach as though
+they were preaching to saints who had learned all that there was to know
+about repentance and faith, and therefore had to talk about something
+higher.
+
+We should have been moved to this prayer against the Turk by the
+great need of our time, for the Turk, as has been said, is the servant
+of the devil, who not only ruins land and people with the sword, as we
+shall hear later, but also lays waste the Christian Faith and our dear
+Lord Jesus Christ. For although some praise his government because he
+allows everyone to believe what he will so long as he remains the
+temporal lord, yet this praise is not true, for he does not allow
+Christians to come together in public, and no one can openly confess
+Christ or preach or teach against Mohammed.
+
+What kind of freedom of belief is it when no one is allowed to
+preach or confess Christ, and yet our salvation depends on that
+confession as Paul says, “To confess with the lips saves,” and Christ
+has strictly commanded to confess and teach His Gospel.
+
+Since, therefore, faith must be kept quiet and held secret among
+this barbarous and wild people and under this severe rule, how can it at
+last exist or remain, when there is need for so much trouble and labor,
+in places where it is preached most faithfully and diligently?
+Therefore, it happens, and must happen, that those Christians who are
+captured or otherwise get into Turkey fall away and become altogether
+Turkish, and it is very seldom that one remains true to his faith, for
+they lack the living bread of souls and see the free and fleshly life of
+the Turks and are obliged to adapt themselves to it.
+
+How can one injure Christ more than with these two things;
+namely, force and wiles? With force, they prevent preaching and suppress
+the Word.
+
+With wiles, they daily put wicked and dangerous examples before
+men’s eyes and draw men to them. If we then would not lose our Lord
+Jesus Christ, His Word and faith, we must pray against the Turks as
+against other enemies of our salvation and of all good. Nay, as we pray
+against the devil himself.
+
+
+
+Islam – the faith of the Muslims
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In this connection, the people should be told of all the dissolute life
+and ways that the Turk practices, so that they may the better feel the
+need of prayer. To be sure, it has often disgusted me and still does,
+that neither our great lords nor our scholars have been at any pains to
+give us any certain knowledge about the life of the Turks in the two
+classes, spiritual and temporal; and yet he has come so near to us. For
+it is said that they too have chapters and monasteries. Some indeed have
+invented outrageous lies about the Turks in order to stir up us Germans
+against them, but there is no need for lies; the truth is all too great.
+I will tell my dear Christians a few things, so far as I know the real
+truth, so that they may the better be moved and stirred up to pray
+earnestly against the enemy of Christ our Lord.
+
+I have some pieces of Mohammed’s Koran which might be called in
+German a book of sermons or doctrines of the kind that we call pope’s
+decretals. When I have time, I must put it into German so that every man
+may see what a foul and shameful book it is. f116 In the first place, he
+praises Christ and Mary very much as those who alone were without sin,
+and yet he believes nothing more of Christ than that he is a holy
+prophet, like Jeremiah or Jonah, and denies that he is God’s Son and
+true God. Besides, he does not believe that Christ is the Savior of the
+world, Who died for our sins, but that He preached to His own time, and
+completed His work before His death, just like any other prophet.
+
+
+
+Islam denies Christ
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+On the other hand, he praises and exalts himself highly and boasts that
+he has talked with God and the angels, and that since Christ’s office of
+prophet is now complete, it has been commanded to him to bring the world
+to his faith and if the world is not willing, to compel it or punish it
+with the sword; and there is much glorification of the sword in it.
+Therefore, the Turks think their Mohammed much higher and greater than
+Christ, for the office of Christ has ended and Mohammed’s office is
+still in force.
+
+From this anyone can easily observe that Mohammed is a destroyer
+of our Lord Christ and His kingdom, and if anyone denies concerning
+Christ, that He is God’s Son and has died for us, and still lives and
+reigns at the right hand of God, what has he left of Christ? Father,
+Son, Holy Ghost, Baptism, the Sacrament, Gospel, Faith and all Christian
+doctrine and life are gone, and there is left, instead of Christ,
+nothing more than Mohammed with his doctrine of works and especially of
+the sword. That is the chief doctrine of the Turkish faith in which all
+abominations, all errors, all devils are piled up in one heap.
+
+And yet, the world acts as though it were snowing pupils of the
+Turkish faith, for it pleases the reason extraordinarily well that
+Christ should not be God, as the Jews also believe, and especially is
+Reason pleased with the thought that men are to rule and bear the sword
+and get up in the world; then the devil pushes it along. Thus a faith is
+patched together out of the faith of Jews, Christians and heathen. He
+gets it from the Christians when he praises Christ and Mary and the
+apostles and other saints. He gets it from the Jews that people are not
+to drink wine, are to fast the certain times of the year, wash like the
+Nazarites, and eat off the ground, and go on with such holy works as
+part of our monks do and hope for everlasting life at the Judgment Day,
+for, holy people that they are, they believe in the resurrection of the
+dead, though few of the papists believe in it.
+
+What pious Christian heart would not be horrified at this enemy
+of Christ, since we see that the Turk allows no article of our faith to
+stand, except the single one about the resurrection of the dead? Then
+Christ is no redeemer, savior, or king; there is no forgiveness of sins,
+no grace, no Holy Ghost.
+
+Why should I say much? In the article that Christ is to be
+beneath Mohammed, and less than he, everything is destroyed. Who would
+not rather be dead than live under such a government, where he must say
+nothing about his Christ, and hear and see such blasphemy and
+abomination against Him? Yet it takes such a powerful hold, when it wins
+a land, that people even submit to it willingly. Therefore, let everyone
+pray who can pray that this abomination may not become lord over us and
+that we may not be punished with this terrible rod of God’s anger.
+
+
+
+Islam rules with arms
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In the second place, the Turk’s Koran, or creed, teaches him to destroy
+not only the Christian faith, but also the whole temporal government.
+His Mohammed, as has been said, commands that ruling is to be done by
+the sword, and in his Koran the sword is the commonest and noblest work.
+
+Thus the Turk is, in truth, nothing but a murderer or highwayman,
+as his deeds show before men’s eyes. St. Augustine calls other kingdoms,
+too, great robbery; Psalm 76:4 also calls them “fastnesses of robbers,”
+f118 because it is but seldom that an empire has come up except by
+robbery, force, and wrong; or at the very least, it is often seized and
+possessed by wicked people without any justice, so that the Scriptures,
+in Genesis 10:9, call the first prince upon earth, Nimrod, a mighty
+hunter. But never has any kingdom come up and become so mighty by murder
+and robbery as that of the Turk; and he murders and robs every day, for
+it is commanded in their law, as a good and divine work, that they shall
+rob and murder, devour and destroy more and more those that are round
+about them; and they do this, and think that they are doing God service.
+Their government, therefore, is not a regular rulership, like others,
+for the maintenance of peace, the protection of the good, and the
+punishment of the wicked, but a rod of anger and a punishment of God
+upon the unbelieving world, as has been said. The work of murdering and
+robbing pleases the flesh in any case, because it enables men to gain
+high place and subject everyone’s life and goods to themselves; how much
+more must the flesh be pleased when this is a commandment, as though God
+would have it so and it pleased Him well! Therefore among the Turks,
+too, they are held the best who are diligent to increase the Turkish
+kingdom and who are constantly murdering and robbing round about them.
+
+This second thing must follow out of the first; for Christ says,
+in John 8:44, that the devil is a liar and murderer. With lies he kills
+souls, with murder bodies. If he wins with a lie, he does not take a
+holiday and make delay, but follows it up with murder. Thus when the
+spirit of lies had taken possession of Mohammed and the devil had
+murdered men’s souls with his Koran and had destroyed the faith of
+Christians, he had to go on and take the sword and attempt the murder of
+their bodies. The Turkish faith, then, has not made its progress by
+preaching and the working of miracles, but by the sword and by murder,
+and its success has been due to God’s wrath, which ordered that, since
+all the world has a desire for the sword and robbery and murder, one
+should come who would give it enough of murder and robbery.
+
+All fanatics, as a rule, when the spirit of lies has taken
+possession of them and led them away from the true faith, have been
+unable to stop there, but have followed the lie with murder and taken up
+the sword, as a sign that they were children of the father of all lies
+and murder. Thus we read how the Arians became murderers and one of the
+greatest bishops of Alexandria, Lucius by name, drove the orthodox out
+of the city, and went into the ship and held a naked sword in his own
+hand until the orthodox were all on board and had to go away; and these
+tender, holy bishops committed many other murders even at that time,
+which is almost twelve hundred years ago. Again, in the time of St.
+Augustine, which is almost eleven hundred years ago, the holy father
+shows, in his books, how many murders were committed by the Donatists.
+In such an utterly worldly way did the clergy conduct themselves! They
+had only the name and guise of bishops among the Christians; but because
+they had fallen away from the truth and become subject to the spirit of
+lies, they had to go forward in his service and become wolves and
+murderers. Even in our own times, what was Muenzer seeking, except to
+become a new Turkish emperor? He was possessed of the spirit of lies and
+therefore there was no holding him back; he had to go at the other work
+of the devil, take the sword and murder and rob, as the spirit of murder
+drove him, and he created such a rebellion and such misery.
+
+
+
+Muhammad and the pope are tied together
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+And what shall I say of the most Holy Father, the pope? Is it not true
+that he and his bishops have become worldly lords, have fallen away from
+the Gospel, led by the spirit of lies, and embraced their own human
+doctrine, and thus have practiced murder, down to the present hour? Read
+the histories of the time and you find that the principal business of
+popes and bishops has been to set emperors, kings, princes, lands, and
+people against one another, even themselves to fight and help in the
+work of murder and bloodshed. Why so? Because the spirit of lies never
+acts any other way.
+
+After he has made his disciples teachers of lies and deceivers,
+he has no rest until he makes them murderers, robbers, and blood-dogs.
+For who has ordered them to bear the sword, to make war, and to urge men
+on and stir them up to murder and war, when their duty was to attend to
+preaching and prayer?
+
+They call me and mine seditious, but when have I ever coveted the
+sword or urged men to take it, and not rather taught and kept peace and
+obedience, except that I have instructed and exhorted the regular
+temporal rulers to do their duty and maintain peace and justice? By its
+fruits one shall know the tree. I and mine keep and teach peace; the
+pope, with his followers, makes war, murders, robs, and that not only
+his enemies; but he burns, condemns, and persecutes the innocent, the
+pious, the orthodox, as a true Antichrist. For he does this, “sitting in
+the temple of God,” as head of the Church; and that the Turk does not
+do. But as the pope is Antichrist, so the Turk is the very devil. The
+prayer of Christendom is against both.
+
+Both shall go down to hell, even though it may take the Last Day
+to send them there; and I hope it will not be long.
+
+Summing up what has been said: Where the spirit of lies is, there
+is also the spirit of murder, though he may not get to work or may be
+hindered. If he is hindered, he still laughs and is jubilant when murder
+is done, and at least consents to it, for he holds it right. But good
+Christians do not rejoice over any murder, not even over the misfortunes
+of their enemies. Since, then, Mohammed’s Koran is such a great spirit
+of lies that it leaves almost nothing of Christian truth remaining, how
+could it have any other result than that it should become a great and
+mighty murderer, with both lies and murders under the show of truth and
+righteousness. As, therefore, lies destroy the spiritual order of faith
+and truth, so murder destroys all temporal order instituted by God; for
+where murder and robbery are practiced, it is impossible that there
+should be a fine, praiseworthy temporal government, since they cannot
+think more highly of peace than of war and murder, or attend to the
+pursuits of peace, as one can see in soldiers. Therefore, the Turks do
+not regard the work of agriculture highly.
+
+
+
+Islam despises women and marriage
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The third point is that Mohammed’s Koran thinks nothing of marriage, but
+permits everyone to take wives as he will. Therefore, it is customary
+among the Turks for one man to have ten or twenty wives and to desert or
+sell any of them that he will, when he will, so that in Turkey women are
+held immeasurably cheap and are despised; they are bought and sold like
+cattle. Although there may be some few who do not take advantage of this
+law, nevertheless this is the law and anyone can follow if he will. Such
+a way of living is not marriage and cannot be marriage, because none of
+them takes a wife or has a wife with the intention of staying with her
+forever, as though the two were one body, as God’s Word says, in Genesis
+2:24, “The man shall cleave to his wife and they two be one body.”
+
+Thus the marriage of the Turks closely resembles the chaste life
+that the soldiers live with their harlots; for the Turks are soldiers
+and must act like soldiers; Mars and Venus, say the poets, must be
+together.
+
+
+
+Some Muslims are all right
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+These three points I have wanted to mention. I am sure of them from the
+Koran of the Turks. What I have heard beside I will not bring forward,
+because I cannot be sure about it. Suppose, then, that there are some
+Christians among the Turks; suppose that some of them are monks; suppose
+that some are honorable laymen; even then, what good can there be in the
+government and the whole Turkish way of life, when according to their
+Koran these three things rule among them; namely, lying, murder, and
+disregard of marriage, and besides, everyone must keep Christian truth
+quiet and dare not rebuke or try to reform these three points, but must
+look on and consent to them, as I fear, at least so far as to be silent?
+How can there be a more horrible, dangerous, terrible imprisonment than
+a life under such a government? Lies destroy the spiritual estate,
+murder the temporal, disregard of marriage the estate of matrimony. Now
+take out of the world veram religionem, veram politiam, veram
+oeconomiam, i.e., true spiritual life, true temporal government, and
+true conduct of the home; what is left in the world, but flesh, world
+and devil? A life there is like the life of the “good fellows” who keep
+house with harlots.
+
+It is said, indeed, that the Turks are, among themselves,
+faithful and friendly and careful to tell the truth. I believe that, and
+I think that they probably have more fine virtues in them than that. No
+man is so bad that there is not something good in him. Now and then a
+woman of the streets has good qualities that scarcely ten honorable
+matrons have. So the devil would have a cloak and be a fair angel, an
+angel of light; therefore he hides behind certain works, that are works
+of the light. Murderers and robbers are more faithful and friendly to
+each other than neighbors are, nay, more so than many Christians. For if
+the devil keeps the three things – lies, murder, and disregard of
+marriage – as the real foundation of hell, he can easily tolerate, nay,
+help, that fleshly love and faithfulness shall be built upon it, as
+precious stones (though they are nothing but hay and straw), though he
+knows well that nothing of them will remain through the fire. f123 On
+the other hand, where true faith, true government, true marriage are, he
+tries earnestly that little love and fidelity may appear and little be
+shown, so that he can put the foundation to shame and have it despised.
+
+What is more, when the Turks go into battle their war-cry is no
+other word than “Allah! Allah!” and they shout it till heaven and earth
+resound. But in the Arabic language Allah means God, and is a corruption
+of the Hebrew Eloha. For they have taught in the Koran that they shall
+boast constantly with these words, “There is no God but God.” All that
+is really a device of the devil. For what is it to say, “There is no God
+but God” without distinguishing one God from another? The devil, too, is
+a god and they honor him with this word; of that there is no doubt. In
+just the same way the pope’s soldiers cry “Ecclesia! Ecclesia!” To be
+sure: the devil’s ecclesia! Therefore I believe that the Turks’ Allah
+does more in war than they themselves. He gives them courage and wiles,
+guides sword and fist, horse and man. What do you think, then, of the
+holy people who can call upon God in battle, and yet destroy Christ and
+all God’s words and works, as you have heard?
+
+
+
+**Prohibition agains pictures**
+
+It is part of the Turks’ holiness, also, that they tolerate no images or
+pictures and are even holier than our destroyers of images. For our
+destroyers tolerate, and are glad to have, images on gulden, groschen,
+rings, and ornaments; but the Turk tolerates none of them and stamps
+nothing but letters on his coins. He is entirely Muenzerian, too, for he
+overthrows all rulers and tolerates no gradations of government, such as
+princes, counts, lords, nobles and other feudatories; but he alone is
+lord over all in his own land, and what he gives out is only pay, never
+property or rights of rulership. He is also a papist; for he believes
+that he will become holy and be saved by works, and thinks it no sin to
+overthrow Christ, lay government waste, and destroy marriage. All these
+things the pope also works at, though in other ways, with hypocrisy,
+while the Turk uses force and the sword. In a word, as has been said, it
+is the very dregs of all abominations and errors.
+
+All this I have wanted to tell to the first man, namely, the
+community of Christians, so that he may know and see how much need there
+is for prayer, and how we must first smite the Turk’s Allah, that is,
+his god, the devil, and strike down his power and godhead; otherwise, I
+fear, the sword will accomplish little. For this man is not to fight in
+a bodily way with the Turk, as the pope and his followers teach, nor
+resist him with the fist, but recognize the Turk as God’s rod and anger,
+which Christians must either suffer, if God visits their sins upon them,
+or fight against and drive away with repentance, tears, and prayer. He
+who despises this counsel, let him despise it; I want to see what damage
+he will do the Turk.
+
+
+
+The secular government
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The second man whose place it is to fight against the Turk is Emperor
+Charles, or whoever is emperor; for the Turk attacks his subjects and
+his empire, and it is his duty, as a regular ruler appointed by God, to
+defend his own. I repeat it here, that I would not urge anyone or tell
+anyone to fight against the Turk unless the first method, mentioned
+above, had been followed, and men had first repented and been reconciled
+to God, etc. If anyone will go to war besides, let him take his risk. It
+is not proper for me to say anything more about it beyond telling
+everyone his duty and instructing his conscience.
+
+I see clearly that kings and princes are taking such a silly and
+careless attitude toward the Turk that I fear they are despising God and
+the Turk too greatly, or do not know, perhaps, that the Turk is such a
+mighty lord that no kingdom or land, whatever it is, is strong enough to
+resist him alone, unless God will do a miracle. Now I cannot expect any
+miracle or special grace of God for Germany, unless men amend their ways
+and honor the Word of God differently than has hitherto been done.
+
+But enough has been said about that for those who will listen. We
+would now speak of the emperor.
+
+In the first place, if there is to be war against the Turk, it
+should be fought at the emperor’s command, under his banner, and in his
+name. Then everyone can assure his own conscience that he is obeying the
+ordinance of God, since we know that the emperor is our true overlord
+and head, and he who obeys him, in such a case, obeys God also, while he
+who disobeys him disobeys God also. If he dies in this obedience, he
+dies in a good state, and if he has previously repented and believes on
+Christ, he is saved. These things, I suppose, everyone knows better than
+I can teach him, and would to God they knew them as well as they think
+they do. Yet we will say something more about them.
+
+In the second place, this banner and obedience of the emperor
+ought to be true and simple. The emperor should seek nothing else than
+simply to perform the work and duty of his office, which is to protect
+his subjects; and those under his banner should seek simply the work and
+duty of obedience. By this simplicity you should understand that there
+is to be no fighting of the Turk for the reasons for which the emperors
+and princes have heretofore been urged to war, such as the winning of
+great honor, glory, and wealth, the increasing of lands, or wrath and
+revengefulness and other things of the kind; for by these things men
+seek only their own self- interest, and therefore we have had no good
+fortune heretofore, either in fighting or planning to fight against the
+Turk.
+
+Therefore the urging and inciting, with which the emperor and the
+princes have heretofore been stirred up to fight against the Turk, ought
+to cease.
+
+He has been urged, as head of Christendom, as protector of the
+Church and defender of the faith, to wipe out the faith of the Turk, and
+the urging and exhorting have been based on the wickedness and vice of
+the Turks. Not so! The emperor is not head of Christendom or protector
+of the Gospel or of the faith. The Church and the faith must have
+another protector than emperor and kings. They are usually the worst
+enemies of Christendom and of the faith, as Psalm 2:2 says and the
+Church constantly laments. With that kind of urging and exhorting things
+are only made worse and God is the more deeply angered, because that
+interferes with His honor and His work, and would ascribe it to men,
+which is idolatry and blasphemy.
+
+
+
+The authorities should not interfere in peoples faith
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+And if the emperor were to destroy the unbelievers and non-Christians,
+he would have to begin with the pope, bishops, and clergy and perhaps
+not spare us, or himself; for there is enough horrible idolatry in his
+own empire to make it unnecessary for him to fight the Turks for this
+cause. Among us there are Turks, Jews, heathen, non-Christians, all too
+many of them, proving it with public false doctrine and with offensive,
+shameful lives. Let the Turk believe and live as he will, just as one
+lets the papacy and other false Christians live. The emperor’s sword has
+nothing to do with the faith; it belongs to physical, worldly things, if
+God is not to become angry with us. If we pervert His order and throw it
+into confusion, He, too, becomes perverse and throws us into confusion
+and all misfortune, as it is written, “With the perverse thou art
+perverse.” We can perceive and grasp this by means of the fortune we
+have heretofore had against the Turk. Think of all the heartbreak and
+misery that have been caused by the cruciata, by the indulgences and
+crusading-taxes, with which Christians have been stirred up to take the
+sword and fight the Turk, when they ought to have been fighting the
+devil and unbelief with the Word and with prayer.
+
+This is what should be done. The emperor and the princes should
+be exhorted concerning their office and their bounden duty to give
+serious and constant thought to governing their subjects in peace and to
+protecting them against the Turk. This would be their duty whether they
+themselves were Christians or not, though it would be very good if they
+were Christians. But since it is uncertain, and remains so, that they
+are Christians, and it is certain that they are emperors and princes,
+that is, that they have God’s command to protect their subjects and are
+in duty bound to do so, therefore we must let the uncertain go and hold
+to the certain, urge them with continual preaching and exhortation, and
+lay it heavily upon their consciences, that it is their duty to God not
+to let their subjects be so pitiably ruined, and that they are doing a
+great and notable sin when they do not think of their office and use all
+their power to bring counsel and help to those who should live, with
+body and goods, under their protection and who are bound to them with
+oaths of homage.
+
+For I think (so far as I have yet observed the matter in our
+diets) that neither emperor nor princes believe themselves that they are
+emperor and princes. For they act as though it lay with their own
+judgment and pleasure whether they would rescue and protect their
+subjects from the power of the Turk or not; and the princes neither care
+nor think that they are bound and obligated before God to counsel and
+help the emperor in this matter with body and goods. Everyone of them
+lets it go as though it were no affair of his and as though he were
+forced neither by command or necessity, but it were left to his own free
+choice to do it or leave it.
+
+
+
+Responsible for the authorities continuation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+They are just like the common people who do not think it their duty to
+God and the world, when they have bright sons, to put them to school and
+have them study; but everyone thinks he has free power to raise his son
+as he pleases, no matter what God’s word and ordinance are. Nay, the
+councilmen in the cities and almost all the rulers act in the same way,
+and let the schools go to nothing, as though they had no responsibility
+for them, and had an indulgence besides. No one remembers that God
+earnestly commands, and will have it so, that bright children shall be
+raised to His praise and for His work, which cannot be done without the
+schools. On the contrary everyone is in a hurry to have his children
+making a living, as though God and Christendom needed no pastors,
+preachers, carers for souls, and the worldly rulers no chancellors,
+counselors, or secretaries. But of this another time. The pen must
+remain empress, or God will show us something else.
+
+Emperor, kings, and princes act the same way. They do not
+consider that God’s commandment makes it necessary to protect their
+subjects; it is to lie in their own free choice to do it, if the notion
+sometime takes them, or they have leisure for it. Dear fellow, let us
+all do that! Let none of us look to that which is commanded him and
+which God orders him to do, but let all our actions and duties be
+matters of our own free will, and God will give us good fortune and His
+grace, and we shall be plagued by the Turk here in time, and by the
+devil yonder in eternity.
+
+Perhaps, then, a worthless prattler – I should say a legate –
+will come from Rome and exhort the estates of the empire and stir them
+up against the Turk, telling them how the enemy of the Christian faith
+has done such great harm to Christendom and that the emperor, as
+guardian of the Church and defender of the faith, should do so and so;
+as though they themselves were great friends of the Christian faith! But
+I say to him: You are a base-born knave, you impotent chatterer! For
+this way you accomplish nothing except to make the emperor feel that he
+should do a good Christian work that he is not commanded to do; and that
+rests with his free choice; his conscience is not touched at all by
+that, and he is not reminded of the necessary duty, laid upon him by
+God, but the whole thing is referred to his free will.
+
+This is the way that a legate ought to deal with the estates of
+the empire at the diet. He should hold God’s commandment before them and
+make of it an unavoidable necessity, and say: “Dear lords, emperor, and
+princes, if you would be emperor and princes, act as emperor and
+princes, or the Turk will teach you with God’s wrath and disfavor.
+Germany, or the empire, is given you and committed to you by God, that
+you may protect, rule, counsel, and help it, and you not only should,
+but must do this on pain of losing your soul’s salvation and God’s favor
+and grace. But now it is evident that none of you takes this seriously,
+or believes it, but you take your office as a jest, as though it were a
+mummery of the carnival, for you leave the subjects, whom God has
+committed to you, to be so wretchedly harassed, taken captive, put to
+shame, plundered, slain, and sold by the Turk. Do you not think, since
+Go has committed this office to you, and has given you money and people
+besides for you to do good to them, that He will demand at your hands
+all the subjects whom you so shamefully deserted, while you danced,
+reveled, showed off, and gambled? If you seriously believed that you
+were appointed and ordained of God to be emperor and princes, you would
+leave your banqueting and rivalry for high places and other unprofitable
+display for awhile, and consult faithfully how you might discharge your
+office and fulfill God’s commandment and rescue your consciences from
+all the blood and the misery which the Turk inflicts upon them. For how
+can God, or any godly heart think otherwise of you than that you hate
+your subjects or have a secret covenant with the Turk or, at least, hold
+yourselves for neither emperor nor princes, but for dolls and puppets
+for children to play with? Otherwise, it would be impossible that your
+consciences should let you rest, if you seriously held yourselves for
+overlords appointed by God, and were not to speak and advise together
+about these matters differently than you have done heretofore. In this
+you see that you are constantly becoming Turks to your own subjects.
+“Nay, you even take up the case of Luther and discuss, in the devil’s
+name, whether one can eat meat in the fast-times and nuns can take
+husbands, and things of that kind, which are not committed to you for
+discussion and about which God has given you no commandment; and
+meanwhile the serious and strict commandment of God hangs in the smoke,
+the commandment by which He has appointed you protectors of poor
+Germany; and you become murderers, betrayers, and blood-dogs to your own
+good, faithful, obedient subjects, and leave them to the Turk, nay, cast
+them into his jaws, as a reward for the bodies and money wealth and
+honor that they stake on you and reach out to you.”
+
+A good orator can here see well what I would like to say, if I
+were learned in the art of oratory, and what a legate should aim at and
+expound at the diet, if he would discharge his office honestly and
+faithfully.
+
+
+
+The authorities should protect our body and earthly life
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+For this reason I said above that Charles, or the emperor should be the
+man to fight against the Turk, and that the fighting should be done
+under his banner. “O, that is easy! Everybody knew it long ago. Luther
+is not telling us anything new, but only worn-out old stuff.” Nay, dear
+fellow, the emperor must truly see himself with other eyes than
+heretofore, and you must see his banner with other eyes. You and I are
+talking about the same emperor and the same banner, but you are not
+talking about the eyes that I am talking about. You must see on the
+banner the commandment of God that says, “Protect the good; punish the
+bad.” Tell me how many there are who can read this on the emperor’s
+banner, or who seriously believe it. Do you not think that their
+consciences would terrify them, if they saw this banner and had to own
+that they were greatly guilty before God on account of their failure to
+give help and protection to their faithful subjects? Dear fellow, a
+banner is not simply a piece of silk; there are letters on it, and on
+him who reads the letters luxury and banqueting should pall.
+
+That it has been regarded heretofore as a mere piece of silk, is
+easy to prove, for otherwise the emperor would long ago have set it up,
+the princes would have followed it, and the Turk would not have become
+so mighty. But because the princes called it with their mouths the
+emperor’s banner, and were disobedient to it with their fists, and held
+it by their deeds a mere piece of silk, those things have come to the
+pass that we now see with our own eyes. God grant that we are not, all
+of us, too late, I with my exhortation and the lords with their banner;
+and that it may not happen to us as it did to the children of Israel who
+would not fight against the Amorites when God first commanded them;
+afterwards, when they would have fought, they were beaten, because God
+would not be with them. Nevertheless, no one should despair; repentance
+and right conduct always find grace.
+
+After emperor and princes remember that, by God’s commandment,
+they owe their subjects this protection, they should be exhorted not to
+be presumptuous and undertake this work defiantly, or in reliance on
+their own might or planning; for there are many princes who say, “I have
+right and authority, therefore I will do it!” Then they pitch in, with
+pride and boasting of their might, and meet defeat at last; for if they
+did not feel their power, the matter of right would have small enough
+effect on them, as is proved in other cases, in which they pay no heed
+to right. It is not enough, then, for you to know that God has committed
+this or that to you; you should also do it with fear and humility, for
+God commands no one to do anything by his own wisdom or strength, but
+He, too, will have a part in it and be feared. Nay, He will do it
+through us, and will therefore have us pray to Him, and not become
+presumptuous or forget His help, as the Psalter says, “The Lord hath
+pleasure in those that fear Him and wait for His kindness.” Otherwise we
+should persuade ourselves that we could do things and did not need God’s
+help, and take to ourselves the victory and the honor that belong to
+Him.
+
+Therefore an emperor or prince ought to learn well that verse of
+the Psalter, in Psalm 44:6-7, “I rely not upon my bow, and my sword
+helps me not, but thou helpest us from our enemies and puttest to shame
+them that hate us,” and also the rest of what that Psalm says; and Psalm
+60:10-12, “Lord God, thou goest not out with our host; give us aid in
+our need, for man’s help is vain; with God we will do deeds; he shall
+tread down our enemies.”
+
+These and like sayings have had to be fulfilled by many kings and
+great princes, from the beginning to the present day. They have become
+examples, though they had God’s commandment and authority and right.
+
+Emperor and princes, therefore, should not let these sayings
+become a jest. Read here the apt illustration given in Judges 20:18, how
+the children of Israel were twice beaten by the Benjamites, despite the
+fact that God bade them fight and that they had the best of right. Their
+boldness and presumption were their downfall, as the text says, Fidentes
+fortitudine et numero. It is true that one should have horses and men
+and weapons and everything that is needed for battle, if they are to be
+had, so that one is not tempting God; but when one has them, one must
+not be bold because of it, for God is not to be forgotten or despised,
+since it is written, “All victory comes from heaven.”
+
+If these two things are present, God’s commandment and our
+humility, then there is no danger or need, so far as this second man,
+the emperor, is concerned; we are strong enough for the whole world and
+must have good fortune and success. But if we have not good fortune, it
+is certainly because one of the two things is lacking; we are going to
+war either without God’s commandment, or in our own presumption, or the
+first soldier, the Christian, is not there with his prayers. It is not
+necessary here to warn against seeking honor or booty in war; for he who
+fights in humility and obedience to God’s command, with his mind fixed
+solely upon the simple duty of protecting and defending his subjects,
+will forget honor and booty; nay, they will come to him, without his
+seeking, more richly and gloriously than he can wish.
+
+Here someone will say, “Where shall we find pious fighting-men,
+who will act this way?” Answer: The Gospel is preached to all the world,
+and yet very few believe; nevertheless Christendom believes and abides.
+
+Therefore I am writing this instruction with no hope that it will
+be accepted by all; indeed, most people will laugh and scoff at me. For
+me it is enough if, with this book, I shall be able to instruct some
+princes and their subjects; even though they may be very few in number,
+that does not matter to me; there will be victory and good fortune
+enough. And would to God that I had instructed only the emperor, or him
+who is to conduct the war in his name and at his command; I would then
+be of good hope. It has often happened, indeed, it usually happens, God
+gives a whole land and kingdom good fortune and success through one
+single man; just as, on the other hand, through one knave at court He
+brings a whole land into all sorts of distress and misery; as Solomon
+says, in Ecclesiastes, “A single knave does great harm.”
+
+Thus we read of Naaman, the captain of the king of Syria, that
+through this one man God gave the whole land good fortune and success.
+So through the holy Joseph He gave great good fortune to the whole
+kingdom of Egypt, and in 2 Kings 3:14, Elisha says to Jehoram, “I would
+not look to thee, if Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, were not there,” and
+thus the godless kings of Israel and Edom had to be helped for the sake
+of one godly man, when otherwise they would have been ruined in all
+kinds of distress; and in the book of Judges one can see the good that
+God did through Ehud, Gideon, Deborah, Samson, and other individuals,
+though the people were not worthy of it. See, on the other hand, what
+great harm Doeg did at the court of King Saul ( 1 Kings 22:1) and what
+Absalom accomplished against his father David, with the aid and counsel
+of Ahithophel ( 2 Kings 15:1).
+
+I say this in order that it may not frighten us, or move us in
+any way, if the great majority are unbelieving and fight under the
+emperor’s banner with an unchristian mind. We must remember, too, that
+Abraham, all by himself, was able to do much ( Genesis 14:1 and 17:1).
+It is certain, also, that among the Turks, who are the army of the
+devil, there is not one who is a Christian or has an humble and a right
+heart. In 1 Kings 14:1, the godly Jonathan said, “It is not hard for God
+to give victory by many or by few,” and himself inflicted on the
+Philistines a great slaughter such as Saul could not, with his whole
+army. It does not matter, therefore, if the crowd is not good, provided
+only that the head and some of the chief men are upright; it would be
+good, of course, if all were upright, but that is scarcely possible.
+
+
+
+The limit of the duty of obedience
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Moreover, I hear it said that there are those in Germany who desire the
+coming of the Turk and his government, because they would rather be
+under the Turk than under the emperor or princes. It would be hard to
+fight against the Turk with such people. Against them I have no better
+advice to give than that pastors and preachers be exhorted to be
+diligent in their preaching and faithful in instructing such people,
+pointing out to them the danger they are in and the wrong that they are
+doing, how they are making themselves partakers of great and numberless
+sins and loading themselves down with them in the sight of God, if they
+are found in this opinion. For it is misery enough to be compelled to
+suffer the Turk as overlord and to endure his government; but willingly
+to put oneself under it, or to desire it, when one need not and is not
+compelled – the man who does that ought to be shown the sin he is
+committing and how terribly he is going on.
+
+In the first place, these people are faithless and guilty of
+perjury to their rulers, to whom they have taken oaths and done homage;
+and this is in God’s sight a great sin that does not go unpunished. On
+account of such perjury the good king Zedekiah had to perish miserably,
+because he did not keep the oath that he gave to the heathen emperor at
+Babylon. Such people may think, or persuade themselves, that it is
+within their own power and choice to betake themselves from one lord to
+another, acting as though they were free to do or not to do what they
+pleased, forgetting and not remembering God’s commandment and their
+oath, by which they are in duty bound to be obedient, until they are
+forcibly compelled to abandon it or are put to death for it; as the
+peasants thought, in the recent rebellion, and were beaten because of
+it. For just as a man may not slay himself, but endure until he is
+forcibly slain by others, so no one should evade his obedience or his
+oath, unless he is released from it by others, either by force or by
+favor and permission. f130 The preachers must diligently impress this on
+such people; indeed their office of preaching compels them to do so, for
+it is their duty to warn their parishioners, and guard them against sin
+and harm to their souls. For one who willingly turns from his lord and
+takes the side of the Turk can never stay under the Turk with a good
+conscience, but his own heart will always speak to him and rebuke him
+thus – “See, you were faithless to your overlord and deprived him of the
+obedience that you owed him, and robbed him of his right to rule over
+you; now, no sin can be forgiven unless stolen goods are restored; but
+how shall you make restitution to your lord, when you are under the Turk
+and cannot make restitution. One of two things, then, must happen; –
+either you must toil and labor forever, trying to get away from the Turk
+and back to your overlord; or your conscience must forever suffer
+compunction, pain and unrest (if, indeed, it does not result in despair
+and everlasting death), because you submitted to the Turk willingly and
+without necessity, against your sworn duty. In the latter case you must
+be among the Turks with your body, but over on this side with your heart
+and conscience. What have you gained then? Why did you not stay on this
+side from the first?”
+
+In the second place, beside all that, such faithless, disloyal,
+perjured folk commit a still more horrible sin. They make themselves
+partakers of all the abominations and wickedness of the Turks; for he
+who willingly goes over to the Turks makes himself their comrade and an
+accomplice in all their doings. Now we have heard above what kind of man
+the Turk is, viz., a destroyer, enemy, and blasphemer of our Lord Jesus
+Christ, who instead of the Gospel and faith, sets up his shameful
+Mohammed and all kinds of lies, ruins all temporal government and
+home-life, or marriage, and, since his warfare is nothing but murder and
+bloodshed, is a tool of the devil himself.
+
+See, then! He who consorts with the Turk must be partaker of this
+terrible abomination and brings down on his own head all the murder, all
+the blood that the Turk has shed, and all the lies and vices with which
+he has damaged Christ’s Kingdom and led souls astray. It is miserable
+enough if one is forced to be under this blood-dog and devil against his
+own will, and see and hear these abominations, and put up with them as
+the godly Lot had to do in Sodom, as St. Peter writes; it is not
+necessary to seek them of one’s own accord, or desire them.
+
+Nay, a man ought far rather die twice over in war, obedient to
+his overlord, than have, like a poor Lot, to be brought by force into
+such Sodoms and Gomorrahs. Still less ought a godly man long to go there
+of his own accord, in disobedience, and against God’s commandment and
+his own duty. That would mean not only to become partaker in all the
+wickedness of the Turk and the devil, but to strengthen and further
+them; just as Judas not only made himself partaker of the wickedness of
+the Jews against Christ, but strengthened it and helped it along, while
+Pilate did not act as evilly as Judas, as Christ testifies in John 17:1.
+
+In the third place, it is to be impressed by the preachers on the
+people that, if they do go over to the Turks, they will not have
+bettered themselves and their hopes and intentions will not be realized.
+For it is the Turk’s way not to let any who are anything or have
+anything stay in the place where they live, but to put them far back in
+another land, where they are sold and must be servants. Thus they
+fulfill the proverb “Running out of the rain and falling in the water”;
+and “Lifting the plate and breaking the dish.” Bad becomes worse; it
+scarcely serves them wrong. For the Turk is a true man of war, who has
+other ways of treating land and people, both in getting them and keeping
+them, than our emperor, kings, and princes have. He does not trust and
+believe these disloyal people and has the force to do as he will; thus
+he has not the same need of people that our princes have.
+
+The preachers and pastors, I say, must impress this upon such
+disloyal people, with constant admonition and warning, for it is the
+truth, and it is needed. But if there are some who despise this
+exhortation and will not be moved by it, let them go on to the devil, as
+St. Paul had to let the Greeks, and St. Peter the Jews go; the others
+should not mind. Indeed, if it were to come to war, I would rather that
+none of these were under the emperor’s banner, or stayed under it, but
+were all on the Turk’s side; they would be beaten all the sooner and in
+battle they would do the Turk more harm than good, for they are out of
+favor with God, the devil, and the world, and are surely, all of them,
+condemned to hell. It is good to fight against such people, who are
+plainly and surely damned both by God and the world.
+
+There are many depraved and abandoned and wicked men; but anyone
+with any sense will without doubt, heed such exhortation and be moved to
+stay in his obedience, and not throw his soul so carelessly into hell to
+the devil, but rather fight with all his might under his overlord, even
+though, in so doing, he is slain by the Turks.
+
+But you say again, “If the pope is as bad as the Turk – and you
+yourself call him Antichrist, together with his clergy and his followers
+– then the Turk is as godly as the pope, for he acknowledges the four
+Gospels and Moses, together with the prophets; must we not, then, fight
+the pope as well as the Turk, or, perhaps, rather than the Turk?”
+Answer: I cannot deny that the Turk holds the four Gospels to be divine
+and true, as well as the prophets, and also speaks very highly of Christ
+and His mother, but at the same time, he believes that his Mohammed is
+above Christ and that Christ is not God, as has been said above. We
+Christians acknowledge the Old Testament as divine Scripture, but now
+that it is fulfilled and is, as St. Peter says, in Acts 15:10, too hard
+without God’s grace, it is abolished and no longer binds us.
+
+
+
+The relation between the Koran and the Bible
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Just so Mohammed treats the Gospel; he declares that it is indeed true,
+but has long since served its purpose; also that it is too hard to keep,
+especially on the points where Christ says that one is to leave all for
+His sake, love God with the whole heart, and the like.
+
+Therefore God has had to give another new law, one that is not so
+hard and that the world can keep, and this law is the Koran. But if
+anyone asks why he does no miracles to confirm this new law, he says
+that that is unnecessary and of no use, for people had many miracles
+before, when Moses’ law and the Gospel arose, and did not believe.
+Therefore his Koran did not need to be confirmed by wasted miracles, but
+by the sword, which is more effective than miracles. Thus it has been,
+and still is the case among the Turks, that everything is done with the
+sword, instead of with miracles.
+
+On the other hand, the pope is not much more godly than Mohammed
+and resembles him extraordinarily; for he, too, praises the Gospel with
+his lips, but holds that many things in it are too hard, and these
+things are the very ones that Mohammed and the Turks also consider too
+hard, such as those contained in Matthew 5:20. Therefore he interprets
+them, and makes of them consilia, i.e., “counsels,” which no one is
+bound to keep unless he desires to do so, as has been shamelessly taught
+at Paris, and in other universities, foundations, and monasteries.
+Therefore, too, he does not rule with the Gospel, or Word of God, but
+has made a new law and a Koran, viz., his decretals, and enforces them
+with the ban, as the Turk enforces his Koran with the sword; he even
+calls the ban his spiritual sword, though only the Word of God is that
+and should be called that ( Ephesians 6:17). Nevertheless, he uses the
+temporal sword also, when he can, or, at least, calls upon it, and urges
+and stirs up others to use it. And I am confident that if the pope could
+use the temporal sword as mightily as the Turk, he would perhaps lack
+the will to do so even less than the Turk and, indeed, they have often
+tried it.
+
+
+
+Italian weddings – homosexual relationships
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+God visits them with the same plague, too, and smites them with
+blindness, so that it happens to them as St. Paul says, in Romans 1:28,
+about the shameful vice of the dumb sins, that God gives them up to a
+perverse mind because they pervert the Word of God. So blind and
+senseless are both pope and Turk that both of them commit the dumb sins
+shamelessly, as an honorable and praiseworthy thing. Since they think
+lightly of marriage, it serves them right that there are dog-marriages
+(and would to God they were dog-marriages), nay, “Italian marriages” and
+“Florentine brides” f131 among them; and they think these things good;
+
+For I hear one horrible thing after another about what an open
+and glorious Sodom Turkey is, and everybody who has looked around a
+little in Rome and Italy knows very well how God there revenges and
+punishes the prohibition of marriage, so that Sodom and Gomorrah, which
+God overwhelmed in days of old with fire and brimstone, must seem a mere
+jest compared with these abominations. On this one account, therefore, I
+would regret the rule of the Turk; nay, it would be intolerable in
+Germany.
+
+
+
+Not crusade, but armed defence
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+“What are we to do, then? Are we to fight against the pope, as well as
+the Turk, since the one is as godly as the other?” Answer: Treat the one
+like the other and no one is wronged; like sin should receive like
+punishment. I mean that this way. If the pope and his followers were to
+attack the empire with the sword, as the Turk does, he should receive
+the same treatment as the Turk; and this is what was done to him by the
+army of Emperor Charles before Pavia. For there stands God’s verdict,
+“He that takes the sword shall perish by the sword.” I do not advise
+that men go to war with the Turk or the pope because of his false belief
+or evil life, but because of the murder and destruction which he does.
+But the best thing about the papacy is that it has not yet the sword, as
+the Turk has; otherwise it would surely undertake to bring the whole
+world into subjection, though it would accomplish no more than to bring
+it to faith in the pope’s Koran, the decretals. For he pays as little
+heed as the Turk to the Gospel, or Christian faith, and knows it as
+little, though with fasts, which he himself does not keep, he makes a
+great pretense of Turkish sanctity; thus they deserve the reputation of
+being like the Turk, though they are against Christ.
+
+Against the papacy, however, because of its errors and wicked
+ways, the first man, Sir Christian, has been aroused, and he attacks it
+boldly with prayer and the Word of God; and he has wounded it, too, so
+that they feel it and rage. But no raging helps; the axe is laid to the
+tree and the tree must be uprooted, unless it bears different fruit. I
+see clearly that they have no notion of reforming, but the farther
+things go, the more stubborn they become and want to butt their way
+through, and boast, “All or nothing, bishop or drudge!” I consider them
+so godly that, unless they reform or turn from their shameful ways, both
+they themselves and the whole world admit that it is not to be endured,
+and that they should betake themselves to their comrade and brother, the
+holy Turk. Ah well! May our heavenly Father quickly hear their own
+prayer and grant that, as they say, they may be “all or nothing, bishop
+or drudge.” Amen! They will have it so. Amen! So let it be, let it come
+true, as God pleases!
+
+But you say further: “How can the Emperor Charles fight against
+the Turk in these days, when he has against him such hindrances and such
+treachery from kings, princes, the Venetians, indeed from almost
+everybody?” Answer: What a man cannot lift, he must let lie. If we can
+do no more, we must let our Lord Jesus Christ counsel and aid us, by His
+coming, which cannot be far off. For the world has come to its end; the
+Roman Empire is almost gone and torn to bits; it stands as the kingdom
+of the Jews stood when Christ’s birth was near; the Jews had scarcely
+anything of their kingdom, Herod was the token of farewell. And so, I
+think, now that the Roman Empire is almost gone, Christ’s coming is at
+the door, and the Turk is the Empire’s token of farewell, a parting gift
+to the Roman Empire; and just as Herod and the Jews hated each other,
+though both made common cause against Christ, so Turk and papacy hate
+each other, but make common cause against Christ and His kingdom.
+
+Nevertheless, what the emperor can do for his subjects against
+the Turk, that he should do, so that even though he cannot entirely
+prevent the abomination, he may yet try to protect and rescue his
+subjects by checking the Turk and holding him off. To this protection
+the emperor should be moved not only by his bounden duty, his office,
+and the command of God, nor only by the unchristian and vile government
+that the Turk brings in, as has been said above, but also by the misery
+and wretchedness that comes to his subjects. They know better than I,
+beyond all doubt, how cruelly the Turk treats those whom he carries away
+captive. He treats them like cattle, dragging, towing, driving those
+that can go along, and killing out of hand those that cannot go, whether
+they are young or old.
+
+All this and the like more ought to move all the princes, and the
+whole empire, to forget their own cases and contentions, or let them
+rest for awhile, and unite, in all earnest, to help the wretched; so
+that things may not go as they went with Constantinople and Greece. They
+quarreled with one another and looked after their own affairs, until the
+Turk overwhelmed both of them together, as he has already come very near
+doing to us in a similar case. But if this is not to be, and our
+unrepentant life makes us unworthy of any grace or counsel or support,
+we must put up with it and suffer under the devil; but that does not
+excuse those who could help and do not.
+
+I wish it to be clearly understood, however, by what I have said,
+that it was not for nothing that I called Emperor Charles the man who
+ought to go to war against the Turk. As for other kings, princes, and
+rulers who despise Emperor Charles, or are not his subjects, or are not
+obedient, I leave them to take their own chances. They shall do nothing
+by my advice or admonition; what I have written here has been for
+Emperor Charles and his subjects; the others do not concern me. For I
+well know the pride of some kings and princes who would be glad if not
+Emperor Charles, but they, were to be the heroes and masters to win
+honor against the Turk. I grant them the honor, but if they are beaten
+in trying to get it, it will be their own fault. Why do they not conduct
+themselves humbly toward the true head and the regularly appointed
+ruler. The rebellion among the peasants has been punished, but if the
+rebellion among the princes and lords were also to be punished, I
+believe that there would be very few princes and lords left. God grant
+that it may not be the Turk who inflicts the punishment! Amen.
+
+
+
+Efficient attack as prevention
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Finally, I would have it understood as my kind and faithful advice that,
+if it comes to the point of war against the Turk, we shall arm and
+prepare, and not hold the Turk too cheap, acting as we Germans usually
+do, and coming on the field with twenty or thirty thousand men. And even
+though a success is granted us and we win a victory, we have no
+staying-power, but sit down again and carouse until another necessity
+arises. To be sure, I am not qualified to give instruction on this
+point, and they themselves know, or ought to know, more about it than I,
+nevertheless, when I see people acting so childishly, I must think
+either that the princes and our Germans do not know or believe the
+strength and power of the Turk, or have no serious purpose to fight
+against the Turk, but just as the pope has robbed Germany of money under
+the pretense of the Turkish war and by indulgences, so they, too,
+following the pope’s example, would swindle us out of money.
+
+My advice, therefore, is not to set the armed preparation so low
+and not to offer our poor Germans to slaughter. If we are not going to
+make an adequate, honest resistance that will have some staying-power,
+it were far better not to begin a war, but to give up lands and people
+to the Turk in time, without useless bloodshed, rather than have him win
+anyhow in an easy battle and with shameful bloodshed, as happened in
+Hungary with King Lewis. Fighting against the Turk is not like fighting
+against the King of France, or the Venetians, or the pope; he is a
+different kind of warrior; he has people and money in abundance; he beat
+the Sultan twice in succession, and that took people. Why, dear sir, his
+people are under arms all the time, so that he can quickly bring
+together three or four hundred thousand men; if we were to cut off a
+hundred thousand, he would soon be back again with as many men as
+before. He has staying-power.
+
+There is, therefore, nothing at all in trying to meet him with
+fifty or sixty thousand men unless we have an equal or a greater number
+in reserve. Only count up his lands, dear sir. He has Greece, Asia,
+Syria, Egypt, Arabia, etc., that is, he has so many lands that if Spain,
+France, England, Germany, Italy, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Denmark
+were all counted together, they would not equal the land he has.
+Besides, he is master of all of them and commands effective and ready
+obedience. And, as has been said, they are constantly under arms and are
+exercised in warfare, so that he has staying-power, and can deliver two,
+three, four battles, one after another, as he showed against the Sultan.
+This Gog and Magog is a different kind of majesty than our kings and
+princes.
+
+I say this because I fear that my Germans do not know it or
+believe it, and think, perhaps, that they are strong enough by
+themselves, and take the Turk for such a lord as the king of France,
+whom they would easily withstand. But I shall be without blame, and
+shall not have laden my tongue and pen with blood, if a king measures
+himself with the Turk all alone, for it is tempting God when anyone sets
+out with a smaller force against a stronger king, as Christ also shows
+in the Gospel of Luke, especially since our princes are not the kind of
+people for whom a divine miracle is to be expected. The king of Bohemia
+is now a mighty prince, but God forbid that he match himself all alone
+against the Turk! Let him have Emperor Charles as his captain and all
+the emperor’s power behind him. But then, if everyone will not believe
+this, let him learn by his own experience! I know what kind of might the
+Turk’s might is, unless the historians and geographers lie, and daily
+experience, too; they do not, that I know.
+
+I do not say this in order to scare off the kings from war
+against the Turk, but as an admonition to make wise and serious
+preparation, and not to go at this matter in so childish and sleepy a
+way, for I would like, if possible, to prevent useless bloodshed and
+lost wars. It would be serious preparation, if our princes were to wind
+their own affairs in a ball and put their heads and hearts, hands and
+feet, together, and make one body out of the great crowd from which one
+could make another army, if one battle were lost, and not, as
+heretofore, let single kings and princes set upon him – yesterday the
+king of Hungary, tomorrow the king of Bohemia, day after tomorrow the
+king of Poland – until the Turk devours them one after another and
+nothing is accomplished by it, except that our people are betrayed and
+slaughtered and blood is shed needlessly.
+
+For if our kings and princes were to agree, and stand by one
+another and help one another, and the Christian man were to pray for
+them, I should be undismayed and of good hope; the Turk would leave his
+raging and find in Emperor Charles a man who was his equal. Failing
+that, if things are to go as they now go, and no one is in agreement
+with another or loyal to another, and everyone wants to be his own man
+and takes the field with a beggarly array, I must let it go at that. Of
+course I will gladly help pray, but it will be a weak prayer, for I can
+have little faith that it will be heard, bemuse of the childish,
+presumptuous, and shortsighted way in which such great enterprises are
+undertaken, knowing that it is tempting God and that He can have no
+pleasure in it.
+
+
+Serious warning
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+What do our dear lords do? They take it for a mere jest. It is a fact
+that the Turk is at our throat, and even if he does not will to march
+against us this year, yet he is there, armed and ready any hour to
+attack us, when he will, and yet our princes discuss, meanwhile, how
+they can harass Luther and the Gospel. It is the Turk! Against it force
+must be used! It must be put out! That is what they are doing right now
+at Speyer, making the greatest ado about the eating of meat and fish,
+and foolishness like that.
+
+God give you honor, you faithless heads of your poor people! What
+devil bids you occupy yourselves so violently with spiritual things,
+which are not committed to you, and be so lax and slothful in dealing
+with things that God has committed to you and that concern you and your
+poor people, now in the greatest and most pressing need, and thus be
+only hindering all those whose intentions are good and who would gladly
+do their part? Yes, go on singing and hearing the Mass of the Holy
+Spirit! He has great pleasure in it and will be very gracious to you
+disobedient, refractory fellows, because you let those things alone that
+he has committed to you, and work at what he has forbidden you! Yes, the
+Evil Spirit may hear you!
+
+With this I have cleared my conscience. This book shall be my
+witness concerning the measure and the manner in which I advise war
+against the Turk. If any will proceed otherwise, let him proceed, win or
+lose. I shall not enjoy his victory and not pay for his defeat, but
+shall be innocent of all the blood that will be shed in vain. I know
+that this book will not make the Turk a gracious lord to me, if it comes
+before him; nevertheless, I have wished to tell my Germans the truth, so
+far as I know it, and give faithful counsel and service to the grateful
+and the ungrateful alike. If it helps, it helps; if it helps not, then
+may our dear Lord Jesus Christ help, and come down from heaven with the
+Last Judgment, and smite both Turk and pope to the earth, together with
+all tyrants and all the godless, and deliver us from all sins and from
+all evil. Amen.