num . . . attentant.... Efficiunt quoque ... partim . . . donis ac blanditiis, ut complures honestae alioqui virgines et matronae, partim in secretis quas vocant confessionibus, . . . ad peccata ...commoveantur. Nec raro etiam evenit ut ii uxores ac filias maritis patribusque detineant; ... atque tantorum malorum segetem ex libidine insana contrahunt. Mirum quid latrociniis, homicidiis. . . impune quotidie committant, nempe immunitate ac peccandi sua licentia quam ex privilegiis canonum sibi usurparunt, in hoc freti. . . . Et tandem, ut in maleficiis perpetrandis magis adhuc foveantur, praeter omnem aequitatis rationem, . . . interdictum est . . . episcopis ne malefactores hos publice criminali iudicio reos agere possint, nisi prius degradatos: id quod tantis sumptibus . . celebrari oportet ut propterea perquam rarissimum uncti illi malefactores merita plectantur poena. Ad haec adstringuntur . . . episcopi per sua capitula ut personas in sacris ordinibus . . . constitutas, secundum canonica etiam iura, poenis utcunque levibus, punire... non audeant. Quae res tota eo spectat ut, ex disparitate hac, inter laicos ac ecclesiasticos... odia plus quam Vatiniana oriantur.

33. Quapropter necessitas aequitasque ipsa sibi postulant ut ecclesiasticarum personarum praedicta ... privilegia abrogentur . . . ac... statuatur quod ordinati... una cum ... laicis aequa habeant iura, aequos iudices, paresque poenas: ita... ut quisque delinquentium ecclesiasticorum... non secus atque alii malefactores poena a iure communi Imperii imposita... puniri... debeat.

34. De onere Banni seu Excommunicationis. Item, Romae caeterisque in locis per ... episcopos aut certe eorum ecclesiasticos iudices, multi Christianorum ob causas profanas, ob pecuniae... amorem excommunicantur; multorumque... conscientiae per hoc . . . in desperationem pertrahuntur; ac denique . . . ad internecionem usque animae, corporis, honoris atque rei familiaris... perducuntur. Quando nemo nisi ob convictum haereseos crimen excommunicationis gladio feriendus... ea propter S. R. I. Principes rogant ut Pontificia Sanctitas

velit praefatum onus Banni. . . penitus abolere, et denique ita sancire. . . ut nemo ullam ob causam quam . . . convictum haereseos crimen . . . excommunicationis fulmine feriatur. . . . 37. De abrogatione feriatarum aliquot dierum. Insuper et feriarum festorumque dierum tanta copia laicorum vulgus urgetur. Nimirum, cum tot religiosi facti sint dies, ut vix aegre tempus agricolis suppetat quo fructus agri . . . in horrea conferant: quos tamen fructus, si non feriarum solem

...

nibus praepediti forent, commode . . . legere . . . potuissent. Adde quod feriatis quoque diebus, qui dubio procul bono consilio ac in Dei Opt. Max. honorem primum bene sunt feriati, innumera perpetrantur delicta . . . potius quam his Omnipotens colatur.... Eamque ob causam S. R. I. Status laici consultius putant, si effrenis feriarum . . . festorumque dierum numerus paulo coerceatur. . . .

39. De oneribus S. R. I. Statuum laicorum contra Archiepiscopos, Episcopos caeterosque Praelatos ecclesiasticos, eorum quoque Capitula ac... Iudices ecclesiasticos [cf. §§ 39-85].

86. De non ferendis ultra oneribus quibus misera plebs pro sacramentorum administratione gravatur. Pleraeque item parochiales ecclesiae monasteriis etc. incorporationis . . . iure subditae sunt, quas . . . tam enormibus absentiarum pensionibus . . . onerant ut conductitii isti parochi eorumque vicarii . . . competentem sustentationem . . . inde habere nequeant. Quo fit... ut illicitis exactionibus locatas sibi oviculas misere ... dilanient. Postquam enim altaris baptismique sacramenta administranda sunt, primus, septimus, tricesimus, anniversariusque dies peragendus, auricularis confessio audienda, mortui sepeliendi, et quicquid denique reliquum est quod ad vita functorum ceremonias observandas operae pretium arbitrantur, id gratuito faciunt nequaquam sed tantum exigunt . . . quantum misera plebecula vel cum summo suo dispendio praestare . . . potest.

87. Ut ob Missas... legendas, pecuniam exigant. Neque hoc praeteriri potest... quod sacerdotes unius diei missas, ad quas alias fundationis . . . iure celebrandas obligantur, non semel sed ... quinquies pluriesve venundant: unaque missa duobus, tribus aut pluribus ecclesiasticis beneficiis satisfacere praesumunt.

90. Ut plerique ecclesiastici vitam laicam planeque rixosam agant. Nec minus etiam Germanis molestum est, quod potior parochorum, sacerdotum, monachorum ... pars in diversoriis, stabulis ac choreis, populorum turbis se immiscent; in plateis item habitu minus decenti, utputa gladiis, vestibusque ludicris; praeterea rixis... laicos ad iram et consequenter ad arma provocant. . . . Dein excommunicationis fulmine . . . eousque divexant quousque . . . laici se cum his composuerint. 91. Item. episcopi . . . non solum sacerdotum tolerant concubinatum, dummodo certa persolvatur pecunia, sed et sacerdotes continentes . . . concubinatus censum persolvere cogunt; asserentes episcopum pecuniae indigum esse, qua soluta licere sacerdotibus ut vel coelibes permaneant vel concubinas alant. . . . Quam res haec sit nefanda, nemo non intelligit.

93. Quomodo ecclesiastici moribundis, ut suos et legitimos haeredes defraudent, persuadeant. ... Regionum pervagatores, quos vulgo Terminarios vel Stationarios vocant, ... infirmos ... ac praesertim eos quibus aes esse in cista norunt . . . blandiloquentia... eo adducunt quod sibi potiorem .. partem in testamentis legant.

100. Peroratio. . . . Quod si enumerata. . . gravamina . . . abrogata non fuerint, S. R. I. Status laici Sanctitatem Pontificiam latere nolunt, praedicta ... onera... diutius eos neque perferre velle neque tolerare posse: sed. . . huc eos adigi... de aliis . . . mediis cogitandi... quibus tandem modis qua arte, qua denique solertia onerum atque gravaminum supra memoratorum ab ecclesiasticis... liberari possint.

Quemadmodum omnia haec, priusquam... Legatus a Normberga solvisset, eidem . . . ad longum sunt enumerata; essentque . . . ferenda secum Romam tradita, si non, praeter omnium exspectationem, abitionem suam hinc tantopere maturasset ac inopinato ita discessisset. Verum, ne ob id eo magis Germanorum... conclusio Sanctm.... Pontm. latere posset, tandem placuit. . . gravamina . . . per capita ac sigillatim ita scripta Sancti. Pontae, transmittere eandemque pro abrogandis hisce oneribus. . . obsecrare ne deteriora contingant.

No. 62. The Imperial Edict, 6 March, 1523. [§ 13] Proinde serio vobis omnibus ac singulis, et in primis auctoritate Caesareae Mtis. hoc publico edicto mandamus et volumus ut vos Ordines Imperii Romani omnes et quisque pro se in suo territorio curet ac prospiciat ut intra tempus futuri Concilii tantummodo sacrum Evangelium, iuxta interpretationem Scripturae ab Ecclesia Christiana iam approbatae et receptae, praedicetur ac doceatur. . . .

XXIV

THE NEW ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM, 1523-4

On

By 1523 the growth of Lutheran communities had raised the question of the supply of pastors; the disuse of Private Masses, that of provision for their support; the changes in worship, proposed by Carlstadt and resisted by Luther, that of liturgical readjustment. All three questions now received attention. 11 March 1523 [No. 63] Luther gave notice of the substitution of weekly for daily Mass (quoted in Rietschel, Lehrbuch der Liturgik, i. 398 n. 6). About the same time regulations were prepared with his advice for [No. 64] the maintenance of the clergy at Leisnig (E. Sehling, Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen, I. i.

598 sqq. cf. de Wette, ii. 379 sqq.), and at Easter he put out a treatise contending That a Christian congregation or community (Gemeinde) has the right... to... appoint and remove teachers for itself apart from the bishop (Werke, xxii. 140 sqq., ed. Erlangen, 1826-57). This was to anticipate counsel which in his [No. 65] De instituendis ministris (Op. Lat. vi. 494 sqq.), he had given, by Nov. (ibid. 492 n. 1), to the Bohemian Utraquists, to forgo their requirement of 'episcopal ordination' and 'choose their pastors themselves' (Ranke, Reformation, 459). At Whitsuntide appeared his essay On the order of divine service in the congregation (Werke, xxii. 151 sqq., ed. Erlangen) with its challenge to 'omit everything rather than the Word' (156): and this was followed in December by [No. 66] the Formula Missae et Communionis (Op. Lat. vii. I sqq.), addressed to Nicholas Hausmann, pastor of Zwickau, 1521-32. Here he touched upon the need of German hymns (ibid. 16), and proceeded to meet it by contributing to the earliest evangelical hymn-books of 1524. To the Wittenberger Achtliederbuch he contributed four hymns, to the Erfurter Enchiridion eighteen out of twenty-five, and to the Chorgesangbüchlein twenty-four out of thirty-two. Of his thirty-six hymns twenty-four are traced to 1523-4 the most famous [No. 67], Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott, to 1527 (tr. Carlyle, Essays, iii. 82 ed. 1872). On this reconstruction see Daniel, Codex Liturgicus, ii. 1-112: Rietschel, op. cit. i. 396 sqq., and Kidd, Cont. Ref., 42 sqq.

No. 63. Luther's notice of the substitution of weekly for daily Mass, 11 March, 1523.

Post hunc sermonem locutus est de missa abroganda, ne scilicet singulis diebus haberetur missa sed solum dominicis, nisi quispiam participare velit mensae Domini in septima, tunc celebrandam missam dicebat. Item addidit de ordinatione servanda ut clerus et scholastici singulis diebus convenirent duas horas mane et vesperi, ut mane liber Novi Testamenti legeretur ac interpretaretur, vesperi Veteris Testamenti ; sed hoc se nolle incipere aiebat sed tantum proponere.

No. 64. Ordinance for a Common Chest at Leisnig. A resolution how to deal with spiritual goods, 1523. In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen. We, the honourable men, council, aldermen, nobles, and commons of the town and parish of Leisnig, with its dependent villages. Whereas, through the grace of Almighty God and the revelation of the Christian evangelical Scriptures, we have received not only a firm faith but a sure knowledge that all the inward and outward resources of believers should serve to the honour of God and the love of our neighbour, we give notice

that, for ourselves and our posterity, we have resolved to maintain the following brotherly compacts in our community, viz. :— I. Of appointments to the Pastorate.

We will and shall always exercise our Christian freedom, so far as concerns the appointment to our common pastorate and the call, election, admission, and dismissal of our common minister, for the sole preaching of God's word and dispensing of the sacraments, never otherwise than according to the disposition and order of divine Scripture.

II. Of the means, provision, and receipts of the Common Chest. In order that our Christian faith, in which all goods temporal and eternal are gotten and given us by the eternal God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, may bear its proper fruit in brotherly love. . . we, the above-named common assembly of the parish, have resolved to set up and maintain a Common Chest forthwith... in intention, manner, and form, as follows:

...

For the furnishing and provision of the common chest shall the following items, rents, goods, privileges, moneys, and possessions be everywhere collected together, to be and remain perpetually united.

[i] Receipts from the goods and privileges of the Benefice. All the goods, privileges, fees-simple, quit-rents, rents, hereditaments, houses, yards, gardens, lands, meadows, stock, and chattels, without exception, belonging anywhere to the office of pastor and minister here among us . . . which we, the common assembly of the parish, in behalf of our common pastorate, have a reserved right to acquire, according to the tenor of the arrangement and decision therein between the abbey of Buch and us..., these as being available for our Common Chest, as also all that belongs to the school and the sacristy, we have paid into it.

[ii] Receipts from the goods and privileges of the Church. All the goods, privileges, &c. .. ., ., bridge-tolls, plate, jewels, belonging to our church shall, in their entirety, along with the written title-deeds, inventories, and registers concerning them, be gathered into and remain in the Common Chest.

[iii] Receipts from the goods and privileges of the four Altar endowments and other foundations.

The four altar-endowments in our church shall, as soon as the present chantry-priests die or the existing endowments are vacated, be no longer bestowed; but the four houses, together with the goods, rents, revenues, commodities, plate, &c.,