Translated by Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs et al
downloaded from http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/nine5-albrecht.txt
To the Most Reverend Father
in Christ and Most Illustrious
Lord, Albrecht of Magdeburg
and Mainz, Archbishop and Primate
of the Church, Margrave
of Brandenburg, etc., his own lord and
pastor in Christ, worthy
of reverence and fear, and most
gracious.
JESUS
The grace of God be with
you in all its fulness and power!
Spare me, Most Reverend
Father in Christ and Most Illustrious
Prince, that I, the dregs
of humanity, have so much boldness
that I have dared to think
of a letter to the height of your
Sublimity. The Lord Jesus
is my witness that, conscious of my
smallness and baseness,
I have long deferred what I am now
shameless enough to do,
-- moved thereto most of all by the
duty of fidelity which I
acknowledge that I owe to your most
Reverend Fatherhood in Christ.
Meanwhile, therefore, may your
Highness deign to cast an
eye upon one speck of dust, and for
the sake of your pontifical
clemency to heed my prayer.
Papal indulgences for the
building of St. Peter's are
circulating under your most
distinguished name, and as regards
them, I do not bring accusation
against the outcries of the
preachers, which I have
not heard, so much as I grieve over
the wholly false impressions
which the people have conceived
from them; to wit, -- the
unhappy souls believe that if they
have purchased letters of
indulgence they are sure of their
salvation; again, that so
soon as they cast their
contributions into the money-box,
souls fly out of purgatory;
furthermore, that these
graces [i.e., the graces conferred in
the indulgences] are so
great that there is no sin too great
to be absolved, even, as
they say -- though the thing is
impossible -- if one had
violated the Mother of God; again,
that a man is free, through
these indulgences, from all
penalty and guilt.
O God, most good! Thus souls
committed to your care, good
Father, are taught to their
death, and the strict account,
which you must render for
all such, grows and increases. For
this reason I have no longer
been able to keep quiet about
this matter, for it is by
no gift of a bishop that man becomes
sure of salvation, since
he gains this certainty not even by
the "inpoured grace" of
God, but the Apostle bids us always
"work out our own salvation
in fear and trembling," and Peter
says, "the righteous scarcely
shall be saved." Finally, so
narrow is the way that leads
to life, that the Lord, through
the prophets Amos and Zechariah,
calls those who shall be
saved "brands plucked from
the burning," and everywhere
declares the difficulty
of salvation.
Why, then, do the preachers
of pardons, by these false fables
and promises, make the people
careless and fearless? Whereas
indulgences confer on us
no good gift, either for salvation or
for sanctity, but only take
away the external penalty, which
it was formerly the custom
to impose according to the canons.
Finally, works of piety
and love are infinitely better than
indulgences, and yet these
are not preached with such ceremony
or such zeal; nay, for the
sake of preaching the indulgences
they are kept quiet, though
it is the first and the sole duty
of all bishops that the
people should learn the Gospel and the
love of Christ, for Christ
never taught that indulgences
should be preached. How
great then is the horror, how great
the peril of a bishop, if
he permits the Gospel to be kept
quiet, and nothing but the
noise of indulgences to be spread
among his people! Will not
Christ say to them, "straining at a
gnat and swallowing a camel"?
In addition to this, Most
Reverend Father in the Lord, it is
said in the Instruction
to the Commissaries which is issued
under your name, Most Reverend
Father (doubtless without your
knowledge and consent),
that one of the chief graces of
indulgence is that inestimable
gift of God by which man is
reconciled to God, and all
the penalties of purgatory are
destroyed. Again, it is
said that contrition is not necessary
in those who purchase souls
[out of purgatory] or buy
confessionalia.
But what can I do, good
Primate and Most Illustrious Prince,
except pray your Most Reverend
Fatherhood by the Lord Jesus
Christ that you would deign
to look [on this matter] with the
eye of fatherly care, and
do away entirely with that treatise
and impose upon the preachers
of pardons another form of
preaching; lest, perchance,
one may some time arise, who will
publish writings in which
he will confute both them and that
treatise, to the shame of
your Most Illustrious Sublimity. I
shrink very much from thinking
that this will be done, and yet
I fear that it will come
to pass, unless there is some speedy
remedy.
These faithful offices of
my insignificance I beg that your
Most Illustrious Grace may
deign to accept in the spirit of a
Prince and a Bishop, i.e.,
with the greatest clemency, as I
offer them out of a faithful
heart, altogether devoted to you,
Most Reverend Father, since
I too am a part of your flock.
May the Lord Jesus have
your Most Reverend Fatherhood
eternally in His keeping.
Amen.
From Wittenberg on the Vigil
of All Saints, MDXVII.
If it please the Most Reverend
Father he may see these my
Disputations, and learn
how doubtful a thing is the opinion of
indulgences which those
men spread as though it were most
certain.
To the Most Reverend Father,
BROTHER MARTIN LUTHER.
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