Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/317

 314 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let 68l

where, and publicly, the same marriage ceremonies being ob- served as among laymen; yet they could not save themselves from being deprived of [their temporal property], leaving them only enough for their food and lay apparel.

Imposts and taxes are also abolished, this system having been already adopted throughout the duchy of Saxony, where Luther is. Hunting and fishing are no longer reserved solely for the nobility, for now it is allowable for all to hunt and fish like the lords themselves. In short, they revive the liberty of the golden age, when the fields were without bounda- ries, and no one had an3rthing of his own. Then with Tega.rd to religion, they (the peasants?) do not differ in the least from Luther, having abolished vigils and the eating of fish, and all the holidays except Sundays. In the meanwhile this sect makes such progress that last Lent, when in many places the Franciscans Observant and the Hieronymites chose to preach, in the first place nobody attended their sermons, and they were moreover maltreated and called to account for the meaning of what they preached; so that the best they can do for themselves is to be silent and remain quiet, and they can no longer show themselves anywhere. The peasants allow nothing but the mere Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul, and wherever they pass they remove all the bells. All these things are freely practiced in Germany, where there is no longer any master, the bishops and other prelates having all taken flight. But here ki Brabant and Flanders, as the Lady Margaret enforces the law most severely, the people dare not declare themselves openly, though in their own houses they live in Luther's fashion. Many of the chief persons of Antwerp assure me that, were the peasants to take that road and approach the city, 20,000 men, all Lutherans, would take up arms. In fact, this sect has taken such root throughout Germany that there is no visible remedy whereby to extirpate it, nor could the Church in those parts suflfer greater persecu- tion even were the Turks to come. The free towns, and those of importance, such as Cologne, Mayence, and others, whose churches combine spiritual and temporal authority, have com- pelled all the clergy to become citizens like the layman, and they enjoy no additional prerogative beyond that of mere

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