Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/346

 order, and the Order of Worship* has been composed and is about to go into use, there remain two things which demand the attention and disposition of your Grace, as our temporal lord. The first thing is that the parishes everywhere are in such miserable condition. No one gives anything or pays for anything; the mass-fees are abolished, and either there are no taxes at all, or else they are too small; the conmion man does not think of the priests and preachers, and unless your Grace makes a strict law and undertakes to give proper sup- port to the parishes and preaching places, there will soon be no parsonages or schools or pupils, and thus God's Word and Christian worship will be destroyed. Therefore I wish your Grace to let God use him still further and be his faithful tool, to the greater comforting of even your Grace's own con- science; for this is asked of him and required of him by us and by the necessities of the case, and assuredly by God Him- self. Your Grace will find the means to do it. There are enough monasteries, foundations, benefices, charitable endow- ments and the like if only your Grace will interest himself sufficiently to command that they be inspected, reckoned up and organized. God will give His blessing to this work and prosper it, so that, if God will, the ordinances that concern men's souls will not be hindered by the needs or the neglect of the poor stomach. For this we beseech His divine grace. Amen.

The second thing is a matter of which I once spoke with your Grace here at Wittenberg. Your Grace ought to order an inspection of the temporal government also, and ascertain how the city councils and all other officials conduct their gov- ernment and preside over the conmion weal. For there is great complaint on all sides of bad government, both in the cities and in the country, and it is your Grace's duty, as the ruler of the land, to look into it. Perhaps the petitions and appeals and complaints to the court would become fewer, if the state were to institute such an inspection and some good regulation.

All this your Grace will graciously accept as my humble suggestion, for your Grace sees and knows that I mean it welL


 * The German Mass,

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