Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/386

 743. LUTHER TO THE ELECTOR JOHN OF SAXONY. DeWette, iii, 135. German. (Wittenberg), November 22, 1526.

Grace and peace in Christ. Serene, highborn Prince, gra- cious Lord. For a long time I have brought no supplications to your Grace, and they have now accumulated. I hope your Grace will be patient. There is nothing else for me to do.

In the first place, gracious Lord, the complaints of the pas- tors almost everywhere are immeasurably great. The peasants will simply not give any more, and so great is this ingratitude for God's holy Word among the people that beyond all doubt God has a great plague in store for us. If I knew how to do it with a good conscience I would even help to bring it about that they should have no pastors or preachers and live like swine, as, indeed, they do. There is no fear of God and no discipline any longer, for the papal ban is abolished and every- one does what he will.

But because all of us, and especially the rulers, are com- manded to care for the poor children who are born every day and are growing up, and to keep them in the fear of God and under discipline, we must have schools and pastors and preachers. If the older people do not want them, they may go to the devil; but if the young people are neglected and are not trained, it is the fault of the rulers, and the land will be filled with wild, loose-living people. Thus not only God's command, but our own necessity compels us to find some way out of the difficulty.

But now the enforced rule of the Pope and the clergy is at an end in your Grace's dominions, and all the monasteries and foundations fall into your Grace's hands as the ruler, the duty and the difficulty of setting these things in order comes with them. No one assumes it, or can or ought assume it. Therefore, as I have said to your Grace's chancellor,* and to Nicholas von Ende,* it will be necessary for your Grace, as the person whom God has called tp this work and entrusted with the remedy, to have the land visited as quickly as possible by four persons; two whose specialty is taxes and property,


 * Gregory Briick.

'A man by the name of Nicholas von Ende was court marshal to the Elector in 1 5 14 (Enders, v, 407, n. 3). This is probably the same man.

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