Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/524

 What, then, is to be done? This is to be done. If the em- peror will proceed against us, no prince or lord is to protect us from him, but is to allow his land and people to stand open to the emperor, for they are his, and let him commend the cause to God; nor ought anyone to ask anything else of his prince and lord, but everyone ought to stand for himself and maintain his own faith at risk of his life, and not bring the princes into danger along with him or cause them trouble by asking protection, but allow the emperor to do as he will with his own so long as he is emperor.

But if the emperor is not satisfied with having lands and people open to him and wishes to force the princes to attack their subjects because of the Gospel, imprison them, kill them and drive them out, and the princes believe or know that in this case the emperor is acting unjustly or against God | — ^as happens when the matter concerns their own faith — ^then they ought not to obey the emperor or consent or aid in his acts, so that they do not become accomplices in his misdeeds. But in leaving their lands and people unprotected and the em- peror unhindered they are doing enough. They ought to say: "If the emperor will persecute our subjects, who are i vent him ; but we will not help him or consent to it, for we I must obey God rather than men."

In so far as we act in this way and commend our cause to God and pray to Him with complete confidence and put our- selves in such peril for His sake, He is faithful and will not desert us and will find means to help us and maintain His Word, as He has done since the beginning of the Church, and especially in the days of Christ and the apostles. Where- fore I think that if anyone for the sake of defending^ the Gospel * opposes the government it is like fishing * for the net* and, indeed, a real lack of faith* which does not trust God to help and protect us without our own wit and power. . ..

It should also be considered that even if it were right to re- sist the emperor and we did it, we should have to drive the


 * ■ V^rfheidigung, CochUeus: vgrwArdigung, Dietrich.


 * The words in italics underlined in Dietrich's copy.


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