Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/696

 590 Outlines of European History Luther advo- cates social as well as religious reforms Luther undertook to cast down these defenses by denying, to begin with, that there was anything especially sacred about a clergyman except the duties which he had been designated to perform. If he did not attend to his work, it should be pfc>ssible to deprive him of his office at any moment, just as one^ would turn off an incompetent tailor or farmer, and in that case he should become a simple layman again. Luther claimed, more- over, that it was the right and duty of the civil government to punish a churchman who does wrong just as if he were the humblest layman. When this first wall was destroyed the others would fall easily enough, for the dominant position of the clergy was the very cornerstone of the Medieval Church. The Address to the Ge?'inan Nobility closes with a long list of evils which must be done away with before Germany can become prosperous. Luther saw that his view of religion really implied a social revolution. He advocated reducing the monas- teries to a tenth of their number and permitting those monks who were disappointed in the good they got from living in them freely to leave. He would not have the monasteries prisons, but hospitals and refuges for the soul-sick. He points out the evils of pilgrimages and of the numerous church holidays, which interfered with daily work. The clergy, he urged, should be permitted to marry and have families like other citizens. The universities should be reformed, and '' the* accursed heathen, Aristotle," should be cast out from them. It should be noted that Luther appeals to the authorities not in the name of religion chiefly, but in that of public order and prosperity. He says that the money of the Germans flies " feather-light " over the Alps to Italy, but it immediately be- comes like lead when there is a question of its coming back. He showed himself a master of vigorous language, and his denunciations of the clergy and the Church resounded like a trumpet call in the ears of his countrymen.^ 1 Luther had said little of the doctrines of the Church in his Address to the German Nobility^ but within three or four months he issued a second work, in