The Preface.

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One reads that Saint Paul was a man of small and humble stature, yet wrote powerful and brave letters; he himself boasted that his speech was not adorned with flowery or figurative words, yet was found to be full of the riches of all the art of wisdom. Also, when one looks at God's wonders, it is clear that for His words, magnificent and prominent preachers are not always chosen, but rather as it is written: From the mouths of babes and infants original: "Ex ore infantium" etc. Out of the mouths of the speechless and the sucklings You have most perfectly proclaimed Your praise. Likewise, the wisdom of God makes the tongues of the uneloquent most eloquent. Conversely, He punishes those proud people who take offense and stumble at these simple ones. The counsel of the poor original: "Consilium inopis" etc. You have previously held in low regard the good counsel and teaching because it was given to you through poor and unimposing men, etc.

I say this because I want to warn everyone who reads this little book, that he might not bring harm upon himself or take offense at the plain German or unrefined words. For though this little book is poor and unadorned in its words and human wisdom, it is so much more rich and precious in its skill and divine wisdom. And—to boast according to my old foolishness—next to the Bible and Saint Augustine A 4th-century theologian whose writings on grace heavily influenced Luther, no book has come before me from which I have learned more (and wish to learn) about what God, Christ, humanity, and all things are.

And I now find, for the very first time, that it is true what some highly learned men say mockingly of us Wittenberg theologians Luther and his colleagues at the University of Wittenberg, the heart of the Protestant Reformation—as if we intended to introduce new things, as if there had not been people before us and elsewhere. Yes, indeed they existed! But God's wrath, earned through our sins, did not permit us to be worthy of seeing or hearing them. For it is clear as day that in the universities for a long time such matters have not been dealt with; things have reached the point where the holy word of God has not only lain under the bench, but...