Second Commentary on the Doctrine of Abstinence

We owe more serious duties to our ancestors, who, having dispelled the foul darkness of so many centuries, restored celestial truth to its original splendor, than to think that this judgment should be passed over. It is a judgment that detracts much from the honor and glory of Princes—who were aroused by divine instinct and are most worthy of eternal proclamation—and accuses them of all the crimes which we have brought forward more copiously for this reason in §§ I, II, and III. It is a judgment that, by its various pigments, easily and vehemently oppresses the unwary and the not-so-firm. It is a judgment that harms piety itself, since it utterly excludes God and His admirable power and wisdom from religion—purged from the corruptions of the times—and refers it to base desires. Finally, it is a judgment with which those who follow the family of the Roman Pontiff rejoice wondrously. And if you doubt this, read, if you please, the new literature published in the Italian language at Florence, where, at the beginning of last year, the reproaches noting the sacred matters corrected by Luther of the Author of the Brandenburg Commentaries are recited word for word and are extolled to the heavens with praise. Religion, therefore, in the divine and immortal deity—without whose breath, as Cicero rightly judges, no illustrious and excellent man has ever existed—urges this; the love of a friend for the truth urges this; the dignity of our Saxony, which brought us forth in the bosom of purer sacred rites, urges this; the grateful memory of our Princes urges this...