"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver."

Martin Luther, German philospher and moralist, the Father of the Protestant Church

It is not out of mere arrogance and perversity that I, an individual poor man, have taken upon me to address your lordships. The distress and misery that oppress all the Christian estates, more especially in Germany, have led not only myself, but everyone else, to cry aloud and to ask for help, and have now forced me too to cry out and to ask if God would give His Spirit to anyone to reach a hand to His wretched humans.

The Roman Catholics have, with great adroitness, drawn three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them, whereby all Christendom has fallen terribly.

Firstly, if pressed by the temporal power, they have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the contrary, that the spiritual power is above the temporal.

Secondly, if it were proposed to admonish them with the Scriptures, they objected that no one may interpret the Scriptures but the Pope.

Thirdly, if they are threatened with a council, they pretend that no one may call a council but the Pope. Thus they have stolen our three rods and intrenched themselves behind these three walls, to act with all the wickedness and malice, which we now witness.

If a little company of pious Christian laymen were taken prisoners and carried away to a desert, and had not among them a priest consecrated by a bishop, and were there to agree to elect one of them, born in wedlock or not, and were to order him to baptize, to celebrate the mass, to absolve, and to preach, this man would as truly be a priest, as if all the bishops and all the popes had consecrated him. That is why in cases of necessity every man can baptize and absolve, which would not be possible if we were not all priests. This great grace and virtue of baptism and of the Christian estate they have quite destroyed and made us forget by their ecclesiastical law.(We don't need no stinking intercessors!)

Current doctrine is this: that the temporal authority is not above the clergy, and may not punish it. This is if one were to say the hand may not help, though the eye is grievous suffering. Is it not unnatural, not to say unchristian, that one member may not help another, or guard it against harm? Nay the nobler the member, the more the rest are bound to help. Forasmuch as the temporal power has been ordained by God for the punishment of the evil and the protection of the good, therefore we must let it do its duty throughout the whole Christian Church whether it strikes Pope, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or whoever it may be.

It is, indeed, past bearing that the spiritual law should esteem so highly the liberty, life, and property of the clergy, as if laymen were not as good spiritual Christians, or not equally members of the Church.

Why should your body, life, goods, and honor be free, and not mine, seeing that we are equal as Christians, and have received alike baptism, faith, spirit, and all things?

If a priest is killed, the country is laid under an interdict: why not also if a peasant is killed?

Whence comes this great difference among equal Christians? Simply from human laws and inventions.

It is a wickedly devised fable, they cannot quote a single letter to confirm it, that it is for the Pope alone to interpret the Scriptures or to confirm the interpretation of them. They have assumed the authority of their own selves. And though they say that this authority was given to St. Peter when the keys were given to him, it is plain enough that the keys were not given to St. Peter alone, but to the whole community. Besides, the keys were not ordained for doctrine or authority, but for sin, to bind or loose; and what they claim besides this from the keys is mere invention. Is not this plain enough? Only consider the matter. They must needs acknowledge that there are pious Christians among us that have the true faith, spirit, understanding, word, and mind of Jesus: why then should we reject their word and understanding, and follow a Pope who has neither understanding nor spirit? Surely this were to deny our whole faith and the Christian Church.

As for their boasts of their authority, that no one must oppose it, this is idle talk. No one in Christian Church has any authority to do harm, or to forbid others to prevent harm being done. There is no authority in the Church but for reformation. Therefore if the Pope wished to use his power to prevent the calling of a free council, so as to prevent the reformation of the Church, we must not respect him or his power; and if he should begin to excommunicate and fulminate, we must despise this as the doings of a madman, and, trusting in God, excommunicate and repel him as best we may. For this his usurped power is nothing; he does not possess it, and he is at once overthrown by a text from the Scriptures.

For St. Paul says to the Corinthians "that God has given us authority for edification, and not for destruction" (2 Cor. x. 8).

Let us now consider the matters which should be treated in the councils, and with which popes, cardinals, bishops, and all learned men should engage themselves day and night, if they love Jesus and His Church. Let us rouse ourselves, fellow Germans, and stand in awe in of God more than man, that we be not answerable for all the poor souls that are so miserably lost through the wicked, devilish government of the Roman Catholics, and that the dominion of the devil should not grow day by day, if indeed this hellish government can grow any worse, which, for my part, I can neither conceive nor believe.

It is a distressing and terrible thing to see that the head of Christendom, who boasts of being the vicar of Jesus and the successor of St. Peter, lives in a worldly pomp that no king or emperor can equal, so that in him that calls himself most holy and most spiritual there is more worldliness than in the world itself. He wears a triple crown, whereas the mightiest kings only wear one crown. If this resembles the poverty of Jesus and St. Peter, it is a new sort of resemblance.

The see of avarice and robbery at Rome is unwilling to wait for the benefices to fall in one after another by means of the Pope's month; and in order to get them into its insatiable maw as speedily as possible, they have devised the plan of taking living and benefices in three other ways:

First, if the incumbent of a free living dies at Rome or on his way thither, his living remains for ever the property of the see of Rome, or I rather should say, the see of robbers, though they will not let us call them robbers, as though no one has ever heard or read of such robbery.

Secondly, if a "servant" of the Pope or of one of the cardinals takes a living, or if, having a living, he becomes a "servant" of the Pope or of a cardinal, the living remains with Rome. Who can count the "servants" of the Pope and his cardinals, seeing that if he goes out riding, he is attended by three or four thousand mule riders, more than any king or emperor? For Jesus and Saint Peter went on foot, in order that their vice regents might indulge the better in all manner of pomp.

Thirdly, whenever there is any dispute about a benefice; and this is, I think, well nigh the broadest and commonest road by which benefices are brought to Rome. For where there is no dispute numberless knaves can be found at Rome who are ready to scrape up disputes, and attack living wherever they like. In this way many a good priest lose his living, or has to buy off the dispute for a time with a sum of money. These benefices, confiscated by right or wrong of dispute, are to be for ever the property of the see of Rome. It would be no wonder, if God were to rain sulphur and fire from heaven and cast Rome down into the pit, as God did formerly to Sodom and Gomorrah. What is the use of a Pope in Jesusendom, if the only use made of his power is to commit these supreme villainies under his protection and assistance? Oh noble princes and sirs, how long will you suffer your lands and your people to be the prey of these ravening wolves?

Finally, the Pope has built a special house for this fine traffic the house of the Datarius at Rome. Thither all must come that bargain in this way, for prebends and benefices; from him they must buy the glosses and obtain the right to practice such prime villainy. In former days it was fairly well at Rome, when justice had to be bought, or could only be put down by money; but now she has become so fastidious that she does not allow anyone to commit villainies unless he has first bought the right to do it with great sums. If this is not a house of prostitution, worse than all houses of prostitution that can be conceived, I do not know what houses of prostitution really are.

Since this devilish state of things is not only an open robberydeceit and tyranny of the gates of hell, but also destroys Christianity body and soul, we are bound to use all our diligence to prevent this misery and destruction of Christendom. If we wish to fight the Turk, let us begin here, where they are worse. If we justly hang thieves and behead robbers, why do we leave the greed of Rome so unpunished, that is the greatest thief and robberthat has appeared or can appear on Earth, and does all this in the holy name of Jesus and St. Peter? Who can suffer this and be silent about it?

Almost every thing that they possess has been stolen or got by robbery, as we learn from all histories. Why, the Pope never bought those great possessions, so as to be able to raise well nigh ten hundred thousand ducats from his ecclesiastical offices, without counting his gold mines described above and his land. He did not inherit it from Jesus and St. Peter; no one gave it or lent it him; he has not acquired it by prescription.

Tell me, where can he have got it? You can learn from this what their object is when they send out legates to collect money to be used against the Turk.

-Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German nation, German philospher and moralist, the Father of the Protestant Church

Which is more important to the Catholic Church: gold and silver or green trees?

the Catholic doctrine of mental reservation

For over seven hundred years there has been a doctrine within the Catholic Church called "mental reservation." The idea of "mental reservation" harkens back to a time when there were two separate court systems - ecclesiastical courts run by the church and civil courts run be the state.

Over seven hundred years ago the idea of "mental reservation" was created to protect the Catholic Church in civil court. The doctrine of "mental reservation" claims that it is morally justifiable to lie in order to protect the reputation of the institutionalized Catholic Church. The doctrine has been used quite extensively in modern times to protect the Catholic Church from civil allegations that the institution of the Catholic Church allowed recognized pedophiles to continue to work with children.

When a priest or nun is questioned about acts of clergy that would be considered heinous, such as pedophila, the priest or nuns are counseled by the institutionalized Catholic Church that lying is morally justifible, not a sin, under the doctrine of "mental reservation."

This is a good example of how an institutionalized religion turns away from God by allowing expediency to trump the moral law of God. This also exemplifies the reality that men and women claiming to work only for God actually end up turning away from God by supporting an institution created by man before following the moral law of God. There is an extremely rich irony in that the claim that God is being served in this manner is to actually turn away from truth and from God.

The doctrine of mental reservation did not help the Los Angeles Archdiocese in it's case against those accusing priests of pedophila. The Los Angeles Archdiocese agreed to pay $660 million to settle claims of sexual abuse committed by priests on children in July 2007.

"Priests don't emerge from a vacuum; those growing up from the 1950s on have been exposed to a mass media culture with its pervasive "sex sells" mentality. I visited a Catholic monastery in Big Sur a few years ago and was impressed with its film library - it looked like a small Blockbuster. Watching these movies was among the monks' favorite pastimes, one monk said. How can people be steeped in mass media entertainment and sexuality from childhood and then turn off their basic human needs and desires for their entire adult lives?" - Laura Brown

changing words

limbo

"The man was lying in bed.

William of Ockham