king of vows, to show them how the visiting of the Holy Land,
Rome, Compostella,[27] and other holy places, as well as zeal in
fastings, prayers, and works chosen by themselves, are nothing
when compared with the works commanded by God and the vows which
we have taken in baptism.[28] These vows every one can keep in
his own home by doing his duty toward his neighbors, his wife,
his children, his servants, his masters, and thereby gain
incomparably greater merit than he can find by fulfilling vows to
do works chosen by himself and not commanded by God. The foolish
opinion of the common people and the ostentation of the Bulls[29]
have brought it to pass that these vows of pilgrimages, fastings,
prayers, and other works of the kind far outweigh in importance
the works of God's Law, although we never have sufficient
strength to do these last works. For my part, I could wish that
there should not henceforth be any vows among Christian people
except those which we take in baptism, and this, indeed, seems
formerly to have been the case; and I would wish all to
understand what is required of them, namely, that they be
obedient to the commandments of God. For the vows of baptism seem
to have been altogether cheapened by the too great practice,
parade, dispensation, and redemption of these other vows. Let us
put all our strength to the task, I say, and we shall find that
we have vowed in baptism more than we are ever able to perform.

Some vows, including oaths, are made to men, others to God. Those
made to men are admitted to be binding, so far and so long as he
may desire, to whom the vow is made. Accordingly, it should be
known that, as Gerson correctly thinks, the oaths and vows
usually taken in the Universities or to worldly lords[30] ought
not to be so rigorously regarded that every violation of them
should be regarded as the breaking of a vow or an act of perjury.
It is more just not to consider vows of this kind broken unless
they are violated out of contempt and obstinate malice. It is
otherwise in things that are vowed to God.

[Sidenote: Vows Made to God]

In vows made to God, I see dispensation granted by the pontiffs,
but I shall never be persuaded that he is safe to whom such a
dispensation is granted. For such a vow is of divine law, and no
pontiff, either mediate or supreme, has any more authority in
this matter than any Christian brother, though I know that
certain of the Decretals and the Glosses on the Dec