nothing more than flay and shave the people, set one tax and one rent on
another; there let loose a bear and here a wolf; respect no right, or
faith, or truth, and conduct affairs so that robbers and knaves
increase in number; and their temporal _regime_ lies as far beneath as
the _regime_ of the spiritual tyrants. Faith is a matter concerning
which each one is responsible for himself; for as little as one man can
go to heaven or hell for me, so little can he believe or not believe for
me; and as little as he can open or close heaven or hell for me, so
little can he drive me to belief or unbelief. We have the saying from
St. Augustine: 'No one can or should be compelled to believe.' The blind
and miserable people do not see what a vain and impossible thing they
undertake; for, however imperiously they command, and however hard they
drive, they cannot force people any farther than they follow with their
mouth and the hand. They cannot compel the heart, though they should
break it. For true is the maxim: _Gedanken sind zollfrei_. (No toll is
levied on thought.) When weak consciences are driven by force to lie,
deceive, and say otherwise than they believe in the heart, they burden
themselves also with a heavy sin; for all the lies and false witness
given by such weak consciences rest upon him who forces them.

"Christ Himself clearly recognized and concisely stated this truth when
He said: 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's,
and unto God the things that are God's' (Matt. 22, 21). Now, when
imperial authority stretches itself over into God's kingdom and
authority and does not keep within its own separate jurisdiction, this
discrimination between the two realms has not been made. For the soul is
not under authority of the emperor. He can neither teach nor guide it,
neither kill it nor give it life, neither bind nor loose, neither judge
nor sentence, neither hold nor let alone; which necessarily would exist
had he authority so to do, for they are under his jurisdiction and
power.

"David long ago expressed it briefly: 'The heaven, even the heavens, are
the Lord's; but the earth hath He given to the children of men' (Ps.
115, 16). That is to say, over what is on the earth and belongs to the
temporal earthly kingdom, man has power from God; but what belongs to
heaven and to the eternal kingdom is under the Lord of heaven alone. But
finally, this is the meaning of Peter: 'We ought to obey God rather th