an
men' (Acts 5, 29). He here clearly marks a limit to temporal authority;
for were men obliged to observe everything that civil authority wished,
the command, 'We ought to obey God rather than men,' would have been
given in vain.

"If, now, your princes or temporal lord command you to believe this or
that, or to dispense with certain books, say: 'I am under obligations to
obey you with body and estate; command me within the compass of your
authority on earth, and I will obey you. Put if you command me as to
belief, and order me to put away books, I will not obey, for then you
become a tyrant and overreach yourself, and command where you have
neither right nor power.' If your goods are taken and your disobedience
is punished, you are blessed, and you may thank God that you are worthy
to suffer for God's Word. When a prince is in the wrong, his subjects
are not under obligations to follow him, for no one is obliged to do
anything against the right; but we must obey God, who desires to have
the right rather than men.

"But thou sayest once more: 'Yea, worldly power cannot compel to belief.
It is only external protection against the people being misled by false
doctrine. How else can heretics be kept it bay?' Answer: That is the
business of bishops, to whom the office is entrusted, and not to
princes. For heresy can never be kept off by force; another grip is
wanted for that. This is another quarrel and conflict than that of the
sword. God's Word must contend here. If that avail nothing, temporal
power will never settle the matter, though it fill the world with blood.
Heresy pertains to the spiritual world. You cannot cut it with iron, nor
burn it with fire, nor drown it in water. You cannot drive the devil out
of the heart by destroying, with sword or fire, the vessel in which he
lives. This is like fighting a blade of straw." (10, 395 ff.)

Referring to the Anabaptists, Luther wrote in 1528: "It is not right,
and I think it a great pity, that such wretched people should be so
miserably slain, burned, cruelly put to death; every one should be
allowed to believe what he will. If he believe wrongly, he will have
punishment enough in the eternal fire of hell. Why should he be tortured
in this life, too; provided always that it be a case of mistaken belief
only, and that they are not also unruly and oppose themselves to the
temporal power?" (17, 2188.)

To his friend Cresser he wrote: "If the courts wish to govern the
ch