|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: also in the political estate innumerable matters of great
importance to improve. There is the disagreement between the
princes and the states; usury and avarice have burst in like a
flood, and have become lawful [are defended with a show of
right]; wantonness, lewdness, extravagance in dress, gluttony,
gambling, idle display, with all kinds of bad habits and
wickedness, insubordination of subjects, of domestics and
laborers of every trade, also the exactions [and most
exorbitant selling prices] of the peasants (and who can
enumerate all?) have so increased that they cannot be
rectified by ten Councils and twenty Diets. If such chief
|
