The enlightened and highborn Lady Ursula, Countess of Munsterberg, etc., Duchess of Glatz, etc., [gives] Christian reasons for abandoning the convent of Freiberg.
To the highborn princes and lords, Lord George and Lord Heinrich, Dukes of Saxony, Landgraves in Thuringia, Margraves of Meissen, my dear friendly lords and cousins.
[Foreword]
1. Grace and peace in Christ our Savior, exalted princes, friendly
dear lords and cousins. I have learned that both of your graces have
been very uncivil because I have left the convent in Freiberg along
with two other women and have left my order. Your graces assume
that this happened because of thoughtless impertinence.
2. I do not want to conceal my feelings and deliberations from your graces, and therefore I have written this work with my own hand, out of my own heart, and without the help, advice or contribution of any other person on earth, on the date that you will find within. Through this [work], your graces will discover that this has not happened out of thoughtlessness, but because I am accountable to the judgment of God for my soul, and am sure that neither your graces nor any other creature on earth can excuse me before God. . . .
[Text]
1. Paul (1 Cor. 10:32) says: "Avoid shocking both Greek and Jew
and the community of God." For anyone who wishes to know the
light, we' have not neglected to give the grounds and reasons through
which we are motivated to abandon convent life together with its
ceremonies, ways of life, position, and persons. Every pious Christian
who hears and sees this will take to heart the great and perilous dangers
to our conscience. He will find that we could have escaped God's
unavoidable judgment - through which he threatens all despisers of
his everlastingly true Word who he is himself (John 1:l) - in no
other way except in this manner.
3. The first reason that persuaded us to leave the convent is this: Christ said in the last chapter of Mark, verse 15f. : "Proclaim the Gospel to all creatures. Who believes and is baptized will be saved," etc., and John 3:16: "God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that all who believe in him will not be lost but have eternal life," etc. The prophet Habakkuk (2:4)also says: "The righteous will live by faith." In these verses it is clearly announced that all our holiness and life stands nakedly in Christ, who will be accepted on faith as in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me," etc. . . .
7. The first thing that is shocking and offensive to our faith [in the convent] is this. Because after we receive initial grace in baptism we still must strive and battle with the condemned flesh that is spoiled and ~oisonedf rom the first birth through sin, so we also feel that such-a fight is difficult and dangerous because this vice is so deeply rooted in our flesh that it cannot truly be cast out as long as this flesh remains in its first state; this damnable vice is unbelief. Is it not our responsibility to put such impediments out of the way in order that we may battle more securely? As reported above, since faith alone now is our salvation and unbelief our damnation, we find this place and situation [i.e., the convent] wholly the antithesis of it, both in words and works. And even the vows (in which salvation should rest, as they say) throw us who journey to God into uncertainty and eternal damnation; therefore, we had to leave.
9. In contrast, what is more odious to think than that - to the offense and slander of Christ our King - we make a new covenant with his and our renounced enemy, locking ourselves out of the community of the children of God and out of the brotherhood of Christ and his members, in order to have a new and particular brotherhood. This [brotherhood] is fabricated by people without God's Word and contrary to it, about which the prophet says (Ps. 116:ll): "I have said in my hesitation: all human beings are liars." So, then, what is a lie ocher than the work of the devil? From which it follows that everything fabricated from human reason outside of God's Word is the same thing. . . .
17. Who can deny here that it is not of our own [making] when we worship the works of our hands and extend divine honor to them, and when we entrust our salvation to them, though this honor belongs only to God, as was mentioned above? We have done this further with our three vows, to which we would have unchangeably held, to the damage of our souls. In this case, the law of God must not apply, but yield to faith and love as in Matthew 12:6-7, Mark 2:25- 26, and Luke 6:3-4. Are they [i.e., the three clerical vows] not opposed to the baptismal vows, which we vowed again here, to have no other gods, to (as mentioned above) renounce the devil, and to bind ourselves to the kingdom of God to be governed by him alone in the Word?
18. And here [i.e., in the convent] we bind ourselves to obedience, but to people rather than God, and [we] henceforth obey not God but people. This is found, most unfortunately, a thousandfold in us, going full swing, with our conscience unnecessarily persuading us. What else is it when we willingly vow poverty, which we willingly speak with our mouths, but deny with our hearts? This is exactly as if we would deceive divine wisdom as human beings. Similarly, it also deceives those who desire that we certainlv confess the truth. We cannot conceal it from the divine countenance, because he is "a searcher of the heart and desires" (Ps. 7:10).
19. Moreover, in contrast to the Word of Christ (Matt. 5:3), this is not a "poverty of the Spirit," but only an external appearance, which also hinders one from showing one's fellow human beings love and charity [as one is supposed to] according to divine law. No one can deny that chastity is a quality that God alone can create in human hearts and bodies; how, then, are we so arrogant as to pledge and sacrifice what is God's [to give] and not ours? First, though we have no command from God, [we] set it [i.e., chastity] within everyone's capability (Matt. 19:12): "Whoever can receive it, let him receive it." But the same book says just before this in verse 11: "This precept [i.e., chastity] is not received by everyone, but only those to whom it is granted." And therefore everything else that follows from these vows, that is, rules, statutes, constitutions, and new traditions that come to them, are for the most part opposed to God's Word and faith. These are indeed a road which bypasses God, which is strongly forbidden in the First Commandment, which presses on the conscience with the hard threat of the law.
29. The second reason that we must leave convent life is this: As pointed out above, we now recognize from holy Scripture that faith is the only work [necessary for] our salvation; similarly, unbelief is the only reason for our damnation. So we are also informed by the esteemed Word of God that faith in the heart is not enough for salvation but there must also be a public confession, with a denial of self. For Christ also said (Matt. 10:32-33): "Who confesses me before men, that person will I confess before my Father in heaven. Whoever denies me before men, that one will I deny before my Father in heaven." Luke 9:26: "Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed ofwhen he comes to his glory." Paul in Romans 10:10: "When one believes with the heart. so is one iustified: when one confesses with the mouth, so is one saved.". . .
39. The third reason [for leaving the convent] is this: Christ in the Gospel of Matthew (22:37) cites Moses' fifth book, sixth chapter (v. 5) in this saying: "You should love God your Lord with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your strength." In this command, he not only refers to external work but to the whole person, inwardly and outwardly, with all his abilities. He also means this in Matthew 5:20 where he says: "Unless your righteousness is better than the scribes and pharisees, you may not come into the kingdom of Heaven." In the whole chaoter which follows. Christ savs that for us Christians, external works without the heart will not matter before God, but it is violating the law when there is no free-willing spirit, as in Romans 7:14: "The law is spiritual," etc., therefore it will be accomplished in the Spirit. . . .
42. The fourth reason for our departure is this: We have Matthew 4:4, where Christ says: "A person will not live by bread alone but from every word that goes forth from God's mouth." Thus Christ, who is divine truth, himselfsays that our life depends on the Word of God, which he explains further in John 6:51: "I have come as the living bread from heaven; who eats of this bread will live eternally," so we must confess it.
46. The fifth reason that troubles us in our conscience is this: We have demonstrated above in the third paragraph that all our works which are forced and without God's command originate in a reluctant heart, and, because of this we later experience a bad conscience. We find this burdens us to the highest degree in the reception of the holy sacrament of Christ's body, to which we are often forced to go many times during the year - that is, twenty-four times - along with those days we choose to go. [One goes] whether one is fit to go or not, and no excuses help; this lies heavily on one's conscience.
49. The sixth reason: [In] John 13:34 Christ says: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you," and in Matthew 22:37-40: "You should love God your Lord with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind. This is the foremost and greatest commandment. But the other is similar: You should love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and prophets hinge on these two commandments." And Paul in Romans 12:18: "If possible, as much as is in you, be at peace with everyone."