Report on Whether Secular Authority Should Suppress the Writings of Enthusiasts

...[present] days) the Catholic rulers wanted to force their subjects and the whole world to accept Idolatry and the Pope’s abominations. Against such an abuse of Catholic authority, Luther wrote that entire booklet. He also gave an example shortly after the words cited above, saying: In Meissen, Bavaria, and in the March The Margraviate of Brandenburg., and other places, the tyrants have issued a decree that people should hand over the New Testaments to the administrative offices. In that case, Luther says their subjects should not hand over a single leaf or even a letter, etc.

But from this, one will not be able to prove or make it true that the New Testament (which Luther commands one to keep in the house upon pain of losing salvation) is the name of, or refers to, the teachings and books of Schwenckfeld Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig (1489–1561), a spiritualist reformer whose followers were often persecuted by both Catholics and mainstream Protestants., or the Zwinglians Followers of the Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli, specifically regarding his symbolic view of the Eucharist., or the Anabaptists, or the Interim The Augsburg Interim (1548), a temporary religious decree ordered by Emperor Charles V that many Lutherans viewed as a forced return to Catholic practices., and other deceivers.

Oh, how the Devil would be terrified—just like the donkey who drops his sack—if the secular authorities were to accept and understand Luther's books in that way alongside those of his adversaries. How soon would God's word, the Sacrament, salvation, and the authorities themselves lie in a heap of ruin? Well then, if it is not a good, great, "fat" sin to so falsely and wickedly boast of and cite the writings of that holy man Luther, then I do not yet know what a sin might be. As the saying goes, The cobbler should not judge above the sandal Original Latin: Non sutor supra crepidam. A classical proverb warning people not to offer opinions or take actions outside their area of expertise., meaning no cobbler has any business judging anything further than the soles or the slippers, etc.