Chemical Works

...and to destroy. O you wicked Alchemist! If you had devoured all the monks with their robes and socks A German idiom similar to "lock, stock, and barrel," meaning to take everything someone possesses. and destroyed all the monasteries, and laid waste to many lands with your godless army; do you then imagine that because of this you would sit at the head of the table in the Kingdom of Heaven with Peter and Paul, and be in great favor with GOD? In my opinion, you are very much mistaken, for you do not consider how many poor people, how many widows and orphans you would create, who would cry murder original: "ceter morduo," a phonetic spelling of the German legal outcry "Zeter und Mordio," used to raise an alarm and call for justice., "Alas!" and "Woe!" against you, calling for vengeance and punishment.

But because GOD hears and sees your intentFrom the Latin intentio, referring to the true inner motive or moral purpose behind an action., He does not let you live to see the end, even if your work has begun successfully. For the most noble, overflowing gift of GOD The author refers to the "Great Work" or "Donum Dei," the alchemical secret of transmuting base metals into gold. is not granted to you for the end of waging an unchristian, hopeless, and destructive war; rather, if you wish to apply it rightly, you will find everywhere many poor widows and orphans, as well as other poor people, who because of their age [cannot earn] their