# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1856_S296
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Distinction of Estates in the Church.                    296

—must be, namely the spiritual and the temporal, which Satan has vigorously
confounded and thrown into one another in the papacy, we must
indeed be right well on our guard that they not be brewed together
again. For that would mean having fellowship with thieves and murderers,
since here stands the divine command, which requires that they be
kept distinct and unmixed, where he says: "But you shall not be so."
2. From this it follows that one and the same person cannot at the same
time be bishop and prince, preacher and head of household. You see
here well that I wish to keep the persons unmixed, as also the offices,
although one man may fill both persons, and a Pomeranian [i.e., Bugenhagen]
can be both parish pastor and head of household at the same
time. For I do not wish to frighten the bishops, if there are still some
godly men among them. So Conrad von Tüngen is one man, at once
Duke of Franconia and Bishop of Würzburg, though the Duke of Franconia
(as such) cannot be bishop in Würzburg. I have set this forth to
you at such length because you know that our word has dealt chiefly
with the efficient causes of the ordinances, not merely with the final
causes, as yours [has]. 3. A bishop as bishop has no power to impose
upon his church any ordinance or ceremony without the consent of the
church, given in plain words or tacitly. For the church is free and is the
mistress (domina), and the bishops may not rule over the faith of the
church, nor burden and oppress it against its will. For they are only
servants and stewards, not lords of the church. But when the church, as
one body with the bishop, is of one mind, then they may together
impose upon themselves whatever they wish, provided only that godliness
does not suffer thereby; they may also again release such things at
their pleasure. But such power the bishops do not seek: they wish to
rule and to have everything unrestrained. This we must not grant, nor
take part in any way in this wrong or oppression of the church and of
the truth. 4. The bishop as prince can impose still less upon the church;
for that would mean confounding the two governments together, and
there he would truly be an Allotrioepiscopus, that is, a bishop who
meddles in matters not his own; and if we yielded to his will in this, we
would be guilty of the very same sacrilege against the church. Here one
must sooner lose one's life than permit such ungodliness and wrong. I
speak of the church as something distinct from the civil state. 5. The
bishop as prince can impose upon his subjects, as subjects, and command
what he will, provided only it is godly and right; and the subjects
must obey. For there they obey not as church, but as citizens. For the
church too is a double person in one and the same man. Thus, when
Conrad von Tüngen commands his Franconians, as Duke of Franconia,
to fast or [to do] something else permissible, he thereby compels those
who acknowledge him as duke to obedience, but not those who ac-