Thou shalt not steal.
After your person and spouse temporal property
comes next. That also God wishes to have protected, and He has commanded that
no one shall subtract from, or curtail, his neighbor's possessions. For to
steal is nothing else than to get possession of another's property wrongfully,
which briefly comprehends all kinds of advantage in all sorts of trade to the
disadvantage of our neighbor. Now, this is indeed quite a wide-spread and
common vice, but so little regarded and observed that it exceeds all measure,
so that if all who are thieves, and yet do not wish to be called such, were to
be hanged on gallows the world would soon be devastated and there would be a
lack both of executioners and gallows. For, as we have just said, to steal is
to signify not only to empty our neighbor's coffer and pockets, but to be
grasping in the market, in all stores, booths, wine- and beer-cellars,
workshops, and, in short, wherever there is trading or taking and giving of
money for merchandise or labor.
As, for instance, to explain this somewhat
grossly for the common people, that it may be seen how godly we are: When a
manservant or maid-servant does not serve faithfully in the house, and does
damage, or allows it to be done when it could be prevented, or otherwise ruins
and neglects the goods entrusted to him, from indolence idleness, or malice, to
the spite and vexation of master and mistress, and in whatever way this can be
done purposely (for I do not speak of what happens from oversight and against
one's will), you can in a year abscond thirty, forty florins, which if another
had taken secretly or carried away, he would be hanged with the rope. But here
you [while conscious of such a great theft] may even bid defiance and become
insolent, and no one dare call you a thief.
The same I say also of mechanics, workmen, and
day-laborers, who all follow their wanton notions, and never know enough ways
to overcharge people, while they are lazy and unfaithful in their work. All
these are far worse than sneak-thieves, against whom we can guard with locks
and bolts, or who, if apprehended, are treated in such a manner that they will
not do the same again. But against these no one can guard, no one dare even
look awry at them or accuse them of theft, so that one would ten times rather
lose from his purse. For here are my neighbors, good friends, my own servants,
from whom I expect good [every faithful and diligent service], who defraud me
first of all.
Furthermore, in the market and in common trade
likewise, this practice is in full swing and force to the greatest extent,
where one openly defrauds another with bad merchandise, false measures,
weights, coins, and by nimbleness and queer finances or dexterous tricks takes
advantage of him; likewise, when one overcharges a person in a trade and
wantonly drives a hard bargain, skins and distresses him. And who can recount
or think of all these things? To sum up, this is the commonest craft and the
largest guild on earth, and if we regard the world throughout all conditions of
life, it is nothing else than a vast, wide stall, full of great thieves.
Therefore they are also called swivel-chair
robbers, land- and highway-robbers, not pick-locks and sneak-thieves who snatch
away the ready cash, but who sit on the chair [at home] and are styled great
noblemen, and honorable, pious citizens, and yet rob and steal under a good
pretext.
Yes, here we might be silent about the trifling
individual thieves if we were to attack the great, powerful arch-thieves with
whom lords and princes keep company, who daily plunder not only a city or two,
but all Germany. Yea, where should we place the head and supreme protector of
all thieves, the Holy Chair at Rome with all its retinue, which has grabbed by
theft the wealth of all the world, and holds it to this day?
This is, in short, the course of the world:
whoever can steal and rob openly goes free and secure, unmolested by any one,
and even demands that he be honored. Meanwhile the little sneak-thieves, who
have once trespassed, must bear the shame and punishment to render the former
godly and honorable. But let them know that in the sight of God they are the
greatest thieves, and that He will punish them as they are worthy and
deserve.
Now, since this commandment is so far-reaching
[and comprehensive], as just indicated, it is necessary to urge it well and to
explain it to the common people, not to let them go on in their wantonness and
security, but always to place before their eyes the wrath of God, and inculcate
the same. For we have to preach this not to Christians, but chiefly to knaves
and scoundrels, to whom it would be more fitting for judges, jailers, or Master
Hannes [the executioner] to preach. Therefore let every one know that it is his
duty, at the risk of God's displeasure, not only to do no injury to his
neighbor, nor to deprive him of gain, nor to perpetrate any act of
unfaithfulness or malice in any bargain or trade, but faithfully to preserve
his property for him, to secure and promote his advantage, especially when one
accepts money, wages, and one's livelihood for such service.
He now who wantonly despises this may indeed pass
along and escape the hangman, but he shall not escape the wrath and punishment
of God; and when he has long practiced his defiance and arrogance, he shall yet
remain a tramp and beggar, and, in addition, have all plagues and misfortune.
Now you are going your way [wherever your heart's pleasure calls you] while you
ought to preserve the property of your master and mistress, for which service
you fill your crop and maw, take your wages like a thief, have people treat you
as a nobleman; for there are many that are even insolent towards their masters
and mistresses, and are unwilling to do them a favor or service by which to
protect them from loss.
But reflect what you will gain when, having come
into your own property and being set up in your home (to which God will help
with all misfortunes), it [your perfidy] will bob up again and come home to
you, and you will find that where you have cheated or done injury to the value
of one mite, you will have to pay thirty again.
Such shall be the lot also of mechanics and
day-laborers of whom we are now obliged to hear and suffer such intolerable
maliciousness, as though they were noblemen in another's possessions, and every
one were obliged to give them what they demand. Just let them continue
practicing their exactions as long as they can; but God will not forget His
commandment, and will reward them according as they have served, and will hang
them, not upon a green gallows, but upon a dry one so that all their life they
shall neither prosper nor accumulate anything. And indeed, if there were a
well-ordered government in the land, such wantonness might soon be checked and
prevented, as was the custom in ancient times among the Romans, where such
characters were promptly seized by the pate in a way that others took
warning.
No more shall all the rest prosper who change the
open free market into a carrion-pit of extortion and a den of robbery, where
the poor are daily overcharged, new burdens and high prices are imposed, and
every one uses the market according to his caprice, and is even defiant and
brags as though it were his fair privilege and right to sell his goods for as
high a price as he please, and no one had a right to say a word against it. We
will indeed look on and let these people skin, pinch, and hoard, but we will
trust in God -- who will, however, do this of His own accord, -- that, after
you have been skinning and scraping for a long time, He will pronounce such a
blessing on your gains that your grain in the garner, your beer in the cellar,
your cattle in the stalls shall perish; yea, where you have cheated and
overcharged any one to the amount of a florin, your entire pile shall be
consumed with rust, so that you shall never enjoy it.
And indeed, we see and experience this being
fulfilled daily before our eyes, that no stolen or dishonestly acquired
possession thrives. How many there are who rake and scrape day and night, and
yet grow not a farthing richer! And though they gather much, they must suffer
so many plagues and misfortunes that they cannot relish it with cheerfulness
nor transmit it to their children. But as no one minds it, and we go on as
though it did not concern us, God must visit us in a different way and teach us
manners by imposing one taxation after another, or billeting a troop of
soldiers upon us, who in one hour empty our coffers and purses, and do not quit
as long as we have a farthing left, and in addition, by way of thanks, burn and
devastate house and home, and outrage and kill wife and children.
And, in short, if you steal much, depend upon it
that again as much will be stolen from you; and he who robs and acquires with
violence and wrong will submit to one who shall deal after the same fashion
with him. For God is master of this art, that since every one robs and steals
from the other, He punishes one thief by means of another. Else where should we
find enough gallows and ropes?
Now, whoever is willing to be instructed let him
know that this is the commandment of God, and that it must not be treated as a
jest. For although you despise us, defraud, steal, and rob, we will indeed
manage to endure your haughtiness, suffer, and, according to the Lord's Prayer,
forgive and show pity; for we know that the godly shall nevertheless have
enough, and you injure yourself more than another.
But beware of this: When the poor man comes to
you (of whom there are so many now) who must buy with the penny of his daily
wages and live upon it, and you are harsh to him, as though every one lived by
your favor, and you skin and scrape to the bone, and, besides, with pride and
haughtiness turn him off to whom you ought to give for nothing, he will go away
wretched and sorrowful, and since he can complain to no one he will cry and
call to heaven, -- then beware (I say again) as of the devil himself. For such
groaning and calling will be no jest, but will have a weight that will prove
too heavy for you and all the world. For it will reach Him who takes care of
the poor sorrowful hearts, and will not allow them to go unavenged. But if you
despise this and become defiant, see whom you have brought upon you: if you
succeed and prosper, you may before all the world call God and me a liar.
We have exhorted, warned, and protested enough;
he who will not heed or believe it may go on until he learns this by experience
Yet it must be impressed upon the young that they may be careful not to follow
the old lawless crowd, but keep their eyes fixed upon God's commandment, lest
His wrath and punishment come upon them too. It behooves us to do no more than
to instruct and reprove with God's Word; but to check such open wantonness
there is need of the princes and government, who themselves would have eyes and
the courage to establish and maintain order in all manner of trade and
commerce, lest the poor be burdened and oppressed nor they themselves be loaded
with other men's sins.
Let this suffice as an explanation of what
stealing is, that it be not taken too narrowly but made to extend as far as we
have to do with our neighbors. And briefly, in a summary, as in the former
commandments, it is herewith forbidden, in the first place, to do our neighbor
any injury or wrong (in whatever manner supposable, by curtailing,
forestalling, and withholding his possessions and property), or even to consent
or allow such a thing, but to interpose and prevent it. And, on the other hand,
it is commanded that we advance and improve his possessions, and in case he
suffers want, that we help, communicate, and lend both to friends and foes.
Whoever now seeks and desires good works will
find here more than enough such as are heartily acceptable and pleasing to God,
and in addition are favored and crowned with excellent blessings, that we are
to be richly compensated for all that we do for our neighbor's good and from
friendship; as King Solomon also teaches Prov. 19, 17: He that hath pity upon
the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him
again. Here, then you have a rich Lord, who is certainly sufficient for you,
and who will not suffer you to come short in anything or to want; thus you can
with a joyful conscience enjoy a hundred times more than you could scrape
together with unfaithfulness and wrong. Now, whoever does not desire the
blessing will find wrath and misfortune enough.
