Aventinus on why God lets the Turks defeat the Christians -- Part 1 and 2

Among his smaller writings is a pamphlet in which Johannes Aventinus (Turmeyr) reports on his musing about why God allows for the Turks to defeat the Christians and what the Christians can do in the face of so much suffering.

Aventinus notes that his thinking began with the death of Ludwig, King of Hungary and Bohemia, on the battlefield of Mohacs (though he cites the event, not the locale) [172] but that the context of publication is the Turkish emperor besieging Vienna in 1529. Aventinus complains that he had warned people in high places of the impending dangers but had been ignored due to the unpopularity of his message (depicting the truth as a coarse farmer's wife that cannot bribe and speak after people's wishes) [172]. Similarly, the emperors, Friedrich II, Henry VII, Sigismund and Maximillian had written against the problems with the estates and the popes, but no one seems to read them [173]. Aventinus could have ignored these warnings as well, but his friends E.W. (Ernst and Wilhelm, the dukes of Bavaria?) pressed him, given how the present danger of the Turks in Austria makes the matter urgent ("the water is reaching the mouth"), and so he composed the pamphlet in four parts [173]. The first will explain the causes, the second the indicators for worst parts to come, the third what the Ancients---Christians, Jews and Pagans had done---and the fourth proposes reforms that will prevent this from happening in the future [174].

Christ alone is the throne of grace, powerful, self-ruling lord in heaven, hell and on earth, the eternal, just, natural pope and emperor, our doctor, salvation and justice; .... [174]

Part I 

Aventinus [175] discusses the great abuses of the masters, of the Church and of the world, that lead to this calamity. Because God is merciful, He would not be punishing Christianity if there was not a reason [175]. Concilia and Diets have not figured out why the Turks have grown so strong [175];  the Knights of St-John wrote to the emperor when Rhodos was under attack, that the Turkish Sultan was not afraid of the Empire, much less the Germans, because they are divide, focused on physical pleasures, cannot tell top from bottom and practice no justice [176]. And since, as Aristotle argued, all things in nature are naturally good [177], it must be the government that is the problem. Aventinus reminds his readers that even the pagans know that the love of money, avarice and the own advantage is a source of injustice [177]. The rapacity of the bureaucracies and the knavery of the judges amplifies this and was the death of the Roman empire [177]. Even worse than the unfair and impatient prince is the money fool ("geltnarr"), who only focuses on increasing his profit while showing neither mercy nor understanding for the lower orders [178]. Even the pagans handle this situation of the poor being oppressed by the rich better [179], how the office holders steal from the rulers even:

The office holders grow rich; the rulers rot away together with the lands and their people. [180]

Vox populi vox Dei is here taken to mean that the protest of the poor is the accusation of God [180]. Aventinus includes the hanseatic organizations in these, and how the money-fools press the last bit of bloods from everyone else [180], worse than any tyrant in the history of the world. They think themselves to be good Christians but are not even good pagans [181]. Since bringing life is the hard part, not bringing death, God cannot be react or He would stop being God [181].

If you punish the heretics, why do you not punish the bishops, pastors and the monks? [181]

Aventinus now refers to Maximillian's pamphlet against the German estates, calling himself a king of kings, because all of the rules of Germany want to be their own master and do not suffer the emperor [182]; the money fools take it from everyone and no one pursues unity. This is the core of the problem (though coin, toll and customs association could be mentioned as well, since they weigh down the people and anger God) [182].

But the Christian and the Jewish authors teach, that such abuse has its root in the wrong worship of and service to God [183]. God is infuriated and he uses one people to punish another:

Always one people has to punish another, eliminate and exterminate them [183]

The one form of this blasphemy is to exhibit outwardly proper religious behavior and long prayers while stealing from the widows and stiffing the poor [183]. This is especially galling in the case of the barfeeted monks [183], who sell their prayers and will end up like the stupid virgins, without any [184]. Aventinus sees the mendicant orders as the source of much of this, and compares the light of their churches to the darkness of their hearts [184]. Mendicant orders are like whore houses and equally forbidden by God [184]. They take and never give and the preaching orders are no better [185]. And the female orders are worse than the Amazons attacking the Greeks ever were; did StPaul and StJerome not say that the women should be quiet in church and not sing loudly? [186] And the auxiliary bishops (Weihbischof) the same, who pay for the bishopric of a far-off land that the Turk now controls, swear to go there and preach but never mean that, perjuring themselves? [187] This was the kind of thing that the reformation of Emperor Sigismund was planning to fix [187]. Aventinus compares the pastors unfavorably to the Good Shepherd, who are unwilling to sacrifice anything for their sheep.

They take leave of absence, eat the sin and drink the evil of mankind, preach nothing, do not earn a farthing, place vicars like themselves over the poor, don't inquire into the salvation of the poor people. [187]

The religious lords were supposed to be poor but now they are rich:

It was forbidden that bishops, prelates and clergy own any worldly good, no churches nor feudal estates, to pull toward them, had to get by on the Tenth. ... Now they own cities, markets and castles, and do not want to do anything for it. [188]

The once who have to support this are the poor, and Aventinus again points to Emperor Sigismund's reformation [188]. Now, with the Turks near Vienna again and threatening Bavaria, people still refuse to see the signs and recognize that God is getting ready to punish them for their sins [188].

The other blasphemy [189] is the way in which both clergy and laymen live openly in violation of the laws of God [189]---but especially the clergy, who will not marry but practice whoring, will not be honorable but are traitors and knaves. Again Aventinus refers to Emperor Sigismund's attempts of reform in the face of such simony that put them into imperial banishment in the empire of God [189]. For anyone who wants to live in agreement with the word of God, they are the worst traitors [190]. If their deeds happen without intent, they lack diligence, if they happen on purpose, they are knaves of the worst kind [191]. Adultery, weakening the virgins and abusing the widows, those are worse crimes than thievery in the eyes of God, but the only thieving that is punished is that of the poor, and the highers ones simply add it to their pile [191]. David was punished for his adultery, and Troy destroyed over adultery [192]. It would be better to have no order at all than one that is not enforced [192]. Even if by now all have fallen short, the only way to remedy the matter is to start at the head, because once the head is cured, the whole body will already be doing better [193]. A concilium needs to take place [193], as Pope Hadrian allowed at the last Diet, and as Emperor Maximilian I had demanded in his writings against Pope Julian [193].

 But the Pope fears a free concilium of the church like the devil fears holy water .... [194]

And Constanz and Basel have shown them that this is where popes are removed from office [194]. In the face of all these pointless consultations, the Turks say [195]:

The Christians consult much and have many diets, in the mean time I conquer land and people. [195]  

When they meet in Hungary, the Turk invades Friaul and beats the Venetians; they meet in Worms and the Turk wins Greek-Weissenburg; they meet in Nuremberg and the Turks take Rhodos; they meet in Speyer and the Turk invades Hungary and kills the king [195].

Nobody wanted to come and help [the King of Hungary, RCK], however much he kept writing for help; they [Herzog Ernst of Bavaria, RCK] had to help the Bishop of Salzburg against his own poor people at the same time instead. [195]

That year, they met in Speyer again, and the Turk invaded Austria and besieged Vienna, an no one knows how the story will end [195].

Part II

Aventinus now turns to other signs of coming disaster [196]. Aventinus now enumerate learned men who have prophesied that the Turks would come up to Cologne, that the Papacy will suffer and eventually be destroy, and that the Roman Empire before the Judgement Day will return to Asia [196],

The sundown will be suppressed again, the sunrise will rule again. [197]

Equally, Ezechiel had prophesied that the peoples Gog and Magog would come and cover the faithful [197]. 

Now many interpret Gog and Magog as meaning the Turks and the Saracene Belief [i.e. Islam, RCK]. [197]

Aventinus reminds them that at the Diet of Speyer, Philip Melanchthon had published a book that warns about how the Turks will fulfill the prophecies of Daniel, and things would have been better if the powerful had listened to him [197]. Also there were many signs in the heavens, but people only make fun of them [197]. As King David warned in his psalms, the godless do not recognize the anger of God [198]. Did God not embarrass the pope and have him called the antichrist in the streets? [198] Does anyone still fear his banishments?

I see no one who still fears him or gives much [for his opinion, RCK], except for those, that benefit from it, if they did not anymore either, they'd be his worst enemies. [198]

But Rome was sacked by the German Landsknechts [198], and the powerful French king embarrassed [1525 at Pavia, RCK], and now they write stupid pamphlets [199].

If the heads do this, there is no need to ask nor wonder, why the Turks are coming: they must punish the evil, as the scourge and rod commanded by God. [199]

The Franks and the Suebians have been attacked by their own farmers [199]. Even CharlesV, the powerful emperor, sees his siblings in danger, and the death of his brother-in-law Ludwig, king of Bohemia and Hungary [during the battle of Mohacs, 1526, RCK] [200]. Aventinus sides with Luther against Georg of Saxony and the Emser Testament, complains, that the lords do not understand Greek but want to help the clergy with their knavery [201]. God is ready to punish them, after several century of difficulties with the Turks [the crusades? RCK] [201].

(continued in next post)