II. Apropos of the Fuggers, he thinks that it "cannot be right and

godly for such a great and regal fortune to be piled up in the lifetime of one man". That is evidently the peasant's mistrust of capital. Similarly {Grosser Sermon vom Wucher, Erlangen edition, XX, p. 109) investment in securities he considers ethically undesirable, because it is "ein neues behendes erfunden Ding" — i.e. because it is to him economically incomprehensible ; somewhat like margin trading to the modern clergyman.
It. The difference is well worked out by H. Levy (in his study, Die Grundlagen des ökonomischen Liberalismus in der Geschichte der englischen Volkswirtschaft, Jena, 1912). Compare also, for instance, the petition of the Levellers in Cromwell's army of 1653 against monopolies and companies, given in Gardiner, Commonwealth, II, p. 179. Laud's regime, on the other hand, worked for a Christian, social, economic organization under the joint leadership of Crown and Church, from which the King hoped for political and fiscal- monopolistic advantages. It was against just this that the Puritans were struggling.
13. What I understand by this may be shown by the example of the proclamation addressed by Cromwell to the Irish in 1650, with which he opened his war against them and which formed his reply to the manifestos of the Irish (Catholic) clergy of Clonmacnoise of December 4 and 13, 1649. The most important sentences follow: "Englishmen had good inheritances (namely in Ireland) which many of them purchased with their money . . . they had good leases from Irishmen for long time to come, great stocks thereupon, houses and plantations erected at their cost and charge. . . . You broke the union ... at a time when Ireland was in perfect peace and when, through the example of English industry, through commerce and traffic, that which was in the nation's hands was better to them than if all Ireland had been in their possession. ... Is God, will God be with you? I am confident He will no't."
This proclamation, which is suggestive of articles in the English Press at the time of the Boer War, is not characteristic, because the capitalistic interests of Englishmen are held to be the justification of the war. That argument could, of course, have just as well been made use of, for instance, in a quarrel between Venice and Genoa over their respective spheres of influence in the Orient (which, in spite of my pointing it out here, Brentano, op. cit., p. 142, strangely enough holds against me). On the contrary, what is interesting in the document is that Cromwell, with the deepest personal conviction, as everyone who knows his character will agree, bases the moral justification of the subjection of the Irish, in calling God to witness, on the fact that English capital has taught the Irish to work. (The proclamation is in Carlyle, and is also reprinted and analysed in Gardiner, History of the Comynonu'ealth, I, pp. 163 f.)
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14. This is not the place to follow the subject farther. Gampare the authors cited in Note 16 below.
15. Compare the remarks in Jiiiicher's fine book, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, II, pp. 108, 636 f.
16. With what follows, compare above all the discussion in Eger, op. cit. Also Schneckenburger's fine work, which is even to-day not yet out of date {Vergleichende Darstellung der lutherischeji und refor- mierten Lehrhegriffe, Grüder, Stuttgart, 1855). Luthardt's Ethik Luthers, p. 84 of the first edition, the only one to which I have had access, gives no real picture of the development. Further compare Seeberg, Dogmengeschichte, II, pp. 262 ff. The article on Beruf in the Realenzyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche is valueless. Instead of a scientific analysis of the conception and its origin, it contains all sorts of rather sentimental observations on all possible subjects, such as the position of women, etc. Of the economic literature on Luther, I refer here only to Schmoller's studies ("Geschichte der Nationalökönomischen Ansichten in Deutschland während der Reformationszeit", Zeitschrift f. Staatswiss., XVI, i860); Wiskemann's prize essay (1861); and the study of Frank G. Ward ("Darstellung und Würdigung von Luthers Ansichten vom Staat und seinen wirtschaftlichen Aufgaben", Conrads Abhandlimgai, XXI, Jena, 1898). The literature on Luther in commemoration of the anniversary of the Reformation, part of which is excellent, has, so far as I can see, made no definite contribution to this particular problem. On the social ethics of Luther (and the Lutherans) compare, of course, the relevant parts of Troeltsch's Soziallehren.
17. Analysis of the Seventh Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corin- thians, 1523, Erlangen edition, LI, p. i. Here Luther still interprets the idea of the freedom of every calling before God in the sense of this passage, so as to emphasize (i) that certain human institutions should be repudiated (monastic vows, the prohibition of mixed marriages, etc.), (2) that the fulfillment of traditional worldly duties to one's neighbour (in itself indifferent before God) is turned into a commandment of brotherly love. In fact this characteristic reasoning (for instance pp. 55,. 56) fundamentally concerns the question of the dualism of the lex natura in its relations vi^ith divine justice.
18. Compare the passage from Von Kaufhandlung und Wucher, which Sombart rightly use? as a motto for his treatment of the handicraft -spirit (= traditionalism): "Darum musst du dir fürsetzen, nichts denn deine ziemliche Nahrung zu suchen in solchem Handel, danach Kost, Mühe, Arbeit und Gefahr rechnen und überschlagen und also dann die Ware selbst setzen, steigern oder niedern, dass du solcher Arbeit und Mühe Lohn davon hasst." The principle is for- mulated in a thoroughly Thomistic spirit.
19. As early as the letter to H. von Sternberg of 1530, in which he dedicates the Exigesis of the 117th Psalm to him, the estate of the
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lower nobility appears to him, in spite of its moral degradation, as ordained of God (Erlangen edition, XL, pp. 282 ff.)- The decisive influence of the Münzer disturbances in developing this view-point can clearly be seen in the letter (p. 282). Compare also Eger, op. cit., p. 150.
20. Also in the analysis of the 1 1 ith Psalm, verses 5 and 6 (Erlangen edition, XL, pp. 215-16), written in 1530, the starting-point is the polemics against withdrawal from the world into monasteries. But in this case the lex naturce (as distinct from positive law made by the Emperor and the Jurists) is directly identical with divine justice. It is God's ordinance, and includes especially the division of the people into classes (p. 215). The equal value of the classes is emphasized, but only in the sight of God.
21. As taught especially in the works Von Konzilien und Kirchen (1539) and Kurzer Bekenntnis vom heiligen Sakrament (1545).
22. How far in the background of Luther's thought was the most important idea of proof of the Christian in his calling and his worldly conduct, which dominated Calvinism, is shown by this passage from Von Konzilien und Kirchen (1539, Erlangen edition, XXV, p. 376): "Besides these seven principal signs there are more superficial ones by which the holy Christian Church can be known. If we are not unchaste nor drunkards, proud, insolent, nor extravagant, but chaste, modest, and temperate." According to Luther these signs are not so infallible as the others (purity of doctrine, prayer, etc.). "Because certain of the heathen have borne themselves so and sometimes even appeared holier than Christians." Calvin's personal position was, as we shall see, not very different, but that was not true of Puritanism. In any case, for Luther the Christian serves God only in vocatione, not per vocationem (Eger, pp. 117 ff.). Of the idea of proof, on the other hand (more, however, in its Pietistic than its Calvinistic form), there are at least isolated suggestions in the German mystics (see for instance in Seeberg, Dogmengeschichte, p. 195, the passage from Suso, as well as those from Tauler quoted above), even though it was understood only in a psychological sense.
23. His final position is well expressed in some parts of the exegesis of Genesis (in the op. lat. exeget. edited by Elsperger).
Vol. IV, p. 109: "Neque haec fuit levis tentatio, intentum esse suae vocationi et de aliis non esse curiosum. . . . Paucissimi sunt, qui sua sorte vivant contenti ... (p. iii). Nostrum autem est, ut vocanti Deo pareamus ... (p. 112). Regula igitur haec servanda est, ut unusquisque maneat in sua vocatione et suo dono contentus vivat, de aliis autem non sit curiosus." In effect that is thoroughly in accordance with Thomas Aquinas 's formulation of traditionalism (Secunda secundce, Quest. 118, Art. i) : "Unde necesse est, quod bonum hominis circa ea consistat in quadam mensura, dum scilicet homo . . . quaerit habere exteriores divitas, prout sunt necessariae ad vitam ejus secundum suam conditionem. Et ideo in excessu hujus mensurae
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
consistit peccatum, dum scilicet aliquis oupra debitum modum vult eas vel acquirere vel retinere, quod pertinet ad avaritiam." The sinfulness of the pursuit of acquisition beyond the point set by the needs of one's station in life is based by Thomas on the lex natura as revealed by the purpose (ratio) of external goods ; by Luther, on the other hand, on God's will. On the relation of faith and the calling in Luther see also Vol. VII, p. 225: "... quando es fidelis, turn placent Deo etiam physica, carnalia, animalia, officia, sive edas, sive bibas, sive vigiles, sive dormias, quae mere corporalia et animalia sunt. Tanta res est fides. . . . Verum est quidem, placere Deo etiam in impiis sedulitatem et industriam in officio [This activity in practical life is a virtue lege natura] sed obstat incredulitas et vana gloria, ne possint opera sua referre ad gloriam Dei [reminiscent of Calvinistic w^ays of speaking]. . . . Merentur igitur etiam impiorum bona opera in hac quidem vita praemia sua [as distinct from Augus- tine's 'vitia specie virtutum palliata'] sed non numerantur, non coUiguntur in altero."
24. In the Kirchenpostille it runs (Erlangen edition, X, pp. 233, 235-6): "Everyone is called to some calling." He should wait for this call (on p. 236 it even becomes command) and serve God in it. God takes pleasure not in man's achievements but in his obedience in this respect.
25. This explains why, in contrast to what has been said above about the effects of Pietism on women workers, modern business men sometimes maintain that strict Lutheran domestic workers to-day often, for instance in Westphalia, think very largely in tradi- tional terms. Even without going over to the factory system, and in spite of the temptation of higher earnings, they resist changes in methods of work, and in explanation maintain that in the next world such trifles won't matter anyway. It is evident that the mere fact of Church membership and belief is not in itself of essential significance for conduct as a whole. It has been much more concrete religious values and ideals which have influenced the development of capitalism in its early stages and, to a lesser extent, still do.
26. Compare Tauler, Basle edition, BL, pp. 161 fif.
27. Compare the peculiarly emotional sermon of Tauler referred to above, and the following one, 17, 18, verse 20.
28. Since this is the sole purpose of these present remarks on Luther, I have limited them to a brief preliminary sketch, which would, of course, be wholly inadequate as an appraisal of Luther's influence as a whole.
29. One who shared the philosophy of history of the Levellers would be in the fortunate position of being able to attribute this in turn to racial differences. They believed themselves to be the defenders of the Anglo-Saxon birthright, against the descendants of William the Conqueror and the Normans. It is astonishing enough that it
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has not yet occurred to anyone to maintain that the plebeian Round- heads were round-headed in the anthropometric sense !
30. Especially the English national pride, a result of Magna Charta and the great wars. The saying, so typical to-day, "She looks like an English girl" on seeing any pretty foreign girl, is reported as early as the fifteenth century.
31. These differences have, of course, persisted in England as well. Especially the Squirearchy has remained the centre of "merrie old England" down to the present day, and the whole period since the Reformation may be looked upon as a struggle of the two elements in English society. In this point I agree with M. J. Bonn's remarks (in the Frankfurter Zeitung) on the excellent study of v. Schulze- Gaevernitz on British Imperialism. Compare H. Levy in the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, 46, 3.
32. In spite of this and the following remarks, which in my opinion are clear enough, and have never been changed, I have again and again been accused of this.