Christ also says that the truth makes men free and makes them his disciples (John 8[:31–32]). No image can do that. Thus saying that likenesses are the books of the laity is precisely the same as saying that the laity ought not to be the disciples of Christ, should never be free from the bonds of the Devil, and should also not enter into the godly and Christian life. Paul also teaches that we should have no connection with those who venerate likenesses (1 Cor. 5[:11]), and adds: You should not venerate images. You should flee the honouring of images (1 Cor. 10[:14]). See how Paul hates the reverence of likenesses and how we ought to have nothing in common with those who venerate images thus, even if they do not actually worship them.
Indeed, they say, Paul says that images are nothing (1 Cor. 8[:4]). We also know in our hearts, [they say,] that images are not gods and that there is only one God. Answer: I wish to God that those who use images for books really did know that in their hearts, but I cannot believe it. And did you not also hear that Paul says that we should flee the honouring of images?
Do you not know that Paul says that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God [I Cor. 6:9]? How can you bring the laity to the kingdom of God when you offer to a likeness that veneration which God has given to his Word alone? When you put them in the place where God alone should be venerated and invoked? I want now, O Priest, O Monk, to stir your heart and make you come to the conclusion that you cleave to images and have a true idol in the image that the hands of men have made.
Now, finally, you should also take it to heart that I absolutely cannot advise the mortally ill to cling to carved or painted crucifixes. The reason is that they serve no purpose, as has been said, and cannot bring the sick any further than to the physical suffering of Christ, which is of no avail, as Christ himself says: The flesh is of no use (John 6[:64]). It does not please Paul that you know Christ after the flesh. Therefore he says: We do not know Christ according to the flesh [2 Cor. 5:16]. But our image-lovers want the laity to know Christ in the flesh, which avails nothing. They want to teach how Christ hung on the cross rather than why he was hanged. They teach about his body, his beard, his wounds. Of the power of Christ they teach nothing at all. But without the power of Christ no one is saved. So I say, in the first place, that many thousands will be saved without the physical presence of Christ, and, second, that images in general are forbidden and prophets have preached against likenesses (Habakkuk 2[:19]). God says: Woe to him who says to the wood, Awake! And to the silent stone says, Surge or Rise up! How can a piece of wood or a lump of stone teach? It may well be decorated with silver or gold, but there is no spirit in it (Habakkuk 2[:19]). Behold then how God heaps evil upon those who say to a piece of wood: Wake up! That is, in effect, said when you show devotion to a piece of wood. God also says: Woe to him who says to a stone, Rise up—which is to say—Help me. Thus fools say to the dying when they are caught in the snares of death: See, now you have the Lord Jesus in your hands. Habakkuk says there is no spirit in a likeness. When God rises up, all likenesses fall. Where images sit, God cannot be. As it is written in the fifth chapter of Micah: I will destroy the likenesses in your midst and you shall no longer pray to the works of your own hands [Micah 5:12]. Thirdly, even if I did profess that likenesses should be allowed, which no Christian can, nevertheless there is no consolation except in the Word of God, in which the just man has his life, health, and salvation. Therefore it is incomparably wiser that you recite the two gospel texts which the Lord gave at the end and before his death. That is to say, that you explain to sick and dying man the content and meaning of these comforting words: My body is given for you; my blood is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins [Luke 22:17ff.]. These gospel texts have a living spirit. The image of Christ is nothing other than wood, stone, silver or gold, and the like. Fourthly, I must tell the Gregorists the story of Bishop Epiphanius who in the time of Jerome removed a cloth from the church because an image of a saint or a crucified Christ was painted on it in violation of the scriptural prohibition. It can be seen clearly from this that early on the Christians hated likenesses and banished them from the houses of God. Epiphanius arrived in Anablatha and there went into a church and saw a dyed and painted curtain on the door which had an image that was a likeness of Christ or of a saint. He says that he did not really know what image it was, but nevertheless he did not want to allow it in the church because it hung there contrary to Scripture. Therefore, he cut down the curtain. This is to be found in the writings of Jerome. Even if I might admit that the laity could learn something useful of salvation from images, nevertheless I could not permit that which is contrary to scriptural prohibitions and against God’s will. Scripture clearly states that God hates the pictures which the papists call books and is jealous of them. I ask you, if you were opposed in your heart to an image and wanted neither to see it nor hear it, how would you like it if someone wanted to learn about you and venerate you in such a hateful and horrible book [i.e. the book of images]? Without a doubt you would hate and shun me with my little book or image if I wanted to honour you by means of that which you forbid, which you hate, and which you shun. Now God says that he cannot tolerate any image which we make, and that he hates and is jealous of all who love images, as we said above. And Isaiah writes (Isaiah 42[:17]): Those who trust in images shall be tormented with shame.
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