Whether one should proceed slowly, and avoid offending the weak in matters that concern God's will

Andreas Karlstadt 1524

I, Andreas Karlstadt, wish my especially beloved brother in Christ, Bartel Bach, city secretary of Joachimstal, the art of knowing God through our lord Jesus Christ.

Dear brother, in reply to my description of some changes that have taken place here [i.e. Orlamünde], you wrote me that, as far as you are concerned, you would like to proceed slowly. And through this writing you gave me to understand, without saying it, that one should not proceed quickly or suddenly but slowly in order to avoid offending the weak. You are simply doing what the whole world does now, which is to cry, “The weak, die weak! The sick, the sick! Not so fast! Slowly, slowly!” For this reason I am not angry with you. Nevertheless in this matter you are saying, “Slowly! The sick!,” with a great many people. Only you are saying it more politely and with greater sophistication. Accordingly I must tell you that neither in this case nor in other matters concerning God should you regard how the great masses speak or judge. Rather, you should look straight at God's word [i.e. Scripture]. For it has long been clear that die princes, for whom the scribes write, and die great mass of the people have erred formerly and are capable of error.