redemption of Christ; and if so, it is that we may be again
robbed and stripped of the fruit of our blood and sweat,
that the same may be shamelessly and scandalously squandered
while poor and sick men must therefore die of hunger. And
this is above all most grievous to me, that God perhaps will
let us remain yet under their false, blind doctrine,
invented and set forth by the men whom they call "Fathers,"
through whom the Word of God is in many places falsely
expounded or not taught at all.

[Editor's note: This form of abduction was the usual idea at
the time. But Luther was really taken by the order of
Frederick the Wise in order to protect him].

O God of Heaven, have pity on us, O Lord Jesus Christ, pray
for Thy people. Deliver us in due time, uphold in us the
right and true Christian Faith. Gather together Thy far
scattered sheep by Thy voice, in the Scripture called Thy
godly Word. Help us that we may know this Thy voice and may
follow no other deceiving call of human error, that we may
not, Lord Jesus Christ, fall away from Thee. Call together
again the sheep of Thy pasture, who are still in part found
in the Roman Church, and with them, too, the Indians,
Muscovites, Russians, and Greeks, who have been thus cut off
by the oppression and pride of the pope and by false
appearance of holiness.

O God, redeem thy poor folk constrained by heavy ban and
edict which it no wise willingly obeys, whereby it is bound
continually to sin against its conscience if it disobeys