Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle, nor
anything that is his.
These two commandments are given quite
exclusively to the Jews; nevertheless, in part they also concern us. For they
do not interpret them as referring to unchastity or theft, because these are
sufficiently forbidden above. They also thought that they had kept all those
when they had done or not done the external act. Therefore God has added these
two commandments in order that it be esteemed as sin and forbidden to desire or
in any way to aim at getting our neighbor's wife or possessions; and especially
because under the Jewish government man-servants and maid-servants were not
free as now to serve for wages as long as they pleased, but were their master's
property with their body and all they had, as cattle and other possessions.
Moreover, every man had power over his wife to put her away publicly by giving
her a bill of divorce, and to take another. Therefore they were in constant
danger among each other that if one took a fancy to another's wife, he might
allege any reason both to dismiss his own wife and to estrange the other's wife
from him, that he might obtain her under pretext of right. That was not
considered a sin nor disgrace with them; as little as now with hired help, when
a proprietor dismisses his man-servant or maid-servant, or takes another's
servants from him in any way.
Therefore (I say) they thus interpreted these
commandments, and that rightly (although their scope reaches somewhat farther
and higher), that no one think or purpose to obtain what belongs to another,
such as his wife, servants, house and estate, land meadows, cattle, even with a
show of right or by a subterfuge, yet with injury to his neighbor. For above,
in the Seventh Commandment, the vice is forbidden where one wrests to himself
the possessions of others, or withholds them from his neighbor, which he cannot
do by right. But here it is also forbidden to alienate anything from your
neighbor, even though you could do so with honor in the eyes of the world, so
that no one could accuse or blame you as though you had obtained it
wrongfully.
For we are so inclined by nature that no one
desires to see another have as much as himself, and each one acquires as much
as he can; the other may fare as best he can. And yet we pretend to be godly,
know how to adorn ourselves most finely and conceal our rascality, resort to
and invent adroit devices and deceitful artifices (such as now are daily most
ingeniously contrived) as though they were derived from the law codes; yea, we
even dare impertinently to refer to it, and boast of it, and will not have it
called rascality, but shrewdness and caution. In this lawyers and jurists
assist, who twist and stretch the law to suit it to their cause, stress words
and use them for a subterfuge, irrespective of equity or their neighbor's
necessity. And, in short, whoever is the most expert and cunning in these
affairs finds most help in law, as they themselves say: Vigilantibus iura
subveniunt [that is, The laws favor the watchful].
This last commandment therefore is given not for
rogues in the eyes of the world, but just for the most pious, who wish to be
praised and be called honest and upright people, since they have not offended
against the former commandments, as especially the Jews claimed to be, and even
now many great noblemen, gentlemen, and princes. For the other common masses
belong yet farther down, under the Seventh Commandment, as those who are not
much concerned whether they acquire their possessions with honor and right.
Now, this occurs most frequently in cases that
are brought into court, where it is the purpose to get something from our
neighbor and to force him out of his own. As (to give examples), when people
quarrel and wrangle about a large inheritance, real estate, etc., they avail
themselves of, and resort to, whatever has the appearance of right, so dressing
and adorning everything that the law must favor their side, and they keep the
property with such title that no one can make complaint or lay claim thereto.
In like manner, if any one desire to have a castle, city, duchy, or any other
great thing, he practises so much financiering through relationships, and by
any means he can, that the other is judicially deprived of it, and it is
adjudicated to him, and confirmed with deed and seal and declared to have been
acquired by princely title and honestly.
Likewise also in common trade where one
dexterously slips something out of another's hand, so that he must look after
it, or surprises and defrauds him in a matter in which he sees advantage and
benefit for himself, so that the latter, perhaps on account of distress or
debt, cannot regain or redeem it without injury, and the former gains the half
or even more; and yet this must not be considered as acquired by fraud or
stolen, but honestly bought. Here they say: First come, first served, and every
one must look to his own interest, let another get what he can. And who can be
so smart as to think of all the ways in which one can get many things into his
possession by such specious pretexts? This the world does not consider wrong
[nor is it punished by laws], and will not see that the neighbor is thereby
placed at a disadvantage, and must sacrifice what he cannot spare without
injury. Yet there is no one who wishes this to be done to him; from which we
can easily perceive that such devices and pretexts are false.
Thus it was done formerly also with respect to
wives: they knew such devices that if one were pleased with another woman, he
personally or through others (as there were many ways and means to be invented)
caused her husband to conceive a displeasure toward her, or had her resist him
and so conduct herself that he was obliged to dismiss her and leave her to the
other. That sort of thing undoubtedly prevailed much under the Law, as also we
read in the (Gospel of King Herod that he took his brother's wife while he was
yet living, and yet wished to be thought an honorable, pious man, as St. Mark
also testifies of him. But such an example, I trust, will not occur among us,
because in the New Testament those who are married are forbidden to be
divorced, except in such a case where one [shrewdly] by some stratagem takes
away a rich bride from another. But it is not a rare thing with us that one
estranges or alienates another's man-servant or maid-servant, or entices them
away by flattering words.
In whatever way such things happen, we must know
that God does not wish that you deprive your neighbor of anything that belongs
to him so that he suffer the loss and you gratify your avarice with it, even if
you could keep it honorably before the world; for it is a secret and insidious
imposition practised under the hat, as we say, that it may not be observed. For
although you go your way as if you had done no one any wrong, you have
nevertheless injured your neighbor; and if it is not called stealing and
cheating, yet it is called coveting your neighbor's property, that is, aiming
at possession of it, enticing it away from him without his will, and being
unwilling to see him enjoy what God has granted him. And although the judge and
every one must leave you in possession of it, yet God will not leave you
therein; for He sees the deceitful heart and the malice of the world, which is
sure to take an ell in addition wherever you yield to her a finger's breadth,
and at length public wrong and violence follow.
Therefore we allow these commandments to remain
in their ordinary meaning, that it is commanded, first, that we do not desire
our neighbor's damage, nor even assist, nor give occasion for it, but gladly
wish and leave him what he has, and, besides, advance and preserve for him what
may be for his profit and service, as we should wish to be treated. Thus these
commandments are especially directed against envy and miserable avarice, God
wishing to remove all causes and sources whence arises everything by which we
do injury to our neighbor, and therefore He expresses it in plain words: Thou
shalt not covet, etc. For He would especially have the heart pure, although we
shall never attain to that as long as we live here; so that this commandment
will remain, like all the rest, one that will constantly accuse us and show how
godly we are in the sight of God!