# XV: How Simplicissimus Thought More Piously When He Went A-Plundering Than Did Oliver When He Went to Church explained — The Adventurous Simplicissimus

> Chapter companion for The Adventurous Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.

## What happens

Simplicissimus accompanies Oliver on a plundering expedition, wrestling with his conscience over thieving in God's name. Oliver defends his actions by arguing that churches are already defiled by human vanity, hypocrisy, and sin, and thus no worse for his use. Simplicissimus remains troubled but stays silent, and Oliver begins to recount his own wicked life.

## Themes in this chapter

### Religion and Morality

Simplicissimus's internal conflict about thieving in God's name and Oliver's cynical justification of using churches for plunder highlight the tension between religious piety and wartime immorality.

### Deception and Appearance

Oliver argues that churchgoers are often hypocrites, using the church for vanity, gossip, or business, thus blurring the line between sacred and profane.

## Character check-ins

### Simplicissimus

Struggles with his conscience as he goes plundering in God's name, reflecting on his moral decline since leaving the hermit.

### Oliver

Leads Simplicissimus on a plundering raid and delivers a lengthy, cynical defense of using churches for his trade, then begins to tell his life story.

## Key lines

> Up, Simplicissimus; we will fare forth in God's name to see what we can come by.

Oliver tells Simplicissimus to get up and go plundering, invoking God's name for their thieving expedition.

_Highlights the ironic use of religious language for immoral acts._

> What, says he, misuse? The churches themselves if they could speak would confess that what I do in them is naught in comparison with the sins that have aforetime been committed in them.

Oliver defends his use of the church by claiming that the sins of hypocritical worshippers are far worse than his own actions.

_Oliver's rationalization of his behavior by pointing out the greater sins of others._

## Links

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