1. to Joh. Rühel, Joh. Thür and Caspar Müller. June 15, 1525.
To the respectable, highly respected, honorable and careful Johann Rühel, the Right D., Johann Thür, Caspar Müller, Chancellor, my dear lords and friends in general and in particular.
Grace and peace in Christ. What a clamor, dear sirs, I have caused with the booklet against the peasants! All that God has done for the world through me is forgotten. Now lords, priests, peasants, everything is against me and threaten me with death.
Well then, because they are foolish and foolish, I will also send myself to be found before my end in the state created by God, and I will keep nothing of my previous papist life about me, as much as I can, and make them even more foolish and foolish, and all that to the end and goodbye. For I myself suspect that God will help me to His grace one day.
So I have now also married myself out of my dear father's desire and for the sake of these mouths, so that it would not be prevented, I have joined in haste; I am willing to marry on Tuesday for eight days, the next after St. John's Day.
Baptist (of the Baptist), to make a small joy and journey home. I do not want to hide such things from you as good friends and gentlemen and ask that you help to bless them.
And because the runs stand and go now in the countries, I have not dared to ask and demand you to appear. But if you of good will would or could come together with my dear father and mother, you may well judge for yourselves that it would be a special pleasure for me, and what you would bring from good friends to my poverty would be dear to me, without my asking you to inform me of such by this messenger.
2. to Georg Spalatin. From June 16, 1525.*)
To Georg Spalatin, God's faithful servant, my dear brother in Christ.
Grace and peace in the Lord. I hope that I have shut the mouths of those who are carrying on and infamous me with my trusted virgin Katharina von Bora, my dear Spalatin. If God gives that it continues, that I make marriage, to testify my begun marriage state publicly with it; then you must not only be present, but also help, especially where we would lack game. However, may you wish us happiness and God's blessing.
I am in such great waste and contempt
I hope that the angels will rejoice over it and all the devils will weep. The world with its clever ones does not know nor understand this work, that it is divine and holy, yes, they make it ungodly and devilish in my person. For this reason, I am more pleased that their judgment and judgement is condemned by my marriage state, and they are offended and angry by it, so that they wilfully continue to remain without God's knowledge. Be well and pray for me. Given at Wittenberg, Friday after Trinity, Anno 1525.
Martinus Luther.
3. to Wenceslaus Link. From June 20, 1525.
To my dear brother in Christ and comrade in all sufferings, D. Wenzel Link, Christ's servant.
Grace and peace. I know well, my dear Wenceslas, that my booklet greatly annoys the peasants and those who hold it with them, which I am glad of with all my heart; and if it did not annoy them, it would annoy and annoy me. For those who condemn the same booklet clearly show what they have been looking for in the gospel. But I am surprised why some smart people have not compared the booklet with its contents as a whole, because it explains itself sufficiently and shows of which peasants and also of which lords or authorities it speaks. But those who do not want to understand it may remain ignorant, and those who do not want to know may remain ignorant; I let it suffice that my conscience pleases Christ. I have done what I could for the apothecary.
God has unexpectedly, since I had completely different thoughts, wonderfully married me to the virtuous virgin Katharina von Bora, that convent virgin. I intend to give the wedding feast, if I can help it, on Tuesday after St. John's Day. However, I do not want you to burden yourself with any expenses, but instead of and in exchange for the fact that I wanted to ask you to the wedding, I release you from the possibly owed gift of a cup with the consent of my wife and mistress.
However, if you want to come to the wedding, I do not want you to bring and give a cup or anything else; I only ask that you wish me luck and God's blessing for this Christian work, for which I am reviled and blasphemed, and pray for me. Wittenberg, Tuesday after Viti, 1525.
Martinus Luther.
4. to Nicolaus von Amsdorf. From June 21, 1525.
Grace and peace in Christ. The messenger who was to bring this letter to you was already waiting for me; behold, here comes your writing to me. It is indeed true what the general rumor says, that I have united myself in marriage with the virgin Katharina von Bora, and that suddenly, in order to prevent that I might not hear that evil, indignant mouths would make a big noise about it, as it is wont to happen. For I hope that I will not live much longer.
So I also did not know how to refuse this last obedience and will to my dear father, who desired such from me in the good hope that God would give me children. To this end, I also wanted to confirm my teaching with deed, because I still find so many fainthearted hearts in such great light of the Gospel. God has thus willed and ordained it. For I feel neither carnal love nor heat, but a sincere desire for a wife.
I am therefore willing to prepare the wedding feast on Tuesday after St. John's Day, to publicly testify to the marriage I have begun, and my dear parents will also come. Therefore, it would be my most ardent wish that you would also be present; therefore, as I had already thought of inviting you, so I now invite and demand you, most earnestly requesting that you would not be absent, where it is possible for you to do otherwise.
The rumor about the Elector is false and fabricated; on the contrary, Meiningen, Mellerstadt, Neustadt, Mörstadt and ten other towns have surrendered to the Elector's mercy, and he is acting there in such a way that everything will be settled peacefully and amicably. It is certain that in Franconia one thousand peasants, who were distributed in three places, were slain, in addition sixty-one pieces of good cannon were captured and the castle of Würzburg was sacked. The Margrave Casimir
He acts very quickly and violently against his subjects, because they have twice been unfaithful to him. In the Duchy of Würtemberg, six thousand peasants have been slain, otherwise ten thousand now and then in Swabia.
It is also said that the Duke of Lorraine slew twenty thousand in Alsace. So the wretched peasants are murdered in all places. Now everyone is waiting to see how the Bamberg peasants will fare. Nevertheless, the peasants in Breisgau and in the county of Tyrol continue with indignation and rebellion, so that everything from Innsbruck to Trent is in an uproar.
they expelled the bishops of Bressanone and of Trento from the country.
Next Monday, Duke George is to hold a meeting in Dessau with Margrave Joachim of Brandenburg and the Archbishop of Mainz, both princes. Rumor has it that Duke George, puffed up by his success against the peasants, will seek me out in Wittenberg; take it for granted that I am no better than Münzer on account of doctrine; but Christ will be merciful. But you see to it that he does not go to Magdeburg. Be well and pray earnestly for me. Wednesday after Frohnleichnam. Anno 1525.