October 17, 1532.
Grace and peace in Christ JEsu! Most Serene, Highborn Prince, Most Gracious Lord. M. Spalatinus has written to me with almost great distress how the verdict on the Virgin of Altenburg and her parents and friendship has gone so sharply that I myself do not yet believe that E. C. F. G. at the beginning of the regiment should act so quickly with the old respectable people, expel them from house and court, deprive them of all goods and put them in prison etc., and must think that D. C. (Chancellor Christian Baier) has obtained such or has carried it out himself. As for all of this, my humble request to E. C. F. G. is also due to M. Spalatinus, who is highly displeased about such speed.
E. C. F. G. wanted to provide a gracious mitigation in this. The matter is not so great that one should grieve so hard and so many people. Nor is it the only right, much less the eternal right, that exists in D. C. books or head, and would probably have enough beams to pull out otherwise, that it would be without need to praise his sharp rights, that I may call it so, with the poor splinter. E. C. F. G. will probably know how to graciously keep this in mind. God be with E. C. F. G. always, Amen. Thursday after St. Galli, 1532.
E. C. F. G.
subservient
Martinus Luther.