To Joseph Levin Metzsch at Mila. March 12, 1520.
Grace and peace in Christ to Joseph Levin Metzsch of Mila, my favorable, good master and friend.
Strict, firm, dear lord and friend! That you are moved, whether money debt, so on heirs
is also a cross, put on by God, you can well think that all distempers, so that God chastises His children, are something of the holy cross. Because guilt or need or poverty are not a
low distemper (is for him) who does not know how to carry it, it is without doubt also a noticeable particle of the holy cross*) in children of God who can carry it and use it.
*) In the Roman church, in many places of pilgrimage, small pieces of wood are displayed in a golden and richly decorated so-called monstrance, which on certain days are exposed to the people, who flock far and wide for this purpose, with great pomp and solemnity for religious worship. These are supposed to be particles, that is, parts of the true cross of Christ. Luther alludes to this superstitious worship here.
D. Red.
However, like all other distempers of the dear Father, it should not frighten the conscience as a serious disgrace, but comfort and strengthen it as a fatherly rod or fox's tail. For even though one does not come into such guilt willingly or out of carelessness, or inherits with innocence, it is nevertheless decreed by God and such a rod is bound by the same carelessness and willfulness. Hereby commanded by God, Amen.
March 12, 1520.
Martinus Luther.