Dear Mayor! Since the abuse in the churchyard is becoming more and more frequent, that everyone lays, leads, places, and does his own bidding in it, so that the dear dead, who have been baptized in Christ and are alive and waiting for the resurrection in your churchyard, may not be considered much more than if they were resting and sleeping in their beds (as Isaiah Cap. 26), is not much more respected than if they were lying on a shingle, or not far from the gallows: my request is that, since such other abuses are removed, and the dead, many of whom have undoubtedly fallen asleep in Christ, be given a little greater honor and respect.
Let rest be granted. For we cannot dig them all up and put them away, so that we might give way to such abuse; we would do so, too, if it were possible. Otherwise it seems as if we think nothing of the dead nor of the resurrection of the dead.
The brewing pans, as before from time immemorial, we may well suffer for safety's sake. On the other hand, it is too much that even the carpenters do not respect a sermon, even bang and bang with their stuff, that no word in the sermon should be heard, thinking it is more necessary and cheaper to hear a carpenter's axe than God's word. Anno 1539.
*) This letter is found in the Wittenberg edition (1559), vol. XII, p. 207b; in the Jena edition (1568), vol. VII, p. 371 b; in the Altenburg edition, vol. VII, p. 400; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXI, p. 340; in the Erlangen edition, vol. 55, p. 268 and in De Wette, vol. 5, p. 250. According to the latter we give the text.
792 Erl. 64, 348-350. Luther's description of court life. W. XIV, 1363 f. 793