About Miltitzen's arrival, the Augsburg Acts that Luther sent, the Protestation and other of his writings; about the death of the provost at Kemberg and the flourishing of the Wittenberg University. In the postscript, of the mood of the Elector, and that he had intended to suppress the Augsburg Acts.
3) Instead of euu8uo in the editions, as in Cajetan's letter, euusuin will be read.
4) No. 238 in this volume.
5) Johann Lang, District Vicar.
Handwritten in the Ooä. OIoMÜ. Printed in Aurifaber, vol. I, p. 124; in De Wette, vol. I, p. 192; in Löscher's Ref.-Acta, vol. II, p. 641 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. I, p.316.
To the venerable Father Wenceslaus Linken (Sinistro), a right (dextro) theologian, Augustinian ecclesiastics at Nuremberg, his superior to be highly venerated in Christ.
I have written letters to you and still do, dear Father Wenceslaus, but the messengers are so rare, then also so unreliable, that I doubt whether you will receive them; now I have the confidence that I will certainly come to you through this one. The rumor has reached me of three apostolic breves that have been given to Carl Miltitz against me. For M. Caspar has learned this from your letters and has reported it to me through his own messenger out of excessive concern for me. Behold, I send you my [Augsburg] Acta, which have gone out more sharply than the Lord Legate might have expected; but my pen goes pregnant with much greater things. I do not know whence these thoughts come to me: this matter, in my opinion, has not yet had its beginning, so much is lacking in it that the Roman greats could hope for the end. I will send you my little things, so that you may see whether I am right in thinking that the true Antichrist, as Paul depicts him [2 Thess. 2:3 ff.], reigns at the Roman court; that he is worse today than the Turk, I believe I can prove.
2) Our printer has issued 1) my appeal to a concilium to my many and great displeasure; but it has happened. I wanted to keep it printed with me, but God has other thoughts. Those yelpers bark everywhere extraordinarily against me, but they do nothing. I have taken up the Our Father again, 2) in order to publish it in German. I am also sending you other little things of mine, namely the answers 3) to the letter of the Lord Legate, but with the condition that you send all this after you have received it.
1) Johann Grünenberg. - The appellation is No. 243 in this volume.
2) "Interpretation in German of the Lord's Prayer for the Simple Laity." St. Louis edition, vol. VII, 752.
3) Luther's answer No. 238 in this volume; the Elector's answer No. 241.
to the venerable father Vicarius 4). I am expecting my murderers from Rome or somewhere else. I am surprised that it is dragging on with the ban. The provost in Kemberg 5) gave up his spirit in the plague, but in such a calm and gentle death that I have never been so pleased by the death of any man. He spoke and did everything in the most Christian way to his end and desired full of faith and confidence to be dissolved. Praise be to God! M. Bartholomäus Feldkirch, the Rector of our University, has taken his place. There is nothing else new with us. Our university is as busy as the ants. Farewell and greet all who are to be greeted, especially the pastor of the Sebalduskirche 6) and the other magisters, but especially Pirkheimer and Albrecht Dürer, D. Christoph Scheurl. D. Eck writes that my answer against Silvester does not please him everywhere, nor does he dislike it everywhere, but he nevertheless adds a very wise and true word, namely that he knows that his judgment does not count for much with me, because in fact his advice counts for nothing with me. What I am sending to Augsburg, you will, I hope, have taken care of. Farewell again. In a hurry. On the Saturday before the third Sunday of Advent [Dec. 11] 1518.
At first, the prince would have preferred that I not be in the place; afterwards, he definitely wanted me to stay. What he thinks now, after the Acta and the appeal have been issued, I do not know. For he delayed for a long time that they should not be published; but even since they were already printed, he wanted them to be suppressed, which could not happen even through my doing. He is now holding a meeting in Jena because of the answer to be given to the legate about the money against the Turk. I do not know whether it is good that you communicate the appeal to many, although it is widespread among us.
4) Staupitz.
5) According to Lingke, Reisegeschichte Luthers, p. 87, the provost was called Ziegelheim von Spremberg.
6) Johann Herholt (Seidemann-De Wette, Vol. VI, p. 667 s. v.). - "The other Magister" was Georg Pesler (Burkhardt, Briefw., p. 500), not Hector Böhm [Böhmer], as Seidemann 1. o. p.646 states.