Luther apologizes for the announcement of the appeal and the Augsburg Acts, which the printer had issued in sheets without his prior knowledge. His joy about the answer of the Elector to Cajetan.
The original of this letter is in the Anhaltisches GesammtArchiv. Printed in Aurifaber, Vol. I, p. 125; in Löscher's Ref.-Acta, Vol. II, p. 644; in De Wette, Vol. I, p. 197 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, Vol. I, p. 323.
To his highly learned and best friend Georg Spalatin, Christ's servant, his master.
JEsus.
Hail! Neither my advice nor yours has gone through, my dear Spalatin. For I, too, ordered that the appeal be printed, but made an agreement with the bookseller that he should not issue any at all, but lay them all down with me after he had received his payment from me, so that, wherever the expected furies of the Roman judgment would come, they would then be ready and ready to be distributed after I had escaped. But the good man, who was anxious for his profit, had, while I expected him to bring them, sold almost all of them beforehand, and I then learned as the last of all that they had been published. I was very displeased with him, but it had happened and I could not undo it. Similarly, the acts were finished except for the last sheet (quaternionem ----- Quaterne) when your first ban arrived, and issued into many people's hands (so much do they chase after it when I publish something that takes up even one page); then I could not hold back the last sheet, since the previous ones had been distributed. Otherwise, don't doubt it, I would have preferred your advice and would have been safe, as I did before (as you know). Now I am all the more sorry for the publication of both writings, after I have seen this excellent letter from our most noble Prince to the venerable Lord Legate 1). Dear God, with what joy I have read it and again I have read it.
1) No. 241 in this volume.
I read it with the realization of how full of joyful defiance it is, and yet seasoned with extraordinary modesty. I fear that the Italians do not sufficiently recognize what is behind it. For it is a kind of people who, both in things and in writings, focus their attention on outward appearance and prestige. But at least they will see that they have not yet begun anything of what they thought they had already finished. It is impossible that they will not completely dislike him. Therefore, for the sake of the Lord, I ask you to give me the best interpretation of the outgoing of the last writings, which is also very unpleasant for me, and then also to thank the most noble prince for me and to praise him in an appropriate way for my extremely happy gratitude. It is excellent that he, who recently was my equal, a mendicant monk, now [but] is not afraid to approach even the most powerful princes without all reverence, to address them, to threaten them, to command them, 2) because it is also late that also the worldly power is from God, and that its honor must not be trampled underfoot, especially by such a man, who has received his power only from men. It pleases me extraordinarily that the prince has shown such an exceedingly patient and wise impatience in this matter. May the Lord in mercy make all this, whatever it is, His own and acknowledge it as such. Amen. Farewell and greet all our friends at court. Wittenberg, the day before St. Thomas [20 December] 1518.
Martin Luther, Augustinian.