Luther sends the interpretation of the Epistle to the Galatians, writes about the forthcoming discussion with Miltitz; also about religious affairs; about the two letters from Bohemia; about Melanchthon's theses; about Erasmus's judgment of him and Eck; about the hatred of the bishop of Brandenburg; about Staupitz's coldness toward him; about a Franciscan chapter in Wittenberg that is hostile to him; about Fontinus's disputation; about a dream concerning Staupitz.
1) This refers to "Luther's work on the first 22 Psalms" (operatioQ68 in psalmos), which appeared in pieces, and of which Melanchthon had already sent a part to Lang on April 3, 1519 (6orp. UsL., I, 76). See St. Louis edition, vol. IV, 198 ff. and the note there.
2) Perhaps the bearer of the letter.
3) "Luthers Erläuterungen über seine zu Leipzig disputirten Thesen," St. Louis Edition, Vol. XVIII, 820.
4) This is the writing: "Luthers Vertheidigung wider das böswillige Urtheil des Johann Eck" etc. St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 1370. - The specification thirteen (XIII) articles is erroneous, perhaps through the fault of the copyists; there were fourteen articles of the Franciscans, to which Eck then added a fifteenth. Luther mentions and refutes fifteen articles in his writing.
Printed in Aurifaber, vol. I, p. 209; in Löscher's Ref.Acta, vol. Ill, p. 983; in De Wette, vol. I, p. 340 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. II, p. 182.
To the venerable and extremely valuable Father Johann Staupitz, Vicar of the Hermits of St. Augustine, his patron and superior to be highly venerated in Christ.
Jesus.
1. Hail! I send, venerable father, two copies of my incomprehensible Galatians. 5) They no longer please me as they first pleased me, so that I see they could have been interpreted more broadly and clearly. But who can do everything at the same time? yes, who can always do many things? But I have confidence that this Paul is clearer than others have made it before, even though it does not satisfy my taste. The Psalter is progressing, 6) only that I am annoyed by the slow printer. Our prince, who has recovered, is staying at Lochau.
Carl Miltitz has ordered me to Liebenwerda next Sunday [Oct. 9] with the Prince's permission in an extremely friendly (I know the fox) letter. 7) I do not know what will happen. He finally handed over the rose in Altenburg in the absence of the Prince, which he had intended to bring to Wittenberg, I do not know with how much pomp.
We have not yet seen anything of the meeting in Erfurt 8) except for the obedience of the lay brother Peter, whom our prior has not yet dismissed because he expects another in his place, not believing that you respect this meeting less than the one in Dresden. Brother Matthias Grüner has also come and become our procurator. I do not yet see what you want to have done with the books that you left with me, and I am very surprised about that.
3. I wanted more brothers to be sent to us, and capable ones at that. There have been
5) St. Louis edition, vol. VIII, 1352,
6) Luther's "Works on the Psalms," St. Louis edition, vol. IV, 198. The "slow printer" is Joh. Grünenberg.
7) No. 316 in this volume.
8) Nothing else is known about this convention.
Both priors in the Netherlands, Jacob and Henry, 1) wrote to me in an exceedingly lamenting and quite hopeless manner that nothing is happening through their vicar. But they say that they want to send brothers, even come themselves; but it will not happen, since the letters are written in the Easter season and they are not yet there.
In this hour I have received letters from Prague in Bohemia from two priests of the Utraquist party, who are quite learned in the Holy Scriptures, together with a booklet by John Hus, 2) which I have not yet read. But they exhort me to constancy and patience; that is the pure theology which I teach. They follow the manner of Erasmus (Erasmisant) quite extraordinarily, both in meaning and in writing. The letters, however, came to me through the court of our prince, in that Spalatin sent them to me, and there it is no longer hidden.
5) You have seen or now see Melanchthon's somewhat bold but quite true theses 3). He answered in such a way that he was to us all what he is, namely a miracle. If Christ will, he will replace many people like Martin (multos Martinos), as an exceedingly powerful feiud of the devil and of scholastic theology, because he knows equally the inanities of those people and the rock of Christ; therefore, as a strong one, he will be able to do much. Amen.
Letters have come from France in which it is written that Erasmus 4) said: I fear that Martin will perish by his righteousness; but of Eck.
1) Jakob Probst, prior in Antwerp, and Heinrich von Zütphen, prior in Dordrecht. It was a matter of appropriate measures in the sense of the Reformation, to which the Vicar Johann von Mecheln (also called Johann von Osbach) did not offer his hand.
2) The two letters have been included in No. 422 and 423 in this volume. The book of Hussens is 6s Vedssia.
3) Reprinted in Krafft's "Briefe und Documente aus der Zeit der Reformation", p. 6. Melanchthon had put forward the theses for the attainment of the lowest theological dignity, namely the degree of a daeoalaursns tUboiobiae kidlieus. The disputation took place in September 1519 under the decanate of Petrus Fontinus (not Fontanus, as Krafft writes).
4) In Walch's old edition: "Emser.
that he had robbed his name of one letter, namely that instead of Eck one should say Jeck. But Jeck means a fool among the Dutch. So much does Christ fight against the vain honor that the one whom the Leipzigers worship and call Eck, all scholars, as they write, detest extraordinarily and call him Jeck.
7 My bishop of Brandenburg is pregnant with a monster, the good man, and like Moab, he misses greater things than he is able [Isa. 16:6]. He is said to have said that he would not let his head rest gently, because he had previously thrown Martin into the fire like this firebrand, which (while saying this) he threw into the fire at the same time. But this is how Eck's windmaking blows up this miserable bubble.
8 But this from others. What do you want in relation to me? You trust me too much. I have been exceedingly grieved for thee this day, as a weaned man for his mother [Ps. 131, 2. Vulg.]. I beg you to praise the Lord even in me, a poor sinner. I hate the exceedingly poor life, I detest death, and I am empty of faith, full of other gifts; Christ knows how much I do not desire them if I cannot serve him.
(9) The Minorites discuss with us in the assembled chapter about the marks of St. Francis and the glory of their order, but with such happiness that we, who before revered both, now begin to doubt both about those marks and about the nature of this order. Both have been found to be more like lies than truth; the same thing has happened to them, since they exalted those things too much, as happened to the preaching monks who exalted St. Thomas too much.
(10) They were led to these disputations by envy against this Martinus, who had spread the rumor that I had preached against those wounds. Therefore they thought to have gained an occasion against me and hoped to make something difficult for me. And I am indeed happy, since all of them are so eager to attack me that they also begin to invent doctrines which they would like to deny as mine; but it does not do any good.
I am sorry that they are making such a mockery of their entire Order without cause.
It was an Erfurtian who disputed this, namely the one who attained the master's degree at the same time as our Lange. Tomorrow, Peter Fontinus 1) will debate, who attacks me and all of us as bad scholars and smart alecks, and has stated that one must thoughtlessly repeat the most distinguished fathers. We will see great miracles from these Minorite workers. Thus these ignorant people excite great sorrows without cause. But behold! their Baccalaureus Jakobs, 2) who answered today for the bystanders (pro cironlo), surpasses those two Magistri nostri, because he was modest and put the theses right. He is from Zwickau, educated here in Wittenberg, at the same time pious and a good head. Thus God humbles the worthy and exalts the lowly.
(12) That night I had a dream about you, as if you wanted to leave me, but I was crying bitterly and suffering; but you waved your hand at me and told me to be quiet, that you would return to me; this is certainly true and has just happened this day. But now be well, and pray for me poorest. The day before St. Francis [October 3], in the evening. 1519.
Brother Martin Luther.
No. 37
Luther to Spalatin.
Luther says that he did not promise Miltitz the trip to Trier, but only his willingness to accept the bishop of Trier as arbitrator. What one chooses from Miltitz in Rome. About the writings of some opponents. Apology for his quick departure at a banquet. About the plague in various regions. Finally, he urges that his and Carlstadt's answer to the Elector be sent to Eck.
The original of this letter is in the Ge" sammt-Archiv of Anhalt. Printed in Aurifaber, Vol. I, p. 211k; in Löscher's Ref.-Acta, Vol. Ill, p. 985; in De Wette, Vol. 344 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, Vol. II,
1) Franciscans from Borna.
2) Jakob Fuhrer from Zwickau.
To the servant of Christ Georg Spalatin, secretary and court preacher of the Elector of Saxony, his friend in the Lord.
Jesus.
1st Hail! Not only have I not spoken a word about it, but I have never even had the thought, my dear Spalatin, that I wanted to travel with Carl to Trier; I wonder at the impudence or even forgetfulness of this man, since I have hardly admitted to him that I wanted to come to Liebenwerda; how can it be likely that I should promise such a journey, and with him as a traveling companion? Therefore, you will not doubt that I have promised nothing else than that I, according to our prince's order and advice (whose name and actions with the bishop of Trier I asserted for his sake), insisted on the promise and agreement, according to which we had united at Altenburg on the bishop of Trier as judge in this matter; the judge, I say, has only been mentioned, nothing is said about the journey.
Add to this the fact that the same Carl said that he would not travel to Trier on this trip, but to Rome as soon as possible, and that he had already arranged the mission he had from Rome. Yes, I suspected that he had no other reason for wanting to talk to me again in a personal meeting about a matter that had been agreed upon long ago than so that he would have something to boast about his diligence when he returned to Rome, namely that he had not only dealt with me personally once, but had tried everything he could.
3) But I believe that he, since he is deceived in his hope, pretends such trivial things out of fear of conscience, or gossips after his own fashion. For yesterday at the midday meal, a certain doctor, the provost of Collerburg, 3) a Pomeranian, who, having come from Rome, dined with me at the Prince of Pomerania, 4) our rector, described him as such a person, and he said, "I do not believe him.
3) Löscher has next to OoUsrkui^snsis in brackets": OoIkerAkllsis, with which probably the right thing will be hit.
4) Duke Barnim.
told that he was taken for I don't know what in Rome. For he had boasted there because of his affinity with the dukes of Saxony 1), so that he was called everywhere by the Italians de parente Duce Saxoniae (that is, by the kinship [parentela] of the dukes of Saxony), and many other ridiculous and vain things. In short, he is a miserable man who has been made a fool of everywhere there, and should be made a fool of here as well.
4. The same doctor reported that when he was to deliver the rose, an apostolic breve was handed over to him in which he was ordered to hand over the rose to the prince in such a way that he should send Martin against it, and it would have happened this way if a certain sensible cardinal had not intervened, who, after reading the breve, said with great vehemence: "Are you all children or nonsensical that you dare to buy the monk from the prince? and immediately he tore the breve with his own hands.
5 My Silvester Prierias is silent (as he reports), but another, Cyprian, a brother of Paris, 2) writes against me by order of the pope, but unwillingly. For he reports that he said (to use his words): The pope wants me to write, but I do not like to do it at all; that brother is rich in words (verbosus), he will not be silent. My dialogue 3) is hard for them, and well known in Rome.
I have not yet received a letter from the University of Leipzig, but I have found anew the follies of that man, Rubeus Longipolitanus, in the German language, who makes stupidities about my name (crassantis). It is to be marveled how
1) Henry the Illustrious, died Jan. 14, 1300, had in third marriage a von Maltitz, who has also been taken for a Miltitz (Seidemann, "Miltitz", p. 18).
2) The Dominican Oiprinno Lsnsti, who, born in Arragon, is called here kurrlüsiknsis, because he had become a master in Paris. He is mentioned in Huetit st Lekarä, Keriptorr. orä. krasäieut., 1. II, 49, but among his writings none is listed against Luther from this time. Compare St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, introduction, p. 19 d.
3) St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 344.
very it, the Leipzigers are delighted to blow out their poison through this flute, which fits very well for them. How fearfully envy seeks causes to revile, but I still despise everything.
7 I beg your pardon for my very quick departure. For I did it because I know that the name of the monks has an evil reputation at court and with the pots (propter aulos et ollas); 4) then, because I did not want to be an annoyance to the man of whom I told you, whom I believed to be a burdensome and annoying table companion. You know how, because of one man, one must also refrain from many things that are permitted [1 Cor. 8:13]. You also see how sharply the Leipzigers observe me. Now if the latter secretly wrote to his Leipzigers that I had been merry and frivolous, had even played dice with our Pistor, and they seized the opportunity and compared my life with the word whose proclamation through me they hate, then this would, through my instigation, cause an obstacle to the gospel of Christ. For what should they not write, who through the Rubeus chatter that in Leipzig I carried in my hand a plaited and bound wreath to smell and look at it? they would rather say that I carried it on my head, if they could dare. I cannot be careful enough of all things, nor do I want to be; but I will give way to weakness and spite as much as I can. I have therefore hurried away out of no contempt, but out of fear of offence.
8. a cruel plague is raging in Switzerland, so that it has killed 16,000 men, not including children and women. This was reported by the same doctor, the provost, who told the above. In Kreuzberg 5) she carried off eighteen nuns together with their provost; in Sangerhausen eight brothers together with their prior. It is said that she also rages in Nuremberg and almost everywhere. Thus it is written to us from our places. The father vicarius 6) came to Nuremberg healthy on September 24 and from there to Munich.
4) That is, they are unmannerly and gluttonous.
5) Kreuzberg, a quarter of an hour below Vacha on the Werra, where there was an Augustinian nunnery.
6) Staupitz.
9th Now I also begin to wish and ask that what we have answered our prince be sent to Eck. 1) The latter wrote to the pope and boasted of his honor that he had overcome both of us at Leipzig and left us dejected. The man, who is entirely boastful, glorious, boastful and boastful, has even dared to demand reimbursement of his expenses from the pope in this matter. This was told by the above doctor, the provost. Farewell. In the greatest haste. On the fifth day [Thursday] after Dionysii [October 13] 1519.
Brother Martin Luther.
No. 38.
Luther to Spalatin.
Of Staupitzen's intended resignation from office at the next Augustinian chapter. About Matthew Adrian, who cost Luther and Melanchthon a lot of money. About the sermon on good works.
The original of this letter is in the Anhaltisches Gesammt- Archiv. Printed in Aurifaber, Vol. I, p. 265; in De Wette, Vol. I, p. 446 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, Vol. II, p. 399.
To the good and learned man, Magister Georg Spalatin, princely court preacher, his friend in the Lord.
Jesus.
1st Hail! I am sending a letter, as you wished, but a short one, as the content is short. I also send the letter of Wilhelm, 2) the treasurer of the Count of Stolberg, who recently visited me here with his father, brother and friends.
Our vicar has scheduled our chapter earlier 3) and will come to Eisleben on the feast of Augustine [Aug. 28] and there, as they say, lay down the burden of his office.
Adrian does not have a house yet, and we are constantly plagued. But listen! I almost passed over it: remember that you are helping me with two or three gold florins.
1) No. 416 in this volume. However, the letter had already been sent on Oct. 12.
2) Tire stone.
3) It should actually have taken place in 1521.
For I put up a lot with Adrian; or should Philip and I alone spend our money in guest affairs? since we are poor, but others do not care about him, as it were. So they do not visit him, which displeases me, for that is somewhat ruder than is proper. Yes, if I could, I would also reclaim from you the loss of time, which is most burdensome to both of us. May the Lord grant that he will soon have a house, although the good man very often stays in Luca's pharmacy, for fear of making things difficult for us.
I lose a lot of time by inviting people all over the city. I don't know which Satan arranges this, that I must not refuse it, and yet brings me harm if I do. - The Sermon of Good Works grows to a not small book, even twice as big as the Tessaradecas. 5) Farewell. May 5, 1520.
Martin Luther, Augustinian.
No. 39.
Luther to Spalatin.
The original of this letter is in the Ge" sammt-Archw. Printed in Aurifaber, vol. I, p. 280b; in De Wette, vol. I, p. 483 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. II, p.472.
To the worthy man, Magister Georg Spalatin etc., his patron in Christ.
Jesus.
Hail! Above all, my dear Spalatin, see to it that you give thanks for me to the most noble prince, who fattened me with venison, although I am a monk. By the way, the venerable Father Staupitz will come today and with him his new successor M. Wenceslaus. For yesterday the
4) Lucas Cranach had a pharmacy; D. Basilius Axt was according to the letter to Brismann on August 24, 1531 5) This is: "Tröstliches Büchlein in aller Widerwärtigkeit" etc., Walch, St. Louiser Ausgabe, Bd, X, 1816 ff.
Ours returned. 1) Carl Miltitz wrote this letter 2) to me; he also gave a speech at the public meeting of the fathers, which was delivered with Italian pronunciation 3) and asked for advice on how to dampen me. For he sees that he brought the rose in vain, which he also indicated with words, however darkly. The fathers are said to have answered that they had nothing to do with me and knew no advice. But we will hear more about that today. The counts have kept him quite splendidly.
I am sending the letter from Antwerp, which is written by the prior of 4) this place, so that you may see what is being done in relation to me. Our Lang (about which I wonder) is to be prior at Dresden, 5) Melchior Mirisch [is to be prior] at Ghent; I do not know whether they have been driven by the spirit of fortitude, so much are all things in confusion with the new government of the new vicar. I believe that you will have received the letters from the father Jakob Vogt 6). Farewell. The first of September 1520.
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.