Congratulations on Längs' upcoming graduation; Luther reports that Eck is provoking him to serious argument against Rome, and asks for the dismissal of a Father Matthew.
Handwritten in Ooä. Ootttan. 399, tot. 127. printed in Aurifaber, vol. I, p. 141 d; in Löscher's Ref.Acta, vol. Ill, p. 958; in De Wette, vol. I, p. 217 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. I, p. 410.
To the venerable Father Johann Lang, middle vicar of the Augustinian hermits, the newly appointed Doctor 3) of Theology, his friend in Christ.
JEsus.
Hail! All the honors the Lord has bestowed on you, we wish you happiness, as if they were also bestowed on us. Venerable
3) Both De Wette and the Erlangen correspondence say (probably on the basis of the "Doctori" in the salutation) that this was a congratulation on Längs' promotion to the theological doctorate, but we are of the opinion that Luther, as in the letter of June 4, 1518 (De Wette 1,124; Walch XXI, 595), used the title Lscras Dttsoloxias closiZnato Doctori also
Father, [Ps. 45:5, Vulg.] "go blessedly forth with thy jewels, and thou shalt prosper"; 1) I will not come.
Our corner is waging new wars against me, and it will happen that I will do what I have long thought, if Christ is gracious, that is, that I will finally start a serious book against the Roman serpent breed. For up to now I have only played and joked with the Roman cause, although they lament extraordinarily as over an unbearable seriousness.
By the way, I ask you to see to it that you remove Matthew, 2) this aged father. For one must spare old age, and his willing obedience must be respected; also it is neither an honor nor proper before God nor before men to leave him in such misery; but in such a way that you first provide us with another in his place, who is to be appointed there as pastor. If you heard me, such a parish should be filled with a (so-called) secular priest. Farewell. On the day of Blasius [February 3] 1519.
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.
No. 44.
Luther to Johann Lang.
Luther asks Lang to send the teacher of the Hebrew language recommended by him in Böschenstein's place. Information about the Leidiger Disputation, which the
Luther jokingly used this word here, since it was about the promotion of the licentiate Lang to Magister. Still on December 13, 1518 (No. 23 in this appendix) Luther wrote to Staupitz that the Erfurt fathers did not want to let the licentiate Lang get the master's degree, and now, two months later, he should have been promoted to doctor? This could not be done by skipping the master's degree. Moreover, in all later letters in which the titles are given, Lang is referred to as Laoras UreoIoZias MKFr'sFe-*, never as 8th D. so e.g. in No. 44 of this appendix. - Erhard, Ueberlief. z. vaterl. Gesch. I, 31, says (as the Erlanger Briefwechsel, Vol. II, p. 13, Note 2 indicates) that the doctoral graduation took place on February 24, 1519; but this source is not reliable, because according to it, the Erlanger Briefwechsel (Vol. IV, p. 138) has transferred his No. 655 to the year 1523, which, as later corrected, belongs to the year 1528.
1) How Luther wants these words: xrospsrs prossäs st to be understood in the Vulgate, see St. Louiser Ausg., Vol. V, 368.
2) Compare No. 44, § 7 in this appendix.
Theologians at Leipzig try to prevent. From letters received. Luther sends him some of his own writings, some from others, and warns him of two sermons published without his consent 2c.
Printed in Aurifaber, vol. I, p. 161; in Löscher's Ref.- Acta, vol. Ill, p. 968 (with wrong resolution of the date); in De Wette, vol. I, p. 253 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. II, p. 9.
To the venerable and highly esteemed Father Johann Lang, Master of Sacred Theology, middle Augustinian Vicar of the Hermit Congregation (Eremitarum familiae Vicario Augustiniano medio), his superior in the Lord, his highly esteemed friend.
JEsus.
Hail! I rejoice and wish you happiness, venerable Father, that you too are one of those in whom the cross of Christ is effective; be a strong man! 3) We thank you for your gifts. By the way, you know why I didn't come to your pomp 4). Our silence is not so much to blame as the nature of the road, by which it comes that we either rarely or never have anyone who goes from here to you.
This Hebrew of yours, whom you recommend, you want to induce to go to us and, I ask you, to put everything you can into it, and all the more so, since our Böschenstein, 5) who is a Christian by name, but in fact an arch-Jew, has gone away to the disgrace of our university, and you also owe something to our university. 6)
3) Oviä. LlstÄlli. 9, 272; 15, 846.
4) the promotion, which is said to have taken place on February 24.
5) Johann Böschenstein from Esslingen, born 1472, died 1532, came from Ingolstadt to Wittenberg at the end of October or beginning of November 1518 (inscribed between Nov. 2 and 5, ^.Ib. x. 77) as the first Hebrew professor, but, as we see here, left again at the beginning of April 1519. (Cf. No. 16, § 8 in this appendix.) He then went to Heidelberg, but remained there only a short time. Later he was Zwingli's teacher in Hebrew in Zurich. In a special writing, he defended himself against the accusation that he came from a Jewish family and not from born Christians, and says of his family that it is a very old family of the town of Stein am Rhein, below Costenz, where his father's brothers still lived as fishermen.
6) Lang was inscribed in Wittenberg in late summer 1511 and remained there until May 1515. Kolde, ^vaIseta, p. 4.
We will see to it that he is honestly preserved in Christ and that he is in a proper position here; not only because we all have to care for one who is still young (recentem) in Christ all the more carefully, but it should also be our task that a sufficient salary is procured for him.
Eck has indicated that our disputation will take place on June 27, but it will be between me and him, as you will see from this disputation slip. For Carlstadt will not fight with him about these theses, both because they are mine and because the deceitful sophist has brought these things from the pope 2c. on the track, so that he would bring him by them either into the danger of having offended the pope (which is an unbearable misfortune for those endowed with benefices 1) or to bring down the one deterred by such a danger without war and without victory.
He will, however, argue about the other things, which say nothing about the authority of the pope or the indulgence. For the exceedingly godless people have left us only these things, against which a Christian man could sin, while they meanwhile sully God's commandments in the most abominable way. But everyone fears for me that I will come off very badly with the twelfth thesis; but I, although I do not expect to be able to catch the extremely slippery sophist, who is also an extraordinary screamer and boaster, will nevertheless, with Christ's help, uphold what is mine. For this reason it [the twelfth, later the thirteenth Theses] is placed in such a way that I would have the opportunity to finally draw out into the open the inanities (nugas) of the completely inconsistent and godless Decretals, with which we Christians are frightened in vain, since they are full of lies, which are advertised under the name of the Roman Church. Christ will strip them of their larvae and, as it was said in Job (Cap. 41, 4. Vulg.] He will remove the covering from his face and reach into the middle of his mouth.
1) Carlstadt was canon of the collegiate church in Wittenberg, which was under direct papal jurisdiction.
But the theologians of Leipzig and at the same time the bishop of Merseburg have made and are still making extraordinary efforts to prevent the disputation from taking place, and they would almost have turned the prince away from it if he had not, fortified by the word of our prince, finally acted in a commanding manner. 2) The university has answered and promised me. The prince writes that he will admit me as soon as he has been informed by me that Eck also wants to fight with me, and now it is being done that this will happen. For he believes that Carlstadt alone will fight with him.
In the meantime, the theologians are belittling me, especially that bull, ox and donkey, 3) who does not belong to those who know their Lord [Isa. 1:3], but is one who eats chaff 4). They cry out to the people of Leipzig that they should not adhere to the new heresies, by which they perhaps intend that, when the hatred of the people is aroused and the fear of the pope is created, we might still be excluded. It is reported that Tetzel, when he heard that the disputation was going to take place, said: "This is the devil's work!
7) Eberhard Brisger has received ten guilders. We are doing well here, only that we are in a bad way as long as we have no other pastor in Dabrun 5). Discord has arisen between Father Matthew and Günther Staupitz.
8 Cajetan has written anew about me to our most noble prince; before inconsistencies, now follies, and it pleases me well that these very coarse Italian follies are also revealed to the layman.
2) Cf. Duke George's letter to the Bishop of Merseburg, No. 370 in this volume. - The letter of the university to Luther is missing.
3) D. Ochsenfart, or Dungersheim of Ochsenfurt.
4s That is, the Decrees of Gratian, which have the superscription palea (chaff). Cf. St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 247,754 and 757.
5) Dabrun, a village on the left bank of the Elbe, 3/4 German miles southeast of Wittenberg. There, Günther von Staupitz, brother of the vicar Johann Staupitz, sold the Augustinian monastery at Wittenberg 124 gulden of Rhenish interest on the village of Dabrun 2c. for 2400 gulden. Because of this interest purchase the monastery was in dispute with him for a long time. - The "father Matthew" will be the same who was mentioned in No. 43 of this appendix (cf. Seidemann - De Wette, Vol. VI, p. 679).
9) Frobenius has written to me in Basel, who praises my frankness extraordinarily. But also from Paris, friends have written to him that many people there like my things and that they are read by those in the Sorbonne, that is the theologians. In addition, he has distributed all copies to Italy, Spain, England, France and Brabant. He sent two volumes to me and Carlstadt as a gift. Another, a certain learned priest at Ettlingen, 2) and another, even more learned, but without giving his name, also write. In this I rejoice that the truth, which speaks so clumsily and unlearned, pleases so much.
I also send Carlstadt's chariot, 3) which illustrates the foolishness of the theologians, and against which they raged extraordinarily in Leipzig: one tears it apart publicly with his hands in the pulpit, the other inquires of the young people in confession whether they have laughed at the chariot, or whether they possess Martinus' writings. Those who confess, they punish quite badly, as Andreas Camitianus 4) writes to me. See the darkness, see the nonsense! These are theologians!
(11) I believe that my beginning came to you through the Psalter (5); now I am doing it.
1) Here is an anacoluth in Latin. Luther begins with the plural 8erip86runt, since he wants to say of three scribes, but continues afterwards in the singular: Lerikit 6t a1iu8 2c.
2) Caspar Hedio. The letter is missing; also that of the anonymous scribe.
3) See No. 355 in this volume.
4) M. Andreas Frank, from Camenz, professor in Leipzig.
5) "Luthers Arbeiten über die ersten 22 Psalmen," St. Louis edition, vol. IV, 198. Melanchthon had sent a part of it to Lang on April 3 (Oorp. ILsk. I, sp. 76). - Now in this little paragraph are two difficulties. Regarding the words: ouo tuuru 6orriM8, the Erlangen correspondence says: "What Luther means here by the Correctur, I do not know to explain." And Waldau, "Nachricht von Hieron. Emsers Leben und Schriften," says p. 12: "He writes in a letter made on Thursdays after Judica to Georg Spalatin ssollte Joh. Lang heißen^: Lcis, yuoä Drussr nv8t6r, stiam ckuM rseta kormat, errat; which words I admittedly do not fully understand." These difficulties might be solved as follows: Instead of Lm8er, Kawerau has set up the acceptable conjecture that erni88or (editor) or 6x6"8or (printer) should be read. The printer was Johannes Grünenberg. He issued the sheets individually, and with this type of publication, many errors may have occurred. So it is obvious to understand the eorrissere of the Aufbefsern, the supplementing of the copy.
another copy, through which you can improve yours. You know that our editor, even if he prints correct things, makes mistakes.
I am sending you the grammar of Moses Kimchi until you can get another one; this one is sent to me by Anshelm Thomas 6) as a gift. I am issuing the interpretations of the Epistle to the Galatians at once; they are to be printed at Leipzig. 7) If two sermons should come into your hands, one in Latin, the other in German, on two kinds of righteousness and on marital status, 8) do your duty: they have been copied from me and published without my knowledge, but quite erroneously and in an inconsistent manner both compiled and printed; this is a disgrace to me. I am also sending the revised Lord's Prayer. 9) Philip will send other things. 10) I believe that you have seen the new Methodus or "the way of theology" (Rationem theologiae) 11) of Erasmus; I wish that he had not finished it so easily.
Have you seen, for example, in my writings against Silvester published in Basel, that they have written, more with diligence than by mistake, at the beginning: magirum [cook] instead of magistrum palatii, then also other printing errors in the margin, pure mockeries? We are told that the Car-
6) Thomas Anshelm from Baden had printed the Hebrew grammar of Moses Kimchi (who lived in Provence in the first half of the 13th century) at Hagenau in January 1519 and dedicated it to the Elector of Saxony, Frederick.
7) Melchior Lotther in Leipzig was the printer.
8) The former sermon is found in the form reworked by Luther, Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. X, 1262; the latter in the corrupted form there Col. 630; changed and improved by Luther Col. 638. Both sermons, although perhaps already delivered in 1518, were printed only in 1519 in February or March by Wolfgang Stöcke! in Leipzig.
9) "Luther's Interpretation in German of the Lord's Prayer for the Simple Laity," St. Louis Edition, Vol. VII, 752. Compare also the note there.
10) In Latin only: Oaetera?dilippu8, to which the Erlangen correspondence makes the remark: "This letter of Melanchthon is missing." We doubt that the quoted words are about a letter. It seems to us to be closer that mitto in the preceding sentence is supplemented by mittet.
11) The title of the writing is: Latio 86u M6tko<tu8 eonapsnäio porvonioncii a<1 veram ttieoloAiam; Panzer, VI, 212, Xo. 277.
dinal Cajetan had been imprisoned at Mainz by the Spanish envoys of Carl, because he had made all possible efforts for the party of the King of France. 1) We wrote to Erasmus, Philip and I. 2) See, there you have everything you wanted. The venerable father Vicar 3) has forgotten ours, so he does not write anything. Kindly greet the venerable father M. Usingen, likewise also M. Johann Nathin, and I cordially commend myself to the brothers, whom I also greet all.
Finally, I remind you again about Hebrews, so that we may help the excellent young people who do theology in the best way and have extraordinary zeal for right sciences. Be well, and, Christ willing, may your leg also be healed. Wittenberg, Thursday after Judica [April 13] 1519.
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.
Furthermore, you will not refrain from reminding our highly learned and dearly beloved Jonas of me and assuring him of my love. So also D. Ludwig Melsingen and all my acquaintances.