The original is in the Anhaltisches Gesammt-Archiv. The postscript II is on a special slip of paper. Handwritten in Oo<1. vsssav. No. 42. There is postscript II as a special letter No. 43. Printed in Aurifaber, Vol. I, p. 221b; in Löscher's Ref.-Acta, Vol. Ill, p. 997; in De Wette, Vol. I, p. 376 (in the prints just shown, postscript I is missing, which is printed in Burkhardt, p. 24) and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, Vol. II, p. 220.
To his dearest [friend] in Christ, Georg Spalatin.
JEsus.
1st Hail! There is nothing, my dear George, that has often been more urgently desired of me by several than what, as you write, the most noble prince desires of me. But of all that I do, I, too, would not ask for anything.
1) The expurMtio oto.
2) De Wette places this letter "after the 8th of December", which is not permissible, since here the wish of the Elector regarding a postilla is indicated first, and Luther already reports to Spalatin on the 7th of November that he had begun work on the postilla. - The time of the Erlangen correspondence is: "between November 1 and 7", which is based for the same on postscript II. On November 1 (see No. 46 of this appendix) Luther had announced the writing against Eck to Spalatin; here it is finished, on November 7 (see No. 47 of this appendix) he sends it to Spalatin, so this letter must fall between November 1 and 7. Then the Erlangen correspondence continues: "But if postscript II does not belong to this letter at all, then it would have to be called "Wohl".
I would rather do this, because I believe that only in this way the priests and clergy could be helped, that they, with the elimination and rejection of the unwashed fables of the chatterers, who banish Christ more than they present him before the eyes, would have something by which they could spread the truthful theology of Christ among the people and dispel the errors, which, as it were, have broken in like a flood of sin. And God wanted the popes to see to it, because that is their office.
But as much as I want to do this, I am afraid that I will not be able to do it, because I am too busy to devote myself to it; or it will be necessary to withdraw something from the public lectures as well as from the sermon, which will be difficult.
because of the words Carolo Miltitio eto. f? 3 at the beginning even further back, put about the end October." - We have a somewhat further conjecture. We are of the opinion that both the letter and postscript II are to be dated October 15. It is striking that Luther, after he had written in detail to Spalatin on October 13 (in this appendix Ro. 37, §§ 1 and 2), that he had not promised Miltitz to travel with him to Trier, here comes back again quite emphatically to the same matter. We assume that Luther was prompted soon after October 13 by the Elector's wish to write the same thing to him, which Luther fulfilled by the letter to the Elector (No. 325 in this volume) of October 15, which, as postscript II shows, was enclosed with our letter to Spalatin. This would at the same time clarify what in postscript II is the matter that Spalatin requested. On October 17, the Elector sent this letter of Luther to Miltitz (No. 326 in this volume) with a very short answer of his own. - The difficulty that would then remain in Nachschrift II due to the writing against Eck could be overcome in this way: Here, Luther's work on the Schrift wider Eck is mentioned, in the letter of Nov. 1 (No. 46 of this appendix) of the printing (it is not the first announcement, as the Erlangen edition thinks), and in the letter of Nov. 7 (No. 47 of this appendix) of the transmission to Spalatin. - Another objection that could be raised: "it cannot be assumed that our letter and No. 5V in this appendix should have been sent to the same person on the same day", is easily settled. We have quite the same case with two letters written to Spalatin on November 7, 1519, of which the original still exists, namely No. 47 in this appendix and Walch, old edition, vol. XXI, 145 (De Wette, vol., I, p. 365). And perhaps this explains the fact that no date was added to our letter. - In any case, from the dedication of the sermons to the Duchess of Brunswick, it can be assumed as certain that our letter is to be placed in the middle of October.
But I will try it and begin; if GOtte likes it, it will continue; I wish to serve him completely in this matter. Farewell and commend me to the prince. I like the very good advice of the worthy Auerbach. 1)
3) I believe that nothing should be answered to Carl Miltitz. As I have written and said, 2) this is how the matter happened, and I cannot speak differently if I do not want to lie. For if he was a riddle speaker against me, who I heard with quite simple ears, then he was such through no fault of my own. Wittenberg, 1519.
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.
(I.) You will wonder how it has come about 3) that I have dedicated my sermons to the Duchess; I too wonder, since I had not yet seen her, but I am with
1) D. Heinrich Stromer from Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate, born in 1482, professor of medicine in Leipzig, personal physician to several princes, including Duke Georg of Saxony and Elector Friedrich, died November 25, 1542.
2) In the letter of October 13, 1519, No. 37 in this appendix.
3) In the Erlangen correspondence: yna torts; whereas Burkhardt, p. 24 reads: Hus, sort. This we have assumed. - The Duchess of Brunswick is Margaretha, a Countess of Rietberg by birth, married to Duke Frederick of Brunswick-Luneburg on Nov. 16, 1483; widowed on March 5, 1495. Luther dedicated three sermons to her, namely "vom Sacrament der Buße" (St. Louis edition, vol. X, 1230), "of the Sacrament of Baptism" (ibid. Col. 2112), and "of the reverend Sacrament of the holy true body of Christ" (St. Louis edition, vol. XIX, 426). These three sermons appeared one after the other; the middle one, according to the final note of the first edition, was finished in print on November 9, 1519, the third one was under press three weeks later; from this the Weimar edition, vol. II, p. 709 concludes: "therefore, for the first one, we must certainly not go back beyond October of the same year". The Weimar edition could have continued: "therefore we can conclude that the first is completed about three weeks before Nov. 9"; but it expresses itself less definitely, because before it in all editions it had been assumed (so also in our edition) that the Sermon of Repentance belonged to the year 1518. Due to the fact that the dedication of the sermons to the duchess is mentioned here, the date assumed by us for this letter receives the greatest probability, and from this, in turn, a more exact determination of the time of the first sermon results than one has had so far. It seems that this one was also sent with our letter, because Luther did not mention it against Spalatin either before or after.
great requests to be at our Otto's 4) will for the so highly praised wife.
(II.) I send the letter to the most illustrious prince 5) about the object you have named, and ask you to give thanks for me for his exceedingly kind care; I am extraordinarily sorry and do not want their graces to be troubled with it. To Eck I have answered nothing but three words, namely that he will become infamous throughout the world as a sophist, not through my fault but through his. I do not want to have anything more to do with this man; he is completely unfaithful and has obviously broken the rights of friendship.