Of the boast of the Leipzigers that Erfurt would decide against Luther; of Emser's forthcoming rebuttal and of Rubeus' German rhymes.
Handwritten in 6ock. Ootbav. 399, koi. 127 b. Printed in Aurifaber, vol. I, p. 215b; in Löschers Ref.Acta, vol. Ill, p. 989; in De Wette, vol. I, p. 351 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. II, p. 203.
To the venerable Father Johann Lang, Master of Sacred Theology, middle Vicar of the Augustinian Hermits, his Superior in Christ.
JEsus.
Hail! Finally Brother George 6) returns to you as you wished, venerable father. There is nothing new, except that the spitefulness of the Leipzigers increases from day to day. They boast for certain that your Erfurters have passed a sentence against us for Eck. 7) If this is so, then it may be good for you that yours are interfering in a foreign matter without cause.
2. I have resolved to make this verdict infamous throughout the world by means of a Latin as well as a German defence paper, and I will
4) Otto Beckmann, canonicus and professor of eloquence in Wittenberg; he later became a renegade.
5) This will be letter No. 325 in this volume.
6) The Augustinian Georg Hoch from Erfurt.
7) This was a false rumor.
I am not willing to let any syllable of our theses go unsworn. I am not willing to let any syllable of our theses go unsworn. I am not willing to leave any syllable of our thesis unsaid. May the will of the Lord be done.
Emser gives birth (as they say) to an elephant instead of a goat 1) and I do not know how many tigers, in that the Leipzigers are quite unlearned scholars (amusissimis musis) obstetricians. Thus the matter is in great heat, and Satan rages against the word of God, but he will accomplish nothing. The donkey Rubeus has again 2) belittled me in the worst way in the German language, and even so the hatred in Leipzig is not yet sated. But the Lord lives, and I also live; in him you also live and prosper and pray for the truth. On St. Gall's Day [16 October] 1519, Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.