This letter can be found in our edition, Vol. XV, Appendix, No. 128.
About the prospects for the Diet in Augsburg and the discussion in Marburg.
This letter is found in handwriting in Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Helmst. 108, f. 112 (with the wrong date: Ultimo Decembris ao. 30.) and in Aurifaber, vol. Ill, p. 1l2. Printed in Ooelostiiri trist. Oorn. Vu^., torrr. l, tot. 54; in Luückorrs, p. l03; in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 27 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. VII, p. 352. German, in part and with the wrong date 1529 in the Altenburger Ausgabe, vol. IV, p. 801 and in the Leipziger, vol. XIX, p. 531; complete in Walch.
To the excellent and sincere servant of Christ, Mr. Jakob Probst, Licentiate of Theology, Servant of the Word in Bremen, his extremely dear brother.
Grace and peace in the Lord! You have learned, my dear Jacob, that I was absent when your Johann Zelst1 ) came, and
1) Zelst was the Caplan Probsts at Unser Lieben Frauen Kirche in Bremen.
I am truly sorry. But also since then I have to work in God's cause, since the burden of the whole empire lies on us. Today, on the first day of June, the Emperor is still at Innsbruck and will perhaps go to Augsburg around Pentecost. 2) There is great hope that the Emperor will act graciously, and he has indeed written to our Prince two or three times in a gracious manner, as have others from his court, especially Heinrich, Count of Nassau. Then he gave this sign of his mercy: when the Dukes of Bavaria, Duke George and Margrave Joachim, passed Augsburg and hurried to Innsbruck to seize the Emperor, 3) and, by forestalling him, wanted to provoke him against our Prince, the Emperor did not want to admit them, 4) because he wanted to remain impartial in the matter even against the others. And the highest chancellor Mercurinus has publicly said that he does not want to participate in violent attacks,
2) The news in this letter find mostly from Melanchthon's letter to Luther of May 26, No. 927 in this volume.
3) Compare St. Louis edition, vol. IV, 1444, tz 27.
4) In this, Melanchthon, thus also Luther, was not reported correctly. In fact, a kind of "Vorreichstag" was held in Innsbruck.
because he had seen enough at Worms what violent attacks could do. He wishes that the affairs of the church are ordered peacefully. Perhaps God has awakened this Naaman [2 Kings 5] for us there. Let us only pray; our prayer has begun to be heard, we do not want to let go. There is a great theurge in Augsburg, so that our prince spends 100 florins on bread alone every week and consumes 2000 florins weekly. This Diet will not be able to last long. Eck has poured out forty 1) theses, which are full of the devil, against us, and offers himself for disputation against all, except against himself, and even most of all against himself. We laugh at this man's rage; there will be no opportunity to dispute now that the enemy has killed so many, nor will there be time at Augsburg.
I am staying in the borders of the Saxon territory, in the middle between Wittenberg and Augsburg. For it was not safe to take me to Augsburg. There you have almost the whole thing as it stands at present to Augsburg. Philip, Jonas, Spalatin, and Agricola are with the prince at Augsburg.
2) I am writing a letter of consolation to the count in Friesland, as you requested. 2) Furthermore, I have handed over Carlstadt's lies to the prince, which you sent before, and I believe that the prince has sent a letter to the count.
1) The 41 theses are meant here, to which Eck gave the title: ^rtieuli Imttigri, which Melanchthon wrote in No. 904 of this volume.
not the 404 theses, which Melanchthon mentions in Nö. 902.
2) Count Enno II, successor of Count Edzard, who died on February 14, 1528. Under him Melchior Hofmaun and Carlstadt, also Zwinglians, came into the country and made great progress there, while the count adhered to Luther. Therefore, he sent an embassy to Bugenhagen, who was in Hamburg at the time, asking him to come there for a short time and to fight the false teachers and the rebaptizers by preaching the Gospel. Bugenhagen refused. On the other hand, the two Bremen clergymen Johann Timann and Joh. Pelt came in July 1529, worked there for a while, and before returning home presented the count with a number of articles, from which a religious edict was drafted, which the count presented to all preachers appointed there for acceptance on January 13, 1530 in Emden. The Zwinglish-minded remonstrated, but after Luther's expert opinion had been obtained, the count had it printed as a church order and introduced it. (Erl. Briefw.)
I have written to you. I have also just informed you of the same thing by letter, I know that for sure; I am surprised if you have not received the letter.
3 Furthermore, that the Sacramentarians boast that I was defeated in Marburg, they do so in their own way. For they are not only liars, but liars themselves, pretending and pretending nothing, as Carlstadt and Zwingli testify with their deeds and words. But you see that at Marburg, in the articles they have presented, they have recanted the pernicious teachings they have put forward in the books they have published up to now concerning baptism, the use of the sacraments, the outward word, and other things. We have not recanted anything. But since they had also overcome in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, they did not want to revoke this article, even though they saw that it did not pass. For they feared their people, to whom they should not have returned if they had recanted. And how should they not have been defeated, since Zwingli's one and only argument was: a body cannot be without place and limited space. I countered him from philosophy: even heaven, such a large body, is naturally without place, and this they could not refute. Oecolampad's one argument, however, was this: The fathers call it a sign, therefore there is no body. But they promised with many words that they wanted to have the same discourse with us so far: Christ's body is truly present in the Lord's Supper (but in a spiritual way), only so that we might condescend to call them brethren, and thus pretend to unity. This is what Zwingli asked publicly with tears in the presence of the landgrave and all, saying these words: "There are no people on earth with whom I would rather be one than with the Wittenbergers. With the utmost diligence and effort, they wanted to be considered as one with us, so that they could never suffer this word from me: You have a different spirit from us. They were completely inflamed as often as they heard this.
3) Scripture No. 23 in the 17th volume of the St. Louis edition.
heard. Finally, as it is written in the last article, we have admitted this, that although they were not brothers, they should not be deprived of our love (which is due even to an enemy). Thus it grieved them that they could not obtain the name of a brother, but had to go away as heretics, so that in the meantime we kept peace in writings against each other, whether God might want to open their hearts.