Luther writes of his work being disturbed by headaches and warns Melanchthon against excessive exertion 2c.
Handwritten in Wolfenbüttel, Ooä. Mar. 108, 12; in Copenhagen, Lls. 1393, 1. 220 and in the Ooü.
Printed by OoeleKtinus, toin. I, toi. 47d; in öuckckous, p. 92; in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 14 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. VII, p. 332.
To the extremely dear brother, M. Philipp Melanchthon, the very strong and faithful Christophorus.
Grace and peace in the Lord! My dear Philip, on the eighth of May we began to reply to your letters dated from Nuremberg, but there was a delay so that I have postponed it until now, and in the meantime we have also received a bundle of your letters from Augsburg. I have long since completed my attack on the clergy 1) and sent it to Wittenberg. I have also translated the two chapters of Ezekiel from Gog 2) and provided them with a preface, which will appear in print at the same time [with the admonition to the clergy]. After these were finished, I took the prophets in hand and attacked the matter with great impetuosity; I had resolved to have all the prophets translated before Pentecost. After that the Aesopus and others. And I would certainly have accomplished it, so the work went on.
1) No. 1000 in this volume.
2) St. Louis edition, vol. VI, 880.
But the old outer man lapsed so that he could neither bear nor follow the impetuosity of the new inner man, for my head began to be filled with roaring, even with thunderclaps, and if I had not immediately let up, I would have soon fainted, from which I have hardly escaped even in the last two days. So it is now the third day that I have neither wanted nor been able to look at even one letter. "It won't do anymore, I see well, the years are approaching." My Caput 3) has become a chapter, but will continue and also become a paragraph, finally a single sentence. Therefore, I am now completely idle and celebrating. Gradually, however, this turmoil in the head subsides, supported by medicines and their help. There you have the reason why I hesitated so much to answer. On the day your letter came from Nuremberg, Satan had his legation with me. I was alone, however, since Vitus and Cyriacus 4) were absent, and he certainly had the victory so far that he drove me out of the chamber and forced me to go among the people. I can hardly wait for that day when we will finally see the great power of this spirit and its almost divine majesty.
These are our internal matters; external are others, among which you also indicate to me that Geck [Eck] is warring anew, together with your Billicanus. "What else is there to do at the Diet?" Those coarse asses think like that about the things of the church, that's how they are minded. But they may have a good year. Magister Joachim 5) has sent me delicious food, or rather dates, and raisins, and has written to me twice in Greek. 6) But I, when I will be restored, will write to him in Turkish, so that he also gets something to read.
3) Luther plays here with the double meaning of eaput, head and main piece; likewise oaxitulum, little head and chapter.
4) "Veit" is Veit Dietrich, whom Luther had taken with him to help him write. "Cyriacus" is a merchant.
5) Camerarius.
6) The one Greek letter is found in Kolde's leota, p. 450 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. VII, p. 318; the other is missing.
what he does not understand?) For why does he write to me in Greek? Here I want to stop, at another time more, so that I do not irritate again the appeased unrest of my head, which is already very irritable. But I pray; you also pray.
Very gladly I would have written (as you wish) to the younger prince about the landgrave (Macedonian), also to the older one and to all of you, but I will do it in his time. The Lord be with you. Greetings to all your company. But listen to what I wanted to say first of all: see that, according to my example, you want to ruin your head. Therefore, I will command you and the whole company to force you, under threat of banishment, into the rules that serve to preserve your body, lest you become a suicide and then pretend that this is out of obedience to God. For one serves God even by doing nothing, yes, by no thing more than by doing nothing. For this is why he willed that the Sabbath should be kept so strictly before other things. See that you do not despise this. It is God's word what I write. May 12, 1530, your Martin Luther.