Luther reassures Jonas about the settlement action and sends a letter from the landgrave.
This letter is found handwritten in Wolfenbüttel, Oocl. Hörnst. 108, toi. 89d; in the Oock. RostOoN.; in the Ooä. lsu. d, toi. 193 and in the Oock. OotU. 451. printed in Ooelestinus, toin. Ill, col. 63; in Lrulck^us, p. 200; in DeWette, vol. IV, p. 157and inErl. Briefw., vol.VIII, p. 236.
Grace and peace in Christ! I, my dear Jonas, have earnestly commanded Christ our cause, and he has promised me (for I believe him at any rate) that this cause is and will be his. Therefore, since I already see that the adversaries despair of violence and turn to cunning, I do not fear much, indeed, I am rather hopeful, since I am sure that even if we snore to our shame. He is watching for his honor. They may boast that you have conceded many things, but they do not realize that this conceding is to have failed the one greatest thing, and that they have lost on their side the one very good thing. "Let them go here, the Speirian monk-larvae." 2) You may only want to exempt the gospel in everything you allow, as I did at Worms, because (as I see) the case and the course and the action are similar.
Eck, I see, also wants to become a victor of Augsburg, as he was a victor of Leipzig. Amen, "saith Christ".
I send here (it is whimsical) the landgrave's letter to me. I have not answered, because the hurried messenger went away. You will do in my name what he desires, and send me, I beg you, this letter back or bring it back to me yourself, because it pleases me very much. See that you do not lose this letter to me in your melancholy.
2) Compare No. 1027 in this volume, the first note, and No. 1058, § 1.
I will test your faithfulness and your vigilance with the same. Farewell, my dear Jonas, and return happy and safe.
No. 14.
To Conrad Cordatus.
About Luther's condition and the near end of the Reichstag.
This letter is found handwritten in Wolfenbüttel, Oocl. Reimst. 108, col. 103 and in the Oock. Rostoek. Printed in Ooelestinus, tom. Ill, p. 89; in Luctcteus, p. 211; in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 173 and in Erl. Briefw., vol. VIII, p. 271.
Grace and peace in Christ! This whole time, as long as I have been here, almost half of it has been lost to me through very arduous idleness, so exceedingly violent and persistent has a roar, or rather a roar similar to whirlwinds, taken over and tormented my head. My dear Cordatus, if it had not been for this, I might have completed everything that I wished to complete in the rest of my life. Now I am forced to publish little interpretations in bits and pieces, so that I am not completely idle. Now, however, the hustle and bustle begins to subside and to give me a new break.
I have written everything I know about our Augsburg affairs to your bishop 2). Besides, I have nothing new. The princes are making off one by one. Our people are being held back by the extremely
1) With this Luther will aim at the Roman Abbot Augustine, who was sent to England by Gregory I in 596.
2) Nicolaus Hausmann. The letter to the same is No. 1107 in this volume, simultaneously with this letter.
Satan is still firm there. The rest, as I believe, has also reached you through the younger prince. You, my dear Cordatus, pray to the Lord for me, that he may guide and sustain me according to his good will. May He be with you and strengthen you by His Spirit, Amen. Greetings to your Eva and all yours. From the castle of Coburg, September 23, 1530.
Your Martin Luther.
No. 15.
To Justus Jonas.
About the request of the Catholics if the Lutherans wanted to hand over more articles; about Zwingli and Bucer, etc.
This letter is found handwritten in Wolfenbüttel, Oocl. Reimst. 108, col. 67; in Copenhagen, Ns. 1393, col. 307; in the Oocl. RostoeN.; in the Oocl. Ootli. 451 and in the Ooä. 3en. d, toi. 194. printed in Ooelestinus, tom. II, col. 233d; in Luclcieus, p. 169; in DeWette, vol. IV, p. 109; in Schirrmacher, p. 134 and in Erl. Briefw., vol. VIII, p. 133. German (incomplete) in Chyträus, p. 95 d.
Grace and peace in Christ! We have received the parcel and the bundles of letters, my dear Jonas; you have woken up for once. Moreover, Philip apologizes for you, who have confessed that you are surpassed by me in diligent writing; but it is easy to deceive a man like me, who is neither a rhetorician nor a dialectician, with these arts.
But I am deceived in my hope, because I thought you would come, already beaten by an edict of the emperor. But now I see what these questions 3) wanted: whether you would have more articles to hand over. Namely, Satan is still alive and has well noticed that your Apology, 4) the "Quiet Treaders", 5) the articles of Purgatory, of the service of the saints and especially of the Antichrist, the Pope, have transitions.
3. ah, the poor emperor, if he has set up this imperial diet to counter Luther's counter-speeches [against papal doctrine] (antilogiis).
3) See No. 968 and No. 973 in this volume.
4) This is the Augsburg Confession, which was initially called npoloZin, which means protective writing.
5) Thus the Copenhagen manuscript, Buddeus and De Wette. Erl. Briefw.: "to tread softly".
as if they did not have enough to do with answering the present apologia themselves.
4) And that these frogs with their croakers have access [to the emperor] in this way, seriously distresses me with so much work in the most important things, and 1) even if there had been nothing to do, they should not have been free to do this. But this is done so that I may be a true prophet, since I have always said that one works in vain and hope for a unification in the doctrine that it would be enough if we could obtain worldly peace.
I will write and carefully send everything to your wife (do not doubt). I am glad that Philip learns about Campegius' and the Guelphs' way of thinking. Philosophy does not believe these things, it has experienced them. I believe neither the confessor of the emperor nor also any Welsh even one sound (My==Muck). For my Cajetan loved me so much that he wanted to shed blood for me, namely mine. "They are jacks." Although it is true that if a Welshman is good, he is very good; but this is something
1) Instead of ut we have assumed et.
exceedingly strange and quite like a black swan.
6. Zwingli and Bucer really please me! "So shall God bring them forth to the day"! To be sure, with these people let us enter into a fraternization! But after the Emperor's departure they will be different people again. "If you are not tired of the Reichstag, I wonder, I am tired of it. I would like to be the victim of this last concilium, as John Hus at Constance was the victim of the last papal welfare (fortunae)?) Greetings, I beseech you, all of ours. May the Spirit of Christ be mighty with you, Amen. From the desert, July 21, 1530.
Your Martin Luther.