November 1, 1524.
He asks to report to him whether the Elector Frederick of Saxony wants to disperse the Wittenberg University (as the rumor about it has spread); interprets the passage about the sacrifice pleasing to God and about the pure sacrifice in all places 2c, also gives his judgment about the booklet of Erasmus about free will.
To the pious and learned Georg Spalatin, the servant of Christ, his most beloved in the Lord.
1. grace and peace. What I have already said the other day, my Spalatin, I say and remind you once again, that you may carefully inquire whether the prince really has in mind to let this high school fall and go. I would like to know this all the better, so that I do not detain in vain those who daily receive a call elsewhere. For this rumor has spread in such a way that the Nurembergers, through emissaries, have asked that they call Philip away, since they were so completely of the opinion, and also wrote that there would be an end to this high school. But you know that the prince should not be forced, nor can he be. In the meantime, however, by dithering, that which can perish is perishing, and others must not be neglected who can still be advised in time.
I cannot promise a copy to the married Benedictine, since I cannot even provide half of ours with it, and would gladly do everything, if only I could.
3. the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem, which is pleasing to God, and the pure sacrifice in all places, is precisely what Paul praises Rom. 15:16, saying, "I offer the gospel of God, that the Gentiles may become a sacrifice pleasing to God." For the
Ministry of the Gospel, through which God is sanctified, glorified and proclaimed, is the completion [summa] of all the sacrifices of ancient testa
ments. This is the purest sacrifice. For what can be purer than the word of God, through which the sacrifice of praise to God is offered? By this sacrifice we offer ourselves; in that the old man is crucified by the word and the new man is given to God as a complete sacrifice to the Lord in faith. This is the only sacrifice in all places and no other, "for its cord has gone out into all lands," Ps. 19:3, and "it has been preached to all creatures," says Paul. But the old [sacrifices], because they were [legal] works, and not the word, nor the power of the word, were pure only in so far as he that offered them [was pure]; but in and of itself unclean things make no man clean. But this sacrifice sanctifies both those who offer and that which is offered.
1) A martyr of the gospel, beheaded at Vienna on Sept. 17, 1524. Cf. the following letter to Hausmann and the letter to the Christians at Bremen. Walch, old edition, vol. XXI, 96, § 2.
2) In the facsimile of the letter given by De Wette Vol. II, iuerudito instead of erudito, to which Köstlin Vol. I, 806 draws attention.
*) This Brie is found in the original in the Ood. ekart. 122 toi. Lidl. OotN.; transcribed in the 6od. den. a; toi. 331; in Aurifaber, II, 237 d; in De Wette, vol. II, p. 560. We have translated according to De Wette.
1984 De Wette II, 562 f. Appendix of some of Luther's letters. W. LVIII, 2506 f. 1985