December 11, 1523.
Grace and peace in Christ. Dear Master Leonhard, I have long since seen the booklet and answer you thus: that everyone should be free to worship Christ under the sacrament; do not sin who does it or does not do it, because he has not commanded anything about it, and the booklet does too much for him, because it makes a nuisance of it, as if it should not and should not be. For if his cause were closed, then Christ should not have been worshipped on earth, and the three magi or kings would have done evil in worshipping him in the cradle, since he did not come on earth to be worshipped, and gave no commandment concerning it, but "I am come to serve (saith he [Marc. 10, 45.]), and not to be served."
(2) Now as at that time both were lawful and free, and neither was commanded to worship him or not, so also it shall be free to worship him in the sacrament or not, because he wills it freely, and has given no commandment on either side, even as it is free to eat flesh or not to eat flesh on Friday. For the sacrament is not for worship, but for the sake of worship.
for the sake of faith. If only one should wait for this, then one will neglect what is necessary and worry about what is not necessary. Therefore let him who will worship, and let him who will not worship, not worship, and make neither sin nor heresy of it on either side. I may worship God in a living person, or not, why not in the sacrament, since his flesh and blood are certain? Outward worship with mouth and bending of the knees is nothing; faith is the right worship, that I believe that there his flesh and blood are given and shed for me. Stay with that, that is also enough; let the rest be free. Now it is necessary to worship in spirit and truth (that is, in faith) in all places. They are misled by outward worship, because they do not know what worship is. Hiemit GOtt commanded. On Friday after Nicolai, 1523.
Martinus Luther.
To the Honorable Master Leonhard Puchler, fencing master at Halle, my special friend.
*This letter is found with the remark: "written from the venerable Mr. V. Mart. Luth. manuscript" in the Wittenberg edition, vol. IX, p. 178 d; then in the Jena edition (1586), vol. II, p. 268; in the Altenburg edition, vol. II, p. 368; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XVIII, p. 428; in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 227 and in De Wette, vol. II, p. 444. We give the text according to the Wittenberg edition.