from the elevation and church ceremonies.*)
January 6, 1543.
To the respectable, highly esteemed Mr. Gregor Brück, the Right Doctor, Elector of Saxony Chancellor and Councillor, my special: favorable gentleman and dear godfather.
Grace and love in the Lord. Respectable, highly learned, dear Lord and Godfather! Your son Christianus brought me the letters yesterday after noon. And if he had brought them to me right away, I was all too clumsy in the head 2c. Doctor Stephan, 1) pastor at court, is almost well known to me, has probably wanted to leave some years ago; but I do not know of any condition for him, as I do not yet know, that would be enough for him, or even equal to the one he has now. He also wrote to me before, soon after the story, how he would have messed up with the Te Deum ladamus. I do not advise him, however, to give way to the devil and flee, so lukewarm the sovereign can suffer him, for the poem of abuse is far too small that one should court the devil for his sake by fleeing or mourning, but one should mock and laugh at him to his detriment, as he did when his servant murdered, burned, and tormented the poor people; yes, let him also suffer a little vexation with his own. He who does not want to suffer with Christ and his saints, but still
1) Doctor Stephan is Agricola, box builder. (Seidemann in De Wette, Vol. VI, p. 482, note 5.)
If he laughs at them, he will have compassion on all the devils and his saints, and he will have to hear that all the angels in heaven are laughing at them. That is how they want it. Summa, it is devilish bitterness, et, ut Cicero dicit, malevolentia ipsa jejunii, would like to shit and has nothing in the belly.
With the elevation, I will wait for M. Philipps beforehand. The unpleasant ceremonies make it more difficult for us, as otherwise large necessary articles, as they have always done from the beginning. I have not yet considered that it would be good to let something go out publicly through printing. I have no hope that we will increasingly become one in all churches to need the same ceremonies, as it has not been possible in the papacy. For even if we do it this way and that way in our countries, the others do not, and want to be unmastered by us, as we see before our eyes. So it was with the apostles themselves with the ceremonies Mosi, had to leave everyone free, how they wanted to eat, dress, give birth. But hereafter further, when I have decided. I hereby command God, amen. Pray for me from time to time for a good hour. I have worked out and lived out, my head is no longer useful, I desire grace and mercy, which I have and will get even more, amen. The Epiphan. 1543.
Martinus Luther, v.
*) A part of this letter is found in Seckendorf, nist. I^utk., I4d. Ill, p. 469; then completely ex Copial. ^reliiv. Vinar. in the Leipzig Supplement, No. 192, p. 102; in De Wette, Vol. V, p. 528 and in the Erlangen edition Vol. 56, p. 43. We reproduce the text according to De Wette, making use of the corrections given by Seidemann in De Wette, Vol. VI, p. 482 from the original.
e. Against the papal way of administering and using the sacrament only in one form.
This subheading includes the following writings:
D. Martin Luther's instruction and proof that the Protestant doctrine is to be confessed with the mouth and with the deed, and that the reception of the sacrament under both forms should not be omitted with a good conscience, out of fear of man. In a missive to Count Albrecht of Mansfeld in 1523.
This writing is found in Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 2210 ff.
D. Martin Luther's short account of both forms of the Holy Sacrament, instituted by Christ. Anno 1627.
This report is appended to the Consolation Letter to the Christians at Halle and can be found in Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 1966 ff.
Luther's letter to M. Wolfgang Stein on both forms of the sacrament. 1542.
Walch, St. Louis Edition, vol. X, 2222.