February 12, 1520.
To the esteemed gentleman, Georg Spalatin, priest of Christ and court preacher, his beloved in Christ.
Jesus.
Heil. Here you have Bucer's letter, 3) of an almost uniquely honest brother and young man among this sect, which justifies very good hope, for he received me at Heidelberg with great eagerness, and dealt with me sincerely, so that he is worthy of all love and loyalty, but also of all trust.
3) Probably this is the first letter of Bucer to Luther from January 23, 1520 (not from January 20), which is printed in Kraft, Briefe und Documente, p. 16, and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. II, p. 298. In Kraft and in the registry of Kolde's Analecta p. II with fal.
schem date.
Your warning has come too late. Everything has happened under Philip's advice. That over which I have had one lost day of birth pains, I now give birth through the midwifery of the press. Nevertheless, a new and great fire may arise: who can oppose the counsel of God? They rage so without cause and without my fault, and if God did not humiliate me, they would be nothing respected in my thoughts; you see for yourself how nicely I can endure their erudition and their deceitfulness. And who knows whether they are not destined to give up an opportunity to reveal the truth, and before they know it, suffer punishment and disgrace for the envy they have harbored against us for such a long time, as the enemies of the
*The Latin original of this letter is in the Anhaltisches Gesammtarchiv. Handwritten: Ooä. leu. a. k. 74. Printed by Aurifaber, vol. I, ko! 245; in De Wette, vol. I, 412 and in Erlanger Briefwechsel, vol. II, p. 322. According to the latter, which brings the original, we have translated.
Truth deserve? I have held the bishop in honor; but if they continue in the future, I will not care about the episcopal adornment (infulam) of this bull for the sake of Christ's truth.
In Oschatz, as I was told by the Waldheim brothers who came here yesterday, one of them wrote the following words underneath these posted antics: "Behold, this is how the bishops are beating in our time.
They also apply their own ignorance even to public gates. Dear bishop, why don't you read the Gospel? Dear, let the matter take its course; God alone is at play. Rather, as I see, we ourselves are forcibly carried away and driven, than we are driven. Farewell, and pray for me. February 12, 1520.
Martin Luther, August.