11 AM 1533.
To the honorable and prudent, my good friends in Leipzig, whom H. G., enemy of the Gospel, is now driving away.
Grace and peace in Christ, who shall suffer and die with you, and shall surely rise again, and also reign. I have heard, dear friends, how some of you have asked: Whether they may in good conscience receive one form of the sacrament, pretending that they have received both, that your authorities may be satisfied.
But since I do not know any of you, nor do I know how your heart and conscience stand, this is my best concern: Whoever reports this, and in his conscience believes God's word and order to be right, should not act against such a conscience, that is, against God Himself, in body and soul. Now, however, Duke George also subjects himself to investigate the secrecy of conscience, he would be well worthy to be deceived as an apostle of the devil, as one could do more and more; for he has neither such a demand nor such a demand as an apostle of the devil.
Right nor wrong, and sins against God and the Holy Spirit. But because we must think - not what other evil people do, be it murderers or robbers. But because we must think - not what other evil people do, be it murderers or robbers, but what is due to us to suffer and to do: so in this case the best thing is to say defiantly to the murderer and robber under his eyes: I will not do that; if you take my goods or body from me, you have taken it from another, but from me, to whom you must pay it arid 2) as Peter says [1 Petr. 4, 5.]: Jesus Christ paratus est judicare vivos et mortuos. Therefore go on, dear robber! What you want, that I do not want; but what I want, that God will also want one day, that you shall know. For one must strike the devil in the face with the cross, and not whistle much nor court, so he knows with whom he deals. May Christ our Lord strengthen you and be with you, Amen. Date Wittenburg on Good Friday, 1533.
Doctor Martinus Luther, Manu propria.
2) d. i. exactly.
24. Wolf Wiedemann's, Mayor of Leipzig, letter to Luther, concerning Luther's above-mentioned writing. *)
April 25, 1533.
To the respectable, highly learned Mr. M. Luther, Doctor at Wittenberg, my good friend.
My friendly service before, Respectable, Highly Learned Doctor! A copy of a letter in your name, which is to be written by you to some citizens or residents here, under your signet, and with your own hand, is transferred here, the contents of which you are to hear if the copy is inserted. And although it is not considered that the same is done by you, that you will be undeniable; but because many people here are taken in suspicion, so it is up to you
My friendly request, please inform me by your letter at the present time whether such a writing has gone out from you in such a way, and to whom it has been written, or how it is otherwise about it, so that the truth is reported, and the people who do not have to do with it, and yet are held in suspicion, are taken care of and left alone out of a well-founded suspicion. This I will kindly do for you. Date Friday after Georgii Martyris. Anno 1533.
Wolf Widman,
now mayor of Leipzig.
25. D. Martin Luther's reply to previous letter. **)
April 27, 1533.
To the honorable and wise Mr. Wolf Weidman, Burgermeister of Leipzig, my good friend.
My kind services before. Honorable, wise, dear lord and friend! I have received your letter, and have almost well heard its 1) opinion, and is at your request and desire, again my request and desire, you should inform me who has told you and moved you to write such a letter to me? whether it is the pastor of Cöllen, 2) or
1) "his" Will probably not refer to "writing" or "letter" according to Luther's intention, but to "Duke George" as the initiator of the letter.
2) The parish priest at Cologne, a village near Meissen, is Franciscus Arnold, who, as it seems, introduces the unnamed Dresden layman to the public in the diatribe Wider Luthers "Warnung an seine lieben Deutschen" and the "Glosse auf das vermeintliche kaiserliche Edict", which was printed at Dresden. The author
the assassin at Dresden, or your Squire H. Georg? Then you shall
The author of this book was Duke George himself, which Luther makes very clear in his rebuttal "Against the Assassin Printed in Dresden" (early May 1531, Walch, old edition, vol. XVI, 2062 sf.); Luther therefore attributes the epithet "Assassin" to him as an anonymous "Winkelschreiber," but not, as Seidemann assumes (Erläuterungen, p. 156), to the pastor Arnold. In it, Luther distinguishes between the "village pastor at Cöllen near Meissen" who must "praise and commend the little book that has no name" and the "poet of this little book, the dear layman, who conceals his name" "and yet brings it to the pastor at Cöllen, who also does not name it. Luther does not want to know who the author is, but "wants to have the schnuppen this time", but nevertheless hit the sack. "If I hit the donkey with it," says Luther, "so that he feels it, I do not want to have hit him, but only on the sack. "I shall call him cheaply, not Noron Norotaton [the very most foolish), but 86pti68 Llorian" [seven times the foolishness itself). The same expression /uu/Doi-ai-or- had already Luther
*) This letter is found in the Wittenberg edition (1559), vol. XII, p. 240; in the Jena edition (1568), vol. VI, p. 5; in the Altenburg edition, vol. VI, p. 3; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXI, p. 3. Translated into Latin in des Cochläus I)" Xovitatibus Laxonias, p. V V. We have followed the Jena edition.
**This letter is copied from the original in Seidemann's "Erläuterungen", p. 158. It was first printed in "Herzog Georgiens Ehrlich und grundtliche Entschuldigung" etc. 1533. Then in the collections: Wittenberger (1559), vol. XII, p. 240; Jenaer (1568), vol. VI, p. 5; Altenburger, vol. VI, p. 3; Leipziger, vol. XXI, p. 4; Erlanger, vol. 55, p. 10; in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 446 and vol. VI, p. 142. Latin in vs Xovitatldi" kaxonia" of Cochläus, bl. V d. We have reproduced the letter according to Seidemann.
Get an answer, a full, jolted, squeezed, heaped measure, whether God wills, for you to
Luther used the term "Junker Meuchler" on June 14, 1528, in the letter to Wenceslaus Link in reference to Duke George, from which Duke George had obtained copies and on the basis of which the dispute concerning the Pack alliance arose. Luther repeats in this writing more often "Junker Meuchler"; in our letter he writes "Junker Herzog Georg", no doubt to make more understandable whom he meant. This seems to prove that Luther understood Duke George by the Dresden assassin. This is not contradicted by the sentence in Luther's letter to Amsdorf of August 14, 1831 (De Wette, Vol. IV, p. 280): "that his [Croßner's] little book against the priests at Cologne of Duke Georg, who is called Meuchler zu Dresden, be printed with you. The last relative clause refers to
I am willing to serve you. Date at Wittenberg. Sunday after S. Georgii 1533. 1)
Martinus Luther, Doctor 2c.
to Duke Georg, not to the parish priest of Cologne, to which Seidemann seems to have referred it. If the latter relation had taken place, the words "of Duke George" would have been quite superfluous; it would have been sufficient to say: "against the priest of Cologne, who is called Meuchler zu Dresden". In the Tischreden, however (Cap. 28, § 7, Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 938), the words: "Darnach richten er fHerzog Georgs den Meuchler zu" do not refer to a person, but to the writing of the unnamed author. In our letter, however, both expressions: "the priest of Cologne", because Arnold had served the duke as a larva, and "the assassin of Dresden" are meant for Duke Georg.
1) In the original 1532.