November 6, 1542.
Grace and peace in the Lord, my dear Doctor. You know that the mockery of the Cardinal's sanctuary is mine. The printers, the university, and the city know that it is hidden and not secret. So the bride in Mainz herself will know it. For I have done it in such a way that I want to be noticed. And whoever has read it and ever seen my pen and thoughts must say that this is Luther. And knows that the bride herself will say or has said: This is the boy Luther, especially in my heart, which I am well aware of. Otherwise, where I would have wanted to have it secretly, I would have wanted to have hidden my pen and thoughts better. So the bride is not in my esteem that I am afraid of his, though devilish, art. And even if it would be a famos Libell 1), as it cannot be, I want to have such a right, justification and power against the Cardinal, Pope, devil and all their heaps, and still shall not be called a famos Libell. Or have the assists, lawyers I would say, studied their law in such a way that they do not yet know what subjectum and finis is juris civilis? Should I teach them, I will
1) i.e. invective.
the less you have to pay for lessons and teach them unwashed. How did the beautiful Moritzburg suddenly become a stable for donkeys? Well, if she lusts to whistle, so lusts I to dance, and I want to jump around with the bride in Mainz, if I live, one more row, which shall be good for the last. I still have some sweet bits, 2) which I would like to give her on her rosy mouth. So help, lawyer, or to whom God has bestowed it. Let them boil, roast the fresh muth 3); what does it matter, if I will not roast them again (if I live), that they should wish they had not seen such a note, where they want to be honorable otherwise. For I am not minded to be silent about the desperate enemy of God and blasphemer at Mainz, about his devilish will of courage, which he drives for and against the blood of Christ. But, 'let go and come as they will, I will teach them how I have power and
2) Dietz explains "Bißlin" also here with offa. However, it seems to us to mean "kisses" and to be a diminutive of "Buss". Cf. Jena edition, vol. V, p. 268d: "grüsse Mumen Lenen und gib jr einen Buss von meinetwegen."
3) Frischmuth was formerly a printer in Wittenberg and since 1542 a citizen in Halle. (Seidemann - De Wette, vol. VI, 522, note 6.)
*This letter is handwritten in the library at Wolfenbüttel and Dresden; then in the Altenburg edition, vol. VIII, p. 1000; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXI, p. 429; in the Erlangen edition, vol. 56, p. 33 and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 504. After the latter we give the text. Seidemann in De Wette, Vol. VI, p. 320, gives a fragment from Luther's very defective original handwritten letter, the best variants of which we have made use of.
right to write famos libell (where it would be possible) against the Cardinal, be unseen and his jurisperdites wrath and disfavor. For they shall sit under the Sheblimini, id est, sede a dextris meis, and not above it, with honor not. This letter I also leave free, although I would suffer, they let me old man with peace; if not, they may dare it confidently. I will, whether God
I want to be found at home. Valete Nov. 6, anno Domini 1542.
Martinus Luther, D.
Jakob Heidelberg. At Eisleben. 1)
1) Seidemann remarks: "How Heidelberg's signature is connected with this Luther letter, I do not know. Cf. about him Förstemanns Neues Urkundenbuch I, p. 296. - After the still existing empty space it seems that the original did not have a date number at all.