November 7, 1522.
George by the Grace of God Duke of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen.
1. to all and any of our subjects and relatives of whatever 1) rank, dignity or nature. Dear faithful! When we commanded you before, by order of Papal Holiness and Imperial Majesty, our most gracious Lord, with special earnestness, that no one, whether woman or man, should dare to read Martin Luther's books, to buy or sell them, or to have them with him, we had taken it for granted that you would obey the same, Papal Holiness, Imperial Majesty, and our commandments, and that you would keep the same unbreakably.
2. But it has come to our attention, and we also find this publicly on the day, that the New Testament has now been Germanized at Wittenberg by Martin Luther, for whom it is manly respected, with special postillions in the margins, and also with some disgraceful figures, The New Testament was printed by Martin Luther in Wittenberg, with special postures in the margins, and also with some abusive figures of papal sanctity, to mock and ridicule, and to confirm his teachings, and it has gone out that many of our subjects and elsewhere in our lands and principalities are subject to buy the displayed New Testament (so both, Old and New Testament,
1) Thus the Wittenberg edition; Jenaer: was.
without the previously sufficiently Germanized), which all predetermined papal sanctity, imperial majesty, and our commandment to special contempt and disobedience, us also such in no way to tolerate leidlich.
3. Therefore we command and order all of you and each one in particular herewith seriously and want, if you have such new German books in your hands, that each one hand over and answer the same in the next our office, which is convenient for him, to our steward of the end, since we have nevertheless out of abundance, so that no one has to complain because of this, ordered to give him his laid out money for it again: but that each one, in his duties, report where and from whom, also how much, he has received or bought the books in question, and that this be done between here and Christmas.
(4) But if we should find anyone, whether woman or man, who has the same books or their imprint and writing about this commandment of ours, we will not let them go unpunished, and we will show ourselves to be manly in noting from it that we want to handle the obedience of the Christian church and of its supreme leaders as much as we can. Let everyone be guided by this. Given at Dresden, Friday after All God's Holy Day. 1522.
*) This mandate is found in the collective editions: in the Wittenberg (1569), vol. IX, p. 143; in the Jena (1585), vol. II, p. I60b; in the Altenburg, vol. II, p. 224; in the Leipzig, vol. XVIII, p. 284 and in Hofmann's Reformatronshistorie der Stadt und Universität Leipzig, p^I72. We give the text according to the Jena edition.
Initiated by Duke John of Saxony (see the introduction) and with reference to the above mandate, Luther wrote his treatise Von weltlicher Obrigkeit, wie weit man ihr Gehorsam zu leisten sei. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 374. In this writing, he calls all such princes who make such commands tyrants. It appeared on New Year's Day 1523.
c. Because of Luther's letter to Hartmuth von Cronberg.
The writing that prompted this dispute with Duke George is Luther's missive to Hartmuth von Cronberg, in March 1522. Walch, old edition, vol. XV, 1979.
Hartmuth von Cronberg's Response to Luther's Missive
is located in the same place, Col. 1991.