concerning some ceremonies of the church service.*)
December 4, 1539.
To the worthy Mr. Georgio Buchholzer, provost of Berlin, my dear brother in Christ.
Grace and peace through Christ. Dear Provost! I must be brief in writing because of my weakness. You will hear enough of our concerns about the church order of your Elector, the Margrave, my most gracious lord, in the letters. But as for the fact that you complain about wearing the choir cap or choir robe in the procession, in the week of prayer or the cross and on the day of Marci, and to keep the Circuitum with a pure Responsorio around the churchyard on Sundays and on Easter with the Salvo festa dies (without carrying around the Sacrament), this is my advice: If your Lord, the Margrave and Elector 2c., will preach the Gospel of Christ purely, clearly and unadulterated, without any human addition, and will administer and give the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Blood of Jesus Christ, according to His institution, and will drop the calling of the saints, so that they will not be emergency helpers, mediators and intercessors, and intercessors, and not to carry the Sacramenta in the Procession, and not to consecrate the daily Masses of the dead, and not to consecrate water, salt and herbs, and to sing pure Responsoria and chants, Latin and German, in the Circuitu or Procession: Then go about in the name of God, wearing a silver or gold cross and a choir cap or robe of velvet, silk or linen. And if your lord, the prince, has not enough of one surplice or surplice to put on, put on three of them, as Aaron the high priest put on three surplices one above the other, which were glorious and beautiful, wherefore the garments of the church in the papacy were called ornata. Have
If your princely graces are not satisfied with a circuitu or procession, that you go about ringing and singing, then go about seven times, as Joshua with the children of Israel went about Jericho, making a shout and blowing with trumpets. And if your lord, the Margrave, has the breath to do so, may His Electoral Grace precede and dance with harps, timpani, cymbals and bells, as David did before the ark of the Lord when it was brought into the city of Jerusalem, I am very well pleased with that. For such pieces, if only they remain, give or take nothing away from the Gospel: but that only a necessity for salvation, and to connect the conscience with it, be not made of it. And if I could get so far with the pope and papists, how I would thank God and be so happy! And if the pope would let me go and preach these pieces freely, and if he would let me (with leave) put on a hernia 1), I would wear it to please him.
2 As far as the elevation of the sacrament in the mass is concerned, because such a ceremony is also free, and no danger can arise for the Christian faith from it, if no other addition is made, you may abolish it in God's name, as long as you want to have it. However, we have had enough reason to repeal it here in Wittenberg that you may not have in Berlin. Nor do we want to erect it again, unless there is some other special need that requires us to do so; for it is a free thing, and the order of human devotion, and not God's commandment. For God's commandment alone is necessary, the rest is free.
3. further report will be given to you by the
1) i.e. leg dress.
*) This letter is in the editions immediately after the previous letter. We give the text after De Wette.
your Lord's sent ones well say. God and the Father of Jesus Christ, His Son, whose ministry you are doing, may He faithfully assist you by His Spirit and help you to sanctify His name and bring about His kingdom.
To this section may be added the following
Luther's report to a good friend against the Bishop of Meissen's mandate. This writing, which is mainly directed against the One Form in the Sacrament, also deals with ceremonies in general and especially with middle things. It is included in No. 157 of this volume.
Luther's Answer and Report to Two Questions Brought to Him by Persons of High Standing. No. 179 in this volume.
The two writings, which Walch lets follow here, are in the old edition twice, even partly three times; we will include them in the 21st volume. These are: Luther's
and his will be done, I ask daily in my Pater noster, Amen. Vale, et confortare in Domino, quia virtus in infirmitate perficitur. Date Thursday after Andreä, Anno 1539. Martinus Luther, D.
writings can be looked up:
Letter to Anton Lauterbach, April 2, 1543, Walch, old edition, vol. XIX, 1253 and vol. XXI, 1504 in two different redactions, but under the same date. The second half of this letter for the third time in the old editions of the Tischreden, Cap. 21, §14, Walch, old edition, vol. XXII, 969. By comparing the Tischreden, it appears that the German paraphrase, which was here in the 19th volume, and which De Wette, vol. V, 551 and the Erlanger, vol. 56, 58 have also included, is probably derived from Aurifaber. It is first recorded in the 8th volume of the Jena edition, which appeared in 1558, and printed from it in the Wittenberg (1559) in the 12th volume. The other writing: Luther's Letter to George, Prince of Anhalt of April 5, 1543 is also duplicated in the old Walch edition, namely here and Vol. XXI, 480.