concerning the abolition of masses and ceremonies in the collegiate church at Wittenberg. *)
October 12, 1523.
Translated from Latin.
To the excellent man, Mr. Georg Spalatin, the servant of Christ:
Grace and peace. I remember very well what I told the Prince of Borna 2) from
2) On March 5, 1522. Walch, old edition, vol. XV, 2378.
I have written, dear Spalatin, and God wanted you to believe that it would happen this way, moved by the manifest hand of God, by which I have now remained alive for almost two years against all expectations, and the prince is not only safe, but
*This letter is found in Latin in Aurifaber, vol. II, p. 166 and in De Wette, vol. II, p. 421. Jn deutscher Uebersetzung in der Wittenberger Ausgabe, vol. IX, p. 177b; in der Jenaer (1585), vol. II, p. 255d; in der Altenburger, vol. II, p. 365 and in der Leipziger, vol. X VIII, p. 499. We have retranslated according to De Wette.
I also experience much less rage from the princes than I did a year ago. It is not difficult for Christ to protect the prince in this matter of mine, into which he has come without cause, solely through God's counsel. For if I myself knew a way to get him out of this matter without disgracing the Gospel, I would not spare my life. I had hoped that I would be dragged to the sheep pen within a year. That was my way how he should be freed, if he should be freed otherwise, when I am killed. But now, because we are not able to explore and understand his counsel, we will be safest if we say: Thy will be done. And I do not doubt that the prince will remain unharmed as long as he does not publicly confess to my cause and approve of it. But why he must bear our disgrace, God knows; but this is certain, that it will be done to him without harm or loss.
This is a danger that will be of great benefit to our blessedness.
Whether or not our Baal monkeys (since they want it that way) keep the masses and blasphemous ceremonies is nothing to me, but I would rather that they were abolished; but it is my duty to remind and punish them and to turn the people away from them, so that they do not share in their sins, since we are so sure that God's wrath is upon them, so that I do not also have to bear their plagues by my silence. Finally, I would have wished that the prince would have been a little more reasonable here and would have overlooked it for a little while longer. HisNath does not please me quite (satis), who has, I don't know what kind of unbelief about him, yes, this courtly weakness of spirit, according to which they tend to prefer the temporal to the spiritual. But I command GOtte his things. Farewell and pray for me. On Monday after Dionysius, Anno 1523. Martin Luther.