Perhaps April 1532.
Grace and peace in Christ our Lord and Savior.
1 Sublime Highborn Prince! I have received and heard E. F. G.'s writing on the Sacrament and the 6th Chapter of John, and should E. F. G. have answered it long ago, but the weakness of my head has prevented it, 1) and still does, for which reason I humbly ask E. F. G. to graciously grant me such a delay, since I have had to write it even now, and let someone else write it. However, I wanted to let it go out through the printing process to indicate to the enthusiasts once again that I no longer intend to deal with them about the matter, in addition to the fact that I was worried that it would come into print, and because it is not my pen, but my poetry, and therefore perhaps not equal to my previous writings, it would be even worse and omitted more industriously 2).
2 And that I answer E. F. G. in the shortest way, it is true that John 6. Christ does not speak of the Lord's Supper, nor does he act with his hands, nor does he give bread to his disciples, as he does in the Lord's Supper, but preaches freely both to the disciples and unbelievers at Capernaum about faith in him, which faith believes him to be true man, to have flesh and blood, and to have given them both for us; which actually means to eat his body spiritually and to drink his blood spiritually. And is also called spiritual bread, which gives life to the world. Such
1) The Jena edition has the conjecture in the margin that "so far" would like to be omitted here.
2) The Wittenberg has instead of "omitted" the words: "in print an Tag geben".
Eating and drinking can take place apart from baptism and sacrament, but only in faith and through the preached word of the gospel, and no godless person can eat in this way, just as little as a godless person can believe and remain godless at the same time. For he says there [Cap. 6, 51.] "He that eateth this bread hath life." And again [v. 53] "Unless ye eat of the flesh, and drink of the blood of the Son of man, ye shall have no life in you." Therefore they must be true believers who eat John 6. for they shall have life, says Christ.
3) And the summa 3) is said: "He who believes in Christ will be saved. But in the Lord's Supper both worthy and unworthy can eat, as St. Paul clearly indicates 1 Cor. 11, 27-29: "He who eats the Lord's bread unworthily, and drinks the cup unworthily, eats and drinks judgment." Therefore they cannot all eat life, as they must eat John on the 6th. Therefore there is a great difference between St. John's Day on the 6th and the Lord's Supper. For the latter is a spiritual meal, without the bodily meal; but here in the Lord's Supper there is 4) a spiritual meal, but only for believers, and besides it a bodily meal, both common to believers and unbelievers. As believing and hearing the gospel is a spiritual baptism, since we are baptized spiritually by the Spirit and fire, susceptible only to believers; but bodily baptism is common to both believers and unbelievers, and yet a true baptism in both, without being of any use to unbelievers.
3) Instead of "the summa" in the Wittenberg: "in summa so much".
4) Wittenberger: is.
*) This letter was published in 1532 in a single edition by Nickel Schirlenz in Wittenberg. In the "Gesammtausgabe": Wittenberger (1551), vol. II, p. 241; Jenaer (1566), vol. V, p. 488; Altenburger, vol. V, p. 963; Leipziger, vol. XX, p. 354; Erlanger, vol. 54, p. 281 and in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 348. The latter places the writing in April because Luther calls himself ill and speaks of Zwingli's death and the defeat of the Zurichers as having happened recently. We give the text according to De Wette.
but condemnable. Just as the name of God in the other commandment is the only right name of God, but still harmful to the one who misuses it, and beneficial to the one who calls on it in right faith.
(4) And even though some people confirm the text of John 6:6 concerning the sacrament, and insist on the word dabo, when he says, "My flesh which I will give," and think that it should be a promise of the sacrament which he afterwards instituted, yet it is not so; for by dabo or promise he means that he will give up his body to death for us, and will shed his blood for our sins. Further, nothing can be forced out, for the aforementioned reason, since no godless person can spiritually eat Christ's flesh or drink his blood, that is, believe; as he may well do in the Lord's Supper and without all faith receive the body and blood of Christ verbally.
(5) But herewith we do not condemn the fathers and teachers who have used and led the sixth chapter of John 1) on the Lord's Supper, as they often lead more sayings in an uneven way; for their opinion is right and good, that they testify that it is truly the flesh and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. Therefore it is to be considered good for them, if they do not hit the sayings right away, because they nevertheless indicate their opinion powerfully and clearly. But to preserve the articles of faith, one must certainly have the sayings in the right simple sense, which is not necessary where one preaches or exhorts plainly.
Now I have said above and more before that I will henceforth leave the fanciers idle and let them be commanded to the judgment of God. For I and many others have pursued this matter of the Sacrament so thoroughly and violently, and have so clearly mislaid their idle chatter that they themselves have had to concede and concede many sayings and pieces, on which they insisted quite stiff-necked at first. This proves, as from experience, that they have made their case from uncertain grounds and their own fictitious stories.
1) Thus the Wittenbergers and the Jenaers. De Wette: "Johannis am sechsten Capitel".
They are always pondering and looking for another one, and direct their cause to "not being silent". Just as the devil, their master, if he cannot overcome a holy man with art, writing or force, so he makes him tired with his incessant 2) stopping, whether he could thus win.
(7) So they also think that they want to engage in perpetual disputation, and drive the people with chatter and sounds, so that in the meantime one should not see nor hear how unfounded things they pretend, and no one should notice how many sayings and pieces they have lost. Even as many books as they have written in all places, and have cried out excellently about spiritual food, none of them has been found among them all who could properly and clearly define or say what spiritual food is, or how it has a shape with faith; but they are always chattering about spiritual food, "and know neither what they say nor what they put," as St. Paul says. Paul says 1 Tim. 1, 6. 7. For they are inexperienced, untried people in the spirit, that it is impossible for them to understand what spirit, spiritual food, or faith is. Therefore there is no further dealing with them, and whoever wants to be undeceived by them has so much instruction from our books that he can well avoid their chatter.
8 Therefore my faithful Christian councilor, E. F. G., is also idle with them; for there is no end of disputing and chattering, they do not let them say anything and hear nothing, nor do they know anything to say and teach anything. And E. F. G. do not let such be my counsel, as grown out of me, but of the Holy Spirit, who knows all hearts and all things better than we do; he has given us such counsel by his "chosen instrument" 3) St. Paul Titus 3:10, 11, where he says: "A heretical man thou shalt avoid, when he is once or twice admonished; and thou shalt know (says he) that he is perverse, and hast his judgment."
2) De Wette: "incessant".
3) Thus in all editions. De Wette according to the original print: "stuff".
(9) Now they have not been admonished once or twice, but have been overcome in many things and sayings, and yet will not cease. Therefore it is certain, as St. Paul says, "that they are wrong," and no more exhortation helps, much less much disputing and chatting with them without ceasing. And again St. Paul says 2 Tim. 2:14: "Teach them not to quarrel about words, which is not profitable without turning away the hearers." This is saying so much: that much disputing with the mobs is not only unfruitful for them, but also harmful to the hearers, who, even if they are not seduced, are nevertheless annoyed and deterred by it.
(10) Such counsel of the Holy Spirit we must not despise, nor turn to her glory, but always let her go, and avoid her. He who has so counseled us will surely find them and put their glory to shame, as he has already set out to prove and prove by deed. For we have seen how he has destroyed Muenzer and his companions, and made them a terrible example to all the enthusiasts and the spirits of the mob. For with them there was also vain boasting of the spirit and contempt of the sacraments, but it was not found in the evidence what kind of spirit it was. Likewise Carlstadt, since the time he began the game, has been chased to and fro in the world, leaving no place for his body nor rest in his heart, like a true Cain, marked and afflicted with trembling and fear. And now the poor people in Switzerland, Zwingeln and his own, have been punished noticeably enough, so that the spirits of the mob should be justly offended. But they are obdurate, perverse, and suo judicio condemnati, 1) says St. Paul [Titus 3:11]. They all want to know, and none believe.
11) And although neither the Münzerians nor the Zwinglians want to believe that they are punished by God, but consider them and preach them as martyrs, we, who know that they have hardly erred in this article and others, must recognize and consider such punishment by God.
1) áàôïêáôÜêñéôïé.
Not that we rejoice in their misfortune, which we are heartily sorry for and have been all along, but that we cannot leave the testimony of God's truth. If they have been saved, as it is not impossible for God to convert a man at his last end in a moment, we grant and wish them that from the bottom of our hearts: but to make martyrs, there is more to it than to be badly saved, namely, a certain divine cause, for which they suffer and die; which is not found here. For we also do not condemn to hell the evildoers who are punished or put away by public judgment, but therefore do not make martyrs of them.
(12) And I am astonished that the rest of the Münzerians and Zwinglians do not turn at all to such divine ruts, that they not only remain hardened in their error, but that they interpret such ruts for a rut of the martyrs, and still justify themselves and compare themselves to the holy martyrs. But it is the common example of all the wicked, of which the prophet Isaiah 9:13 and other prophets often say: Non est reversus populus ad percutientem se, "the people turn not to him that smiteth them." Just as the Jews have not believed for more than a thousand years that they are punished and disturbed by God because of Christ, whom they crucified, but always boast that they are the holy people of God. So also the Pope and his followers do not mind that they attack God with so many miracles, plagues and signs without ceasing, but continue with raging and blustering, blaspheming God and justifying themselves, wanting to be the holy Christian church, to be children of the Holy Spirit in their impenitent, shameful life, whether God likes it or not. These are called the right sins in the Holy Spirit, which one must let go, as Christ did to his Jews.
13) It is true that the victory of the Swiss against the Zwingler is not almost joyful nor worthy of such great glory, because they let the Zwinglian faith, as they call it, remain in their treaty 2) and such erroneous beliefs are not to be found.
2) "Contract" is Conjectur of the Jena edition. In the other editions: Fürtrag.
They do not condemn anything at all, but let it go along with their old, undoubted faith, as they say, which the Sacramentans perhaps comfort and strengthen. But nevertheless one must grasp that [it] is a punishment of God, of which they cannot boast, but have thereby opened the mouth of their adversary and of all godless papists, and have given cause for boasting, which, I fear, will finally demand of both parts the vain right judgment of God. A martyr cannot boast of his punishment before the world, but because he can boast of his just cause before God, he can boast and rejoice in his innocent suffering for the sake of such a good cause.
(14) Since God so powerfully draws a line, and with punishment truly condemns such error, and confirms our faith, it is time to cease doubting and disputing, lest He be too greatly tempted, and last of all we also be made partakers of His punishment and chastisement. Moreover, this article is not a doctrine or a composition, invented out of Scripture by men, but clearly established and founded in the Gospel by the clear, pure, undoubted words of Christ, and from the beginning of the Christian Church in all the world until this hour it has been unanimously believed and held, as evidenced by the dear Fathers' books and Scriptures, both Greek and Latin, and by the daily practice and work of experience, until this hour. Which testimony of the whole holy Christian church (if we had nothing more) shall be sufficient for us alone to stick to this article and not to hear or suffer any red spirit about it. For it is dangerous and frightening to hear or believe anything contrary to the unanimous testimony, faith and teaching of the whole holy Christian church, which from the beginning has held unanimously in all the world for more than fifteen hundred years.
(15) If it were a new article, and not from the beginning of the holy Christian church, or if it were not held in such harmony in all churches, nor in all Christendom throughout the world, it would not be so dangerous nor
1) "demand" - be a promotion.
terrible to doubt or dispute whether it is right? But since it has been held in unison from the beginning and as far as the whole of Christendom is, whoever now doubts it, does as much as if he believed no Christian church, and thereby condemns not only the whole holy Christian church as a damned heretic, but also Christ Himself with all the apostles and prophets, who founded and powerfully testified to this article, when we say: "I believe a holy Christian church," namely Christ Matth. 28, 20.: 2) "Behold, I am with you unto the end of the world." And St. Paul 1 Tim. 3, 15.: "The Church of God is a pillar and foundation of the truth." Their own opiuio also testifies against them, that they are so divided against one another about the text, and make almost seven or eight things, so much text, so many opinions, and can teach nothing certain, nor report any poor conscience constantly.
For this reason, I urge and request that the Foundation avoid such people and not suffer them in the country, according to the advice of St. Paul and the Holy Spirit, as indicated above. For the authorities must consider that if they were to allow and suffer such rotten spirits, if they were able to prevent it and if it were to occur, they would grievously burden their consciences and perhaps never be able to satisfy them again, not only for the sake of the souls that would be seduced and condemned by it, which the authorities could have preserved. F. G., but also for the sake of the whole holy church, against which so long established and universally held faith and unanimous testimony to form something, if one could well resist it, is an unbearable burden for the conscience. I would rather have the wisdom and justice of not only all the ruffians, but of all emperors, kings and princes testify against me, than to hear or see one iota or one jot of the whole holy, Christian church against me. For it is not so to jest with articles of faith, from the beginning and, as far as Christendom is, held in harmony, as
2) Here De Wette has reprinted Walch's false Bible quotation "Matth. 28,10.", which the Erlangen edition has also excepted, this time not from Walch, but from De Wette.
one may jest with papal or imperial rights, or other human traditions of the fathers or concilia.
17 I have recently replied to E. F. G. and humbly in good Christian faith. Christ, our faithful Savior,
May E. F. G. with His Holy Spirit abundantly enlighten and strengthen us to believe and do according to His dear holy Word, Amen.
E. F. G.
willing D. Martinus Luther.