First half 1535.
This writing is, as Walch notes in his introduction to the 20th volume, p. 80, "among others printed at Wittenberg in 1538 in quarto". Furthermore, a reprint appeared in 1535 at Hieronymus Formschneider in Nuremberg, and another print (without indication of the printer) together with the following writing (Erlanger, vol. 63, p. 336). They
*) This letter addressed to Counts Jerome and Loren; von Schlick (Burkhardt, Briefwechsel, p. 208s is found in the Wittenberg edition (1569), vol. IX, p. 478; in the Jena (1566), vol. V, p. 509; in the Altenburg, vol. V, p. 985; in the Leipzig, vol. XXII, p. 560; in the Erlangen, vol. 54, p. 332 and in De Wette, vol. I V, 407. We give the text according to De Wette.
is found only in the Wittenberg edition (1551), vol. II, p. 281, with the year 1528. In the index to the Wittenberg and Jena editions by Sigismund Schwoh is "1538"; both dates are to be regarded as printing errors. The author of the book Restitutio (Neudecker, Actenstücke, 1. Abtheilung, p. 105) is the Münster preacher M. Bernhard Rothmann, who was still a preacher of the pure doctrine on December 23, 1532, as Luther's letter to him of this date testifies (De Wette, Vol. IV, p. 426). Therefore the book, consequently also our writing, which is directed against it, must belong to a later time. We would be inclined to assume the year 1535, because the individual editions belong to this year, namely the first half of the year, because Rothmann (probably) perished during the conquest of Münster. Because this writing is completely contained in No. 40, we have omitted it, especially since it is not written by Luther, but by Melanchthon.