February 1543.
To all pastors, our dear lords and brothers in Christ, grace and peace in the Lord. D. Martin Luther and D. John Pomer.
1. our most gracious lord duke John Frederick, elector, etc., has given his consent.
Both you and we are commanded and admonished that we should always diligently exhort the people to repentance and prayer against God's ruthlessness, the Turk. Which we also, without this, in addition to our gracious Lord's command to you, provide that you from
*) This admonition is found in the collective editions: in the Wittenberg (1559), vol. XII, p. 227; in the Jena (1562), vol. VIII, p. 1706; in the Altenburg, vol. VIII, p. 341; in the Leipziger, vol. XXII, p. 424; in the Erlanger, vol. 56, p. 54; and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 544. We give the text according to the Jena edition, comparing the Wittenberg. The determination of the time is according to De Wette.
(1) I have sufficiently admonished you, and I have no doubt that you have done so and are still doing so.
2 Because this move, which happened last summer, did not turn out too well, unfortunately! but the heavy tax was badly laid, great goods were lost, in addition many fine people were lost, and, which is probably the worst, the name of Christ was highly despised by the Turks, but the Mahmet was highly praised, moreover that some princes and lords (as it is said) kept the tax and sent no help, which was frightening for us to hear, and have had to think that they must either be in league with the Turk and traitors to Christendom, or else worse enemies of Christendom, neither being the Turk himself, because they so shamefully kept the money, which was put up for the last need of Christendom, and killed it, of which much evil talk arose in the empire; And if this were the case, they should be thrown out of the empire and deprived of all honor of the empire.
3. Such and such things have truly moved us, that we would have thought our prayers (I Doctor Martinus in particular) to be nothing, but that God would not hear, because not only has no repentance followed, but usury, stealing, transgressing, all kinds of wantonness in all classes, but also such enemies of Christianity are found among us, who have deprived the fighting Christians of their wages in such distress and, as much as there is in them, have starved the Christians to serve the Turk. Such things, I say, truly move us as well, along with many other pious people, that it seems as if God's wrath and punishment will not be asked for, but will give room to the Turk and his traitors.
4 But because we are commanded by God's word, we are also commanded to pray. Therefore, let us do what we can and how we can. Whoever
1) This refers to the "Exhortation to Prayer Against the Pitfalls," No. 55 in this volume.
not repent nor become righteous in God's name, let him (if he will) become worse in the devil's name. We must pray, just as we must preach, without ceasing 'and without hindrance, because we are with the world and in the world, so that our conscience may be free on that day, when we have faithfully shown our Christian ministry and love against the false, ungrateful, evil world, and have not grieved it to the end. If God wants to punish her through the Turk, as she deserves, and is still struggling for it with all impenitence and wickedness, our prayers will be directed to us again, as Christ says in Matth. 10, 13, and will be a testimony to us before God that we heartily resisted His wrath and the Turk, our fortune, and would have gladly saved poor Germany from sins, God's wrath and destruction.
(5) You shall also stop the tolling of the bell at noon, and help to pray earnestly in church after the sermon, when the people are together, and let the children pray in the houses. For it is not so important to us old people who go there, but it is to serve our descendants so that they may remain safe from the devil of Mahmet in the faith of Christ and eternal bliss.
6) Do not forget the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg, either, that God, the Father of all graces, wanted to enlighten and incline the hearts of the princes, now that this summer the faith has rudely come into their hands, that they once seriously want to leave their disagreement, to unite cordially with all their might, and to do things differently than before, before they become confused and degenerate, since they would like to in vain, because now they do not want to, since they can. There are enough examples with Hungary and many other countries. Whoever will not listen, God will not hear him again. But we, who preach and pray, are excused. Hiemit GOtt befehlt. Amen.
2) Wittenberger: in this.