Luther is dissatisfied with the course of the negotiations and wishes that Melanchthon with Doctor Brück issue a written order to the prince that Luther should return.
From the original in the archive at Ansbach in Schütze, Vol. I, p. 339 and in De Wette, Vol. V, p. 784 f.
To the highly famous man, Mr. Philipp Melanchthon, the faithful servant of God, his exceedingly dear brother.
Grace and peace! Here we sit and lie idle and busy, my dear Philip
pus; idle, doing nothing; busy, suffering infinitely as Satan's malice plagues us. Among so many paths, we finally came to the one that showed hope; this one, again, Satan prevented. Then we took another path, where we thought everything was already in place; again Satan prevented us from doing so. The third one has been started, which seems to be quite certain and cannot be missed, but the outcome will prove what has been done.
I would like, and I ask you, to ask the prince with Doctor Brück to call me back home by letter for the sake of necessary causes, whether I can perhaps in this way force them to speed up the agreement. For I believe that they cannot suffer my departure without the matter being settled. I will therefore give them this week, after which I will threaten them with the letter from the prince. 1) Today is about the tenth day since we started to regulate (moderari) the new city. I believe that it is built with much easier worries than it can be regulated by us. So great is the distrust of the minds on both sides that they suspect that poison is being put before them in every syllable. You can say it is a war of words or a war of words. This convenience is owed to the lawyers, because they have taught and still teach the whole world so many ambiguities, restrictions and intrigues, that certainly the way of speaking is more confused than any Babylon. Because there nobody could understand the other, here nobody wants to understand the other. O on the intriguers, O on the sophists, the pestilence of the human race! I write in anger, I do not know whether I will teach more correctly when I am sober. But the wrath of God looks at our sins. The LORD will judge his people, but with his servants he will be conciliatory, Amen. "If this is jurist's art, it would not be noth that a jurist should be so proud as they all are." Isaiah Cap.3 has the rule sV.1.2.^:
1) On February 14, Luther received a princely order to return. See No. 3311.
"The LORD will take from Judah and Jerusalem strong men and men of war" 2c. Fare well and pray for me. On the day of Dorothea [Feb. 6] 1546. 1) Martin Luther, D.
No. 3304.