About his imminent return. About the happy establishment of the settlement and the reconciliation of Counts Gebhard and Albrecht intended by him. About their sons and about Luther's condition 2c.
From Cod. chart. 79. 4. Bibl. Goth. in De Wette, vol. V, p. 791 and in the Erlanger Ausgabe, vol. 56, p. 154.
To the attention of my friendly, dear housewife, Katherin Lutherin von Bora at Wittenberg.
Grace and peace in the Lord. Dear Käthe! We hope to come home again this week, if God wills. God has shown great mercy here; for the lords have settled almost everything through their councils, except for two articles or three, among which is that the two brothers Count Gebhard and Count Albrecht will become brothers again, which I am to do today, and I will ask them to come to me as guests, so that they may also talk to each other; for they have been silent until now, and have embittered themselves severely with writings. Otherwise, the young gentlemen are cheerful, ride together with the jester-Glöcklin on sleighs, and the Fräulin too, and bring each other Mumschenz, 2) and are good things, even Count Gebhard's son. So one must grasp that God is exauditor precum [the hearer of prayers].
I'll send you trout that Countess Albrecht gave me; she's happy from the bottom of her heart.
2) This is Mummenschanz.
Letters from the year 1546. No. 3312. 3313. 3314.
of unity. Your sons are still at Mansfeld. Jakob Luther wants to provide for them. We have food and drink here, as do the lords, and they are waiting for us quite nicely, and all too nicely, that we might well forget you in Wittenberg. So the stone does not bother me either. But D. Jonas' leg would have been almost quad 1), so it has gained holes on the shin; but God will also help.
You may report all this to M. Philipps, D. Pomer and D. Creuziger. There is a rumor that D. Martinus has been taken away, as they say in Leipzig and Magdeburg. The wise men, your compatriots, invent such things. Some say that the emperor is thirty miles away from here at Soest in Westphalia; some that the Frenchman accepts servants, the landgrave too. But let us say and sing; we will wait and see what God will do. Hereby commanded by God. At Eisleben on Sunday Valentini [14 Feb.] 1546.
M. Luther, D.
No. 3313.