Response to No. 2172a. The Elector has reservations about having the letters written by the Bishop of Mainz to Hans Schönitz vidified by the Court for his brother Antonius, and advises that if he wants to have the letters printed, he should have this done by a public notary. The prince promises Schönitzen that he will order protection for him even during his absence.
The original concept is at Dresden in the Hauptstaatsarchiv, I^ooat. 8948. k. 68. The first concipirung is corrigated many times; the corrections are cursory and often written only suggestively. Printed in Erl. Briefw., vol. X, p. 244.
Johans Fridrich 2c.
Our greeting. Venerable and reverend, dear devotee! We have read your letter, which you have now sent to us at the request of Antoni Schenitz concerning the vidimirung of several letters, which have been attributed to his brother by the Archbishop of Mainz 2c. Since the said Schenitz asks to order our court to vidimir such letters to his and his brother's children [Ehren Nothdurft] 2), we have all kinds of reservations about this, and also take care that the court concerned would hardly be able to do the same. Because we consider it to be the case that he would perhaps have a printout publicly issued for the honor of his and his brother's heirs, it should be sufficient, and also have more prestige, where such letters are exemplified by an open notary public, as is appropriate and due, and such letters are advertised. You shall notify him of this, and also not let this order of ours come from you. But at his request we will
1) The Elector replied to this letter on October 6. This answer is now available in Erl. Briefw., Vol. X, p. 244, from which we see that Col. 2008 has to erase the notes 2) and 3) as wrong, namely "Hoferecht" stands for Court Court, and the Elector does not advise to have the letters printed, but only sets the possibility that they will be printed.
2) Added by us.
We order you to protect and handle the Schenitz, according to the protection we have given you, in the same way as we do. We did not want to restrain you in your gracious opinion. Date Weimar, Wednesday after Francisci [Oct. 6] 1535.
No. 218 3a.