The council explains in detail how they were urged by the preachers to suspend the papal mass and ceremonies in the Catholic monasteries, and in what difficulty they got into as a result. Now they ask for advice on how they should behave.
The original concept is in the Frankfurt City Archives, MG. C. 11 (12). lüt. L. Printed in Erl. Briefw., vol. X, p. 251.
To the worthy, highly learned gentlemen, Martins Luther, Doctor etc., and Herr Philippen Melanchthon, our dear lords and special good friends.
Our kind services before. Worthy, learned, dear gentlemen and especially good friends! Because of the suspended papal masses and ceremonies, we are confronted with errors and difficulties, which we have undertaken to discover to you out of good faith and to take care of with your faithful advice and report, with the friendly request that you will hear them willingly and without annoyance. For since the matter itself is of great importance and much is at stake, the necessity of telling the story at length requires it. Namely:
When we, in recent years, shortly after the Bavarian outrage, appointed several preachers and commanded them to preach the Word of God for the salvation of us and our souls, our preachers have now, for several years, taken the mass and other papal church offices and ceremonies primarily in hand, against which they preach daily that they, especially the Mass, are not founded in Holy Scripture, are contrary to the Word of God, and are an abominable blasphemy, which we, as the magistrate, are obliged to abolish; From this the listening people not only against the mass, ceremonies and the (the) spiritual persons, but also against us, as those who were involved in such blasphemy 1) and who, as was our due, did not want to abolish it, received and apprehended such displeasure, from which we were concerned that all kinds of improprieties and wanton acts, in awakening evil, would follow in the future, as has also subsequently been shown. For when they began with the daily preaching and shouting against the mass and ceremonies for and for the longer the more violently
1) consented.
In a short time, it has come about that not only the common people, but also a part of us, the council, have been persuaded and have neither known nor believed otherwise than that it is in our power, and we would be guilty before God, to do away with the mass and ceremonies. This has also often been publicly communicated to us by them from the pulpit and in many other ways. For this reason we have been moved to send for them, and to tell them: It has now been a good while since they preached masses and ceremonies, as mentioned above, and although it may well be that the masses and ceremonies, as they have been in use among the clergy, do not have much basis in holy scripture, we know neither from their sermons nor otherwise to report that it is in our power, and that we are the same magistrate, to whom it is due and should be imposed, to create and rule with the ceremonies and the mass in such a way; with a friendly request that they would refrain from moving the unintelligent people to be ruthless against the clergy and us, and that they would preach the word of God, with humble denunciation of the abuses, for the increase of God's honor and love of neighbor, in such a way that thereby no one would give offense, and the Gospel would remain undefiled by those who had not yet come to know it.
However, our admonitions and requests, which have been made to them several times, have had little effect on them, but they have persisted in their intentions to stop the masses and ceremonies, until things (which we do not like to write about them) have brought them to the point that not only the clergy, but also we against the common people, and one citizen against another, are in trouble, but also we against the common people, and one citizen against the other in worries, so that we were caused to request our community from guilds to guilds, and to let them do notices, admonition and reminder, as can be seen from the printed note, marked with the letter, 2) Hiebei verwahret.
To which admonition and reminder our congregation obediently and well kept, and namely gave the answer: although they would like to suffer that the mass, for causes that
2) On December 22, 1532, the City Council sent a printed patent to the guilds, stating that 1) each one should remember the oath he swore to Imperial Maj. Maj. and the Council, 2) to take into account the imperial conventions of Augsburg and Regensburg, and therefore 3) to leave the demand for the abolition of the mass etc. in patience until the future Concilium. (Erl. Briefw.)
Addendum to the letters from 1531 to 1536.
If the above was not preached, they still wanted to have it returned to us, as the authorities. At the same time, we assume that it would have remained so if our prelates had been somewhat more inclined to peace.
But they did not only not let them put up with such modesty of the congregation, but worked much more than before with preaching and otherwise, so that the previous indignation, awakened again, increased to such an extent that at last it was to be feared (as they, the preachers, 1) were partly allowed to hear [make] from the pulpit and to consternate [bedröwen]): where we, the council, would not hold mass, that the women and children would do so; so that it (to write the truth) should not be considered almost unequal to the beginning of an uprising and rebellion, as can be seen from the courage exercised by some children and other young people during the Christmas holidays of the same year, 2) and from the response that we received from the congregation to the other admonition, according to the note marked B, 3). For even though our congregation had completely returned the matter to us in the first reply, they had been so turned away and incited by the preachers and others who had a desire for unrest, 4) in the meantime, that in the last reply they unanimously wanted to have the mass dismissed.
Now we have seen and noted that there is nothing else to be expected, except either outrage and intervention of the mob, which we would not have been responsible to allow in any way, or else the ceremonies would be done out of sight: we have, in order to prevent such mischief, with the [papal] clergy at our place, first of all in kindness
1) Especially Dionysins Melander, the evangelical preacher in St. Bartholomew's Church.
2) "On St. Stephen's Day and the following day (2nd and 3rd Christmas Day), many boys stayed in the parish (parish church of St. Bartholomew) after the (Protestant) sermon, and there prevented all services of the Catholics; the same also happened to the preachers (Dominican church) and the White Women or women firemen" (Ritter, evang. Denkw., p. 166). Several altars were also broken in the process.
3) At the beginning of January 1533, the City Council again issued a printed patent to the guilds, in which it referred to the mischief that had taken place and at the same time drew attention to the imminent danger, since the city had already been threatened by Imperial Maj. Maj. had already threatened the city with a fine of 200 marks of soluble gold if it prevented the papal clergy from performing their ceremonies; at the same time, he called upon them to declare clearly whether the mass should be abolished or not, so that unanimous action could be taken according to necessity. (Ritter I. c. p. 167.)
4) Erl. Briefw.: "hätten".
5) for their own good, and so that we may live with them, they with us, and the common citizenry with each other in peace, suspend their masses and ceremonies for a time, namely until a future council or other Christian renewal, namely until a future council or other Christian renewal of religious matters, with a preliminary protestation that we do not want to have talked and acted with them in any other way than for the above-mentioned reasons, to maintain peace and unity, and that we do not know how to secure or defend them from violence in any other way. 6)
Since the priests, after such an act with them, omit the mass and ceremonies, we and our congregation are, as we have worried before, from this time on complained to the Imperial Court of Appeal. There, irrespective of all our exceptions and pleas, we have been sued and proceeded against to such an extent 7) that we have been fined two hundred marks in commemorated gold, and in addition have been sentenced to the imperial guardianship. Eight, where our most gracious Lord Count Palatine Ludwig, Elector, by imperial order, 8) has decided upon our punishment. Maj.'s order, 8) on our appeal to his electorate, has not undertaken to bring matters to an amicable settlement between Mainz and us, as you know. In which amicable action, however, the matters may not have been settled, but both parties have been given an agreement to sign or sign off in a certain time, notwithstanding this opinion that provost, dean, chapter and common clergy in the monastery of St. Bartolme, founded with us (in view of the fact that there is a special imperial endowment above other monasteries, which is to be used by the monastery of St. Bartolme). Foundation before other monasteries, the election of a Roman king and temporal ruling head in Christendom at any time is decreed and confirmed in the Golden Bull), should be allowed and not refused nor prevented to preach, sing mass and read other things according to their statutes, foundation and church regulations, as by ancient custom; and we in
5) Erl. Briefw.: "stood".
6) This negotiation of the council with the Catholic clergy took place on January 4 and 5, 1533.
7) On April 10, the Imperial Chamber Court at Speier sent the Council a Mandatum poenale, against which the Council protested and appealed to the Emperor.
8) By order of King Ferdinand, Prince Ludwig of the Palatinate had taken over the amicable mediation between Frankfurt and Mainz and scheduled a day for this on April 25, which was then postponed to May 10.
Addendum to the letters from 1531 to 1536.
We have been preaching the Gospel and the Word of God to other churches outside of St. Bartholomew's, according to right understanding, peace and unity, as we can answer for this to God and the Roman Emperor. Maj. can answer for, we would like to have preached etc. And that otherwise all other misunderstandings concerning the monasteries, convents and clergy in our city, until a future Christian Concilio or the Roman Royal Majesty and the Holy See. Maj. and the Holy Roman Empire. Reichs gemeiner Stände meeting, or until the Roman Imperial Maj. Maj. will, as is hoped, soon come to the Holy Roman Empire, be based on and stand for further action and settlement as it has been up to now. And in the meantime, the attribution or transcription with the justification to the Imperial Chamber Court should be stopped. Chamber Court should be stopped etc., as is then further reported in the mentioned farewell.
However, since this departure was due to many reasons, especially the fact that, according to it, two different repugnant sermons and the administration of the sacraments would arise in our city, and a new unrest and disruption of peace and unity would result from it, we have postponed writing it in or out, in the hope that the matter will be brought before our most gracious and gracious lords, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, as well as our special, dear and good friends, masters, mayors and councillors of the cities of Strasbourg, 1) Ulm and Nuremberg, whom we have asked to find counsel in other ways.
However, to write recently about it, all the advice given, also our applied diligence and costs, to obtain some further standstill, have been irreplaceable, so that we furthermore do not know any responsible excuse of delay to write the farewell on or off, but must either accept the same farewell, or, if not, be certain of the declaration of the penal case and the eight.
But now let us consider, if we were to be declared in penance and in custody (as reported), into what danger, mischief and ruin our city would be led, it would also follow that we would then be forced to the entire restitution, not only in St. Bartolmes, but in all other monasteries, churches and convents, and thus from the pure doctrine of the Gospel completely by force.
But after we know that in more than one city, where the right doctrine of the Gospel is preached, the papal masses and ceremonies, especially in the founders, are celebrated with no harm (as
1) Strasbourg advised the city of Frankfurt not to give in on the matter.
We are tolerated by the Protestant doctrine, and it is credibly reported that our gracious lord, the Landgrave of Hesse, acted in the same way before this time between Münster and the bishop there by contract, 2) also you at Wittenberg and Marburg have advised the city of Bremen in the same case, 3) as was previously attributed to our council friend Justinian von Holtzhausen, which you well know to remember, and other things that were given to him by each of you in particular at that time:We have not known how to avoid it, although it is highly repugnant and burdensome to us to contact the Elector of Mainz or his elector. Gn. We have not been able to avoid this, even though it is highly repugnant to us, to have us take action with the Elector of Main or his lordly deputies for the restitution of the monastery of St. Bartolmes on the basis of the proposed Heidelberg means, but that there not the clergy, but we would have the prebendary, as long as the decency lasts.
All of which we hold up to our preachers, talk to them kindly about it, and have them ask for it: Since we do not know any other way of dealing with the evil that is standing on the matter, that they, considering that such things, as mentioned above, are tolerated in more cities, and as we understood from both of you, according to your writings, to our Naths friend Justinian von Holtzhausen, 4) would like to be allowed in their sermons in good conscience, that we would like to be allowed in this case with a good conscience, and that we would like to keep their sermons all the more mild and modest, so that the common people would not be irritated or incited to sit down against our nobility and to show themselves contrary, from which further unrest and indignation would be to be feared.
In which they have sent us all kinds of complaints (as can be heard in part from the writings that they subsequently handed over in our council), and that writings should have gone out from both of you, as you can see.
2) in the treaty brokered by the landgrave, dated 14 Feb. 1533, between the city of Münster and the bishop, according to which the city on the one hand recognized the old constitution of the cathedral priest, and on the other hand was granted six churches for Protestant preaching.
3) Justinian von Holzhausen, born 1502, a humanist student of Melanchthon (inscribed in Wittenberg on Dec. 19, 1524) and in correspondence with him, was elected to the City Council in 1529, belonged with his father, Hamman von Holzhausen, to the most respected members of the Protestant party in the City Council, represented the city as an envoy at several imperial congresses, as well as in 1537 at the Schmalkalden Convention, at which Frankfurt joined the League. He died on Sept. 9, 1553.
4) These letters of Luther and Melanchthon are missing.
Addendum to the letters from 1531 to 1536.
(if you had been rightly informed of the matter), do not want to give credence to it (which is also the main reason that we have to trouble you again with this), nor have they refrained from making the people stubborn and obstinate about this undertaking, so that we have to worry about tumult and outrage no less than before, that we would not have provided for them at all.
However, at the end of their writing, they have offered to follow your and others' advice and instruction in this matter, which we have therefore accepted from them, and send you their letter, at their request, together with other things they write to you, together or separately, privately, unknowingly to us, as they have sent us all this in writing, enclosed.
Dear Sirs and Friends! Now that you have recently and truthfully heard how we have come to the suspension, what has happened, what has followed from it, and what is to be done about it, you, as the most knowledgeable, can well judge that the issue is not whether one should trust in God (for no one doubts this), but whether we, the mayor and council of Frankfurt, have been obliged to cancel the masses and ceremonies in the churches, since we have no patronatus or other jurisdiction: whether we, the mayor and council of Frankfurt, are obliged to abolish the masses and ceremonies in the churches, since we have no zus patronatus or other jurisdiction, and are also obliged to let our city come to thorough ruin rather than to restore one convent again, regardless of the fact that by such restitution of the one convent the teaching of the Gospel is preserved in the other churches.
So our friendly request to you is with special diligence: you shall, in response to our preachers' letter and this true report of ours, in honor of the Gospel, give us your good advice, report and instruction as to how we may, according to the form of the matters of the restitution of half of the St. Bartelmes Monastery, without rebuke to our consciences. Bartelmes without reprimand and without burdening our consciences,1) likewise to admonish our preachers that they are obliged to abide by their orders "in honor of God" and for the sake of common peace. For what we know ourselves to do, or to refrain from doing, out of instruction of the Word of God, to which
1) Luther's answer to this letter is not found, but the same folder of the archives contains Melanchthon's answer from Jena dated November 5 (still unprinted), in which he advises to agree to the restitution of the mass at St. Bartholomew's, because the city council there does not have the jus patronatus, and the refusal would not only bring the imperial power over the city, but could also give rise to a great war. (Erl. Briefw.)
we would gladly comply, insofar as God grants us grace, with our part of the trust that our preachers shall, in accordance with their command, as they have been instructed by you on the basis of the Scriptures, comply with all due diligence. And for our sake, show yourselves to be as benevolent as our trust in you is, and as necessity demands, according to the form and importance of the trade. The Almighty will graciously reward this, and we will earn it for you together and separately with friendly diligence and will. Date on Wednesday the 27th day of Octobris Anno etc. xxxv.
(Inserted note.)
Dear Sirs and Friends! And so that you may know to what extent the Mainzians think they can be compared to us, we hereby send you a copy of the articles and points they have sent us to consider and decide upon. Dat. ut in litteris. 2)
No. 2186.