See St. Louis edition, vol. X, 1956.
No. 1956.
To the Mayor and Council of Rothenburg an der Tauber.
Intercession for a poor student.
Manuscript in Gotha, Cod. 402. fol. and at Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Helmst. 94. Printed in the Wittenberg edition (1559), vol. XII, p. 201; in the Jena edition (1568), vol. VI, p. 2; in the Altenburg edition, vol. VI, p. 122; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXII, p. 563, and again in the Supplement, p. 72 (in the latter place as addressed to the Nuremberg council, according to Cod. Helmst. ); likewise twice in Walch, vol. XXI, 358 and Col. 364; in De Wette, vol. I V, p. 435 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 55, p. 3.
To the honorable and wise gentlemen, mayor and council of Rothenburg an der Tauber, my favorable gentlemen and friends.
Grace and peace in Christ. Honorable, wise, dear gentlemen and good friends! Although I am a stranger to E. W. and unknown by name, I am nevertheless compelled to write to you for the sake of your city child, George Schnell, who has also been asked to do so, not by himself, but by other good people who wish him well. Therefore I ask, E. W. want to keep this writing for me, and that is the opinion:
It is your city child, of which you have no shame, learned and pious, my daily household.
1) tam concretiva quam abstractiva, tam relativa quam absoluta, et omnium praedicamentorum modis.
2) sanctissimus Clemens et clementissimus Sanctus, a play on words that cannot be rendered in German.
Letters from the year 1533. no. 1956 to 1959.
and table companion, that I have to give him good information and testimony. Because he is now poor and has nothing, my diligent request is that E. W. mean, as there is now everywhere a great miserable lack of learned people (or what still wants to become), that many schools and parishes unfortunately lie desolate, and the people without God's word become wild and beastly, and yet for God's sake help promote the young people, considered that a clever man can help many thousands.
Therefore, because you also owe it to your town child to help, I hope that my request will be all the more amicable, that E. W. will be helpful to his studio, for example with a fief or whatever else God has bestowed. Truly, it is not badly invested, as I know him, and will be of use and honor to your city. And if no one else should repay it, then he is the one who is pleased with such a good deed, and his name is Jesus Christ, who has well deserved it for us, that we should help him further his kingdom and honor.
No. 1957.