Luther informs him of the birth of his third daughter. About the settlement negotiations at Cassel and about the duke in Würtemberg.
Manuscript in Aurifaber, vol. III, p. 211 and at Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Helmst. 107, printed by Schütze, vol. II, p. 327 and by De Wette, vol. IV, p. 574.
1) Concern No. 2094.
No. 20SK.
To Joachim, Prince of Anhalt.
Luther asks him to be godfather to his daughter.
Printed in the Altenburg edition, vol. VIII, p. 992; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXII, p. 565; in Walch, vol. XXI, 377; in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 575 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 55, p. 77 and (after the original) vol. 56, p. 193.
To the illustrious, highborn prince and lord, Lord Joachim, prince of Anhalt, count of Ascanien and lord of Berneburg, my gracious lord.
Grace and peace in Christ. Sublime, highborn prince, gracious one! The Almighty God has given me a young daughter from my dear Käthe at this hour. Now I have promised E. F. G. beforehand to ask for the Christian office of spiritual fatherhood: accordingly I ask for Christ's sake that E. F. G. will not burden humility and help the poor heathen from his sinful, fatal birth to the new, holy and blessed rebirth, and be a spiritual father through the holy bath of baptism. And because it is now cold and awkward weather for E. F. G.'s body, I would like to see E. F. G.'s own person spared, and E. F. G.'s body returned home, whether or not E. F. G.'s body is in a good state of health. F. G. home, whether she orders one in her place from Dessau or from here. M. Philippus and M. Franscus are not native. What E. F. G. has decreed, they will know how to keep. God will reward them for it, and I am obliged to do what I know is necessary to earn it. In the morning I would like to have it baptized. May Christ be with E. F. G. blessed, amen. Thursday after St. Lucy's [Dec. 17] 1534.
E. F. G.
Martinus Luther, D.
No. 2VS7.
To Joachim, Prince of Anhalt.
Thanks for the accepted paternity with Luther's daughter Margaretha.
In Lindner, "Mittheilungen," p. 23; in the Erlauger edition, vol. 56, p. 194 and in De Wette-Seidemann, vol.VI, p. 153.
To the illustrious, highborn Prince and Lord, Lord Joachim, Prince of Anhalt, Count of Ascanien and Lord of Berneburg, my gracious Lord.
Grace and peace in Christ. Sublime, highborn prince, gracious lord! I thank your Lord most humbly that your Lord has shown himself so graciously in the Christian work against me and my new man in Christ. Our Lord God reward E. F. G., Amen. But E. F. G. has done well, and has given me much care, that she has not herself gone into such harsh inaccuracies, for it may indeed have been too sharp and too rough for E. F. G.'s body. To my gn. Johns and F. George 2c., I wish God's mercy through my poor pater noster together with the whole trunk, branches and fruits, and E. F. G. want to give me my forgiveness. F. G. want to grant me my presumptuous petition and live happily and blessedly in Christ, Amen. XIX Decembris 1534.
E. F. G. williger D. Martinus Luther.
No. 2098.