About the sister of Hartmuth von Kronberg, with whom Luther talked about the matter when he was in Wittenberg.
Handwritten at Wolfenbüttel in Cod. Gud. From the Schmid collection at Helmstädt in Schlitze, vol. II, p. 349 and in De Wette, vol. IV, p. 624.
Grace and peace! I have received your letter, my dear Justus, and hope that Hartmuth von Kronberg will be there before this messenger returns to you. I have acted with Hartmuth with the utmost diligence for the woman, and he, as he is a man of his word, has promised me such things that I hope the woman is well advised. And would God that the woman had entrusted to me everything that she has entrusted to others now; perhaps there would have been advice sooner. I, who have often been deceived by pretended (fictas) nuns and great whores, had to be cautious and consider my danger, otherwise I would have gutted her with due honors and soon delivered her to her relatives again. That Jew, her seducer, has a very bad name, also his parents. We believe, I also believe, that he is rightly slain. Therefore, if they are still with you when you receive this letter, may you also comfort the wife in my name and charge the brother that he remember my protection, indeed, his own promise for the wife. For I am now convinced after the: Facts that she has been and still is a very good woman, whose fall I greatly regret; Christ comfort her.
We are here in the midst of death in the liver; our plague is made great without measure, although no one dies another death than that which is usual in all times of dying. If a child dies, it must soon have been the plague. The devil has mocked us by several deaths that were carried off two months ago by a contagious disease (contagio). In the meantime there is such peace as can only be for mortals. Farewell and pray for me in Christ. On St. Bartholomew's Day [Aug. 24] 1535.
Your Martin Luther.
No. 2160.