Of Jonah's health - circumstances; of the alleged plague in Wittenberg, and news from there.
Manuscript at Wolfenbüttel in Cod. HeImst. 107 and in Aurifaber, vol. III, p. 220. Printed in Schütze, vol. II, p. 348 and in De Wette, vol. I V, p. 624. German in Walch, vol. XXI, 1426 f.
Grace and peace in Christ! I wish you luck, my dear Jonas, for this happy success in regard to your health, and yet God would that there your stone would find another stone, or rather a pestilence, by which it would die in you. We do not sing: "In the midst of the fief we are embraced with death", but: "In the midst of death we are in full life", because there is nothing more here of death or corpses than what dies from Adam, according to the ordinary fate of the whole world. When you go to Torgau, I ask that you deliver or send this chant to that unrepentant and restless promoter (exactori) Marcus, the wine-bartender (Vinario), for I have had no other messenger.
Hartmuth von Kronberg has been with me, looking for his sister, that strange woman (as you know) with us; of that another time. I wonder why Pommer hesitates to come to us, since he has been in the vicinity of Wittenberg, I don't know where, for almost eight days. I am sending here to you, as the visitator, the matter of a certain Kirchner,
as you will see; I have written for the Kirchner at Jessen 1). I am now busy writing the theses and preparing the things for the doctorate. The festivity (aula) will take place on September 14, but the disputation four days before. You will be called in due time. Be well and pray for me. Greet all yours. Tuesday Bartholomew [August 24] Anno 1535.
Your Martin Luther.
No. 2161.