Luther asks the duke to punish a citizen of Freiberg, who had committed blasphemous or false teachings and had fled, not with his life, but with temporary imprisonment.
From a contemporaneous copy in the Weimar Archives, Reg. N, p. 369. 184, in De Wette, vol. V, p. 1, with the incorrectly resolved date: "4. Junius" and, likewise, in the Erlangen Edition, vol. 55, p. 139 f.
Grace and peace in Christ. Sublime, highborn prince, gracious lord! A citizen of Freiberg, called Matches Lotther, has offended with words against our teachings and also against the Pope's 2c. Thereupon I strongly admonished the citizens, who reported such to me in writing, that they should see to it and help that it would be forbidden to him 2). Thereupon (I hear) E. F. G. has taken a great seriousness against him, so that he is worried about his life and has had to flee, which I did not hear unwillingly from E. F. G.. Now he comes to me and asks, through the intercession of many good people, that I should put him on the hook against E. F. G., and ask E. F. G. to grant him the
2) In the prints: "him".
He wanted to moderate his punishment in such a way that he could sell his possessions and leave the country alive with his wife and child. Now I think it would be better if E. F. G. would let him be punished with the dungeon for a while, and stay with wife and child, with duty, where he would do more of the thing, should have his head neglected straight away. For such boys, when they come to their equals, help to make the fire 1) bigger, and nothing bad can happen to them, than that they are kept in the country and are obliged, as my most gracious lord, the Elector, ordered Carlstadten to do and some more. But E. F. G. will know what all this means, because I myself do not know how to keep these people. If they stay, they don't stop throwing things; if you chase them away, they make it ten times worse. But if this Matthes were serious, that he so humbly surrenders to repentance, it would be better to keep him in the country with duty, than that he desperately causes greater misfortune outside the country. Hiemit GOtt befohlen, Amen. Wednesday in Pentecost [June 7] 1536.
E. F. G.
Martinus Luther.
No. 2247.