From the Wittenberg Concord.
From the Cyprian collection in Gotha in Schütze, Vol. III, p. 12 and in De Wette, Vol. V, p. 6 f.
To the man to be highly honored in Christ, Mr. Joh. Forster, Magister and faithful servant of the church at Augsburg, his extremely dear brother.
Grace and peace in Christ! I ask you very much, my dear Forster, that you take it kindly and patiently that I have written you nothing from our meeting here, as I see that you expected it, and thought enough of it that you expected it. But so overwhelmed by letters from others, then also with actions, I was forced to postpone my closest friends until I had finished with the new ones to be won, in the opinion that you and other already old friends would rather suffer the delay and wait happier than those who insisted on the recently undertaken concord, as was also mainly the case with your magistrate. But to this day I have not yet written about these matters to all of us, and I am compelled to use the Prince's Chancellery in this matter.
Certainly, I protested at length and clearly and again and again in this meeting that if they did not have a sincere and honest mind about the matter itself, they would want to renounce the concord, because this discord would be safer than a fictitious concord, which could give birth to endless discord. But they accepted everything so sacredly and seriously, even our apology, that I could not refuse them. I also said: if you should act differently, we will oppose you with this very apology. Christ knows what will happen, and he, if he makes this concord a firm one, will have done a great miracle. But now we await the response of the churches and their authorities as to whether these agreements of ours please them, so that the Concordia may finally be decided upon and publicly issued. For without the consent
Both parts can be decided by us alone nothing, which they have in command from us. And so we indicate it to ours. M. Bucer (as I hope) has been told sufficiently that he will not allow the magistrate to be stirred up against the possessions and rights of the canons, or that he will do so. You pray with all of us that everything will go out happily, and finally (by God's mediating hand) so many and such great ailments in the church will cease, amen. Greetings to all your relatives. My Käthe sends you her love. The Lord be with you. July 12, 1536.
Your Martin Luther.
No. 2256.