About an allegedly possessed person.
Handwritten in Cod. chart. B. 185, pag. 585 b at Gotha. Printed in Kolde, Analecta, p. 241.
Letters from the year 1536. No. 2264. 2265.
To the extremely godly and faithful D. N., 1) his master and teacher who is to be honored above all others.
Hail in Christ! I am ashamed to complain and call upon you, dear Lord, who are more overwhelmed than busy by the amount of business, with my letter, but the duty towards God and the neighbor urges me, I may want to or not, and spurs me on so much that I must come to the aid of others to the best of my ability. But because I do not have enough knowledge in this matter, I highly desire your advice, which will not only be very valuable to me, but also to all godly people. But in order for you, dear teacher, to get to know the matter better, I will describe it briefly. There is a girl with us, about sixteen years old, who is possessed by the devil in a way that I have never read or heard an example of. For at certain hours she is seized by a rage of Satan, in such a way that she tears out pennies, dimes, and other Mark coins, sometimes from a dress, sometimes from the beard of someone standing there, sometimes from the table: In short, she snatches it from any place, and if someone does not suddenly seize her hand, she puts the money she has seized somewhere into her mouth, chews it up with her teeth, and often shows it on the front of her tongue, which she tends to stick out. At night, however, she makes such a great noise, just as if she were shaking a great treasure with her hands, which she also tries to swallow in bed, so that the danger of suffocation is to be feared; one believes it was Joachimsthal coin. Everything she sees, everything she talks about, is either money or a mouse (mus[sic]), and often she makes a treasure sound, so that one would like to believe it was a great wealth. A certain measuring priest, who was called to us by the wise council from the next little town, wanted to cure her, but he did nothing else 2) than with consecrated herbs, waters, rescues and, if I am not mistaken, with very violent incantations, at last also with threats, until the sixth day; then he finally left, deceived in his hope. 3) Meanwhile,
1) "N." stands for Luther; that this letter is addressed to him can be seen from No. 2265.
2) The predicate is missing in this sentence. We have added after ipse: fecit.
3) This matter caused a great stir at that time. Luther himself referred to it in a sermon, as we can see from a letter of Dorothea Kerstin to her brother-in-law Stephan Roth from the first Advent 1536 (Zwickauer
In order for me to do my duty sufficiently, I exhort the people in every sermon to pray to God for her, which has so far been done most conscientiously, and I do not cease and desist as long as I can pray. But she always persists in grabbing small coins, yes, she wishes to destroy herself completely, either with a rope or a knife, or by water, if the guards did not prevent it so carefully; so even Satan makes her desperate by his fear. Therefore, I ask you for advice on what to do in this rare and dangerous matter, and for the love of Christ, I ask you to come to our aid in this matter. You know this adversary's tricks and weapons, and you also know how to resist him so that he will finally be driven out. If you cannot do it because of your many affairs, then you may order someone else to do it. And if there were someone there who could free them with his prayers, there are citizens here who love godliness and would see to it that it is brought to us at their expense. If this were to happen, you would first of all be doing an extremely pleasant service to the Almighty God, but also to all those who care about the Christian religion. Be well and remember the girl possessed by the devil. 4)
To Frankfurt on the Oder.
Andr. Ebert,
Ecclesiast to Frankfurt.
No. 2265.