Response to the previous letter.
From the original in Christoph. Stymmelii tractatu de miraculis 1567; in Buddeus, p. 253; in Seckendorf, Hist. Luth., lib. III, p. 136 b sq. and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 12. German in Walch, vol. XXI, 1274.
School Library, M, 104). According to Spieker, Beschreibung und Geschichte der Marien- und Oberkirche zu Frankfurt a. O., 1835, the girl was called Gertruds Metzke and was the daughter of a fisherman at Lebus near Frankfurt (therefore Seckendorf calls her "Gertrudis Fischeria"). Seckendorf, Hist. Luth. lib. III, p. 136 b, ยง L,, reports that D. Jodocus Willich, professor in Frankfurt, in his small commentary on the prophet Jonah, 1549, testifies that he had seen such along with very many others from the university countless times; at that time she was still living in Frankfurt and was in service (famulari).
4) Instead of puellaque, read puellaeque.
Letters from the year 1536. No. 2265. 2266.
To the highly esteemed man, Mr. Andreas Ebert, preacher at Frankfurt an der Oder, his brother who is very beloved in your Lord.
Grace and peace in Christ! To many it seems unbelievable what you write, my dear Andrew, and before you wrote, I also thought, since it was told here, that I was hearing a joke or a fairy tale. But if the matter is as you write, I think it is a sign by which God allows Satan to display the figure and image of certain princes who steal and devour treasures everywhere, and yet accomplish nothing. Now, since this is a jesting spirit, and in its leisure ridicules our safety, we must first pray earnestly for the girl who must suffer these things for our sake. Then this spirit must again be despised and ridiculed, nor must we attack it with any incantations or serious things, because it ridicules all this in devilish hopefulness. But we must persevere with prayer for the girl and with contempt against the devil, and at last, if Christ gives grace, he will desist. It would also be good if the princes improved their vices, which are attacked by this sign, in which this mischievous spirit, as it is indicated here, reigns mightily and surely. I ask you, since this matter is worthy of being published, 1) that you have everything investigated in the most certain way, so that there is no fraud behind it, and especially) whether the coin or the coins that the girl grabs and swallows are real coins, which can suffer the use on the market. For I have been driven by so many false pretenses, deceptions, intrigues, lies, tricks, etc., that it must necessarily be difficult for me to believe everything, unless such things I know I do and say. So great is the power of the devil, the wickedness of the world and the audacity of men today.
1) In 1538, Ebert published the following: "Wunderzeitung, von einem Geldteufel, ein seltzame vnglaubliche, doch wahrhafftige geschieht. It happened in Frankfurt a. O." 2c. A copy is in Berlin: Serapeum 1859, p.239. (Burkhardt.)
Therefore, watch and take heed lest you also be deceived, and I be deceived by you. Experto crede Ruperto, as the saying goes. Be well with the Lord and pray for me. Wittenberg, August 5, 2, 1536.
No. 2266.