Luther jokingly advised against preaching a new sermon at the castle in Altenburg.
Handwritten in Cod. Jen. a, fol. 350. Printed by Buddeus, p. 236 and by De Wette, vol. IV, p. 450. German by Walch, vol. XXI, 1245.
To the man to be highly honored in Christ, Mr. M. G. Spalatin, the faithful servant of the Word of the Lord, one of his oldest friends.
"Grace and peace in Christ!" I write, though not very idle, not very healthy either,
1) Coswig or Koswigk is only One German Mile from Wittenberg.
According to the flesh, my dear Spalatin, but I am finally writing in relation to your question. Receive then the answer to your question: 2) If you are thoroughly tired of the peace and tranquility that God has given you so far (how easily I believe that you believe this, you can much more easily understand from our old, extremely great mutual friendship), then you can safely and freely allow the sermon to be preached in the castle, namely (as he says) for a change, as it is pleasing. Peace so far, nothing but unrest and one unrest after the other. If, therefore, you would rather exchange peace for unrest, so that you may finally taste this salad as well, remember that you and your colleagues have people in the castle who sit against you and plague you very much. By the way, "let them listen and sing in church", so that at least by this service they serve both God and themselves, by which they are forced to have the Psalms and the Scriptures before their eyes and in their memory; who knows what fruit this will one day produce. My lady greets you respectfully, but I greet yours even more respectfully, but with the reservation of the right of suspicion and jealousy of both. May 24, 1533.
Your Martin Luther, D., wrote this very cheerfully at breakfast. 3)
No. 1980.