Consolation for the loss of his wife and newborn son.
From the collection of Caspar Sagittarius at Jena in Schütze, vol. III, p. 233. Comparing the Cod. chart. Goth. 402. 1. which has some severe omissions, and the Cod. Goth. 187. 4. in De Wette-Seidemann, vol. VI, p. 195. - This letter seems to us, at least in form, to be spurious. Already Seidemann remarks 1. e.: "With the contradictions, which all the pieces relating to Berndt's mourning present among each other, I cannot consider all doubts removed. - The time determination by Seidemann: "After May 1, 1538 (?)", which is based on the time when Berndt's youngest son died (Corp. Ref., Vol. III, 591, No. 1729), we have left with a question mark, because according to Cruciger's letter to Veit Dietrich of Nov. 24, 1537 (Corp. Ref., Vol. III, 454, incorrectly resolved: Nov. 27), it seems certain to us that Berndt's wife died in November 1537, but in our document the death of the son is reported as having occurred at the same time. Bretschneider (Corp. Ref. , III, 872) places Melanchthon's letter of consolation to Berndt in the year 1539, and ibid., vol. IV, 736, even more erroneously in the year 1541. Wrampelmeier places Luther's consolation speeches to Berndt in the "Tagebuch über Dr. Martin Luther, geführt von Cordatus", p. 145, in the year 1532, "since (as he says) all these colloquia fall about in the middle of the year 1532". Preger "Tischreden Luthers nach den Aufzeichnungen Schlaginhaufens" moves them p. XVI to January to March 1532. On November 27, 1538 (see No. 2479) Berndt married, in second marriage, Luther's niece, Magdalena Kaufmann. Cf. St. Louis ed. vol. XXII, 822; Rebenstock, tom. II, fol. 5; Bindeil, tom. III, p. 208; Cordatus, no. 615 sqq. and Schlaginhaufen, no. 129 and no. 145. We have omitted the pieces which Seidemann printed in De Wette, vol. VI, p. 189, as being addressed to Ambrosius Berndt in mid-November 1537, because they are table speeches (Cap. 26, §60), which do not even have the form of a letter, and most of which are already found in the 22nd volume of our edition. This piece, which also seems to us to be more of a speech than a letter, we share here after Seidemann in German translation.
Mercy and peace! I am not so insensitive (inhumanus), my dear Ambrosius, that I should not know how much the death of Margaret pains you. For the godly and strong affection of the husband towards his wife is so great that it cannot easily be shaken off from the heart, and GOtte does not dislike this movement of sadness at all, if it is only moderate, so that he even approves of it, since he has implanted it himself. And I would not think you a human being, much less a good husband, if you immediately removed the sadness from the
1) The woman did not die immediately in childbirth, but after being well for a month, was stricken with a disease that brought about her death. (Corp. Ref., Vol. III, 455.) The child died later (Corp. Ref., Vol. III, 591).
No. 2428.
The reformed Swiss localities to Luther.
See St. Louis edition, vol. XVII, 2154.
No. 2429.