About the Frankfurt Convention, from which Luther expects nothing good. About Melanchthon's dream (No. 2516).
Handwritten in Aurifaber, Vol. III, p. 272. Printed in Schütze, Vol. III, p. 96 and in De Wette, Vol. V, p. 172.
Grace and peace in Christ! When I write to you, my dear Philip, I consider that I have written to all. I cannot answer each one individually. Therefore you will excuse my sluggishness or hopefulness, if they suffer it, to Myconius and Bucer, and greet them kindly and every time (semper). Although I am reasonably healthy, I am not able to do as much as I would like. I was very happy about your so cheerful letters and give thanks to the Lord. But I wonder very much,
2) The Vice Chancellor Burkhard,
Letters from the year 1539. No. 2518. 2519.
How the peace conditions can be determined, since you demand an open door for the gospel, but they want it closed. Even though they may be outwardly compelled to open the streets to you, they do not do so from the heart. The matter has come to a crisis, that Christ and Belial should be reconciled, or that one should give way to the other, which is both impossible, unless it is done by force, which we try to avert by pleading, but it would be in vain, since their minds are leprous and thus only rage more. Your dream has pleased me extraordinarily; whether perhaps Christ wants to act in his miraculous way and put the Egyptians to shame either by terror or by the power of Israel, just as he also frightened the Cananites, since Jacob in Sichern feared their power and was already close to destruction. And this would be it, that the emperor and the pope are pulled away by the rope of the donkey against your will. But we fight with prayer, and by the same we shall prevail, not knowing in the meantime the hidden way of God in many waters, and His footsteps that are not known.
Here, praise God, all is well and quiet, even in your house. But may you paint your dream clearly for us. For we, too, have painted the thing itself, but we do not understand the situation, the clothing, the image of the persons, except for the one of the princes, the princes, and your crucified one. The donkey they have depicted standing on two feet, and the souls as the pupils and students etc. I have finished my writing of the church^), but it distresses me extraordinarily this writing, because it is so scanty and rich in words. But to treat the details and to fortify them with testimonies and examples would perhaps not have been entirely beyond my powers, but the time and the work went beyond my powers. Farewell and pray for me. March 14, 1539.
Your Martin Luther.
1) De Wette assumes juvenes instead of anirnas, because he did not know the letter of Myconius.
2) "Of the Conciliis and Churches." St. Louis edition, vol. XVI, 2144.
No. 25 19