(Regest.)
Luther responds to the information requested by a message about the book of the power of the keys, as well as about a letter (allegedly written by Luther) to Gregory (pastor iu Jung-Bunzlau in Bohemia) to the effect that the latter had scolded the book translated into Bohemian and declared it heretical, which is why a student wrote a sharp letter under Luther's name to Gregory, who sent it back to Luther. Luther's verdict was now this: If the book is faithfully translated, it should remain so; Luther had also proved to the priest in a letter the incorrectness of the papist doctrine of the power of the keys. Although he agrees with your student, he wants to punish the letter writer. If Gregory's opinion is that Christ's power of absolution is different from Peter's, it is incorrect, as is the opinion that Peter could have absolved by his own power, because Peter's office of absolution is Christ's office; there are not two different offices. Tuesday on the day of St. Bartholomew. Bartholomew, 1540.
Printed in Gindely, font. rer. austr. XIX, 30. The above regest in Burkhardt, p. 360 f.
No. 2702.