Of the discharge of M. Calixtus from his preaching post and the reoccupation of the same.
Handwritten in Aurifaber, vol. III, p. 238. From an alleged original, which Luther is said to have written on the butt lid of Oecolampadii Comm. in 468. in the Innocent News 1732, p. 694; from the Börnersche Collection in Leipzig in Schütze, vol. I, p. 158; in Strobel-Ranner, p. 301 and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 391. German in the Altenburg edition, vol. VII, p. 721; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXII, p. 570; in Walch, vol. XXI, 448 and (duplicate: An einen Ungenannten) Col. 1312, and in Schütze, vol. II, p. 383. - We have inserted the address from Aurifaber given in De Wette-Seidemann, vol.VI, p. 623, note I and used the variants given there.
To Magister Sebastian Steude, pastor in Jáchymov.
Grace and peace in the Lord! You will hear from M. Calixtus all that I have spoken to him. It seems to me that it would be advisable if your Joachimsthalers (Vallenses) glow with such great hatred against him that he voluntarily leaves. He will be used elsewhere, but in such a way that he will not be dismissed without your will and a public testimony of your church, citing certain causes by which he has incurred hatred, and the cause of the dismissal. Then it is your office to see to it that the congregation or the mob does not force someone on you against your will without your consent. For this is
5) Compare hiezu No. 2826. In Burkhardt, sine me is drawn senselessly to the following sentence.
6) Instead of ego si, possem we have adopted ego, si possum.
7) Instead of gratificar, which does not exist, read gratificor or gratificabor.
no less tyrannical against the pastor than if a pastor wanted to impose someone on the congregation against its will. Therefore, the claims of both parties should be presented to the superiors. For if they wanted to impose on each other, according to the arbitrariness of the people or of the pastor, the one whom each of the two parties wanted, there would no longer be a congregation or an administration. Therefore they may agree with you or become bishops themselves, through themselves. If they should now appoint another for themselves and against you, let them know that they are acting against the rule of the Gospel, and everything, by God's curse, will go out unhappily. Fare well. For ill and among much business I have written this, and let Calixtus, whom I have always thought a good man, be commanded to you. I am all the more displeased with your Joachimsthalers, who are already sick of the word and ungrateful for deliverance from the pope's exceedingly harsh tyranny. But they seem to want to earn an even harsher tyranny of someone, which they will find. You can prophesy this to them in my name if they want to be and continue to be such people. 1541 on St. Bartholomew's Day [Aug. 24].
Martin Luther.
No. 2830.