News, among other things, of the evil performance of a maid in Luther's house.
The original is in the library at Helmstädt. From Schmid's collection in Schütze, Vol. I, p. 160 and in De Wette, Vol. V, p. 395.
To the highly famous man, Mr. Justus Jonas, Doctor of Theology, Christ's envoy to Halle, his superior who is to be highly honored in the Lord.
Grace and peace! I am only writing, my dear Jonas, so that I do not dismiss these envoys, the precious women whom you have sent here, without letters, especially since I have not answered your so many letters. And first of all, I thank you for your news, not all of which I have heard so far. I have sent your letter to the court (in castra == to the court camp), primarily so that they may read what you report about the Mainz devil. I hear indeed that negotiations are taking place between our [prince] and that one. Prayer will help us as before and until now. We hear little news. But from Hungary it is written that ours have again plundered a city that was full of Turks and hostile Hungarians, and that the tyrant himself was approaching with an incredibly large army.
Of my private affair [I write^ so that you laugh and be merry, that is, give thanks to GOtte and pray for me. My raisin, that demure virgin, has been dismissed by me, since she has been invented as a quite shameful (impuratissima) 1) whore. It cannot be said nor written how many shameful deeds she committed while we were asleep and had good confidence. God has been the guardian of my house. It is nothing with Thomas Maulfeldt 2) in his little logic. She as the master taught me the little logic, namely: A whore will be the virgin, and the virgin has been a whore. I thank God that I did not know everything, otherwise I would have committed something in too great a rage against her. She was also not Rosina, but it was a fictitious name. 3) She is gone, she is gone, ge
1) From the original, this reading is cited by Seidemann in De Wette, Vol. VI, p. 521, note 3, instead of impurissima in De Wette.
2) Thus Burkhardt. De Wette offers Mantfeldt.
3) She came to Luther as a poor nun and called herself Rosina von Truchses, but later it turned out that she was the daughter of a burgher in Minderstadt in Franconia who had been beheaded in the peasant revolt.
Letters from the Year 1541. No. 2831. 2832. 2833.
No. 2832.