About the Turk and the even worse native Turks who despise the word and spoil the country.
The original is in the Anhalt archives. Handwritten in Aurifaber, vol. III, p. 345. Printed in Schütze, vol. I, p. 170 and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 400 f. German in Walch, vol. XXI, 1477.
To the worthy man, Mr. M. Anton Lauterbach, the extremely faithful bishop of the church at Pirna and inspector of the neighboring churches, his very dear brother in your Lord.
Grace and peace! Since there was nothing I could have written, my dear Anton, I wanted to write just this, that I had nothing to write, rather than that I should not answer your letter. May God strengthen Prince Moritz 1) in right faith and salutary world regiment. Perhaps you have heard everything about the Turk. I have almost despaired of Germany, after she has excluded from her household gods those cruel Turks or true devils: avarice, usury, tyranny, discord and the whole puddle of disloyalty, wickedness and unworthiness among the nobility, in the courts, in the town halls, in cities, in villages, and above all, contempt for the word and an unheard-of ingratitude. Since these most cruel and ferocious Turks rule among us, what will only happiness do against those Turks of flesh and bone? May God have mercy on us and let His face shine upon us. For while we pray against the enemies, the Turks, it is to be feared that the Spirit may understand our prayers, as if they were prayed by us against the true Turks, without us meaning it, and thus hear us against us, yet at the same time for us. For I see this coming, if the tyranny of the Turk does not frighten and humiliate our nobles, that we will have to suffer them as crueler tyrants than the Turks are. For they are absolutely intent on putting ropes and chains on the hands of the princes and shackles on the citizens and peasants, but especially on the sciences and scholars. Thus they avenge the papal bondage by a new bondage of the peoples under the hand of the nobility. But enough of this. Greetings to you and your two females, my Käthe, and likewise to all of us, and let us pray with one another to the Lord, whether
1) On August 18, 1541, Duke Henry of Saxony had died; he was succeeded in the government by his son Moritz.
2) In the original: penates feros; De Wette: perietes veros.
He might give us repentance and avert the Turkish scourge, for without God's special help our weapons and men will achieve nothing. On the day before Martinmas [Nov. 10] 1541, your Martin Luther.
No. 2856.