Luther reassured him about the external honor associated with the episcopal office, which was troublesome to him.
The original is in Cod. Seidel. at Dresden. A copy in the Cod. chart. Cod. A 1048. Printed by Schütze, vol. I, p. 242 and by De Wette, vol. V, p.429.
To the especially highly famous man, Mr. Nicolaus von Amsdorf, the loud and faithful and holy bishop of Naumburg, his superior who is to be highly honored in the Lord.
Grace and peace! I have received your letter, in the Lord's esteem, I do not know through whom, therefore I have not been able to answer. You write that your mouth has been smeared with words, and that God would have wanted you to stay in Magdeburg, because a greater splendor of high status (majestatis) would be contrary to you.
I believe all this very easily, since I know your character very well, how it is averse to this courtly and worldly pomp and abhors it, because you are accustomed to peace and quiet. And it was precisely this that caused me to not easily approve of our prince's actions in this matter. But it had to be done, and one must not resist the will of God. For the way things are now, no person was more suitable than
1) Added by us.
2) On this day Amsdorf was ordained bishop.
yours alone, as you have often heard. By the way, you must remember that when I laid my hands on you, I said [Ps. 27:14]: "Wait for the Lord, be confident and undaunted. If it were in our counsel what or how much God would do through us, He would do nothing at all through us, namely, we would immediately nullify His counsel by showing Him the purpose and the effecting manner, the length, the breadth and the depth, that is, our exceedingly wise wisdom of the flesh, by which hindered, He would be compelled to let us go in the lusts of our heart and to let us be satisfied with our counsels. Now, by God's goodness, the matter is such that we never act anything more rightly or more holy than when we appear to ourselves to be incapable and unfit (nihili) to act, nor will we act anything in a wiser way than when we appear to ourselves to be acting in the most supreme way. For the saying is certain [2 Cor. 12, 9.], "His power is mighty in our weakness." Therefore, in matters of God, it is much safer to be carried away than to actively intervene (agere), as happened to you at this time, not in a clumsy way, nor according to a common example. On the other hand, we never act worse than when we think we understand what and how much we are acting, because then it can hardly, indeed, not happen that we do not please ourselves a little in our actions, and we thus sully these actions by a certain defilement with some vanity (gloriolae) (but a forgivable one), and do not glorify God alone in such a pure way. That is why it happens in general,
that his power/wisdom becomes weak in our power/wisdom. Since we do not need to know what and how to ask him who is mighty to do more than we ask or understand, how much less do we need to know and understand what and how he wants to work through us, since he, being almighty, has undoubtedly decided to do more than we think or understand. Therefore, be strong and do not be afraid. Now, if you are moved by this larva, that you must be hailed or worshipped as a prince, know that you can neither do this nor be worshipped as a prince.
Letters from the year 1542. No. 2880. 2881.
You are not a prisoner, nor do you seek it of your own free will, but you are forced to suffer here a way and way of life that is foreign to you, not for your own sake, but for the sake of those for whom it is necessary that this happen. It is a larva, and not a serious matter. For also at Magdeburg you were forced to suffer this larva, or (as Paul calls it) the habitum or the schema 1) that you might become a licentiate.
then the nobleman of Amsdorf, and the like; so I am called a husband, a householder etc. But you know that God does not care about these persons or larvae, since they are not the kingdom of God, so that Paul presumes to call even the apostleship a larva, Gal. 2, 6: "God does not respect the reputation (personam) of men." For the Church must appear in the world, but it cannot appear except in a larva, person, covering, shell, or clothing, in which it can be heard, seen, and apprehended, otherwise it could not be found anywhere. But such larvae are a husband, an official (politicus), a householder, John, Peter, Luther, Amsdorf etc., although none of these is the church, which is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, but Christ alone etc. Therefore, when the bishopric stands to its office, Christ will not care whether the larva is a private or a public one, one of the common people or a royal one; among all larvae and persons he can be worshipped, as the second Psalm [v. 10.] says: "Let yourselves therefore be instructed, ye kings" etc.
But what am I writing to you about these things in so many words, as if you do not judge and understand all this better; only that I wish that my service and my endeavors be pleasing and pleasant to you, and all that I am able to do, especially for him who has such a large larva on him, but for God's glory and the salvation of very many souls. Fare well in Christ, amen. My Lord Käthe wishes you with great confidence the perfect blessing of God, and desires
1) Phil: 2:7. "Geberden" is given in the Vulgate by habitu, in the Greek by xxxxxxx.
herself happiness that she has "a gracious Nachher and Gevatter" so close. The bride Hanna Strauß, who is now married, thanks you for the gift. The HErr be with you, the strong and by the gift of God unconquerable man. Yours, Martin Luther, D.
No. 2881.
Elector Johann Friedrich to Luther.
The Elector instructs Luthern to answer D. Pomeranus to his letter that the Elector wants to let him serve in Holstein until Pentecost at the request of the King of Denmark, but refuses to let him stay in Holstein or Denmark permanently. In the postscript, he requests the early completion of the writing "about the Naumburg plot", and orders that the printing of the writing "for the sake of the Landgrave's other-wide promotion" (No. 2870) be halted. 2)
The original concept is in the Weimar Archives, Reg. C, pag. 252. n. 15. Printed by Burkhardt, p. 405.
Our greeting before. Venerable and reverend, dear devotee! We have received a letter from the Envoy to Denmark. Our special dear lord and grandfather, has sent us a letter from his Royal Highness. W., as we are now returning from our Diet to Torgau, which content 3) you will hear from the enclosed copy; our also dear devotee, Doctor Pomeranus, has also written to us in particular, as you will no doubt have received from him the good report.
And although the people of Holstein, especially those of nobility, perhaps because of all sorts of ungodly dealings and usury, have hitherto had little and not much regard for the Holy Gospel and the divine word, we are nevertheless pleased by the royal decree of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. 4) W. Christian intentions and concerns quite well, that their royal dignity is the same country among their brothers. 5) to which the eternal God has bestowed His royal grace and all the benefits of the Gospel. W. grace and all welfare graciously. Since Christian preachers of the place have also been appointed, we have no doubt that they will bear fruit with the teaching of God's Word against the abuses touched upon. Therefore, we graciously request that you, in the presence of Doctor
2) Burkhardt's description of the content is quite inaccurate.
3) Burkhardt: "inhalts".
4) "kön." put by us instead of: "kay." in Burkhardt.
5) "and" inserted by us to make some sense. - Immediately following we have put "which" instead of: "which".
Creutzinger and Philippi Melanchthon, Doctor Pomeranus, to his letter to us in the following form on our behalf, 1) and show him that although we do not like to see him leave our principality or our university and city of Wittenberg for some time, 2) because of the graces that God has bestowed upon him, we would nevertheless consider that we are willing to help K. W. of Denmark, as a Christian king and our special dear lord and uncle, for his Christian intention and for the comfort of the people. W. of Denmark, as a Christian king and our special dear lord and uncle, for his Christian3) purpose and for the comfort of the people, we would do him the favor of his person for a time, as we have done before. 4) Now that we cannot note anything else from his own letter to us, except that he has placed his will in God's will and ours, we graciously let it happen, where he would not otherwise know how to preserve anything special, that he will not be able to deal with K. W.'s W.'s emissaries, who are now at Torgau, to Holstein, we also want to assign him one of our single-horse soldiers, who shall wait for him next to the royal envoy and ride with him until he reaches Holstein and the K. W.. We write to the king that we would permit him, albeit with complaints, but only for the sake of Christian and friendly experience, until Pentecost and no longer; we also indicate to the king several reasons why it would be inconvenient for us to grant him further permission, and provide that the king will be well satisfied and content with this. Therefore, we also let him rise the more favorably, so that he will come back that much sooner. But that we should agree that he should remain persistently in Holstein or Denmark, such we do, as has happened before, to his royal dignity. His royal dignities. 5) It has also been a gracious favor to us that the said Doctor Pommer does not know how to leave his appointment with us and at Wittenberg, for among other things it is not hidden to us, as he writes to us, that he means us and our lands and people for eternal and temporal welfare and completely faithfully and diligently. Therefore, we are also inclined to him, along with you and other of our scholars, with but grace. You will graciously show him this with better diligence,
1) Here we see that Luther was supposed to communicate the answer of the Elector to Bugenhagen, but not, as Burkhardt says in the table of contents: "answer the letter of the King of Denmark".
2) Maybe: "miss"?
3) Burkhardt: "more Christian".
4) Bugenhagen was in Denmark from 1537 to 1539.
5) "refuse" put by us instead of: "because of". In the original you will find "wegern".
and you do us a gracious favor. Date Torgau, Tuesday after Pauli Conversionis [Jan. 31] 1542.
Note. After you have also recently let us, together with Philippo, be humbled at Naumburg that you both, one in German and Philippus in Latin, wanted to have the Naumburg plot published by means of a print, 6) we do not doubt that in the meantime you will both have been at it and will now have produced the work or will have produced it conducively, so that it will go out in print with apparent Christian causes. This is also done for our special gracious favor.
So we also had our chamberlain inform you next to Naumburg that it seemed to us that you were in the process of letting something go out for the sake of our cousins and brothers, the landgrave, and other graces. 7) And although our mind and opinion is not to put you to some measure in what you consider to be that it could not well be circumvented for the praise of the Almighty and for the good of the Christian people, 8) nevertheless it will not be without where our cousin and brother, the landgrave, should be expressed by name or in an understandable way, that it would give rise to all kinds of reflection with S. L. in it. If you ever thought that it could not be avoided for Christian reasons, we graciously request, because we cannot talk to you about it in person, as we have indicated to you through our chamberlain, that you be so kind as to send us as many copies as are already printed, and that we remain silent until our further letter with further printing. In this you do us a special gracious favor, to recognize in grace and good. Dated. uts.
No. 2882.