Luther asks them to resist the tyranny of Count Albrecht against his subjects.
The original is with the Acts in Eisleben. Printed by Joh. Georg Leukfeld, Historia Spangenbergensis. Quedlinburg und Aschersleben 1712, p. 8; in the Altenburg edition, vol. VIII, p. 998; in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXII, p. 571; in Walch, vol. XXI, 463; in De Wette, vol. V, p. 445 and in the Erlanger, vol. 56, p. 8.
To the noble and well-born lords, Mr. Philipps and Mr. Hans Georgen, brothers, counts and lords of Mausfeld, my gracious, dear sovereigns.
Grace and peace, and my arm noster. Gracious Lords! I am sorry that I cannot begin my first letter to Your Grace, as my dear countrymen, more cheerfully, without [it] not being my fault. 1) E. G. certainly know what talk and clamor have been going on for a while now about my gracious lord, Count Albrechten, which I truly have to hear with great sadness every day, how S. G. force and press their subjects, also publicly dragging them to themselves, which is not due to J. G.. I, however, as one easily came to, answer that I should have nothing to do with this, or what it concerns me, or that I should ask about it. That is true. But I am a citizen of the Mansfeld dominion, whom it behooves to love his fatherland and lords, and to wish them well, and who is also a public preacher, who is obliged to
1) Cf. no. 2887.
admonish where someone, seduced by the devil, cannot see what wrong he is doing.
Therefore I ask, Your Grace, to graciously hear my poor sighing, or if that could not be, to be my witness (as you must do) on that day that I have faithfully warned and done my part.
I think that the evil spirit is tempting some, who should help to ruin God's rule. For God has given the Lord a dominion, which one would not want to grant without cause, according to the world, to be grudging or unfavorable, or, as one speaks, out of envy. For four have what, he has his enviers, and much more of them, all of whom wanted that G.E. were beggars, and perhaps, as I think, because the wretched heretic D. Martinus is the sovereign's son, so that they would have to boast: "Behold, how G.D. lets all the cursed perish, who cling to the Gospel; as a sign is his own fatherland, the noble and praiseworthy county of Mansfeld, in which the boy was born, so corrupted to the ground. Because God the Lord has placed the G. in such dominion and commanded him to do right, I humbly ask and urge the G. to see to it and help that such injustice does not continue, otherwise God will demand it of the G., as they can do and yet do not. For the G. have to consider, if such an example should break, to take from the subjects what is their own, then every overlord will eat up the underlord, and like the nobleman the peasant, so the prince the nobleman and count. For if it is right here, it is also right there, What will then become in the end but a regiment worse than the Turk has, even a devilish regiment. And if this does not happen, then God will let a curse go, because he cannot stand injustice. So beware, I am innocent.
For that my lord, Count Albrecht. Lord, Count Albrecht, perhaps thinks that the dominion and all goods are his own: God says no to that, and will not suffer it. For peasants, burghers, and nobles have their own goods, but they are subject to fiefdom, according to imperial law, which is confirmed by God, and so they have it by divine right. Whoever now wants to seize the goods for himself, so that fiefdoms should also go with them, there is
Not to have God's grace and blessing is also to steal and rob before God, as his commandment says: You shall not steal, nor covet your neighbor's goods. For although Count Albrecht is lord over land and people, he is not lord over the fief and property of the goods that the emperor gives; for he is not emperor, but a count.
All in all, God's blessings are in the country, and they want to see to it that God does not take them away, and that the descendants, God's heirs, do not have to complain: Oh how a rich, blessed dominion our ancestor, Count Albrecht, has spoiled for us. The evil spirit through envious people seeks E. G. and my dear fatherland, that hurts me; for what else do I ask about it, I who walk on the pit, and can seek nothing else, but that I would like to meet the blasphemers, who will boast of the Gospel to the shame, my fatherland and sovereigns would have had to spoil only for my sake. For it is certain that if the G. will not do so, and M. G. Lord, Count Albrecht, who is truly overpowered by the evil spirit, will resist, then the G. will also be guilty. For it cannot stand like this, as I hear from many, and most of all from those who laugh at it and like to see such ruin, which also moved me to write so vehemently. For where the mine falls, so lies the county, and all enemies laugh. But if M. G. Herr, Count Albrecht, had a lack (oh, Lord God! Lord God! it will not be him) that the citizens live so superfluously, then the matter would probably be easier to advise: punishment laid by abundance; from it the lordship would become richer, and the subjects also fatter, as happens at Nuremberg and elsewhere.
But here is an angry devil who wants to work so that neither master nor subject shall have anything. All books say that it is better to have rich subjects than to be rich oneself. For even being rich is soon lost, rich subjects can always help.
However, I ask once again that E. G. would graciously grant me such an earnest letter; for be it as it may, I cannot be unhappy with E. G., my dear sovereigns, and grant my fatherland nothing bad, as I want to be with E. G. as with my gracious sovereigns.
Letters from the year 1542. No. 2894 to 2897.
I hope that they will provide me with such a childlike heart towards my fatherland in the best possible way. Hereby commanded by God. Tuesday after Oculi [March 14] 1542.
E. G. williger
No. 2895.