A message from the Turkish War and about Carlstadt.
Handwritten in Aurifaber, vol. III, p. 374. Printed in Schütze, vol. I, p. 204 and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 465 f.
Mercy and peace! This bearer, whoever he is, my dear Jonas, forces me to write a letter to you, as if he confronted me that I have long since written nothing to you. But may he have invented this, or done it out of a sense of duty, I have interpreted it as if dll wanted a useless letter from me. Behold, therefore I write, Fare well in Christ. But this, which I may have written before, if you have received it, read it again: that in Hungary the Turk has been robbed of the gold and the camels that were sent to Buda, yes, Ofen or Pesth itself has been retaken, and the Turks have been slain by these same robbers of the gold, and the Hungarians are gathering under not evil leaders against the Turkish power. God grant that the beast will also fall with the pope, the worst prophet. Carlstadt's wife has written a letter here, which is full of grief, and severely accuses the tyranny of her husband (even after his death), that he left her naked and bare, and she no longer has her valuables (clinodiis), is in debt, is without a home, weighed down with five children, has nothing of her own 2c. If you take the tree
1) Instead of De Wette's Conjectur: repeto we have adopted the original reading: repete.
If we have to judge by the fruits, then this man has danced straight to hell, yes, he has plunged himself headlong into it, only that we cannot be the judges of the dead. But it is frightening that the woman speaks like this, especially against her husband, that is, against her flesh. On Sunday Jubilate [April 30] Anno 1542. Yours, Martin Luther.
No. 2915.