Luther expresses his indignation that the abbot of Walkenried, Johann Holtegel, and the mayor of Nordhausen, Michael Meienburg, send the old, blind monastery chamberlain, Johann Kraus, to beg while they themselves splurge on the monastery goods, which should be used to provide for the poor.
p. 93; in Schütze, Vol. III, p. 205; in Strobel-Ranner,
Briefs from the year 1542. No. 2934. 2935.
p. 304 and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 485. A copy is found in Cod. Chart. Goth. A 1048, with many variants, also in Cod. Goth. 185. 4. German in the Unschuldige Nachrichten, 1727, p. 12 (without date); in Walch, vol. XXI, 1262 (under the year 1534); from the gräflich Stollbergischen Archiv zu Wernigerode in Schütze, vol. I, p. 397 (as from the year 1538), and an old Uebersetzung (perhaps by Jonas himself, without date) in the Lutherhause at Eisleben. - The correctness of the above time determination by De Wette is confirmed by several letters of Melanchthon to Meienburg, Corp. Ref.
Your highly famous man, Doctor Jonas, provost at Wittenberg, Christ's envoy in Halle, his superior in the Lord).
I had hardly sealed the other letter, my dear Jonas, when M. Philippus came, who would bring me public, prescribed letters, which were to be handed over in our name to M. Johann Kraus (Ousio), that poor Lazarus, and no doubt one of the least of Christ's, so that he should use them to beg where he could, after having demanded in vain, with so many writings, journeys, efforts, cries, the crumbs that fall from the table of that feaster at Walkenried. It cannot be said nor written how much I have been moved by the baseness of so great a cause, and I have virtually cursed all the goods not only of the abbot, but also of Michael Meienburg, who enjoys in a pleasant manner the goods of the monastery and feasts from the same, from which, however, this old man, who is blind and now a public beggar, should have been provided. What is it that we pray against the Turk, implore God, teach the people, while in the meantime those who want to be evangelicals certainly provoke the wrath of God through avarice, robbery and plundering of the churches? just as the people let us teach, pray and suffer, and in the meantime they palliate sin against sin. Therefore I beg you, my dear Jonas, that if you have any fellowship with them, break it up for Christ's sake and do not concern yourself with their sins and curses. For Christ, no doubt, esteems this Crans, his poor Lazarus, higher than the whole world, to say nothing of those two bubbles of water,
1) Here we have followed Schütze's reading; De Wette offers only: suo Domino.
How beautiful it would have been, since Michael received so rich donations from the abbot, if he had been mindful of this poor Lazarus and had said to the abbot: "My dear Lord, I will spare it so that this Lazarus can have the crumbs: Abbot would have said: My dear Lord, I want to do without it, so that this Lazarus could have the crumbs! But this is how we do it: we forget God, so that we in turn are forgotten by God. This is what I wanted to write to you, excited by anger, so that you would know that I hate Michael and the abbot out of zeal for God, and I will not cease to curse them as long as this Lazarus begs. May God curse their goods, and may fire blaze forth from Walkenried and at the same time consume what they could otherwise rightfully possess, Amen, Amen, Amen. On Sunday after Magdalene [July 23] 1542.
No. 2935.