About the ecclesiastical circumstances of the Einsiedel estates and the disputes about them with Duke George.
From J. E. Kappen's Reformation Documents, Part I, p. 263, in De Wette, Vol. IV, p. 520 and in the Erlangen edition, Vol. 55, p. 39 f.
To the honorable and strict Heinrich von Einsiedel zu Gnanstein, our special favorable lord and friend, for his own hands, Gnanstein 1534.
God's grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. Honorable, strict, favorable lord and friend! We have diligently read and considered your business, and we wish you to know that we all believe that your concern, which we have marked with the letter F., is Christian and most grievous, and therefore we are pleased with the answer to our gracious Lord Duke George, as you have put it; for if it is so that the change of the branch is thus granted in the royal and princely treaties, it is not proper that anyone from the countryside should want to oppose it. Thus you can do nothing against the feudal lord and sovereign in this matter. Now, as you have considered, this is the next way, that you yourselves let the people of the sovereign reproach you for joining a parish, since it is the least-
1) The first Sunday after Easter was called Dominica in AIbis. On this Seidemann remarks in De Wette, vol. VI, p. 472, note 3: "Nevertheless, the date Sabbatho in Albis seems here correctly solved by February 21. Pilgram pag. 165. 184. 190. Helwig fol. 52. 58."
Letters from 1534. no. 2038. 2039. 2040.
They are to beware of the greatest hindrance. If they went to other places to hear the gospel or to use the sacrament, you know that we also advised you to do this before, because Christians are obliged to confess on their own journey that you should announce Duke George's mandate to the people, so that the people would not come into the journey without warning, and know that although you do not force them from the gospel, you still cannot protect them against Duke George. This is what you want to show them this time, that you do not pull them away from the gospel, but you have to proclaim the will of the sovereign prince to them, and you want to remind them that they should go to other places, but that they should not leave the gospel, which everyone is obliged to confess on his own way, and that everyone should get advice from reasonable preachers, what he may think to be Christian in all these. We did not want to conceal this out of a good friendly opinion, and we are obliged to serve you. Given Tuesday after Reminiscere [March 3] Anno 1534.
D. Martinus Luther. Justus Jonas, Doctor. Philippus Mel.
John Bugenhagen, Pomer 2c.
I Jonas signed them on their orders.
No. 2039.