Luther gives the interpretation of a satirical-allegorical illustration of the Pabst. He will only casually respond very briefly to the Zurich rebuttal.
3) "He" put by us instead of: "it".
Letters from the year 1545. No. 3219. 3220.
The original is at Dresden in Cod. Seidel. Printed by Schütze, Vol. I, p. 348 and by De Wette, Vol. V, p. 739. German by Walch, Vol. XXI, 1543.
To the in Christ venerable father and lord, Mr. Nicolaus, the right and faithful bishop of the church at Naumburg, his in your Lord highly honorable superior.
Grace and peace in the Lord! With the three furies, venerable Father in Christ, I had nothing else in mind, when I painted them at the pope, than that I expressed the frightfulness of the papal abomination with the most frightening words in Latin. For the Latins do not know what Satan or the devil is, any more than the Greeks and all pagans. Therefore they have formed these names afterwards (a posteriori) and according to the performances [of the devil] (effectu). The mega era has its name from envy and hatred. 1) This is the devil's malice, which envies the eternal and the temporal salvation of the human race ("hinders the good") 2) just as the pope does, the imitator and monkey of Satan. The alecto is called, as it were, the incessant attacker. This the poets make the worst of all and that brings sadness ("drives all evil"), which commits the terrible things in the world, as patricide, matricide. We Christians can call this devil the old serpent, who in paradise ruined the human race in innumerable ways full of misery and evil with eternal and temporal sadness, and still daily fills the world with new sadness through the pope, the Mahomet, the Cardinals, the bishop of Mainz 2c., and cannot stop or moderate his sadness-inducing infliction of misfortune 2c. Tisiphone is called the avenger of murder. Of this one it is fabled that she is a (passive) furia capable of sensation ("provokes his wrath"), that is, the wrath of God with which the tyrants and the wicked are punished for the effects of the two preceding furias, as suffered by Kam, Saul, Absalom, Ahitophel, at
1) odeo at De Wette will be a misprint instead of: odio.
2) This and the following parenthetical theses written by Luther in German are in the margin.
the pagans Orestes, Ajax and many [others]. These we Christians would quite actually call the evil spirits (daemones), by which the possessed are overcome and the nonsensical rage, which also blaspheme God. This fury reigns mainly in the opinions and the blasphemous teachings of the pope and the heretics, who are condemned for the due reward of their error. I have nothing else.
I have decided not to answer the enthusiastic Zurichers, except briefly and casually. 3) It is superfluous for me to write against Zwingli and Oecolampad; they have not yet touched those things, and I do not want to lose this time of my old age with those hopeful and idle readers. Nor do I want to bring myself to read their writings, and I am satisfied that their testimony proves that I am quite far from their ravings. This is what I had in mind when I made my last confession [of the Lord's Supper. Fare well in the Lord, amen. May 8, 1545.
Venerable Lord, your devoted Martin Luther, D.
No. 3220.