Luther wrote that he did not want to return to Wittenberg because of the immorality and contempt for the Word there, and asked them to move to Zülsdorf.
The original is in the Weimar Archives, Reg. O, pag. 151. FFF. 9 (without address). Printed in the Leipzig Supplement, p. 111, no. 214; in Walch, vol. XXI, 512 f.; in De Wette, vol. V, p. 752 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 56, p. 139.
G. u. F. Dear Käthe, Haus 4) will tell you everything about our journey; although I am not yet sure whether he should stay with us, D. Caspar Creuciger and Ferdinandus 5) will tell you. Ernst von Schönfeld has kept us beautifully at Lobnitz, and Heinz Scherle even more beautifully at Leipzig. I would like to make it so that I am not allowed to come to Wittenberg again. My heart is cold, that I don't like to be there anymore, I also want you to sell garden and farm, house and yard; so I want to give the big house to M. G. H. again and it would be your best to go to Zülsdorf, because I am still alive, and I could help you with the salary to improve the Gütlin, because I hope, M. G. H. should let me follow the salary, at least for one year of my last life. After my death, the four elements in Wittenberg will not suffer you well, so it would be better to do it during my life, which is what needs to be done. Perhaps Wittenberg, as it happens, will not get St. Vitus' dance with its regiment, nor St. John's dance, but the beggar dance or Belzebub's dance, as they have begun to fleece the women or virgins behind and in front, and there is no one to punish or defend, and God's word is mocked. Just away and out of this Sodoma. Is Lecks Bach shit, our other Rosina 6) and Deceptor, not yet used, so
3) The letter is not written from Leipzig, as De Wette states, but from Zeitz. See Köstlin, Martin Luther (3.), vol. II, p. 687 ad p. 620. - De Wette datirt: "Ende des Julius", but "Knoblochstag" is Pantaleonis, the 28th of July. See letter No. 1537, St. Louis edition, vol. XXIa, 1441, note 7.
4) "Hans" is Luther's son.
5) "Ferdinandus" is Ferdinand von Maugis. (Köstlin, M. Luther, Vol. III, p. 618.)
6) Compare No. 3090.
help what you can, so that the villain has to cheat himself. I have heard more in the country than I have heard in Wittenberg, which is why I am tired of the city and do not want to come back, since God is helping me. The day after tomorrow I will go to Merseburg, because Prince George has asked me very much. So I will wander around and eat the begging bread before I want to torture and disturb my poor old last days with the disorderly being in Wittenberg, with the loss of my sour and expensive work. You may let D. Pomer and Mag. Philipps know this (where you wish), and whether D. Pomer wants to hereby suck Wittenberg off my account; for I can no longer suffer the wrath and displeasure. Hiemit GOtt befohlen, Amen. Tuesday Knoblochstag [July 28] 1545. Martinus Luther.
No. 3246.