1. how D. L.'s mother was plagued by a sorceress.
2. the power of sorcery against the Christians.
3. from jugglers.
4. from a charmed maiden.
6. from milk thieves.
6. from two sorceresses.
7. sorcery, painted on theologically.
8. example, that one sorcery has paid the other.
1. how D. L.'s mother was plagued by a sorceress.
Doctor M. Luther said a lot about sorcery, about the heart potion and the Alps, how his mother had been plagued by her neighbor, a sorceress, so that she had to keep her in the most friendly and glorious way and reconcile her, because she shot her children so that they cried themselves to death. And a preacher punished her only in general, then she bewitched him, that he had to die, one could help him with no medicine. She had taken the earth when he had risen and thrown it into the water and bewitched him with it, without which earth he could not get well again.
2. the power of sorcery against the Christians.
(Cordatus No. 1276.)
Our soul and body are completely subject to vanity. Therefore, even though the soul is liberated through faith in Christ, our body is still subject to the devil's murder 1). That is why sorceries are brought against the believers, and I believe that my illnesses are partly sorceries and not purely natural. God, however, frees His own from such evils.
1) The comma before Satanas should be deleted.
2) Cf. cap. 24, § 53.
3. from jugglers.
In N. 1) there was one, named Wildferer, who ate a farmer with horse and cart; which farmer then lay for several hours, over several field paths in a puddle with horse and cart. So a monk was talking to a farmer who had a load of hay for sale at the market, and he asked him what he would take and let him eat the hay. Then the farmer said: He wanted to take one kreuzer. The monk began, and had almost eaten up the hay, so that the farmer had to drive him away.
Similarly, a debtor had a leg torn off by a Jew, so that the Jew ran away and he was not allowed to pay him 2c. So mighty is the. So mighty is the devil to deceive people in the outward senses; what should he not do in the soul?
(This paragraph in Lauterbach, 22 Febr, 1538, p. 39.)
A certain citizen of Brandenburg, bewitched by witches, lost all blessings of goods. He went to a devil's soothsayer in Berlin to ask him for advice. At last his tormented conscience sought consolation. Luther answered: He has acted wickedly and ungodly. Why should he not stop after the example of Job with prayer for the blessing of God? Tell him that he should become reasonable again and no longer take refuge in Satan, but that he should bear God's will with equanimity.
4. from a charmed maiden.
(Lauterbach, Aug. 20, 1538, p. 117.)
On this day, D. Spalatin reported about the impudence of the witches, that a certain girl in Altenburg sheds bloody tears; if that woman is there, even if she does not see her, nor knows [that she is there, she feels her presence and sheds the tears. Luther answered: Then one should hurry to the court with such. The jurists want to have too much testimony, despise these revealed [facts] I, he said, have had a marriage case these days, where the wife wanted to poison her husband, so.
1) In the Latin manuscript: One in Nordhausen named Wildfeuer. Linäseil III, 10.
that he has broken out lizards, and she, embarrassingly questioned, has answered nothing, because such witches are dumb, despise the tortures; the devil does not let them speak. These facts give enough evidence that an example should be made of them, to frighten others.
5. from milk thieves.
(Lauterbach, Aug. 25, 1538, p. 121.)
On August 25, people said a lot about sorceresses and witches who steal eggs from hens and milk and butter. Luther answered: "You don't have to feel sorry for them. I wanted to burn them myself, according to the custom of the law, where the priests began to stone the guilty; for it is said that their butter, because it is stolen, stinks, falls to the ground in the food, and the sorceresses are tormented willy-nilly, when milk and butter are put on burning coals, then they are so tormented by the devil that they are forced to come. The village priests and schoolmasters knew their art a long time ago and plagued them well. But D. Pomer's art is the best, that one plagues them with the dirt and often stirs it, then all their things become dirty.
6. from two sorceresses.
There was talk of two sorceresses at D. Martina's, who in an inn had set two jars of water aside for the evening, in one place; and they discussed with each other whether it should be for the grain or wine. When the innkeeper, who was standing on a secret corner, heard this, he took both of the jars or stouts, and when they had gone to bed, he poured them over them; then the water turned to ice, so that they both died of it from that hour on. Said D. Martinus: The devil is very powerful in the sorceresses.
7. magic on theologically painted.
Although all sins are an apostasy from God's works, so that God may be grievously angered and offended; yet sorcery, by reason of its abomination, may be rightly called crimen laesae Majestatis divinae, a rebellion, and such a vice, that one may beware of
namely, against the divine majesty in the highest way. For as the jurists artificially discuss and speak of various kinds of rebellion and abuse against the high majesty, and among others they also count this, when one becomes a fugitive from his lord, disloyal and goes to the enemies: and to all such they recognize the punishment of life and limb. So also, because sorcery is a shameful, abominable apostasy, when one goes from God, to whom he is pledged and sworn, to the devil, who is God's enemy; so it is justly punished in body and life.
8. that one sorcery has paid for another.
Emperor Frederick, Maximiliani's father, had a black artist invited to the meal and made by his skill and art,
that the black artist got ox feet and claws on his hands, and sitting above the table, the emperor told him to eat. But he was ashamed and hid the claws under the table. At last, when he could no longer retrieve them, he had to let them be seen. Then he said to the emperor: I will also make something for Her Majesty, if she allows me. Then the emperor said: Yes. Then he made a noise with his magic outside the emperor's chamber; and when the emperor looked out of the window and wanted to know what was there, he got big antlers and deer horns on his head, so that he could not bring his head back in the window. And said D. M. Luther: That pleases me well, when one devil vexes the other and geheiet; from this I conclude that one devil is stronger than the other.