1. from some papists quick and' frightening death.
2. punishment of presumption.
3. punishment of a desecrator of God's word.
1. from some papists quick and frightening death.
(Cordatus No. 538. No. 1014. No. 1494.)
No one considers the miracles of God that are happening now, many of which are happening against the papists. For the bishop of Trier died of drunkenness after Ferdinand's coronation. Count Ernst of Mansfeld cried out fiercely that the emperor was the savior, and died without lux et crux [light and cross], without confession and sacrament. Count von Werdenwerck died a sudden death at Augsburg, crying out that he wanted to die in the war against Luther. Doctor Matthias, who celebrated his first mass at Erfurt, died before this Imperial Day. For the people of Erfurt dragged him and his three whores into the whorehouse, defiled them before his eyes, and he was consumed with grief and died in that same year.
This would certainly have to be taken seriously into account, that in the recent past years all those died miserably who mockingly spoke of the gospel. Count von Werdenwerck, Count of Mansfeld, the chancellor of Trier, Caesar Pflug. To all of them the gospel was a fable, a vain joke. Duke Georg, however, is not mortal, he is serious and does not joke. 1)
When a nobleman from the lineage of the Ziegler despaired a few paws before his death, he said at the hour of his death: Devil, there you have the soul. A frightening example, although I have also heard similar things in the past. For when a captain of the Venetians had conquered a certain city and he had to die before the victory, he blasphemed.
1) The last sentence is probably said ironically.
He blasphemed the Holy Virgin and St. Peter in the Venetian manner, 1) and another Italian said dying: "To the world I give my goods, to the worms my body, and to the devil my soul. For among the Italians there is very great blasphemy. Erasmus knows these customs very well, and therefore they do not dare to do anything against him, because he would know how to tell them such things.
2. presumption.
(Cordatus No. 1109.)
When someone wants to be able to do a thing and can't, it's a real pain. There is nothing more miserable than a presumptuous person. The papists are like that when they preach my words against me. That is what that Leipzig preacher did with my postilion, who was struck by a blow on the Sunday after Christmas, when he preached the history of Anna for the works. Place, time, person and words indicate that the man must have been hit.
3. punishment of a desecrator of God's word.
(Except for the last paragraph, Lauterbach, July 7, 1538, p. 96.)
After that, Mag. Cellarius told a story that had happened in Bautzen in a village where a godless apostate pastor, 2) who had become a poisonous slanderer of the gospel, died struck by a terrible lightning and thunderclap. So also a certain pastor in Friedberg near Frankfurt nine years ago made a mockery of the gospel, since the sweating sickness reigned, namely, God was punishing the world with new plagues, because they had new faith and false doctrine, but they should remain in the Ge-
1) In the original, these blasphemies are indicated, but they are not suitable for communication.
2) Urban in Kunewalde, on Trinity Sunday.
The pastor was obedient to the mother, the church, and he appointed the next day on which he would hold processions with prayers and litanies against this disease. Early on that very day, the pastor himself died, and so the procession became a funeral. Luther said: "Such examples are worthy of attention, for we see God's power present in them.
Here also belongs the example that a monk in the year '26 in a public sermon called Paul a parasite and a liar, and one should not believe him because it would be against Christ that he said (Rom. . 12, 15.): "Rejoice with the joyful." And soon after he had chattered these words, he died.
A doctor at K[önigsberg], 3) who was a true Papist, at the University of K. once disputed there in the school, and brought forward this argument: A man's testament, if it is confirmed, may not be changed, much less God's: but now the Lord's Supper of Christ under both forms is God's testament; therefore one may not change it, nor should one. After the disputation he went out with a noble rich citizen, to whom he said: "How do you like my disputation? He said, "Very well," and slapped him neatly on the armpit, saying, "The servant who knows the Lord's will and does not do it will be beaten with two hands," Luc. 12:47. The next day the doctor died a quick death. So it goes. God does not joke with him in the play, he wants to keep above his word, or does not want to be God. Such examples should be well remembered and considered, for they are both terrible and comforting: terrible for the godless despisers of God's word; comforting for the God-fearing, who love and value the teaching of the Gospel.
3) Thus Bindseil 1, 161.