to teach and comfort a Christian man against the mutiny of the wicked and sacrilegious Gleissner.")
Issued August 12, 1521.
To the poor little group of Christ at Wittenberg Doctor Martinus Luther.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. St. Paul, having preached in many places and now imprisoned in Rome, did not cease to care for those he had converted, with supplications to God, comforting and strengthening them in writings, as his epistles show. According to the same example, there is no doubt that
Since we, by the grace of God, have heard and known the true and righteous gospel, which God has been pleased to open to you partly through me, a poor man, I should not and cannot be without concern that wolves do not come after me into the sheepfold.
2. and even though by the grace of God
*On his way back from Worms, Luther was seized by princely horsemen and brought to Wartburg Castle in the night of May 4-5, 1521, where he was hidden. There he continued the interpretation of the Psalter, and first completed the translation and explanation of the 68th Psalm, which he sent to Melanchthon in Wittenberg for printing on May 26 (De Wette, Vol. II, p. 6). Other psalms followed, of which the 37th Psalm is one. The first edition was published under the title: "Der sechs vn dreysstgist Psalm Dauid eynen Christlichen Menschen tzu leren vn trösten Widder die Müttereh der bößenn vund freueln Gleyßner. Martin Luther. 1921." At the end: "Gedruckt tzu Wittembergk Montag nach Laurentij. 1921." The printing is by Johann Grünenberg in Wittenberg. Two other editions went out in the same Officin in the same year, exactly under the same title, but somewhat different internally. In total, the Weimar edition counts eleven individual editions, including three Augsburg printings, one by Silvan Ottmar, two by Jörg Nadler. Another Wittenberg edition will be a reprint. Three of the others are dated, 1522, 1524, and 1525. In the collective editions, this writing is found: in the Wittenberg (1553), vol. Ill, bl. I; in the Jena (1564), vol. I, p. 526d; in the Altenburger, vol. I, p. 813; in the Leipziger, vol. VI, p. 94 and in the Weimarschen, vol. VIII, p. 205. This psalm is also printed by De Wette, vol. Because Luther later included this Psalm in the four Psalms of Consolation to Queen Mary of Hungary (the first writing in this volume), Walch, and after him the Erlangen edition, vol. 39, p. 123, only brings the attribution to the Wittenbergers and the conclusion, along with "a few additions", which, as Walch says, the first edition of 1521 has more. This procedure is, we agree with the Weimar edition, "a step backwards compared to the older collective editions", because the 36th (37th) Psalm in the four Psalms of consolation is, with respect to the wording of the text and the commentary, a reworking of the edition of 1521. Therefore, we also give it completely according to the Weimar edition. Our writing is also found in Latin translation in the Latin Wittenberg edition (1558), Dom. VII, col. 515 l>, in des Vincentius Obsopöus Nartini Dmtderi epiLtolaruin kurraZo, which has found acceptance there. However, by far the largest part of the conclusion, namely from the second paragraph on: "You may notice this about the Lovonians", is omitted. Instead, there are only the few words: kropant lroc ouotquot kaatenus, nfiversus ine aontliotati knnt. Vene V niete, ^nno Ll.v.XXI. postrickie D-aurentii. The translator thus considers the date of the imprint to be that of the letter.
You have so many others in my place that I would have no need for such care, but of course the favor of the gospel demands that we also bear the rest of the care. We are not yet worthy, I regret to say, of suffering anything for the sake of the truth, because only disfavor, hatred, envy, blasphemous words, shame and disgrace from the papists. However, if God had not resisted so far, so much would have been attached to the bloodthirsty murderers of souls, we would have long since been torn in two by them, as David says in Ps. 124:6. Therefore, our suffering is not yet higher than that they call us Viklefists, Hussites, heretics, and most shamefully; and if they are not able to do more in 1) us, they atone in the meantime for their courage in our name and Christian honor.
But let go, dear man, let go! He is above who will judge it. We may boast of God's grace, of which they must be ashamed in their hearts until now, namely, that we have never shied away from the light, which they have feared until now, as the evil spirit fears the judgment. They must confess without thanksgiving, and hear with great pain and sorrow, that I have now presented myself three times, not for my friends, but for themselves, my enemies, with a request to prove the cause and reason for our faith; namely, first at Augsburg before the Cardinal, immediately before the chief of my worst enemies, who almost fled nothing but to hear the cause of my teaching, and would rather I had not come. Secondly [1519], I stood at Leipzig, as you know, before those who did not like to see us, and yet all their courage and cunning helped them nothing. Thirdly [1521], now at Worms, where I offered myself so highly that I would pardon the imperial escort and surrender my life to it. O what a mockery they put in there. I hoped that there bishops and doctors would have tried me rightly: so the opinion was that I should only recant. God gave grace that not all princes and estates consented to such reproach. Otherwise, I would have been ashamed to death of the German country for allowing the Papal tyrants to so rudely ape and fool it.
1) Wittenberger: ref.
It was all the enemy's gear, as everyone knows.
4 Now behold, these three offerings and appearances I praise, not as having been done by us, but that we recognize and exalt God's grace, and take comfort and comfort in Him, who makes our enemies so stupid and despondent that they are not all so bold as to hear or dispute a poor beggar present in the midst of their hands; but flee the light like bats, and like night ravens they howl ow, ow, in the darkness, thinking to frighten us with it.
When should they be so bold that they or one of their number should also come to us in Wittenberg, and present the same charges and interrogations? which would not only be fitting for them, but also for those who boast of their art above us, so that it might be recognized once and for all how their art is not in the clamor of the throat, but in the head and brain! Yes, because they set themselves up [as] judges and shepherds, and judge us so freely, they are guilty of disputing us, of coming to us, and of defending their faith manfully.
But what do they do? They are the largest group, we the smallest; they are our mighty, we subservient; they are the most learned, we the most unlearned; they are the most Christian, we the most heretical. In addition, whether they are afraid, we offer them escort, free food and lodging. Above this we ask them for God's sake to prove themselves to us. None of them helps, but [they] remain alone with themselves, under their part; there they conclude, there they judge, there they condemn without all questioning of the opposing part, speak and shout that they are honest Christian men, who act Christian; there is no forehead that is ashamed.
7) Oh how our ears would ring, if they would raise a little quent 3) of this fame against us! How 4) we poor people would have to be their bearers of shame! But we must take their shameful bearing for honor and price. O of the miserable, afflicted, forsaken Christian faith, which has such shy
2) Weimarsche: "unßern".
3) In the Weimarschen: "quentin".
4) Weimarsche: where.
learn bats and light-headed, field-fugitive protectors, who only hoard with cries and boasts in the sand, where they are alone, and where only a few disagreeable humans look out, crawl to angles like mice!
(8) And if all these things do not help them, they turn to some loose fellows who attack us with blasphemous writings and evil books, hoping to cover and adorn their disgrace before the common man, although they know that these same scribes are as skillful in the matter as a donkey is in playing a harp.
(9) Because they, having been pushed with writings, recognize themselves unfit to act with writings in the light, [it is] henceforth not to be resented by poor men, that yet they console their shame with much writing without writing, and with cursing, blaspheming, and malediction. Therefore I will let them bleed themselves weary and blaspheme; [it] is enough that we have writing, they do not have writing; we step on the plan, they crawl into corners, which honor we gladly grant them, because they do not want otherwise.
(10) And that I may get back on track, because you, poor people, must bear with me the torture of our name from the highly famous and highly learned hare men, and you are not all of the same strong mind, I have undertaken to write a letter of comfort, so that you will not be frightened before the hare panthers whether I am not with you. But since I am not the man who, as St. Paul, could write and comfort from his own spiritual wealth, I have undertaken to translate the Scripture that is full of consolation, as St. Paul says Rom. 15, 4, namely the 37th 1) Psalm, and to send it to you with short glosses, which, in my opinion, rhymes almost exactly with this matter; for it sweetly and motherly silences the movement of anger against the blasphemers and wanton offenders. Since it is naturally painful, so the wrongdoers
1) In the original, according to the Vulgate count, as well as in the superscription: "36."
not only blaspheme according to all their will, but also want to be right and gain honor from it, and are quick to do so for a while, until their day comes.
(11) Let no one make him doubt that our adversaries are of the kind reproached in this psalm, and we are those who are comforted in it. For we, by the grace of God, stand by the Scriptures and have their understanding, from which those fear, shun, flee, and yet wantonly blaspheme the truth. Let them go. If they had been worthy of the truth, they would have converted long ago from so many of my writings.
12) I teach them, they blaspheme me. 2) I ask them, they mock me. I scold them, they are angry. I ask for them, they reject it. I forgive them their wrongdoing, they do not want it. I am ready to give myself for them, so they deny it. What should I do more than Christ, who says Ps. 109, 17: "He did not want to be given, therefore it should come far enough from him. He wanted to have malediction, so he shall be clothed with it."
(13) What does not belong to heaven, no one can bring in if it is torn in pieces. But what should go in, must go in, if all the devils clung to it and tore themselves apart. St. Paul [Titus 3:10, 11] says: "Such a stubborn man is to be avoided, after two warnings, because he has certainly gone wrong and his judgment has already passed over him.
14 However, for the poor people who are still ignorantly deceived by them, we should not cease to pray and do what we can for them, so that we may snatch them out of the jaws of the murderer of souls in Rome and his apostles. Hereby commanded to God, who graciously preserves your faith and understanding in Christ. Amen.
2) Weimarsche: me them.