sideringyourselfwronged,you have appealedto the law, and are willing to abide by its decision.
Nothing can be more simple. Pray take this admonition, prompted by your son, in a friendlyspirit.I commit you to Luther intercedes for his brother-in-law.
Grace and peace in Christ,most graciouslord !
It is long since I asked for anything,but in case the highway of intercession should become overgrown with grass, I now approachyou, humbly beggingyour
Grace to listen to me, so that I may not be suspectedof havingincurred your displeasure, which I do not care to go, and, among other things,
Grace was treating the proprietors of the smelting-houses very harshly,who do not deserve this at your hands, and that, in consequence, the earldom might forfeit its prosperity
; and much was beingsaid on the subject which I do not think it rightto conceal from you.
I then asked how it affected my relations,and I was told that my brother-in-law, Mackerode, feared he would be reduced to beggary.
'' God cannot desire that,"I said, " for they have nothing but the furnace theyinherited,so I shall write my lord on the subject"
; for,my brother-in-law has not written to me about it,only it occurred to me at I once called him in jesta dross-driver instead of a furnacemaster
(^Schlackentreiber for Schlackenherren), at which he laughed,and said the time might not be far distant when such would be the case, and went away.
I plead,most graciouslord,that you will grant my petition, and prove a gracious lord to the good Mackerode and his heirs,especially as your
Grace must see that so great and rich a lord can gainnothingthrough the poverty of good people, but would most surelydraw down
God's wrath upon him, to whom it is a very small matter to make the rich poor and the poor rich.
I do not plead for justice (asI neither know nor wish to know the rights of the case),but for your favour,for your God's favour and protection.For if we insist too much on our rightsregardingour neighbours, without leaving room for mercy, then
God will act in the same manner towards us, and mercy will be obscured.
I hope my lord will see from this letter that I trulylove my sovereign Prince, and have his welfare at heart, therefore dislike hearinganythingto his disadvantage, or be silent when
I fear God may pour out I beg for a gracious answer.
Grace's most obedient Luther asks helpfor a preacherwith a bad wife.
George Schaumer, for whom you have got a church, asks a letter of introduction to you.
But he has a very bad wife.
If she remains here, and does not follow her husband, as she threatens to do, we shall giveher a bath in the Elbe, or dignifyher with an admonition.
Should she reallyfollow,you will treat her as befits your office, most decidedly, thus coming to the man's help.
And should she run away, all the better,for he will get rid of the godlesswoman.
See to it that she does not injurethe gospelnor unfit her husband for the pulpit. Here nothing is talked of except the strange story of the Landgrave,which some excuse, others deny, while some giveit a quitedifferent aspect.
The sister of the Landgrave,the Princess of Rochlitz,is much blamed ; but time will declare it.
Farewell,and pray for us, and let your church pleadthe cause of the gospel,now being discussed at Philip,who has been sent into the midst of the enemy, that God may give His angelscharge over him, and keep him in all his ways.