hope you have alreadyreceived an answer from others to your anxious inquiries as to my condition.
I have withdrawn from our common cause by the advice of good friends " very unwillingly, it is true, and uncertain as to whether
I had acted rightly towards For my part,I fancied one was bound to sacrifice his neck in the universal fray.
But this was not desired,so I was borne off by horsemen, in the disguise of a knight, on my way from Mohra, and placed in a secure spot, in feignedimprisonment, where
I am treated royally. But believe me, in this solitude, with nothingto do, I am the prey of a thousand devils.
It is much easier to fight a devil in the flesh (men) than evilspirits in heavenlythings(orunder heaven). I often fall, but the righthand of the High raises me again.
I would strive for freedom, I shall remain where It is not safe to send you my writings, therefore I have written to Spalatin to arrange this.
I have written a treatise againstAntichrist, also one on Confession in German, and have sent it as a letter of consolation,with an expositionof the Church in Wittenberg.
Philiphas issued a pamphlet againstthe I have translated into German.
Expositionof the Epistles and Gospels,which will be printedall through the year.
I have also a publiccastigation of the Mayence readybecause of the Indulgences, which he has once more erected in Halle ; and in addition, a disquisition on the gospelof the ten lepers
I should like to write openlyagainstthe universities, but as yet have decided upon nothing.
I have made up my mind not to expound Matthew.
I had begun to lecture upon both Testaments in a popularmanner in Wittenberg,and had reached the 32nd chapterof Genesis, and in the Gospels had got to the voice of John the Baptist.At this point my voice was quenched. Now that is all you wished to know.
Give my best love to your dear one, and I hope that she may love you dearly,and that you too may love her.
It is good that your former state of celibacy, with all its accompanyingevils,has been replacedby marriage.
Endure all that this condition of God's appointment bringswith it,and thank I am dailygainingmore insightinto the godlesslives of the unmarried of both sexes, so that nothing sounds worse to me than the words monk, nun, priest, for I regard a married life of deep poverty as paradisein comparison. Greet
CasparUrzigereum,and all Evangelicals from me.
Luther tells his father that he is now free from his monkish vows, and sends him his book on the To his dear father,Hans
My reason for dedicating this book to you was not to honour your name before the world,thus disobeying St. Paul's admonition,not to seek honour after the flesh, but to explainits contents.
It is almost sixteen years since I took the monk's vows without your knowledge or consent.
You feared the weakness of my flesh,for I was a young fellow {Blut) of Augustine'sword) and full of fire,and you know the monkish life is fatal to many, and you were anxious to arrange a rich marriagefor me.
And for long this fear and anxietymade you deaf to those who begged you to be reconciled to me, and to giveGod your dearest and best.
But at last you gave way, althoughyou did not layaside your care ; for,I well remember tellingyou I was called througha terrible apparition from heaven, so that,when face to face with death,I made the vow, and you exclaimed,
God grant it was not an apparition of the Evil One that startled you."
The words sank into my