with,and then slowlygathersstrength, tillat last it bursts forth in flame.
God grant this peoplemay resemble that son who at the beginningrefused to go into the vineyard,and afterwards repentedand went.
He will be preferred to him who at firstpromisedto go and afterwards did not.
So go on your way unweariedly,and the '.Lordwill be with you, and do not be afraid of those highlyenlightened spirits(in their own eyes). Nothing is more foolish in God's sightthan such self-deception.May the Christ ever be with you.
Write as often as you can.
Your letters will alwaysbe welcome, partlybecause they testify to the uprightness of your heart,which is so much needed by your peopleas well as ours, and partlybecause theycontain so much information calculated to satisfy our curiosity.I herewith commit you to This was the year of the first church visitation in Saxony. Plaguein Wittenberg. Sack of Rome.
Kathie, my wife and commander, ordered me to thank you for the cloth you sent, but such a costlygiftis not seemly for poor people like us.
It is just as it should be, that Elizabeth should enter your God grant that she may be truly obedient.
We are all well, and amusing ourselves by beautifyingWittenberg,so that it may have a uniform appearance, while we are becoming lamentablyindifferent to the I am at present preparingto attack the fanatics abroad.
Otherwise there is nothingnew here.
May you and yours prosper.
Elector accedes to church visitation.
Grace and peace in Christ,dear I have no news, except that the Elector wishes the church visitation begun at once.
And after the churches are put on a good footing we can settle the questionof excommunication It would be impossible to do that now, when all is in confusion.
Zechariah is in the press, and the book is dailygrowing under my hand.
I am also attacking the Pray Christ to guide my pen so as to refute I am greatlyrejoiced over your testimony that you are untainted by such rubbish.
I am grievedthat that estimable man CEcolampadiushas fallen into the mire through such childish nonsensical ideas.
Rhegiusalso inclines the same way, or has fallen in.
You will have heard that the Emperor has been successful in Italy. The Pope is beset on all hands, so that he may be demolished,for his hour has come, althoughpersecution is rife,and many are beingburned.
Kathie greets you respectfully.
You ask me, my worthy Eberhard, to send you eightgulden; but where am You know the state of my finances,and this year alone
I have contracted lOO guldenof debt throughmy wretched management.
I have pledgedin one quarter three goblets for Lord who thus punishesmy folly will againdraw me out of the net.
Christian will take no more such pledges i6o from me, for they know they will either receive nothing or At lengthI presseda fourth gobletupon them for gulden,which theylent me, upon my word of mouth, to giveto the fat Hermann.
I let myselfbe so drained,and plungemy small belongings in such debt ?
Now, it would not be givingmy own, but other people's money as alms.
I am mean or greedy seeingI have been so lavish to others.
I shall arrange thus.
I shall talk it over with them, and perhaps satisfy them, and if I can layhands on more money I would not hesitate to advance it.
I would like to visit you myself,and talk over matters with you, and see your glebe. Why not let your empty house It would have brought in a bit of money.
The visitation of the churches and schools began in February.
Melanchthon,Schurf,and two nobles were sent to the Wittenberg district.
To the honourable and virtuous maiden, Elsie von My dearest friend in Christ !
Grace and peace in Christ I have written your dear aunt, Plausig, to let you come to me for a time,as I could employ you in teachingyoung girls, and thus set an example which others might follow.
You would live in my house and eat at my table, so you would be safe and free from all care ; therefore pray come.
One is tormentingyou with evil thoughts. Oh, dear young lady,do not let that trouble you, for those who suffer from the devil here will not be troubled with him above
; so this is a good sign. Christ also had to endure the same, and many holy prophetsand apostles, as the Therefore take comfort, and gladlysuifer the I shall discuss the subjectfullywith you.
Who was imprisonedand finally burned for his religion.
To the esteemed dear brother in Christ,the faithful servant and prisonerof Christ,Leonhardt That your old man should be a prisoner, dear
Leonhardt, is the will of Christ your Himself up for you and your sins into the hands of the godless, so that He might redeem you with His blood,and make you
His brother and co-heir of eternal life.
We are in deep sorrow on your account, and pray earnestly that you may be set free,not so much for your sake as for the benefit of many and the honour of God, if it be His will.
But if it be the will of Heaven that you should not be free,stillyou are free in spirit.Only see that you are strong, and constantly overcome the weakness of the flesh,patiently bearingwith it in the strength of Christ, who is with you in your cell,and will stand by you in all your affliction, as I will be with him in trouble.'*
Hence you must confidently call upon Him in prayer, sustaining yourself with Psalms of consolation amid Satan's fury, so that you may be strengthened of the Lord, and not succumb too readilyto the teeth of For you know he cannot injureyou if you cry to Christ,whose presence and power are over all.
Paul says, ''If God be for us, who can be againstus He will help all who are tempted.
Therefore,my beloved brother,be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,so that you may recognise, endure,love,and praiseout of a full heart the fatherly will of God, whether free or not.
To enable you to do this,the JesusChrist will work in you, accordingto the riches of Father of all mercies and the God of all consolation.
I herewith commit you to In July,Melanchthon, Myconius,and Erfurt, with three lawyers,began church visitation in Thttringia.
The church visitation has begun in earnest.
MagisterPhilipset off.
Rome has been devastated in the most merciless manner.
Christ has so overruled it that the Emperor, who, because of the Pope,persecutedLuther, should now be obligedto overthrow the Pope on So all thingshave been made subservient to the welfare of God*s peopleagainstthe adversary. I have no other news.
I have had a terrible attack of giddiness, so that I can neither read nor write.
In this visitation the Elector legally established the office of superintendent, to keep an eye on the efficiency of the clergy.
I am gladto hear you are againwell,and thank Pray that I may be kept in health,if it be the will of God our Prince sent me the report of the visitation to see if it was worth printing.It is all right, if theyonlystick to what is arranged. The plagueis certainly here,but it is not bad.
However, the peopleare so terrified that they are runningaway in every direction.
The more he can frightenthem the happierhe is ; and that he has scattered our University is a great joy to him.
But only eighteenhave died.
In the fishers* quarter no one has died of it,but all are buried there.
To-day we have buried 's wife, who died yesterday, almost in my arms.
This is the firstdeath in the middle of the town.
The other eighteenare round about the Eberhardt*s daughter, who was marriageable, and John Kronenberg'sdaughter.
Luft has recovered, and many others get better if theytake medicine.
But many are so excited they will do nothing,and die defiantly.JustusJonas has lost his son Johannes. He, with his household,has gone to his fatherland,but I remain here, as the people are in desperation.So I are here alone with the chaplain, but Christ is with us, who will overcome the old murderous serpent, who broughtsin into the world, even althoughhe may bruise our heel.
The visitation will not be allowed to drop, dear Nicolas,so let us be of good cheer.
We hope the plague may soon be over.
It plagues us in manifold ways, especially me, weakening my faith and loadingme with care.
The pest has been three times in the house.
The little son has been eightdays ill,and is only kept alive by liquids ; but now he is recovering.For many months I have suffered from faithlessness.
Pray that our faith i64 Kathie sends money for linen.
I do not wish to trouble you.
Pommer, who comforts me in my solitude,as the plaguetook the chaplain's wife away, greets you warmly.
Kathie also commends herself to your prayers.
Farewell,beloved brother.
Luther rejoices over his friend's recovery.
Accept my greeting, for I have reallynothing to write.
He has restored you to us.
His name to all eternityfor doingthis !
I hope that the visitors will,after a short rest, go on with their work.
Meantime comfort yourself in patience.
At the same time pray for us, so that the Lord may remove the epidemicand gatheragainthe scattered ones, that Word may be spread abroad more and more.
Luther expresses joy over his friends' intercession for him, on account of the absence of his helpersin Jena.
To my honoured brother in Christ,Gerhardt The other day I wrote to Montanus, and not to you.
I write to you, and not to I perceiveyou are one heart and soul in the Therefore show him this letter,and thank him on my behalf for being so constantly remembered in prayer.
All of us, and especially myself,stand much in need MagisterGeorge,thus robbingyou of a faithful pastor, who declared to you the But one thingafter another has preventedme, especially my weak health,and althoughnot yet well
I can delayno longer.
But althoughunable to derive any comfort from such an untoward event, stillit would be wrong to allow such a perfidiousmurder to be passed over in silence, and let such blood rot in the earth instead of bearingwitness to I shall help it to cry to Heaven, in order that so much as in us lies, such a murder may never be forgotten tillGod the merciful Father and righteous
Judge hears the cry, as He heard that of righteous Abel's blood, and executes justice upon the murderer.
God grant that MagisterGeorge'sblood may be a divine seed,which althoughsown in the earth by the hands of Satan and his members, may bringforth seed an hundredfold,so that instead of the murdered
George a hundred other faithful preachersmay arise,who will injure Satan a thousand times more than the one man has done
; and because he would neither suffer nor listen to the one he will be obligedto suffer and listen to many others,even as happened to the Pope through Huss's blood,whom he would not permit to exist quietly in a corner, but must now hear its cries over the whole world, tillit has reached
Rome itself, and there seems no prospect of its being silenced.
I have received the historyof Kaiser,but meantime his cousin has sent me all his writings in his own hand.
I shall have them printed at once.
Christ may not forsake me, for I am driven almost mad by the assaults of Satan's angels.
Miserable creature that I preachthe gospelwith many words, but he is a powerfuldoer of the Oh that I were counted worthy to be endued, not with the double but with the half of his spirit, so that I might be able to overcome
Satan and quitthis life.
God be praisedthat amid so much evil He has grantedus poor miserable creatures a gloriousglimpseof His loving-kindness as a token that He has not forsaken us.
Pray for me, my brother Michael,and may Christ grant that we too may be followers of He is not called a king,but a kaiser,for he has overcome him whose power is so great that no one on earth can be compared to him.
In addition,he is not onlya priest, but a true bishop, nay pope, who has offered up his body as a sacrifice well pleasingto the Also, he is rightlynamed
Leonhardt,that is,lion-heart,for he has proved himself to be a strong and fearless lion.
All that this name signified was foreseen when he received it.
He is the first of his race who has so consecrated the name.
Give your dear wife my thanks, and my little prattling Hans must send his respects to you.
Kathie hope that she may live happilywith her child in Christ.
Pommer greets you warmly.
A letter full of complaints.
I who up till now was wont to comfort you all, now need it greatlymyself. Meantime my sole petitionis that you will help me to pray that His graciouswill in me
; so that I may be well pleasingin His sight, and never be ungrateful to after having up till now zealously preached His gospel and honoured
His name, althoughoften havinggrieved Satan begsthat a Job may be delivered into his hands, but Christ bids him spare his life.
I am thy salvation," which makes me sure that He will not for ever be wroth over my sins.
I should like to answer the Sacramentarians,but if I do not get stronger I cannot.
My house has been turned into a hospital.Augustine's Hanna had the plague inwardly,but is now better.
Margaret Mochim alarmed us with a sore and other bad symptoms.
I am also very anxious about my Hans has been three days ill,and eats nothing. Some say it is the teeth,and both seem in danger.
The wife of George, the chaplain, is also ill of the plague,and her condition is perilous. May Jesus be graciousto her.
So there are fightings without and fears within.
Lord is tryingus sorely.Our one consolation is,and with this we can defy Satan,that we have Word, throughwhich believing souls can be saved, althoughHe consumes the bodies.
We send greeting to the brethren and yourself, and beg you to pray for us that we may patiently endure God's chastening hand, and withstand
Satan's power and cunning,both in lifeand death.
In tenth year of the overthrow of the Indulgence, to whose memory we are drinking a toast, and to both our healths.
A sad letter. Jonas in Nordhausen duringthe plague.
Grace and peace in God our Jonas,that you pray for us, and sometimes write.
I hope you got yesterday's letter.
Erasmus's writings nor those of the Sacramentarians, except somethingby Zwingli. They only do rightin trampling a miserable creature like me under foot,therebyfollowing
Judas'sexample,and making me utter my complaintsto my Jesus of being persecutedon all sides, and havingto bear God's indignation for havingsinned against Pope,Emperor, Bishops,and the whole world attack me
; and as if this were not enough, my very brethren plague me, nay, even my sins,death, and the devil with his angels, rage without measure.
So then what would become of me were Christ to forsake me because of whom all these are my enemies He will not desert me, poor miserable sinner,for I esteem myselfthe least of all men.
Would that Erasmus and the Sacramentarians experienced for one quarter of an hour the sorrows of my heart, then I would declare theywere trulyconverted.
But now my enemies are mighty,and heap anguishon him whom the But enough of this,so that I may not seem impatient under God's rod, who chastens and heals,kills and makes alive again.
His holy and perfect will be praised now and for ever Were we of the world it would love its own.
I am also very anxious about my wife.
Lord has done great thingsfor me, so I must suffer great things. May Christ be my rock and my strength. Amen.
Hans can send no greetingin his sickness,but begs for your prayers.
For twelve days he has lived only on fluids.
He now beginsto eat a little. The child would gladlyplay as he used to do, but is not able.
MargaretMochim's abscess was opened yesterday, and she is now a little better.
; that would be a marvellous sign. Would to God that we could meet againin our homes, and work at Ecclesiastes, so that it may be issued before we die.
I commend myselfto your prayers.
Wittenbergpeople are hated of all,and they are terrified on account of the pest.
We are a byword among the lyo heathen, a shakingof the head among the people,"but we hope a joy and crown of the angelsand saints.
Luther thanks him for comfort received.
Christ one day,dear Nicolas,comfort you with the comfort you have given me.
I,poor sinner,thank my Lord that up till now He has not permittedSatan to do as he pleasedwith me, althoughhe has tried with all his might and cunning to do so.
Pray that Christ may overcome him and his onslaught upon me.
I do not believe that it is one devil that is attacking me, but that the very princeof devils has risen againstme, so great is his power of assailing me with Scripture, so that my own knowledge of the Bible does not suffice for my protection if I were not strengthened by words of Scripture out of the mouths of my friends.
This is why I ask so earnestly for your prayers ; and if ever you are in the same position, the sport of the devil, you will understand my request.
Luther longsfor his friend's return.
That you are so earnest in your prayers for me, dear Jonas,is a very great boon to me, poor tortured creature.
I also pray much for you that Christ may take pityon you, for I hear you suffer from stone.
I would counsel you to return to us, for Christ be praised, the plaguehas abated,and our townspeopleare beginningto marry and live in security.Your quarters
's death are now quitepurifiedup to the Pfarr church and the market.
Lord guide you to what is well pleasingto Him and good for yourself.
Justelchen.Augustine's wife is better.
If only MargarettaMochim would recover, but now we have hope.
She has been some weeks ill,and can scarcelyhear or speak.
Your house,which is now clean,I have lent to the other chaplain's wife and family,for she was so distressed over the death of her friend,the chaplain's wife, that it was the only way to comfort her, but the two husbands sleephere in the manse.
I hope you will excuse us making so free with your belongings, but I promised that if the plagueattack any of them theyshall at once be broughtback here.
Christ give you a house in Nordhausen, as we in our dire need had to take yours.
Brunoni's littleson will not live over the day,for death has marked the orphan for his own.
Walther was three weeks in Luther's house helpingto arrange the Reformer himself composing the melodies for the Virgilhad taughthim this.
From this letter you will see, my I answered your last, as I wished to offer you helpand counsel.
The messenger should have fetched this letter earlyin the morning, as you write,but how can I know where theyspend the night, or run after them
It is their custom, when they have giventhe letters to my servants, to disappear, as if carried away by the wind, and they do not reappear.
I write once more, as you request.
I herewith commit you to