Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/31

 Moreover if the venerable reader, Father George Leiffer," is able and willing to come it would please me ; but if not, the Lord's will be done. Please, dear fathers, show yourself in this equal to the high opinion I justly hold you in. I shall remember and be grateful for your attention. Farewell in the Lord, my brothers, each and all of you; to him we com- mend ourselves in prayer.

Brother Martin Luther, Augustintan

4. LUTHER'S RECEIPT.

Enders, i. 9. (Leipsic), October g, 1512.

Luther was called to Wittenberg a second time apparently in the summer of 151 1, in order to take the chair of Biblical exegesis hith- erto occupied by Staupitz. To fit himself for this he took, on October 18, 1512, the degree of Doctor of Divinity. The cost of the promo- tion was borne by the elector. Luther was obliged to walk to Leipsic (which, strange to say, was not in the elector's territory) to get the money from the government's agents, Dolzig and Pfeffinger. In the Weimar archives there is a list of the expenses of these gentlemen at the "Michaelismarkt" (fair held on St. Michael's day), October 5-16, 1 5 12. Among the expenses is fifty gulden for Staupitz, "which Martin, Augustinian friar at Wittenberg, received against his own written receipt. These fifty gulden our most gracious Lord kindly commanded to be given to the said friar for his doctorate, which he will receive at Wittenberg shortly after this fair, in return for which Dr. [Stau- pitz] has undertaken that the said Martin shall during his life-time lecture on the subject assigned him at Wittenberg." H. Steinlein: Luthers Doktorat, Leipsic, 1912. Sonderabdruck aus der Neuen Kirch- lichen Zeitung. Page of Errata preceding p. 1. In general on the doctorate, see this work.

I, Martin, friar of the Order of Hermits at Wittenberg, acknowledge with this my own hand that I have received on account of the Prior at Wittenberg, from the honorable and trusty Degenhart Pfeffinger^ and John von Dolzig,* cham-

1: Nothing is known of I«eifFer save tbat he was an Augustinian at Erfurt, who held the position of reader at meals. Luther wrote him on April 15, 1516 iinfrm no. 12), and mentioned him incidentally in a letter of October 15, 1516.

The chamberlain, treasurer and influential councillor of Frederic the Wise. He died July 3, 15 19. He is frequently spoken of by Luther as a somewhat close- fisted individual. Enders, i. 87.

■A treasurer and receiver of taxes (not chamberlain) who had been in Fred- eric's service probably before 1500. In 1517-8 he made a pilgrimage to Palestine. In 1 5 19 he became marshal of the court. He was at Augsburg in 1530. He undertook a mission to England in 1539. Made governor of Saalfeld 1545. Died

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