Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/155

 Ifi2 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let Sfo

I cannot answer the Count of Schwartzenberg^ in detail. It is a big book, as I have already, written to him and PhiUp von Feilitzsch,' and, besides, the most of his questions have^ already been answered in books that I have published. There is only one question remaining, that concerning the power of the sword," and this, Christ willing, I shall dispose of when Moses has been finished. Meanwhile do you send my answer to the Counts of Schwartzburg * to Anselm of Lettau.' 'Fare- well.

Please do us the favor of describing the following animals and giving us their names according to their species :

Birds of prey — Kite, vulture, hawk, sparrow-hawk, falcon, and any others of this sort

Game animals — Roebuck, chamois, ibex, wild goat or syl- vestris hircus.

Reptiles — Is stellio properly called a newt, and lacerta limara a viper ? In Hebrew and Latin and Greek these things are all so confused that we have to guess at them from the genera and species of the animals. Therefore I wish, if possible, to learn in German the names, the species and the nature of all the birds of prey, the game animals and the venomous reptiles. I shall tell you the poisonous vermin that I have. They are: Weasel, mouse, toad, viper, newt, lizard, snail, mole. Moses cals them, crocodylon, mygalon, chameleon, and numbers them, shamelessly enough, among the "creeping things" of Leviti- cus xi.

The names of the night birds are these : Owl, raven, homed

ijohn of Schwartsenberg (1463-1528), a Pranconita nobleman* at this time in the service of the bishop of Bamberg. At the Diet of Nuremberg dsaa-aj) he was chairman of the committee which drafted the reply to the Pope {infra, no. 574)* In 1524 he entered the serrice of George of Brandenberg, where he was active in the introduction of the Reformation. Cf. Enders, \y, $, n. 4, Ranke*, ii, 39, ADB. The "answer" is to a book which Schwartsenberg had written and sent to Luther in manuscript. Supra, Vol. I, p. 563, n. i. Life by W. Scheel, Berlin, 1905.

> RepresentatiTe of the Elector at the Diet of Augsburg, 1518 (Enders, i, 343) and at the Diet of Nuremberg, 1523 (Janssen-Pastor ao, ii, 342). He was with Luther at Worms, cf. Vol. I, p. 523.

'/.«.. of the temporal authorities. Luther discussed the question in his tract Von WtUHcher Obrigkeit (Weimar xi. 229!!.; Philadelphia iii, 224^.).

be confused with John of Schwarzoiberg, supra,
 * Henry of Schwarzburg (1499-1538) and his father, Gfinther (died 1531); not to

n. 2. The letter from the Counts of Schwartsburg had been forwarded by him. It concerned the abolition of the monasteries (DeWette il, 257).
 * He appears in 1533 as the Electoral official at Schneeberg. Eaders, it, 36,

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