Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/188

 clearly says, among other things, that only the holy Gospel shall be preached and taught, and that teachers and preachers are to be admonished kindly and in such wise that it cannot be supposed that the truth of the Gospel is to be hindered or suppressed, I hope and trust in God that I shall not be forbidden to write and shall be innocent in the eyes of all if in my written replies I devote myself rather to the divine truth of the Gospel than to the proofs of my own innocence.

Concerning all this I would not leave your Grace any longer uninformed, humbly requesting that your Grace will graciously note this my submissive reply, and, if your Grace so pleases, pass it on. For, I thank God, I am acting without fear, and am not ashamed of my cause or of the Word of God. The eternal God illumine and strengthen your Grace's heart with His divine grace and mercy. Amen.

Your Grace's humble servant,

Martin Luther.

588. LUTHER TO BERNARD, A CONVERTED JEW,

Enders, iv, 146. (, May(?), 1523.)

It was alleged at the Diet of Nuremberg that Luther denied the virgin birth of Christ (Cf. supra, no. 564.) As an answer to "this new lie." be published a little tract, under the title, That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew (Weimar, xi, 314ff). The date of the first (Wittenberg) edition we do not know, but a second edition was in press at (or Hagenau) early in June, so that the first edition must have been issued in May or earlier. Luther sent a copy of it as a present to Bernard, a converted Jew, who married Carlstadt's maid in the summer of 1522. Along with it he sent this letter. 

Grace and peace from the Lord. The conversion of the Jews is in bad odor almost everywhere, not only among but also among the Jews. The latter say that no one goes over from Judaism to Christianity in good faith, but that anyone who attempts it is guilty of some crime and cannot stay among the Jews. The Christians say that experience shows that they either return to their vomit, or only pretend to have deserted Judaism. Everybody knows the story of what is said to have occurred at the court of the Emperor