Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/214

 Lutheran affairs harass the Pope. Believes this will be the deluge of the Churchy but trusts God will not permit such ruin of it and of the great prelates. Those in authority at Rome do not fail to take every precaution.

608. LUTHER TO SPALATIN AT NUREMBERG.

Enders iv, 273. (Wittenberg, before January 14, 1524).

Luther's work as a hymn-writer began in 1523. In 1524 he published the first evangelical hymnal (the VIII Lieder Gesangbuch), which con- tained four hymns of his own composition, three by Paul Speratus and one by a certain Erhart Hegenwalt This letter to Spalatin was writ- ten while he was gathering materia) for the book. Cf. Smith, p. 230, Koestlin-Kawerau* i, 536ff.

Grace and peace. There is a plan afoot to follow the ex- ample of the prophets and the fathers of the early Church and compose for the common people Crerman psalms, that is spiritual songs, so that the Word of (jod may remain among the people in the form of song also. We are seeking every- where for poets, and since you are gifted with such knowledge of the German language and command so elegant a style, cul- tivated by much use, I beg that you will work with us in this matter and try to translate some one of the psalms into a hymn, like the sample of my own which you have here.* But I wish that you would leave out all new words and words that are only used at court. In order to be understood by the peo- ple, only the simplest and commonest words should be sung, but they should also be pure and apt and should give a clear sense, as near as possible to that of the Psalter. The trans- lation, therefore, must be free, keeping the sense, but letting the words go and rendering them by other appropriate words. I lack the gift to do what I wish to see done, and so I shall try you and see if you are a Heman" or an Asaph" or a Jeduthun.* I would make the same request of John von Dolzig,* whose (German is also rich and elegant, but only in

may hare enclosed with this letter cannot be known.
 * Several of Luther's hymns had been printed before this time. Which one be

■Heman the Ezrahite, vids Psalm bcxxriii.


 * yid€ Psahns IxxiiifF.


 * Vid€ Ptafans xxxix, bcii, Ixxvii, and I Chronicles xtI, 41.

Spalatin. Vide VoL I. p. 26.
 * The Omit Marshal of the Elector of Saxony, then at Nuremberg with

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