Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/241

 the length of time it has been invested. This should be done mildly, so that it might be a beginning toward regulating the whole business and bringing it, in the course of time, to a just basis. . ..

629. MELANCHTHON TO JOHN MEMMINGEN AT TORGAU. ARC, X (1913), pp. 283^. (Wittenberg, soon after July 5, 1524.)

The date of this letter is given by the reference to the death of William Nesen, who was drowned in the Elbe on the evening of July 5, 1524. The letter, just publislied, is remarkably interesting as showing the attitude of Mekmchthon at this time. He was strongly attracted to the Catholic Church and to Erasmus, at the same time that he was repelled by the excesses of Munzer and other radical evangelical sects. On this subject see further Kawerau, in Deutsch-evangel. Blatter, 1903, pp. 29ff.

John Oeder, of Memmingen, studied at Wittenberg and in 1521 be- came master of the Elector's boy singers at Eilenburg and later at Torgau. In 1529 he became M.A. at Wittenberg and rector of the school at Grimma. He died 1538.

Greeting. Recently I received a sharp wound in the loss of the good man Nesen, and while I was uncommonly pros- trated by this fatality your rather long letter was brought to me, which increased my mental uneasiness. For, although I saw that your irritation was due to your zeal for piety, I regretted that you were angry rather at the new doctrine, as it is called, than at the fury of those who abuse all good things. I ask you, John, in such obscure matters not to seek any other teacher than Him whom Peter bids us follow, when he says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, etc."^ If you weigh all dogmas by this rule neither Munzer nor Luther will be able to impose on you or to beguile* you. I defend neither of these men. Munzer I do not sufficiently know. In Luther you severely censure the dogma of the Word changing hearts. Please write me carefully how you wish your opinion to be taken. I will merely set down carelessly both what I myself approve and

^ II Peter i, 19. The words in italics in this letter are in Greek in the originaL ' KaraCpt^eieiv This is not the correct meaning of the Greek word, but it waa

doubtless so understood by Melancbthon, for it is so translated in the Vulgate^

Colossians ix, i8, seducat.

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