Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/355

 715. LUTHER TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBURG.* Enders, v» 271. (Wittenberg^ November 11, 1525.

Grace and peace. How I should like to be present at your wedding, dear SpalatinI Nor is it my will, which Erasmus says is free, but I think is unfree, which prevents me from coming. I cannot come because in the first place the recent flight of the nuns from ducal Saxony keeps me busy, and besides at your court an ignoble crowd of nobles rage against me. Wonderful but true, we cannot trust even those who have hitherto seemed most evangelical. Amsdorf himself was lately in peril from those whom, with the Elector, we consid- ered our very citadel and refuge in time of need. Amsdorf said, "Not only God but the whole world sees what scoundrels they are." You would be surprised if I could write their names to you. Therefore I cannot come to you, withheld by the tears of my Katie, who believes as you write, that you desire nothing less than to put me in danger, for truly she reasons that Amsdorf must know what he was talking about. Besides, you know that the more our Elector cherishes the evangelical cause the less he is feared by his own courtiers, who hope to do what they please with him.

You ask whether the government should suppress religious abominations, and say that our enemies urge against this that no one ought to be forced to profess the evangelical faith, that there is no precedent for so doing, and finally that the government has power only in externals. Answer them : Why did they formerly do what they now contend should not be done? For they forced men not only to external compliance in their abominable religion, but also to inward infidelity and impiety of heart. Let the rule work both ways. It is plain that they used coercion, and moreover invoked the aid of a foreign prince, for which alone they ought to be expelled. But our government does not force belief in the evangelical faith, but only suppresses external abominations. Therefore, in confessing that the government has power over externals

^ After the death of the Elector Frederic, Spalatin gave np his post at court and was appointed canon and pastor of the principal church at Altenburg, enter- ing upon his duties in August, 1525. He married Catherine Heidenreick* November 19.

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