Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/364

 722. LUTHER TO MICHAEL STIEFEL AT TOLLETH.

Enders, v, 2^ Wittenbesg; December 31, 1525.

Michael Stiefel (1486-1567) of Esslingen, an Augustinian, obliged to flee from Wtirttemberg in 1522 on account of his Lutheran faith, served with Hartmuth von Cronberg awhile and then came to Witten- berg. In 1523 he was court preacher at Mansfeld, and on June 3, 1525, Luther sent him as pastor to Tolleth in Austria, where the nobleman Christopher Jorger, with his mother Dorothy and his sisters, had become patrons of the Evangelical Church. Obliged to flee again, he returned to Wittenberg in 1528. During his last years he taught mathematics at Jena. He also wrote verse of some merit and a number of controversial tracts. Realencyklopddie, ADB., and Kroker: Katharina von Bora, i8i£F.

Grace and peace in the Lord. I am sending you the brief and hasty confutation of Erasmus^ that I have been able to prepare, my dear Michael.* I am satisfied that you perceive how mighty is the prince of this world in hindering the Word of God from bearing fruit (even though he is forced to allow it to be heard) and is starting impious sects, which are the tares he sows. This error about the sacrament has three sects, though they are all of one mind;" Zwingli opposes Carlstadt for some reason;" for other reasons Valentine the Silesian*

^The De Strvo Arbitrio, Weimar, xriii, 551. In English: On the Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther, translated by H. Cole, 1823. A new translation will appear in Philadelphia, y. Luther had received Erasmus's Diatribe in September, 1534, and it was just a year before he found time to begin his reply (En- ders, ▼, 100, 105, 125). He was urged to reply by Capito (Enders, y, 66f). He finally decided to undertake the work at the request of his wife and Camerarius. Probably Catharine disliked Erasmus on account of his sneers at her marriage. Kroker: Luthers Tischreden in der Matthesischen Sammlung, no. 212. Discussion of subject, Smith, 208; literature, 458f, and A. Taiube: Luther's Lehre Uber die Preiheit, , , bis sum Jahre 1525, Gottingen, 1901. A. V. Mailer: Luther^s theo- logischen Quellen, 1912, caps. 20 and 24.

bread and wine.
 * /.#., they all agree in rejecting the Real Presence of the body and blood in the

stadt's principal exegetical argument, but admitted he liked much in the other's tracts. In the autumn of 1524, when Carlstadt came to Zurich, Zwingli was persuaded by "certain persons of melancholy spirit" not to see him. Barge, ii, 216, 26off.
 * I CR., xcv., 567. In 1525 Schwenckfeld ap- pealed to him to reject the doctrine of the real presence, which he called "impanation" or Einbrdtung vi verborum, Krautwald opposed him until a divine revelation proved to him the truth of Schwenckfeld's view. Schwenckfeld came to Wittenberg in 1525 and had an interview with Luther and Melanchthon on December 2, by which, strange to say, he was much encouraged. Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum, ii, 34off.: Enders^ v, 277. Luther regarded him m& "Ov^
 * Valentine Krautwald of Liegnitz, a friend of Caspar Schwenckfeld. Bom

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