Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/385

 cheap so that I might not become a beggar and the fields might not be uncultivated. I hope no one will think ill of me or blame me for this change, because I have now lost seven horses and suffered other incredibly great losses. Now I have raised a few cattle (God be thanked to all eternity!), namely, sheep, pigs, oxen and cows, and also a little six months' old calf, which I cannot take far away without risk. I would be especially unable to take my fodder, hay, straw and wood very far because of the expense of hauling. I would have to give half of it away and so lose it, and then buy more at great ex- pense, all of which might cause a poor man like me a greater loss than I could stand.

I cannot take another farm, for your reverence knows that at Grafenhainichen I looked around all summer for a house and found none. But Kemberg is closed to me, though it borders on the fields of the village of Berkwitz, and is in the electoral lands, to which I have graciously been admitted, but with a gracious final clause, "Until things have changed, etc." There are several houses there that I could either rent or buy, and with some kind help I could very conveniently bring in my fodder, cattle and wood, but I may neither do this nor consider it without asking permission. Since then I have kept so quiet and devoted myself to all sorts of labor (I tell this because I must and not because I want to be praised), and no one talks any more of Carlstadt's doctrine ; and since it is not my desire henceforth to mingle in the affairs of the learned, but rather to earn my living, as your reverence can ascertain any day from the people of this neighborhood; therefore I ask your reverence for God's sake that your Grace will write the illus- trious, etc., John, Duke of Saxony, etc., and ask his Grace out of princely kindness and Christian mercy to grant my re- quest, which will not injure his Grace a heller's worth, namely, that he will extend the terms of my admission and permit me to go to Kemberg to support myself there among the other citizens and earn food and clothing for my poor children, which is my duty. I will always be ready to serve your Grace, sparing neither my body nor my property. Your reverence's humble servant,

Andrew Carlstadt.

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