Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/413

 since for many reasons and for your own good we are not willing that you should separate yourself from the university at this time, especially as you know what is daily happening because of the Word of God and the Sacraments; therefore it is our gracious wish that you guide yourself accordingly and betake yourself to Jena with your wife and child, and, if you are so inclined, as we expect, and will so inform us, we shall arrange that you may be fittingly transported thither with your wife and child. This is our gracious will and we shall be pleased to have it carried out.

77a LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, vi, 75. Wittenberg, August 19, 1527.

Grace and peace. I rejoice that yt)u are restored to health,* and I give thanks to Christ our Lord. Pray for me, I beseech you, that I, too, may entirely recover, if it is the will of God our Saviour. Do not be disturbed by rumors about the visita- tion, for yesterday the Elector sent me the visitation acts,* that I might see them and decide whether they were worth pub- lishing. They are fine, as you will see, if only they shall be carried out as determined upon. Let our opponents glory in lies,* as is their wont, since they cannot console themselves with the truth.

A pestilence has broken out here, but it is rather mild. Still it is wonderful to see how men are terrified and put to flight. I have never before seen such a prodigy of Satanic power, so greatly is he terrifying everybody. Nay, he is glad that he can so frighten men's hearts and thus scatter and destroy this one university, which he hates above all others, not with- out reason. Nevertheless during the whole time of the plague there have not been more than eighteen deaths to date, counting

to Jena on August 15. A month later it moved again, this time to the little town of Schlieben, closer to Wittenberg, where it remained until the spring of 1528, when it returned to Wittenberg. I«uther» however, remained in Witten- berg, and Melanchthon and others continued to live in Jena during the whole winter.

^ Cf, supra, no. 766.

'Apparently the first draft of the Visitation Articles, prepared bj Melanchthon^ and published March 22, 1538.

' The "rumors*' mentioned above. It was said that Luther and Melanchthon dif* fered in their teaching, or that both of them were veering back toward Roman practices. Cf, Kostlin-Kawerau, ii, agff.

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