Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/430

 name of a prince, even though he is my enemy, should be so basely and foully polluted with the eternal ignominy of that Preface/ But now that Emser is dead* and Prince George himself is ill, I have changed my mind.

The deacon John* intends to leave your house and move back into the parish. Bugenhagen will await his wife's con- finement at my home. The students are returning little by little. Dr. Jerome* expects to arrive at Christmas if the plague shall be as it now is. May Christ gather us together again in one. Amen. Marriages are becoming more frequent here; in the fishermen's quarter* nothing has been heard of pestilence or death for almost two months. The Lord keep you and return you to us shortly with all of yours. Give greetings to little Justus * and his mother, to whom I am writ- ing. The grace of God be with you. Amen.

Your Martin Luther.

It is reported here that the Emperor has concluded a peace with the Pope and the Frenchman, in which both the English- man and the Venetians are thought to be included ; * also that the Turk is preparing a great expedition, though it is un- certain whether against Apulia or Hungary; if against Hun- gary, it will certainly strike Germany with fear and drive Ferdinand to flight.

^ Duke George's Preface to Emser's translation of the New Testament The date of the preface is August i, 1527. Text in Walch,' xix, 494ff. In the passage above Luther insinuates that the duke did not write it himself, but that it is the work of his subject and theological adviser, Emser, who has slandered the duke

by ascribing it to him.

•Emser died November 8.


 * Mantel.


 * Schurff.


 * Where the plague had been most severe.

'Justus Jonas junior (December 3, 1525-1567)1 studied at Wittenberg, B«A. 1539, M.A. 1544. He studied law and entered the service of Duke Albert of Mecklenburg in 1557. He was then employed by the Elector August of Saxony, and suspected of disloyalty. In 1566 he was sent to Sweden to make a league between that country and Saxony against Denmark, but, the ship being forced into a Danish harbor by a storm, was there captured and beheaded. His arrogance as a youth made his father much trouble. Cf, supra, no. 777, ADB.

^ After the second sacking of Rome (September, 1527) the Emperor offered terms of peace, which were accepted on November 26, but afterwards repudiated by the Pope. It was doubtless the report of these negotiations that had come to Wit- tenberg.

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