Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/444

 of his allies should be notified that their alliance has become certainly known, and because their agreement is against God, law, nature and all fairness, because, too, Grod, law and nature make it our duty to protect our subjects against violence, and not to allow ourselves to be forced away from God's Word; therefore it would be our desire that they should come at a certain time to a place that could be named and come to agreement with us about the matter, give pledges that they will give up the project and undertake no other of the same sort, leave everyone free to preach the Gospel and indemnify us in the amount of the expense to which they have unfairly put us, the amount to be set down in the presence of their representa- tives, and certified to them ; if they would not do this we would be compelled to defend our subjects, friends and brethren against such a misuse of force ; our honor would demand that we should not leave them in ignorance of this last. . ..

795. LUTHER AND BUGENHAGEN TO STEPHEN ROTH AT

ZWICKAU.

Enders, vi, 245. (WrrrENBERc), April 12, 1528.

Stephen Roth (bom 1492) had been rector of the schools at Zwickau (15 17) and Joachimsthal (1520). He came to Wittenberg in the faU of 1523 and remained there mi til 1528, occupying himself with the he was appointed town-clerk (Stadtschreiber) of Zwickau. He had married (1524) a Wittenberg lady by the name of Ursula Kruger, who left him at Zwickau and returned to Wittenberg. Life by G. Miiller in Beitrdge zur sdchsischen KWchengesMchte, iiff., i, 1882, 43ff. Many letters to him, 1521-46, published by Buchwald : Zur Wittenberger Stadt" und UniversitatS'Geschichte, 1893.

Grace and peace in Christ, and authority over your wife. Your lord and mistress has not yet come to me, my dear Stephen, and this disobedience of hers to your wishes dis- pleases me. Indeed, I am beginning to be somewhat put out with you, too, because you are so soft-hearted and out of the service by which you should have helped her, you have made a tyranny, and have treated her so tenderly heretofore that it would st&n to be your own fault, too, that she now ventures to defy you in everything. Certainly when you saw that the ass was greedy for fodder, that is, that your wife, because of

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