Page:The letters of Martin Luther.djvu/126

 hope you have already received an answer from others to your anxious inquiries as to my condition.

I have withdrawn from our common cause by the advice of good friends — very unwillingly, it is true, and uncertain as to whether I had acted rightly towards God. For my part, I fancied one was bound to sacrifice his neck in the universal fray.

But this was not desired, so I was borne off by horsemen, in the disguise of a knight, on my way from Mohra, and placed in a secure spot, in reigned imprisonment, where I am treated royally. But believe me, in this solitude, with nothing to do, I am the prey of a thousand devils. It is much easier to fight a devil in the flesh (men) than evil spirits in heavenly things (or under heaven). I often fall, but the right hand of the Most High raises me again.

So, willingly as I would strive for freedom, I shall remain where God has placed me. It is not safe to send you my writings, therefore I have written to Spalatin to arrange this.

Meantime I have written a treatise against Antichrist, also one on Confession in German, and have sent it as a letter of consolation, with an exposition of the 37th Psalm, to the Church in Wittenberg.

Philip has issued a pamphlet against the Parisians which I have translated into German. This too is printed.

I am writing a German Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels, which will be printed all through the year.

I have also a public castigation of the Cardinal of Mayence ready because of the Indulgences, which he has once more erected in Halle; and in addition, a disquisition on the gospel of the ten lepers: all in German.

I am born for my Germans, whom I desire to serve. I should like to write openly against the universities, but as yet have decided upon nothing.

I have made up my mind not to expound Matthew.

I had begun to lecture upon both Testaments in a popular manner in Wittenberg, and had reached the 32nd chapter of Genesis, and in the Gospels had got to the voice of John the Baptist. At this point my voice was quenched. Now that is all you wished to know.