Page:The letters of Martin Luther.djvu/16

 careful wife asked him to procure something for her, the busy man sent to Nürnberg for oranges, there being none in Wittenberg, for “why should he not be glad to do her bidding, for was she not dearer to him than the King of France or Venice?”

Particularly beautiful is Luther’s letter to Chancellor Bruck, speaking of the stars in God’s beautiful firmament being supported by no visible pillars. Luther’s solitude was cheered by a visit from his future Elector, John Frederick, who gave him a gold ring, and asked him to accompany him home. But we shall anticipate no more of Luther’s letters, except to say how touching are his allusions to his being “a feeble, worn-out old man, overburdened with letter-writing, overwhelmed with work,” as his life draws near to its close.

We shall give a few details of his numerous correspondents, for it would fill volumes to tell all that is interesting of these distinguished men. We shall not enter into his relations with his three Electors, those remarkable men, the first of whom founded Wittenberg University in 1502, to which Luther was called in 1508 through Staupitz, often called his spiritual father. Little did the good Frederick, with his great love of peace, dream that this modest High School, which was not to presume to vie with its accomplished sisters, Erfurt and Leipsic, and whose teachers were to be the monks in the Augustinian cloister, would one day set Germany ablaze and shake the Papal throne. Frederick never met Luther, wishing to remain unbiased on the great religious questions agitating the Empire. The second, John the Steadfast, was his warm friend; while the third, John Frederick, was his son in the faith, who, after Luther’s