Page:The letters of Martin Luther.djvu/197

 So, as your Electoral Grace is deriving no advantage from such goods, and as they were instituted to maintain the public service of God, they should, first of all, be applied to this purpose.

Then with what remains your Grace could supply the needs of the land and the poor.

And another point. Dr. Carlstadt has begged me to write to your Highness to ask if he might be allowed to live in Kemberg; for, he cannot exist any longer in the villages, on account of the wickedness of the peasants, as you can read in his pamphlets, and also learn from Hans von Grafendorf, and yet he shrinks from writing to you himself.

Although almost one of ourselves, he has not complained openly as yet. I beg, if it seem good to your Electoral Highness, to ask the Provost of Kemberg to look after him. Although I know your Grace has already done enough to create much talk on the subject, yet I would earnestly entreat you to permit this also. God will requite it all the more richly. He will see to his soul and body, and we should do good to His people. The grace of God be with us. Amen. MARTIN LUTHER.

CXLI
TO CONRAD CORDATUS, PASTOR IN AUSTRIA

Cordatus now entered into the circle of Luther’s most intimate friends.

November 28, 1526.

Grace and peace! You write me truly wondrous things of your Liegnitz friends — of the power of the spirit and of the flesh in that place, where the one part of the people seem to love intellectual pursuits, while the others live after the flesh.

The greatest evil here is lukewarmness, indifference, against which we must constantly strive. Who knows if God has not turned it upside down with you, so that when the gospel has been warmly received at first it cools down through time, while here, on the contrary, and at variance with all precedent, it is embraced coldly to begin