To Conrad Cordatus letter 5 - Martin Luther

TO CONRAD CORDATUS

About Cordatus’s call to Eisleben. May 12, 1537.

Grace and peace in Christ! I am very pleased at your call to my fatherland, my Cordatus, for there you will be an ever-present combatant against W., whom you abhor with a just and righteous hatred. If it please you, and you can leave Nimmern without regret, then what God has ordained and what I desire will take place. The air may be better than on marshy soil, for it is purified through furnaces burning night and day. I thank God that you are better, but pray curb your suspicions, or they will cause future illnesses. Get rid of such ideas, as I also must do, for our enemy the devil goes about trying not only to destroy the soul, but to weaken the body through such thoughts, for he knows that the state of the

soul depends in great measure on the condition of the body, for a mournful spirit consumes the flesh and the bones, while a merry heart makes a joyful old age. I tell you all this although I do not like to appear to teach you. Farewell in the Lord. MARTIN LUTHER . (Walch, 21. 1455.)