To Katherine, Luther’s wife letter 12 - Martin Luther
TO KATHERINE, LUTHER’ S WIFE
Luther jokes over his wife’s anxiety about him. February 7, 1546.
To my dear wife, Katherine Luther, doctoress and self-tormentor at Wittenberg, my gracious lady. Grace and peace in the Lord!
Do thou read, dear Kathie, the Gospel of St. John and the little catechism of which you once said, “This book tells all about me”? For thou must needs assume the cares of thy God, as if He were not
Almighty, and could not create ten Dr. Martins if the old one were suffocated in the Saale or in the stove, or . . . Leave me in peace with thy cares! I have a better Protector than thou and all the angels. He it is who lay in the manger and was fondled on a maiden’s breast, but was at the same time seated on the right hand of God, the Almighty Father. Therefore be at rest. Amen! I think that hell and the whole world must at present be free from devils, who, perhaps because of me, have all now gathered
in Eisleben, to such a pass things seem to have come here. It is said that at Ritzdorf, close to Eisleben, where the wind blew so fiercely upon me, four hundred Jews walk and ride out and in. Count Albrecht, who owns all the land round Eisleben, has refused his protection to the Jews. There are often as many as fifty in one house here, as I wrote to you. Still no one will injure them. The Countess of Mansfeld, widow of Solms, is looked upon as their protector. I do not know if all this be true, but I have given my opinion pretty freely on the subject today, whether it will help or not. Pray, pray, pray, and thus help
us to right matters. Today I felt inclined to mount my carriage and set off, but my anxiety as to my Fatherland held me back. I have now become a lawyer (jurist ), but that will lead to nothing. It would have been better had they allowed me to remain a divine. If spared, I should like to appear among them as a hobgoblin, so that I, through the grace of God, might set bounds to their pride. They try to pose as God, but they would be wise to retreat in time before their Godhead is changed into a devil, as happened to Lucifer, who could not remain in heaven on account of his pride. Well, well, the will of the Lord be done! Let M. Philip read this letter, for I have not time to write to him, so you may comfort yourself that I love you dearly, since, as you know, I always write when I can, and he will understand this, having a wife himself. We live well here, and the Council sends me for every meal about a hogshead of good Rhine wine. Sometimes I drink it with my friends. The Naumburg beer is also very good. The devil has ruined all the beer in the land with pitch, which causes the phlegm to accumulate in my breast, and with you he has destroyed the wine with brimstone. But here the wine is pure, except what is made in the district. And know that all the letters thou hast written have arrived, and today I have received those you wrote last Friday along with M. Philip’s, so that you may not be angry. Thy beloved lord, MARTIN LUTHER . (De Wette.)