To the elector John Frederick letter 3 - Martin Luther

TO THE ELECTOR JOHN FREDERICK

Fear of the plague drove the University staff to Jena. July 9, 1535.

Grace and peace in Christ, with my poor paternoster, Most Serene Highborn Prince, most gracious Lord! Dr. Bruck has shown me your Electoral Highness’s gracious request, occasioned by the flight of so many here, who are in mortal dread of death, and I humbly thank you for your solicitude and offer,

of which I shall gladly avail myself when necessary. But my weather-cock, on whom I implicitly rely, is the overseer (Landvogt ) Hans Metsch, who has a marvellous hawk’s nose for the pestilence, and

would smell it even were it hidden five ells below ground. Doubtless a house or two is infected, but the atmosphere is not yet poisoned. For since Tuesday there has neither been a corpse nor a sick person. But as the dog-days are at hand and the young boys are frightened, I have allowed them to go out walking, to tranquillize their minds till we see how things turn out. But I notice that the young folks

like to hear this outcry about the pestilence, for some are tired of sitting on the hard benches; some think they get cramp from the books, while others declare scurvy is secreted among the pens and paper. And there are those who devour their mothers’ letters, which makes them home-sick and long for the fatherland, and perhaps there are many more weaknesses than I am able to recount. If parents and guardians do not try to stem the tide of these evils, perhaps we shall not be able to get pastors and schoolmasters, till at length swine and dogs will be the best animals remaining to us, towards which end the Papists are steadily working. But may Christ our Lord endue your Electoral Grace, as He has hitherto done, along with the Christian authorities, with grace and mercy, to His honor and the annoyance of Satan, so that you may know what stringent remedies to apply to this sickness. Your Electoral Grace’s obedient

MARTIN LUTHER . (De Wette.)

P.S . — I humbly beg your Grace not to forget my poor Hieronymus Weller.