I humbly and submissively b^ your Grace, therefore, to be gracious to me and forgive me that I have come back to your Grace's city of Wittenberg and taken up my abode here without your Grace's knowledge, will, consent and permission, and graciously to regard and consider the above-mentioned weighty reasons that moved me to do so, remembering that by God's help I intend to keep myself from troubling or of- fending anybody ; for your Grace is lord only of men's lives and property, but Christ is Lord of the souls to whom He has sent me and for whom He has raised me up, and I must not forsake them. I hope, too, that my Lord Christ is stronger than all enemies and opponents, and will guard and protect me, if it be His will. No danger or harm will befall your Grace on my account, that I know full well. I commend your Grace to God's mercy.
Your Grace's humble servant,
Martin Luther.
533. LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, m, 305. (Wittenberg), March 13, 1522.
Greeting. I rejoice greatly, my dear Spalatin, that you are an evangelist, and I pray that the Lord may make your word a word of power for the increasing of your own faith and of the faith of those who hear you. Your wondering why I have not written you is proof of the smallness of your faith ; as though I were offended because I have been silent. And what difference does it make if Luther is offended since you are now rich and rule in Christ, in Whom alone we boast ?
I send herewith my letter to the Elector. The Elector has showed many signs of lack of faith, and we must bear with his infirmity, but in this letter there is one word that hurts me. I have been compelled to call the Emperor "my most gracious Lord," when all the world knows he is most hostile to me, and everybody will laugh at this evident dissimulation. Stilly I would rather be laughed at and convicted of dissimu- lation than withstand the infirmity of the Elector, and I clear my conscience of the charge because it is the custom thus to style the Emperor. It is, so to speak, a proper name and a
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