which you refuse for so many reasons, especially now that he has insulted us cruelly by name, for fear that we may either seem to be seeking revenge, or may be only rolling the stone up the hill. We had not thought, however, that you, who are now living in Upper Germany and have often lived there before, were ignorant of the language so that the books would be sent to you to no purpose. Still we believe that you re- ceived them in the same spirit in which they were sent. Fare- well.
572. LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, iv, 73. (WrrrENBESG, January, 15^3.)*
Grace and peace. I never stop troubling you because you deserve to be troubled now that you have become a true evangelist. Pfaffenbeck' is after me again, this time with a letter; before he spoke with me orally, and I swallowed it in order to spare you. Now I ask that you will intercede with the Elector for the wretched man in my name, or, if I must make the supplication myself, tell him I will do so. He is hard pressed by poverty, and I see that the Elector has become accustomed to his clamor and he will knock in vain at the Elector's door.
Here is news from Eisenach. My host* with the grand view writes me that the Abbot of Hersfeld* is allowing both monks and nuns to leave their convents and that the pastor of Hersfeld' has taken a second wife, the first having died. At the insistence of the Swiss, Zwingli has appointed a public disputation to be held at Zurich in Switzerland. The Bishop of Constance* summoned the Carthusian, Reisch,' who is a
^DeWette (ii, 4x0) dates this letter "September (?).** The only clue to the date is the reference it contains to the Zurich Disputation. Two such disputa- tions were held in Zurich in 1523, the first January sp, the second October 26, Enders, followed by the St. Louis editors (Walch*, xzi, 479) » applies the refer- ence to the first disputation.
- C/. supra, no. 543, and Enders, iii, 365. He seems to hare been a most
persistent suitor for Luther's aid.
' Hans von Berlepsch, the warden of the Wartburg (Hospes speculaiivus), •Henry Puchs, supra, no. 489.
- John Faber, supra, i, 315, and J. Staub: Dr. Jokann Pahri , , , his MUm offgnen
Kampf gegen Luther (August, 1522), Programm der Stiftsschule, Binsiedein,
1910-11. ' Gregory Reisch (died 1535), prior of the Carthusian monastery at Johamiia-
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