he has to say/' A little while later Gu'lstadt came back from the spirit (that is, from this crazy monk) and told the biggest lies, saying, among other things, that Luther's doctrine is not of God, and, therefore, must be shunned like the plague, and many other clumsy stories.
Then, again, this same monk hid himself in the church, and rang the great bells at an unusual time. When the people came running together and bulged Carlstadt to ask the spirit what he wanted, or what he meant by ringing the bell, he is said to have replied, "He says the ^irit cannot rest until thlsy have taken away the pictures, the altar, the pulpit, the font and the pix, and burned them to powder."
I think i^e can call this fanaticism. It is nothing but the truth, and if he replies to this I will write you of other, far worse things, that will make his eyes smart, for some of the citizens who gladly hear the pure doctrine of faith, love and the Cross, keep nothing back from me. I have some psalms, people to sing in German. They are the lamest things and marvelously bad parodies. You will see from them how much Hebrew he knows. I have not had time to write them out, and must send them another time. Hastily, farewell.
Glatz, Minister of the Gospel.
65a LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, v, iii. Wittenberg, January 29, 1525.
Grace and peace, my dear Spalatin. I thought my request had long since been granted, that our debt for wheat, which we contracted with the collector of Wittenbei^, should be re- mitted as a final gift ^ before we dispersed, especially after we asked you to intercede for us because you were at court. But the collector continues to press us for payment, and says he will not desist until, to use his own words, he sees the red wax of the court' Therefore I ask again that )rou will, if possible, secure this favor for us, and relieve him of responsibility. But if it cannot be done, let us know, and we shall see to it that he is satisfied, even though we have to sell whatever property
- Vide supra no. 653. * This in German.
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