for from that most gracious woman, my best of wives, I have received, by the blessing of God, a little son, John Luther, and, by God's wonderful grace, I have become a father. I hope and pray the same thing for you, and an even greater blessing, for you are better than I, and my superior. But pray that Christ will guard my child against Satan, who will leave nothing undone to harm me through my son, if God per- mits him. Even now the child is troubled by little ills, or rather, as they think, by the indigestibility of the milk with which women in child-bed are compelled to nourish their chil- dreny^
I am sorry for Eberhard * that his joy has been taken from him, but the will of God is good, though sometimes its good- ness is so hidden that you would think it very cruel. When are you coming to us to see again the old landmarks of familiar friendship? I have planted a garden, and dug a well, and both have turned out well. Come, and you will be crowned with roses and lilies. Farewell in the Lord, and pray for me.
Mart. Luther.
737. HENRY VIH, KING OF ENGLAND, TO LUTHER. Liierarum quibus invictissimus Princeps Henricus VIII Rex Angliae . . . respondit ad quandatn epistolam Martini Lutheri et ipsius Luth^ eranae quoque epistolae exemplum. London, 1526.
London^ (August), 1526.
In addition to the list of editions of this letter given by Enders, V, 229f, I may add that it is found in MS. at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England, no. 175, which I have had collated, see appen- dix. It is regfistered in Enders, v, 412, and a brief abstract of it given in Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iv, no. 2446. It appeared at once in English translation, under the title: A copy of the letters wherein the most redoubted . . . Henry VIII made answer e unto a certayne letter of Martyn Luther . . . and also the copy of the foresaid Luther^s letter. Richard Pynson, London (1526). In the preface to this, the King tells his subjects that he is bound to care for their spiritual as well as for their temporal weal, and that there is special need of it now : "For we doute not that it is well knowen to you all, that Martyn Luther, late a f rere Augustyne. & now ron out i Apostacy & wedded, hath not only scraped out of the asshen and kyndeled agayne all the embers of those old errours & heresies hytherto; but hath also added some so poysoned pointes of his owne, so wretched, so vyle, so de-
1 Eberhard Brisger, whose wife had miscarried (c/. Enders, ▼, 310).
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