and see that the magistrates do not allow him to preach, even if he shows letters from the King of Denmark; he left us in a tantrum because we would not approve of his wild dreams. He has no ability nor calling to teach. Say this to all from me, that they may shtm him and compel him to keep silence. Farewell, pray for me and commend me to the brethren.
Martin Luther, with his own hand.
792. LUTHER TO WENZEL LINK AT NUREMBERG. Enders, vi, 253. (Wittenberg or Tobgau)^ March 28, 1528.
Grace and peace. I gave John Hoffmann' copies of the work against the sacramentarians,* to be divided among you; the Lord grant that they may bear fruit in many hearts. I have determined to let those empty talkers alone, and to stop writing against them, because I see that they are ruled by such dense ignorance of logic that it is impossible, even if their error concerned only the things of nature, either to teach them anything or to bring them to the point where they can be refuted. For there can be neither instruction nor argumentation without dialectic, even though it is only the dia- lectic of nature, and of this art Zwingli is so destitute that he might be compared to an ass.
There is no news here except that the bishops are said to be breathing wars and slaughter and that the fool at Meissen * is burning with threats, as is his wont. In your preaching do
believed that the body of Christ was really in the Eacharist were false prophets. Bugenhagen upheld the Lutheran yiew (Acta der Disputation zu Plensburg dit sache des Hochwirdigen Sacraments betreffend, Wittenberg, 1529* Copy at Union Seminary). For this he was banished. In all probability he then went to Italy and Spain, a fact never before noticed, but virtually proved by the records of the Inquisition at Valencia, Spain. In 1529 it is there stated that a certain "Melchior de Wurttemberg" came to Valencia from Naples^ preached that the world would be drowned in blood in three years (as did Hoffmann), and said that he had visited Luther to see if the truth was in him but had found that it was not. He was scourged and let go. H. C Lea: A History of the Inquisition in Spain, iii, 1907, p. 422 (the identification is not made by Lea). The next three years we find him at Strassburg and in Holland. In 1533 he was* arrested at Strassburg and kept in prison until his death. His followers, the Melchiorites, were quite numerous. ADB., ReatencyklopSdie,
^On March 28 Luther left Torgau for Wittenberg, from which place probably this letter was written.
' Formerly pastor at Schwabach, at this time studying at Wittenberg, where he took his master's degree September 15, 1528.
'The Vom Abendmahl Christi, Bekenntmss,
- Duke George.
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