503. LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, iii, 217. (Wartburg), August 15, 1521.
Greeting. Dear Spalatin, I have received the second and third parts of my Sermon on Confession from you and the first part from Melanchthon. I cannot say how sorry and dis- gusted I am with the printing. I wish I had sent nothing in German, because they print it so poorly, carelessly and con- fusedly, to say nothing of bad types and paper. John,* the printer, is always the same old Johnny. Please do not let him print any of my German Postils, but return them for me to send elsewhere. What is the use of my working so hard if the errors in the printed books give occasion to other publish- ers to make them^still worse? I would not sin so against the Gospels and Epistles ; better let them remain hidden than bring them out in such form. Therefore I send you nothing now, although I have almost ten large sheets of the same matter. I shall forward no more until I find that these sordid mercenaries care less for the profits of printing than for the benefit of the readers. Such printers seem to think: "It is enough for me to get the money; let the readers look out for the matter." Philip has sent me three signatures of the Latomus," which I like very much.
I wish that Carlstadt had relied on more appropriate pas- sages of Scripture in writing against celibacy. . . . He has taken up a great cause, and he has made a good attempt; I only wish it were great and skillful and successful too. You see what clearness our adversaries require of us, since they slander the clearest and the cleverest things we say. We are a spectacle to the world, and therefore we need to use the greater care that our word may be without reproach, as Paul bids us. Perhaps I am minding other people's business, but it is not other people's business if his attempt shall succeed. For what is more dangerous than to invite a great crowd of celibates to matrimony, with passages of Scripture so unre- liable and so uncertain that those who marry will afterwards be harassed with continual anguish of conscience worse than
^John Gnioenberg, t prominent Wittenberg printer.
- The reply to LatomuB (Weimar, viii, 36ff.), cf, supra, no. 489* P* 34> n. x.
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