Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/155

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Ifi2 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let Sfo

I cannot answer the Count of Schwartzenberg^ in detail. It is a big book, as I have already, written to him and PhiUp von Feilitzsch,' and, besides, the most of his questions have^ already been answered in books that I have published. There is only one question remaining, that concerning the power of the sword," and this, Christ willing, I shall dispose of when Moses has been finished. Meanwhile do you send my answer to the Counts of Schwartzburg * to Anselm of Lettau.' 'Fare- well.

Please do us the favor of describing the following animals and giving us their names according to their species :

Birds of prey — Kite, vulture, hawk, sparrow-hawk, falcon, and any others of this sort

Game animals — Roebuck, chamois, ibex, wild goat or syl- vestris hircus.

Reptiles — Is stellio properly called a newt, and lacerta limara a viper ? In Hebrew and Latin and Greek these things are all so confused that we have to guess at them from the genera and species of the animals. Therefore I wish, if possible, to learn in German the names, the species and the nature of all the birds of prey, the game animals and the venomous reptiles. I shall tell you the poisonous vermin that I have. They are: Weasel, mouse, toad, viper, newt, lizard, snail, mole. Moses cals them, crocodylon, mygalon, chameleon, and numbers them, shamelessly enough, among the "creeping things" of Leviti- cus xi.

The names of the night birds are these : Owl, raven, homed

ijohn of Schwartsenberg (1463-1528), a Pranconita nobleman* at this time in the service of the bishop of Bamberg. At the Diet of Nuremberg dsaa-aj) he was chairman of the committee which drafted the reply to the Pope {infra, no. 574)* In 1524 he entered the serrice of George of Brandenberg, where he was active in the introduction of the Reformation. Cf. Enders, \y, $, n. 4, Ranke*, ii, 39, ADB. The "answer" is to a book which Schwartsenberg had written and sent to Luther in manuscript. Supra, Vol. I, p. 563, n. i. Life by W. Scheel, Berlin, 1905.

> RepresentatiTe of the Elector at the Diet of Augsburg, 1518 (Enders, i, 343) and at the Diet of Nuremberg, 1523 (Janssen-Pastor ao, ii, 342). He was with Luther at Worms, cf. Vol. I, p. 523.

'/.«.. of the temporal authorities. Luther discussed the question in his tract Von WtUHcher Obrigkeit (Weimar xi. 229!!.; Philadelphia iii, 224^.).

  • Henry of Schwarzburg (1499-1538) and his father, Gfinther (died 1531); not to

be confused with John of Schwarzoiberg, supra,

  • He appears in 1533 as the Electoral official at Schneeberg. Eaders, it, 36,

n. 2. The letter from the Counts of Schwartsburg had been forwarded by him. It concerned the abolition of the monasteries (DeWette il, 257).

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