him, and my words and proofs do not persuade him. So it is my humble petition that your Grace would explain your mind to him and show him that you are content if he helps the theological faculty with lectures and disputations as bef ore, even if only once a week or whenever he can. For if your Grace gave him his pay for nothing for a year or two he would well deserve it, for he formerly lectured on the Scriptures two years without pay but with great diligence and effect, and, perhaps, injured his health by it. I would willingly bring the Bible into currency here again as all places look to us to teach them the meaning of it. God bless you. Amen.
Your Grace's subject,
Martin Luther.
^^, LUTHER TO NICHOLAS AMSDORF. Enders, v, 323. (Wittenberg, February 25?)* 1526.
Grace and peace in the Lord. I was not able to provide this poor John Honhof with any position here, my dear Ams- dorf . There are so many men here that if you were to meas- ure them by Scriptural numbers you could invert the word of the Gospel and say, "The laborers are many, the harvest is small."* It is the miserable and needy belly that multiplies this kind of men ; nevertheless the laborers who remain in the Spirit are few.
Yesterday we baptized a son for Carlstadt, or rather re- baptized his baptism." The godparents are Jonas, Philip and my Kate; I was a g^est with the others. These things were done at Segrehna beyond the Elbe, where Carlstadt is living. Who would have thought a year ago that people who called baptism "a dog-bath" would now be seeking baptism from their enemies? Whether they seek it honestly and sincerely may be left to God. Still it is a great miracle, if we consider how different God's works are from man's works. Farewell, and pray for us.
- Thc date, February 25, Is uncertain. I«uther says **Bnino'8 wife's day, xsad."
Assuming that the Bruno referred to is Bruno Brauer, whose wife's name was probably Walpurga, Seidemann (De Wette-Seidemann, vi, 453) surmises Feb- ruary 25.
» Matthew ix, 37.
- This was Carlstadt's second son, born at Orlamunde in 1524. His mother*
an Anabaptist, had refused to have him baptised, and had called him Andreas.
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