771. LUTHER TO JOHN AGRICOLA AT EISLEBEN. Enders, vi, 78. (Wittenberg), August 21, 1527.
Grace and peace in Christ. Thank you, dear Agricola, for the comfort you have given me in writing that your church is anxious about me and prays for me. May God also con- sole you in time of trouble. Please do not stop comforting me and praying for me, because I am poor and needy. Not that the sacramentarians move me, for I have not yet read nor even seen their outbursts, and I hope, through Christ, that I may yet set at nought this devil. But Satan himself rages with his whole might within me, and the Lord has put me in his power like another Job. The devil tempts me with great infirmity of spirit, but through the prayers of the saints I am not left altogether in his hands, although the wounds he gives my heart will be hard to heal. I hope that my trial will profit many, although there is no punishment that my own sins do not deserve; and yet truly I know and can boast that I have purely and sincerely taught Christ's Word for the salvation of many, which is what enrages Satan and makes him wish to destroy me and the Word together. I suflFer nothing from the power of tyrants, while others are killed and burned for Christ's sake ; but truly for that reason I suflFer more in spirit from the attacks of the prince of this world himself. In all things blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who accomplishes His holy, good and pleasing will in me, but O God ! how unsearchably ! Amen.
Bugenhagen greets you, who is here alone with me and the deacons. Mantel* and Rorer,* and yet we are not alone, for
ijohn Mantel of Cottbus, formerly Celestine prior at Konigstein, fled to Wit> tenberg 1533, married 1525, matriculated at the university April 17, 1528, in the winter of 1534-5 bad a stroke of apoplexy, after which he was ill until his death, autumn of 1542. Enders, !▼, 294, xii, 284f., ARC, xii, 16 iff., Aus Dtutschlauds kirchL Vergangenheit (1912), pp. 8 iff.
- 0n Rorer vidg Realencyklopadie, xxiv, ADB., Supplement Many of his let-
ien have been published in Buchwald's Zur Wittenberger Stadt und UnivtrsitdU Gesehichie, 1893, and in Btitr&ge sur bayrischen Kirchengeschichte, xix, 2yti,^ 1912. Rfirer (1492-1557) studied at Leipsic, B.A. 1515, M.A. 1520. In 1522 he came to Wittenberg, and was ordained deacon May 14, 1525. In 1533 he was made librarian of the university. In 1551 he went to Denmark, in 1553 to Jena. In May, 1525, he married Johanna Bugenhagen, sister of John, who died of the plague November 2, 1527. On May 28, 1528, Rorer married again, Magdalene, a nun. He had several children. He was Luther's chief literary factotum and editor.
�� �
