Martin Luther writes [1] to his friend Wenceslaus (Wenzel) Linck [2] in Nürnberg, sending books intended for distribution among the Nürnberg friends of the Reformation. He also reports rumors of war and the escape of Electress Elisabeth of Brandenburg from Berlin to Elector Johann.
Quotation:
Grace and peace! I gave John Hoffmann [3] copies [4] of the work against the sacramentarians, [5] 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 dialectic 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 [6] and that the fool at Meissen [7] is burning with threats, as is his wont. In your preaching do you exhort the people to pray that Christ may tread Satan under foot, [Rom. 16:20] for like a savage and hungry lion [1 Pet. 5:8] he is roaring for our blood. The margravine [8] has fled from Berlin to our Elector, aided by her brother, the King of Denmark, because the margrave had determined (so it is said) to immure her on account of her having received the eucharist in both kinds. [9] Pray for our Elector! The good and kindly man is sorely plagued [10] and deserves that we aid him with our prayers. Farewell, with your wife and children!
T. Martinus Luther.
Notes
[1] On March 28 Luther left Torgau for Wittenberg, from where probably this letter was written.
[2] Wenceslas Linck (or Link or Lincke) (1483–1547), one of Luther’s oldest friends, having first met him in the Wittenberg monastery in 1508. Linck became prior of the monastery in Wittenberg in 1512 or 1513 and accompanied Luther to the Heidelberg Disputation in April, 1518 and, in September of that year, to Augsburg for Luther’s examination by Cardinal Cajetan. In 1520, Linck was elected Vicar General of the German Augustinians, succeeding John von Staupitz. In that role, he continued the reformation of the Order begun by Staupitz, reinforcing it with Luther’s theology, and released the Augustinian monks from their vows. In the summer of 1522, Linck resigned his monastic office and was called as evangelical preacher in Altenburg. In 1525, the City Council of Nürnberg called him there, where he will serve until his death.
[3] Formerly pastor at Schwabach, at this time studying at Wittenberg, where he took his master’s degree Sep. 15, 1528. He must have been friends with Linck, since Veit Dietrich asked him on Jan. 13, 1532 to ask Linck to pass on to him (Hofmann) the letters Luther had written to him (Linck) so that he could copy them.
[4] Free copies Luther had requested from the printer.
[5] The Vom Abendmahl Christi, Bekenntnis. (Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper).
[6] An allusion to the alleged Breslau League.
[7] Smith and Jacobs take this to be an allusion to Duke George of Saxony, a staunch opponent of the Reformation. The WA Editors take it to be an allusion to the mandate issued by Bishop Johann VII of Meißen (1518-1537) on Feb. 26. Luther had already confronted the bishop in 1520 with a sharp letter on the question of the Lord’s Supper, when the bishop had banned the purchase and reading of Luther’s Sermon on the Sacrament. In the meantime, the Reformation had made unstoppable progress in the Meißen district, especially in Duke Heinrich’s territory, and the desire for the laity to receive the cup had become particularly loud in Freiberg. Then on February 26, 1528, in view of the Easter communion, Johann issued another mandate in which he (but this time without mentioning Luther’s name) warned against foreign teachings that undermined the reputation of the church and blasphemed the holy sacraments, as under inspiration from the devil, and warned and exhorted the faithful to confess in the traditional manner and to take the Lord’s Supper in one kind. The clergy were specifically warned to teach “the truth that the Son of God, God and man, the whole wounded Christ, and his body and blood were contained under the one form of bread, and were eaten and drunk by the laity. … Lest the Sacrament, which was instituted by Christ for the salvation of the faithful and for the altar of the Catholic Church, should be distributed by you schismatically to heretics and schismatics, and be taken by them into judgment and eternal damnation.” By the end of the year, Luther will respond with his Ein Bericht an einen guten Freund von beider Gestalt des Saframents aufs Bischofs zu Meißen Mandat (“A report to a good friend concerning both forms of the sacrament in the Bishop of Meißen’s mandate”) It will be a highly polemical work. Papstesel “Pope’s ass” is perhaps the most common word in the text. Luther obviously wanted to provide his “friend” (and all readers) with argumentative reinforcement. The main focus is on the question of whether the Lord’s Supper is to be distributed with bread and wine or whether the wine is reserved for the priest. In fact, Luther goes well beyond this. The entire first half of the approximately 50-page text deals with the question of how the church interprets the Bible. Luther’s claim, which he had already developed in the famous writing “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation” from 1520, is that the church (and especially the Pope) place themselves above the Holy Scripture and also assert things on the question of the Lord’s Supper that are not supported by the Bible. (see page image below)
[8] Elizabeth of Denmark (1485-1555), wife of Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg (1484-1535) and sister of the exiled King Christian II of Denmark (1481-1559).
[9] On or before Easter 1527, Elizabeth had had received the sacrament in both kinds. Her husband was beside himself when he found out. Unable to convert her either by entreaties or threats, he submitted the question of whether he should sentence her to death to the bishops and prelates of his territory. They advised him to have her imprisoned in a castle for life. (Luther means nothing else by immurare.) Elisabeth fled Berlin on the night of Mar. 24, while her husband was at his hunting lodge at Grimnitz. She arrived at Torgau at midday on Mar. 26.
[10] The letter is in Latin, except for these words in German: Der fromm Mann und herzliche Mensch ist doch ja wohl geplaget,
Today's Luther 
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