Grace and peace in the LOrd Jesus Christ! I have not written to you for a long time, my dear Wenceslaus, and also you have not thought it necessary that I write to you since I am so very busy. But it is for you who has more leisure to write to me more often. I hope that my thinking is wrong in that I have been been incited by some sort of rumor that among the servants of the Word in Nuernberg a secret disharmony is prevalent: there can scarcely be anything more troubly for me to hear than that there should be such an evil. I therefore pray that you whom I know and have tested to be of upright and forthright demeanor would strive with us and be watchful against such spirits (Eph.6:12) who are not only content to rage against earthly things but also but also striving against heavenly things shooting their fiery arrows to disturb the kingdom of God to which we belong. Since Osainder is yet not in agreement with us on the conditional natur of baptism: as always; we want to bear it and not press harder, as he also bears with us and is not bitter, until Christ unties this knot. We now see the judgment of God for a second time; first on Muenzer and now on Zwingli. I have become a prophet in that I said that God would not long suffer this frenzied and raging blasphemy, which has now become full, in which they ridicule our God and call us eaters of flesh, sopping up blood and of being a bloody people and calling us other horrible names. "That's what they have; you see previously before Augsburg."
You do not write anything certain about Carlstadt and I am surprised that such a story remains hidden from us so that what is coming to us is so doubtful so that we today must grant that we know nothing certain either. Philip says: If God does not sieze Carlstadt with His unlimited (absoluta) force and wisdom, he will not be caught with
ordinary (ordinata) means. So great in this horror is the dexterity to slip away, to
flee and avoid the dangers which he himself has brought about. However, he will prove
truthful who said (Sirach 3:27. Vulgate):"Whoever loves danger, he will perish thereby." Greet respectfully for me Lazarus Spengler and all of ours. Be it right well with you in Christ with yours, Amen. The third of January Anno 1532. Your Martin Luther.
NOTE: "All of ours", I think, are the fellow Augustinians, among whom is Link.
ML still has some mixed feelings about Carlstadt, though fearful that his destiny is determined, methinks. What do you think?
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