Sunday, May 21, 2006

#1911-To the Preachers in Erfurt,Aegidis,Andreas and Petrus

To the highly-honorable men and Lords, Aegidius,Andreas and Petrus, the faithful servants of the Word of God in Erfurt, his brothers in the LOrd.
Grace and peace in Christ! A rumor has come to us, worthy men, that Georg Wicel (Wiselium)is there in Erfut to procure a position (Hebrew prof)or, at least, seeking a place to spew out his poison which consumes him, as he did when he was here with us. It is an old, completely satanic hate against us whose service supported his very life and this snake has been nourished in our bosom until after he deceived the Prince with his lies has now gone away and the spirits of his hates, which he already rallied, to strew out elsewhere against us. Likely Lang to whom I have previously written has indicated something of this to you; surely Jonas, I believe, has portrayed this monstrosity to you. Believe them and me. I am writing this to you as faithful servants of Christ, in order that your authority and that of all good people may be moved that this condemnable Poisonous-snake (viperae) may have no place.Beleive me if you have believed that Luther has taught something of the truth that this one is an apostle of Satan whom we have seen given birth by the help of Campanus and who is glowing to birth to yet more monstrosites and is ready to do so.He is burning with the rage of revenge because we have not pronounced his devil and female-devils to be good. Take this as from one who is faithfully warning you and you should know that from now on it is your responsibility if this beast enkindles a sort of fire-storm among you while you delay or are neglectful.Christ ignite and lead your spirit to His glory and to the damage of Satan as He has previously done and does so yet. To Him alone be glory,Amen. On the first of July Anno 1532. D.Martin Luther.
NOTES: Aegedius is Melcher; Petrus is Bamberger. Wicel has already written his acceptance speech as Professor of Hebrew. Later he had it printed in Leipzig. Earlier when Wicel was imprisoned for his association with the anti-Trinitarian Campanus ML intervened to Wicel freed. See #1525 in Reformation Letters II. I somehow was of the opinion that Wicel had returned to Catholicism. At any rate it sounds like Erfurt U has forgiven ML for leaving or ML forgiven them?
There is some differences in the Latin on whether Campanus was the attending "obstetrician" at the spirital birth of Campanus but I could not decipher it. Check with the knowledgeable ones.

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