Wednesday, October 31, 2007

#2152-To Justus Menius in Eisenach

To his very dear brother in Christ,Justus Menius, the very faithful Bishop in Eisenach.
Grace and peace, my dearest Justus! This woman who delivers this message to you I commend to you very much that you assist her with counsel and with whatever help you are able to give. She appears to me to be of a very high progeny perhaps not far from there where one speaks your dialect as her manner of speaking indicates. She has been very honorable by us and has borne a child; I am the god-father. I think it has been of a sort of accident about which she alone knows and now bemoans and she now laments that she stayed in a foreign (land). If some sort of slip occured you can determine executing the office of a Samaritan yet in a way that you do not believe humans uncritically. We must be without guile as the doves but as wise as the serpents. I believe strongly that she is unhappy but as I am often deceived I must be somewhat reticent. You do according to your wisdom what (as I believe) is fitting for a very good woman and one who appears to be a suitable wife for you. She herself has wanted me to write to some pastor of that area likely in that area of her relatives and blood-relations (Blutsfreunde?) to take up (residence). Be it well with you in Christ and pray for me as I do for you. On the 8th of August 1535. Your Martin Luther.
NOTES: Editors say that this is the sister of Hartmuth of Kromberg and , I think, that she was kidnapped by a Jew but check the latter out as I am not sure I am understanding it right.
I think Menius was at the death-bed of Luther's father and of Luther himself but check that too.

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