To the worthy man, Herr Master Georg Spalatin, Bishop in Altenburg, his very dear brother in the LOrd. Grace and peace in the LOrd! Finally I have written the Graf or Prince of Anhalt, the commander in Coburg, for M. Georg Mohr, my dear Spalatin; would that God soon (provide) some sort of fitting position openfor him there. I do not know of any yet. Thus I have decided to call away the pastor at the castle there to somewhere in this region. But since there is nothing yet open here to provide this good man nor also for M. Fesel so while we were present there the Prince provided a dwelling in the cloister. However one of the robbers came there and obtained it and now this one is driven back into his previous hell where. as it were, he and his and children are dwelling in prison. "So it goes" with the faithful servants of the Word. "The scratching-hanses rule; God help us, Amen." Be it well with you in Christ, with your very lovely Kette, about whom we have the rumor that she is pregnant; God grant it, Amen. On the Friday after Margaret (14 July) 1531. Your Martin Luther.
NOTES: Since the death of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, or shortly before, Spalatin left the Saxon Court for the Stiftkirch at Altenburg where there was a very conflicted change from Rome to Evangelical with several of the priests remaining loyal to the former.
Both the wives of ML and Spalatin are Katharines and Luther likes the nickname "Kette" = "chain" evidently because the tie that binds is very strong.
Luther was at the castle in Coburg in 1530 shortly before, during and shortly after the Diet of Augsburg when the Augsburg Confession was presented and reacted to. He likes to turn the spelling around and often called it "Grubok". He had to stay there, being aggravated much of the time complaining that the Evangelicals at Augsburg were not communicating with him, because he did not have safe conduct to the Diet.
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