be strong in silence and in hope,and so you will overcome in Christ this sophistical grammarian. Through silence one can do much in self-defence in such cases, till we can set you free and placeyou elsewhere,as we hope to do.
Meanwhile it is much more dignified to put up with the injustice than to act.
The rightasserts itself at the end.
As to the excellent Johannes,you have quiteupset me.
I hear he is imprisonedin Castle Leuchtenberg, from where that letter was written.
Regardingthe questionwhich your good friend at Lintz, Sigmund Haugreuter,wished to be laid before me, this is my answer, that it is not the duty of himself and household to communicate thus,having no call or command to do so, althoughhis tyrannical superiorrefuses to administer the sacrament, in spiteof it beinghis duty to do so.
For he can be saved through believing the Word.
It might become a great scandal were the sacrament of the Lord's Supper handed about in the different houses, and in the long run do much harm, causingdivisions and creating sects
; for nowadays peopleare so strange and the devil so mad.
For the earlyChristians in Acts did not specially partakeof the sacrament in their own houses, but all came togetherto do so, and even had they done it,such an example does not now hold good,even as it is not customary now to have all possessions in common, as was the case then, for now the gospelis proclaimed along with the sacraments.
But it is only proper that the head of the house should teach Word to those under him, for God has commanded us to instruct our children and servants.
But the sacrament and confession should be administered by His professing servants, because Christ says it was instituted in memory of Himself, which is,in St. Paul's words, to show the Lord's death tillHe come
; and at the same time he condemns those who wish to partakeof it alone without tarryingfor one another.
And no one can baptizehimself.
For these sacraments belongto the Church, and must not be mixed up with the duties devolving on the head of a house.
So although there is nothingspecially said on this subject in the Bible, it must not be lightly undertaken without special directions from God, for no good would ensue.
You may say this, dear pastor, to your friend from me.
Luther,Amsdorf, Agricola,and Spalatin had now finished the articles for the future Grace and peace in the Lord Anton himself is coming to you,
I have nothingspecialto relate of our lifeand doings. See that you prove a good friend as well as combatant to both emissaries, for the honour of their
Anton is at lengthfree from the courts of justice.For my part I alreadyfear the worst, as the other ambassador is lingering too long.
For people'spatiencemight easilybe exhausted,considering what sort of gentlementhese highly esteemed Cardinals are, for they as well as the Popes are deceivers,thieves,robbers,nay, very devils in the flesh.
Would that there were more kings of England to slay them Paul Vergerius, said to me here, "Ha! the King of England causes the Cardinals and Bishopsto be murdered.
He then made a movement with the hands, growlingand threatening the King with evils such as no potentate has ever endured, certainly not expressedin so many words, but with compressed lips. They are rascals throughand through,even to the heart's core.
God make you believe this.