Luther explains the fact that he had not yet answered a letter from Cromwell by telling of the sudden departure of Robert Barnes from Wittenberg. Luther, thanking Cromwell for his kind letter, sidesteps the praise with which Cromwell had showered him. He emphasizes that by God's grace he has much good will, but that he lacks the power to put his Will into operation. Turning to Cromwell and the affairs in England, Luther voices his pleasure with Cromwell's efforts on behalf of the gospel, and assures
Cromwell of his prayers. In conclusion Luther refers Cromwell to Barnes for information pertaining to the situation in Wittenberg.
Luther wrote this letter at a time when Cromwell's fortunes were about to reach their apex. Born in approximately 1485, Cromwell had studied law and had entered the service of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
A member of the House of Commons since 1523, Cromwell successfully weathered Wolsey's downfall in 1529; he moved on into the service of King Henry VIII, and in 1531 he was appointed privy councilor.
Thereafter his career advanced rapidly, and in January of 1535 he was appointed the King's vicar general in ecclesiastical affairs, a position in which he executed the secularization of the monasteries. In July of 1536 Cromwell was made lord privy seal, and for the next three and a half years he was perhaps the most influential man around the King. In his interior policies he advocated royal supremacy in church and state, and his religious policies, in which traditionalism and Erasmian reform were blended, served that principle. His foreign policy was aimed at bringing about an alliance between England and the Smalcaldic League. "The King's disgust at the marriage [that is, with Anne of Cleve, arranged by Cromwell] and the fact that he now had no further use for Cromwell were the causes of his [that is,
Cromwell's] undoing; for though Cromwell had only recently been created Earl of Essex … he was arrested, sentenced for treason and beheaded on 28 July 1540." O.D.C.C. p. 357.
On Thomas Cromwell, see DNB 5, 192 ff.; G. R. Elton, Policy and Police. The Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Thomas Cromwell (Cambridge, 1972).
Text in Latin: WA, Br 7, 396.1
To the highly esteemed and most excellent man, Sir Thomas Cromwell, chancellor2 and councilor of the most serene lord, the King of England,3 my Lord to be esteemed in Christ4
Grace and peace in Christ! Your Lordship—that I have not replied to Your Lordship's letter,5 which Doctor Barnes has turned over to me, is the fault of that same Doctor Barnes, who suddenly left and did not consider me worthy of a greeting or a farewell, in such a great hurry was he.6 But the place and time will come for me to revenge myself on him for this neglect of me. Nevertheless I most heartily thank you for your most friendly and kind letter, and I only wish that by Christ's blessing I would be and act as they7 have pictured me to Your Lordship. For comparing myself with those virtues in which Your Lordship believes I excell, I consider myself far inferior. This one thing I confess to the Lord, namely, that by his grace I do not lack in eagerness and good will; or as Paul says,8 the power to will has been given to me, but the power of execution I do not find in myself. Yet he who sees my imperfection is perfect, and in his time will finally make me perfect according to his good will; to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Doctor Barnes has, however, made me extraordinarily happy in telling me of Your Lordship's earnest and determined will regarding the cause of Christ,9 especially since because of your prestige,10 by which you are capable of accomplishing very many things throughout the whole kingdom and with the Most
Serene Lord King, you can do much good. I do pray and I shall pray to the Lord to strengthen abundantly his work, begun in Your Lordship, to his glory and the salvation of many. Amen.
Through Doctor Barnes Your Lordship, whom I commend to the Father's mercy, will become thoroughly acquainted with the situation here.11
Wittenberg, April 9, 1536 Your Lordship's dedicated Wittenberg, April 20, 1536 By April 10, 1536, the stay of the English ambassadors, Fox and Heath, in Electoral Saxony came to an end in a cool, though diplomatically correct, atmosphere.1 The ambassadors returned to London on June