I have taken 4 florins for works of art; changed one florin for expenses. Have taken the portrait of Hans Lieber of Ulm in charcoal; he wished to pay me 1 florin, but I would not take it. Gave 7 stivers for wood and 1 stiver for bringing it; changed 1 florin for expenses. In the third week after Easter a violent fever came upon me with great weakness, nausea, and headache; and before, when I was in Zeeland, a strange illness overcame me such as I never heard of from anyone, and this illness I have still. I paid 6 stivers for a case. The monk has bound two books for me for the prints which I gave him. I have given 10 florins, 8 stivers for a piece of arras for two mantles for my mother-in-law and my wife. I gave the doctor 8 stivers, and 3 stivers to the apothecary, also changed 1 florin for expenses and spent 3 stivers in company. Paid the doctor 10 stivers; again paid the doctor 6 stivers.
During my illness Rodrigo sent me many sweetmeats; I gave the boy 4 stivers for a tip. I have drawn Master Joachim [Patinir] in silverpoint, and made him besides another likeness in silverpoint. Again changed a crown for expenses, and again 1 florin for expenses. Paid the doctor 6 stivers, and 7 stivers at the apothecary's; changed 1 florin for expenses. For packing the third bale, which I sent from Antwerp to Nuremberg by a carrier called Hans Staber, I paid 13 stivers, and I paid the carrier 1 florin for it, and I agreed with him to take it from Antwerp to Nuremberg for 1 florin, I ort, per cwt., and this bale is to be taken to Herr Hans Imhof, the elder. I have paid the doctor, the apothecary, and the barber 14 stivers. I gave Master Jacob, the surgeon, 4 florins' worth of prints. I have made a portrait in charcoal of Thomas Polonius of Rome.
My camlet cloak came to twenty-one Brabant ells, which are three finger-breadths longer than the Nuremberg ells. I have also bought four black Spanish skins, which cost 3 stivers each, and they come to 34, that makes 10 florins, 2 stivers; I paid the skinner [furrier] 1 florin to make them up, then there were two ells of velvet for trimming, 5 florins; also for silk cord and thread, 34 stivers; then the tailor's wage, 30 stivers; the camlet which is in the cloak cost 14 1/2 florins, and the boy 5 stivers for a tip.
Cross Sunday after Easter; from this I start a fresh account. Again paid the doctor 6 stivers; I have gained 53 stivers for works of art, and have taken them for expenses. On Sunday before Holy Cross Week, Master Joachim [Patinir], the good landscape painter, asked me to his wedding, and showed me all honour; there I saw two beautiful plays, the first was especially pious and devout. I again paid the doctor 6 stivers, and have changed 1 florin for expenses.
On Sunday after Our Lord's Ascension, Master Dietrich, the glass painter of Antwerp, invited me and asked many other people to meet me, and especially among them Alexander, the goldsmith, a rich, stately man, and we had a splendid dinner, and they did me great honour. I have done in charcoal the portrait of Master Marx, the goldsmith, who lives at Bruges. I bought a broad cap for 36 stivers. I paid Paul Geiger 1 florin to take my little chest to Nuremberg, and 4 stivers for the letter. I have taken the portrait of Ambrosius Hochstatter in charcoal, and I dined with him: I have dined at least six times with Tomasin. I bought some wooden dishes and platters for 3 stivers. I have given the apothecary 12 stivers. I have given two books of the "Life of Our Lady," one to the foreign surgeon, the other to Marx's house servant; I also paid the doctor 8 stivers, and gave 4 stivers for cleaning an old cap. Lost 4 stivers at play; have given 2 florins for a new cap. I have changed the old cap because it was clumsy, and have given 6 stivers more for another.
Painted a portrait of the duke in oils: have made a very fine and careful portrait in oils of the treasurer, Lorenz Sterk; it was worth 25 florins. I presented it to him, and in return he gave me 20 florins, and to Susanna 1 florin for a tip. Likewise I painted the portrait of Jobst, my host, very well and carefully in oils; he has now given me [the portrait I did of him before?] and I have done his wife again and painted her portrait in oils.
On the Friday before Whitsuntide, 1521, tidings came to me at Antwerp that Martin Luther had been so treacherously taken prisoner, for he trusted the Emperor Charles's herald, who had been granted to him with the Imperial safe conduct, but as soon as the herald had brought him near Eisenach, to an unfriendly place, he said that he would not need him any more and rode away. Immediately there appeared ten knights, who treacherously carried off the pious man, who had been betrayed; a man enlightened by the Holy Ghost, a follower of Christ and of the true Christian faith, and whether he lives yet or whether they have put him to death, I know not. If he has suffered, it is for the sake of Christian truth and because he has fought with the un-Christlike papacy, which strives with its heavy load of human laws against the redemption of Christ; and if so, it is that we may be again robbed and stripped of the fruit of our blood and sweat, that the same may be shamelessly and scandalously squandered while poor and sick men must therefore die of hunger. And this is above all most grievous to me, that God perhaps will let us remain yet under their false, blind doctrine, invented and set forth by the men whom they call "Fathers," through whom the Word of God is in many places falsely expounded or not taught at all.
[Editor's note: This form of abduction was the usual idea at the time. But Luther was really taken by the order of Frederick the Wise in order to protect him].
O God of Heaven, have pity on us, O Lord Jesus Christ, pray for Thy people. Deliver us in due time, uphold in us the right and true Christian Faith. Gather together Thy far scattered sheep by Thy voice, in the Scripture called Thy godly Word. Help us that we may know this Thy voice and may follow no other deceiving call of human error, that we may not, Lord Jesus Christ, fall away from Thee. Call together again the sheep of Thy pasture, who are still in part found in the Roman Church, and with them, too, the Indians, Muscovites, Russians, and Greeks, who have been thus cut off by the oppression and pride of the pope and by false appearance of holiness.
O God, redeem thy poor folk constrained by heavy ban and edict which it no wise willingly obeys, whereby it is bound continually to sin against its conscience if it disobeys them. O God, never hast Thou so heavily burdened a people under human laws as us poor ones beneath the Roman chair, who daily long to be free Christians ransomed by Thy blood.