[411] Thomas Blaurer, in a letter to his brother Ambrose, dated February 15, 1521, calls Luther “Pater pientissimus”; previously, on January 4, he speaks of him as “christianissimus et sapientissimus vir,” and extols the fact that “omnia contempsit præter Christum; præter Christum nihil metuit nec sperat et id tamen ita humiliter, ut clare sentias nullos esse his fucos.” “Correspondence of the Brothers Blaurer,” 1, 1908, pp. 33, 29 f.
[412] Cp. vol. i., p. 279, the “Dicta Melanchthonia” on Luther’s eyes. Catholic contemporaries called them diabolical. See e.g. Aleander in Köstlin-Kawerau, 1, p. 500.
[413] Cp. for what follows H. Böhmer, “Luther im Lichte der neueren Forschung,”², 1910, p. 4 f. Some of the matter contained in the first edition is omitted in the second.
[414] See Denifle-Weiss, 1², Pl. IX
[415] The latter are shown in Böhmer, p. 2. Cp. ibid., p. 37.
[416] None but an expert can have any idea of the “speed with which Luther wrote. He was a born stenographer.” It should be noted “that the haste with which he wrote is far less noticeable in the manuscripts which have been preserved than in the writings themselves with their countless defects. Outside a small circle there are but few to-day who could fall under the magical influence of Luther’s writings, and not weary of listening to the monotonous song of the ‘Wittenberg nightingale’” (K. A. Meissinger, in a review of Ficker’s edition of the Commentary on Romans, “Frankfurter Ztng.,” 1910, No. 300). The expression “Wittenberg nightingale” occurs, as is well known, in a poem by Luther’s Nuremberg admirer, Hans Sachs.
[417] “Luthers Krankengesch.,” 1881, p. 122. “Commentar ad Gal.,” 1531, 1, p. 107. In this passage quoted by Denifle, 1², p. 391, Luther speaks of his great zeal in doing penance in the monastery, and adds a little further on (p. 109): “So long as I was a Popish monk, externe non eram sicut ceteri homines, raptores, iniusti, adulteri, sed servabam castitatem, obedientiam et paupertatem,” which, of course, only means: “I was a good religious.”
[418] Cordatus, “Tagebuch,” p. 38.
[419] In the interpretation of Genesis iii. 17; “Opp. Lat. exeg.,” 1, p. 263. Cp. Cordatus, “Tagebuch,” p. 38, 481, where Luther makes use of the usual word “Franzos” for the malady. In the latter passage Luther declares himself ready to exchange his very painful gout for this malady, or even for the plague, were that God’s will. Hence he was then, i.e. in his later years, free from it.
[420] German translation of the “Chronicle” in “Werke,” ed. Walch, 14; the passage, ibid., p. 1277.