[724] Ibid., p. 80.
[725] Above, vol. iii., p. 410.
[726] G. Wagner, “Georg Spalatin,” Altenburg, 1830, p. 105 f. Cp. Luther’s letter to Spalatin, quoted in vol. iii., p. 197, n. 1, where he tells him: “Tristitia occidet te”; by his (Luther’s) mouth Christ had raised up Melanchthon from a similar state induced by the “spiritus tristitiæ”; such continuous sorrow over sin was an even greater sin; he was still inexperienced “in the battle against sin or conscience and the law”; now, however, he must look upon Luther as St. Peter, who speaks to him as he did to the lame man: “In the name of Christ, arise and walk”; Christ did not wish him to be “crucified with sorrow”; this came from the devil.—We do not learn that these words had any effect.
[727] Cp. above, vol. iii., p. 416.
[728] Döllinger, “Die Reformation,” 2, p. 193.
[729] “Fortgesetzte Sammlung,” Leipzig, 1740, p. 519.
[730] M. Hempel, “Libellus H. Welleri,” Lipsiæ, 1581, p. 60.
[731] H. Weller, Preface to Beltzius, “On Man’s Conversion,” Leipzig, 1575.
[732] He wrote “Against the grievous plague of Melancholy,” Erfurt, 1557, and “A useful instruction against the demon of melancholy,” 1569 (s.l.). In the latter work he says in the Preface that he considered himself all the more called to comfort “sad and sorrowful hearts” because he himself “not seldom lay sick in that same hospital.”
[733] “We experience in our own selves, that our hearts become increasingly stupid, weak and timid, and often know not whence it comes or what it is.” “Der ganze Psalter,” Bd. 2, Nürnberg, 1565, p. 94.—On his edition of the Table-Talk, cp. “Luthers Werke,” Erl. ed., 57, p. xvi.