Once more he celebrated his birthday in the circle of his friends, Melancthon, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, and some others. Just before that day a rich present of wine and fish had arrived from the Elector. Luther was very merry with his friends, but could not restrain sad thoughts of an apostasy from the gospel which might follow with many after his death.
At the conclusion of his lecture on November 17 he said: 'This is the beloved Genesis; God grant that after me it may be better done. I can do no more—I am weak. Pray God that He may grant me a good and happy end.' He began no new lectures.
At Christmas time, then, and in the depth of cold, Luther journeyed to Mansfeld with Melancthon. He wished, as he wrote to Count Albert, to risk the time and effort, notwithstanding the pressing work he had on hand, in order to lay himself in peace in his coffin in the place where he had previously reconciled his beloved masters. But his wish was not to be fulfilled. Anxiety for Melancthon, who was ill, urged him home, though he promised to return. On his homeward journey, in spite of the continued severity of the cold, he preached at Halle, concluding his sermon with the words, 'Well, since it is very cold, I will now end. You have other good and faithful preachers.'
He had carefully brought his Melancthon home. When now the new conference on religion was to be held at Ratisbon, and a Wittenberg theologian was to be sent to it, he begged the Elector not to employ his friend again for the 'useless and idle colloquy,' especially as there was not a man among his opponents who was worth anything. 'What would they do,' he wrote, 'if Philip were dead or ill, as indeed he is—so ill that I rejoice to have brought him home from Mansfeld. It is his duty henceforth to spare himself; he is better employed in his bed than at the Conference. The young doctors must come to the fore and take up the word after us.' Of his opponents and their designs, he said 'They take us for asses, who don't understand their vulgar and foolish attacks.'
He described his own condition, in a letter of January 17, in these words: 'Old, spent, worn, weary, cold, and with but one eye to see with.' He must have lost therefore the sight of one of his eyes, but we know nothing definite beyond this. He adds, however, that for his age his health was fairly good.
Melancthon was spared a journey to Ratisbon, as also a third visit to Mansfeld. Luther ventured the latter, however, in January. He took with him his three sons, together with their tutor, and his own servant, that they might become acquainted with his beloved native home. When, shortly before, some students at his table heard of a strange and ominous fall of a large clock at midnight, he said, 'Do not fear; this means that I shall soon die. I am weary of the world, so let us rather part like well-filled guests at a common inn.'
[Illustration: Fig. 54.—LUTHER IN 1546. (From a woodcut of
Cranach.)]
On the 23rd of the month he left Wittenberg, where on the previous
Sunday, the 17th, he had preached for the last time.
He reached Halle on the 25th, and stayed with Jonas. It was probably then that he brought Jonas as a present the beautiful white Venetian glass, which is still preserved at Nüremberg. The Latin couplet is to this effect:
Luther this glass, himself a glass, doth on his friend bestow,
That each himself a brittle glass may by this token know.