Should I then be declared a heretic I ask for no protection, and only plead that neither the truth nor the lie be condemned unheard. For this is only due to your Imperial throne. This will adorn your Majesty’s empire! It will consecrate your century, and cause its memory never to be forgotten, if your Sacred Majesty do not permit the wicked to swallow up him who is holier than they, nor let men, as the prophet says, “become as the fishes of the sea — as the creeping things that have no ruler over them!”
I herewith commend myself to you, hoping for all that is good from your Sacred Majesty, whom may the Lord Jesus preserve to us, and highly exalt to the everlasting honor of His gospel. Amen. Your Imperial Majesty’s devoted servant,
MARTIN LUTHER.
Wittenberg.
XLI
TO THE ELECTOR FREDERICK OF SAXONY
Luther dedicates a little book of consolation to the Elector, for the comfort of believers under disappointment.
February 1520.
Most Serene Lord. Our beloved Savior has commanded us to visit the sick, liberate the prisoner, and perform works of mercy towards our neighbor, even as our Lord Himself set the example of marvelous love, in descending, from the Almighty Father’s bosom, to share our captivity, and take our sins and weaknesses upon Himself.
Whoever despises this most blessed type and command will at the last day hear the words, “Go into everlasting fire: I was sick, and ye did not visit me.”
This is my apology for compiling this small book, so that I may not be accused of ingratitude in being unable to recognize my Lord Jesus’ image, in the illness with which your Electoral Highness has been smitten by my Lord God, and I cannot pretend not to hear God’s voice from the person of your Grace, which says, “I am sick.”
