# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 10 13_S30
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Prophetic Dream of Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony Concerning the Reformation.

(From an original manuscript.)

The venerable Georgius Spalatinus has credibly related to me, Antonius Musa, a dream which Duke Frederick, Elector of Saxony, had at Schweinitz the night before — namely, on All Saints' Eve — before Dr. Martin Luther publicly posted at Wittenberg his first Positiones (theses) against the Pope and against Brother Johann Tetzel's preaching concerning Roman grace and indulgences. This dream His Electoral Grace also wrote down for remembrance early the next morning, and likewise related it to his brother, Duke Hans of Saxony, in the presence of the Chancellor, saying: "Brother! I must tell Your Grace what I dreamed this night; I would gladly know its meaning. I have noted it so exactly, and it is so deeply impressed upon me, that it seems to me I could not forget it if I were to live a thousand years, for it came to me three times in succession, though always somewhat refined." Duke Hans asked whether it was, then, a good or an evil dream. "We do not know; God knows," said the Elector. Duke Hans said further: "Brother! Your Grace should not set too much store by it; when I dream something, I always ask the dear God that he would direct it all for the best, or I put it out of my mind as best I can, although I must also consider that many dreams of mine, both good and evil, have come true — which, however, I understood only afterward, and generally only in small, trifling matters. But tell me, Your Grace, what was your dream?"

Elector Frederick said: "I will tell Your Grace. As I lay down in the evening rather weary and tired, I soon fell asleep over my prayers and had rested gently for about two and a half hours; when I then awoke and became fairly alert, I lay there with all sorts of thoughts until twelve at midnight, considering among other things how I wished, in honor of all the dear saints, to fast and keep feast together with my court household. I also prayed for the poor souls in purgatory, and resolved within myself to come to their aid and relief in their torment as well; I asked the dear God for his grace, that he would guide me and my councilors and my land in true righteousness and keep us unto salvation, and also, by his almighty power, restrain all the wicked rogues who make our rule difficult for us. With such thoughts I soon fell asleep again around midnight. Then I dreamed that almighty God sent to me a monk of an honorable countenance, the natural son of St. Paul, the beloved apostle. He had with him, as companions by God's command, all the dear saints, who were to bear witness on the monk's behalf to me that there was no deceit in him, but that he was truly a messenger of God, and that God bade me allow the monk to write something on the wall of my castle chapel at Wittenberg; I should not regret it. I had the Chancellor tell him that, since God had so commanded me, and since he also had such powerful testimony, he might write what he had been bidden to write. Thereupon the monk began to write, making such large letters that I could recognize them here at Schweinitz. He also wielded so long a pen that it reached all the way to Rome and pierced a lion lying in Rome through one ear with its shaft, so that the shaft came out the other ear; and the pen stretched on further to the Pope's holy triple crown, and struck it so hard that it began to wobble and threatened to fall from His Holiness's head.

As it was thus about to fall, it seemed to me that Your Grace and I were standing not far off, and I too stretched out my hand and wanted to help hold the crown; in that same quick grasping motion I awoke and found my arm raised in the air. I was thoroughly startled, and also angry at the monk for not having handled his pen more discreetly in writing. But when I came fully to my senses, I realized it had been a dream. Still full of sleep, however, my eyes soon closed again and I fell fast asleep once more. Before I was even properly aware of it, this dream came to me a second time, for once again I found myself dealing with the monk, and I watched him keep on writing; and with the shaft of the pen he kept striking further at the lion, and through the lion (Pope Leo X) at the Pope himself, at which the lion roared so that the whole city of Rome and all the estates of the Holy Empire ran together to learn what was happening. And then His Holiness the Pope demanded of the estates that they restrain the monk, and especially that they report this outrage to me, since this monk was residing in my territory.

Then I awoke a second time, marveling that the dream had come again; I did not, however, let it trouble me too greatly, but prayed that God would preserve His Holiness the Pope from all harm, and fell asleep a third time. Then the monk appeared to me a third time, and I dreamed that the foremost estates of the Empire, among whom Your Grace and I also were, went to Rome and exerted ourselves greatly to break this monk's pen and turn it away from the Pope; but the more we tried our hand at the pen, the more rigid and creaking it grew, as if it were made of iron, and it creaked so much that it hurt my ears and went through my heart. At last we all grew weary and vexed over it, so that we gave up, and one after another lost heart, fearing that the monk might be capable of more than eating bread and might perhaps do us some harm. Nonetheless I had the monk asked (for by now I was at Rome, then at Wittenberg, then again at Rome) where he had gotten this pen, and how it came to be so firm and tough. He had it told to me that it came from an old hundred-year-old goose (Hus); one of his old schoolmasters had given it to him as a gift and, since it was good, had bidden him keep and use it in his memory. He himself had also tempered it. As for why it was so long and hard and firm, that was because, he said, no one could take away or draw out its spirit — a thing at which he himself also marveled.

Soon afterward a rumor arose that from the long pen of the monk countless other writing-pens had grown, and it was a delight to see how learned men at Wittenberg contended eagerly for them, some of them thinking that these new pens would in time grow as long as this monk's pen, and that something quite extraordinary would surely come of this monk and his pen.

Now, having resolved within the dream itself to speak with the monk in person as soon as possible, I finally awoke a third time, and it was now morning. I marveled greatly at the dream, pondered it, and pictured it well to myself just as it had come to me one time after another, and I at once wrote down its principal features. I am fully of the opinion that this dream is not without meaning, since it has come to me so often, and I am nearly resolved to reveal it to my confessor; yet I wished first to let Your Grace know something of it as well. Let Your Grace and our Chancellor tell me their thoughts on it."

Duke Hans said: "Chancellor, what do you think? Not much is always to be made of dreams, yet they are not always to be wholly dismissed either; if we had here a wise, godly man enlightened by God, a Joseph or a Daniel, he might be able to interpret it rightly."

The Chancellor said: "Your Princely Grace knows that it is commonly said: the dreams of maidens, of learned men, and of great lords usually have something behind them. But what it may be, one will only know after some time has passed, when events happen to occur from which one then draws a conjecture and says: See, that is surely what your dream pointed to — as Your Grace will be aware of many such examples. Otherwise, Joseph says that interpreting dreams belongs to God alone; and Daniel says that God in heaven alone can reveal hidden dreams. Therefore let His Electoral Grace simply commit this dream to God; monks have often caused great lords much misfortune. The best thing is that he is sent by God, has a command to write, and that all the saints are his witnesses — unless the devil, under a good appearance, should be practicing some deception of his own. Your Princely Grace will best know how to reflect on the matter in a Christian manner, alongside devout prayer."

Duke Hans said: "I agree with you, Chancellor; for it is not advisable that we should grieve and torment ourselves over it for long. God will know how to direct all of this, insofar as this dream comes from him, to his own honor, and