# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1862_S308
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

308 A Contribution to the Improvement of the Editions of Luther's Works.

King of Denmark," is a conjecture made from the mistaken date
1538, for Christian became king in the year 1536. Luther's
address, however, is directed to the "Heir of Norway." That this
letter belongs to the year 1528 is made certain by the fact that the Melchior
Hoffmann mentioned in the letter (properly Melchior Knesner, called Hoffmann,
compare Vol. 54, p. 345) still left Holstein in the year 1528, and in 1532
died in prison at Strasbourg (compare Guericke, Church History III, 718). — Also
in de Wette this letter is duplicated with the same errors. De Wette III,
361, and V, 121. — Letter No. 574, Vol. 55, p. 207, is therefore to be
struck.

With regard to No. 269, the error that it is printed once more in the 56th volume,
p. XIX, with an incorrect address, is noted in the 65th volume,
p. VI.

The heading of No. 398, Vol. 54, p. 291, should read, like that of
No. 386 and 482, "To the Council at Herford." The inmates of a monastery
are commonly called its "Klosterherren." That Luther, in this
letter, phrases the address differently than in Letter No. 386, may have its
reason in the fact that he learned from the envoys present at Wittenberg the
proper title of the rulers at Herford, "the Nine Men."
These, as the letter shows, had no jurisdiction over the
Fratres.

Letter No. 349, Vol. 54, p. 207, is, by conjecture — probably because the
Confession and Apology are mentioned in it — placed in
the year 1530. The Hildener zur Syde named in this letter
is the tax-collector Hiltener of Zeida, whose fall into disgrace occurred in the
year 1539 (compare No. 592 and 593, Volume 55, p. 228ff.). The
letter is therefore to be addressed "to the Elector Johann Friedrich," and
was composed after June 3, 1539. This result is confirmed by the
following reasons: Duke Johann Friedrich, in the year 1530, during the
lifetime of Elector Johannes, had nothing to do with such matters as
this letter contains. The expression "the true Kohlhases" refers
to Kohlhase's feud against Electoral Saxony in the year 1534 (compare
No. 485). The presumption and arbitrariness of the nobility — "the nobility
wants to teach the princes" — had, by the year 1539, risen to its
height, as No. 617 shows, in which letter the incendiary Kohlhase is again
mentioned. — Zeida is written Seyde, 56, XXVII.

No. 358, Vol. 54, p. 216, is also duplicated in Walch: XVII, 2397, and
2494.

No. 408, Vol. 54, p. 310, is also contained in the collections; see
Volume 65, p. 222.

No. 413 is, as to content, completely contained in No. 414. One
of the two letters is spurious. It may be a similar case
as with No. 39 in the 53rd volume. No. 414 seems to me to bear the
stamp of originality.