To Peter Weller - Martin Luther

TO PETER WELLER June 19, 1530.

As the messenger has delayed his departure for an hour, I shall greet you by letter, although we have no reliable news of the Augsburg proceedings.

First of all, accept my best thanks for you and your brother staying in my country house to protect my family, who are delighted to have such protection. I only hope I may some day be able to repay the service. For myself I am pretty well, although I suffered from — not a buzzing, but a roll of thunder in my head, and cannot think whence it came. Our heroes at the Diet are running about helter-skelter, or rather driving about in carriages, steering through the air with their rudders. They enter the arena of conflict early, then give us a truce during the day, and with the sound of the trombone proclaim their victory in our ears, while they plunder, steal, and devour everything, being at war with the fruits of the ground. At night they return home and snore peacefully till morning. Lately we made a raid into their palaces to catch a glimpse of the splendor of their realm, startling them greatly, for they fancied we

had come to frustrate their plans and cunning Court devices. What terrified cries ensued! When we saw how frightened these Achilleses and Hectors were, we waved our hats in the air. We had seen enough, and were more than pleased to have turned them into ridicule, for even our presence terrified them.

But this is all a joke, although it might serve as an allegorical picture, or a sign that these daws, nay, these harpies, tremble before God’s Word, or, to put it otherwise, that the noble lords at Augsburg whimper like children and Papists. Greet George von Grumbach from me. From my solitude. MARTIN LUTHER .