An Offer of Apology to King Henry VIII by Martin Luther; From the manuscripts of: Henry the Eight _Answere unto A Certaine Letter of Martyn Lther_ London, 1528 Translated by Lucas Curran Wagner To the most mighty and noble prince, King Henry the VIII, most benign lord of England and of France. Grace and peace in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Notwithstanding, most noble king and excellent prince, that I ought of reason to be afraid to attempt your Highness with letters when, as I well know, myself, that your Highness is most grievously displeased with my book which I wrote not of my own courage, but by the hasteful instigation of those that did not well favor your Highness. Nevertheless, I have good comfort and stomach to write not only by cause of your kingly clemency, so much of which is told daily to me both by the words and writing of many men that, seeing you, yourself, are mortal, I cannot think you would bear immortal enmity. But, also for as much, I have by credible means been informed that the book made out against me in the name of the King of England is not by your Majesty, but by crafty sophists, it should seem. Which, when they abused the name of your Highness, did not consider in what peril they placed themselves by the slandering of a King, especially above all, that monster, the common hate of God and men, the Cardina l of York, that pestilence of your realm. Wherefore I am so sorely ashamed that it yerks and abases me to lift up my eyes before your Highness, who has suffered to move against me so lightly that so great a king by those works of wickedness, namely, being myself, but dregs and a worm, had ought through contempt to have ignored such a despised person as I. Additionally, another thing which seriously caused me, being never so vile yet, to write [was] because your Highness begins to favor the Gospel and bears great displeasure toward this sort of ungracious folk. Truly this report was like the Gospel indeed, that is to say, glad tidings unto my heart. Wherefore I prostrate myself with these letters unto the feet of your Highness, as humbly as I can deduce, and beseech for the cross and honor of Christ that your Majesty would vouchsafe to incline something and pardon me in whatsoever I have offended, just as Christ prayed and commanded us also to forgive one another in his debts. Moreover, if your Excellency thinks it not to be refused that I make out another book and therein unsay my former writings that will now, on the contrary, honor the name of your Highness, please it your Majesty to give me some mild token that there shall be no revenge in me, but [that] I shall do it most gladly, for though I be a man of no reputation in comparison of your Highness, if I might have liberty to write in the cause of the Gospel unto the King of England, yet might we trust that no small fruit should grow unto the Gospel and the glory of God hereby. In the meantime, may our Lord continue to increase your Highness, as He has begun, so that you may with full sprite both obey and fear the Gospel. And may not your regal ears and mind suffer and be held with the mischievous voices of those poisonous mouths that do nothing but cry that Luther is a heretic. And if it might please your Highness to consider what harm could I [possibly] do in teaching none other thing but that we must be saved by the faith of Jesus Christ, Son of God. Who for us suffered and was raised again, as witnessed by the Gospel and the letters of the Apostles, for this is the head and foundation of my doctrine, upon which afterward I build and teach charity toward our neighbor, obedience unto the heads and rulers of countries, and finally to crucify the body of sin, like as the doctrine of Christ commands. What all is [harmful] in these chapters of doctrine? Yet let the matter be looked upon, let it have hearing and judgment first. Why am I condemned neither heard nor convicted? Furthermore, where I rebuke the deceptions and abuse of the Papacy, which teaches other than these foresaid chapters (and not only other, but also to the contrary), while in the meantime [they] so lean themselves upon tithes, opulence, desires of the flesh, yea, after kingdoms, empires and every man's riches that, do the common people not perceive that they are doing this? Even they, themselves, should be constrained to confess it. Why do they not amend themselves and teach well, if they will be without hate and blame? Also, your noble Majesty sees how great princes in Germany favor my party and, thanks be to God, should I not be condemned unto whole company and number, I pray Christ that He add your Highness to their totality and separate you from the whole tyrannies of souls. Now what wonder is it that Caesar and certain princes rage against me? Do not nations murmur against our Lord and his Christ? As the second Psalm says, "Why do the heathen conspire, and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth conspire and the princes take council together against the Lord and his Christ". Thus, on the contrary, it is more to be marveled at if any prince or king favors the Gospel, and I desire with all my heart inwardly that I may once have cause to rejoice and make congratulation of this miracle in your Highness. I pray God, by His whole favor and assistance, that I might write this letter so that he may so work with my word that the King of England may be made shortly the perfect disciple of Christ, an advocate of the Gospel, and, finally, the most benign Lord unto Luther. Amen. I look forward to some mild and benign answer, if it may please your highness. At Wittenberg, the first day of September, in the Year of Our Lord, 1525. Most humble subject unto your regal majesty, D. Martin Luther, in his own hand. ____________________________________________________________________ This text is c1998 by Lucas Curran Wagner, the translator, and was converted by him to ascii format for Project Wittenberg. You may freely distribute for non-commercial purposes. All other rights reserved by the translator. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary. E-mail: bob_smith@ctsfw.edu Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: (219) 452-2148 Fax: (219) 452-2126 _____________________________________________________________________