Luther and Melanchthon to the City of Amberg; Wittenberg, 4 October 1544 (Stadtarchiv Amberg, KuRS 262/1 [Ref. 358])

The request made by the mayor and council of the city of Amberg in 1544 with Martin Luther (1483–1546) and Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560), was again successful. The city had asked for the renewed provision of its “old” preacher Andreas Hügel as well as for the assignment of Johannes Monacensius and that of a schoolmaster.

Luther and Melanchthon now reported in their reply that they had contacted Andreas Hügel and Johannes von Monchen (Monacensius) immediately after receiving the letter from Amberg and that both had agreed to come to Amberg. One difficulty was that Hügel was not able to travel to Amberg with a young child in the cold season. He, therefore, offered to come at Easter of the following year. However, if the people of Amberg urgently needed a preacher, he would have to leave his wife and child behind in Wittenberg.

The reformers had also contacted Mattheus Michael von Torgau, “a well-behaved, well-to-do, well-educated man”, who had declared his willingness to come to Amberg as schoolmaster. The letter ends with the authors expressing their confidence in the work of the recipients and with the date and signatures of Luther and Melanchthon.

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