and at the same time is made pleasant to us by the promise of grace and the forgiveness of sins.  But the other sorrow is of the devil and without promise; it is sheer worry over useless and impossible things which concern God.  I shall have more to say to you when I return.  Meanwhile give my greetings to your brother; I began writing to him, but the messenger who is to take this letter along is in a hurry.  I shall write to him later, also to Schneidewein and others.  I commend your pupil to you.  May the Spirit of Christ comfort and gladden your heart!  Amen.’ (21a, 1487 ff.)

The second letter to Weller was presumably written some time in July.  It reads as follows:  “Grace and peace in Christ.  My dearest Jerome, you must firmly believe that your affliction is of the devil, and that you are plagued in this manner because you believe in Christ.  For you see that the most wrathful enemies of the Gospel, as, for instance, Eck, Zwingli, and others, are suffered to be at ease and happy.  All of us who are Christians must have the devil for our adversary and enemy, as Peter says:  ‘Your adversary, the devil, goeth about,’ etc., 1 Pet. 5, 8.  Dearest Jerome, you must rejoice over these onslaughts of the devil, because they are a sure sign that you have a gracious and merciful God.  You will say:  This affliction is more grievous than I can bear; you fear that you will be overcome and vanquished, so that you are driven to blasphemy and despair.  I know these tricks of Satan:  if he cannot overcome the person whom he afflicts at the first onset, he seeks to exhaust and weaken him by incessantly attacking him, in order that the person may succumb and acknowledge himself beaten.  Accordingly, whenever this affliction befalls you, beware lest you enter into an argument with the devil, or muse upon these death-dealing thoughts.  For this means nothing else than to yield to the devil and succumb to him.  You must rather take pains to treat these thoughts which the devil instils in you with the severest contempt.  In afflictions and conflicts of this kind contempt is the best and easiest way for overcoming the devil.  Make up your mind to laugh at your adversary, and find some one whom you can engage in a conversation.  You must by all means avoid being alone, for then the devil will make his strongest effort to catch you; he lies in wait for you when you are alone.  In a case like this the devil is overcome by scorning and despising him, not by opposing him and arguing with him.  My dear Jerome, you must engage in merry talk and games with my wife and the rest, so as to defeat these devilish thoughts, and you must be intent on being cheerful.  This affliction is more necessary to you than food and drink.  I shall relate to you what happened to me when I was about your age.  When I entered the cloister, it happened that at first I always walked about sad and melancholy, and could not shake off my sadness.  Accordingly, I sought counsel and confessed to Dr. Staupitz, —­I