s from facts which he
had not failed to observe at Wittenberg, even in his immediate
surroundings. Seckendorf relates that Luther, when sick at Smalcald in
1537, told the Elector of Saxony that after his death, discord would
break out in the University of Wittenberg and that his doctrine would be
changed. (_Comm. de Lutheranismo_ 3, 165.) In his Preface to Luther's
Table Talk, John Aurifaber reports that Luther had frequently predicted
that after his death his doctrine would wane and decline because of
false brethren, fanatics, and sectarians, and that the truth, which in
1530 had been placed on a pinnacle at Augsburg, would descend into the
valley, since the Word of God had seldom flourished more than forty
years in one place. (Richard, _Conf. Hist_., 311.) Stephanus Tucher, a
faithful Lutheran preacher of Magdeburg, wrote in 1549: "Doctor Martin
Luther, of sainted memory, has frequently repeated before many
trustworthy witnesses, and also before Doctor Augustine Schurf, these
words: 'After my death not one of these [Wittenberg] theologians will
remain steadfast.'" Tucher adds: "This I have heard of Doctor Augustine
Schurf not once, but frequently. Therefore I also testify to it before
Christ, my Lord, the righteous Judge," etc. (St. L. 12, 1177; Walther,
_Kern und Stern,_ 7.)

It was, above all, the spirit of indifferentism toward false doctrine,
particularly concerning the Lord's Supper, which Luther observed and
deplored in his Wittenberg colleagues: Melanchthon, Bugenhagen,
Cruciger, Eber, and Major. Shortly before his last journey to Eisleben
he invited them to his house, where he addressed to them the following
solemn words of warning: They should "remain steadfast in the Gospel;
for I see that soon after my death the most prominent brethren will fall
away. I am not afraid of the Papists," he added, "for most of them are
coarse, unlearned asses and Epicureans; but our brethren will inflict
the damage on the Gospel; for 'they went out from us, but they were not
of us' (1 John 2, 19); they will give the Gospel a harder blow than did
the Papists." About the same time Luther had written above the entrance
to his study: "Our professors are to be examined on the Lord's Supper."
When Major, who was about to leave for the colloquy at Regensburg,
entered and inquired what these words signified, Luther answered: "The
meaning of these words is precisely what you read and what they say; and
when you and I shall have returned