profess the free gospel of Christ.^790 He dedicated to him his commentary on Deuteronomy, with a
congratulatory letter full of gratitude for the rapid flight of the gospel to Prussia in the far North
(1525).^791 The bishop did not reply, and seems to have preserved a dignified or prudent reserve
towards the person of Luther, while allowing free course to his doctrines.^792
Erhard von Queiss renounced popery in a public sermon, 1524, and resigned his worldly
possessions and authority to the Duke (1527), in order to attend better to the spiritual duties of an
evangelical bishop.
Georg von Polenz was the chancellor and chief counselor of Albrecht (we may say his
Bismarck on a small scale) in this work of transformation. He was about five years older than
Luther, and survived him four years. He descended from an old noble family of Meissen in Saxony,
studied law in Italy, and was for a while private secretary at the court of Pope Julius II. Then he
served as a soldier under Maximilian I. He became acquainted with Margrave Albrecht at Padua,
1509, and joined the Teutonic Knights. In 1519 he was raised to the episcopal chair, and consecrated
by the neighboring bishops of Ermland and Pomesania in the Dome of Königsberg. The receipt of
the Roman curia for a tax of fourteen hundred and eighty-eight ducats is still extant in the archives
of that city. The first years of his office were disturbed by war with Poland, for which he had to
furnish men and means. During the absence of the Duke in Germany he took his place.
In September, 1523, be became acquainted with Dr. Briesmann, and learned from him the
biblical languages, the elements of theology, which he had never studied before, and the doctrines
of Luther. In January, 1524, be already issued an order that baptism be celebrated in the vernacular
tongue, and recommended the clergy to read diligently the Bible, and the writings of Luther,
especially his book on Christian Liberty. This was the beginning of the Reformation in Prussia.
We have from him three sermons, and three only, which he preached in favor of the change, at
Christmas, 1523, and at Easter and Pentecost, 1524. He echoes in them the views of Briesmann.
He declares, "I shall with the Divine will hold fast to the word of God and to the gospel, though I
should lose body and life, goods and honor, and all I possess." He despised the authority of Pope
Clement VII., who directed his legate, Campeggio, Dec. 1, 1524, to summon the bishop as a rebel
and perjurer, to induce him to recant, or to depose him.
In May, 1525, he resigned the secular part of his episcopal authority into the hands of the
Duke, because it was not seemly and Christian for a bishop to have so much worldly glory and
power. A few days afterwards be married, June 8, 1525, five days before Luther’s marriage. In the
next year the Duke followed his example, and invited Luther to the wedding (June, 1526). This
double marriage was a virtual dissolution of the order as a monastic institution. In 1546 Georg von
Polenz resigned his episcopal supervision into the hands of Briesmann. He died in peace, April 28,
(^790) "At last," he wrote to Spalatin, Feb. 1, 1524, "even a bishop has given the glory to the name of Christ, and proclaims the gospel in
Prussia, namely the bishop of Samland, encouraged and instructed by John Briesmann, whom I sent, so that Prussia also begins to give
farewell to the kingdom of Satan." De Wette, II. 474.
(^791) Erl. ed., Op. Lat. XIII. The dedicatory letter dated April, 1525, is printed also in De Wette, II. 647-651. In this letter occurs the
notable passage (p. 649): "Vide mirabilia, ad Prussiam pleno cursu plenisque telis currit Evangelion." Comp. the passage quoted p. 539,
note 2.
(^792) Professor Tschackert, his best biographer, says (l.c., p. 187): "The correspondence of Bishop Georg von Polentz, as far as known,
contains not a syllable nor even an allusion to a letter of his to Luther. Even the name of Luther occurs after the reformatory mandate of
1524 only once, in a postscript to a letter to Paul Speratus, Aug. 22, 1535." In this letter he requested his colleague, Bishop Speratus of
Pomesania, to give some noble students from Lithuania letters of introduction to Luther and Melanchthon ("literis tuis Martino et Philippo
commendes.") See the letter, l.c., p. 191.