ABSTRACT
Literally to the end, Luther maintained the virulence of thought and expression against the Jews that he had poured out in his writings of 1543. In those late years, his literary output continued unabated, despite his imminent expectation of death, and his lectures at the university went on until he finished a series of commentaries on the Book of Genesis, in the month of his 62nd birthday, November 1545. In the December he travelled to Mansfeld near his birthplace Eisleben, where the local counts, two brothers, had begun a quarrel over property rights which they asked Luther to arbitrate. The same dispute required further attention from him in the January of the new year, 1546, when, late in the month, Luther set off in the direction of Eisleben. Going into February, he was making progress towards a settlement: as he reported, ‘the counts of Mansfeld show wonderful good will to each other’.
