To this circle of writings the treatise Of Good Works also
belongs Though the incentive for its composition came from George
Spalatin, court-preacher to the Elector, who reminded Luther of
a promise he had given, still Luther was willing to undertake it
only when he recalled that in a previous sermon to his
congregation he occasionally had made a similar promise to
deliver a sermon on good works; and when Luther actually
commenced the composition he had nothing else in view but the
preparation of a sermon for his congregation on this important
topic.

But while the work was in progress the material so accumulated
that it far outgrew the bounds of a sermon for his congregation.
On March 25. he wrote to Spalatin that it would become a whole
booklet instead of a sermon; on May 5. he again emphasizes the
growth of the material; on May 13. he speaks of its completion
at an early date, and on June 8. he could send Melanchthon a
printed copy. It was entitled: Von den guten werckenn: D. M. L.
Vuittenberg. On the last page it bore the printer's mark: Getruck
zu Wittenberg bey dem iungen Melchior Lotther. Im Tausent
funfhundert vnnd zweyntzigsten Jar. It filled not less than 58
leaves, quarto. In spite of its volume, however, the intention
of the book for the congregation remained, now however, not only
for the narrow circle of the Wittenberg congregation, but for the
Christian layman in general. In the dedicatory preface Luther
lays the greatest stress upon this, for he writes: "Though I know
of a great many, and must hear it daily, who think lightly of my
poverty and say that I write only small Sexternlein (tracts of
small volume) and German sermons for the untaught laity, I will