The Discourses of Matrin Luther

THE DISCOURSES OF MARTIN LUTHER
Early 17th Century
The discourses of Martin Luther were kept under a papal ban, and were found - in copy form - by one Mr. Casper von Sparr, a devout Lutheran. This was a time of religious strife, and fearing that the discourses might be destroyed, he arranged to have them smuggled into England and translated.

Enter Captain Bell, an English diplomat who successfully carried out the operation - and quickly buried the book under a pile of work he needed to do. Bell was a busy man, and months came and went, the book gathered a layer of dust on it's cover.

One night Bell woke up and found a strange figure standing by his bed. It has a long beard and a luminous skeleton which glowed through it's skin. The phantom grabbed Bell and scolded him. "Sirrah! Will you not take the time to translate that book which is sent to you out of Germany?" the figure shouted. It then went on to warn Bell that he would provide the man with a place and time to do it before vanishing without a trace.

Several months later Bell was sentenced to a 10 year term in prison, during which he had little else to do but translate the book.

The ghost was commonly thought to be that of Luther himself, although this seems a little unlikely. To be fair, it is possible for spirits to manifest themselves in alien forms on earth, but the figure did not speak in the German tongue of Martin Luther.