Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/110

 74- POPE LEO X. TO THE ELECTOR FREDERIC OF SAXONY.

Lutheri Opera varii argutnenti (Erlangen, 1865), ii. 352.

RoME« August 23, 1518.

Beloved Son, greeting and the apostolic blessing! . • . It has come to our ears from all quarters that a certain son of iniquity, Friar Martin Luther, of the German Congregation of Augustinian Hermits, forgetting his cloth and profession, which consists in humility and obedience, sinfully vaunts him- self in the Qiurch of God, and, as though relying on your protection, fears the authority or rebuke of no one. Although we know this is false, yet we thought good to write to your Lordship, exhorting you in the Lord, that for the name and fame of a good Catholic Prince such as you are, you should retain the splendor of your glory and race unsoiled by these calumnies. Not only that we wish you to avoid doing wrong, as you do, for as yet we judge that you have done none, but we desire you to escape the suspicion of doing wrong, in ^hich Luther's rashness would involve you.

As we arc certain from the report of most learned and religious men, and especially of our beloved son, the Master of our Sacred Palace, that Luther has dared to assert and publicly to afSrm many impious and heretical things, we have ordered him to be sunmioned to make answer, and we have diarged our beloved son. Cardinal Cajetan, Legate of the Holy See, a man versed in all theology and philosophy, to do with Luther as seems best.

As this affair concerns the purity of the faith of God and the Catholic Church, and as it is the proper office of the Apos- tolic See, the mistress of faith, to take cognizance who think rightly and who wrongly, we again exhort your Lordship, for the sake of God's honor and ours and your own, please to

•eeretary on aocoant of his elegant Latinity. He was born in Modena, studied at Ferrara, went to Rome 150 J, where he took orders and entered the senrice of Cardinal OliTiero Caraffa. Leo X. immediately on his accession to the papal throne named Sadoleto and Bembo secretaries of breres. He was ■ade Bishop of Carpentras 1517, where he lived during the pontificate of Adrian VI., and again after the sack of Rome, 1527. In 1536 he was made car- dinal and member of the Commission for Reform appointed by Paul III. He wrote commentaries on the Bible and other works, including some against Luther. 7. Laachert: Dit IttlUnischen Gegner Luthers, sBsS. I have not seen: S. Un ummnista ttologo, Jacopo Sadoleto, Roma, 191 2.

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