Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/111

 give help that this Martin Luther may be delivered into the power and judgment of the Holy See, as the said legate will request of you. . ..

Given at St. Peter's, under the fisherman's ring, in the sixth year of our pontificate.

James Sadoletus.

75. GABRIEL DELLA VOLTA, GENERAL OF THE AUGUS- TINIAN HERMITS, TO GERARD HECKER, PROVINCIAL OF SAXONY.

Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, ii. 476.

CoRi (near Rome), August 25, 1518.

Gabriel della Volta of Venice (Venetus) was nominated General of the Augustinians by Leo X. at the beginning of 15 18. He at first declined, but was persuaded by a letter of February 3, 1518 (P. Bembi Epistolarum libri, xvi. Lugduni, 1538, no. 18), chiefly because Leo thought him the best man to deal with Luther. In this letter the Pope begged him to "quiet that man, for newly kindled flames are easily quenched, but a great fire is hard to put out." Accordingly, at the General Chapter at Venice, in June, 1519, Gabriel was elected General. He had already endeavored to get Staupitz to deal with Luther (Smith, p. 46) and failing in this turned to Hecker. Kolde: Augustiner-Congregation, index.

Hecker, since 1480 Augustinian at Lippstadt, lecturer at Bologna, 1488. In 1502 he came to Erfurt, where he was Luther's teacher. He was thrice Provincial of Thuringia and Saxony. In 1521 he came out for the Reformation, going to Osnabriick, where he lived until his death, in 1536. Kolde, loc. ciU, 474; Enders, vii. 83.

You can hardly estimate into what a mass of evils a certain Brother Martin Luther of our order and of the Congregation* of the Vicar, has brought us and our profession.* Thinking himself wise, he has become the most foolish of all who were ever in our order. We had previously heard from the Rev- erend Auditor* of the Apostolic Chamber, and as has now been communicated to us by our Supreme Lord Leo X., Luther has come to such a degree not only of noxiousness, but also of most damnable heresy, that he has not feared to lecture and dispute openly against the Holy Roman Church and the

^The German Augustinians were divided into two bodies, the Congregation of Obserrants, of which Staupitz was ricar, and the Conventuals, under Hecker. '*'ReHgio" in the usual monastic sense. 'Jerome Ghinucci.

�� �