Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/141

 ^

��136 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Ut iC^^

��is there any reason why you should fear much from the rs of the Romanists. This sort of people think that they are n< ruling unless they are acting like tyrants, although Heav< knows that ruling in a Christian people ought to mean no more than doing as the father of a household would/ But ambi- tion and avarice bring forth all things. Luther clears himseli so entirely that they cannot pretend that he is guilty of a crime. For what he does has been done before and not blamed by the Romanists. May God Almighty preserve his people. ^^ Farewell. Your Phiup.

103. LUTHER TO GEORGE SPALATIN. Enders, i. 313. (Wittenberg), December 9, 1518.

Greeting. What your letter, Spalatin, forbade me to do, is already done. My Acta Augustana is already published, writ- ten with the freedom of much truth, albeit not with the whole truth, for I see that in this as in all things I am obliged to hurry.

I heard yesterday from Nuremberg that Charles von Miltitz is on the way, having three papal breves. They write me that a trustworthy man has seen the breves and that they order him to capture me and deliver me to the Pope. That doctor of Eisleben," who, with Philip von Feilitzsch' stood by me before the legate at Augsburg, has warned me through our prior^ to take care ; he said that on a journey he had heard a certain courtier asserting that he had promised to deliver me to the Pope. I hear other things also, and whether they are true or are invented to frighten me I do not think they are to be despised. Therefore, lest they should kill me unex-

^Quid debebat in christiano populo non esse aliud imperare quam rd olitovofielv,

sjohn Ruhel, a fellow-townsman of Luther, who became councillor and then chancellor of Mansfeld. Luther became quite intimate with him in 1535* during which year he wrote bim several letters, as well as some in subsequent years as late as i539>

30ne of the elector's councillors, who appears in Luther's letters last in December, isaa.

iConrad Kelt of Nuremberg, in which city he joined the Augustinians at an early age. Matriculated at Wittenberg 151a, became B. A. 1514 and M. A. 1516. In 1 518 he was elected prior, in which position he was rather lax. He followed Luther until February, 1522. when he left Wittenberg. After short stays at Nuremberg and Nordhausen, he became prior of the Augustinian convent at Heidelberg, which position he held until bis death, Atigust 24, 1548. Arehiv fSf Reformationsgeschichte, vii. a64ff>

�� �