Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/184

 better! How vigilant they are in this respect, though they sleep over all else!

Recently some works by Martin Luther have been pub- lished, and at the same time rumor says that the man was beyond measure oppressed by the authority of the very rev- erend Cardinal Cajetan, who is now legate of the Roman Pontiff in Swabia. How glad were these men, how did they exult and rejoice when they thought that this gave them the desired opportunity of hurting learning! For the Greek prov- erb has it, that the wicked lack nothing but opportunity, for this gives them the chance to do the evil they always desire. Immediately their sermons to the people, their universities, their councils, their repasts, rang with the words "heresy" and "antichrist." And to make their course of action more odious, these crafty men, especially when addressing women or the unlearned, would speak of Greek and Hebrew, of eloquence and polite literature, as though Luther relied on them for protection, or as though from these fountains flowed heresies. This more than brazen impudence displeased all good men, especially as it furnished an excuse for war to some men who consider themselves the champions of theology and the pillars of Christianity. Behold how purposely and blindly indulgent we are to our own vices; we think it an atrocious slander, a crime near to heresy, if anyone calls a pettifogging theologian (of whonfi there are not a few) a vain babbler. But we forgive ourselves when before a numerous assembly we call any man we are angry with a heretic and an antichrist !

C* As Luther is absolutely unknown to me, no one will sus- pect me of favoring him as a friend. It is not mine to defend his works, nor to disapprove them, for I have not read them,

Lsave a bit here and there. No one who knows the man does not approve his life, since he is as far as possible from sus- picion of avarice or ambition, and blameless morals even among heathen find favor. It is not becoming to the gentle char- acter of theologians, immediately without reading a book, to rage so savagely against the name and fame of a good man, and that in the presence of the unlearned multitude, espe- cially as he only proposes his opinions for debate and sub-

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