Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/185

 mits them to the judgment of all, whether fitted to judge or not. No one has admonished him, no one has taught him, no one has refuted him ; yet they bawl out that he is a heretic, and with tumultuous clamors incite the people to stone hiinj You would say that they thirsted for human blood rather than for the salvation of souls. The more hateful to Christian ears is the name of heresy, the less rashly ought we to charge j anyone with it. Every error is not heresy, nor is he forthwith I a heretic who may displease this man or that. Nor are those who make such splendid pretences always acting in the inter- est of the faith. Rather the greater number are acting in their own interests, and for their own gain or power, whctt with a hasty wish to wound they condemn in another what they condone in themselves.

In short, since there are so many old and new writers, i<^ the books of none of whom there is not some dangerotf^ error, why should we quietly and placidly read most of them-^ and fiercely rage against one or two? If we defend the trutfc^ alone, should we not be equally offended by what is untrue wherever it is found? It is a most holy thing to defend the purity of religious faith, but it is a most rascally thing under I color of defending the faith to serve our own passions. If they desire all that is received in the universities to be held as an oracle, why are there such differences between this school and that ? Why do the scholastic doctors fight and fence with each other? Nay, why in the Sorbonne itself does one doctor differ from another? You will find very few who agree, unless in conspiracy. Moreover, these men will often be found condemning in recent books what they do not con- demn in Augustine or Gerson, as though truth depended on the author. They read what they like so that they find some excuse, however far-fetched, for everything; they slander everything in what they don't like.

The best part of Christianity is a life worthy of Christ j| When this is found we ought not easily to suspect heresy. | But now they invent what they call new criteria ; i. e., they lay down new laws by which they teach that what they don't like is heresy. Whoever accuses another of heresy, ought himself to show a character worthy of a Christian, charity in admon-

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