Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/197

 192 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Ut iSS

di Fiore.* I am ready for their rage. My commentary ot Galatians is being printed ; you will soon see it.

I am well and calm, and less poor than formerly. Oar friend Helt* is a fine ruler and organizer — of the kitchen, for he cares chiefly for the belly ; perhaps he will care more for his head later.

I read what you wrote about that Franciscan babbler, bat I am used to such hatred. The whole world is reeling, body and mind alike. God knows the future. We prophesy death and war. God have mercy on us. Farewell in him and pray for poor me. Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian,

ISS. DESIDERIUS ERASMUS TO LUTHER AT WITTENBERG Enders, ii. 64. Allen, iii. 605. Louvain, May 3a I5IJ^

This letter was published at Leipsic in June, 15 19, and at Augsbarg. It almost immediately got Erasmus into trouble. In the first place the Bishop of Liege was indignant at the reference to himself as a favorer of Luther, a matter at once inquired into by the theolo- gians of Louvain. (Infra, no. 370. P. Kalkoff : Die depeschen dis Nuntius Aleander, p. 220). The rumor even stimulated the process against Luther at Rome. (L. v. Pastor: History of the Popes, Eng- lish translation, v. 398.) Accordingly, when Erasmus himself pub- lished the letter in the Farrago of 1519 for "episcopus Leodiensis," he substituted "eximius quidam," which he claimed was what he originally wrote {Bihliotheca Erasmiana. Colloquia, i. 65). But this did not end the author's troubles. The letter was found by Hochstraten, the inquisitor, and made by him the base of an accusation of favoring heresy. {Infra, nos. 187, 188.) To clear himself, Erasmus wrote to the Archbishop of Mayence. Infra, no. 192.

Dearest brother in Christ, your epistle,* showing the keen- ness of your mind and breathing a Christian spirit, was most pleasant to me.

I cannot tell you what a commotion your books are raising^ here. Nor can these men by any means be disabused of the

iWe know nothing of Luther's being burned in effigy at Rome; his writingB were publicly burned there on the Piazza Navona about June 7, isax. Eadov places this in 1520, as does Rodocanachi: Rome au temps de Jules II. ei de Leon X., 1912* P« x6a. On the true date cf. L. Pastor: History of the P^pes, English translation by R. Kerr, viii. 37.

>He was at this time prior at Wittenberg.

'March a8, 15 19. Translated, Smith, op. cit,, aoof.

^This is the true translation of "tragoedias excitare,*' though as J. H. Laptoa remarks, with demure sarcasm, "it has become the fashion" to trsoslate these words, "make a tragedy.*'

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