Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/210

 and that they do Dr. Burckhart and the others wrong, for he has never mentioned the matter to me and I have not yet seen the book, unless, as I thought, he read from it at the debate. But I know well enough from similar writings what it contains. Your Grace would do a praiseworthy act to bum it on a bonfire.

165. JOHN ECK TO JAMES HOCHSTRATEN AT COLOGNR

Lutheri Opera vatii argumenti (Erlangen, 1866), iii. 476.

Leipsic, July 24, 1519.

James Hochstraten (Hoogstraaten) studied at Lou vain, where he took his M. A. in 1485. He became a Dominican, was made prior and eventually chief inquisitor for many years. He was the leading prosecutor of Reuchlin for heresy. He took an active part against Erasmus (infra, no. 187) and Luther, who wrote against him, very briefly, in 15 19. Weimar, ii. 384. He wrote against Luther Epitome de Fide et Operibus in 1525. He died in 1527. N. Paulus: Die deutschen Dominikaner, p. 87^.

I would not have you ignorant, Reverend Father, how I have hitherto withstood those rash men of Wittenberg who despise all the doctors of the last four hundred years, no matter how holy and wise, and who disseminate many false and erroneous ideas among the people, seducing and infecting them chiefly by means of works printed in German.

Recently we disputed at Leipsic, before an audience of learned men, who had come together from all parts, where (praise, honor and glory be to God), their reputation, even with the vulgar, was much diminished, and was completely destroyed with most learned men. You should have heard their rash assertions, how blind they were and bold to commit crimes.

Luther denies that Peter was the prince of the apostles ; he denies that obedience is owed to the Church by divine law, but only by human agreement, that is, by agreement of the Emperor. He denies that the Church was built on Peter.^ When I cited on this point Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Gr^-

mer of 1521 he went to Ingolstadt, where he died in the spring of 1526. He became a strong opponent of Luther. He had studied medicine at Ferrara, and tauf^t it at Ingobtadt after 1497* Zeitschrift fur Kirchtngeschichte, xriii.

77.

'Matthew xri. 18.

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