Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/217

 sinner. May the Lord preserve our elector^ for us. Amen.

Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.

172. LUTHER AND CARLSTADT TO THE ELECTOR

FREDERIC.

Enders, ii. 126. Dc Wcttc, i. 307. German.

WrTTENBERC, August i8, iS^^*

Most serene, high-bom Prince, most gracious Lord! Ot^^ humble, obedient service and prayers for your Grace. Mos^ gracious Prince and Lord! We have received your Grace's note with Dr. Eck's letter* and noted the contents. Dr. Eel' says he does not intend to slander us before your Grace, an^ yet labors with his sophistry and habitual loose talk to gc' your Grace, only on the strength of his letter and hasty judgf- ment, to drive us out of the land. We are not surprised thai he considers your Grace such a person as he dares address such a letter to. For we learn every day more clearly thai Dr. Eck is and remains Dr. Eck, do what he will.

May your Grace not take it ill that we have not given you an account of this debate before. For we esteem it an unfor- tunate affair, carried on with mere hate and envy, wherefore we did not wish to be the first of whom people could say (a^ Dr. Eck unnecessarily fears that they will) that we desired with our glory to shame others. But as we are forced by D^ Eck's letter, we pray that your Grace will hear the affair with kindly patience, although we are sorry to inflict so lort and unprofitable a story on your Grace. But the affair vrt* speak for itself, and show whether Dr. Eck, with all his boasi ing and protestation, is inclined to serve or to hurt your Grace^ university.

In the first place, Dr. Eck complains that I, Andrew Carl- stadt, published certain theses against him, with sarcasms anc contemptuous words, although he does not think that I hav< any right to insult people. I reply : Dr. Eck can esteem m< as he likes, but it would have mightily become him, had he along with his complaint, told how he attacked Dr. Luther

iThe elector was ill in 1519. To console him Luther wrote the T^sseradecat Smith, op, cit., p. 78. ^Supra, no. 164.

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