Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/235

 were any gain therein. While I was still in Germany/ your Punic war was not yet heard of; a year afterwards, when James Fuchs," a sincere admirer of yours, came to St. Peter's on a vow, he brought us the first news of the captured arms. The first thing from the literary battle which came into our hands was the Dialogue of Prierias, that acute theologian, whose scurrilous wit was so felicitous that it might even have broken your '*iron nose."* After that, Andrew Fuchs,* dean of Bamberg, sent us your Resolutions and your Acta Augus- tana. We read them eagerly and passed them on to many learned men at Rome in order to suppress the false rumors about you circulated by evil men. We had to do this secretly, that they might come into the hands of the readers without our names being mentioned, lest we should prepare for our- selves in those places where the power of the priests is formid- able, a misfortune by our imprudence, for at Rome those who have your books are esteemed heretics, and those who import the books do it at the peril of their lives. Rome is in.tolerant, proud and always fearful lest the truth should free some of those over whom she tyrannizes. When your cause was known the most prudent theologians discussed it with their heart for you, but dissenting from you with their lips, not so much because they feared the power of the Pope as because they feared that detracting from his authority would disturb the peace of Christendom. Let them answer for the righteousness of this opinion; for my part I believe that Christianity does not need fraud, and that he who says what he does not believe in his heart is not the disciple of Christ who taught us that our words should be Yea, yea, and Nay, nay.* And if the more recent theologians, who are as firm as brass walls for Aristotle's decrees, had not acted on this principle, we should not have come to the present state of affairs, when we are forced to obey rather the will of the Pope than the commands of Christ, nor would you, in this

iCrotus was last in Germany in 15x7.

'James von Fuchs, a nobleman and canon at Bamberg and Wurzborf. After 1523 he renounced his priestly character and married, dying in 1539.


 * A quotation from the Dialogut.

«A brother of the former, also canon of Bamberg.

(Matthew, ▼. 37.

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