Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/243

 288 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let igt

the ten gulden, and send him some of these books.* Truly on the same day on which I became rich, the need of certain men to whom I was obliged to lend something made me poorer than ever.

I am ashamed that among the people of Christ there is so little charity left that those who have less than twenty gulden are obliged to succor each other. I think that the money was given to me because the Lord wished to help them through me, but it was not enough. Wherefore, after consulting you, I will even apply to the clement elector to relieve poverty. By God's grace I ask nothing for myself.

Furious Eck has published a defence against my letter to you.* I am answering him, having this week completed si^ sheets and given them to the press. It is remarkable how tfc^* man rages, stuffed with lies as he is. When he attacks nm^ hardest and most cleverly he imprudently forgets his hypoc risy, on which account alone, passing over other things, have laid hold on him to force him still further to betra^^ himself and his Leipsic supporters. I will soon send a copy^ of my book. . ..

Farewell in the Lord. Martin Luther.

192. ERASMUS TO ALBERT, CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP

ELECTOR OF MAYENCE.

Erasmi opera, iii. 513. Louvain, November i, 1519.

... In the first place, I must preface that I never had anything to do with the cause either of Reuchlin or of Luther. I never cared for the Cabala and Talmud, whatever they may be. I was highly displeased by the violent collisions between Reuchlin and the party of James Hochstraten. Luther is as unknown to me as any one can be, nor have I yet had time to read his works, except that I have glanced at them hastily. If he has written well I deserve no praise; if otherwise, there

return for services. Later he became the tutor of Frederic's natural aona, Frederic and Sebastian Ton Jessen, with whom he lived in Jessen until his death on March 21 » 1529. Archiv fUr Reformations ffeschichte, vi. p. 66, and viii. p. 33. Schart several times gave Luther money, cf. Enders, iii. 74.

his own inscription, **To my dear friend Mark Schart."
 * Thcre is extant a copy of Luther's Sermon on Preparation for Death, with

^n August IS Luther dedicated to Spalatin his Resolutiones super proposi- tionihus suis, Enders, ii. 102. Eck replied on September 2. Luther's answer, De Wette, i. 353. Enders, ii. 214.

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