Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/266

 boyhood have been brought up on Peter Hispanus/ or who have some reason for wishing the Wittenbergers ilL The victory of Luther and Carlstadt is less acclaimed, because learned and judicious men are fewer and less confident in proclaiming their own opinions.

You have the story for which you asked, told briefly and in desultory manner, for I left out much not to the point. What? Don't you applaud? Perhaps I seem clumsy or artificial to you, or else you want more. I will fill you to repletion with these banquets, and I will give you portraits of the leaders in this war. Martin is of middle height with slender body worn out both by study and care, so that you can almost count his bones. He is in the vigor of manhood; his voice is sharp and clear. He is so wonderfully learned in the Bible that he has almost all the texts in memory. He has learned enough Greek and Hebrew to form a judgment of the translations. He has no lack of matter in speaking, for an immense stock of ideas and words are at his command. Perhaps you might miss in him judgment and method in using his stores. In daily life and manners he is cultivated and affable, having nothing of the stoic and nothing supercili- ous about him; rather he plays the man at all seasons. He is a joker in society, vivacious and sure, always with a happy face no matter how hard his enemies press him. You would hardly believe that he was the man to do such great things unless inspired by the gods. But what most men blame in him is that in answering he is more imprudent and cutting than is safe for a reformer of the Church, or than is decorous for a theologian. I know not whether this vice is not also common to the pedants,

Carlstadt is like Luther, but smaller. He is shorter, his face dark and burned, his voice thick and unpleasant, his memory is weaker and his anger more prompt.

Eck has a tall stature, a solid, square body, a full, German voice, strong lungs as of a tragedian or cryer, but emitting a rough rather than clear sound. So far is he from having that native sweetness of the Latin tongue, praised by Fabius

The author of « work called Summulae. Long identified, but without certain crounda, with John XXI.» Pope 1276-7.

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