Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/318

 chamber* and hath given thee the tongue of them that are taught' to know how to refuse the evil and choose the good.* You are known to me, but you daily appear greater and greater. After the clouds of passion the stm is risen ; we see with what skill and diligence you confute the doctrinal con- demnation of the Luther-scourges ; we admire your learning ; we adore your genius ; we are tremendously pleased that you temper serious matters with jokes, bitter with sweet, so that when the wormwood is drunk it is not tasted before it en- ters the stomach; you draw and paint everyone to the life. I do not well retain the image of my Martin on account of the years since I have conversed with him. You were formerly in our company a musician and a learned philosopher; but lately I saw the boxer Entellus fighting old Dares in the arena;* then you came forth as the swift hunter of the wild goat;^ now you paint in lively colors the judgment of the theologs; what will you be next? In what line will you win the prize? I think that of the sculptor is left. Come then, good Polycletes,* make us triumphal arches to commemorate your vanquished enemies, and show us in living marble that Jesus Christ. May he keep you from the mouth of the Lion^ and the horns of the sophist unicorns forever!®

Francis von Sickingcn, that great leader of the German nobility, requests, as Hutten tells me, that you flee to him, and he will give you peace, a theological home, a servant, food and protection against enemies, with all the necessaries of life in abundance. Hutten has written in full of this to Mel- anchthon.^ Such kindness is not to be despised. The holy fathers exercise their wits to no purpose more than to alienate from you the mind of the Elector Frederic, so that destitute of all protection you may finally be forced to flee to the Bo- Iiemians, which they think would be the end of your fame and

iSong of Songs, i. 4.

Isaiah, 1. 4.

Isaiah, rii. 15.

4The debate with Prierias, so designated by himself, supra, no. 68.

BThe controversy with Emser, commonly called "the wild goat."


 * A noted ancient sculptor.

iPttn: Leo X.

"Psalm xxii. 22.


 * Supra, nos. a 18, 232.

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