Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/361

 used against me, though it really deserves the favor of your Holiness. For what needful advice does it not give? True, I did it civilly, by which I thought to accomplish more than by severity, and I was writing to a stranger. After I had almost taken him to task, lest my freedom offend him, I added: "I write this, not to tell you what to do, but to encourage you in doing as you have always done," thus assuming that he would do of his own accord what I wanted him to. For if his previ- ous manner of writings had pleased me why should I need to advise him to adopt another? I know that this passage has been twisted against me by some, but that the words I added "that he had many adherents," have been interpreted still worse. But what I wrote was true. Many men favored what was good in him just as I did. I wished him to know this, not so that he might be encouraged by their support to write seditiously, but that he might make their support perpetual by following my advice to moderate his pen. I am surprised that the name of the Bishop of Liege was put in by the men of Leipsic,^ who by some means or other published a secret letter which had not been edited at Basle. It is absolutely true that he never had anything to do with Luther any more than I did. Even if I had mentioned his name it would only have been in this sense. I wrote that letter almost two years ago, before the affair had gotten to its present state of bitterness, or even to be disputed.

If anyone has ever heard me, even in my cups, defending Luther's dogmas, I shall not refuse to be called a Lutheran. But they say I have not attacked him. But in the first place, I could not refute him unless I read his books attentively once and again, for which my assiduous studies did not give m* leisure. Secondly, I saw that it was above the mediocrity of my learning and talents. Again I did not wish to deprive the universities which had undertaken the task of their glory in it. Finally, I feared to excite the hatred of powerful men, especially as no one had commanded me to engage on this labor. Wherefore, if the enemies of good letters revile me on this account, I have a certain protection in your wisdom and my

^7. e., when the letter was printed at Leipsic. Cf. supra, no. 155. The BishoP of Li^ge was Erard de la Marck.

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