Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/387

 32^ ALBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF MAYENCE, TO POPE LEO X. Hocking, i. 363. (Mayence? c November i?, 1520.)'

Most blessed Father and most clement Lord, I humbly kiss your feet. On October 25 I received with becoming reverence five breves from the reverend Lord Marino Carac- ciolo and Lord Jerome Aleander, the nuncios of your Holi- ness. The first signified how your Holiness had made Carac- ciolo a nuncio to his Imperial Majesty, and at the same time sent me a pleasing gift of the consecrated golden rose. The second and third breves bade me aid with all diligence and zeal the said lords Caracciolo and Aleander in executing the bull against Luther, the fourth instructed me how to pro- ceed to extinguish the Lutheran conflagration, and the fifth was about silencing Hutten. In the first place, I thank your Holiness for seeing fit to give me the golden rose which binds me by a new bond to you, and makes me, who was always most diligent, still more diligent to obey you. For hitherto, although not commanded, I have remembered my duty and done my best not only to keep Hutten's libellous books, which were published before I had any suspicions, from the hands of readers, but also I have studied to suppress the nascent fury of Luther, and at the very first I warned your Holiness of that movement which has now, alas, become a mighty conflagration throughout almost all Germany. I left nothing undone which either theologians or jurists advised me to da I published an edict against Hutten's works. . . and in the same edict included the works of Luther, although I had also prohibited them the year before. It would be long to narrate all my negotiations with other princes, but I beg your Holiness to believe that I left no stone unturned to oppose the growing evil. For which reason I have been obliged ICT bear with many unjust men, who have favored the opposing" faction, of whom some blandly warned me to correct I know not what corrupted morals, and alleged, I hope not falsely. their desire for peace. Yet I am forward to despise their hatred, considering the benefits which your Holiness has poured out upon me, of which the memory is always fresh

'Bockin? dates this July, but the reference to the reception of letters from Leo on October 25 proves that the true date is later. Cf. no. 319.

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