Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/391

 you received neither letter. I am glad that at last you sec how vain are the hopes of the Germans, since you say not to trust in princes and you cease to regard, as you have hitherto regarded, the judgment of men who either praise or condemn my writings. If the gospel were such that it could be either propagated or preserved by the powers of this world, God would not have confided it to fishermen. Dear Spalatin, it is not the part of the princes and prelates of this world to defend God's Word, nor by his grace do I seek the protec- tion of any of them, as they must rather set themselves against the Lord and against his Christ. What I do, I do rather that they may deserve well of the Word of God by their service to me, and may be saved by the Word. For I pity those who have heard and known. For they cannot, without their own eternal destruction, deny, desert and cover up the Word. It is to be feared that you, together with us and many of our friends, can be f otmd among this class ; and we must pray for a courageous spirit.

It is a hard thing to dissent from all prelates and princes, but no other way is left of escaping hell and God's wrath. So take care, lest those who are offended by my bitterness should be such as hold the cause of the Word cheaply and are influenced by I know not what human considerations. It is no wonder that one who estimates the affair at its true worth should cry out and be torn asunder. Even had you not urged me to do so, I should have committed the whole cause to God, and have done nothing more than I have done, since I know that we must act only by his counsel and co-operation.

I have published the Latin Antibull,* which I send ; it is also being printed in German.* Please do not let those move you who take it ill that I speak so sternly against gently ex- pressed commands. Those mandates of the Roman Pontiff are not gentle by which Christ is suppressed and people com- manded to deny the faith. I was forced to be brief by the very unworthiness of the cause. That Satanic bull so tor- tures me that I almost kept silence altogether. For since the

^Adversus exsecrabiUm Antichristi BuUam, Weimar, ti. 595. ^Wider die BuUen des Endchrists, Weimar, vi. 613.

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