Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/436

 withstand this ! They don't want a heretic to be heard. They make many threats, but I think their efforts are vain. We shall soon see what will happen. . ..

366. THOMAS MURNAR TO LUTHER. Enders, iil 26, German. (Strassburc, before December 24, 1520.)

All Christendom, Martin Luther, would rejoice in you as a particularly learned man, if only you did not use your learn- ing and clear reason to hurt the fatherland and destroy the faith and the laws of the Fathers, and if you did not enjoy writing with a sword as much as anyone. For this cause instead of the honor which we owe your reason, we are, alas ! obliged to defend ourselves against you as against a rene- gade enemy, and we must change our fraternal and patriotic favor to disfavor, against our heart's desire, for we would rather see your praise, honor and glory as a born German and an able man than your shame. But as with tmwashed hands you have attacked your and our Christian faith, you force us to summon Emperor, kings, princes and lords to defend the truth against you, although you, too, are not ashamed to summon our pious Emperor and all the serene nobility of Germany to protect your false, seditious, senseless and crimi- nal plans. Truly you might have done them more honor than to ask them to help you establish your unchristian lies, and to accomplish your unreasonable, dishonorable venture. You made yourself their counsellor, against the ancient proverb, and though no one asked your opinion, you advised that pious young scion of Austria, our Emperor, at the beginning of his reign to snatch two crowns from the Pope,* who would have enough honor and too much with the third, also to abolish all the cardinals but twelve,* to destroy cloisters, to abolish and make a bonfire of the Canon law, throwing away the child with the bath [as the proverb is], and butchering the cow with the calf. This is a warm proposition truly, fresh from the bath-room,® advice hot enough to have been g^ven to King

"This refers to various attacks on the "triple crown" of the Pope in the Address to the German Nobility. Smith, S2I.

Nobility. Smith, ibid.
 * A11 these alleged proposals have some counterparts in the Address to the

3 At that time the best heated room in most German houses.

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