Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/452

 tate Babylonica Ecclesiae,^ wherein he holdeth that four of the sacraments be only de jure positivo, by the Pope's ordi- nance, so called, vis,: Confirmatio, Ordo, Extrema Unctio and Matrimonium; and that Baptismus, Eucharistia and Penitentia be de jure divino et evangelii. They say there is much more strange opinion in it, near to the opinions of Boheme. I pray God keep that book out of England.

At the exequy of the Cardinal of Croy,* in the presence of the Electors, the Emperor, the Pope's ambassador and the cardinals, a friar preacher* made a sermon, and in the be- ginning said the Pope was Vicarius Christi in spiritualibus, and the cardinals and bishops were apostoli, etc. But how his tongue turned in his head I cannot tell; but after he con- cluded that the Emperor, when they do amiss, should reform their abuses, etiam usque ad depositionem; whereupon the Pope's Nuntius, having commission against Luther, called him, laying the premises to his charge ; which the said Nuntius hath been openly threatened by many gentlemen not to meddle with him. In his said sermon he* exhorted the Emperor and all the princes to go into Italy, which is of the Empire, and to reform such abuses as be there; whereunto I under- stand many of the princes be inclined, because every man thinketh to gain thereby. . ..

Luther offereth, if the Emperor will go to Rome to reform the Church, to bring him 100,000 men, whereunto the Em- peror, as a virtuous prince, will not hearken. The said Luther hath many great clerks that hold with him, save in some points, which the said Luther hath put forth more than he can or will justify, to the intent that on the residue he might not be heard, and a council called for reformation, whereof the Pope will not hear, but standeth to his sentence of condemnation.

lit is interesting to note that this was the book refuted by Henry VIII. in his Assertion of the Seven Sacraments. Cf. English Historical Review, loc. cit.

sWilliam de Croy, Archbishop of Toledo, made Cardinal 15x7, died January 6, 1 521. Ralkoff: Brief e, 72f. His funeral was on January 21. Brown, iii. 156.

>John Faber, Dominican Prior of Augsburg, on whom cf. supra, no. 333. This sermon aroused the ire of Aleander ("the Pope's ambassador"). Cf. Paulus: Deutsche Dominicaner, 311.

to the Christian Nobility.
 * I. e., Faber. These ideas correspond closely to those expressed in the Address

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