Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/462

 ago I had had those breves to the Emperor and others, I could have got out of this business much more easily, and have shown the imperialists that the Pope does not consider this matter such a trifle as those travelers say. I know, in- deed, that Rome has held back in order not to make the matter appear too important, lest the imperialists should feel able to set their foot on our neck. But there is a golden mean, to avoid both extremes, especially as the situation is so critical that the Emperor's men do not believe that he will have the power to save it. Nevertheless, we must do all in our power and leave the rest to God's grace. I have positive hope of a good end, if Rome does not fail me, but carries out my plans. . ..

From the warning which the Archbishop* of Capua gave my representative at Rome, I learn that Erasmus has com- plained about me there, for blackening his character to the princes, and that the Pope has expressed his lively displeasure thereat. I am very sorry that the word of Erasmus, who has written worse things against our faith than has Luther, should be more trusted than mine, though I let myself be torn in pieces for this faith. But this Erasmus knows his own ad- vantage, like a faithless wife who gives her husband a sharp scolding before she makes him a cuckold. I have long known that Erasmus is the source of all this evil which he has scat- tered around Flanders and the Rhine land, but I have re- frained from saying so and have instead rather always praised him and have never allowed myself to get into a quarrel or an altercation with him, as the archbishop seems to hint. I shared lodging and bed with him at Venice* once for six months, and he considered it not beneath his dignity to hear my daily lectures on Plutarch's Ethics according to the Greek text. Later, also, we stood in friendly communion, so that I was greatly surprised when at Antwerp and Louvain Erasmus never let me see him or came to visit me. Everybody tells

^Nicholas von Schonberg of MeUsen, who, while a student in Italy, was so impressed by Savonarola's preaching, that he entered the Dominican order in Florence 1497* As a learned theologian and able diplomatist he rose to favor tinder Julius II. and Leo X., by whom he was created Archbishop in 1520. He was made a cardinal by Paul III., and died 1537. Aleander's representative was probably his cousin, Peter Aleander.

In 1508. Cf, J. Paquier: L'Humanisme *t la Rf forme, 1900, p. a6f.

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