Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/463

 me that he scatters far and wide doubts as to the genuineness of the bull. I learned from the professors of Louvain that Erasmus had convinced them all that the bull is a forgery. When during the solemn burnings or in conversation, instead of answering them I showed them the original, they were thunderstruck and looked it over doubtfully before and behind as if they were still suspicious.

But at Cologne, where he spent his evenings instilling the worst opinions into the electors,^ after he heard how well our campaign against Luther was going, he had an interview with me. I said to him the most agreeable and honorable things I could think of and remembered the days gone by. When in the course of the conversation he remarked that he had heard that I was blackening him to the princes, and in- tended to condemn his and Reuchlin's books, I could answer that I had no such intention, but rather was ready to protect him against every slander, and that I could give no opinion on his books as I had not read his theological works, but that I did not suppose he had written anything repugnant to the institutions of the Church. In short, I dissembled ably and invented some obliging lies, as in the interest of the faith and of my commission I could do no otherwise. But I did tell him that for the sake of our friendship and his honor I was sorry to find him the originator of the opinion that the bull was forged or supposititious. He must give my witnesses credit and recognize the fact. He excused himself by saying that he was not obliged to believe in the genuineness of the bull before he had seen the original. I turned this against him by saying that he ought not then previously to have spoken of the falsity of an unknown document ; it was a much worse error to throw away what one did not know; and that wisdom itself should have prompted him to keep silence or to speak rather good than bad. God knows that he then blushed and stammered, and when I saw his embarrassment I turned the matter into a joke and chatted on other things. I took occasion to praise his attitude compared to Luther's, and I exhorted him in his writings to labor rather for the

^Erasmus had an interview with the Elector Frederic at Colo^rne on Novem- ber s, 1520, in which he thwarted Aleander. Cf. Smith, xoo.

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