Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/492

 recreation to the city fortifications, in order to see a horse given him by the Marquis of Mantua/ I determined to urge the preparation of the mandate in a conversation with Chievres, who, because of his affability and because of our common relations with the Bishop of Liege and his land, has always been accessible to me. We chatted a good while. I exhorted him to give us his help for the decisive suppression of this horrible heresy, by which the position of his Emperor would be considerably improved, and his own fame certainly aug- mented, for finally all would be ascribed to him. Among other things he answered: "Only take care that the Pope does his duty by us and acts loyally to us, and we will satisfy his Holiness in all things." After further remarks he con- tinued: "If you could only say that your Pope didn't always cross our plans, his Holiness can have all he wants of us ; but otherwise we will plunge him into such embarrassments that he will have difficulty in finding his way out." From these and similar confidential expressions I concluded that for some months, or at least since the meeting of the Emperor and Elector of Saxony at Cologne, they had the intention of mak- ing a political use of the Lutheran question. Moreover, some- time ago, they wrote to Hutten ; since then nothing more has been heard from him; certainly they did not merely com- mand his silence, but also bade him wait for further develop- ments. I have it on good authority that many of them have already thought of taking Hutten into the imperial service and conferring their commissions on him. This was decided in the council of state, in order, as they said, to silence him in that way, for it is hard to punish a German noble and would cause a big disturbance, especially if he has a large following like Hutten, who has conspired with Francis von Sickingen against the Church — that sounds sweeter to German ears than anything else.

Yet it may be possible that they are doing all this with good intentions to keep Germany quiet, and that otherwise his Majesty would only make himself difficulties. So I answered

^Frederic (x 500-1 540), son of Francis de Gonzaga, and his wife, Isabella d'Este, became Marquis at the death of his father 15 19. He was educated at Rome, where he was a favorite of Julius II., at Milan and the French court. He received Charles V. at Bologna 1529-30. J. Cartwright: Isabella ^Erte, 1903.

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