Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/506

 should be done without turning the world upside down. Even the Pope would have approved this advice, had he known how things were done, and with what zeal several nations would follow Luther. But the rumors were the fabrications of certain monks, who love me no more than they do sotmd learning, and who were determined to involve me willy nilly in the Lutheran affair. ^

On the other hand, those who seemed to favor Luther * tried every way to draw me into their party. Those who | hated Luther tried also to precipitate me into his faction, f re- j quently in public sermons raging against my name morej odiously than they did against Luther himself. But I could be moved by no arts from my own purpose. I recognize ChrisfTl I do not know Luther; I recognize the Roman Church which \ I think is not different from the Catholic Church. Death i shall not make me abandon her, unless she openly is abans-J doned by Christ I have always abhorred sedition; would that Luther and all Germans were of the same mind. I see that in many lands this side of the Alps there are men who favor Luther as it were by fatality. Indeed, it is remarkable that as his enemies help him most so he helps them, as if they were in a conspiracy. For no one hurts Luther more than he does himself with his new books, each one more_, odious than the last. On the other hand, there are some who stir up the people so unleamedly, so foolishly and so seditiously that they make themselves hateful to all, com- mend Luther to the affections of men, and compromise the cause of the Pope as bad patrons always compromise their clients. I praise those who favor the Pope, whom every pious man favors. Who would not favor him who is the first imitator of Christ and who spends himself for Christian salvation? But I wish he had wiser defenders. They hunger for nothing but Luther, nor is it anything to me whether they prefer him boiled or roasted. It is certain that they confound me with an affair from which I am totally distinct, and that they thus act both wrongly and foolishly, for they would vanquish Luther sooner if they left me alone. Even in Ale- ander, a man otherwise kind and learned, I miss the prudence necessary for such an affair: if at least what is written and

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