Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/507

 502 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let 4^

said about him is true. There was formerly a very close friendship between us;^ and when he went to France I gave him letters of recommendation and spoke of him very highly even in my writings ; I respected the man's learning, liked his character, although it was peculiar, nor did it seem that we got along together badly. He was conmianded by all means to win over those who had formerly been of the Lutheran party — so far was it from the Pope's thoughts to alienate those who were innocent. But though not unkind in him- self he used force at the instigation of certain men. He would have approached the Lutheran affair better had he joined his advantages to mine. He would have had a helper in a pious work, and one certainly not adverse to the power of the Pope. They bandy about an impudent lie, that Luther has taken '^ much from my books, but the very first article of the charge V_refutes it. When have I asserted that all that we do is sin?* not to mention innumerable other things, the like of which is not found in any of my writings, even in the sportive ones. And yet of old the heretics have drunk their poison from the gospels and apostolic letters. I speak for the moment as if he had really written something heretical and had taken it from my books. It is said that he does not recognize cer- tain of his books; perhaps he would do well to deny them all; but in any case, by whomsoever the books which pass under his name were written there is not in any of them a syllable of mine; this I do not hesitate to swear solemnly. For many years I have respected your singular prudence and your candid friendship for me, and your authority is known to all. Wherefore I beg you to defend my innocence against such malicious calumnies. Everything is printed, even that which I wrote privately to the bosom of my friends, including some things which were perhaps freer, according to my nat- ural inclination, than was always expedient. Even those things which we are accustomed to say in our cups have

Un Venice 1508. Cf, Allen, I. 502. Supra, no. 394.

<0ne of Luther's farorite propositions, condemned by the bull Exsurge Domine, article 36. Cf, Smith, op, cit,, p. 101. The proposition was made in general terms in the Disputation on Scholastic Philosophy, and more precisely in the Heidelberg Disputation (1518). Weimar, i. 354. Supra, p. 8a.

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