Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/522

 and if Luther spoke of that and of other good and Christian things, he would stake his coat and his own and his children's lives on defending him against all the world, but that if he had spoken evil in articles of faith, he would be the first to. throw that into the fire. Hutten also said that in a sense he had never subscribed to Luther's opinions, and did not wish his cause confounded with Luther's; he only desired that the priests should be chastised and forced to renounce their enormous wealth, the source of their vicious life. If the challenge he had sent us had drawn his Majesty's displeasure on him, he would not, against his Majesty's will, go further in the matter, as he had already shown the Emperor in a humble and abject letter, in which, however, he savagely at- tacked Caracciolo and me. The world has come to such a pass that a miserable wretch and murderer, a vicious raga- muffin and poor parasite like Hutten, puts on the airs of a state reformer, and has the front to say and do such things in the face of the Emperor. We cannot impress the imperial- ists with the disgrace of letting such things please them, suf- ficiently clearly to get them to take measures to prevent it. They only shrug their shoulders and regret that in their present position without troops, they can act no otherwise. Even if they had troops, nothing would happen, for our good friend who now rules [Chievres] abominates war. They are convinced that Hutten, partly by his own person and partly by the support of Sickingen, has the whole knighthood of Germany on his side, and that they desire a general revolution. Indeed, Sickingen alone is king in Germany, for he always has as many followers as he wants at his disposition; the other princes fold their arms on their bosoms, and the prelates tremble and let themselves be swallowed like rabbits. Of the lay princes the Elector of Saxony, the Counts Palatine and the Bavarians are hostile to us; Elector Joachim stands bravely by us, but he does it alone. All the world swears death to the clergy and mutters that the annates, which are contrary to God and reason, should be devoted to the main- tenance of the German imperial councillors (as I said before) — not to mention their thousand other villainies.

We have news of Luther, that he is on the way and will

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