Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/549

 644 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let 4^

proof-texts, whereby he was so thoroug^y refuted that the archbishop hoped he would give up that position. But the consequence of the informal conversation was that Luther it- clared he would not recant unless he were better refuted; and as the official brought forward his proof in the form of syllogisms, he declared that he would have nothing to do with logic, which is pure folly on his part, for he must let people treat with him somehow. And yet there are persons so silly that they let the obvious madness of this monster im- pose on them. Then the archbishop gave him a special ex- hortation, but he could not be won either by persuasion or by discussion, as he recognizes no judges and unreservedly repudiates the councils, and everything else except the words of the Bible, all of which he expounds in his own manner, mocking differing interpretations of them and rejecting them as insufficient. In this he always has his Lutherans by his side, who shriek applause and swear that he is right. But many of his interlocutors have observed that he is neither a grammarian nor a philosopher nor a theologian, but a mere madman. Everyone is convinced that he did not himself com- pose the greater part of his questionable books, and he him- self has confidentially admitted that these bad books were writ- ten by his friends, but that he must keep faith with his con- federates, and so only speaks against this one or that when no witnesses are present. Further he said to Cochlaeus that for himself he was accustomed to preach, to lecture on the Psalter and expound it in his writings, but that the books which had raised the whole outcry were composed by his companions, and that if he should recant, more than twenty others would come forth and do worse than he had done. In short, neither instruction nor exhortation nor deceit do any good with him, for he sticks obstinately to the one word, that he will not act against his conscience, and furthermore he said once or twice that he had received a revelation, and then denied it in the same breath. So all our trouble was in vain.

The fact that he did not compose the questionable books seems to me proved by a tommunication of the Official of Trier, who said that every time he had questioned or warned

�� �