Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/556

 not. Thus Christ my Lord prayed for his enemies on the cross; how much more then should I pray for your Majesty, for the whole Empire, for my illustrious superiors and my native Germany? So I do pray for you with joy and faith in Christ, and, relying on my aforesaid offer, expecting nothing from you but the best.

Under the shadow of your wings I commend myself to your Most Serene Majesty. May our Lord God happily direct and guard you. Amen.

Your Most Serene Majesty's most devoted beadsman,^

Martin Luther.

466. FRANCIS CORNARO AND CASPAR CONTARINI TO THE

DOGE OF VENICE.

Kalkoff: Brief e, 58. Worms, April 28, 1521.

A full summary of this letter from the original is given by Brown, iii. 202. My translation is from Kalkoff's German version of the Italian.

In Luther's affair on which I, Francis, sent your Grace an account on the 19th inst., relating all that I had heard till then, what has happened since is as follows : When the Em- peror requested the advice of the electors and princes in his declaration against Luther, which we previously mentioned and now enclose, they answered with the assent of all the members of the Diet, that it was a matter of great importance, and, therefore, they desired to negotiate further with Luther to bring him to recant, if his Imperial Majesty wished him to recant what he had taught against the decrees and decision of the Council of Constance and other councils, including his attacks on the papal power, which he called an abuse. It was thought that this was done on purpose to exert pressure upon the Pope to make him yield to the Emperor's wishes. They said the Emperor might send a representative to act in his name at the negotiations in connection with the persons they would depute to this duty. But the Emperor would not agree to this, but only that they should act in their own name, for which he gave them three days. When these had ex-

^"Orator" in the sense of "one who prairs for." In default of a twentieth century equivalent I adopt this word with which letters of the sixteenth century (those of Thomas More, for example), were so often signed.

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