Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/68

 copies of Staupitz's tract as soon as I can and for a gift. I will send your Propositions on Scholastic Theology to Eck, and would like to send them to the theologians of .Cologne and Heidelberg, for I know several of them. Farewell.

42. LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, i 121. (Early in November, 1517.)

Greeting. I have determined, dear Spalatin, never to com- municate the Dialogue^ to anyone. My only reason is that it is so merry, so learned, so ingenious (that is, so Erasmian), that it makes the reader laugh and joke at the vices and miseries of Christ's church, for which rather every Christian ought to pray and weep. But as you ask for it, here it is, read it and use it and then return it.

I do not wish my Theses^ to come into the hands of the illustrious elector or of any of the courtiers before they are received by those who believe that they are branded by them, lest perchance it be thought that I had published them at the instigation of the elector* against the Bishop of Magdeburg,*

Hutitni opera (1859*66), iv. 421, and in Jortin's Life of Erasmus (1758-60), it 6oo-6aa. Translated in Froude's Erasmus. The authorship is much disputed. Knaake (Weimar vi. 393) and Pastor: History of the Popes, English translation \/j Antrobiu, Ti. 438, note, attribute it to Faustus Andrelinus Forliviensis ; Jortin, loc, cit,, and Nichols: Epistles of Erasmus (1901*4), ii. 446-9, give it to Erasmus, on the ground of a letter from More to Erasmus; so does Allen: Opus epistolamm Erasmi, Ep. 50a. But cf. More's statement, Jortin ii. 686. Luther at one time thought of translating the dialogue, but gave it up fearing he could not do it justice. Kroker: Luther s Tischreden (1903) no. 45. Cf. infra, February 20, 15 19, no. 130.
 * F. A, p. Poetae Regit libeilus de obitu Julii P, M. 15 13. Reprinted in Bocking:

The famous Ninety-five Theses on Indulgences. Reprinted Weimar, i. 233, and In Luthtrt Werke in Auswahl, ed. O. Clemen, 19 12, i. x. They were first printed in October and sent around to various Church dignitaries, including Albert of Mairence. On October 31 Luther posted them on the door of the Castle Church. Cf. Smith, op. cii., 4off.

'Albert was a rival of Frederic in other matters besides collecting relics, of which Luther speaks in his lectures on Romans, Scholia, 305. Luther several times defends himself against the charge here mentioned, e. g., in his Wider Hans Wurst, 1542.

^Albert (June ^o^ i490*September 24, 1545), was the second son of the Elector John Cicero of Brandenburg and Margaret, a daughter of William of Saxony. Destined to the (^urch, his family influence early secured him advancement. In 1 513 he became Archbishop of Magdeburg and Administrator of Halberstadt, and on March 9, 1514, was elected Archbishop and Elector of Mayence and Primate of Germany. For papal confirmation in these illegal pluralities he had to pay enormous sums, for raising which Pope Leo X, in August, 1515, granted an indulgence sale for eight years. Luther, who had already preached against indulgences several times, on October 31, 1517, posted the famous Ninety-five

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