Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/83

 54. LUTHER TO JOHN STAUPITZ. Enders, i. 175. Wittenberg, March 31, 1518.

Greeting. Dear Father in the Lord, I am so busy that I must write briefly. First, I know perfectly well that my name is in bad odor with many, so much have even good men found fault with me for condemning rosaries, tonsures, chanting psalms and other prayers, in short, all "good works." St Paul had the same experience with those who said that he said: "Let us do evil that good may come."* Truly I have followed the theology of Tauler and of that book* which you recently gave to Christian Doring to print; I teach that men should trust in nothing save in Jesus Christ only, not in their own prayers, or merits, or works, for we are not saved by our own exertions, but by the mercy of God, From these words my opponents suck the poison which you-acetfiey scatter around. But as I did not begin for the sake of fame, I shall not stop for infamy. God will see to it My adversaries excite hatred against me from the scholastic doctors, because I prefer the Fathers and the Bible to them; they are almost insane with their zeal. I read the scholastics with judgment, not, as they do, with closed eyes. Thus the apostle commanded: "Prove all things; hold to that which is good."' I neither reject all that they say nor approve all. Thus those babblers make the whole of a part, a fire of a spark and an elephant of a fly. But with God's help I care nothing for their scarecrows. They are words; they will remain words. If Duns Scotus, Gabriel Biel and others had the right to dissent from Aquinas, and if the Thomists have the right to contradict everybody, so that there are as many sects among the schoolmen as there are heads, or as hairs on each head, why should they not allow me the same right against them as they use against each other? If God is operating, no one can stop him. If he withholds his aid, no one can help the cause. Farewell and pray for me and for the truth of God wherever it may be.

Brother Martin Eleutherius, AugusHnian.

'Romans iii. 8.

"Namely, Staupitz's own book, "Von der Liebe Gottct."


 * i Tbessaloniani, ▼. la.

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