Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/137

 seize upon the harsh things alone, and, on the other hand, let pass the much that is bad in the others and find only the little that is good. But, as I have said, God's judgment must go on and all the unworthy must take offence and fall away, for thus many of Christ's disciples went back, and said,^ "This is a hard saying; who can bear it?"

Therefore, my good friend, do not be surprised that many take offence at what I write. So it should be and so it must be. Only a few will be faithful to the Gospel, and there is no one to whom the Gospel is more distasteful than to those false hearts who pretend to be its friends and then fall away when the outlook is not good. How can they stake their lives for it when the time comes or persecution demands it ?

In a word, it will be clear in due time why I have been so harsh. If anyone will not believe that it is well meant and a good thing to do, let him leave it; one day he will have to confess it. Even my gracious Lord ' has written me advising against it, and many of my other friends have done the same, but my reply is always that I will not and ought not stop it. My work is not that of one who can take a middle course, and yield this or give up that, as I have done hitherto, fool that I was. God have you in His keeping.

Martin Luther.

��554. LUTHER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. Weimar, x', 327. (WrrrENBEBC, about August, 1522.)

This letter was first published anonymously as a preface to Fragmenia aHquot D, Joannis Gocchii Mechlinensis antehac nunquam excusa, without place or date, but doubtless printed at Zwolle in the latter half of 1522. It was rediscovered and its authorship proved by O. Clemen in his Johann Pupper von Goch, Leipzig, 1896, Appendix. W. Kohler threw some light on it in Th. St Kr., 1900, p. 135, and in his book, Luther und die Kirchengeschichte, 1900, pp. 279ff. The date is partly given by parallel passages in Enders, iii, 440!. and 435, partly by references to other books.

John Pupper von Goch (ti475) a Brother of the Common Life, emphasized the sole authority of the Bible and minimized the value of monasticism and asceticism. Cornelius Grapheus of Antwerp be- gan publishing his works at Antwerp, the principal one. On Christian

^John Ti, 60. 'The Elector of Sazonj.

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