Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/141

 up this evil with their foolish and ignorant and seditious clamors, and made a bad thing worse and a little thing great. For at first there was nothing in danger except the gains of the indulgence-sellers, and just as Luther writes much which the ears of most men are not able to endure, so these men bring in many things which good and learned men see are harmful to true evangelical piety. Moreover those who write these things are not attending to Christ's business or the Pope's, but to their own. They are moved by the desire for private gain, and they hurt the cause of the Pope and ob- scure the glory of Christ. These men do not allow those things in Luther that are altogether Christian to be approved, nor do they yield any of their own contentions, but to the former ones they add others that are still harsher.

Since I perceived, therefore, that both parties were con- tending in impotent rage, I have not mingled in this tumult, except to declare emphatically that I was in no sort of league with the Lutherans and that nothing displeases me more than sedition. To be sure I saw that I was otherwise unequal to this dangerous business, even if I had had leisure to read what they write on the one side and the other, for it would all have had to be read. Besides, my age and my health demand that I be relieved of difficult tasks. I would never write so sharply against Luther that the other party would not think me lukewarm. Moreover the Lutherans now threaten me with such dire things that there is no one whom they would rather tear to pieces than Erasmus, if he were to enter the fray. There are books enough against Luther, if he is to be overthrown that way, and there are others who far surpass me in this kind of a conflict.

Finally, it has always been my opinion that there is no better way to put a stop to this tragedy than the way of silence. The wisest of the cardinals and the magnates agree with me. The Pope issued a cruel bull ; it only added fuel to the fire. It was followed by an even more cruel edict of the Emperor, who is heart and soul in this matter; it has put a check upon the tongues and pens of some people, but it has not silenced their minds. They praise the pious intentions of the Emperor, but they ascribe his decision of this matter

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