Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/149

 own will and disturb all the world, it is evident that all lovers of peace must exterminate them as enemies and disturbers of the public peace.

You may say, moreover, that God permits this persecution to be directed against His Church because of the sins of men, especially of the priests and the prelates of the Church; for it is certain that the hand of the Lord is not shortened that He cannot save, but our sins separate us from Him and hide His face from us that He does not hear us. The Scriptures complain that the sins of the people come from the sins of the priest, and, therefore (as Chrysostom says), our Saviour, when He was about to cure the sickness of the city of Jeru- salem, went to the temple to chastize first of all the sins of the priests, like a good physician, who cures disease by going to its root. We know that in this Holy See there have been many abominations these many years — ^abuses in spiritual things, excessive decrees, and everything perverted; nor is there any wonder if the disease has descended from the head to the members; from the supreme pontiffs to other prelates of lower rank. "We all (i.e,, we prelates and ecclesisatics) have gone aside everyone to his own ways, and there was none that did good, no, not one."^ Therefore it is necessary that we all give glory to God and humble our souls before Him, and each of us see whence he ha^ fallen, and rather judge him- self than await the judgment of God in the rod of His anger.

In this matter, so far as we are concerned, you will promise that we shall spare no pains that this curia, from which, per- chance, this whole evil has emanated, shall be reformed first of all, so that the health and reformation of all may also emanate from it. We feel ourselves the more bound to bring this about because we see that the whole world eagerly de- sires this kind of a reformation. We were never ambitious for this pontificate (as we believe we have told you elsewhere), and so far as we were ourselves concerned we should have preferred to lead a private life and to serve God in retirement ; indeed, we should have utterly refused the pontificate if the fear of God and the purity of our election and the danger that schisms might have arisen out of our refusal had not

^Pstlm xW, 3.

�� �