Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/167

 name is Francis Lambert. He is a man of noble origin, who ^>ent twenty years among the Franciscans and was a mis- sioner. He has been exiled and impoverished by persecution. There can be no doubt about the man's integrity; there are witnesses here who heard him both in France and in Basle, and both Tripolitanus/ the suffragan of Basle, and Pelican g^ve him excellent recommendations. We have plenty of ex- cellent lecturers, to be sure, but if anything can be done, we will not send him away. The man pleases me every way. I have observed him as carefully as it is possible to observe any- body, and he is a fit man for us to bear with and to help in his exile; but you know my income and know that I, who live on other people's money, cannot support him on my own. I think the Elector should be persuaded to give him twenty or thirty gulden, not as a charity, but as a loan at interest in the love of Christ, until he is taken up by his fellow- craftsmen ■ or can support himself by his own labor. / think he will not stay here long, for here he will find his equal or his master;* but we have pity on the exile. Farewell in the Lord.

Margrave George* has written me from Prague, excusing himself for a certain insult' that has been put upon me in his name, adding that he has written to our Elector to the

same effect. The Master of Livonia' has also asked me, by

•

^Tilman I«imperger, profeasoT at the Univeraltr of Freiburg {. B., 1491-91, ProrincUl of the Augustinian Order X49i'98, suffragan bishop of Basle and titnlar he was deposed from his bishopric for favoring the teachings. of Oecolampadius.


 * /.«., the Wittenberg Franciscans.

'This in German.

Margrave Frederic, and nephew of Ladislas II of Bohemia and Hungary. Never unfriendly to the Reformation, he finally became its patron and introduced it into his own territories both in Prussia and in Franconia and aided in its intro- duction in the other domains of the house of Brandenburg. Cf, ReaUneykhpidi^ and ADB. The letter, dated January 5, is in Enders, iv, s/ff.
 * George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ausbach (i484-x543), the third son of the

strous calf, of which a picture was at once made, and has been frequently re- produced, e.g., Weimar, xi, 373. An astronomer at Prague cast its horoscope, and stated that it was a portent signifying Luther, Le., God's wrath against him. This conclusion was published in a little broadside dedicated to Margrave George, and this is the insult for which he apologised. Cf, P. Smith, "The Mooncalf," in Modern Philology, January, 19x4*
 * 0n December 8, 152s, there was born at Freiberg, in Ducal Saxony, a mon-

'Walter von Plettenberg (1494-1535). On the Reformation in Livonia, cf. RGG., iv, xo8of.

�� �