Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/172

 debate, February 3. On the 5th it was put in final form and handed to Chieregato. The reply was then confirmed (March 6) by an edict of the Council of Regency (op. cit., 447). Cf. RTA^ iii, aJBsff. We have given only the most important passages from this lengthy docu- ment

... It is alleged that the sentence laid upon Luther by the Apostolic See and the edict of his Imperial Majesty have not been duly enforced, but the enforcement has not been put off without the greatest and most urgent reasons, to wit, lest still worse things should come to pass. For the greater part of the people is convinced, and the popular opinion is now in- formed by Lutheran books and teachings, that by means of certain abuses many great burdens and hardships have been put upon the German nation by the Roman Curia. There- fore, if any attempt had been made at a severe enforcement of the sentence of the Apostolic See or the edict of his Im- perial Majesty, the mass of the people would immediately have suspected that this was done for the purpose of over- turning evangelical truth and of sustaining and maintaining wicked abuses and impieties. Thus there would have been nothing to expect except grievous popular uprisings and civil wars, as the princes and other estates have clearly learned and perceived by many and various signs. They think, therefore, that more opportune remedies must be applied to these evils, especially in this difKcult time. . ..

. . . Since his Holiness desires to be informed by what means he can best put a stop to this Lutheran error, so that those things that he must do can be the more quickly cared for, the most illustrious Lord Viceroy * and the other princes and estates would say that because of their piety and devotion to the Christian religion, they are now, and always will be, heartily ready to be of any use and help they can in the matter. But inasmuch as the morals of this age are most corrupt in every sphere of life, ecclesiastical and secular, and there are many other errors, abuses and corruptions, which have come not only from the Lutheran sect but from many other causes, and have taken such root that it is imperatively necessary that fitting remedies be provided; and also because of the

< Frederic IT, Count Palatine, on wliom ef, supra. Vol. I, p. 513.

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