Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/227

 Grace may see fit to pay him his salary for lecturing on the Bible, as there are young folk here who can very well teach Greek, and it is not fitting that he should always devote him- self to an elementary subject and neglect a more important one in which he would accomplish what could not be bought with money or salary. Would to God we had more such who could lecture so; there are enough, alas! who rant and use up time and their audience, as much as God permits them in His grace. The day will come again, as it did before, that we shall have to close the university for lack of men, which would be a pity. We must look about us for men while we can, and do the best for posterity, and if your Grace sees fit to do so, I pray you strictly to command Melanchthon to lecture diligently on the Bible, and give him even a larger salary to persuade him to do so. I commend your Grace to God's mercy.

Your Grace's humble subject,

Martin Luther.

6i6. PAUL ZIANI. A FRANCISCAN FRIAR. TO THE FRANCIS- CAN FRANCIS MAREM, VICAR OF THE PROVINCE OF ST. ANTONIO, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY.

Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1520-1526, no. 813.

Nuremberg, March 29, 1524.

We [i.e., the writer and the Legate Campeggio] arrived at Nuremberg on the Wednesday in Passion week. The Arch- duke [Ferdinand] is at a monastery five leagues distant for his devotions. The Elector of Saxony, having heard of the coming of the Legate Campeggio to oppose the Lutheran opinion, departed in great wrath ; and the Duke of Bavaria, a very Catholic person, on entering Nuremberg after our arrival, and finding it so Lutheran, went away in extreme anger, praising God for his escape from heretics.

In these parts the sincere faith of Qirist is utterly can- celled; no respect is paid either to the Virgin Mary or the saints. On the contrary, it is said that those who employ their aid sin mortally. They deride the papal rites, and call the relics of the saints bones of those who have been hanged In Lent they eat meat openly, sa3ring they do not consider

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