Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/260

 to others 'who still take the vows, but have some doubt about them. We exhort you urgently to defend against this book the opinion of the ancients and of the Catholic Church, which has been held for so many centuries, and to vindicate and uphold it against impious and wicked aspersions. Without doubt God Himself will aid you in this, and all good and pious men will persevere to the end, but the perverse you will either recall to reformation and repentance, or else put to silence. ...

641. JOHN FRANCIS CONTARINI * TO NICHOLAS BOLDU. Brown, 1520-6, no. 883. Vienna^ October 9, 1524.

''Tell the most noble Messer Marin Sanuto that here one cannot even speak of Luther, still less have his works, as this Prince [Archduke Ferdinand] makes the Bishop of Vienna search for Lutherans, and if found woe betide them; so he must excuse me in this matter."

A painted caricature has been found on the door of the cathedral, representing an ass soiling Cardinal Camp^;gio, the Archduke holding the ass's tail ; and beneath was written much abuse of the Archduke, the Cardinal, and Salamanca, purporting that they had come to suck the blood of one per- son and the other, and that unless they departed they would be cut to pieces speedily. The paper was removed and taken to the house of the Archduke's Lord Steward.

642. LUTHER TO JEROME BAUMGARTNER AT NUREMBERG.

Enders, v, 34. WrrxENBEiiG, October 12, 1524.

Baumgartner (1498-1565) studied at Wittenberg 1518-21. In 1523 he visited Wittenberg again and learned to know Catharine von Bora, with whom, when he left, he had an understanding, though not a formal be- trothal, that he would return and marry her. When he did not do so Catharine became ill, and hence Luther's letter. In. January, 1525, Jerome married Sibylla Dichtl. He took part in the diets of Augsburg (1530) and Spires (i544)* Enders, loc, cit.

Grace and peace in the Lord. I am compelled to ask your help, Jerome, with the many poor. The youth who brings this letter to you, one Gregory Keser, is looking for work, and asked me for an introduction to some citizen of Nuremberg.

I Brother of Charles Contarini.

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