Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/268

 to retire, and he were to die soon afterwards, you would never cease to regret that you had not held on till the time of his death. This is my opinion; take it, therefore, in good part. Farewell Martin Luther.

65a ERASMUS TO DUKE GEORGE OF SAXONY. Ge8s» i> 777- Basl£, December 12, 1524.

Greeting, most illustrious Prince. I have received three letters from your Highness; that written May 21, with which was enclosed a copy of the one that I answered, unless I am mistaken, in my first letter, and the third, recently delivered, in which you acknowledge the receipt of the pamphlet On the Free Will} The earliest letters show some indignation that I did not enter the lists against Luther sooner, as though, if I had done so, the matter would not have gone as far as it has. I answered them at the time briefly and hurriedly," but since we have found that letters are frequently intercepted. ... I will repeat a summary of my argument.

When Luther first took up this matter the whole world applauded him with common consent, and, I think, your High- ness, too, was among those who did so. Certainly the theolo- gians approved of him, though he now counts them his bitterest enemies, as did also some of the cardinals, to say nothing of the monks, for he took up a good cause against the corrupt morals of the scholars and of the Church, which had gone so far that there was no good man who thought the conditions tolerable, and against a kind of men at whose deplorable wickedness the whole Christian world was sighing. Who would have dreamed at that time that the business would go so far as it has? Even if some Daniel had prophesied it, I should not have believed him. I do not think that even Luther himself expected an outcome of this kind. Nevertheless, be- fore Luther had published anything except his axioms on papal indulgences, and when only a few paltry pages of his were being circulated among his patrons, I urged against his undertaking, judging that the teaching of Luther, who now by fighting has become a fighter, was inadequate to the work

^The three letters given supra nos. 626, 571, 640.
 * Supra no. 634.

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