Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/274

 cease to entreat Girist with continual prayers for what is best. Would that not the owl of Minerva but the dove of Christ would deign to fly to us and give some people's over- boldness a happy outcome. This is my whole-hearted effort and desire. Whichever party wins I shall not enjoy the vic- tory, for I shall shortly leave this world, but I shall go with a quieter mind if I see the cause of Christ victorious. Luther has offered the world a violent and bitter medicine. What- ever the remedy, I have wished that the body of the Church, everywhere corrupted by so many ills, might gain some health.

There are other things which it is not safe to commit to writing. If your Highness had known them, he would not have written me two such letters, which are very different from those that the Pope and the Emperor and Ferdinand and the King of England write. And yet I am not offended at your frankness ; someone has persuaded you that that was the truth, and your ardor for the Catholic faith dictated your course. Otherwise your words would be hard to bear, when you say : * "I wish that God had put it into your mind three years ago to separate yourself from the Lutheran faction and in such wise that by publishing some book,*' etc. What your most illustrious Highness advises was done for years and much more was done than you ask. I never joined that faction, and preferred to lose many friends rather than mingle never so little with that faction, though it was at that time in favor everywhere. In how many books, in how many letters have I testified that I had nothing in common with Luther? In how many places do I make it clear that I disagree with him ? To be sure, I did keep up my old friend- ship with scholars, so far as I could, but I did it such a way as not to assent to their teachings. Even Pope Adrian and Cardinal Campeggio have praised my civility in this respect, perceiving that it helped the cause. Perhaps there will be some men who will slander the moderation I have shown in the Collatio* though it is strongly approved by many scholars

and by the King of England and this Cardinal* Its modera- '

-'7 ""

^ Supra no. 626.^

« I.e., the work' On the Free Will, ■ Campeggio.

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