Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/315

 gentlemen, expressed himself as follows: "I am expecting bad news both from Milan and from Naples ; but I care not the least in the world. I shall- go into Italy, and thus have a fairer opporttmity for obtaining my own, and taking my re- venge on those who may have wronged me, most especially on that poltroon the Pope. Some day or other, perhaps, Mar- tin Luther will become a man of worth.''

I deem this language worthy of much consideration, above all as coming from the lips of the Emperor, who is very re- served in speech ; but in my opinion the whole proceeds from the talk and fancy of the Chancellor,^ who often discourses unreasonably.

68a MARK SPAVENTO TO LEONARD GIUSTINIAN. Brown, 1520-6, no. 1006. Lyons, May 8, 1525.

Had a very dangerous passage across the Alps. In the Grisons and in Switzerland the greater part of the people are Lutherans; and whereas when in Italy I believed this to be an affair of small consequence, so do I now consider it most important. In confirmation of these words, being at Coir on Easter Sunday, heard a Lutheran priest preach with very great commendation, and on that day the usual blessing of the eggs and other things was omitted. The communicants were but few, and the greater part of them Lutherans, who had confessed in the Lutheran fashion. During our two days' stay at Coir every person we spoke to was a Luth- eran, and so well acquainted with Luther's doctrine as to defy exaggeration. The boys and girls from eight to ten years of age, in support of their tenets, answer you by evangelical precepts better than many doctors of divinity could do in favor of the Catholic faith. A book has been printed lately entitled De vera et falsa religione* con- cerning which all are instructed; very startling dogmas are propounded. Unless, therefore, the Almighty stretch forth His arm, there will be none but Lutherans in these parts. They say they are united in their opinion with

> Probably Gattinara, Chancellor of tbe Netherlands, is meant. Cf, supra, !, 4T9, and see a new work: Historia Vitae et Gestorum per Dominum Magnum Can^ ctllarium Mercurinum Arborium da Gattinara, ed. C Bomate, Torin, 1915.

'By Zwingli, March, is^S* CR*» xc, 590-912.

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