Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/438

 you exhort the people to pray that Christ may tread Satan under foot, for Hke a savage and hungry lion he is roaring for our blood. The margravine* has fled from Berlin to our Elector, aided by her brother, the King of Deimiark, because the margrave had determined (so it is said) to immure her on accotmt of her having received the eucharist in both kinds. Pray for our Elector. The good and kindly man is sorely plagued* and deserves that we aid him with our prayers. Farewell, with your wife and children.

Yours, Martin Luther.

793. LUTHER TO GREGORY BRtJCK, CHANCELLOR OF

ELECTORAL SAXONY. DeWette, iii, 319, German.

In February, 1528, Otto Von Pack, Vice-Chanccllor of Ducal Saxony, communicated to Philip of Hesse the news of a secret alliance of Cath- olic princes, alleged to have been formed at Breslau in May, 1527, for the purpose of putting down the Reformation by force of arms. The parties to the alleged agreement were Ferdinand, Duke George of Sax- ony, the Dukes of Bavaria, the Elector of Brandenburg, the Arch- bishops of Mayence and Salzburg, and the Bishops of Bamberg and Wiirzburg. On February 18, Pack laid before the Landgrave what purported to be a copy of the original agreement among these princes. He promised to furnish the original for 4000 gulden.

Believing the document to be genuine, Philip at once laid the matter before the Elector of Saxony and his son, and on March 9, 1528, they agreed upon terms for a counter alliance into which they hoped tp draw other of the Protestant princes. Philip was anxious to take the offensive and strike the first blow, but the Elector desired first to lay the matter before his theologians. On March 26 he summoned Luther to Torgau, where Luther prepared the opinion here given. The contents were communicated to Philip, who replied to it April 11. When the matter became known to the Catholic princes they denounced Pack's alleged revelations as lies and his documents as forgeries. Philip caused the latter's arrest, and secured from him finally a confes- sion that the documents were false. Despite his confession and the protestations of the Catholic princes, Luther continued to believe that the league against the Protestants had really existed. C/. Kostlin-

1 Cliubeth, wife of Joacbim of Brandenburg and sister of tbe exiled Christian II of Denmark. She left Berlin March 24 to escape the anger of her husband, be- cause at Easter, 1527, she had received the sacrament in both kinds. He had given her a year in which to repent

'These words in German.

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