Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/468

 cently published against him;^ and since this book is some- what sharp in tone it is to be feared that if more copies were to be printed it would cause ill will between his Grace and us; since, too, because of the agreement we have made with some of those who are named in the book, it is not a good thing to write against them or give them cause for complaint ; therefore it is our desire that you shall henceforth cause noth- ing to be printed touching our aforesaid cousin, or any other princes or persons of princely rank, unless you have first sent it to us and secured our permission to print it In r^;ard to other books in which you treat of Christian doctrine, you will obey the command issued by our dear brother of blessed mem- ory, Frederic, late Duke and Elector of Saxony, that nothing is to be sent to press unless it has first been examined by the rector and other members of our university.* We wish to in- form you of this our pleasure.

8i8. ANONYMOUS LETTER.

Brown, 1527-33, no. 384. (Somewhere in Germany) February, 1529.

As this is registered by Sanuto on February 26, it was presumably written in that month (not January) by one of the Venetian ambas- sadors to the Venetian Signory. It is in Italian.

Here ( ?) we are in peace and health, and there is

bread, but dearer than usual, though throughout Germany it is cheap ; the whole country being quiet, with the exception of the Duke of Guelders,* who is always at strife with someone, and his present dispute is with the Bishop of Wiirzburg; both parties have a strong army and are doing their worst. Between the Prince Elector, Duke John of Saxony, and his cousin, Duke George, there is a wish for war rather than war itself, because the former and the Elector Frederic [his

^Von heimiieh^n und fftsioMenen Brief en, Cf, supra, no. 811. »C/. Luther to Bruck, January 7, 1524 (Endem, W, 276), ,

'Guelders, near Holland, could have no dispute and did not have any with distant Wurzburg. By "Duke of Guelders" the writer means "Duke of Hesac," i.e., the Landgrave Philip, who, as a consequence of the Pack affair, attacked the bishoprics of Wurzburg and Bamberg, and in a treaty of June 5, forced the former to pay an indemnity of 40,000 gulden and the latter an indemnity of ao,ooo. Janssen-Pastor," iii, 133. These indemnities were referred to as "Gelder"; can this lie at the bottom of the writer's confusion of names? If some other bishop is meant by episcopo di Verbotte, I cannot suggest his identity.

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