Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/47

 you can easily learn everything from Tschudi/ He is a great man. Our vain talkers * are playing their proper role, so that our age, too, may not be without its Pharisees. Our triumvirs have condemned him,' Bede* (not the Venerable), Quercus* and a certain Christopher.* The names of these prodigies are now popularly known as Belua, Stercus and Christotomus.' It is truly extraordinarj' how the monks are now running hither and thither with all their conspiracies,' as they are called. I have almost none of Luther's works except the Babylonian Captivity, which pleased me so greatly that I have read it through three times from beginning to end. God is my wit- ness, I cannot tell whether its great learning surpasses its boldness or its freedom of speech its judgment. The two things seem to me to be fighting an even battle. I do not wish to write at greater length because Tschudi can tell you every- thing better and more briefly. Lefevre d'fitaples* has gone twenty miles out of the city because he cannot bear to listen to the abuse of Luther, though the oaken theologian " spares neither d'fitaples nor Erasmus. Farewell, and hold your course toward the stars.

498. ERASMUS TO PACE.

Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iii, no. 1392. Brussels, July 5, 1521.

The full text is printed in Jostin's Life of Erasmus and Opera, iii, no. 583.

1 Peter Tschudi, a member of a welMcnown Swiss family (xS03(?)-iS32)« In 1516 he was at Glarean's school at Basle, followed him to Paris in 15 17, where he graduated (B.A. 1518, M.A. 15x9). In 1522 he was made parish priest at Giants, where he continued to support the Reformation. ADB. and Allen, ii, 184.

' Mataeologi (Titus, i, 10).

tions by I«ouyain and Cologne, was dated April 15, 1521, and was at once printed. On this see Smith, 453, with references, and Imbart de la Tour: Origines de la Reforme, iii (1914), 2i3fi.
 * The formal condemnation, far more complete than the preyious condemna-

«Natalis Beda (or Noel B6dier) a Syndic of the University of Paris, violently opposed to the New Learning as well as to the Reformation. He attacked in turn Erasmus, Lefivre d' Staples and IrOuis Berquin. The date of his death is variously given as 1536 and 1537- Biographie Ginirale. P. Feret: La Faculti de Thiologig de Paris, tpoque Moderne, 7 vols. 1900-1910, ii, sff.

cil of Pisa-Milan, and was later Inquisitor. Feret, 62ff.
 * William a Quercu (Du Chesne), a Parisian priest, who took part in the Coun-

(Sutor), a violent anti -Lutheran ?
 * Cannot be identified. Is it possible that Glarean was thinking of P. Couturier

» "Monster," "Dung," and "Christ-killer." • Practica,

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