Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/478

 suit except that the Christ-scourgers and soul-tyrants were iwt aye to give full vent to their fury. That is enough for the Lord to grant us, for there is nothing to hope from the council that is talked of.

A man who has come here from Venice declares that the son of the Doge of Venice is at the court of the Turk. Thus we have been fighting the Turk while the Pope, the Vene- tians, the French have been openly and shamelessly becom- ing Turks. Then, too, he says that in the French army at Pavia * there were 800 Turks, 300 of whom were saved, and, tiring of the war, returned home. You say nothing about the portents,' and do I supposed that you knew nothing of them, but I have heard and read such circumstantial reports of them that I believe they are true. Thus we arc coming to the middle of that night in which the shout is heard, "The Bridegroom cometh; go ye forth to meet Him."* Pray for me, and farewell, with all your family; greet all our friends.

Yours, Maktin Luther.

828. MICHAEL MAI TO THE EMPEROR. Gayangos, 1529-30, no. 6. Rome, May 11, 1529.

... In Siena, during this past Lent, a Lutheran friar* has been preaching in favor of his sect, or, at least, of some of its most important tenets. Thought at first of putting a stop to the nuisance by such means as he himself could com- mand, but finding there was difference of opinion on this point among the citizens he (Mai) was afraid of stirring up some new excitement, especially as Siena is so close to Flor- ence, where all the strength of the League is now concen- trated. Fortunately the bishop (John Piccolomini), who is also cardinal of that place, had the man arrested, and his guilt was proved, for letters and papers were found on him in con- nection with Germany and the Lutheran sect. The Pope then

^Besieged and captured by the French in September, 1538. The report is not substantiated by other contemporary authorities.


 * Referred to in a previous letter to Link, supra, no. 821.

• Matthew xxv, 6.

of Florence, often employed as Lenten preacher. About this time he became one of the leading ProtesUnts of Italy. RgalencykhpSdU, and on his historical work: E. Fueter: Gesckichig der Neutren Historiograph^, 19x1, pp. a^aff., »9si.
 * In all probability this was Peter Martyr Vermigli (1500-62) an Augustinian

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