Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/513

 Just as your silence troubled me extremely, so your letter has entirely wiped out any suspicion of a special reason why you should so long seem to hold your peace. Even had you judged me unworthy of your letters on account of my Luth- eranism, you would have done me a grave injury. I do not deny that at the beginning it seemed to me that all Luther's acts were not vain, since no good man could be pleased with all those errors and impostures which have gradually ac- cumulated in the Christian religion. So, with others, I hoped that some remedy might be applied to such great evils, but J was greatly deceived. For before the former errors had been extirpated, far more intolerable ones burst in, compared with which the earlier ones seemed child's play. Therefore I began gradually to withdraw, and the more diligently I ob- served all things, the more exactly I understood the wiles of the ancient serpent. For this reason I have been attacked by very many, and am slandered by some as a deserter of the Gospel truth, seeing that I am displeased with the liberty, by no means evangelical but simply diabolical, of so many apostates, both men and women, not to mention their in- numerable other vices, which have extinguished almost all piety and charity. Indeed, Luther himself with the insolence and impudence of his tongue does not hide what he has in his heart, so that he seems either insane or else possessed by an evil demon. . ..

864. LUTHER TO NICHOLAS HAUSMANN AT ZWICKAU. Enders, vii, 214. (WrrrENBERc), January 3, 1530.

Grace and peace in Christ. Since the Sermon against the Turks has not yet reached you, I am sending two copies of the second edition for you and Cordatus. You write me that your City Council will fulfill its promises; I know nothing about any promises. Gifts of that sort are a burden to me, for they are great and valuable and cause men to suspect me of great wealth, which I loathe and could not bear if I had it; even the name annoys me. The better thing for you, therefore, is to see that it is lessened. No one owes me any- thing but food and clothing; but I am a debtor in all things to all men.

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