Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/76

 Your Grace has again erected at Halle that idol* which robs poor simple Christians of their money and their souls. You have thus shown that the criminal blunder for which Tetzel was blamed was not due to him alone, but also to the Archbishop of Mayence, who, not regarding my gentleness to him, insists on taking all the blame on himself. Perhaps your Grace thinks I am no more to be reckoned with, but am look- ing out for my own safety, and that his Imperial Majesty has extinguished the poor monk. On the contrary, I wish your Grace to know that I will do what Christian love demands without fearing the gates of hell, much less unlearned popes, bishops and cardinals. I will not suffer it nor keep silence when the Archbishop of Mayence gives out that it is none of his business to give information to a poor man who asks for it. The truth is that your ignorance is willful, as long as the thing ignored brings you in money. I am not to blame, but your own conduct.

I humbly pray your Grace, therefore, to leave poor people undeceived and unrobbed, and show yourself a bishop rather than a wolf. It has been made clear enough that indulgences are nothing but knavery and fraud, and that only Christ should be preached to the people, so that your Grace has not the excuse of ignorance. Your Grace will please remem- ber the beginning, and what a terrible fire was kindled from a little despised spark, and how all the world was surely of the opinion that a single poor beggar was immeasurably too weak for the Pope, and was undertaking an impossible task. But God willed to give the Pope and his followers more than enough to do, and to play a game contrary to the expectation of the world and to its despite, so that the Pope will hardly recover, growing daily worse, and one may see God's work therein. Let no one doubt that God still lives and knows how to withstand a Cardinal of Mayence, even if four Em- perors support him. He rejoiceth to break the lofty cedars and to hiunble the proud, stiff-necked Pharaohs. Do not tempt Him nor despise Him, for His knowledge and His power are without measure.

And let not your Grace think Luther is dead. He will


 * C/. Smitfa, p. 127, and supra no. 51 x, p. 63, n. s*

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