Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/78

 own tyts, and put away their harlots before they separate pious wives from their husbands. "

I b^ your Grace to be on his guard and give me the chance to keep silent. I have no joy or pleasure in your Grace's shame and dishonor; but if this business of putting others to shame and dishonoring God's truth does not stop, it will be my duty, and that of all Christians, to hold fast to God's honor, though the whole world, to say nothing of one poor Cardinal, be put to shame- I will not keep silence, for, though I may not accomplish it, I hope to make the bishops leave off singing their lively little song. You have not yet got rid of everybody that Christ has raised up against your idolatrous tyranny.

I beg and expect a right speedy answer from your Grace within the next fortnight, for at the expiration of that time my pamphlet, Against the Idol of Halle, will be published, unless a public answer* comes. And if this letter is sup- pressed by your Grace's secretaries, and does not come into your Grace's hands, I will not hold oflF for that reason. Secretaries should be true, and a bishop should so order his court that that reaches him which should reach him. God give your Grace His grace unto a right mind and will.

Your Grace's obedient, humble servant,

Martin Luther.

S16. ANONYMOUS LETTER.

Brown, 1520-26, no. 383. (Wittenberg, about December 4, 1521).

This interesting epistle is registered by Sanuto at Venice, December 31, 1 521. It can hardly have been written, therefore, less than two weeks earlier. The riot alluded to took place on December 3; the Franciscan convent was stormed December 4, and it is probable that this is alluded to in the last paragraph. Cf, Smith, 136.

A volume, still more a letter, would be insuflficient to give an account of a new order or usage of the Christian faith, com- menced at Wittenberg, but I write as follows, translating from the German :

The friar hermits of St. Austin have proved by Holy Writ that to celebrate masses, as now practiced, is a great sin. This

1 "Public** because Luther was in hiding.

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