Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/90

 and teaching here and there in our lands and elsewhere, whereby they have incurred suspicion of disobedience and con- tumacy against the holy Christian Church and its ordinances and decrees. Wherefore his late^ papal Holiness, of blessed memory, and his Imperial Majesty, our gracious lord, the two heads of Christendom, to whom all Christendom is subject, were moved to decree that men should take heed to and be on their guard against the said Martin Luther's doctrines and writings, so that Christian people might not be led thereby into error. Wherefore, also, his papal Holiness and his Im- perial Majesty undertook certain negotiations with Doctor Martin, and learned that the said Doctor Martin was not willing to recede from the errors contained in his published writings. Thereupon he was put under the ban both of his papal Holiness and his Imperial Majesty, and his Holiness and his Majesty commanded that everyone should refrain from reading his writings and that they should no longer be put in print.

But the said Martin Luther has so far persisted in his un- dertaking despite all this, and through his teaching and the teaching of those who are his adherents, it has come to pass that the monks of his order at Wittenberg and elsewhere have left their monasteries, laid off the habit and dress of their order, let their tonsures grow, wander from place to place, preach against the holy mass, saying that it is no longer to be celebrated in accordance with the decrees of the holy Christian Church, and teach the people, contrary to the decrees of the holy councils, to receive the sacrament in both kinds, regard- less of the fact that those who have hitherto attempted to in- troduce such practices have been held to be contumacious heretics. They also preach that it is not necessary to go to confession before receiving the holy sacrament; also that it is not necessary to receive the body of Christ fasting, but that one may eat beforehand.

From this their doctrine and teaching it has further fol- lowed that heretofore and now, while we have been here in Nuremberg on matters connected with the Imperial Council, many people (as we are credibly informed) in certain places

>Leo X had died December i, 1521.

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