Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/127

 Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 89 X. Erasmus' Distrust of Luther Erasmus had good reason to fear that he was regarded as one of Luther's sympathizers and supporters, for in the opinion of many of his enemies he had really laid the egg that Luther had hatched. Just after the close of the diet of Worms he wrote to an English friend, Richard Pace, as follows : Brussels, July 5, 1521. ... I fear that the Dominicans and some of the theolo- 249. The gians will use their victory intemperately, especially those of P rudent ? -ii ■ i- ii policy of Louvain, who have some private grudge against me and have Erasmus. discovered in Jerome Aleander a person admirably adapted to their purposes. This man is mad enough anyway, with- out any one to stir him up ; but as it is, he has instigators enough to drive even the most moderate to madness. The most virulent pamphlets are flying about on all sides, and Aleander ascribes them all to me, though I was ignorant of the very existence of many of them before he called my attention to them. Luther has acknowledged his own books in the presence of the emperor, and yet The Babylonish Cap- tivity, which is one of them, is ascribed to me. A prolific author indeed I must be, seeing that I was able to write so many pamphlets while I was meantime revising the text of the New Testament, and editing the works of Augustine, not to speak of other undertakings. Cochlaeus, Luther's well-known opponent. These differ in their wording, and slightly in their contents, from one another and from the German. One may be found in Goldast, Constitutiones, Vol. II, pp. 142 sqq., and is reproduced by Le Plat in his Monnmentorum ColUctio, Vol. II, pp. 115 sqq. Raynaldus, Annates, s. d. 1521, and Gerdes, Historia Refor- mationis, Vol. II, Appendix, pp. 34 sqq., give the other. I do not know whether or not the original draft by the papal representative Aleander, which we may presume was in Latin, has ever been published. The translation here given follows Walch's German text, with some modifi- cations suggested by the text in Raynaldus. I have availed myself of the translation in the Crozer Historical Leaflets, No. 3, amending it to bring it into closer accord with the originals.