most faithful heart, has, as they say, put a saddle upon an ox/ yet moved by his kindness for me, I preferred, if need be, to expose my rusticity rather than to deny a favor to my friend. And if you have the goodness and wisdom to understand my letter in the spirit in which it is written, I hope that you will not only take me into the number of your clients and admirers, but that since the matter is of some importance, you will thereby greatly profit all students of the Scriptures and of that ancient, pure, uncontaminated theology, not only of our own, but of all future ages.
Having prefaced thus much, I beg you for Christ's sake to take my letter in good part, which, God is witness, I have written for no other purpose than that which I have explained to you, namely, to satisfy the wish of a very pious friend, to profit posterity and to become known to a most learned man. Far from there being any malice in my letter, all of us who have devoted ourselves to letters are your warm friends. The monuments of your genius are so highly esteemed by us that nothing is sought more eagerly in the bookstores, nor bought more quickly, nor read more diligently. My most clement prince, Duke Frederic, of Saxony," Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, who is not less distinguished for wisdom and piety and learning than for fortune, has all of your books that we could find in his ducal library* and intends to buy whatever
lA classical proverb for assigning a task to one who is not fitted to perform it. Cicero, epp. ad Atticum, ▼. 15.
'Elector Frederic the Wise of Ernestine Saxony (i463-May 5, 1525). Became elector in i486, and made his dominion the most powerful in the Empire. He played an important part in the election of Charles V, June, 1519. He was a I»atron of the arts, and founded the University of Wittenberg 150a. He was ▼ery pious, belonging to many brotherhoods and making a large collection of relics. He was the main support of Luther for eight years, 1517-25, though he never saw him except at Worms. Luther speaks of him in high terms in his lec- tures on Romans. Scholia, p. 272 (circa June, 1516).
- This was at Wittenberg. There is extant a list of books bought for it by
Spalatin. Among those of the year 15 12, are the following: Opera Erasmi (probably the LucubraUunculat, published at Antwerp 1503, 1509 and at Tubingen 1 512, is meant. Bibliotheca Erasmiana, i. 119), VtXWsElegantiae z.n6.Annotation€S in Novum Testamentum (both edited by Erasmus), the Psaltery of Faber Stapulensis, the works of Augustine, Plutarch, Cicero, Nazianzen, Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary, Bonaventura, (Thrisostom, Anselm, and Gerson. In 1513 were bought a Biblia cum glosta ordinaria, Homer's Odyssey, and Erasmus' Enconium Moriae, Archiv fur Geschichie des deuttchtn Buchhandeis, xviii. Leipsic, 1896. Luther had access to these books; there is one which probably belonged to Frederic annotated by Luther. It is the Psalterium Fabri Stapulennt, cf, Weimar, it. 464.
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