and the other histories, yet we have decided to answer your letter written to us from Antwerp April 14. It was a most learned and el^;ant letter, and put in a stronger light what we knew before of your theological erudition and your pious love. There is, as you write, a strange conspiracy of the haters of sound learning who are fit for nothing but to injure the good, pious and well instructed.
We rejoice that the Lutheran cause is not condemned by the learned, and that Dr. Luther's works are eagerly read by the best men, especially as the majority of good and learned men, as well in our dominions as elsewhere, with one accord praise the man's life and character as much as his learning. That we have allowed him to stay in our Saxony, is not so much on account of the man as of the cause, for we have no intention of allowing punishment to fall on those worthy of rewards. Nor, with the help of God Almighty, shall we ever suffer by our fault any innocent man to be given a prey to those who seek their own ends.
Moreover, with God's help, we shall henceforth cherish good letters and right studies as well as their cultivators, no less than in the past. Our special gratitude to you has impelled us to write this to you. Farewell, most learned Erasmus.
1461 LUTHER TO THE ELECTOR FREDERIC OF SAXONY. Enders, ii. 35. Dc Wcttc, i. 283. German. (Wittenberg, May, 1519.)
Most serene Prince, most gracious Lord ! We are obliged to build a room,^ and have humbly requested permission of the town council of Wittenberg to allow us to build but of the walls on th t g r aves ; but they give us no answer. Where- fore we pray your Grace kindly to give us leave for this necessary addition, and expect a gracious answer, as, before God, we deserve.
Also I pray your Grace to buy me at this Leipsic fair a white and a black cowl. Your Grace owes me the black cowl, and I humbly beg the white one. For two or three years
Tbe Black Cloister was built right against the city wall, outside of which was the monks' cemetery. Enders and Grisar iLuther, i. 323f.) conjecture that this
- room" was a privy, for they were usually built on the walls to carry the sewage
oatside the city.
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