being forced to receive cardinals in the midst of Germany; for the event will soon show what this* new step of the Florentines means.
Whenever you, Martin, are mentioned, I am wont to call you the pater patriae, worthy of a golden statue and of annual feasts, for having first dared to deliver the people of the Lord from noxious opinions and to assert true piety. Go on as you have begun, leave an example to posterity ; for what you do is not without the inspiration of the gods. Divine Provi- dence intended this when, as you were returning from your parents, a thunderbolt from heaven prostrated you like an- other Paul on the ground before the town of Erfurt and forced you from our company, sad at your departure, into the walls of the Augustinian fold.* After this time, even though I rarely saw you, yet my mind was always with you, as you may have learned from the letter I sent you last year at Augsburg, if you got it,^ at which time I earnestly com- mended you to Thomas Fuchs,' a knight esteemed by the Em- peror. You are now weary and have suffered much in body and reputation, but arduous deeds are not done without hard labor, and when your evil days come to an end, you will remember them with pleasure and will say : "I went through fire and through water and am saved.'** Then Germany will turn her face towards you, and will hear with admiration the Word of God from you. But by your kindness I pray you, do not hereafter descend into the arena of public debate, especially against rash men. Do you not know what boys say: "Strive not with words against the wordy man"? De- bate within your monastery, with the pen, quietly ; that argu- ment is held most exact, which is set down on paper, but
>Thi« passage it most interesting as being the earliest distinct account of the storm and "rision" which, on July 2, 1505, decided Luther to enter the monas- tery. Cf. the accounts by Jonas, 1538. in Scheel: Documente mu Luthers Entwickelitng, p. 30, and by Luther, 1539, in H. E. Bindseil: Lutheri Colloquia, iii. 187. Also Smith, op. cit., p. 9. American Journal of Psychology, xxiv. (19 13), 36off.
^ot extant, spoken of by Luther in a letter of November 25, 1518.
- A brother of James and Andrew, a knight of Schneeberg, Imperial captain
at Ratisbon, an office obtained after a controversy between that city and the Emperor Maximilian in 151s. Cf. infra, no. so8. After 1533 Fuchs took a neutral attitude towards the Reformation.
- Fsalm Ivi. u.
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