best for him to dissimulate. For both the bull and Eck are held in utter contempt at Leipsic and everywhere else ; whence I suspect that it may acquire authority by excessive care and solicitude on our part, whereas, if left to itself, it will easily quiet down. I send a copy of it, for you to see the Roman monsters. If they rule, it is over with the faith and the Church.
Yet I rejoice with my whole heart that for this best of causes I suffer evil, who am not worthy of being so tried. Now I am much freer; for I am certain at length that the Pope is Antichrist and that the seat of Satan has been openly found. God will keep his own lest they be seduced with his specious impiety. Erasmus writes that the court of the Em- peror is possessed by the "beggar-tyrants"^ so that there can be no hope in Charles. This is no surprise; put not your trust in princes nor in the sons of men in whom there is no help.'
This hour I am going to Lichtenberg to offer myself again to Charles von Miltitz as the elector commanded. The pre- ceptor* is unwilling that I should go, for he fears something. Farewell and pray for me. I will renew my appeal* and will do what our friends think ought to be done. Although I should prefer that the excommunication threatened in the bull should be carried out against me, yet I must consider others.
Martin Luther, Augustinian.
305. LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, ii. 494. Lichtenberg (October 12), i5Ja
Greeting. Dear Spalatin, Miltitz and I have met at Lich- tenberg, and, as I hear from him, have with much hope made the following agreement: that I am to write a letter to the Pope and publish it in Latin and German as a preface to some little work in which I shall narrate my history, showing that
>/. e., the mendicant friars. Supra, no. ^58. Infra, February 27, 1521, no. 406.
- Psalm cxlvi. 3.
"Wolfgang Reissenbusch, matriculated at Wittenberg 150a, bachelor of theology 1503, Rector of the University 151 1. Then he became teacher of a boys' school at Lichtenberg, where he married, April 26, 1525. He is mentioned by Lather in 1537. Cf. Enders, v. 146. Smith, 172S, 347.
- Ue did it on November 17. Weimar, vii. 74.
�� �
