day], dear Spalatin, and the same evening presented the letters of our illustrious elector. . . . The reverend lord bishop himself/ when he had received the letters, sununcmed me, and having talked with me face to face, expressed the wish to send a messenger at his own expense to accompany me to Heidelberg, but as I found several of my order here, especially our Erfurt Prior John Lang, I thanked the clement bishop, but said I thought it was not necessary to send the messenger for my sake. I wish we could all get conveyances, since I am very tired walking. I only asked that he would deign to provide me with a letter as a passport (as it is called). I have just received this, and will set out in a wagon. . . . Farewell. From our monastery at Wiirzburg.
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.
57. MARTIN BUCER TO BEATUS RHENANUS AT BASLE.
Briefwechsel des Beatus Rhenanus, gesammelt und herausgegeben van A, Horowitz und K, Hartf elder, Leipzig, 1886, p. io6ff.
Heidelberg, May i, 151&
Martin Bucer was born at Schlettstadt, 1491, and entered the Domini- can order there in 1506. After his transfer to Heidelberg, he took much interest in the humanists, and especially Erasmus. He met Luther at the time this letter was written, and from then on was his devoted follower. In 1521 he left the cloister and became chaplain to the Elector Palatine, at Landstuhl, coming into close relations with he was the leading Reformer of Strassburg, making it his particular aim to reconcile the Lutheran and Zwinglian branches of the Protestant Church, in which he attained partial success in the Wittenberg Con- cord, 1536. In 1549 he was called to England, where he taught a year at Cambridge, dying in 1551. See J. W. Baum: Capito und Butser, Eberfeld, i860; Harvey: Bucer in England, 1907. Many of Bucer** letters have been published in M. Lenz: Briefwechsel des Landgrafen Philipp von Hessen tnit Butser, i88off, 3 vols., and in T. Schiess: Briefwechsel der Blaurer, igoSS,
Beatus Bild, of Rheinau (1485-May 20, 1547), matriculated at Paris, 1503, B. A. 1504, M. A. 1505. He then began working as proofreader to Strassburg. From 151 1 to 1526 he worked at Basle, publishing and editing books for Froben. From 1526 to his death he lived at Schlett-
^Lawrence von Bibra, Bishop I495-Februar7 6, 1519, was a warm admirer of Luther. On one occasion, shortly before his death, he advised the elector not to let Luther be taken away from Wittenberg.
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