Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/502

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whether there will ever be any agreement among us now about the Sacrament To-day, Monday, the prince, through his councilors and scholars, is seeking a way to some compromise, but the matter of the Sacrament will not be patched up on anybody's account, and there will be no agreement.

I wish I had an opportunity to talk with you that you might hear what I think about the different people. Zwingli is somewhat boorish and presumptuous; Oecolampadius is a man of wonderful gentleness of spirit and kindliness; Hedio is no less suave and broad-minded; Bucer has the craftiness of a fox, making a perverse pretence of wisdom and keenness. They are all scholars, of that there is no doubt; the papists are no opponents at all compared with them; but Zwingli seems to have given himself to letters when the Muses were angry and Minerva was unwilling. But more of all this when I see you. The prince was the most attentive of all the on- lookers at this display, and is said to have declared openly: "Now, I would rather believe the simple words of Christ than the shrewd imaginings of men." The whole thing is in God's hands.

Of the scholars of some repute, Osiander was there from Nuremberg, and Brenz from Swabian Hall. Both of them are learned and cultured men. Then there was Hedio, Loni- cer ; * Dr. Stephen * was the preacher. Many people came from Frankfurt, others from the Rhinelands — Cologne, Strassburg, Basle, Switzerland, etc. — ^but they were not admitted to the colloquy, for it was held in the inner part of the castle, in the Prince's bedchamber. Everybody was kept out except ourselves. Bucer and I had a long private conference also on the chief articles of faith, the Trinity and Original Sin. . . .

��^Undoubtedly John Lonicer it meant. He was born in Mansfeld 1499* studied at Eisleben and Erfurt, entered the AugustinUn Cloister at Wittenberg, where be took his M.A. in 1521. He taught Hebrew at Freiburg, whence he was driren to Strassburg, teaching there four years. In 1527 was made professor of Greek and Hebrew at Marburg, where he died 1569. Briefwtchsel dgr Blourgr, i, 42, n. i.

'Stephen Agricola.

  • The meaning of the closing sentence is merely conjectural. The text is eon^

cordavimus tamtn ariiculo eucharistiai, in quonam gut gerechi, in quonam con^ cor datum §ss9.

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