not to mention the other works of the Roman curia, which are like those of Antichrist. Daily there arises in me a greater and greater aid and defence for the sacred books.
Our Erasmus has published a work on the method* of studying the Bible, which Froben sent me. Please return the letters of Froben, Eck and the others. . . .
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.
[P. S.]* — I send a letter to the most illustrious elector on the matter' which you wrote about, and I ask you to thank him for me for his most kind care. I am very sorry and unwilling that his Grace should be troubled by his anxiety for me. I have answered Eck nothing except three words, namely, that it was his fault, not mine, that he is branded 21s a sophist throughout the world. I do not wish to treat with the man at length; he is wholly faithless, and has openly broken the laws of friendship.
136. MELANCHTHON TO SPALATIN. Corpus Reformatorum, i. 74. Witfenberg, March 13, 1519.
Hail, most learned George. Luther has promised to send the letter of Eck* when he had finished Paul,* in which he is
^Ratio sen compendium verae tkeologiae per Erasmnm Roterodamum, Basle, Froben, isi9*
- T1lis jKMtacript Enden, ii. 221, as the second postscript to • letter of Luther
to Spalatin dated by Enders earlj in November, 15 19 (the correct date is October, cf. infra, no. 185). Enders informs us, however, that this postscript is on a separate sheet, and may not belong to this letter at all. That it cannot belong to the letter is shown by the words about Eck. Luther says that he has answered him (Enders, ii. 214, De Wette, i. 353), and adds "he has openly broken the laws of friendship," a phrase he would certainly not use of the avowed enmity of the Leipsic debate. That the postscript may belong to this letter of March 13, is shown by the fact that the originals of both are in the Anhalt Ges.-Archiv, and that extant MS. copies of both are found in the same codex. That the postscript nmst belong to this letter of March 13, is shown by comparing the passage on Eck, **Eccio nihil respondi, nisi tria verba, scilicet eum sophistam per orbem non mea, sed sua culpa famari . . . totus infidus est, et aperte rupit amicitiae jura," with Luther's letter to Eck of February 18, 15 19 (Enders, v. 6): "Doleo, mi Ecci, inveniri tandem simulatam tuam in me amicitiam tam manifestis argu- nentis. . . . Proinde quod nugator et sophista nunc per orbem vocitaris, tuae intemeritati imputabis, non mihi." These words are absolutely inapplicable to the letter of October, 1519, to Eck. Also note the allusion to the letter to the elector.
- Cf. last letter.
'February 19, isi9> Enders, i. 429.
- /n epistolam Panii ad Galatas M, Lutheri c&mmentturius, Leipsic, Lotther, 1519.
Weimar, iL 436ff.
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