read the rest about the mysterious meaning of the mon- strances, and about my birth, education and family. I hope they will soon pretend that I have a wife and children in Bohemia/
I do not wish to send Eck's slanders published by him in reply to my articles.* If you desire you shall see it when you are here. You have read The Unlearned Canons* I think, eloquently and loftily attacking the sophist. Farewell in Christ, and may the Lord be propitious in this aflfair of the princes.* Amen.
Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian.
217. LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, ii. 292. (Wittenberg), January 14, 152a
Greeting. I am very glad and thank God, dear Spalatin, that my cause has gone so far that, other charges being dis- missed, I am now accused of taking the eucharist in both kinds' and with my family. I hope by the signal mercy of Christ shown to my unworthy self that I shall not lose on account of any worthy opinion which has real weight, such as my doctrine of free will, of grace or of the keys of the Church. For now my enemies seem to despair of doing anything against them, since they seek out such ridiculous accusations. For just as Christ was crucified for the words "king of the Jews," so am I on account of taking the sacra- ment in both kinds, which I never either commanded nor forbade, just like the schoolmen who treat of it.
On my family no one can speak more certainly than the Counts of Mansfeld. I believe these heroes at least have so much reputation and authority in the Empire, that they de- serve to be credited on this subject. I believe that this fic-
iLnther means the rumors circulated by his enemies that he was of Bohemian origin, of which, howerer, there is nothing in Duke George's letter. Spalatin speaks of the first in his Annaies, ap. Menck, ii. 599. Another rumor is found about X531 in a writing of Peter Sylrius (Grisar, ii. 675), and in Cochlaeus' Commentoria, quoted here by Enders. According to this, Luther was begotten by an incubus.
SEck's often-mentioned Pro HUr, Emser.
SA satire agMnst Eck by Oecolampadius.
- A meeting of the German princes at Zerbst (see superscription of this letter)
to stop the war between Brunswick and Luneburg.
^Cf, supra, no. jx6.
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