prove all your teachings without exception, but I am es- pecially pleased at what you say about charity, rightly exe- crating that always present curse of a Christian, the sayings: Charity begins at home, and, Be your own neighbor. . . . [Bucer tells of a debate on this point held under his presi- dency at Heidelberg.] . . .
You have here not a few disciples, though on account of the Pharisees they have not yet dared to come out openly. I pray your charity, most learned Father, to forgive what I have said amiss in expounding this charity, and please deign to write me to lead me back into the right path. For next to the canonical Scriptures, I hold nothing more sacred than your opinion or that of Erasmus. You know what others think of you, but your opponents need a physician no cleverer than themselves. I hope, or rather I know, that Christ, whose cause you are so strongly advancing, will never desert you.
Tell all who love learning, and first of all your Philip Mel- anchthon, that Francis von Sickingen, a most noble knight, by declaring war on our order, at length compelled our pro- vincial vicar to make a treaty with that Phoenix, our Reuch- lin. For, as he promised, the vicar sent to Reuchlin at In- golstadt two professors,* who are most hostile to Hochstrat- ten as far as this quarrel is concerned, to make peace with him. If they do not succeed, the thirteenth of March is set to have the matter decided by arbitration at Worms. Hoch- stratten's perverse zeal grieves almost everyone, but none of us dared to offend the majesty of the inquisitor. Thanks be to God, who has at length forced better councils to prevail by arms. This is the fifteenth day since the legates departed, and we hope they will soon return, and return with peace made. For we offer to write even to the Pope, to ask that if he will do nothing else the provincial may at least end the quarrel by imposing perpetual silence and keep Hochstratten from reviling. I know that this will please Philip, and not him alone, but all good students.
a
lA fuller account of this buainess, which happened in December, it giTcn to Bucer's letter to Rhenanus of January 15. The professors were the head of the theological school at Heidelberg and the prior of Esslingen. They left on January 8, arriving at Ingolstadt just ten days later, so Reuchlin wrote Pirck- lieimer» Opera Pirckhtimgri, p. a6i.
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