Mayence. Perhaps they are hastening the end of their own tyranny by this plan. . . .
Take this in good part and farewell in the Lord. Be careful not to let everyone have access to our elector, lest someone should try to poison him. The Romanists will stop at nothing. Hutten cannot warn me enough against poison.
Martin Luthel
296. ULRICH VON HUTTEN TO ELECTOR FREDERIC OF
SAXONY.
Bocking, i. 383. S. Szamatolski: Ulrichs von Hutten deutscke Schriften, 1891, p. 127. German. Ebernburg, September 11, isaa
Now, at last, Prince Frederic, I see that we must rage against the Roman tyranny; now, at last, our Romanist brothers, after so many fraternal warnings and so many con- vincing arguments, not only do not act more mildly in those things which offend us, but they even act more ferociously than ever before. Have you not heard that they have ordered me sent bound to Rome? You will see how worthy that deed was of them. And now, good Heavens! what a violent and cruel bull they have drawn up against Luther ! You would call it the roar of the Lion (Leo), hearing which the miserable sheep of Christ do not recognize the pious voice of a shepherd, but the bloody cry of a wild robber. Is there any vestige of Christian gentleness, or any indication of apostolic moderation therein ? He roars, he rages. But his ferocity is all the plainer because often in that bull he pretends that he is other than he is; he craftily simulates benevolence when he smoothly invites Luther to Rome, as though we were ignorant that it made no difference to him how he got us, whether Luther was inveigled by a promise or I haled by force. If Luther listens to me he will never go thither to certain death, and I much wonder who persuaded Leo X. that I should so easily h captured in the midst of Germany and taken through the steep passes of the Alps to Rome. . . .
[The rest of this long letter is a prophecy of the downfall of "Babylon," an account of the ancient liberties of the Germans ^ the modern iniquity of Rome.] . . .
I see that the Pope thinks you are obedient to him in all but
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