protecting helpless Luther. . . . That you do this bravely I exhort you again and again, partly because you are his natural protector and partly because he has little hopes of any other, or at least any better. For the Saxons were always free, always unconquered. . . .
297. ERASMUS TO POPE LEO X. AT ROME. Erasmi opera (1703), iii. 578. Louvain, September 13, isia
Although I did not fear, most blessed Father, that your goodness could be induced to hurt an innocent man, or that your prudence would rashly believe the calumnies of the wicked, yet when I see that your Holiness is flooded with so much business from the whole world, and when I consider the unexampled wickedness of some who conspire against sound learning — never ceasing, daring all things and leaving no stone unturned — I have thought it concerned me to fortify your Holiness, remote and busy, with this antidote. I see there are some, who, to strengthen their own faction, seek to confound the cause of sound learning, of Reuchlin and of myself with the cause of Luther, although there is reallv nothing common to them. I have always said this, both orally and in my published writings. I do not know Luther nor have I read his books except ten or twelve pages, and those hastily. ( From these, which I glanced at, it seemed to me that he wrote well on the Scriptures, explaining them according to the man- ner of the ancients, while our age is excessively addicted to clever rather than to necessary questions. I therefore favored what was good in him, not what was bad ; or rather I favored Christ's glory in him.
I was almost the first to discover any danger, fearing that a tumult, which I have always abominated more than any- one, would arise. I therefore plead with John Froben, the printer, even using threats, that he should print none of Lu- ther's works. Then I wrote diligently to his friends that they should admonish him to remember Christian gentleness in his writings and to respect the tranquillity of the Church. And when he wrote me himself two years ago, I warned him lov- ingly to avoid trouble, and I only wish he had taken my advice. I hear that this letter has been reported to your Holiness and
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