mended my doctrine. See the presence of Christ! The Roman Antichrist presses on, and Satan through him, but he who is in us shows himself greater than he who is in the world.*
The bishop of Breslau died' in the same faith, the best of all the bishops of this age. The Bishop of Merseburg has lost much in the opinion of the public, and his pigmy holiness does not suffice for the work of impiety, which bids him obey the Pope rather than his God. Others will tell you the rest Farewell in the Lord. Martin Luther.
P. S. — Melanchthon, who salutes you, and I are splendidly entertained by these heroes, Fabian von Feilitzsch, Haugold von Einsiedel and John von Taubenheim.
336. ULRICH VON HUTTEN TO ERASMUS AT COLOGNE Booking, i. 423. Ebernburg, November 13, 152a
May what I have begun at this time with so much peril turn out badly for me, if, excellent Erasmus, I am not more solicitous for your safety than for my own success. You may see plainly the state of affairs, and I greatly wonder what you are doing there where, as elsewhere, there is so much hos- tility to us, and where, as I hear, the mandates of Leo X. arc cruelly executed. Do you even imagine that you can be safe while Luther's books are burnt, and that his condemnation will not prejudice your cause, or that those who condemn him will spare you? Fly, fly, and keep yourself safe for us! I have sufficient, even infinite peril, but my mind is used to danger and to whatever fortune may bring; with you it is different. Fly, excellent Erasmus, fly while you can, before some disaster falls on you (a thought I detest). Then, when it is no longer safe for you, you will have to say what no wise man has said : "I did not think." All of those fellows cry out that you are the author of this business and that from you, as the fountain head, has flowed whatever now dis- pleases Leo; they say that you went before us, that you
ii John, IT. 4.
sjohn Thurzo, to whom Luther had written on July 30, 1520. Enders, iL 447. He died on August 2.
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