he did before?* All my friends do not think that I ought to dedicate the German book' to Francis von Sickingen, for fear of exciting the jealousy of many, particularly of the Franconian nobility. I am disputing with myself whether to dedicate something to my Counts of Mansfeld,* as they have long wished and as there are so many of them. We shall see what we shall decide. Farewell and pray for me.
Martin Luther, Augustinian,
354. ULRICH VON HUTTEN TO MARTIN LUTHER. Enders, iii. 13. Szamatolski, 150. Ebernburg, December 9, 1520.
You would pity me if you saw my difficulties; so slippery is man's faith. As fast as I get new help the old fails me. Whoever fears many things doubts many things. In the first place, superstition terrifies men, planting in their minds the idea that opposing the Roman pontifiF, even if he is the most unjust and wicked of men, is the inexpiable crime. Yet I strive, nor do I yield to adversity. Francis von Sickingen, the only really constant man, protects us ; yet some men have almost caused him to waver by persuading him that some things which you were said to have written, but which, I am sure, you never did write, were monstrous. I have thought it my duty to do whatever I found to do to prevent so great a bulwark for us being occupied by the enemy. I accomplished this by reading your writings, which he had only glanced at hastily before. In the first place, I at once made him as docile as I could ; then this affair began to interest and please him. A little later, when he saw what a fort you built and on what a foundation, he said : "Who dares attack this, or if any one dares, who can overthrow it?" Gradually his mind has become more and more inflamed. He is now so entirely devoted to us that he lets no dinner pass without hearing something either of yours or of mine. He is a man of acute judgment ; you will find none more learned without the classic
iSupra, December x. Feilitzsch had just died.
>/. e., the German translation of the Assertio Omnium Articulorum, which was eventually dedicated to all pious Christians. On June i Luther dedicated to Sickingen a work on Confession, Enders, iii. 168.
SLater in this year Luther dedicated to Count Albert of Mansfeld part of his Postilla.
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