of Liege favored this doctrine/ the faculty sent to him three professors, whom he received with much kindness, to whom he declared, on the word of a priest, that he had never seen nor read Luther's book, and that he was so far from favoring a dangerous unknown thing, that, as became a bishop, he promised us his aid. When he remembered the recent suc- cess that Reuchlin's cause had won (for it was then awaiting judgment at Rome, although all the universities had agreed to condemn it, an action in which the Apostolic See later concurred) the bishop took care, before our condemnation of Luther was published, to submit it to the examination of the Cardinal of Tortosa, that it might come forth fortified by his wisdom and authority. His letter* printed at the head of the condemnation shows what his opinion was. Hence you see how ripely and with how little precipitancy this affair was treated, so that it ought certainly to satisfy a reader little learned or much occupied, and prevent his agreement with Luther's errors.
That he is said to be a good man is nothing against us, who have not said that he was bad; but whatever he is, it is cer- tain that his writings are not good. We have not condemned him, but his errors. . . .
We always deny the allegation that we condemn in Luther what is read as pious in Augustine, Cyprian and other ortho- dox teachers. ...
371. BONIFACE AMERBACH TO BEATUS RHENANUS. Burckhardt-Biedermann, 144. (Avignon, end of 152a)
I cannot sufficiently wonder at what you write of Luther. Things are so bad, if the report be true, that he dare not show his face in public. O temp or a, mores! Where will this tyranny bring us? What the devil is this madness, what plague is it, that their vain-speaking greed should be pre- ferred to Christian purity? Is it thus that the Christian re- ligion will pack up and leave? . . . What is more blameless than Luther, what more honest than Reuchlin, what more constant than Hutten? I am uncommonly sorry that Eras-
Un Erasmus's letter to Luther, supra, no. 155.
- Supra, 202.
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