From a little spark, most Christian Lord, may spring and burst forth a great fire. If your Majesty does not speedily find a remedy for things which do such dishonor to God our Lord and are so dangerous to the Holy Catholic faith, a great scandal may the more easily be caused, and a still greater flame, and one which afterwards it may not be easy to ex- tinguish, be kindled, since some cities of these kingdoms are in a state of disturbance. Therefore for ourselves and in the name of all who are absent, very humbly and with great urgency, we supplicate your Imperial Majesty, as a most Christian Emperor and Catholic King our Lord, the protector and defender of our holy Catholic faith and of the Roman Church, our mother, that, imitating your glorious progenitors of immortal memory, it would please you to adopt this cause of the faith as your own, which indeed it is, and with the de- votion, fervor and zeal which you owe and by which you are bound, to aid, defend and favor it, and to provide in such manner that those damnable and perverse subtilties may cease and be extirpated, so that not only this detestable and cor- rupt pestilence shall not enter into these your kingdoms and seignories of Spain, but that by the hand of your Majesty it may be extirpated and destroyed throughout all the world, and the said arch-heretic Martin Luther be severely and effec- tively punished, and that the books which contain his blas- phemies and heresies be burnt. , . .
444. ALEANDER TO THE VICE-CHANCELLOR DE' MEDIO. Kalkoff : Aleander, 156. Worms (April 15), 1521.
I have received your Lordship's letter and the copies of the bull and the desired breves which will greatly help us. In my last letter I told that the confessor and Armstorf were going to betake themselves to Hutten and Sickingen. This has now happened,^ and in their opinion with great success, for there in the castle they learned from one of the guides that the resolution had already been taken to hew us and all the pre- lates and priests at the Diet in pieces within the next ten
'This was the second attempt made by Clapton, the Emperor's confessor, at reconciliation. The first was an interview with Spalatin, on which cf. Smith, op. cit., p. 210, and Forstemann: Neues Urkundenlmch, pp. 36-54- On this second interview cf. further Smith, p. 11 if, and other letters here translated.
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