means pleased me. For since truth of herself is a bitter thing, and since it is by nature an odious task to pluck up what has been received by long usage, it would have been wiser to assuage the bitterness by courtesy than to add hatred to hatred For what did he gain by publishing paradoxes which offended more at first sight than when closely examined ? Some things are made disagreeable by the affectation of obscurity. What did he attain by reviling men? If he wished to cure them this must be called imprudent, if he wished to bring a calamity on the whole world, impious. Although a prudent man dis- ^'penses truth economically, bringing forth what is sufficient and ■, fit for the occasion, Luther poured forth everything at once - in a quantity of hasty books, proclaiming everything to arti- sans, even that which the learned are wont to treat as mystic ' and unspeakable,^ and generally with far more zeal to attack them than the facts, in my judgment, warranted. When it would have been sufficient to warn theologians that they attached too much importance to the peripatetic philosophy, or to the sophists, he called Aristotle's philosophy the death of the soul. The evangelic spirit of Christ has his prudence and his gentle- ness. Thus Christ himself tempered his doctrine to the preju- dices of the Jews, speaking one thing to the crowds and another to his disciples, and bearing with them a long time, leading them gradually to a knowledge of the heavenly philoso- phy. . . . [Similar examples of prudent forbearance are taken from Peter, Paul, Augustine, Brutus and Plato.]
I do not even listen to those, Jonas, who say that Luther was unable to practice Christian moderation on account of the in- tolerable provocation of his antagonists. Whoever under- takes to do what he undertook ought to stand fast no matter how others act. He should have foreseen what would happen when he got into this hole, lest he should have the same fate as the goat in the fable. It is foolish even for pious reasons to try to do what you cannot, especially when if you do not succeed there will be much harm done. We see that things have come to such a pass that there appears to be no happy issue possible unless Christ should turn the rashness of some men into a public good. Some men excuse Luther by
KSreek.
�� �
