86 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Ut 6i
simple man, believe or suspect that you who were so smooth- tongued before my face would attack me behind my back? Thus you have fulfilled the saying of Scripture: "Which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts."* I know that you will not admit that you have done this, but you did what you could;* see what your conscience tells you. I am astonished that you have the effrontery alone to judge my opinions before you know and understand them. This rashness of yours is sufficient proof that you think yourself the only theologian alive, and so unique that not only do you prefer your own opinion to all others, but even think that what you condemn, though you do not understand it, is to be condemned because it does not please Eck. Pray let God live and reign over us.
But to cut the matter short, as you are so furious against me, I have sent some Asterisks against your Obelisks, that you may see and recognize your ignorance and rashness; I consult your reputation by not publishing them, but by send- ing them to you privately so as not to render evil for evil as you did to me. I wrote them only for him from whom I received your Obelisks, and sent them to him to give you. Had I wished to publish anything against you I should have written more carefully and calmly, though also more strongly. If your confidence in your foolish Obelisks is still unshaken, pray write me; I will meet you with equal confidence. Per- chance it will then happen that I shall not spare you, although God knows that I should prefer to convert you; if anything in me displeases you, write me privately about it, as you ought to know a theologian is bound to do. For what harlot, if provoked, could not have vomited forth the same curses and reviling against me that you have done, and yet so far from repenting you boast of it and think that you have done right. You have your choice; I will remain your friend if you wish, or I will gladly meet your attack, for as far as I can see, you know nothing in theology except the husks of scholasticism. You will find out how much you can do against
1 Psalm xxviii. 3.
^According to Enders the writing of the only extant copy of this letter is yery hard to read; I therefore venture to alter the reading of this sentence to the following: "Scio te nolle id a U fieri, sed fecisti ut potuistt*'
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