princes to be moderate and to avoid force in the things they do and the decrees they pass. Let them remember that the people are not what they once were. Let them know that a sword is most certainly hanging over their own heads in their own houses. They are working to destroy Luther, but Luther is certainly working to preserve them. The destruction they are planning is threatening not Luther, but themselves. So far am I from fearing them. This I certainly think I have spoken in the Spirit, but if wrath has been decreed against them in heaven, so that its coming cannot be hindered either by prayers or by advice, we shall pray at least that our Josiah * may sleep in peace and the world be left to become a Babel.
What Christ intends I do not know; but this I do know, that I have never been so encouraged or so proud as I am now. To be sure, I am in the midst of enemies, and am exposed every hour to the peril of death, and have no himian aid on which to rely, but never in my life have I so despised the stupid threats of Duke George and his like. Doubt not that this spirit will master Duke George and all those who are as foolish as he is. I am writing this early in the morning, and am quite sober and full of heartfelt confidence. My Christ lives and reigns, and I, too, shall live and reign. Farewell,
dear Wenzel. Yours, Martin Luther.
��S4a DUKE GBORGE OF SAXONY TO THE ELECTOR
FREDERIC OF SAXONY
Gess, i, 295. German. (Nuremberg, March 21, 1522.)
... I must warn your Grace that I have recently seen a letter in which it is said that Martin is in Wittenberg and is preaching publicly, though he is under the ban of the Pope and the Empire. Your Grace must beware that this does not become a cause of offence to God and the world, for how- ever sweetly he may speak, he still has a scorpion's tail. I hope, for the sake of God and the Christian faith, that your Grace will have a care for your people, and be strict with those
I /.«., the Elector Frederic. He actually died just at the outbreak of the Peasants' War.
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