Let 622 OTHER CONTEMPORARY LETTERS S8L
man will all too quickly be restrained But do not stop pray- ing for him. Farewell in the Lord, and pray for me.
Martin Luthsr.
��622. JOHN MATTHEW GIBERTI TO MELCHIOR LANG IN
ENGLAND.
Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iv, no. 296.
(RoME^ about the last of April, 1524.)
This is not dated in the State Papers, but the time is approximately given by the allusion to the Recess of the Diet of Nuremberg calling for a national council at Spires to settle the religious question. This recess was passed April 18, 1524, see Kidd, no. 64.
Gian Matteo Giberti (I495-I543) was Bishop of Verona and Datary under Qement VH. A good deal about him in Pastor-Kerr, voL ix. In 1523 he was made Governor of Tivoli. Biographie Ginirale,
Melchior Lang was nuncio in England at this time.
. . . Lutheranism is increasing, to the peril of Christen- dom, and it will be necessary for Lang to discourse on that subject when presenting the breves. The Diet of Nurem- berg has proposed to hold a diet at Spires to discuss the doc- trines of Christianity. The Pope has written to the Emperor to warn him that the Germans are endeavoring to annul his edict at Worms. Would God that all other princes had from the commencement taken this matter as much to heart as the King of England, who has declared both his mind and his piety to all the world, not only by taking precautions that this plague should not enter his kingdom, but also by his most learned and Christian volume in defence of the sacraments; and who has gained no less glory with the pen than with the arms which he has constantly taken up against the enemies of the See Apostolic. The Pope, therefore, looks to him for aid, and would desire him to write warmly to the Emperor to send a man of authority into Germany with commission to resent the affront offered to religion and to his Majesty, and to prohibit the proposed diet at Spires. If simple remedies will not suffice, the Emperor should use fire and the sword. Should the diet take place, it wt)uld become the King's piety to send thither as his ambassadors some learned and prudent men, of whom he possesses as great abundance as any other
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