we would not be in our present trouble. But because you have hitherto fought against him as though you did not intend that there should ever be open war between you, and only aimed hidden blows at him, and that so gently as almost to make it appear that you are not willing to take the trouble to hit him, men's opinions have been divided ; ^j^ome have thought you Luther's enemy, others that you are in collu- sion with him, that you really agree with him and that your differences are only a sham. If you wish this mistaken opinion of you to be dispelled, you must come out into the open and I show yourself at last, and by attacking Luther publicly make I your own opinion known to the world, and, at die same time, defend the Church against a foul heresy. If you fail to do this, everybody will cry out with one voice that you have been false to the dignity of the Church and of the pure Gospel and have had no idea of your own duty. • . .
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��627. CASPAR CONTARINI TO THE SIGNORY OF VENICE. Brown, 1520-6, no. 832. BuRQom June i, 1524.
The Pope has written to the Emperor from Rome, in date of the loth May, urging him to ponder the great prepara- tions making by Sultan Solyman, and announcing that the Lutherans have summoned a council in a certain town^ in Germany, for the purpose of confuting the arguments ad- duced against Luther's tenets. This distresses the Pope greatly, and he earnestly requests the Emperor to apply a remedy, as such a demonstration is at variance with the edict issued by him at Worms [April, 1521].
The Emperor replied that he would take such steps as due, expressing himself in general terms without descending to any particulars.
62a LUTHER TO DUKE JOHN FREDERIC OF SAXONY.
DeWctte, 11, 519. German. WrrrENBERC^ June 18, 1524.
Enders, iv, 354.
In this letter, which was apparently written about the same time widi his well-known tract On Trading and Usury (Von Kaufshandlung und Wucher, Weimar, xv, 293), Luther summarizes his views on the ques-
^Spires.
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