868 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let Tap
head is that of Peter Aloetus* of Cologne; Melanchthon has his writings, of which I have only seen one epistle. Oh, how he reproves Luther! "I know/' says he, "that Luther is for- saken by the Lord." All these divers spirits air their argu- ments in turn, all boast revelations obtained by prayers and tears, and all agree only in their conclusion. It is a good thing for us that Christ has made them fight each other even from the beginning. See what sad news I have to write you. He who gives knowledge gives pain, but I wish to compen- sate for my late silence by my present prolixity. Farewell to you and your rib.
Yours, Martin Luther.
729. ERASMUS TO LUTHER AT WITTENBERG.
Enders, v, 334. Basle^ April 11, 1526.
Luther's On the Bondage of the WUl was finished on the last days of 1525, supra, no. 722. He sent a copy of it with a letter to Erasmus expressing his serene confidence in his own opinion ; the letter is lost, but on it vide Erasmi opera, 1703, iii, ep. 810. Erasmus believed that Luther had sent it to him late so that he could not answer tt in time for the Frankfurt Fair, held about March i. Epistolae, 1642, xviii, 24. But a friend from Leipsic (Duke George? cf. his letter to Erasmus, dated February 13, 1525, Horawitz: Erastniana, i, ep. 9) supplied him with it, Epistolae, 1642, xviii, 28 (with wrong date, 1527 for 1526). In defence of his Diatribe he at once wrote the Hyperaspistes, Part I (Opera, 1703, x, 1249), the preface being dated February 2a Froben printed it in the greatest haste, working six presses at once, and printing twenty-four pages a day. On March 2 Erasmus wrote the Elector John complaining that Luther accused him of atheism, and claiming the protection of the laws. (The (German copy of the letter is dated March 13.) Enders, v, 342, and infra^ nos. 732, 733-
Your letter* was delivered to me too late; had it come in time it would have moved me. I am not so childish, when such
^The reading here is again most uncertain. Text: "Flori"; one MS. is said to read "Aloeti." As the reading is so uncertain, and as no identification of the man has been o£Fered, it is legitimate to conjecture that I«uther is really referring to Hero Alopecius (the change from a rare to a common prenomen is very often found in I^uther's hasty references to little known persons, cf, supra. Vol. I, p. 385, ii, p. 125 and no. 5S3). Alopecius, whose real name was Fuchs, though he ordinarfly used the Greek and sometimes the Latin form (Vulpes), was a printer who worked at Cologne during the years 1 521-4.0. He printed some works of Melanchthon, as well as of the Catholic Cochlaeus. Probably he sent some of the works printed by himself to Melanchthon with the letter to which Luther here alludes. On his life see ADB.
- The lost one, sent with a copy of the Bondage of the WUL
�� �
