Let 753 OTHER CONTEMPORARY LETTERS aaS
rians. Do you pray that Christ may guide my pen to a suc- cessful and wholesale victory over Satan. I rejoice greatly, too, over )rour testimony that you have not been touched by this leaven, for that is what I have always believed of you. I am heartily sorry that that excellent man, Oecolampadius, has been pushed by Satan into this abyss with those ridiculous and empty arguments. The Lord draw him out! Urban Rh^us^ is either inclined to the same error, or has fallen into it. The Lord preserve His own !
I believe you must have heard that the arms of the Emperor have been successful in Italy. The Pope is losing everywhere and will be destroyed. The hour of his end has come, though persecution rages everywhere and many are being burned at the stake. My Kate sends you a reverent greeting.
Yours, Martin Luther.
752. ERASMUS TO LEWIS BER.
UNPUBLISHED. Appendix I. Basle, January 26, 1527.
Lewis Ber (i479-i554)> a native of Basle, was educated at Paris (A.B. 1498; A.M. 1499; Th.D. 1512), and was professor at the Univer- sity of Basle 1512-29, at the same time holding the provostship of St. Peter's Church in Basle. He was rector of the university in 15 14, and again in 1520. He presided at the Disputation of Baden, May- June, 1526, on the Githolic side (Erasmi Opera, 1703, i, 967fF.). He left Basle in 1529 because of the triumph of the Reformation, removing to Freiburg in the Breisgau, where he spent the remainder of his life. Allen, ii, 381.
Greeting. Your letter, no less learned than pious, relieved my mind of a good part of the disgust which has been caused me less by poor health and the wickedness of certain men than by the public misfortune of the world : for I see the cause of Christianity is approaching a condition that I should be very unwilling to see it reach. But the Lord, the Creator of men, wonderful in the way He guides and swiftly changes human affairs, causes me to retain some hope of a happier
1 Urban Rieger (Regius, Rhegitis) (1489-1541). studied under Eck at Ingolstadt, 1512, ordained 1519, Cathedral preacher at Augsburg 1520^ became definitely Lutheran 1524, married 1525. superintendent of the Protestant Church in Lune- burg 1534. He distinguished himself by fighting the Anabaptists. In the sacra- mentarian controversy he was first for Zwingli and then for Luther. Allen, ii, 188, ADB., RGG. and RtaUncyklop&dU,
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