now are the dedication may cause some ill feeling, not so much against me (for I should easily despise it) as rather against him whom we desire to please. Please give the matter some thought. It will remain as it is for the next fortnight.
A swarm of books has been published against Luther and Oecolampadius, especially those of the Bishop of Rochester,* James Latomus* and James Hochstraten.* What France is producing I have not yet heard, but I fear lest the tumults and the boastings of these scribes will subvert the whole cause of the Church. We have seen the samples that Sutor* and Beda * have g^ven, and Clichtove's * writing is not much better. Now everybody is writing, and I think the same thing will come to pass that often happens in war — while we are quarrel- ing about the booty the victory will slip through our fingers. It is an old story that private desires betray and destroy the common weal. I have not yet decided whether to answer the Bedas and Clichtoves, though I promised in my last books to do so. When my Dane returns it will be decided. Meanwhile give me your advice about the Athanasius. I am not annoying his reverence, the coadjutor, with a letter; nevertheless the greetings he sent me pleased me very much, and I wish to be thought of as well as possible by a man as commendable as is he in so many ways. More when I see you. I hope that will be soon, but let it be as is best for you. The Lord keep you safe. Yours, Eras. Rot.
753. LUTHER TO EBERHARD BRISGER AT ALTENBURG. Enders, vi, i6. (WrrrENBERc), February i, 1527.
Grace and peace in Christ. Yoii ask, dear Eberhard, that I
^John Fisher. The work was: De veritate corporis et sanguinis Christi in Eucharistia per Reverendum in Christo patrem D. Johannem Roffensem Epis- copum adversus Johannem Oecolampadiunu Coloniae, 1527.
- Jacobi Latomi De Confessione secreto, etc., Antwerp, 1525.
- J. Hochstraten : Epitome de fide & operibus adversus chatmeHcam iUam atque
monstrosam M. Lutheri Ubertatem. Cologne, 1525.
- Peter Couturier (Sutor) attacked Erasmus in his De translatione Bibliae et
novarum interpretationum reprobatione, 1525.
- Noel Beda, after procuring the condemnation of Erasmus's Colloquies by the
Sorbonne, wrote: Anuofationum Natalis Beda* in lacobum Pabrum Stapulenstm libri duo et in Erasmum Roterodamum liber unus, 1526.
- Jodocus Clichtove wrote against Oeco l ampadius, De sacramento encharistia€
contra Oecolampadium, Paris, 1526.
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