460 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let 8oi
Dr. Pack* is a captive — a willing one, I suspect — of the Landgrave. At first he pretended that he had forged the treaty of the princes; now it is said that he will be heard and has promised to clear himself with honor. May Christ grant that Duke George's plan fall on his own head, for I suspect that he is the author of the whole conspiracy. Amen. There are still mysteries about that league, but let them pass; nothing is secret which shall not be revealed. Farewell again with your wife and children. Martin Luther.
8oi. LUTHER TO NICHOLAS GERBEL AT STRASSBURG. Enders, vi, 312. (WnTENBESc), July 28, 1528.
Grace and peace in Christ. I previously knew enough, and more than enough, of Bucer's baseness, my dear Gerbel, and so I am not surprised that he turns my treatise against me,' mentioning it by name. In this treatise, following the opinion of St. Augustine, I spoke of the body of Christ, arguing not against, but for the sacrament. The whole world knows that we do not condemn the dicta of the Fathers, even though they conflict with one another, so long as they are not compelled to contradict true piety. In a word, if Zwingli had made such an assertion there would have been a sweet reasonableness* ready to interpret it properly and fairly; but because Luther said it, it was at once subjected to the most virulent calumnies. May Christ visit those vipers and either convert them or render them their dues. . . . Away with those vipers! I pray with all my might that Christ may keep you safe, who dwell in the midst of these wild beasts, vipers,. lionesses* and leopards, in almost greater peril than Daniel himself in the den of lions."
Christ is keeping the Church here at peace and of one mind, and the university prospering in letters and in studies, and Satan is like to burst. Carlstadt alone, the viper in our bosom, mutters a little, but dares not come out boldly; would that your fanatics had him for a comrade and that we were
1 Cf. supra, no. 793.
- Vom Abendmahl Christi, Bekenntnis. The reference is to Bucer's Dialogue, of
June, 1528, written as a refutation of the Bekenntnis.
- Epieikeia, cf, II Corinthians x, i ; Matthew Arnold's translation.
- The feminine used in allusion to Job iv, zo, which is so in the Vulgate.
- Daniel vi.
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