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There is no news here. As r^;ards the visions in Bohemia that they talk about, there is no certainty; many people say there is nothing in it. But the meteor that was here, which I myself saw at eight o'clock in the evening on the Saturday after Epiphany, was seen in many places, even to the ocean.
Dr. Hess writes that one night in December there was a fiery sky over the principal church in Ratisbon, and that in another place two fiery beams were seen with a broom of fire between them. I think these fires mean that the last day is at the door. The empire is falling, kings are falling, popes are falling, and the world is going to pieces like a great house that begins to fall in ruins by the breaking off of little bits. Only the Turk must first boast of a great victory and be de- stroyed, along with the Pope, his ally, as Ezekiel prophesies of Gog and Magog. Pray for me, a sinner, and greet his lord- ship, the abbot,^ and commend me to his prayers. May Christ be with your wife in her confinement. Grace be with you.
Martin Luther.
822. MELANCHTHON TO JOACHIM CAMERARIUS.
CR., i, IQ39. Spires, March 15, 1529.
The Diet of Spires, to which Melanchthon went as the adviser of the Elector, was called to meet February 21, but the opening session was not held until March 15, and the diet adjourned in April On the significance of the diet vide Smith, 227; Kostlin-Kawerau,' ii, ii7£F.
Greeting. We reached Spires on the day " before the Sun- day before Palm Sunday. To-day, which is the day after that Sunday, the commands of the Emperor were made known; they are quite terrible. The decree of the convention at Spires
for Freiburg in the Breisgau, where he spent six years. Erasmus had quarreled with Oecolampadius, partly over the Eucharist, partly because he sneered at the other's marriage as "a mortification of the flesh" {Bpistolae, xix, 41, March ai, 1528), and he was accused of lampooning Oecolampadius in his Colloquies, Dialogue on the Cyclops. A rather violent Reformation took place during the week Feb- ruary 3-8, cf, Kidd, 464!!.; Baum: Capito und Bucer, 447. Erasmus had already
- written Pirckheimer of the quarrel with Oecolampadius, as he mentions in the
letter here cited. He also speaks of the places of refuge to which he may go. He says that the King of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury had in- yited him there, but that the theologians at Paris and Louvain are hostile to him. As Luther says, he frequently flattered those in power, to prepare a place for himself.
^ Pistorius.
'I.e., March 13. The italicized words throughout this letter are in Greek.
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