fi22 LUTHER'S CORRESPONDENCE AND Let B^i
emperor out and become emperor ourselves, for the emperor wotdd certainly defend himself,^ and the thing would not end until one side or the other gave up. Then, too^ there is the great multitude to consider, and even though we were to win we should sometime have to beat those who had helped us, for no one ought to wish us to be emperor, and in such a miserable turmoil everybody would want to be emperor. What unspeakable bloodshed and misery there would be 1 A prince ought rather lose three principalities,^ nay, rather be three times dead than be the cause of such misery or help in it or consent to it How could any man's conscience bear it? The devil would rejoice in such a game; may God keep us from it and graciously help us. Amen.
This is the answer we give your Grace, submitting it hunibly to your Grace's consideration. Christ our Lord give 3rour Grace strength and wisdom to act according to His good pleasure. Amen.
Your Grace's obedient servant,
Martin Luthek.
��871. THE ELECTOR JOHN OF SAXONY TO LUTHER, JONAS, BUGENHAGEN AND MELANCHTHON.
Enders, vii, 249. German. Torgau, March 14, 1550.
. . . We graciously ^sire to inform you that we have re- ceived from his Imperial Majesty, our most gracious Lord, the summons to a diet, in which we, together with the other estates of the Holy Empire, are summoned to Augsburg to a diet on the 8th day of April next, where it is said that his Imperial Majesty intends to be present in person. The contents of the said summons ' we send you in the enclosed copy.
Since, then, among the weightiest matters that are to be discussed at this diet, one is that of "the division in oiu" Chris- tian religion," and it is expressly said, in regard to this im*
taking trouble in Tain; Grimm: Deutsches fVdrterbuch, ir, part i, 136$^,, qootinir this passage.
^ These words underlined in Dietrich's copy.
'The summons for the Diet of Augsburg was issued by the Emperor at Bologna, January 21. It is given in full by Pdrstemaan, Urkuud^nbttch, i, aflF., and tite most important sections are translated, though rery freely and with some inae- cttradct, in KIdd, pp. a57f.
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