by my labor. I am sick of this kind of hunting, and prefer to chase bears, wolves, foxes, and that sort of wicked magistrate with spear and arrow. It consoles me to think that the mys- tery of salvation is near, when hares and innocent creatures will be captured rather by men tljan by bears, wolves and hawks, i.e., the bishops and theologians. I mean that now they are snared into hell, then they will be captured for heaven, Thus I joke with you. You know that your nobles would be beasts of pney even in panadise. Even Christ the greatest hunter could hardly capture and keep them. I jest with you because I know you like hunting.
I have changed my mind and have decided to send the rest of the Postils, thinking that as they have begun to print what I sent before it cannot be postponed or stopped. But I want it printed in large quarto * and from Lotther's types,* for it will be a large book. I shall divide it into the four parts of the year, from quarter to quarter, that it may not be too cumbrous and expensive. But these wishes of mine are vain, for what can be done is not what I wish, but what is decided there. What- ever happens or does not happen please see that the manu- scripts are either well guarded or else returned to me. I know the Satan who plots against them. I wonder if my Magnificat will ever be finished. Farewell, and pray for me.
Martin Luther.
S04. WOLSEY TO JOHN CLERK" AT ROME.
Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ui, no. 1510. English.
Bruges, August 25, 1521.
Qerk knows by his sundry letters the King's catholic mind for extinguishing the heresies of Luther, and the pains he has taken in devising a book for their confutation. It is now completed, and dedicated to the Pope, and Clerk is to present it in the following form, declaring the King's resolution to support the Church, and extinguish heresy by the sword and
- In cubiialis papyri modum.
- Cf, Vol. I, p. 217, n. 3.
- John Clerk (tiS40 had been a chaplain to Wolsey. After this mission to
Rome in 1521 he was made Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1523, and emplojred ai cnroy on subsequent occasions. DNB.
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