Part 30 (1/2)

FOOTNOTES

[1] _Catholic Encyclopedia_, x, 318

[2] _Church History_, vi, 224 f

[3] _De consideratione_, i, I

[4] _Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany_, London, 1889, p

370

[5] _Luther_, I, 351

[6] _Du Lutheranisme au Protestantisme_, 1911, p 199

[7] Kolde, _Luther_, 1, 274

[8] Schaff, VI, 224

[9] Vol I, p 170

[10] See above, page 284

[11] Enders, II, p 496, gives as the date when the letter ritten, ”after Oct 13th”; Smith, _Life and Letters of Martin Luther_, p 91, dates it Oct 20th

[12] _Nation_, May 29, 1913

LETTER TO POPE LEO X

JESUS

To Leo the Tenth, Pope at Rome: Martin Luther wishes thee salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord Amen

[Sidenote: The Pope's Person]

In the e ho war, I am compelled at times to look up also to thee, Leo, most blessed Father, and to think of thee; nay, since thou art now and again regarded as the sole cause of h the causeless raging of thy Godless flatterers against me has compelled me to appeal from thy See to a future council, despite those most empty decrees of thy predecessors Pius and Julius, ith a foolish tyranny forbade such an appeal, yet I have never so estranged my mind from thy Blessedness as not with all , for which I have, as ht God with earnest prayers

It is true, I have made bold almost to despise and to triuhten me with thewhich I cannot despise, and that isonce reat rashness, and that this rashness is said to be reat fault, in which, they say, I have not spared even thy person

For my part, I will openly confess that I know I have only spoken good and honorable things of thee whenever I have made mention of thy name

And if I had done otherwise, I myself could by no ladly than recant such rashness and impiety on my part I have called thee a Daniel in Babylon,[1] and every one who reads knohat zeal I defended thy notable innocence against thy dreamer, Sylvester[2] Indeed, thy reputation and the fahout the world by the writings of so h to be assailed in any way by any one reat he may be I am not so foolish as to attack him whom every one praises: it has rather been, and alill be, my endeavor not to attack even those whom public report decries; for I take no pleasure in the crireat beam in my own eye [Matt 7:3], nor could I be he that should cast the first stone at the adulteress [John 8:7]

[Sidenote: Luther's Eneainst unGodly teachings in general, and I have not been slow to bite my adversaries, not because of their immorality, but because of their unGodliness And of this I repent so little that I have determined to persevere in that fervent zeal, and to despise the judg the exaeneration of vipers, blind, hypocrites, children of the devil [Matt 23:13, 17, 33] And Paul arraigned the sorcerer as a child of the devil full of all subtilty and s, deceivers and adulterers [Phil 3:2; 2 Cor 11:13; 2 Cor 2:17] If you will allow those delicate ears to judge, nothing would beandthan the prophets?

Nowadays, it is true, our ears are made so delicate by the mad crowds of flatterers that as soon as wevoice we cry out that we are bitten, and e cannot ward off the truth with any other pretext we put it to light by ascribing it to a fierce teood of salt if it does not bite? Or of the edge of the sword if it does not kill? Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully [Jer 48:10]

Wherefore, most excellent Leo, I pray thee, after I have by this letter vindicated ht evil of thy person, but that I as eternally, and that I have no quarrel with anythe Word of truth In all things else I will yield to any ive up or to deny the Word I have neither the power nor the will If any man thinks otherwise of me, or has understood ht, nor has he understood what I have really said

[Sidenote: The Roman Curia]