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< better times, should have been elected to the pontificate in such days as these. Rome • merits you not, nor those who resemble you, but Satan himself, who in fact reigns more than you in that Babylon; would that you ⚫ could exchange that state, which your inve• terate enemies represent to you as an honour, ⚫ for some petty living; or would support your'self by your paternal inheritance; for of such ⚫ honours none are worthy but Iscariots, the sons • of perdition.'

"After pouring out these invectives, and others of a similar kind, always pointed with expressions of the most contemptuous kindness for the pontiff, Luther proceeds to give a brief history of his conduct, and of the efforts made to pacify him by the Roman court; in which he speaks of Eccius as the servant of Satan, and the adversary of Jesus Christ, and adverts to the conduct of the cardinal of Gaeta with an acrimony by no means consistent with his former professions in this respect. He then declares, that in consequence of the representations of the Augustine fathers, who had entreated him at least to honour the person of the pontiff, and assured him that a reconciliation was yet practicable, he had joyfully and gratefully undertaken the present address: • Thus I come,' says he, most holy father, and prostrating myself be<fore you, entreat that you will, if possible, lay hands on and bridle those flatterers who, whilst

they pretend to be pacific, are the enemies of < peace. Let no one, however, presume to think, most holy father, that I shall sing a palinode, unless he wishes to give rise to a still

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greater storm. I shall admit of no restraints ' in interpreting the word of God; for the word ' of God, which inculcates the liberty of all, 'must itself be free. Except in these points, there is nothing to which I am not ready to submit. I hate contention, I will provoke no one; but being provoked, whilst Christ assists I will not be mute. With one word

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me,

your

' holiness might silence these commotions, and ⚫ establish that peace which I so earnestly ' desire.

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"Allow me, however, to caution you, my good father Leo, against those syrens who 'would persuade you that you are not altogether a man, but a compound of man and God, and can command and require whatever you please. This, I assure you, will be of no avail. You are the servant of servants, and of all mankind, are seated in the most deplorable ⚫ and perilous place. Be not deceived by those who pretend that you are lord of the earth, that there can be no christian without your authority, and that you have any power in ⚫ heaven, in hell, or in purgatory. They are your enemies, and seek to destroy your soul, as it was said by Esaias, O my people, they who

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pronounce you happy deceive you. Thus they

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impose upon you, who exalt you above a council, and the universal church; and who attri'bute to you alone the right of interpreting the scriptures, and endeavour, under your name to ' establish their own impiety. Alas, by their с means, Satan has made great gain among your <predecessors.'*

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"This letter, which bears date the sixth day

* «Some of the protestant writers, willing to attribute the schism of the church wholly to the rash and intemperate conduct of the Roman pontiff, have passed over in silence this provoking letter of Luther, although published in the general collection of his works (v. Cha. Chais, Mosheim, Robertson, &c.); others who have cited it, have supposed that Luther was serious in his professions of respect and attachment to Leo X., and that the pontiff should have considered it as a peace-offering (v. Sleidan and Seckendorf); but it is not difficult to perceive that the whole is a bitter satire, rendered more galling by the pretended anxiety of the writer for the temporal and eternal welfare of the pope. Seckendorf has also attempted to prove, that although this letter bears the date of the 6th April, 1520, it was not written till the month of October following; in which opinion he has been incautiously followed by other writers. To say nothing of the decisive internal evidence of the letter having been written before the issuing of the papal bull, it may be sufficient to notice the following facts; a due attention to which would have prevented Seckendorf and his followers from falling into such an error.

"I. The letter in question was prefixed, as the actual dedication to Leo X., of the book of Luther, de Libertate Christi

ane.

of April, 1520, was prefixed by Luther as a dedication to his treatise on Christian liberty, which

ana. In this form it appears in the Jena Edition of the works of Luther, where it immediately precedes the treatise, and is entitled Epistola Lutheri ad Leonem X. Rom. Pontificem, LiBELLO DE LIBERTATE CHRISTIANA PREFIXA. The dedicatory words at the close of the letter admit of no doubt that it was published with the book, In fine, ne vacuus advenerim, ‹ B. P. mecum affero tractatulum hunc, sub tuo nomine editum, • vel ut auspicio pacis componendæ et bonæ spei,' &c.

" II. The precise time of the publication of this treatise is marked by the dedicatory letter itself; viz. the 6th April, 1520. It preceded, in the order of publication, the treatise, de Captivitate Babylonica; and the latter treatise had made its appearance in the month of August, 1520. v. Sleidan. lib. ii. Seckend. lib. i. sec. lxxiii,

"III. The Jena Edition of the works of Luther was superintended by his particular friends soon after his death, and the greatest care was taken in arranging his writings, in order of time, according to their proper dates. This is repeatedly insisted on, in the preface by Amsdorf, as one of the chief merits of the work. Nam multi, non considerata • temporum serie, turpiter hallucinantur, dum prætextu Scrip• torum Lutheri, Christum et Belial conciliare student. In this Edition the letter appears in its proper place, with the date of the 6th April, and before the bull of Leo X., which is dated the 15th of June.

"IV. Any correspondence between Luther and Leo X. after the issuing the bull must have been well known, and given rise to great observation, as it would have shewn the conduct of Luther in a very different light from that in which it now appears, and led to very different conclusions respect

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he professes to transmit to the Pope as a proof of his pacific, disposition, and of his desire to attend to his studies, if the flatterers of the pontiff would allow him; but which the advocates of the Roman church have considered as an additional proof of his arrogance and his disobedience."

Had the friends of the Roman court viewed this letter in the light which some Protestants have considered it, and not as in fact, complet-. ing" the measure of his offences" against the Pope and the Holy Catholic Church, the bull of excommunication which Leo X. unwillingly issued against the author of it, would never have been put in force. After repeated persuasions, however, on the 15th of June, 1520,* a bull

ing his character. To have omitted or misplaced it in the Jena Edition of the works of Luther, which professes to give a history of the reformation for the years 1517, 18, 19, 20, and 21, by a regular series of authentic documents, would have been unpardonable. Even Seckendorf himself has not ventured to introduce, or even to mention such letter in his commentaries, at the time when he contends it was written; and only undertakes, in a former part of his work, to raise some doubt on the subject; ' dubitationem quandam infra ape'riam;' a doubt which a proper examination would effectually have removed." This point has been still further cleared in Mr. Roscoe's Preface to the 2nd. Edition of his work. * Fra. Paolo, Concil. di Trento. lib. i. p. 10. (Brent). Pallavicini, Concil. di Trento, cap. xx. p. 119.

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