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1524]
An Evangelical Reformer
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to subvert the Catholic doctrines and practice,[1] and it is no wonder if those who still believed in the Catholic doctrine and practice should look upon his course with grief and even determine to stop him if they could.
There was an apparent respite from these troubles offered him by a new invitation from his old flock at Regensburg to visit them again. To their letter he returned the following response:
"I am quite conscious that I should have put myself again at the disposal of your wisdom, yet for my own safety it cannot be exactly on the Sunday after Easter [the time they had specified]. In the meantime so great plague and pursuit has befallen those who preach the divine, true and pure word, that I have not dared to venture. Further, I hear with great sadness how in your city of Regensburg more men preach vanity than the pure word of God. That makes my heart ache; for what does not flow forth from the living word is dead before God. Therefore says Christ, Search the Scriptures. He does not say, Follow the old customs—though I did nothing else when I was the first time with you. However, I did it ignorantly. Like others, I was blinded and possessed by the doctrine of men.
- ↑ For example, his sermon on April 10th, in which he said, on the text "I am the good shepherd": "Those who do not enter in by the door and are thieves and robbers are those pastors who preach the legends, untruths, and dreams of the monks, [and] withhold the gospel from the people, which is the true soul-murder."
