Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/484

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ing, the 2Sth, reports that on Sunday, the 23d, the governor of the town desired the preachers of the convents to preach, and, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, to have processions made for the coming of the Emperor, and to pray that he may have the divine assistance for the establishment of peace and quiet, and that he may prosper in this his coming to take the crown ; ^ so they preached and made the procession accord- ingly. He also said that at Spires the archduke [King Ferdi- nand] had a procession made, and attended it in person, carry- ing the host, and that the Elector of Saxony and the Land- grave of Hesse would not attend the procession because they were Lutherans, and they stood at a window scoffing the pro- cession, and using gross language,' and when the archduke passed. Saxony withdrew, Hesse remaining at the window, jeering more than ever.

The Emperor does not choose the affair of the Lutherans to be discussed at the diets, saying he will hold a council about it ; but in Germany Lutheranism has more followers than ever.

834. LUTHER TO JAMES MONTANUS • AT HERVORD. Enders, vii, 105. Wfttenberg, May 28, 1529.

Grace and peace in Qirist. You write that Erasmus is foaming over against me, my dear James.* I knew it bef ore, for I have seen it in his letters. He does not publish a single book without showing the impotence of his mind, or, rather,

^Charles reached Italy August 12, xsap, but his coronation was postponed until February 24, 1530.

■Or "big words," parole grande,

  • Montanu8 (fc. 1534) was an older contemporary of Luther's, who had been a

Ahoolmate of Erasmus at Deventer. He spent the greater part of his life as a teacher at Hervord, and was a correspondent of Melanchthon and Bugenhagen as well as of Luther. A sketch of his life in ADB. Twenty letters of Montanus to Pirckheimer, 1525-30, are published by K. Loffler in Ztitschrift fUr voter' landische Geschichte und Altertum, Ixxii, Heft, i, pp. 22-46. Munster, 19 14.

  • It is probable that Montanus got this information from Pirckheimer, who

presumably sent him the letter from Erasmus described supra, no. 821. On April 23t 1526, iop. cit., pp. 35f.) Montanus asks Pirckheimer to return his letters to Luther and Erasmus (both lost) and to tell him what he thinks of the matters now in controversy between them. He says he does not we how Erasmus can answer Luther. There is no further reference in the published correspondence to show that Pirckheimer sent him Erasmus's letter, but it is not improbable. On the other hand Montanus may hare heard something from Erasmus direcdy, as the aboTc shows he wrote to him, although no correspondence between them has beesi published.

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