hate iniquity, to get the advice and aid of the elector at once, and when you have got it, communicate it to me, and still more to our reverend father vicar Staupitz, who is per- chance now with you at Augsburg, or soon will be. For he is in Salzburg, having promised to be at Nuremberg on August 15. Finally, I pray you, be not moved or sad for me; with the trial the Lord will also make a way of escape. I am answering the sylvan and wild Dialogue of Sylvester Prierias,^ all of which you will have as soon as it is ready. The same sweet man is both my enemy and my judge, as you will see by the Citation. Farewell. As I have much to write I cannot say more to you now.
Brother Martin Eleutherius, Augustinian.
72. LUTHER TO SYLVESTER PRIERIAS AT ROME. Enders, i. 216. (Wittenberg, about August 10, 1518.)
That supercilious Dialogue of yours, very reverend Father, written in the usual style of an Italian and a Thomist, has reached me. You boast in it that you, an old man, done with fighting, are impelled anew by my words to the combat, but nevertheless, you say you will get the victory over me in the unequal contest, as Entellus did over Dares,* but by this alone you show that you are vainglorious Dares rather than Entellus, because you boast before you are safe and ask for praise before victory.* Pray do what you can; the Lord's will be done. . . .
Behold, reverend Father, I am sending your treatise back quickly, because your refutation seems trifling; therefore, I have answered it ex tempore with whatever came uppermost in my mind. If, after that, you wish to hit back, be careful to bring your Aquinas better armed into the arena, lest per- chance you be not treated as gently again as you are in this encounter. I have forborne to render evil for evil.
Farewell !
73. POPE LEO X TO CARDINAL CAJETAN AT AUGSBURG.
Luthers Werke (Weimar), ii. 23. Rome, August 23, 15 18.
By this breve the Pope transfers jurisdiction in Luther's case to
- On him and the Dialogue, cf. supra, no. 68, and infra, no. 72.
sVirgil: AenHd, r. 369ff. *£raamiM: Adages,
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