have more regard for their bellies than for the gospel. Cer- tainly it has brought us into no danger even if the bishops are promulgating it and thundering. I wish that you knew how frightened the bishops are in carrying out the commands of the Pope, standing, as it were, between the devil and the deep sea, fearing on one side the opinion of the world and on the other the wrath of the Pope. The latter prevails with many who prefer to be openly wicked rather than to seem too lit- tle dependent on his pontifical Holiness.
Though I doubt not that you know what is done at the Diet of Worms yet I will briefly relate the plans of our ene- mies. The Emperor is daily asked to proscribe Luther, and there is a lively altercation over this point. We shall perish if the papists are able to do what their wrath suggests. They regret that the furies of the Pope have accomplished so little and hope that those of the Emperor will be stronger. So they are trying by all legal and all illegal means to wrest such a mandate from the Emperor, but I hope they will act in vain. Martin fears nothing, but would willingly buy the glory and profit of the gospel with his life. Perhaps you have read his Assertion against the bull of Leo} It is written in German.
• • •
Martin has begun to write commentaries^ on the gospels and epistles, to be read on holy days according to the custom of the Church. . . .
Luther sends his greeting. Your Philip
403. ULRICH VON HUTTEN TO JOHN REUCHLIN. L. Geiger: Jahann Rcuchlins Briefwechsel, Tubingen, 1875, p. 327,
Ebernburg, February 22 (1521). I have read your letter to the Dukes of Bavaria* in which you answer to the accusation of Leo X.* Good Heavens! what do I see ? You descend to that degree of fear and weak- ness that you do not abstain from reviling those who have wished to save you and who have even defended your repu-
^Weimar, vii. 94. It appeared in Latin in Januaiy and in German in Mardi.
- The Enarrationes Epistolarum et Evangeliorum, Weimar, vii.
'Thia letter is not preserTed.
^Perhaps Reuchlin's condemnation of June 23, 1520. Reuchlin's anawer is perhaps his appeaL
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