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470. ULRICH VON HUTTEN TO WILUBALD PIRCKHEIMER
AT NUREMBERG.
Bocking, ii. 59. Ebernburg, May i, 1521.
I have heard some imperialists say that Luther was sum- moned to defend his cause. They lied, it was not so, for all they asked him at the Diet was whether he would recant what he had written. He replied most constantly that he would recant whatever they convinced him was erroneous. He was asked again if he would recant, for his writings had been condemned long before. He prayed that they would not force him to an unjust recantation, lest he should con- demn against his conscience what he believed was perfecdy right. When they urged him a third time to recant, for this is all the Emperor and princes wanted to know, he re- plied that he neither could nor would deny what was sup- ported by the most convincing texts of Scripture. Was this enough reason utterly to condemn the man of God? Good Heavens, what will be the result of this? Indeed, I think that by this great tempest the princes should learn whether Germany is governed by good laws. The prelates who take cotmsel against Luther swallow every impiety and every crime. His last letter to me drew tears from my eyes. He told how indignant he was at certain things, among others at the prohibition in the edict that he should preach the Word of God. Detestable iniquity, crime deserving the pitiless wrath of God to bind his Word and to stop the mouth of a teacher of the gospel! Christian princes indeed! What will for- eigners say? I have begun to be ashamed of my country.
Their spokesman was that unlearned sophist John Eck of Trier. He spoke against Luther so passionately that there is no doubt he was bribed by the Pope, who, it is said, has thus distributed many thousand gulden. That criminal fool, Eck, dared to revile the pious evangelist. . . . Some of the lawyers asserted that the imperial safe-conduct neither ought to be nor could be kept. . . . The wicked bishops wish to imitate their ancestors who burned John Huss at Constance. . . .
Someone has posted up a notice saying that forty nobles have bound themselves to protect Luther, and has signed the
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