Letter

timid,for that would only make them prouder.

I am sure they think you will yield,if theystand by what the But it is manifest that the Emperor is only reelingto and fro.

So if you remain steadfast they will changetheir opinion.

Let us insist upon them giving us back Kaiser and others,whom they made away with in so disgraceful a manner.

Let them restore to us the many souls which were led astray through their false teaching, and return to us the possessions they deprived us of through their letters of Indulgenceand other modes of deceit.

Let them again bestow upon us the honour of God, which they so shamefully vilified, and the purityof the Church, which they have so soiled.

But who can narrate all?

I am not sorry that God has so leftthem to their foolish devices that they are not ashamed to bringforward such matters.

He who permittedthem to do so will continue to help us.

I comfort myself thus.

But perhaps you consider these old news Salvation,be with you.

Luther expects no good from the Emperor.

Spalatin, that the Emperor is a good, piousman, which you alwayssaid he was.

I have no hope of him favouring our cause, even if he would For what can one man do against so many devils } Lord alone must be our refuge,for He loves to comfort the despondingand helpthose who are forsaken of the whole world.

I wish to know what has happened since I last heard from you.

I suppose thingswill now be settled,and you are not only condemned, but the enemy is heapinginsults and contempt upon you.

For the opponents are boastingof their Augsburg, and despise and laugh at us.

'* But be of good cheer,'* says I have overcome the world."

He who dwells in heaven will laughat them.

I am sure this will be the case.

We cannot look for help unless we have been forsaken.

We have assumed the office and duties of those of whom it is written, Ye will be hated of all men for My sake,"and yet we are surprised when we are subjected to such hatred.

If we are unwilling to have this promiseverified in ourselves, we oughtnot to have taken this office upon us, or should have seen that such a prophecy never was uttered.

But now it is too late to reap favour and thanks.

I am quitepleasedthat Herzog George should behave thus.

God will reward him accordingto his actions.

Lord comfort and strengthenyou all.

From the wilderness of Coburg.

Emperor was indignantat the Elector's steadfastness, and refused to confirm him in his Electorate and ratify his son's engagement to Sybylla of Cleves.

That our opponents load us with terms of reproachand are tryingto get the Emperor to buckle on his armour againstus is a sure signthat they feel they will be defeated.

For it is an old device of Satan that when he is beaten by the truth he diverts people'sattention to secondary matters, so preventing them attending to the main thing.

He did this with his emissary,Eck, at Leipsic,in regardto Carlstadt,and in many other cases.

Let us therefore cleave to our cause and not yield.

Now these gapingfools,as I call them, must admit, but will not, that I exalted the authorityof the Emperor and the worldlypowers at the time they were vilifying them, and hurlingbans at them, oppressingkingdoms and monarchs with their curse, as St. Peter prophesied.