the danger there was of this matter ending in violence, and no one ever hated violence
more than I do. Indeed, I even went so far as to threaten John Froben the printer, to prevent
him publishing his books. I wrote frequently and industriously to my friends, begging that
they would admonish this man to observe Christian meekness in his writings, and do
nothing to disturb the peace of the church. And when he himself wrote to me two years
ago, I lovingly admonished him what I wished him to avoid; and I would he had followed
my advice. This letter, I am informed, has been shown to your Holiness, I suppose in order
to prejudice me, whereas it ought rather to conciliate your Holiness’s favor towards me."
On Dec. 5, 1520, five days before the burning of the Pope’s bull, Erasmus, being asked for
his opinion about Luther by the Elector Frederick of Saxony, whom he happened to meet at Cologne,
hesitated a while, and looked blank; but being pressed by the Elector, who stood square before him
and stared him in the face, he gave the well-known answer, –
"Luther has committed two sins,—he has touched the Pope on the crown, and the
monks on the belly."^529
The Elector smiled, and remembered the expression shortly before his death. Returned to
his lodgings, Erasmus wrote down some axioms rather favorable to Luther and disapproving of the
"Pope’s unmerciful bull," and sent them to Spalatin, but concealed the manuscript from fear that
Aleander might see it; but it had been already published.
From a letter to a friend in Basel (Louis Berus), dated Louvain, May 14, 1521:–
"By the bitterness of the Lutherans, and the stupidity of some who show more zeal
than wisdom in their endeavors to heal the present disorders, things have been brought to
such a pass, that I, for one, can see no issue but in the turning upside down of the whole
world. What evil spirit can have sown this poisonous seed in human affairs? When I was
at Cologne, I made every effort that Luther might have the glory of obedience and the
Pope of clemency, and some of the sovereigns approved of this advice. But, lo and behold!
the burning of the Decretals, the ’Babylonish Captivity,’ those propositions of Luther, so
much stronger than they need be, have made the evil, it seems, incurable .... The only thing
that remains to us, my dear Berus, is to pray that Christ, supreme in goodness and in power,
may turn all to good; for he alone can do so."
In the same month, during the sessions of the Diet of Worms, he wrote to Nicholas Everard,
from Mechlin, 1521: –
"If Luther had written more moderately, even though he had written freely, he would
both have been more honored himself, and done more good to the world; but fate has
decreed otherwise. I only wonder that the man is still alive .... They say that an edict is in
readiness far more severe than the Pope’s bull;^530 but from fear, or some other reason, it
has not yet been published. I am surprised that the Pope should employ such agents, some
of them illiterate men, and all of them headstrong and haughty, for the transaction of such(^529) See p. 232.
(^530) The edict was passed May 26, 1521, but dated back May 8. (See p. 318.)