permissionthereto,but my excuse must be, that I would not be denied what Eck was boastinghad been alreadygrantedto him.
Grace will graciously forgivemy offence.
God mercifully spare and uphold your Grace's obedient chaplain, I often reproachmyself,my excellent Doctor, for writingso seldom,having received so many kind messages from you.
But my excuse must againbe the mass of work which weighsme down.
Eck has been able to restrain his wrath against me, but now he is letting it have full scope.
God alone,who is in the midst of the gods,knows what will be the outcome of this conduct.
I am working for ourselves alone.
It seems to me as if all this proceededsolelyfrom the will of I often say that up tillnow it has onlybeen child's play.
I must proceedin earnest against the I commend to you, most warmly and in all unselfishness, Pindar, that excellent and learned man.
You will try to help him, seeinghe is your compatriot, and speak highlyof him to your counsellors " perhapsthey may deem him worthy of some assistance.
Suabian leagueis rebelling against the God not rebuke us in His wrath,but chasten us according to Greet all our friends.
I herewith commend you to Luther's conciliatory letter to the Pope.
Necessityonce more compels me, the most unworthy and despicable creature upon earth,to address your Therefore,would you, in Christ's stead,graciously bend your fatherly ear to the petitionof me, your poor sheep.
Hollness's treasurer, has been here,and complainedbitterly to the Elector Frederick,in your Holiness's name, of my insolence towards the Roman
Holiness,and demanded a recantation from me.
I heard this I felt aggrievedthat all my efforts to do honour to the Church had been so misrepresented, and considered foolhardiness and deliberate malice by the But what shall I do, most holyfather }
I am quite at sea, beingunable to bear the weightof your Holiness's wrath or to escape from it.
I am asked to recant and withdraw my theses.
If by so doing I could accomplish the end desired,I would not hesitate a moment.
But my writingshave become far too widelyknown, and taken root in too many hearts " beyond my highest expectations " now to be summarily withdrawn.
German nation,with its cultured and learned men, in the bloom of an intellectualreawakening, understands this questionso thoroughlythat,on this account,
I must avoid even the appearance of recantation,much as I honour and esteem the Church in other respects.
For such a recantation would onlybringit into stillworse repute,and make every one speakagainst it.
It is those,O holy father,who have done the greatest injury to the Church in Germany, and whom I have striven to oppose " those who, by their foolish preachingand their insatiable greed,have brought your name into bad odour,sullying the sanctity of the sacred chair,and making