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Erasmus' letter to Luther of May 1524. The Latin text is taken from P.S.
Allen,
"Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami", Vol. V.
Oxford University Press, 1924. Re-issued 1992.
Initially, Erasmus gave a cautious welcome to Luther's calls for reform of the church. By the stage of this letter, however, Erasmus is distancing himself from the reformers whom he regards as increasingly turbulent and divisive.
Friendly greetings! I do not concede to you that you truly desire integrity in the Gospel more than I do, for which I struggle on with no thanks; and up till now, I have hunted down every opportunity to let the Gospel be common property for everybody. Moreover, that which you call weakness or ignorance is partly conscience and partly good judgement. Reading certain things of yours, I have become very much afraid that Satan is deluding your mind with his art; then again, there are other things which captivate in such a way that I wish this fear of mine to be false. I would not want to make any public statement of that of which I am not yet convinced myself, and far less of that which I do not grasp. Hitherto, I have looked to the interests of the Gospel with more integrity than many who boast of the Gospel by name. I see that on account of the current climate, many excessive and quarrelsome people are coming to the fore. I see that humane letters and teachings are being ruined. I see friendships split, and I fear lest a bloody tumult arise. If your intention is sincere, I pray that Christ bless what you do. Nothing corrupts me so that under the influence of human weakness, I knowingly betray the Gospel. I have still written nothing against you - doing that would bring praise from the princes - but that I have seen that it would not be without bandying about the Gospel. I only refuted those who were trying to persuade all the princes that I was in league with you, that I agreed with you in everything, and that in my books, there is something of which you teach. This opinion can scarcely now be banished from those people's minds. What you wrote against me does not trouble me greatly. If the world is watching, nothing can turn out more fortunately for me. I desire to give up this soul pure to Christ and I should like everyone to be moved by this wish. If you are ready to offer up to everyone your reasoning for that which is a matter of faith to you, then why does it matter to you if anyone disputes with you for the sake of learning? Perhaps Erasmus writing against you advances the Gospel more than certain stupid dolts who write on your behalf: they do not allow one to be a spectator of that tragedy of yours, and would that it does not have a tragic outcome! However, they drive me to the opposing side, even if the princes do not compel it. The depravity of these men renders the Gospel invisible to the wise and their princes are forced into turbulent uprisings. But yet that will not happen without harm to the innocent. Not one of them is listening, not even to you. They fill the world with furious little books, on account of which they consider it worthwhile to despise the ancient and orthodox thinkers. But I have written too long on these matters. I pray that the Lord turn everything to his own glory. In the Spongia, you find a lack of restraint, when I did not mention a thing in it about the decadent life of Hutten; not a word about the prostitutes, the most profligate games of dice, his really foolish vainglorious boasts - beyond any bearing by a patient friend - his bankruptcies, his extortion of money from the Carthusians, how he cut off the ears of two Dominicans, the attack and robbery of three abbots on the public road, for which crime one of his servants was beheaded, or the other crimes of his. Yet without being provoked by any word from me, he betrayed our friendship to gratify a single good-for-nothing fellow, than whom there is no creature more degenerate, and he heaped up as many false charges against me as so great a rogue as you wish is able to contrive against someone. I refer you also to that most treacherous publication of the letter to Mainz, with the suppression of his own name; regarding that other piece of perfidy, it was useful for me to keep silent about it. He twisted matters so that with many letters of mine, he was recommended to the emperor's court, although now he has sworn himself against the emperor, only wanting to misuse the emperor's name to advertise for a wife. having been provoked like that by him in an ill-deserved way, wasn't I able with justification to be eloquent on these matters? And yet I am called excessive. What has Otto to do with Hutten? And he has never been made angry by reading a word of mine! You call these men the same as me. I do not consider them men at all, but furies, so far am I from recognising them as like me. And the Gospel will certainly be renewed by carrying on in this way? The Church is being reborn with such pillars in it? I should get mixed up in an alliance with men like these? But I have gone on long enough about these affairs. Joachim was thoroughly pleasant. It was a nuisance that there was no chance given of getting to see Melanchthon. May the Lord direct your thoughts to those resolutions which are worthy of the Gospel itself. Basel, May 8th., 1542.
Translated by Ealasaid Gilfillan. 06.03.05 |
Erasmus of Rotterdam to Martin Luther.