2926 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
priest, or on your paternal inheritance! In that glory none are worthy to glory, except the race of Iscariot, the children of perdition. For what happens in your court, Leo, except that, the more wicked and execrable any man is, the more prosperously he can use your name and authority for the ruin of the property and souls of men, for the multiplication of crimes, for the oppression of faith and truth, and of the whole Church of God? O Leo! in reality most unfortunate, and sitting on a most perilous throne: verily I tell you the truth, because I wish you well; for if Bernard felt compassion for his Anastasius at a time when the Roman See, though even then most corrupt, was as yet ruling with better hope than now, why should not we lament, to whom so much additional corruption and ruin has happened in three hundred years ? ;
“Ts it not true that there is nothing under the vast heavens more corrupt, more pestilential, more hateful, than the court of Rome? She incomparably
ae surpasses the impiety of the Turks, so that in very truth she, who was formerly the gate of heaven, is- now a sort of open mouth of hell, and such a mouth as, under the urgent wrath of God, can not be blocked up; one course alone being left to us wretched men, — to call back and save some few, if we can, from that Roman gulf.
‘* Behold, Leo my father, with fay what purpose and on what prin-
Sg ciple it is that I have stormed
Lro X. From his Portrait by Haphssl: against that seat of pestilence.
Ἷ I am so far from having felt any
rage against your person, that I even hoped to gain favor with you and to
aid in your welfare, by striking actively and vigorously at that your prison,
nay, your hell. For, whatever the efforts of all intellects can contrive against
the confusion of that impious court will be advantageous to you and to your
welfare, and to many others with you. Those who do harm to her are doing
your work ; those who in every way abhor her are glorifying Christ; in short, those are Christians who are not Romans. ...
“Τὴ fine, that I may not approach your Holiness empty-handed, I bring with me this little book,! published under your name, as a good omen of the establishment of peace and of good hope. By this you may perceive in what pursuits I should prefer and be able to occupy myself to more profit, if I were allowed, or had been hitherto allowed, by your impious flatterers. It is a small book, if you look to the paper; but, unless I mistake,
1 De Libertate Christiana.
ὃ 47. THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 227
it is a summary of the Christian life put together in small compass, if you apprehend its meaning. I, in my poverty, have no other present to make you; nor do you need any thing else than to be enriched by a spiritual gift. I commend myself to your Holiness, whom may the Lord Jesus preserve for ever. Amen.
“ WITTENBERG, 6th September, 1520.”
ὃ 47. The Bull of Excommunication. June 15, 1520.
The Bull “‘ Exurge, Domine,” in the Bullarium Romanum, ed. CAR. COCQUE- LINES, Tom. III., Pars III. (ab anno 1431 δὰ 1521), pp. 487-493, and in RAYNALDUs (continuator of Baronius): Annal. Eccl., ad ann. 1520, no. 51 (Tom. XX. fol. 303-306). Raynaldus calls Luther ‘‘ apostatam nefandissimum,’’? and takes the bull from Cochlzeus, who, besides Eck and Ulemberg (a Protestant apostate), is the chief authority for his meager and distorted account of the German Reformation. <A copy of the original edition of the bull is in the Astor Library, New York. See ΝΟΤΕΒ.
17. v. ΗΥΤΕΝ published the bull with biting glosses: Bulla Decimi Leonis contra errores Lutheri et seguacium, or Die glossirte Bulle (in Hutten’s Opera, ed. Bécking, V. 301-333; in the Erl. ed. of Luther’s Op. Lat., IV. 261-304; also in German in WALCH, XV. 1691 sqq.; comp. STRAUSS: U. v. Hutten, p. 888 sqq.). The glosses in smaller type interrupt the text, or are put on the margin. LUTHER: Von den neuen Eckischen Bullen und Liigen (Sept. 1520); Adv. execrabilem Antichristi bullam (Nov. 1520); Wider die Bullen des Endchrists (Nov. 1520; the same book as the preceding Latin work, but sharper and stronger); Warum des Papsts und seiner Jiinger Biicher verbrannt sind (Lat. and Germ., Dec. 1520); all in Watcu, XV. fol. 1674-1917; Erl. ed., XXIV. 14-164, and Op. Lat. V. 132-238; 251-271. LUTHER’s letters to Spalatin and others on the bull of excommunication, in De Wette, I. 518-532.
RANKE: 1. 294-301. MERLE D’AuUBIGNE, Bk. VI. ch. III. sqq. HAGEnN- BACH, III. 100-102. Kanwnis: I. 306-341. K6sTuin: 1. 379-882. KoLpDE: I. 280 sqq. JANSSEN: 11. 108 sqq.
After the Leipzig disputation, Dr. Eck went to Rome, and strained every nerve to secure the condemnation of Luther and his followers." Cardinals Campeggi and Cajetan, Prierias and Aleander, aided him. Cajetan was sick, but had him-
1 As Luther said, to rouse “‘the abyss of hell’? (Abgrund der Holle) against him. Eck seems to have been acting also in the interest of the banking firm of Fugger in Augsburg, which carried on the financial transactions between Germany and Italy, including the transmission of indulgence money. See Ranke, I. 297.