[373] "Ad hoc præstandum mihi videbatur ille, et natura compositus et accensus studio." (Erasm. Ep. Campegio Cardinali, i, p. 650.) For accomplishing this, he seemed to me both fitted by nature, and inflamed by zeal. CHAP. VI. Reuchlin--Erasmus--Flek--Bibra--The Emperor--The Pope--Myconius--The Monks--Apprehensions--Adelman--An Old Priest--The Bishop--The Elector--The Inhabitants of Erfurt--Luther's Reply--Trouble--Luther's Moving Principle. We must follow these propositions wherever they penetrated; to the studies of the learned, the cells of monks, and the palaces of princes, in order to form some idea of the various but wonderful effects which they produced in Germany. Reuchlin received them. He was weary of the hard battle which he had been obliged to fight against the monks. The power which the new combatant displayed in his theses revived the spirit of the old champion of letters, and gave joy to his saddened heart. "Thanks be to God," exclaimed he, after he had read them, "now they have found a man who will give them so much to do, that they will be obliged to let me end my old age in peace." The prudent Erasmus was in the Netherlands when the theses reached him. He was inwardly delighted at seeing his secret wishes for the reformation of abuses expressed with so much boldness, and commended their author, only exhorting him to more moderation and prudence. Nevertheless, some persons in his presence blaming Luther's violence, he said, "God has given men a cure which cuts thus deep into the flesh, because otherwise the disease would be incurable." And at a later period when the Elector of Saxony asked his opinion as to Luther's affair, he replied with a smile, "I am not at all astonished at his having made so much noise, for he has committed two unpardonable faults; he has attacked the tiara of the pope and the belly of the monks."[374] [374] Müller's Denkw, iv, 256. Dr. Flek, prior of the cloister of Steinlausitz, had for some time given up reading mass, but had not told any one his reason. He one day found the theses of Luther posted up in the refectory of his convent. He went up and began to read them, but had only perused a few, when unable to contain his joy, he exclaimed, "Well, well, he whom we have been so long looking for is come at last; and this you monks will see." Then reading in the future, says Mathesius, and playing upon the word Wittemberg, he said, "Everybody will come to seek wisdom at this mountain, and will find it.[375] He wrote to the doctor to persevere courageously in his glorious combat. Luther calls him a man full of joy and consolation. [375] "Alle welt von diesem, Weissenberg, Weissheit holen und bekommen." (p. 13)