[290] Ut pie placideque purum Evangelium prædicaretur. Pall. i. 166; Sleidan, i. 135. [291] Victus est ac ferme profligatus e Germania Romanus pontifex. Zw. Epp. 313.--11th October 1523. [292] Gott habe solenes E.G. eingeben. L. Opp. xviii. 476. [Sidenote: THE POPE'S LETTER TO FREDERICK.] The indignation at the Vatican among the papal ministers was very great. What! is it not enough to have a pope who disappoints all the expectations of the Romans, and in whose palace there is neither singing nor playing; but, more than this, secular princes are allowed to hold a language that Rome detests, and refuse to put the Wittemberg heretic to death! Adrian himself was filled with indignation at the events in Germany, and it was on the head of the Elector of Saxony that he discharged his anger. Never had the Roman pontiffs uttered a cry of alarm more energetic, more sincere, or perhaps more affecting. "We have waited long--and perhaps too long," said the pious Adrian in the brief he addressed to the elector; "we were anxious to see whether God would visit thy soul, and if thou wouldst not at last escape from the snares of Satan. But when we looked to gather grapes, we found nothing but sour grapes. The blower hath blown in vain; thy wickedness is not consumed. Open, then, thine eyes to see the greatness of thy fall!...... "If the unity of the Church is broken; if the simple have been turned aside from that faith which they had imbibed at their mothers' breasts; if the temples are destroyed; if the people are without priests; if the priests receive not the honour that is due to them; if Christians are without Christ: to whom is it owing, but to thee?[293]......If christian peace has vanished from the earth; if the world is full of discord, rebellion, robbery, murder, and conflagration; if the cry of war is heard from east to west; if a universal conflict is at hand: it is thou--thou who art the author of these things! [293] Dass die Kirchen ohne Volk sind, dass die Völker ohne Priester sind, dass die Priester ohne Ehre sind, und dass die Christen ohne Christo sind. Ibid. 37. [Sidenote: FREDERICK'S EMOTION.] "Sawest thou not this sacrilegious man (Luther) rending with his wicked hands and trampling under his impure feet the images of the saints and even the holy cross of Christ?......Dost thou not behold him, in his ungodly wrath, instigating laymen to imbrue their hands in the blood of the priests, and overturning the churches of our Lord? "And what matters it, if the priests he assails are wicked priests? Has not the Lord said: _Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works_; thus showing the honour that belongs to them, even when their lives are blame-worthy.[294] [294] Wen sie gleich eines verdammten Lebens sind. L. Opp. xviii. 379.