I have many times offered my writings for investigation and judgment, but it has been of no use. To be sure, I know that if my cause is just, it must be condemned on earth, and approved only by Christ in heaven; or all the Scriptures show that the cause of Christians and of Christendom must be judged by God alone. Such a cause has never yet been approved by men on earth, but the opposition has always been too great and strong. It is my greatest care and fear that my cause may remain uncondemned, by which I should know or certain that it was not yet pleasing to God. Therefore let them boldly go to work,--pope, bishop, priest, monk and scholar! They are the right people to persecute the truth, as they have ever done. God give us all a Christian mind, and especially to the Christian nobility of the German nation a right spiritual courage to do the best that can be done for the poor Church. Amen. Wittenberg, 1520. FOOTNOTES [1] _Unserm furnchmen nach_. See Introduction, p. 57. [2] An ironical comparison of the monks' cowl and tonsure with the headgear of the jester. [3] i. e., Which one turns out to be the real fool. [4] The proverb ran, _Monachus semper praesens_, "a monk is always there." See Wander, _Deutsches Sprichwörterlexicon_, under Mönch, No. 130. [5] Evidently a reference to the _Gravamina of the German Nation_; see Gebhardt, _Die Grav. der Deutschen Nation_, Breslau, 1895. [6] Councils of the Church, especially those of Constance (1414-18), and of Basel (1431-39). [7] Charles V. was elected Emperor in 1519, when but twenty years of age. Hutten expresses his "hopes of good" from Charles in _Vadiscus_ (Böcking, IV, 156). [8] Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1100). [9] Frederick II (1212-1250), grandson of Barbarossa and last of the great Hohenstaufen Emperors. He died under excommunication. [10] Pope Julius II (1503-1513). Notorious among the popes for his unscrupulous pursuit of political power, he was continually involved in war with one and another of the European powers over the possession of territories in Italy. [11] Luther's recollection of the figures was faulty. [12] The term "Romanist" is applied by Luther to the champions of the extreme form of papal supremacy. C. Vol. I, p. 343 f. [13] i. e., The three rods for the punishment of an evil pope. [14] _Spuknisse_, literally "ghosts." The gist of the sentence is, "the Romanists have frightened the world with ghost-stories." [15] _Olegötze_--"an image anointed with holy oil to make it sacred"; in modern German, "a blockhead."