Luther came back from Rome still a faithful son of the great Mother
Church. All heresy, such as that of the Bohemians, was hateful to him.
He took a warm interest, after his return, in Reuchlin's contest
against the judges of heresy at Cologne, and, in 1512, stood on the
side of the Humanists; but even then he felt that something separated
him from this movement. When, a few years later, he was in Gotha, he
did not call upon the worthy Mutianus Rufus, although he wrote him a
very polite letter of apology; and soon after he was offended by the
inward coldness and secular tone in which theological sinners were
ridiculed in Erasmus' dialogues. The profane worldliness of the
Humanists was never quite in harmony with the cheerful faith of
Luther's soul, and the pride with which he afterward offended the
sensitive Erasmus in a letter which was meant to be conciliatory, was
probably even then in his soul. Even the forms of literary modesty
adopted by Luther at that time give the impression that they were
wrung from an unbending spirit by the power of Christian humility.
For even at that time he felt himself secure and strong in his faith.
As early as 1516 he wrote to Spalatin, who was the link of intercourse
between him and the Elector, Frederick the Wise, that the Elector was
the most prudent of men in the things of this world, but was afflicted
with sevenfold blindness in matters concerning God and the salvation
of the soul. And Luther had reason for this expression, for the
provident spirit of that moderate prince appeared in his careful
efforts, among other things, to gather in for domestic use the means
of grace recommended by the Church.
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