[785] Epist. cccclxxi.
[786] Ibid. cccclxxiv.
[787] Eras. Op. iii. Epist. cccclxxxi., and Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum Virorum: Basil. 1520, p. 46.
[788] Ibid. p. 122. ‘Coletum nomino, quo uno viro neque doctior neque sanctior apud nos aliquot retro seculis quisque fuit.’
[789] Ashmolean MSS. Oxford 77-141 a. I have to thank Mr. Coxe for the following copy of the inscription: ‘Joannes Coletus, Henrici Coleti iterum prætoris Londini filius, et hujus templi decanus, magno totius populi mœrore, cui, ob vitæ integritatem et divinum concionandi munus, omnium sui temporis fuit chariss., decessit anno a Christo nato 1519 et inclyti regis Henrici Octavi 11, mensis Septembris 16. Is in cœmeterio Scholam condidit ac magistris perpetua stipendia contulit.’
[790] Luther in his famous speech at the Diet, after alluding to his doctrinal and devotional works, and offering to retract whatever in them was contrary to Scripture, emphatically refused to retract what he had written against the Papacy, on the ground that were he to do so, it would be ‘like throwing both doors and windows right open’ to Rome to the injury of the German nation. And in his German speech he added an exclamation, most characteristic, at the very idea of the absurdity of its being thought possible, that he could retract anything on this point:—‘Good God, what a great cloak of wickedness and tyranny should I be!’ See Förstermann’s Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchen-Reformation, vol. i. p. 70: Hamburg, 1842.
[791] I am mainly indebted to Mr. Lupton for this list.