[693] Flacius Illyr., “Clarissimæ quædam notæ veræ ac falsæ religionis,” Magdeburgi (1549), pages not numbered, end of cap. xv.: “Affirmabat is Martinum Lutherum apud ipsos sancte vixisse, exactissime regulam servasse et diligenter studuisse.” Copy of this rare work in the Vienna Hofbibliothek.
[694] On the passages in the Comm. on Rom. of 1515-16 in which he speaks well of the religious life, see above, vol. i., p. 270.
[695] Weim. ed., 2, p. 736; Erl. ed., 21, p. 242. Denifle, 1², p. 39.
[696] Ib., 2, p. 644; “Opp. lat. var.,” 2, p. 500, and in his “Letter to the Minorites of Jüterbogk,” May 15, 1519, “Briefwechsel,” 2, p. 40: “Media quibus facilius implentur præcepta.” Cp. Denifle, 1², p. 36.
[697] Sep. 9, 1521, “Briefwechsel,” 3, p. 226.
[698] Above, vol. ii., p. 181 ff.
[699] “Colloq.,” ed. Bindseil, 3, p. 183: “in gloriam Dei et confusionem sathanæ.”
[700] Cordatus, “Tagebuch,” p. 450: “etiam in complexus veni coniugis,” etc. Cp. “Colloq.,” ed. Bindseil, 2, p. 299. See above, vol. v., p. 354; vol. iii., p. 175.
[701] To Nich. Gerbel of Strasburg, Nov. 1, 1521, “Briefwechsel,” 3, p. 241: “ut nihil iam auribus meis sonet odiosius monialis, monachi, sacerdotis nomine et paradisum arbitrer coniugium vel summa inopia laborans.” Thus the monk and priest, four years before his marriage.
[702] To George Mascov, Provost of the Premonstratensian house at Leitzkau, end of 1516, “Briefwechsel,” 1, p. 76. At the close of the letter, of which only fragments have been preserved, we read: “Quam maxime rogo ut pro me Dominum ores; confiteor enim tibi, quod vita mea in dies appropinquet inferno, quia quotidie peior fio et miserior,” which must, of course, be understood of his moral, not his physical, condition. The “drawing nigh to hell” is an echo of Ps. lxxxvii., which was such a favourite of his, where we read: “repleta est malis anima mea et vita mea inferno appropinquavit” (v. 3), and: “In me transierunt iræ tuæ, et terrores tui conturbaverunt me” (v. 17).