Q by Luther Blissett (most recommended books txt) 📖

and, hardly had we learned the news of the capture of the king of France on the field of Pavia, than you were immediately able to give the most appropriate order: hasten the end of the peasant revolt so that the princes friendly to Luther could become resolute rivals to Charles. In fact the Emperor, after defeating and capturing the king of the French in Italy, is now rising like a predatory eagle which, while appearing to defend the nest of Rome, could cast it into the shadows with its wing and its pointed beak. The vastness of his possessions and his power are, in any case, such that they would endanger the spiritual authority of Rome, so much so that one might be forgiven for hoping that, in a region of the Empire such as the one I am writing abut, the heretical princes might plant the sword between Charles’ ribs, lest he be free to exert untrammelled power throughout the world. What the sinner learns is that merciful God never fails to remind us how mysterious and unfathomable his plan is: he who once defended us now threatens us, those who once attacked him are now our allies. And now, God’s will be done. Amen.

So that is what the servant replies with the candour that Your Lordship requested: Your Lordship’s judgment has been, in my most humble opinion, as far-sighted and as keen as ever. And it has been even more so in this last difficult situation, so much so that this arm of Yours is extremely honoured to have been able to act as promptly as possible to put the directive into action.

No one could have sensed and predicted what was coming more fully than Your Honour has done. Dark and winding are the ways of the Lord, and we must bend to His will. It is not given to us mortals to judge the workings of the Supreme one: our humble task, as Your Lordship never ceases to remind me, may only be that of defending a flicker of faith and Christianity in a world which seems to be losing it from one day to the next. It is for that reason we do all that we do, without regard for human laws or the sufferings of the heart.

So, I am sure that you will be able to guide me once again, through the hardships and the pitfalls that this age of ours seems to reserve for Christians, and which set our nerves atremble. It was the Lord’s will to grant this sinner Your Lordship’s valuable guidance, and He it was who granted that these eyes and this hand might serve His cause. It is this that allows me to stand firm as I confront the challenges to come, and eagerly await fresh news from You.

Kissing Your Lordship’s hand and, as ever, imploring Your continued favour.

Wittenberg 28th day of May 1525

Your Lordship’s faithful servant

Q.

Lettersent to Rome from the imperial city of Augsburg, addressed to Gianpietro Carafa, dated 22_nd__ June 1526._

To the most munificent and honourable lord Giovanni Pietro Carafa, in Rome.

Your most illustrious Excellency wished to honour with an undeserved compliment and an excess of grace one who aspires simply and humbly to serve God through Your mercy. But not wishing to fail to carry out our Lordship’s orders, and abandoning myself entirely to Your wisdom, barely had I received your last missive then I set off along the road towards this great imperial city to carry out my master’s command.

As regards this latter, I must inform you of the generosity with which young Fugger received me on the basis of Your recommendation. He is both shrewd and devout, with the wisdom and calculating skill of his uncle, along with the courage and entrepreneurial spirit granted him by his youth. The demise of old Jacob Fugger two years ago has done no harm to the activities and the boundless interests of the richest and most influential family in Europe: the zeal with which the nephew takes care of the affairs that were formerly his uncle’s is second only to his most Christian devotion and loyalty to the Holy See. One is immediately struck by such simplicity and sincere abstinence in a young man such as Anton Fugger, when one compares it with the vastness of his credit in gold in all the courts of Europe.

Given the fresh outbreak of war and the new alliance that the Holy See has forged with France, this man, who has bankrolled the Emperor, has taken the trouble, perhaps hoping for an intercession from me with Your Lordship, to reaffirm his neutrality; the same neutrality, I might add, that only the purest gold can provide. My impression is that this pious banker little cares who takes credit from his coffers, be they imperial or French, Catholic or Lutheran, Christian or Mohammedan; what matters to him is how much and in what form. In his eyes it makes little difference whether one side or the other wins this war, but it is clearly apparent that the ideal situation for the young financier would be one of stalemate, a perennial war without winners or losers, and with the crowned heads of the whole world remaining tied to his purse-strings.

But I have not been sent to Augsburg with a view to passing judgment on bankers. So, as regards the credit that Your Lordship has wished to open in my name, Fugger declared himself honoured to be able to number among his clients a man that he holds in such esteem as Your Lordship, and said he was sorry not to be able to meet You in person. He deemed it necessary to provide me with a symbol which allows his legates to recognise me in every city in the Empire, and enables me to withdraw money from any of his branches, thus guaranteeing me the greatest possible freedom of movement. For reasons that I can easily surmise, he did not wish to inform me about the extent of open credit, barely allowing me to guess that it constitutes an ‘unlimited’ account. For my part, may the Lord grant that I do not lack respect for Your Lordship, I did not think it right to ask for anything else. Given that, I take care to inform Your Lordship straight away that I shall seek to administer the privilege that he has seen fit to grant me with parsimony and prudence, insofar as this lies within my competence, informing my lord in advance of all use of the sums put at my disposal.�

All that remains to me is to thank Your Lordship once again for his infinite generosity, and to implore Your Lordship’s continuing favour while I await your news.

May merciful God send greetings to my lord and may His magnanimous gaze stay upon this unworthy servant of His Holy Church.

From Augsburg, the 22nd day of the month of June 1526

Your Lordship’s faithful servant

Q.

Letter sent to Rome from the imperial city of Augsburg addressed to Gianpietro Carafa, dated 10 June 1527.

To my most honourable lord, Giovanni Pietro Carafa, who has happily escaped the sinful forces of the barbarian heretics.

The news of knowing Your Lordship safe and sound fills my heart with joy and finally alleviates the pain that has deprived me of sleep throughout these terrible days. The very thought of St Peter’s throne being devastated by new Vandals freezes the blood in my veins. I dare not imagine those terrible visions, and those thoughts of death that must have struck Your most eminent Lordship during those moments. No one can be more familiar than this devoted servant with the brutality and wickedness of the Germans, sinful soldiers filled with beer and disrespectful of any authority, any holy place. I know full well that they consider the plundering of churches, the decapitation of the holy images of the Saints and the Madonna, to be a reward for faith, as well as a pleasure.

But, as Your Lordship has been able to assert in Your missive, the scandal cannot go unpunished: if the all-powerful Lord has been able to castigate the arrogance of those beasts by hurling pestilence upon them, he will not neglect to punish those who opened the cage to them, allowing them to flow through Italy. If not to the Holy Father, the Emperor will have to answer for this in the eyes of God.

The Habsburg, in fact, claims to be unaware that there are whole squads of heretics hidden in his army and in the armies of his princes: Lutherans without respect for anything or anyone. In fact I have reason to believe that it was no coincidence that the conduct of the Italian campaign was entrusted to Georg Frundsberg and his landsknechts. Up here, they are well known for their viciousness and evil, as well as for the sympathy they nurture for Luther. I should not be surprised, to tell the truth, if something which seems today to be the undesirable result of an act of plunder by mercenary barbarians were revealed tomorrow to be the product of a military decision taken by the Emperor. The sacking of Rome weakens the Holy Father and leaves him defenceless in the face of the Habsburg. The latter has thus found a way to be at once the saviour of the Christian faith and the prison warder of the Holy See.

So I can only share Your Lordship’s harsh words of condemnation and contempt when I assert that Charles is placing the autonomy of the Church ever more closely and shamelessly under threat, and that he will have to pay for this final unimaginable affront.

I therefore pray to the Most High that he may help us to solve the great mystery of the iniquity that surrounds us, and that he may grant that Your Lordship stand up to the man who claims to be the defender of the Holy Church of Rome while having no qualms about allowing his evil battalions to lay it waste.

Faithfully and sincerely I beg your leave and kiss your hands

Augsburg, the 10th day of June 1527

Your Lordship’s faithful servant

Q.

Letter sent from the imperial city of Augsburg, addressed to Gianpietro Carafa, dated 17th September 1527.

To the most eminent and reverend Giovanni Pietro Carafa, in Rome.

My most honoured Lord,

At this time heavy with uncertainty I have only been able to appeal to God’s mercy, knowing that His light, through the goodness that Your Lordship continues to manifest towards me, can show this unworthy mortal the way to take in the darkness all around us. And that is why I am reporting on what happened up here in the rotten heart of the Empire, in the hope that even a single one of my words may advance Your Lordship’s intentions.

Electoral Saxony is about to change its own ecclesiastical ordnance: the final act of the work begun ten years ago is about to be completed. Since the death of Frederick the Wise two years ago, his brother John’s intention to continue where his predecessor had to leave off has become clearly apparent. So the new arrangement grants the prince himself the role of choosing parish priests, who are now permitted to take wives; a consistory of doctors and superintendents advises him in his selection; the possessions of the Church are placed under the control of the prince — who will sooner or later proceed to annex them — along with the teaching of the doctrine and the management of the schools; the training of the new levers of Lutheran theologians is thus guaranteed. The first heretical university has been founded in Marburg.

Your Lordship’s modest opinion is that the Lutheran plague is by now invincible by human forces alone, and that the only possibility is to attempt to contain