THAT THESE WORDS OF CHRIST, “THIS IS MY BODY,” ETC., STILL STAND FIRM AGAINST THE FANATICS 1527

Even if I too can convert no arch-fanatic, yet I shall leave nothing undone, God willing, to place the truth clearly and plainly before their eyes and win away some of their disciples, or at least to strengthen the simple and weak and protect them from the fanatics’ poison. Even if I do not succeed in this (from which may God protect me), at any rate I will have made my testimony before God and all the world, and declared that I have nothing to do with these blasphemers of the sacrament and fanatics, nor have I ever had, nor will I ever have, God willing; and I shall wash my hands of all the blood of those souls whom they steal, murder, and seduce from Christ with their poison. I am innocent of it, and have done my part. On my own account, of course, I dare not write against them. But their own writings are my strength. When I read these they fill me with strength and joy, because I see that though the devil rages so bitterly against God’s Word, yet God permits him no more than to spew out feeble, stale, rotten obscenities, so that I must say, “You would like to, but you can’t!” -Martin Luther