Note 483 — Chapter XIV

To Spalatin, November 30, 1524 (“Briefwechsel,” 5, p. 77): “Animus alienus est a coniugio, cum expectem quotidie mortem et meritum hæretici supplicium.” This he wrote under the influence of the stringent decrees of the Diet of Nuremberg (April 18, 1524), and in order to work upon his Elector. The decrees had led him to write: “You are in a great hurry to put me, a poor man, to death,” but that his death would be the undoing of his enemies. “Two unequal decrees of the Emperor,” “Werke,” Erl. ed., 24², p. 222 f.; Weim. ed., 15, p. 254.