not object generally to the evangelical doctrines, but there is
much in Luther's teachings which I dislike. He runs everything which
he touches into extravagance. Do not fear that I shall oppose
evangelical truth. I left many faults in him unnoticed, lest I should
injure the gospel. I hope mankind will be the better for the acrid
medicines with which he has dosed them. Perhaps we needed a surgeon
who would use knife and cautery.[44]

[Footnote 44: From a letter to Melanchthon.]

Your Holiness[45] requires my advice, and you wish to see me. I would
go to you with pleasure if my health allowed. But the road over the
Alps is long. The lodgings on the way are dirty and inconvenient. The
smell from the stoves is intolerable. The wine is sour and disagrees
with me. As to writing against Luther, I have not learning enough. One
party says I agree with Luther because I do not oppose him. The other
finds fault with me because I do oppose him. I did what I could. I
advised him to be moderate, and I only made his friends my enemies.
They quote this and that to show we are alike. I could find a hundred
passages where St. Paul seems to teach the doctrines which they
condemn in Luther. I did not anticipate what a time was coming. I did,
I admit, help to bring it on; but I was always willing to submit what
I wrote to the Church. Those counsel you best who advise gentle
measures. Your Holiness wishes to set things right, and you say to me,
"Come to Rome. Write a book against Luther. Declare war against his
party." Come to Rome? Tell a crab to fly. The crab will say, "Give me
wings." I say, "Give me back my youth and strength." If I write
anything at Rome, it will be thought that I am bribed. If I write
temperately, I shall seem trifling. If I copy Luther's style, I shall
stir a hornets' nest.

[Footnote 45: From a letter to Adrian VI, who became Pope in 1522.]

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

Born in 1547, died in 1616; of a poor but noble family;
studied at Salamanca; served as a chamberlain to the future
Cardinal Aquaviva in Rome in 1570; in the army under Don
John of Austria against the Turks; lost the use of his left
arm in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571; taken prisoner and
spent five years in slavery in Algiers, being ransomed in
1580; returned to Spain and married in 1584; imprisoned for
debt and served as an amanuensis; wrote the first part of
"Don Quixote" at Valladolid in 1603; retur