same time; Count Albrecht of Mansfeld denounced Agricola to the Elector
as a dangerous, troublesome man. Hereupon the Elector on June 15 1540,
opened formal legal proceedings against Agricola, who, as stated above,
removed to Berlin in August without awaiting the trial, although he had
promised with an oath not to leave before a legal decision had been
rendered. (Drews, 611.) Incensed by the treacherous conduct of Agricola,
Luther, September 10, 1540, held a final disputation on a sixth series
of theses against the Antinomians, charging them with destroying all
order human as well as divine. (St. L. 20, 1647; E. 4, 441.)

Regarding Agricola's duplicity, Luther, in his _Report_ to Brueck, said
in substance: According to the statements of Caspar Guettel and
Wendelin Faber, Agricola had for years secretly agitated against the
Wittenbergers and founded a sect at Eisleben calling themselves
Minorish [Minorists]; he had branded and slandered their doctrine as
false and impure, and this, too, without conferring with them or
previously admonishing them; he had come to Wittenberg for the purpose
of corrupting and distracting the Church; his adherents had made the
statement that Eisleben would teach the Wittenbergers theology and
logic; he had inveigled Hans Lufft into printing his Postil by falsely
stating that it had been read and approved by Luther; in his dealings
with the Wittenbergers he had acted not as an honest man, let alone a
pious Christian and theologian, but treacherously and in keeping with
his antinomian principles; parading as a loyal Lutheran at public
conventions and laughing and dining with them, he had misled "his old,
faithful friend" [Luther] to confide in him, while secretly he was
acting the traitor by maligning him and undermining his work. In the
_Report_ we read: "Agricola blasphemes and damns our doctrine as impure
and false (_i.e._, the Holy Spirit Himself in His holy Law); he slanders
and defames us Wittenbergers most infamously wherever he can; and all
this he does treacherously and secretly, although we have done him no
harm, but only did well by him, as he himself must admit. He deceives
and attacks us [me], his best friend and father, making me believe that
he is our true friend. Nor does he warn me, but, like a desperate
treacherous villain, secretly works behind our back to cause the people
to forsake our doctrine and to adhere to him, thus treating us with an
ungratefulness, pride, and haughti