Many of the letters in this volume, which covers the period August 1530 to March 1531, reflect Erasmus’ anxieties over events at the Diet of Augsburg (June-November 1530), at which the first
of many attempts to achieve a negotiated settlement of the religious division in Germany came to a rancorous conclusion, thus fostering the fear that religious controversy would eventually
lead to war. His other chief concerns were the continued attacks on him by Catholic critics who regarded him as a clandestine Lutheran, and the insistence of many evangelical reformers that
he was their spiritual father. The literary output of the period covered includes major works aimed at members of both groups.