In the opening pages Luther set the pace, speaking of the Duke rubbing «his scabby and
scurvy head»
against the Elector, saying that the Duke «curses, blasphemes, shrieks, struggles, bellows, and spits», and says that such books as the Duke's «make me tingle with pleasure from head to toe when I see that through me, poor wretched man that I am, God the Lord maddens and exasperates the hellish and worldly princes... while I sit under the shade of faith and the Lord's Prayer, laughing at the devils and their crew as they blubber and struggle in their great fury».