Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/236

 troversy, have been so harassed by the Pope's authority, • would Rome have yet changed the Catholic faith into >ther. For now the head of that faith, though a mere man, >ivs divine honors to be paid to him, despising the example hiiiiy who, though he was God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant/ It is commonly said at Rome, even ' those who seem to have sense, that it is impossible that aythingf which pleases the Pope should not be most Christian, ven if it goes counter to a hundred Pauls and the whole Jible. For they say he is Christ's vicar and is guided by the Holy Spirit, and they bandy about some texts of Scripture l)adly understood, by which they try to stop the mouths of their opponents at the beginning of the argument.

What good, therefore, will your controversy do us? What fruit will the Scriptures bear us, when we disregard all other authority? None, forsooth, unless princes and bishops deem it more holy to defend the Word of God than to pour out a mighty quantity of gold for all their pallia, indulgences, bulls, trifles and nonsense, to enable the holy fathers to support their harlots and male prostitutes. As, in conversation with a certain Dominican master, I was once blaming the immoder- ate license of Rome, by which the people of Christendom were oppressed and their morals polluted, he replied that it was all done by divine Providence, and that we should not question the will of God. I answered: "If crimes can be defended under the plea of Providence, it would be much more holy to cut them down by the authority of Scripture, the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.* For we know the will of God only from the testimony of Scripture, which has issued from the mouth of the Most High."*

I tell you this, Martin, that you may understand how little it avails at Rome to say, "Thy testimonies, Lord, are wonder- ful, therefore doth my soul keep them."* For they have got to such a degree of impiety that the words "good Christian"

>Plinii»piaiis, !i. 6f. sEphemant, ti. 17.

tC/. Calrin's saying that the BiUe flowed "ex ipsissimo Dei ore." The 'Trote^ tant principle" of the snpreme authority of the Bible waa thus eariy gaininf ground.


 * Psalm, cxix. s»g.

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