Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/103

 Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church 65 We have recently held a disputation at Leipzig, before a great audience of most learned men, coming together from all parts, by which (praise, honor, and glory to God !) the reputation of the Wittenberg party has been very much les- sened even among the common people, while among the learned it is for the most part quite gone. You should have heard the rashness of the men, how blind they are and how undaunted in their wickedness. Luther denies that Peter was the chief of the apostles ; he declares that ecclesiastical obedience is not of divine right, but that it was brought in by human appointment or that of the emperor. He denies that the Church was built upon Peter : " Upon this rock," etc. And though I quoted to him Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Leo and Bernard, with Theophilus, he contradicted them all without a blush ; and said that he would stand alone against a thousand, though supported by no other, because Christ only is the foundation of the Church, for other foundation can no man lay. I demolished that by quoting Revelations xii, about the twelve foundations, whereupon he defended the Greeks and schismatics, saying that even if they are not under obedience to the pope, still they are saved. Concerning the tenets of the Bohemians, he said that some of those teachings condemned in the council of Con- stance are most Christian and evangelical ; by which rash error he frightened away and caused to desert him many who before were his supporters. Among other things, when I pressed upon him, "If the. power of the pope is only of human right and by the con- sent of believers, whence comes your monk's costume that you wear ? Whence have you the power of preaching and of hearing the confessions of your parishioners," etc., he replied that he wished there were no order of mendicants, and said many other scandalous and absurd things : that a council, because they are men, can err ; that it is not proved from sacred Scripture that there is a purgatory, etc., — all this you will see by reading our disputation, since it was written down by most faithful notaries. . ..