Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/115

 Martin Luther and his Revolt against the Church J J help, however grievously the eye may suffer. Is it not unnatural, not to say unchristian, that one member may not help another, even to shield it from destruction ? Nay, the nobler the member, the more the others are bound to help it. Therefore I say, forasmuch as the temporal power has been ordained by God for the chastisement of the wicked and the protection of the good, therefore we must let it exercise its functions, unhampered, throughout the whole Christian body without respect of persons, whether it strikes popes, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or whatever. . . . It must indeed have been the archfiend himself who said, as we read in the canon law, " Were the pope so perniciously wicked as to be dragging souls in crowds to the devil, yet he could not be deposed." x This is the accursed, devilish foun- dation on which they build at Rome, and think the whole world may go to the devil rather than that they should be opposed in their knavery. Tf a man were to escape punish- ment simply because he was above his fellows, then no Christian might punish another, since Christ has commanded that each of us esteem himself the lowest and humblest of all (Matt, xviii. 4; Luke ix. 48). The second wall is even more flimsy and tottering than The second the first, — namely, the claim that they alone are masters of ™ all. : th(e . x ' elusive claim the Scriptures. Although they learn nothing in them all of the pope their life long, they assume the sole authority, juggle impu- to interpret dently with empty words, saying the pope cannot err, be he Scn P ture - pious or wicked ; albeit they cannot show so much as a single letter in proof of it. That is why the canon law 1 This is the substance of a passage attributed to St. Bo niface, the apostle to the Germans, and included by Gratian in his Decretu7ii (Prima Pars, Dist. XL, c. 6 : Si papa). " If indeed the pope be found neglect- ing his own and his brethren's salvation ; lax and remiss in his duties, and silent as to the good which most concerns himself and all ; and should he, moreover, hell's chief slave, be dragging after him innumer- able hosts and peoples to suffer manifold and eternal pains, — yet may no mortal presume to reprove him, for he is set as judge over all, and is judged by none, — unless mayhap he be taken straying from the way of faith." Luther knew the canon law well enough to use it as a weapon against his opponents.