Part 8 (2/2)
[Sidenote: Abolition of Reserved Cases]
6 The _casus reservati_[128], the ”reserved cases,” should also be abolished, for not only are they thetyrants ensnare and confuse many poor consciences, to the intolerable injury of their faith in God This is especially true of the ridiculous and childish cases about which they make so much ado in the Bull _Coena Do daily sins, still less cases so grave that the pope ence; as for exa weapons to the Turks, or taross, crazy, clus do they make fools of us! Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the sins which are coainst the coainst what God has never commanded and what they have themselves devised, these must be reserved cases, solely that no one be hindered in bringing money to Rome, in order that, safe from the Turks, they may live in luxury and keep the world under their tyranny with their wanton, useless bulls and breves[130]
All priests ought rightly to know, or else there should be a public ordinance to that effect, that no secret sin, of which a man has not been publicly accused, is a reserved case, and that every priest has the power to re as they are secret; moreover that no abbot, bishop or pope has the power to reserve any such case to himself[131] If they attempt it, their reservation does not hold and is not valid, and they should be reproved, as norant consciences But if great public sins are coainst God's commandments, then there is indeed a reason for reserved cases, but even then there should not be too many of them, and they should not be reserved arbitrarily and without cause; for Christ has set in His Church not tyrants, but shepherds, as saith St Peter [1 Pet 5:3]
[Sidenote: Diminution of the Papal Household]
7 The Roman See should also do aith the _officia_[132], and diminish the swarm of vermin at Rome, so that the pope's household can be supported by the pope's own purse The pope should not allow his court to surpass in po that such a condition not only has never been serviceable to the cause of Christian faith, but the courtiers have been kept thereby from study and prayer, until they are scarce able to speak about the faith at all This they proved quite plainly at the last Rost s, they decreed that the soul of man is immortal and that every priesthis benefice How shall matters which concern faith and the Church be decided by people so hardened and blinded by great avarice, wealth and worldly splendor, that they have only now decreed that the soul is immortal? It is no sracefully with the faith If they had less wealth and pomp, they could pray and study better, and so become worthy and able to deal with matters of faith, as was the case in olden tis over all kings
[Sidenote: Bishops' Oaths]
8 The hard and terrible oaths should be abolished, which the bishops are wrongfully compelled to render to the pope[134], and by which they are bound like servants, as that worthless and unlearned chapter, _Significasti_[135], arbitrarily and h that they burden us in body, soul and property with their many mad laws, by which faith is weakened and Christendom ruined; but they seize upon the person and office and work of the bishops, and now upon the investiture[136] also, which was in olden tiht of the Gers to the kings On this point they had great wars and disputes with the emperors[137] until at last, with iht and have kept it until now; just as though the Germans, above all the Christians on earth, had to be the puppets of the pope and the Roman See and do and suffer what no one else will do and suffer
Since, then, this is sheer violence and robbery, hindering the regular authority of the bishops and injuring poor souls, therefore the emperor and his nobles are in duty bound to prevent and punish such tyranny
[Sidenote: Pope and Emperor]
9 The pope should have no authority over the emperor, except that he anoints and crowns hi[138]; and we should not henceforth yield to that devilish pride which compels the emperor to kiss the pope's feet or sit at his feet, or, as they claim, hold his stirrup or the bridle of his e and swear faithful allegiance to the pope, as the popes have shaht The chapter _Solite_[139], in which the papal authority is raised above the imperial authority, is not worth a heller, nor are any of those who rest upon it or fear it; for it does nothing else than force the holy words of God out of their true , and wrest them to human dreams, as I have showed in a Latin treatise[140]
Such extravagant, over-presus of the pope have been devised by the devil, in order that under their cover hein Antichrist, and raise the pope above God, asand have done It is not proper for the pope to exalt himself above the temporal authorities, save only in spiritual offices such as preaching and absolving In other things he is to be subject, as Paul and Peter teach, in Romans xiii [Rom 13:1], and I Peter iii [1 Pet 2:13 f], and as I have said above
He is not vicar of Christ in heaven, but of Christ as He walked on earth [Phil 2:7][142] For Christ in heaven, in the form of a ruler, needs no vicar, but He sits and sees, does, and knows all things, and has all power But He needs a vicar in the for, preaching, suffering and dying Now they turn it around, take froive it to the pope, leaving the forht almost be the ”Counter-christ” whom the Scriptures call Antichrist, for all his nature, work and doings are against Christ, for the destruction of Christ's nature and work
It is also ridiculous and childish that the pope, with such perverted and deluded reasoning, boasts in his decretal _Pastoralis_[143], that he is rightful heir to the Eht? Did Christ, when He said, ”The princes of the Gentiles are lords, but ye shall not be so” [Luke 22:25 f]? Did St Peter will it to hiross, crazy lies in the canon law, and must even hold them for Christian doctrine, when they are devilish lies Of the same sort is also that unheard-of lie about the ”Donation of Constantine”[144] It ue of God that sohave let the such lies as these, which are so manifest and clumsy that I should think any drunken peasant could lie more adroitly and skilfully How can a man rule an empire and at the same time continue to preach, pray, study and care for the poor? Yet these are the duties which properly and peculiarly belong to the pope, and they were imposed by Christ in such earnest that He even forbade His disciples to take with them cloak or money [Matt 10:10], since these duties can scarcely be perforle household Yet the pope would rule an empire and continue to be pope! This is a device of the knaves ould like, under the pope's name, to be lords of the world, and by means of the pope and the name of Christ, to restore the Roman Empire to its fordom of Naples]
10 The pope should restrain hiers out of the pie, and claidoht to that kingdom as I have, and yet he wishes to be its overlord It is plunder got by violence, like almost all his other possessions The erant hiive his consent to it, and should point him instead to the Bible and the prayer-books, so that heof lands and peoples, especially when no one has given them to him
[Sidenote: The States of the Church]
The sana, Imola, Vicenza, Ravenna and all the territories in the Mark of Ancona, in Rona, and in other Italian lands, which the pope has taken by force and possesses without right[146] Moreover, he has ainst all the commands of Christ and of St Paul For thus saith St
Paul, ”No one entangleth himself orldly affairs, whose business it is to wait upon the divine knighthood”[147][2 Tihthood, yet heWhy then he hthood Christ also, Whose vicar he boasts hiht to do with temporal rule; indeed, to one who asked of hi his brother He said, ”Who e over you?” [Luke 12:14] But the pope rushes in unbidden, and boldly takes hold of everything as though he were a God, until he no longer knohat Christ is, Whose vicar he pretends to be
[Sidenote: Papal Ho of the pope's feet[148] should take place nofor a poor sinful man to let his feet be kissed by one who is a hundred times better than himself If it is done in honor of his authority, why does not the pope do the same to others in honor of their holiness? Compare the two--Christ and the pope! Christ washed His disciples' feet and dried them [John 13:1 ff], and the disciples never washed His feet; the pope, as though he were higher than Christ, turns things around and, as a great favor, allows people to kiss his feet, though he ought properly to use all his power to prevent it, if anyone wished to do it; like Paul and Barnabas, ould not let the people of Lystra pay them divine honor, but said, ”We are one so far as to make for us an idol, and now no one ears God so much as he fears the pope, no one pays Him such ceremonious honor That they can endure! What they cannot endure is that a hair's-breadth should be taken away from the proud estate of the pope Now if they were Christians, and held God's honor above their own, the pope would never be happy while he knew that God's honor was despised and his own exalted, and he would let no ain exalted and was greater than his own
[149][It is another piece of the same scandalous pride, that the pope is not satisfied to ride or to be driven in a vehicle, but although he is strong and in good health, he has himself borne by men, with unheard-of splendor, like an idol How, pray, does such satanic pride agree with the example of Christ, Who went on foot, as did all His disciples? Where has there ever been a worldly lory as he ishes to be the head of all those who are to despise and lee worldly glory, i e, of Christians? Not that this in itself should give us very htly fear the wrath of God, if we flatter this kind of pride and do not show our indignation It is enough that the pope should rant and play the fool in this wise; but that we should approve it and tolerate it,--this is too ht to take pleasure in seeing that when the pope wishes to receive the coracious lord, and has the sacra cardinal on bended knee? As though the holy sacra sinner, should rise to show God honor, when all other Christians, who are much more holy than the Most Holy Father, the pope, receive it with all reverence! Would it be a wonder if God were to send a plague upon us all because we suffer such dishonor to be done Him by our prelates, and approve it, and by our silence or our flattery make ourselves partakers of such damnable pride?
It is the same hen he carries the sacrament in procession He must be carried, but the sacrament is set before him, like a can of wine on the table In short, at Ro; and yet they would compel us with threats to approve, and praise and honor such antichristian sins, though this is against God and against all Christian doctrine Now God help a free Council to teach the pope that he too is a man, and is not more than God, as he presues to Roes to Rome[150] should either be abolished, or else no one should be allowed to e out of curiosity or because of a pious inized by his parish-priest, his town authorities or his overlord, that he has good and sufficient reason for it I say this not because pilgries are bad, but because they are at this tiood example, but only that which offends; and they have themselves made the proverb, ”The nearer Ro back with them contempt or God and His cooes to Rome he seeks a rascal, the second tis him home with him”[152] Noever, they have become so clever that they ht back fros that it were better never to have seen or known Rome
Even if this reason did not exist, there is still another and a better: to wit, that by these pilgriesof the divine coe is a precious, good work, and this is not true It is a very sood work, oftentimes an evil, delusive work, for God has not commanded it But He has commanded that a man shall care for his wife and children, and look after such other duties as belong to the hbor Now it coe to Rome when no one has coulden, more or less, and leaves his wife and child, or at least his neighbor, at holoss over such disobedience and conte, when it is really only curiosity or devilish delusion which leads hi with their false, feigned, foolish, ”golden years,”[153] by which the people are excited, stirred up, torn away from God's cos Thus they have acco they should have forbidden; but it has brought in thened false authority, therefore it has had to continue, though it is against God and the salvation of souls
In order to destroy in simple Christians this false, seductive faith, and to restore a true understanding of good works, all pilgriood--no commandment, no obedience--but, on the contrary, nu of God's cori when they are not in want Hence, too, coe, and many other ills which I shall not now recount
If any one, noishes to go on pilgririm's vow, he should first show his reasons to his parish-priest or to his lord