Part 12 (2/2)

[25] It was the contention of the Church authorities that priests charged with infraction of the laws of the state should first be tried in the ecclesiastical courts If found guilty, they were degraded from the priesthood and handed over to the state authorities for punishradation in the canon law, C 2 in VI, _de poen_ (V, 9) See _Prot Realencyk_, VI, 589

[26] The interdict is the prohibition of the administration of the sacraments and of the other rites of the Church within the territory upon which the interdict is laid (_Realencyk_, IX, 208 f) Its use was not unco the tiht it proved an effectiverefractory rulers to terdoland by Innocent III in 1208

Interdicts of more limited local extent were quite frequent The use of the interdict as punish infractions of church laas a subject of co (1524) See A Wrede, _Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V_, II, pp 685 f, III, 665

[27] The statement of which Luther here complains is found in the Decretum of Gratian, _Dist XL, c 6, Si papa_ In his _Epitome_ (see Introduction, p 58), Prierias had quoted this canon against Luther, as follows: ”_A Pontifex indubitatus_ (i e, a pope who is not accused of heresy or schised either by a council or by the whole world, even if he is so scandalous as to lead people with him by crowds into the possession of hell”

Luther's comment is: ”Be astonished, O heaven; shudder, O earth!

Behold, O Christians, what Roory the Great, pope 590-604 The passage is found in Migne, LXXVI, 203; LXXVII, 34

[29] Antichrist, the incarnation of all that is hostile to Christ and His Kingdom His appearance is prophesied in 2 Thess 2:3-10 (the ” in the temple of God”); 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3, and Rev

13 In the early Church the Fathers soht the prophecies fulfilled in the person of some especially pestilent heretic Wyclif applied the term to the pope,--”the pope would seem to be not the vicar of Christ, but the vicar of Antichrist” (see Loos, _Dogeschichte_, 4th ed, p 649) On Dec 11, 1518, Luther wrote to Link: ”You can see whether my suspicion is correct that at the Roman court the true Antichrist rules of whom St Paul speaks”; and March 13, 1519, he wrote to Spalatin: ”I am not sure but that the pope is Antichrist or his apostle” It was the worldly pretensions of the papacy which suggested the idea both to Wyclif and to Luther By the year 1520 Luther had come to the definite conclusion that the pope was the ” in the temple of God,” and this opinion he never surrendered

[30] See above, p 65

[31] According to acaderee was authorised to expound the subject naree

[32] The doctrine of papal infallibility was never officially sanctioned in the Middle Ages, but the claim of infallibility was repeatedly made by the chaustinus Triumphus (died 1328) in his _Summa de potestate Papae_ In his attack upon the XCV Theses (_Dialogus de potestate Papae_, Dec, 1517) Prierias had asserted, ”The supre a decision as pontiff, i e, speaking officially (_ex officio_), and doing what in hiain, ”Whoever does not rest upon the teaching of the Roman Church and the supreme pontiff as an infallible rule of faith, froor and authority, is a heretic” (_Erl Ed, op var arg_, I, 348) In the _Epitoularis persona_) can do wrong and hold a wrong faith, nevertheless as pope he cannot give a wrong decision” (_Weimar Ed_, VI, 337)

[33] Most recently in Prierias's _Epito note

[34] Luther had discussed the whole subject of the power of the keys in a Latin treatise, _Resolutio super propositione xiii de potestate papae_, of 1519 (_Weimar Ed_, II, pp 185 ff), and in the German treatise _The Papacy at Rome_ (Vol I, pp 337-394)

[35] Pp 66 ff

[36] Another contention of Prierias In 1518 (Nov 25th) Luther had appealed his cause from the decision of the pope, which he foresaould be adverse, to the decision of a council to be held at some future time In the _Epito other things, that ”when there is one undisputed pontiff, it belongs to him alone to call a council,” and that ”the decrees of councils neither bind nor hold (_nulluunt_) unless they are confirmed by authority of the Roman pontiff” (_Wei of people

[38] The Council of Nicaea, the first of the great councils of the Church, assembled in 325 for the settlement of the Arian controversy

Luther's statement that it was called by the Emperor Constantine, and that its decisions did not derive their validity from any papal confirmation, is historically correct On Luther's statements about this council, see _Schaffer, _Luther als Kirchenhistoriker_, pp 291 ff; Kohler, Luther und die Kg, pp 148 ff

[39] Luther is here referring to the earlier so-called ”ecumenical”

councils

[40] i e, A council which will not be subject to the pope Cf

_Erl Ed_, xxvi, 112

[41] i e, They belong to the ”spiritual estate”; see above, p 69

[42] _Der Haufe_, i e Christians considered _en ard to official position in the Church

[43] The papal crown dates froinning of the XIV It was intended to signify that very superiority of the pope to the rulers of this world, of which Luther here complains See _Realencyk_, X, 532, and literature there cited

[44] A stateustinus Triumphus See above, p 73, note 5; and below, p 246

[45] The Cardinal della Rovere, afterwards Pope Julius II, held at one tina, Lausanne, Coutances, Viviers, Mende, Ostia and Velletri, and the abbacies of Nonantola and Grottaferrata This is but one illustration of the scandalous pluralise Mod Hist_, I, pp 650 f