In honor of Reformation Day (and on the heels of another viewing of Luther) I post this writing, titled Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil.

This writing is one of (if not the) last works of Martin Luther published before his death. From the opening line (The Most Hellish Father, St. Paul III, in his supposed capacity as the bishop of the Roman church…) the reader can see the clear polemical nature of the writing.

In it you find the degree to which Luther had come to loathe the corrupt system known as the Papacy. In fact, the vitriol spilled against the Pope leads one to wonder where the quest for truth and right practice strays out of bounds regarding Christian charity. You will find in the reading Luther in full gale force – raging against a system he rightly saw as defiled and exploitive of the faithful.

I hope the writing helps you to see Luther more clearly, as the man that he was – a man of great passions who was divinely used to recover the gospel but a man nonetheless.

Note: I found this translation sometime over the course of last year some time spent searching for it online. I thought I had saved the original link in the text I stored on my hard drive but alas I did not. If anyone knows from whence it originates, please let me know. Also, some of the language contained herein will be viewed by some as offensive. I’ve attempted to honor the original translator(s?) work by not editing out anything from the text.

Introduction
This treatise, the most bitter of Luther’s polemic writings, is intimately related to the political power struggle between pope and emperor. The struggle reached its climax when Charles V made many concessions to the German Protestant princes at the Diet of Spires in 1544 in order to gain their support for his war against Francis I of France and the Turks. The Recess of June 10, 1544,1 guaranteed ecclesiastical revenues to holders of Protestant benefices, the suspension of lawsuits against Protestants already in progress at the supreme court (Reichskammergericht), and the abolition of Recesses passed by previous diets against Protestants. Moreover, it announced plans for another German diet at which a “Christian reformation by devout and peace loving men” would be discussed. The Recess did not even mention the pope or ecclesiastical authority.

When the contents of the Recess became known in Rome, Pope Paul III immediately convoked a consistory and had an admonitory brief drawn up against the emperor.2 He charged Cardinal Giovanni Morone, who was at that time in Lyons, France, with its delivery to the imperial court. The brief, originally consisting of two drafts3. The first was more radical than the second was completed on August 24. It accused the emperor of interference in the rights of the Apostolic See, demanded the withdrawal of all concessions made to Protestants, and threatened, in careful terminology, stern papal action if the emperor should refuse to comply. Finally, the assertion was made that the general council, rather than an imperial diet, should create a settlement of the religious issues dividing Germany, thus repeating the fundamental principle of medieval papalism, that Rome is to be arbiter in temporal affairs and judge in religious affairs.

The admonitory brief, however, never accomplished its purpose, due to a series of diplomatic mishaps:4 Cardinal Morone could not be located by the papal emissary at the imperial court in Brussels, whence Charles V was directing his war against France. When the emperor refused to see the emissary, the brief was returned to Rome, and a copy was left in Brussels. By the time the emperor learned the contents of the document, it was outdated; a peace had been negotiated on September 18, 1544, between Charles V and Francis I, in which they agreed that a general council should be held at Trent, and Pope Paul III felt compelled to congratulate them in two further briefs composed in October, 1544. The consistory then proposed, on November 14, to convoke the general council March 25, 1545, at Trent.

Both drafts of the papal admonitory brief were already known to German Protestants by December 1544, through friends in Venice. Rumors of its existence had reached Elector John Frederick of Saxony in October; copies of both drafts were delivered to him on December 27, through Philip of Hesse, the leader of the Smalcald League. Luther received them sometime before January 1545, and immediately started a furious refutation, which was published on March 25, the day the Council of Trent was to convene. Thus Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil became a key instrument of Protestant propaganda against papal diplomacy.5
The treatise was meant to propagate political Protestantism, although Luther would certainly have written it even without the encouragement of the elector and the leaders of the Smalcald League. Within two months of publication it was praised by Landgrave Philip of Hesse, delivered to King Christian III of Denmark, and read with anger by papal legates to the Diet of Worms and Trent. A series of cartoons by Lucas Cranach, created in the same year and probably intended to serve as illustrations of the treatise, also appeared.6 Justus Jonas, Luther’s friend, translated the treatise into Latin in November, 1545, thus assuring its international distribution. Luther meant to edit the translation and send it to Trent, but was prevented from doing so by his illness; he died on February 18, 1546.

The treatise is Luther’s last great testimony against the papacy, which he called “my great anguish” (meine grosse Anfechtung). He dealt here with three questions: (1) whether it is true that the pope is supreme lord over Christendom, councils, angels, and everything else; (2) whether it is true that no one can judge or depose him; and (3) whether it is true that he brought the reign of the Roman Empire from the Greeks to the Germans, that is, whether German emperors could receive the title “Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation” only from the pope a fiction fostered by the popes since the coronation of Charles the Great by Leo III in 800.7 Luther seemed to know that he had not much time left death would come soon, but not before the fiercest enemy of his cause, the papacy, received his scorn and violent condemnation.

This polemical tract, like Against Hanswurst, reveals the faith and wrath of the old Luther. Yet one should not forget that his tracts usually originated as replies against equally abusive and violent attacks.8 “Dogmatic, superstitious, intolerant, overbearing, and violent as he was, he yet had that inscrutable prerogative of genius of transforming what he touched into new values.”9

The first edition of the treatise was printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg. The title page carried a woodcut showing the pope in the jaws of hell.10 Four German editions and two Latin translations appeared in the first year, followed by two more German editions in 1565. The translation is based upon the first edition; the text is given in WA 54, 206ï·“299. I want to thank Miss Doris Jackson for her help in the preparation of this translation.

1 For the text of the Recess of the Imperial Diet, cf. J. C. Lunig, Deutsches Reichsarchiv (24 vols.; Leipzig, 1710ï·“1722), 11, 721ï·“744. A detailed account of the events between the Diet of Spires and the Council of Trent is given in Ernest Graf (trans.), Hubert Jedin’s A History of the Council of Trent (2 vols.; St. Louis: Herder, 1957), 1, 494ï·“544.
2 Jedin, op. cit., pp. 497499.
3 Cf. Stephanus Ehses, Concilii Tridentini Actorum Pars Prima (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1904), Nos. 276, 277.
4 For a more detailed account, see Jedin, op. cit., pp. 499ï·“504.
5 In March, 1545, John Calvin also produced a propaganda tract by publishing the text of the brief with sarcastic comments. His Paternal Admonition of Pope Paul III (Admonitio Paterna Pauli III Romani Pontificis), published in Geneva, is available in C.R. 35, 249ï·“288.
6 The picture series is found in Fritz Hermann (ed.), Lutherbibliothek des Paulusï·“Museums der Stadt Worms (2nd ed.; Darmstadt, 1922). Cf. the description of the pictures and their origins in WA 54, 346ï·“373, and Hartmann Grisar and Franz Heege (eds.), Luthers Kampfbilder, Vol. IV of Die “Abbildung des Papsttums” und andere Kampfbilder in Flugblattern 1538ï·“1545 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1923). Cranach (1472ï·“1553) also produced woodcuts for Luther’s German Bible and many of his pamphlets.
7 Luther had already dealt with the question in An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility (1520). PE 2, 57ï·“164.
8 Earlier collections of Luther’s works usually printed these attacks and replies together. See, for example, St. L. 15 and 18.
9 Quoted in Schwiebert, Luther and His Times, p. 747, from Preserved Smith, The Age of the Reformation.
10 Cf. the description of cartoon No. 8 in WA 54, 351.

Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil

The Most Hellish Father, St. Paul III, in his supposed capacity as the bishop of the Roman church, has written two briefs1 to Charles V, our lord emperor, wherein he appears almost furious, growling and boasting, according to the example of his predecessors, that neither an emperor nor anyone else has the right to convoke a council, even a national one, except solely the pope; he alone has the power to institute, ordain, and create everything which is to be believed and done in the church. He has also issued a papal bull2 (if one may speak like that) for about the fifth time; now the council is once again to take place in Trent, but with the condition that no one attend except his own scum, the Epicureans and those agreeable to him whereupon I felt great desire to reply, with God’s grace and aid. Amen!

First, I beg you, for God’s sake, whoever you are, a Christian, indeed, even if you still have natural reason, tell me whether you can understand or comprehend what kind of a council that would be, or whether it could be a council, if that abominable abomination in Rome, who calls himself pope, has such reservation, power, and authority to tear up, change, and ruin everything that is decided in the council, as most of his decrees bellow. Doesn’t it seem to you, my dear brother in Christ, or my dear natural reason friend, that such a council would have to be nothing but a farce, a carnival act put on to amuse the pope.

What is the use of spending such great pains and effort on a council if the pope has decided beforehand that anything done in the council should be subjected to him, that nothing should be done unless it pleased him very much, and that he wants the power to condemn everything? To avoid all this trouble it would be better to say, “Most Hellish Father, since it makes no difference at all what is or will be decided before or in or after the council, we would rather (without any council) believe in and worship Your Hellishness. Just tell us beforehand what we must do; “Good Teacher, what shall I do?” [Mark 10:17]. Then we shall sing the glad hymn to Your Hellishness, “Virgin before, in, and after childbearing,”3 since you are the pure Virgin Mary, who has not sinned and cannot sin for ever more. If not, then tell us, for God’s sake, what need or use there is in councils, since Your Hellishness has such great power over them that they are to be nothing, if it does not please Your Hellishness. Or prove to us poor, obedient “simple Christians”4 whence Your Hellishness has such power. Where are the seals and letters from your superior that grant such things to you? Where is written evidence which will make us believe this? Won’t Your Hellishness show us these things? Well then, we shall diligently search for them ourselves, and with God’s help we shall certainly find them shortly.

Meanwhile, we see and hear what a masterly conjurer the pope is. He is like a magician who conjures gulden into the mouths of silly people, but when they open their mouths they have horse dirt in them. So this shameful fop Paul III calls for a council now for the fifth time, so that anyone who hears the words must think he is serious. But before we can turn around, he has conjured horse dirt into our mouths, for he wants to have a council over which he can exercise his power, and whose decisions he could trample on. The very devil himself would thank him for such a council, and no one but the miserable devil, together with his mother, his sister, and his whoring children, pope, cardinals, and the rest of his devilish scum in Rome will get there.

It is now the twenty fourth year since the first imperial diet was held at Worms under Emperor Charles, at which I personally stood before the emperor and the whole empire. It was the common wish of all estates of the empire in this same diet that several great and intolerable abuses (which were there named and afterward pointed out to Pope Adrian at the Diet of Nurnberg and printed, a copy of which is still available)5 should be eliminated by the pope and clergy, or the estates would do it themselves. Moreover, it was desired that His Imperial Majesty should ask the pope to call for and hold a general free Christian council in Germany or set up a national council, which the good emperor has until now done diligently; but he has been unable to accomplish anything with the popes. This is why the three words, “free, Christian, council,” have remained on everyone’s lips in the German lands.

These three words, “free, Christian, German,” are to the pope and the Roman court nothing but sheer poison, death, devil, and hell; he cannot stand them, nor see or hear them. That’s the way it is! It is certain that he would rather let himself be torn to pieces and would rather become Turkish or devilish or whatever else would help him. This is the reason: in the year 1415 a council was held in Constance, Germany, wherein John Huss and Jerome6 were martyred; three popes were deposed;7 and a fourth, Martin V,8 elected. But the worst and most abominable item which so horrifies the pope is the one decided and established there that a council is superior to the pope, not the pope to the council; also, that a council has the power to judge, sentence, punish, elect, or depose the pope, and not the contrary, that the pope could judge, sentence, or change the council. Ow, ouch, oh! That little item hurts them, that sting sticks deep in their heart, that stone nearly flattens their heart; this time they got burned, they won’t come back for more, they would rather let the whole world bathe and drown in blood, as Pope Eugene did when he brought about great murder and bloodshed through the French Dauphin at Strasburg, so that he could break up the Council of Basel, which had started, according to the example and order of the Council of Constance, and had already chosen a pope Amadeus, count of Savoy, called Felix V.9 But if there was to be peace, this same pope had to abdicate and the council fall, for they cannot and will not again risk the terrible experience they suffered at Constance.

Now the Council of Constance, which was unholy enough, nevertheless had great and inescapable needs and compelling reasons to establish and resolve that a council must be above the pope and not the pope above a council, for there were three popes, not one of whom wished to yield to the others. Thus there was great disorder, and chaos reigned in the whole Roman church, as one pope banned the other, one took the other’s endowments and prebends, for each wanted to be the sole pope over everything no good could come of this. This confusion lasted for about thirty-nine years,10 so that the whole world cried and begged for a council in order to have a single pope again. For at that time men were of the opinion that Christendom could not exist without a pope. Thereupon the five nations of Germany, Italy, France, England, and Spain joined to help bring about a council at Constance, which the emperor Sigismund11 convened after great effort.

Now if the council were to depose the popes, it had to reach an agreement beforehand and resolve that a council is to be above the pope and has the power and right to depose him, for papal law prohibits an inferior to depose a superior. Thus their great need compelled them as one had to depose at least two popes, whereas the third would remain to decide beforehand that they had the power and the right to depose the popes. So it was then and there decided that the pope was under the council and not above the council, despite the fact that for so many centuries beforehand the pope had cried himself hoarse and bellowed until he nearly died through all his decrees and decretals that said he was above all councils, above all the world, even above all the angels in heaven; that is, he was God’s vicar on earth and an earthly god, and so many other abominable things that are terrible for a Christian heart and ears to hear.

Thereupon one pope, named Gregory, abdicated voluntarily and handed his papacy over to the council, albeit in the hope that the council would appreciate his ready humility and reelect him pope; since, this did not happen he died of regret and sorrow.12 The second pope, named John,13 was with great difficulty persuaded to go to Constance to the council, in the same and much greater hope that he would remain the only pope because he had sat on the Roman throne. The third, Benedict,14 remained stiffnecked in his position and was justly and forcefully deposed according to the law and statute of the council. This is the horrible item that has until now so annoyed the popes, and this is why they will not and cannot tolerate a council among the beasts in Germany. They fear that the example of the Council of Constance may be used against them, and that perhaps Paul III would ride into Trent as pope, but ride out again as a poor fool. So it is to his interest, and according to their plan, to stay in Rome without councils and above councils, even if the world should come to an end.

For the histories tell of when one Pope John visited Germany; there someone began to examine his life and administration up to then no one had dared to speak up against him as pope and it was found that about forty articles were proved against him, all of them worthy of death.15 Thereupon he fled and tried to get back to Rome, but Emperor Sigismund caught him on the way and he was placed in the custody of the count of the Palatinate.16 When he was then rebuked with the articles he answered each one with, “Oh, I have done something much worse than that!” This reply amazed the delegates, for, among other articles, it was written he had strangled his father, had practiced black magic, simony, and many more scandalous vices. How could he have done worse things than that? He answered that the worst thing he had ever done was to have allowed himself to be persuaded to cross the Italian mountains from Rome into Germany. By this he meant that if he bad stayed in Rome and kept the papacy he would have been free of such accusations and would have remained the Most Holy Father Pope, even if he had done a thousand times as much evil.

Now the popes have learned a lesson from this and take the greatest care not to commit such great folly and sin as to travel across the mountains into Germany like that same Pope John had done. And who can blame them for it? Out of great love and concern for poor Christendom they love the papacy and hate to abandon it, for the pope is the bead of all Christendom and lord of the whole world, moreover an earthly divinity whom Christ made his vicar on earth to teach and save all souls. You will understand the rest very well if you just think, “Yes, devil and hellfire!”

According to that, just look at the writing of this fop, Paul III, when he writes to the emperor, “Do you want a council? We shall grant it to you. Do you want it in Germany? See, we shall even dare to do this. But in such a way that it is a free and Christian council, in which the heretics have no part, as they can have no part in the church; moreover, you should order the arms withdrawn, that is, you should create safety and peace. You should also know that you have no right to judge who shall be ordered to the council that is the prerogative of our temporal authority.”17 There you see now what kind of language the pope and his holy school of scoundrels in Rome have, and how he teaches us to interpret the three words, “free, Christian, German”; namely, that he wishes to grant a council, which he is certain can never be held, for he knows and senses quite well that he and his accursed school of scoundrels would fare far worse than Pope John did in Constance.

The princes and estates of the empire have been working these twenty-four years, through the emperor, for a free, Christian, German council, with the honest intention according to the commonly accepted meaning of these words, devoid of all sophistry, namely, that “free in German and liberum in Latin mean that tongues and ears should be free in the council that everyone, especially those appointed by all sides to speak, listen, and act, may freely say, complain, or respond to whatever is pertinent to reform the church and abolish offenses and abuses. This is how the Germans and imperial estates meant it, and still mean it but particularly and above all, that God’s word, or Holy Scripture, should, free and without strings (as it must be), have its way and its rights, according to which one decides and judges everything. That is why there must also be good theologians there, who have understanding of and experience in the Scriptures. It means “free” because the council is free, and the Scriptures, that is, the Holy Spirit, are free.

But the Roman school of scoundrels and its schoolmaster twist and falsify the word so that “free” should mean that he and his school of scoundrels are free; that nothing shall be said, changed, or undertaken against them; but that absolutely everything, the way they now live and act, will be ratified; that therefore the pope would be free against the council, not the council against the pope. This is the pope’s old story, of all his decrees and decretals;18 namely, he should be lord and judge over the council, not the council over the pope, so that the pope has the power to condemn, tear up, and veto anything the council resolved against him. Indeed, before undertaking something they have to ask His Grace to see if it would please him; so that a council would be nothing but a yes man who sits near the washbowl at the door of the council chamber upstairs and listens to what the gracious lords at the high table propose. This is what the pope calls a free council!

This is the language of the see in Rome, so that when he grants a free council, you may henceforth also understand it in Roman: when they say “free,” it means captive” with us Germans; when they say “white,” you must understand “black”; when they say “the Christian church,” you must understand “the scum of all the scoundrels in Rome”; when they call the emperor a “son of the church,” it is as much as to say he is the most accursed man on earth, who they wish were in hell so that they would have the empire; when they call Germany the praiseworthy nation, it means the beasts and barbarians who are not worthy to feed on the pope’s dung, like the Italian Campanus (as one says) did when he had been in Germany (not to his disadvantage) and, on returning to the Italian frontier, turned his back on Germany, squatted, bared his behind, and said, “Aspice nudatas, Barbara terra, nates,” “Look here, you beasts, look up my ass.”19

The princes and estates of the empire also use the word “Christian” with simple, upright intent to be a council in which one should act on Christian affairs through Christian people, according to the Scriptures, for they knew full well how the pope in his canon law had dealt with belts, gowns, shoes, cassocks, tonsures, church dedications, Easter cake blessings, benefices, prelates and pallia,20 dignities, and countless follies. Instead, since weighty, important matters and disputations are being prepared about indulgences, purgatory, the mass, idolatry, faith, good works, and things like that, one should settle such things in Christian fashion, according to Holy Scripture, not in papal fashion, and help the poor simple man to know just where he stands and what should finally become of his soul. Yes, this in German, Latin, Greek, or any other language means “Christian council.” The pope and his hellish scum smelled this quite well, not having a cold.21 But he took sneezing powder to give himself a cold, and thus distorted this word “Christian” thusly:

“Christian” is to mean nothing more than “papal,” and what His Hellishness, including his school of scoundrels (God forgive me, I almost said, “including his holy church”!) in Rome, judge and conclude. Anything undertaken against this should be unchristian and heretical, namely, if the council wished to conclude that one should freely administer the sacrament in both kinds, as the heretics want to do, it must be condemned by the council at the command of its lord the pope, and those who had planned to bring it up in the council should, as heretics, not be admitted, as the Hellish Father writes to the emperor, “The heretics should have no place in the council and no part in the holy church.” And if the heretics were to rebuke the emperor, saying that God the Father had, through his dear Son, instituted such an article and had commanded all the world to hear his Son, Luke 322 “Hear him”; and that the Holy Spirit had maintained it in the whole of Christendom until the pope forbade it in the 1400′s; that the majority of Christendom, which is not subject to the pope, still keeps this article [concerning heretics] and will continue to keep it until the end of the world in spite of all this the emperor should burn, kill, and drive out all the heretics that keep this with God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Christians of all the world, even those in India, Persia, and the whole Orient. This is the reason: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, including his holy church, are heretics and unchristian; only the pope and his Roman school of scoundrels are Christians. Now it is really much better that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, together with his holy church, are condemned as miserable heretics by the council than that the Hellish Father Pope and his hermaphrodites should be called unchristian.
Unchristian, heretical views like this, and many more, are taught and held by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in his holy church. For example, it is held that there is no purgatory, since the Hellish Father in Rome has invented it for a fair and has stolen unlimited money and property with it. Again, [it is held] that indulgences are a filthy fraud, with which the Hellish Father has made fools of and defrauded all the world. Again, [it is held] that the mass is a sacrifice for the living and the dead, that the estate of marriage is free, and many more of these things, upon which the papacy now bases itself. I will not mention simony, greed, trading with benefices, pederasty, and other things the Holy See in Rome does and enjoys doing in its most holy life; all of which the Holy Spirit that unchristian heretic and his church condemn to the utmost and cannot bear to hear mentioned.

It follows from this that God, especially the Holy Spirit, who, it is claimed, assembles the councils and directs all their dealings and decisions, cannot come to the Council of Trent or to any papal council and will have to stay out. The reason: the holy virgin, St. Paula III, writes to Emperor Charles that the heretics should have neither part nor place in his holy, free Christian council. Now, it has been shown that God the Holy Spirit is an abominable arch heretic, as well as God the Father and Son, because against papal and Roman holiness he has instituted and ordained and still today keeps and teaches the administration of his very holy sacrament in both kinds in his churches and condemns those who do not keep it or do it in this way all of which is contrary and hateful to the hellish see in Rome, who has frequently condemned this as heresy through his bulls, for as his apologists write, he has also become a powerful lord and judge over Scripture and over God’s word, able to change what God has instituted and commanded.

Now there would probably be help and counsel available so that the Holy Spirit, the poor arch heretic, might come to grace and be admitted into the holy, free, and Christian council, if he were not too stiff-necked and would humble himself, fall on his knees before the holy virgin St. Paula III, Madame Pope, and kiss her sweet feet, confess his heresy then and there, repent, and recant. He would undoubtedly receive charge and absolutely free, for both a bull of indulgence, without himself and his holy church. But St. Paul, also a great heretic (who confused the whole world, Acts 17 [:6], as the Jews in Thessalonica screamed about him), says in Romans 11 [:29], “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable,” that is, he will change them for no one’s sake. This same heretic Paul also confuses the Holy Spirit so that he must remain unrepentant and can find neither grace nor forgiveness for his sin and heresy. That is why he will just have to stay out of the holy, free, Christian council of the holy Madame Pope Paula III. He may, meanwhile, duck and hide himself in his own heretical church, so that Paula III does not catch him; otherwise, he would surely have to be burned to ashes as an arch heretic. St. Paula, the holy virgin pope, will no doubt find a better, more beautiful, much more Christian, freer, and holier spirit in his holy, free, Christian council.

Someone may think here that I am satisfying my own desire with such scornful, wounding, stinging words to the pope. O Lord God, I am far, far too insignificant to deride the pope. For over six hundred years now he has undoubtedly derided the world, and has laughed up his sleeve at its corruption in body and soul, goods and honor. He does not stop and he cannot stop, as St. Peter calls him in II Peter 2 [:14], “insatiable for sin.”23 No man can believe what an abomination the papacy is. A Christian does not have to be of low intelligence, either, to recognize it. God himself must deride him in the hellish fire, and our Lord Christ, St. Paul says in II Thessalonians 2 [:8], “will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his glorious coming.” I only deride, with my weak derision, so that those who now live and those who will come after us should know what I have thought of the pope, the damned Antichrist, and so that whoever wishes to be a Christian may be warned against such an abomination.

He distorts and tortures the third word “German” or “in German lands” in this way: Emperor Charles is to see to it that no weapon is to be feared, that is, there should be peace, and no war to fear; the arms should be withdrawn. Now the Roman scoundrel knows very well that Emperor Charles, together with his brother King Ferdinand,24 and all the German princes, are so powerful that he can keep peace not only in one city, Trent, but also in all of Germany. This scoundrel Paula knows it wen (I say), but he warns him of a danger that exists nowhere so that the council cannot be held. At the same time he blames Emperor Charles and the German princes that no council can be held, as though it were not his fault but that of the emperor and estates of the empire who do not provide either peace or security because they do not lay down their sword or armor but these neither are nor can be at hand.
With these words he obligingly confesses that he never wants to hold a council in the German lands. For when will there be a time when a pope cannot invent or allege that it would be dangerous if the armor is not put aside? Even if the emperor would have him accompanied on the highway by one hundred thousand men on both sides, he would still say, “Yes, but who can trust them?” But if the emperor does not do it, the complaint would be that it is dangerous and not safe, that the way the emperor is doing it he still cannot protect the pope; and so the armor or armaments will remain an eternal obstacle to a council, which the emperor, even if there were a hundred emperors, could not remove. The meaning of putting aside armor, of keeping armor, of free or unfree, of Christian or unChristian lies in the will and power of the hellish pope.

Such words also provide many other excuses, which cannot be counted, but which the Hellish Father can daily invent with his mind. I shall touch upon several: he can undoubtedly drum up several men and horses at this time who can raise an alarm that enemies are at hand, creating a dangerous situation. For instance, the Turks have twice been his cover.25 Or he can fall ill. Oh, who will worry about the devil finding excuses and ways out? But this is his very best one: he can goad France against the empire any time, as he did most diligently in the last twenty years, particularly when the council was due to start. Then he can claim, “Ah, Lord God, how gladly we would hold a council, but because our two sons the emperor and France are at odds, we cannot manage it.” This is just what he is doing now when in his bull he sings of his great joy that the two rulers are reconciled and calls for a council in Trent. But O Lord God, how sorry the Hellish Father is that France does not keep the treaty and the split become wider than before. 20 From this we can now understand that the word of the Hellish Father in Rome, “You are to lay down your arms ,”27 is as much as saying, “You, Emperor Charles, are to see that there is peace; you are not only to put aside your sword, but you are also to see that France puts its aside, which it neither can nor should do. For it is our wish that France give you unrest for ever and ever. That is why, before we hold a council, you Charles, shall always put out fires, and France shall always light them. And if France should get lazy in this, then we ourselves shall blow on it and blow it up, so that you always have something to extinguish and finally get tired of extinguishing. This is how we shall teach you and your German swine to covet a council from the Roman See and still we shall continue to boast, ‘Have the arms withdrawn, have the arms withdrawn!’ When you establish peace, we shall grant a council, which will and shall happen when we stop warmongering which shall never happen!”

Now you can see what a rascally answer the emperor and estates have been given to their plea, which they have now made for twenty four years, for a free Christian council in Germany. Because those Roman rascals zealously apply themselves, as they have always done, confusing the languages, so that the rascal in Rome answers in gibberish,28 whereas the emperor and estates speak exact German or Latin, they will never agree on language, to say nothing about being able to convene a council. Doesn’t this mean drumming on the emperor’s and estates’ snouts as one drums on the snouts of fools?29 The rascals laugh up their sleeves over this and at the same time scold and slander the emperor with the very same words, as though he had looked for a captive, unchristian, unsafe council, but that they were the most holy people who wanted a free, Christian, safe council. Thus the pious emperor and the estates of the empire now have to have the reputation, with the rascals in Rome, of having wanted, and of still looking for, a forced, captive, compelled, unchristian, heretical, dangerous, and troublesome council. This is the way to scrape off the tongue and horns of an emperor and an empire.30 Now plead once more to the Most Holy Father for a council!

Some people think the cardinal of Mainz has perpetrated this rascality, but I don’t believe it; it would be much too inferior an example of his craft. He would do it much better, for it seems to me he is the real master, even over those in Rome. Those in Rome have been practiced and well versed in such rascality and roguery for over four hundred years now, as one can see from the pope’s decretals and all the histories of emperors. Just look how the poor lawyers are plagued, patching, unifying, and smoothing the Roman rascality with glosses before they can give it any sort of shape; it is just as though a furrier patched up a bad pelt on which neither the skin nor the fur is any good, and which is moreover full of spit, pus, and excrement!

Very well, let it continue as long as it can. The emperor and empire must swallow this kind of rascality; this is not the first emperor with whom the incorrigible rascal in Rome has played like that. They have not spared a single one since they came to power. Maximilian’s31 greatest complaint was that no pope had ever kept faith with him. I should think this Emperor Charles has truly experienced the same thing with Clement VII,32 Leo X, and now Paul III. In summary, they are all the creatures and heirs of the emperor Phocas, who first established the papacy in Rome, and whom they loyally follow. This same Phocas, as a regicide in Constantinople, murdered his lord, the Emperor Maurice, and his wife and children .33

The popes do this kind of thing too. If they could not themselves murder the German emperors, as Clement IV had the noble Conradin, the last duke of Swabia and hereditary king of Naples, publicly executed with the sword;34 if they have not been able to kill the emperors with treachery and every diabolical wickedness, it is nevertheless their definite intention, and their regret has always been that their bloodthirsty, murderous, evil intentions have been foiled and prevented. The descendants of the emperor Phocas, their founder and regicide, are, as was said, desperate, thorough arch rascals, murderers, traitors, liars, the very scum of all the most evil men on earth as is said in Rome itself. They embellish themselves with the names of Christ, St. Peter, and the church, even though they are full of all the worst devils in hell-full, full, and so full that they can do nothing but vomit, throw, and blow out devils! You will say that this is true when you read the histories of how they have treated the emperors.

Very well, as I have said, the emperor Charles and his empire must swallow the gibberish of the rascal in Rome, Paul III; and it really does not yet harm us very much. But it does help the See of Rome to uncover themselves front and rear, and lets us see into their behinds, so that we can know them. Until now we had to believe that the pope was the head of the church, the most holy, the savior of all Christendom. Now we see that he, with his Roman cardinals, is nothing but a desperate scoundrel, the enemy of God and man, the destroyer of Christendom, and Satan’s bodily dwelling, who, through him, only harms both church and state, like a werewolf, and mocks and laughs up his sleeve when he hears that such hurts God or man more of this later.

I have to include a story here, from which one can tell what to think of the holy rascals and murderers of the Roman See. In the year of our Lord 1510 (if I remember correctly) I was in Rome and heard tell this story:35 about seven German miles this side of Rome there is a spot called Ronciglione, where lived, at the time of Paul II (who reigned seventy years ago), a papal official who saw the blasphemous, devilish nature of the pope and his scum in Rome, and did not give the pope his annual tax from his office. The pope sent for him, he did not come; and whatever the pope ordered him to do, he ignored. Finally the pope put him under the ban, but he did not care about this either. After this, the pope had him tolled out with bells and thrown out and damned with lights extinguished from the pulpit, as is the custom;36 this did not bother him either. At last, because such obstinate disobedience to the pope in his canon law must be called heresy, he had the official’s portrait drawn on paper, with many devils over his head and on both sides, and had it brought to court, accused, and sentenced to the stake for heresy. Then straightaway he took the paper to the fire and burned it. The official also had a portrait of the pope amid his cardinals drawn on paper, with lots of devils above and around them, called a court into session, and the pope and cardinals were accused as the worst scoundrels living on earth, doing immeasurable harm to poor people; and if their leader were to die, they would diligently set in his place the very worst one they could find among themselves; they were surely worthy of hellfire, and many witnesses testified to all this. Then the judge, the official, and the plaintiffs stepped forth and declared that they should be burned; and quickly, in the name of a thousand devils, he put the picture of the pope and cardinals into the fire to burn them, until the pope forcefully drove him out.

This story is perhaps ridiculous, but it nevertheless points out a horrible misfortune that the pope, with his abominable, diabolical nature, causes extraordinarily damaging offense in Rome, and the people who see this stumble over it and become quite Epicurean, just as he himself is. Indeed, almost everyone who comes back from Rome brings along a papal conscience, that is, an Epicurean belief.37 For this is certain, that the popes and cardinals, including his school of scoundrels, believe in nothing they laugh when they bear something said of faith. And I myself, in Rome, heard it said openly in the streets, “If there is a hell, then Rome is built on it.”38 That is, “After the devil himself, there is no worse folk than the pope and his followers.” That is why it is no wonder that they fear a free council, and shun the light. But they have one basis on which they stand, namely, they believe their estate, office, and teaching is right; so, even though the people are evil, one could neither judge nor condemn the office and the doctrine. Thus they go on and do whatever they want, convinced that nothing can happen to their office of which we shall say more later.

And even if they would be reformed in a council which really is not possible and the pope and cardinals should promise in blood to observe it, it would still be wasted trouble and labor; they would only grow worse afterward than they were before, as happened after the Council of Constance. For since they believe that there is no God, no hell, no life after this life, and live and die like a cow, sow, or other animal, II Peter 2 [:12], it is to them ridiculous to keep seals and letters, and reform. That is why it would be best for the emperor and estates of the empire to let the blasphemous, abominable rascals and damned scum of Satan in Rome just go to the devil. There is no hope of achieving any good anyway; one has to handle it differently, for nothing can be accomplished with councils, as we have seen. The senseless fools imagine that we are in urgent need of their council, as if we or Christendom could do nothing without their council or office; so they think that one must always run after them and that they can for ever make fools and monkeys out of us. But that is not what we think, and, with God’s grace, I will sing them another song. If they do not want to hold a council, they needn’t, as far as we are concerned we have no need of one for ourselves. And if they are furious, they can do something in their pants and hang it around their necks that would be a musk apple and pacem39 for such gentle saints. God does not think them worthy of bettering themselves or of doing any good; therefore they have been given up to a base mind, Romans 2 [1:28]. There you find a list of papal Roman virtues, as in II Peter 2. Let this be enough.

In Pope Paul’s briefs to the emperor Charles, it says further, “And you should know that it is not your prerogative to choose who shall be in the council, for that is the prerogative of our jurisdiction.”40 Gently, dear Pauli, dear donkey, don’t dance around! Oh dearest little ass pope, don’t dance around dearest, dearest little donkey, don’t do it. For the ice is very solidly frozen this year because there was no wind you might fall and break a leg. If a fart should escape you while you were falling, the whole world would laugh at you and say, “Ugh, the devil! How the ass pope has befouled himself!” And that would be a great crime of lese majesty41 against the Holy See in Rome, which no letters of indulgence or “plentitude of power”42 could forgive. Oh, that would be dangerous! So consider your own great danger beforehand, Hellish Father.

Dear one, why shouldn’t the emperor have authority to name at least several who should be in the council, since the four principal councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon were not called by the popes (as there was no pope yet at that time), nor by bishops, but solely by the emperors Constantine Theodosius I, Theodosius II, and Marcian,43 who assembled, called and named the bishops to the council, and themselves attended it “Yes, we afterward established in our decretals that only the pope should convoke councils and name the participants. But dear one is this true? Who commanded you to establish this? “Silence, you heretic! What comes out of our mouth must be kept!” I hear it-which mouth do you mean? The one from which the farts come? (You can keep that yourself!) Or the one into which the good Corsican wine flows? (Let a dog shit into that!) “Oh, you abominable Luther, should you talk to the pope like this?” Shame on you too, you blasphemous, desperate rogues and crude asses-and should you talk to an emperor and empire like this? Yes, should you malign and desecrate four such high councils with the four greatest Christian emperors, just for the sake of your farts and decretals? Why do you let yourselves imagine that you are better than crass, crude, ignorant asses and fools, who neither know nor wish to know what councils, bishops, churches, emperors indeed, what God and his wordage? You are a crude ass, you ass pope, and an ass you will remain!

Again, besides these four great councils there have been many others, now and again, in Greece, Asia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, which did not first confer with the bishop of Rome about it, and were nevertheless good Christian councils, particularly those in which St. Cyprian and St. Augustine participated. Charles the Great too held councils in Frankfurt44 and France, his son Louis in Aachen,45 and other emperors held councils too. Dear one, should such bishops and emperors have done wrong and should they be damned merely because this farting ass in Rome (what else can he do?) sets up, out of his own mad head, and farts, out of his stinking belly, that it is not fitting for the emperor to convoke a council or to decide or name who shall attend? Oh, how good the crude donkey feels! He is looking for someone who will lay a stick to his sack, so that his loins will have to bend!
In the second brief46 to Emperor Charles he wants to be a theologian (if one may call him that) and introduces the example of Eli in I Kings 2 [1 Sam. 2:27ï·“36], who was punished for not having admonished his sons for their sins. He too is obliged to admonish the emperor, as his first born son, so that he would not also be punished for it was to be feared that grave unrest and disagreement would arise in the church from the great evil committed by Emperor Charles at Spires, etc. Here once again the desperate rascal and scoundrel Paul, with his hermaphrodites, talks gibberish, just as though no one knew what their hellish, devilish doings in Rome were like, or how he himself, the insatiable, bottomless pit of covetousness, Paul, including his son,47 carries on with the possessions of the church. No, his son does not sin, does nothing that his father Paul would have to punish; the cardinals, hermaphrodites, and servants of the Roman See, “in their front parts men, in their back parts women,”48 are entirely clean and have no need of admonition. And as the poet Mantuanus writes of the curia:

The house of Peter is decadent, defiled with
luxury unrestrained. In this I am disclosing no
secrets, I am telling nothing unknown, I crave
permission to state matters of common knowledge,
this is what the cities and peoples talk about,
this is the scandal, the old established scandal
throughout all Europe, that is destroying good
sound morality: sacred land is given over to
debauchees, the holy altar is made over to catamounts,
and the reverend temples of the gods serve the turn
of Ganymedes. Why be surprised that their wealth
grows and their fallen houses are rebuilt? The
effeminate Arab sells balls of scented incense,
the Tyrians sell raiment; temples, priests, altars,
holy things, wreaths, fires, incense, prayers are
on sale to us heaven is on sale and God himself.
But all this is ancient history; nowadays morals are
good and sound .49

We in Germany are accused of being heretics, of destroying churches, monasteries, masses, the Roman and blasphemous idolatries. But just look at how they themselves, who teach such idolatry as true worship, deal with it in Rome. Look at the churches of St. Agnes, which previously had one hundred fifty nuns, St. Pancras, St. Sebastian, St. Paul, and all the rich monasteries and churches inside and outside Rome.50 The pope and cardinals have gobbled up all of these, and now they come out to us and take hold of our churches and monasteries too, with pallia, annates, and many other robberies and extortions. In all of these and many other abominations, for which God has destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as many cities in every land, by flooding water and shaking earthquake here, I say, the holy virgin St. Paula the pope has no conscience, no worry, no fear of God, that they might, like Korah [Num. 16:32], be swallowed up into the earth. St. Paul III has no right to admonish us when they themselves invalidate the many masses, vigils, canonical hours, and daily worship services, which they so vociferously demand from us and about which they call us heretics, when they are almost all much worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and live in a way that could not be more abominable.

But there is a great uproar about what Emperor Charles did at Spires. Pope Paul is worried about his son Charles, lest some great misfortune befall him. What then has his dear son Charles done at Spires? Well, he did not want to start a bloodbath in Germany, in which the devil, the pope, and the cardinals would have loved to bathe and which would have protected their hellish scum; instead, he suspended the Edict of Worms, from which all the unrest in Germany had come, and he did this so that they could resist the Turks with a united front, as a pious Christian emperor should provide his fatherland with peace and protection. This is what the scoundrel in Rome calls “wrongdoing.” Oh, dreadful sin! So what do the rascals call well done, apart from what they do in Rome? From now on the sun is weary of shining on them, and the land (as they themselves say) can bear them no longer [Gen. 13:6]. For thus ï·“I have heard it said in Rome myself, “it is impossible that it should continue like this; it must break.”51

Then the other thing Emperor Charles did at Spiresï·“ oh, dare I mention it? Horresco referens, I shudder at the thought of it. Dear one, pray a Pater Noster for me, so that I may not, like Eli [I Sam. 2:12ï·“17, 22], be punished. Oh, dear sun, do not get frightened and do not turn black at my speech, now that I tell of such a great sin. This is the sin: Emperor Charles would like to have peace and unity in religion, just as he would like to see peace in the empire. But because he has now for twenty four years vainly worked to attain a general Christian council from the pope, and has attained nothing except that the pope has drummed on his snout and treated him as his fool, he has set about following the worthy example of Constantine, Theodosius I and Theodosius II, Marcian, Charles the Great, Louis I, and many other emperors calling a national council, although he really has the right and authority to call a general one, no matter what the Roman rascal spits out in his decretals. Oh, may God forgive me, if it can be forgiven, that I have dared to speak of such an appalling sin! Oh, that Emperor Charles not go out into the sunshine, for the sun might fall from heaven before such a great sinner, and we should have to pay for him, and sit in darkness for evermore! Oh, that the holy fathers, pope, and cardinals, with their horde, would support us with their good works and their virtues, like their Epicurean faith, sodomy, simony, mockery, blasphemy of God and his Christians and all their worship. Perhaps their god, whom St. Paul calls “the god of this world” [II Cor. 4:4], will have mercy on us.

Do you almost believe that the Roman See, pope and cardinals, are possessed of all the devils and their rascally gibberish has neither bottom, end, nor measure? Do you almost believe that such villains must be Epicureans and the enemies of God and man? Here you certainly see that the pope would rather see all Germany drowned in its own blood than have peace there, and would rather have all the world go to hellfire with him than that one soul should be brought to true faith. Now that the pope’s horrible, frightening will has not been carried out, but hindered by Emperor Charles, the pope cannot forgive it, but threatens him with the example of Eli. Now here you have a gloss of the C. Si Papa, dist. XL:52 “If a pope is found to have forgotten his own and his brothers’ salvation; to be lazy and lax in his works; and to be silent about teaching the best, which is that much more harmful to himself and others (as if such could happen in faith!),53 and moreover drags with himself to the devil in hell countless souls in great throngs, who, with him, must eternally suffer great pain such sin cannot be punished by any man alive, for he is the judge of all, and to be judged by none, unless he be found erring in faith (after the year of Plato!).”54 Instead, the whole of Christendom prays all the more zealously for his office, especially when it notices that its salvation depends, next to God, on his welfare.

Everyone can see that such a decree must have been blown into the pope and Roman See by all the existing devils with one breath; and I, when I read this decree twenty-six years ago, thought, by God, that these were vain words, like the Donation of Constantine,55 and that it was impossible for any pope to be so corrupt that he would accept such a decree or build upon it. But, since Sylvester56 and some others wrote against me and used things like this against me, I really had to believe it; and, as you can see in Paul III’s brief, he is also of this opinion, and would like to lead the whole world to hell with him. Now whoever does not want to believe that the papacy is the devil’s possession and of his own realm is welcome to ride to hell with him! We hear the word of our Lord, Matthew 7 [:15], “Beware of false prophets”; I Corinthians 1 [2:15], “The spiritual man judges all things .”57 More of this later. We shall and should be the pope’s judge, and no one shall stop us.

But let us also see how the ass distorts the Scriptures, as he introduces Eli and his sons. The text in I Kings [I Sam. 2:12ï·“17, 22] says the sons of Eli were evil scoundrels and committed three offenses. First, they neither knew nor esteemed the Lord; second, they did not know what the priestly duties to the people were; and third, they lay with the spiritual women who served God in the tabernacle these were widows who after the death of their husbands dedicated themselves to service in the temple, as it says in Luke 3 [2:37] about holy Anna, that she never again left the temple, fasted and prayed, etc.

The first item neither to know nor to esteem the Lord-means not to believe in God, scorning his promises or word and living in unbelief, roughly and ruthlessly, without any fear of God. The second that they did not esteem their priestly office, that is, how they should sacrifice and teach the people means, as it says in the text, that they did what they wished with the sacrifice and whatever they spoke against the law had to be right, which upset the people very much. The third is that they shamelessly committed adultery with dedicated women, for they had wives of their own, and did this in a holy place, in the temple before the face of God, who had promised that he would dwell there. Eli made himself a participant in these sins by not punishing his sons; he does speak about it for the sake of the people, but not seriously, for he did not remove them from office, does not want to shame them, and lets them carry on in their ways. That is what God says, that Eli had esteemed his sons more than God, for he preferred the honor of his sons, wishing them to remain in office, to God’s word and obedience.

This is a fine example and would fit extremely well if the emperor Charles would turn it around and hold it under the pope’s nose he would then be hanged with his own rope,58 namely, like this: do you hear, Pope Paul, first of all you have no faith, and you and your sons, the cardinals and the curia’s riffraff, do not honor God, for you are Epicurean sows, just like all the popes, your predecessors. When one reads the papal decretals from the beginning to the end one cannot find a single letter which teaches what faith is or how one should believe like a Christian; nor can any iota of faith enter the heart of a pope or cardinal, that much is certain! Second, you with all of your Roman court and predecessors do not know what a priestly office is, how to instruct the people in God’s word and commandments, or how to praise God, for one can find nothing of this in any decretal so that one could make a sermon; instead, all of it is human teaching and conceit, which is simply idolatry. Third, you and your children commit abominable unchastity, for the cardinals and the Sodomists59 and hermaphrodites of your court lead such horrible lives that heaven and earth quake and tremble before them. You see, hear, and know this well, and yet you say nothing about it, punish and reform nothing, but laugh at it and find pleasure in it, Romans 1 [:32]. That is why you shall not have it as good as Eli, but will have to join your predecessors in the depths of hell. Indeed, in this way the example would correctly apply to the pope, and thus it would be found that the pope and his cardinals are crude asses, unlearned in the Scriptures.

Now along comes this bishop of hermaphrodites and pope of Sodomists, that is, the apostle of the devil, and quotes this example against Emperor Charles; and just as he and his predecessors are malicious in their gibberish, so does he also try to make God a scoundrel in Holy Scripture. He pretends that the emperor is a great sinner for having suspended the Edict of Worms for the sake of peace and for wishing to convoke a national council; he makes sin and damnation praiseworthy, high, noble, princely virtues. Another one of the idolatrous horrors of the pope is that he makes sin and damnation where God wants none, as one can see throughout the whole decretal. The reason is that he is, as the lawyers say, an earthly god, so he must make sin and damnation what the heavenly God considers virtue and innocence, as St. Paul says in II Thessalonians 2 [:3], “Man of sin and son of perdition.” In Hebrew “man of sin” means one who not only is a sinner in his own right, but who through false doctrine causes others to sin with him, as Jeroboam the king of Israel sinned [I Kings 14:16], or, as Scripture says, made Israel to sin, through his idolatry.

Thus this pope of Sodomists, this founder and master of all sins, here wants to push sin and damnation off onto Emperor Charles, although he knows quite well that his rascally tongue lies abominably. And such accursed villains want to convince the world that they are head of the church, the mother of all churches, and masters of the faith. Why even if we were stones and wooden blocks, we could see by their works throughout all the world that they are lost, desperate children of the devil and also mad, crude asses in Scripture. Someone probably would like to curse them so that they might be struck down by lightning and thunder, burned by hellish fire, have the plague, syphilis,60 epilepsy,61 the plague of St. Anthony,62 leprosy, carbuncles, and all the plagues but these are all caresses,63 and God has long ago punished them with greater plagues, just like God’s despisers and blasphemers should be punished, Romans 1 [:26, 27], namely, that in sanity they have become so obviously mad and raving that they do not know whether they are or want to be male or female; they are not ashamed in the presence of women, and their mothers, sisters, and grandmothers are among those forced to see and hear such things of them, to their great distress. Shame on you, popes, cardinals, and whatever you are at the curia, that you are not afraid of the cobblestones upon which you ride, which would like to swallow you!

The imperial laws have much to say about how to handle furious, insane, mad people. How much greater the need is here to put into stocks, chains, and prisons the pope, cardinals, and the whole Roman See, who have not become raving mad in the usual way, but who rage so horribly that at one time they want to be men, at another women, and never know at any one time when their mood will strike them. We Christians should nevertheless believe that such raving and lunatic Roman hermaphrodites have the Holy Spirit and are the heads, masters, and teachers of Christendom! But I must stop here, or save what I could write further against the papal briefs and bulls, for my head is weak, and I feel that I might not get everything said, and yet I still have not gotten to the points I had intended to make in this book. I will do this first, before my strength gives out completely. I wanted to cover three things: first, whether it is true that the pope in Rome is the head of Christendom above councils, emperor, angels, etc.ï·“as he boasts; second, whether it is true that no one may sentence, judge, or depose him, as he bellows; and third, whether it is true that he has transferred the Roman Empire from the Greeks to us Germans, 64 about which he boasts immeasurably and beats his breast. Should I then have some strength left, I shall again take up his bulls and briefs and try to see if I can comb out the crass, crude donkey’s long unkempt ears for him!65

Part I

It is very easy to prove that the pope is neither the commander or head of Christendom, nor lord of the world above emperor, councils, and everything, as he lies, blasphemes, curses, and raves in his decretals, to which the hellish Satan drives him. He himself knows full well and it is as clear as the dear sun from all the decrees of the ancient councils, from all the histories, from the writings of the holy fathers, Jerome, Augustine, and Cyprian, and from all of Christendom before the first pope, who was called Boniface III66ï·“that the bishop of Rome was nothing more than a bishop and should still be that. St. Jerome dared to say freely, “All bishops are equal, all together they have inherited the throne of the apostles,” and adds the example, “as the bishop of a small city like Engubium67 and Rome, Regium and Constantinople, Thebes and Alexandria.”68 He says that one is higher or lower than another because one bishopric is richer or poorer than the other. Other than this they are all equally the successors to the apostles, so he says.69 This (I say) the pope in Rome knows perfectly well, and he also knows that St. Jerome wrote this; and as proof, it is contained in the Decretum, as we read in C. XCIII.70 Still, the pope dares to lie so brazenly and blasphemously against it, and deceive the whole world.

1 The two drafts of the admonitory brief. See p. 259.
2 The Bull of Convocation, proposed on November 14, 1544, by the consistory and read on November 19. Cf: Ehses, op. cit., No. 283, and Jedin, op. cit., p. 504.
3 Virgo ante partum, in partu, post partum.
4 Bon Christian, an Italian term used by papal courtesans to describe the uneducated, common man, especially in Germany. Luther probably became acquainted with it during his stay in Rome in 1510. Cf. Heinrich Boehmer, Luthers Romfahrt (Leipzig, 1914), p. 143.
5 A reference to a combined Latinï·“German edition of the most significant records of the Diet of Nurnberg in 1522, printed by Peypus in 1523. It contains the Gravamina, the grievances of the German nation against the curia. The Gravamina was first presented at the Council of Constance in 1417, and thereafter was constantly referred to in German diets. Pope Adrian VI (1522ï·“1523) had a brief sent to the Diet of Nurnberg which Luther published with marginal notes in 1538. See the Preface, Epilogue, and Marginal Notes to the Brief of Pope Adrian VI (Vorrede, Nachwort und Marginal glossen zu Legatio Adriani Papae VI). WA 50, 352ï·“363. The content of Peypus’ records is listed in WA 50, 353.
6 Jerome of Prague, a friend and disciple of John Huss, was executed in 1416, while the Council of Constance was in session (from November 5, 1414, to April 22, 1418). Huss was martyred in 1415.
7 John XXIII was deposed May 29, 1415; Gregory XII abdicated July 4, 1415; and Benedict XIII, deposed on July 26, 1416, claimed the papal throne until his death in 1424. For the records of the council, cf. John H. Mundy and Kennerly M. Woody (eds.), The Council of Constance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), pp. 52ï·“65.
8 Martin V (1417ï·“1431).
9 Eugene IV (1431ï·“1447) was compelled to convoke the Council of Basel (1431ï·“1449), but disagreed with its decisions. When it elected Felix V (1439-1449), Eugene IV managed to remain in power, supported by Emperor Frederick III (1440ï·“1498). The “great murder and bloodshed at Strassburg,” however, had nothing to do with Eugene IV. It was caused by Louis XI (called “Dauphin” as the eldest son of King Charles VII of France), who assisted Frederick III in the war against the Swiss (1443ï·“1450). His mercenaries plundered Strassburg on their way to Basel in the summer of 1444. Cf. Schafer, Luther als Kirchenhistoriker, pp. 460ï·“461.
10 The papal schism lasted from 1378 until 1417, when the Council of Constance elected Martin V. Cf. Alexander C. Flick, The Decline of the Medieval Church (2 vols.; New York: Knopf, 1930), I, 249ï·“313.
11 Holy Roman emperor (1410ï·“1437).
12 Gregory XII. He remained a cardinal and died in 1417.
13 John XXIII.
14 Benedict XIII.
15 Cf. Mundy and Woody (eds.), op. cit., pp. 246ï·“247.
16 Louis of the Palatinate, German elector (1410ï·“1436). Cf. Frederick I. Antrobus (trans.), Ludwig Pastor’s History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages (40 vols.; St. Louis: Herder, 1891ï·“1954), I, 191ï·“200.
17 Cf. Ehses, op. cit., No. 277. The passage is also quoted WA 54, 210, n. 6. Luther’s translation is not quite accurate.
18 Drecketen und drecketalen. Cf. p. 205, n. 29.
19 Gianantonio Campano, court poet of Pope Pius II (1458ï·“1464), known for his satirical report about the barbaric ignorance of Germans he met during his stay at the Diet of Regensburg in 1471. Cf. L. Geiger, Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und Deutschland (Berlin, 1882), pp. 146ï·“147. It is not certain that the saying originated with him. Cf. Thiele, Luthers Sprichwortersammlung, No. 290, and the description of cartoon No. 9 in WA 54, 351.
20 See p. 168, n. 421.
21 A German proverb, “Hatte den schnuppen nicht.” Cf. Thiele, Luthers Sprichwortersammlung, No. 96. In the next sentence Luther reinterprets the proverb to suit his purpose.
22 Luke 3:22; cf. Luke 9:35.
23 Luther quotes the Greek and translates it into Latin, Akatapauston amartias; Incessabilem, inquietum incorrigibilter, peccatorem.
24 Ferdinand had been king of Austria since 1521. In 1556 he succeeded Charles and his title became Ferdinand I (1556ï·“1564).
25 A reference to Pope Paul’s hesitations to hold the council at Mantua and Vicenza. Cf. Jedin, op. cit., pp. 313ï·“354.
26 See p. 260.
27 Arma iubeas deponi. See p. 269, n. 17.
28 Rotwelsch.
29 See p. 9.
30 A German proverb, “Die Zungen und horner schaben,” which means “to rebuke” or “to put someone in his place.” Cf. Thiele, Luthers Sprichwortersamm1ung, No. 396.
31 Maximilian I (1493ï·“1519), predecessor of Charles V.
32 Clement VII (1523ï·“1534) opposed the election of Charles V. See Schwiebert, Luther and His Times, pp. 55ï·“58.
33 Luther frequently mentions this story. Cf. p. 90, n. 248.
34 Clement IV (1265ï·“1268), a Frenchman, managed to drive the Hohenstaufens from Italy with the help of King Louis IX of France. Conradin the last of the Hohenstaufen line, was defeated and executed by order of a;arles of Anjou in 1268. There is, however, no evidence to link Clement IV with the execution. Cf. the description of cartoon No. 5 in WA 54, 350.
35 This Story of Count Deifobo of Anguillara is found in L. A. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores Luthers Romfahrt, p. 135. (28 vols.; Milan, 1723ï·“1738), XXIII, 153. Cf. Boehmer, Luthers Romfahrt, p. 135.
36 A medieval custom symbolizing the exclusion of a person from the “light of the church.”
37 Cf. ibid., p. 111.
38 Cf. ibid., pp. 145ï·“146,148.
39 A small tablet showing the image of the Virgin Mary, or a relic which was kissed by the faithful, usually before holy communion.
40 Cf. p. 269, n. 17.
41 Limen Crese maiestatis, i.e., crimen laesae maiestatis. Luther mutilates the Latin to emphasize the irony of his sentence.
42 Plenitudo potestatis, the canonist doctrine of the papal prerogative, the extent of which was dangerously undefined. For a general description of papal jurisdiction, see Charles G. Herbermann et al. (eds.), The Catholic Encyclopedia (15 vols.; New York, 1907ï·“1912), XII, 269ï·“270.
43 See p. 22, n. 30; p. 23, n. 33; p. 24, nn. 39, 40.
44 The Council Of Frankfurt in 794 rejected the veneration of pictures, a decision which was approved by the Council of Nicaea in 787.
45 The Council Of Aachen in 816 and 817, under Louis the Pious (814ï·“840), was primarily concerned with organizational reforms in the church.
46 Cf. Ehses, op. cit., No. 276. The passage is quoted in WA 54, 222, n. 5.
47 Pier Luigi Farnese. Cardinal Alexander Farnese had four children when he became Pope Paul III in 15.33. Cf. “Paul III,” O.D.C.C., p. 1032.
48 A parte ante viri, a parte post mulieres.
49 Baptista Spagnuolo Mantovano (1448ï·“1516), called “the Mantuanian” for his hometown Mantua, was a vicar general of the Carmelite Order. This passage is found in On the Calamities of Our Times or On the Seven Deadly Sins (De Calamitatibus Horum Temporum Sive de V11 Peccatis Capitalibus), lib. iii. Cf. Boehmer, Luthers Romfahrt, pp. 104, 152, 157.
Petrique domus polluta fluente
Marcescit luxu. Nulla hic arcana revelo,
Non ignota loquor, liceat vulgata referre:
Sic urbes populique ferunt, ea fama per omnem
Iam vetus Europam mores extirpat honestos
Sanctus ager Scurris, venerabilis ara Cynedis
Servit, honorandae divum Ganymedibus aedes.
Quid miramur opes recidivaque surgere tecta?
Thuris odorati globulos et cynnama vendit
Mollis arabs, Tyrii vestes, venalia nobis
Templa, sacerdotes, altaria, sacra, coronae
Ignes, thura, preces, coelum est venale Deusque.
Sed haec vetera, nunc honesti mores sunt.
50 Luther visited these churches in 1510. See Boehmer, Luthers Romfahrt, pp. 145, 151.
51 See ibid., pp. 146 ff.
52 Decreti Prima Pars, dist. XL, C. VI. CIC 1, 146; MPL 187, 214ï·“215.
53 Quasi talia fieri possint in fide! Luther’s interpolation.
54 Post annum Platonist! Another interpolation, meaning a long time or never. The notion of a “year of Plato” or a “great year” (annus magnum) is based upon Plato’s Pythagorean speculations concerning the movement of heavenly bodies. Cf. Francis M. Cornford, Plato’s Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato, Translated with a Running Commentary (London, 1956), pp. 115ï·“117.
55 A papal document Of the eighth century that claimed Constantine the Great had ordered all ecclesiastics to be subject to the bishop of Rome, Sylvester, and transferred to him “the city of Rome and all the provinces, districts, and cities of Italy or of the Western regions.” The Renaissance scholars Nicholas of Cues and Lorenzo Valla proved it a forgery in 1440. Luther published the Donation with marginal notes in 1537. See One of the High Articles of the Most Holy Papal Faith, Called the Donation of Constantine (Einer aus den hohen Artikeln des Allerheiligesten Bepstlichen glaubens genant Donatio Constantini). WA 50, 65ï·“89.
56 Sylvester Prierias, against whom Luther wrote several tracts; see, for example A Response to the Dialogue of Sylvester Prierias Concerning the Power of the Pope (Ad dialogum Silvestri Prieratis de potestate papae responsio, 1518). WA 1, 644ï·“689. See also Schwiebert, op. cit., pp. 338ï·“340.
57 Spiritualis omnia judicat.
58 The original reads, So wurde er mit seinem eigen Schwert auff seine Flatten [Tonsur] geschmissen.
59 Puseron, probably from pusiones, “little boys.”
60 Frantzosen, “the disease of the French.”
61 St. Velten, i.e., epilepsy. St. Valentine was revered as the mitigator of this disease.
62 S. Antonii, or plaga S. Antonii, frequently called “the fire of St. Anthony,” a disease treated in the Middle Ages especially by the Hospitalers of St. Anthony, a religious order founded in the eleventh century. Although the exact nature of the disease is unknown, it was a serious inflamation of the hands and feet.
63 Fuchsschwentze.
64 See p. 261.
65 Cf. the description of cartoon No. 8, used on the title page of. this tract, in WA 54, 351.
66 Boniface III convinced King Phocas to acknowledge Pome as “the head of all churches” (caput omnium ecclesiarum). This is why Luther calls him “the first pope.”
67 Gubbio in Italy.
68 Epistola 146, ad Evagrium. MPL 22, 1194; PNF2 6, 289. The original reads Evangelum. Luther published the letter in 1538. WA 50, 338ï·“343.
69 Haec ille.
70 Decreti Prima Pars, dist. XCIII, C. XXIV. CIC 1, 327ï·“329; MPL 187, 412cï·“414.