r bishops.
As though he would say, "Your office is so great that it never can be
rewarded here, but ye shall receive an eternal crown, which shall
follow it, if ye truly feed the sheep of Christ." This is the
admonition which St. Peter gives to those who are to care for souls,
from whence you may confidently infer and clearly prove, that the
Pope, along with his bishops, is Antichrist, or an enemy of Christ,
since he does nothing of that which St. Peter here requires, and
neither teaches nor practices it himself, but even acts the
counterpart, and will not only not feed the sheep or let them be fed,
but is himself a wolf and tears them, and yet makes it his boast that
he is the vicar of the Lord Christ. He certainly is that, for since
Christ is not there, he, like the devil, sits and rules in Christ's
place.

Whence it is necessary carefully to remember these plain texts and
others like them, and to hold them up against the Pope's government,
so that when any one asks or questions you, you may be able to answer
and say, "Christ said and practised so and so; the Pope teaches and
practices directly the opposite. Since they are opposed to one
another one of them must be false; but certainly Christ is not.
Whence I conclude that the Pope is a liar and the real Antichrist."

In this way must you be prepared with Scripture, so that you can not
only challenge the Pope as Antichrist, but know how to prove it
clearly, so that you could die secure of it, and withstand the devil
even in death.--It follows, further:

V. 5. _Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elders._ We
have now the last admonition in this chapter. St. Peter would have
such order in the christian church, that the young should follow the
old, so that all may go on harmoniously; those beneath submissive to
those above them. If this were now to be enforced, we should not need
many laws. He would strictly have it so that the younger shall be
directed according to the understanding of the older, as these shall
best judge that it shall be for the praise of God. But St. Peter
presumes that such elders are to be instructed and established in the
Holy Ghost. For should it happen that they are themselves fools, and
without understanding, no good government could originate with them;
but if they are persons of good understanding, then it is well that
they should rule the youth. But St. Peter is not speaking here of
civil, but of church government, that the