ristians (for of such alone, and of no others,
do I speak and write), or whether we are not rather the heretics
and apostates, because we brand such Christians as heretics and
apostates solely for the sake of money. For when the pope does
not send the Gospel to them, and his messengers to proclaim it,
although they are eager to receive them, it is clear as day that
he is grasping for power and money through this confirmation of
bishops and priests. But to this they will not agree, and
therefore they are branded as heretics and apostates.

Now I have held, and still hold, that they are not heretics and
apostates, but perhaps better Christians than we are, although
not all, even as we are not all good Christians. This is
challenged, after all its predecessors, by the fine little
bare-foot book[9] of Leipzig, which comes along on clogs--nay, on
stilts. It imagines that it alone (among all the others) does not
step into the mud; perhaps it would gladly dance if some one
would buy it a flute. I must have a try at it.

[Sidenote: The Insincerity of the Roman Claims]

I say, first of all: No one should be so foolish as to believe
that it is the serious opinion of the pope and of all his
Romanists and flatterers, that his great power is of divine
right. Pray observe, of all that is by divine right not the
smallest jot or tittle is observed in Rome, nay, if they think of
it at all, it is scorned as foolishness; all of which is as clear
as day. They even suffer the Gospel and Christian faith
everywhere to go to rack and ruin, and do not intend to lose a
hair for it. Yea, all the evil examples of spiritual and temporal
infamy flow from Rome, as out of a great sea of universal
wickedness, into all the world. All these things cause laughter
in Rome, and if any one grieves over them, he is called a _Bon
Christian_, i. e., a fool. If they really took the commands of
God seriously, they would find many thousand things more
necessary to be done, especially those at which they now laugh
and mock. For St. James says, "He that keepeth not one
commandment of God, breaketh all." [Jas. 2:10] Who would be so
stupid as to believe that they seek God's command in one thing,
and yet make a mockery of all the others? It is impossible that
any one should take one command of God to heart, and not at least
be moved by all the others. Now there are ever so many who
zealously guard the power of the pope, yet none of them ever
ventures a word in fa