ike the heathen, and say,
they do it for the sake of the Church and of spiritual
possessions. Such perversion and misuse of words and things has
come from the Canon Law and human statutes, to the unspeakable
corruption of Christendom.

[Sidneote: The Head of the Church: Christ]

Now let us consider the head of Christendom. From the foregoing
it follows that the first-named Christendom, which alone is the
true Church, may not and cannot have Church: a head upon earth,
and that no one on earth, neither bishop nor pope, can rule over
it; only Christ in heaven is the head, and He ruleth alone.

[Sidenote: Why the Church Cannot Have an Earthly Head]

This is proved, first of all, in this way: How can a man rule
over anything which he does not know or understand? And who can
know whether a man truly believes or not? Aye, if the power of
the pope extended to this point, then he could take away a
Christian's faith, or direct its progress, or increase it, or
change it, according to his pleasure, just as Christ can do.

In the second place, it is proved by the nature of the head. For
it is the nature of every head joined to a body to infuse into
all its members life and feeling and activity. This will be
found to be true of the heads in worldly affairs. For the ruler
of a country instils into his subjects all the things which are
in his own mind and will, and causes all his subjects to be of
like mind and will with himself, and thus they do the work he
wishes to have done, and this work is truly said to have been
instilled into the subjects by the prince, for without him it
would not have been done. Now no man can instil into the soul of
another, nor into his own soul, true faith, and the mind, will
and work of Christ, but this Christ Himself must do. For neither
pope nor bishop can produce faith in a man's heart, nor anything
else a Christian member should have. But a Christian must have
the mind and will which Christ has in heaven, as the apostle
says, I. Corinthians ii [1. Cor. 2:16; 3:23]. It may also happen
that a Christian member has the faith which neither pope nor
bishop has; how then can the pope be his head? And if the pope
cannot give to himself the life of the spiritual church, how can
he instil it into another? Who has ever seen a live animal with a
lifeless head? The head must give life to the body, and therefore
it is clear that on earth there is no other head of the spiritual
Christendom but Christ alone.