try it.

But I will cite passages by which I shall prove that the one
passage must follow the two.

Thus saith the Law--and Christ quotes it in Matthew xviii--,
"Every case shall be established through the mouth of two or
three witnesses, but at the mouth of one witness shall no man be
put to death." [Deut. 17:6] And once I have two witnesses against
one, my case takes precedence, and the one passage must follow
the two; namely, that Peter received the keys not as Peter, but
in the stead of the Church,[61] as Matthew xviii. and John xx.
clearly say, and not as Peter alone, as Matthew xvi. seems to
say.

Moreover, I am astounded at the great arrogance by which they
would make the power of the keys a ruling power, which really
fits together as well as winter and summer. For a ruling power
means far more than the power of the keys. The power of the keys
extends only to the Sacrament of Penance,[62] to bind and loose
the sins, as Matthew xviii. [Matt. 18:18] and John xx. [John
20:22] clearly state; but a ruling power extends likewise to
those who are pious and have naught to be bound or loosed; its
scope includes preaching, exhorting, consoling, saying mass,
giving the Sacrament, etc. Therefore, none of the three passages
fits the power of the pope over all Christendom, except he were
made the one confessor, or penitentiary,[63] or anathematizer, to
rule only over the wicked and the sinners, which is not their
desire at all. And if these words should establish the papal
power over all Christians, I should very much like to know who
could absolve the pope when he sins. He must certainly remain in
his sins; neither will it do for him to transfer his power to
another for his own absolution, for that would make him a heretic
in acting contrary to divine command.

[Sidenote: Person and Office]

Some have invented the fiction that the pope's person and office
are two different things;[64] that the person can be made subject
to another, but not the office. That glitters for a moment, but
is, in truth, like all such wares. For in their own laws, with
great ado and show, they have forbidden any bishop of a lower
rank to confirm a pope, although this confirmation is not the
institution of the office, but the induction of the person into
the office. And if in this case the person is not subject to any
one, surely the same is true in absolution. But in all their
doings and glosses and interpretations, their minds are in a
whi