For if he falls, who preaches the
Word and should stand at the head, offence is given to every one,
the Word of God is brought to deepest disgrace, and more harm is
done to the sheep than if they had no shepherd at all. Christ
cares much for the feeding of the sheep; He cares nothing at all
how many crowns the pope wears, and how in all his splendor he
lifts himself far above the kings of the world.

Let any one tell if he can, whether the papacy has such love, or
if Christ, in these words, has instituted such a worthless
authority as the papacy is. Without doubt he is truly a pope who
preaches with such love; but where can such a one be found? There
is no passage that gives me as much sorrow in my preaching as
this one does--of love I feel not much, of preaching I do more
than enough. They accuse me of being rabid and revengeful; I fear
that I have done too little. I should have pulled the wool[76]
much harder for the ravening wolves, who never cease to rend the
Scripture, to poison and pervert it to the great injury of the
poor, forsaken sheep of Christ. If I had only loved them enough I
should have dealt quite differently with the pope and his
Romanists, who with their laws and their prattle, their letters
of indulgence, and the rest of their foolery, bring to naught out
faith and God's Word. They make for us what laws they will, only
to capture us, and then sell them to us again for money;[77] with
their mouths they weave snares for money, and yet boast that they
are shepherds and keepers of sheep, whereas they are truly
wolves, thieves, and murderers, as the Lord says in John x.

I know right well that this little word, "love," scares the pope
and his Romanists and makes them weak and weary, nor are they
willing that it should be pressed, for it overturns the whole
papacy. It made Dr. Eck weary at Leipzig;[78] and whom would it
not make weary, since Christ directly commands Peter not to feed
the sheep except there be love? He must have love or there can be
no "feeding." I shall wait a while now to see how they will parry
this thrust. If they prick me with "feeding," I will prick them
much harder with "loving," and we shall see who prevails. This is
the reason why some of the popes in their Canon laws so neatly
pass in silence this word "love," and make so much ado about
"feeding," thinking that thereby they have preached only to
drunken Germans, who will not notice how the hot porridge burns
their tongue. This