and corruptions which now, under the innocent and sacred name of Pope and Church, flood every land without end ; it is even pious to praise them for the highest virtues, but it is sacrilegious to murmur against them. So great is the wrath of Ahnighty God, and so much has our impious ingratitude deserved that the tyranny of hell has been borne so long. We see that it has long made men groan in vain, and has made the holy and terrible name of Christ, in which we are justified, glorified and sanctified, become a cloak for foul, dirty, horrible monsters of avarice, tyranny, lust and impiety. It has forced the name of Christ into the service of vice, and, what is the last of evils, has crushed the name of Christ by itself, has laid waste the Church in the name of the Church, and has altogether mocked, deceived and damned us by the very instruments of salvation.
Wherefore, while they are occupied with these great mat- terSy while they bite, while they cut themselves with knives* before their Baal, while they sacrifice to the Lindian god,* while they boast of their Extravangante/ and of those faithful witnesses of Roman learning, their declaratory decretals, I determined to betake myself to the least of things, that is, to the sacred writings, and among them to those of Paul the Apostle, who, by his own testimony, was the least of writers. For he was not yet the chief of the apostles, or pontifex maximus, but he proclaims himself the least* of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle. So far is he from boast- ing that he is most holy of all; he even says that he was of the tribe of Benjamin,* the son of Joseph,* who was called the least of all his brethren, and that everything might be "least," he judges'^ that he knows nothing save Christ, and him crucified, that is, the least and last of all things. For he was well aware that it was not for an ignorant, unlearned
^x Kings, xTiii. j8.
sAccording to Erasmus' Adages, s. v,, this proTcrb is used of those who begin s holy cause with a bad omen. Hercules stole two oxen from a peasant of Lindus, and the latter cursed him with so little effect that it only made Hercules laugh.
- Part of the Canon Law. Luther has especially in mind the decretal Cum
Postquam of November 9, 1518.
- i Corinthians, xr. 9.
- Phil]ppians, liL 5.
^Genesis, xlii. 34.
Tt Corinthians, iL 2.
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