The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: your god, and be subject and obedient to me. And yet it is
manifest that the holy Church has been without the Pope for at
least more than five hundred years, and that even to the
present day the churches of the Greeks and of many other
languages neither have been nor are yet under the Pope.
Besides, as often remarked, it is a human figment which is not
commanded, and is unnecessary and useless; for the holy
Christian [or catholic] Church can exist very well without
such a head, and it would certainly have remained better
[purer, and its career would have been more prosperous] if
such a head had not been raised up by the devil. And the
|