The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

224 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
amplified and spread more widely the true divine doctrine.
On the other hand the Roman Church was inundated with
errors and abominable abuses, and the Gospel teaching there
was so violently distorted, that it resembled heathen idolatry
rather than a Christian community. The Ehctors and princes
had been driven by the stern command of God to avoid
idolatry, and to separate themselves from the Roman Church,
and they were by no means willing to allow the Pope to make
laws for them ; it was Ferdinand, the Roman Emperor,
who alone was their master, and had the right to summon a
Council.
Commendone answered this insulting declaration calmly
and with dignity : The Pope had summoned the Council in
the manner which had always been observed in the Church ;
the Emperor, to whom the princes ascribed the right to
summon a Council had too much discernment not to see the
difference between spiritual and temporal authority. The
Pope had had his attention fixed upon reform ever since he
ascended the throne, and he had summoned the Council all
the more gladly as it was precisely in that way that a general
reformation could best be undertaken. That divisions and
uncertainty of opinion existed among the followers of the new
religion was no unjust reproach, but a fact patent to the eyes
of the whole world ;
it was perfectly evident from the writings
of their theologians, which had been cited by the princes,
and which were full of many new opinions, all contradictory
of each other. If the princes maintained that they had
certainty in their faith, then the novelty, the deviation from
the rest of the Church, the separation from the ordained power,
must at anyrate affect this certainty and make them doubtful,
especially in a matter where it was a question of eternal
salvation or eternal damnation. St. Paul, the vessel of
election, who, according to his own testimony, had received
his gospel, not from men, but by revelation, yet received by
revelation the command to go to Jerusalem and compare his
gospel with that of the Apostles, so that he might not run or
have already run in vain. Commendone further enjoined the
princes to reflect that from the days of the Apostles aU the