Concerning Christian Liberty | Page 5

that, having laid aside that glory which your most abandoned enemies declare
to be yours, you were living rather in the office of a private priest or on your paternal
inheritance! In that glory none are worthy to glory, except the race of Iscariot, the
children of perdition. For what happens in your court, Leo, except that, the more wicked
and execrable any man is, the more prosperously he can use your name and authority for
the ruin of the property and souls of men, for the multiplication of crimes, for the
oppression of faith and truth and of the whole Church of God? Oh, Leo! in reality most
unfortunate, and sitting on a most perilous throne, I tell you the truth, because I wish you
well; for if Bernard felt compassion for his Anastasius at a time when the Roman see,
though even then most corrupt, was as yet ruling with better hope than now, why should

not we lament, to whom so much further corruption and ruin has been added in three
hundred years?
Is it not true that there is nothing under the vast heavens more corrupt, more pestilential,
more hateful, than the Court of Rome? She incomparably surpasses the impiety of the
Turks, so that in very truth she, who was formerly the gate of heaven, is now a sort of
open mouth of hell, and such a mouth as, under the urgent wrath of God, cannot be
blocked up; one course alone being left to us wretched men: to call back and save some
few, if we can, from that Roman gulf.
Behold, Leo, my father, with what purpose and on what principle it is that I have stormed
against that seat of pestilence. I am so far from having felt any rage against your person
that I even hoped to gain favour with you and to aid you in your welfare by striking
actively and vigorously at that your prison, nay, your hell. For whatever the efforts of all
minds can contrive against the confusion of that impious Court will be advantageous to
you and to your welfare, and to many others with you. Those who do harm to her are
doing your office; those who in every way abhor her are glorifying Christ; in short, those
are Christians who are not Romans.
But, to say yet more, even this never entered my heart: to inveigh against the Court of
Rome or to dispute at all about her. For, seeing all remedies for her health to be desperate,
I looked on her with contempt, and, giving her a bill of divorcement, said to her, "He that
is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still," giving myself
up to the peaceful and quiet study of sacred literature, that by this I might be of use to the
brethren living about me.
While I was making some advance in these studies, Satan opened his eyes and goaded on
his servant John Eccius, that notorious adversary of Christ, by the unchecked lust for
fame, to drag me unexpectedly into the arena, trying to catch me in one little word
concerning the primacy of the Church of Rome, which had fallen from me in passing.
That boastful Thraso, foaming and gnashing his teeth, proclaimed that he would dare all
things for the glory of God and for the honour of the holy apostolic seat; and, being
puffed up respecting your power, which he was about to misuse, he looked forward with
all certainty to victory; seeking to promote, not so much the primacy of Peter, as his own
pre-eminence among the theologians of this age; for he thought it would contribute in no
slight degree to this, if he were to lead Luther in triumph. The result having proved
unfortunate for the sophist, an incredible rage torments him; for he feels that whatever
discredit to Rome has arisen through me has been caused by the fault of himself alone.
Suffer me, I pray you, most excellent Leo, both to plead my own cause, and to accuse
your true enemies. I believe it is known to you in what way Cardinal Cajetan, your
imprudent and unfortunate, nay unfaithful, legate, acted towards me. When, on account
of my reverence for your name, I had placed myself and all that was mine in his hands, he
did not so act as to establish peace, which he could easily have established by one little
word, since I at that time promised to be silent and to make an end of my case, if he
would command my adversaries to do the same. But that man of pride, not content with
this agreement, began to justify my adversaries, to give them free licence, and to