“There will be great confusion. Nobody will conform with another man’s opinions or submit to his authority. Everybody will want to be his own rabbi, as Osiander and Agricola do now, and the greatest offenses and divisions will arise from this. It would have been best, therefore, if the princes had prevented this by holding some sort of council. But the papists avoid a council, so much do they fear the light.”
“It’s said that Nicholas von Schönberg. bishop of Capua, admonished the pope with the best reasons that he should deal honestly with the issue before the church, make some concessions to the Germans, and not fulminate against them with his authority. The Germans, he said, are men who won’t yield in a just and honorable cause, nor can they be overcome with guile or with force. But the pope ridiculed the godly counsel of this man. Would that our princes and estates might call a council and establish some measure of agreement in doctrine and ceremonies in order that everybody who wishes to do so might not burst forth rashly to the scandal of many! This is already beginning to happen. Truly the image of the church is deplorable! The church lies hidden under very great weakness and offense.”
