Where art thou now good Emperour Charles? Where are ye Christen Kynges and Princes? Ye haue gyuen your name to Christ in Baptisme, and can ye now abyde these infernall voyces of such an Antichrist? Where be ye Byshops? Where bee ye Doctors? Where be all ye that confesse Christ? Can ye hold your peace at these horrible and prodigious monsters of the Papistes? O miserable Churche of God, whiche art made now so great a scorne and a very mockyng stocke of Sathan, O miserable are all they whiche lyue in these tymes. The wrath of God is finally come vpon the Papistes, enemyes to the crosse of Christ & veritie of God, resistyng all men, and forbydyng the truth of Christ, to be taught and preached as S. Paul sayd of the Iewes. Admitte I pray you, that I were such a one in dede, as that cursed & malicious Bull doth make me to be, an hereticke, erroneous, schismaticall, offensyue, scandalous in certeine of my bookes: MarginaliaThe Pope cōdemneth as well the good bookes of M. Luther as the other, without all respecte of truth or of the cause.yet why should the other bookes of myne be condemned, whiche are Catholicke, Christian, true, edifying, and peaceable? Where haue these wretched Papistes learned this Religion, that for the persons cause beyng euill, they should damne and burne the holy and sound veritie of God? Cā ye not destroy men, but you must also destroy the truth? Will ye plucke vp the good wheate also with the cockle? Will ye scatter also the corne away together with the chaffe? And why thē receaue ye Origine in his Catholicke bookes, and doo not vtterly reiect hym altogether? yea why suffer ye wicked Aristotle (in whom is nothyng taught but errours) and do not at least in some part condemne hym? Why burne ye not & set on fyre the wicked, barbarous, vnlearned, and hereticall Decretals of the Pope? Why do ye not all this, I say, but only for þ^t ye are set in this holy place for none other cause, but onely to be that abomination spoken of in Daniell, MarginaliaDaniell. 9.whiche should put down truth and set vp lyes, and the operation of errour. For this thyng and no other, becommeth the seate of Antichrist.

Wherfore this I say to thee (Pope Leo the tenth and to you Lord Cardinals, and all other who soeuer is in any part or doyng in that Court of Rome) and this I speake boldly vnto your faces, if this Bull hath come out in your name, and by your knowledge, and if ye so will acknowledge it for your owne: then will I lykewise vse my power, by the whiche I am made in my Baptisme, the sonne of God, and coheyre with Christ, beyng founded vpon a sure rocke, whiche neither feareth the gates of hell, nor heauen, nor earth, and say, monish, and exhorte you in the Lord, MarginaliaM. Luthers warning to the Pope.that you will reforme your selues and take a better way, and refrayne hereafter frō these diabolicall blasphemies, and to much excedyng presumptuous impieties, and this I alledge: That vnlesse ye so do, know it for certaine, that I with all them that worship Christ, do recount your seate, possessed & oppressed of Sathan hym selfe, to be the damned seate of Antichrist, whiche we not onely do not obey, and will not be subiect nor concorporate vnto, but also do detest and abhorre the same, as the principall and chiefest enemy of Christ, beyng ready in this our sentence and profession, not onely to suffer gladly your fonde foolishe censures, but also do pray you hartely that you will neuer assoyle vs agayne, nor euer number vs in your fellowshyp, and moreouer to fulfill your bloudy tyranny, doe willyngly offer our selues to dye for the same. And accordyng to the power and might, that the spirite of Christ, and effecacy of our fayth can do in these our writyngs, MarginaliaM. Luther curseth the Pope.if ye shall persiste so still in this your fury, we cōdemne you, and together with this Bull, and all the Decretals, we gyue you to Sathan, to the destruction of flesh, that your spirite in the day of our Lord may be deliuered: in the name, whiche you persecute, of Iesu Christ our Lord. Amen.

For our Lord Iesus Christ yet lyueth and reigneth, (in whom I doe nothyng doubt) who I firmely trust will shortly come, and slay with the spirite of his mouth, and destroy with the brightnes of his commyng, this man of sinne, and sonne of perdition, for asmuch as I cā not deny, MarginaliaThe Pope the true Antichrist.if the pope be the author and doer of these misshapen and monstruous doynges, but hee is the true, finall, most wicked, & that famous Antichrist, that subuerteth the whole world by the operation of hys delusions, as we see it in all places fulfilled and accomplished.

But whether doth the burnyng zeale of charitie cary me? Neither am I as yet fully persuaded this to be the Popes Bull, MarginaliaEccius.but to procede from his wicked Apostle Eccius: Who with his fathers, furiously gapyng at me lyke a gulfe, would swallow me cleane vp, singyng with the wicked thus: MarginaliaProuerb. 1.Let vs swallowe hym vp quicke and whole lyke hell, and lyke one descendyng downe into the pitte. For litle careth this furious madbrayne, how þ^e veritie of God be extinguished (yea he would coūt that for a lucre) so he might fulfill his malicious desire with the bloud of his brother. O miserable state of the Churche at this tyme, worthy to be bewayled with teares of bloud. But who heareth our gronynges, or who cōforteth our wepynges? The fury of the Lord semeth to be inexorable agaynst vs.

MarginaliaThe Pope lyeth in his Bull, wher he sayth, that he offered money to Luther to come to Rome.Ouer and besides, what a ridiculous toy, or prety figment haue they inuented whereby belyke to sport them selues with some merye matter amongest their earnest busines, writyng þ^t besides other great frendshyp which they haue shewed vnto me, they haue also offered to supporte me with money, and to beare my charges with their liberalitie, in my iourney to Rome. Will ye see what a charitie is newly come vppon the Citie of Rome, whiche after it hath pilled and poled the whole world of their money, and hath consumed and wasted the same by intolerable tyrannie, now commeth, and to me onely offereth money? But this impudent lye I know with whose hammer it was coyned. Caietanus the Cardinall, a man borne & formed to lye for the whet stone, after his worshipful Legacie depeached in Germanie, commyng home to Rome, there he forged and fayned that he promised me money: where as he beyng at Auspurgh, was there in such miserable penurie, and so pynchyng in his house, that it was thought hee woulde haue famished his familie. But thus it becommeth the Bull to be verè Bulla, that is, a thyng of naught, voyde of all truth and wytte.

And so these great iudges and condemners after all this, yet haue authoritie to commaunde vs to beleue them to say truth, when they doe nothyng but lye, and that they are good Catholickes, when they be starke heretikes, and that they are true Christiās, when they play the very Antichrist, & all by the vertue of this vniuersall: Quodcsiq; ligaueris &c. 1. MarginaliaThe Pope by the vertue of thys vniuersall Quodcunq̀; ligaueris, can do all thinges.VVhat soeuer thyng thou bindest. &c. So that where nothyng is excepted, they thinke they may do all in all thynges. Who not onely do lye most loudlye and manifestly, but also (which passeth all impudencie) do vaunt and commende there liberalitie before the people to bring me more into hatred, makyng men falsely to beleue that they offered frendship & money vnto me: Where as these tyrantes of Rome, if they had had any truth, goodnes or godlines in them, should haue taken some better hede in their doyng & speakyng, so that no aduersarie might conceaue any suspition of euill agaynst them. But now if there were no other matter els to bryng this Bull out of credite, onely this grosse and foolishe lye were sufficient to declare how lyght, vayne, & false this Bull is. What? would Rome (thinke ye) offer money to me? MarginaliaMen hyred by the Papists to kill Luther.And how thē cōmeth this, which I know to be most certaine, that out of the bancke (as they call it) ij. or iij. hundreth crownes were assigned in Germanie, to be disposed & giuē to ruffins & catchpoles, to murder Luther: for these be the reasons & argumētes, wherby now fighteth, raigneth, & triumpheth þ^e holy Apostolicke Sea, the mistres of faith & mother of all Churches, the which long since should haue bene proued to be the very seat of Antichrist & manifold wayes hereticall, if she had fought with the sword of the spirite, whiche is the word of God: MarginaliaThe popes Church flieth the triall of scripture.wherof she her selfe is nothyng ignoraunt, and therfore because she would not be brought to that issue, thus she fareth and taketh on like as she were madde, in the Churche of Christ, confoundyng and consumyng all thinges with warres, murthers, bloudshed, death, and destruction, and yet for all this they must nedes be counted most holy fathers in God, and Vicars of Christ, and Pastors of hys flocke.

But go to (that I may also daly with thē a whyle) let thē yet send me þ^e money they speake of: for as touchyng their promise and safeconduct (because I will not ouer charge them) that I gladly resigne to them agayne, seyng I haue no great nede thereof, so that the money may come to my handes. MarginaliaWhat safeconducte M. Luther requireth of the pope.But here I must require so much as may suffice me: to witte, that I may be furnished, with fifty thousand footemen, and ten thousand horsemē, to conduct me safe to Rome, and so for any other promise of safeconduct I wil not trouble thē. And this I require, because of the daunger that is in Rome, which deuoureth vp her inhabitauntes, neither kepeth nor euer did keepe promise with any: Where these most holy fathers do slay their beloued children in the charitie of God, and brethrē destroy their brethrē to do seruice to Christ, as the maner is & style of Rome. In the meane tyme I wil kepe my self