Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/185

therefore contention and strife, pride, rapacity, envy exist amongst them with whom peace should abide; therefore the church is, through them, ill-governed,” &c. “Religion is a severe combat; the human heart is cold toward the divine word; here and there the faith is trodden down. For this reason the church must become free, and that through its head; through the foremost in Christianity, through the sun of faith, the Pope. The Pope sits in the place of God; he rules his kingdom on earth. Without the Pope there exists no realm; it crumbles away, it becomes a staggering vessel, and is shivered to pieces. As the affairs of the world are the business of the Emperor, so are the affairs of God the business of the Pope. Consequently the Pope must release the servants of the altar from the bond of the temporal power. One is the state, another is the church. As the saving faith is one, so is also the church one; so is the Pope, its one head; so are its members, its servants also all one. If now the church exists solely in herself, so must she also exist solely through herself. As nothing spiritual is visible and perceptible without the earthly, as the soul is not active without the body, so cannot religion exist without the church, nor the church without possessing a secure opulence. The soul is nourished through the earthly in the body; the church is maintained also, merely by means of land and wealth. And it is incumbent upon him who holds the supreme weapon, the Emperor, to be watchful that the church obtain this, and that it be preserved to her. Therefore the Emperor, and the great of the world, are necessary to the church; which only