For he himself may lawfully say: "Thus I will, thus I command; let my will be the reason." And so he is impeccable; and he cannot commit simony because all things are his. Therefore, he may do with his as he pleases, for he is able even to command angels and to save men or damn them as he chooses, and, what is more, he is able to bend not only the pope but the subject people and those who will not bow themselves in flattery and in a worldly way before him as the head and the honorable one and bend their knees to him. For the pope, the people and themselves also they lead astray into wrong paths by sowing such lies. And it is about them, as is probable, that Christ spoke the words: "There shall arise pseudo-Christs and pseudo-prophets and shall show great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect," Matt. 24:24.
But, returning to the statement of St. Jerome, it is said that "it was, presumably, of his good works that he spoke in addressing that pope" [Damasus]. But whether St. Jerome had a revelation with regard to this pope's predestination and the righteousness of his works is unknown. In the second place, it is said that St. Jerome addressed the pope in this way, secure about the faith of which he wrote, because in that letter he wrote expressly what is contained in Scripture and in the symbols of the church, as appears to one who wishes to read the letter. And hence he says: "This is the faith which we have learned in the catholic church, and which we have always held." It is clear how the conditional element in St. Jerome's statement is to be understood. For, if that confession of his was confirmed by the judgment of that pope, whosoever might impugn it would bea heretic. For presumably he said and affirmed nothing by revelation or certitude of the faith he was setting forth which the pope would not confirm except it were true, and he would not change anything rightly held in the church long before. But it would be insane to believe that a conclusion is to be drawn from this concerning every Roman pope, for it is certain that many of them
