The archbishops and the priests, in possession of all their privileges, put themselves at the head of the opposition. Many of them, of course, were actuated by a higher motive, the glory of the Roman Church; but in general they had no mind to let what they had usurped be taken from them. King Louis and other princes, pressed by the clergy, _lent them their own power and authority_; but the ecclesiastics were the authors of the persecution. A religious philosopher of the eighteenth century[528] has said, ‘The clergy are the indirect cause of the crimes of kings. While they talk incessantly of God, they only aim at establishing their own dominion.’ This is a strong saying, and the author forgets that in the Catholic Church there are, and always have been, some good priests and good laymen. _Let us not exaggerate._ Still, the empire of the clergy, the despotism with which it crushed consciences, is a great historical fact. It concealed the Holy Scriptures, but it brought out its tariffs of indulgences, its exactions, its punishments with fire and sword. At a later time the progress of Christian civilization no longer allowed resort to such barbarous practices. But if evangelical Christianity is exposed henceforth only to senseless accusations, and frequently to insults on the part of the adherents of Rome, another adversary has appeared at the opposite pole; and each is a menace to freedom, to truth, and to the life of society. ‘If the European world is not to perish like the Roman empire,’ a philosopher of our own day has said,[529] ‘some religious symbol must be found which is adequate to the rescue of souls from both the evils which at this day are contending for them—a criminal atheism and a retrograde theology.’ This symbol is the Word of God. The Hungarian priests dealt a hard blow. They wanted to exclude the Reformation not from their own country alone, but from the whole world. They said that it was necessary to dry up the fountain from which these poisoned waters flowed. Hungary then could no longer have to fear a Lutheran deluge. At their request the young king then wrote to the old elector of Saxony: ‘How can you patronize Luther, who attacks the Christian faith and the authority of the Church, who derides princes and praises the Turks? Leave off countenancing this monk, and punish him severely.’[530] Frederick the Wise was not of a nature to give himself up to the leading of a young man without understanding. ‘To allege that Luther teaches things contrary to the faith,’ he replied, ‘that he insults the Christian princes, that he extols the Turks, and that in all these misdeeds he is countenanced by me, is to heap calumny upon calumny. I beg that you will let me know who are putting such fables into circulation.’ Louis had not to go far to find them. It was the priests of his court; but in his astonishment at the reply of the illustrious elector, he took care not to say so.