"At Rome," says Luther, "they promise one thing with the lip and do its opposite with the hand. If this fact is true, must not the inference be the very reverse of what he draws from it? If the ministers of a religion live conformably to its precepts it is a proof that it is false. Such was the religion of the ancient Romans.... Such is that of Mahomet, and that of Luther himself; but such is not the religion which the pontiffs of Rome teach us. Yes, the doctrine which they confess condemns all as faulty, several as culpable, and some even (I say it candidly) as criminal.[420]... This doctrine delivers their actions to the censure of men during their life, and to historical infamy after their death.[421] Now what pleasure, what advantage, I ask, could the pontiffs have found in inventing such a religion? [420] "Multos ut quadantenus reos, nonnullos (dicam ingenuè) ut scelestos." (Pallavicini, i, p. 101.) [421] "Linguarum vituperationi dum vivunt, historiarum infaminæ post mortem. (Ibid.) "The Church, it will be said, was not governed in primitive times by Roman pontiffs--What must the conclusion be? With such arguments they might persuade men to live on acorns, and princesses to be their own washerwomen." [Sidenote: ALEANDER'S ADDRESS.] But it was against his adversary, the Reformer, that the nuncio chiefly directed his attack. Full of indignation against those who said that he ought to be heard, he exclaimed, "Luther will not allow any one to instruct him." The pope summoned him to Rome, but he did not obey. The pope summoned him to Augsburg before his legate, and he would not appear without a safe-conduct from the emperor, _i. e._ until the hands of the legate were tied, and nothing left free to him but his tongue.[422] "Ah!" said Aleander, turning towards Charles V, "I supplicate your imperial majesty not to do what would issue in disgrace. Interfere not with a matter of which laics have no right to take cognisance. Do your own work. Let Luther's doctrine be interdicted throughout the empire: let his writings be everywhere burnt. Fear not: there is enough in the writings of Luther to burn a hundred thousand heretics.[423]... And what have we to fear?... The populace? Before the battle they seem terrible from their insolence; in the battle they are contemptible from their cowardice. Foreign princes? The king of France has prohibited Luther's doctrine from entering his kingdom, while the king of Great Britain is preparing a blow for it with his royal hand. You know what the feelings of Hungary, Italy, and Spain are, and none of your neighbours, how great soever the enmity he may bear to yourself, wishes you any thing so bad as this heresy. If the house of our enemy is adjacent to our own we may wish him fever, but not pestilence.... Who are all these Lutherans? A huddle of insolent grammarians, corrupt priests, disorderly monks, ignorant advocates, degraded nobles, common people misled and perverted.