[386] Habitoque super hac re diligenti tractatu. Ibid. [387] Cum illo _Protheo_....imo _Atheo_. Erasm. Ep. 1158. [388] Tota ruet Ecclesia. Ibid. p. 1159. [389] Nisi de abolendo Christo scribere destinavit. Ibid. p. 1160. [390] Gladio Spiritus abactum in antrum suum coges. Ibid. [Sidenote: SARCASMS OF THE PEOPLE.] It was read (probably on the first Sunday in June) in all the churches during high mass, when the congregation was most numerous.[391] A priest exclaimed: "For every book of Martin Luther's found in your possession within fifteen days after this injunction, you will incur the greater excommunication." Then a public notary, holding the pope's bull in his hand, with a description of Luther's _perverse opinions_, proceeded towards the principal door of the church and fastened up the document.[392] The people gathered round it; the most competent person read it aloud, while the rest listened; and the following are some of the sentences which, by the pope's order, resounded in the porches of all the cathedral, conventual, collegiate, and parish churches of every county in England:[393] "11. Sins are not pardoned to any, unless, the priest remitting them, he believe they are remitted to him. "13. If by reason of some impossibility, the _contrite_ be not confessed, or the priest absolve him, not in earnest, but in jest; yet if he believe that he is absolved, he is most truly absolved. "14. In the sacrament of _penance_ and the remission of a fault, the pope or bishop doth not more than the lowest priest; yea, where there is not a priest, then any Christian will do; yea, if it were a woman or a child. "26. The pope, the successor of Peter, is not Christ's vicar. "28. It is not at all in the hand of the church or the pope to decree articles of faith, no, nor to decree the laws of manners or of good works." [391] Cum major convenerit multitudo. Ibid. [392] In valvis seu locis publicis ecclesiæ vestræ. (Ibid. p. 24.) On the doors or public places of your churches. [393] Strype, M. I. p. 57, (Oxf. ed.) or Luther, xvii, p. 306.