At an earlier period (1531) a sermon of Luther’s vividly pictures this despair: “If, in spiritual matters, it comes about, that the devil sows his seed in Christ’s kingdom and it springs up both in doctrine and life, then we have a crop of misery and distress. In the preaching it happens, that although God has appointed _one_ man and commanded him to preach the Evangel, yet others are found even amongst his pupils who think they know how to do it ten times better than he.... Every man wants to be master in doctrine.... Now they are saying: ‘Why should not we have the Spirit and understand Scripture just as well as anyone else?’ Thus a new doctrine is at once set up and sects are formed.... Hence a deadly peril to Christendom ensues, for it is torn asunder and pure doctrine everywhere perishes.”[614] Christ had indeed “foretold that this would happen”; true enough, it is not forbidden to anyone “who holds the public office of preacher to judge of doctrine”; but whoever has not such an office has no right to do so; if he does this of “his own doctrine and spirit,” then “I call such judging of doctrine one of the greatest, most shameful and most wicked vices to be found upon earth, one from which all the factious spirits have arisen.”[615] Duke George of Saxony unfeelingly pointed out to the innovator that his fear, that many, very many indeed, would say: “Do we not also possess the Spirit and understand Scripture as well as you?” would only too surely be realised. “What man on earth,” wrote the Duke in his usual downright fashion, “ever hitherto undertook a more foolish task than you in seeking to include in your sect all Christians, especially those of the German nation? Success is as likely in your case as it was in that of those who set about building a tower in Babylonia which was to reach the very heavens; in the end they had to cease from building, and the result was seventy-two new tongues. The same will befall you; you also will have to stop, and the result will be seventy-two new sects.”[616] Luther’s letters speak throughout in a similar strain of the divisions already existing and the gloomy outlook for the future; in the ‘forties his lamentation over the approaching calamities becomes, however, even louder than usual in spite of the apparent progress of his cause. Much of what he says puts us vividly in mind of Duke George’s words just quoted.