18. Discussion on Free Will.--Meantime the points of disagreement between the Reformer and the church of Rome increased. In 1519 John Eckius [Eck-ius] challenged Andrew Carlstadt [Karl-stat], a friend and colleague of Luther's, to a discussion on the subject of Free Will, about which there was a disagreement between the Reformer and those who thought with him--among whom was Carlstadt--and the adherents of the church of Rome. In this dispute Carlstadt maintained--and of course his were Luther's views--that since the fall, the natural freedom of man is not strong enough to move him to that which is morally good, or to do the will of God. Eckius on the contrary insisted that the free will of man produces good works, and not merely the grace of God; that our free will co-operates with divine grace in the production of good works, and that it depends on man's free power, whether he will give place to the operations of grace or will resist them. 19. Luther and Eckius.--After this dispute with Carlstadt, Eckius drew Luther--who had been present at the discussion on Free Will--into a public debate on the foundation of the authority of the pope. Eckius maintained the orthodox {214} view that the supremacy of the pope was founded on divine right, that he was the successor of St. Peter and the vicar of Christ. Luther allowed the superiority of the pope over other bishops, but based that superiority on other grounds. He could not deny that the pontiffs had possessed a decided pre-eminence from age to age, and therefore he conceived it as his duty not to resist the powers that be. "Unless it had been the will of God," he went on to say, "the pope could never have attained so great and durable a dominion. The whole body of the Christians own themselves to be under the Roman pontiff. This universal consent is a consideration of the greatest weight; the unity of the church should be preserved in everything that is not directly contrary to the word of God." [12] 20. In all these admissions, however, it will be observed that the Reformer placed the supremacy of the pontiffs on human, not divine right. It was based upon tradition, upon human arrangement. To the contention of Eckius that the expressions--"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church," "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom"--evinced the supremacy of Peter and his successors; that this was the explanation given by the holy fathers, etc., Luther replied: That even if all the fathers, without exception, had understood the passages in that sense, he would confute them by the authority of St. Paul, and by St. Peter himself, who said that Jesus Christ is the only foundation and corner-stone of the church. And further, if the words "Thou art Peter," etc., be construed strictly then they must be confined to the person of Peter and therefore the authority conveyed by them ceased when that apostle died.[13]