(1) The pope has the power to interpret scripture, and to teach as he pleases; and no person is allowed to interpret in a different way. (2) The pope does not derive from the scripture but the scripture derives from the pope, authority, power and dignity. He then affirms that comparing together the different parts of the canon law, its language amounts to this: That the pope is God on earth; above all that is earthly or heavenly, temporal or spiritual; that all things belong to the pope; and that no one must venture to say, what doest thou?[35] {244}It was against this arbitrary authority that Luther rebelled. 5. Attempted Settlement by a General Council.--At last when through the influence of the emperor the pope consented to appoint a council, a difficulty arose as to where it should be held. The pope on his part seemed determined to have it assemble in Italy, or in some country where his influence would predominate; the Reformers were equally determined to submit their cause to no council outside of Germany. The difficulty had arisen in Germany; they insisted it should be settled by a council in Germany, or by a diet of the empire. The cause was never fairly tried by a council of the whole church; the revolt against the authority of the pope was sustained by an appeal to arms, as related in section I, Part III, of this work. 6. Revolution, not Rebellion.--Had that revolt against the Catholic church been a revolt against legitimate authority it would have been rebellion: but as it was against a usurped and hence an illegitimate authority, it was a justifiable revolution. For in ecclesiastical government, no less than in civil government, if a long train of abuses renders it odious, and those who execute it are tyrannical and usurp authority which the law of God does not sanction, by which unrighteous dominion is exercised over the minds of men, it is the right of the people to resist such authority: and refuse to sustain those who exercise that unrighteous dominion to please their vanity or gratify their ambition.