Now St. Peter says, particularly, the _flock of Christ_, as though he should say: Do not imagine that the flock is yours, ye are only servants. But our bishops speak with all confidence the reverse of this. They say, you are _my_ sheep. But we are Christ's sheep; for so he said above, "Ye are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." The bishops are Christ's servants, and their business is to guard Christ's sheep, and feed them. Therefore to feed them is nothing else but to preach the Gospel, whereby souls are nourished, made fat and fruitful,--since the sheep thrive upon the Gospel and the word of God. This is alone the office of a bishop. So Christ says also to Peter, "Feed my sheep,"--that is, the sheep which you are to feed, are not yours, but mine. Yet from this they have inferred the doctrine that the Pope has external power over all Christendom, and yet none of them preaches to you one word out of the Gospel; and I fear that since St. Peter's times there has been no Pope that has preached the Gospel. There has certainly been none who has written and left anything behind him in which the Gospel was contained. Saint Gregory, the Pope, was certainly a holy man, but his sermons are not worth a farthing; so that it would seem that the See of Rome has been under the special curse of God. It is very possible that some Popes may have endured martyrdom for the Gospel's sake; but nothing has been written of them to show that it was the Gospel. And yet they go on and preach that they must feed the flock; and yet they do nothing but bind and destroy the conscience, by laws of their own, while they preach not a word of Christ. It is probable, indeed, that among all Christians many might be found, both men and women, as able to preach as those who are thus employed. But certainly among all these multitudes there are many people who have not this ability. And therefore some one must be selected to strengthen them, so that the wolves shall not come and tear the sheep. For a preacher must not only feed the sheep, so as to instruct them how they are to be good Christians, but, besides this, must guard against the wolves, lest they attack the sheep and lead them astray with false doctrine, and introduce error such as the devil would not find fault with. But there are many people to be found at the present day, quite ready to tolerate our preaching of the Gospel, if we would not cry out against the wolves and preach against the prelates.