in Rome, but whereas Luther had set out with feelings of reverence, only to return in disappointment and indignation, Faust was merely amused and contemplated with cynical complacency the license of the Vatican, where the priests were no better than himself. Luther married in accordance with the tenets of the Church, but Faust rejected the sacrament of marriage for the pagan Helena. Luther based his faith on the Bible, Faust was not content to accept the Holy Writ, but sought to penetrate the forbidden mysteries beyond it. Faust entered into league with the Devil, while Luther hurled his inkstand at him.[6] It is true that it was not in the spirit of Luther to conceive of the defection from orthodox theology as defection from God, and the ridicule to which the Church of Rome and its priests are exposed in the Faust book, even the Devil himself appearing in the guise of a monk, would quite possibly even have appealed to his robust sense of humour. Nevertheless, there seems little reason to doubt that the book was written from the Lutheran standpoint. Since, however, in the field of German literary research, it seems impossible for any definite point of view, with whatever weight of proof it may be supported, to be maintained for very long, before a scholar brings forward its exact opposite, which he defends with equally weighty evidence, there has recently been an attempt to prove that the tendency of the Faust book was not Lutheran but Catholic.[7] The author of this theory does not deny that the intention of some passages is obviously hostile to Catholicism, but he declares that they are later interpolations, and endeavours to prove that the book is a parody on Luther, who is represented as a modern Bacchus and companion of the Devil. The first direct anti-clerical reference is the taunt at the celibacy of the clergy in Faust’s conversation with Mephostophiles concerning the former’s desire to take a wife. The Devil endeavours to dissuade him by declaring that marriage is a divine institution, but Faust retorts that the monks and nuns do not marry. This passage is lacking in the Wolfenbüttel MS. In the chapter which deals with the journey through Europe, Faust remarks at Cologne that the Devil is in the Church of St. Ursula with the 11,000 virgins. The MS. has _Tempel_ instead of _Teufel_. When Faust arrives in Rome, he spends three days and nights invisible in the pope’s palace, finding that “these pigs at Rome are fattened and all ready to roast and cook,” and after his experience in the harem at Constantinople, he mounts up in the air in the vestments of a pope. These last two adventures are also to be found in the MS., but Dr. Wolff declares them to be interpolations. His evidence, however, is not convincing, and there is little reason to assume that the spirit of any literary version of the Faust book which may have been extant before 1587 was different from the tendency of the edition published by Spies.