[27] The statement of which Luther here complains is found in the Decretum of Gratian, _Dist. XL, c. 6, Si papa_. In his _Epitome_ (see Introduction, p. 58), Prierias had quoted this canon against Luther, as follows: "_A Pontifex indubitatus_ (i. e., a pope who is not accused of heresy or schism) cannot lawfully be deposed or judged either by a council or by the whole world, even if he is so scandalous as to lead people with him by crowds into the possession of hell." Luther's comment is: "Be astonished, O heaven; shudder, O earth! Behold, O Christians, what Rome is!" (_Weimar Ed._, VI, 336). [28] Gregory the Great, pope 590-604. The passage is found in Migne, LXXVI, 203; LXXVII, 34. [29] Antichrist, the incarnation of all that is hostile to Christ and His Kingdom. His appearance is prophesied in 2 Thess. 2:3-10 (the "man of sin, sitting in the temple of God"); 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3, and Rev. 13. In the early Church the Fathers sometimes thought the prophecies fulfilled in the person of some especially pestilent heretic. Wyclif applied the term to the pope,--"the pope would seem to be not the vicar of Christ, but the vicar of Antichrist" (see Loos, _Dogmengeschichte_, 4th ed., p. 649). On Dec. 11, 1518, Luther wrote to Link: "You can see whether my suspicion is correct that at the Roman court the true Antichrist rules of whom St. Paul speaks"; and March 13, 1519, he wrote to Spalatin: "I am not sure but that the pope is Antichrist or his apostle." It was the worldly pretensions of the papacy which suggested the idea both to Wyclif and to Luther. By the year 1520 Luther had come to the definite conclusion that the pope was the "man of sin, sitting in the temple of God," and this opinion he never surrendered. [30] See above, p. 65. [31] According to academic usage, the holder of a Master's degree was authorised to expound the subject named in the degree. [32] The doctrine of papal infallibility was never officially sanctioned in the Middle Ages, but the claim of infallibility was repeatedly made by the champions of the more extreme view of papal power, e. g., Augustinus Triumphus (died 1328) in his _Summa de potestate Papae_. In his attack upon the XCV Theses (_Dialogus de potestate Papae_, Dec, 1517) Prierias had asserted, "The supreme pontiff (i. e., the pope) cannot err when giving a decision as pontiff, i. e., speaking officially (_ex officio_), and doing what in him lies to learn the truth"; and again, "Whoever does not rest upon the teaching of the Roman Church and the supreme pontiff as an infallible rule of faith, from which even Holy Scripture draws its vigor and authority, is a heretic" (_Erl. Ed., op. var. arg._, I, 348). In the _Epitome_ he had said: "Even though the pope as an individual (_singularis persona_) can do wrong and hold a wrong faith, nevertheless as pope he cannot give a wrong decision" (_Weimar Ed._, VI, 337). [33] Most recently in Prierias's _Epitome_. See preceding note.