Luther: "The prince of this world does not permit the laws of the Pope and his pontiffs to be kept in liberty; his intention is to entangle and bind consciences... as for your fear that persons of vicious inclination will abuse this liberty, this must be thought of as one of the disturbances aforementioned, part of the temporal leprosy that we must bear and the malady that we must endure. But it must not be held so important as to warrant the removal of the Word of God in order to restrain their abuse of it. "
Luther to Erasmus:"The same circumspection appears in your next bit of advice, that wrong decisions made in councils should not be publicly acknowledged , lest the grounds for denying the authority of the fathers should thereby by given. This, of course, is exactly what the Pope wanted you to say! He finds it sweeter hearing that the Gospel itself; he will be most ungrateful if he does not honor you in return with a cardinal's hat, plus all the attendant revenues."
The Bondage of the Will, pg. 93-94, 96
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