The opening of XXII. LUTHER AND LYING pages 80-178
1. A BATTERY OF ASSERTIONS.
Luther’s conduct in the matter of the Bigamy an excuse for the present chapter. His dishonest assurances in his letters to Leo X, to Bishop Scultetus his Ordinary, and to the Emperor Charles V (1518-1520); his real feelings at that time as shown in a letter to Spalatin; Luther’s later parody of Tetzel’s teaching; his insinuation that it was the Emperor’s intention to violate the safe-conduct granted; he calls into question the authenticity of the Papal Bull against him, whilst all the time knowing it to be genuine; he advises ordinandi to promise celibacy with a mental reservation; his distortion of St. Bernard’s “perdite vixi”; his allusion to the case of Conradin, “slain by Pope Clement IV,” and to the spurious letter of St. Ulrich on the babies’ heads found in a convent pond at Rome.