Luther on education; including a historical introduction, and a translation of the reformer's two most important educational treatises

Preface

THIS little work illustrates the growth of an idea. It began with the translation of the " Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of all the Cities of Germany in behalf of Christian Schools," of which a perusal a few years ago had led me to say in my " History of Education : " " If we consider its pioneer character, in connection with its statement of principles and admirable recommendations, the address must be regarded the most important educational treatise ever written." The translation of the " Sermon on the Duty of Sending Children to School," the most elaborate of Luther's educational writings, naturally followed as presenting more fully the great Reformer's views. The interest thus awakened led to an examination of all that he had written about education, and to an attempt to arrange in a somewhat systematic form his educational opinions and principles. The fact that no great character can be fully

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IV PREFACE.

understood without an acquaintance with the age in which he lived and the movements with which he was identified, led to the preparation of the first four chapters as a historical introduction.

The justification of the work must be found partly in the interest and value of Luther's views, and partly in the relation of those views to educational progress. Though it is not generally recognized, yet Luther brought about as important a reformation in education as in religion. With his earnest nature and profound penetration he laid hold of fundamental facts and principles that are often neglected in the rapid movements of the present. The progress of our century in education — a progress that constitutes no small part of its pre-eminence — has its roots in the principles and labors of the German reformer. This fact, it is believed, renders the present work a not untimely contribution to our excellent and rapidly increasing educational literature.

The two treatises of Luther contained in this work have never before appeared in English. The translation is made from the Leipsic edition of Luther's works. A judicious medium between a literal and a periphrastic rendering has been aimed at, but it is not ^asy to make the great, rugged, impetuous German speak our language acceptably. Except the passages

PREFACE. V

from his Catechisms, of which there are several good translation's, nearly all the extracts illustrating the Reformer's educational views have been taken directly from the German. Whenever an extract has been thought of especial importance, a reference has been given to its source ; but in most cases this has not been deemed necessary.

Contents

PAGE

CHAPTER I. Causes of the Reformation 9

CHAPTER 11.

The Papacy and Popular Education 32

CHAPTER in. ■ Protestantism and Popular Education 52

CHAPTER IV.

Education before the Reformation ... .^ ... . 75

CHAPTER V.

Luther 90

CHAPTER VI.

Luther on Domestic Training • . . 113

CHAPTER VII.

Luther on Schools 128

CHAPTER VIII.

Luther on Studies and Methods 147

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Vlll CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER IX.

Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of the Cities OF Germany in behalf of Christian Schools . . 169

CHAPTER X.

Sermon on the Duty of Sending Children to School 210

LUTHER ON EDUCATION.

CHAPTER I.

CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION.

THE greatest achievement of the Germanic race, and the most important event in history since the advent of Christ, is the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Though involving a multitude of interests, it was essentially a religious movement, which sought to correct the errors in doctrine and practice that had crept into the Church, In connection with cooperating influences presently to be noticed, the Reformation began a new stage in human progress ; it marks the close of the Middle Ages, and the dawn of the modern era. Insignificant in its beginning, it appealed so strongly to the conscience of the Teutonic nations that it speedily assumed a world-wide significance. There is scarcely an important human interest that it has not

affected. It has secured greater purity and spirituality I* . (9)

lO LUTHER ON EDUCATION.

in religion ; it has contributed to the elevation of the laity and the advancement of woman ; it has confirmed the separation of the secular and the ecclesiastical power; it has given an extraordinary impulse to literature and science; it has established the right of liberty of conscience ; in a word, it is closely related to all that distinguishes and ennobles our modern civilization.

The Reformation has long been a subject of controversy ; and at the present time, because of recent Roman Catholic attacks, its origin and significance are being investigated with renewed interest. In many of the discussions of the past, ignorance, prejudice, and passion have led to one-sided statements, and to erroneous or inadequate explanations. There have been writers of high rank, as Hume and Voltaire, who have alleged the rivalry between the Augustinian and the Dominican friars as the origin of the Reformation. " You are not unaware," says the Frenchman, " that this great revolution in the human mind and in the political system of Europe began with Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, whom his superiors deputed to preach against the traffic in indulgences which had been refused them. The quarrel was at first between the Augustinians and the Dominicans."* The state-

CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION. I 1

ments made in the latter part of this extract are wholly without foundation.

The Roman Catholic view has the merit of great simplicity. The Reformation was a rebellion against the Church. Luther, the arch- heretic, or, as Audin calls him, " the Sampson of the Reformation," led the revolt, and gathered about him all the elements of discontent existing in the social and the religious world. " He arbitrarily set himself up as a reformer of the Church, inveighed against the ecclesiastical authorities, especially against the Pope, whose supreme power he denounced as usurpation and tyranny. . . In pursuance of his wrong views, he rejected many articles of faith which the Church had received from Christ and his apostles. He discarded the holy sacrifice of the mass, fasting, confession, prayers for the dead, and many other pious practices; he declared good works to be useless, and taught that man is justified and saved by faith alone. . . Luther boasted that he took his doctrine from the Bible only ; but being misled by the false rule of private judgment in its interpretation, he soon fell into the most palpable contradictions and errors. . . Nevertheless he soon obtained many followers ; for the thoughtless multitude were very much pleased with such easy doctrine, which allowed them to lead a dissolute life, and covetous princes found nothing more conformable to their wishes than the suppression of churches and monasteries."* Apart from the many erroneous statements contained in this passage, particularly in reference to the uselessness of good works, and the dissoluteness of life encouraged by the " easy doctrines " of Protestantism, the explanation of the reformatory movement is exceedingly inadequate and biased.

I. Among the several cooperating causes of the Reformation now to be considered, a prominent place must be given to the effort of the human mind in Europe to throw off the oppressive intellectual tyranny of the Papacy. The Reformation, says Guizot, " was a vast effort made by the human mind to achieve its freedom ; it was a new-born desire which it felt, to think and judge freely and independently of facts and opinions which till then Europe received, or was considered bound to receive, from the hands of authority. It was a great endeavor to emancipate human reason ; and, to call things by their right names, it was an insurrection of the human mind against the absolute power of the spiritual order."t

* A Full Catechism of the Catholic Religion, by the Rev. Joseph Deharbe, S. J. Twelfth American Edition. Imprimatur of N. Card. Wiseman, and of John Card. McCloskey.

t Guizot, History of Civilization. Chapter XII.

The correctness and significance of this explanation of the reformatory movement will appear upon a brief survey of the facts. At the opening of the sixteenth century, the human mind in Europe had attained a higher plane of intelligence than it had occupied for a thousand years. This result was brought about by many remarkable circumstances. The revival of classical learning, which had its central point in the downfall of Constantinople in 1453, exerted a strong and pervading influence. It opened the literary treasures of Greece and Rome — the richest fruitage of heathen intellect — and awakened Europe with its new and higher form of culture. The invention of gunpowder wrought an important and salutary change in society. It weakened the influence and power of the knightly order, which had hitherto been preeminent in military operations, and by placing a powerful weapon in the hands of the lower classes, it gradually led to an amelioration of their condition. The discovery of America and of a sea-passage to the East Indies, led to numerous voyages of exploration, quickened commercial activity, and made large contributions to the general store of knowledge. In the cities an influential middle class, or " third estate," composed of merchants and artisans, won recognition at the hands of the nobility and the clergy — the two orders that had been preeminent during the reign of feudalism. The rise of the universities, beginning with that of Bologna in the twelfth century, stimulated intellectual pursuits, and promoted the diffusion of knowledge. The invention of printing, which at once supplanted the tedious and costly process of copying books by hand, multiplied the sources of knowledge, and brought them within reach of a larger circle of readers. These circumstances harmoniously worked together in lifting Europe to a higher intellectual plane, and in making the people restive under an ecclesiastical tutelage which, in matters of supreme importance, forbade, under fear^ ful penalties, all independence of thought and judgment.

2. Another cause of the Reformation is found in the unbelief, ignorance, worldliness, and vice, that characterized many representatives of the Papacy at that period. Attempts have been made by recent Roman Catholic writers to reconstruct the accepted history of that age, and to gloss over the corrupt condition of the Church. But a careful investigation of the subject amply justifies the rise of Protestantism, and shows that the precious heritage of existing freedom and culture is not the result of a tremendous error.

"The Reformation," says Hegel, "resulted from the corruption of the Church."* While there were many

* Hegel, Philosophy of History.

devout and intelligent Christians in the Church (a fact that should not be forgotten), its general condition, from the Pope down to the humblest sexton, was a reproach to its divine Founder. *rhe spiritual conception of the Church had been lost. It had been gradually transformed into a vast external organization, officered by the Pope and his subordinates, and used by them for selfish and sensual ends. At the court of Rome, in the midst of excessive outward splendor, there existed a spirit of unbelief and licentiousness. The remark that Leo X. is said to have made to his secretary Bembo accords well with the prevailing spirit in the pontifical palace: "All the world knows how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us and ours."* The wide-spread infidelity led the tenth Lateran Council to establish the doctrine of the immortality of the soul by a special decree. When Luther was dispatched to Rome as the envoy of the Augustine brotherhood, he was one day at table with several distinguished prelates, whose conversation, as he tells us, was impious. Among other things, they boasted that at mass, instead of the sacramental words, they mockingly pronounced over the elements, " Bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain ; wine thou art,

*D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation, Book r, Chapter 7, where the original source is given.

l6 LUTHER ON EDUCATION.

and wine thou shalt remain." Blasphemy was never more shameless. Ardor for antiquity became intoxication, and the paganism of Athens was revived in Christian Rome. "^The simple language of the Scripture became offensive to the devotees of the classics, and its sublime truths were subject to outrageous parody. The Holy Ghost was written " the breath of the heavenly zephyr," and the expression to forgive sins was rendered " to bend the manes and the sovereign gods." Alexander VI. was a monster of impiety. During his reign the Vatican became the scene of treachery and murder, and the dissolute entertainments given in the pontifical palace surpassed the groves of antiquity in horrible licentiousness.

As the head, so the members. The bishops lived in the midst of splendor, and squandered in sensual pleasures the revenues of the Church. In seeking to extend their authority, they were frequently at war with cities and princes. Ecclesiastical offices were bought and sold, and children were raised to episcopal dignity. The secular clergy or priests were coarse and ignorant, and through the unnatural law of celibacy, they became exceedingly corrupt in morals. They fell into disrepute with the common people, who ridiculed them in songs and pictures ; and for a century or longer they were the notorious targets for the shafts of satirists.

Of the monasteries frightful pictures are given by writers of the time. The following portrayal, given^ by John Schiphower, himself a monk, is not more condemning than innumerable others that have been left us. After speaking of the shamelessness of the monks in preaching and in controversy, he continues: "The manner in which they lived their lives is equally objectionable. They much better understood how todraw liquor from goblets than information from books. . With drinking and carousing companions, they sit intaverns, carry on games and illicit amours, and daily intoxicate themselves. And these are — priests ! they are indeed so called, but they are — brutes."* In this sad state of the Church, which has not been too darkly depicted, was found a strong appeal for reformatory measures.

3. Another cause of the Reformation is found in the external character imposed upon religion by the Papacy. The legalism and ceremonial of the Old Testament were substituted for the grace and spiritual worship of the New Testament. The religion of Christ consists essentially in a personal relation to him — a relation of faith, love and obedience. Salvation is not something earned by human effort, but a gift proceeding from the infinite love of God, The

* Tischer, Life of Luther.

will of the believer is brought into harmony with the divine will. The Christian enjoys constant communion with God, to whom he has immediate access through Christ. By the profound reverence and obedient love begotten of faith, men become the sons of God, the recipients of all the privileges and blessings pertaining to a filial relation. The kingdom of God in the world is composed of the collective body of believers — a kingdom, not of outward pomp and splendor, but of inward purity, love, and obedience. The written Word of God is its law. In this kingdom, every longing of our nature finds complete satisfaction, and human nature is unspeakably ennobled, not only by the filial relation it sustains to God, but also by the pure affections that reign in the heart. All this was perverted by the Papacy. The spiritual kingdom of Christ was supplanted by an outward kingdom, presided over by a succession of ecclesiastical princes. The Pope, as the vicar of Christ, stood at its head. Everything pertaining to the kingdom — doctrine, government, and worship — received an external character. The representatives of the Church surrounded themselves with regal magnificence. In order to maintain this splendor, the laity were burdened with numberless pecuniary exactions. Says Martin Meyer, a chancellor at Mayence in 1457: "A thousand ways are devised, by which the Romish chair cunningly robs us poor barbarians of money. And thus it has come about that our nation, once so highly renowned, and which by its courage and blood set up the Roman empire, and rose to be mistress and queen of the world, has now been reduced to a poor, servile, and tributary condition, and for many years has been groveling in the mire, and deploring her misfortune and poverty."* Opposition of every kind was put down by force. Kings were dethroned, as in the case of John of England, and Henry IV. of Germany ; reformers, like Huss and Jerome of Prague, were burned; and communities of a purer religious faith and practice, like the Albigenses, were exterminated by fire and sword. The mass, in which the consecrated elements are offered to God as a sacrifice for the living and the dead, became the central point in worship. The preaching of the truth, through which men's hearts and lives are transformed, fell into disuse. By means of indulgences, sin could in a measure be compounded for with money. The distinguishing features of a religious life were not love and obedience to God, but pilgrimages, flagellations, and fastings. Religion became a thing of outward observances, not of inward piety. Myconius, who was long a monk,

* Ullmann, Reformers before the Reformation, Vol. I., 194.

but afterwards a fellow-laborer of Luther's, has given a graphic picture of the religious life of the period: " The sufferings and merit of Christ were looked upon as an idle tale, or as the fictions of Homer, There was no thought of the faith by which we become partakers of the Saviour's righteousness and of the heritage of eternal life. Christ was looked upon as a severe judge, prepared to condemn all who should not have recourse to the intercession of the saints, or to the papal indulgences. Other intercessors appeared in his place ; first the Virgin Mary, like the Diana of paganism, and then the saints, whose numbers were continually augmented by the Popes. These mediators granted their intercession only to such applicants as had deserved well of the Orders founded by them. For this it was necessary to do, not what God had commanded in his Word, but to perform a number of works invented by monks and priests, and which brought money to the treasury. These works were Ave Marias, the prayers of Saint Ursula and of Saint Bridget : they must chant and cry night and day. There were as many resorts for pilgrims as there were mountains, forests, and valleys. But these penances might be compounded for with money. The people, therefore, brought to the convents and to the priests money and everything that had any value — fowls, ducks, geese, eggs, wax, straw, butter |ind cheese. Then the hymns resounded, the bells rang, incense filled the sanctuary, sacrifices were offered up, the larder overflowed, the glasses went round, and masses terminated and concealed these pious orgies. The bishops no longer preached, but they consecrated priests, bells, monks, churches, chapels, images, books, and cemeteries; and all this brought in a large revenue. Bones, arms, and feet were preserved in gold and silver boxes; they were given out during mass for the faithful to kiss, and this, too, was a source of great profit."* It is not to be denied that in the externalism of which we have been speaking, there was something adapted to an uncultivated age, incapable of high spiritual emotion. The Papacy may be regarded as a natural historical development, though embodying an error destined to work its ruin. A special priestly class was helpful in administering the affairs of the Church, and in governing the lawlessness of an undisciplined people. An imposing ritual served to inspire religious awe at a time when simpler ministrations might have left the heart untouched. But at the period of the Reformation, the Teutonic nations had

*Myconius, History of the Reformation. This extract is taken from D'Aubigne. Myconius was held in high esteem by Lulher and Melancthon.

outgrown this externalism, and apart from its abuses they began to long for something higher and better. Their deep rehgious nature, no longer satisfied with forms and symbols, demanded a spiritual Christianity, in which the soul might be united with God, and life in its ordinary duties be sanctified as a divine service. This feeling found expression in the mystics of the fourteenth century, who were characterized by an inward piety. It was manifested also at the reformatory Councils of Constance and Basel. It is found in the writings of such men as Wyclif and Huss, and also, on a larger scale, in the doctrine and practice of the Waldenses. When at length Luther proposed a return to the Christianity of the New Testament, he had the support of Germany.

4. Another cause of the Reformation is found in the pretensions of the Papacy to temporal power, and in the growth of a national feeling in the several countries of Europe. The Papacy, as it existed at the time of the Reformation, was the result of a development extending through many centuries. Step by step, from the congregational polity of the apostolic church, the episcopal power increased, until under Gregory VII., in the eleventh century, it reached its climax in the universal supremacy of the Roman pontiff. "The world," says Gregory, "is governed by two lights — by the sun, which is greater, and by the moon, which is less. The apostolic power is the sun ; the royal power, the moon. For as the latter has its light from the former, so do emperors, and kings, and princes, receive power through the Pope, who receives it from God. Thus the power of the Roman chair is greater than the power of the throne, and the king is subordinate to the Pope, and bound to obey him." * The Papacy, as we see, aimed at a theocracy, in which the pontiff, as vicar of Christ, was to possess universal dominion. This power was not simply theoretical, but also practical. In the long conflicts between the Popes and the sovereigns of Europe, it was frequently exercised. The Roman pontiff seated and dethroned kings. He placed nations under the ban, cutting off every religious privilege and comfort. He sought to exempt ecclesiastics, no matter how flagrant their crimes, from secular jurisdiction. He acquired temporal dominion, interfered with secular authority, formed political alliances, waged cruel wars.

But while the Papacy was at the very height of its power, a mighty influence was slowly but surely

* This is a famous passage. It is found in various church histories. As here given, it is translated from Kohlraush, Deutsche GescJiichte.

undermining its authority. From various causes, the several nations of Europe — Germany, France, Spain, England — were acquiring a strong self-consciousness. It was a part of that general progress manifest in all Europe toward the close of the Middle Ages. In every country a spirit of patriotism was awakened — a spirit that opposed all interference on the part of a foreign prince, even when clothed with supreme ecclesiastical dignity. Papal pecuniary exactions met with increasing opposition ; papal bulls were sometimes disregarded or resisted; reverence for the Pope as head of the Church declined among princes and people. Louis XII., of France, had a medal struck with the inscription, " Pcrdam Babylonis 7iomen — I will destroy the name of Babylon." Maximilian, of Austria, speaking of Leo X., by whom he had been deceived, said, " This Pope also, in my opinion, is a scoundrel. I may now say that never in my life has any Pope kept his faith or his word with me." During the so-called Babylonish captivity of the Papacy at Avignon, in the fourteenth century, its sympathy with French interests, and its subserviency to French kings, intensified this national feeling against the Popes. The literary mind in the several countries of Europe led a reaction against Roman domination. The vernacular languages, which toward the close of the Middle Aees becran to assume a literary form, were made the media of sharp and unceasing attacks upon the avarice, tyranny, and degeneracy of the papal hierarchy. Walther von der Vogelweide, the best of the Minnesingers of the thirteenth century, says that " the Pope himself increases infidelity, for he leads tHe clergy by the devil's rein ; they are full of vices, they do not practice what they preach, and he who is a Christian in words only, and not in deeds, is really half a heathen." In the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer, along with an inimitable portrait of a faithful village pastor, depicts the coarse sensuality of a friar, and the shallow fraud of a pardoner or indulgence vender :

" Whose walet lay biforn hym in his lappe Brimful of pardon, come from Rome all hot.

* * * * *

But of his craft, fro Berwyk unto Ware Ne was there such another pardoner ; For in his male^ he had a pilwebeer* Which, that he seyde, was oure lady veyl ; He said he had a gobet^ of the seyl Thatte St. Peter hadde whan that he wente Upon the sea, til Jhesu Crist hym hente.* He had a croys of latoun^ full of stones And in a glas he hadde pigges bones."

^Valise. ^ Pillow-case. ** Piece. *Took. * A kind of tinned iron.

Thus, on every hand, was gathering a storm that needed only a favorable opportunity to burst upon Rome.

5. Behind all these causes we must not forget the providence of God. He is ever present in the great movements of succeeding generations. Though His presence is unrecognized by the heedless multitude, it becomes manifest to the devout inquirer who, turning away from the distracting turmoil of human events, seeks in all things an ultimate cause and an intelligent purpose. God in history is a great fact, an invaluable lesson coming to us from the Old Testament, a mighty truth that gathers up what is seemingly fragmentary in human affairs, and binds them together in the symmetry of a majestic temple. Not alone for the advent of Christ, but for every significant epoch in the world's progress, there is a " fullness of time." The history of mankind is not a chaos. The hand of God is especially manifest in the Reformation. The favoring circumstances that we have considered, were not, as some believe, a fortuitous concurrence, but an intelligent preparation for a new era of human advancement.

When everything was ready, the reformatory work began. Its immediate occasion was Tetzel's sale of indulgences. According tfo the Romish faith, "an indulgence is a remission of that temporal punishment which, even after the sin is forgiven, we have yet to undergo, either here or in purgatory."

The Church, it is claimed, has an inexhaustible treasure of the merits of Christ and his saints, which the Pope can draw upon at any time to make up deficiencies in individual members. At the time of the Reformation, this doctrine had given rise to gross abuses. This fact was recognized by the Council of Trent, which, after declaring that the use of indulgences should be retained in the Church, continues in its decree : " Nevertheless, the Council desires that moderation be shown in granting them, according to the ancient and approved custom of the Church, lest by too much laxity ecclesiastical discipline be weakened. Anxious moreover to correct and amend the abuses that have crept in, and by reason of which the honorable name of indulgences is blasphemed by the heretics, the Council determines generally by this present decree, that all wicked gains accruing from them, which have been the principal source of these abuses, shall be wholly abolished." * The abuses "proceeding from superstition, ignorance, and irreverence" are referred by the Council to the several bish-

ops. Let US inquire a little more closely into the nature of these abuses.

In order to provide funds for the completion of St. Peter's at Rome, Leo X. had ordered a sale of indulgences. In 15 17 John Tetzel, acting as agent for Albert, elector of Mayence, appeared at Jiiterbock, not far from Wittenberg, and proceeded to dispose of his wares. Shrewd and unscrupulous, he extolled the virtue of indulgences in a shameless and even blasphemous manner. " His red cross with the Pope's arms," Tetzel said, " was as efficacious as the cross of Christ. In heaven he would not exchange places with St. Peter, for he had saved more souls with his indulgences than the apostle had saved with his gospel. The grace of indulgences was precisely the grace by which man was reconciled with God. Sorrow for sin was not necessary when an indulgence was bought ; and as soon as the money rattled in the chest, the soul leaped from purgatory into heaven. Such great grace and power had been conferred upon him at Rome, that if any one had done violence to the Virgin Mary, he could forgive it, together with future sins, if the offender paid a sufficient sum of money."* Without re-

* Matthesius, Leben Luther's, Zweites Predigt. " See also Meurer, Life of Luther, and D^Aubigne, History of Reformation.

pentance, all the penalties of sin were removed, and heaven was gained by money. Tetzel had even fixed a scale of prices for particular sins. For polygamy the charge was six ducats; for sacrilege and perjury, nine ducats ; for murder, eight ducats ; for witchcraft, two ducats. Such were some of the abuses of this infamous traffic.

Luther at this time was a professor, preacher, and pastor at Wittenberg. In the confessional, some of his people who had attended Tetzel's auction acknowledged gross sins — adultery, licentiousness, usury, illgotten gains ; and when Luther sought to correct them, they refused to amend their lives. They appealed to their indulgences, which Luther would not recognize ; and in the language of the Scripture he declared unto them, " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Having thus seen the demoralizing effect of indulgences upon the religious life, and having also learned of Tetzel's blasphemous pretensions, he prepared ninety-five theses or propositions which were aimed at the abuses of the traffic, but which in reality undermined the doctrine of indulgences itself. " When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said. Repent ye, etc., he meant that the whole earthly life of believers should be a repentance (Thesis i). . . The Pope has neither the will nor the power to remit any penalties, except those which he has imposed by his owri authority, or by that of the canons of the Church (5). . . Those preachers of indulgences are in error who say that, by the indulgences of the Pope, a man is loosed and saved from all punishment (21). . . They preach the vain fancies of man, who say that the soul flies out of purgatory as soon as the money rattles in the chest (27). . . Those who believe that through letters of pardon they are made sure of their own salvation, will be eternally damned along with their teachers (32). We must especially beware of those who say that these pardons from the Pope are that inestimable gift of God, by which man is reconciled to God (33). . . They preach no Christian doctrine who teach that sorrow or repentance is not necessary for those who buy souls out of purgatory, or buy confessional licenses (35). Every Christian who truly repents of his sins has of right plenary remission of pain and guilt, even without letters of pardon (36). . . To say that the cross set up among the insignia of the papal arms is of equal power with the cross of Christ, is blasphemy (79)."