James

For Reformation Day: "Rome now concerns itself with nothing other than strengthening its own dominion, in each and every one of its particulars, through this supreme calamity of the Church. And if we do not mourn, grieve, and lament this downfall of the Church, we are heretics, irreverent toward the Roman Church, scandalous, seditious, and insolent. For, evidently, we are not permitted to complain about both the rights and the power of the Roman Pontiff, even when we are merely touching upon such great injuries inflicted upon the people of God." These complaints against Roman corruption were not written by Martin Luther (picture unrelated), but Johann Eck, a Catholic opponent of Luther in a work against Luther. He did not pretend the Church did not need reform; he complained about corruption while not departing from the Catholic rule of faith. As St. Augustine teaches, even if one is unjustly excommunicated by corrupt clergy, they should bear with it rather than establishing a different communion and breaking the bond of charity: "The heavenly Teacher warned them to beware of this to such an extent that He even made the people secure concerning wicked rulers, lest on account of them the chair of salutary doctrine should be abandoned, in which even the wicked are compelled to speak what is good. For what they say does not belong to them, but to God, who has placed the doctrine of truth in the chair of unity." Letter 105, ch. 5, n. 16 (PL 33, 403). Source for Eck: De primatu Petri, Paris, 1521, lib. 3, cap. 6, fol. 6r.

For Reformation Day: "Rome now concerns itself with nothing other than strengthening its own dominion, in each and every one of its particulars, through this supreme calamity of the Church. And if we do not mourn, grieve, and lament this downfall of the Church, we are heretics, irreverent toward the Roman Church, scandalous, seditious, and insolent. For, evidently, we are not permitted to complain about both the rights and the power of the Roman Pontiff, even when we are merely touching upon such great injuries inflicted upon the people of God." These complaints against Roman corruption were not written by Martin Luther (picture unrelated), but Johann Eck, a Catholic opponent of Luther in a work against Luther. He did not pretend the Church did not need reform; he complained about corruption while not departing from the Catholic rule of faith. As St. Augustine teaches, even if one is unjustly excommunicated by corrupt clergy, they should bear with it rather than establishing a different communion and breaking the bond of charity: "The heavenly Teacher warned them to beware of this to such an extent that He even made the people secure concerning wicked rulers, lest on account of them the chair of salutary doctrine should be abandoned, in which even the wicked are compelled to speak what is good. For what they say does not belong to them, but to God, who has placed the doctrine of truth in the chair of unity." Letter 105, ch. 5, n. 16 (PL 33, 403). Source for Eck: De primatu Petri, Paris, 1521, lib. 3, cap. 6, fol. 6r.