that I am not equal to this. Although humility is well in all, and
particularly in bishops, it is not humility for the sheep to teach
the shepherd; nor would it be considered well in me, and still less
so in your Lordship, if it were known that I allowed you, who should
take rules of right living from me, to give them to me. Read, or have
read to you, the chapter _si imperator 96 distin_., in which your
Lordship will see what is the duty of secular princes and what that
of bishops, where among other words it says these: "If the emperor
is Catholic he is a son, not a prelate, of the church; and whatever
concerns religion he is to learn, not teach." In what follows in this
chapter your Lordship will see what is your duty and what is mine;
and our Lord, through the prophet Malachi, says that the lips of the
priest held knowledge, and from his mouth the law is to be sought,
and not from the governors. Since your Lordship wished to be master
when you should have been pupil, you could not avoid falling into
the difficulties into which you have fallen in this letter, as you
say that you do not know whether the bishop can order that all the
confessors should not absolve in this or that case. It is almost a
matter of course that the bishop may reserve cases, when that may seem
best to him; and it is an amusing thing that your Lordship sets about
declaring to me when the confessors are to reserve the cases and when
they are not to do so. I am astonished, and marvel at your judgment
and prudence in coming to discuss such matters with your bishop,
especially when your Lordship knows that he has studied a great deal
to know this which you can not know, nor would it be proper for you
to know it. The cases which I shall reserve shall be reserved, and
those who dare to absolve, although they may have other privileges,
will commit mortal sin, when the bishop declares the reason why he
does it; and many doctors of the highest standing maintain that
the absolution is void in such cases. When anyone shall confront