demands: "Who was it that cried 'Think'? Bring him here, and I
will take his life!" The Pope shouts: "Bring him here, and I will
take his soul!" The cry came out of heaven, and was uttered by no
one. But still the sound of it rises; a storm wind springs up; it
sweeps over the Alps and goes roaring across Fichtelgebirge; it
stirs up the Baltic and echoes from the shores, and the cry is
repeated a thousand times all over the world: "Freedom, freedom!"
The Pope throws his keys into the sea, and the Emperor sheathes
his sword, for against that cry they avail nothing.--Oh, Olof,
you wish to smite the Pope, but you forget the Emperor--the
Emperor, who is killing his people without counting them because
they dare to sigh when he tramples on their chests. You want to
smite the Pope at Rome, but, like Luther, you want to give them a
new pope in Holy Writ. Listen! Listen! Bind not the spirits with
any fetters whatsoever! Forget not the great Whitsunday!
Forget not your great goal: spiritual life and spiritual freedom!
Listen not to the cry of death: "And behold, it is all good!" For
then the millennium, the kingdom of liberty, will never arrive--
and it is that which is now beginning. (Olof remains silent.)
Does it make you dizzy?

0lof. You go too far, Gert.

Gert. The day shall come when they will call me papist. Aim at
the sky, and you will hit the forest line ahead of you.

0lof. Turn back, Gert! You'll bring disaster on yourself and on
the realm. Can't you see how the country is still shivering with
the wound-fever caused by the last war? And you wish to sow the
seeds of civil war. It is a godless deed!