counsel; for the same, before all ages, hath been had in
consultation, hath been determined, censured, concluded, and
confirmed by the great Council in Heaven, to be and remain the
infallible, most certain and true Word of the High Majesty of God;
and therefore altogether needless, yea, most presumptuous now it
were, either to receive or to deliver it to the determination and
censure of human and natural sense, wit, and wisdom, which is
subject to nothing more than to error, especially in and concerning
God's Word and divine matters. And I told them flat and plain, I
would rather expose myself to endure all the torments that this
world, flesh, and the devil were able to devise and prepare than to
give my consent thereunto.


That in former Times it was dangerous studying the Holy Scriptures.

In times past, as also in part of our time, said Luther, it was
dangerous studying, when divinity and all good arts were contemned;
and when fine, expert, and prompt wits were plagued with sophistry.
Aristotle, the Heathen, was held in such repute and honour, that
whoso undervalued or contradicted him was held, at Cologne, for the
greatest heretic; whereas they themselves understood not Aristotle.
The Sophists did much more darken Aristotle than illustrate him;
like as that Friar did, who wasted two whole hours in a sermon about
Christ's Passion, and concerning this question: Utrum quantitas
realiter distincta sit a substantia-whether the quantity in itself
were divided from the substance? He showed this example, and said,
"My head might well creep through, but the bigness of my head could
not;" insomuch that, like an idiot, he divided the head from the
bigness thereof. A silly grammarian might easily have solved the