At the diet of Nuremberg, summoned to put down Luther, the honest Pope declared roundly, through the Bishop of Fabriane, that "these disorders had sprung from the Sins of men, more especially from the sins of priests and prelates.

Even in the holy chair," said he, "many horrible crimes have been committed.
Many abuses have grown up in the ecclesiastical state.

The contagious disease, spreading from the head to the members--from the Pope to lesser prelates--has spread far and wide, so that scarcely any one is to be found who does right, and who is free from infection.

Nevertheless, the evils have become so ancient and manifold, that it will be necessary to go step by step." In those passionate days, the ardent reformers were as much outraged by this pregnant confession as the ecclesiastics.

It would indeed be a slow process, they thought, to move step by step in the Reformation, if between each step, a whole century was to intervene.