CHAPTER I

It may be that divine providence, which often brings about good from the evil deeds of men, has, because of the sins of the people (for whose faults bishops are sometimes corrupted), allowed some called Roman bishops impermissibly and presumptuously to extend to both divine and human matters a wrongly usurped power, so that their inexcusable wickedness should be revealed, and the skill of experts — their laziness shaken off, examining the divine Scriptures more deeply — should bring to light hidden truths useful for governing and ruling the whole human race, truths by which a curb might be placed upon the wickedness of those supreme pontiffs who have tried to rule like tyrants.

Now just as sometimes from a true principle correctly understood countless truths are inferred, so sometimes from a false principle, or a true one misunderstood, are inferred countless errors; a wise man has said that given one anomaly many follow, and elsewhere it is said that a small error in the beginning is a big one in the end. I believe that this has happened with the power of the pope. For since in certain writings which many venerate as authoritative it is asserted that the pope has “fullness of power” on earth, some called supreme pontiffs, not knowing the true meaning of such words, have gone on, not only into errors, but even into the most blatant wrongs and iniquities.