In Germany to the Leipsic Disputation - James Aitken Wylie

of the Sacred Palace could be vanquished by a
German monk, wrote a reply. This second
performance was even more indiscreet than his
first. The Pope's prerogative he aimed at exalting to
even a higher pitch than before; and he was so illadvised
as to found it on that very extraordinary
part of the canon law which forbids any one to stop
the Pope, or to admit the possibility of his erring,
though he should be found on the high road to
perdition, and dragging the whole world after him.
The Pope, finding that Sylvester's replies were
formidable only to the Papacy, enjoined silence
upon the too zealous champion of Peter's See. As
regarded Leo himself, he took the matter more
coolly than the master of his palace. There had
been noisy monks in all ages, he reflected; the
Papacy had not therefore fallen. Moreover, it was
but a feeble echo of the strife that reached him in
the midst of his statues, gardens, courtiers, and
courtesans. He even praised the genius of brother
Martin; for Leo could pardon a little truth, it
spoken wittily and gracefully. Then, thinking that
he had bestowed too much praise on the Germans,
he hinted that the wine-cup may have quickened
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