"... we should take him-the pope, the cardinals, and whatever riffraff belongs to His Idolatrous and Papal Holiness-and (as blasphemers) tear out their tongues from the back, and nail them on the gallows.... Then one could allow them to hold a council, or as many as they wanted, on the gallows, or in hell among all the devils."
Wider das Papsttum in Rom, vom Teufel gestiftet, quoted by Cardinal Ratzinger from A. Lapple, Martin Luther: Leben, Bilder, Dokumente (Munich/Zurich, 1982), pp. 252f. (The above translation is from Luther's Works, vol. 41 [Church and Ministry 1111, Helmut T. Lehmann, general ed. [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 19661, p. 308.)
Cardinal Ratzinger became the current pope by making a deal with the liberals to appoint one of their own to replace him as head of the Inquisition (the old name for Ratzinger's post), the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
