The Pope’s fallibility is, actually, the shield of his infallibility. He who affirms that the Pope, just because he is a Pope, cannot err, exposes our Father to a bitter and fallacious criticism, such as that which our foes have launched against the Catholic dogma of the Pontiff’s infallibility. For instance, Lytton Strachey wrote:
In his bull, Cum inter nonullos, John XXIII affirmed that the doctrine of Christ’s poverty was heretical, and his predecessor, Nicholas III, in his bull, Exiit que seminat, had written that the doctrine of Christ’s poverty was a real doctrine, and only heretics could deny it. If John XXIII stated a Catholic truth, Nicholas III taught heresy. And if John XXIII was wrong, his teaching was definitively heretical. What about infallibility, then?
The opposition between those opinions does not impair papal infallibility. Those are the views of two men, and the solution will arise through the regular process of theological discussion. (Joaquin Sáenz Y Arriaga, The New Montinian Church [trans. Edgar A. Lucidi; La Habra, Calif.: Edgar A. Lucidi, 1985], 584, emphasis added)
Much has been written and said about the love relationship between Luther and the nun [Katherine Bora] before that final scandalous union was completed. Bugenhagen himself, some time after this took place, said: “Slanderous gossip caused Dr. Martin to marry so unexpectedly.” (Grisar, vol. II, page 175).
On this particular matter the famous Erasmus wrote from Rotterdam: “It is believed that Luther was the hero of a tragedy, but I rather believe he played the leading character in a comedy which, like all comedies, ended by marriage.” Somewhere else Erasmus wrote: “It does not seem that the Reformation had had any other aim but to turn friars and nuns into husbands and wives.” [This is the case with the present Montinian Church.]
Melanchthon was tougher and more severe in his comments on this subject. In a confidential letter to Camerario, dated June 18, 1535, he blames the runaway nun for the disgusting event: “Luther,” says Melanchton, “is extremely hare-brained and frivolous. The nuns have convinced him by means of cunning and shrewedness, and they got what they wanted. Perhaps his conduct with them has made him somewhat weak and effeminate or swollen in his passions, notwithstanding his noble and sublime views.” (Grisar, Luther, vol. II, page 145). The same Melanchton adds that he feels Luther has “changed his life inopportunely, but he expects marriage will make him enter the track of morality.” Taking into account that the author of so severe a criticism was one of the closest friends and leading aides of Luther, we shall not question the accuracy of his remarks and conclusions. (Joaquin Sáenz Y Arriaga, The New Montinian Church [trans. Edgar A. Lucidi; La Habra, Calif.: Edgar A. Lucidi, 1985], 373-74)
