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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: such a head had not been raised up by the devil. And the
Papacy is also of no use in the Church, because it exercises
no Christian office; and therefore it is necessary for the
Church to continue and to exist without the Pope.
And supposing that the Pope would yield this point, so as not
to be supreme by divine right or from Gods command, but that
we must have [there must be elected] a [certain] head, to whom
all the rest adhere [as their support] in order that the
[concord and] unity of Christians may be preserved against
sects and heretics, and that such a head were chosen by men,
and that it were placed within the choice and power of men to
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