Note 424 — Chapter XVI

“Oh, dear little Pope-Ass, don’t try to lick ... for you might fall and break a leg or do something else, and then all the world would laugh at you and say: For shame, look what a mess the Pope-Ass has got itself into.” “You are a rude ass, you Pope-Ass, and that you will ever remain.” “When I [the Pope-Ass] bray, hee-haw, hee-haw, or relieve myself in the way of nature, they must take it all as articles of faith ... but all is sealed with devil’s ordure—in the Decretals—and written in the Pope-Ass’s dung” (“Werke,” Erl. ed., 26², pp. 148 seq., 169). One word, used in this connection, and spelt by Luther “Fartz,” he employs in endless variations. Pope Paul III. he calls “Eselfartz-Bapst,” “Bapst Fartzesel,” “Fartzesel-Bapst” and “Eselbapstfartz.” “We see,” remarks Conrad Lange, “how the apparition of the Roman monstrosity continued to act upon his imagination, and how, even at the close of his life, it still appeared to him suited to excite the masses in the religious struggle.” “Der Papstesel, ein Beitrag zur Kultur-und Kunstgesch. des Reformationszeitalters.” With four illustrations, Göttingen, 1891, p. 88.