Moreover, the malicious charge that is still further added,
that those in religious orders claim to be in a state of
perfection, has never been heard of by them; for those in
these orders claim not for themselves a state of perfection,
but only a state in which to acquire perfection - because
their regulations are instruments of perfection, and not
perfection itself. In this manner Gerson must be received,
who does not deny that religious orders are states wherein to
acquire perfection as he declares in his treatises, "Against
the Proprietors of the Rule of St. Augustine", "Of
Evangelical Counsels", "Of Perfection of Heart", and in other
places. For this reason the princes and cities should be
admonished to strive rather for the reformation of the
monasteries by their legitimate superiors than for their
subversion - rather for the godly improvement of the monks
than that they be abolished; as their most religious
ancestors, most Christian princes, have done. But if they
will not believe holy and most religious fathers defending
monastic vows, let them hear at least His Imperial Highness,
the Emperor Justinian, in "Authentica," De Monachis, Coll.
ii.


VII. Of Ecclesiastical Power.


Although many things are introduced here in the topic of
Ecclesiastical Power, with greater bitterness than is just,
yet it must be declared that to most reverend bishops and
priests, and to the entire clergy, all ecclesiastical power