Our Lord God, in the law, shows what his will is, and how the evil should be punished. And forasmuch as the law punishes not a potentate, prince, or ruler, therefore our Lord God, one day, will call him to an account and punish him. You shall know, that I will twist your accounts about finely, and make the mall false reckonings. Pilate was a more honest and just man than any papist prince of the empire. Better it is that one man die, than that the whole nation be against me.
Truth is here of no value.
I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, that shall be his wages. So plays God with great kingdoms, taking them from one, and giving them to another. At the imperial diet, at Augsburg, certain princes there spoke in praise of the riches and advantages of their respective principalities. The prince elector palatine extolled his vineyards on the Rhine. And, indeed, his people esteemed him as a pater patrice.