“Do you read the Bible also?”
“Yes, certainly. The Epistle always lies beside the Gospel on the altar-desk.”
“Do you understand what you read?”
“Now you are impolite, Martin, but you are also proud, and you must not be that. Look now at the new church. What we see is only the foundation, but we can go in the architect’s cottage, and see the designs there.”
The designs were hung up in a little pavilion, and another fee was charged for entrance.
“Now what does my critical brother say?”
“That is simply a Roman bath-house,” answered Luther after a glance. “Caracalla’s Thermae, I should say.”
“It is a heathen building, then!”
“Yes, if you like, but everything is heathenish here, although baptized. The heathen were not so stupid.... I won’t see any more.”
“But look at those two great men there, before you go. The tall man with the patriarchal beard is Michael Angelo, and that slim youth with the long neck and feminine features is Raphael.”