[555] as the history of the German catastrophe has destroyed Hitlerism (not for all, but for most, Germans). Now the Roman Church^a. Here the situation is much more consistent. Hitler^b prophesied a thousand years---which is a very small stretch of time, seen in the light of the absolute---but he got twelve! The biblical absolutism was not able to maintain itself, even in very early times of the Protestant history, because the Bible needs interpretation. And if this interpretation is done with scientific honesty, the verbal authority of the Bible must fall down. This simple problem of interpretation undercuts the demonization of the biblicistic attitude, because interpretation can

never be commanded except through a second authority, which then becomes a first authority^c. And this was the way of the Roman Church. The Roman Church always said---and I think with historical [justification]---that the Bible is a product of the Church---although the Church is also produced, and re-produced, by the Bible. Therefore the Church must interpret the Bible. And since the Church is identical---for Roman thinking---with the head of the Church, the Vicar of Christ, the Pope^d, the POPE has the ultimate authority for interpreting the Bible, and

not, as in Protestantism, every layman, and not even every theological faculty, as in early Protestantism often was the replacement of the Pope. This is a much more consistent ultimate authority^e, or authority in principle^f. And it is much more demonic^g for this very reason. Now why is this so? Because here ONE PLACE, IN HISTORY, is made the place in which no error is possible; that means, in which the human existential situation is radically transcended. And the formula "Vicar of Christ" is a very good