825. From this state of the saints anyone may conclude that the invocation of saints is a mere mockery; and I can affirm, moreover, that they no more hear the invocations addressed to them on earth than do their images by the wayside, or the walls of the church, or the birds building nests in its towers. It is said by those who serve them in the world, that the saints reign in heaven in company with the Lord Jesus Christ; but this is a fiction and fabrication; for they no more reign with the Lord than a groom does with his king, or a porter with a nobleman, or a footman with a primate. For John the Baptist said of the Lord,
That he was not worthy to unloose the latchet of His shoes (Mark 1:7; John 1:27).
What then can be said of such?