825. Knowing that this is their condition, anyone can conclude that invoking them is pure nonsense. Moreover I can assert that they no more hear invocations addressed to them on earth than their statues placed beside roads do, no more than the church walls do, or no more than the birds which nest in the towers. Their servants in the world claim that the saints reign together with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven; but this is a falsehood they make up. They no more reign with the Lord than a stableman does with a king, a doorkeeper with a lord, or a footman with an archbishop. For John the Baptist said concerning the Lord that he was not worthy to untie the laces of his shoe (Mark 1:7; John 1:27). What then is to be said of people who are like this?