A new examination of the scene at Rome as it appears in the 1616 quarto of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is necessary since we can no longer assume, as did Leslie Oliver ("Rowley, Foxe, and the Faustus Additions," MLN, LX [1945], 391-394), that the episode was mainly the work of Rowley. The more detailed account of the visit to the papal court in the 1616 text has been demonstrated to be closer to what Marlowe wrote and, furthermore, it is not irrelevant to the design of the play. Like Faustus, the proud Pope Adrian pretends to an absolute power which ultimately proves deceptive. Marlowe's view of the papacy reflects, of course, the usual Protestant position as set forth by Luther and John Foxe: the Pope, since he claims illegitimate power, is actually a servant of darkness. Bruno, who has received his election at the hands of the Emperor, stands against papal pretensions as personified in the Pope and as codified in the "Statutes Decretall." The struggle between good and evil which informs Doctor Faustus is thus in the scene at Rome projected onto the screen of history. As in the case of the play as a whole, the scene at Rome is permeated by Protestant theology.