Jan Hus

“ Who would dare or by what reason would any one be held bound to dare to submit to the judgment of such a consistory—namely, to place oneself in the bosom of enemies and to offer oneself voluntarily to a death from violent injury and not by formal justice? That, indeed, is to be feared from the side of the law; that is to be evaded as a matter of morals; that human sense and reason flee from; that nature abhors. ”

“ How, then, can the prophets and the apostles be foundations and at the same time Christ be the foundation beyond whom there is nothing? How do we think but figuratively of the foundation of foundations, except as he is expressly called the holiest of the holy? If, therefore, thou thinkest of the sacraments, Christ is the holiest of the holy; if thou thinkest of an obedient flock, Christ is the shepherd of shepherds; if thou thinkest of the edifice, Christ is the foundation of foundations. ”

“ The holy church is compared to a net cast into the sea because she is committed to fishers and because every one is drawn up through her from the waves of this present world to the eternal kingdom lest they sink in the depths of eternal death. ”

“ Either deny to the people that thou art shepherd or show thyself such. Thou wilt not deny it lest he whose place thou holdest deny thee to be the heir. He is Peter who is not known to go about in processions, ornamented with gems or silks, not clad in gold or carried by a white horse, or compassed about with soldiers, and surrounded by bustling servants. Without such things, Peter believed he was able to fulfil sufficiently the salutary commandment: 'If thou lovest me, feed my sheep.' In things like these thou hast followed not Peter, but Constantine. ”

“ Nor in this are they the true and manifest vicars of Christ that they permit themselves to be adored of men on bended knee or that they surround the pope with visitors from abroad, that while he sits on high, splendidly apparelled even down to his feet, yea and far beyond his chair, they with bended knee humbly seek the kisses of his blessed feet, as if the sanctity of this father, the pope, would descend even to the place where his foot is planted? But do they, themselves weak, receive from those feet health? ”

“ O Lord God, for they were the first to persecute thee who seemed to hold primacy in thy church and to rule the spiritual princedom. Likewise all friends are all foes, all clients are all adversaries, all servants are no peaceful men, all who seek the things which are their own, they are ministers of Christ and yet the servants of antichrist." See how plainly that holy man brings out that bad prelates are in pretence friends, servants, and ministers of Christ. But in fact they are the foes of Christ and the servants of antichrist. ”

“ I hope, by God's grace, that I am truly a Christian, not deviating from the faith, and that I would rather suffer the penalty of a terrible death than wish to affirm anything outside of the faith or transgress the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ If, therefore, Peter, chosen to be Christ's first vicar by Christ and deputed to serve the church in spiritual matters, was called by Christ Satan, Peter out of affectionate love having tried to dissuade him from submitting to the sentence of death, why should not another one, more opposed to Christ in his life, not be called Satan and consequently antichrist or antichrist's vicar or antichrist's chief minister? ”

“ For Paul adds: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ. And if any man build upon this foundation gold"—that is, the doctrine of deity and heavenly things—"silver"—that is, the doctrine of the humanity of Christ and created things—"precious stones"—graces which adorn the soul and its faculties—he without doubt is built upon Christ. So the apostles built when they taught with clearness and fervor the doctrine of the deity and humanity and the Christian graces and, when they lived in the flesh, planted with their blood the church of Christ. ”

“ To the last the first definition of obedience applies—namely, that obedience is the subjection of one’s own will to the will of a superior in things lawful and right. And it may be defined thus: obedience is an act of the will of a rational creature by virtue of which he voluntarily and intelligently submits himself to his superior: and such obedience is related to what is good, just as disobedience is related to what is evil. ”

“ Similarly, the angelic world is subject to the Roman pontiff, as appears in the bull of Pope Clement: "We command the angels of paradise that they lead to the glory of paradise the soul of him who has been wholly absolved from purgatory." ”

“ For, if during the paschal festival a prelate bids a subject fast or, if he has a healthy body, on Good Friday not to fast, would it be lawful for a subject to obey contrary to the custom approved in the church and contrary to the conscience of this subject which resists, or, if he should bid him wander in the middle of the night through woods among cruel wild beasts when there was no necessity for it? ”

“ Paul's own words, drawn from Hosea, confirm this: "I will call that my people which was not my people, and her my beloved that was not my beloved; and her to have acquired mercy which did not acquire mercy, and in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the sons of the living God," Romans 9:25, 27. ”

“ And, further, it is evident that grace is twofold—namely, the grace of predestination unto eternal life, from which a person foreordained cannot finally fall away. The other is the grace related to present righteousness, which now is present and now is absent, now comes and now goes. The first kind of grace makes sons for the holy universal church and makes a man infinitely more perfect than the second kind, because it bestows an infinite good to be enjoyed forever. ”

“ When, however, the body of Christ is called the mystical body on account of the mystery of the heavenly marriage between Christ and the church, the body of the devil is not likewise mystical but dark, because to be joined with the devil as one of his members does not express itself directly in mystery but in the scourge. Thus the body of the devil has something natural about it, because, as Augustine says, de natura Boni, all evil must root itself in the good, so all evil in morals is founded in what is good by nature. ”

“ It is certain that for all the faithful the Roman church is the place which the Lord has chosen, the place where the Lord has placed the primacy of the whole church, and the high priest who occupies the primacy, and is set over that place, is the pope, the true and manifest successor of Peter. And the cardinals are the priests of the tribe of Levi who are joined with the lord pope in the administration of the priestly office, to whom in cases of doubt and difficulty recourse must be had in matters, catholic and ecclesiastical, the judgment of God being followed. ”

“ Here Peter's vicar should take note, first, that when he wants to show a brother his fault, he ought to see first that he himself is unblamable, for love ought to begin with itself. How, then, may a prelate, full through and through with simoniacal heresy, pride, self-indulgence or avarice, lawfully show a brother his faults? ”

“ The pestilence is a disease widely pervasive and involving all or nearly all people. More amply, however, the cathedra stands for pernicious doctrine whose words work as doth a cancer." Thus much Augustine, who calls the cathedra of pestilence the lust of dominion and pernicious doctrine, a cathedra in which the elders of the church sit, wishing to exercise secular dominion and teaching men to keep their doctrines more carefully than the commandments of God. ”

“ Christ is therefore the foundation by whom primarily and in whom primarily the holy catholic church is founded, and faith is the foundation with which it is founded—that faith which works through love, which Peter set forth when he said: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." ”

“ Almighty Lord, who art the way, the truth, and the life, Thou knowest how few in this present time walk in Thee, how few imitate Thee as their head, in humility, poverty, chastity, diligence, and patience. Open is the way of Satan ”

“ More abundantly if the sin extends to all Christendom, more intensely if his act concerns the cure of souls and involves the withdrawal of spiritual benefits, and more irresistibly if no one dares to gainsay him, now in view of his alliance with the secular arms, now in view of the cloaked censures which he fulminates against the children of obedience, now in view of promotions and ecclesiastical dignities which he provides for his accomplices. ”

“ Augustine says, in his Sermons on the Words of the Lord, 13 [Nic. Fathers, 6: 340] : "Our Lord Jesus Christ thus spake to Peter, Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church—on this Rock, which thou hast confessed, on this Rock which thou hast recognized, when thou saidst, 'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God'—'I will build my church': I will build thee upon myself, not myself upon thee. For wishing that men should be built upon men, they were saying, 'I am of Paul, I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,' that is, Peter. ”

“ When, therefore, in view of what has been said, any one who has reached the priesthood has accepted as of commandment the office of preacher, it is clear that that commandment ought to be executed, a pretended excommunication to the contrary notwithstanding.
Likewise for no true catholic ought it to become a matter of doubt that a man if he be adequately trained in knowledge is more obligated to teach the ignorant, to advise the uncertain, to punish the unbridled, to remit sins to those committing injury, than he is to do any works of mercy. ”

“ The second property of faith is, that without proof and special knowledge it is obscure to the faithful, for what we see with the eye we cannot be said to believe. And the saints in heaven who see the articles clearly, which we know obscurely, are not said to believe them but to see. In the place of faith they have clear vision and in the place of hope unending fruition. The third property of faith is, that it is the foundation [assurance] of the things which are to be believed for the pilgrim who is to come to the peaceful dwelling. ”

“ Augustine says in the words (Sermon 8) : 'If thou hast fasted, hast made prayer night and day, if thou hast been in ashes or begging, if thou hast done nothing else except what is prescribed for thee in the law and thou hast been wise in thine own sight and not obedient to thy father—understand, not bodily father, but spiritual—thou hast lost all virtues. ”

“ I assume that the pope stands for that spiritual bishop who, in the highest way and in the most similar way, occupies the place of Christ, just as Peter did after the ascension. But if any person whatsoever is to be called pope—whom the Western church accepts as Roman bishop—appointed to decide as the final court ecclesiastical cases and to teach the faithful whatever he wishes, then there is an abuse of the term, because according to this view, it would be necessary in cases to concede that the most unlettered layman or a female, or a heretic and antichrist, may be pope. ”

“ Just as, therefore, a true Christian is one who follows Christ in his life, so a truly apostolic man is the priest who follows the teaching of the apostles, living the life of an apostle and teaching his doctrine. Hence, any pope is to be called apostolic so far as he teaches the doctrine of the apostles and follows them in works. But, if he puts the teaching of the apostles aside, teaching in word or works what is contrary, then he is properly called pseudo-apostolic or an apostate. ”

“ Who, I say, is a more foolish man than the cleric who grounds himself in the refuse of this world and holds Christ's life and teachings in derision? To such a low pitch is the clergy come that they hate those who preach often and call Jesus Christ Lord. ”

“ Without definitely assigning by name this or that pontiff to hell, as did Dante, yet Huss declared that popes there have been who had conferred ample indulgences by word— verbaliter—and are damned. Christ chose a thief as an Apostle: so may the cardinals choose an antichrist as Roman pontiff. The only standard by which it can be judged whether a pope is a vicar of Christ or antichrist is by his conformity to the law of Christ in daily life and ministries. ”

“ But, if God has revealed to thee that this was done righteously, I will under no circumstances despise your youth or the beginnings of your ecclesiastical honor, for I am ready to learn, an old man from a young, a bishop of so many years' experience from my colleague not yet a little year old in his office—I am ready to learn how I may give a good reason to God or men, if we punish by spiritual punishment innocent souls for another's offence which they do not derive from Adam, in whom all have sinned. ”

“ For, not only is our holy mother, the Catholic church, one from the beginning of the world, which without mixture has been embraced with never-ending love by the right hand of the bridegroom, as is plain from what has been said above and on Augustine's authority: Inasmuch as the church, after the day of judgment, will have no other members than she has and will have before the day of judgment, but all who are to be saved after that day of judgment are predestinate, therefore none of them, before that day of judgment are reprobate. ”

“ Why is it necessary for me also to be held up for the people's sins before the sun, in the face of which nothing can be hidden or kept dark or veiled?" And Origen adds, "the chiefs are held up before the sun and, if guilt is found in them, God's anger ceases towards the people." So much Origen, who shows how chiefs are heavily censured for the sin of self-indulgence which the people practise. ”

“ See, how inconvenient the statements of our doctors are when they pronounce the sentence that we wish to have the law as judge—a judge which judges most justly and does not judge otherwise than does God, the most just judge. Thou sayest, "Doth our law judge a man, except it first hear from him and know what he doeth?" as if he would say, No, because it judges justly. To that judge Christ referred the priests, Pharisees, scribes and Jews, who accused him of sin because he kept not the Sabbath day, and called God his Father, saying: "Ye search the Scriptures. ”

“ Wishing to impose this judgment upon the minds of men, that most good Saviour and best of masters immediately added: "Who hath ears to hear let him hear." Therefore, let every priest see to it, if he has entered well, that he live pure of offense, with the sincere purpose of honoring God and profiting the church, and in case he demean himself well, that he lay little store by mundane honors and the world's lucre. For, otherwise, he is a lying antichrist, and the higher his office the greater antichrist he is. ”

“ But Peter and Paul did not make any such statement about themselves, for they did not have any power given them by Cæsar. For this reason, Paul truly and humbly made this confession concerning himself: "I am least of all the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle," I Cor. 15:9. On this account, therefore, the Roman pontiff would not make such a profession if the imperial dignity were not in the way. Wherefore, the conclusion holds that from God direct and not from a man—who is not God—or from a mere man, does the pope hold the excellency of his rank. ”

“ Hence, he of Lincoln in his letters to the pope thus writes: "The apostolic see to which is given authority by the holiest of the holies, Jesus Christ, the apostle bearing witness, for building up and not for casting down, cannot commit schism." And further on he says: "For this reason your Discretion cannot ordain anything hard against me, because all my words and all my actions are not a gainsaying or a rebellion, but a filial honoring due to the father and mother, that is, Christ and the church, because it is the keeping of a divine command. ”