THE NET OF FAITH
by Peter Chelčický
translated by Rev. Enrico Molnár
CHAPTER 13
REFUTATION OF THE CLAIMS OF THE COUNCIL OF BASEL
AND OF THE ARGUMENTS OF JUAN PALOMAR
Now all these words with which I praised the early Church of Christ stink (to the nostrils) of the Church of Rome as ugly heresies. This is the why and the wherefore of the vituperations of the Master Auditor at Basel[302] when the Czechs had proved the use of the chalice of God by the original Holy Church, showing that this Church truly maintained the practice of the divine chalice.[303] And yet this Master Auditor of the Papal Court found fault with this argument, calling it brittle, weak, and harmful, and in many other ways bringing up sly objections and difficult obloquies.
He even said – among many other things – that the early Christian Church was stupid and in a sad condition, while admitting that in holy matters and in its zeal of faith it was wonderful. For “the polished and dignified church of ritual, beauty, and splendor came after the plain apostolic church of divine honesty in the same way as rams’ skins dyed red came after badgers’ skins for tent covering.”[304] Not only divine honesty and sacramental customs but even faith of old times were explained in such a manner as to make them appear doubtful or unknown when applied to the original apostolic Church. And yet it is to this Holy Church that Jesus Christ promised his constant presence: “Lo, I am with you to the end of the world.”[305] Concerning this Saint Augustine says – and he is quoted by Saint Thomas: “I am with you to the end of the world; this has been said to the entire Holy Church in which some die and others are born, until now and to the close of the age.” This, too, was quoted by the Auditor.
Wise men ought to pay attention, therefore, to the pronouncements of this master because, when he divides so cunningly the present condition of the Church from that of the early Church, attributing everything good to the former and all weaknesses to the latter, he speaks to the detriment and debasement of the early Holy Church. He labels it with stupidity and ambiguity, making her case doubtful because (says he) the modern Church has corrected her stupidities and mistakes.
Furthermore, says this master, just as badgers’ skins were followed by rams’ skins dyed red and adorned by gold and other embellishments for the covering of Moses’ tent, similarly also the plain teaching of the early Holy Church with her simple worship was followed by the much wiser later Church, matured in her rituals and refined in her sacraments, splendid and beautiful.
The original Church was stupid because she worshipped without vestments, without altars, and without church buildings, and knew naught but to say the Lord’s Prayer. The present church knows how to honor God because she built great and costly cathedrals and altars out of stone, she ordered rich vestments and blessed everything, she produced many prayers and songs at masses, she honored God bountifully with ornamented churches, walls painted and dressed up with tapestries, with lights, bells, and organs, with singing in high voices, plainsongs, and melodies with polyphonic notes. All this has the wise Church secured for the honor of God! For He yearns so much to be honored; yes, He is sad if there is not enough wax to burn and if the walls do not shine with resplendent colors! This is why he (the Auditor) scorned the stupid Church so much during his lecture. But his new Church has elaborated long rituals for every occasion and sacrament, with proper incantations and benedictions intoned by powerful bishops. And when they are done with all these sacramental invocations they sell the sacraments for money to common people. What a grand way to honor God, indeed, with all these sacraments, with these Simoniacal and sacrilegious customs! The wiser Church decidedly excels the stupid Church in her blasphemous inventions! The blunt-witted Church distributed sacred things foolishly without charge, while the wise Church knows how to strike a profitable bargain with them.[306]
Moreover, says this master, the Original Church was poor. But I say that she was not bad in poor times! From the time of Christ’s death to the days of Emperor Constantine, all those who worshipped in the name of Christ lived frugally even though they were greatly tempted by both Jews and Gentiles, so that the name of Christ and his followers was damned by all; faithful Christians were tortured to death by all other nations. For these happenings, undoubtedly, the original Church was poor and unwise, in a sad estate. The present Church is wise in Christ, while the original Church was foolish and poor for Christ.[307] The matured Church has prospered with riches and with honors of this world; she rests in peace while others carry the sword of temptation for her. Prosperous is she, sweetly singing praises to God in her chapels, reclining behind plenteous tables and on soft couches, prosperous and wise in Christ. You have chosen the better part, until it shall be taken away from you![308]
Again, says this master, all wise things taught by the present Church – particularly those concerning the temporal power – are based on the teachings and practices of the early apostles. Were this not a lie, truly an enormous number of people would be saved and the glory of God would increase, so rich is the Church in possessions[309] (But God will not accept the offerings of this ugly Church, rich in things displeasing His eye). But to go on, this doctor asserts in his speech that Christ and the Holy Spirit, having established themselves in the Church at Basel, direct through her the salvation of mankind. And, indeed, this is the manner in which the Council calls itself in its documents:
“The Most Holy General Council at Basel, called together by the Holy Spirit, signifies the Catholic Universal Church… Wherefore this Church, governed by the Spirit of truth, having with her the Holy Spirit abiding forever and the presence of Christ until the end of the world…”[310]
If he did not lie, surely this would make a beautiful song! And his Church, possessing the Holy Spirit, is supposed to direct and bring about the salvation of mankind! She is infallible in her judgment, and she could not cease honoring and praising God even if she would, because the Holy Spirit has descended upon her, depositing his treasures in her vestry, intending to establish his good pleasure in her tents more abundantly than in the apostles, for ever and ever. What a lie! Who could be equal in his fabrication and what devil could gloat more shamelessly and wallow in falsehood more impudently than he who opposes and exalts himself against everything that bears the name of God?[311]
Let him who can understand, see and behold the signs by which this multitude is encompassed as by a deluge, all this luxury and glory usurped in the name of the Holy Spirit, this domination in his name, this infallible dispensation of salvation, and this presumption that the Holy Spirit is making his eternal abode in the Church! Who dares – from among this befuddled people – to jump over the mountain? They crawl after signs and they are dragging about more sparkling ornaments than the whole half of the open heavens could give, scaring all the drunken people of this earth with their gaudy theatre.
Let him who is humble come and behold the vainglorious haughtiness! For a congregation of fornicators has entered into a covenant with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit reigns over them who are an assembly of harlots, assassins of righteous men, and transgressors of all commandments of God. But he, this shameful nude, refused to put on anything less than the raiment of the Holy Spirit, and he rules over the good things of Christ, not stupidly, but cleverly, in the disguise of the Holy Spirit, and is more generous and wise than the apostles. The devil who dwells among us under a shadow as it were, has a rich accoutrement indeed, and who shall unveil his face that he hides by the shadow of the Holy Spirit?
THE CHURCH LOSES ITS PERFECTION
THROUGH THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE
All this having been said and done, I shall return to the beginning, that is, to Peter’s net, which is the net of faith and with which he has been sent out for the spiritual fishing. (We read of) how he enclosed a multitude of fishes; we also described how that great shoal was organized by the fisher-apostles. And now we shall speak about how it happened that the net, filled with many fishes, began to break.
No one at the time of fishing knew that the net of faith had also enclosed a great number of adverse fishes because they remained quiet in the net for a long time after Peter and other apostles. However, after a certain period of time, when men were sleeping and lulled into security,[312] their enemy came in the night and sowed weeds among the wheat. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
Where else could this heavy slumber have befallen except here among the priests showered with riches and domains by the Emperor? Those men slept, benumbed by a heavy dream, (intoxicated by their newly won wealth) after a poverty to which they had held by faith. Formerly they preached about the poverty of Christ and his disciples and other faithful priests after them; now they reject poverty having accepted domains, imperial honors, and even precedence over imperial authority.[313] (In their former estate) they accepted poverty as (a part of faith) commanded by Christ and His example. It shows that the priest must have been stunned in dream and have a blackening of his heart to be able to make this quick and easy change: after poverty, to plunge into such luxury and such an exalted position in the world. In the beginning he hid in caves, among rocks and in forests for Christ’s name, and behold, now the Emperor guides him around Rome, seating him on a white mare – or was it a white horse? No matter! It always was a ‘bird of ill omen’[314] – paying him homage ostentatiously before the whole world. That is the way it was recorded by those who wrote down what they saw for future generations: multitudes in Rome ran to behold that wonder shouting, “Papa, Papa! The Pope! What is it? What goes on? Look there, the Emperor himself saddled the horse and, seating the Priest, he leads him through town!”[315]
Inasmuch as he has done this, it seems to me that he has desecrated the purity and innocence of the apostolic state and that he has not followed properly and sincerely the true faith. Probably he (later) regretted the time when he had to hide in caves and in forests before pagans; for in those days they were killed for the faith in Christ, therefore hiding wherever they could. And that is very hard to the priests of sensuality and comfort of today; they have become accustomed to honors and to physical licentiousness. They could hardly go back to be again the despised of the earth, to administer the legacy of the apostles, to be hunted like dogs and to hide before Constantine. We understand that there are two people in Bohemia who would like to be priests with this burden of the priestly office.[316] But a dissipating and inactive life pleases much better the majority of the priesthood. It was, indeed, very agreeable to Sylvester of a corporeal heart and an incomplete faith to see the Emperor beneath him, leading the horse. In that moment he did not fear him though he was afraid before.
It was then and there that the net became greatly torn, when the two great whales had entered it, that is, the Supreme Priest wielding royal power with honor superior to the Emperor, and the second whale being the Emperor who, with his rule and offices, smuggled pagan power and violence beneath the skin of faith. And when these two monstrous whales began to turn about in the net, they rent it to such an extent that very little of it has remained intact. From these two whales so destructive of Peter’s net there were spawned many scheming schools by which that net is also so greatly torn that nothing but tatters and false names remain. They were first of all the hordes[317] of monks in all manner of costumes and diversified colors; these were followed by hordes of university students and hordes of pastors; after them came the unlearned hordes with multiform coats-of -arms, and with them those of the wicked burghers. The whole world and its wretchedness have entered Peter's net of faith with these evil hordes.
And the multitude of these wretched hordes arrogate to themselves pagan and worldly rule, every one of them endeavoring to have dominion over the others. They try to embrace as much of the earth as they are able, using every means and every ruse or violence to get hold of the territory of the weaker, sometimes by money and at other times by inheritance, but always desiring to rule and extend their realm as far as they can. And in order to rule they divide: some are lords spiritual and some are lords temporal. The spiritual lords are the Pope, who is the lord over lords, the lord cardinal, the lord legate, the lord archbishop, the lord patriarch, the lord pastor, the lord abbot, the lord provost (and there are as many abbots and provosts as there are monasteries and orders endowed with estates), the lord provincial, the lord prior, and the lord magister universitatis. And the temporal lords are the lord Emperor, the lord king, the lord prince, the lord magnates, the lord burgrave, the lord knight, the lord page, the lord judge, the lord councilors, the lord mayor, and the burghers.
And all these lords draw power to themselves so strenuously that not only have they torn the net between them but they have torn and divided among themselves earthly kingdoms, so that the sovereign, the king, has no one to rule over, nor has he enough income to maintain himself and his retinue. For the ruling abbots have taken over wide areas of land, and the canons and nuns took possession of cities, castles, regions, and villages. And of the other party, the noblemen and their pages, has possessed the remainder, so that in this whole area there isn’t in many a mile a single village left for the king to rule over. The country squires would like to have had a foreign king, a rich German, who would add alien countries to his own; for they, having received the king’s dominion, will not give it up but would prefer to obtain additional lands from those he has conquered.
It is clear that a royal realm fares better among pagans than among these confused Christians, who have appropriated to themselves dominions. For among the pagans there are no such ecclesiastical lords, so increased in numbers and so useless as sores on a body, for pain is the only thing they give. Really, pagan kings rule much easier since they have no ecclesiastical authority, a nobility richer than royalty and greedy to add kings’ possessions to their own domains. Nor had the Jews to contend with such (feudal) domains; there was only one chief lord among them, i.e., the king. There were no peers but only a greater or lesser number of warriors and brave men who the king had at his disposal, making out of them his officials. But the Jewish priests were not supposed to have any temporal power nor inherited land grants, for God granted them only tithes from the people for their livelihood.[318] For these reasons a Gentile or Jewish earthly kingdom could carry on much easier than among these befuddled men who imagine to count something in Christ’s eyes, and yet cannot attain to the least pagan justice – they who themselves sprang from the pagans, making themselves into nobility in spite of Christ’s intentions!
And, just as temporal government cannot exist properly with too great a number of lords, similarly and more so, Christian faith cannot stand and be preserved with a multitude of wicked hordes and a crowd of lords, so useless and destructive of faith, men who cause division, inequality, haughtiness, oppression, hatred, conflicts, and violence of some against others. Even though they boast of being of one faith, they are far behind the pagans in respect to unity, which is rent by their wicked machinations.
Our faith can encompass a great number of people for salvation, but they all must be of one heart and of one spirit, and nothing is further than that from the divided parties.[319] Their acting is far removed from the spirit of Christ, they are far removed from one another; the people are removed from the lords, who constantly clamor to be promoted in order to have dominion over others, and they are proud as peacocks, which pride is a most abhorrent thing to faith. And all these wicked hordes and multitudinous lords try to be different from one another – and it is with those differences that they measure faith, tearing up Peter’s net. These hordes, each one of them being established under different laws and special human justice of their own choosing, behave as if they were superior to and truer than the law of Christ. By this attitude they deviate completely from faith, and in doing so they rend and tear the net of faith.
And as they depart from the law of Christ on account of their own special laws, there results division of one horde against another because every one of them glories in its own laws, regarding them superior to the laws of other hordes; (among the ecclesiastical hordes, for instance) one thinks to be, superior because of its law ordering the wearing of cheap garments, or because they must eat no meat, or because they must not talk, or because they must sing sad tunes, or because they must get up early, or because they must fast a great deal, or because they must keep long matins. These and other details of their laws split these orders, imbuing them with predilection for their own exclusive law and an inclination to disparage, hate, and speak ill of the laws of others. And this contempt breeds dissolution of that unity which faith favors and maintains; by losing true unity they offend and wound faith. All the temporal lords who, begotten by Constantine and established through deception in the name of faith, enjoy pagan ruling and pagan sodomitic living; they put themselves apart from Christ and cannot be partakers of his fellowship; they feel contempt for one another, are prouder than the devil, oppress through power and throttle the weak through violence. All of them offend faith with their destructive particularities, tearing the net in the degree in which they are contrary to faith.
Therefore, when we try to appraise the spiritual situation we cannot compare the body of Christ with the Roman Church, which divides (society) into three groups:
| ► | The first group is that of the lords, kings, and princes, who fight, defend, and attack. |
| ► | The second group is that of spiritual priesthoods who pray. |
| ► | The third group is the workers in bondage who are supposed to provide for the physical needs of the other two classes. |
If the body of Christ is divided by such an order of things, what inequalities are there present! Naturally, this order is agreeable to the first two classes who loaf, gorge, and dissipate themselves. And the burden for this living is shoved onto the shoulders of the third class, which has to pay in suffering[320] for the pleasures of the other two guzzlers – and there are so many of them! When the weather is sultry and hot, pilgrims look for rest under a cool roof, and in the same way they hurry anxiously to become lords. When they cannot be lords, they ask to be at least their lackeys, in order to be, in some way, partakers of their abundant tables and luxuries, getting up and sitting down in emptiness. Yes, the priests too, hurry anxiously to be knighted, and they even like to lackey for the princes because of their overburdened rich tables. It is these two groups of lazy gluttons who, for their own pleasures, drain the working people of their blood, and tread on them contemptuously as if they were dogs.
If this were the true body of Christ or his Church, how improbable the words of Saint Paul would then sound – Saint Paul who speaks of the spiritual body and the different dispositions of its members, a body in which there is no discord and no inequality and in which one member does not oppress another against its will; he says about them:
If one member rejoices, all rejoice together;
If one member suffers, all suffer together.[321]
They love one another; if they have something good, they divide equally; if something bitter befalls them, they drink it together comforting one another. But in that three-cornered body, some are sadly weeping while others make fun of them; some sweat in terrible labors while others loiter in pleasant coolness. All these inequalities, so offensive to truth, have been brought about by the sundered wicked hordes. And they forget especially the words that he spoke preparing himself for death and praying for his disciples so that they might remain faithful and for those chosen for salvation. In that prayer he said:
I do not pray for these only (that is, the disciples), but also for those who are to believe in me through their word, that they might all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one: I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.[322]
In that passage it is declared that the people who want to please God and to be saved through the death of Christ – a salvation for which Christ prayed here – must be united in this divine unity and be perfect in it so that all those who believed in him through apostolic preaching until our own day might be one, remaining in the unity in perfection, and in equality. Like members of one body, they, too, must have equality in grace, obedience, mutual help, long-suffering befitting those who have one God, one Lord and Father of all, one faith, and one law for all their doing.
When all are one, the things of God belong to all; otherwise they could not be one, dividing the things which are of God, usurping to themselves special divine rights, and elevating themselves at the expense of others, in violence.
Such a unity we are given in Christ’s faith, for our conduct. Anything that deviates from that faith is sin. The above-mentioned hordes, who distinguish themselves from one another by peculiar laws and pagan administration, are not included in Christ’s prayer, not one of them, because they are not united with him in his spirit and in his law.
To be sure, the wicked men have entered into all kinds of unions, but Christ’s disciples cannot be in them, since these unions cannot bear comparison with the law of Christ, which is based on true honest goodness and in which the people of God are ruled by the truth of his word, in faith and in grace, like the household of one husbandman, standing in true obedience before God aside from whom there is no other lord. There can be no greater unfaithfulness to the rule of God than the division and sundering caused by these factions and their arrogation to themselves of laws apart from His law. The law of God will not assent to their conflicting peculiarities; indeed, every horde tries to draw God down to itself, desiring to have its distinctive peculiarities sanctioned by the law of God. God can sanction only those things that grow out of His law; he cannot approve of anything that grows out of foreign roots. And there is only one law of God, perfect in itself, and so good that all can confirm themselves in it, that they “may become perfectly one” in Christ. This law will bring about an equality of all, they shall love one another as they love themselves, they shall carry each other’s burden, and each shall do to others as he wishes that they would do to him.[323]
This commandment could make one multitude out of a thousand worlds – one heart and one soul! There can be no better administration for mankind sojourning in this world; it will lead man into the fullest life, it will make man most precious to God, and man will become a gain to man. Who becomes acquainted with the law of God cannot create nor recognize nor obey any other law, for no other law is right. If there is one right law descended from God, any other law must in fact be contrary. And the contrariness of human laws is made manifest to the law of God by creating multiform hordes under one “faith” (coupled) with superstitions and with the art of differentiation and specialization, with dissensions, with iniquitous thoughts which increase like tares springing up from bad seeds,[324] tarnishing the whole crop. But the law of God is untarnished and enlightening souls.[325] It is so effective and perfect that – no matter what tarnish and sins it finds on men – if men attach themselves to it, believing, it will cleanse them from all sins,[326] maintain them in innocence, and keep them from being overcome by temptations. It can improve or do away with whatever dissenting heretical hordes it finds, that is, he will join them into one people, one faith, one interpretation of the faith, one love, and one hope, if they will only believe the divine law. It will do this to fulfill the things for which our Lord prayed, “that they may be one as we are,” as the Father and the Son are one.
The divine law is able to convert a sinful man to God, and to cleanse him from his sins; only the will of God can do this, not human statutes. Man can excel in perfection in accordance with human statutes, but if they have no goodness expected of God in fulfillment of His law, they count for nothing and remain apart from Him and His law.[327] It has pleased God to choose only one perfection, sufficient to all people, and He has not established nor chosen any other laws under which the many hordes could justify their divisions, customs, interpretations, and deeds.
We have spoken about the many hordes, existing under the disguise of faith, that have strayed from the law of God and torn the net of faith, only by lip-service professing their belief, hiding behind sacred symbols of the glory of faith and so completely covered up by them that they appear like Christians when, in fact, they are the domestic enemies of faith and of the chosen ones of God.
THE POPE’S GUILT IN THE TRANSACTION
CALLED “DONATIO CONSTANTINI”
We shall consider every one of the wicked hordes separately, about how they offend the law of God, and in what particular way – distinctive from the techniques of other hordes – they rend the net of faith. But first of all let us look at the two mighty whales which have done the greatest damage to the net of faith and which still keep on tearing it, namely, the chief spiritual lord[328] and the chief earthly lord.[329]
First, consider the spiritual lord, how he has pressed himself into the affairs of this earth and into the pagan play of power, presuming withal to follow the apostolic faith or the apostolic office, while actually desiring to rule over both the world and the faith. This High Priest offended the law of Christ for the first time when he abandoned the honesty and innocence of the apostolic state which he was bound by faith to maintain until death, that is, to remain in poverty and to continue working, preaching, and in any other service appertaining to the apostolic vocation. Therefore, to abandon this laboriousness, simplicity, poverty, and humility is no easy transgression of the law of God and the apostolic state. He could not have offended the divine law and the apostolic state to profoundly had he not at the same time been sitting in the place of the apostles, carrying out their office.
Furthermore, he could not have offended the law of God by giving up simplicity, poverty, humility, and work, had he not been bound to keep these qualities until death by the law of God. To abandon the law of God, to do things reprehensible to it – that is, insulting it! We find it clearly written in the Gospel that the apostolic man is bound to poverty, humility, and work, in imitation of the example of Christ and his apostles to whom he said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”[330] They accepted the words of Christ and kept them until their death, not owning any business, estate, or temporal fief. They kept his commandment. Sylvester was duty bound to keep it, too. And he is guilty of transgression because he did not abide by his obligation.
The High Priest has offended the law of Christ and the apostolic office for the second time when he brought distasteful additions into the apostolic state; he thinks to increase the dignity of the apostolic office by accepting imperial domains and worldly honors superior to the Emperor. He is burdened with a monstrous pride, enjoying it when people kneel and fall before him as if he were God, and he is busy with the administration of his domains[331] and with physical pleasures.
And with all this he imagines himself a worthy successor of the apostles when, in truth, he has desecrated his priesthood and corrupted his office by these revolting privileges. The more he holds to things contrary to apostolic teaching, the more he defiles his office in which he calls himself vicar. He has the office but does very little officiating: he seldom celebrates mass, he never preaches, and he never works; that is, the only work which he instituted for himself is the blessing of those he loves and the excommunication of those he does not love. And so he lies in luxuries and gorges himself like a hog wallowing in a sty. It is true that Sylvester himself did not live such a debauched life, but it is he who introduced all this paganism by accepting pagan ways of ruling and worldly emperor-like honors; all that evil he planted in the throne which they call the See of Saint Peter (no one has ever seen Peter sitting on so proud a seat!).
He was grafted by the Emperor onto the tree of pagan rule in order to enjoy the most exalted priesthood, and everything stemming from the grafting of this tree is supposed to be more worthy of respect. Pope Melchiades[332] confesses about the imperial grafting of that See that Constantine, the first Emperor who accepted faith, granted a general permission to all people everywhere in his realm not only to become Christians, but also to build churches and to found church endowments. The same Emperor showered great gifts on the Church and erected the first basilica of Saint Peter. Thus, having left his imperial see, he gave it to Saint Peter and his successors. In this way a deep root was planted, strong and full of poison, and from it grew a bush full of all sorts of poisonous fruits. And the world has been poisoned to death by it.
CHAPTER 16
THE POPE’S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The aforesaid as well as other evidences show clearly that the Highest Priest has been grafted by the Emperor onto the tree of worldly dominion. He has accepted a most exalted priesthood through imperial authority in such a manner that not only did he attach sovereignty to his own person, but also everything else had to stem from his power; no people or nation could have priests except by his authority and sanction. He could disestablish priests, even the best of them, if they dared to speak up against his exalted throne. They must have the same intentions and the same spirit as he, accept churches as he, contribute to his throne in order to remain everywhere in his favor, and exalt his power above that of Christ.
The priest has inflicted an incurable wound on Christ’s faith. And the people do not feel his pain; they are dead and insensible to all these damages in which souls perish. That great priest is the fountain from which flows priestly power to all people, and not only priestly power but also even full salvation for all flows from that fountain, (a salvation) contrary to Christ. By the Emperor himself he is counted among the highest princes; the Pope trains his priests to honor him in the same way; (thus) the clergy of Christ is taught in the servitude of a faith stemming from the Emperor and founded on earthly things, which is a faith of an alien spirit, contrary and remote from the spirit of Christ, agreeing instead with the spirit of the Antichrist.
These things enter into the apostolic and Christian faith by the power of the highest priest; who, therefore, dares speak of the corruption of the faith, which is like a great fountain out of which there swims a great horde of obnoxious priests? They are all drawn to titled honors because of temporal benefits and a satiated and empty life and because – being of the nobility – they can evade the labors of those who earn their bread in heavy toil. Those knaves who have ascended to nobility do not bother caring for human souls.
A corpse was added to the churches; and it is only ravens that are drawn to a corpse. Where there ought to be witnesses of Christ’s sufferings, there are but Judases who betray Christ, sell His truth, and corrupt the people with the poison of many errors. All this is maintained by and borne of the great priest who has arrogated to himself power over Christians, and who alone through his authority selects priests for them. Who shall dare say that through him faith is corrupted? For everybody can see for himself that there is no more faith; that a villainy planted by Caesar was let loose to kill faith in the world.
Where there was faith before it has been extinguished. Thus the sin of the head has spread into all the members of the body.
CHAPTER 17
THE POPE’S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The third feature with which the great priest has defiled faith and the Savior consists in the fact that with the rich and haughty princely investiture he has arrogated to himself divine power, no, the power of the Savior himself, the power to forgive sins, which is God’s prerogative. He alone forgives all people, pardoning their iniquities[333]; and Christ the Son of God died for these iniquities. The witness of faith says that He (Christ) is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world[334] – He alone has the right to forgive the sins of the world because He is both God and man. He died in the fashion of man, for sins, and gave Himself up as a sacrifice to God, on the cross. Through Himself and His pains He has bought forgiveness of sins for the world. Thus He alone has the right and power to forgive sins. Therefore the high priest, exalting himself in his monstrous pride above all that is called God,[335] has seized Christ’s prerogative by robbery. And this he manages lucratively, initiating a pilgrimage to Rome from all countries faithful to his banner, and proclaiming to all pilgrims forgiveness of all sins and suspension of punishments. A person may be burdened with the greatest and most evil sins; yet all he has to do is to take them to Rome and he will be made as pure as if he were just newly born! At least this is being said, and the promises are given as it were to fools benumbed by great drinking bouts. And thus large benumbed crowds from all countries stream (to Rome) and he, the father of all evils, gets ready for the ceremony. He puts on white pearled gloves and, standing high (on the balcony), gives his benediction to all the throng, with the forgiveness of all sins and remission of suffering. Whatever post-mortal tortures were supposed to come to them in the purgatory, these are rescinded for those whom he has blessed – he forgives everything! Yes, he has the power to abolish hell as well as purgatory because, when he forgives everybody their sins, there is no one therefore (left) to go to hell. And there is supposedly only one purpose of the purgatory: whoever does not repent enough here for his sins, has to make up the difference by suffering in purgatory in order to satisfy God. The Great Priest forgives all these sufferings – and no one will go to hell or to purgatory.
Now to go further, he not only initiates such lucrative pilgrimages to Rome from all countries, but he even sends to those countries letters containing the forgiveness of sins and sufferings; (he tells them) not to inconvenience themselves with a long journey to him, that he will forgive them everything provided they pay for it in golden ducats; that the sinner is free to specify what sins he wants to have forgiven and that, if he pays for it, he (the Pope) will grant him in a letter a freedom to sin for as many years as are paid for, even until a man’s death if so desired. Any priest can absolve all sins at a deathbed by the power of the Pope. And the people buy from that Great Priest their freedom to sin.
These things, therefore, are evident: Christ has the divine right to forgive the sins of the world. Does he have, then, an official in his service to whom he has given his full powers? What is intrinsic to the Lord, the servant has arrogated to himself, usurping also all honors pertaining to his Lord; he increases his wealth in worldly ways, enriching himself by the sale of indulgences and prebends, by endowments and wars; he intrigues with kings and sells indulgences in various countries in order to secure money for his warfare. This was shown in the days when Boniface[336] was at war with the King of Naples; he invoked anathema upon him and with him he excommunicated the whole country so that they could not even bury their dead. Such a disciple of Christ made naught of the teachings of his Master and trampled them in the dust.
Of what use is Christ to us, indeed, if the great priest, his vicar, can forgive all our sins and remit all sufferings, sanctify us, and make us just? What more can Jesus add to this? For it is only our sins that are in the way of our salvation. And if the high priest forgives these, what is left to poor Jesus Christ? Why does the world neglect him and why does it not seek salvation from him? Only because this great priest has overshadowed him with his great pomp and glory received from the world, generously giving salvation in a way in which the world desires it. Wherefore the crucified Jesus is made into a laughing-stock before the world, while only the great priest is on the lips of the world, which in him alone seeks salvation, believing to find it there.
CHAPTER 18
THE POPE’S GUILT (CONCLUSION)
The fourth feature of the great priest with which he has defiled faith consists in the fact that he has greatly increased the number of laws contrary to the law of God and His faith; behind these laws the people have forgotten the true law of God, and they do not even suspect that there exists another faith but that which is presented by the laws of the great priest. All visible worship conducted by the ecclesiastical hordes is done in accordance with his rules. He prescribes the ways and manners of worship, and they are carried out in the sacraments, in religious services, in prayers, and in masses. The Caesarean priesthood is unable to pray or to serve mass otherwise than by mumbling out of the Books of Hours of which there have been written many at his behest. They regard it as prayers when one priest responds to another priest, when they chase one another with words and verses. They bless, fast, and go through rituals and bowings, and all this is done in accordance with the law that the great priest gave them. The people are therefore ignorant of the law of God and have strayed from it; and the Christians have known nothing about it for many centuries. In its ignorance the people take for granted as Christian faith the regulations of the Pope and the practices of worship carried on under the name of God… They have never heard anything else concerning religion excepting (the requirement) to take a glance at God in church and not to plough their field on Sundays; they do not know that there exists any other form…
Therefore, even though these laws are resplendent in a great institution, through religiosity reverence, and respect to God, they are only for form’s and feel’s sake. But the truth is that there is no middle way here: either deny God and be a dissenter, or cling to Him with your whole heart. Either step is hard to take by the people; for man is not as bad as to want to deny God and relinquish Him; on the other hand you will find very few who want to cling to God with their whole heart. It is this accursed middle way that offers a relaxation to both parties. Fallible and fortuitous are all the advantages hidden in the laws of the Pope who glitters with great orders, outward forms, and ceremonies of worship.
Papal laws are very welcome to those who have never experienced God; they are the means whereby they can cunningly stand in the fold of faith and confess God with their lips only, honor and worship Him only outwardly, and debase their bodies by mortification according to the decrees of the great priest. This brought about an ignorance of God and His laws to such an extent that not even the devil could have invented it. He would not be able to produce a trick whereby men, deprived of their true goodness (consisting of obedience to God’s laws), would be made to adhere to a false and fallacious goodness glorying in the laws of the great priest and adorned by divine Scriptures (in order to give the impression that they are being fulfilled – but this is only glorious lying underneath the veneer of letters).
It is obvious how much the laws of the Pope contradict those of God: they assume the coloring of the divine law, lacerating it worse than lion’s teeth. Yes, the Pope has greatly defiled the laws of God, by multiplying his own laws contrary to those of God, and even rescinding those of divine origin. He regulates faith for as much as he is its ruler. In Basel his servants have declared concerning the cup of God that the Holy Church can change and abolish the commandment of Christ which says that the common people should drink Christ’s blood from the cup; that the Holy Church can abolish what the law (of God) commands as well as pass amendments contrary to it. Being the rulers over faith and God’s law, (the churchmen) abolish what they do not like and add what they like, and others must accept what they decide. They keep silent about the fact that many members (of the church) are the worst enemies of the law of God, and men are tortured on that account.
The Emperor, the kings, and the lords have exalted over the Christians this high priest, endowing him with power and domains; now in his pride he rules even over kings. In investing him they were seduced by the proud devil, and through this error they render him service: they raised a lord to the destruction of faith, and now he rules and changes and fabricates laws full of poison and pest, with which to vitiate and wound the people.
The Donation (of Constantine) is no trifling matter: today poison is running in the Holy Church.[337] When the poison was poured into the Church in the beginning, it increased and spread throughout the whole world by means of this wealthy priest, successful in the world, through his corrupt laws. The world became swollen and distended with gross iniquities. Its body became swollen with anger, with prodigality, profligacy, and with a lethargy caused by the loss of life in God; it sneers at all things divine and grows out of the poisons of the great harlot.[338] Thinking of these things, Saint Paul could not have condemned him more than by saying that he was a man of lawlessness and a son of perdition.[339] Christ Jesus the man of virtue came to conquer sins – this man of sin came to multiply it. With all his acts he set the world on the highway of sin, giving it freedom and incentive to sin, easily removing sins from the people by benediction, without repentance, without changing the evil intention, without improving life; he always forgives and the people are not conscious of sinning either before or after. Thus sins are no more sins because human conscience has been separated from sinning; and if there are some who have a sinful conscience, it will be assuaged for money. Thus, he is the Father of Sins, begetting sins with his offices and services and removing the people from the law of God…
This Whale has so torn the net of faith that it has been rendered useless for catching fishes. And if somebody should laboriously mend it in fear and try to ‘fish’ people unto salvation, he forfeits his neck, for (the Pope) hates the faith which is the net of Peter. That is why he invaded the net; he did not rend it without reason, for it bothered him and harassed him to no end. For, wanting to have a wide way, he sundered the net of faith so that it would not hinder him and his freedom of movement. And he cannot tolerate anyone to fish with the whole net, for, in doing so, the (fisher) would reveal him naked and destroy his work, forasmuch as a complete net would mean shame to his face and death to his pride and luxury. Desiring to continue in his exalted rule and to be given dominions and honors greater than the Emperor, he is bound to make room for himself and to destroy the net; he can endure only its tatters. Where its gaps would reveal his shameful nakedness he mends them with patches…
So, wherever he can fish out some material gain with the net of faith, he uses some rags and tatters, turning masses and other sacraments into money, using the power of the Keys at the highest market price, excommunicating the innocent and exercising through them his revenge against those who would dare to ‘fish’ with the whole net.
THE “DONATION OF CONSTANTINE” –
THE EMPEROR’S GUILT IN THIS TRANSACTION
The second whale that has invaded and enormously torn the net of faith is the Emperor with his pagan rule and offices with pagan rights and laws. He is the root of paganism into which Christianity has turned; it is he who opened the wound from which pours the blood that is spilled among all Christians – even here – and all blood that shall ever be shed. When he entered the net of faith with these evils, he despoiled the innocence and purity of those who were in the net in accordance with the apostolic establishment.
As mentioned in the beginning, the churches of God converted to the faith of Christ from the Gentiles and Jews were scattered throughout all countries and regions, and speaking all the languages of the Gentiles for over three hundred years. They were abiding only by the will of God and paid honor only to the gracious laws of Christ’s Gospel, without any addition of either papal or imperial laws, not having among themselves any kings with sovereign rights. They were servants among the pagans and their lords, subject to them only corporeally, paying their taxes and performing other physical services until the days of Constantine.
When Emperor Constantine was received into the fold of faith with his pagan rule and rights and offices, then the innocence of the true Christians was saddened and defiled. It was as if ruffians and abductors established friendship with honest and chaste maidens, got themselves invited into their house overnight, introducing their own ruffian laws and declaring that they would protect the maidens’ chastity by virtue of their laws. The honest and chaste maidens would soon be very much disappointed upon discovering that they could not defend for long – and with great difficulty at that – their purity and faithfulness which they took upon themselves … to keep until death. They could not preserve it among these ruffians who live domestically with them, who rule over them and who can even order them how to preserve to God their purity – very few true maidens would remain there indeed!
It was similar when the Emperor slipped under the skin of faith with his pagan rule, rights, and offices, and obtained full membership rights of participation with the Christians in their faith and in all things pertaining to God. Having been thus united, they shared among themselves: he their Christian things and they his pagan things. Sylvester, who wanted him to join the faith, did not insist that the Emperor give up everything pagan … if he desired to become a Christian; no, instead he was admitted with all that poison among the Christians.
Even though he became a Christian, he still ruled over the pagans, for, although there was a true congregation of Christians in Rome, there were also all kinds of pagans. He held courts and discharged other offices and duties among the pagans, through the authority of compulsion in accordance with pagan right and law. Later he gave freedom to all of them to become Christian if they so desired, with the promise that he would not persecute them as he had before. So, first he came to the Christian religion with pagan rule, offices, and laws, then he continued in that practice, and many others after him, taking part in Christian spiritual matters. And there can be no doubt but that he made them partake of pagan features with which he came to them…
Here is the proof of pagan deeds; let him who wants to read reckon the number of the beast,[340] and seeking he shall find nothing (in the beast) that is of Christ. Concerning Caesar’s fusion of faith with paganism it is written: “Today the poison has been poured into the Church of Christ.”[341]
CHAPTER 20
THE EMPEROR’S GUILT (CONTINUED)
These imperial and pagan contributions with which he came to the Christians did not become Christianized then or later. Just as his rule was pagan and was of pagan origin then, so it is now. All these foreign additions brought in this manner into the Christian religion are not part of the true faith; they are a deceitful lie, a trap, disguised in letters with which to offend and seduce the people away from God. The Emperor made them partakers of pagan customs; he accepted, by the fact of his becoming a Christian, to rule over the Christians, but he laid upon them the burden of royal authority as if it were an article of faith. And today the Roman Church confirms all this as being the true faith once given to the saints by the apostles.
Here it might be said: but what about the Christians who were in Rome or elsewhere, under the jurisdiction of Constantine in the days when he was still a pagan? Were they not, then, subject to his pagan sovereignty? Were they not carrying the burden of his royal authority? Why should his pagan rule be harmful when he became one of them, a Christian? Or, why should the burden of royal authority be felt as more harmful after his conversion than before?
Of course, this is right, insofar as we speak of royal authority; before, as well as afterwards, they were standing under that authority. As long as they were in his realm or used his utilities and lived among pagans as servants and outcasts offensive to them, they submitted themselves to this pagan power in obedience in all matters of taxation and corporeal services as the apostles had taught them. In such passive submission they would keep the laws of God and also, they would not cause the pagans to be incited against them (which they would if they refused their duty in matters where it was expected of them). However, they never availed themselves of either their laws, offices, courts, or other rights. For their innocence (firmly grounded in them through their Christian faith) stood without accusation or blemish before God and even before the pagans and had no need to be improved upon by the justice of heathen offices or courts. Through the sincerity and truth of their faith, their innocence was made clearly manifest so that it shone in its brilliance much brighter than justice imposed by imperial power and authority; it was as a clear day compared with night. Therefore the Christians, even though under imperial power, did not mix these distinctive marks of paganism in their daily life. But when the Emperor joined the faith, together with pagan rule, statutes, and administration, all these pagan peculiarities were added to the faith and the Christians obeyed them as pertaining to faith. And this caused their corruption. The things for which the early Christians suffered under pagan authority, these same things Christians of today follow as of faith. They are the peculiarities with which Constantine defiled the faith, pagan peculiarities begotten by heathens, he made them part of Christendom. At first these additions were almost unnoticeable, but with the progression of time they devoured the faith of the Christians, and it is faith that is today unnoticeable and lethargic…
Indeed, there is a great difference between the first Christians who, while under pagan rule, remained aloof from their peculiarities (an aloofness for which they sometimes suffered great oppression and even death), and the present Christians who have adopted immoderately the ways of their former lords; today they do not have to suffer for faith any more. They have adopted as faith the way of the lords; they have grown to ignore God and to know nothing of true faith, having respect only for the laws of the greatly multiplied pagan lords.
CHAPTER 21
THE EMPEROR’S GUILT (CONTINUED)
There are so many different kinds of pagan peculiarities … that it would take too long to dwell on each one of them. But in speaking about some of them (I would like to say a few words) as regards the respect and honor of the chief lord (Emperor) who purports to rule justly and honestly over the Christians, for the sake of their improvement and for good example. (For the Christians should excel, by virtue of their vocation, in their holy intercourse above all Gentiles and Jews).
The corruption of the original honesty was brought about by Constantine and his successors who, desiring to be Christian as well as the most important lords among the fellow Christians, were bound to be honored by the highest divine respect especially by the Christians themselves; at the same time, they stood in their midst with greatest licentiousness and with the utmost contrariness against God, to the profound detriment of faith. (The Emperor) keeps in his company courtiers and servants of a life most depraved and distasteful to a Christian, a life of most wicked thievery, dishonest, shameless, and full of haughtiness and cruelty. They want to possess anything upon which their eyes may glance, full of mischief, worldly, clever, habitually inventing new costumes (uniforms) and preoccupied by superficial matters, empty-headed, avaricious by habit, of vulgar speech, shameless in their bearing, of a choleric, cocky, and impudent character, holding in derision and despising all people. When we speak about honesty as pertaining to Christians and to the Christian rulers and their servants – what a farce it is! They are really dead corpses, brought by Constantine into the midst of the Christians from the pagans. A corpse can torture to sickness with its stench, and those who smell it will become contaminated with the scandalous inflictions and hurtful woes that have already brought about a great deterioration of morals among the Christians.
And every place is full of these courtly companies that contaminate faith with unreasoning anger far more dangerously than any other evil ensnaring Christians. The courtly companies excel all others by their temptations and evils. And all this has been smuggled into faith with the pagan rule, like an evil smelling corpse, to the great defilement of faith. And yet, the priests and masters exonerate them for all these things … saying, “This is as it should be, in its proper order; the courtiers have to be that way: gay, free, and courteous – but not pious.” It must be as their masters command, and they hide themselves behind (their authority).
But we are concerned here about faith which does not depend upon the foolishness of the courtly people, but upon the truth of Christ; we deplore the paganized evil-doers who were brought in and made partakers of faith – they who can truly fellowship with devils only!
CHAPTER 22
THE EMPEROR’S GUILT (CONTINUED)
The second peculiarity with which Constantine defiled the true faith and imitation of God among the first Christians was shown when he joined faith with pagan dominion, assuming power over the Christians when he became one of their members. And I consider this a serious matter. Having become one of them, he did not take into consideration that the condition of the Christians bound them so firmly to obedience to God that they could not deviate in any way from His law, that a Christian must obey God only,[342] not turning to any other law which would only swerve him from the divine statutes and obedience to them. Constantine, who entered the fold of faith, … subjected the Christians to pagan law and procedure in order that they conduct their affairs in accordance with pagan civil laws (even though they previously conducted these affairs in accordance with divine commandments). Whenever a suit was filed or any other injustice committed, they had to go with their complaints to pagan officials in court in order that the injustices be settled through pagan authority and law.
And they became accustomed not only to that, but they began to seek help from the Emperor whenever injustice was done to them, to protect them and to carry out revenge against the guilty, thus doing a wrong to their property or life. And, having accomplished these things through the power of the Emperor and his officials, they began to give to him their trust, which was due to God alone. And they became as wicked as the pagans, trusting in man and giving him the honor that belongs to God only. Had they trusted solely in God, they would have settled all their differences by His law and suffered injustices rather than returning evil for evil.[343] (Having not this trust) they defend themselves by means of pagan power, securing redress for injustices through trials in courts, thus departing from God and His law. They have become accustomed to this way and now their consciences are not bothered on that account. They have been thus changed by Constantine who, having entered their ranks, partook of their faith and imposed on them their participation in pagan ways. Even today, the priests and masters propound this to the Christians, saying that they should not become lured by a strange teaching. Yet, this in itself is a strange teaching introduced through power.
Therefore, says the Master Adversary,[344] whenever man gives preference to human institutions and statutes rather than to the law of God, he chooses for himself other and foreign gods; whatever man loves, he loves in preference to Christ Jesus, and that is his god. Thus, when man chooses to obey the imperial statutes for the love of his possessions (that is, to regain them or to protect them by the authority of the Emperor and by abandoning the law of Christ) he chooses at the same time a strange god in the form of the Emperor and his law.
This became so commonplace among the Christians that not only are they not conscious of it, but they boldly refuse to listen to or to believe anything that is said against it. And somewhere else the Master Adversary says[345] that there is no doubt that it would become superfluous and useless to obey the imperial and civil laws and statutes if all mankind obeyed the law and rule of love. The farther mankind strays from the gospel of Christ, the more it needs to obey and abide by these imperial and civil laws. It is as if the people were fed by poison,[346] for they accept human statutes as just and reject the law of the gospel of Christ as impractical.
(Wyclif certainly speaks wisely when he says, “there is no doubt…” For if there were many who would correctly abide by the law of love, imperial and civil laws would become superfluous; the law of love would be sufficient… The civil law is, therefore, necessary – as a bitter vinegar, so to speak – for those who transgress the law of love.[347] From sin sprang the necessity of royal offices and civil laws; they are here as punishment for disobeying God. He does not say that this is the proper thing for mankind to do; it is there to support it only, let it (mankind) fall. Having gone astray from God, the people have only their physical life, which is tired and everywhere limping. Unable to stand or walk, they have to lean against these laws. When hurt by injustice they run to authorities with a complaint, and the authority orders a session of the court; both parties are compelled to attend the session and the court hands them the verdict. Punishment meted out by civil laws does not really fit the crime. It only assuages passions in the same way in which a gnawed bone pacifies a dog. If this sinful generation had no laws by which to abide, revenge would kill one party after another without end, until the whole of mankind would perish. But it lives on, tottering and burdened with evil, because it leans against laws.
However, those who live by the laws of love have a healthy and strong spiritual life. In times of iniquity, temptations, and tribulations they can stand firm, suffering injustice and not returning evil for evil. They have no need of judges and courts of appeal to carry them through difficult days of tension.
The Master Adversary says also, it can easily happen to the people nurtured by poison that it will accept as right only human edicts and statutes, rejecting the law of Christ as impractical. That is to say, the confused Christian people have so many imperial, civil, and pagan statutes and laws that they have become (saturated) with them as with poison. The true inner life perishes after the use of this poison and strays from God and His grace. They have become accustomed to eat and drink this poison in all human institutions and laws, and having been fattened by this poisonous food of errors, they intend to stick to these laws as if they were just or given by God, and to profit temporal gains in glory. For in doing this they enjoy their freedom of will and body, eschewing the tribulations of the cross of Christ, defending themselves at courts, not abstaining from corporeal goods, and being free to mete out revenge and to return evil for evil. He who feeds on this poison enjoys freedom in evil things and can say nothing about such a pagan order except that it is good and just.[348]
It is no wonder that people poisoned by this venomous food defile and reject the gospel of Christ as impractical. On the contrary, his law saddens and disturbs them while the poisonous law pleases them. The law of the gospel requires that they suffer blows on the cheek and that, if anyone should sue them and take their coat, they let him have their cloak as well,[349] thus adding self-injury to injury. Therefore, the people living on a diet of poison – which has been poured also into the Holy Church – corrupt Christ’s law with the saliva of garlic and insult from the wise magistrates; their civil service wisdom smells like garlic eaten after a fast – they know how wisely to defame the simplicity of the gospel of Christ, sufficient and vigorous.
Well then, to return to where we began, what do we say about the Emperor entering faith with pagan rule, statutes, and offices? It is clear that – as has then been said – this is “the poison which is poured today into the Holy Church.”[350] It was not poured in without purpose, but that all people drink it, that all countries and nations be poisoned to death with this corporeal and worldly wisdom. And this wisdom is the foundation of the power of the Emperor and his laws; and drinking this poison through his laws (the people) turn their whole mind to caring about comfort, licentious freedom, temporal goods, to obtaining these things through cunning, to increasing their profits through weal or woe, and to gaining privileges from kings or to winning these privileges back if lost. For all this they invent clever defenses and fortifications for warfare…
This law has converted Christians into pagans. And now, satiated with the poison of the worldly and physical wisdom, they despise the law of Christ. They consider it a ridiculous foolishness that only exposes their fat bellies. And so they not only scorn it as useless, but also are even ready to oppose any one who dares to parade the uncomfortable law of Christ before their noses. You would think it were arsenic!
The poison of worldly wisdom is best revealed in that it leaves people wounded and turned away from God, hateful and scheming how to rise up against truth. They whose veins are filled with the earthly poison consider truth their worst enemy… Yes, when the Emperor joined Christian faith with pagan lordship, he has planted a seed that grew and bore multitudes of transgressors, who prospered and produced such a terrible number of evils that not even the devil himself could invent them all. All these wicked and pious hordes, coated with a veneer of specious holiness have so discredited faith that very few are willing to follow it. They turned the rest of the crowd to paganism.
Only what has been planted can sprout and grow. The Emperor has been planted with his authority into the Christian soil. He grew strongly and, having grown, blossomed and produced seed that, planted, multiplied and spread paganism everywhere with its authority, laws, and administration. For, it being in the nature of paganism to deny all faith and all the gospel of Christ, and to ridicule it, authority is of necessity driven back to check it cruelly, while it prospers on arrogant pride, and on godless villainy without comparison. Authority is necessarily driven to check it (the Gospel) cruelly, to torture, to tear, to plunder, to imprison … and all this in order to tame the uncircumcised mind of the evil-doers and to put them in their proper place.
This course is not the way of faith and salvation; it is good only for the taming of unjust people in their physical lives and temporal goods and for preventing their fall and end on account of their excessive stupidity and temper.
CHAPTER 23
THE EMPEROR’S GUILT (CONCLUSION)
The third feature with which the Emperor has defiled the faith of the followers of Christ … (consists in the fact) that he uses pagan power arbitrarily and willfully, with plenty of haughtiness and arrogance, paying no heed to the circumstance that he is a Christian and that he uses authority over Christians who were redeemed by the blood of Christ and who are, therefore, servants subject to the authority of the highest Lord of lords; the Emperor himself wants to rule over them, to dictate to them, and to administer them. O, the arrogant pride of the emperors, kings, and other lords! If they would ever remember (that they are Christians) they should never dare rule over people so willfully, just to suit their whims. They would respect and stand in awe before the Lord of this people… They would know that if they rule willfully in whatever manner over the people, against the Highest Lord, they and their rule would fall under His judgment…
I am not too much concerned about the corporeal wrongdoings that they inflict upon the people, such as the collecting of taxes and the imposition of week work and boon work. These corporeal servitudes are the cause of impoverishment and of a fatiguing burden on their serfdom; still, if the people endured them in humility, these (impositions) would not harm their consciences.
However, a much greater concern should be given to the fact that this power and system is so vicious and devoid of good when judged from the point of view of faith. In this matter the lords want to do nothing regarding their consciences or the consciences of those over whom they rule. They are all Christian and at least some of them have, on account of faith, a bad conscience when they kill, do violence to others, and rob them of their property. But (on the whole) they do not hold these things to be sinful. Driven by pride they fight for goods and chattels, for worldly honor, and if someone touches their property, immediately they declare war, round up the people like cattle, and drive them to war where all murder and rob one another. How can it not be dangerous, therefore, for good Christians to live under such powers, which force them to do evil and to trespass the divine commandments! And what I esteem more cruel, they drive Christian men to war – and there are Christians on both sides – with orders to kill and rob others. A brother will go against a brother to do violence to him; he who by faith should lay down his life for him goes to kill and despoil his brother, simply because he is compelled to do so by the ignoble authority.[351] He does not have so much sense or love as to be willing to be killed by his overlord rather than to commit such an evil thing. An arrogant authority is, indeed, a trap for good Christians; it compels its subjects to go and do every evil it can think of.
But the greatest iniquity and crime which the authority has committed, running into the worst form of pagan hypocrisy is revealed when – already so contrary to Christ as it is – it even kills righteous Christians for their faith, spilling their blood. For the apostles of the Antichrist have wound themselves around the heart of authority and use it now to their own advantage and for their own purposes. They have betrayed true Christianity to the powers-that-be, defaming it with heresy. And authority which of itself does not know what faith is, likewise knows not heresy. But spiritual hounds who hate the servants of Christ and of his law whisper their insinuations into the ear of authority, inciting it to exterminate those heresies with a pious ruthlessness.
That authority is therefore the strength of the Antichrist aimed at Christ and his chosen ones. And the Antichrist, with all his hatred and secret guiles, could not press so hard against Christ, if he had not a great ally in the strong temporal power. To what end has grown this authority, which has branched out its roots (planted by Constantine) among the Christians? It has brought about everything that is abominable to Christ, all sorrows, and all temptations to his saints. The hatred of the Antichrist is incited to flaming anger against Christ and his followers and it strikes the chosen ones of Christ through temporal authority (which authority the Antichrist praises to high heaven saying that through it the Holy Church stands in its firmness and goodness).
[302] The Auditor mentioned here is Juan Palomar, a Spanish doctor of law and archdeacon of Barcelona. In the documents of the Basel Council he is identified as “Johannes de Palomar, decretorum doctor, Papae capellanus, sacri palatii apostolici causarum auditor, archydyaconus Barcinonensis.” (Cf. Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium seculi decimi quinti: Concilium Basileense, ed. Francis Palacký and Ernst Birk, Vienna: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1857). During the early days of the council Palomar defended the right of the clergy to have temporal possessions and attacked the Czech position in a long “filibustering” speech lasting from February 23rd until February 28th, 1433, with additional comments made public on April 7th and 8th of the same year. For details of the proceedings see the highly interesting diary of a Hussite eye-witness, Peter of Zatec, “Petri Zatecensis Orphanorum sectae presbyteri liber diurnus de gestis Bohemorum in Concillo Basileensi,” included in the above Monumenta, vol.I, pp.317-348. In Jacques Lenfant’s unsympathetic account, Histoire de la guerre des Hussites et du Concile de Basle, vol.I, p.372 (Utrecht: LeFebure, 1731), we read that Pope Eugenius IV appointed Cardinal Julian to preside over the Council in Basel. But because of his other preoccupations during the period of the initial sessions, Julian sent to Basel two men as his official representatives: Juan Palomar and John of Ragusa.
[303] The rediscovery of the cup, in 1414, was the chief contribution of Jakoubek of Stříbro, based on accurate historical research. With it, Jakoubek can be legitimately called the second founder of the Hussite Reformation. This was a revolutionary discovery by which Jakoubek renewed, of his own initiative, the form of serving bread and wine at the sacrament of communion. And this more than anything else led to the separation of the Hussite movement from the Church of Rome and to the establishment of the independent Hussite Church, of which Jakoubek became the chief theologian. Cf. F.M. Bartoš, M. Jakoubek ze Stříbra, spolubojovník Husův a obnovitel kalicha, (“Master Jakoubek of Stříbro, Associate of Hus and Restorer of the Chalice”), Tábor: Jihočeský sborník historický, vol. XII, 1939. Also his Duchovní otec táborství, (“The Spiritual Father of Táboritism”), Tábor: JSH, vol.II, 1929, pp.75-84. “The practice of the communion in both kinds is the chief contribution of the Bohemian Reformation to the Protestant world.” Bartoš, Hlédaní podstaty křesťanství v české reformaci, (“The Seeking of the Essence of Christianity in the Czech Reformation”), Prague: Kalich, 1939, p.2.
[304] Exodus 26:14.
[305] Matthew 28:20.
[306] Cf. Savonarola’s dictum, “In the original Church the chalices were of wood, the prelates of gold; in these days the Church has chalices of gold and prelates of wood.”
[307] Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:20-27 and Matthew 10:9-10.
[308] Luke 10:42.
[309] Meaning: if possessions were of as much worth as salvation, what a treasury of salvation the Church would have!
[310] In the Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium… (Vide supra p.63, n.l) the following allocutions are found: “Sacrosancta generalis synodus basiliensis, in spiritu sancto legitime congregata, universalem ecclesiam repraesentans…; Spiritus Sanctus paracletus, hujus sacri concilii gubernator et director… qui cum Patre et Filio regnat in secula…”
[311] 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
[312] Matthew 13:25-26, RSV.
[313] In the Czech original an anacoluthon; here adjusted.
[314] A reference to the first horse of the Apocalypse (war), Revelation 6:2 (“And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.”).
[315] Reference to Sylvester I, (Saint), Pope (regnabat 314-335). He was made Pope after the death of Melchiades (“Miltiades”). At an early date legend brings him into close relationship with Constante, the first Christian Emperor, but in a way that is probably contrary to historical fact. These legends were introduced especially into the Vita Beati Sylvestri (Duchesne, Liber pontificalis, Intro. cixff), which appeared in the East and has been preserved in Greek, Syriac, and Latin in the “Constitutum Sylvestri,” an apocryphal account of an alleged Roman council which belongs to the Symmachian forgeries and appeared between 501-508, and also the Donatio Constantini, (Funk, Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen, vol.I, pp.501ff). The legend of the Donation of Constantine was exploded by the humanist Lorenzo Valla. Concerning the story of Emperor Constantine holding the bridle of Pope Sylvester’s horse, there is an interesting twelfth century mosaic depicting the theme in the Chapel of St. Sylvester, of the church of the Santi Quattro Coronati, in Rome.
[316] Sentence not clear in the original.
[317] This is one of Chelčický’s technical terms. In the original the word is “rota” which always has a derogatory connotation. Literally meaning “horde,” this expression sometimes connotes a profession, a caste, a privileged class, an exclusive group, or a faction.
[318] Numbers 18:20.
[319] An anacoluthon.
[321] 1 Corinthians 12:26.
[322] John 17:20-23, RSV.
[323] Luke 6:31.
[324] Matthew 13:25-26.
[325] Psalm 19:8.
[326] Isaiah 1:18.
[327] 1 Corinthians 13:3.
[328] The Pope.
[329] The Emperor.
[330] Matthew 4:19.
[331] In defending the papal viewpoint, Cappello writes: “Princeps sine territorio non datur.” Summa Juris Publici, p.489.
[332] Pope Melchiades – or Miltiades – (regnabat 311-313) was the first Pope to live in the Lateran Palace donated to him by Fausta, Constantine’s wife, and the last one to be buried in the Catacombs. John Farrow, Pageant of the Popes, p.23. London: Sheed & Ward, 1943. About the time of his elevation to papacy, an Edict of Toleration signed by the Emperors Galerius, Licinius, and Constantine put an end to the great persecution of the Christians, and they were permitted to reconstruct their places of worship. (Cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VIII, 17; Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, 34). The Emperor gave Pope Melchiades in Rome the right to receive back, through the prefect of the city, all ecclesiastical buildings and possessions which had been confiscated during the persecutions. Later, after the victory at the Milvian Bridge (Oct. 27, 312), the Emperor presented the Roman Church with the Lateran Palace belonging to Empress Fausta, and it then became the residence of the Popes. The basilica that adjoined the palace or was afterwards built there became the principal Church of Rome. The Catholic Encyclopaedia, “Melchiades,” New York: Appleton, 1911.
[333] Isaiah 40:2.
[334] John 1;29.
[335] 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
[336] Chelčický has the names confused; it was not Boniface but John XXIII (Baldassare Cossa, regnabat 1410-1419) who promised indulgence to all who would take part in his crusade against King Ladislaus of Naples. Chelčický was probably thinking of Boniface IX (regnabat 1389-1404).
[337] See Chapter 22.
[338] Cf. Revelation 17:1-2.
[339] 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
[340] Cf. Revelation 13:18. With Irenaeus and many others, Chelčický interprets the beast to stand for the power of Rome.
[341] See Chapter 22.
[343] 1 Peter 3:9.
[344] There have been many learned discussions on the subject who the “Master Adversary” might be. The Czech word “Protiva” is derived from the verb “protiviti se,” meaning “to resist,” “to oppose,” but also “to disgust,” “to be repugnant,” “to be offensive,” so that the noun “protiva” could be a derivative of any of these meanings. It was thought for a time that Protiva was a proper name of a personage (cf. Jaroslav Goll, “Ještě jednou – kdo jest Chelčického mistr Protiva?” – “Once More – Who Is Chelčický’s Master Protiva?” – in Český časopis historický, vol.I, No.1, (1895), pp.47-49). However, Ryšánek in Listy filologické, 1915, p.269f, offered a solution that is today accepted as valid by most Slavists. Smetánka, editor of the 1929 edition of The Net of Faith, writes this in the preface (p.xv): “The word ‘protiva’ means ‘adversary,’ ‘opponent’; Wyclif represents to Chelčický a perfect symbol, personification of resistance against the medieval Church; he is the Adversary, the katexochén par excellence. If, therefore, he calls Wyclif the Adversary, it is meant as an honorific epithet, in a similar way in which the word ‘Apostle’ stood for Paul, the ‘Philosopher’ for Aristotle, or the ‘Master of Sentences’ for Peter Lombard.” Further references: Kamil Krofta, Časopis českeho musea, 1900, p.190f.; F.M.Bartoš, Český časopis historický, vol.XVI, p.426.
In this particular instance, the quotation ascribed to Wyclif does not actually come from his pen; it is rather an elaboration of a statement inserted into the free Czech translation of Wyclif’s Dialogue by Jakoubek of Střibro; Cf. Smetánka’s edition of The Net of Faith, 1929, ch.22, n.14.
[345] De Civili Dominio, Ch. XVIII.
[346] Possible reference to the story of Mithridates, who trained himself to drink poison. (Cf. Pliny, Natural History, XXIV, ii).
[347] …supposito lapsu humani generis et cecitate proclivi bonis sensibilibus precipue innitendi, necesse fuit leges vel ordinaciones humanas statuere, ne quilibet lapsus de bonis fortune caperet cuantumcunque voluntas indebite inclinaret.” De Civili Dominio, XVIII, 41-D.
[348] An interesting similarity of argument is found in another treatise on passive resistance, Etienne de la Boétie’s Discours sur la Servitude Volontaire, publ. by the Columbia University Press in 1942 under the title Anti-Dictator: “We learn to swallow, and not to find bitter, the venom of servitude. It cannot be denied that nature influential in shaping us to her will and making us reveal our rich or meager endowment; yet it must be admitted that she has less power over us than custom, for the reason that native endowment, no matter how good, is dissipated unless encouraged… Fruit trees retain their own particular quality if permitted to grow undisturbed, but lose it promptly and bear strange fruit not their own when ingrafted.” (p.20f).
[349] Matthew 5:39-40.
[350] This passage shows a definite Waldensian influence. It represents an echo of the Waldensian version of the legend of Donatio Conatantini. Among the Austrian Waldensians the legend took on the following shape: The “manager” of the Church of God in the days of the rule of Emperor Constantine was “a certain Sylvester of Rome” who, being persecuted, led a miserable life “with his people on Mount Sirachia.” Moved by a dream that he had had one night, the Emperor asked to be baptized by Sylvester. Once baptized, the Emperor was miraculously cured from leprosy.
The Emperor, overjoyed by his recovery, stopped persecuting the Christians and their leader Sylvester; he even gave Sylvester “the imperial crown and dignity.” Sylvester accepted the “donation” but his companions protested saying that “they have a commandment from the Lord, not to possess any land.” On the night of the day in which the split occurred a voice from heaven was heard saying: “Today poison has been poured into the Church of God.” The Christians departed from “Sylvester the arch-heretic upon hearing this voice” and continued to lead a life of poverty and renunciation. However, the greater part of the Church followed Sylvester and the hatred of these “pseudo-Christians” caused the persecution of the true “pauperes Christi” for many generations as if they were heathens or Jews.
These persecuted remnants finally gathered around the person of Peter Waldo who simply “corrected their order” (i.e. he did not found it!); he also studied the Scripture and inspired them to action “in accordance with the way of poverty.” Hence, this was the origin of the Waldensians. By this legend the Waldensians wanted to justify their separation from the Church of Rome and their continuity as true descendants of the original “pure” Church. Chelčický is much closer to this Waldensian interpretation of the Donation than to Wyclif’s; on it he bases his logic of separation of “Christ” and “Caesar.” Cf. Rudolf Holinka, Traktáty Petra Chelciokého; O trojim lidu – O cirkvi svaté, Prague, Melantrich, 1940, p.30f.
[351] Erasmus of Rotterdam writes similarly in his essay Dulce Bellum Inexpertis: “We war continually, city with city, prince with prince, people with people, yes, and (that which the heathen confess to be a wicked thing) cousin with cousin, alliance with alliance, brother with brother, the son with the father, and that I esteem more cruel than all these things, a Christian man against another man; and yet furthermore, I will say what I am very loath to say, which is a thing most cruel of all, one Christian man with another Christian man.” (Erasmus, Against War, J.W. Mackall, ed., Boston: Merrymount Press, 1918, p.23f.)