THE NET OF FAITH

by Peter Chelčický

translated by Rev. Enrico Molnár

CHAPTER 30

THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL AND SECULAR

[ The real difficulty arises from the fact that present day Christians do not know where to draw the dividing line between their faith and the state.  They enjoy the protection of the state and share in its advantages.  Particularly the clergy and the learned doctors seem to have become allies of the state.  In order to make their compromise more plausible they have divided all mankind into three estates ] namely:

Behold the first Baal, fat and proliferated: the temporal lords.  Behold the second Baal, also fat and proliferated: the spiritual lords.  Both Baals suck the labor of the earth, the blood, and the sweat of the third class that, drenched with sweat, fills the fleshpots of the two Baals.

[ But the religion of Jesus does not approve of this system.  When the rule of Jesus was foretold by the angel,[370] the House of Jacob meant the Church of the righteous, the sheep of Christ who hear his voice: ]

“Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.”  And again, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”[371]

Therefore he cannot rule over stinking goats (sic), that is, straying Christians, because they do not listen to his voice [ but rather obey the authority of the combined Church and state. ]

The world is unable to follow his (Christ’s) rule for its excellent perfection; for nowhere can man be governed both in matters which pertain to God and in matters which pertain to men, with such benefit for his soul as well as body, as in the sovereignty of King Jesus.  We can confess these things by the (assurance of) faith.  The royal[372] government has no similarity with the government of King Jesus.  A good Christian lives by faith and follows Christ in works; but, as mentioned before, according to the doctors such a Christian should be king with a pagan exercise of power over his sheep; however, it is impossible to reconcile their utterances with the fact that they have ignored King Jesus and his fullness[373] who is the head of the Holy Church.  The Church’s authority and sufficiency is derived from this head and is (channeled) to all the members (of the body).  The doctors have forgotten these things if they are of the opinion that they can obtain a good Christian king with pagan (un-Christian) rule, and through his authority to gain benefits … for the Holy Church.  This (division) may suit the Roman Church, which seeks the support of the royal[374] power; its king may defend her, drive away her enemies, and fight terribly with her foes…  Indeed, the Church of Rome rather likes a wicked king, for this man – if sufficiently intoxicated by her poisons – will fight for her better than a humble Christian.  For a good Christian does not dare to get involved in pagan administration, either to work in the capacity of a king[375] and to do administrative work or to defend (by virtue of his office) the Church of Christ against enemies; a good Christian knows (all too well) that King Jesus wants a different Church from the one which spills blood in his name…  A true Christian can do no such thing.

First of all, he cannot do it because he has no reason for such behavior.  Secondly, he cannot do it since he has no right to do anything for which he has no power.[376]  Thirdly, he cannot do it because his conscience will not allow him to commit anything that might bring about much evil or even do away with much that is good.  Finally, he cannot do it for conscience’s sake and for fear of offending God.

[ A true Christian cannot work or associate with any state office; to do so would mean to condone the violent system of authority that is repugnant to Christ.  In addition, sovereignty leads to war. ]

Humanly speaking … wars begin when one lord who rules over people wants to extend his authority over the people of another lord.  (Of course) an even greater conflict arises when someone of the king’s household tries to usurp the kingship for himself by conspiracy.  Absalom was killed for such an action because, having won for himself the favor of the Jewish people,[377] he desired to remove his father from his throne and rule in his stead.  How much more, then, is a Christian bound by fealty to his Lord and King Christ Jesus!  [ Not to be faithful to Christ, that is, to compromise with the state, is tantamount to Absalom’s infidelity to David.  Absalom was punished by death, and Christians will also be punished if they get entangled with secular power. ]  This power, with all its offices and officialdom, is contrary to the rule of Christ.  Therefore, no honest Christian can have any share in its administration…  A faithful servant of Christ[378] … who would want to admonish the followers of Christ in faith and to urge them not to accept any offices from the king would himself have to avoid being a ruler over the people of his Lord, for this would involve pagan rule and compulsion through power in accordance with the ways of the heathens, that is, the people would have laws contrary to the law of Christ the King Jesus.

CHAPTER 31

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE PERFECT LAW OF CHRIST

The Master Adversary speaks in great detail about the division of civil administration into a secular authority and the authority of the gospel of Christ Jesus.

First of all, the contrariness of civil authority to the law of King Jesus – which is his gospel – is revealed in that God had originally established it, but His firstborn Son has introduced (his) authority for his chosen people, rejecting all other authority.  On the other hand, pagan administration bases its own authority on a fiction or imagination of blind sinners who invented laws in accordance with earthly wisdom … intending thus, by means of power, to subject many to these laws.  God has therefore repudiated such a course as sick, deficient, and even unjust…  But He has left that law of blind sinners for the pagans who might thus be somehow enabled to live a physical life, in the way of a sick person who, hardly able to toddle, has to lean on a crutch.

The law of God must be held therefore in great reverence…  And every man ought to be satisfied with this law for his conduct in this world, having no need of mixing it with other laws.  Neither God nor Christ require of man anything but to do right.[379] Therefore Christ who is both true God and true man, in whom is fullness and perfection,[380] requires nothing of man but love, and the means to attain to it.  And the means are powerfully carried by the law of Christ who taught man in the most masterful fashion how to please God in everything he does…  And speaking of the perfection of his instruction, man is not only taught fully what to do; Christ’s law will enable him to know even those things which would deviate him from true goodness.  For no sin can be committed except when we ask those things which Christ condemned, or when we run away from that which he took upon himself to bear.  (And we can see this) because his whole life on earth as man is an example and a lesson for (our own) behavior…  Clearly, he taught most powerfully and most fully … how to avoid injustice and do good…  No law can be more perfect than the law of Christ.

Therefore, a faithful Christian who realizes the powerful strength and perfection of the law of God … cannot become a ruler with un-Christian authority which had been culled by blind sinners, in fear lest he defile the rule of God with the rule of blind sinners, a rule by which pagans live their life so laboriously.

CHAPTER 32

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)

Now concerning the second difference between the rule of the law of Christ and the pagan rule, the Master Adversary says[381] that the civil or state law of the pagans is (real) law by virtue of the sinfulness of men and for the purpose of obtaining justice through compulsion, while the law of the holy gospel exists for the (sole) purpose of obtaining spiritual gifts of grace…  [ Civil law administers justice through compulsion, while the law of Christ establishes justice through love. ]

[ But while law checks – to a certain degree – injustice within one’s own country, it does nothing when iniquities are committed abroad. ]  The straying Christians like to depend on secular power; they even seek it and cherish it since it serves their inclinations…  Thus a material-minded people asks to have secular power (over them) because it enables them to rest in peace around fleshpots, under the protection of (state) authority; and if, peradventure, some hardship or threat to life or property should come about, these things will be defended by authority of the king, through war, driving away the disturber, and revenge…  [ These Christians who have strayed from the law of Christ and are under the jurisdiction of the civil law are regarded as just and good as long as they live up to the standards of the civil courts and offices.  But righteousness by law has nothing in common with righteousness in the eyes of God. ]  The truth of Jesus is nothing but foolishness[382] to proud men, an oddity, an offense, a pain, and a shame.

Here it is necessary to ask: in what consists the superiority of the law of Christ over pagan civil laws?  In this, that a (Christian) man adjusts his conduct in accordance with his conscience … keeping in mind the grace of God and the reward of salvation … while a subject of the state adjusts his conduct in accordance with the advantageous protection of his temporal legal honor and property.  A pagan fights to protect his rights and his property in court or in field; a Christian conducts his life with love, patiently enduring injustice, as he will be rewarded by an eternal gain…  He refuses to have any dealings with commercial enterprises and with any profitable speculations, lest he harm his soul…  And this is foolishness to the pagan (world).

CHAPTER 33

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)

[ Evil has a tendency to perpetuate itself and to grow.  The Christians, having fallen away from the way of perfection, keep on falling deeper and deeper.  The government of kings and of civil laws only helps in this falling.  For even though the civil law seems to check evil, it encourages a continuing fall of man. ]  It still does perpetuate lawsuits, punishments, and revenge; it returns evil for evil, perpetuates falsehoods, taxes patience, … and in all these matters it is an accomplice of the fall, departing farther and farther from the original state of innocence.

[ Speaking of the general state of this ‘fallenness’ Chelčický suggests that there is only one antidote: utter obedience to the law of Christ. ]  His law alone can check the fall.  The ‘fallenness’ of man is the root of evil death from which all mortal things are growing: addiction to do evil, possessiveness, anger, hatred, and avarice…  And knowing that our old self was crucified with our sins[383] … man can be rescued through his obedience to the laws of Christ.  [ By persecuting, the evil of the civil law grows; by being persecuted, the innocence of the true Christian grows ] and with it, his life of grace.

CHAPTER 34

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)

The third peculiarity with which the civil law and the administration of pagan kings compares unfavorably with the law of the gospel consists in the fact that civil law and rulers compel against the people’s will.

The temporal power is called sovereignty because it has the authority to enforce; even when it desires (the common) good without which the world could not stand together, it does so by compulsion.  The temporal authority can do so only because the sovereignty of God suffers it in order to keep the world together.  If God should desire it, he could wipe out the whole world on account of its iniquity – and all the kings of the earth (put together) with their combined sovereignties could not prevent it!  Therefore Jesus Christ, who is the sovereign of his people, requires from them the sovereignty of goodness.  And his sovereign goodness is so perfect that he does not even compel his people to be good.  Does he not say,

If any man wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me?[384]

And if your physical will does not want it and rebels against it, compel it yourself, deny yourself.  You yourself must rebel against your unwilling will and follow reason.  Cling to God through grace, fulfill His good will by emptying your own ill will for the love of God your Lord!  No one can be a follower of Lord Jesus unless he becomes one by his own volition.  If one is filled by unwillingness, let him break it and resist it.  If he does not break his ill will and tame his will, who else shall do it for him?  Does not God say, “Under you shall be your desire and you shall rule over it”?[385]

Christ’s dominion is perfect … and therefore it never uses compulsion…  The virtue that he expects from every (Christian) … springs from a good and free will; originating in freedom, it has (the responsibility) of choice, to choose either the best good or the worst evil.  Both these choices stand before man.  The Lord Jesus calls us to the best good, the devil and the world call us to the worst evil.  Therefore, choose joy or hell.  The choice for either of these (ways) is in your hands.

Christ’s dominion leads to perfect goodness [ and they that follow him follow a king whose rule was ushered in with the words, ]

Peace on earth through Jesus Christ, goodwill toward all men![386]

They who submit to the will of Jesus Christ and to his … sweet truth … will have peace on earth through him and no one else…  They shall be like sheep following his voice; they hear him and he will give them eternal life.  And nobody will take them from his hands, for they hear and know his voice[387] … and live in his perfection, rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name.[388]  Even the Scripture gives this interpretation when it says,

The sons of wisdom are the congregation of the righteous, and their mark is obedience and love.[389]

They, the sons of wisdom … who trust in him will understand the truth, and, faithfully clinging to him in love,[390] they will gladly do his will.

[ How different is the secular authority with its compulsion and force! ]  Therefore a faithful Christian who is a servant of Christ and of his perfect rule cannot be a king with un-Christian authority and with rights contrary to the law of Christ … lest he pollute the blessed ferment of the wine with stinking poison…

CHAPTER 35

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)

Fourthly … no true Christian can become a ruler over a people whose true king is Christ.  [ A true Christian can have no other sentiments but those of equality with others; any action that would spoil the brotherly relation is un-Christian. ]  He must keep a brotherly equality with all and everybody, love his neighbor as himself,[391] and do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than himself.[392]  How could he be a king if the gospel prescribes to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”?[393]

It is shown in the example of Solomon … that the burden of rulership is difficult.  When he died and his son was about to become king, the Jewish people came to him asking him to be kind and to lighten the heavy burden that his father had imposed upon them.  And he,[394] taking counsel with fools, and being a fool himself, answered the people saying, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins![395]  In other words, he would burden the people more than his father.  Because of this foolish answer, ten tribes left him.  All this shows that even Solomon, with all his wisdom, burdened his people with great oppression.

Therefore, a good Christian who is obliged to carry his neighbor’s burdens cannot impose the pagan burden of authority on others.  One day, when the Disciples of Christ disputed who was the greatest of them, Jesus said to them, “Do you know that the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over the people, seeking authority, honors, and enrichment?”[396]  And they call it a good thing!  Therefore Jesus forbids his disciples all lordship with its pride and cruelty and compulsion…  “Do you want to be like them?  You do not know what you ask for.  But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the least.”[397]

Such pagan lordship does not befit the people of Jesus, which ought to stand together in an equality of a fellowship of love, and whose ruler is King Jesus.  This has been confirmed by that faithful Jew of the Old Testament, Gideon.  He, after winning a great victory over his pagan enemies, was asked by the liberated Jews to become their king.  But he answered them saying, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my sons rule over you, since God the Lord rules over you.”[398]  Behold the nobility of this honest man who realized … that God alone should be their king.  [ All this proves that the exercise of authority is not becoming a Christian. ]

CHAPTER 36

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)

The fifth objection against a good Christian’s participation in government is this: … He cannot be king even over evil men … that is, the Christians who have strayed from … the path of perfection.  No matter how good the intention of a Christian ruler would be, [ the result would always be bad and the man himself would get involved in the snares of evil. ]  A good king … must abide by a law that he orders … his people to obey.  There exists no king who could rule without having some law…  A good Christian who would intend to be a king over an evil people for the purpose of their improvement, could have no better law for this end than the divine law…  [ In other words, this divine law would make human laws as well as his rule superfluous. ]

And what if he who purports to be a king for (the purpose of) betterment of evil people takes the Old Testament for his (law)?  And it is a good law since God Himself gave it to His chosen people.  The Jewish kings … led people to do good even by coercion.  They were even allowed to war in accordance with this law…  But a Christian cannot obey this law because Christ is the end of the Jewish law for the justification of the believers.  (In this way we must understand) Saint Paul when he says,

If you receive circumcision according to law, Christ will be of no advantage to you.  You are severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.[399]

… Being circumcised, that is, being bound by obedience to the Law, they could war, murder, steal and otherwise shed blood, all in accordance with the Law; but obeying this Law leads not to salvation in Christ.  Thus, a true Christian desiring to be a king could not abide by the old Jewish Law in order to improve evil men.  If he really desires to make his people better, he can do this according to the law of Christ … which means to love God and all neighbors…

But here comes the difficulty: an evil man can hardly be forced by compulsion to love God; for, indeed, the living of God depends on free will and on the love of man’s heart, a love which originates in the word of God…

A good king could only by preaching the word of God persuade an evil people to love God; for otherwise, by forcing them he will not succeed.  But if a king has to better a people by preaching … he is not a king any more, he becomes a priest.  As a king he could do naught but hang all evil men.  For no king, not even the best one, could succeed in correcting an evil people except by the law of Christ.  This law alone is capable of making sinful men better through their conscience.  The king, having no power to force his people to obey this law, also has no authority to force their consciences,[400] not to speak of the right to coerce their improvement through royal or civil laws; just as a fruit-tree cannot blossom in a winter season of cruel frosts, neither goodness can prosper through the laws of the Emperor…

Therefore, a Christian who takes account of his conscience must have no part in that office … since his good intention cannot succeed with his exercise of its authority…

(The profession of government) is a heavy burden; not only does it weigh one down with its own burdens of sin, but even with the sins of the subjects; the sins which they committed by his orders or the sins which they committed (not by his orders) but which he could have prevented, they all fall upon his head.  It becomes evident that only those who do not care about truth and who have no compassion can enjoy with good conscience offices with pagan lordship; authority becomes in their hand the law of injustice, enabling them to do what they want, not allowing their conscience to interfere with their willfulness.[401]  [ The only precaution they take is that all iniquities and every violence are done according to the letter of the law. ]  To them can be rightly applied the parable of the trees found in the Jewish Law which says:

Once upon a time the trees set out to anoint a king over themselves; so they said to the olive tree, “Reign over us.”  But the olive tree said to them, “Do I lack my rich oil with which gods and men are honored, that I should go begging to the trees?”  Then the trees said to the fig tree, “Do you come and reign over us.”  But the fig tree said to them, “Do I lack my sweetness and good fruit that I should go begging to the trees?  Then the trees said to the vine, “Do you come and reign over us.”  But the vine said to them, “Do I lack my wine, which cheers gods and men, that I should go begging to the trees?  Finally the trees said to the thorn, “Do you come and reign over us.”  But the thorn said to the trees, “If in good faith you are anointing me as king over you, come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, fire shall burst forth from the thorn, and consume the cedars of Lebanon!”[402]

CHAPTER 37

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)

First, the trees came to the olive tree asking it to reign over them; but the olive tree refused; it has substance suitable in men’s food and useful in medicines.  It signifies men abounding in divine grace who are filled with the Spirit and who are the medicine for the sorrows and sufferings of men.  The fig tree has delicious fruit that contains both little seeds as well as honey; it signifies the loving brotherhood in which a multitude becomes one body of Christ.[403]  The vine contains satisfaction and joy; it signifies good conscience pertaining to communion at a divine feast, for only there conscience is a constant feast and the mind in safety.  That is why all these tasty fruit trees refused to rule and to be exalted above other wild (fruit-less) trees lest they lose their fat substance, sweetness, and consolation.

Let us see what many useful things this parable can show us.  [ People who are partakers of the gifts of God will not forfeit these for the sake of temporal advantages, prestige, and authority, seeing that these ‘advantages’ entail violence and cruelty. ]  But the true word of God says, “The earth is the Lord’s and its fullness, that is, its mountains, and valleys, and all regions.”[404]  God is the only rightful ruler of this earth.

[ And what title has the nobility to the land and people?  It got it by tricks. ]  He who is not God’s has no right to possess or to hold anything that belongs to God, unless he has taken possession of it illegally and by violence.  Thus, contrary to the divine law, our fathers bought and established illegal claims for us … and this is our natural heritage: poverty, shame, and death, and after that, hell.  [ Shame, trickery, falsehood, and cruelty – these are the true signs of our coats-of-arms.  But God shall regard all these unlawful property holders as traitors of the kingdom of God. ]

And if you who are heavy and round with fat object, saying, “Our fathers have bought these people and those manors for our inheritance,” then, indeed, they made an evil business and an expensive bargain!  For who has the right to buy people, to enslave them and to treat them with indignities as if they were cattle led to slaughter?  You prefer dogs to people whom you cuss, despise, and beat, from whom you extort taxes and for whom you forge fetters … while at the same time you will say to your dog, “Setter, come here and lie down on the pillow.”  Those people were God’s before you bought them!

Who has the right to buy people?  They were God’s and … after they were enslaved … Christ Jesus bought this people to himself, not with silver or gold, but with his own precious blood and terrible suffering.  He loves one human being more than all the riches of the earth together…  The heavenly Lord redeems and buys (the people) for his inheritance.  And the earthly lord buys them in order to increase his pleasures through their pain, to make a bridge out of their bent backs, to make himself a soft bed by their labor; and he puts on them all the burden of his groaning table (as rich men have), of his bright and soft garments and other physical pleasures.  Look, you fat one, what a sodomitic life you have prepared for your people!  What will you say on the Day of Judgment when the Lord will seat Himself on the judgment seat, and when all injustices committed against this people – yes, the very people who He Himself bought with His blood – will be arraigned against you?  And He will say to you, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.[405]  Go to hell!”

… And no high titles, no archives, no records, no documents with seals … will save you from perdition.

CHAPTER 38

THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONCLUSION)

[ Chelčický recapitulates his account of how the early Church remained faithful to Christ for the first three hundred and twenty years, how the Emperor and the Pope made an alliance, bartering their powers, and how the faith became corrupted with the defilement of the Church. ]

But remember this, Christians who follow faith and arrange their life accordingly cannot in truth rule over each other in the manner of pagan rulership.  A Christian lord cannot buy people and rule over them…

CHAPTER 39

THE EVILS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME – LUKE 3:14

[ Here Chelčický begins a new section.  In the preceding chapters he analyzed the evils of the temporal power.  In the following chapters he will look closer to the evils of the Church of Rome. ]

The things that we have said heretofore are a laughing matter and a blasphemy and a cause of anger … to the great men of the Church of Rome…

The Church of Rome … intoxicated as it is by poison, wants to lead wars, to squeeze blood out of men, and to render evil for evil; for all this it needs the strong secular power.

[ It misinterprets the Scriptures in order to justify its warfare.  The Church misinterprets even the answer that St. John gave to the soldiers who asked him, “What shall we do?”  “Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”[406]  The next chapters will deal with the interpretation of this text. ]

[369] Page 75.

[370] Page 94.

[371] John 10:27.

[372] i.e. secular authority.

[373] Ephesians 1:22-23.

[374] i.e. secular authority.

[375] Chelčický’s position represents an interesting echo of a similar interpretation attributed by Eusebius to Emperor Constantine.  In chapter 62 of his Vita Constantini he records the appeal of the dying Emperor, requesting the Christian bishops to confer upon him the rite of baptism.  “The time is arrived … in which I may receive the seal of salvation…  Be it so, then, without delay, for should it be His will who it Lord of Life and Death … that I should be destined henceforth to associate with the people of God, and unite with them in prayer as a member of His Church, I will prescribe for myself from this time such a course of life as befits His service.”  (Italics are Molnár’s.)  After he had thus spoken, the prelates performed the sacred ceremonies in the usual manner…  Thus was Constantine the first of all sovereigns who was regenerated…  Thus gifted with the Divine seal of baptism, he rejoiced in spirit…  At the conclusion of the ceremony he arrayed himself in shining imperial vestments, brilliant as the light, and reclined on a couch of the purest white, refusing to clothe himself with the purple any more.  (Italics are Molnár’s.)  Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, 2nd Series, vol.1: Eusebius.  (“The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine by Eusebius Pamphilus”). Chapter 62, p.556.  (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890).

[376] Sanction?

[377] 2 Samuel 15:6ff.

[378] i.e. a priest.

[379] Cf. Micah 6:8.

[380] Cf. Ephesians 1:22-23.

[381] Wyclif, De civili dominio, Ch. 18.

[382] 1 Corinthians 2:14 & 3:19.

[383] Romans 6:6.

[384] Matthew 16:24.

[385] Genesis 4:7.

[386] Luke 2:14.

[387] John 10: 3-4.

[388] Acts 5:41.

[389] ?

[390] Wisdom of Solomon, 3:9.

[391] Matthew 22:39.

[392] Philippians 2:3.

[393] Galatians 6:2.

[394] Rehoboam. Cf. 1 Kings 12.

[395] 1 Kings 12: “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!  And now, whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions!” (v.11, AT).

[396] Luke 22:25-26, RSV.

[397] Luke 22:26.

[398] Judges 8:22-23, AT.

[399] Galatians 5:2,4.

[400] In this whole chapter Chelčický comes very close to the Gelasian doctrine of the two powers (rex et sacerdos) but he goes much further beyond the latter’s position on separation.  Gelasius I (regnabat 492-496), Pope and saint, wrote a letter in 494 to Emperor Anastasius in which he said, among other things: “Duo quippe sunt, Imperator Auguste, quibus principaliter mundus hic regitur: auotoritas sacra pontificum, et regalis potestas.  In quibus tanto gravius est pondus sacerdotum, quanto etiam pro ipsis regibus Domino in divino reddituri sunt examine rationem.  Nosti, etenim, fili clementissime, quod licet praesideas humano generi dignitate, rerum tamen praesulibus divinarum devotus colla submittis, atque ab eis causas tuae salutis expetis, inque sumendis caelestibus sacramentis, eisque disponendis, subdi te debere cognoscis religionis ordine potius quam praeesse.  Nosti itaque haec, ex illorum te pende e judicio, non illos ad tuam velle redigi voluntatem…”  (J.P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus,” vol.59: Ss. Gelasii I Papae Aviti Faustini … Opera Omnia, Paris: Bibliotheca cleri universa, 1862, v.3, p.42-47; also A. Thiel, Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum Genuinae, Braunsberg: 1868, p.349-354, translated in Hugo Rahner’s Abendländische Kirchenfreiheit: Dokumente über Kirche und Staat im frühen Christentum, Einsiedeln: Benzinger, 1943, pp.215-219.)  The translation of the important part of the above quotation reads: “For there are two powers by which chiefly this world is ruled: the sacred authority of the priesthood and the power of the king.  And of these the authority of the priests is so much mightier, as they must render before the tribunal of God an account even for the kings of men.”  This position is amplified in his decree De Anathematia Vinculo (J. Migne, op. cit., p.107f, Thiel, op. cit., p.567f, Rahner, op. cit., p.220) from which we quote: “Quod si haec (sententia dominica) tentare formidant, nec ad suae pertinere cognoscunt modulum potestatis, cui tantum de humani rebus judicare permissum est,  non etiam praeesse divinis, quomodo de his per quas divina ministrantur judicare praesumunt?  Fuerint haec ante adventum Christi, ut quidem figuraliter, adhuc tamen in carnalibus actionibus oonstituti pariter reges existerent, et pariter sacerdotes.  Quod S. Melchisedech fuisse sacra prodit Historia (Genesis 14:18).  Quod in suis quoque diabolus imitatus est, utpote qui semper quae divino cultui convenirent sibimet tyrannico spiritu vindicare contendit, ut pagani imperatores iidem et maximi pontifices dicerentur.  Sed cum ad verum ventum est eumdem regem atque pontificem, ultra sivi nec imperator pontificis nomen imposuit, neo pontifex regale fastigium vindicavit.  Quamvis enim membra ipsius, id est, veri regis atque pontificis, secundum participationem naturae magnifice utrumque in sacra generositate sumpsisse dicantur, ut simul regale genus et sacerdotale subsistant (1 Peter 2:9); attamen Christus memor fragilitatis humanae, quod suorum saluti congruerent dispensatione magnifica temperans, si actionibus propriis dignitatibusque distinctis officia potestatis utriusque discrevit, suos volens medicinali humilitate salvari, non humana superbia rursus intercipi; ue et Christiani imperatores pro aeterna vita pontificibus indigerent, et pontifices pro temporalium cursu rerum imperalibus dispositionibus uterentur, quatenus spiritalis actio a carnalibus distaret incursibus: et ideo militans Deo, minime se negotiis secularibus implicaret (2 Timothy 2:4); ac vicissim non ille rebus divinis praesidere videretur, qui esset negotiis saecularibus implicatus, ut et modestia utriusque ordinis curaretur, ne extoleretur utroque suffultus, et competens qualitatibus actionum specialiter professio aptaretur.  Quibus omnibus rite collectis, satis evidenter ostenditur a saeculari potestate nec ligari prorsus nec solvi posse pontificem.”  Concerning Gelasius see also Thoenes, De Gelasio I Papa, Wiesbaden, 1873; Richard P. Littledale, The Petrine Claims, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1889, pp .256-259.

[401] “Sovereignty is a supreme power over citizens and subjects, itself unrestrained by law.”  This is the definition of sovereignty made in 1576 by Jean Bodin, one of the founders of political philosophy.  (Cf. Coker, Readings in Political Philosophy, 1938, p.374). “Jean Bodin’s unique contribution to political thought was the doctrine of sovereignty.” (C.C. Maxey, Political Philosophies, 1938, p.164).  In this chapter Chelčický anticipates Bodin by 161 years.

[402] Jotham’s fable, originally probably intended as a satire on the monarchy.  Judges 9:8-15, AT.

[403] Ut omnes unum sint.  John 17:21.

[404] Psalm 24:1.

[405] Matthew 25:40.

[406] Luke 3:14, RSV.