THE NET OF FAITH

by Peter Chelčický

translated by Rev. Enrico Molnár

CHAPTER 42

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2

Now we shall struggle with the words of Saint Paul who says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

The ruling princes of the Christian secular power find in these words their crowning witness, concluding that this text was given by Saint Paul to the Christians of Rome and that all princes are thereby established in their authority.  And the doctors desire that this be accepted as faith by all Christians.  As it was said to me by a doctor of the Prague University, namely, that I should believe it this way; that I am a heretic if I do not believe it.[415]

Now we must be very careful to understand the words of Saint Paul, to see what he meant.  He wrote to a small group of Christians in Rome, which was a pagan city ruled by pagan kings…  Paul makes a great distinction: he asks the Christians to be humbly subjected to pagan rulers in all temporal matters.  But it is quite another matter to ask them to elevate a ruler from their own Christian ranks and to defend their rights by force.  It is one thing to teach Christians to be subject to foreign powers in reasonable matters, and it is another thing to rule and to appoint princes contrary to other princes.

[ The princes are committing a great sin if they twist the teaching of Jesus and his apostles in order to perpetuate pagan evils, ] to persecute the Christians for faith, to keep them in prison for faith, and to execute them in the name of faith.  [ Some of the executed men were saints, and often the princes – executioners – were  the worst criminals. ]

It was the same cruel pagan authority, filled with many stings, hiding true Christian religion behind a mock-faith, that caused suffering and martyrdom to the real faithful ones, to the faithful Hus and Jerome[416]; the King of Hungary[417] thus caused, by his own hands, that they should attain heavenly glory.

CHAPTER 43

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

So it happened that the authority in Rome of which Paul was speaking was pagan.  And he exhorted the Christians to be patiently obedient to that authority (even though) it persecuted them for their faith…  And those who have written chronicles of those days and of the Christian martyrdoms … say there were thirteen emperors in Rome, from the time of Paul to the days of Constantine, and every one of them was a pagan, murdering faithful Christians for their faith; … they murdered Saint Peter, and thirty-five bishops after him, until the days of Sylvester, and all for faith…  This lasted three hundred and twenty years…

[ Therefore it is wrong to construe from Paul’s words that all authority is sanctioned by the Christian faith.  Such assertions can be made only by priests who are intoxicated by the poison of power.  Through power, they have converted faith into a lucrative business. ]  And they pushed out the poor and humble Jesus; he is their ruler no more.

CHAPTER 44

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

When Saint Paul said, “Let every soul be subject to higher powers,” he was reminding the congregation of the faithful Christians in Rome … to obey the pagan authority of Caesar.  He had in mind … their condition and righteousness…  He wanted them to avoid all conflict with the pagans, and to excel in Christian virtues, repaying no one evil for evil, but taking thought for what is noble in the sight of all.[418]  And, since it is noble in the sight of the pagans to pay taxes, let the Christians do likewise.  Such subordination comes from humility.

These things befit the servants of God; they should be subject in humility … not only to good but even bad authorities.

[ This subjection must be passive, however, and not of the character of an active participation. ]

CHAPTER 45

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

The second reason for Paul’s words is this: [ Everything is to be done orderly and peacefully.  The authorities sometimes have the same aim.  And the Christians should help them in this, all the more considering that this is what God requires of them.  Men of faith do good without waiting to be compelled to it by laws.  Also, there are many who, being liberated through the grace of God from the burden of the old law, interpret this freedom as unchecked liberty, giving them a free hand to rebel against their overlords. ]

This thought often moves, even today, good and bad people who, greatly desiring freedom, think of how to humiliate and unseat their lords so that these will not override them.  Therefore, Saint Peter, seeing this, calls this freedom a pretext for evil, which wrongly obstructs true freedom.[419]  Desiring the freedom of Christ much too physically, they object to being subjected to higher powers who, however, enslave them as guilty, depriving them even of that little freedom of conscience and body they had.

[ That is why Paul urges the Christians to be submissive toward their pagan overlords: ]

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God; and those that exist have been instituted by God.[420]

There is no authority except from God.  That is, there is no other power, good or bad, pagan or heretic, which is a true authority, according to the Scripture.  [ However, God uses these ‘evil’ authorities to chastise a rebellious people. ]

As it is happening among us in these days, for almost fifteen years a raging mad authority is destroying everything, caring naught about a just administration of villages, but rather being anxious to destroy, to prostrate, to scorch, to murder, to rob, to imprison, and to devastate everything like a plague of locusts.[421]  God has allowed this evil to happen because He wanted to pour out His anger on the sinful people who do not honor Him but, on the contrary, are dishonoring Him by hypocrisy.  This power could not have arisen, had He not desired it; for, as the prophet says, “if there be disaster in the city, has not the Lord caused it?”[422]

[ What Paul actually means is this: let the Christians be subject to temporal authorities in externals, but let them remember that the true authority is only the authority of God.  Only under that authority can they fully live the Beatitudes.  And the Scripture says about those powers that contradict the authority of God that ] the mighty will be mightily tested.[423]

[ In Paul’s days there were no Christian authorities but only pagan authorities.  And these authorities were sanctioned by the God of the Old Testament. ]

Were it not so, Paul could not have exhorted the faithful Christians of Rome to obey Emperor Nero the pagan, saying, “There is no authority except from God.”  [ But this authority of the pagans cannot make them better men.  It is only by accepting the faith in Jesus Christ that they are given the power to become sons of God, and to be better than the pagans.  Then the pagan power becomes irrelevant. ]  But in reality we do not see that the Christians excel over pagans with their goodness; rather, they excel the pagans in iniquities.  Outwardly, with their lips, they confess Jesus Christ, but inwardly they hate faith…  Instead of faith they have thin water in which they dip the name of Jesus…  They get away from him as if he were a debt they cannot pay.  And, since they are in no wise better than the pagans, they cannot be saved by their authority – even though it is sanctioned by God – unless they seek salvation in Christ’s faith, as the Scripture says,

False is the king, and the king cannot be saved by the power of his own authority.[424]

It says that the king is false, even though authority has been divinely bestowed upon him; … he shall not be saved on account of his injustice.

CHAPTER 46

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

[ The nominal Christians pervert the words of Paul, giving them a meaning to serve their own interests.  Therefore, it is very important for those who want to be true Christians to see the true meaning of those words. ]

For the word of God concerns sometimes (a) the true heavenly and spiritual authorities[425], and (b) the true spiritual authorities that are a little lower than the heavenly[426]: the creaturely … authorities.[427] … I do not intend nor am I able to expound on the spiritual and heavenly authorities that are of God; I shall be concerned only about the human institutions that should be perfect in God’s spiritual order as well as in the lower earthly orders.  The latter, which God has established since the beginning of time, has been lost.  Having lost that order they dwell now in great disorder.  But even though they live in this disorder, they still need some form of order that could – if not improve them – at least keep them in their corporeal life.

[ God established this order by giving man a twofold nature, one perishable, and the other imperishable.  One generation dies, but the other generation is born, having its foundation in the union of father and mother.  Mankind respects the family institution that maintains stability and order, propriety as well as property. ]

But because these generations are born in sin, filled with iniquities, the devils rule over them.  Therefore, Saint Paul says about them that they are princes of the power of the air, who are at work in the sons of disobedience,[428] that is, in the princes of darkness and in the rulers of the world.  Through their hatred and iniquity, death was ushered into the whole orbit of the earth.[429]

[ God gave to the temporal authorities the right to rule over regions so that they might control the people and settle all their differences peacefully.  Authority maintains order by compulsion.  It must be a wise authority if it is to rule over unwise men. ]  King Ahasverus … knew of this rule … and therefore he said,

Having become a ruler of many nations, and come to have dominion over the whole world, I desire, not because I am elated by the presumption of power but behaving always with mildness and moderation, to insure that my subjects shall live in unbroken tranquility, and in order to make my kingdom peaceable and to reestablish the peace which all men desire.[430]

CHAPTER 47

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

[ It is the responsibility of the pagan rulers to preserve peace.  But the devil always seeks how to prevent or pervert this order. ]  He led the first two human brothers to do evil and to murder because of hatred.[431]  He does this in every generation, (and every generation has its own Cains).  The secular sovereignty … is like a fence, supposed to preserve the lost sheep for a later time of salvation…  But when mankind arouses the anger of God … no fence can resist His wrath.  Then kings make wars and inflict all kinds of sufferings…  That is why Samuel said to the Jewish people,

See the king whom you have chosen; if you persist in wrongdoing, both you and your king shall be swept away![432]

For all men and their kings are foolish.[433]  The Master Adversary says that royal sovereignty and civil authority … began with Cain’s lust for power when he built the first city.[434]  According to the Chronicle of Josephus[435] this foundation of the city was the cause of increasing gathering of possessions and of violent robberies; Cain fortified the city because he feared them whom he had in any way despoiled.  Therefore, the beginning of power and sovereignty is to be found in human cupidity and violence.  Wherefore Solomon says to the kings,

“Listen, O Kings, and take warning, O Judges of the earth.[436]  Incline your ears, you who boast of ruling over multitudes of nations, and who enjoy being the first.[437]  For He will come upon you terribly and swiftly, for a stern judgment overtakes those in high places.[438]

CHAPTER 48

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

[ Even the worst ruler must appeal to his people by virtue of his opposition to evil powers.  He must speak in terms of justice done even to the least subject of his realm.  He is, unwittingly, comparing his rule to that perfect rule of God.  In doing this he acknowledges God’s priority. ]

David and other kings … who had the knowledge of God … could rule over the people according to the law of God, and even use compulsion…  But the Jewish law was a material, physical law, and therefore they were allowed to use physical compulsion with regard to the disobedient.

CHAPTER 49

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

[ The kings according to the old dispensation ruled the people by law.  They did not punish robbery by execution but by restitution.[439]  The rulers of today, however, even though they call themselves Christian, abide by neither the new nor the old law; they kill the robber. ]  And it is said in the New Testament,

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.[440]

[ The Christian kings do not heed these principles. ]  There are some who do not have even as much sense as to be able to settle a small dispute between two peasants.  (All they know is to hang and to torture.)  The divine element is much smaller in the rule of Christian kings than it was in the rule of pagan and Jewish kings.  Therefore, because both divine institutions, marriage and temporal rule, were unable to achieve perfection, God sent His Son, the Savior of the world, in order that we might live through him.[441]  And he rules the world with greater perfection by means of truth than all the kings of the earth by means of compulsion.

CHAPTER 50

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

[ Following Christ’s appearance on earth, man is bound to love God and His new order with all his heart, mind, and soul, and to submit voluntarily to His discipline in order to become a real man of God.  Man’s earthly life passes quickly away but the eternal life abides forever. ]

Whatever divine sanction there is in human establishments, it applies to the earthly, temporal life.  The new law, introduced by the Son of God, applies to the earthly things very little, and sometimes not at all.  Its applications to earthly things are:

If you have food and clothing, with these you shall be content[442]; and if anyone would sue you and take your clothing, let it rest at that.  Give him your cloak as well.[443]

And if they take your goods by violence, rejoice, believing that they are not lost, for in heaven you will find worthier goods than the temporal (ones you lost).

Christ’s new order leaves man with the hope in God so that, throwing all his cares to God, he would not sin for temporal goods, believing that to take care of one’s neighbor is much more important.

[ Christ’s dominion presents a remedy for soul and body, for man and society, and is incomparably better than any human institution and law. ]

CHAPTER 51

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

And this is what Paul had in mind when he said, “He who resists the authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”[444]

[ In other words, if the authority requires things contrary to the will of God, it is not “appointed by God” but incited by pride.  Any exercise of authority contrary to the will of God is untrue, sinful, and not binding to the Christian.  And “those who resist will incur the judgment” of the men in authority.  Therefore, even though a Christian may consider sovereignty an unnecessary and harmful evil, he should not resist it with hatred, curses, and base action.  If he did, he would act contrary to the will of God whose command is to love. ]

CHAPTER 52

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

[ It may well be that there is a government actually endeavoring to insure justice toward all and peace among the factions.  It is, however, much more natural for a state to be oppressive. ]  The greatest cause for which so many resist the state authority is found in the imposition of heavy burdens of taxation, compulsory services, required field work, and many other injustices.  The subjects are sinful through their impatience, seeking revenge against those who are in authority over them, and they curse them; thus the lords sin in committing injustices, and the subjects sin in feeling revengeful towards their lords.  [ As a Christian, bear patiently all injustices, and your patience will be added to your credit in the world to come. ]  If you do not want to go to the forest, singing even during a storm, of your own accord, you will be compelled to go there weeping, and they shall beat you over your head.  Thus, you resist in vain the current of the river; you may cross it with humility, but you cannot slow it down with your grumbling.

CHAPTER 53

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

Now many, including ourselves, resist the governing authorities for another reason, supposing that this resistance is justified and condoned by faith…  The priesthood has been invested with power and riches by the Emperor, and it has allied itself with his authority so that it might cover up its evil and hypocritical life.  Therefore, it praises this authority for its own advantage, and even includes it in its structure of faith as an integral part.

Therefore we repeat that the secular governing authority is compulsory, and therefore not in the position to be of very much help to faith.  [ It is spiritually weak, appeasing consciences by giving out occasional crumbs of goodness; this enables it to maintain a semblance of order, at least for the time being.  This is, in effect, what the secular authorities say to the Church: ] “Priests, do not eat your bread for nothing!  Drive your flock to the lords so that they may watch over it with their swords and nasty goats!”  [ And we say to the state: ] “And you, sons of the scepter, sit, render account and repent for cheating the people of their souls and possessions!”

CHAPTER 54

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONTINUED)

[ When the authorities commit such perversions and sins, the Christian is not obligated to obey them, and this because of the following Biblical examples: ]

CHAPTER 55

INTERPRETATION OF ROMANS 13:1-2 (CONCLUSION)

Also, some of the Doctors of the Church taught the people saying, “Let the humble be admonished that they be obedient not more than is proper, that they be not compelled to honor compulsory sins; for there will be some who will desire the people to be submissive more than is proper; let it be known that evil must never be exercised by way of obedience.”

[ Obey in good things; disobey in evil things. ]  Even if he who is above all other apostles should preach something contrary to the will of God, he should not be obeyed:

Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.[448]

[ That means, if secular authority exercises its power in accordance with the sovereignty of God, it is not contrary to His will.  If it exercises power in a direction contrary to His supreme authority, it sins.  And to obey such sinful governing authorities means to be partakers of their sin. ]

And to obey the princes or the prelates in these compulsory sinful acts is tantamount to honoring their sins and thus also the devil.  If we remembered the Church Doctors who said that the subjects should not obey their authorities in matters forbidden by God, with whom could they go to war?  For they run to war doing to their neighbors that which God has forbidden and which would not be tolerated at home.  The commandment of God says, “So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.”[449]  But he who goes to war does evil to them of whom he would wish that they do good to him; and what he would be loath doing at home, that he gladly does obeying the orders of his lords…

If all the Christian people should obey the commandments of God, how many of them would be imprisoned, and what great rivers of blood would flow from the martyrs of the paganized authorities!  For (faithful Christians) would refuse to storm the walls, to run like cattle, to destroy, to murder, and to rob; instead, obeying their faith, they would rather perish under the sword than to do these things so revolting to the law of God.  But here, this foolish cattle, dipped in holy water, has turned its back to God and His law, gladly doing everything evil, seduced as it is by the Church of Rome, and drunken by the wine of the great harlot with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, bathing the world in blood and iniquities.[450]

[415] Perhaps Jakoubek of Stříbro.

[416] Jerome of Prague, a learned and eloquent champion of Wyclif’s teachings, and a personal friend of John Hus, was burned in Constance as a heretic on May 30, 1416.  (John Hus was executed on July 6, 1415.)

[417] Emperor Sigismund (regnabat Bohemiae 1419-1437).

[418] Romans 12:17.

[419] 1 Peter 2:16.

[420] Romans 13:1-2, RSV.

[421] The Hussite Wars.

[422] Amos 3:6, AT.

[423] Wisdom of Solomon, 6:6.

[424] 3 Esdras, 4:37.

[425] dominium divinum. Cf. Wyclif, De civili dominio, ch.I, xi.

[426] dominium angelicum, ibid.

[427] dominium humanum, ibid. Cf. Heb. 2:7: “You made (man) a little lower than the angels.” Cf. page 94.

[428] Ephesians 2:2.

[429] Cf. 3 Esdras 4:37.

[430] Esther 13:2 (Apocryphal addition; the speech of King Artaxerxes), AT.

[431] Genesis 4.

[432] 1 Samuel 12:13,25.

[433] “For all men are foolish by nature.” Wisdom of Solomon, 13:1.

[434] Genesis 4:17.  See Wyclif, De Civili Dominio, ch. 21: “Nam Genesis quarto capitulo, 17, legitur quod Cayn post fratricidium civitatem construxit, cuius causa secundum Iosephum fuit quod rapinis et violencia open congregans suos ad latrocinia invitabat et simplicitatem vite hominum, quam ad invencionem mensurarum et poderum permutavit, ad caliditatem et corrupcionem perduxit; terminos terre primus posuit, civitates muravit, et timens quod ledebat, suos in suis urbibus collegit: “Hec origo civilitatis secundum Scripturas.” (Poole’s Edition).

[435] “And when Cain had traveled over many countries, he, with his wife, built a city, named Nod...  However, he did not accept of his punishment in order to amend, but to increase his wickedness; for he only aimed to procure every thing that was for him and his bodily pleasure, though it obliged him to be injurious to his neighbors.  He augmented his household substance with much wealth, by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintance to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and became a great leader of men into wicked courses…  He set boundaries about lands, built a city and fortified it with walls, and he compelled his family to come together to it…”  Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, ch.II, 2. (In The Works of Flavius Josephus, transl. by Wm. Whiston, Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1871, p.27).

[436] Psalm 2:10.

[437] Wisdom of Solomon, 6:2-3.

[438] Wisdom of Solomon, 5:5.

[439] Exodus 22:1.

[440] Ephesians 4:28.

[441] John 3:16.

[442] 1 Timothy 6:8.

[443] Matthew 5:40.

[444] Romans13:2.

[445] Daniel 3.

[446] Esther 3:1-6ff.

[447] Maccabees 6 (2nd Book).

[448] Galatians 1:8, RSV.

[449] Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:3, RSV.

[450] Revelation 17:2, RSV.