THE NET OF FAITH

by Peter Chelčický

translated by Rev. Enrico Molnár

CHAPTER 73

REFUTATION OF THE ARGUMENTS OF

ALBERTUS MAGNUS OF COLOGNE

Now we shall speak of the arguments of Albertus Magnus,[486] a doctor; they too, will leave us disconsolate.  He says that in our time there was born from our disputations, in the depths of an abyss – that is, in the depths of the devil’s snares – a small frog which has the audacity to croak against the justice and the law of God, and to assume that it is in no wise and for no reason permissible to kill a man.  Not only must they who refuse to do justice be chastised and called unjust, but also they must be punished and called enemies of justice…  Therefore justice and discipline must muster all strength and power and arm itself against injustice and lack of discipline…

And Master Albertus goes into great details in his arguments against the little frog whose croaking is so distressing to him.  And he goes on to say that every life that is taken is taken by God.  He who resists God must be killed, and whoever lives unjustly rebels against God; and it is particularly the heretics and pagans who rebel against God…  One must necessarily take their physical life away from them as well as their mortal soul.  Eternal death must be the reward of sin, and it is more easily given with a physical death!  So we ask the frog: is it allowed to go to war against the enemies of God?  It is clear that in a just war all enemies of God must be killed…  For if the frog says that one should not kill the enemies of God … then the honor of God would be exterminated in retreat…

The iniquitous frog asks that the City of God be left defenseless and abandoned to robberies and violence.  And, adds Master Albertus, if the worth of life should be the cause of no killing, then, it seems to us, the spiritual life is much more worthy; and the physical life should not be pardoned if the spiritual can thus be saved.

CHAPTER 74

ARGUMENTS OF ALBERTUS MAGNUS (CONTINUED)

This shows (says Albertus) what a disgrace against God and human souls are the croakings of the erring little frog.  [ Therefore, Albertus reasons, since the spiritual sufferings of hell are much more painful than all physical mortal woes, it is better to torture the sinners while they are alive than to have them suffer after death! ]  This we say about the little frogs who, under the disguise of saintliness, corrupt the faithful by their iniquity, thus damaging the vineyard of the Lord of hosts.

CHAPTER 75

ARGUMENTS OF ALBERTUS MAGNUS (CONTINUED)

All this is said by that great lord Albertus.  [ His wisdom shows how far the poison poured into the Church eleven hundred years ago has spread. ]  It is poison that has become life to the people, and the medicine used against poison itself is such a mortal venom that those who have been nurtured by poison consider injustice as a healthy state; they call that which has grown out of poison, life…  If Albertus is right, then Christ and all the apostles were wrong.  [ But Christ and his disciples went about preaching salvation through long-suffering, patience, and humility. ]  The teaching of Albertus Magnus is contrary to the teaching of the apostles.  He is now considered a great doctor in the field of Christian knowledge.  Many a priest regards himself rich in wisdom when he preaches his reasonings to the peasants…  He does not know what a poverty there is in his books, and how far they are from the apostles…

And as to the humble and suffering apostolic Christians, behold!  He calls them frogs crawling out of an abyss, arrogantly croaking against the justice of God!  The justice of God he makes out to be injustice, falseness, and evil.

The life of poverty is not appealing to Albertus Magnus; he prefers the life of comfort, of abundant food, of a big belly, of a red ruddy face, the life of security, sitting in a castle protected by swords, unafraid of temptations…  This life appeals to Albertus more than it did even to Sylvester[487] who was hiding in the caves and in forests…  The apostles, the fools of Christ, were chased from town to town, as it is written,

For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.[488]

[ What the Church of Albertus is fighting for is not the justice of God but the justice of this world. ]

CHAPTER 76

ARGUMENTS OF ALBERTUS MAGNUS (CONCLUSION)

The justice of revenge and of shedding blood, as adopted by the Church, is pagan and of this world.  Even the Church is of this world, following in the footprints of the pagans…  The Justice of Albertus shall be judged a great injustice in the eyes of God.  It is therefore safer to be with the little croaking frog in prison than in freedom with the loudly howling Albertus.  The crucified Jesus shall hear the weak voice of the little frog…  Among all Christendom there is no executioner as ferocious as that Albertus Magnus, who opened the way to legal bloodshed, so contrary to brotherly love.  He thinks it is better to kill off all transgressors than letting them live with the chance of repentance…  God gives them an opportunity of repentance so that they would not die in perdition; and he says of them:

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather in this, that the wicked man turn from his way and live.[489]

But Albertus wants it otherwise; he wants that all be murdered.

[486] Albertus Magnus, (vivebat circa 1206-1280), a German scholastic doctor and Dominican.  He taught in various German towns, especially at Cologne, and at the University of Paris.  He became provincial of his order and was, for a while, bishop of Regenesburg.  He outlived his most famous pupil, Thomas Aquinas.  He published twenty-one folio volumes.  He took as his special task the writing of commentaries on all the works of Aristotle; in addition he compiled extensive works on geography, botany, and zoology.  His treatise on plants and animals is, according to Singer (From Magic to Science, Essays on the Scientific Twilight, New York: 1928), the best work on natural history in the Middle Ages.  This “Doctor Universalis” became the authority par excellence of the thirteenth century.

[487] Pope Sylvester I (imperabat 314-335), Cf. page 72.  Chelčický believed with many contemporaries that Sylvester I and Peter Waldo were living at the same time, and that both were in hiding before the imperial forces; they lived frugally in mountains, forests, and caves, but finally Sylvester became tired of such a life of poverty and accepted the Donation of Constantine (Cf. page 27, page 61, page 88, NF, book I,chapters 14-23), while Peter Waldo remained faithful to the vow of poverty.  Cf. Holinka, Traktáty Petra Chelčikého, Prague: Melantrich, p.31.

[488] Romans 8:36.

[489] Ezek. 33:11, AT.