THE NET OF FAITH

by Peter Chelčický

translated by Rev. Enrico Molnár

CHAPTER 77

RESUMPTION OF THE ARGUMENTS OF AEGIDIUS CARLERII

Here I shall list again a few other propositions of Master Aegidius…  For instance, among many other arguments, he says that law is given to people according to their various dispositions and characters.  There are different laws for different kinds of people…

Thus adultery, which is regarded as sin and is so punished if committed by honorable burghers, … is not punished in cities where it is tolerated for the common good of all.  In order to strengthen his position he quoted old saints, such as Augustine and Jerome, who said, “Shall you empty the city of harlots and fill it with lustfulness?”[490]

The old saints, in their concern for the well-being of the communities, provided them with legality concerning harlots, so that a town, suffering from lustfulness, might be relieved of it by communal prostitutes.  The Master Aegidius confirms this with the help of the Church Doctors.[491]  [ There is one type of law for honorable burghers, says Aegidius, and another type of law for harlots; the human law is so perfect that it has a provision for all mortal sins. ]

[ As long as things are done in accordance with the accepted laws, they are not wrong and not punishable.  But Aegidius and the doctors are terribly wrong. ]  Did not our Lord Jesus Christ say,

You have heard it was said of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.[492]

Thus, the human law is contrary to the law of Christ, because the goal of the human law is the satisfaction of the community, to which satisfaction belong all virtues and mores…  The prosecution of public prostitution would only lead to secret vices, causing much discomfort in the community, and all these would offend God more than harlotry.

CHAPTER 78

ARGUMENTS OF AEGIDIUS CARLERII (CONTINUED)

[ All these arguments were presented at the Council of Basel in the disputation between Aegidius and the priest Nicholas of Písek. ]  The Bishop defended the law of God saying that all human affairs among Christians should be carried out in accordance with the law of God … while Aegidius learnedly defended the human laws…

He divided the people into two groups: one in which there are the perfect people, and the other composed of imperfect people…  The law of God is given only to the perfect ones, but the law of men applies to the imperfect men.  That law decides who should be the ruler, and takes into consideration the people’s character, the customs, and the region.  These human laws are for no other purpose but to serve the common good of all.  Their end is the supreme good of the community.  [ It is the task of the human law to punish rubbery, murder, and adultery, but also to permit certain things which would not be acceptable in the law of God, if these things contribute to the common good of all – for instance: controlled harlotry, warfare, ribaldry, and usury. ]

Aegidius, the learned advocate of the Church of Rome, … knows nothing about a Christian life lived in perfection and in accordance with the law of God.  [ All he cares about is a smooth-running civil administration, even if it means to condone certain evils with which to insure the good favors and peaceableness of the citizenry.  His proposition means catering to human weakness, greed, comfort, and false pleasures. ]

However, the faith of the saints means believing in God and His law, even if it involves a stand against one’s personal advantage, against comfort, against the established customs and life of the community.  Rather death than choosing anything that stands against the law of God!  Without the law of God faith is dead and the devil holds the scepter…

CHAPTER 79

ARGUMENTS OF AEGIDIUS CARLERII (CONTINUED)

The misled people die to goodness because they stand under the civil rule and under the blindest hypocrites who poison them continually with their venom.  The people can show nothing good about them, even though they trust in them…

The rulers have first of all established their authority through the Scripture that says that they do not bear the sword in vain and that they are the servants of God to execute His wrath on the wrong-doers.[493]  And after they had looked at their (role) more carefully they realized that it would not be wise for them to serve God in punishing with the sword all mortal sins against God, because then the whole Bohemian countryside would become a barren land, and very few people would be left alive.

Therefore, examining the law again, after they had subjected the people to the authority of their sword, they made the law over to suit their ends better.  They eased up on the original justice, choosing a “servant of God” who, with the sword in his hand, would watch over the three sins that disturb the welfare of the community: namely robbery, murder, and adultery.  [ They close their eyes before other sins that are evil in the sight of God.  They serve not God with their authority, but themselves. ]  When the servant of the Church – who thinks he is the successor of the apostles – leads the people to repentance saying that Christ has not come to save the righteous but the sinful … he contradicts the intention of the servant with the sword who thinks he serves God by executing the sinners…  If the servant of the sword[494] cuts off the heads of the evil-doers, he deprives them of their chance of salvation…  And so these two ‘servants of God,’ one spiritual and the other secular, stand in each other’s way…  The ridiculousness of this situation is often apparent.  When the servant of the state leads a sinner to execution, the servant of the Church runs there trying to prevent this and to lead the sinner to repentance…  The one wants to condemn to death by the judgment of St. Paul, the other wants to save by confession on the basis of the Scripture…  Both claim to serve the same Lord.  When men lose sight of truth they wander as blind in darkness, clutching this or that, whatever their hands can find.

Both the state and the Church depend upon the sword as their final argument.  And both surpass the pagans in their querulousness, for even the pagans are more moderate in their use of the sword since they do not have to contend with so many lords and useless clergymen – knights of the Cross, abbots, bishops, popes – who all hold great dominions and lead wars as other servants of the sword…  Yes, they do not bear their swords for nothing; they rob and oppress the poor working people.

And the lords have caused the division of the common people, inciting them against each other, every lord driving his people in hordes against another.  The lords have induced the people to murder, to march in arms, to go together in formations, to be trained with guns and other wicked weapons, and to be always prepared and ready for battle.

Through these things brotherly love has been drowned in spilled blood…  The lords have corrupted the people through a multiple corruption…  The people were alienated from God through the poison poured in by the Pope and Emperor…  Therefore I see no truth in the reasons of the learned doctors, be they ancient or contemporary…  For Jesus came as a real physician offering medicine and not poison…  He came saying,

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.[495]

And those whom the old Law commanded to be killed for transgression, he saved from the hands of the persecutors, saying,

Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her![496]

Love is the law of Christ.  There are two ways, far apart from each other: the way of Christ, and the way of the Church Doctors.  Who still is in doubt whom to believe is to be pitied?

CHAPTER 80

ARGUMENTS OF AEGIDIUS CARLERII (CONCLUSION)

Jesus is now very poor and he does not have multitudes following him, excepting the outcast and the unlearned…  But the doctors are too rich and too famous in the world; they have begotten many servants of God with swords – that is why the entire world looks up to them.

Therefore, when a worldly-wise man beholds Christ, abandoned, dressed in the garb of poverty and full of threats of danger, they will turn away from him and follow after the doctors who serve God with great learning in cathedrals, in armies, with bailiffs, at thumbscrews, in city-halls, beneath pillories and gallows.  The whole wise world is following such service of God, but only a fool will come after Christ and be ridiculed by all and sundry.

[490] “Aegidius posuit suam positionem, in qua inclusit, meretrices esse fovendas non in civitatibus, sed extra, secundum suum videre.  Item non in ornatu auri et argenti, crinium aut vestium, set in habitu ab aliis mulieribus honestis distincto.  Item non in loco occulto propter alia peccata majora, sed publico, sed immundo.  Pro confirmatione allegavit Augustinum qui dicit: ‘Tolle meretrices de civitatibus, et omnia turbabis libidine’; et Hieronymum, qui dicit: ‘Venter mero aestuans, cito spumat in libidinem.  Item Judaeos asseruit in civitatibus esse permittendos, quia sunt testimonium figurarum, quarum nos tenemus veritatem.” (Petri Zatecensis Liber diurnus, notes for the 13th of Feb. 1433, cf. Monumenta, p.309.)

[491] At the time of the Council there were in Basel over 700 prostitutes.  The Hussites refused to go to Basel until these were confined to a certain district beyond the city walls.  The Roman clergy was opposed to this seclusion.

[492] Matthew 5:27f.

[493] Romans 13:4.

[494] i.e. of the state, of the ‘Emperor.’

[495] Luke 5:31-32, RSV.

[496] John 8:7f., RSV.