The Law of God the Standard of Ecclesiastical Judgments
Further, the aforementioned doctors lay down that ” certain of the Bohemian clergy, leaning too little on the pope and the college of cardinals, do not want to agree to this, wishing to have holy Scripture for the only judge in such matters, which Scripture they interpret and wish to have interpreted according to their own heads, not caring for the interpretation accepted by the community of wise men in the church nor heeding the holy Scripture recorded in Deut. 17 : 8-12: ‘If thou seest that there is a matter in judgment too uncertain and hard for thee, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between leprous and nonleprous, and perceivest that the words of the judges do not agree within thy gates; then arise and get thee up unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge which shall be in those days, and thou shalt inquire from them and they shall pronounce for thee a sentence of truth. And thou shalt do according to whatever they may say who preside in that place which Jehovah hath chosen; and they shall teach thee according to his law and thou shalt observe their sentence, nor shalt thou turn aside from the sentence to the right hand or to the left. And the man that doth presumptuously, not willing to obey the priesfs jurisdiction who at that time standeth to minister before thy God, and to obey the sentence of the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously.’ 1 It is certain that for all the faithful the Roman church is the place which the Lord has chosen, the place where the Lord has placed the primacy of the whole church, and the high priest who occupies the primacy, and is set over that place, is the pope, the true and manifest successor of Peter. And the cardinals are the priests of the tribe of Levi who are joined with the lord pope in the administration of the priestly office, to whom in cases of doubt and difficulty recourse must be had in matters, catholic and ecclesiastical, the judgment of God being followed.
“Hence Jerome, Ep. ad papam [Letter to Damasus, Friedberg, i : 970], speaking of the same thing, says: ‘This is the faith, most blessed pope,? which we have learned in the catholic church and which we have always held, and, if anything less proper or anything indiscreet has been placed in her, we desire that it be corrected by thee, who holdest Peter’s seat and faith. And if this, our confession, approves itself to the judgment of thy apostleship — whosoever may wish to charge me with guilt — he will prove himself to be inexperienced or malevolent, or perchance not a catholic but a heretic’ ”
This exposition, so far as the principles go, I think flowed chiefly from the head of Stephen Palecz, for by it he attempts first to arouse the pope and the cardinals against the party opposed to him, when he says: “Certain of the clergy of Bohemia, leaning too little on the pope and the cardinals, do not wish to agree to this”: namely, that the pope is the head of the Roman church and the cardinals its body, the true and manifest vicars of Christ. However, in regard to this too little dependence, I say that, so far as their vanity, greed and illegal commands go, the pope with the cardinals ought to be depended upon little. For so the Saviour put little dependence upon the savorless salt, which was good for noth-
1 The translation follows the Vulgate vvhich Huss gives exactly.
2 Bcalissime papa. Huss has bcalissimi papa. Damasus, pope 366-384, is said to have callcd upon Jeromc to make his Vulgate translation.
THE LAW OF GOD ing except to be trodden under foot of man, Matt. 5 : 13, 1 and he added: “Nor is it fit for the dunghill,” Luke 14 : 35. And Judas Iscariot he depended upon little, for he called him a devil and the son of perdition, John 6 : 71; 17 : 12. Peter he also called Satan, when Peter opposed him, Matt. 16 : 22.
Later on that doctor heaps together many lies against us. The first lie is that we wish to have the holy Scriptures alone for our judge in such matters. And in this statement he afnrms that we would not wish to have for our judge God, the apostles, the holy doctors, or the universal church. But he draws this lie from a certain disputation in which we were engaged, when it was said that he would offer Scripture for his statements and for the reason that we would not agree to the positions of our opponents. The doctor, however, ought to know that neither with him nor with any of his adherents do we agree in matters of faith unless they ground themselves in Scripture or reason. But revelation I do not expect from them, and if it did perchance come to them, we would feel that it taught otherwise than the Scripture teaches.
The second lie that he ascribes to us is that we interpret holy Scripture according to our heads, that is — as he himself and the other doctors allege — that we expound holy Scripture according to our erroneous understanding or according to our pleasure, and in this he charges upon us the arrogance of wisdom and also heresy, but mendaciously, because, with God’s help, we do not intend to explain Scripture otherwise than the Holy Spirit requires and than it is explained by the holy doctors to whom the Holy Spirit gave understanding. And I could wish that that doctor and all his colleagues might show which Scripture it is which we expound ill. Hence, he is the more to be suspected of lying xIn his Reply to Palecz, Mon., 1 : 352, Huss says Christians must judge by the effects or fruits whether the pope and cardinals are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
when he adds, “And they wish to interpret,” because if he is not a knower of hearts how does he dare to say that we wish to expound Scripture otherwise than we ought? But this statement is vented forth because we do not follow his pleasure and the pleasure of his colleague Stanislaus, and stand with them who deem themselves, with the doctors agreeing with them, the wise in the church. And even much more are they to be suspected of lying for they have not dared to charge us with not giving heed to the interpretation of the holy doctors.
But they add the biggest lie of all when they speak without applying the holy Scripture as written in Deut. 17 : 8-12. For this these doctors ought to know that we turn to sacred Scripture and affirm that it is the true Word of God, which also confirms our judgment. For that diligent expounder of Scripture, Nicholas of Lyra, on Deut. 17, says: “The opinion of no man, whatever his authority may be, is to be held if it plainly contains falsehood or error, and this appears by the promise made in the text, ’ They shall pronounce for thee a sentence of truth,’ and ’ they shall teach thee according to His law.’ From this it appears that, if they said what was false or plainly fell away from God’s law they were not to be heard.” Thus much Lyra. And what has been said is confirmed by that word of the Lord: “Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou acquiesce in the judgment of the many to depart from the truth,” Ex. 23 : 2. On this Lyra says that in the Hebrew it runs: ” Thou shalt not fall away after the rabbins — that is, teachers or the great men — to commit sin.” And further on, he says: “As you are not to fall away from the truth on account of the larger number who sit in judgment, and fall away from the truth, so you are not to fall away on account of those who have greater authority in giving judgment.” Thus much Lyra.1
1 Nicholas of Lyra, born in France, d. Paris, 1340, member of the Franciscan order, a notable exegete, who knew Ilebrew and in his Poslillce gave a running