Excommunications, Just and Unjust
Finally, the doctors lay down in their writing the following: “At length, because the processes [court proceedings before the curia and the archbishop of Prague] against Master John Huss have been received by the body of the clergy in Prague, and they have obeyed them, therefore these processes are to be obeyed, and especially since therein nothing absolutely good is prohibited nor is anything absolutely evil enjoined.1 But according to the method of the church customary with the Roman curia and observed before the fathers of our fathers, only things intermediate — things between what is purely good and purely evil — are there commanded, which in respect to time, place, or mode may be either good or bad— and obedience is to be rendered in these things intermediate in accordance with the teachings of the Gospel and in accordance with St. Bernard.” And they add: “And it is not the business of the clergy in Prague to pronounce judgment on the question whether the excommunication of Master John Huss is just or unjust.” etc.
I will proceed to the things in the processes [court proceedings] about which for the present I chiefly consider three matters, namely, excommunication, suspension and interdict. And about these I will speak briefly, discussing first of all this, that the conclusion which the doctors draw is exceedingly bad, namely, “because the processes against John Huss
1 The duty of resisting unjust excommunications Huss takes up in his adv. Indulg., Mon., i : 220-234; de sex Erroribus, 239 sqq.; ad octo Doctores, 383 sqq., etc.
have been received by the body of the clergy in Prague, and they have obeyed them, therefore, they ought to be obeyed.” It is as if we should argue in this way: because processes were received by the body of the clergy in Jerusalem against Christ, that he is a seducer, malefactor, and blasphemer excommunicate and guilty of death, therefore, those processes are to be obeyed by the doctors themselves. The conclusion from the law of similarity holds by that middle term of cause, “because the processes were received by the clergy” — and the doctors of theology ought to be ashamed for that conclusion, and especially Stanislaus, for he is the ablest logician amongst them. Perhaps they learned that conclusion from the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees who formulated a like conclusion. For when Pilate said unto them, “What accusation bring ye against this man?” they answered and said (formulating this conclusion): “If this man were not an evil-doer we would not have delivered him up to thee,” John 18 : 29-30. And again they followed the same line of argument when Pilate said, “I find no case against him,” when they replied, “We have a law and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God,” John 19 : 7. In the first conclusion, formulated by the Jews, the doctors implied that they themselves did not err when they said: “If this one were not an evil-doer, we would not have delivered him up to thee” — that is, because he is an evil-doer, therefore have we delivered him up to thee. Similarly our doctors reply in the conclusion they formulate that the body of the clergy in Prague cannot err; otherwise, if they were able to err, their conclusion would not be valid. And because that body is able to err in accepting the processes, so also it does err in securing them and wickedly executing them. Therefore, the conclusion of the doctors is not a good one.
And I wonder how this enormous conclusion — cauda — of the doctors, by which they wish to cover up their shame by
EXCOMMUNICATIONS, JUST AND UNJUST 265 the statement: processes to the contrary import, if received, would have to be obeyed — does not contradict this, when the conclusion is added: “Nor is it the business of the clergy in Prague to pronounce sentence whether the excommunication of Master John Huss is just or unjust.” For if those processes are to be obeyed with respect to excommunication, then they are to be obeyed by them as just and not as unjust. Because the clergy together with the doctors obeys them and received them, therefore it obeys them as just and received them as just, and consequently the doctors together with the clergy passed upon them sentence that they are just. Nevertheless, their conclusion says that it is not for the clergy in Prague to pass sentence whether the excommunication of Master John Huss is just or unjust. And an evident contradiction is established, namely, the clergy in Prague cries out, affirms and asserts that the excommunication of Master John Huss is just, therefore the clergy in Prague passes the sentence that that excommunication is just; yet the conclusion of the doctors says that it is not for the clergy in Prague to pass sentence whether that judgment of excommunication is just or unjust. It is most clear that this conclusion contradicts the facts and the sentence of the clergy of Prague.