Letter Vih
JOHN BAEBATTJS, alias Bradacek, or Zelezna Brada (” Iron Beard ”) (infra, pp. 189, 199, n.\ to whom this letter is addressed, was a close friend of Hus (infra, pp. 182, 185). As his “beard” shows, he was a layman — ’ a stout rustic,’ as an unknown hand has called him in the margin. From the above references we learn that he was at Constance during the trial and death of Hus, of the last scenes of which he has left us a vivid and tender account (Doc. 556). He would seem at this time to have been living in Chrumnaw.
Most of the quotations in this letter will be found repeated by Hus in his De Sex JErroribits, c. 4, ’ De Obedentia ’ (Mon. i. 1926), as also in his De ficdesia, c. 19 (Mon. i. 238-9). They are a fair specimen of that mediaeval show of learning, so common in Hus, which represents little. For the most part, as our notes indicate, they are taken, in the order in which they stand, from one or two pages of Gratian’s Decretum, a work which Hus used as a quarry of Patristic references. The mediaeval conscience in the matter of plagiarism was curiously lax.
1 Inaccurately quoted from Wyclif, De Oiv. JDom. iii. 253 ; cf . Gregory, Dial. iii. c. 14, and Wyclif, De Oiv. Dom. iii. 88.
VIII. To JOHN BARBATUS AND THE PEOPLE OP CHRUMNAW
(May 25, 1411)
Greetings and grace from the Lord Jesus Christ ! Beloved, I have heard of your tribulation, but count it all joy that you fall into divers temptations l to the proving of your constancy. I am now beginning, dear friends, to be tempted, but I count it a joy that for the gospel’s sake I am called a heretic and suffer excommunication, as an evildoer and malcontent. However, as a defence unto my joy I recall the life and the words of Christ as well as the words of the apostles. In the fourth of Acts it is narrated how Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, called the apostles together and forbade them to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, If it be just i/n, the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.2 Again, when the same high priests forbade them to preach, they said in the fifth of Acts : We ought to obey God rather than men.* In the same book we find heathen, Jews, and heretics saying that God must be obeyed before everything. But alas! it is the followers of Antichrist that are blind to that rule and not the holy apostles and the true disciples of Christ. The blessed Jerome in his Epistle to the Ephesians * saith : If a lord or a prelate issue
1 Jas. i. 2. 2 Acts iv. 6-20. » Acts v. 29.
4 See Gratian, Pt. ii. 0. 11. q. 3, c. 93; quoted also in Wyclif, De Qffioio Regis, 192. Gratian’s ascription of it to “Ad Ephesios” is a
DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP ZBINEK 47 commands which are not contrary to the faith, nor opposed to Holy Scripture, the bond-servant is to be subject to him. If, however, he order what is contrary to these, the bond-servant must obey the master of his spirit rather than the master of his body. Further on:1 if the com mand of the superior be good, carry out the desires of him that issueth the command: if evil, reply, ” We ought to obey God rather than men” Item, Augustine in his sixth, homily on the words of God : 2 If the authority order what you ought not to perform, in this case of course despise the authority, fearing the authority that is greater. Consider the grades of human offices. If a procurator hath issued a command, is it to be carried out if it is opposed to a proconsul ? Again, if the proconsul himself issue a command and the emperor another, is there any question that the former should be neglected and the latter obeyed’? Accordingly, if the emperor order something different from God, one ought to neglect the former and submit to the latter. We therefore resist the authority of devil and man if they suggest anything contrary to God: and in so doing we do not resist the ordinance of God but submit to it. For God hath ordained that in things evil we obey no authority. So far Augustine. To the same effect Gregory saith in the last book of the M or alia :3 It is to be understood that evil must never be wrought through mistake, probably an original mistake of ” Polycarp ” — i.e. of the Collectio Ccmonum Gregorii Presbyteri, one of the sources Gratian used. It is really from Jerome’s Ad Titum, c. 2, vv. 9-10 (in Migne, Op. Hieron. vii. 584). Hus had added to Gratian ’ vel praelatus.’ 1 Et infra, c. 3, § 1. Part of the quotation in Gratian.
-
Sermo 68 (ed. Maur). Gratian took it from ” Polycarp,” and Hus is quoting very loosely. See Gratian, Pt. ii. C. 11, q. 3, c. 97.
-
Greg. Moralia, lib. xxxv. c. 14 (ed. Migne, p. 766). Taken by Hus from Gratian, ii. C. 11, q. 3, c. 99.
obedience. Item, the blessed Bernard1 in a certain epistle saith : “To do evil at the bidding of another is not obedience but disobedience. Item, the blessed Isidore2 (and it is found in Cause xi., question 33): If any one in authority do anything, or order any thing to be done apart from the Lord, or commit or command a transgression of Scripture, the opinion of St. Paul is to be brought home to him, to wit, ” though we, or an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” 4 from which it followeth that if any one prevent you from doing the Lord’s bidding, or com mand what the Lord hath forbidden, let him be accursed to all that love the Lord. It further followeth that if any one in authority state or command anything which is clearly opposed to God’s will or the Holy Scriptures, let him be held a false witness of Qod or guilty of sacrilege. From these examples you may see that those who forbid preaching are false witnesses, guilty of sacrilege, and by consequence excommunicated of God, according to the saying of the prophet who pronounces the sentence of excommunication : Cursed