finally to the head of the church, Jesus Christ.[1] For he is superior to any pope whatever in deciding a case: he cannot err, nor to a suppliant, rightfully begging, can he deny justice, nor is he able in view of his law to condemn a man who in the sight of his law is without demerit.
Besides, I withstood in the matter of the indulgences issued or announced A. D. 1412 through the bulls of Pope John XXIII, about which I have said enough in another place.[2] For the pope cannot command anything lawfully except what makes for the destruction of evil and for the edification of the church—a thing which ought to be universally held. To this the apostle bore witness when he said: "The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the destruction of strongholds, by which we cast down counsels,[3] casting down every high thing which exalted itself against the knowledge of God," II Cor. 10:4, 5. And again he says: "That I may not deal sharply according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for destruction," II Cor. 13:10. Hence, he of Lincoln in his letters to the pope thus writes: "The apostolic see to which is given authority by the holiest of the holies, Jesus Christ, the apostle bearing witness, for building up and not for casting down, cannot commit schism." And further on he says: "For this reason your Discretion cannot ordain anything hard against me, because all my words and all my actions are not a gainsaying or a rebellion, but a filial honoring due to the father and mother, that is, Christ and the church, because it is the keeping of a divine command. But, recalling in brief, I say that the sanctity of the apostolic see
- ↑ Huss repeatedly refers to the appeal he made to Christ, now putting it on the simple ground of the right of a Christian to do so and now citing the case of Paul who appealed to the higher power, Cæsar. See Letter, Doc., 73; Mon., 1: 325–392, etc., as well as later in this treatise.
- ↑ Huss's treatises against Papal Indulgences for the crusade against Ladislaus, king of Naples, Mon., 1: 215–237.
- ↑ Huss has quibus consilia demolimur, the Vulgate simply consilia destruentes.
