Likewise as Bernard in his letter to the monk Adam says that things which are intermediate—may equally well or equally badly be either commanded or prohibited. Therefore, when a superior commands or forbids wrongly, and when the subject knows that he has commanded or forbidden wrongly, he ought by the law of love to tell the subject his fault as a brother because when in so commanding or forbidding he sins against God and his brother. This appears by that rule of Christ: "If thy brother sin against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone," Matt.18:15. Nor is there any objection to this that he who is superior in virtue should tell one inferior in his living his fault, howbeit the latter be the superior in rank, for otherwise this law of Christ would perish, which ordains that every Christian prelate, when he has sinned, should be corrected by another. For the law speaks to all men alike when it says: "If thy brother sin against thee, go and tell him his fault." But if, to make an impossible supposition, Christ had sinned, he would inasmuch as he was our brother, Heb. 2:17–19, have had to be corrected by the church. Hence he indicated this, when he said to the multitudes: "Which of you convicteth me of sin?" John 8:46.
For this reason the church in the person of our Saviour aptly sings: "O my people, what have I done to thee? or how have I comforted thee? Answer me,"—namely, by a reproach. And Isaiah, 1:17, says: "Cease to do evil, learn to do well. Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow, and come and let us reason together, saith the Lord." Therefore, itis clear that every wayfaring man ought to have his faults told him by his brother, for otherwise the law of Christ would be wanting in provid-
an utter inconsistency, as in his de Eccles., p. 211. The imaginary characters, Peter, Paul, and Linus, are used somewhat in the same way as Richard Roe and John Doe. Linus is brought in as a judge, being chosen because he belonged to the second generation of presbyters or bishops. See Wyclif, de domin. civ., pp. 38, 39, for a similar use of Peter, Paul, and Linus to prove the inconsistency of making natural dominion, as opposed to civil dominion, exempt from spiritual laws.
