Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/339

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

SUSPENSION AND THE INTERDICT

287

Hence I always wish to know the ground or reason of the general interdict by which the righteous without demerit of their own are deprived of the sacraments, such as communion, confession, and others, and at times infants are deprived of baptism; similarly why it is that the divine ministries of God are reduced in the case of righteous men by an interdict issued on account of one single individual.^[1] Exceedingly wonderful would it be if service was withdrawn from an earthly king by all good servants on account of one of the servants who was opposed to him. And especially wonderful would this be if, on account of one that was a good and faithful servant of the king, a vassal, wishing to bend him to his own will, should interdict all the king's servants to do ministry to the king himself. How, therefore, does a pope or bishop so inadvisedly, without support of Scripture or revelation, interdict with such extraordinary ease ministry to the king, Christ? For when a general interdict is laid upon a city or diocese, sin does not decrease but rather increases. For to the righteous, sepulture is denied contrary to Scripture: "Thou shalt not withhold favor from the dead," Ecclesiasticus 7:33. For who doubts but that to bury the righteous dead is a work of mercy, for the angel Raphael addressed Tobias thus: "When thou didst pray with tears and bury thy dead and didst leave thy repast and hiddest the dead in thy house, and didst bury them in the night—I carried thy prayer to the Lord," Tobias 12:12, 13. Who even doubts that to hear confession and consult unto salvation and to preach the Word of God are works of mercy? Sim-

↑ In consequence of the interdict pronounced over Prague by John XXIII, 1411, Huss withdrew at the advice of King Wenzel from the city and remained in semi-voluntary exile for two years, until he started for Constance October, 1414. He was in doubt whether he had done right in withdrawing, denying that he had "fled from the truth" and instancing the case of Christ, "who escaped out of the hands" of his enemies. He insisted that he was actuated by a purpose not to prevent the ministrations of the Gospel to the innocent by his presence in Prague. See Schaff, Life of John Huss, and Huss's letters written during his exile, Doc., 34–66.

[1] In consequence of the interdict pronounced over Prague by John XXIII, 1411, Huss withdrew at the advice of King Wenzel from the city and remained in semi-voluntary exile for two years, until he started for Constance October, 1414. He was in doubt whether he had done right in withdrawing, denying that he had "fled from the truth" and instancing the case of Christ, "who escaped out of the hands" of his enemies. He insisted that he was actuated by a purpose not to prevent the ministrations of the Gospel to the innocent by his presence in Prague. See Schaff, Life of John Huss, and Huss's letters written during his exile, Doc., 34–66.

[1]