Page:Chelčický, Molnar - The Net of Faith.djvu/141



And the lords have caused the division of the common people, inciting them against each other, every lord driving his people in hordes against another. The lords have induced the people to murder, to march in arms, to go together in formations, to be trained with guns and other wicked weapons, and to be always prepared and ready for battle.

Through these things brotherly love has been drowned in spilled blood… The lords have corrupted the people through a multiple corruption…  The people were alienated from God through the poison poured in by the Pope and Emperor…  Therefore I see no truth in the reasons of the learned doctors, be they ancient or contemporary…  For Jesus came as a real physician offering medicine and not poison…  He came saying,

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.[495]

And those whom the old Law commanded to be killed for transgression, he saved from the hands of the persecutors, saying,

Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her![496]

Love is the law of Christ. There are two ways, far apart from each other: the way of Christ, and the way of the Church Doctors. Who still is in doubt whom to believe is to be pitied?

CHAPTER 80

ARGUMENTS OF AEGIDIUS CARLERII (CONCLUSION)

Jesus is now very poor and he does not have multitudes following him, excepting the outcast and the unlearned… But the doctors are too rich and too famous in the world; they have begotten many servants of God with swords – that is why the entire world looks up to them.

Therefore, when a worldly-wise man beholds Christ, abandoned, dressed in the garb of poverty and full of threats of danger, they will turn away from him and follow after the doctors who serve God with great learning in cathedrals, in armies, with bailiffs, at thumbscrews, in city-halls, beneath pillories and gallows. The whole wise world is following such service of God, but only a fool will come after Christ and be ridiculed by all and sundry.