Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/244

 is here a question,” says John Huss, “of civil affairs rather than of religious ones, and the spirit of the Gospel, which, only employing persuasion, differs greatly from the ancient law, which was one of rigour. If these distinctions were not established, it would follow that Jesus was justly condemned, because the high priests Annas and Caiaphas presided in the places designed by God himself.”

Huss likewise rejects the accusation of wishing to excite the people, and induce them to disobedience towards their superiors, viz., the pope, bishops, priests, and all the clergy. He distinguishes three kinds of obedience: 1st, Spiritual obedience, which is that which all Christians, without exception, are expected at all times to render to the law of Jesus Christ. 2dly, Secular obedience, which is that which is due to civil laws, admitting them to be conformable to the law of God. 3dly, Ecclesiastical obedience, which is that paid to the laws invented by the priests of the Church without any express authority of the Scriptures. “This latter,” he says, “is only obligatory as far as the things prescribed or forbidden are in conformity with what is ordered or prohibited by the Word of God;” and he draws this inference, “that he who knows of a certainty that the commandments of the Pope are contrary to what is counselled and commanded by Jesus Christ, or tends to the ruin of the Church, ought boldly to resist them, for fear of sanctioning a crime by his consent.” He invokes, in support of this